Into the Game

I was outnumbered.

Making a stand didn’t even cross my mind. I had one thought and that was running.

I hit the window as hard as I could. The shade took the edge off of most of the glass, but I still got some scratches.

The backyard housed a big pool. And two guard towers. I ran around the edge of the pool. With any luck I could get to the fence before the guards got out of the towers. I was still in a zone that was too low for computer characters to carry bows. All I had to do was outrun them.

An arrow caught me in my left shoulder. I screamed and hit the ground. These weren’t computer characters, they were players. The fake shaman hadn’t just replaced the ruler of the town; he had replaced the guards with players as well.

The guards ran over and grabbed me. I tried to fight, but they were big and I was wounded. All I could do was thrash.

“That won’t help.” The shaman stepped onto the lawn. He walked up to me and picked up his dagger. "I believe this is mine.”

“Please,” I begged. "My brother needs me.”

“My brother needs me.’ He mocked. "Your brother isn’t supposed to be here. He doesn’t know the rules!”

“What did he do?” I asked. "I’ll fix it!”

“You?” He pointed the dagger at me. "You’ll fix it?”

The guards laughed with their boss.

“Your brother didn’t just take something from me.” The shaman spouted. "He disrespected me. You can’t fix that.”

“How?” I asked.

He slapped me.

I fought back tears. I still had an arrow in my arm. That hurt a lot more than the slap had. It was more of the shock factor.

“Please,” I begged

“You really want to know?” He demanded

I nodded.

“Fine.” He grabbed a chair and pulled it over in front of me. "Your brother came into town three weeks ago. He’d only been playing for a few days, but he had the game down to a science. He was seeing things that a lot of the veterans didn’t know. When he came to see me, he saw right through my fake shaman bit. Except unlike you, he didn’t call me on it.”

He gritted his teeth. "He got me to show him all over the house, even the treasure room.”

I knew where this was going. "He robbed you.”

He hit me again. This time it was so hard that the men holding me grunted as they braced against my moving body.

“He led a raid on my house!” He yelled. "Your brother ousted me as a player! Told everyone I was Mouse!”

I tried to stop, but the laugh came out anyway. "You’re Mouse?”

He glared at me. "It’s a nickname.”

I pursed my lips together to keep from laughing again. It stopped the laugh, but didn’t stop the slap.

“You think that’s funny?” He drew back the knife. "Is this funny?”