First Person Shooter Dispair

There was a shot, then Keith watched as the grass below his feet rose up and hit his face. Slowly, he watched the grass pull away to reveal the blue sky above, as his limp body rolled onto it’s back. The bushes he was hiding behind were now overhead swaying in a soft wind that had picked up.

“You feel that?! Yeah, I bet you did bitch.” Jim shouted over to him from another city.
“Yeah- Yeah I felt that slap-nuts. Don’t be too proud, I was doing something.” Keith replied, a pool of blood growing out from the back of his head. he could hear the wind, which caused the leaves of the bushes to begin brushing his forehead soothingly.
“You really gotta keep moving. Every time you camp out like that I eventually find you.”
“How did you see me? This spot is totally new.”
“It’s not new, I’ve used it before. Plus when you look around, your gun lights up from the sun.” Jim replied, reloading his sniper rifle before putting it away and pulling out his pistol. He was crouched next to a chair that was situated on the same wall as a door. “The only way to really do well in games like this is to keep moving.”
“I’ve done that, and I always get sniped. Where are you? I didn’t see you moving around.”
“Well, you don’t run like a freak through the whole town. You’re supposed to stop and look around every once and a while.” Standing up, Jim held the pistol stiffly out in front of him with both hands wrapped around the handle. He turned with his whole torso, so that head, arms and gun all pointed at one window. Pausing for a moment, he twisted again to look out another window further away. Suddenly the door near him flew open and a man in full army fatigues ran in. Since the opened door covered Jim, the man wasn’t aware of his presence and ran ahead about 10 feet so that his back was exposed. Jim squeezed off five shots right into his spine, causing the man to drop his weapon and fall to his knees while his arms flailed limply at his sides. Jim walked up to him as the man fell face first, cracking his nose and releasing a spray of blood that hit a nearby wall. “I’m by the balcony.” He finally responded as he looted the dead man’s body for ammo and health supplies.
“The screen says you just got Sg7. Br4x70n. He’s been crawling on me all night.” Keith’s body called up from the lawn below. The breeze had stopped, and the bush recoiled in horror as Keith’s skin began to turn bone white.
“Numbers for letters, I bet he’s a friggin’ 12 year old.” Jim mumbled, while heading down a flight of stairs.
“That 12 year old is playing better than we are… Mike? Are you there?” His body had now deteriorated, and began sinking into the grass, leaving only his gun and ammo clips. After a moment with no response, the weaponry called out for Mike again.



There was no answer. Since Mike was hosting the game, and hosting the voice chat on Skype, his computer was pushed to it’s limits. He tried to talk but all that would come out was a garbled mess. The other two had since jumped off his voice chat session and created their own so they could talk more easily. Mike had yet to join in. Suddenly, the world went black. Everything was quiet, serene and motionless. From the darkness Keith called out, “I think I crashed.”
“No, I think Mike killed the server.” Jim’s voice yelled back from the void, “Give it a second I’m sure he’ll throw it back up.” Both sat quietly for a moment floating in the black. The sound of keyboards cooing to themselves as email was checked, and websites looked over.
“What you doing?” Keith said.
“Reading an email from my ex.”
“Oh, what’s she saying?”
“She wants to plan a time to come over and get her stuff.”
“Lame. Fuck her. Keep it. You getting back your other computer?” Keith said as a brilliant flash of light filled the darkness. As their eyes adjusted, they found themselves back in the small french village they were in before. Keith was now on a bridge that sprouted from one building to the other where Jim had originally been. Just beyond the bridge was a small balcony that hung tightly from a doorway. Off its ledge was a telephone wire that drooped lazily out to another building’s roof. The building was closed off, and considered part of the walled in nature of the town. Keith headed toward the balcony, running at full speed. “Have you done the wire trick yet?” He sounded.
“No, I’ve watched other people do it, but I can’t figure it out. Have you?”
“No.”
“Hey-HEY!” Mike called out to the others.
“Oh, you’re back.” Jim replied, “What was the deal?”
“There were too many people on the server. I tried to boot them, but the game wouldn’t let me. So I just shut it down and started it up again without letting the randoms in.”
“So it’s just us three?” Keith asked, standing on the ledge of the balcony while looking down at the wire. There was another shot that tore through the air and Keith fell to the ground below. “Oh for fucks sake! Don’t! I’m trying to do the wire thing!”
“I’ll try, but you’re too much fun to kill.” Jim responded, his pistol still smoking.
“I’m heading over.” Mike called out from the other end of town. He didn’t know the board well, but since the town was nestled within one giant wall that curved awkwardly around it, he just ran in one direction until he hit the main courtyard in it’s center where the others were.

“So, are you going to be around when she picks up her stuff?” Keith asked from below. Jim looked down at him from the ledge of the balcony. He put his pistol away, then pulled out his sniper rifle and looked through it’s scope at Keith’s body. Keith was laid out like a rag doll, with the signature pool of blood forming from the back of his head. He aimed the cross hairs right at the center of Keith’s forehead and took a shot. Blood spouted thickly up from his face and landed all around him. “Nice, dick.” Keith grumbled.
“Yeah. I think I will. I’m not going to give her free reign over my apartment, who knows what she’ll try to run off with.”
“Oh, I didn’t know she was that type. I’ve only seen he once.”
“When was that?” Jim asked as he leaped to the wire.
“At the mall. Remember?”
“Oh right.” Jim replied as he tight roped his way across to the other roof. There was a sound of a flair going up, which was followed by a large booming thunder as Jim exploded into fire and fell to the cobble stoned street below. “Ow! Dammit! I was almost there!” Jim shouted.
“That’s what she said.” Mike added smugly, as he emerged above Keith on the balcony holding a smoking bazooka.
“Is she the picture you’re using on Skype?” Keith followed up, watching Mike leap onto the wire- twitch nervously, then fall.
“Yeah.” Jim replied, his charred body curling in on it’s self as the flames receded, resembling an ant burning under a magnifying glass.
“The picture is pretty crappy, but it looks like she’s naked.”
“She is. I snuck it when she was coming out of the bathroom.”
“Does she always have to get naked to take a crap?” Mike piped in as he ran up the stairs to make another try. “Because that would be hot.”
“No- Ass. She was taking a shower.” Jim added as he watched two birds circle gracefully in the sky above the coveted rooftop.
“What are you still doing with that picture?” Keith piped in, “If I were her, I’d be pretty pissed knowing that was floating around on the Internet.”
“She didn’t know I took it. I used my camera phone.”
“Oh, that makes it o.k. then.”
“I have a picture of my ex girlfriend naked.” Mike blurted, “I have a ton of them.” There was a resounding ‘no thanks’ from the other two. “Here, I’ll send it through Skype…”
“For fucks sake, I don’t wanna see that shit!” Keith yelled, his voice distorted from yelling into his microphone. His skin had drained of any blood and his eyes blackened.
“It’s fine. She looks hot. She lost weight before we broke up.”
“I don’t care. I don’t want to see her naked… Ugh, I can’t switch out of this game to turn off skype.”

Keith had sank into the ground, and re-emerged on the bridge again with his gun in hand. As soon as he looked back at the spot where his corpse was, the two large doors in front of him opened up dramatically to reveal Mike and his bazooka. “Don’t, dick. I want to see what’s on that roof.” Keith said, pointing his gun at mike. They both stood there, weapons drawn and waiting.
“All right. I won’t shoot you. Go ahead.” Mike relented, backing up to allow Keith’s entrance. Keith ran in and passed the spot where Jim had been crouched by a chair earlier, then stepped out onto the balcony. There was a hissing sound and a boom that sent Keith flying out to the bushes where he was killed at earlier. “Fuck me!” Keith yelled as he soared, an arcing ball of flame which landed with a thud onto the grass.
“That’s what she said.” Mike spat out almost automatically and without emotion, as he walked out onto the balcony reloading his weapon. Once finished, he looked at Keith’s burning form laying on the lawn. He slowly curled into a little ball, twitching madly as the flames died. There was no response from either of the other two players. Their courtesy laughs for that zinger had died off weekends ago, but for some reason Mike continued to spit it out at every opportunity. As if he were slapped briskly in the back of the head when still a child at the first time he used it, and was condemned by the mild brain damage to repeat that line for ever. Then, Mike was surrounded by what looked like pink smoke as his body gave out under him. Jim emerged from the staircase below and stood over him to fire off one last victory shot to Mike’s head.
“Well guys, it’s getting late.” Keith’s smoking corpse called up from behind the bushes.
“Aaaw, c’mon. I’ll leave you alone. You can get on the roof if you really want to.” Mike’s bloody mass of tissue called over to him from the balcony.
“It’s not that, I have to get up early with the kid- so I can’t stay up this late anymore.”
“The kid sucks. It’s ruining game-night.” Jim added.
“Yeah-yeah. G’night!” Keith said as he logged off. There were dull replies and then silence. Jim was walking across the wire, and was soon followed by Mike. As they both inched across, arms waiving stiffly, mike said, “I’ll send you a picture of my ex.”
“I really don’t want to see it, man.” Jim said, stepping off the wire and onto the roof’s ledge.
“Yeah you do.” Mike added, stopping dead still on the wire. His keyboard could be heard tapping quietly in the distance.

Jim walked around on the roof, checking out the view he had of the courtyard. “This is sweet! I can see everything from here. This would make a great sniping spot.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah, You could just lay down and start pegging off people, it’s be impossible for them to get you.”
“There,” Mike interrupted, “I sent it.” He began moving again, making his way across the wire and eventually working his way to the roof’s edge.
“That’s weird.” Jim said, standing on the far edge of the roof.
“What’s that?”
“If you look over this edge of the building, you can see where the creators of the game stopped working on the board.”
“Outside the walls?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s it look like?” Mike asked as he walked toward Jim.
“Hard to explain.” Jim said.
“Hey, look at my picture.”
“Alright fine.” Jim said, suddenly not moving.

They both stood at the edge of the roof. Before them the sky stretched out with clouds moving slowly into a pink sunset. A breeze picked up again, making a tree in the courtyard sway behind them. Looking down, they saw not the ground beyond the wall, but the sky repeating and distorting. As if a block of what they had seen above then repeated below, then a smaller slice of that added to it, then another smaller slice and another. A type of mendlebrot effect of infinity stretching out before them. Churning and swaying like the waves of a schizophrenic ocean reflecting the sky. What they stood before was the gamers equivalent of all of eternity. Where the Gods had ended all of creation, a sliver of a glimpse into the inner workings of their universe, which was beyond the two’s comprehension of how it functioned. All they were allowed to know was that on the other side of the city’s walls, lay something unpredictable and frightening in it’s chaos. But within their walls, they were given a gift of perfection. An environment where they had the freedom to do what they wanted, as long as they stayed within the parameters of the game’s design. They stood motionless with the fading sun lighting gently on their faces and eyes. Out above the churning mass of clouds and sky, two silhouetted birds circled each other playfully.
“Wow.” Jim suddenly said.
“Yeah, pretty hot huh?”
“Yeah. I didn’t know she looked like that. How did you get her to pose on the bed like that?”
“She wanted me to take ‘em that way.”
“What’s that next to her?” Jim asked after a moment.
“Where?”
“Curled up on the pillow”
“That’s my cat, dude.”
“It’s fucking huge. I thought it was a dog or something.” Jim laughed.
“That’s what she said.” Mike mumbled absent-mindedly, as he pointed his bazooka at the gap on the ground between their feet and pulled the trigger.