Short story competition

[Robert Eric]

Ah, well:
My friend and I were huge Sierra game fans.  He had played every game from Leisure Suit Larry to Police Quest to even the earlier ones by Al Lowe.  You probably haven't heard of them.  Hell, I'd never heard of them until he told me about them the first time we met.  It was in the first day of our Junior year.  I had just bought my lunch and was looking for a place to sit, when I noticed a table by the window occupied by a long-haired kid in black clothing.  The right side of his mouth was curved upward in a strange concentrating smile as he scribbled away on a piece of paper.  Nonchalantly, I walked over to the table.  He saw me and thrust the sheet of paper into his open bag.
"What was that?" I asked him, trying not to seem too eager to know.
"Uh...just some ideas."
"About what."
"...About games I'd like to make."
"Oh, yeah?  What kind of games?  Like Doom, or something?"
"Actually, no.  Have you ever heard of Sierra?"
"Uh...like, mountains?"
"No.  They're a company that made some adventure games.  Have you ever heard of Space Quest?"
"Uh, I've PLAYED King's Quest.  Did they make that?"
"Yeah!  They made a bunch of games that ended with the word 'quest'.  Like King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest..."
"Cool.  Can I download some of them somewhere?"
"No, you have to buy them.  But, I burnt the games onto a CD.  You can have it if you want."
"Alright."  I guessed I could give them a try.  The name Police Quest sounded familiar.  I'd heard on the news about someone who killed people in town after the Police Quest games.  I didn't really know what they meant by that at the time, but it seemed that I would find out soon.

The period was almost over, and I had finished my food.
"Hey, do you use AOL?"
"Yeah."  He gave me his nickname, and I left.
"Later."

It took me a minute to get the game running, but when it did, I couldn't help but enjoy it.  It was getting late, so I decided to save, and start with my homework.  While I was taking my books out, I noticed a little piece of paper flutter to the ground.  It was his nick.  I sent him a message, and was slightly freaked out that he responded literally seconds after I sent it.
"which game did u play?"
"I played Police Quest four."
"did u like it?"
"Yeah, it seemed pretty cool.  I got to the part where he gets called to rapper's house to investigate another murder."
"that is my favorite 1. im glad u liked it. i have a program that can make adventure games but i cant program do you know how?"  I had been programming since I was ten.
"Yeah, I can program.  What language is it?"
"lemme check"  I waited four minutes and was rewarded with this answer.
"English."
"Of coarse it's English  I mean, what programming language is it?"
"y didnt u say so? c"
"C?"
"yeah"
"What's the link?"
"www.adventuregamestudio.com"
"Alright, I'll check it out."  

The program seemed very flexible.  I caught on very quickly.  In about a half an hour, I made a little game where you had to find four stones and put them in the correct position.
"It's a pretty cool program.  Sure, I'll make a game.  I can't draw well, though.  What about you?"
"i can draw good. i already have a plot."

A week later, the two of us had started putting together a game he told me he had wanted to make after playing Police Quest four.  It was quite similair to it, but it was based in our town.  We had gotten to the first murder.  The vistim was a kid whom I knew.  I didn't know him personally, but I had heard his name and seen him in the halls.  I had spent most of last night finishing the room.  I went through my regular morning ritual to see a very strange piece on the news.  The kid who we had killed off in the game was killed the other night the same way he died in our game.  School, of coarse, was closed.  I bolted back up to my room to see if he was online.  He was.
"Hey, did you see the news!?"
"no.  what happened?"
"You know the kid we had die in our game?"
"yeah"
"He was killed last night!"  He didn't reply for a few minutes.  My mind was racing.  I was trying to see if there was any way he could have done that.  He didn't seem the kind to do that at all.  I was hoping against hope that it was some sort of concidense.
"thats aweful. do they know who did it?"
"No."
"i hope they find him.  he should burn in hell."  This was only slightly encouraging.  I decided to let it go.  My mind couldn't let the thought of him killing people enter and make me panic.  Besides, we still had a game to finish...

I was a moron.  It happened again.  This time, it was a girl I had known throughout my whole life.  He played his whole "Dude that sucks" thing, but I had to know.  He grew angry with me.  Two days later, he sent me some new sprites and the next part of the game.  What I saw sent waves of panic through my body.  The sprites were of me.  I was the next victim.
"What the hell is this???"
"what"
"You're having me die next!"
"so?"
"So, every time you have someone die in the game, they really die!"  He was silent.  I waited twenty minutes, but he didn't respond.  I had no choice but to call the cops.  While I was telling them what was going on, the words "Meet me at my house" appeared on the screen.

I pulled up at his house at eight.  There was only one light on, and no cars in the driveway.  I tried the door, and found that it was unlocked.  I entered into darkness, and fought quickly to adjust my eyes.  After I was satisfied, the lights suddenly came on.  He stood in the middle of the hallway, with boths hands behind his back.
"What the fuck is going on, Steve?"
"Joe, have you ever loved a game so much, that you wished it would never end?  After I played Police Quest four, I tried to keep it going.  I just got mad and...continued to play.  I got to watch on TV as they tried to solve the murders, but it wasn't enough..."
"Holy shit..."
"I'm sorry, Joe, but I need to finish this!"  As if in slow motion, i watched as he pulled his hand, which contained a gun, from behind his back and pointed it at me.  He was about to pull the trigger when a loud noise blasted through the air.  He didn't shoot, but instead jolted backwards, screamed, and fell to the ground.  I couldn't move.  I could only stare.  When I regained my senses, I felt a hand on my shoulder.  I saw a hole in Steve's forehead.  There was a cop standing next to me with a gun in his hand, and other cops tending to Steve's body.  He looked down at me, and said "Thanks alot kid.  You've been a great help."  

I wrote this in the past couple of hours, so some parts may seem rushed and out of balance.

[Barcik]

Andail, you said you have two stories. Care posting them?

[Bluke4x4]

Happenings


It was midnight. I was up later than usual. Looking up research for social studies homework. Deciding the books weren't helping, I flipped on the computer. I logged onto the internet as GeorgeP, just like I always did. Clip clap, I heard the sound of my fingers hitting the keys. Mooooo.
What the... I thought. But it was just one of my AIM buddies, Kork97. What was he doing up so late?

Kork97:sup
GeorgeP:not much doing homework
Kork97:check this out

I looked at the next reply. It was a link. www.agsforums.com.
I didn't bother to look at it.

GeorgeP:no thanx
Kork97:youre missing out
GeorgeP:who cares
Kork97 has logged off at 12:14:56.

I looked at the chatroom. I reluctantly selected the link. Klik.

Soon, I was sent to the world of geekdom, I began to finish homework easily and was making games in days. My first game was small, bad graphics, but fairly good gameplay and storyline. It was called Dragon's Wrath, in which you play a fire-breathing dragon. I burnt it on a CD and  gave it to a friend. He said it was too hard, and he gave it back the next day. Soon realizing I'm better at drawing by hand than by MSPaint, I scanned a few images, and created my second game, Time Out, in which you create a time machine and go back in time, and on accident bring back a few friends--- dinosaurs, knights, and even a robot from the future. I also created Snowburg, The Accidental Superhero, and Killer. Soon I put them on the web.

That's when things got weird. I turned on the news one day. Killings had been reported across America. They showed a map, and noted the times of the happenings. 22 killings. And they showed them linked up by lines. It spelled out AGS. Except for the AGS part, it was exactly like Killer.  I changed the channel. It was more news. In Tokyo, there had been a snow wave--- in the middle of spring. Just like Snowburg. And I turned the TV off when I heard about the time machine.

Yes, a time machine. Russian experts had created an official time machine --- And I knew what was going to happen next. In the newspaper, there was the world's first ever super hero, The Accidental Superhero. I ripped it up. I locked myself in my room, awaiting the terror that would come. Dragons. Dinosaurs. Knights. Robots. It all came so fast. I slowly walked up to the computer and ficked it on. Mooooo. I had left the computer logged on. It was Kork97. I immediately closed the chatroom, and deleted him from my buddy list. I deleted AGS, my games, and my account. GeorgeP was no more. The TV flickered on ominously. The news was on. The snow wave had died down. The time machine broke before the first trip. The killer had been found. The Accidental Superhero had fallen into the Mississippi River. All was well. I got up and unlocked the door, pondering what my next screenname would be.

[Pumaman]

Ok, well it's been 6 months since anyone posted in this thread - shall we wrap it up here? Does anyone want to do voting, or shall we just keep it as a collection of short stories?