Immersion World

by Max Jager

  As it pulled him closer it grabbed onto his left shoulder with its other arm, crushing his shoulder as its fingers tore into his skin. Snipes let it another scream as he struggled against the zombie, but couldn't break free.

  Inami, hearing the screaming, peeked her head out from behind her hands. She was still shaking with fear but she saw that Snipes was in danger. She quickly got up and tried to help Snipes pull himself out of the zombie's grip.

  The two of them were just kids, even together the zombie was still stronger than them. It was pulling Snipes closer and closer, much slower now that Inami was helping, but it was inevitable that it would reach him eventually.

  Snipes was struggling, panicking, and crying out in pain. The zombie had almost pulled him on top of itself and was about to bite his neck, when Snipes gained a brief burst of courage, and got an idea. He switched his knife into his other hand, and stabbed the knife down into the zombies head as hard as he could with his wounded shoulder.

  In an instant, the zombie went limp, and let go. Inami yanked Snipes out of the zombie's grip, and the two of them fell backwards on top of each other.

  Snipes rolled off of her then curled up on the ground. "Ooow!"

  Inami first noticed that she had blood on her fur, then she realized that it came from Snipes who was bleeding pretty badly. His shoulder had been badly broken and torn open. "No… my fault…" she whimpered and knelt beside him.

  Snipes was silent for a moment. "No, it's my fault." He winced in pain but continued talking. "Everyone keeps telling me I can't fight. I didn't listen, every time I tried someone got hurt. And I didn't believe them. I should have listened, but instead I tried to fight the zombie by myself."

  "But got it." Inami spoke up.

  "It hurts. I can't move." Snipes whimpered. "How are we supposed to get back to the others?"

  Inami thought about it for a moment. "Wolfs are scary. No go back."

  "I know, but we need to stay with our friends. They are our friends, we can't leave them behind." Snipes weakly answered. As his adrenaline rush ran out, it slowly stopped dulling the pain and he started feeling just how badly he was hurt. He was trying to keep a strong front, but as the pain started to set in he started to crack and tears began running down his cheeks.

  Inami's eyes were wide as she kept nervously looking around the area, trying to figure out what to do. Eventually, she took a deep breath and turned back to Snipes. "I -I … I be brave."

  "What?" Snipes asked.

  "I be brave." Inami answered. She slipped one of her arms under Snipes's neck, and one behind his knees then lifted him off the ground. Snipes cringed and shouted in pain as he was lifted, and Inami was struggling to carry him, but as soon as she had picked him up she began stumbling back in the direction of the others.

  "This way!" Brooke lead the group through the forest. Everyone was running along behind her, trying to trace Snipes and Inami down. After about thirty minutes of running, Matthew and Fate were starting to fall a little behind and were struggling to keep up with everyone. The group ran through the forest, but as they raced through a dense patch of trees they suddenly heard Matthew shout loud enough for his voice to echo through the forest. "Someone got me!"

  Everyone stopped and spun around, George and Charles couldn't stop as quickly as everyone else and ran into Brooke and Elliott, almost knocking the smaller teens over. Fate stumbled to a stop and Chloe almost tripped when everyone in front of her suddenly stopped right in her path. Matthew must have been the killer's next target, this was the opportune time to strike after all. The group spun around and saw the last few moments of Matthew grabbing whoever had grabbed him from behind, then swinging them up and over his head as he slammed them head-first into the ground in front of himself.

  "Nevermind, I got em." Matthew replied as he brushed himself off, then looked down at his would-be attacker. It was not the killer he had hoped it would be, it was a zombie. It was slowly getting back up and reaching out for him. "Oh, false alarm." He thought out loud.

  Sarah walked over to the zombie and quickly stabbed it in the head with her spear, then crouched down beside the corpse to inspect it. "This shouldn't be here."

  Charles gave her a concerned look. "No, we will have to inform Estellese when we return to the village. She'll probably send some guards out to figure out why there's undead in the forest."

  "I don't get it. This is a game right? What's wrong about finding a zombie here." Fate asked. "They are pretty common in games are they not?"

  "This isn't a game." Sarah answered. "This world is as real as the one we left. Undead are not natural, they shouldn't be anywhere except dungeons, which for unknown reasons seem to defy all the laws of science and nature. They should not naturally exist here."

  "Wouldn't that just mean that the whole world defies the same rules as dungeons? Therefor proving that this is just a game?" Fate pointed out.

  Charles stepped up to speak. "She said they could not naturally be here. So the fact that there is undead here tells us that someone in the area is practicing necromancy. Given the proximity to the village, it's a safe bet that our necromancer is one of the villagers. Sarah, we need to keep going. We will inform Estellese when we reach the village so she can deal with the necromancer."

  "Right, sorry. The thought of necromancy just bothers me. I'd go take care of it myself if I could." Sarah replied as she got up and rejoined the group.

  "Me too." Charles replied and rested a hand on the bible he had attached to his belt. "We'll get it taken care of, but right now we need to find the kids. They are in even more danger if there's undead around."

  The group started running through the forest again, but they didn't get far before they ran out into a clearing and realized they were surrounded by undead.

  "The kids definitely went across the clearing, I can see their footprints in the mud." Sarah replied.

  "Alright! Everyone form a circle." Fate instructed. "We're surrounded, we need to stay in a circular formation to ensure nobody is attacked from behind. If they are as easy to kill as the one Matthew got then we should be okay.

  Following the instruction, Sarah alone stood at the front of their circle. Charles and Matthew stood to the right side of their circle, with Charles standing closer to Sarah. George and Fate stood to the left side of their circle, with George being closer to Sarah. Elliott put Sophia down in the center then joined Brooke and Chloe on the south side of their circle. Chloe stood closer to Matthew, Brooke stood closer to Fate, and Elliott stood in the middle.

  Carley stood in the center with Sophia. He knew he was badly injured, and he knew he was in really bad shape. So, for once, he decided to sit this fight out for everyone else's sanity. He looked around at everyone, how they were positioned, who they chose to stand next to. He seemed to be lost in thought.

  The undead moved in on the group, it was a small horde of thirty of them. As the undead stepped into striking range Sarah lunged in with her spear and stabbed it through the first one's head. "I don't need to tell you guys to aim for the head, right?" She called out to everyone. And everyone responded with an "Of course!" or a "Yeah we know."

  Sarah speared a second one that moved in, and as she was pulling her spear out of it's head a third stepped up to attack. Sarah quickly kicked it in the leg, causing it to drop to its knees. As it fell she stabbed her spear into its head, then quickly turned to bash the handle of her spear into another zombie moving in on her left, knocking it to the ground.

  On the left side George had stepped a little further forwards, slightly stepping out of the circle. But he was batting away at the heads of the zombies that approached while Fate was covering both his and her own place in the circle.

  On the right side Charles was using his huge mace to bash small groups of zombies into each other. Slowing them down and knocking them to the ground for Sarah and Matthew to finish them off easily.

  On the southern side, the zombies were a little farther away and were taking longer to rea
ch the group. They had a moment to ready themselves.

  Brooke glanced back at Sophia and Carley, she was thankful that Carley had finally stopped putting himself in danger. Although she could tell he was in deep thought about something, she could almost see the gears in his head turning at an alarming rate. He looked like he was analyzing something. Or trying to figure something out. At first he seemed okay, but he looked to be getting more and more panicked by the moment.

  "Carley? You okay?" Brooke asked.

  But Carley didn't seem to hear her, his mind was racing through thoughts too quickly for her words to register. He was growing more and more tense and panicked by the moment. "What did I miss?... She was just here when the wolves attacked. What did I miss?"

  "Brooke." Chloe called out and tapped her shoulder to get her attention.

  "Carley's acting strange." Brooke replied as she turned her attention back to the incoming undead.

  "What's new? She always acts strange." Chloe countered.

  As the first zombie approached Brooke slammed her bat into its side, causing it to stumble and almost knocking it over. While it stumbled Elliott stepped in and stabbed his knife into its head. Chloe quickly stepped in to slam the next zombie in the head with her shovel, as the zombie was knocked to the ground Brooke stepped up to crush it's head with her bat and then the three of them stepped back into formation.

  "Evelynn is in danger." Carley spoke up as he walked up behind Brooke and Fate. "She's not here. I'm going to go find her and bring her back." As soon as he finished speaking he went to walk past Fate and Brooke.

  "No you're not!" Fate argued, immediately holding her arm out to block him from leaving. "She tried to kill you while you were unconscious. If she gets you alone she will try it again. You will not go after her. When we deal with the undead we will send two other people to go. Not you."

  "I don't care. We don't have time to wait! She's in danger right now." Carley argued.

  "She will have to fend for herself. We are in danger, Snipes and Inami are in danger, and she wants you dead. You can't stop her in your condition, I don't even know how the hell you're still standing." Fate argued. "We will help her after."

  "I have high pain tolerance. I am fine." Carley argued.

  "No, pain tolerance will only get you so far until your body gives out. It happened twice to you already. She will kill you. You can't go." Fate insisted.

  "Carley. I want to help her too, but Fate is right. You can't go, and we can't break our formation or Sophia will be in danger. She can't defend herself right now." Brooke spoke up.

  "Fate! One's moving in on my back where are you!" George called out.

  "Damnit." Fate sighed, then she turned around and stepped forwards to attack the one behind George. "You wouldn't have this problem if you got in formation like you're supposed to George!"

  "What's the fun in that?" George called back.

  Carley thought about it for a moment. Then, since Fate was no longer blocking his path, he took a deep breath to focus himself on blocking out the pain and bolted off into the forest. "I will bring her back. I'll find you guys, don't wait for me."

  Fate tried to stop him, but couldn't get to him fast enough. "Damnit Carley! Why don't you listen!" She shouted back at him. She turned to bash another zombie that was coming up behind her, and had to keep her focus on the fight.

  Elliott stepped up to stab his knife into the back of a zombie's head, while it was chasing after Brooke. Brooke then bashed another zombie to the ground for Chloe, who quickly stabbed her shovel down into its head.

  As Chloe pulled her shovel out of the zombie another one came at her from the side. She quickly sidestepped the zombie, and Elliott rammed his shoulder into it, knocking the creature to the ground. But as he rammed into it the zombie grabbed onto him and pulled him down with it.

  Before it could do anything Brooke slammed her bat into its arm, breaking Elliott free from its grasp. As soon as he was free Elliott stabbed his knife down into its head.

  "Brooke! Move!" Chloe called out.

  Brooke spun around only to see a zombie right behind herself. It grabbed her and knocked her to the ground. But before it could do anything Chloe shoved it off of her and Elliott finished it off.

  Chloe ducked under another zombie's grab attempt and shoved it away from herself, then held out a hand to help Brooke get back up. Elliott rushed around to stab the one Chloe had knocked back, and once Brooke was back on her feet the three moved back into their formation.

  The undead had almost been finished off, there was only a few left. As the last three stumbled towards them they moved up as a team. Elliott stood close to the two women, ready to strike at any undead that got too close. While Brooke and Chloe used their slightly longer ranged weapons to pick them off.

  Brooke knocked one of them to the ground, and Chloe stabbed her shovel down into it. They took a step back when a second zombie took a swipe at them, letting Elliott moved forwards and stab it in the head, then he backed off as the third moved in and they just repeated their first move. Knocking it down and taking it out.

  Once the last of the undead were taken out the group immediately turned back to each other. "What do we do? Carley ran one way and the kids ran the other." Fate stated.

  "We go after the kids, and assume Carley can handle herself." Charles replied. "We don't know where Carley went, we do have a trail to follow for the kids."

  "But she went to help Evelynn, and she is in terrible shape." Fate argued.

  "There isn't much we can do. It would be too dangerous to backtrack. The kids at least moved towards the village. Carley ran away from it." Charles pointed out.

  "It can't really be that-" Fate started, but stopped when she felt someone tugging on her dress. "Excuse me!" She spun around to face whoever it was, and she spotted Inami standing there with Snipes in her arms. His body was limp and unresponsive.

  "Bleeding." Inami said as she tried handing Snipes to Fate.

  "Oh. Thank you Inami." Fate was both shocked and confused, but she was thankful Inami had brought him back. She took Snipes from the small panda girl and quickly checked his pulse. He was still alive, just badly hurt. "You saved him Inami, good job!" She praised the small girl but then turned to the others. "We need to stop the bleeding, quickly."

  "Thank God she found us in time." Charles sighed. "Set up camp here, quickly. Sarah, help me set up the silver barrier. We're stopping here for tonight. Anyone who knows how to treat wounds, get to it. And someone get rid of these bodies."

  "On it." Damion replied as he knelt down beside Snipes and Fate. He lifted Snipes' body while Fate wrapped the makeshift bandages around him.

  "I got the bodies." George spoke up.

  "I'll help." Matthew added as he joined in. Everyone else who didn't have a job got to work on setting up the tent.

  "I do good?" Inami asked.

  "You did good Inami. Just please never run away again. You scared everyone." Brooke softly replied.

  "Sorry." Inami quietly lowered her head.

  - Next Chapter: Belle Village - Finding the Killer -

  (Any final guesses as to who the killer is before it's revealed?)

  Chapter 6: Belle Village

  - Chapter 6: Belle Village - Finding the Killer -

  Elliott awoke the next morning and was surprised to see that Brooke was still asleep. She usually got up really early. Then again, he knew she was having a very hard time sleeping. She was scared of the killer in the group, and was worried about Carley. The numbers in the group were thinning, it was only a matter of time before the killer got her or someone she cared about.

  Elliott was also worried about the things going on within the group. He was careful to avoid waking the others in the crowded tent, as he got up. Almost everyone was still asleep.

  As he looked around, he saw that Fate was on watch outside of the tent. When he skimmed over who was in the tent he spotted Carley, much to his relief, in the tent with everyone else. It was only Ev
elynn who was missing.

  Carley was acting strange. He was awake and was sitting very close to Damion, who was asleep. Carley was shaking a little, he looked sick and upset.

  "Carley, you okay?" Elliott asked.

  Carley looked up at Elliott, he looked like he hadn't slept all night, somehow he was in even worse condition then he was last night. "Y-Yeah, I'm fine." He weakly replied.

  "Carley come on." Elliott responded, knowing Carley was lying.

  "I will be fine." Carley insisted.

  "What happened last night? Did you find Evelynn?" Elliott asked.

  Carley lowered his head, the question seemed to worsen his condition. He got more upset and started shaking more. Wordlessly, he pointed outside the tent.