Rescue Island
Flynn's Log 1:
Rescue Island
By
Stone Marshall
Contributions by Nabru Marshall
Edited by Joni Wilson
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in any form, in whole or in part (beyond the copying permitted by US Copyright Law, Section 107, "fair use" in teaching or research, Section 108, certain library copying, or in published media by reviewers in limited excerpts), without written permission from the author at
[email protected]
. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Copyright © Stone Marshall, 2015
edition 2.0 January 2015
Published by Stone Marshall Publishing
Dedication
To Nabru, who has been inspiring me to write stories since 2005. Flynn's Log would not exist without the unflinching support of Karissa.
How This Log Came to Be
EVER WISH YOU WERE IN CHARGE OF YOUR LIFE? Tired of being told what to do? Want to make your own rules and live life your way? How about doing something even bigger, like creating your own world? I always wanted that and I got my wish. My name is Flynn. This is the story of my epic digital adventure.
In the digital world thoughts can be logged as text. This log contains my thoughts. As you read this, you are entering my mind. Crazy, unexplainable stuff happens in this log. It's hard for me to believe, and it happened to me. Now it's in your hands. You must decide what to believe.
For the record, this story takes place in a video game. It's not a
real
place. People in the real world control pixelated characters on servers. People play the game on their computers, tablets, game consoles, etc. They DON'T become part of the game! I have no idea why I am in here.
Sand in My Mouth and Ringing in My Ears
WHAT'S THAT SOUND? I'm cold, my eyes are closed, and I hear a loud ringing.
I open my eyes and discover that I'm face down in damp sand. The ringing sound in my head is getting quieter. Wow, what a crazy headache.
I lift my head to look around, and I see that I am on a beach, next to a large body of water. I can't tell if it's a lake or an ocean bay. Something seems familiar about this place? The temperature is pleasant, but the water is cold. I'm partially in the water, and my legs are wet. Weird, my legs are blocky. Wait! My whole body is blocky! I need to see myself. I turn around and crawl to the edge of the water to look at my reflection. I'm 8-bit retro digital! I look like a pixelated person! What is going on?
The ringing is now barely noticeable. My head is less achy, and my vision is clearing. I blink a few times. The sun seems to be setting. It's getting dark. I notice a new sound that's louder than the ringing in my head. It's like a creepy slurp sound.
"OUCH!"
I'm knocked on my side. I'm now looking up and see a terrifying sight! A huge black spider, as long as I am tall, with red glowing eyes is preparing to leap at me! That's what hurt me. This crazy angry spider is after me! It's making that slurpy noise. It jumps, and "ouch!" I see a flash of red.
I've got to get moving, I've got to defend myself, I've got to do something! My moves are clumsy. I don't know how to bend. Moving is difficult. Wait, it's not that difficult, it's just different. I can move if I don't think about the mechanics of it. If I just look at where I want to go, my body does the rest. My blocky body is responding to my thoughts.
Slurp! That crazy sound again! I turn my head and see red eyes glowing at me. It's going to pounce again. I don't know how much more of this I can take. I must take action now!
This feels like a game I've played. I've controlled my character from my computer, as a real person. The difference is that I am now the character. I hope I can learn to survive in this game. What would I make my character do in this situation? I don't have a weapon. I'm not wearing armor. It's getting dark. That is why I'm being attacked. Spiders attack when it's dark.
Wait! I'm near the water. Jump in! Spiders don't swim. At least they don't in the games I've played.
Screech! The spider jumps. But I am suddenly moving too, into the water. Am I fast enough? Can I outrun the spider? Wow this is cold!
The spider lands just behind me, at the edge of the water. "Yes!" I yell. I'm nearly up to my neck in the water now . . . And now I'm under water. Weird and eerie. I can totally see through the clear water. I see a squid swimming in the distance. It's huge—as big as me, or bigger. It is so strange to be in this game, to face creatures that are as big as I am!
The water is very cold. The bottom is uneven. It's like an underwater mountain that continues down, getting deeper and deeper.
Ouch!
What hurt me?
Ouch!
I'm underwater. I can't breathe underwater! I need to swim!
I turn to face the beach. Through the water, I see the spider at the edge of the beach. Its red eyes are piercing the water, following my every move.
Ouch!
How do I swim? I look up, toward the surface of the water and . . . and my body follows my thoughts, I'm swimming!
Ouch!
I must be nearly out of breath. In the game if I keep my character underwater too long, he dies. Of course in the game he will respawn. I have no idea if I'll respawn. I have no idea how I got here.
Ouch!
I'm so close to the surface. I need to make it; I can't die now, not here, not with so many questions to answer.
Gasp! My head pops above the surface of the water. I breathe in. But it's weird. I don't breathe air. It's like digital air. My body almost immediately feels better. The pain of not breathing is gone, but I still feel pain from the earlier spider attack. Speaking of the spider, I hope I surfaced far enough from the beach.
I turn, swimming. I can't tread water. I seem to need to be moving to keep my head above water. To the right, I see the spider watching me, so I swim left. It's getting very dark now. I know I'm in for trouble. Intuitively, I know the basics of this game. The spooky stuff comes out when it gets dark, so it's smart to find shelter and sleep through the night. If I were outside playing this game, it would be fun to build things, and easy too. It takes tools and resources, but building is kind of the point of the game.
I turn my head to look back at the spider. It's moving along the shoreline, watching me. If I had a bow and a few arrows, I'd kill that spider right now. Ironically I need string from a spider to craft a bow.
There is an island ahead. The island is completely separated from the mainland where the spider is. Playing the game, I don't usually like small islands. They generally don't offer enough resources for building. But I do think an island might be the safest place for me right now, even if I do eventually need to get to the mainland.
It's hard to think of eventually. I wish I knew how to get out of here. If I am stuck here for the long term, I will need to find a safe place to live, but right now I would love to wake up from this nightmare.
Maybe I am dreaming! But you don't feel pain in dreams, and I've felt real pain from the spider and from nearly drowning. If that didn't wake me up, then I must not be dreaming. And I can't remember anything that happened recently in my real life. I don't remember much of anything at all, let alone how I ended up in this pixel land.
I'm nearly to the island, but to be safe, I don't go ashore. First I really should make sure this place is safe. It's not a big island; I should be able to swim around it easily enough. Though I am cold, my swimming seems unaffected. My pixelated plastic body doesn't seem to be tired either. Weird.
I swim around the island. I like to orient myself as much as I can while making my character explore in the game, so I guess I should do the same, now that I am in the game world. The sun sets in the west, so I'll call the far side of the island the west side. The near side is the east side. It's large enough that I can't see across it in the dark.
There is a small mountain in the middle. It's like a big hill, really. The beach surrounding it is sand. That's good. Easy to dig, but it can cave in, so it's not good for building. The hill appears to be dirt, mostly. Hard to tell from this distance at night, but dirt is at least something I can dig into, if I need a safe place to hide.
My mind is strategizing as if I'm playing the game. I guess that's a good thing. I really should be preparing myself to live here, because I have no idea when this nightmare might end.
It looks as if something is moving on the island. Oh no! What is that? I hope it's not a spider, or worse. I approach the movement, but stay in the water. I hope I can out swim whatever it is, if it can swim too.
Wait, it's a chicken. Awesome! Chickens are super helpful! They lay eggs that can be used for cooking. They can be killed for their meat and feathers. I'll need feathers if I'm ever going to make arrows for self-defense. When my character gets hurt in the game, I make him eat to heal himself. I wonder if I eat something, will this pain from the spider bite go away?
I guess it's time to take my chances and go on to the island. I swim toward the north shore. It's sandy there with rocks forming a steep cove from the hill to the very small beach. I can sit here for a bit and hopefully be able to see anything coming toward me.
No trees or bushes growing from the rocks here. No place for dangerous things to hide. I remember in the game, that if I ever find my character in a situation such as this, where I don't get him home before dark, the best thing to do is sit still and be quiet. I can do that. Maybe I can relax for a bit. I do feel stressed, and there is a nagging pain from the spider attack. But the ringing sound that was in my head is gone. That's a positive thought!
Danger Everywhere
SITTING QUIETLY ALL NIGHT does something to a person. At least it did something to me, to the digital me. I didn't sleep; you can't sleep in this game world if you don't have a bed. Even if I had a bed, I don't have a safe place to put it. I need a shelter of some kind. To get a shelter I need tools, and to craft tools I need resources.