Contributor: Paul
Submission: "Flight"
LARP (system): Endgame (Accelerant)
Location: Worcester
Character name: Jordan Carter
Years LARPing: 7
When the wards protecting the Earth fell in June of 2006, Jordan was camping with two of his college friends in upstate New York. Their notification that the world had changed was a Divinim raid on their cabin, killing one of his friends and capturing Jordan and his other friend. He spent the first month of the invasion a captive of the Divinim, then was rescued a month later from a hospital in central Pennsylvania. This short story covers his discovery in that hospital, and was submitted to staff along with his other background information (a few years after game start ^_^;; ). Please note that no other members of Temple or other PCs or NPCs appear in the story; any such similarity is coincidental.
Editor's note: We have a couple submissions that are audio-- I'm looking for a (hopefully free) plug-in for audio. Any suggestions?
Noise. Shouting. I can't make anything out. It's like swimming through glue.
"God in heaven, look at this place!"
My whole body feels numb. I gasp, or blink. Some sign of life.
"Hey, we've got a live one over here!"
It's dark. Or I'm blind. Wait, shapes moving. Must be dark. Light flashes over me.
"Huh, this guy looks clean. Easy, buddy, just take it easy... Doc! C’m’ere, quick!"
Where am I? What's going on?
"C'mon, son. Sit up, if you can. Can you tell me your name?"
The voice is older, kind, worried. I sit up. The world spins for a moment. A warm hand on my
back steadies me.
"Uhh... Jordan... Jordan Carter..."
My voice sounds like the grave. I cough a few times.
"Nice to meet you, Jordan. I'm Dr. Evans. Call me Doc.”
A bright light shines briefly in each eye. My eyes hurt. And my head, too.
“Can you stand, son? This isn't exactly the safest place to be right now."
He puts two fingers on my neck, glances at his watch, then nods.
"I... I think so... Where..."
He pulls me to my feet. I wobble before he puts his arm around my shoulder. Moving hurts.
"This isn't the safest place to be answering questions, either. Now c'mon, we need to be leaving
before more of them show up."
I nod and lean on him as he starts walking. Then stop. Dead.
"B... Brian? Oh, shit..."
The body on the table is only barely recognizable. His face is mostly intact, at least, and the
tattoo on his arm is still there. The rest is laid open like sushi.
"Oh my G-"
I fall to my knees and retch violently, but there's nothing to bring up. Doesn’t stop me from
trying. Tears stream down my face. Doc grabs a sheet and drapes it over his body; another one
over my shoudlers.
"I'm sorry for your friend, son, but if we don't want to wind up like him, we've gotta move.
Now."
I straighten after a minute and numbly let him lead me to the door. Two men with rifles are
waiting there, looking out . They both look nervous.
"Bobby? Kat? Chief? You guys ready?"
I don't hear the reply from outside the door--my head's swimming too much--but the doctor nods
and leads me out. Two men and a woman, all three of them armed as well, are waiting outside.
“Guys, this is Jordan. Jordan, this is Bobby, Katherine, Chief Brown, Simon, and Jackson.”
The names wash over me without really registering, although I manage a nod. I look around and
try to take stock of where we are. It must be a hospital somewhere, but the place is empty. The
lights aren’t even on.
“Watch your step, man, it’s slippery here.”
Jackson--No, wait, Bobby; Jackson has the baseball cap--leads me around a puddle on the floor.
I glance down, then wince. It’s blood. There’s a body slumped against the wall with three fresh
gunshot wounds bleeding from her chest. Something’s plugged into the back of her neck like the
memory card on an Xbox. I bend down, reach to touch it.
“Hey, man, leave that thing alone. She’s gone, man. They plug those into you and you’re gone,
one of theirs.”
Theirs? Whose? My confusion must be written on my face as we walk down the hallway.
“The aliens, man! The crazy weirdoes in the spacesuits! You don’t know?”
Suddenly, I’m walking up the path from the lake. I hear Brian and Will shouting. Gunshots, and
something else, like a laser gun out of a video game or sci-fi flick. Someone cries out in pain. I
break into a run—
“Whoa, man, whoa! Steady! Steady! You’re ok, man. You’re ok.”
Bobby’s standing there, looking at me like I’ve had a few dozen too many. He may be on to
something.
“C’mon, man. Let’s get you some clothes. And shoes. It’s a long walk back.”
I glance down. Huh, figures I’d be naked. I’m too tired to be embarrassed, so I just shrug.
Bobby has a quick conversation with Doc, who then heads down the hallway the with others.
“Heh, ‘scuze us, man, They’re gonna go track down the pharmacy while we find you something
to wear.”
A short ways down the hall, Bobby and I find a locker room behind an “Employees Only” door.
One of the lockers yields a set of scrubs and a pair of crocs half a size too small. I shrug and get
dressed.
“Bobby? Jordan? We found the pharmacy. You guys ready?”
Katherine (Kat?) is at the door, one hand on her hip. Well, more like on the grip of the pistol
she’s wearing there. She’s staring at me, and I realize I’m staring back. I blink, shake my head,
look away self-consciously. Bobby is shuffling through the last locker, oblivious. A surprised
grunt provides a welcome distraction.
“Huh, either of you guys hungry?”
He’s got a box of Granola bars in his hand. Oatmeal raisin. I don’t even like raisins. But my
stomach, so recently attempting to forcibly empty breakfasts from last year, suddenly realizes
how empty it is. Bobby must’ve noticed the look in my eyes, as he just tosses me the box. I
can’t get it open fast enough, and have the first one down before either of them can say a word.
“Easy, Jordan, you’ll make yourself sick. Now c’mon, you can eat them on the way.”
I follow them out and back down the hallway, past the bodies. Past the room where… I force
myself not to think about it; force myself to keep the granola bars down. At the end of the hall
and around a corner, Doc and the others are sorting through shelves of medicines.
“Hmm, looks like someone was here before us.”
He tosses several bottles of pills into his backpack, starts to zip it up, then stops and grabs several
more and throws them in as well.
“Alright, let’s go. You ok, son?”
I swallow the remainder of a third granola bar, and nod.
“I guess. But, umm, well, will someone tell me what the hell is going on?”
Everyone goes quiet. A look bounces back and forth between all of them, before ricocheting off
the walls and floor and heading out the door. Jackson finally speaks up.
“Bad shit. But we’ve got to get moving. We do not want to be out after dark.”
He holds up a hand before I can voice my protest.
“We will answer any questions you might possibly have that we’re capable of answering, at
home. But we’ve got to get there first, and we’re walking.”
I shuffle a bit, nod. The others start putting on backpacks, checking weapons. There’s such a, a
seriousness about them all, that I guess hadn’t noticed before. They’re all terrified.
“What’d I miss… The end of the world or something?”
Kat looks up, her face grim.
“Yeah… Something like that…”
Submission: "Flight"
LARP (system): Endgame (Accelerant)
Location: Worcester
Character name: Jordan Carter
Years LARPing: 7
When the wards protecting the Earth fell in June of 2006, Jordan was camping with two of his college friends in upstate New York. Their notification that the world had changed was a Divinim raid on their cabin, killing one of his friends and capturing Jordan and his other friend. He spent the first month of the invasion a captive of the Divinim, then was rescued a month later from a hospital in central Pennsylvania. This short story covers his discovery in that hospital, and was submitted to staff along with his other background information (a few years after game start ^_^;; ). Please note that no other members of Temple or other PCs or NPCs appear in the story; any such similarity is coincidental.
Editor's note: We have a couple submissions that are audio-- I'm looking for a (hopefully free) plug-in for audio. Any suggestions?
Noise. Shouting. I can't make anything out. It's like swimming through glue.
"God in heaven, look at this place!"
My whole body feels numb. I gasp, or blink. Some sign of life.
"Hey, we've got a live one over here!"
It's dark. Or I'm blind. Wait, shapes moving. Must be dark. Light flashes over me.
"Huh, this guy looks clean. Easy, buddy, just take it easy... Doc! C’m’ere, quick!"
Where am I? What's going on?
"C'mon, son. Sit up, if you can. Can you tell me your name?"
The voice is older, kind, worried. I sit up. The world spins for a moment. A warm hand on my
back steadies me.
"Uhh... Jordan... Jordan Carter..."
My voice sounds like the grave. I cough a few times.
"Nice to meet you, Jordan. I'm Dr. Evans. Call me Doc.”
A bright light shines briefly in each eye. My eyes hurt. And my head, too.
“Can you stand, son? This isn't exactly the safest place to be right now."
He puts two fingers on my neck, glances at his watch, then nods.
"I... I think so... Where..."
He pulls me to my feet. I wobble before he puts his arm around my shoulder. Moving hurts.
"This isn't the safest place to be answering questions, either. Now c'mon, we need to be leaving
before more of them show up."
I nod and lean on him as he starts walking. Then stop. Dead.
"B... Brian? Oh, shit..."
The body on the table is only barely recognizable. His face is mostly intact, at least, and the
tattoo on his arm is still there. The rest is laid open like sushi.
"Oh my G-"
I fall to my knees and retch violently, but there's nothing to bring up. Doesn’t stop me from
trying. Tears stream down my face. Doc grabs a sheet and drapes it over his body; another one
over my shoudlers.
"I'm sorry for your friend, son, but if we don't want to wind up like him, we've gotta move.
Now."
I straighten after a minute and numbly let him lead me to the door. Two men with rifles are
waiting there, looking out . They both look nervous.
"Bobby? Kat? Chief? You guys ready?"
I don't hear the reply from outside the door--my head's swimming too much--but the doctor nods
and leads me out. Two men and a woman, all three of them armed as well, are waiting outside.
“Guys, this is Jordan. Jordan, this is Bobby, Katherine, Chief Brown, Simon, and Jackson.”
The names wash over me without really registering, although I manage a nod. I look around and
try to take stock of where we are. It must be a hospital somewhere, but the place is empty. The
lights aren’t even on.
“Watch your step, man, it’s slippery here.”
Jackson--No, wait, Bobby; Jackson has the baseball cap--leads me around a puddle on the floor.
I glance down, then wince. It’s blood. There’s a body slumped against the wall with three fresh
gunshot wounds bleeding from her chest. Something’s plugged into the back of her neck like the
memory card on an Xbox. I bend down, reach to touch it.
“Hey, man, leave that thing alone. She’s gone, man. They plug those into you and you’re gone,
one of theirs.”
Theirs? Whose? My confusion must be written on my face as we walk down the hallway.
“The aliens, man! The crazy weirdoes in the spacesuits! You don’t know?”
Suddenly, I’m walking up the path from the lake. I hear Brian and Will shouting. Gunshots, and
something else, like a laser gun out of a video game or sci-fi flick. Someone cries out in pain. I
break into a run—
“Whoa, man, whoa! Steady! Steady! You’re ok, man. You’re ok.”
Bobby’s standing there, looking at me like I’ve had a few dozen too many. He may be on to
something.
“C’mon, man. Let’s get you some clothes. And shoes. It’s a long walk back.”
I glance down. Huh, figures I’d be naked. I’m too tired to be embarrassed, so I just shrug.
Bobby has a quick conversation with Doc, who then heads down the hallway the with others.
“Heh, ‘scuze us, man, They’re gonna go track down the pharmacy while we find you something
to wear.”
A short ways down the hall, Bobby and I find a locker room behind an “Employees Only” door.
One of the lockers yields a set of scrubs and a pair of crocs half a size too small. I shrug and get
dressed.
“Bobby? Jordan? We found the pharmacy. You guys ready?”
Katherine (Kat?) is at the door, one hand on her hip. Well, more like on the grip of the pistol
she’s wearing there. She’s staring at me, and I realize I’m staring back. I blink, shake my head,
look away self-consciously. Bobby is shuffling through the last locker, oblivious. A surprised
grunt provides a welcome distraction.
“Huh, either of you guys hungry?”
He’s got a box of Granola bars in his hand. Oatmeal raisin. I don’t even like raisins. But my
stomach, so recently attempting to forcibly empty breakfasts from last year, suddenly realizes
how empty it is. Bobby must’ve noticed the look in my eyes, as he just tosses me the box. I
can’t get it open fast enough, and have the first one down before either of them can say a word.
“Easy, Jordan, you’ll make yourself sick. Now c’mon, you can eat them on the way.”
I follow them out and back down the hallway, past the bodies. Past the room where… I force
myself not to think about it; force myself to keep the granola bars down. At the end of the hall
and around a corner, Doc and the others are sorting through shelves of medicines.
“Hmm, looks like someone was here before us.”
He tosses several bottles of pills into his backpack, starts to zip it up, then stops and grabs several
more and throws them in as well.
“Alright, let’s go. You ok, son?”
I swallow the remainder of a third granola bar, and nod.
“I guess. But, umm, well, will someone tell me what the hell is going on?”
Everyone goes quiet. A look bounces back and forth between all of them, before ricocheting off
the walls and floor and heading out the door. Jackson finally speaks up.
“Bad shit. But we’ve got to get moving. We do not want to be out after dark.”
He holds up a hand before I can voice my protest.
“We will answer any questions you might possibly have that we’re capable of answering, at
home. But we’ve got to get there first, and we’re walking.”
I shuffle a bit, nod. The others start putting on backpacks, checking weapons. There’s such a, a
seriousness about them all, that I guess hadn’t noticed before. They’re all terrified.
“What’d I miss… The end of the world or something?”
Kat looks up, her face grim.
“Yeah… Something like that…”
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