Chapter Text

“We don’t have all day, Norman. Come on, give us your answer,” he said with just a hint of smugness coming through his voice.

I woke up in a startle, glancing around the classroom realizing what had just transpired. I had drifted off in the middle of class again. Behind me there was the sound of muffled snickering. I turned towards the front of the classroom, where Mr. Harris was looking at me.

I remembered what we had been doing moments prior - studying the beta uprising. I was thinking about my response before I heard Mr. Harris sign with an exaggerated demeanor.

“Stay after class, Norman,” he said.

I swore inside my head. Why the teachers always had it out for me, I would never know. I watched Mr. Harris look around the class for a student.

He called out to the room, “Does anybody else have an answer?"

A shorter student raised his hand in the air. He held it in place for nearly a minute before the teacher finally relented, and called on him.

“Yes, Tim?” Mr Harris said with some disdain.

Tim was a small fellow with choppy black hair who wore a pair of auburn colored glasses that were oddly proportioned, and were slipping off the end of his oddly shaped nose, which didn’t flatter his unfortunate facial complexion.

“Internet forums would, uh, be the correct answer” he said, nervously stuttering out the response.

“That is correct as the-” suddenly the blaring of the bell dismissed us for the day. ”The bell doesn’t dismiss you, I dismiss YOU!” said Mr. Harris in a feeble attempt to stop the class from spilling out into the hallway.

I slipped out of the classroom and into the crowd. I walked out into the hallways and overlooked the usual scene. This place never changed, but it being a universal constant for all teens was something that should’ve never had happened. Whoever had the smart idea to stick a bunch of young people in the same building for seven hours a day was ignorant at best.

I heard a loud crash and glanced back. A familiar sight greeted me. A large, almost inhumanly muscular, young man was towering over somebody.

”Give it-, I SAID GIVE IT!” cried out Tim who was laying on the floor with his back slouched against his open locker.

“Nah,” said Brad as he stuffed the paper into his own bag. “Your kind needs to know their place in our world,” Brad said with an over the top cackle. He finished his point by shoving Tim inside of his own locker, leaving him to cry inside for someone to rescue him.

I looked away before Brad caught me looking at him. In terms of placement, while I was higher than Tim, I paled in comparison to those like Brad. I didn’t choose the system, so I didn’t feel that guilty over what had just transpired. I quickly left the school compound, not wanting to draw anymore attention to myself after the earlier incident in class.

Walking down the street after school was somehow even more of a depressing sight than the usual eight to three confinement. The class divide was somewhat of a jarring sight. A man, in his mid thirties, approached me. His disheveled appearance, and appalling posture didn’t convey a confident man.

“Could you spare me-” I ignored him and rushed past, I couldn’t miss my ride afterall.

As I approached my bus stop, I saw my usual plain grey bus arrive. I walked up the steps into the bus, glancing over the color scheme that was designated for those like me. Nondescript grey.

“License” the driver spat at me.

I fumbled through my pockets for the grey card. By the time I pulled it out I was already attracting some angry glares from the other passengers. I scanned it and hurried to take my seat.

I watched massive holograms play as the bus flew between street corners along its designated path. Advertisements, news from the capital government, and all too helpful encouragements to obey local laws. The usual programming.

I left the bus when we pulled up at my stop. Walking down the street towards my suburban neighborhood always felt uneasy. Rows of identical homes with white picket fences greeted me, with the sign ‘Summer Leaf Valley’ at the front of the neighborhood. When we first moved here, I always used to get lost when walking back to my house.

Sighing with relief and throwing my jacket to the side, I crept up into my room. The rest of the evening would be peaceful, since my parents worked evening shifts after all. Pushing the startup button on my laptop, I restfully collapsed into my computer chair. Once the initial boot up had finished I opened my web browser to the ‘Shadow Web,’ as most of the general public knew it. I clicked on my usual haunt, the ‘Planet Crash’ forums.

I observed the various boards of the forum. Creative Writing, Sci-Fi, Animation and Technology were all above where I wanted go, and I scrolled past them quickly. I entered the MISC board, looking to see what threads were at the top today. The MISC board was one of those rare boards that was so obscure most hadn’t found it. This, in turn, created something of a cesspool where the same tired arguments repeated themselves, day in and day out.

I scrolled past the first couple of topics before clicking on a somewhat political one. This thread, in particular, had gained significant traction compared to others that day. The thread was complaining about the president, not unusual on sites like this one that attracted such a ‘unique’ crowd. Sentiments like ‘FUCK CHAD’ and image macros depicting the upper classes or various government figure heads in humiliating situations were common.

Of course, there was just as much vitriol being flung back at them by the other side. I skimmed through the thread for a little bit, then clicked out. You can only take so much pointless shouting in one day.

I decided to hop into the IRC to talk with some of my internet friends. As I entered the chat, I was bombarded with messages. As line after line of excitement and hype flew by, I realized what was going on. Someone had found one of the forgotten games from years ago! Everybody was rushing to download the files and gear up. A new game hadn’t been uncovered for a long, long time. I immediately hit the download link, and frantically dug out my controller from under the floorboards. When I looked back, though, I saw that something else had been downloaded as well.

Damn it, this computer had cost a shit ton of money, and I wouldn’t be able to pay for a new one if it got bricked. I immediately moved to delete it, but to my horror it was already active. A loading meter popped up on my screen, and I frantically tried to shut down the program. Before I could it finished and a window popped up.

Looking at the image that had appeared on my screen, I almost wanted to laugh.

The photo that had now covered the screen was ridiculous, in a disturbing way. It showed a collage of images of a man wearing various clown style garbs. At the bottom of the image it simply said ‘Gamers rise up’ in a wavy, neon-green font..

I tried to click onto the user that had sent me the image. The username was quite peculiar,simply a bunch of random numbers, probably because of not wanting to be traced. Scowling, I went back to the IRC to ask who the hell was messing with me, but I couldn’t connect.

Trying to dismiss the incident entirely, looked back over at the game - but the download had stopped. A glance at the toolbar confirmed it - I’d lost connection entirely.. I was moderately sure that my father had paid for internet this month. I rushed downstairs to see what was going on. This was disastrous, to say the least. Finding a new game was a rare event, and it was never long before the government started cracking down on links to it. Hopefully it was just some company’s server getting knocked out by a hurricane or something, and it wasn’t the Citchadel about to kick down my door after cutting off my connection.

I turned on the TV to see what had just happened. The channel was on a Foulball match, so I tried clicking to a news channel. No dice. I tried another channel. Nothing. Every channel was showing the Foulball match.

Looking at the game, it suddenly hit me. It was the final match of the season. The government sponsored event. All other forms of entertainment had been turned off just for this.

“FUCK!” I screamed out, in an impotent rage. Why does society have it out for gamers? I thought, quietly seething with pure rage. clenching my hands into fists, as the blood rushed to my head.