Game Over

• Gerry Angelatos, Grade M
• Short Story
• 2015

I was looking down this dirty road for enemies awaiting me. Twenty metres away I sighted my opponent who was outside with his guard dog and ready to set a grenade. I was so nervous I couldn’t move. I shakily pushed the trigger. The bullet shot out and I felt a sigh of relief as he fell to the floor without the grenade going off. It was my job to protect the vulnerable people like me who have been abandoned by their country and have to fight to survive.

I had a strange feeling deep in my stomach that more was to come. I was left stranded and exhausted so I scrambled into a deteriorated building. Oh no! More firing bullets had started. I had a glimpse of the people who were shooting at me and who had also captured some of my fighting buddies. I ducked for cover and checked if there were any bullets in my body. To my surprise I had not been shot. I then return fire and strike my enemy unexpectedly. Then it came to me I was playing a game.

“Level 99 is successfully completed”, declared the incessant voice of the computer screen. I thought I had won but there was a surprise level of more enemies pursuing me with extreme capabilities of killing me. They had enormous tanks with strong firing weapons that could also detect the slightest movement and body heat and they had a never-ending number of loyal army people.

This is the first time anyone has made it this far and I was determined to be the only person who would complete the game that no one else could. The next level is my chance to make glorious history.

I lie in bed in frustration, thinking about how I am going to surprise the large video gaming world and outwit the system!

It is an utter dismay what I was about to do but like John Wayne always says “A man’s got to do what a man’s has got to do...” Ready, Set, I click the button in what feels like slow motion. Argh, It hasn’t worked instead it has in Big Bold writing telling me Immediate Destruction in 10 seconds. I close my consumed eyes and hope for a superlative result.

I regain consciousness feeling full of life but something is fishy, I’m not in my home. I am in what looks like my action video game. I hear a bang in the distance but I don’t know what it was. Then I hear gunshots and I immediately think, no it can’t be, it is impossible that I am in my video game.

Bullets fly everywhere. It feels so real, I even smell gun powder and imagine bullet fragments. I dodge and do my best to protect the abandoned people and WIN this never - ending battle … but it seems impossible.

I then see two dreaded words “GAME OVER” as I fall to the floor in horror.