Game Over

It is quiet. Unusually quiet tonight. No dogs barking. No guns clapping in which would signify someone's death in the news in the morning. No fire trucks, and no police cars whirring in the night. It is peaceful outside, "Which makes it peaceful inside", thought Marcus as he played his video game Infection. It is a game that allows you to infect the world with different diseases. You could set up the symptoms, how fast it spreads, and more. Marcus loved this game. He played it off and on when he was upset with the world about something. Tonight, Marcus was disturbed by something. Marcus wanted to go on a field trip to the colleges. It was arranged by his Math teacher Mr. Davis who believed Marcus was a genius at this subject. He told Marcus it would not cost them a thing. Mr. Davis was willing to pay all of his expenses. That is how much he believed in Marcus and his mathematical skills. All the other students knew Marcus was more advanced than them. They accepted how advanced he was and encouraged him to go on the trip. The entire school supported him.

Marcus wore a heart-shaped locket around his neck that his parents had given him. It wasn't anything ostentatious, it was just a small, gold locket, that the heart opened up to a photo of his parents when they were younger. He had it ever since he could remember, as he grew, he would add a couple of links to the chain.

His parents were gone for the night. It was date night and he didn't want to bother them by asking when they would return. They had left his dinner on the stove and money on the counter, "in case of emergencies", his mom said before leaving with his dad. Marcus was too excited to eat. He was hoping that they would be home soon so he could tell them what his teacher said, and get permission to go on this trip. He wanted it really bad.

He concentrated on his game. He had developed a disease that enters the body via the lungs and kills people slowly. He now decided to add a couple of symptoms like coughing and sweating. He added these, and the population decreased on the map by 100,000. The color changes when you eliminate a populated section of the map. They are green when the state is fully populated with people. Yellow when they are ill, brown when the population is critically low, and black when the state is no longer populated with anyone living. Right now, half his map was yellow and brown. There was just a tiny patch of green in Canada.

He couldn't wait any longer and called his mother.

"What's the matter" she yelled into the phone. "Did something happen? Are you alright", she yelled.

Marcus held the phone away from his ear and looked at it. He put it back to his ear in the midst of her tirade and said, "You didn't give me a chance to say hi he laughed, Nothing is wrong mom."

She exhaled and said, "Good. Then why did you call?', she asked.

"At school, my math teacher Mr. Davis said he will pay for me to go on the trip to colleges so that I can earn the extra credit, and see what college life is about. I already took a couple of tests, and passed with 100%! Mr. Davis said that I was in the top 10 percentile of students who were asked to come to the college."

Marcus waited for his mom to inform his dad of what he had said. It seemed like the wait was forever. His mom came back on the phone and said "No". She said they couldn't afford it. Marcus told her his teacher will pay for everything. "You and dad do not have to pay a thing.", he said.

"No"! she said again. "You need to stay home and help me. You don't have time to go to some strange city and leave me here taking care of everything while your dad works. I need you here, so the answer is No." His mom added, "Make sure you eat your dinner I left on the stove, and we will see you later." She then promptly hung up the phone. All Marcus heard was the dial tone sound in his ear. At first, Marcus couldn't believe she had said no. They had never supported any of his dreams or goals. They never tried to encourage him in anything he was really good at. Marcus does not know why he expected anything different from them this time. Maybe, because he wanted it so very badly.

He tossed the plate of food left for his dinner, into the trash. He plopped down back into the chair and picked up his remote controller for the game. Marcus began to make more symptoms, diseases, and the spread of it went so fast that in an hour, Marcus had the entire map black! He had no idea the disease would spread so fast. There was so much destruction from the disease that no one could survive. This gave Marcus some satisfaction. He decided to get up and fix something to eat after all. While in the kitchen, something crossed his mind, there were still no sounds, no noise at all from outside. Curious, Marcus set the plate down he had recovered from the trash, minus the food which was no longer any good. He walked to the front door and opened it.

Outside was total destruction. There were burning embers from fires that looked as if they had burned all night. There were dead people everywhere! I mean, millions and millions of corpses lying atop one another. Adults and children alike. It was horrible! The stench that suffocated the air was too much to bear. What had happened? When did this all happen? He spoke to his mom just over an hour ago. His mom! Marcus rang her and his dad's number but they both had a recording that said, "try your call later, the system is busy at the moment".

He was searching his tv for clues as to what happened when his attention went to the game console. It was blinking rapidly with a message. Marcus walked over to the computer program and looked at the screen, The message read, "YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY DESTROYED PLANET EARTH WITH YOUR DISEASE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY AGAIN?"

It wasn't a game.