Friendly Fire

“We’re just gonna wait in here until Viv arrives,” Courtney says, bumping the horn as she turns to face Lilah. Across the empty parking lot, Alice looks at them. Until now, she has been sitting, unmoving, with her hands gripping her steering wheel. Lilah reaches down to grab the small box that fell to the floor.

“I can’t believe you got her a gift,” Jake says, checking his hair in the visor mirror.

“We all got her a gift,” Lilah says. “I want this to be like before… Just hanging out.” She bumps her head against his seat, gesturing toward the sign for an immersive VR experience. It’s set up temporarily like some futuristic Spirit Halloween.

“It’s sweet that she always needs people to get along,” Courtney says.

Alice gets out as Lilah crosses the parking lot and circles behind her car.

“Hi, um, we brought you something. I—We thought we would give it to you now, and you could wear it right away.”

After a long silence, Alice takes the box, rips it open, and holds up the necklace. Its small octopus charm spins.

“It’s not the same, but it reminded us of the one you lost.”

“I didn’t lose it.”

“Right, well, the one that broke during all that nonsense.”

Alice offers a tight-lipped smile and puts the necklace on. “I’ll let the guy know everyone’s here.”

Lilah jumps at the sound of a car door slamming in the distance.

“It wasn’t funny!” Alice spat, shoving Courtney against the wall. “You took it too far this time!”

Suddenly, Jake hoisted Alice off her feet, shoved open a window, and dangled her by her ankles.

They were on the second floor.

“Are you going to steal Alice’s car?” Viv asks, sneaking up behind Lilah and pulling her from her thoughts. “That’s not going to help smooth things over.” Everyone laughs, and they all head inside.

It’s dark, with the only light coming from pops of neon along the walls. There are lockers at the front, but beyond that, just closed black doors.

“Are you ready to play Forest Fright?” a man asks their group as he emerges from behind the counter. “My name is Emerson. Choose a locker and put all your personal belongings inside.”

Alice gets directed to a room first and disappears with the guy.

“You never said this would be scary,” Courtney whispers in Lilah's ear.

“Mrs. Gibbons said we should do something fun to mend fences,” Lilah says. “Alice was the only one who pitched an idea, so I didn't think to ask questions beyond 'What is VR?'”

“Mrs. Gibbons also thinks it was just a little tussle between friends over some jewelry.”

When it’s Lilah’s turn to get set up, the tiny room is all she can focus on as Emerson straps on her gear.

“Go ahead and confirm everything is working and tell me how many fingers I’m holding up,” he says.

“Five,” she says, looking at him through a live feed in her headset.

“Keep all the gear on until the game ends, for your safety,” he says while leaving. The door closes softly behind him, the latch clicking into place.

She tries not to throw up as her world transforms into a forest. Trees droop low overhead, and looking up, she gasps at the millions of stars. Everything surrounding her looks damp, like a rainstorm has recently passed. But up ahead, the grass appears to have parts of a vibrant blue sky shining through. A glitch?

She waits for some classic video game music to start, but nothing beyond the whisper of wind creeps through her headset. At least she doesn’t feel so claustrophobic anymore. Then a twig snaps.

“You want to play?”

It’s Alice in her ear. Lilah turns around to find a generic avatar in black cargo gear with “Alice” floating overhead.

“Um, yeah, that’s why we’re here,” Lilah says. “To make you happy.”

“There’s a lot we can make each other feel here.” Alice’s avatar suddenly punches Lilah’s chest. The haptic vest Emerson put her in thuds painfully against her.

“Ow!”

“Pretty cool, huh?” Alice says. “Friendly fire is enabled.”

“Did you really have to punch me to make that clear?” Lilah asks.

Alice laughs. Lilah could technically remove the vest, but Emerson told her to keep everything on. And the pain subsides quickly; it was more surprising than painful.

Lilah laughs, too. “Okay, okay, what are we supposed to do here?”

She follows Alice, quickly learning that walking in place moves her through the forest, and sees that what she thought was the sky poking through the ground was actually some loot.

“You can have that one,” Alice says. “I already have a knife.”

“Jesus.” Lilah watches as Alice easily flips back and forth between holding her knife and being empty-handed. “How did you do that? Why did Emerson not show us anything?”

“I told him we’ve all done this before,” Alice says nonchalantly.

“What? Why? You know we haven’t, right?”

“You guys always have the numbers advantage, so now I thought I’d give myself a skills advantage,” she says. “Go on, pick it up.”

Lilah leans down to grab a glowing blue axe, and thankfully, a small guide appears in her field of view, showing what to press on her hand-held controllers. They continue exploring, and Lilah finds an apple tree with a branch whose colour is slightly off, as if lit by sunlight in the dark forest. She gives it a shake and, turns out, a branch can be a weapon, too.

“Oh, awesome,” Alice says and grabs one for herself nearby. They can’t contain their laughter as they attack each other. It feels like fighting with foam noodles in a pool. Lilah manages a hit to Alice's chest as payback for earlier. “Oof!”

“See, it hurts!” Lilah bends over laughing.

Alice responds by swinging her own branch clean across Lilah’s back. It knocks the wind out of her, but she stays standing. Her friend, apparently having no mercy, is about to swing once more—

“Stop! Why can I feel—Help!”

It’s Viv.

Alice drops her branch, laughing in delight and running off toward the cries for help.

I guess Viv didn’t get a fun haptics demo like I had with Alice before finding the fright in this forest…

She runs to catch up with Alice, but freezes once they crest the hill. Viv’s avatar is slumped against a fence, still partially upright, thanks to her wrists bound by rope above her head. Jagged slices from her wrists to her elbows ooze blood over her shoulders, pooling at her feet.

“Jesus… I guess we are trying to defeat whatever forest fright attacked Viv?” Lilah walks closer to the fence. “Viv? Viv, are you still wearing your headset?” Listening for any sounds from her, all she hears is a click. “I think she left her room. Maybe one of the other rooms is to watch the game once you’re dead?”

Click.

“Who’s there?” Alice spins around, knife equipped. “What? You’re messing with me!”

Lilah hears some soft mumbling, but can’t make out what Alice is hearing. She turns to follow Alice’s line of sight, then a deep stabbing pain hits her shoulder.

“Jesus! What was that for?”

Alice cocks her head, “What? Did you see him?”

“You stabbed me!”

Alice tries to deny it as Lilah touches the painful spot on her shoulder. Expecting the vest's hard texture, she instead feels something wet and warm. The smell of metal hits her nose.

Click.

She feels dizzy. Stumbling around, she eventually finds the sturdy wall of her room, bumping her headset in the process. She closes her eyes, trying to regain her balance. When she opens them again, it’s a view of the black walls of her room. Confused, she reaches for her headset and flicks a switch back and forth. Sure enough, it toggles between the live view setting and Alice’s avatar in-game, who is now standing far too close.

“Are you okay?” Alice asks.

“I—Ugh,” Lilah switches to the live view again. Swallowing hard, she cautiously scans the room, certain that someone is lurking inside, but finds no one. “I was stabbed…”

Before Alice can deny it again, they hear Jake scream in the distance. Every instinct in Lilah is telling her to rip off all her gear and curl up in the fetal position right where she is; wedge the door closed and wait this all out in her black box.

She should run to Jake, though. The real Jake. But she has no idea which room he is actually in. For now, she settles for slipping off the stupid vest.

“Guys! Anyone there?”Jake’s screams turn to laughter, still sounding distant, but his words are clear. “I think the masked fucker set booby traps! Everything flipped upside down!”

Lilah is running toward him, but can still only hear him, though he doesn’t have to scream anymore to be heard. He must be close, but where?

“Holy shit, I’m definitely going to puke,” he says. “Whoa, no, my feet are actually—Am I really—”

A deep voice interrupts him, “Feeling a little helpless in this position, are we?”

“You sick f—” His words are cut off by a horrifying rip sounding through Lilah’s headset, followed by screams of agony.

It’s probably sound effects.

“Someone’s coming down the hall,” Viv said from her self-assigned lookout position against the wall.

“Apologize to my girl!” Jake called down to Alice. “Now!”

“Fuck, sorry! I’m sorry!” she cried out.

Jake tugged her up roughly, and her necklace caught on the windowsill, snapping. Alice barely registered it, flying into Courtney’s arms, continuing to mumble apologies.

Mrs. Gibbons came into earshot right as Courtney had pushed Alice off and was bending to pick up the broken pieces on the floor.

Courtney laughed.

No, she is laughing right now.

Rounding a thick cluster of trees, Lilah finds her friend’s avatar staring straight up, and following her gaze, she sees Jake’s avatar dangling by his feet with a deep gash through his gut. Fake intestines drip to the ground.

Lilah breathes through her mouth, terrified she will smell the vile scene as she does the blood from her shoulder.

“Did you do this?” Courtney asks casually, gesturing with a knife at Alice, now standing beside Lilah. “This is some elaborate payback for a prank, babe.” She lets out another laugh. “You think he actually puked?”

Alice just stares up at Jake.

Click.

“What is that?” Lilah asks.

“His intestines,” Courtney answers unhelpfully through the headset.

“Guys, uh,” Lilah pauses, and flicks back to the live view. Her room is empty, but she can't look away from the door, convinced someone will enter. They need to leave, but she doesn’t want to scare her friends. Especially if the masked fucker, as Jake called him, is in a room with one of them right now. She doesn’t know what room anyone is in, though…except Alice!

Lilah takes a deep breath and exits her room.

Click.

Back against the wall, she is extremely thankful to see no movement in the neon glow cast over the main area of the old building. She feels her way to the room on her left.

“You’re walking straight into a tree, Lilah,” Courtney says through the headset. “Looks pretty dumb.”

“Alice!” Lilah finds her friend standing in the center of her own black box, still looking straight up at Jake’s mangled avatar in the game. “I know I’m not beside you in the game, but I’m here, okay? I’m going to touch your headset now.”

“Wha—” Alice startles back as Lilah flips her to live view. “Agh, Lilah, what are you doing?”

“Keep everything on so we can still talk with Courtney, but come on, we need to find her,” Lilah says.

“Your shoulder!” Alice cries out. “What is he doing…”

“Who?” Lilah asks. Alice suddenly runs past, ripping off her headset as she goes. Lilah tries to follow, but loses her in the darkness. The neon lights now shut off.

“What happened to your shoulder?” Courtney asks through the headset.

Tight to the wall again, Lilah continues her search.

“Just stay where you are, I’m com—” Lilah enters another black box, and the words die in her throat.

Click.

Viv is up against the back wall. Slumped and lifeless, but held up by her hands, cuffed to the wall. Jagged slices from her wrists to her elbows drip with very real blood over her shoulders…pooling at her feet.

Lilah is staring, unmoving, but jerks at the sound of someone entering the room. She tries to force some fight response in her, but before she can kick or punch, she registers Alice walking past her.

Click.

Alice’s panicked demeanor from moments before is gone. She walks straight to Viv and picks up a bloodied knife that Lilah hadn’t noticed on the floor.

“Let’s find Courtney and leave,” Alice says in a low tone. She is probably doing her best not to pass out. They slip out of the room and follow the wall to the next door.

Click.

It’s not Courtney. Instead, they find Emerson in the center of the room, a knife of his own in hand.

“It’s you,” Lilah says.

“Of course it’s me,” he says, in an even more distorted voice than when he taunted Jake. “So, you’ve come to kill me, now?”

“You deserve it!” Alice yells.

“God, Lilah, are you seeing this?” he asks. “Kill Alice! She’s obviously the masked fucker who attacked Jake.” Emerson gestures with his weapon, and Lilah barely registers the blue shimmer of his blade. “Kill her so the game will end.”

“What are you talking—” Before Lilah can say more, Alice thrusts the knife that killed Viv into her hand.

“Finish this!” she yells. “It’s all mind games!”

Lilah's fight response finally activates when Emerson lunges at Alice. Lilah steps in, and the knife in her hand connects with his neck. It’s not deep, but it’s enough for him to drop to the floor. He grabs at his head and clutches his throat.

Something clatters on the floor.

Lilah turns to comfort Alice, but she’s not there.

Instead, it’s a masked man with X’s for eyes and a morbid smile.

Mere inches from him, she is unable to make herself move. She holds the knife loosely at her side. Is she back in the game? As she tries to process everything, he lifts his arm, and she feels the pressure of his hand on her headset. He flicks the switch, and she’s back in the forest.

The trees appear behind his masked face, and then, with a press of a remote in his other hand, it’s Alice in front of her. Not an avatar with her name…but her.

“Did that feel good, Lilah?” She’s talking in that low tone again… Then Lilah focuses on her bare neck, no jewelry in sight.

“Is this real?” she manages to ask when Alice shifts into Emerson, looking like he did when they entered the building. Like he did when she attacked him a moment ago. Another press on her headset, and she is back in the room with the masked man. He laughs and walks out the door.

Click.

I’m still in the game.

Lilah carefully removes her headset and finally registers the gurgling noise behind her. She slowly turns around. The familiar metallic smell overwhelms her senses. And there, at her feet, Courtney clutches her throat, trying desperately to stop the flow of blood.

Dropping the knife beside Courtney’s headset on the ground, she claws desperately at her own face, where a headset must be back on. But there’s nothing.

It’s finally real.

She sinks to her knees, and Courtney falls into her arms. Lifeless.

Click.

Lilah doesn’t even look up. It doesn’t matter if he’s back to finish her off, because where does she even go from here? But nobody attacks. Instead, there is a gentle tug on her chin, and she focuses on the octopus dangling from Alice’s neck in front of her.

“Lilah? I’m—I’m sorry, but we have to go.”

“What did you do?” Lilah asks, tears rolling down her face. “What did you…make me do?”

“I didn’t know he would—It was supposed to be a game!” Alice gestures at her vest, still strapped to her body.

“Courtney was right…”

Alice sighs. “We have to go… You can’t be found like this.”

Giving in, she carefully shifts Courtney off her lap and is pulled to her feet. Alice leads her out of the room into the darkness.

Click.

“I was going to be hunted like them, wasn’t I?” Lilah asks.

They stop walking. “With the friendly fire…”

Lilah finds her friend's face with her bloodied hands and tries to meet her gaze, but they can barely see each other. “Alice... Who is Emerson?”

Alice slips from her grasp to lean against the wall. “I just wanted—” Her vest suddenly emits a loud crack, and sparks briefly light the space between them. She stares at Lilah for just a moment before collapsing to the ground.

Click.