Restart Game?

“I can’t really remember what happened after that,” Kimmy sheepishly said, scratching the back of her head. “I know there’s more but I’m kinda blanking.” Her best friend, Yas, rolled her eyes before picking up where she left off, as she had grown up with Kimmy and had heard the story plenty of times as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Time seemed to be passing weirdly as the teens followed the wolf pup across town. The days seemed like weeks, but the sun had only set three times during their journey. The pup walked them down the streets of the town, taking turns at random. Each night, the wolf pup would stop at the side of the road, where there was always some sort of prebuilt shelter. The shelter always had the same general layout, with three tents and a luxurious dog house surrounding a large fire pit. At each campsite, next the fire pit, was a large cooler, filled with sandwiches, chips, and raw meat. The teens realized that the raw meat was likely for the wolf pup, but it seemed like it was not nearly enough for the young wolf. Peony and Izzy had taken upon themselves to search the houses nearby for more food for the tiny wolf. Obviously, they felt bad about it, but everyone else was missing and they surely couldn’t let the wolf starve. For three days and nights, this pattern of walking and staying in the prebuilt shelters continued. However, there was something a bit odd about the wolf.

Each night, the group ate the prepared food and the guys prepared the fire while the girls went off to find more food for the wolf, whom they felt bad for. After sleeping the night away and emerging from their tents, the group noticed that the wolf seemed to double in size each night. The wolf still had the appearance of a pup, but was two times the size. Now, none of them were wolf experts, but they were sure that wasn’t how that was supposed to happen.

The wolf came to a sudden stop in front of a fork in the road, each branch looked identical. Right as Duke had opened his mouth to question which path they should take, a flash of light filled their vision. After recovering from the blinding light, the teens looked up to see a tall, hooded woman standing where the wolf had been. Peony glanced around to make sure everyone was seeing the same thing as her. Judging from the shocked looks on everyone’s faces, she was sure everyone just saw that lady replace the wolf.

“Congratulations, you passed the second task!” As the woman began to give her spiel, gesticulating her hands, the teens looked at each other in confusion. They hadn’t known they were completing a task, let alone the fact that there were even tasks to begin with. “And for your kindness, I will give you a hint for how to pass this third and final stage!” The kindness the woman was referring to was the girls’ care for the wolf, finding extra food when they knew the provided meager portions wouldn’t have been enough. Because the girls had gone above and beyond what was expected and cared for the pup, the woman told them that when they reached the next fork in the road, the road to the right is the one to be followed. After instructing the teens to continue down the road and heed her advice, the woman suddenly vanished, leaving the teens alone to continue their journey.

While all the others seemed to be in agreement about following the instructions of the mysterious lady, Omar had some reservations and told the others as such. “I don’t know about you guys, but I really don’t trust this lady. We don’t even know her name for God’s sake!” The others all nodded along, saying they understood his reservations, but from what happened back in the rink, they doubted there was some way they could avoid doing as she had said. Paxton in particular was the one who was arguing the uselessness of going against what the lady had said. As Paxton and Omar went continually back and forth, a mist could be seen slowly rolling towards the group.

“This is fun and all, but does anyone else see that mist fronting on us?!” The words had practically squeezed their way out of Gary’s throat, who was tightly gripping Izzy’s hand in fright. At his words, the group looked behind them and all began to back away, seeing that Gary’s words were true. It almost seemed that the mist began to move faster after they had acknowledged it. All it took was a scream of ‘Run!’ from Peony before they begin to run with the fog licking at their heels.

After running for what felt like an hour, but could have been fifteen minutes, they came across the fork in the road. All the teens but Omar immediately took off to the right, following the advice of the mysterious woman. Omar, however, hesitated at the fork, wondering if they could really trust the woman. Unbeknownst to him, the mist was inches away from him, practically breathing down his neck. Now none of them knew if the mist was dangerous, but obviously they’d rather not test it out. So, Paxton quickly looped back to grab Omar and drag him along. “Dude, now isn’t the time to be rebellious. We don’t know what that mist can do and it’s better if we stick together.” As they continued to run, Omar looked at Paxton in amazement, he hadn’t thought he would run back to make sure he was okay. But of course, their rivalry was a silly thing, established when they were young children. The two boys never told each other, but they both thought of the other as a close friend. Omar had never believed that more than he did in that moment.

Every mile that the group ran they would encounter a new fork in the road, some with two paths and some with three. At each branch-off point, there was a sign with a riddle on it. They had easily answered the first one:

What walks on all fours, on three, and on one

Duke had heard the riddle from his older sister before and easily answered, ‘a man.’ Upon answering correctly, mist rose in two of the paths, leaving only one open for the group to follow. A string of successes followed, with everyone having solved at least one riddle themselves. Now, they came upon a branch-off that had six paths, the same number as the ragtag band of teens. Gary suggested that they each take one path to figure out which one was the correct one, as the riddle for this one was way too difficult!

I have cities, but no houses.

I have mountains, but no trees.

I have water, but no fish.

What am I?

While the riddle was no doubt difficult, they were hesitant to follow Gary’s plan, having seen the threatening mist rising from previous incorrect paths. Izzy said as much to Gary, who agreed since they still did not know the effect of the mist. The mist that had been following them from behind had receded slightly, lying in wait almost. It was like the mist knew how difficult this last riddle was and that the teens would need longer to solve it. Deciding to sit down in a circle on the ground, they began to throw out ideas about what the answer could possibly be. They had many thoughts, but not one of them was right. They went from a painting to a novel to a castle. Though none of them made sense with all parts of the riddle.

Izzy had begun to draw on the pavement with a rock she had in hand, drawing an image of their town. She had just gotten to drawing the outcrops of the city when she had a sudden thought. All the other teens startled as Izzy quickly pushed herself on the ground and ran back over to the sign. She was mumbling, almost like she was explaining a concept to herself. And as all the others got closer, they could finally hear what she was saying. “There’s cities but not individually pictured houses. Just little labels for each city in the area. Oh! And there are the little scribbles for the mountain ranges, but the trees aren’t drawn in. None of them have fish on them! Unless they’re special, but usually it’s just water! It’s a MAP!!!”

With the last syllable leaving her mouth, all the paths except for the second to last were covered in a cloak of mist. She had solved it! But the mist behind them also knew they had solved it and began to move forward once again. There were quick shouts of ‘you’re brilliant!’ and ‘that was incredible’ but there wasn’t much time for celebration. The mist behind them was rolling with a vengeance, moving faster than it ever had before. Trees, cars, floating shopping sacks, and more were just a blur as the high schoolers sprinted for their life. Peony was in the lead and was the first to see the giant hedge in front of them, with light pouring through a slight gap. “That must be where we have to go!” Peony shouted as she directed everyone else to the gap in the hedge. One by one, the teens burst through the bush, blinded by the light on the other side.

They were on a rooftop! They had just been on the streets and now they were on a rooftop. Adjusting their eyes, the group could see that they had someone been transported to the top of a skyscraper in the middle of the city. Interrupting their searching eyes, the mysterious woman’s voice could suddenly be heard. “Well, it looks like you passed! I’m quite impressed as you guys are the fastest group yet.” The woman was slowly clapping her hands as she made eye contact with each one of them. The fastest? Did that mean that they weren’t the first ones this had happened too? Again, the woman interrupted, “ Now I must do as I promised: return everyone to you. Well, it is actually more like returning you all to them.” All the teens opened their mouths in protest at once, but a bright light encompassed the roof. As the light receded, the rooftop was empty of both the teens and the woman, and the sounds of day-to-day city life could be heard echoing between all the buildings.

A maintenance man from the building had just made his way to the top of the roof. Some of the piping up there had needed replacing for quite some time. “Huh, I could’ve sworn that this door was locked just a little bit ago.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The rain outside had begun to slow down as Yas finished the story Kimmy had started. All at once, the students started to shout out questions. Wait, but did they ever find everyone? Or did they like disappear too, and they weren't the first ones? So, has this happened lots of times or what? "It's a mystery, that's all there is to it," Kimmy said, shrugging her shoulders. Protests piped up again, but their professor quickly silenced them.

"Now that the rain has stopped, we can finally probably study the island. Get ready to find the topic of your research and final paper for this trip!" With the cheerful exclamation of their professor, the students began to file out of the building at the top of the mountain one by one. As they left, the village chief promised them tales of many more floods if they wanted to join the community gathering later that evening. And so, after a full day of exploring, the students returned to the town center, ready to be dazzled by some flood stories from the wise chief.