The air was heavy with… Robert wasn’t exactly sure. But something definitely felt odd about the air that day. The smell of freshly cut grass tickled at Robert’s nose, but that wasn’t it. He bit on the inside of his lip, attempting to discern the sensation he felt. He was knocked out of his thinking by the sound of Cory panting up the hill. He chuckled “C’mon Cory. You can’t be this out of shape. Eli’s been making this walk every day the past few days. I can’t imagine he’s in any better shape than you are.”
Cory hunched over, wheezing. Robert held in another laugh, seeing his hunched over roommate gasping for air, looking like a worn-out scarecrow. “Eli’s scrawny but he’s actually,” Cory huffed, “pretty in shape. He plays a lot of HDM.”
Robert raised an eyebrow. “HDM?”
“Hop[1] Dance Mania[2][3].”
“Ah.”
“Yeah, he doesn’t look like much, but he’s got pretty good stamina.” He wiped a bead of sweat out of his eye. “Damn it, why did Eli have to get a job at the very top of the hill[4][5]?”
Robert shrugged and pressed the button to the crosswalk. “Hell if I know. I only met you two a week ago. You’re the one who has known him since kindergarten.” Robert scratched at his chestnut brown hair. “Why were you so insistent we go bug him at work today anyway? We haven’t gone any other day he’s been working.”
It was Cory’s turn to shrug as they crossed the street and continued their ascent up the hill. “I don’t know. Last day before classes started. Plus bothering Eli is always something I’m up for. [6][7]Though this walk is making me really regret moving into Billot Hall.”
“Oh please. From what I’ve observed of you two, you’re bored when he’s not nearby for you to pester.”
Cory chuckled. “And you’ve only known us for a week. You catch on quick.”
The hill leveled off as they approached Loose Change, an arcade near Schuyler Adamson University campus. “I wonder if the owner thought Loose Change was a clever name for an arcade[8],” Robert mused.
Cory smirked as they walked through the arcade’s parking lot. “I bet he just had a kid in middle school come up with it.”
Robert inspected the yellow-painted building as they approached. It’s exterior was stucco and didn’t have a single dirty mark on it unlike all the other aged, bricked buildings that tended to surround campus. He had been told it was recently renovated, but he didn’t realize how recent it was. The building looked as good as new. “I wonder how someone actually gets into the arcade business[9]. I mean, I just can’t see some Mr. Moneybags type saying, ‘Ah yes, a small building filled with video game machines. This is a good investment.'”
Cory opened the door, flicking some sweat off his bangs before walking in. “You analyze things too much. Now where’s Eli?”
As Robert followed Cory in, a coldness scratched at his bones. The air, once again, felt heavier. It wasn’t painful, but he gasped nonetheless. He shook his head, unsure of what had just happened. He glanced at Cory, but his roommate quickly went back to scanning the arcade for Eli. Was Robert getting sick[10]? If he was sick though, why did he feel fine except for brief moments[11]?
Cory’s entire body perked up, and he pointed to a short, stout arcade employee wiping down the screen of a fighting game. “There he is.[12][13]”
Even though Cory hadn't raised his voice at all, Eli’s head immediately lifted. [14]Robert momentarily forgot about the chill in his bones and chuckled. Cory and Eli may have been friends, but at times they responded to one another as if they were twins, having a keen sense of what the other was about to do from the years of hanging around one another. “Oh no. What are you doing here, Cory? I don’t have time to goof around. I’m working.”
Cory casually strode over to his friend. “Here for you? How arrogant! What makes you assume that?”
“Because you love to torture me.”
“Nonsense,” Cory dismissed, “we’re just here for the ample entertainment that your place of employment provides!”
Eli rolled his eyes. “Whatever, liar. You were just bored and dragged Rob here so I’d entertain you[15][16].”
Cory’s look of confidence melted into desperation. “You don’t understand! All he was doing was playing that stupid MMO he always plays! He was talking about battleground tactics! It was so boring!”
Robert took his turn rolling his eyes. “First of all, it’s called Aspect Realms, [17]and it’s the most played computer game in the world right now. Secondly, Eli, I was the one who did the dragging. I practically had to carry him up the hill. How did you let him get in such poor shape? You really need to feed him more often and take him on a walk once in a while[18].”
Eli smirked and pointed at the sweat-marks on Cory’s shirt. “Maybe I should. Geez, how can you be sweating so much? It’s not THAT big of a hill.”
“Maybe not to you, but it’s a pretty damn big hill if you ask me.”
Robert opened his mouth to chime in but quickly found himself sucking in heavy air. He shivered as the chill filled his bones again. Strangely, this time the cold coming from somewhere. As he turned towards the source, the sensation faded again. It was difficult to make out, but he felt as if it came from a corner of the arcade. There were some dull voices coming from that end of the store.
It was only then that Robert realized that Cory and Eli were staring at them. “Rob, you okay?”
Robert quickly faced them. “What? Yeah. I’m fine.”
“You really looked zoned out there for a moment.”
He waved them off dismissively. “Was just thinking.”
Cory chuckled, eager to get the subject away from his lack of any sort of conditioning. “While wincing?”
Not wanting to dwell on the icy sensations, he deflected the comment away. “I was just wondering why there aren’t too many people here. I’d have figured the day before classes start this place would be full.”
Eli groaned. “Yeah. You would, but these stupid middle-schoolers are ruining everything.”
Cory raised an eyebrow. “Middle-schoolers? How? They being obnoxious or something? Can’t you kick them out?”
Eli shook his head and nodded towards a corner of the store, the corner Robert had felt the sensations come from. “No, they haven’t been obnoxious[19]. They’ve just been, well, creepy. We got this new game today named Zombie Mansion and…”
“Sounds like another cookie-cutter horror shooter.”
“It is.”
“Figures. Creativity is taking a nosedive in the industry.”
“Not everything can be an indie film, Cory.”
“I’m not saying it has to be, but these generic cloned games are…”
Robert wasn’t interested in hearing the duo argue. He wanted to hear about the game. “Anyway,” Robert interrupted, “what about this group of kids?”
Eli turned away from Cory. “Yeah, anyway, they aren’t doing anything wrong. They just, sort of, I don’t know, look sickly. And they will play another game for a minute or two, but they keep coming back to Zombie Mansion after a while. They don’t talk or anything. They just, shamble about. Like zombies. And it has weirded out more than a few customers.” He gave Cory an annoyed look. “Including that HDM girl I told you about a week ago.”
Cory raised an eyebrow and gave a wide grin. “So she came back, huh? Find out her name yet[20]?”
Robert squinted and frowned. Cory and Eli were very tight and could, without realizing it, easily exclude him [21]from their conversations[22]. “And who are we talking about?”
Both turned to Robert with apologetic expressions. Eli turned to the next machine and started cleaning the screen. “Sorry, the day before you arrived in the dorm, I was working. It was my first day on the job, and this gorgeous girl with light blue hair was here…”
“He loves naturally blue hair[23],” Cory interrupted.
“But not a regular blue. A sort of almost-sky-blue-but-closer-to-actual-blue color. Anyway, she played HDM for like an hour before leaving and… damn, she’s hot.”
Robert scratched his head. “Naturally blue hair[24]? I don’t think they come blue naturally.”
Cory raised an eyebrow. “Of course they do. They’re just rarer. We had a blue haired girl in our grade for a few years before she moved away in eighth grade.”
“I was crestfallen.”
“He was. True story.”[25][26]
Robert thought about it for a moment. He had seen more than a few people with blues, greens, and purple hair. There couldn’t be that many people using hair dye[27]. But then again, he wasn’t from around here. Maybe they could get more exotic hair colors here in the west? Though he still felt something was off about that, but didn't want to sit here and argue about it. “Oh, well, we didn’t have any at my high school then.”
Eli shrugged. “Makes sense. You’re further from the coast and mountains.”
Robert wasn’t sure why that would matter but decided to play along. “So, basically she’s your dream girl?”
Cory chuckled and ribbed Eli with his elbow. “Yeah, according to the story last week, she’s got quite the ass[28].”
Eli smiled guiltily. “More leggy, but yeah. She does.”
Robert wasn’t as worried about HDM girl. “So what does this have to do with the middle school boys you were talking about?”
“Oh, right. Yeah, so she was here an hour last week but this week she came, danced for only a few songs, then started watching those boys, and got weirded out. She left after only, like, one round of stomping on the pad!”
Cory chuckled. “Wanted to ogle her some more?”
Eli frowned, though Robert noticed a slight blush. “I was going to try to talk to her. She looked like she might be around our age.”
Cory took a step back and folded his arms. “Woah! Seriously? You’re normally much shyer than that. What’s got you so bold all of the sudden?”
Eli shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s college. Time for a change, maybe?”
Robert moved from behind the row of games that had hidden these middle-schoolers from view. On first glance, Robert decided Eli was a bit quick to say they were middle-school age as they could pass for high school freshmen. But everything else Eli had said was dead on. They were all pale and sweating as if they were running a fever.[29] A few were playing other games, but they leaned against them as though they needed the support to remain upright. Those that weren’t playing games sat languidly around an enclosed arcade booth.
Robert squinted at the booth. It didn’t look that impressive. Generic, bloody letters spelled out the title of Zombie Mansion. Other than a few simple zombie images splattered on the side, there were no other decorations to differentiate the game. A dull green light glowed beneath the curtains into the gaming booth. What was it about this game that made these boys get sick[30] but keep going into play?
Another wave of cold flowed through Robert. The icy chill in his bones pointed towards Zombie Mansion like a child's accusation. The wave passed and Robert exhaled, unaware he had been holding his breath.
“Dude, you okay?”
Robert jumped a little, having forgotten about his friends talking to his side. “Yeah, I… was just wondering why those guys look so sick.”
Cory glanced over and scoffed. “Yeah, I mean, if they’re all sick why are they playing some stupid rail shooter.” Cory blinked and his eyes went wide, as if a light bulb had just gone off. “Unless it’s actually awesome[31]!”
Robert shook his head and squinted. “What?”
Eli stopped wiping down the machine he was cleaning. “You must be joking.”
“Think about it. What kind of game do you play over again if you’re sick: one that is awesome or one that blows?”
Eli frowned. “It’s just a generic horror rail-shooter.”
Robert watched two boys stagger out of the game. They looked paler than the rest and sweat stained their shirts. Their breathes were labored, as if they breathed the same heavy air Robert did during his chills. One of the boys fell to the ground but picked himself up. A thought occurred to Robert, “Just to make sure, they aren’t getting high in there, are they?”
Eli chuckled. “I thought about that too. But I checked, no funny business going on in there. No smoke, no smell. Still, a better theory than Cory’s good game theory.”
Robert nodded. He didn’t think these boys were lighting up either. It wouldn’t have explained the chills. Then again, what would explain chills that kept pointing in a direction? Maybe the machine reacted strangely to people around it? Then why didn’t it seem to affect any of the employees that had been around the machine like Eli? Regardless, Robert felt a need to figure it out. He pulled a few quarters out of his pocket. “Regardless, let’s test Cory’s theory.”
Cory slapped his hands together and approached the game with Robert. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
“You’re just wasting your money,” Eli shouted after them.
Robert stepped over a boy crouched against one of the neighboring arcade games. It was only as he pushed the curtain aside to step into the arcade booth that Robert started analyzing whether this was a good idea or not. Something was definitely wrong with these boys, and something about Zombie Mansion was the cause. And if he wasn’t imagining these cold spells, then the same arcade game was also causing him issues. Being in the belly of the machine that was having these odd effects probably wasn’t smart[32].
“Something wrong?” Cory asked.
Robert slid into the booth. “No. Just examining the setup.” There was no point in going back now. It made no sense that this game could make him sick along with these kids. He didn’t show any of the same symptoms of whatever sickness they had. At least he didn’t think he did. Besides, why would his bones feel cold and why would they be “pointing” him in the direction of the machine? There was no logical explanation [33]that Robert could think of, and he was certain just sitting back and watching younger, dumber boys play the game wouldn’t solve the problem.
He tried to find a comfortable position in the rigid seat. Logically, Eli or some other Loose Change employee would have turned the game off by now if something was wrong with the game. Eli had already examined it and just determined these kids were acting weird. Logically, he knew if an arcade game had been making these kids sick, they would have stopped playing it. But they kept coming back for more. Logically, he knew a video game couldn’t be behind the odd chilling sensations he’d been feeling. After all, that wouldn’t make sense. But despite all the logic of it, Robert knew something was going on with this game.
He could feel it in his bones.
What could it be though? Robert was not superstitious nor a hypochondriac[34]. He prided himself in dealing with the cold reality and keeping calm under pressure. But he couldn’t explain what was going on with any phenomena he knew. So it was time to do the only thing he could think of. It was time to try an experiment[35].
Robert put in enough quarters for both him and Cory. “Oh, thanks dude.”
He nodded, picked up the gun, and took slow deep breath, unsure what would happen. “No problem. Easier than both of us fumbling through our pockets.” His muscles tensed in anticipation. He reminded himself to relax, not wanting to look too intense should Cory glance at him. Though he had made fast friends with Cory and Eli, their friendship was still young enough that he knew he could set bad impressions.
Cory took a deep breath. “Yeah, no smell whatsoever. I was sure[36] those kids were smokin’ something.”
Robert smirked, eager to let Cory’s jokes ease some of his tension. “Is that why you were in such a rush to get in here?”
Cory clutched at his heart as if wounded. “I’m surprised you think so little of me!”
“Then why?”
“Because I’m a sucker for schlocky rail shooters[37]. Guilty pleasure.” Cory winked and pressed the start buttons for both players. “Let’s get this train a’rollin’!”
Robert smiled, leaning back against the still uncomfortable seat. Blood dripped from the top of the game’s screen. A woman’s shrill scream spilled out of speakers with all the sound quality of a broken walkie talkie. The title popped up with pixelated, bloody letters. “Wow, can’t get much more generic than that.”