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"Check THIS out!" Timmy shouted as he leapt out from behind the shrubbery they were using for cover.
"Timmy, wait!"
Jimmy's words were useless, and into the fray they both went. The battle shifted between being exhilarating and perilous several times before they were finally in the clear.
Once they were a safe distance away, the two boys collapsed against a large tree. Spots of light fell through the branches and onto their chests that were heaving up and down with exhausted breaths.
"See, wasn't that cool?" Timmy was the first to break the silence, and his beaming smile rivaled the sun.
"You're so careless!" Jimmy shoved his fist into Timmy's shoulder.
"Hey! You're not denying it was cool!"
Timmy pushed back playfully, and for a moment they forgot their exhaustion.
"You're right," Jimmy resigned and let his head fall back against the tree. Staring up through the branches, he admitted, "it was extremley cool."
"I told you." Timmy smirked before he followed Jimmy's lead and stared up at the sky. The two of them sat there for a while, with the only sound their recovering breath and the wind rustling through the leaves.
"I've been trying to figure out if we'll remember each other once this is over." Jimmy kept his eyes towards the sky as he spoke.
"What are you talking about?" Timmy screwed up his face as he looked over at his friend.
"We've obviously forgotten things about our reality outside of this. What if when we all go back, the reverse is true: the events of this game are erased from our brain?"
Timmy pulled a leg up to his chest and rested his cheek on his knee.
"Well you said you had some kind of allergic reaction when you saw me, so we definitely know each other back in reality."
"Dopaminergic action!" Jimmy groaned. "How can you not remember such a simple phrase?"
Timmy rolled his eyes before saying, "Whatever, all that means is that we know each other outside of this game, and your… dopagergic reaction-"
"dopaminergic," Jimmy corrected.
"ANYWAY, if you'll let me finish, what I'm trying to say is that even if we forget what happens here, you said the feelings you had were happy. They were good. So when we leave, if we forget this., we'll still have those happy feelings when we see each other. And no, I'm not going to try and say that word again."
"Dopaminergic."
"Oh my gosh, maybe I should forget you," Timmy closed his eyes and leaned back against the trunk of the tree.
"Don't say that…" Jimmy said quietly as he gingerly rested his head on Timmy's shoulder. When Timmy didn't move, he let himself lean in fully and continued, "if that happened, the salience of that stimulus would overwhelm my amygdala."
Timmy groaned before he said,"Can't you just use normal words?"
"I don't think I could bear it if you forgot me."
Jimmy felt Timmy shift so that his cheek was perched on Jimmy's head.
"Then you better use that massive brain of yours to make sure I never do."