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Black and red. Those colors told me horrible stories. Stories have no room here anymore, there’s work to be done. With a swipe of a hand, my C00lgui opened, which allowed me to access the botched command panel. Inputting the usual commands, nmap, and ping IP. As usual, the commands failed with no return from the system.
“Seriously, not even an IP?” This was getting ridiculous, every device had an IP, so how could my gui not have one? It certainly used to….
With a resigned huff, I lunged myself off the bed and to the window. Nothing made sense to me, especially not the rules of this place. For one, endless night is a given for oddities, but there was a subtlety to the unnatural presentation of this place. Rain fell without a single cloud, unless of course I missed one in my attempted stargazing, but not once has the moon illuminated one, nor has a star come and gone in the void sky. The entire thing just felt… fake, like a soulless movie adaptation. Once I had floated in the waters just off the dock, content to drift off into the lake until the next round called to me, an invisible barrier firmly blocked any movement. After that, I tested every edge of the barrier, finding that it squared me and the other survivors in. Like a holding cell.
With a deep breath, I unlatched my door, turned on my flashlight, and headed towards the Main Cabin in the silent night. Maybe some food would help clear my head. Although the day and night cycle ceased to exist here, all the survivors established an agreed upon curfew which was nine hours after Round. Currently, it was twelve hours after Round. Not the best, but it wasn’t like I made much of a difference in the Rounds, worst case is that I end up fatigued then die early.
Right now however, I was too starved to care. At this time, everyone must have cleared out of Main Cabin for curfew, so I should be safe to grab some food. Footsteps felt deafeningly loud in the vacuous night as I reached the imposing Main Cabin. What if someone were to see me? They’d probably think I was stealing extra food. In reality, I waited until everybody was gone for their sakes. Not everyone wants to deal with an exploiter. They have enough on their plates.
That doesn’t matter now, I just needed to get the food and go straight back to my cabin without waking anybody. Creaking up the front steps, I opened and entered the front door with a loud click behind me. Cringing at the decibel, I quietly hissed through my teeth and found the kitchen.
The room was small, completed with a sink on a moderately sized island counter, five tall cabinets mounted on the walls while flush with the ceiling. Below the cabinets was a secondary counter. Next to the stove incorporated into the long counter sat a bowl of fruit. Perfect. i nabbed a banana and an apple, then winked open my gui to start one of the only commands that still functioned in this place, the move command.
mv /current/location/007n7 /spawn/location/furthest_point. With a short windup it should theoretically take me to-. Wait, what’s that sound…? A slow creak sounded from just outside the kitchen entrance. Crap… there’s no getting out of this. Cutting my losses, I decided that hiding would only incriminate me even more, so I flicked on my flashlight and shakily rose my flashlight (while forcing down my anxiety) to face whoever I might find there.
“Hello? Is anybody there…?” Stepping out, embers from a newly built fledgling fire lit the common area, with a disheveled Guest tending to it, the one who introduced the curfew. What? Guest of all people, he seemed pretty adamant about us staying well rested, something about the fundamental of staying healthy. Why would he be the one lurking in the cabin…?
“It’s getting late isn’t it?” Guest turned towards me from his position sitting by the fireplace, showing his scared face with messy dark blue hair. He was wearing a black hoodie and shorts which showed his bluish-grey skin. Something seemed off about Guest, his usual positivity was now muted by a deep seated melancholy. Guest turned to look back at the fire with a somber temperament. Is he usually like this…? Well he normally is pretty out going right? Not that I would know. Is he bothered by me? It’s not like I’ve ever really talked to him much. UGH. Not everything is about you, get a grip.
“Um, yeah, pretty late. Sometimes it’s hard to tell without a sun to remind me haha….” It sounded fake even to me. Why can’t I just be responsible for once.
“We both know that the round timer provides a good enough clock for us. I can’t judge though, I’m up just like you.” I was just glad that he sounded passive about it all, I was expecting at least some sarcasm maybe. It was quiet for a good amount of time while Guest tended the fire, it gave me some time to think. Building a fire? He’s building this for no one except himself in the Main Cabin. Ok I’m just making it weird now.
“I really should be getting to bed, I don’t want to wake up right before the Round starts.” Why do I have to be so awkward? Guest was wordless. He really is just tolerating me, I shouldn’t expect more from him, this is really a curtesy. Stepping back with my hands rung together, I made my way for the door with a slight glance back. This might be a good opportunity to finally talk to someone. He seems bothered though, I don’t want to trouble him more than he already is. I should just go back to my cabin. But before I could walk out the door Guest’s voice interrupted me.
“Usually people don’t go to bed food in tow. So if you’re not going to sleep, how about you come enjoy the fire with me, it’s cold out there.”
What?