Our New World 4

4

As Ron was driving home there was another car pulling out of its driveway. There was a sharp screech of the tires as the Toyota Camry came to a halt and then sped off into the night. A few blocks away a man sitting in his back patio looked up from his book, startled by the sound. “Damn kids.” He said, returned to his book.

Molly Amberton used her hand to brush the hair from her face as she sped down the street. Mr. Giggles was in the passenger seat. She pressed the ON button on her phone to check what time it was. It was nine fifty PM. The Wal-Mart closes at midnight. That gives me plenty of time, she thought. She was hunched over in front of the steering wheel as she drives at break-neck speeds down Arlington Ave. There will be enough time. There will be enough time. Molly keeps repeating this thought over and over in her head. As if repeating the thought might somehow make it true. In a small way it did calm her panicked mind. She pushed down on the gas pedal a little more. There will be enough time, but there is still so much to do. So much that needs to be prepared. And you just can’t know how much time there is left.

The Toyota was now traveling at about sixty five miles an hour past the Riverside Airport. At the intersection where Arlington and Van Buren meet she made a sharp left turn and headed south. The Traffic camera flashed in her rear view mirror. Molly did not give a shit; she was NOT going to stop. If there had been twelve police cruisers behind here all whaling for her to pull over on their loud speakers, she would have just flipped them the bird and hit the gas. Too much left to do fuckers! She would have cried out.

The right turn that lead to the Wal-Mart parking lot was coming up fast. She took the turn with the tires of her car screeching again as the rubber ground against the asphalt. The Toyota drove right up to the entrance of the store and parked in the handicap spot closest to the door. She was thrown a little forward as she hit the brake hard to stop. Her seatbelt came off and she reached over and grabbed the teddy bear that was in her passenger seat. Molly bit down on the cheek of the brown bear and moved her head back while she pulled down using both hands on the bear’s arms. The head of the bear tore from its neck with a ripping sound as the stiches gave way. She spit the head of the bear out of the driver side window then reached into the hole where the head had once been. Her thin pale hand reached past the stuffing and grabbed hold of what is was looking for. She pulled out a rather large wad of assorted bills of money. It was held together by three red rubber bands.

Molly had started saving this money three years back. About a month after she had started her job at Wells Fargo. Back then she had been saving the money to buy herself a new car. She had still been driving the old eighty nine Ford Aerostar van she had gotten from her mother so that she could drive herself to school. Molly had never liked that old van. So as soon as she started working, she started saving. She was about a month away from buying the car when, for her birthday, Molly’s parents surprised her with the Camry. She had been overjoyed. She then planned on spending the now extra savings on some new earrings, or maybe a necklace, and why not?

Molly had used a pair of scissors to cut Mr. Giggles’ head off. She then placed all of her saved money into the bear. Taking great care, she had sewed the head of the bear back on and put the teddy at the foot of her bead with all her other stuffed animals. Molly had done this to keep her money safe until she decided what do with it. Now at this moment, she knew where this money was going to go. She stared at her hard earned money for a second. The night was hot, and there was a sheen of sweat on her face. Molly got out the car and headed for the door. She stepped on the head of Mr. Giggles as she went. Molly didn’t notice.

She ran for the automatic doors of the large store. As the Molly entered she ran to the shopping carts and pulled one free. The two cashiers both gave a curious look as Molly almost ran by their stations. The panic that she had felt in the car was slowly getting stronger.

Molly, unlike Ron, had come to the realization that something was wrong soon after the strange events started happening.

 She was a person who liked to play Internet card games. A few months back she had gotten somewhat addicted to a two player monster and magic card game called Duel of Worlds. When you started playing you had to sign up for an account using an e-mail address. From there you signed in and started preparing your two decks for gameplay. One deck was comprised of creature/monster cards like the Red God Tree, or the Armor Lion of Flame, and the other spell/magic cards. The object of the game was to overpower your opponent. The first player to lose all of their creature cards loses the game. The spell cards where used to weaken your opponent’s creatures or to strengthen yours. In the game, the more wins you rack up, the stronger the creatures you can unlock with your account. Needless to say, Molly had spent a great deal of her spare time playing this new game.

 Like with all games of this sort, at first you lost to almost every player you face. But after a while you started learning which cards work best, which combinations to use and how to set up your two decks. When Molly encountered a card that she liked and worked well, she would write it down and add it to the appropriate deck later, using the online card search engine. Slowly but surely Molly moved up the ranks, facing stronger and stronger players from around the world. This was one of the wonders of the digital age. She could be sitting in her little home in sunny California and be battling a person online who lives in Japan.

 While you played there was a little chat bar on the left side of the screen. The players used this miniature chat room to explain their moves to each other to avoid confusion. They were also used to call in administrators if one of the players is suspected of cheating. Although, the chat box was very often also used to sling profane insults at one another when the game wasn’t going in a person’s favor. Posts like-

You fucking shit hole!

Go suck monkey dicks!

Or.

Drink bleach you fucking bitch!

Were often left for the winner as the loser quit the match and left the game. Despite many sore losers Molly thought the game was fun. And it was through the game that MollyKills951 had come to know ShellyBird112.

            Molly tore through the store pushing here blue shopping cart. She ran for the Drinks isle, and made a sharp left into it. She grabbed all of the cases of bottled water that she could and filled her cart until no more would fit. The cases where stacked six high, with two stacks in the cart. Molly then turned and pushed the cart as fast as she could without knocking over the cases of water. She stopped in front of one of the registers. “This is all mine.” Molly said, pushing hair out of her face. She was a little out of breath. “Are you alright miss?” The cashier asked looking a little worried. The cashier was a blonde woman who appeared to be in her later thirties.

            “I’m fine, I gotta go get more!” Molly called out as she grabbed another cart and headed off again. This time she was headed for the canned goods isle.

            ShellyBird112, Shelly Mitchell, or Shells as Molly had later come to know her was a twenty six year old dental assistant. At least that is what she had told Molly. One day they had been randomly selected to play against each other. The match had been terribly difficult and had dragged on for over an hour. Shells was good. She was VERY good. Her spell deck was flawless and her plays were brilliant. Molly narrowly lost the first game. Molly cried out for a rematch, as at this point in her Duel of Worlds career she was no longer used to being the loser of a match. Shells was happy to give her a rematch. This game had taken longer than the first, but this time Molly had come out on top; but just barely. Shells said through here chat box that she was surprised that she had lost. She hadn’t lost a single match in weeks. Molly replied that really, they were tied, and that the third game would be the tie breaker. Shells agreed on the third match but said that she had to go run a few errands. They would probably take about an hour. Molly agreed to come back and have their third match. Shells said to look for her in the player pool in an hour. They both signed out.

            Molly was in the canned foods isle, dropping can after can of food into her basket. She wasn’t really looking at what she was getting, nor was she checking the price of any of the items. When the cart was filled to capacity, Molly pushed it to the blonde’s register, next to her first cart.

            “Can you start ringing me up please?’ Molly asks the cashier. She still looks a little worried. “Sure, honey. No problem.” She begins scanning the cases of water. Molly grabs a third cart. “Just a few more thing that I need.” She says as she pushes the cart away from the register. “Ok, honey.” Is all the cashier says as she begins scanning the cans. This time Molly runs to the pharmacy isle. From the selves she grabs several boxes of bandages, gauze, medical tape, aspirin, and other pain relievers, cough syrup, rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide and finally vitamins. She moves on and adds several boxes of tampons, toothpaste, soap bars, and about six bottles of shampoo. All these things had brought her cart to about a quarter full. She grabbed a giant pack of toilet paper and shoved it into the rack under the cart. Molly headed for the last stop.

            Molly sat in front of her computer and waited about two minutes. She then logged back into her Duel of Worlds account and opened up the card search engine. Molly was going to fine tune her game decks to give her an advantage in the third game against ShellyBird112. She was a very strong player and Molly thought that she might need some kind of an edge to win. ShellyBird was a fan of using extra draw spell cards in combination with counter defense spell cards. Most of her creatures were deceptively weak, probably so that her opponent would be compelled to attack. At which point she would use the counter defense. This was a very good strategy, as it had pinned Molly in a corner in their first game. A good strategy, but not one Molly couldn’t get around with some creativity. Molly spent the hour adding spells that could counter ShellyBirds’ play, along with a few different creatures to throw her opponent off. She then removed all useless cards like summon creatures, and potion cards. They would be no good against ShellyBird112. MollyKills951 was ready.

            When the hour was up Molly and ShellyBird both joined the player pool. Molly sent ShellyBird a match request. It was immediately accepted. They were both brought to the game screen and their decks were reset and in starting position. In the chat box ShellyBird wrote GL, which means Good Luck. Molly replied HF. Have Fun. The game was on!

Molly could never remember playing harder than she did in the tie breaker match against ShellyBird112. About five minute into the game, Molly was completely stunned to see that ShellyBird had also updated her deck. And just as Molly had done, she had added spell and creature cards to counter act her attack style.

Run errands my ass!!! Molly types in the chat box. LOL, your one to talk love!!!! She responds back. And adds an emoticon smiley.

The game was tough, and it lasted almost two hours. Molly carefully thought through her every move, trying to consider every possible outcome and eventuality. ShellyBird did the same.  Both competitors employed brilliant plays and counter attacks. Both praised each other’s successful moves, and clever reversals.  The match dragged on, with neither player refusing to give in. Towards the end Molly had developed a headache.

Finally, it came down to one creature card each. Molly had the Blue Wolf of Fate and ShellyBird had the Chaos Raven. ShellyBird had one unused spell card. Molly had none left. Whosever creature died in this round would lose the match. It looked like MollyKills951 had the upper hand, as her creature was by far the strongest of the two. Molly could feel the swell of her imminent victory in her chest. Her hands were sweaty and there was an almost crazy smile on her face as she sat of front of her computer. Molly declared the attack and her opponent would then have to declare defeat. But ShellyBird did not. She used her one remaining spell card. Molly looked at her screen, her mouth hanging open.

The card was Attack Destruction. This cards effect was that if one creature attacked another, regardless of the creatures attack strength, both creatures were destroyed instead of just the weaker one, at the same time. Both of their creatures where destroyed. This was a tie. ShellyBird112 adds another emoticon smiley to the chat box, but this one with its tongue out.

Molly beat down on her computer desk with her fist. “AAAARRRRGGGHHHH!” She screamed into her empty living room. She hit the desk with her fist again and then shoved the hair from her face. After all that? After I played as hard as I could? A tie!? Molly’s mind raged.

Then, looking at that little face with its tongue out, instead of screaming again, Molly started laughing. The laughter started slow then rose. It came in rolling waves that made her midsection hurt. She laughed long and hard. Tears rolled down her face and for a second she thought that she would fall from her chair. She was laughing at herself for thinking she had won, and for her crazy response after they tied. Molly laughed, and somehow she knew that, wherever ShellyBird was, she was laughing too.

From that day on Molly and Shells, even though they would never meet, became best friends.

Molly pushed her blue shopping cart and headed for the sporting goods section at the back of the store.