It was any normal afternoon.I really love Team Fortress. I've put in a good 1,000 hours.
So, I decided to load it up. I had heard of a new patch and wanted to see what was added. As soon as I got on, I got a notification. It told me I had obtained 1 new item. I then clicked it to see what it was.

It was a Dead Ringer with purple text. I thought this was unusual, and then looked at the actual image for the dead ringer. The first thing I noticed was that the gold was rusted. Next, I saw that the Dead Ringer was strangely opened, instead of closed. I looked at the inside, to see that the blue lines were red.

The class image was far more background was an unsettling black. The spy's eyes were sunken,
and had glowing red pupils. He also seemed to be laughing.

I decided that this must be Valve playing a joke. Afterall, it was near time for a Halloween update. I then looked at the server list, to see that none of my favorite servers were on there. I decided to see if any other servers were up, and saw a list containing four servers, each with a glitched play number. The server names read, in order,"Conquest, War, Famine, and Death" I felt something jump in the back of my mind, but I decided to play again. I equipped the new Dead Ringer, and selected the Conquest server.

When I joined, the map was Fort. Not ctf_2fort, not 2fort, but just fort. I decided this was strange, and exited the spawn room. I then was met with a wierd sight: There were multiple soldiers, all gathering around the BLU fort. (I felt thankful for choosing RED). However, it was what they were doing that caught me off guard.

They gathered around groups of scouts, who were huddled in the corner, crying. I could see the tears flowing from their eyes with unnaturally realistic sounds and screams. Something was wrong. I then looked up at the BLU fort, to see it was on fire. I could see the burning carcasses of multiple classes, and could almost smell the burning in real life.I was starting to get creeped out, and was considering leaving the server. However, just before I could, I saw a Soldier turn to face me, and he had a demonic smyle and glowing red eyes. He laughed as his face began melting to reveal a skull. I was then kicked from the server.

I clutched at my chest. That had been the wierdest ingame experience I have ever encountered. So, I glanced up at the server list to see Conquest no longer existed.I wanted to quit, but all my buttons except join server had disappeared. The usual class displayed on the main menu was replaced with a skeleton. The background music had also changed. I could here what I thought was "The Calm" playing in reverse. I was forced to select war. I was met with the loading screen, which also had skeletons instead of classes. It was downloading a new map, which had the name,"bttd_Hiroshima". I thought hard about what this meant. Hiroshima was a city taken out in World War II. I tried to think of what bttd might stand for. It kept coming back to me as "Battle to the Death"

I was ingame again, and selected the map had some very realistic textures. It looked like a real city. I kept trying to remember what was so important about Hiroshima. Anyways, I decided to finally leave the spawnroom. I snuck to the center of the map where the Town Square appeared to be, and was horrified by the realism in gore I saw here. This looked like something Left 4 Dead 2 was capable of; Heavies missing the top half of their head, scouts missing their legs and bleeding out on the ground, etc. I then heard a wistling noise, and looked up. THen I finally remembered what happened to Hiroshima.

An atomic bomb was being dropped on the map.

As if in instinct, I pulled out the Dead Ringer, still rusted and such, and watched the horrifyingly realistic atomic explosion from upclose.
AS the dust cleared, I was glad that my character was still alive. However, I was horrified by the twisted piles of Flesh and Bone that had become of the other players. I was then kicked from the server , only Famine and Death were left. I was still trying to figure out why the names seemed to have some meaning. Of course, like before, I could only join the servers. I joined the server, and of course was met with another loading screen. The map name was glitched. However, the screen then froze. I was used to lag, so I waited. Then, I heard a voice behind me.

"Do you ever feel life is a game?What would happen if you lose?"

I turned around to see noone behind me. I clutched at my chest now. If I wasn't frightened before, I was horrified now. I turned back to the screen to see the map had loaded. I joined the game and picked spy again. I walked out of spawn to see a barren wasteland. No Control point,
no intelligence, not even an enemy base. Just endless desert. I turned around to see I had just come out of a rundown RED 2Fort building.
I turned my character back around to see a soldier, lieing in the dirt, crying. I moved over to him, and he muttered about how they had stolen the food. I looked closer to see his uniform was torn and such, and that I could see his ribcage under his skin. I then looked toward him again to see he was now staring at me. Even for a video-game, I could see the look of hunger in hsi eyes.

He then lunged at me, and I was once again kicked from the server.

I wanted so desperately to leave. To end the game. But I couldn't. Something moved my arm over the last server-Death. Unlike the others, the player number wasn't glitched. It read 1/2 players. I, against my will, joined the server. The map was koth_viaduct_event. 'Finally, something normal.' I thought to myself.

I heard a panicing voice come over the mic."H-Hello? Is this an actual person? PLEASE, DEAR GOD BE A REAL PERSON."

I felt sorry for the kid. I felt he had gone through what I had just gone through. I tapped V and replied,"Yes, I'm real. What is going on here?"

Before I could get a response, a demonic voice was heard ingame, saying "60 Seconds before sudden death." I heard the panicing voice again.

"I-It wants us to fight. IT wants me to kill you, or for you to kill me. The Dead Ringers must Fight, the voice told me. I'm sorry, please forgive me."

I walked out of spawn to find another spy standing infront of me, with a sad expression on his face. It was the other player. He pulled out an Enforcer, and I could see the character model mouth "I'm sorry. The sgun fired at my character, and I took 30 damage. I then felt a sudden pain in my arm. I looked to see blood coming from under my shirt sleave. I decided I would evade him til the round ended. I didn't want to kill the kid, but I didn't want to die either.

We ran around the map, with him shooting at me, and me running for dear life. I then looked up at the time, which now read "0:05"I now laughed to myself, glad that it would be five more seconds before I escaped this nightmare.

How wrong I was.

Instead of ending the round, a notification appeared on the left side, in all caps, "DEATH HAS COME". I could hear the other player freaking out as a Third Degree flew out of nowhere, instantly decapitating him. I was met with a hooded figure, slightly taller than the spy, which said one word.

You've Lost.

Two weeks later, the body of a local TF2 addict was found in his bedroom. He had a bullet hole going through his arm, but no bullet was found. Cause of death is unknown.