Chapter 3

Laser Tag

Marine walked through an automatic door that led into a room full of computers. He figured this was probably the security room. Standing in front of one of the computers was his boss, who was quite experienced in the detective business. He was recently assigned to be the lead detective in this investigation.

The detective turned around to face Marine. "Oh, hey, buddy. What took you so long?" He leaned closer to Marine. "Were you eavesdropping on a conversation that you shouldn't have been listening to?" He shrugged. "I dunno."

He straightened up his posture, hands on his hips as he introduced himself. "Anyway, I'm your boss. My name is Butt-Slapping Bob. And I just—"

A beeping sound came from one of the computers and schematics for one of the buildings in the facility appeared on the screen.

"Oh look." Bob walked towards the screen, his finger extended towards the schematics. "See on that computer screen? It's a building." He pointed down to the ground. "It's this building. It's got a butt that needs slapping. So go out and slap it, please. And then—"

He stopped himself. He seemed to have forgotten about their main job. He shook his head and took a few steps towards Marine until he was right beside him.

"Actually, you need to look for chicken nuggets, so do that in the meantime."

A robot on the ground unfolded its legs and stood up. Butt-Slapping Bob crouched down to pet it, causing it to wave its butt from side to side. Barking sounds could be heard from its audio emitter. It looked up at Marine and barked again with excitement.

"This is my pet dog," Bob said. "His name is Robot. He walks around sometimes, and people follow him." He looked confused. "I don't really know why. I mean, he doesn't do anything else."

Marine was instructed to go to the laser tag arena. But Marine was too busy wondering about the meaning behind his boss's name. He didn't start questioning his orders to go to the laser tag arena until he got there. Behind a glass window stood one of the employees who worked there. He greeted Marine.

"Hey, buddy. Welcome to the laser tag arena. If you wanna get your equipment from that locker over there, I'll just open it for ya, then you can head into the arena."

The employee hit a button on the console in front of him, causing the locker to open. Marine grabbed the gear and put it on. He was stopped before he could leave the room.

"Oh, there's something I should let you know. There are some renovations—"

He was interrupted by his phone and he walked to the opposite side of the room. "Oh, hang on. My phone's ringing." He answered the call. "Hello. Mom, I told you not to call me while I'm at work."

Marine just stood there awkwardly, as he waited for the employee to return.

"I don't care what Dad's doing. If he's drunk again, that's your problem."

Marine slowly inched towards the door leading to the arena.

"I don't live with you anymore, Mom. Leave me alone!"

He slipped through the doorway, almost running into another customer, donned in laser tag gear as well. He spoke to Marine, but his voice was muffled by the mask he was wearing, making it impossible to understand a word he was saying.

The guy just kept talking and Marine was unsure what to do. So he aimed the laser gun at him and pulled the trigger. A beam of light shone on the guy's vest and he overdramatically threw himself back on top of a crate, pretending to be dead. Marine rolled his eyes and continued through the hallways until he reached the arena.

It was a large empty room with literally nothing in it. So what was the point of this room then? There wasn't even anyone here. Perhaps it was empty because it served absolutely no purpose in this narrative. Hell, he didn't even understand why he was sent here when he was supposed to be looking for chicken nuggets.

He opened a door, laser gun raised, ready to fire at whoever dared to oppose him. This was his best game after all. The only person in the room was not wearing any equipment, but instead, was watching what appeared to be a horror flick.

The man turned and shook his head. "Dude, look, I don't wanna play laser tag right now. Can't you see I'm busy watching one of the best horror movies ever?" His voice rang with excitement as he continued. "There's this great part where the portal to Hell opens up and demons flood out and destroy everyone."

He turned and looked at the screen again, and said in a menacing voice, "They say that when the portal to Hell opens in the movie… it opens for real. I wonder what that's like."

Then the aforementioned scene was playing in the film. Skulls flew out of the glowing orange portal and soared all around the room, possessing anyone in their way. The guy watching the film kept commenting on how cool the scene was.

Marine found himself unable to draw his attention away from the movie. He knew he had work to do but to pass on watching one of his favorite films? It was only halfway through the film. He'd still have plenty of time to do his job if he stayed for the rest of it.

Three hours later, Marine had found himself not only watching the remainder of the movie but also multiple episodes of a TV show called Zombie Horde. He got chills up his spine as a sinister voice issued a "Stay tuned" while the zombie onscreen screamed at the camera before the screen went to static.

While the credits rolled, Marine shook himself to get rid of the chills. He thanked his new friend for inviting him to watch his shows with him. But now was the time for Marine to go back to his job of... playing laser tag. He was getting more and more confused about where his priorities lie.

As he left the room, he heard a strange noise. Someone somewhere was calling out for chicken nuggets.

From somewhere in the walls, and imp showed up. Imps were monsters that were well-known for their particular fondness of chicken nuggets. He figured he had found the culprit, but the creature didn't have a single nugget in his possession. Because it kept yelling "chicken nuggets", it was merely searching for them.

It had to be stopped.

Marine knew just what to do. He aimed his laser gun at the abomination and pulled the trigger. The beam of light caused the imp's body to dissipate. It was a known fact that imps were allergic to lasers. If imps were the cause of the disappearance of the chicken nuggets, then Marine knew there were more throughout the facility. So it was time to laser them to death.