Chapter 1: Let The Game Begin

Whoosh! I opened my eyes. Where am I? Just a few seconds ago I had answered my phone because I thought I heard ringing. Now it looks like I'm in the middle if a desert. RARGHH! A howl pierced the air. What was that? Whatever it was, I have to start moving. One good thing about me is that I'm good at thinking in tough situations. Like I remember one time I had found a kitten drowning in a flowing river. I quickly jumped in and saved it. I had my phone, camera, and flashlight with me. Even though I knew they were going to get ruined I saved that kitten because a life is more precious than any amount of money in the world. After about forty seconds of walking north I saw six dots in the distance. I quickly ran towards those dots. The howls were getting louder by the minute. I had to get there before the thing that was making that sound showed up. It sounded big and dangerous.

I climbed over a sand dune and saw what those dots were. They were my friends! I ran towards them at full speed. About four steps away from reaching the group I tripped over what seemed to be a piece of rock. I landed face first into a soft pillow of sand. I got up and spit out all of the disgusting sand I had inhaled and accidentally eaten. Suddenly they burst out laughing. Yup, they were my friends.

"Hey, did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?" Justin asked.

"Your kidding me right? The roar!"

"Ah, he's just messing with us!" Kevil said.

On one side were the girls and on the other were the boys. I shook off the remaining sand from my clothes and gave everyone a big grin. It was nice finding people I knew in this foreign land. Avery gave me a high five and two thumbs up! Kevil gave me a punch in the face and shoved me into Avery (not the way you would expect to be greeted by friends). This caused a domino effect as Avery fell onto Kat, which fell onto Jossie which fell onto sand. Kevil, Toni, and Justin started laughing. I wondered why. Well it was simple really. The way I fell was a pretty awkward position. My head was in between Avery's thighs. I quickly got up. "Hey Armelion could your face be a bit more red?" Toni smirked. I looked behind me and Avery's face was red, red with pure rage! I suddenly jumped to the left because I knew what was about to happen. In an instant Avery performed what I would call "The Death Punch". Before we knew it Justin, Kevil, and Toni were on the floor in one pile. Avery said in a calm and clear voice, "I didn't know you guys liked it homo?" Kevil got up and got his fist ready, but before he could strike the thing roared and reality hit me once more. I quickly explained that we should move and carry the fight elsewhere.

After ten minutes of walking straight we saw a building. We all ran like the devil was at our heels just waiting for one of us to trip and satisfy his desire for human souls. We all reached the building to be greeted by several other people all of which were far older than us. Inside we found a phone. Before we got to it one of the strangers said, "Don't bother it doesn't work". Ignoring his words I went up to the phone and pressed random buttons. Suddenly an image appeared on the small screen. On it was a map. There was a tower, a symbol that looked like an S with a phone near it (probably were we started), and a door symbol. The tower was in the shaded area but the door was not. The S was located just outside of the dark area. Suddenly Kat took out pencil and copied down the map seven times on her pocket notepad. We got up and told the others that we thought the finish was at the door symbol. They decided to follow us.

As we set out Kat noticed that one of the strangers was taking an interest in the maps we had. She decided to draw one out for him. During that time a flying creature (with wings white as the clouds themselves and red claws at the end of the wings with an ugly face that resembled an eagle with a sickly wolf dieing of rabies) swooped down and howled that same howl I was hearing. The same howl that shook me to my soul and stripped my flesh off my bones. The impact it had on the ground made it seem that the sand had become alive and that all of the pressure had caused the sand to thrust up into the air blinding all of us momentarily. Once we got the sand out of our eyes our skin became pale. The monster was headed toward Kat and the stranger. We all saw this and ran towards Kat. Fortunately, Kat is very fast and agile. Unfortunately, the stranger was not. The stranger had taken out his pocket knife and stabbed the creature in a sphere shaped area on the creatures chest. At the same time the creature had stabbed the stranger with one of his terrifying red claws, spewing blood everywhere. Both the creature and stranger turned into dust. A wind blew the dust away leaving no evidence of what had just happened. We all decided to run the opposite direction of the dark are of the map. Justin had to carry Kat as she was crying uncontrollably by the trauma she had just gone through. Justin did not seemed to be affected by the extra weight. He seemed to rather enjoy it. After she had calmed down and all of us had caught our breath we ran straight towards the door area. During that time we were alert and didn't say anything. As we reached our limits we saw a building. We felt a new boost of energy and ran like the wind all the way to the building. Once we entered we started panicking. What if other monsters would attack us? We had to do something. Kevil on the other hand was very stern. He looked around the building and informed us that there was a telephone booth. I guess Kevil has a strong personality. He has emotions but he will lock them away to save people close to him like his friends. We suddenly felt hope. We reached the room where there was a telephone booth.

Then we all heard the lady's voice from the survey. Survivors of this round, please enter your card into the phone booth and hold the phone to your ear. You will be taken back to your time. What did she mean back to our time? I looked out a broken window as the strangers entered their cards and held up the phone towards their ears. I couldn't believe it. It was Mount. Fuji. We really were in Japan, and if the lady said back to our time, then this is the future. My heart skipped a beat, time slowed down. There is no way this could be true. How? Why? There is no way! I felt my life force slip away. Then everything went black.

I woke up on the ground my friends by my side. "Ah. So you finally woke up! You were beginning to worry us." Avery said.

"How long was I gone?"

Justin replied by saying, "About ten minutes."

I got up and didn't say anything about what I had just learned. There is no need to scare my friends just as we're about to go back home. We all took turns returning. Once we all made it there I decided to spill, but it seemed they already knew. The building we were in was the same building from before. All my friends said in unison, "That..was the future?" Suddenly my phone rang. I picked it up.

"Is this Armelion?"

"Yes. Who is this?"

"Look I don't have much time but just do what I say and don't ask any questions. You and your friends just came back from future Japan so you must be exhausted. Come to the address that I will text you in a moment by 8:00 pm. I will take you to my place and I will explain the rest their. Please hurry there isn't much time."

Before I could ask who this person was the line disconnected and my phone was left with the sound of a flat line. I looked at my friends which were all in shock. I looked at my phone. It was 7:30 pm. A text message was received by my phone and I opened it. Sure enough, the address was on it (a park and judging from where we were, it was 28 minutes away from where were now which didn't give us much time at all. I told my friends to follow.

When we got there it was 8:00 exactly. The park was empty with no light except for the lampposts that were in rows adjacent to each other. A calm breeze was in the air like it was trying to say that everything will be ok. Suddenly the lights turned off, the breeze stopped in its tracks. A black mini-van pulled up at the entrance of the park. In the black mini-van sat a woman. She told us to get in and that she was the person that had contacted me. We got in, no questions asked. From that moment on, our lives changed forever.

Thank you for reading this chapter. I hope you review because with every review comes faster updating times and better chapters. As always, have a wonderful day/night. ...Sorry for not updating. I am EXTREMELY busy... I will try to update but please do remember I am busy... Expect TONS of chapters in the summer. Probably 3-4 chapters a week XD.