He just stood there, blinking, trying to restart his brain that was crashed by metaphoric blue screen.

There, in front of him, stood a floating golden window. It was simple and elegant in design. Quite charming, even.

He closed his eyes and took a looooong breath. He knew he would need it in the next moments, he felt the beginnings of a headache.

Supposing he wasn't getting insane, his idea that this was a game was right on the money. Were there other windows?

"Inventory! Character! Skills!" he said, out loud. Jack looked at him, while raising an eyebrown. At the least word, a new window appeared to him

1.

error

2.

error

3.

error

4.

error

5.

error

6.

error

7.

error

What the fuck? Was that thing bugged? No wonder they needed test subjects.

"Jack" he said. "Say 'Status'"

"what?" he asked? "why do I need to say it?"

"Something appears" Ethan Said. "Just try it."

Jack furrowed his eyebrows, but complied anyway, to Ethan's surprise. "Status." he said. It seemed that Ethan's little bloody show had gained him Jack's respect, a reluctant respect at least.

Jack spit out his cigar. "Oh, what the fuck!" He said "You got to be fucking kidding me!" he said, while looking at Ethan.

"You!" He said "How did you fucking knew it?" he said, while walking towards Ethan and grabbing him by the collar. "Do you have anything to do with this? You little bastard!" He screamed, his breath smelling heavily of smoke.

What the fuck? Ethan was trying to help him! He felt anger rising inside himself and gave Jack a strong push in the chest, almost making him fall. "What the hell? Where did you get this idea?" he said, seething.

Jack scowled. "You knew about this 'status' shit, didn't you?".He said "You are with them..."

Ethan sighed. "This is a standard in fantasy themed games! Stop this idioticy!" Ethan screamed. "Every fucking RPG has a status window or something similar." he said, calmer."As long as you associate this situation with the word 'RPG' you will eventually end up thinking 'status' at some point" he sat down again.

Jack kept himself from hitting Ethan and sat down on a boulder. "So, is this something like a game?" he said.

Ethan looked at the empty air and sighed again. Since this situation started, he couldn't stop sighing at all. He felt like this was what he have been doing his whole life. He passed his hand through his scalp and answered "I have a hypothesis, but it is so very absurd I think you will laugh."

Jack smiled. "Make me laugh them. We kinda need a good laugh" he said, while looking at Jose's body, it made for a very macabre company.

"We need to head back." Ethan said, while getting up and stamping his jeans. Gods...he needed a good bath and a change of clothes. He was dirty with mud, blood and sweat and there was a uncomfortable chaffing between his legs. His sedentarism was finally caughting up, as he felt the muscles in his legs starting to clench. He longed for his pc and a good can of coffee

"Well, tell me what you think when we head back." he said, while looking at Jose's body. they needed to leave him here, he was to big to carry and they couldn't waste time burying him. It left a sour taste in the mouth. Maybe they could come back with more people afterward to have a proper burial.

"I just hope the little fucks don't make an habit of eating human meat" Jack said. An uncomfortable prospect. He moved and went to inspect one of the creatures bodies. He hauled it up and...

"What are you bringing it for?" Ethan asked. The thing was honestly disgusting, and it was still bleeding.

"I will show them" he said, grimly. "This will help the little idiots face reality. That we are fucked. Specially that fucking cunt of a Teacher. He thinks he is the fucking Indiana Jones."

They went the way back without talking to each other. Ethan had used paper balls he made with his notebook to mark the way, like in John and Mary's tale. He felt like an idiot, but it was better than the alternative. The white paper was easily visible in the blue light of the mushrooms, almost fluorescent.

At least, after some minutes of walk, they started to hear the gabble of the students...they seemed...happy? Ethan clenched his fist in anger. How could they sound happy? How dare they? Now he really wanted to poke someone's eye out. For gods sake!

They arrived at the room they were earlier. Ethan stood there wide eyes. There was a group of four people playing cards on a corner, The teacher was sitting in another corner, seemingly giving advices to a female student, a group of girls was talking an giggling in another corner.

The entire room seem more illuminated than before. The teacher must have ordered students to take mushrooms from nearby places. The entire place shined in fluorescent blue and felt almost like a rave party. Someone put a cell phone on a plastic cup to make a improvised speaker.

"What the fuck?!!" Jack beat him to it. His eyes looked lost. "What the fucking fuck is this?!"

The entire room became quiet. Ethan couldn't take anymore, The body, the fight and the partying...

He went to the side and threw up.

Jack looked at him and he thought he saw a sliver of sympathy there.

"What the hell man?" Lawson, one of jack's friends came. Rudy was following just behind him. "Calm down eh..." he said. "We were just waiting for you, we had nothing to do, it's not like we enjoy here..."

"Ah, Jack!" the teacher said, unconcerned. "And Ethan!" he scratched his ear "I know you guys are pissed because I...wait, where's Jose?"

Jack's face was impassive, as if carved from stone. He didn't answer. He simple threw the volume he was shouldering and left to sit on a corner, away from everyone. Almost as if saying 'Deal with it, Ethan' .

"What is this?" the teacher said, while approaching the light of his cell phone to the thing. Ethan was still in his knees, trying to recompose himself.

"Oh my god!!" the teacher exclaimed. "You found one of the Pygmies!" he said. Ethan heard Jack's cackling. "This is the find of the century!"

"Hey Ethan" a girl said to him, she looked quite pissed. "Where is Jose."

"This is fantastic guys!" The teacher said. "It's a groundbreaking discovery."

"Ethan, Where. Is. My. Boyfriend!?"

Another girl appeared. "He isn't your boyfriend yet, you've been just going out for two months!"

"C'mon, Ethan, Jack" The teacher was grinning. "where did you find this?"

"Hey! Get Up!"

"SHUT UP!" Ethan screamed. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

He had enough "DEAD! JOSE IS FUCKING DEAD, TRANSPASSED BY A FUCKING SPEAR IN THE LUNG!" he screamed at the girl's face.

The temperature in the room descended to negative Celsius. Yelps and gasps were heard. Eyes were widened. joy gave place to terror.

"He was trespassed by a fucking spear when we were battling a mob of these things." Ethan said, pointing to the creature's body on his feat. Some eyes wandered to the blood and dirt in his shirt. He saw Katharine gasp with her hand on her mouth. He also saw Reene's friend falling in her knees and starting bawling.

"Lies" said the supposed girlfriend. "How can Jose die and you be alive?" she said, panic and denial in her voice "you and Jack are both trash! how can you be alive?! And my Jose die?" she spat on Ethan's face. "get real! Where is he? What did you do to him?!"

"Follow the paper ball path" This time was jack who answered. "His body is there, we just hope teacher's 'Pilgrims'" he laughed at the term. "doesn't come back and make a stew with his body, ya'know..."

"How can you be alive, and he, dead?" This time it was the teacher who asked. What a bastard...he had basically stated that he wanted them dead instead of Jose

Jack shrugged. "Maybe he had less points in luck?". Ethan laughed.

The teacher looked at him for some seconds before saying. "I think you are hiding something" he said.

"He might still be alive." Ethan said, suddenly serious. The girlfriend looked at him hopefully, the teacher had suspicion in his eyes. "Maybe this is a game..." he said."And he still is alive in the real world. It is a big 'maybe' though..."

Kathy looked at him like he was an idiot. The teacher just shook his head. "You are crazy, boy."

Jack laughed again.

"Say 'Status'" Ethan said. "Just say it, 'Status', It will answer your questions".

The teacher complied, even when he had no trust in Ethan. He saw no harm in simply uttering a word.

"Wha...W...What is this..." the teacher said, clearly mesmerized by the glowing gold screen in front of him.

"That, my lovely fucking teacher" scowled Ethan. "Is a status screen"