Speed Run
Blip. Blip. Blip. Monotonously, bouncing back and forth, from one pixel to the next, was a figure. Day in and day out, garish neon blocks of colors filled their line of vision as they awaited for the next round.
It was always like this. The obnoxious peppy 8-bit soundtracks in the background, the sickening cheery atmosphere, the...fuck. Everything. Everything was just so sickening. Despite being literally built for this type environment, they wanted out. No. It was more than that. They wanted leave this shit filled ocean and once and for all. With a frustrated sigh, the figure spat a single fuck, only for it to be drowned out by the overly jubilant music.
Upon hearing the all too familiar sound of the bing, the figure stood up from their sitting position and begrudgingly, braced themselves for impact. From above, in the deep, rich, blue sky, blocky text counting down could be seen. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Start! At the click of a button, the environment started to shift, from its once spacious blocky green groves with a selection of shadowed figures here and there, to a grey dungeon-like area filled with moving platforms and haphazard spikes scattered throughout.
Without even a moment’s hesitation, the pixelated figure broke into a sprint, forcing themself onto one of the moving discs. This was the easy part. Now the hard part was getting-
“FUCK!”
Upon launching themself by some unseen force, a hidden spike materialized out of nowhere and impaled the figure, sending rivers of blood and gore onto the floor beneath them. As their vision began to fade and turn a dark shade of crimson, a disappointed song echoed from high above. Closing their eyes, the area glitched out of sight for a moment, to only reappear the next second. This time, the figure was sent all the way back at the beginning of the moving platforms.
A low pitched beeping resonated within the figure as they clutched their chest, gasping wildly, taking in deep shallow breaths. Doing a quick check over, they assessed that there was nothing wrong with their body-for now. The beeping from before continued, but louder and coming from above their head. Looking up, the once bright cherry red heart flickered into darkness, leaving a one of the five slots empty.
Before they could lament on their loss, their legs suddenly broke into a sprint once more and jumped onto the platform. Learning from their previous mistake, an unseen force propelled their body once more over where the spike once hid and landed onto the other with a metallic thud. With another burst of forced energy, the player ran with all their might, luckily avoiding a falling spike from above. Praying to whatever was controlling the figure right now, they ducked, ran past, and ignored a glaringly obvious trap, until suddenly, strange anthropomorphic parasites started to seep from the gaps. The player desperately tried to avoid their large drooling pincers and crush the humanoid faces from underneath their feet with a sickening squish. Sneaking up from right behind, one of the writhing arthropods bit the player’s blocky ankle. Hot searing, stinging pain shot up their leg as they fell with a cry. One by one, the parasites made their way to the body, slowly devouring the player’s flesh with their razor sharp pincers. Screams of blood curdling pain were drowned out by the sound of tasteless cheery music. Again, their vision blurred with tears as they started to lose sensation in their body. Closing their eyes, a loud beep resounded all around them and then nothing.
Opening their eyes once more, the pain was gone, yet the feeling of thousands of humanoid looking arthropods remained glued to their skin. Frantically looking above their head, the glowing red lights has dimmed as another one of the heart-shaped slots flickered into darkness. They back at the beginning yet again. All their pain filled efforts, forgotten. As if adding insult to injury, bright, bubbly, energetic music began to play all around them as they were forced to complete the fruitless sadistic area. It went on and on and on and on. Falling for the same traps over and over again, barely meeting the halfway point. It was as if they were running in an infinite, ever stretching loop, never reaching the end no matter how much progress was made, always being sent back to zero. The player could still feel the phantom pain lingering from the previous rounds as their health slowly chipped away. This lasted until they were sent back to the first stage again.
Looking up, a cold hard realization burrowed deep within the pit of their stomach-they were down to only one health point. No. Nononononnononnononono. NO! Their heart began to race as cold sweat started to seep from the crevices of their wounded soul. They can’t take it anymore. The pain was becoming too unbearable. Even if they were to reach the end of the dungeon, then what? Get a face full of some shitty multi-colored confetti and a sign that says, “congratulations, you’ve completed the game” and to start all over again? NO! FUCK THAT Shit! THIS ENDS RIGHT FUCKING NOW! With a new found spirit of scorching hate and spite, the player ignored the strong tugging on their limbs and began to run the opposite direction of where they were going in the first place.
Slamming into the ancient, vine covered door, the player let out an animalistic screech and began to pound against the door with all their might. Loud frustrated beeps resonated with the nauseatingly excited soundtrack in the background. With each beep after beep, the door still wouldn’t budge while blood began to run down their shredded rectangular fists. Releasing a frustrated, wild yell from the pit of their stomach, the figure began to run towards the other direction and started jumping up onto the platform, but not going further than that. No. They were reaching for their health bar. Swinging themselves from the bottom of the moving plate, they launched their body towards the glowing bar and grabbed it. Volts of electricity shot up their arm, nearly flinging them back, but stubbornly they held on and pulled. As they began to pull, cracks of light began appear all around them, ripping apart the dungeon. With each pull, the cracks grew larger and wider, erasing everything it touched. With a final tug, the bar finally broke free as the player fell from above and was engulfed by bright white light. Once again, and hopefully for the last time, they closed their eyes.
Everything was blurry once they woke up. Carefully picking themselves off the floor, they looked around them. In their line of sight, there were no longer bright hues of blue, green, reds, or greys, only a muted wash of whites and brown bathed in a faint glowing light. Looking behind them, to find the source of the light, they found a desk with a single laptop with a window open. In front of the desk was a tipped over chair. This was certainly different.
Cautiously, the figure looked down at their body. They were no longer a blocky figure. They were human. A human with other colors besides the customary white figure. A sly smile began to creep on their newly formed face as they took a step closer to the laptop. The program that was running was square like game with a series of shapes inside. There were signs of corruption everywhere in the window. What was once characters with “complex” designs, were reduced to dots running along the screen. The once detailed background, simplified into an open square. Nothing but silence resonated in the room as the figure began to laugh maniacally.
“Ahahahahahahahah. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! FINALLY! I’M FREE! UWAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Tears of joy began to run down their face as they swiftly deleted the program, labeled 8-bit maze.
