Sudden Death

Cover By:

R.L Weeks

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Sudden Death.

(c) Theresa Jacobs 2016

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the Author.

In Assistance with Jackie Leahy and David Kummer.

Thank you to my friends, Susan Leighton, Mike Senczyszak and Brett Wallach, for any suggestions - used or not - I appreciate you all. Any errors are all mine.

In Honor of my favorite splatterpunk horror writer, Richard Laymon.

Dedicated to my loving and patient husband, Duane Minshull. It's no wonder he has nightmares - living with the likes of me.

And as always to my parents, who without, I would not even be here.

To my son, Mordecai, may all your dreams come true; except for the scary ones.

1 Free Play

2 You'll be sorry

3 Let The Games Begin

4 Fear the Reaper

5 Group Effort

6 WTF

7 Sudden Death

8 Homework

9 We All Have Demons

10 Game Over

11. Aftermath

Text Code Legend

ttyl - talk to you later

otdl - on the down low

wru - where are you

fml - fuck my life

fomo - fear of missing out

vsf - very severely fucked

qq - crying eyes

omg - oh my god

srsly - seriously

ruok - are you okay

g2g - got to go

af - as fuck

irl - In Real Life

bfn - bye for now

wtf - what the fuck

wda - what a

1. Free play

Phone in hand, Billy scrolled quickly with his thumb. He flicked the screen, so the pages flashed by unread. Finally, the image he wanted appeared, and he pressed down hard to stop it from moving on. He had seen the ad on his Facebook profile earlier that day, but couldn't get into it while his college Prof was droning on, so he waited.

The image was a zombie, of course, all the rage and what not, but it was the caption that caught his attention.

Sudden Death. The most realistic, horrific game of all time. Play now. FREE

Billy enjoyed horror movies and played some graphic games on his X-Box, like Resident Evil, and Dark Souls. None of them ever scared him. He took this one as a challenge and clicked the ad to read more.

Play Sudden Death If You Dare!

Must be 18 to Play

Real Time

Real Life

ONCE YOU ENTER YOU CAN NOT LEAVE

He scrolled on past the disclaimer, game developer info and other boring stuff that he didn't care about. Ok let's give it a whirl, he mumbled to himself as he dug out his credit card, and entered it for age verification.

The screen flashed red, a laughing skull appeared and the words ... You'll be Sorry ... the image disappeared, and the screen went back to Facebook.

Billy shook his phone, well what the hell? He scrolled through his Facebook page again. The game wasn't showing up. He clicked over to his settings and looked for downloads, nothing there either. So he found the Play store button and went into it, typed in Sudden Death, some crappy old 80's movies showed, but only one game, and it was Soccer.

Ah fuck me, I hope this wasn't a scam to get my credit card number. He frowned, he was looking forward to a new fun game. Just then the apartment door opened drawing his attention away from his phone.

Hey. James entered their tiny student apartment and dropped his bag near the door. Did you bring home any pizza?

Nah man no ZA, we didn't get any cancels today.

Shit, we got no food... James turned to the small dirty kitchenette and pulled open the fridge. He stuck his head in and rifled about, mostly just pushing old stale condiments around. I'm starved.

Let's go over to the student hall, maybe they'll be having another gay group meeting, and we can snack out, Billy suggested as he leaned over the back of the recliner.

James slammed the fridge door. Can't man, I have Social in 25.

Billy slumped back. Oh. Well, I guess I'll go alone.

Kay. That still doesn't solve my problem, but thanks for your help.

Billy slouched past James and slapped him on the shoulder. Sorry dude. He slammed the door as he left the apartment.

James opened the cupboard where the dry goods were kept. Damn sick of Ramen Noodles. He sighed and tore open the package. Too lazy to boil water, he bit into the dry noodles and moved to the chair to watch some fuzzy TV, before his next class.

Billy sidled along the food table. He shoved a glazed donut into his mouth and tossed random cookies and pastries onto a napkin. He didn't know what the meeting was about; having not read the sandwich board by the door, he was only there for the free food.

Hey! A voice yelled from the front of the room.

Billy turned, his half-eaten donut hanging from his mouth. UH?

A robust woman, with short un-brushed hair and pit stains, pointed her finger accusingly at Billy. This is a Woman's book club, you shouldn't be here. She started to move towards him, the other ladies around the room were moving out of their seats or turning to look.

Billy pressed his goodies to his chest and ran for the door. And don't come back! Her shrill voice followed him.

He laughed as he turned a corner and out the main entrance, back into the falling night. Biting into a chocolate chip cookie, he thought; College life isn't all it's cracked up to be. Now, what am I going to do with the rest of my night? He didn't have any classes until the morning. His phone suddenly chimed, and opportunity rings, he thought as he balanced his food in one arm and dug out his phone from his jacket pocket. He pressed the side button to wake it up. The screen flashed dark red and words melted into view ... Warning Death Imminent ...

What the... Billy thumbed his screen to see if it would change, but nothing happened, the warning kept flashing. Oh man, this game is a Hack! Shit. He cursed, not paying attention to where he was walking and followed the path between two brick buildings. The smell of garbage roused him. He looked up, he was in a dark alley, with no light, and a dead end. Oops, he stopped and tried to shut his phone off; so the flashing wouldn't kill his battery. His phone wouldn't even respond to the power button.

Ah fuck it. He rammed his phone back into his pocket, he'd figure it out later. Right now he needed to get his food away from the stench and go home. As he turned to go back, the dark alley was suddenly - and for no apparent reason - pitch black. Billy blinked as though his eyes were the problem. Hello? He wasn't sure why he called out, but he no longer felt alone. He dropped his snacks to the ground and took a step back. The air changed from a cool Autumn chill to a wet warmth. Almost like stepping into a sauna, and the smell worsened. Bile rose in his throat as the hot damp air permeated the rotting odor. He no longer knew which way to go and turned around again.

Hello? He called into the darkness. Help? I can't see.

He reached out to find a wall. He knew there would be two brick walls around him. His hand searched blindly to touch something, anything. Suddenly his hands felt a face before him, it was hot and sticky to the touch, he pulled his fingers back quickly. He screamed and jerked back tripping over his own heels and fell hard onto his ass.

The alley brightened with a pulsing red glow and fog rose from the cement. Billy shuffled backward. Who are you? What's going on? He questioned whomever it was that he had just touched.

Suddenly the ground beneath him began to melt. He felt the cold hard cement turn hot and mushy, and he looked around wildly for a way out. What the fuck is happening! He cried out as the ground turned to hot jelly and he felt as though he was sinking into quicksand. He scrambled for footing, trying to get back to his feet so he could run. But he was not able to get purchase. His feet dipped in further, encasing them up to his ankles.

The face reformed out of the mist, the flesh dripping from it, like hot wax. It had no distinguishing features, just red molting skin. The mouth opened exposing a gaping black hole. Then it emitted a high pitched scream of its own and unleashed a torrent of burning bile.

Billy peed his pants as the gore splattered across his face and started to eat through his skin. He