Josh burst into his room, slamming the door behind him. The crash echoed through the house but he wasn't concerned, his parents weren't home and wouldn't be for hours. Tossing his red gym bag onto his unmade bed, the young man began pacing around his room. An angry scowl scarred his handsome face, as he angrily kicked aside the dirty clothes left lying on the floor. Standing at six foot two inches with a muscular build, Josh filled the stereotypical image of an all American jock, even had short sandy blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. His attractive appearance and status as the captain of the varsity baseball team had made him extremely popular in school. Though he had many people who would be considered friends, none would be coming to comfort him tonight. They knew it would be pointless.
Today Josh and his team competed in the state championships and his team had lost. The loss wasn't the cause behind the teen's disgruntled state, He had been proud to have made it there to begin with. No, his frustration came from a short conversation just before the game had begun. Josh had been doing his usual pregame stretches when he heard a male call out from behind him.
"You guys did well this year, too bad you'll lose. I'm guessing no more than a two point difference too. Such a shame."
Josh at the time ignored the prediction but it sat in his head throughout the game. Where it came true, Josh's team lost by just one point. He had left the game soon after and made his way home that conceited voice in the back of his head.
"Josh" the same voice called from the floor below, followed by the front door shutting. Josh glared at the door, listening to the sound of someone making their way up the stairs. The door opened slightly and a head popped in, a confident smirk playing at a young man's face.
"Your coach wasn't happy you left so early," he said making his way fully into Josh's room. He was 17 just two months younger than Josh and stood almost as tall. This was Josh's step brother Lance, also known as the cause for most of Josh's frustrations.
"He'll understand." Josh said simply glaring and the opposing teen.
"If you say so," Lance said with an indifferent shrug, a long pause followed as neither boy said what they were thinking. Josh was the one to finally break the silence.
"You couldn't have just let me play?" he asked angrily. Lance faked a look of confusion.
"Whatever do you mean?" he asked, though the corners of his lips were still slightly up.
"You couldn't just let me and my team play without saying anything? You just had to put in your ridiculous predictions." Josh accused.
"I figured you could enjoy the game more if you already knew the outcome." Lance explained, moving over to look out the window.
Josh glared at his step brother in silence for a moment before letting out a sigh "How did you know?" he finally asked. He hated how his stepbrother acted, thinking he always knew what was best, but Josh had to admit the feedback had certainly helped him lead the team to the championship.
"Sean's knee still isn't completely healed, his speed wasn't enough. Along with John and Martin clearly having a few beers before the game it was inevitable." Lance explained without looking from the window. Josh frowned at the new information, he'd have to have a chat with the players on Monday. The jock took a seat at the dark wood desk taking up a corner of the room and started up his computer.
"You should get some rest," Lance said meeting his brother's gaze "It's obvious you haven’t gotten more than three hours sleep the past few nights." Josh scoffed, he doubted Lance really understood what obvious meant.
"I will after in send out some emails, let the team know I’m alright."
"Very well" the thin teen gave another indifferent shrug and made his way to the still open door. With a final good night he left the room. Josh looked at the door wondering how these conversations would look to others. After living together for six years they had become routine for Josh. Lance had always been a smart kid, especially when it came to predicting human behavior. It had been almost scary when he had first witnessed these predictions, now it was just a daily annoyance. Pushing aside his thoughts about his stepbrother Josh began writing an email to his coach explaining why he had left. A muffled beep from down the hall could be heard, telling him Lance was now on his own computer.
‘Want to know the meaning of life? Want to live… a real life?’
Halfway through his email josh was interrupted by an odd pop up. The teen frowned at the sight, he didn't know how he could've gotten a virus. Moving his mouse in order to close the window and hopefully keep his computer safe Josh paused when he passed over the yes button. His heart skipped a beat as if something special would happen if he clicked on it. Josh looked at the pop up closely.
‘Want to know the meaning of life? Want to live… a real life?’
He clicked yes and then blacked out.
"This one here has Psyche Force potential" a female voice brought Josh back into consciousness. The unknown voice instantly put him on alert and he rose from the soft grass covered grown he had been laying on.
"Oh good another early riser" a cheerful male voice spoke up.
"Doesn't look like he has the potential like the other one though." an extremely deep voice that seemed to be echoing commented.
"Doesn't matter we’ll take what we can get." the female voice said. Josh took in his surrounding and felt a cold dread shoot through his chest when he noticed several bodies lying around him. Five people were standing in a small circle around one unconscious girl. They appeared for the most part normal people except for one giant clad in armor. If it hadn't been moving Josh would've though it was a statue. A woman in her early twenties made her way to Josh and extended her hand.
"Hi my name is Gwen, I know you’re probably really confused but I'll explain as soon as everyone wakes up. Observe." the woman made her introduction with a friendly tone and cheerful expression but Josh didn't shake her hand. He was busy checking out the others who were also observing him. The oldest looked to be a woman in her thirties who was standing apart from the rest as if she didn't trust them. She had an average face and long black hair but her eyes were cold and calculating. After making eye contact with Josh she turned away and focused on looking at the people who were still sleeping. There were two more young men standing in the group. One stood in front of the others almost like he was the leader, his hair was dirty blonde and shaggy but his demeanor was confident and proud. He had a toothy grin plastered on his face and Josh noticed his canines looked bigger than average. The last boy didn't leave much of an impression except for his hair which was a light pink color almost like cotton candy, he also wore glasses and had a rose colored book in his hands.
"What's going on?" he asked the woman in front of him but when he looked at her she didn't seem to notice him. Her focus looked to be on something between the two but Josh couldn't see anything. Her eyes were moving like she was reading. The shaggy haired man moved towards the two and put his arm around the girl.
"How's he look?" he asked motioning towards Josh.
"Slightly above average stats and a decent background." Gwen said still looking like she was reading the air.
"Any skills?" He asked his smile widening, showing off his large canines.
"Nothing really, some leadership potential but you already have that taken Logan." the woman finished and then motioned in the air before removing the man's arm from her shoulder. At this time the rest of the people on the ground began moving with varied reactions. The majority began to shout, one man who had woken up next to the armor clad statue began to cry and a few simply looked around in numb confusion. One individual had a unique reaction.
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"Josh?" a familiar voice called out. Josh turned and felt his heart freeze when he saw Lance standing only a few feet away from him. He quickly ran towards his step brother and grabbed his forearm.
"Lance are you okay?" he asked quickly "Do you know what's going on?"
"I'm fine and I was about to ask you that." Lance said his eyes constantly moving, taking in all of his surroundings. "Any information?"
"The smiling couple is named Gwen and Logan." Josh said with a shrug "She said she'd explain once everyone woke up."
"Do you remember falling asleep?" Lance focused solely on Josh waiting for his answer.
"No, I was in my room writing an email when this pop up add came up."
"You too?" Lance interrupted his eyes widening in surprise. Before the two could speak anymore a deafening ringing crossed the meadow. The giant's hands were now pressed together as if he was praying. This had effectively silenced everyone in the clearing.
"Alright now that we have your attention, we will explain what is going on" Logan called out raising his arms towards the rest of his group but before he could start a man in his late 40's cried out.
"How did you kidnap me? How much do you want this time?" he shouted almost frantically.
"Shut up!" Instantly gone was the smiling man from before, a fierce expression twisted his face. Faster than anyone could follow Logan appeared in front of the frantic man and slammed his fist into the man's pudgy belly. Several loud cracks could be heard and blood shot out of his mouth. The older man folded into himself and he began to sob from the pain. Instantly Logan had his easy going smile back on his face as he looked towards the others. Gwen shook her head at her leader’s antics and nudged the pink haired man.
"Matt would you mind? We don't need him bleeding out." she asked casually as if it were a small favor. No one dared to utter a sound after this display of inhuman strength, Josh felt his stomach tighten as the sound of bones snapping rang in his ears. Lance held a forced impassive face as he watched the man named Matt move towards the injured guy.
Matt knelt next to the wounded man and opened his book. An impressive rose colored light began to shine from the book.
"Saifogeo" he cried out. Above his head a large cross-shaped sword appeared, a small orb with wings on either side floated above it. This elicited cries of surprise from the newly awoken people, though the other members of Logan's group acted like it was completely normal. With a wave of his arm Matt lowered the sword and impaled the still crying man.
"No!" Josh shouted and moved as if to rush forward but Lance quickly grabbed him and held him back. Lance was focused on the sword as the two wings began to circle around the sphere. Instantly the man stopped moaning and the blood that had been coming from his mouth stopped. The sword slowly faded like it had appeared and Matt stood and made his way to the Giant's side, nodding towards Logan to continue.
"Now then” Logan yelled out with his usual toothy grin "You saw what happens when I’m interrupted. Matt can heal nine more times, that enough for each of you." Lance let out a small grunt at that point but Josh was the only one who heard it and was the only one who knew what it meant. Lance had noticed something. "My name is Logan and I’m the leader of team Western America. Gwen here will now explain what exactly that means and what has happened to you, Gwen." the so called leader stepped aside and Gwen stepped forward to explain what has happened to everyone.
Josh felt himself going numb as he heard the truth of his situation, he had been kidnapped. Not just kidnapped from his home but his own dimension. This was a place known as God's Dimension, a place of never ending struggle and terror. Where he would be placed within different horror movies and given missions. At any point he could die and there were no second chances, and the only compensation would be points given out at the end of each movie, to be traded for items and abilities.
"This is impossible" he whispered to himself but he knew the words were hollow. He had already seen a man move with speed and strength that shouldn't have been possible not to mention the other summoning a magic sword that can heal people. Josh gave a side ward glance to Lance but the other boy didn't seem to even notice Josh's or anyone else existence at that point.
"Now that we've got the basics covered let’s move on to the more pressing matters." Gwen continued after leaving a moment for everyone to absorb the information. "As I’m sure you remember Logan introduced himself as leader of team Western America, can anyone guess why we're called that?"
"We're all from western states?" Josh guessed.
"Well kind of, this time around we have the majority from the United States but we can also get people from Mexico and Canada. The exact borders are not clear, we've even gotten people from Texas but the majority are from along the western shore. Now can anyone guess why this is important right now?"
"There are other teams" Lance said his gaze still unfocused.
Gwen smiled "Exactly and we'll be encountering a team in this movie in what's known as a team battle." This brought Lance out of his thoughts and made Josh tense up.
"You mean people like him are going to be coming after us?" one of the newbies asked in a panicked tone pointing towards Logan who smile viciously.
"Not necessarily" Gwen said though there was no comfort in her tone "The enemy team might not want to fight but instead work with us to complete the movie."
"What are the chances of that?" Lance asked doubt clear on his face.
"Low but still better than in most cases." she said cheerfully. "God determines missions and movies through an evaluation of a team's strength and ability. The movie before this ended up wiping out more than half the team so our rating is pretty low, this means the other team is also pretty low. God wouldn't send us against a team that completely out classed us."
"What movie?" Lance asked.
"Final Destination" Logan spoke up, his eyes had turned cold "You don't know terror until death himself is hunting for you."
"That was the movie that I came in" Gwen said sadly "I only survived out of pure luck."
"We all did" Matt spoke for the first time besides reading his spell.
"Anyway that’s not what we should be focused on the point is we are at our weakest and are in a good position to recruit new team members." Gwen tried to turn the mood around but it wasn't enough. The Final Destination series was extremely well known, even if someone didn't actually see the movie they knew how hopeless the situation was for the characters. Now they would have to face the same hopelessness. Several people began crying at this point begging to be sent home, a few like the man who had been beaten began to yell once more forcing their frustration on to the veterans. Josh and Lance stood silently, josh had grabbed onto Lance again. If they didn't have each other for some comfort neither knew how they would've reacted.
"Shut it!" Logan yelled once more but didn't move. Everyone quieted down immediately. "Now everyone is going to introduce themselves. Name, Age, Occupation, and any useful skills." He pointed at the man he had previously beaten to start.
Lance let out a small curse besides Josh "We're in trouble"
Josh turned to his step brother "You're just figuring that out? We're in a horror movie"
"Not that, this evaluation. We're going to be at the bottom of the list" Lance said gesturing as if the horror movie was irrelevant.
"I would think the out of shape and old people would be bottom." Josh said though he didn't think they'd be high.
"Hopefully but they could have unique skills and experiences. We're not even out of high school, what do we have to offer?" Lance said negatively. Before Josh could answer it was their turns to introduce themselves.
"My name is Josh I'm 17 and a senior in high school. I don't have a lot of skills but I was the first to wake up in the group." While he didn't like scraping for praise Josh could tell it would be best to have the support of the veterans.
"Second" Lance corrected. The veterans turned to him in surprise.
"Second?" Logan asked.
"Josh was second to wake up." Lance explained simply" She was the first to wake up." He pointed towards the cold eyed girl who had been standing when Josh had woken up.
"I'm impressed" Logan said with an approving nod "Care to explain how you knew that?"
“When you threatened us, you said Matt could use his spell once more for each newbie. This meant there had to be ten newbies total, I could only assume this was the girl who has shown no abilities or real trust amongst your group.” Lance gave his analysis as if it were obvious, which it was if you paid that much attention.
“That’s good, not many people would notice such a small detail.” Logan praised, “What’s your name?”
“Lance also a 17 year old high school senior.”
“Well Lance I’ll be keeping an eye on you” the leader turned towards the cold-eyed girl “Since you’ve been noticed why don’t you introduce yourself.”
“My name is Steele, former military sniper,” she spoke in a serious manner proving her military background.
“Great, now that everyone has introduced themselves let’s talk about our mission.” Gwen said pointing towards a watch on her wrist “You all have a watch like this which displays the movie and mission.” Josh was surprised he hadn’t noticed the watch earlier, looking at the screen he read the mission.
Movie: Jeepers Creepers (Team Battle)
Mission: Survive 7 days. After 3 days team East Africa will enter the movie world. On day 6 the creeper will be able to track all surviving members.
Team Battle Rules: Killing a normal member will be rewarded 2000 points and a C rank reward, killing an unlocked member will be rewarded 7000 points and a rank B reward. Having a member killed by the other team will deduct one point, killing a member of the other team will earn one point. The final amount multiplied by 2000 will be rewarded by every remaining member.