Short Story : Zero Sum
Game developer Gary Applebaum stared at the screen in front of him, watching the words “Would You Like To Play Again” as they blinked on the monitor, prompting him to either select yes or no. He’d been creating old school computer games for almost a decade now, creating brand new games that appeared to be classic simply because of their graphics and the type of game play they involved. He’d won awards for his classic arcade games for their originality, which always made him smile as he contemplated the fact that the games he’d created were about as original as Arianna Grande’s nose.
As he sat back in his chair, he looked at the screen. The game was good – sort of like Super Mario but with marginally better graphics – and you had to guide your character through the levels and save his two friends from certain death. The problem was, he’d made the game too difficult.
Even he couldn’t figure out how to program the game to allow him to rescue both of them.
Something had gone wrong with the programming which led to the unfair problem that once he’d rescued one character, the other one would die. No matter which way he went about it he couldn’t rescue them both. It was very frustrating.
“I give up,” Gary mumbled to himself, kicking the table on which his Apple Mac stood, then pushed out from his chair and got to his feet. Maybe if he slept on the problem he’d think of a solution, but sitting there staring at a blinking screen was not going to help him much.
As he left his office and flicked off the lights, he didn’t notice his Mac’s monitor flicker back into life as the machine started to spark and fizz dangerously.
The next morning, after a restless night spent thinking about how he could fix his game, Gary awoke to the sound of a klaxon-like alarm. He reached out to switch off his alarm clock before he realised he didn’t have one. Sitting bolt upright in his bed, Gary looked around his room, finally resting his eyes on the curtained window through which he could see a strange flickering orange light. Still half asleep, Gary threw his legs over the side of the bed and walked slowly towards the window.
Upon pulling back the curtains, Gary was faced with a terrible sight. Flames appeared to be everyone, as far as the eye could see. That’s when he realised that his girlfriend, Betty, hadn’t been in bed when he’d woken up.
Where could she be?
As he pondered this, his telephone rang. Still not sure what to make of the situation, and slightly in shock, Gary reached out and answered it.
“Hello?” he said absently.
“Gary?” a voice spoke, “Gary, it’s me, Tony!”
Gary gasped at the fear he heard in his best friend’s voice, “Tony? Are you okay?”
“No,” Tony replied, “I’m being held captive by some sort of...creatures. I don’t know what they are, but I’m scared, Gary. I’m scared. They’ve got me in the warehouse at the end of the street. Hurry!”
“Have you contacted the police?” Gary asked. He wasn’t convinced that Tony was being held captive by anything that could honestly be described as creatures – maybe just some very unattractive people – but he knew he was in some sort of trouble.
“They only let me contact you.” Tony sniffed. It sounded like he was crying, “They said only you could save me.”
Gary grimaced at the phone’s handset. What on earth was going on? It almost sounded like some sort of...
“Game!” Gary concluded, “This is all just a game.”
“Don’t worry, Tony,” Gary smiled, “I’ll find you.”
Gary hung up the phone and smiled to himself. Either this was a vivid dream, or it was the opportunity for some real life role playing game. Either way, it sounded like fun.
Gary raced out of his flat, having forgotten all about his absent girlfriend, and headed in the direction of the warehouse. As he approached, he realised that this was where the flames originated, and they’d spread down most of the street.
“This must be a dream,” he told himself. “no-one could make fake flames look so realistic. And no-one would just set fire to a street for some game.”
As he approached the warehouse, a giant squid appeared as if from nowhere. It looked remarkably like the one he’d designed for his own game, only much more realistic looking.
“What the hell?” Gary’s mouth gaped open as the squid spun in the air in front of him, it’s tentacles whipping out in all directions. Gary ducked and dove to escape the squid, finally finding refuge behind an abandoned car. As he looked around for some sort of weapon to use against the squid he found what looked like a nerf gun, fully loaded with sponges, lying under beside the rear tyre of the car. He shrugged, picking it up and aiming it at the squid. As he fired, the squid’s movements became more erratic until it exploded into a million pixels.
“Well, that was easy enough,” Gary grinned, lowering the nerf gun to his side and racing towards the open doors of the warehouse.
Inside the warehouse, Gary saw his friend Tony, tied up and standing on a shaky platform above a flaming pit, but on the other side of the warehouse he could see his girlfriend Betty in a similar situation.
“What the...” Gary began, before a strange creature suddenly appeared in the room and walked towards him.
“You must choose who you wish to save.” The creature said loudly, “Choose – and accept your decision.”
Gary looked at Betty, then at Tony, trying to choose who to rescue first. The obvious choice was Betty, his girlfriend, but perhaps rescuing Tony would give him someone else who could fight off the creatures that were slowly appearing in the warehouse doorway. Betty was pretty useless when it came to physical violence, but she was his girlfriend...
Finally making a decision, Gary raced across the warehouse towards Betty, hoping that his time pausing to think hadn’t made him too late to save her. If this wasn’t a game, he had to move quickly.
When he reached Betty, he saw she was unconscious, he head lolling down to her chest as she hung by her wrists above another shaky platform. He clambered onto the platform and started to untie her wrists, preparing himself to take her weight by propping her free arm over his shoulder. Once he’d untied her second wrist, Betty slumped onto Gary’s shoulder and he carefully clambered down from the platform.
Looking towards the doors to the warehouse, he saw the unspeakable creatures had been heading towards Tony, who was screaming with fear. As Gary watched, the creatures swarmed over his friend, tearing into him as his screams disappeared into a gurgle of blood. Gary’s eyes widened as the building around him warped and vanished from sight...
Gary’s eyes snapped open – he was back in his bedroom, a klaxon sound ringing throughout the room. Before he could get to his window to see the devastation of the street, his phone began to ring. It was Tony again. The game, if that’s what it was, had started over.
“I’m being held captive by some sort of...creatures. I don’t know what they are, but I’m scared, Gary. I’m scared. They’ve got me in the warehouse at the end of the street. Hurry!”
Gary stared at the handset. That was word for word what Tony had said before. Was he in fact in a game? Had it reset back to the beginning? This was one weird dream.
“Just hold on,” Gary told Tony, “I’ll save both of you this time.”
Gary ran down to the street and, reaching the warehouse, he headed straight for the car that had been hiding the nerf gun. As he picked it up, the giant squid appeared again, and Gary quickly shot him until he disappeared.
The warehouse was just as he’d found it previously, with Tony and Betty hanging by their wrists above shaky platforms. Gary didn’t wait for the creature to appear before heading straight for Tony. Maybe if he rescued Tony, the two of them would be quick enough to rescue Betty as well.
“Gary!” Tony shouted as his friend leapt onto the platform and started to undo the restraints on his wrists, “You made it.”
“Yes,” Gary said blandly, “and this time I’m going to save you both.”
“This time?” Tony repeated as a strange creature appeared before them.
“You must choose who you wish to save.” The creature said loudly, “Choose – and accept your decision.”
“I already have chosen, you idiot,” Gary grumbled as Tony’s second wrist came loose. The two of them jumped down from the platform and began to run towards Betty, but the hoards of creatures that had been coming through the doors had already reached her and silently they started to devour her.
“What are they?” Tony asked, near tears, “What’s going on?”
Gary was about to tell him he had no idea when everything around him vanished again and he was back in his bedroom.
This time Gary calmly clambered out of the bed, walking straight towards the phone as the klaxon rang. As the phone began to ring, Gary swiftly lifted the receiver then hung it straight back up before leaving his flat.
He walked to the warehouse, heading for the car with the nerf gun and making quick work of the materialising squid before walking through the warehouse doors.
Where he waited.
The creature appeared and looked at Gary, “You must choose who you wish to save. Choose – and accept—”
“Blah blah blah,” Gary said in a cocky tone, “So, how do I win the game?”
The creature stared at him, “Sorry?”
“How do I win?”
The creature paused, not quite sure what to say, then spoke.
“You don’t.”
Gary should have looked stunned, but he didn’t, “What do you mean?” he asked.
“Well,” the creature began, “if you save Betty, then Tony gets eaten, but if you save Tony then Betty gets eaten.”
“I see,” Gary nodded, “so if I save one person, the other one dies?”
“Correct,” said the creature.
“huh,” Gary said calmly, “it’s something of a zero sum situation, isn’t it? Whatever I gain, I lose just as equally.”
“You could say that,” said the creature.
“Then I might as well lose spectacularly,” Gary smiled, pointing the nerf gun at his chin.
The creature stared, “That won’t kill you,” it said, “it’s just a nerf gun.”
“But this is my game,” Gary said, “and I play it by my rules.”
He pulled the trigger, and the game ended.
He woke to find himself back in his flat, Betty asleep next to him. He smiled, rolling over and going back to sleep.
The next day when he arrived at the office, he found his Mac fizzing silently in the corner of his office. His friend Tony was stood next to it with a fire extinguisher.
“We came in this morning and found it like this,” he said, “I don’t think we’ll be able to get anything from the disks. Did you have backups?”
“No,” said Gary calmly, “but it doesn’t matter. I think someone... or something... was trying to tell me that the game wasn’t going to work out anyway.”
“So what are you going to do now?” Tony asked.
Gary shrugged, “I guess I’ll just have to start over, won’t I?”
Originally Posted 5/1/2016
Result - 1st Place
As he sat back in his chair, he looked at the screen. The game was good – sort of like Super Mario but with marginally better graphics – and you had to guide your character through the levels and save his two friends from certain death. The problem was, he’d made the game too difficult.
Even he couldn’t figure out how to program the game to allow him to rescue both of them.
Something had gone wrong with the programming which led to the unfair problem that once he’d rescued one character, the other one would die. No matter which way he went about it he couldn’t rescue them both. It was very frustrating.
“I give up,” Gary mumbled to himself, kicking the table on which his Apple Mac stood, then pushed out from his chair and got to his feet. Maybe if he slept on the problem he’d think of a solution, but sitting there staring at a blinking screen was not going to help him much.
As he left his office and flicked off the lights, he didn’t notice his Mac’s monitor flicker back into life as the machine started to spark and fizz dangerously.
The next morning, after a restless night spent thinking about how he could fix his game, Gary awoke to the sound of a klaxon-like alarm. He reached out to switch off his alarm clock before he realised he didn’t have one. Sitting bolt upright in his bed, Gary looked around his room, finally resting his eyes on the curtained window through which he could see a strange flickering orange light. Still half asleep, Gary threw his legs over the side of the bed and walked slowly towards the window.
Upon pulling back the curtains, Gary was faced with a terrible sight. Flames appeared to be everyone, as far as the eye could see. That’s when he realised that his girlfriend, Betty, hadn’t been in bed when he’d woken up.
Where could she be?
As he pondered this, his telephone rang. Still not sure what to make of the situation, and slightly in shock, Gary reached out and answered it.
“Hello?” he said absently.
“Gary?” a voice spoke, “Gary, it’s me, Tony!”
Gary gasped at the fear he heard in his best friend’s voice, “Tony? Are you okay?”
“No,” Tony replied, “I’m being held captive by some sort of...creatures. I don’t know what they are, but I’m scared, Gary. I’m scared. They’ve got me in the warehouse at the end of the street. Hurry!”
“Have you contacted the police?” Gary asked. He wasn’t convinced that Tony was being held captive by anything that could honestly be described as creatures – maybe just some very unattractive people – but he knew he was in some sort of trouble.
“They only let me contact you.” Tony sniffed. It sounded like he was crying, “They said only you could save me.”
Gary grimaced at the phone’s handset. What on earth was going on? It almost sounded like some sort of...
“Game!” Gary concluded, “This is all just a game.”
“Don’t worry, Tony,” Gary smiled, “I’ll find you.”
Gary hung up the phone and smiled to himself. Either this was a vivid dream, or it was the opportunity for some real life role playing game. Either way, it sounded like fun.
Gary raced out of his flat, having forgotten all about his absent girlfriend, and headed in the direction of the warehouse. As he approached, he realised that this was where the flames originated, and they’d spread down most of the street.
“This must be a dream,” he told himself. “no-one could make fake flames look so realistic. And no-one would just set fire to a street for some game.”
As he approached the warehouse, a giant squid appeared as if from nowhere. It looked remarkably like the one he’d designed for his own game, only much more realistic looking.
“What the hell?” Gary’s mouth gaped open as the squid spun in the air in front of him, it’s tentacles whipping out in all directions. Gary ducked and dove to escape the squid, finally finding refuge behind an abandoned car. As he looked around for some sort of weapon to use against the squid he found what looked like a nerf gun, fully loaded with sponges, lying under beside the rear tyre of the car. He shrugged, picking it up and aiming it at the squid. As he fired, the squid’s movements became more erratic until it exploded into a million pixels.
“Well, that was easy enough,” Gary grinned, lowering the nerf gun to his side and racing towards the open doors of the warehouse.
Inside the warehouse, Gary saw his friend Tony, tied up and standing on a shaky platform above a flaming pit, but on the other side of the warehouse he could see his girlfriend Betty in a similar situation.
“What the...” Gary began, before a strange creature suddenly appeared in the room and walked towards him.
“You must choose who you wish to save.” The creature said loudly, “Choose – and accept your decision.”
Gary looked at Betty, then at Tony, trying to choose who to rescue first. The obvious choice was Betty, his girlfriend, but perhaps rescuing Tony would give him someone else who could fight off the creatures that were slowly appearing in the warehouse doorway. Betty was pretty useless when it came to physical violence, but she was his girlfriend...
Finally making a decision, Gary raced across the warehouse towards Betty, hoping that his time pausing to think hadn’t made him too late to save her. If this wasn’t a game, he had to move quickly.
When he reached Betty, he saw she was unconscious, he head lolling down to her chest as she hung by her wrists above another shaky platform. He clambered onto the platform and started to untie her wrists, preparing himself to take her weight by propping her free arm over his shoulder. Once he’d untied her second wrist, Betty slumped onto Gary’s shoulder and he carefully clambered down from the platform.
Looking towards the doors to the warehouse, he saw the unspeakable creatures had been heading towards Tony, who was screaming with fear. As Gary watched, the creatures swarmed over his friend, tearing into him as his screams disappeared into a gurgle of blood. Gary’s eyes widened as the building around him warped and vanished from sight...
Gary’s eyes snapped open – he was back in his bedroom, a klaxon sound ringing throughout the room. Before he could get to his window to see the devastation of the street, his phone began to ring. It was Tony again. The game, if that’s what it was, had started over.
“I’m being held captive by some sort of...creatures. I don’t know what they are, but I’m scared, Gary. I’m scared. They’ve got me in the warehouse at the end of the street. Hurry!”
Gary stared at the handset. That was word for word what Tony had said before. Was he in fact in a game? Had it reset back to the beginning? This was one weird dream.
“Just hold on,” Gary told Tony, “I’ll save both of you this time.”
Gary ran down to the street and, reaching the warehouse, he headed straight for the car that had been hiding the nerf gun. As he picked it up, the giant squid appeared again, and Gary quickly shot him until he disappeared.
The warehouse was just as he’d found it previously, with Tony and Betty hanging by their wrists above shaky platforms. Gary didn’t wait for the creature to appear before heading straight for Tony. Maybe if he rescued Tony, the two of them would be quick enough to rescue Betty as well.
“Gary!” Tony shouted as his friend leapt onto the platform and started to undo the restraints on his wrists, “You made it.”
“Yes,” Gary said blandly, “and this time I’m going to save you both.”
“This time?” Tony repeated as a strange creature appeared before them.
“You must choose who you wish to save.” The creature said loudly, “Choose – and accept your decision.”
“I already have chosen, you idiot,” Gary grumbled as Tony’s second wrist came loose. The two of them jumped down from the platform and began to run towards Betty, but the hoards of creatures that had been coming through the doors had already reached her and silently they started to devour her.
“What are they?” Tony asked, near tears, “What’s going on?”
Gary was about to tell him he had no idea when everything around him vanished again and he was back in his bedroom.
This time Gary calmly clambered out of the bed, walking straight towards the phone as the klaxon rang. As the phone began to ring, Gary swiftly lifted the receiver then hung it straight back up before leaving his flat.
He walked to the warehouse, heading for the car with the nerf gun and making quick work of the materialising squid before walking through the warehouse doors.
Where he waited.
The creature appeared and looked at Gary, “You must choose who you wish to save. Choose – and accept—”
“Blah blah blah,” Gary said in a cocky tone, “So, how do I win the game?”
The creature stared at him, “Sorry?”
“How do I win?”
The creature paused, not quite sure what to say, then spoke.
“You don’t.”
Gary should have looked stunned, but he didn’t, “What do you mean?” he asked.
“Well,” the creature began, “if you save Betty, then Tony gets eaten, but if you save Tony then Betty gets eaten.”
“I see,” Gary nodded, “so if I save one person, the other one dies?”
“Correct,” said the creature.
“huh,” Gary said calmly, “it’s something of a zero sum situation, isn’t it? Whatever I gain, I lose just as equally.”
“You could say that,” said the creature.
“Then I might as well lose spectacularly,” Gary smiled, pointing the nerf gun at his chin.
The creature stared, “That won’t kill you,” it said, “it’s just a nerf gun.”
“But this is my game,” Gary said, “and I play it by my rules.”
He pulled the trigger, and the game ended.
He woke to find himself back in his flat, Betty asleep next to him. He smiled, rolling over and going back to sleep.
The next day when he arrived at the office, he found his Mac fizzing silently in the corner of his office. His friend Tony was stood next to it with a fire extinguisher.
“We came in this morning and found it like this,” he said, “I don’t think we’ll be able to get anything from the disks. Did you have backups?”
“No,” said Gary calmly, “but it doesn’t matter. I think someone... or something... was trying to tell me that the game wasn’t going to work out anyway.”
“So what are you going to do now?” Tony asked.
Gary shrugged, “I guess I’ll just have to start over, won’t I?”
Originally Posted 5/1/2016
Result - 1st Place
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