Joseph Waller was cracking open his second beer of the day while looking out his front window. He had a lot of free time lately to focus on things, such as his neighbor's grass. Anything to keep his mind off things. His wife had passed away two years ago; the doctors said it was an undiagnosed heart condition, so he had retired and let his sons run his construction company. Then, a few months after that, his neighbor Dan died as well. Joseph and Dan would wave to each other every weekend during the summer while they mowed, and then after they finished, Dan would come over and have a beer. Dan took pride in his lawn, just like Joseph did.
He had liked Dan, but his son Max? Now that kid was an asshole. He called him Joey, which he hated, and Max didn't mow his grass. Joseph planned to say something to Max about his yard, but the kid was still asleep. He'd have to come out eventually to walk his dog, and when he did, Joseph would confront him. He reached for his phone to check the time when his hand felt something foreign in his pocket. He pulled out a yellow coin. "What the hell?" Joseph grumbled.
He examined the coin closely, noticing an X on one side and smooth on the other. It confused him as to how this ended up in his pocket. Joseph rubbed his thumb over the X and flipped it over. As he pressed his thumb to the smooth side, the coin burned into his skin and became stuck. Joseph yelled out and whipped his hand around, but nothing made the coin come off. It was searing his flesh; he could feel it. That's when he heard his neighbor's dog bark, and he looked outside to see Max walking his dog. The coin fell to the ground and rolled away under a cabinet. Joseph watched the coin disappear before he examined his thumb. Nothing. No burns, no blisters, no swelling. How could that be? It was burning so badly a moment ago. A second bark from Max's dog brought his attention back to his neighbor and his awful lawn. "Son of a bitch!" Joseph muttered as he made his way outside.
-
Jessica woke up. She was still strapped in her pod, and she noticed she had arrived on Earth. She could see through her tiny window to the world outside. It looked flat and brown to her. She only had a moment to examine before a screen turned on. The screen ran through its start-up before a single button appeared that said, "Begin Downloading." Jessica took a deep breath. This part she didn't like. Long before they landed on planets, probes were sent ahead to collect data on everything. This included all the music, movies, and books from that world, as well as full summaries on every sentient being alive. Luckily, this information would be wiped at the end, as the mental weight of it all was hard.
Jessica clicked the button, and she felt the needle enter her arm. Organic information was the quickest way to disseminate so much at once, but it still hurt. She winced as it locked into place, and then it started injecting her. In an instant, she had read every tweet, listened to every song, seen every movie, and heard every last podcast. There were so many podcasts, and so many were awful. The amount of misinformation and hatred she saw was not unique to this planet, but it always bothered her. Finally, she learned about every single human.
Biographies of everyone currently alive flooded her thoughts. She saw them all. Janet, the accountant who had hit a homeless man and left him to die. Jason, the sad alcoholic who was almost evicted. She even knew the difference between MC Ren and MC Shan. There were so many, all with their own lives, none of them actually happy, but they all had a story. She let the information wash over her. Each flash of a person's life was accompanied by their image, and in the middle of this, she saw him. She thrashed in her pod to try to stop the process, but she was too secured. Faces and stories kept entering her mind, but she wanted to see him, to be sure she saw him. The needle was finally pulled from her arm as it finished, and now it was time to copy her consciousness.
As the head covering came down, she closed her eyes and accessed the data she had been injected with. She had to work quickly before they put her to sleep after the copying finished. Jessica scrolled as fast as she could, and she started to panic before she stopped scrolling. Between clenched eyes, she felt the tears warmly begin to pool. It was him, it was her Maximillian. How could he be here, though? His DNA structure was different, even his birth name, but there was no mistaking it. The thoughts of Maximilian dominated her thoughts as she felt the slow scan take place over her thoughts.
This was the man who killed her oppressors. This was the man who died protecting her.
-
Jay sat in her digital room, drinking her digital tea, when the red light began to blink overhead. She sighed, finished her cup, got up to stretch, and paced around. Her room was small, not for any reason other than she wanted it that way. As a digital construct, she could create whatever she wanted, and what she wanted was a cozy space. There was fancy equipment for her to brew her drinks to her taste. She had her seashell collection on display. And her shelves were filled with books of cartoon characters that she had loved when she was a child. Some of the other consciousnesses preferred to go offline in between mazes, but she enjoyed her peace and quiet.
Jay found herself playing memories from when she was physical, from before when she had participated in Maze Twenty. She had relived the big moments of her life many times, such as her nephew being born or when she adopted her pets, but mostly she enjoyed reliving the quiet moments in her life. The screen on the wall was playing a recording of when she had discovered how to make farting noises as a child. She did it so much, her mom would chastise her. The red light just kept blinking, telling her she would be summoned by a user soon. Jay walked to a shelf and pulled out a book that detailed who she was assigned. His name was Max Milden, and he seemed okay. She did wonder if he'd activate her in time. The last two users she had didn't even do that before they were turned into soup.
Jay returned the Book of Max and pulled a different book from the shelf to thumb through while she waited. She reached over to grab her drink when the screen on the wall went white and staticky. Her eyes became fixated on it, and the cup fell to the floor, disappearing in a wave of digital noise. A shadowed face appeared on the screen and began to talk.
"Jaylina Meris, you are to listen carefully," said the voice. This was a game master's voice directly commanding her, and Jay listened. "You will forget this conversation after we have concluded, but you will act on my orders without thought. Your designated player, Max Milden, is dangerous…"
Jay sat and listened as she was given a mission.
-
Church was tired. He was out late into the morning with some coworkers. Working in a restaurant wasn't the best, but there was a fun routine. You'd finish your shift, go drink at the bar until last call, then head over to a coworker's house with a few others to keep it going. By the time Church was awake and had made it back home, his mom had already left for her shift at the hospital. Church walked through his house, up the stairs, and fell onto his bed. He fished around his pocket to grab his phone to watch some videos before he fell asleep. He felt something fall out of his pocket as he rummaged. It was a coin. He thought it was a gold dollar at first, but it was brighter and larger than that. He held it up to his face to examine the newfound coin. "What is this, a Chuck E Cheese coin?" Church snickered at his own joke and tossed it off his bed. He rolled over and closed his eyes.