(Ray)
"What's wrong? Where are you?" Ray asked.
"I'm in my flat." Rody replied, "I—I can't get out! A group of psychos are running around my floor and murdering people. Not just murdering, I think they're even… eating them."
Meghan cupped her face with her hand in disgust.
"Oh shit…" Ray breathed.
"I heard loud screaming coming from my floor. I went outside to see what was happening and that's when I saw them. They were huddled around a woman on the floor and were devouring her. Like a bunch of wild animals, ripping out her skin and—fuck! I don't want to even think about it. I managed to get back inside without being noticed. But now I have nowhere to go."
"How many of them are there?" asked Ray.
"At least four." Rody replied.
Ray closed his eyes and shook his head slowly, "Damn…" he muttered to himself.
"There may be more. I can still hear screams from the neighbor's flat."
"You're only on the third floor right? Can you somehow climb down your balcony?" Ray inquired.
"Yeah, I thought of that but there are a lot of them downstairs too. The moment I reach the ground, I'll get surrounded. I don't know what to do man!"
Ray listened to his friend's pleas with a feeling of helplessness and confusion weighing him down. He thought that getting himself and Meghan to where their parents were would be the biggest of his worries. But now this!
What was he supposed to do in this scenario? How could he possibly save Rody from a group of those monsters when he had struggled to deal with just one of them? It almost seemed impossible.
'What the heck do I do?' he thought to himself, 'Getting out of here is going to be difficult enough as it is. And now Rody needs my help. What do I do here? What the fuck do I do?'
"Ray? You there? Why'd you stop talking? Ray!" Rody whimpered into the phone.
"I'm here…" he replied weakly, "Just give me a second."
Saying so Ray went back to his thoughts, 'If we go to rescue Rody, I'll be putting both mine and Meghan's lives in danger. But if I don't then Rody will die. What do I do? Should the two of us just escape while we still can or risk both our lives to try and save Rody? Oh god, I don't know! I DON'T KNOW! I wasn't trained for this! I'm just a computer programmer that plays video games in my spare time! Why couldn't this be a game? I would have gotten a step-by-step breakdown on how to complete tough missions. If only this were a..."
Just then Ray's eyes widened.
"That's it…" he said.
Meghan gave him a confused frown, "What are you talking about?"
"Side quest!" Ray replied animatedly.
"What?"
"Side quest. This is just like a side quest in a game."
Meghan stared at him with a worried look on her face.
"Ah, I'll explain later." He placed his phone over his ear and spoke, "Rody, I'm coming. I'll get you out of there."
"Oh, thank god! I thought you were going to leave me behind or something. Damn, I was about to cry… please tell me you have a plan."
"I have a plan." Ray acknowledged, "Right now I'm with Momo. We're holed up in her flat. One of those monsters is right outside her door. We were planning to get rid it and head down to Momo's car in the basement parking lot. That's our ticket out of here. We'll come for you the moment we get inside her car."
"But how am I going to get out of my flat?" he asked.
Ray looked up at Meghan, "This is going to be risky." He said more to her than to Rody.
Meghan nodded firmly.
"Alright, listen up." He started, "Going out through your front door is out of the question. Too many to fend off. So, you'll need to climb down the balcony. Here's what we'll do. First, me and Momo will go to the basement and get her car. We'll then drive up and head to the back of your building. We'll lure away the monsters that are on the ground floor and take them as far away from your balcony as possible. Use that time to make your way down. Once you've reached the ground floor we'll come back to pick you and then drive out of Prime together. I know that the plan isn't foolproof and we'll need to really coordinate our timing but it could definitely work. Are you up for it?"
Rody didn't hesitate, "Yeah, I am. I've climbed down the balcony before. If you can manage to get the freaks away from here then it shouldn't be a problem."
Ray nodded, "Then that's what we'll do. Start preparing for your climb down. You better take a weapon with you. Hopefully you won't have to use it."
"Yeah, I'll do that." He said.
"Alright, I'll call you once we're in the car."
"Be safe, man" Rody said.
"You too…"
Saying so, Ray disconnected the call. "We need to start moving." he told Meghan.
"Wait, hold on! We're just going to ignore that random game comment you made earlier?"
"Ah, well…" Ray started, "Truth be told I was kinda panicking… I couldn't see how we could help Rody without putting both of us in considerable danger. I can't let you take that kind of risk. And I couldn't go without you either. I made a promise to your mom, that I would protect you. I'm not going to go back on my word. So that left me with only one other option…"
Meghan gasped in shock, "You wanted to abandon Rody?"
"You think I wanted that?" Ray said with sorrow in his voice, "He's one of my best friends, Momo."
Meghan dropped her gaze, "Right… I'm sorry. That must've been terribly hard on you. To have to decide something like that."
"Yeah, it was." Ray agreed, "I wasn't sure how to deal with all this. All I'm good at is playing video games on my computer. But then it hit me. What if I visualized this whole situation as a game? All I had to do was break down the problem into objective tasks and see how I can complete them using our available resources. In most games, there will be linear path with a bunch of primary missions that progresses the main story. But every now and then you get a couple of secondary missions that are smaller in scale but just as relevant. Those are called side quests. If getting you to your mom is my primary mission then saving Rody is a side quest. The moment I started thinking in these terms, I was able to come up with a solution."
"Wow, that's… I don't even know what to say." Meghan said.
"You think I'm some giant nerd huh?"
"I was thinking more along the lines of evil genius but giant nerd works."
Ray smiled.
"We better go. Do you have everything you need?"
"Yeah… Oh, wait a sec! Let me just go get a change of clothes. If we're going to be fighting these things then it's likely we're going to get covered in blood and stuff. I don't want to meet my parents caked in filth."
"Ahh, you have a point there." Ray admitted.
"You might want to change out of that bloody T-shirt of yours too. We could go to your flat right after. It's just a floor down."
"We'll see…." Ray said uncertainly, "Get your stuff fast and come. We shouldn't be here any longer than we need to."
As he watched Meghan scamper back into her room, Ray lifted up his phone and opened his mother's contact info. He stared at it for a while before pressing the dial button. He watched it ring repeatedly until the pre-recorded message played and the phone automatically disconnected.
He was visibly crestfallen. He expected his mom or his dad to have called him by now. Even if it were just to let him know that they were alive and safe. Not knowing was excruciating. He tried desperately to remain optimistic but the looming fear that something might have happened to them hung over him like a solemn cloud. There was nothing he could do to escape that feeling, try as he might.
It wasn't long before Meghan came back to the living room with a small bag around her shoulders. Ray noticed that she was even wearing different clothes. She had changed into a pair of navy-blue jeans and a baggy black T shirt. She even had a pair of white socks on. Ray figured that she wanted to wear shoes considering how they might have to do quite a bit of running.
Meghan noticed him looking at her change of wardrobe and said, "Easier to move around."
"Yeah, smart." He agreed, "You ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be." She said.
Ray nodded and picked up the pressure cooker from the ground. He definitely found it awkward holding it in his hands. He would have preferred a big hammer or cricket bat but none of those things were at Meghan's house. This cooker was the only other practical option he had to use as a good blunt force weapon. He prayed that his idea would work. If it didn't, he would forever be remembered as the guy who died trying to defend himself with a cooking utensil.
Ray shook that ridiculous idea out of his head and took a deep breath.
"It's time." He said.