Do Not Cross the Line

Zack was a 23 year old who lived with his 9 year old cousin. The four of their parents had died about 3 years earlier, so Zack took it upon himself to take care of his young cousin named Nick. Zack had a job where he could work from his apartment, so he could stay with his cousin all of the time. He rarely left him alone. The only thing they had to remember of their parents was an old Atari 2600 that their dads used to play.

Zack was finished with a good portion of his work done, so he went to check his mail. Nick was playing the Atari. Zack went to his mailbox and saw he had a bill, a check, and a small package. He brought the mail to his apartment and put it on the table. The package had no return address. Zack was suspicious, so he threw the package away.

"I'm going to deposit this check. Be back in 20 minutes, alright?"

"Okay."

Zack left the apartment. As soon as Nick saw Zack out the window, Nick went over to the trash to see what the package was. He opened it to find an Atari game called Do Not Cross The Line. the picture was of an alien with a laser gun shooting over a line at a cowboy. Nick blew on the cartridge and put it into the Atari. The game booted up and the level select screen came up. Nick presses level one and the game started.

A green figure stood on one side of a white line and a cowboy on the other. The action shot and the joystick moved the green figure up, down, left, and right. Nick shot the cowboy and it blew up, showing a bright array of colors. It went back to the level select screen. So, Nick selected level 2.

Now there were 2 cowboys. Nick got hit and the alien blew up. A crude UFO came out of nowhere and dropped a new alien. Nick was more careful and went to a new level selct screen. This screen showed green and grey ashes at the bottom. Nick went to select level 3, but there was no level 3. Nick wasn't used to the Atari because Zack didn't let him use it very often. He thought it was a glitch. So he selected 4. There were 6 cowboys now. Nick died after killing only 2 cowboys. The alien fell over and died.

The UFO picked him up and dropped a new one.

Nick killed another couple of cowboys before getting shot again. This time, the alien’s head came off. After the UFO came again, Nick finally killed the last cowboy. The level select scree came up again. Along with the pile of ash, a knocked over alien, and one without it’s head.Nick figured these were the ones that died and selected level 5 which had a subtitle: The Last Stand.

Zack then walked in. He looked at Nick and said “Havin fun?” Nick replied with a yes and Zack went to his room to check for emails

Nick selected the level and saw a total of 10 cowboys. He died many times, but finally made it to the last guy. He was on the farthest right that he could be. Nick’s bullets couldn’t reach him. So Nick moved over across the white line.

The game then froze.

Nick couldn’t move. He reset the game. Now the title screen came up and Nick hit the button. Now the level select screen said level 3 and had all of the dead bodies from Nick’s previous playing. Nick started and a flash of 7 different colors came within 2 seconds. Nick fell backwards.

Zack heard him fall and rushed to the living room. He saw Nick on the ground with foam in his mouth and a picture on the screen of an alien tied to a cross with the text I Warned You at the bottom.

3 days had passed and Nick was still acting strange. After the doctors said they had seen nothing like this, zack was losing a little hope. The game had still been in the Atari. Zack ripped it out and threw it out the trash. Nick slowly walked over and grabbed it. He placed it on the table and said:

“Only one way.”

Zack then threw it out the window. To his surprise, it didn’t break. Nick ran down the stairs, grabbed it, and came back up, yet again saying “Only one way” Zack tried multiple different ways to get rid of the game, but every time Nick would say “Only one way” and place it back on the table.

Zack was at his last wits when he was taking out the trash in his room. He saw the package the game had come in. This gave him an idea. He went to the post office and got a box. He google earthed a place far far away and put the address on the box, without his own address. He threw it in the mailbox.

After 3-5 business days, Nick fell out of his trance, his last words being “Please, do not cross the line.”