23 | Dream

                                    

                                          
Did I not say thanks for 400 reads?! Tyyy
                          
-Cas
                          
George couldn't stop staring.
                          
Call me Dream. That was what Clay had just said.
                          
What the hell?
                          
Clay - or, rather, Dream - was just sitting there, on the kitchen floor, a triumphant grin on his face. The kitchen was gradually filling with the smell of burning eggs.
                          
George grabbed his arm. "Clay? What the- are you okay?"
Clay's grin faded away, and he nodded. "Yeah- George, listen: I had a vision, like this thing, it was really weird-"
George stared. "A vision? What-"
"Yeah, a vision! I was like green, lime green, and everything was all... blocky, somehow, and you were there! You were chasing me, and screaming DREAAAAM-" he yelled it, and George flinched. "And your accent was like so much, and oh my god, George, I'm Dream, we made it together, we made it together!" He was just babbling at this point; George couldn't understand a thing he was saying.
                          
"Woah woah woah, slow down," George broke in. "You were green? Blocks? I don't understand-"
Dream took a deep breath. "Yeah! It was like some kind of simulation. I was in a large field, with a green hill, and everything was just... made of, like, blocks! It was amazing! And we were playing some sort of game: You were chasing me, and it was kind of scary, but really fun - and I changed perspective and I could see myself! I was lime green and had a smiley face on my front!"
George, open-mouthed, struggled to perceive what he was hearing. After a few moments, he responded.
                          
"What did I look like?"
Dream raised an eyebrow. "You were wearing blue pants and a light blue shirt with a red rectangle on it, and you had like clout goggles on," he replied.
                          
George grinned. "Clout goggles? I have a pair at home that I like, that's epic!"
Dream grinned. "You didn't let me finish - you hit me with an axe or something, and it did hearts-" he didn't know where the reference was from, but he continued: "I was running, you were right behind me, and-" he shook his head. "I just snapped out of it, I guess..."
                          
George, too, was grinning. "That's... amazing!" The grin slid off his face. "Wait, you said we made it together? Made what together?"
Dream frowned in concentration. "The game, I think. I don't know what it's called, but I remember programming the blocks in..." he paused, then continued. "Yeah, we worked on it together, for the government! We made all those animal things, the... the mobs, remember? The really cool ones like the glow squid..."
The second Dream mentioned the glow squid, George's memory raced forwards. Yeah, he remembered that! Dream loved the glow squid. It was one of his favourite mobs. George thought it was dumb. The glow squid, wandering traders, and phantoms were the worst mob by far-
                          
Wait... phantoms? That was where it was from! George grinned. "Yeah! Yeah, I remember making that! The phantoms, remember?" 
                          
Dream chuckled. "God, those were so stupid..."
George's memory was accelerating at the speed of light. "The mineshafts, outposts, the- the Nether! The End! The Ender dragon, beating the game-" 
                          
He felt like he could go on forever, but he stopped, the smile bright on his face. "We made the whole thing together! I remember that..." He trailed off. "I remember someone else, though..."
Dream furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
"Wasn't there someone who, like, looked over the coding?" George persisted. He could remember a voice, someone working on it with them, looking over their work briefly. A flash of brown hair, a crackling sound, a burning smell - although that may have just been the eggs, George didn't quite know. 
                          
Dream frowned. "P... Pandas?"
                          
George stared. "I'm sorry?"
"Pandas! Wasn't that their name?" Dream replied.
                          
George shook his head. "No, I don't think so... wasn't it like Sadnap or something? Pandas backwards?"
"Maybe Snapmap," Dream suggested thoughtfully.
                          
George grinned. "This is so cool!"
Dream shook his head. "But George..."
He paused. "Why didn't we know about it? Why... why couldn't we remember?"
George's stomach turned over. "I don't know..."
Come to think of it, why had they made the game in the first place? It didn't seem much like Dream's personality to just decide out of nowhere to make a game, much less one for the government. And George had participated in it... it must have been a pretty advanced project, but he was one of the lower coders. Had he been demoted or something?
He voiced these concerns to Dream, and then asked hesitantly "So you want me to call you... Dream?"
Dream nodded. "It's way more natural for me. It was my in-game name, I think, and I just... I dunno, I prefer you calling me Dream than Clay." He winced slightly at the mention of his real name.
                          
George nodded. "What about me? Who was I in-game?"
Dream shrugged. I just remember calling you George..." He frowned. "Wait, no... GeorgeNotFind? Was that it?"
                          
George shook his head. "GeorgeNotFound, I think."
Dream grinned. "But you're fine with just George?"
George nodded, and Dream sighed. "This is insane... how did this even happen?" 
George shook his head, and Dream understood. There was too much information to know what was going on, in all honesty, and Dream couldn't process a single ounce of it without his brain wanting to die.
                          
George's wristband provided a slight distraction as it vibrated loudly. George looked down, and Dream watched as his face turned from deep thought to slight confusion, and then...
                          
Horror. Fear. George's face contorted as he read his band. A second later, he stood up. 
                          
"I need a pc."
That was all he said. Dream got up as well, heart beating so loudly he was sure George could hear it. 
                          
"What's wrong?"
"They're onto us. My band is locked on tracking, and it's not my code. I disabled the tracking... this is a new function," George replied, still staring at his band. He tilted it towards Dream, and Dream could make out the words Tracking George135. Orlando, Florida.
                          
That was where they were.
                          
Dream's blood turned to ice. 
                          
All George could think was not again...
                          
Dream grabbed his arm. "You can use the pc you used to reprogram my location. Come on." When George didn't respond, he hit him lightly across the arm. "George!"
George snapped out of his daze, nodding. "Got it."
The two hurried up the stairs.
                          
From the top, Zak watched, a scared look on his face.
                          
Please, don't let us have to run again.