“Should we call our parents first?” I asked.

He shook his head. “All telecommunications are down right now. I’m thinking government mandated to control chaos, or maybe interference from the formation of the Gates.”

The worry in my gut intensified.

“But they’ll be okay, right? If they don’t enter the Dungeons, nothing bad should happen to them?” I asked.

For university, we’d both moved to the state capital from a rural country town. The population was probably in the hundreds. Our parents owned hectares of land, mostly empty bush, that they occasionally allowed cattle to graze on from neighbouring properties. I made it a point to go to my hometown at least once a year to catch up with them in person. Other than Axel, they really were the only other people in the world who I constantly worried about.

“Yeah, there’s no Gates so far into the bush. My parents and yours should weather this storm perfectly fine. I doubt anyone so far out would even be affected.”

With his words, my body felt lighter. My fears allayed, I frowned, catching onto something he’d said. “Gates?”

“Gates,” he said matter-of-factly.

Seeing the clear obliviousness on my face, he followed up with: “Since we can’t see where they lead, the Dungeons have got to exist somewhere else. The notifications say “entered.” So people are going inside them, but you’ve seen the black holes. They’re something less than 2D but more than 3D. I think the black holes are just doorways.”

I listened carefully as he continued, “Kind of like an older game when you enter a house or a castle. The new room has to load, and you’re taken to a completely new zone that previously didn’t exist. Plus, the people who touched them simply disappeared. They must’ve gone somewhere.” He paused. And then concluded, “So, yeah. Gates.”

I mean… The logic checked out. What didn’t was how he’d come to this conclusion so quickly. Whatever. Axel had been taking this entire situation better than I had been. So maybe he was more well-equipped to think about things like this.

I shrugged. “Sounds better than black holes in any case.”

“Circling back to making a party. Who do we know who we can recruit?”

Not even a cricket chirping could’ve properly punctuated the silence that fell between us. Since high school I’d been pretty introverted. I had some close friends from university, but they’d all moved away, either rural or international. We kept in touch online with weekly gaming sessions, but that was it. It wasn’t like we could ask them to come join us here in Brisbane. I probably wouldn't have wanted to have pressure them into it even if I could’ve asked them.

~Dungeon 2 entered for the first time. Player Yī nuò Huang rewarded title of Lighter Than Air~

Axel held a finger up in thought, his blonde brows furrowed, and he opened his mouth but then closed it again. To be honest, I wasn’t surprised Axel didn’t have anyone that came to mind either. Though he was the party life incarnate, none of the groups he hung out with were particularly reliable. Sure, some social circles were better than others, and I’d seen them all during the time we’d lived together, but I didn’t think any of his friends could be counted on.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he growled.

“Like what?”

“I don’t need your pity.” He poked a finger into my shoulder. “I have friends. I have tonnes of friends. You wouldn’t even know!”

“Well, I do know, man. I see them all the time, you have a party like every other week here.”

“Exactly. I got friends, capiche?”

Axel only became Al Pacino when he was genuinely angry. What an absolutely unhinged thing to be mad about. I threw my hands up in defeat. “All right, all right. You’ve got friends. Thousands, even.”

He smirked. “That’s right. Thousands.”

Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I raised an eyebrow. “So, how many of them would want to join our party?”

Axel’s face scrunched up in thought. Yep, go ahead and think on it. I could see the numbers and figures flying around in his head. If he did the maths right, he’d come to the same conclusion as me. The total amount of his friends who could be counted on equaled nil, zip, zero, zilch, nada.

His face went blank. Ah, there it was.

“So?” I asked, feeling a sick amount of pleasure beginning to build from Axel’s incoming realisation.

A flicker of disgust ran over his features. His shoulders sagged and gravity increased three-fold over his body. He let out a pained groan. “I know one person, but they probably don’t remember me. You haven’t met them before.” Under his breath, he sighed, “God, I fucking hate Jye. Their takes are so bad.”

Disappointment settled over me. Sifting through my emotions, I found I was sad that Axel didn’t have to apologise again. That was almost definitely probably messed up. Well, when in Rome.

~Dungeon 12 entered for the first time. Player Mila Bachmann rewarded title of Unsanctimonious~

It didn’t escape my notice Axel had referred to this Jye person with they/them pronouns. Though I wouldn’t say it aloud, Axel suffered from internalised prejudice, despite being openly queer. He’d once said to me that there were men and there were women, so that he’d associated with someone who might be outside of the gender binary was not a small surprise.

Half-an-hour-ago-Axel probably would’ve accidentally deadnamed them. Now-Axel used they/them like it was second nature. Half-an-hour-ago-Axel would never have asked me to join his party. Now-Axel referred to the party as “our party.”

I was slowly coming to grips with the fact that this wasn’t just some simple shock from a reddit post. This was something deeper. But that was future me’s problem.

“All right, well, where can we find them?”

“What am I, their keeper?” Axel spat.

Okay, no, scratch that, it was the same old Axel. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I asked, “Where do you think they’d be then?”

“At 5:30, they’re midway through their HIIT session at the gym which is when they take a smoke break out back.”

The word “stalker” sat on my tongue, posed ready to leap out. I stared at him. He stared back. Like he was daring me to say it. I could see the deranged chaos in the cogs grinding in his mind. No, I wouldn’t let myself be baited into this. For some reason he wanted this. Denying him this was better in the long run. Besides, answers would be forthcoming whether I asked them or not since I’d be meeting said friend soon.

Instead, I said, “Which gym?”

“It’s about a block from here.” Casually, he added, “I know a shortcut.”

Yeah, you would know that, wouldn’t you, you stalker.

“What was that?” Axel asked.

“I didn’t say nothing.”

His eyes narrowed and then he let out a long loud sigh.

Then he walked off to his room. The sound of him rummaging through hangers in his closet made their way to me and I patiently waited for an explanation. There was no point in doing anything until he told me what it was I was meant to be doing because despite the fact I was taking this situation rather calmly I still didn’t understand a lick of what was actually happening. Luckily Axel’s grasp on everything was so much clearer.

So I’d wait and listen to him.

~Dungeon 15 entered for the first time. Player Igor Stepanov rewarded title of Magic Itself~

Oh, Axel had been wrong. There were fifteen Dungeons. Maybe more?

Axel stuck his head out through his doorway. “I’m grabbing some stuff. You should too. Use that backpack your mother gave you for paintball. Pack anything you think you’ll need for the next week. I don’t think we should count on being able to come back here.”

I didn’t even remember I’d gotten a backpack from my mum. How did Axel? Shaking my head, I stood up and proceeded to follow his instructions. Nothing had gone wrong yet doing what he wanted, but his track record wasn’t good, historically speaking.

“It feels weird locking this door knowing this might be our final goodbye to it.”

“Glad we didn’t get a cat now, aren’t you?” Axel dryly commented.

Murmuring a defeated agreement, I turned the key. The lock clicked. Our apartment was secured. The sound echoed in my mind, and a deep unsettling curled inside my stomach. It was like a snake coiling around in my intestines. My chest felt tight and I could hear the hammering of my heart thrumming inside me.

Seeing that closed door, that locked door, was so final.

Absolute.

Inside, all this was stuff that wasn’t happening to me. But now… Now I was where everything was happening. And that meant everything was real.

~Dungeon 7 entered for the first time. Player Gael Viegas rewarded title of Timekeeper~

Fuck, those people who disappeared before the Gates activated… Despite what Axel said, I was sure they were dead. We’d all seen it. They just stopped existing when they touched the Gates. Jesus Christ, would we die? Were we going to our death? Would our parents die?

Breathing became difficult, lead in my lungs, and I gasped for air. This was fucked. This was fucked up. The world began to spin, the edges of my vision going hazy.

“Yo, slowbro, hurry up, man.”

The gates of panic didn’t so much as slam shut as rage sucker punched it aside to wrangle control. “I’m having an anxiety attack over here, asshole!”

“I know.”

He wasn’t looking at me, but in the hand he held out to me was a single Warhead. It was black. The most tongue tarnishing of flavours. My gaze flicked between it and him, and I took the lolly wordlessly. He didn’t say anything and started walking. I followed, eyes glued on the sour candy cradled in my hands.

~Dungeon 3 entered for the first time. Player Rohit Dibik rewarded title of Insatiable~

Just the sight of the lolly was enough to begin calming me. The pounding of my heart evened into a normal rhythm. The heat in my veins cooled. The world settled.