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Author's Chapter Notes:
Read this chapter if you want the Boys to go through the door on the left.
 

"So," Kevin cut back in, "which door?  Left or right?"

"Right," Nick decided for the group and walked over to the door on the right.

Nothing happened.

"Hey dumbass, I'm the only one who can open doors.  Weren't you paying attention?" AJ turned towards the door on the left, "I can open the doors, so I get to choose which ones we go through."

"Wait!" Howie yelled a little too dramatically, "Shouldn't we all agree on which door we go through?  I mean, we all had to be here for things to get started, so it stands to reason that we should work together on this."

"Hey, we did work together.  That was some awesome teamwork killing those bad guys.  Besides, we've already decided on a door," AJ grinned and turned the door knob on the left hand door, "We decided on left."

"No, you decided on left," Nick crossed his arms over his chest.

"Oh well, too late, door's already open.  We'll have a vote next time," AJ's voice was dripping with sarcasm and he walked through the door.

Having no other choice, the rest of the Boys followed him through the door.  It slammed closed behind them, sending the cramped area into complete darkness.

"Where are we?"

"Hey, who grabbed my ass?"

"You know you liked it!"

"Can we all just shut up for a minute?" Kevin's voice boomed over the commotion, "Anyone have a flashlight by any chance?"

"No, but Brian has a flame thrower," Nick suggested.

"I already told you, I'm not using this thing."

"Come on church boy, we need some light," AJ pushed.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea," Kevin reasoned.

"How else are we supposed to get out of this fucking room?" AJ stomped.

"Ow!  That was my foot!" Howie cried out.

"See what happens with no light?"

"Fine!  Fine, I'll do it!" Brian pulled the trigger on the flame thrower.  A ball of fire shot through the group and hit the wall on the opposite side.

"Damn, a little warning next time?" AJ reached up to make sure his face was still there.

"Nice eyebrows Kev," Nick laughed.

Kevin scowled as he felt what was left of his singed eyebrows.

"Can we get back to business here?  I've got things to do," Howie pled.

Everyone looked around, trying to figure out what they were supposed to do next.

"Why do they have to make these fucking games so complicated," AJ groaned, "You're the video game guy Nick, what do we do?"

"Do you really have to swear that much AJ?" Brian sighed as he looked for any indication of their next task.

"Fuck yeah I do!"

"Hey guys, there's a tunnel," Howie pointed out.

"Let's go then.  AJ first," Nick volunteered.

"Why me?"

"You have to be the lead player, since you are the only one who can open doors and all, so you get to go first."

AJ glared at Nick, "If I die it's all your damn fault."

"Can we speed this up, my foot is throbbing and I want to get home," Howie insisted.

AJ took a deep breath and got onto his hands and knees, mumbling something about his pants getting dirty, before beginning his crawl through the tunnel.  The rest of the guys got down on their hands and knees and followed him through the tunnel.

"Watch for any sign of movement," Nick whispered once they had all gotten out of the tunnel.

The five Boys looked around the new open space they were in.  The dirt path led from the tunnel they'd just exited and into a group of large trees, grass of an odd greenish color covered the remaining land.  There were no clouds, just an oddly blue sky with light coming from an unknown source.  There was no sign of life, everything was still and quiet.

Each of the Boys wandered a little, not too far from his brothers, to explore their virtual reality.

"Blue shapes!" AJ called out.

"What?" Brian ran over to where AJ was.

"I saw blue shapes.  Over there, in the trees."

"Right, well I'm going over there now.  Have fun with those blue shapes."

"Those are pretty," Howie hobbled further away, his foot still throbbing from the stomp it had received earlier.

"What did you find?" Kevin called over to him.

"Flowers...Daisies I think," Howie grinned, "And you told me there weren't daisies in the first level!"

AJ rolled his eyes and walked over to the daisies where the Boys had begun gathering.  Howie leaned in and grasped a daisy, pulling it from the dirt path.  As he stood up the daisy disappeared from his hands.

"Whoa, what happened?!?"

"That was so weird!" Nick looked around, searching for the daisy.

AJ shrugged it off and went back to exploring.  One by one, the rest of the Boys did as well.  They moved closer and closer to the trees, not yet following the path in.

"Hey Howie, you're not limping any more," Brian pointed out.

"Hey, yeah, my foot doesn't hurt any more," Howie grinned, hopping around to test out his previously injured foot.

"Oooh, so that's what the daisies are for!" Nick exclaimed.

"Elaborate?" Howie raised his eyebrows.

Nick shook his head, "Keep up, will ya?  The daisies are like power-ups.  If you get hurt, find a daisy and it will help heal you."

Howie slowly nodded, trying to work through these virtual reality rules, "Do we get extra lives too?  They have those in these video games, right?"

"Probably," AJ called over his shoulder as he started venturing into the trees.

The rest of the Boys followed him, keeping aware of their surroundings, weapons in hand.  Less and less of the sky was visible as they ventured farther and farther.

"Leighanne?" Brian cocked his head to the side, "How did you get here?"

He stepped away from the group, letting go of the trigger for his flame thrower.

"Brian, stop!" Nick yelled.

Brian turned back towards them, "What?"

"I don't think that's Leighanne."

"Sure it is.  It looks exactly like her," Brian glanced back at the woman again.

"This chick's boobs are bigger," AJ supplied, "That's definitely not Leighanne."

"Why are you looking at my wife's breasts?"

"Why not?  Boobs are awesome!"

Nick grinned and high-fived AJ, receiving a glare from the remaining three Boys.

Glancing over their shoulders, Nick noticed the Leighanne clone moving towards them, "Uh, guys, we gotta figure out what to do about that chick."

"Shoot her?" AJ replied like it should have been obvious.

"Oh I'm so on that!" Nick cried, grabbing his guns from the holsters on his legs.

"Nooo!" Brian shouted and jumped in front of Nick.  Brian fell to the ground, his body limp.

"I think she shot him!" Nick crouched down to check Brian, "Leighanne shot Brian!"

"There's more of them coming!" Howie cried as an army of Leighanne clones appeared from the edges of the trees.  It was almost as if they were floating in, just to torture them.

"Fuck, just what we need, a million Leighanne's!" AJ groaned and whipped out his guns.

The four remaining Boys began aiming and shooting, but the Leighanne clone army closed in on them.

"It's not working!" Howie panicked.

"The bullets aren't doing enough damage," Kevin shouted over the gunfire.

"I don't know what to do!" Nick cried.

"Flames!  It has to be flames!" AJ holstered his guns and ran over to Brian, "I need his flame thrower!"

AJ and Nick got the flame thrower off of Brian and AJ went to work immediately.  Fire was flying everywhere.  All the Boys could hear were the high pitched squeals of the women hit with the flames.  Their flesh was melting away and they each dropped to the ground.  Those untouched backed away, retreating back into the trees for safety.

Finally everything settled and the Boys took a collective deep breath.  The sizzle of scorched skin could be heard all around them.  Nick grinned at the sight.  Women who had looked so much like Leighanne, lying burning on the ground.

"Dude that was awesome!" Nick yelled in excitement.

"Did you see how their flesh melted right off of their faces?" AJ joined in on the celebrating.

"Guys, we still have a situation over here.  Think you can save the party until later?" Howie scolded.

"I thought you said there were multiple lives in video games?" Kevin looked down at his cousin lying dead on the dirt path.

"I said probably," AJ clarified.

"You usually need to give them something to bring them back to life," Nick explained as he searched around for something that could possibly bring their friend back.

"I'm going to need something, too, though.  I got hit," AJ's shiny red pants were singed near the thigh, his leg had been hit by a counterattack.

There were no more daisies in sight, nor was their anything else that looked like it could be of any use.  Kevin stood over Brian, afraid to leave him in case something else showed up.  The other three separated.

Nick took the path back where they'd come in hopes of finding something.  The daisies were all gone, only a small mound of dirt left behind.  Howie looked around the path in the area they were currently at.  He ventured a few steps into the trees, but also came up empty handed.  AJ headed the opposite direction, following in the direction they were originally headed.

"Hey guys!  I found some flowers!" AJ called from the path ahead.

Nick sprinted back to them, ready to go up to AJ.

"Well we can't leave him here," Howie looked at Brian.

Kevin walked back to Brian and hoisted him up on his shoulders.  They walked together up to where AJ had stopped.  His pants still had a hole, but it was obvious that AJ was no longer injured.

"All we're missing now is the pink poodle and the Sound of Music," Howie laughed, pointing out a small fuzzy bunny.

The possibility of curing Brian with a daisy was forgotten.  Howie stepped towards the bunny cautiously-he'd learned enough by now to know better-and the bunny bared is razor-sharp teeth.

"Okay, fuck, I'm sorry I was wrong," AJ groaned and shot the small fuzzy bunny before it did any damage.

Several more bunnies came hopping out at the sound, teeth bared, ready to attack.

"Don't let Brian go!" Nick ordered, shooting at the bunnies.

AJ, Nick and Howie lined up in front of Kevin and Brian, shooting away.

"Over there!" Kevin pointed to their right where another group of fuzzy bunnies with razor-sharp teeth had appeared.

Nick turned, both guns cocked and began shooting.  Kevin continued pointing out new groups of fuzzy bunnies and the three continued shooting at them.

"Clear on this side!" Nick sighed.

"Here, too," Howie breathed.

"Fuck, those things were evil," AJ heaved a sigh of relief, "Everyone okay?"

Nick and Howie nodded.

"We still need to take care of Brian," Kevin reminded.  He hoisted Brian off of his shoulders and set him down on the ground gently.

"I don't think a daisy is going to do it," Nick confessed, "You usually need something more powerful than that to bring someone back."

"Like what?" Howie asked.

"A potion or something."

"Well where the fucking hell are we supposed to get a potion?" AJ threw up his arms.

"Over there," Kevin pointed to one of the trees.  It had a hole in the trunk, a small bag just barely in view.

Howie ran over to the tree, pulling the sac from the tree and opening it up.  He turned the sac over, shaking out the contents.  A small vial with an amber liquid fell into his palm.  Howie walked back to Brian, pulling the tiny cork out on the way there, and dropped a few drops of the liquid into Brian's mouth.

"How do we know that's what we wanted?" Kevin took the re-corked bottle and studied the remaining contents.

"Too late now.  Can't do him any more harm though, can it?" AJ reasoned.

**WHIZ**

"What the...?" Nick was knocked backwards as the sky popped and Brian was back on his feet, alive again.

"Church boy!  You're back!" AJ clapped Brian on the shoulder, "You okay?"

Brian nodded, "What happened?"

"You just lost a life because you're too pussy to use your damn flame thrower."

"And because he wouldn't let me kill the Leighanne clone," Nick added.

"Now that everyone is back, can we please keep moving?" Kevin directed the others in the correct direction on the path.

They tried collecting daisies along the path for further use, but the daisies each disappeared within seconds of being held.  So much for being prepared for later.  At least they had leftover life potion.

The trees dispersed and the Boys were walking in the open again.  They could see a castle up ahead.

"Hmmm, castle...that can't be good," Nick mumbled.  He hadn't intended on anyone else hearing, but of course they did.

"What does a castle mean?" Brian asked.

"It means you better be ready to use that flame thrower now," Nick warned.