Wordly Wise: Quaker-Daker

Marshmallows, Black Ops and an Earthquake

Yes, I am so glad that I took the day off. Ha, while my colleagues were working away at the office; here I was, on the verge of ‘prestiging’ in Black Ops. My roommates mid-day snoring wasn’t even audible over the sound of freshly-baked bullets ripping apart any n00bs getting in my way. YES!! One more kill, ONE MORE KILL!!

Bleep, “NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!” I screamed as the power went out. I was about to prestige; every moment was crucial. Now I’ve lost all of my data from that match—I had just deployed attack dogs as well.

But now that the TV was off- I could hear stuff from outside. What was that? Screaming?! I rushed to the window to see what was going on. The street was ripping open…RIPPING OPEN!! I was jolted backwards as I saw the gap widen. This was an earthquake!!

I remained calm; us people of Japan are adept when it came to earthquakes. I woke my roommate –Jeremy- up as we assumed our usual drill—grab the PS3, one game, one DVD and a copious amount of one specific type of marshmallows, then throw ourselves into the least capacious room of the apartment—the closet.

The ground was really shaking now; we had to hurry. “NO NO- Wait!!” Jeremy screamed as I grabbed the Black Ops case (our usual safe game). “If you’re going to save a game, make it Gran Turismo 5.”

“No Jeremy! In the event of an earthquake we select one game, one DVD, and one specific brand of marshmallows and the game we save –the only game we save- is Black Ops.”

“Oh- stop being so fastidious; I’m saving Gran Turismo 5! And guess what—our ‘safe DVD’ is my pre-order voucher for Black Swan!”

“A voucher!? Are you out of your mind?! I have calculated the optimum survival mass for earthquakes! The cases even everything out, I’m just trying to facilitate both of our lives…and you’re decelerating my breakthrough rate!”

“Breakthrough!?! The last ‘breakthrough’ of yours was buying coasters! And one more thing-“ CRASH!!!! Our building started violently shaking becoming ever more fitful. I was shaken off my feet and tried to grapple with the table to maintain my footing; I felt pang of pain as I fell to the ground.

“I’M GETTING GRAN TURISMO!!!” Jeremy screamed at me. Now the crashing sound was over-powering everything else. I could only think one thing—TO THE CLOSET!

I dove into the closet just like I had done so many times during my time spent in the world Black Ops. I pivoted to see Jeremy on the other side of the apartment; scrambling desperately for the Gran Turismo 5 manual.

“Get in, get in, get in!!” I screamed at him as he then fumbled for one of the controls. He dived into the closet as I did.

“Was that a Mason dive?” He asked, “Because it felt more like a Captain Woods dive.”

“Shut up.” I told him but before I could shut the door; I was forced to watch the back wall of our apartment grow massive cracks that preceded the floor’s collapse—taking the wall and our ENTIRE game collection with it: Black Ops, our controls and I’m pretty sure my Blu-ray Matrix trilogy box set with it.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!” I screamed; the apartment violently ripped open and we remained blinded by the solar glare- no natural light ever makes it into ‘the gamer’s lair’. After our eyes adjusted, we could see the ruins of Sendai; basking in the sun under the azure sky.

“RUN!!” Was all we could hear from the streets below. I ran over the the massive, gaping hole that used to be ‘the gamer’s lair’ to see a black wave forming at the horizon.

“Is that a—is that a-?”

“A tsunami? Yes. Grab the car keys…and TWO types of marshmallows.”

TO BE CONTINUED…IF YOU WANT; I’M INDIFFERNT TO BE HONEST SO YEAH. IF YOU WANT A SEQUEL THEN JUST COMMENT. WELL, THAT’S ABOUT IT.

TO BE CONTINUED…