PROLOGUE
Garry's Mod. If you don't love it, well, you haven't played it am I right!? For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Garry's Mod is a true sandbox. You can do whatever you want when you want. The game was probably such a huge success due to the addons feature. Anybody who's anybody can sit down, program a weapon, map, game mode, etc. and post it for the use of others. And since it's such an awesome feature, I'm constantly looking at addons. Download some weapons here, download a map to try them on there. Every day I would do this, constantly downloading addons. Losing track of how many I have. But today, I no longer download addons. Let alone I haven't touched Garry's Mod in three years.
6:30, Tues, August 9th, 2010
We didn't have school today, teacher in-services are probably the best thing a school can do for its students. But being the scheduled person I am I didn't want to go back to sleep. I got up still, had a short word with my mother, and sat down with a cup of coffee. This morning seemed like any other, a nice brisk breeze, the birds doing their routine chirping, It seemed like a great day to the outside and simply enjoy nature. But being the shut-in I am, I went to the basement.
I went to the computer and turned it on. After waiting a few good minutes it was ready for use. I did my usual, checked my e-mail, checked the social networks, and started up Steam. Since I didn't feel like playing a game with direct objectives like Team Fortress or Portal. I launched Garry's Mod, my favorite game.
Steam did it's usual, "I'll start your game when I feel like it." (PC kids will know what I mean.) But of course, it finally did start. As normal the game took its time to check my numerous add-ons to make sure they were up to date. And after doing so I decided I would just simply do some single player on Flatgrass. Playing I did what anybody on GMod does, play with guns, pose ragdolls in comical poses, and attempt the make bases and forts. That's the coolest thing about GMod, it's what you make of it. You could guess I made a lot of it with my boatloads of addons and 102 hours plugged in. But of course, even Garry's Mod can get boring, the simple pose ragdolls, then shoot at stuff won't please you forever. And this morning I wasn't feeling Garry's Mod too much anymore.
I disconnected to the main menu. I hovered over "Quit Game," but I figured instead if quitting the game and remaining bored for the rest of this slow morning, I would look at the addons. "Why get a new car when you can just put gas in an old one?" So I went to the weapons category, my most checked category. I scrolled through the generic AK47, grapple gun, and gun packs. But something caught my eye, an addon, simply called, "addon." The lack of punctuation insisted it was a poorly made piece of junk. So I clicked it to see the details. The workshop page had no pictures, and the addon didn't have a single person who downloaded it. The mod's description said, "The power is in your hands." This confused me more than it should have. Why would an addon with no details but the description, have a description that said that? There was an eerie feeling about this addon. But against my better judgment, I clicked download and watched it install.
Once it finished downloading I looked at the contents of the addon. It came with a gun, NPCs, and a map. So what better than to try a new addon then with the map it comes with? I started the map, it was called, "addon." The map loaded pretty quickly and I understood why it was small. The map is what looked like a library. The detail was amazing, every book had its individual name on the side and the cover. These weren't copied and paste bookshelves, they were all individually made. Even the wooden floor looked like every plank was it's own. Nothing looked like it was a mass placed prop. I was a little creeped out about this. The map was made with intricate details. Why would the uploader simply choose the name, "addon" and have no thumbnail? I knew something was wrong. But I had to see what the addon could do now.
So I got the gun it came with, an AR15 assault rifle. To my amazement, it was detailed better than any gun on any addon I've ever seen. The gun came with two clips, both having thirty rounds. I then placed the NPC's it came with. They were all individual names. I remember them to this day, Alice Preecher, Dorothy Odsworth, Dalas Welsh, Oskar Enrich, and Ralph Ronalds. So I placed them down. They were all precisely detailed as well. Every little detail you could include was there. But to my surprise, the NPCs moved on their own, I had the AI set to "Disable Thinking." But still, they moved around, as if they knew the place, they looked at books, stopped to tie their shoes, and even talked to each other. I found it was amazing. I went up to them and pulled out the AR15, their faces instantly dropped when they saw it. They even screamed, the screams were horrifyingly realistic. I couldn't take the screaming, it horrified me as much as the gun horrified them. I wanted it to stop. So I shot.
The gun was almost as loud as the screams, I had to make them stop though. I sprayed all through the library. I barely wanted to look at the screen. The screaming finally stopped after a good minute of looking around for them. They hid like they've been there before. I was crying myself when the shooting was done. I immediately left the computer. I went upstairs to get a drink and calm down.
When I came upstairs my mother was crying. I asked her, "What's wrong, Ma?" It was hard to choke down my tears and say this. She simply looked at me in disbelief. It looked like she was watching TV, so I took a look. Good Morning America was on and the headline said, "THIS JUST IN: SHOOTING AT LOCAL MICHIGAN LIBRARY. 5 dead, suspect not in custody." My heart and soul dropped to the floor. I prayed to God this wasn't somehow my own doing. A news reporter came onto the story and said, "We have the names of the deceased, Alice Preecher, Dorothy Odsworth, Dalas Welsh, Oskar Enrich, and Ralph Ronalds." I fell to the ground and let out the rest of the tears in my body. I looked back up at the TV, they had a video of the incident. Wiping my tore I saw myself. Holding an AR15, killing five innocent people.
I ran back to the basement. I went straight to my untouched computer. I thought if I could uninstall the addon it could erase the whole ordeal from every happening. "That makes sense, right?" I was met with a text box on the screen. "Thank you for salting the Earth." Even more, horrified by the message I clicked okay to get back to the game. I held "c" and clicked "player model." And to this day I don't know how, but the character model looked exactly like me.