Dread Run

Erik Wesly is the creator of the popular game known as deathrun and its incredible well-known sequel, deathrun 2. As many readers already know, the game is played in rounds with two teams. The runners are those who run through a series of traps in an obstacle course controlled by the killers. The killers hit buttons and levers to activate traps to stop the runners from progressing. Should any runner reach the end of the course, they are given a sword to (Ironically) kill the killers. Sometimes the remaining killers run in hopes of time running out and the round ending in a draw.

The new deathrun 2 has more advanced courses with upgraded scenery and maps. It is no longer a grouping of lava and platforms, but unique concepts to match the idea of the map. The old deathrun mostly contained flat surfaces aside from a few exceptions in the newer deathrun 1 maps and their edits. Deathrun 2 is bigger and better though, but seems to lag an awful lot on my computer. Despite my graphics being on 1 it still had one map that would lag as bad as a computer with hundreds of viruses in them. Getting a loss on that map due to lag was cheap and sometimes I'd have concerns with other levels for similar reasons.

Deathrun 1 did not lag aside from entering and connecting to the game, which is to be expected anyways. At first I would still play the outdated deathrun 1 game with the small servers just because of lag. The maps, however, were sort of ugly compared to the new ones. It was also very easy to win since I'd grown used to the maps and the traps were less challenging. Sometime in 2013, I had become very bored of deathrun. I was sitting in a server once, feeling nearly ready to leave when something different happened.

On the map, Crazy Train, probably the easiest and worst map, I was a runner. I allowed for some of the "Rushers" as I call them to convince the killers to use the traps on them. The rushers were basically runners that ran without strategy in hopes of avoiding the traps without trying. Personally, I no longer used that method because it either got you killed very fast or got you a couple wins in a day. I try to lure the killers to their traps so they're wasted and need to be recharged. Rushers are useful for doing just that. The two rushers immediately took off. One of them seemed to be lagging and got killed by a trap that was activated long before they reached it. Their limbs never collapsed due to their lag, but their health bar was depleted. I assumed they were in the lobby.

The other rusher was doing a fine job on the course until their body got flung by a flipping platform right near the end. They fell off of the train and before they died they said "HOLY CRAP!" which must have been a rather frustrated remark. Their body was never bloxxed, probably because they left the game out of rage. I reached the exit which was controlled by only one killer due to a timing error with the selection of the two teams.

They started trying to dodge my sword as I slayed them for their evil killing actions. As I delivered the fatal blow, their character froze mid-stride and vanished from the leaderboards. Their character did not break apart, but fell when the map regenerated. I fell with them and noticed they quickly disappeared in a faint black sphere. I convinced myself it never happened. Even if it did, it wasn't a big deal. For all I knew, it was some bizarre new roblox addition to the death animation. It was actually sort of cool, the body freezing then immediately being engulfed in darkness, as if they were being picked up for reanimation. I looked at the list of players. It was only me and 5 others.

I asked the others, "Why is our server getting so small?" One of them replied with a "idk, they had to go" Some rude kid said "who cares noob" Ignoring him, I mentioned "I kind of like smaller servers anyways."

The round began and the user that had to go out and say "who cares noob" was the killer along with someone else. On the inside, I was prepared to teach the stupid 7 year old a lesson. The map was "Cookhouse" my favorite map. I quickly ran the broken first obstacle that has no threat even when activated. One of the killers was afk because I could not see the decal of their face through the one-way wall. This was a bug that didn't affect the gameplay much.

The rest of the course was the same as usual. It had only one dangerous trap that I knew how to evade. I was the second person to reach the exit. The first seemed to eliminate the afk killer which was not the rude individual. Again, the body was frozen. The other guy was already upstairs so I waited in case the guy ran downstairs. Then I saw the black sphere around the dead, frozen player.

In the chat, they said "back" but as they stepped the sphere got darker. "lol, who is hacking?" They typed as they walked upstairs

I followed them and the sphere became completely solid. Their character vanished and their name on the leaderboards also was gone. I looked upstairs to find that the other killer was almost dead. At this point I was hesitant to kill them. This was no ordinary death animation. And there are no new players to start hacking on top of that...

"Don't kill him!" I yelled in chat. The runner stopped. "Why not?" "When they die, they leave the game." I explained. "So what? If they want to leave they can." "No, you don't understand..." She killed the kid, apparently not convinced. "lol, dumb glitch. u cant stop me lolololo" His body didn't fall either. "lololololo I win u suck" He mocked us, but there was no sphere.

Out of nowhere a hand made of shadow emerged from the wall, grabbed the twerp and pulled him into the wall without a word. The map never disappeared, but we were teleported into the lobby where the last guy was.

"I wasn't going to hack, but whoever is doing that will be banned." "We weren't doing anything. Something isn't right." I grumbled in response. "So recoloring the ball pit 'isn't right?'" "Huh?" The girl asked.

He led us to the ball pit which is normally full of color, but was completely black this time It was as if someone poured a bucket of paint all over the entire room and cut it off from everything else in the lobby.

"What the heck." I remarked.

The guy walked into it. "Uh-huh. I guess this is a pointless hack anyways. Still.." He jumped onto a ball unknowingly and sank into it like it wasn't solid. He began to walk around. "Seriously guys.. just leave the game how it is. The round time is stuck on intermission. Thanks for breaking the server."

"I'm not doing anything." The girl defended herself. "Me neither, I can only glitch certain things."

"Ugh, idiots." The guy moaned.

He jumped, but the sphere followed. He walked, but the sphere darkened. The familiar cycle of dread was repeating itself. Why do the players leave the game? It certainly is not good, for the method by which they exit indicates pure terror and suffering. It reveals darkness and doom. I tried to click the X to close the window of the mysterious, haunted game. It didn't work, and neither did the leave button. The skeptical guy kept moving. I would have called out to him, but it was a lost cause. It was so very distant at that point, as nobody ever escaped and nobody would see the light of day again.

The same process occurred. He was gone with no way back.

"This is disturbing... I can't leave the game." She mumbled. "I can't even use the CTRL ALT DELETE keyboard shortcut..."

The round began, but on a map that never previously existed. And this awful map was a demented wasteland full of torture machines, agony, and no way out. This map was titled, "Dread Run" and it seemed that only one would make it out alive this time. I thought that being the killer would make me die next. Luckily for me, she refused to move from spawn. She thought that by not doing anything, both of us would live. However, because the runners never won, it is more their loss then the killers. The killers had held them off and therefore were more superior in the end.

The round ended. She left the game without a word.

Terrified and alone in the lobby, I looked around me in real life to make sure I wasn't completely insane. I trembled and shook, but as if by a holy magic I received a burst of confidence from no clear source. It was sort of bipolar, how I would come to feel as though I could conquer anything after giving up. This sense of courage was inevitably the bait that led me to the ball pit in the lobby. My confidence fell within seconds as I saw that the names of all the players that were in the server within the past few rounds were inside the spheres. I could make out the rude kid, the skeptic, the rushers, the afk, and the girl who just died.

As I looked, my camera automatically zoomed into the first person facing the ball pit. Before I knew it, I had turned to face a nearly transparent shadow character that had a ghastly, evil smile and blood dripping from his hollow eyes and lips

"Enjoying my collection?" It said in my ears as it stabbed my back.

I don't quite ever recall returning home, but evidence suggested that the computer was fried by various viruses and the shadow figure was imprisoned. Being held captive means you can escape, no matter how much time passes. Being a part of the hell that is Dread Run means you must complete the cycle. He will come, I will die.

Written by DarkSwarm