As the battle finally ended, I sat with my head in my hands and took several deep breaths, just feeling numb. This had been, obviously, the most absurdly dangerous (or was that dangerously absurd?) day of my life to date, but I was just thankful to have survived it all. By my count I had killed four German soldiers, assuming none of my wild shots had happened to hit anyone. That was four Points, supposedly, plus four more Points from the two soldiers I had captured near the end of the battle. Eight Points? I really had no idea whether that was good or not, or how valuable such a seemingly small number could really be. How much did it cost to raise a stat? One Point? Ten? A hundred? There was no real point in thinking about it, anyway; I didn’t even know what all the stats were or what base numbers they used.

I was broken out of my thoughts of the Point system when someone sat down beside me. I looked to my right and it was Reiben, the soldier I had been with for most of the battle.

“This your first time?” Reiben asked me, putting a hand on my shoulder. I nodded and tried to force a smile, and he continued. “Well you did good today… What’s your name anyway? I’m Private Richard Reiben.”

“Lee… Uh, Private Lee Quinn,” I said, double checking my shoulders for my rank. I really was a private, as expected.

“Good work today, Quinn. I really mean that- you stepped up. You were the only one from the 29th that I saw up at the front with us. But you should go find you unit soon; we can take the front from here.”

“Yeah… Right. ”Rangers lead the way,” right?” I sort of half-chuckled and got to my feet, looking around the battlefield.

“Rangers lead the way, huh? I like that. See you around, Quinn.”

...Did I make a mistake? That’s the Rangers’ slogan, isn’t it? Maybe they hadn’t coined it yet? Whatever. He said I was in the 29th, so I figured I’d better find them. I had a blue and grey yin yang patch on my shoulder, presumably the 29th’s insignia, so I just looked for others that matched. They were everywhere, actually, as soon as I left the front line. Since I still didn’t know what company or even regiment I belonged to, I decided to look for the other ‘Players’ from my world, easily identifiable by their fancy watches, as the muscle man had put it.

I found the teenager and the now-one-legged asian guy right where I’d left them: at the edge of the beach, now with several more medics but several more patients as well. They looked like they’d been well taken-care of; the asian guy was out cold but the bleeding had stopped and he was still breathing. He was rather pale, but his breath was even. The teenager was actually on his feet and helping the medics out as best he could, though his right arm was now bandaged and in a sling.

“Everything alright over here?” I asked him as I approached. He stared at me for a few seconds before his eyes lit up in recognition.

“Hey! I was wondering where you went… Is the battle over?” He nodded towards Medic Wade, apparently finished with whatever task he had been assigned, and walked over to me.

“Just about, I think,” I answered. “The Rangers will take it from here, so they tell me. Is… Is your arm okay?”

“Should be, yeah. One of the bullets just grazed me and the other went all the way through, so they didn’t have to do too much. Hurt like hell, though, at least until they gave me the morphine. So, uh, what’s your name, anyway? I’m Zach.”

“Lee. This whole thing is nuts, huh? Have you seen anyone else from our boat, besides him?” I nodded towards the wounded guy, still unconscious on the beach. “I’ve seen two of them dead; one on the beach and another from right when we got off the boats. There were seventeen of us to start with, yeah?”

“Right… I was with two others from our boat when you got there, back when we were hiding behind the hedgehogs. One of them was... shot, at the same time I was. The other one got blown up, I think… You’re right, this is nuts!” He let out an exasperated sigh, staring at his feet.

“Damn… That leaves 10 unaccounted for, then. You haven’t seen the big guy around, have you? The one that explained the situation to us? Now that we have some time, I hope he’ll answer a few more questions”

“If he’s even still alive, you mean.”

“Yeah, if he’s even alive… Christ. We should try to find him, and anyone else from our world. Work together, figure out what the hell we’re supposed to do now. You in?” I asked, glancing at Zach once before turning my gaze back onto the beach. It was absolutely littered with bodies, with a few medics walking among them, presumably searching for any more wounded that could still be saved.

“...I’m in. Let’s go.” I just nodded, and we walked back to the beach, in search of our ‘comrades’. Our first stop, though, was the man whose face had been blown off that I had seen when I found the asian soldier. I wanted to see if I could get the black watch off of him.

“Have you tried taking your watch off yet?” I asked Zach, as we stared down at the dead man.

“Yes, I did. It doesn’t come off.” He waved his right hand in its sling, then winced. “Now that I think about it, your watch is on your left hand? It just defaults to the non-dominant hand, I guess?”

“You’re a lefty, then?” He just nodded. “Well, let’s see if we can get the watch off of him. I don’t know if having an extra would do much, but it couldn’t hurt. Probably…” I knelt down next to the corpse and grabbed his arm, pulling at the watch; there was no buckle or clasp, so the only option was to pull. And nothing happened, the watch sticking to his wrist even in death. “Figures. Well, we probably couldn’t do much with it anyway. Best to just leave him alone, then.” We might’ve been able to get at the watch if we’d cut off his hand, but I didn’t even want to think about that!

We wandered Omaha beach in our mostly unsuccessful search; we did find two more of them, judging by the watches, but they were long dead, one riddled with bullets, the other body headless. We didn’t even try to remove their watches, though Zach did pick up one of their M1 Garands and a bit of ammo. Apparently his old one had been lost when he got shot. In any case, this left eight of our guys MIA. Unfortunately we weren’t able to find anyone else before several US ships, carrying tanks and a few hundred more soldiers, arrived by the beach and began to unload.

“We’ll never find anyone in a crowd like that, Zach. Let’s just go back to the front before they spread out. If the musclehead survived he probably booked it for the front lines; he should be all about the points, yeah?”

“You’re probably right. He’ll show up eventually, if he’s still alive.” Zach nodded and followed me as went up the beach again, watching out for anyone familiar. I honestly didn’t remember the faces of any of the other guys on the boat, excluding the big guy, but I kept my eyes peeled anyway.

“Hey! You two!” I glanced to the left and, lo and behold, there he was! “Good to see more of us made it.” Muscle man approached us, grinning widely. Zach and I shared a quick glance in confusion, somewhat put off by his 180 degree change of character. He was a total dick the first time we met him, but now he was all smiles. What the hell?

“Uh, we’ve been looking for you. Have you found anyone else? There should be seven more, I think,” I said, as he stopped a few feet from us.

“Sure did. I had six of them with me for most of the battle. Only two of them made it the whole way, though. They’re sitting around back there.” He pointed his thumb backwards, where a blonde man, probably in his early thirties, and a college-aged guy with short, dark brown hair were leaning against part of a broken bunker. They looked exhausted, but the younger one still raised his hand and waved at me, with a bit of a smile. I waved back, then turned back to the big guy.

“There’s one of us over with the medics. He, uh, lost most of his leg. We saw the bodies of the other six. That leaves one unaccounted for then, huh?” I scratched my head after some quick mental math.

“Sounds like it. He’s probably dead on the beach somewhere anyway, so let’s get the crew together and I can explain more about what’s going on. If the other guy lost a leg we probably can’t bring him over here. Want to go to him then? Wait, was he even awake?”

“He was out cold, last I saw him. I doubt he’ll be able to do much anyway; we should leave him alone for now. Let’s just have our meeting over there,” I said, pointing to the other two guys, still sitting near the ruined bunker. He nodded, so Zach and I followed him over.

“First of all, I’d like to congratulate the four of you. Good job making it this far. You guys must be worth keeping around, if you kept your heads long enough to make it through the first battle!” He laughed then, though no one else did. “Alright, then,” he said and glanced at each of us, “Let’s do some introductions. I’m Keith Norton. They made me a Corporal here, apparently,” he continued, turning his shoulder towards us so we could all see his double chevron insignia. “Back in the old world I was a cop, but I’ve been away from Earth for awhile now. This is my fourth Mission, and there’s one every two weeks, but the time spent in the Missions doesn’t ever count towards that.”

“So even though we should be here for eight days, we’ll get a two week break after?” I asked, incredulous.

“That’s right. Two weeks to kick back and relax. Or two weeks to train and prepare for the next Mission, if you’re not a dumbass.” He laughed again, and this time the older blonde guy even joined in.

“I’ve been wondering for awhile now,” Zach started, “Where do we actually go between the Missions? And you said we can return to the worlds our Missions were in?”

“That’s a very good question, but we’ve digressed a bit. The rest of you tell us who you are and what you used to do.” He motioned for Zach to start.

“Uh, okay. My name is Zachary Michaels, but I usually just go by Zach,” the teen began. “I’m a junior in high school. Or, was, I guess. I’m sixteen. Uh, I spend my free time playing video games, but I run track too. That’s about it, I guess? Uh, Lee, you want to go next?”

“Sure.” I nodded and began, “I’m Lee Quinn. I’m twenty two and I was supposed to graduate this semester. I’m an English major at Arizona State-”

“You’re from Arizona too?” Zach interrupted me, tilting his head. “I’m from Phoenix. You live in Tempe?”

“Uh, yes. That’s quite a… It’s not a coincidence, is it?” I asked Keith, an eyebrow raised.

“Right. I figured it was still like that. Everyone that shows up here was in Arizona when they died. One of the older guys thought there were teams for other states, or maybe regions or even countries, out there like ours. Continue on, though. Back to introductions, Lee.”

“Right.” I’d definitely have to ask him about that older guy later. “I study… studied English and French at school, mostly. I used to do competitive swimming, but I wasn’t good enough at it to get a scholarship, so I quit and got a job. I’m a server at a diner, now. I like science fiction, so I guess that would be my main hobby? Novels, movies, TV shows, video games, even a bit of anime. Like Zach said, I live in Tempe for school, but I’m also from Phoenix originally. I think that’s about it?”

“I’ll go next, then,” the blonde guy spoke up. “I’m Davey Wexler. I’m a high school math teacher over in Kingman. You know- the place where you stop to get gas and a burger on the way to Laughlin or Vegas,” he said with a self-deprecating grin. He was right, though; I’d only ever been to Kingman on the way to and from Vegas, and I’d only ever gone into the gas station convenience stores. “I coached the baseball team too, but we’re never any good.” He sort of half-chuckled at that, and rubbed the back of his head. “I think that’s about it?” He looked at the last person, the college-age guy with the brown hair.

“Sure, I’ll go now!” He stood up, a bright smile lighting up his tired face. I noticed then that he had a small mole just under his left eye. “I’m Miles, Miles Porter. I’m twenty, and I’m a music major up at NAU. I’m from Boulder City, over in Colorado, though. I haven’t been around AZ all that much, but I really like Flag. Uh, hobbies would be… well, I play clarinet, guitar, piano, and I sing a bit, too. Other than that… I like making friends, I guess? My life has pretty much revolved around music forever, so most of my buddies are musicians too. I think that should do it for an introduction… So, uh, what now?”

“Alright. Zach, Lee, Davey, Miles. Now, I’ll tell you all a bit more about your new lives! You guys want to hear more about what happens between Missions first?” Davey, Zach, and I all nodded Keith finally began. “After the Mission officially ends we’ll have up to an hour of freedom in the Mission world; you can talk freely with the residents of the Mission world. You probably haven’t noticed yet, but you simply can’t talk about our worlds, old or new, to the locals. If you try to your mouth just locks up, and your hands will shake if you try to write or even sign information that isn’t allowed.”

“I see. There must be ways around that,” I said quietly. “I don’t fully understand the system yet, but surely knowing the story in advance can help. But how can we share that knowledge with the characters?”

“Sometimes you can just ignore them, and do everything yourself. Or take command, and make up some excuse about why you know things. Neither of those will work here, I’d bet; no way a Ranger Captain takes orders from a Corporal and a handful of Privates. But we’re going off topic, again…” He brought back one of those death glares he’d displayed on the boat, this one just for me. “Just let me talk.” I nodded and motioned for Keith to continue. “We can leave at any time during that hour; there will be an option on your watch. One thing I’ve heard about, though, is you can bring characters back with you, if you pay up some Points and they agree to it.”

“Back to where?” Asked Zach, annoyed.

“Back to the Island! The ‘Infinity Island’, one of my old teammates used to call it.” He got a far-away look in his eye for a second, but it quickly passed.

“What happened to him? Your old teammate?” Davey asked, showing quite a bit more interest in the conversation than Miles, who seemed totally zoned out.

“Magneto threw him off a tower,” Keith answered with a sigh. “Poor guy never stood a chance. I told him the robotic arm was a stupid idea, but he just wouldn’t let it go…”

“That would do it then,” I said. “So, what is the Island? Our home? A hub-world?”

“Something like that, yeah. A bit of both. It’s like a tropical island; nice and warm outside all year round. It’s about six square miles, I think, so we have a good amount of space. Every Player- that’s what we’re called, Players- gets to create their own home wherever they want on the Island. You can get a pretty nice one for free, but once your Points start rolling in you can go nuts with the upgrades. Even the free one is a fully furnished, three bedroom house, though. Waste of Points upgrading that, if you ask me. There are ways to upgrade the Island too, I think, but I never really looked into that. I’ve spent all my points on my stats and weapons, anyway.”

“I guess we should get to that now- the Shop. You can access the Shop from anywhere on the Island, with your watch. See that little greyed out S icon in the corner? That’ll be lit up when we get out of here. Like I mentioned right at the start, you should just upgrade your stats for a while. The ‘average’ human has a ten in each stat, and it costs ten points to raise a stat by one. The standard Mission reward is 100 Points, but there is usually some kind of side mission, like killing and capturing the nazis in this world. Things like that actually tend to stay open even after we finish the Mission; we can come back here later and probably get more Points just by killing more nazis. It costs Points to come back, but it should be worth it.”

“What else can we use our Points for? Stats, houses, weapons, upgrades to the Island, and visiting the worlds we know are all great, but that can’t be it, right? Didn’t you say you had a gun with infinite ammo?” I asked, considering the possibilities.

“Not ‘a’ gun, several guns. You can buy just about anything with Points; weapons, ammo, armor, clothes, food, cash, and pretty much anything else. There is a lot of sci-fi super-tech stuff, and a bunch of magic shit too. I prefer to run and gun the old fashioned way, so I can do without that stuff. Probably the most important things, though, are your class, bloodline, and mutations. I haven’t bought a bloodline or mutation yet, those things can be irreversible and they’re pricey as all hell, but my class is Soldier. Having a class boosts its related stats, and lets you learn related skills much faster. I was a decent shot before but, and I don’t mean to brag, much, I’m a total deadeye now. There are all kinds of classes out there, and I haven’t looked through too many of them. Soldier suits me, and class changes are pretty simple, if a bit expensive, so it’s not that big of a deal if I find something better later. Soldier is a cheap class, after all. Only 100 Points, which is a steal for the stat boosts alone.”

That was so much to take in! Keith had mentioned magic swords and super powers on the boat, but this was just unreal. Everything about the situation was unreal, of course, so this didn’t seem like much of a stretch. I was still thinking when Miles spoke up, proving he actually had been paying attention.

“I guess we should just wait and see, right? When we get back we can look through the Shop ourselves. There’s gotta be something that suits each of us, right? Maybe I could become a bard! That would be sick,” Miles grinned, his eyes shining.

“That’s probably what we’ll do, then,” Keith said, “But don’t get ahead of yourselves! We’ve another week in this hellhole before we can leave, and the real Mission starts in three days. We need to get in on the rescue, or else we’re fucked. No way I’m leaving Ryan to these guys,” he continued, motioning towards the random soldiers around us.

I froze at that, and I think the others did too. We’d all spent so long thinking about what we’d do when we got out, we forgot about the Mission! Our Mission was to save Private Ryan, not survive D-Day!

Fuck!