The bed of sand was hard and uncomfortable to lay on. One of my hands autonomously sifted through the grains at my side, letting them weave through my fingers. Soft as individual clumps, hard en masse. The thought amused me.

The crashing of waves was gentle, but it wouldn't stay that way. My mind wondered what variables controlled wave intensity, and I let it wander. Time of day, proximity to the moon, the shape of the coast, weather patterns? I had never looked into it because I had only been to a beach once. My family hadn't taken me on many vacations, and so I never made vacations a priority.

That would change. It had to.

Breathe.

There was a clothy sound and a groan beside me. More shuffling could be heard nearby. I took that as my queue to get up, throwing an arm across my face to shield from the sun. I produced my own clothy sounds as I got to my feet, my loose-fitting clothing ruffling against the breeze.

As my eyes fluttered open, I studied the beach. We were on a flat peninsula of sand jutting out from a tropical island. Twenty or so meters away, the actual beach was shallow, spanning a few meters before meeting a dense jungle of trees and overgrowth. A gargantuan rockface marked the center of the island, a flat shelf of rock standing at three times the height of the tallest tree.

I was surprised at the lack of palm trees. My eyes darted around, expecting to glimpse at least one. They failed in this task, but I did make out a few scattered patches of purple among the green.

My friends were rousing from similar slumbers, climbing up from where they lay on the sand. Our clothes had changed again. Each of us wore white khaki shorts and colored shirts. My shirt was an icy yellow. The others sported tinted red, pastel blue, and faded green.

New clothes, new location, another simulated game. What will be the objective this time?

No, hold on.

I was asking myself the wrong questions. I had an oath to keep - an oath of escape.

I looked around, searching for structures, boats, any method of escape. My foot kicked against a small rock.

I bent over and picked it up, recognizing that it wasn't just a rock. The smooth grey object was carved to have fourteen triangular faces, all equal in shape and size. It fit snuggly inside my palm. There were curious drawings etched across its soft surface, in a foreign style. The lines of the etchings were precise, carved by a machine or a skilled craftsperson.

The first drawing showed four heptagons arranged in a two-by-two square. Three of the four were broken, with breaks in the line segments that formed their shape. The fourth was intact, with the number "1" printed in its center.

The second drawing was weird. It contained a cluster of three images, connected by an arrow which pointed to another heptagon. The cluster of drawings contained a narrow tree with a straight trunk and very little leaves, a very round flame, and a collection of minuscule circles in a tight group.

The others each held a stone as well. Addy fondled his and remarked, "Well that was fun! I've always wanted to spend hours suffocating and losing my mind. Where the fuck did you all disappear to?"

Disappear? Hours? It had only been minutes since we'd split up to scavenge for resources. Or at least that's what my memory told me. How long had I been passed out for?

Blaine was already walking towards the mainland, his back to everyone.

No, not this again.

I raised my voice, "Hold on, Blaine, we need to figure this out!"

"Nope!" he shouted back, not breaking his pace. Brad looked between us and him, conflicted.

"Hell no," Addy said, pointing a finger at Brad, "I've already met my quota for inglorious fuck-ups. With your antics, I'm sure you've satisfied Alec's margins as well. Go ask Blaine if he has room for a braindead oaf in his warehouse."

Brad tossed his head to the side, considering, and then nodded.

"No, wait," I said, watching Brad turn and walk, "Brad, stop. It's essential that we stay together!"

Brad hesitated, tensing his shoulders. Then he resumed walking.

I crunched my teeth and made an awkward face at Addy, "Damnit!"

Addy shrugged, unbothered, "Let them go, Alec. They're our weakest links."

"Even if that were true, which it's not!" I shouted so that Brad would hear. Then I lowered my voice, "Even if that's true, how does that matter? We don't know how this new game will work. What if it turns out to be another cooperative survival challenge?"

"If it is, then I'm right. Brad really shit the bed in the last cooperative experience."

"Yeah, so what if he did?" I said, weakly.

I wanted to continue arguing, but I didn't have a counter. Still, I didn't want this. In every game we had played, there had been conflict. Addy versus Brad during the card challenge. A two versus two in the business simulation. I didn't have words for what had happened on the space station. And now the group was dividing again.

It would continue to happen until we fixed the dynamic. If we did nothing, the divisions might get worse.

In the distance, Brad reached Blaine, jogging to catch up. Blaine spun on him and drew an X in the air with both hands. Brad said something to him, forming gestures. Blaine slapped at the gesturing hands and stomped into the jungle. Brad stood still for a few moments, and then he too entered the jungle, choosing a different direction.

Another divide.

Were Addy and I the only 'friends' left on the island?

Not five minutes had passed, and events were already primed for disaster. I looked to Addy, and half-heartedly asked, "Allies, right? If this turns out to be a competitive game."

"Seriously? Did you really just ask that?"

That's a yes, then. I think.

"Just checking. Allies until the others are eliminated or dealt with. We both have to agree to break the truce."

Addy peered at his stone, holding it up to his glasses, "Agreed. So what do you think we're supposed to do here?"

I played with my own stone, rolling it from hand to hand, "Not sure, but I think this is supposed to be our instruction manual."

"Huh," Addy remarked, examining the art, "Whoever translated it to English did a shitty job."

"I think this is meant to be a puzzle," I told him.

He slapped me on the shoulder, "Thanks for the insight. I've truly been enlightened."

Ok, so we were on the same page.

I breathed, focused my concentration, and cleared my head. Then I discarded my previous observations and tried to look at the stone with fresh eyes. When I squinted, a detail jumped out at me.

Squinting changed my view of the stone. Without the benefit of depth perception, everything looked like a two-dimensional image. When viewing the stone in two-dimensions, I was able to count seven sides. A heptagon.

"Hey, I think the heptagons are meant to represent these stones!" I shared, feeling a rush of satisfaction.

"The fuck is a 'heptagon'?" Addy said, giving me a funny look.

"Seven sided shape," I explained, "Did they not teach you in school?"

"Nah, they taught us useful shit, like how to hedge portfolios and demand our Miranda rights. I'm glad to hear you wasted your time putting labels to shapes. What's this one called?" Addy asked, curling one hand into a circle.

"That's a circle."

"Wrong. That's the amount of flying fucks I give about heptagons!"

I narrowed my eyes at him. He did the same back, cocking his head to the side for added emphasis.

This was a battle I wouldn't win.

"Ok, well I think these heptagons represent our stones. In this picture...," I pointed to one side of the stone, "...three of them are broken. I'm thinking that means the winner of this game will be the last person with an intact stone."

"Well if that's true...," Addy cranked his arm back to toss his stone into the ocean.

"Stop!" I shrieked, my voice cracking with the sudden volume.

Addy stopped himself and waited for me to justify the outburst.

"I might be wrong!" I explained, "Especially since I could do the same thing and cause a stalemate. You gotta take a moment to think before doing something clever! Your first good idea won't always be your best!"

Addy shook his head, bringing his arm back to a resting position, "I wasn't actually going to throw it. I just wanted to see how you'd react."

I wasn't sure I bought that. But I let it go, "Not having access to the stone might also disqualify a player. Or maybe this picture means something else entirely."

"Hm. No, I think you have the right idea. What about this other one. The tree, the circles, and the fire? The arrow is pointing to another... heptagon," Addy mumbled the word, "Maybe we're supposed to collect wood, strike these stones against other stones to make a spark, and start a fire?"

It made a surprising amount of sense. I nodded, "Yeah, that very well might be it. I'm not sure why that would be part of the game. Maybe it gives us a bonus? Or maybe we have to burn our opponents' rocks? I don't know, I'm just shooting ideas."

"Well, Professor Silver," Addy said, making a grand gesture towards the rest of the island, "Instead of standing here, let's try and disprove our hypothesis!"

♦

I struck a rock against the game stone, expecting a spark. The rock was pulled from my hand and sucked into the stone, disappearing from sight and reality. Even though both stones had been the same size, the game stone didn't grow in size or mass.

I felt a surge of horror.

"Uhh... Addy?" I said, shaken by the definitely-not-allowed event. My hands felt dirty, just from being involved.

I'm sorry, laws of physics, I didn't mean it! I'd take it back if I could!

Addy looked up from where he was kneeling. He had been using my wand to cut a fallen tree into firewood.

"What, did you have an epiphany? Please tell me you discovered sarcasm."

"I already understand sarcasm, thank you," I said, "Look at this."

I walked to the cliff face and picked up another small rock. When I touched it to the game stone, it was absorbed. Removed from reality, ignoring important rules like conservation of mass.

Addy raised his eyebrows, "Oh the irony of what you just said. But that's interesting. Here," he tossed me a rectangle of carved wood, "Try it on this."

I awkwardly caught the wood between my arm and chest, and then touched the game stone to its surface. The wood and bark physically distorted and shrunk into itself as it was sucked into the fist-sized stone.

My face broke into an uneasy grin, and I laughed nervously. More of my worldview had just cracked. I was on the verge of existential collapse.

Next, I advanced towards the fallen tree and tapped it with the stone.

"Damnit, Alec!" Addy swore as the entire supply of firewood vanished.

Oops.

My lecture about trying clever ideas came to mind.

"Maybe I can pull it back out?" I said quickly, "I'm sure there's a way, we just-,"

My voice faltered. A thick cord of wood had emerged from the game stone and was floating in the air, one end still attached to the stone in my hand. Like a faceless snake, it curled right, then doubled back, curling left. Then it made a spiral shape.

Addy took four steps back for safety, and said, "Dude. Are you controlling that thing? Should I be worried?"

"Yeah...," I confirmed, realizing it for myself, "I'm controlling it, I mean. I don't think its dangerous."

I willed the cord to become longer, drawing more wood from the stone. Then I coaxed it into an almost-circle. A heptagon.

"Hm. Yeah, you can go fuck yourself. You and your damn shapes."

I grinned, turning to face the cliff-face, and the morphing cord of wood turned with me. I drew out more and created a rectangular wooden platform, then dropped it on top of the dirt and gravel.

The excess material detached itself from the construction and traveled back into the stone. I took a few steps, walking onto the wooden floor.

"All that potential and you use our firewood to create a hardwood floor. In the jungle. I hope you're proud of yourself."

"Fine, I'll make something else," I said.

Given the slightest signal from my brain, the cord of wood snaked out from the game stone in my hand and reattached itself to the floor. The moment I felt the connection take hold, the platform lifted off.

It floated up a couple of meters and I nearly tripped. I had done that too fast.

I steadied my legs and continued to experiment. Addy watched me fly left, up, down, and he smiled with a devilish glee.

"Now that's more like it."