Keys and Beasts

First  there was darkness. Then there was light. Trees shone from above with water droplets glistening in the canopy with the sun blazing from above. At first I tried to speak,  but my voice was hoarse so I looked around for any other signs of life.
“Hello?”, I said nervously. Then I heard it. There was a patter of footsteps coming from the west and growing steadily  louder. Next thing I  knew, I was on the ground with a shadowy facing over me, looking at me intently. Then I gasped,
“Marcel?”, I said incredulously, “Is that you?”
“Varin? Varin!” She said as she helped me up and then rushed me into a hug. “Come on let's go!  The others are waiting.”
“Others?”
“You’ll see.”, she said with one of her cheesy smiles. Marcel, with her long, frizzy, light brown hair, guided me deeper into the forest gloom. At one point, all I could see was her green eyes  as they constantly looked back, checking whether or not I was still there. Then a light appeared ahead of  us and, as we stepped into it, the light became blinding. I thought I would be blind for the rest of my life but then gradually, my eyesight became focused again and as sharp as ever. I saw two tents up ahead and a campfire in the middle. Then I saw the “others”.
“Varin!”, cried Zander and Emma, as they ran up the hill to meet me.
“Its nice to see you again, after the whole…  orientation”, Emma said, trying to find the right word to  describe how we got here.
“Yea, thanks”,  I said weakly,  as Zander was breaking my ribs in a bear hug.
After he lets go, I finally got to have a good look at my other two best friends. Zander was a tall, well-built boy, with short black hair. He was wearing his favorite Starbattles shirt, camo cargo shorts,  a pair of the new Nike X20’s and a black beanie, as usual, even though  it  was about 86 degrees. Emma on the other hand, was the complete opposite and I could never wrap my head around how they became a couple. Emma was an about six inches shorter than Zander and had tanish skin, with long dark brown hair and brown eyes. She liked to have clothes that usually covered her whole body even in the  peak of summer. She was wearing a navy sweatshirt and skinny jeans. Then, in the midst of our reunion, it happened. Something jumped out at us from the underbrush. It was, quite literally, the most horrible thing I had ever seen. It was like a normal leopard, with sleek golden fur, except for the fact that it had patches of fur missing from its body, and even some skin. That wasn’t even the worst part. It looked like it was a cross between a crocodile, leopard and a rhinoceros. Then I realized what it was. It was Amenti the pet Osiris had in the Egyptian afterlife to eat people's hearts if their hearts weighed more than the feather of truth.
“What th--”, Marcel said, knocking over Zander in her haste to get to cover.
But what was it doing? Why is there a red metal object underneath it? And why wasn’t it coming for us? Unless… And then it hit me.
“Get to cover!”, I shouted as loud as I could.
Then the blast hit us. Though we we were in cover, the blast still hit us very hard. The last thing that I could remember was Zander screaming, the bright sky above as black spots swam across my vision, then, blackness.

I felt something nudge the side of my head and woke with a start. Zander was standing over me looking serious, but at the same time slightly worried. There was a light coming from the right of me and I noticed a standing torch was burning lightly.
“Zander?”, I said looking perplexed and slightly worried as well,”What happened? Where is everyone else?”
He said nothing except for a slight nod of his head, pointing in the direction of the tents. How are they still even standing after a blast like that? I went to take a look into the tents and saw that Emma and Marcel were sitting in there and whispering quickly to each other. They stopped abruptly as I came in.
“Oh thank god”, said Marcel,”I thought it was Zander.”
They gave me a small loaf of bread as I walked in to sit with them.
“Where did you guys even get this stuff from?”, I asked as I started tearing into my bread.
“Zander had a bag full of them next to him when we woke up”, said Emma,”I’m kinda of worried though.”
“Why?”
“‘Cause he’s been acting kinda of strange since we woke up. He said he also found these.” She said pointing at the three metal objects at her side.
“What are they?”
“I don’t really know”, said Emma.
“Look kinda like keys don’t they?”
As she said it I looked at the end of the object and saw the hooked part sticking out with little bolts protruding from it.
“I think you're right”, I said, remembering the day before we all got here,”That’s it! We gotta find all five!”
“What do u mean”, they both said, looking at me like I was crazy.
“Don’t you remember? In the… orientation... the guys told us we had to find 5 of something to escape!”
Then, slowly, realization dawned on their faces.
“But something’s wrong with Zander,” wailed Emma,”He’s been acting strange since we woke up.”
“Who cares though,” said Marcel,”He got us 3 keys. And by himself too! He’s probably just tired from watching or something.”
Emma looked like she just insulted.”Well if you guys don’t care about Zander, then I guess you guys aren’t even his friends.”, She said glaring at us.
“No, it’s not like tha--”, I began, but my plea was cut short as Emma walked out of the tent.
“Well that’s that I g--”, began Marcel, but she was cut short by a piercing scream.
We both jumped to our feets and ran outside to find Zander on his knees with a three headed dog over him. But something was off about this scene, more than just the three headed dog and Zander on his knees. Then it hit me. There was something odd in the dog’s mouth. Something fleshy. A head! Then, slowly but surely, Zander’s body fell to the floor, headless. Then Emma emitted another piercing scream as the three headed beast advanced on her. Quickly, I grabbed my hunting knife, aimed for the middle neck, and threw as hard as I could. At first nothing happened. Then the beast took one final step and fell forward into a permanent slumber. Then in a flash of bright light, it disappeared, leaving behind another of the odd metal keys.
“How did you do that?!”, said Marcel, still gawping at the key on the ground.
“Guess I still remember some stuff from... before”, I said, staring at the key on the ground as well.
“What was that thing?”
“A Cerberus. The guard dog of the underwo-”, I began.
But before I got to finish, another piercing scream, mingled with sobs, erupted from Emma. Then, as I looked at her, I noticed what she was crying about and the enormity of the situation sank on my shoulders, as If I were burdening a full-grown elephant. Zander was gone. Then something odd happened. Zander’s body suddenly disappeared in a sparkle of dust just as the Cerberus’s body had. Was that normal? I asked myself as Marcel calmed Emma down and hobbled her over.
“Is that normal?”, I asked outloud.
“What?”, asked Marcel.
“For the body to disappear in a sparkle of dust after you die.”
“It might be. This is a simulation after all.”, said Marcel. “Except for Zander dying.”, she said quietly, trying to choke back tears that were on the verge of falling.
But something was off about the way Zander’s body went away. It just didn’t seem right. I didn’t express my concerns however seeing as it might be insensitive to the others. Then, with a knowing certainty, I brought myself together.
“We have to pack up camp and move out.”, I said, not even sure where the words came from.
“Why.”, they both asked together.
“Because these things are going to keep attacking us until we die, and unless you want Zander’s death”, even though I thought differently,”to have no purpose, you guys better start packing. We’ll start going north-west in about 10 minutes.”
“Why north-west.”, asked Emma tearfully.
“You didn’t see it yet?”, I asked incredulously
“What?!”, she said, this time angrily.
“Because that's the direction all these beasts have been coming from which most-likely means there guarding something.”, I said, putting emphasis on the “guarding” part.
This definitely caused Emma and Marcel to start packing faster. Finally after about 7 minutes, everyone was packed and set out with a fresh new purpose. After walking through the dense jungle for about 5 hours straight, they spotted something ahead. Though they were exhausted, they ran towards it. Once it got into view, we noticed it was a well. There was carvings all around the well.
“A well.”, Marcel said. “We came all this way for a well.”
I looked into the well for 5 minutes looking for some clue in the water but all that stared back were my own eyes. Defeated and exhausted, we slumped against the well. Looking back, that was probably our first mistake: letting our guard down. Second: not examining the well properly because what I didn't realize until later was that the eyes that were looking back at me weren't actually my own. Then they came. Beasts of all kind leapt out at us from all sides, some crawling, some flying, some even walking. Then, knowing I was going to die, I closed my eyes and held onto my other two friends hands for what I thought was the last time. Then there was no noise around me at all. When I opened my eyes, I saw a bunch of people all around me stirring from what looked like a deep sleep. They all wore the same deep blue jumpsuits that I was wearing. My body felt stiff and unwilling to get up but I forced it up anyway. As I looked behind me I saw Zander running at me along with Emma and Marcel.
“Wha-”, I said.
“How am I still alive?”, asked Zander, grinning broadly at me.
“Yea”, I said, relieved at Zander being alive but confused all same.
“Well, remember that first animal thingy that charged us and then blew up? Well, that was just a distraction to get me out of the simulation and replace me with a duplicate that wasn’t actually real. They replaced because there was a staff in the game and I beat the crap out of him for information. You know, like why we were there and stuff. After he told me they realized that I knew too much. And decided to take me out.
Then I suddenly remembered how Zander screamed right before I blacked out.
“Then”, Zaner continued,”even though I was out of the simulation, I could still watch your progress and realized that It was too dangerous and that they wouldn’t take you guys out of the simulation whether you were about to die or not. Being the hero I am”, Zander said smugly, “I shut down the simulation and all is wel-”
But he was cut off as a bunch of people rounded the corner and ran at us with what looked like guns.
“And this is where we make our last stand”, said Zander, opening up his backpack and passing out stun guns.
“You do realize they have ACTUAL guns and we have stun guns, right?”, I asked.
Zander just grinned. I had no choice but to grin back as we all fired.