Chapter 2 & 3 of an untitled short story

Chapter 2       
          A knock at the door woke Rob from his space-out at the TV, the bright clay of Celebrity Deathmatch staring back at him.  He jumped off the busted grey couch, spooking the cat, Meis, from his sleep on the easy chair.
          Rob opened the door, and two familiar faces smiled down at him.
          "Nate! Katie!" Rob said, grabbing his older brother by the waist. 
          "Hey little man, how's it goin'?" Nate asked.  His tall frame stepped in through the doorway and into the small front hallway.  His black hair hung in limp strands over his face.  His beard was scruffy and unshaven, for at least a week.  He wore a thick blue-jean jacket with a white fur lining.
          "Are you back for good?"  Rob asked.
        "I'm standin' here aren't I? No, I'm not gonna be here too long, just a week or two..."
          "Hey, Robbie," Katie said, leaning down and huging the boy.  Her large breasts pressed against Rob, which he enjoyed much more than the last time he had hugged Katie; a few years ago, when he had thought girls had cooties (he still thought girls had cooties, he just wasn't afraid of catching them anymore.)  Katie was short, almost as short as Rob, and lean and tanned.  She had light brown hair and dull green eyes.  She wore just enough make-up to highlight her pretty features, and showed just enough skin to show how well her body looked.
          "It's Rob now."
          "Oh, sooo manly.  Well, Rob, it's good to see you again."
          "Hey, man, is Mom here?" Nate asked.
          "No, she's still at work," Rob said.
          "Well, we're gonna put our stuff in the back bedroom, and Katie's gonna cook some diner for everyone."
          Rob lead the two weary visitors into the back bedroom, which had been stripped of everything but the small twin bed since Nate had resided there.
          "Thanks, cheif, we're gonna change, and then maybe you and me can go hit up the arcade for a little while while Katie's cooking. We can stop by the bank and say hi to Mom-" Nate started.
          "Mom doesn't work at the bank anymore.  She's at the library now.  She work's at Andy's at night."  Andy's was the only diner around town, and was almost always busy.
          "Huh...well,okay.  We'll just have to stop by the library, then.  And maybe Drawing Conclusions on the way..."
          "They closed it down last year." Rob said flatly.
          "No way! Where do you kids get your comics, now?"
          "The City, if anyone ever goes there.  Pretty much we're stuck with old issues now..."
          "Jesus, little man, I have been away for a long time."


          "Holy Snikies! This place is huge!"  Nate said, awestruck, looking around.  Rob beamed at his brother's marvel of the arcade.  This was his arcade, his sancutary, and his brother was impressed by it!
          "C'mon, let's go play our favorite," Rob said, walking towards the elevator.
          "No way.  Our favorite, as in..."
          Rob just nodded his head as the elevator dinged metallic.  Rob lead his brother into the shiny metal box and the doors swooshed closed.  Softly and from above them a tool song, Eulogy, played in soft, elevator/MIDI form, lyricless.
          "Is that Tool?" Nate asked.
          "Yeah.  They play all kinds of bands; Nine Inch Nails, Led Zeppelin, even Tom Waits," Rob said eagerly.
          "Tom Waits?" Nate asked, surprised.
          "Yeah, I requested it.  Syjhad found it."
          "Syjhad still owns it?  God, I remember when the arcade was a little room off the backside of the Community Center."
          They stepped off the elevator into the noticeably darker room, and Rob started for the shooters section.  He stopped in front of an un-occupied machine; an old battered machine, with faded colors and two colored pistols holstered at both sides, one red one blue.  Rob unholstered the red pistol, and Nate the blue.  They inserted tokens, and pressed the start button, and the game came to life.  They began blasting at the bad guys that wandered on-screen, firing off-screen quickly to reload.
 
          The two brothers wandered the games, Rob showing Nate all the gang's favorites.  They played a few of the old games, a few of Nate's past time-wasters.
          It was over an hour before Nate remembered Katie was cooking, and they had to rush out of the arcade and race home.  They walked in just in time, a feast laid-out in front of them and Katie and the boys's mother sitting intently in front of it.


Chapter 3

          Rob, Kevin, Laura, Reno, and Alley stood in the middle of the "Miscellaneous" aisle.  A dark, immaculately clean box stood in front of them.  They had spied the new piece of hardware the moment they set foot on the second floor, having intended to spend the day perusing the RPG aisle, and detoured to the little-used section of the arcade.
          "What is it?" Kevin asked, running his hands over the darkened controls.  There were three joysticks, three roller-balls, three pairs of red and blue buttons;  there were also three pistols holstered on the front of the machine.  A large, crystal-clear screen lay darkened and slanted at eye level.
          There were no distinguishing markings anywhere on the game, no instructions.  The controls weren't even labeled.  The case of the machine was plain black, nothing more.
          "It is brand-spankin' new video game machine, built for your pleasure," Syjhad said, walking up behind the group.  He plugged the box into the socket on the floor and the machine began to hum to life.
          "What is it called?" Laura asked.
          "Well, uh..." Syjhad began.  The title screen kicked up, no company credits or anything, just title, E-487, and two options: Start, High Scores.
          "Hah, there.  E-487.  Very catchy.  Now, you feed it tokens.  Hims hungry hungry."
          Syjhad turned and walked back toward the elevator, his fake gold chains rattling dully.
          "Well, let's give this thing a whirl..." Rob said.  He, Kevin, and Reno stepped up to the machine, and pushed the start button (or what they could guess was).  The game started up, showing a group of people sitting around a table.  The graphics were incredibly realistic, with intense shading and rendering that brought the three characters to life.  They began walking around the room, checking things out and finding nothing.  One of the characters walked to the door, and opened it.  Suddenly the screen flashed, and the scene changed to a road, and the three characters became heavily detailed dots,and they had to dodge obstacles; then the scene changed again, and fire engulfed the characters almost immediately, and "Game Over" scrolled across the screen.
          "Ha! O.k., switch up, let us try," Alley said, stepping up to the machine with Laura and another girl, that had been standing with them.
          "No way, that was B.S. ! We never even had a chance!  That can't count as a loss!"
          "Don't think so.  Just chill out, you'll get your turn again."