Green Hill Zone

This story is part 2 of The Final Level, an 8 part series that started in Mushroom Kingdom.


Green Hill Zone

Mark Lopez blinked. He rubbed his eyes and blinked again, but nothing changed. There was no mistaking what he saw before him. The brightly colored tropical setting was familiar, as were the golden rings scattered over the landscape. Somehow, someway, he was in his favorite video game of all time.

It was Green Hill Zone from Sonic The Hedgehog.

Act One if he wasn’t mistaken. He had no idea how he got there. The last thing he remembered was walking out of the theater with Jill. They had been at the movies. The Spiderfall Chronicles. Good movie. Not as good as the books, but still good. Of course they had to cram six books and several months of story into a two-hour movie, so there was a lot of stuff they had to cut out, but in the end, it was good.

As hey walked down the street to a near by coffee shop, the conversation changed to their friend Peter Davidson. Jill was concerned about him. Since Helen’s death he had spent all his time working on that game he was making. She wondered why he didn’t grieve for her like the rest of her friends had. Mark just laughed. He had known Peter for a long time and knew that this is how he deals with things. He buries himself in his work for a while, even the death of his girlfriend. In a week or two he would go through the grieving process just like they all had.

And so they walked in silence for a bit. He remembered walking own the street, seeing people walk by, cars pass, avoiding the piece of gum on the sidewalk. Then he blinked and the next thing he saw was the Green Hill Zone. Mark looked around, wondering where all the enemies were. He remembered there being plenty of Badniks, even in the early levels of the game when it was relatively easy, but he didn’t see anything.

Shrugging, Mark began walking, hoping he could find out what was going on. As he went, he realized he was going faster and faster. Soon he was running faster then he ever had before. He hadn’t made a conscious effort to run, he just was.

The landscape flew by around him, his feet a blur. As he flew through the level, Mark marveled at the speed he was traveling at. He figured he was running at about 150 miles per hour and accelerating. He remembered reading that Sonic’s top speed was over 750 miles per hour and wondered if he would go that fast.

Mark jumped over a pit and continued to run, his feet a blur beneath him. He looked up in time to see the wall and his eyes grew wide with fear as he saw the razor sharp spikes. He didn’t remember anything like that in this level. He tried to slow down but he couldn’t. The spikes grew bigger as the sped closer. They were to high to jump over and no matter what he tried, he couldn’t stop. He once again wondered how he got here as he felt the spikes pierce his skin.



Jill screamed as Mark fell to the ground, several wounds opening up, staining the sidewalk red with blood. Some onlookers stared, others ran for help. If any had tired to help, they would have seen something odd on his forehead. Something that had terrified Pine Creek for over a year. Something carved into his skin.

The Ullrich family crest.

Mushroom Kingdom

This story is part 1 of Final Level, an 8 part series. it is a sequel to Pine Creak Murders


Mushroom Kingdom

Helen Parker opened her eyes and couldn’t believe what she saw. She was in a land she knew well from her childhood. A land she would recognize anywhere. Despite it was in 3D, there was no denying where she was.

She was in the Mushroom Kingdom.

World 1-1 of the first Super Mario Brothers game to be exact. She had played the game so many times when she was younger. She could probably play this level blind folded.

As she looked around the brightly colored 8-bit world, she tried to think of how she got here. The last thing she remembered was being stabbed. As she fell to the ground, holding the wound in her stomach, she recognized the face of her attacker as her boyfriend knocked its hood off. It was Wendy Landis, someone she worked at the bank with. She remembered hearing screams as Peter called 911 and him holding her, telling her to hang in there as everything faded to black.

She didn’t know how she ended up in the Mushroom Kingdom, but figured it must be a dream. And while she didn’t know much about dreams, Helen figured she might as well see where it went. She knew enough to know that even if she fell down a pit, she would wake up before she hit the bottom.

She jumped on top of the first Goomba she saw, feeling it flatten beneath her feet. She jumped up and hit a question mark block with her fist. It hurt a bit, but she heard e familiar “ding” and was rewarded with a coin.

Helen continued through the level, stomping on enemies and gathering coins. She was a bit disappointed that none of the power ups she found had an effect on her, but she was having too much fun to worry about it too much.

About half way through the level, she stopped and looked around. As she did, she felt the ground beneath her Helen looked around and saw why; a giant version of Bowser was heading her way, destroying everything in his path. But what was he doing here? Bowser wasn’t supposed to show up until world 1-4 and he wasn’t nearly this big. This Bowser reminded her of a small Godzilla.

She ran as he gave chase. She saw the flag pole getting closer, knowing that she was close to the end, hoping she could seek shelter in the castle.

At the top of the stairs she jumped for the flagpole but missed, landing between the stairs and a large wall. It was too big to jump out of.

Panicked she tried desperately to find some way out. This wasn’t part of the level. She had played this level millions of times and there was nothing like this here.
Before she could do anything else, she saw a shadow fall over her. Helen looked up ad saw Bowser standing at the top of the stairs. He fell down towards her and she barely avoided him. He was smaller now, but just as fearsome.

Bowser swatted at her, knocking Helen against the stairs. As she lay on the ground she saw him jump into the air, flames escaping from his closed mouth. The last thing she saw was him plummeting towards her.



The nurse checking on Helen screamed as her body shook as if a heavy weight had been dropped on her. As her head hit the pillow, blood sprayed out of her mouth and she flat lined.

Other nurses ran into the room and the three were horrified as they watched a symbol appear to be burned onto Helen’s forehead.

The symbol was one they all recognized.

It was the Ullrich family crest.