The Game (14 page)

  “Sure,” I say. “What do you have in mind?”

  Danni smiles, and I can tell she has grand plans. “We are going to wake the world up to the truth.”

  I smile back, I decide to be excited.

Chapter 26

  “Please explain this to me again? What is the difference between Firsting a regular avatar and an Eternal?”

  “All avatars inside the game self-narrate. They vocalize their thoughts silently inside their heads. This allows the customer paying to view them to know what thoughts are occurring. An avatar has no idea that someone else is listening in, they just believe they are talking to themselves. Eternals do the same thing. The difference is that Eternals know they are being viewed from time to time.”

  “How do they know that?”

  “I can’t tell you that, Miss. Just understand that they do. And because they know they are being Firsted, they sometimes speak, not to themselves, but directly to the viewer Firsting them. They don’t always know who it is, but occasionally it will sound like they stop self-narrating and actually speak to the viewer.”

  “What do I do if that happens?”

  “If that happens… pay attention and do as they say. Quickly.”

Games Master ‘Fusion’ instructing operative ‘A’ on Firsting an Eternal

Stephanie

  Here’s another regular dream I have;

  ‘It’s a beautiful sunny day and I’m walking along a path, a beautiful large lake on my right side. I’m enjoying the beauty of the lake when suddenly, I sense an unpleasant presence. On the path ahead is a woman, looking down so I can’t really see her features, and she looks up briefly at me as we pass. Almost immediately I trip, falling to the ground. Quickly I look back, thinking the woman has pushed me down, but she is gone. On the ground is a finger of water extending from the lake and it’s in front of me like an arm. It moves, trying to push me down, but I easily force it away with my will and get up to continue walking. Soon I’m pushed down harder from behind and I see the water from the lake has become thicker in its attempt to hold me down. This continues for some time until eventually I look to my right and the lake is empty; all of the water is above me now, trying to force me to the ground and crush me. I’m not afraid, I’m strong enough to keep the entire lake away from me. I calmly stand up and continue to walk, tons of lake water floating above my body harmlessly.

  Then I wake up. I remember the dream, and usually get up to use the washroom and get a drink. I go back to sleep, because it’s not quite time to wake up yet. It’s never quite time to wake up with that dream, because when I close my eyes the second dream always immediately follows.

  I’m at home with my Mother. It feels so good to see her again, and she’s making me my favourite food at the oven. I feel the unpleasant presence again, and when I look towards my Mother she’s floating off the ground clutching at her throat and choking. I look behind her and see him. A tall, angry man with a bald head and dark eyes. His hand is extended towards my Mother and I know he is the one holding her in the air, slowly choking the life out of her. I immediately use my power to try to break his grip on her, but I can’t. We struggle for long seconds, my mother’s eyes pleading for help, the angry man effortlessly holding her as he watches me with detached interest. Finally my Mother sags, unconscious in his iron grip. The man looks at me disgustedly and says in a raspy deep, ragged voice, “You still need more practice!” He flicks his other hand at me and a wave of force hits me like a truck.

  I wake up.

  Not my favourite dream.

  I get up and go through my morning ritual, 100 pushups, 200 sit-ups, 10 yoga stretches, then shower and get dressed. I grab the morning papers that are delivered to my door every day and skim the proper sections, looking for any communications from you, but don’t see any. Okay, then, what was on my agenda for today? Ahh, yes; I’ll go look in on Trew and see what he’s up to. He told me the other day he read an interesting book, I’ll be sure to ask if I can borrow it.

  I take the bus and find him hanging with a couple of his friends on the corner, climbing walls and throwing punches at each other. It takes about 10 minutes for him to see me but I’m in no rush to be noticed, I could stand and watch this kid all day. He has so much charm and grace. I don’t think he sees it yet, but he’s a wolf among sheep. His confidence and presence set him apart from his peers. While others are content to wait around and follow the leader, he
is
the leader who’s comfortable to walk right in and take charge. He’s so good at it, and the others love him for it. I don’t know how many credits he spent on Charisma or Leadership traits, but he has them in abundance.

  When he spots me his eyes light up. I’ve been his companion since he was little, and I always try to add something to his journey when we’re together. I haven’t met his parents formally yet; they might be suspicious of a full grown woman showing an interest in their son. But when the time is right, I’m sure we’ll get along well. They love him fiercely, and are extremely active in his development. They must be very close friends on the outside. But of course you already know all this. Damn self-narrating! It sure does get tiring sometimes. Talking to myself, knowing all those thoughts can be heard by you. Well it's a pain in the ass sometimes.

  Trew runs over and we slap hands, then I hug him and he laughs. “What’s going on, Lobato*?” I ask.

  “Not much, Steph,” he says. “You come to take me to lunch? I’ve got some real interesting stuff to tell you!”

  “Lunch sounds good,” I say. “Any suggestions?”

  “Pizza?” he asks.

  “Sure,” I say. I know his parents feed him very healthy food most of the time. Pizza isn’t something he gets to eat every day, and who doesn’t love pizza?

  There’s a place just around the corner that we love, so we head there and grab a seat. I face the door, my back to the wall. It's proven to literally be a lifesaving habit from time to time.

  We sit and make small talk, me asking about his current interests, his school, boring stuff. Then he brings up the new book he just read.

  “It’s called ‘The Game Is Life,’ written by a guy named George Knight. Ever heard of it, Steph?”

  Of course I have, but that’s not something I can admit to him yet. “Doesn’t ring a bell.  What’s it about, Trew?”

  He sits forward excitedly. “It was written years ago and it says a lot of the things me and Danni believe. That we are all really just living in a virtual reality simulation, some kind of game that is set up to be played by a whole other race. This guy George thinks maybe it’s a training simulation for the military, or just a game for fun that kids play. He goes on to talk about our universe and the idea of God, and how it would all come together if we were in a game. He uses the question, ‘What if we’re living in some elaborate computer simulation?’ as a basis for explaining our reality!”

  “And how does he do at explaining things?” I ask.

  “He does an awesome job!” Trew says. “It’s pretty in-depth. I should give you the book to read. I need it back, though; apparently it’s a super tough thing to find. I can’t find mention of it anywhere on the Net, and bookstores don’t even have it listed as a book they can get in.”

  “Really?” I act surprised, which I am. Not because he can’t find it, but because he actually
did
. “How did you end up getting it then?”

  He smiles with pride, “Used book store. Danni loves finding old books in used book stores, so I go looking for her when I pass one. Just luck, it seems. Or more likely the computer
wanted
me to find it. Danni found one almost at the exact same time in a used book store where she lives.”

  Hmm. “Really? So she’s read it, too? What did she think of it?” No doubt she loved it.

  “She loved it!” he exclaims. “We both felt we were on the right track before. But now that we read the same ideas from this book, we know for sure that this is just a game!”

  I lean forward to ask him for more details and the front door opens. I look over briefly to see who is coming in — good habits.

  Damn it! ‘A,’ I hope you’re watching this. Scrambling the signal. Counting to ten for you to switch channels. Hurry!

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

*Lobato - Spanish for ‘young wolf.’

Chapter 27

  “I understand, sir. It is very frustrating to lose signal while viewing a player. Yes, sir. I realize how much you pay for the viewing package you have purchased. This does happen from time to time, sir. It’s normal to occasionally experience loss of signal. The player feeds all glitch from time to time. Sometimes it’s because of where they go on Earth, other times it’s due to a drain of signal from so many viewers tuning in to watch. Most often it’s a result of your local connection to the feed, sir. That seems to be the case right now. Power is fluctuating in your area, sir. We are committed to bringing your viewing experience back online as soon as possible.

  “Thank you sir, that is most kind of you to say.

  “While I have your account up, I see that you also view 123 other players on a regular basis. If you added just two more players to follow, I could offer you a special viewer’s package and save you money on your monthly bill.

  “Excellent, sir. Thank you for calling The Game viewing headquarters. We value your business.”

Customer service call, The Game Viewing Centre

Stephanie

  Okay, I hope you can see this, A. Recognize who just walked in? That's right, It’s Carl!

If you guys knew he was in town, you really dropped the ball on letting me know! I almost pushed Trew to the ground and started a war in here, but Carl quickly threw up the hand signal for peace when he walked in. Unless he is going to go against all Eternal protocol, we are safe at the moment.

  He’s been standing near the door, looking at the menu behind the counter for the past 22 seconds. I’m trying to stay calm, making small talk with Trew. I couldn’t tell you a single word the boy has said, though. I’ve got to get him out of here.

  “So, I think what Danni and I are going to do is…”

  “Hey, Trew?” I have to interrupt him. I have to remain calm though. The boy feeds off energy; if I freak out, so will he.

  “Yeah, Steph?” He’s concerned. He follows my sight to look over at Carl. Carl has placed an order and is walking this way. “Who’s that, Steph? You know him…? Hey, he has your eyes! Only not gold flecks… are they red? Wow, cool, I gotta look closer! Here he comes.”

  “Shh,” I hiss at him and his eyes leave Carl and lock with mine. “Listen, Lobato, everything’s fine. This is an old friend of mine. He can be a bit of a character though. So just be polite and don’t say too much, okay? And when I tell you to leave, you leave. You go home right away and make sure you’re with your Mom or Dad. If they aren’t home go next door to the Balker’s place. I’ll call you later. There’s nothing wrong, I just want to make sure you do as I’m telling you right now, okay?”

  Trew shrugs. He’s not concerned. I’m doing a good job of staying calm on the surface, but deep down I’m ready to kill! “Sure, Steph. No problem.”

  “With this guy, we play the ‘I don’t know’ game.” It’s not a question, and he nods his head seriously.

  “Sure, no problem.” He winks at me, then turns around to watch Carl approach.

  Five feet, 11 inches, black hair, bronze, tanned skin, muscular, perfect smile. Textbook Eternal look. The dark brown eyes, Trew was right — red flecks instead of gold. He looks like the hero that comic book writers draw. But his energy… well, if you can feel it, he’s definitely not the hero. I’ve seen scarier villains, but not many.

  “Well, what a pleasant surprise.” His voice is rich and smooth, like that tiger from the Jungle Book movie. I can see Trew get calm. He sees the threat here.

  “Carl. What brings you to town?” I ask.

  He smiles and it takes all my control to not push Trew to the ground and throw a punch to Carl’s face. He must sense what I’m feeling, because his smile grows broader, inviting me to do it. “I was just passing through. Got hungry and decided to try the local pizza. What a huge coincidence, running into
you
here.”

  Lies! “Well it’s great to see you.” I can lie just as well. “Tell me what you’ve been up to.”

  Carl turns his gaze from mine to Trew. “Who’s your friend, Stephanie? How
rude
of you not to introduce us.” He extends his hand, “My name is Carl.”

  Trew looks at me, I give him a small nod, and he shakes hands with Carl. My gut tells me we are all safe. If Carl breaks the peace after giving the signal, then nothing can save him from the wrath of those higher up.

  “Trew.” The two shake hands.

  I watch them closely. Carl is doing so much more than just shaking hands, he’s evaluating Trew. His smile falters so faintly most wouldn’t see it, but I do. Good, he sees the potential there too. I hope he takes that information in and reports it back to his masters. They need to know how much it will cost them to play this game.

  “It’s a genuine pleasure to meet you, Trew. Do you eat pizza here often?”

  Trew shrugs, “I’m not sure.”

  “Really?” Carl asks.

  “Well, I don’t know what you mean by often. So I can’t be sure.”

  “I see.” Carl flashes me an annoyed look. I grin. “Well, do you live around here, Trew?”

  “No, not really…” Trew looks confused.

  Carl laughs out loud. His laughter is deep and rich; it makes you feel safe and happy. That’s a dangerous way to feel with Carl, because it’s impossible to be safe or happy around him. “The ‘I don’t know’ game, Stephanie? Well he’s pretty good at it. I get the message. You don’t want him talking to me.” He looks at Trew with a friendly grin. “That’s a shame, Trew. Trusting Stephanie could be troublesome for you some day. Anyone that can teach you how to not give answers… I wonder how much you really know about her yourself?” He lets the question hang uncomfortably in the air. I can see the doubt in Trew’s eyes.