Gamer (Gamer Trilogy) Read online

  “Stefanie, Victor, B3ast, you, Grace and myself,” I said out loud. Lily looked up at me.

  “Six people,” she added. I was sure she’d done these same calculations.

  “Stefanie and Victor obviously got in because they are supposedly what every Academy student should aspire to be like, right?” I asked Lily. The question was a rhetorical one.

  Rich, good-looking, smart and with billion-dollar empires awaiting their graduation, there was no better

  exemplification of the Academy ideals than them. “They’ll probably team up too,” Lily added, “making them all the more dangerous.

  “Mm.” I nodded. “I doubt that they’ll hesitate to do what they have to in order to win.”

  Lily agreed.

  “What do you think about Grace?” I asked. To me she seemed an odd choice. Younger, more a party girl, well on the way to becoming a Stefanie of her year level, she seemed almost weak and not much of a threat.

  “I think that it wouldn’t be a good idea to underestimate anyone.” Lily’s response didn’t just apply to Grace.

  “And B3ast?” I asked.

  “Well, you know B3ast.”

  B3ast, the country’s number one gamer – and therefore obviously a student at Elitus – was guaranteed a spot, though, how could he not be? He’d be somebody to watch out for.

  Both of us paused, in silence as we both considered the only two remaining competitors – ourselves. Lily was also younger. She’d been accelerated up to our year level apparently at genius level as far as intelligence went but her selection was quite random. She was small and fragile. Her comment about underestimating the other competitors sounded almost dangerous though…

  Finally we were free from the dorms, out in the weak sunlight of the early morning. We were now power walking – we both boarded in one of the most inconvenient parts of the school – clearly neither of us were high on the Academy’s priority list. In comparison, Victor had a dorm on the highest floor of the Central Building that had walkways directly leading to the lecture halls and as implied in the building’s name, was in the centre of the campus. Thinking of him, my teeth instinctively grinded against one another.

  The lab, which was where we needed to go, was directly in the direction we were travelling, just a significant distance away. It was easily a good ten-minute walk, time we didn’t have.

  I quickened my pace again and could now see the giant fountain that stood out the front of the academy’s hall, in the centre of the huge circular drive. Everything at this school was disproportionately big for no apparent reason besides the fact that it looked good.

  We began to jog along the cobblestones now, the edge in the air chilling us a little.

  “Are you nervous about the fact that in less than twenty-four hours we could be well on the road to a mental institution?” Lily called out over our rhythmic footsteps.

  I think we’d both come to terms with the fact that we were about to enter the unknown.

  “Yes and no,” I called back, “but what can we do about it?” I shrugged.

  I realised these were the last few minutes I’d have to myself. For the first time since I’d woken up, I paid attention to my nightmare.

  Glass trees, moonlight, death by Victor and a mystical portal that I couldn’t reach – definitely nightmare material. It wasn’t the first one that I’d had in the past few days, my mind had been conjuring up all sorts of scenarios of what might be awaiting us, but this had seemed so thought out and too realistic for comfort.

  “What do you think it will be like?” I asked Lily, still halfrunning, half-walking. I remembered the feeling of that axe cleaving my ribs. Then the crash as I fell to the ground, and Victor’s wolf-like laugh…

  “Dangerous,” was all she said.

  I really didn’t like Victor. He was just that stereotypical, up himself kind of guy and it didn’t help his ego that he was the only heir to his father’s real-estate empire. He went around like he owned the school, and even though he pretty much did, it annoyed the crap out of me. People bent over backwards to please him, and not just in a metaphorical sense either. Speaking of, my thoughts changed track to Stefanie. With Stefanie on his arm, he was king of the school, but to be honest, I didn’t think she even liked him – she just wanted to be the queen. I considered again if their relationship would change anything in Simulator. Thinking about it carefully this time, I decided it probably wouldn’t, in fact, I was willing to put money on their relationship ending because exactly how superficial it was, would be exposed. They’d never take a bullet for each other – something that we might literally be trying to save ourselves from.

  I kept on processing information about the other contestants, remaining in silence, right up until we were standing in front of the glass doors of the lab, with just two minutes to spare. Lily was now beside me and as the doors slid open, we both instinctively stood closer to one another.

  “Whoa,” I breathed.

  It was impossible to completely describe the inside of the lab. From the outside, it looked like just a glass dome, wrapped around in a ‘modern’ looking network of black steel bars. From from the inside it was like standing next to one of the Giant Pyramids, or inside those ancient cathedrals. It made me feel so… insignificant.

  The doors had been shaped to fit the curved edge of the building and the entrance, which was also the ground floor, actually lacked a complete roof. This was strange because that meant the level above couldn’t have a complete floor. Looking up, it looked like something you’d see in a circus tent. Cables attached to the curved edge of the building supported the incomplete roof-floors. They were more like platforms than anything else. Against the edge of the building, on every level, there was a thin, metal walkway. It was from these walkways, on every level, that paths at even intervals extended to the platforms. This complex arrangement created the sensation of standing inside a giant machine. Looking up, through the gaps between the bridges, the distance to the roof seemed endless.

  I looked at Lily, trying to catch her eye. She, however, was absorbed in the whole thing, mouthing silent words to herself.

  Looking around, I wondered how exactly somebody could get to the platform above… In the centre of the ground floor, I saw a simple glass elevator that ran straight through the middle of every platform, probably right up to the top.

  “Look at all the people,” Lily finally whispered.

  The immensity of this place was emphasised by the fact that there also seemed to be an infinite amount of people everywhere. Lab technicians swarmed in and out of the elevator, parting around us to reach the exit, stopping briefly to chat about their findings or, further up, crossing the bridges along the catwalk to get to the platform they needed to.

  It was like an ant colony, eerie in how well everything seemed to work.

  Right now, Lily and I needed to get to Simulator though. While at first we were both kind of swept away by the goings on inside lab, the time was ticking.

  I had no idea which way to go, the simulator could’ve been anywhere in the entire building. And I meant anywhere.In fact, the height of the building simply looked never ending.

  I looked over to Lily, “Do you know where to go?” I asked her.

  Her eyes were narrowed and an expression of scrutiny crossed her face. She remained like that for a whole minute and just as I was about to go off and find my own way, she simply said, “This building is an illusion.”

  Confusion swept across my face. For a second I thought she was joking - what are you supposed to do when someone calls something that you’re looking at an illusion? My first instinct was that she was just messing with me to make me an easy target, however, this was Lily and she was definitely smarter than me, so I decided to hear her out. To an extent, I also thought we might have bonded a little… As I contemplated walking off, she grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the entrance of the elevator directly ahead of us. The doors opened.

  Peering inside I saw what looked
like an ordinary elevator. I noticed a mirror that was hung on one of the walls, reflecting thousands of people… that weren’t there. I noticed a miniscule red light flashing in its top-right corner and then realised it was actually a screen, alternating between the different floors.

  I looked at her questioningly; this wasn’t anything she couldn’t figure out by herself.

  She rolled her eyes and said, “Look at their faces.”

  I had no idea what she was talking about and even after looking at the face of one of the people on the screen it seemed perfectly fine, I began thinking more and more that we never really hit it off before for a reason. Then I began looking at the other faces of the workers and I realised what was wrong. They were all the same person.

  It was such a weird feeling, watching the same face over and over. It made me feel kind of dizzy.

  Looking around me, not in the elevator, all the people edging past us were the same as well, I resisted the urge to yell out. I decided that if they were a threat, they would’ve done something already.

  How I hadn’t spotted this, however, I had no idea. But then I realised that the people did a good job of hiding their faces enough to avoid suspicion. Stacks of books, hunched postures and even a couple of hooded jumpers hid most of them from sight. Definitely a creepy feeling.

  “Well, they don’t seem dangerous – what do we do now?” I asked Lily.

  “We go in,” she replied, gesturing towards the elevator.

  She seemed so sure about what she was doing that I didn’t question her. Since seeing that screen, the elevator had shot up and back several times. Currently absent, Lily reached forward, pressed the up arrow and waited for the elevator to arrive. When it did, the doors slid open, an impossible amount of people came out and we entered. Chaos erupted.

  It was strange that we were alone in the elevator but also extremely fortunate. For some reason, the workers began to almost hum, quite like a stirred beehive. It was agitating and intimidating to watch, none of them seemed to come close enough to the elevator that their faces were distinct. The noise was dulled through the transparent elevator walls that we were now sealed inside of.

  And then the people began to vanish.

  The things people were carrying lay abandoned on the floor until they too vanished and after minutes of turmoil – during which I had no idea what to say or do – it was eerily silent.

  I was on my toes, waiting for absolutely anything to jump out from nowhere and then realisation swept over me – Simulator, had already begun.

  “Lily,” I looked over to her, equally tense and prepared, “it’s happening.”

  Her eyes were wide but also reflected determination. “I know.”

  Together we stood alone until everything began to darken. Eventually the elevator itself faded away and we waited, on edge.

  I decided I needed to stick with Lily, hoping that her brains would get me through safely.

  Looking over to her once again, I saw that same look of intense concentration that she’d had when she first spotted the illusion of the building.

  Without warning, the silence was shattered.

  “MOVE!!” Lily yelled out.

  As she pushed me forwards the world lit up with a flash of bright light and right where I was standing an enormous tree erupted out of the ground, smashing the tiles and crushing through the glass dome roof. Jagged shards of glass fell from the sky, glittering like snowflakes but crashing into the ground with vindication.

  I yelled from the shock and darted away, heart racing and my surroundings taking on a sudden sharpness. A massive tree that had forced its way out of the ground had almost impaled me. Fissures large enough for me to lie down and stretch my arms out in had formed at the base of the tree and then the ground began to rumble again.

  The white floor panels beneath our feet then began morphing into grass and more trees began forcing themselves up. All I could do was wait for Lily to let out a warning call and pull or push me out of harm’s way. Somehow, she could tell where they were coming from and also when.

  “How are you doing that?” I called out as another cluster of trees surged upwards.

  Lily just shook her head and pushed me back several meters. Thorny branches grazed the tip of my nose; I shuddered involuntarily at the thought of what might’ve happened if Lily hadn’t saved me.

  Glass smashing, earth growling and floor morphing went on for what felt like hours, but could easily have been just minutes. Lily and I were both fatigued, twice we had nearly been killed, barely escaping trees that had branches thicker than the two of our bodies combined. I laughed almost manically when I realised that our clothes had been ruined and that Lily and I were both sporting several cuts, scrapes and bruises of varying sizes. This is what Elitus truly made of its students, I thought. Looking at my watch, I saw the screen had cracked.

  The trees themselves, I realised, were wondrous; I wouldn’t have even been a fifth of their thickness, or a thirtieth of their height. To say they were huge would’ve been an

  understatement.

  The gruelling strain started to take a toll on us and Lily and I began to pant heavily. Perhaps this was the start and end of Simulator. Maybe the test was to outlast fatigue and the challenge lay in avoiding impalement. There would be a winner, that’s for sure. But then it didn’t matter what the test was, did it, so long as I was the one to survive.

  Adrenaline was still coursing through my veins and now I was standing to back to back with Lily, drenched in sweat and straining my senses for the sound of huge amounts of dirt being shifted. Nothing. The onslaught seemed to have ceased for the time being and both Lily and I collapsed to the ground, already exhausted.

  The trees had blocked out any light from above and for the second time, we were shrouded in complete darkness as well as silence.

  “Thanks,” I managed to say between breaths.

  “No problem,” her voice sounded hoarse.

  We sat for a moment and just waited.

  Slowly a pulsating ball of light formed above us, bobbing up and down. Lily immediately jumped to her feet but I was less concerned than her. I climbed to my feet at my own pace and curiously observed the ball swishing and swaying and the darkness.

  In the small area of grass it lit up, I could make out a path that was slowly forming itself. Silently, stones emerged from the earth, along its edges flowers budded and stones became borders. It flourished into something quite picturesque and as the light rose to reveal further into the distance, the pathway seemed never ending. It began to look inviting but we were reluctant to move without having to, especially down a path that could be very well leading us to our deaths.

  I looked over to Lily and she looked back, then mulled it over and nodded. We both began to follow the path, which, conveniently, didn’t have any trees within a meter of it. I seemed hypersensitive though, already my body had begun to adjust and at the smallest noises, I leapt into the air. I raised my arm and tried to touch the light but it swooped out of my reach.

  I then squinted and tried to look into the distance but I couldn’t see anything past the light. We really had no choice but to walk along with it now and when the light seemed to climb higher, we could see that the path still seemed to be unfurling itself, like it was only here because we were.

  My pulse slowed a little, I began to breathe normally and I noticed that Lily’s hand was clutching mine, she, who had kept a level head throughout the entire forest eruption ordeal, now looked traumatized.

  “The silence,” was all she said.

  I nodded in acknowledgement and understood.

  Grimly I took note of her temporary, aware that it might help me eliminate her later on.

  I was about to point out to her that the path was disappearing behind us but we emerged into a clearing.

  The light rose even higher into the air and my heart beat harder again. We were standing in a circular patch of dirt, surrounded by glass trees. Glass trees. Exact replicas of the ones
from my dream.

  The light dimmed again and I could just make out the trees around us melding back into the ground. The sound of things quietly shifting became more pronounced and then, the light became yellow and it now hung from within a light bulb.

  The forest setting had been completely replaced by a room. Lily’s grip on my hand tightened a little and I looked around.

  The room was hexagonal in shape, with a platform placed at each of the room’s six corners. Standing on those platforms were the other Testees. I almost exploded with relief when I saw Stefanie. All this shifting of forests and fighting for my life had scattered me in the last hour, I’d felt like I was on another planet. Stefanie was something real and familiar. I had known her for so long and now she was something that could tie me down to reality.

  Stefanie smiled at me and Victor’s nostrils flared a little. I tried to meet his eye but he looked away and stared at the wall. It was going to be fun working things out with him over the next couple of days.

  Then a man just appeared. He was the one whose face had been used for the illusion of all those staff in the lab. Straight away my guard went up.

  In a tinny voice he exclaimed, “My my, Lily and Xander, you’re almost late! Not to worry, I was just about to give everyone a briefing, take your platforms please.” He seemed very theatrical and overly happy but for some reason I couldn’t help but think he was insincere. There was something not right about him.

  “So you all know why you’re here,” he began, “this speech will be just a brief outline of my line of work. You’ve all already seen, in your own ways, the power of Simulator,” Lily and I both kind of shrank back in sync, remembering the trees and then the following darkness. We gave each other a look; there was definitely some sort of bond formed between us. Stefanie on the other hand seemed pleased with whatever illusions had brought her here and Victor puffed out his chest, as if overcoming giant trees trying to spear him made him feel manly. B3ast and Grace just remained neutral, yet both looking a little dishevelled.