"Did the lady finally ditch the peewee for a real guy?"
Liam turned to face Thomas. "What do you want?"
Thomas backed off trying to play it cool. "Oh, nothing. Just checking out the sights."
Caleb followed the lead of his master like a good little lap dog. "And they are some nice looking sights."
"You followed me to pester me, so get it over with." He wasn't in the mood to fight.
Thomas circled Liam. "What's a peewee like you hanging out around the VIP lounge for anyway?"
"None of your business."
"Oh," Thomas leaned in close to Liam's ear, "but I wanna make it my business."
Liam never took his eyes off Katie while Thomas circled him.
"See," Thomas continued, "I think you're up to something. And I'm gonna find out what it is."
Liam sighed. He'd grown tired of Thomas and his incessant teasing.
"If you're not careful, your girl there will be dating a high schooler before too long. Who knows? I might even make a move."
That was all he could stand of Thomas and his mouth. Every time he came around Liam wound up getting embarrassed. He wasn't gonna take it anymore.
"What's your problem, man?" Liam caught Thomas by surprise and shoved him into an arcade machine. The kid who was playing it yelled out as he was pinned against the machine.
Caleb lunged forward and knocked Liam into the divider wall between the arcade and the VIP lounge.
Punches flew from all three boys until blond burly dude broke them up. "The door! All of you!"
Liam looked back at Katie. She stood beside Duane watching the fight. He could see the disappointment in her eyes.
Thomas and Caleb walked away from Liam once they had gotten outside. "You're gonna pay, peewee!"
Liam didn't care about Thomas at that moment. He paced in front of the arcade waiting for what seemed like forever for Katie to come out. What could she be doing? Had she found the gaming guru? Or was she so disappointed that she wasn't coming back out?
Finally, she emerged from the arcade. The familiar beeps and dings escaped from the arcade as the door flung open. One little fight wasn't enough to drag gamers from their attempt at the next high score.
She looked mad, but Liam was curious how it went. "Did you find him?"
She flinched when she saw his face and her anger faded a bit. Redness and swelling had formed under his left eye. "Wanna tell me what that was all about?"
It was a miracle she was even still talking to him, and he wasn't sure how long that would last, so he needed to tread carefully. "That jerk started bad mouthing you and I showed him what I thought about it."
"Oh, good grief, Liam! I don't need you picking fights for me."
He hung his head. "I know. I'm sorry. So, what did Duane have to say?"
Katie hesitated. Liam wondered if she would even tell him what she had found out. Finally, she spoke. "Yeah, he's some gamer who goes by the handle 'Dark Storm' or something lame like that. Anyway, he wasn't here tonight. No one's seen him since yesterday."
"No one's seen him? Is he just hold up in his house avoiding the zombie apocalypse or did he disappear?"
"He doesn't know. Arcade Dungeon is his second home. He never misses a night here."
"Why do I get the feeling we're about to be sent on a mission to find the Master Sword from the old man who lives in a cave? Uh... no pun intended."
"Speaking of that old man... maybe we should try that house again," she suggested.
Since they didn't have a solid lead on Dark Storm, going back to Maple Street and sniffing around the yard sale house was their only real option. Butterflies or not, Liam would have to face the guy at the house sooner or later.
It was already eight thirty at night and the zombies were in full force roaming the streets. Luckily, they were prepared. Liam no longer left his house without his bat.
"There's something else odd about this guru guy. No one knows what he looks like."
"Huh? That doesn't make any sense. He hangs out at the arcade every day, how can no one have seen his face?"
She shrugged. "Apparently he hasn't revealed his online identity in person."
"Great. So this guy, or girl for all we know, could be anybody." Liam rubbed his forehead. The thought of having nothing to go on gave him a headache.
Neither of them had considered the option that the person was a girl. Duane said 'he' and they assumed he knew who the person was. The possibilities had been blown open.
After walking for most of the trip in silence, the pair finally stopped in front of the house on Maple Street. Liam stared up at the second story window. "Do you think we can lure him out?"
"Worth a shot," and then she flung a small rock at the window.
"Whoa! What are you doing?" he asked.
Liam was afraid the younger guy would come out and run them off. But he didn't have to worry. It worked. The old man pulled back the curtains.
"What now?" Liam asked.
The mysterious man raised the window so that he could hear Liam through the screen.
"Talk to him." She nudged him into the grass closer to the window.
"Hey, mister! My friend bought a game from you the other day. I think it's broken. Any idea how to play it?"
The man's face was mostly hidden in shadows, but he appeared to be an elderly man. His silver hair gleaned from the light behind him in the room.
There was a slight hesitation, but a shaky voice finally came from the shadows. "You don't. It plays you."
Liam looked at Katie. His gut tightened. "What does that mean?"
"Don't let it suck you in. You need to find a way out before you're trapped forever."
And with that, the old man shut the window and disappeared behind the curtains.
Katie didn't believe it. "Great, so this guy thinks he's living in a game, too." Then she noticed Liam standing there with an odd look on his face. "What's wrong?"
He felt like he could empty his stomach at any moment. "I dunno, I've got a sudden urge to go home."
"You gotta pee?" she joked.
"No," he shook his head. It was a familiar feeling.
"You know how you should save before fighting a big boss? That's how I feel."
Katie looked at him.
Liam shied away. "Don't look at me like that."
Two days into his new game world and Liam still didn't have a grasp on the rules. Was home really like a save spot in a video game? Even in reality home was a place to go to sleep and recharge after a strenuous day. Were they about to embark on a quest beyond their wildest imaginations?
And was that old man also trapped in the game world?
Maybe what they really needed to do was track down this game guru online.
Katie grabbed Liam's hand and led him down the sidewalk. "Come on. You don't look so good."
He turned pale. Hearing someone else confirm what he suspected didn't make it any easier to accept.
As they disappeared around the corner from the house, Caleb stepped out from behind the bushes next to the old man's house. He had heard everything.
6
It was late when they got back to Liam's house, but he was eager to get started. Katie was able to at least convince him to eat something. He had turned too pale to pretend nothing was wrong.
Holding an ice pack on his cheek, Liam grabbed Chaos Caliber, the most popular game of all time, and turned on his game console. He frowned.
"What's wrong?"
He slouched back against the chair. "This game used to look much better."
"Never mind that. Just find him."
Liam fired up the game and selected the 'Multiplayer' option. He browsed the different available servers for Dark Storm. "A lot of gamers on tonight."
"Not surprising with school being cancelled."
"About that," Liam continued to browse the servers, "have you noticed there aren't any adults around?"
"I hadn't really thought about it, but now that you ment
ion it...," Katie looked out the window. Light from a street lamp cast eerie shadows across a shambling zombie below. She shivered. "Those things give me the creeps." She dropped the curtain and sat down next to Liam.
"Whoa," he leaned back in his chair. The quasi-reality of the situation set in. "I just realized. We're going online into a game, within a game. Epic."
Katie rolled her eyes and looked down at Shadow who had placed his head in her lap. "Your daddy's such a geek."
Finally, after searching for several minutes through various online servers, Liam blurted out, "There he is!"
Katie leaned in close. "Do it. Join the server. See if you can talk to him."
Liam's heart beat faster. He twiddled his fingers against the controller while he waited for his game to connect. He had no idea what to say once he got into the room. Blurting out 'Dark Storm, can you help me with this zombie game I got from a yard sale?' hardly seemed appropriate. That was a good way to get booted from the room and banned from the server, and possibly even the game. Forever.
But it was the zombie apocalypse. He also had no idea how much time he had to find his way out of the game world before his time, or health meter, depleted. He didn't have time for niceties.
"Ok, I'm in. Let's hope he's not about to bail."
Liam pulled a keyboard from under his chair. "Plug this in. Once I introduce myself to the group, I want you to direct message Dark Storm."
"Dude, you could get banned," she warned.
"Dude, we don't have time to worry about that."
She gave him a look that told him what she thought of his mocking attitude as she plugged in the keyboard.
Liam quickly pulled up the menu and changed a setting to allow the other players' voices to be heard through the TV speakers.
"Hi, guys. I'm Liam a-k-a Zombie Boy."
A player by the name of Good4ursoul replied, "Nice to meet you. But no real names here, man."
"Okay, no problem."
Liam was a good player. He quickly ramped up five kills in the first few seconds of playing. He was battling for first place with Dark Storm himself.
"You guys play together often?"
PWNmaster appeared on screen, "Hey, Zombie Boy, do you ever not talk?"
He glanced at Katie. "Sorry."
Good4ursoul replied, "Leave 'im alone, P Master. He's got more kills than you."
"I'm just sayin'. It's like crowding the plate. No pitcher likes a batter who crowds the plate."
A baseball reference. Liam was beginning to like these guys. He hoped with his kill count they'd like him. He looked over at Katie who was waiting for the sign, and he shook his head. He had another idea. He was going for it.
"Hey, guys, I got this weird game I need help with. Any idea who I could ask?"
It was silent for several seconds. Katie mouthed the words, "good job" at him, but he shrugged it off.
"It's some zombie game, but I think it's broken."
Good4ursoul spoke, "Yeah... I might know someone."
PWNmaster replied, "Dude, you know we aren't supposed to."
"Shut up and try to get some kills. Hey, Zombie Boy, I'll send you a message."
Liam shot Katie an excited look.
The game was over and Liam sat in the lobby of the game server. All the other guys were congratulating each other over their kill ratio. One of them even told Liam what a good job he had done and that he could play with them any time.
Then a ding emitted from the console and a little envelope popped up in the corner of the screen.
Liam couldn't hold in his enthusiasm and blurted out, "Sweet!"
As soon as he did though, the game dropped him from the server and loaded the main lobby screen. "What? No, no, noooo. Come back," he whined.
He tapped the top of the console. The red light was still on. The TV was still on, as were the lights.
"What happened?" Katie asked.
"Internet's out. Craaaaaap!" He flung his controller across the room. "We were so close!"
Liam jumped into action. He rebooted his internet router but that didn't help. "Did you bring your laptop?"
Katie retrieved it from her overstuffed bag. Liam gave her a curious look. "Got anything else useful in that bag?"
"Maybe." She smiled.
"Come on, I've got an idea."
Liam was hoping to be able to test his internet connection by connecting the laptop to the wire that leads from the street to the box on the side of his house. They quickly ran downstairs but stopped in front of the big sliding glass door. He hesitated before pulling the curtain back. Two zombies were roaming his backyard. They were on the other side of the pool, so if they were careful not to make any noise, they could sneak by.
"Be right back." Liam disappeared up the stairs. When he came back down he was holding his bat and a hockey stick.
"Just in case," he handed Katie the hockey stick. "Ready?"
She nodded, and they slowly slid the glass door open and crept out. They stayed close to the house hoping the shadows would conceal their efforts. All was fine until they rounded the corner of the house. Liam threw his free arm back to stop Katie's advancement. She bumped into him anyway.
In front of them was a zombie and he was lunging toward Caleb!
At that moment, Caleb saw them and yelled, "Help me, dude!"
Liam waved for Caleb to back up and he slowly crept toward the zombie. He raised the bat high above his head and then WHACK! The bat slammed into the zombie's head cracking it open. Blood and goo spurted from his rotted skull. The zombie collapsed in a pile of its own gunk.
"Grrroooossss!" Caleb covered his mouth and turned away.
Liam touched the dead zombie with the toe of his sneaker.
Caleb turned back around just in time. "That's so disgusting. What is that thing?"
Katie put her hand on her hip. "What, you don't know a zombie when you see one?"
"What're you guys doing out here?" asked Caleb. He still couldn't remove his hand from his mouth in fear he'd spew his own chunks.
They were standing in front of the telephone box on the side of Liam's house. He bent over and picked up the cut end of a cable. "I could ask you the same thing."
Caleb took a step backward. Liam dropped the cable and gripped the bat with both hands.
"I... I didn't mean anything by it."
"Caleb, you idiot!" He took a step toward Caleb.
Katie glared at him. "Were you spying on us?"
"Why would you do that?"
Caleb stuttered, "I... Uh..."
"You've got two seconds," threatened Liam.
Caleb held up his hands. "Don't hit me, I can explain."
"We're waiting," said Katie as she twirled the hockey stick.
"I was angry when I left the arcade, so I took a walk. I spotted the two of you walking down Maple and decided to follow you."
"Hoping to jump unsuspecting kids at night?" Liam slapped his palm with the bat.
"No, I was just curious what you were up to."
"And what do you think you saw?"
"Enough to know that I'm not going crazy."
He wasn't sure why, but suddenly Liam relaxed. He had a feeling that Caleb also knew something about just what the heck was going on. Even though they've had their differences, Liam was willing to chance being cordial at least for a few minutes.
One of the zombies that was shambling around the pool groaned and looked their way. It stuck its nose in the air.
Liam said, "We probably smell like dinner, and I don't plan on it being me. Let's get inside."
Liam didn't trust Caleb completely, so he let Katie lead the way with him taking up the rear. That way, he could keep an eye on Caleb.
Liam was the last to enter the sliding glass door. He quickly shut it and drew the curtains closed again. Then he turned to Caleb. "Tell us what you know."
Caleb glanced back and forth between Liam and Katie. "I still feel like I should warn you I'm not crazy. But something weird is going on.
"
"We'll be the judge of that. Define weird."
"There's this game," Caleb began. Liam looked at Katie. Caleb asked, "You know what I'm talking about, don't you?"
"A game that asked you several questions?"
Caleb jumped up from his chair. "That's it! So, I'm not crazy! It's real, right?"
Liam let his guard down a little and paced around the kitchen. He hesitated to say too much, but he also felt that since Caleb was willing to spill his guts that it meant they were on the same side.
"I played the game, too," Liam finally admitted.
"So what is it? What does it do?"
"I'm not exactly sure, but... I've been experiencing some really weird stuff."
He went on to tell Caleb about how everything looked pixelated. Caleb nodded. Liam also told him about busting barrels to find green and red orbs.
"Dude, we've gotta find someone who can help."
"We were this close," he held up his fingers to Caleb's face. "Until some idiot decided to cut my internet. It never crossed your mind that working together would be better than spying on us?"
Caleb was disgusted with himself. "Sorry, man."
Liam sat down at the kitchen table and laid his head down for a while. Finally, he leaned back in his chair. "There's just one thing that's unclear."
Caleb asked, "One thing?"
"Where'd you get the game?"
"It was sitting on top of the lockers. Near mine. I was curious what it was, so I took it home and played it."
"And what did you do with it afterwards?"
Caleb shrugged. "I stashed it in some dude's yard sale."
"You what?" Liam grabbed his bat and lunged toward Caleb. He would have made it across the table but Katie jumped in front of him.
Caleb held up his hands. "I was just getting rid of it. How did I know you'd wind up with it and get sucked into my game?"
Liam stopped. "Your game?" He thought for a second. "It's not my game?"
"What're you thinking?" Caleb turned to Katie. "What's he thinking?"
Zombie Boy: Press Start (Adventures of Zombie Boy Book 1) Page 4
