by R. T. Martin
Copyright © 2017 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.
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Images in this book used with the permission of: © Tithi Luadthong/ Shutterstock. com (zombies), © iStockphoto.com/FairytaleDesign (rubble), © iStockphoto. com/ Thoth_ Adan (grunge background).
Main body text set in Janson Text LT Std 12/17.5. Typeface provided by Adobe Systems.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Cataloging-in-Publication Data for Safe Zone is on file at the Library
of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-5124-3986-1 (lib. bdg.)
ISBN 978-1-5124-5360-7 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-1-5124-4875-7 (EB pdf)
Manufactured in the United States of America
1-42235-25784-2/10/2017
9781512467659 mobi
9781512467666 ePub
9781512467673 ePub
It is the year 2089. Virtual reality games are part of everyday life, and one company—L33T C0RP—is behind the most popular games. Though most people are familiar with L33T C0RP, few know much about what happens behind the scenes of the megacorporation.
L33T C0RP has developed a new virtual reality game: Level Up. It contains more than one thousand unique virtual realities for gamers to play. But the company needs testers to smooth out glitches. Teenagers from around the country are chosen for this task and, suddenly, they find themselves in the middle of a video game. The company gives them a warning—win the game, or be trapped within it. Forever.
Chapter 1
“Wake up!”
He opened his eyes, looking straight up at the sky. Pitch black clouds that looked more like smoke covered most of his field of vision, and the areas of sky that peeked through the black were blood red. It wasn’t the sky he was used to.
“Get up—now!” It was a female voice giving the commands. He was lying on his back and hoisted himself up with incredible ease. It strangely took no effort at all.
He looked around and saw that he was up high—way off the ground. He was standing on concrete and gravel at the top of a building, debris scattered all over. Looking down at the other buildings, he realized this wasn’t the world he was used to. Everything here was wrong. It all seemed broken. There were no lights in any of the windows—almost all of which were broken. Many of the neighboring buildings had huge holes in them or chunks missing and looked as though they might collapse at any minute.
He started to panic, his mind racing. Where am I? he thought. What’s going on? How did I get here? He breathed quickly and spun in circles, not sure which way to go or what to do. I have to get out of here.
Someone grabbed him by the shoulders, forcing him to stand still.
“Get it together!” It was the female voice that had woken him up. “Calm down!”
“What’s going on? Where am I? What happened? Who are—”
“Stop babbling, and calm down,” the girl cut him off. “It’s just a game, and it’s about to start, so shut up!”
She let go of him and sat down on a nearby chunk of concrete. “Just relax.”
“A game?”
“Yeah,” she said. “A video game. This is just a virtual reality, so you can go ahead and stop freaking out.” She gestured out toward the ruined city. “The game takes place during a zombie apocalypse. It’s not real.” The girl wore jeans and a black t-shirt and sneakers. He looked down and found he was wearing the exact same thing.
He was about to ask another question when he heard a new voice: “Welcome, gamers.”
A man stood nearby, wearing sunglasses with a white suit and tie. He smiled at them. “Both of you have been selected by the L33T Corporation to test Safe Zone, one of the many virtual worlds of our upcoming new game,” he said, gesturing to the broken city around them. “We here at L33T C0RP are very excited about it. You will be the first two players Safe Zone has ever had. I am the Game Runner. I’ll give you your objective in just a moment, but first thing’s first: you’ll each need to select a gamertag. Go ahead and enter that now.”
At that, a glowing blue keyboard appeared in front of each player. The girl started typing right away, finishing before he had even started. She looked at him impatiently, so he typed the first thing that came to mind: No_Idea.
“Thank you.” As the Game Runner said this, the name No_Idea appeared in the top left of his field of vision. The name N3V3RDIE appeared in the top right, which he figured must have been the name the girl selected.
“Your goal in this game is simple,” the Game Runner explained. “Get to the safe zone.” A glowing green beam shot up out of the ruined city. It was hard to tell, but the beam looked like it was a mile or two away. “There are four levels to this game: The Skyscraper, The Streets, The Stadium, and The Swarm. You two are the only living people you will encounter. The rest of the population has been infected with a zombie virus for which there is no cure. Those lucky enough to stay alive can hope only for escape. The zombies will block your path and try to get you. You must complete all four levels to win the game.”
“Easy,” N3V3RDIE said. No_Idea frowned. That didn’t sound easy at all.
“You will find tools that will help you,” the Game Runner continued. “You’ll notice them because they are glowing, and there are very few of them. You also have a limited amount of stamina.” As he said this, a glowing green bar appeared beneath each name in the corner of No_Idea’s vision, his own stamina level below his name and N3V3RDIE’s below hers.
“As you perform physical tasks, your stamina will decrease. As your stamina decreases, it will become harder to perform physical tasks. When your stamina bar reaches the minimum, you will only be able to walk slowly in a straight line. There is no limit to the number of lives you have, but your stamina will not refresh if you restart. If your stamina reaches zero percent, you will lose the game.”
“Got it. Let’s go!” N3V3RDIE rubbed her hands together and turned around as if already looking for a way off of the rooftop. No_Idea stared at her. This sounded terrifying to him. Who was this gamer he had to play with?
The Game Runner smirked at her enthusiasm. “You’ll be on your way soon enough. But be careful: if the zombies bite you, you will die and respawn here at the top of the skyscraper, and remember—any stamina you have used will not replenish.”
“Sounds good. Let’s go already!” N3V3RDIE urged.
“Oh, one more thing,” the Game Runner said. “The only way out of this game is by completing all four levels. If you don’t, you will not be able to leave. Good luck, gamers.” With that, the Game Runner vanished into thin air.
Chapter 2
No_Idea started to panic again. The idea of being trapped in a nightmarish city filled with zombies was petrifying. N3V3RDIE didn’t seem to be concerned at all—she was already poking around the rooftop, muttering to herself.
“Are you going to just stand there, or are you planning on helping?” she shouted at him. “Not that I need it,” he heard her say under her breath.
“Where do we go?” he asked.
“Weren’t you listening?” She scowled at him. “You really have ‘no idea,’ do you?”
He shrugged.
N3V3RDIE sighed. “We’
re in the first level, The Skyscraper. The second level is The Streets—so obviously, we have to get down from this tower to the streets, which means first we need to find a way off this roof.”
That made sense to him, but No_Idea hadn’t played a video game in years. He hadn’t been good at them, and they only made him frustrated and gave him a headache. He preferred sketching or reading outside as opposed to staring at a screen all day. This was all new to him, so he didn’t know what to look for, or even really how to look for it. N3V3RDIE was swooping around the rooftop, looking under debris and through piles of bricks for something, but he didn’t know what.
“Look, if you want to just sit there like a pile of garbage, that’s fine. I can beat this game by myself,” she said finally. “I don’t need you.”
No_Idea stood there, watching her. “I don’t play video games.” It was the only thing he could think to say. “I shouldn’t be here.”
Without stopping her search, she pointed to where the Game Runner had been. “You probably should have told him that. There’s nothing I can do about it—we were both randomly selected for this game.”
“Randomly selected?”
“And now you are here, and you better start playing if you want to go back to never playing games.” She was at the far end of the roof near a concrete cube. As she looked at the other side of it, she said, “Ah! Here we go. There’s a door over here.”
No_Idea walked over to where she was. N3V3RDIE leaned forward, grabbed the handle, and pulled. It only opened a crack. She pulled harder and harder, but she couldn’t get it to open enough for either of them to slip through. She pulled a third time, and No_Idea saw 1% of her stamina drop.
“Stop,” he said. “It’s not going to open, and you’re using up stamina.”
“Oh, I suppose you have a better idea, n00b?”
“N00b?”
“Ugh, you don’t know anything!” she groaned. “Maybe there’s something around here that we can use to get this thing open. Start looking.”
No_Idea went to the other side of the roof. He didn’t want to be near N3V3RDIE, and she had made it clear that she didn’t need him there at all.
Maybe we should just stay on the rooftop, he thought. At least there aren’t any zombies on it. He milled around, kicking debris until he saw something propped in the corner, glowing. He got closer and saw it was a crowbar. His fingers twitched as he bent to pick it up, wondering if a glowing object would do anything weird to him. But when he grabbed it, it merely stopped glowing.
“I found something!” he shouted.
She didn’t acknowledge that he had said anything, just kept looking around the roof. He walked over to the door, put the crowbar in position, and popped the door wide open.
“I got it!” he shouted, surprised at how excited he was by his own success. “It’s open. I did it!”
N3V3RDIE stormed over to the door, snatched the crowbar out of his hand, and pushed him out of the way. “Good for you,” she snapped. “You opened a door.”
“Yeah,” he replied. “With a crowbar! That was awesome!”
She stopped and gave him a look. “Are you serious? You really don’t play games, do you?”
“Nope,” he said with a smile.
“And you’re impressed by opening a door with a crowbar.”
“Yeah,” he replied. “Did you see it?” She was still staring at him with disdain, and he felt his smile begin to drop.
“You’re going to die,” she said finally. She didn’t shout it, didn’t whisper it—just said it, like a simple fact: one plus one equals two, you’re going to die. She let it sink in for a moment before turning around and heading through the open door. “I’d leave you behind, but I need someone to help me search for supplies.”
Just past the door was a stairwell that looked like it led down to the top floor. N3V3RDIE didn’t hesitate, and No_Idea saw no other option but to follow her down the stairs into the dark.
“So you play games a lot, huh?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“And you don’t think you’ll have a problem beating this one?”
“Nope.”
Jeez, he thought, I guess she’s not a talker. But I don’t know what I’m doing, and she does. I’d better stick with her, even if it’s in silence. There’s no way I’m getting out of here on my own.
After ten flights of stairs, he saw both of their stamina levels had dropped 4%. They were still nearly full, and N3V3RDIE’s was 1% lower than his because of how hard she had tried to open the door, but it still made him nervous that even some of it was gone. It was like a ticking clock, and it put him on edge.
They made it down twenty-two flights of stairs, without talking, before they couldn’t go any farther and had to stop at the floor’s landing. The stairway in front of them was ruined, collapsed. They could see that three floors down was rubble that had once been the concrete steps. Fortunately, the door on this floor’s landing was open, the wind rushing through it blowing against his face. A sign said it was floor twenty-three.
“I guess we have to find another way down, huh?” he said.
“Shhh,” N3V3RDIE hissed. She approached the door slowly.
I wonder why there’s so much wind coming through here, he thought. It wasn’t this windy when we were on the roof.
That’s when No_Idea heard it—just slightly against the wind’s roar, but it was there. Groaning.
Chapter 3
No_Idea froze at the sound of the groaning, stopping midstep. He turned to ask N3V3RDIE what they should do, but she was already next to the open doorway with her back against the wall. No_Idea stayed where he was on the stairs as she quickly peeked around the corner.
She turned to face him and held a finger to her lips, raising her other hand with all five fingers open and her palm facing him, then pointing around the corner. No_Idea shook his head in confusion. She made the same gesture and pointed around the corner again. No_Idea still didn’t get it. N3V3RDIE sighed, then quietly but quickly moved up the steps until she was right in his face.
Leaning toward his ear, she angrily hissed, “I can see five zombies in the hallway around the corner, you idiot!”
“So you didn’t want a high five?” No_Idea whispered back. He had intended for it to be a joke, but N3V3RDIE didn’t seem to have a sense of humor. She gave him a light shove and went back down the stairs to the door.
Not exactly wanting to follow her after that but not knowing what else to do, he moved down the steps to peek around the corner himself. He saw silhouettes of figures shuffling around and blocking the path down the main corridor of the floor. He couldn’t tell exactly how many there were and wondered how N3V3RDIE had come up with the number five. It was too dark to see much of anything, but he could make out a grouping of walls in the middle of the floor that were only five feet tall.
Cubicles, he realized. He could also see broken windows on the opposite side of the floor. Apparently this part in the game is supposed to be an abandoned office.
This far into the building, he could feel the wind rushing even more. It was odd to feel wind this strong indoors. But at least the sound of the moving air would dull any noise that he or N3V3RDIE made.
He saw something glowing just to the right of the doorway, only a few feet away. He wasn’t sure if N3V3RDIE had spotted it, but it was definitely close enough for him to sneak over and grab. As he crept around the corner, he heard her whisper, “What are you doing?”
He picked it up, and it immediately stopped glowing. It was a flashlight—Perfect! He sneaked back to the door.
N3V3RDIE whispered, “What is that?” In the dark, she couldn’t see what he’d grabbed, so No_Idea decided to show her instead. He turned it on and pointed it straight down the main corridor.
As soon as he did, half a dozen zombies turned to face the players. No_Idea stumbled backward at the sight. Their skin was green, with only scattered patches of hair on their heads. Some were missing arms and eyes. They were w
ithered and thin, like they hadn’t eaten in days, but that didn’t seem to slow them down. They ran toward where the players stood.
“Go!” N3V3RDIE shouted. She tried to escape into the maze of cubicles by making a quick left, but a zombie snatched her leg. No_Idea saw it bite down on her shoe, and suddenly, she disappeared. He was scrambling on the floor in a panic, trying to stand up. Just as he made it to his feet, something grabbed him. He only had a split second to see a zombie’s open jaws coming at him . . .
Chapter 4
No_Idea found himself standing back on the roof of the building.
He only had a second to register that he had died and restarted back on the rooftop before N3V3RDIE appeared and pushed him to the ground.
“You idiot!” she shouted at him. “Why would you shine a light on them?”
“It was dark, and there was a flashlight,” he said, getting to his feet. “I didn’t mean to. I just thought—”
“You just thought what?” She cut him off. “You just thought you’d get us killed? Now we’ve lost stamina for nothing. Thanks a lot.” She stormed off toward the corner where he’d found the crowbar.
No_Idea looked at the stamina bars floating in his field of vision. She was right. They had lost about 6% of their stamina going down the stairs before they’d died, and they’d have to do it again.
N3V3RDIE grabbed the crowbar and started walking back toward the door. As she passed him, she said, “From now on, don’t do anything without me telling you to do it first.”
No_Idea turned to follow her. “I’m sorry. I was just trying to—”
“I don’t want to hear it. Look, n00b, one of us is going to finish this game, and guess what—I’ve never played a game I couldn’t beat, so it isn’t going to be you.”
“Only one of us is going to win?” he asked. Did the Game Runner say that?
“Yeah,” she said. “And I’m going to do everything possible to make sure it’s me.” She popped the door open and headed down the stairs.
