by P. J. Hoover
“So let me be it,” Zachary says.
Though he’s a bit away from me, I study his face. Does he think I’m not up to the challenge? I more than am. I was always the smartest kid in computer science, hands down.
“I got it,” I say and look away before he can argue with me. “So only move if I tell you to.”
Taylor looks bothered by the entire thing. But it’s not like she’s trying to take control. That’s one thing I love about her. She knows what she’s good at, and she knows where she needs help.
Unlike you, the voice of doubt says in my head.
I look back, to the river of doubt we crossed, but it’s out of sight. Yet the doubts remain. I hate the doubts. I push the thought aside and step to the right.
Both Taylor and Zachary’s squares move. I make a chart in my head, tracking the movement, watching not only how the squares we stand on move but how all the squares move. Far ahead are three glowing beacons. They have to be our destination. And the first step is getting close to them.
Slowly, each of us moving one square at a time, we approach them. Everything is going exactly like planned. Then Taylor moves, exactly like I tell her to, to the right. My next move is going to be me moving ahead. But on the square ahead, a spike shoots up, making the move impossible. It’s not the only square with spikes, either. At least twenty cubes are now impossible to reach.
“Step back,” I call over to her.
When she steps back, the spikes disappear. I hurry forward, covering the six squares where the spikes had been, then I tell her to move again. Another square bumps into the one I’m on, and I’m not prepared. Neither is Zachary, because the same thing has happened to him. He wobbles and falls over the side of the square. His shout throws off my balance even more, and I topple. I try to grab the edge, but the pull of gravity is too much, and my fingers slip. I fall into the abyss.
XXII
The world of floating squares zips by as I fall. My arms scramble to grab hold of something, but there is nothing safe. Nothing reachable. I am going to die. And so is Zachary, all because my stupid pride was too much to let him help.
My heads-up display flashes. Death Imminent. As if I needed some kind of reminder. I start to grasp the power, to build something to stop my fall. But then there’s Zachary also. We’re falling too fast.
Wait. The power isn’t all I have. My inventory also has another item.
I parse through the menu of the heads-up display and select Reset.
Confirm use of Item Reset, my heads-up display says.
“Confirm!” I shout at the same time I select it. Every second counts. I brace myself, ready to hit whatever is at the bottom of the zone.
Use of Item Reset confirmed, the heads-up display says.
Immediately my surroundings change. I’m standing on a cube at the beginning of the playing field. Zachary and Taylor are right next to me. I’m breathing hard, still thinking I’m about to die. So is Zachary for that matter. It takes a few seconds for my mind to figure out and accept that I am no longer falling.
“What happened?” Taylor says. “You guys fell off the side of the world. I thought you were dead.”
I was dead. Or nearly was. Would have been if I hadn’t used my item.
“Reset,” I manage to say as I catch my breath. “It’s what I picked as my item at the start of the simulation. I used it.”
I pull myself to my feet. We’re back exactly where we started, the grid of squares ahead.
“Are you kidding me?” Taylor says. “We have to do all that again?”
I nod, not caring. I’m happy to be alive.
“You want to take the lead this time?” I ask Zachary. It kind of pains me to do so, but I also don’t want to die. I’ve played lots of games, similar ones to this, but not this complex. And with not only my life but my friends’ lives on the line also, I can’t make another wrong move.
“You can,” Zachary says.
I shake my head. “You got this. I should have let you from the start.”
“You’re really smart, Edie,” he says. “You’re like the smartest girl I know.”
My face feels warm, but I try to brush off the compliment. “Not that smart,” I say. If I was, I wouldn’t have almost died.
“Yeah, that smart,” he says. “And I’m really glad you’re alive.”
“Enough, you guys. Let’s get this shit over with.” Taylor steps forward.
We all do. We retrace our steps back to where the first blocks move. But instead of telling us what to do, Zachary asks me. “What would you do?”
And we talk about each move, just like that. Sometimes we’re so far apart that I have to shout. Another time, Taylor almost gets sliced open by one of the spikes. She’s ready to kill us, I think. But within a couple hours, the destination squares are finally visible.
Each is a different color, and each moves in and out of being reachable as we get closer. Four different times one of us is transported to a different square, but we retrace our steps. We get back.
Taylor steps on her destination square first. Then Zachary. Finally me. The rest of the game board falls away, into the abyss. And above us fireworks begin to shoot into the sky.
“We did it!” Zachary shouts. And he grabs me in what may be the most awkward hug in the entire universe. It makes me wonder if he’s ever hugged anyone in his life. And given that I have no idea what his life is really like or how long he’s been alive, that could have been a very long time.
I hug him back because I’m so shocked.
“See, I told you that you were smart,” Zachary says, finally stepping back from the hug once I’ve let go.
“Wait, what about me?” Taylor says. “Don’t I get a hug?”
Before Taylor can react, I grab her in a hug and squeeze her tight.
“I am so glad you’re my friend,” I say, and I mean every word of it. Taylor has been here through everything.
I’m not sure what surprises me more: the fact that Taylor hugs me back or when she says, “Yeah, I’m really glad you’re my friend, too, Edie.”
After I let go, Zachary steps in like he’s going to hug her.
Taylor steps back. “Nope. I still don’t like you, god boy.” The look on her face makes me thing Zachary will end up with two black eyes if he actually tries to hug her.
At this, Zachary laughs. “But I just saved your life.”
She shakes her head. “That’s not how I see it. Now where’s the key?”
Almost like her words are dictating it, from the center of where we stand on the three colored cubes, a giant white column appears. It grows in signals and currents like electrical circuits being woven together. And when it has grown so high that I can no longer see the top, the three cubes we stand on begin to ascend.
Zachary wobbles, but Taylor grabs hold of his arm. “Do not fall,” she says.
His eyes go wide. Fear of Taylor holds him in place. The cubes ascend until the yellow playing field is far below and we’re high up in the dark sky. Then the cubes stop, and glowing silver letters and symbols appear on the side of the white column.
“Collect it,” I say, and I access my heads-up display. The menu appears and I select Collect. Like before in Zone Alpha, the piece of the key is transferred to my inventory, listed along with the first piece. That’s two down. Three more to go.
Once we’ve all three collected the piece of the key, the zone below us falls away, and a yellow path forms in the air from the column where we stand off into the distance. At the end of it, I can barely make out something shimmering. We hurry down it, and as we get closer, the silver barrier appears like a flowing sheet of liquid mercury in the air.
“See you in Zone Gamma,” I say, and I press my palm to the moving silver. It immediately morphs around me and pulls me in until I’m entirely encased in it. Zachary and Taylo
r vanish from my sight, concealed in their own entries to the next zone. The barrier of silver flows in front of me and behind.
I’ve done it. I’ve completed two zones. I have three more before the final zone where the control room is.
Also where Chaos is.
I take a moment to catch my breath. Taylor, Zachary, and I have all gotten through. How many others are there, though? And does it matter?
If it does matter, I can worry about it later. For now, I need to get on with the simulation.
I open my eyes and blow out a long breath. Then my heads-up display comes to life. I expect to see the image of Chaos, but instead the screen is bright yellow with only a single icon on it.
A black raven.
Look for a sign from me, Raven had said. This has to be it
I don’t hesitate as I select the black raven. It immediately begins to glow white and slowly pulse. I select it one more time, as a confirmation, and my surroundings blink away.
I’m in a long white corridor. No doors, no windows. Only one way to go which is ahead. I start walking, ignoring the worry that Taylor and Zachary are going to wonder where I am. I can worry about that later. For now, I need to . . .
A scream tears through my thoughts, ripping into my heart. I know that scream. I’ve heard it before, not long after I first met Cole. He’d had a nightmare, screamed out in the dark. And I know with absolute certainly that it’s the same scream. This is Cole.
“Cole!” I shout.
Another scream. I take off running, not caring if I’m moving straight into a trap. Raven could have set this entire thing up, luring me into some sort of stasis to keep me from reaching the end. But that’s a risk I have to take.
He screams again, closer now. Then his scream is cut short by something that sounds like the sizzle of electricity. After that there are no more screams. I may be too late.
XXIII
I run so fast the white corridor is nothing but a blur. I listen for another scream, not sure if I want to hear one. If Cole screams, it means he’s still alive. If he doesn’t . . . I can’t think about that. I almost call out to him again, but the silence is now deafening and keeps my mouth shut. I don’t know how long I run. Time stands still.
Without even realizing it, the white corridor spreads far apart until I’m now in a vast white warehouse with white shelves stacked high with jars. Florescent lights shine from far above, casting shadows everywhere, making the world feel monochrome.
I stop running, sure I’m being watched. Slowly I move until I’m next to one of the shelves, hidden in the shadows.
“Cole,” I whisper, barely audible even to my own ears.
Something falls to the ground, shattering, like broken glass. Maybe one of the jars. I turn to look at the shelf next to me. Each jar has a screwed-on lid and is filled with gray liquid. I dare to reach out and pick one of the jars up. As I tilt it sideways, something bobs to the surface. Something that looks like a black glossy egg, growing like it’s in a test tube. Like the black eggs I’ve seen in my visions of the future. The future that will come if we don’t stop Chaos.
I nearly drop the jar I’m holding as something scrapes along the surface of the floor. Glass rattles from a few rows over. I quickly set the jar down and crouch down until I can peek through the shelves.
A shadow moves across the shelves.
I hold my breath. Something is out there. Something that is not Cole. The shadow moves slowly, but as it turns a corner, I get a glimpse of what I am up against.
It’s tall and thin and has an elongated head that curves upward and back as it grows. Its arms claw at the shelves as it lifts itself up and begins to climb, growing with each moment that passes. Its movement rattles other jars. Another one falls to the ground.
There’s hissing and thick gray dust. Then a second shadow joins the first.
This is not good. This is so not good. I have to find Cole, but I also don’t have a single weapon on me to fight these creatures.
Wait. That’s not true. I do have a weapon.
I try not to breathe as I pull on the power. My worries over whether it will come at my command vanish as it manifests. Relief flows through me. I blow out a breath . . . too loud.
Both shadows stop moving and their elongated heads turn my way. I don’t move. I don’t breathe. I grab the power and I begin to reshape bits and pieces of the world around me. Pieces of the shelves. The floor. The lights. I craft a long black sword with an edge so sharp, one wrong move and I’ll cut my own hand off. Then I dare to take a step forward.
The creatures seem to sense my movement because they too move forward, in the exact same direction I did. This could be a coincidence. I take another step. So do they. It is no coincidence.
I turn and run the other way, down the long corridor of shelves. I almost bump into one as I round the corner. The last thing I need are more jars shattering and more of these creatures hunting me. The shelves go on forever in the warehouse. I keep running. I turn a corner, and then I see them.
They swing from the shelves, crawling up and sideways and over the tops. They get closer with every second. I don’t want to face them.
I look everywhere for Cole, and though it pains me to hear it, when another scream fills the air, relief rushes through me. I shift direction, toward the scream, and I run like my life is depending on it. Like the fate of the world depends on it. I don’t worry about keeping quiet. My heavy boots pound on the ground. I bump into a shelf, and glass jars rattle.
Cole screams again.
“I’m coming!” I shout. “Hold on!”
I don’t dare turn back. I can almost feel the heat of the creatures behind me. They hiss and spit. I finally round a corner, and there is Cole, held up against a wall by bonds of glowing white electricity around his wrists and ankle. Pulses of current run across his skin, and his face is pulled tight in pain.
“Cole!” I shout.
His eyes go wide at his name and he spots me. But his eyes are filled with terror.
That’s when I hear the hissing right behind me.
I turn and swipe the blade of the black sword out, tearing clean through one of the creatures. It splits in two pieces which fall to the ground, but thick black gel begins to ooze out of it. I dash back, barely evading a long claw on the second creature. I jump to the side and swipe out but miss the creature. It launches forward again and again, and though I try hard to hit it with the sword, I miss every time. The black ooze continues to spread across the ground. Smoke rises where it seems to burn through the hard floor. I don’t want to know what it’s made of, but I’m willing to bet that if it can disintegrate the ground it will have no issue with my boots.
The creature moves toward me, and too late I realize that it is pushing me against the wall. The same wall where Cole is held in bondage. I can’t let it trap me. If I try to save Cole only to get myself captured, too, then there will be no hope.
“Run, Edie!” Cole shouts.
He’s crazy if he thinks I will leave him here. The creature continues maneuvering me, and I try to play along like I don’t realize what it’s doing. Closer and closer it gets. My retreat is blocked. If I don’t do something immediately, I will die.
I pretend to fall, and I scream out as I land hard on my knee. The sword clatters to the ground. Still I keep my hand on the hilt. And as the creature moves in to attack, I swipe upward, cutting through it all the way from its groin up through its head.
I jump to the side just as the black goo begins to pool from it. The wrong side. Cole is on the other side. I don’t wait. I jump over the growing ooze and land hard. The sword does fall from my grasp this time, but I grab it before the black goo gets to it and attach it to my belt. Then I rush to Cole.
He mutters something that sounds like, “You shouldn’t be here.”
I don’t say a word. Instead I grab
the power and pull on the bonds that holds his arms and leg. There’s some sort of encryption around them, and as I mess with them, fresh waves of electricity emanate from them, pulses across his body. He winces and tenses, and where the currents run, his skin is raw and red. But I don’t give up. I pull at the encryption, trying every technique I can think of until finally I break it.
His right ankle pulls off the wall. I immediately move to his right arm. Then his left arm. As I release this final bond, Cole sags forward, losing his balance. I catch him, because if he falls to the ground, he’s going to land right in the pool of black gel.
“We have to go,” I say, trying to get his focus back in place. His head lolls to the side, and he lets out a low moan. He has no crutch. No prosthetic. Nothing to support him but me. And I can’t lift him across the black pool of death.
There has to be some way to get across it. I can figure it out. Without the threat of the creatures, I can stop to think for a moment. But no matter what I work through in my mind, with Cole unable to move, he’s doomed.
“Come on, Cole,” I say. “Pull on the power.”
He lifts his head the smallest amount and looks at me, almost like he’s forgotten I’m here.
“Edie?” he says.
I nod. “I’m here. But you have to help me. I can’t get you out of here all by myself.”
From down the rows of shelves, the glass jars rattle against each other. Something is out there. Another creature? Chaos? All I know is we can’t stick around to find out.
“Use your power, Cole,” I say.
He barely shakes his head. “It’s gone, Edie. She took it.”
She has to be Pia. But I don’t mention her name now. She is not the concern. Getting out of here is. But there is no way Pia could have taken Cole’s power.
“She didn’t,” I say.
“She did. I’ve tried. It’s not there.” Defeat fills his eyes. But I am not willing to fall prey to that defeat. I also find it impossible that Pia would take Cole’s power. She’s only a kid, like us. Not even the gods we’ve encountered have been able to take our power.
