‘OK,’ Audrey said. ‘So we’re supposed to make the first move.’
Mika thought for a moment, watching one unfold at the sides into the shape of an eagle.
‘Try firing at one,’ he suggested.
Audrey let off a round of laser fire. The targeted shape shifter instantly disappeared and reappeared in a different place and her shots carried off into space without hitting it. Then it fired a reciprocal shot at them and Mika had to drop the fighter suddenly to avoid getting hit.
‘Ow!’ Audrey cried, ‘I banged my head.’
‘Sorry,’ Mika replied. ‘That was close. Try again. I think this is some kind of puzzle.’
Audrey fired another shot and exactly the same thing happened again – the shape shifter disappeared, reappeared, then fired a shot back at them, but Mika noticed this time that it reappeared precisely the same distance and angle away from its starting point as the last one had.
‘I’ve got an idea,’ Audrey said. ‘Instead of firing directly at the shape shifter, I’ll fire at the place it would move to.’
‘Just what I was thinking,’ Mika agreed. ‘Go for it.’
She fired a round but missed and the shape shifter fired back at them again. Once again Mika only just dodged it.
‘Aim to the right a bit,’ Mika said.
‘I know,’ Audrey replied irritably. ‘I’m the gunner, remember?’
‘Keep your hair on.’
She fired again and this time she hit the spot and the shape shifter came apart as if it had been dropped and smashed, sending ruby red triangles spinning off into space in every direction.
‘Nice,’ Mika said, approvingly.
One by one Audrey destroyed them all, and Mika watched, awestruck, knowing he couldn’t have done it. She was aiming at targets that couldn’t be seen and hitting them first time.
‘I’m good, aren’t I?’ she bragged, playfully.
‘Not bad, I suppose. Bighead.’
‘I wonder what we’ll get next,’ Audrey pondered, watching the red mega city in the distance.
They didn’t have to wait long to find out. Before they’d had a chance to collect their thoughts, the green light flashed again to mark the start of level three, and within seconds they heard a hum and whine. It sounded like an approaching swarm of insects.
‘I can hear them but I can’t see them,’ Audrey said. ‘Can you?’
‘No.’
The hum and whine gained volume until it was deafening. It sounded like a huge fleet of fighters but they couldn’t see a thing.
‘Look out!’ Audrey yelled, and Mika turned to see a stream of fire bolts come out of nowhere towards them. He shot up several kilometres then flew fast loops trying to outrun their invisible attackers and buy themselves some time.
‘They’re invisible,’ Mika said.
‘Really?’ Audrey replied sarcastically. ‘I hadn’t noticed. What have you got on your control panel that you haven’t used?’
The hum and whine got louder again. ‘They’re on our tail! Drop out!’
Mika dropped the Pod Fighter like a stone and the noise faded again. He jabbed frantically at the control panel trying all the icons he didn’t recognize. All of a sudden they were blind. The glass windshield had turned black.
‘Don’t do that!’ Audrey screeched. ‘I can’t see anything!’
‘There’s no need to yell. I’m only fragging in front of you!’ he shouted, correcting the control so they could see again. He jabbed a triangular icon and hoped for the best. This time he got lucky. A red icon appeared on their visors and all of a sudden they could see the enemy – transparent red ghosts of pods flying in a swarm behind them, nearly in range.
‘Wow,’ Mika said. ‘They’re incredible.’
‘There’s so many of them,’ Audrey said. ‘Hundreds!’
‘Never mind. Let them have it.’
Audrey started to fire and Mika swooped the fighter in wide arcs, only just dodging the deluge of fire bolts coming at them. For several minutes they eluded the ghost pods, but after a while Mika realized they were surviving on luck more than skill. There were just too many of them.
‘We’re going to get hit!’ Audrey cried. ‘You’ve got to find us something else!’
Mika looked at the control panel again. There were only two icons he hadn’t tried. He hit one.
‘Anything?’ he asked.
‘No, nothing! Try something else!’
He hit the other icon.
‘Oh my goblin lord!’ Audrey said. ‘Look at that!’
Mika looked over his shoulder to see a huge net of green light being cast out of the back of the Pod Fighter.
‘They’re too far off, we missed,’ Audrey said, as the net floated away into space. ‘We have to draw them closer.’
Mika slowed down, dodging fire bolts and gritting his teeth, expecting to get wasted at any moment.
‘Now!’ Audrey yelled.
Mika hit the icon again and cast another net of green light. The emerald threads spread out wide and the swarm of ghost pods flew right into them. Then the net closed up at the end and it spun gracefully through space with the trapped pods thrashing frantically inside. Thirty seconds later the hum and the whine faded into silence and the spinning net was only a pinprick of green light.
‘We did it,’ Audrey whispered. ‘We. Did. It.’
‘Yeah, we did,’ Mika said. ‘I’m sorry I snapped at you.’
‘It’s OK. It was pretty intense.’
Mika laughed and Audrey caught it as relief washed over them.
‘That was almost fun,’ Mika said.
‘Yeah,’ agreed Audrey. ‘I wish we’d brought a drink though. My mouth is dry.’
So was Mika’s, and his throat was sore. He shuddered with nervous energy as the green light flashed again.
They watched the mouth of the mega city, waiting for something to happen, and this time balls rolled out of it: red glass balls, rolling down an invisible alley towards them.
‘Move up,’ Audrey said, and Mika raised the Pod Fighter a couple of kilometres so they were looking down on them.
‘What’s that noise?’ Audrey said, and Mika felt every hair on his body bristle and he began to feel bad, the euphoria of the previous minutes gone. The noise sounded like children screaming and crying as if they were feeling fear and pain. The balls rolled past beneath them and the sound began to fade.
‘What are we supposed to do?’ Mika said. ‘They’re not attacking us. They’re rolling away.’
‘Let’s go closer and have a look,’ Audrey said.
Mika dropped the Pod Fighter and flew towards the red spheres. Each ball was about ten times the size of their craft. There were six in all, rolling and rolling down the invisible alley into deep space.
‘Oh I hate it,’ Audrey said. ‘That noise is horrible. Can you see inside them?’
‘No.’
‘I think there are children inside.’
‘This is sick,’ Mika said. ‘Why would they put something like this in a game?’
‘They’re beginning to roll faster,’ Audrey said.
The balls gained pace and the crying intensified into terrified screams. Mika closed his eyes and lowered his head, trying to block it out.
‘I think we’re supposed to destroy them before they roll away,’ Audrey said. ‘Look, before long we won’t be able to keep up with them.’
She was right, Mika realized, the balls were rolling faster and faster away from them, until suddenly they were six blurs of light shooting off into the distance.
‘We can’t shoot them,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to.’
‘Yes, we can,’ Audrey said, firing the first shot. ‘It’s a game, Mika. It’s just the sound of children. They’re not real.’ She fired six shots at the disappearing balls and they exploded in flashes of red light. The screams abruptly halted and Mika felt a wave of horror wash over him.
‘I feel ill,’ he said.
‘It’s just a game,??
? Audrey replied.
‘Well, it wasn’t fun.’
A message appeared in their visors: Level four complete. Game Over.
‘Is that it?’ Audrey said, surprised. ‘Have we finished?’
Mika felt a stab of excitement.
‘I think we have.’
‘We did it!’
They yanked off their headsets and climbed out of the simulator on shaky legs to find a man waiting for them.
‘Well done,’ he said.
‘Are we through to the next round?’ Audrey asked.
‘It depends on your scores. Go and wait somewhere for an hour. If we want you to come back, we’ll send a message to your companion.’ He plugged a lead into the control panel of the pod so he could verify their score.
‘Looks promising,’ he said nodding. ‘It’s the best score I’ve seen yet. You can go now.’
* * *
Outside the arcade it was still raining and the people waiting in the queue looked as if they’d gone swimming with all their clothes on. Mika and Audrey had arranged to meet the others in a noodle bar up the road and they walked towards it to the sound of squelching feet.
The noodle bar, ‘Oodles of Noodles,’ was packed with competitors who had finished and were waiting for a message from the Youth Development Foundation, asking them to return to the arcade. The windows were steamy, pap pop pumped out of the speakers overhead, and the chefs tossed kilos of sizzling noodles in flat black pans. But despite the fact the restaurant was full, the music was louder than the conversations and the atmosphere was subdued. As Mika walked to the counter, he heard the odd comment here and there and realized most people hadn’t even got past the second level.
‘It wasn’t fair that there were so many fighters in the first level; we didn’t stand a chance – they shot us down in seconds.’
‘Yeah, and the second level was even harder: those shape shifters, they kept moving and we couldn’t hit them.’
‘Did you find the net?’
‘What net?’
Mika bought drinks with the trace of a smile on his face, then felt guilty.
But somebody has to win, he reasoned, and I’m not doing this for myself.
Audrey had found Kobi and Tom sitting at a table in the corner and Mika joined them. The atmosphere was just as bad as it was in the rest of the restaurant. He realized they’d had an argument; Tom was glaring at the table and Kobi was picking grumpily at the hole in the front of his jumper.
‘Hi,’ Mika said, carefully.
‘Hi,’ they muttered.
Mika sucked on his drink, wondering what had happened, but didn’t dare ask.
‘I made you this,’ Kobi said to Audrey and he took a tiny metal borg cat out of his pocket and put it on the table in front of her. It was so small, he must have made it with tweezers and a microscope, and it even had tiny wire whiskers and metal pads on its paws. It rubbed its head against her hand.
‘Oh, it’s beautiful!’ she cried. ‘Thanks, Kobi!’
‘That’s OK,’ he replied. ‘I’m going to make it some kittens. You can have some when they’re finished. They’re quite fiddly.’
Everyone watched Audrey play with the cat, but the atmosphere was still horrible and Mika couldn’t bear the tension any more. ‘How was your game?’ he asked at last.
‘A mess,’ Tom replied, bitterly.
‘Why?’ asked Audrey. ‘What happened?’
‘Kobi didn’t want to shoot at those red balls,’ Tom replied.
‘No, I didn’t,’ Kobi muttered defiantly through his hair. ‘They were full of screaming children. It felt like some kind of sick test to see whether we’d kill people.’
‘But I told you!’ Tom said, angrily. ‘It was just a game!’
‘Well it didn’t feel like one,’ Kobi muttered.
‘So you didn’t shoot the red balls?’ Mika asked.
‘He did eventually,’ Tom said. ‘But I had to beg him and by the time he changed his mind, it was almost too late. We had to chase after them and they nearly got away.’
‘We finished, didn’t we?’ Kobi said grumpily. ‘I don’t know what you’re moaning about.’
‘Because I have to win this competition!’ Tom said, desperately. ‘You don’t understand!’
‘Why do you have to win?’ Kobi said. ‘This is supposed to be a game but it’s making everyone behave like idiots! Audrey nearly got pushed off the platform this morning! Mika nearly had his coat ripped off his back, and now you’re being a perp, Tom! You say it’s “just a game” and yet you’re so angry with me! I wish I’d stayed at home.’
Tom dropped his head and his face bloomed scarlet and suddenly he was normal Tom again. ‘Sorry,’ he said, looking as if he was fighting back tears. ‘Please don’t drop out, Kobi. My mum is sick and she’s working double shifts in the tank meat factory. We can’t afford to put the heating on. I want to help her.’
‘My mother’s dead,’ Kobi said harshly. ‘She died in The Shadows because of the mould.’
‘Oh,’ Tom said, sounding embarrassed. ‘I’m sorry.’
Kobi was quiet for a moment, then he sighed.
‘OK,’ he said reluctantly. ‘I’ll play.’
‘Are you sure?’ Tom asked, desperately.
‘Yes,’ Kobi replied. ‘For your mum.’
The companions waited silently in the middle of the table. The tiny borg cat sat amongst them and licked a metal paw, then it curled up and fell asleep on a noodle. The minutes gathered and dripped as slowly as the raindrops on the windows.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
The messages from the Youth Development Foundation arrived and everyone picked up their companion, hoping for good news.
16
HUNTER AND PREY
Mika’s fingers trembled as he picked up his companion. All four screens on their table were glowing and the borg cat was sitting up again, awoken by the message alerts, but Mika didn’t dare believe they were the lucky ones until he’d read the message three times.
‘Congratulations, Mika Smith! Your team has been selected to compete in the second round of the competition! Please return to the arcade immediately! (Terms and conditions apply.)’
His relief was so intense he couldn’t smile or move or do anything.
‘We did it!’ Audrey cried, leaping up with excitement.
‘We’d better go back,’ Tom said, enthusiastically dragging on his coat. ‘Come on, Kobi!’
The disappointment of all the other competitors was heavy in the air and everyone stared at them as they walked towards the door. It felt awful, but on the street Tom and Audrey rushed ahead, unable to contain their excitement.
‘Good luck,’ Kobi said as they approached the security borgs outside the arcade for the second time.
‘Thanks,’ Mika said, feeling so nervous, he had to remember to put one foot in front of the other. The borgs stepped aside to let them in without scanning their retinas.
‘Cool!’ Tom whispered, striding past them. ‘Just think, by the time we go home today we could have won a companion and a holiday!’
They were directed into a game room and told to stand in line at the edge of the red walkway. It was utterly silent.
‘Look who else is here,’ Audrey whispered.
Mika followed her eyes down the line of teams and felt his heart miss a beat as he saw Ruben and his game partner, Yee. Ruben whispered something in Yee’s ear and she smiled, nastily.
‘What’s he got on his head?’ Audrey said, stifling a giggle. Ruben was wearing a black bandana. ‘What a perp.’
Ruben glared at Mika as if he wanted to rip his legs off, and Mika looked away and tried to ignore him. He didn’t like it in the quiet arcade with the watching strangers behind the mirrors. He could feel them, sense their interest and greed, and his heart was beating so madly, he felt sure it would explode and redecorate the black walls with his blood.
A man came in and stood in front of them. ‘Congratulations,’ he said, in a flat v
oice. ‘You have reached the second round of the competition. This game will be different to the first, so listen carefully so you understand what you have to do. The first instruction regards your team. We want you to swap positions, so whoever was pilot last time is gunner this time. Does everyone understand?’
There was a wave of shocked whispers down the line and Mika and Audrey looked at each other, panic-stricken. Swapping roles seemed like a death sentence; she had always been the gunner when they flew – it was the way they worked.
‘Oh no!’ she hissed. ‘What are we going to do?’
‘We’ve got no choice,’ Mika whispered. ‘You can fly, can’t you?’
‘Yeah, of course I can, but what about you? Can you gun?’
‘I’m a bit rusty,’ he said. In truth he hadn’t flown as a gunner for weeks.
‘We’ve got to try not to panic,’ she said. ‘We’ve all got the same disadvantage.’
‘Quiet!’ the man said and a sickened silence fell. ‘And listen carefully. When you put your headsets on, you will find yourself on the mother ship again, as you were at the start of the last game. However, this time you will not be fighting the Red Star Fleet, you will be fighting against each other. Each of your Pod Fighters has a number. Your task is to shoot down one Pod Fighter while another pursues you. Imagine you are a link in a chain of Pod Fighters – you destroy the link in front of you, while the link behind attempts to destroy you. The aim of the game is to survive. Does everyone understand so far?’ Everyone nodded. ‘Good. You may not destroy any Pod Fighters other than the one you have been told to shoot down. If you do, you will be disqualified.’
‘Does that mean we can’t fire at the Pod Fighter chasing us?’ someone asked.
‘Exactly. You can’t fire at anyone except the Pod Fighter you’ve been told to shoot down.’
‘So how do we protect ourselves?’
‘That’s for you to figure out. Only the best will survive. You have forty-five minutes and your time starts . . . now!’
The teams turned and ran towards their simulators, and Mika’s hands were shaking so badly as he put his headset on, Audrey had to help him tighten the strap. When they were belted into their harnesses and ready, two Pod Fighter icons appeared in their visors with numbers underneath. One was marked ‘Prey’ and the other was marked ‘Hunter’.