The Place Where the Eyes Can't See

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

A massive earthquake hit and shook the ground so violently I was sure it would split apart. The shaking caught me off guard and I fell in my back. I stumbled and had to brace myself. When looked at the other cadets they were all still casually talking to their friends, not even aware of it. How were they not phased?

Then I looked down and saw that I actually wasn't phased either, my feet moved in sync with the shaking and kept me level no matter what happened. I realized two things: one, my Animus really did keep me balanced while I ran. And two, I had probably looked really dumb tripping for no reason.

The earthquake ended just as abruptly as it had come, leaving me wondering what had just happened, and why nobody cared about it. I didn't have too much time to think about it because that was when the massive wall erupted out of the ground. I mean this thing put the High Rises back on Earth to shame, it was easily 2,000 feet high.

At first glance though it looked like a basic cliff with a light bulb on top. Carved onto the face was a series of stone columns all stacked on top of one another, like a giant checkerboard. The numbers 1-5 etched along the top and reminded me of the letters on a bingo card. Hovering at the very top of the wall was the orb, waiting patiently for the winning team to reach it. The longer I looked, the whole thing almost seemed to be vibrating, like it couldn't wait to throw us off.

A beam of light projected from the orb and turned into a giant screen above it. It displayed a cartoon graphic of the tower and a bunch of small Chibi style faces around its base. I laughed when I saw that one of the characters looked like me, then I paused. It was me, in fact, each face belonged to a member of our group.

"Oh, so that's the mini map" I thought.

I could have sworn I said it in my head, but Gwynn looked down at me from her seat on Eddies shoulder. Now that I was seeing her clearly, I noticed her skin was a light shade of lavender and she didn't exactly look physical. Although I was certain she was solid, her outline seemed to wisp and flow with the air as she moved. It kinda freaked me out how she stared at with the blindfold on, like she could still see me perfectly fine. Her gaze didn't feel hostile like the others though, it was more of intrigue than anything else, but it still made me kinda uncomfortable.

"What's a mini map?" she asked, her voice was silky, and calm. Each word carried like a light summer breeze.

It took me a minute before I realized she was actually talking to me and a very delayed "Huh?" was all I could come up with.

Gwynn slouched forward and her hair floated around her shoulders as if it were moving in slow motion.

"I said, what's a mini map?" she repeated, her lips slightly pursed together.

"Oh! Uh, it's just a small version of a race track" I added quickly. "I usually see em in video games".

Gwynn was the first person in the group to talk to me without adding an insult, so I didn't want to be rude, she looked at me with an even more confused expression.

"What's a Video Game"?

No way, everyone had so much fun making me feel small, like humans were some primitive creature, and they didn't even know what video games were. I was still getting ready to explain it to her when the orb interrupted me to speak in our minds again.

"All teams report to the wall. Position yourselves at the station matching your team number and await the start signal" it said and everyone began walking off in pairs to their spots.