Where Gamers Go

Six

Lizzie

"Thanks officer, can we have a minute?" Aaron asked. The officer tutted, but nodded yes, leaving them alone. "What are we going to do?" Aaron whispered loudly.

"I don't know! My DS is on the back seat!" Lizzie whispered back.

"Oh, your DS. Well at least you didn't bring your whole frigging playstation!" Aaron yelled.

"What the heck did you bring a whole playstation for?" Lizzie responded, clearly panicking.

"Entertainment! Look, we've got to figure out a way to hide them, cause I'm sure not going to rescue Mark only to deprive him of video games".

Lizzie looked around, trying to find places the officers wouldn't look. The boot was a no go, filled with suitcases. Everywhere else would be checked. As the plump man approached again, she took a risk and quickly snuck the DS inside Ze's Viking hat. The playstation, she noticed was still visible under Aaron's chair.

"Are you all ready for us to check now?" The man muttered lazily, adjusting his glasses so they fell onto his nose. Then the man proved to be a lot more observant than they thought. "Is that-?" Aaron punched him in the nose and slammed on the accelerator.

About five minutes later they were on the road again, except this time with a disgruntled Ze in the back. He'd woken up when the DS fell out of his helmet and onto his face, and he still hadn't quite forgiven them.

"I wonder why they're so bothered in Ireland" Lizzie said as she played Mario Kart on her DS.

"Maybe it's something to do with Jack" Aaron replied. Ze mumbled something non comprehensive from behind them. "What?"

"I said..." Ze trailed off, nervously fiddling with his cape.

"What?" Lizzie and Aaron asked again. Ze looked down at the floor, shaking his head.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but...Americaiskindofinlockdownbecauseofacomputervirustakingover-"

"Woah, ten times slower please" Aaron muttered. Ze sighed loudly, then took a deep breath.

"The day after Chilled and I arrived in England, we got a message from Adam saying that America had closed all of its airports and any other access points because of a computer virus sweeping across every state and paralysing any victims using the computer." There was a deathly silence, whilst Lizzie watched Ze prepare for the sentence he knew would come.

"And you didn't think to tell us?" Aaron yelled. Ze opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came. "What if the UK is next, and we get stuck in Ireland for god knows how long? What if we never get to save Chilled, Ze? Because you didn't tell us!"

"I didn't-"

"Aaron, you're being a bit harsh" Lizzie sighed. "Yes, Ze should have told us. But that doesn't mean the disappearances are his fault!" She felt herself say the word before it came out of her mouth, but this time she didn't flinch. Fear of the word only increases fear of the thing itself. Ze was staring at the ground, Aaron at the dashboard. Lizzie sighed and stared into the distance, wondering if they'd ever find Joel.

~

"This is nice" Lizzie muttered. They'd entered Jack's hometown to find it deserted, like a ghost town. Lizzie half expected a ball of tumbleweed to roll past. Aaron and Ze still weren't on speaking terms, so anything either of them said about the other had to go through Lizzie first, and now she was tired of being cooped up in a car with them.

"Ask Aaron how much petrol the car has left" Ze stated, staring blankly past Aaron at Lizzie. Lizzie sighed.

"Aaron, Ze wants to know how much petrol the car has left".

"It's diesel, Ze must be an idiot." A sharp breath. "And we've got enough for the drive to his front door, which is...here". Right on que a light flashed up signalling the car was on low fuel.

"Oh, well who forgot to top it up?" Ze rolled his eyes. Lizzie ignored them and got out of the car to knock on Jack's door.

"Jack?" She yelled, knocking another time. No one answered. Ze and Aaron soon joined her. "Jack?"

"He's not home?" Ze muttered, dropping the suitcase he was struggling to carry onto the floor in despair. Unfortunately it landed on Aaron's foot, causing him to scream in pain. In the distance Lizzie thought she saw a bin fall over in the deserted town.

"It's unlocked" Aaron muttered, slowly opening the door. The inside was a cluttered mess, plates and glasses smashed on the floor, various objects strewn everywhere. "The place has been ransacked".

"Oh my god..." Lizzie trailed off, pointing at the patch of blood staining the floor.

"He's...he's fine, he's probably fine." Ze began to inhale and exhale quickly, trying not to look at the floor.

"Ze, it's okay" Aaron said. Ze smiled gratefully. They were friends again, of course. She laughed to herself, they were as inconsistent as a pair of teenage girls. "We'll find him, don't worry".

"Guys, look at this". Ze had wandered into the kitchen where he'd found two post-it-notes attached to the fridge.

"Screw you Billy?" Aaron asked, reading off the first note.

"No, the other one".

Help me. Please. They're coming. 456 787

"We've got to follow those co-ordinates now" Lizzie muttered, tearing the note from the fridge. Ze and Aaron followed her, only to be stopped at the door by a strange hooded figure. It grabbed Aaron, and he looked at them desperately before yelling,

"Run!"

~

Hey guys! Sorry I didn't find time to update earlier, I've been revising like crazy for my exams tomorrow. I've got history, tech and computing and I'm most worried about computing cos I'm really bad at it! Hope you're all doing better :)