Video Games

Chapter Sixteen

“Twenty seven: please report outside for collection.”

As I stumble outside, slightly dazed by the world around me, I look up to the familiar ladder swinging from the hole in the hovercraft. Now, only half of us remain – as I discussed with Baiyou and Tynoco after yesterday’s games. Oh god – yesterday was disastrous. Areli, Keltain and Dexio were all killed so that Tynoco could live. This is a harsh world and I never recall asking to be a part of these games. Then again, I don’t recall having an opinion over the last week or so. How long have I actually been here?

We were kidnapped and flown to this island on day one – if that counts. The second day, we woke up in a random room and then made our houses and such on the Minecraft-like software. Day three is when the games actually started. What have I played so far? Temple Run was the first game, followed by Fruit Ninja. Then, we played Angry Birds and FIFA – that took us down to eighteen competitors. Yesterday, we played Hide and Seek, a Garry’s Mod game. Now we’re at fifteen and we’re going to continue to disappear at this pace until only one remains.

Holding onto the last rung, I pull myself onto the hovercraft and see one seat free – next to Tynoco and Tainai. Tynoco smiles at me, his eyes full of tears as he does so. He probably got next to no sleep thanks to the nightmares of Dexio’s sacrifice that haunted us all. Dexio was too young to perish – I wish I had the chance to save him. Then again, people have to die and by having them die now, it means that I’ll have no one to become attached to nearer the end.

Yeah, last night I decided that I want to make it to the end, despite having this feeling that forces me to help others before myself. Now, I am in it to win it and I won’t let someone stop me by putting my life on the line. Whatever game we play today – hopefully the skateboarding game of Tynoco’s choice – will not stop me from trying my hardest. Tynoco may be the only one that can skate here, but it doesn’t mean that I’m not going to try.

In fact, I practiced skateboarding on the worst substitute ever – a plank of wood with two stones under it. Thankfully, I know how to get the skateboard into the air – they call it an Ollie in the industry. You have to pop the tail with one foot and slide your other foot up the board. It’s hard and I haven’t tried it on an actual moving board.

As we fly past the scene we’re going to be performing our game today, I see Tainai look at me with hatred in his eyes. I strain to look out of the window, but I fail to see anything other than the bright midday sky we travel through. Yeah, they decided that they wanted move the play time from morning to early afternoon. It does mean that we have more time to sleep and less time to laze around, bored, after the game.

We begin to descend and I end up seeing something that I’ve never been so happy to see: a skateboard park in the design of a school. Ramps – mostly wooden – are lined up against walls all around the school. The inside seems inaccessible, not that it matters too much. This gives us the opportunity to explore the outside world a lot more. From Tynoco’s description, there’s this certain rail that you can grind on that opens up the inside of a building with a basketball court and a swimming pool. There’s nothing to do in there, but it’s a cool little Easter egg.

We land and all walk off to the area labelled start. “Afternoon, competitors. Congratulations on making the top fifteen – it feels like forever since we had all thirty of you.” The bastard wants us to hurt, wants us to feel like nothing is left for us. “Today, you will be skateboarding. Simple. Three courses, three deaths – one will die per course. Or track; whatever you call it is fine. You have five minutes to skate through this course and perform tricks and stuff. Wait, some of you have never skateboarded in your life? Have fun facing death.” His voice cuts off, leaving the rest of us to stand with our mouths wide open.