Player is Waiting... (Ultimate Clan Wars)

by Wells, JB

  “He’s not a team player,” Alfie wheezed taking another puff on his inhaler. “My friend has played against him on solo and well, he plays dirty.”

  “Alfie Best,” Jessie called.

  “I’d watch yourselves around him.” With that Alfie and his mum walked to the coach. He turned and waved to a man standing next to Dexter’s Dad, and then his mum hugged him tightly and started to cry.

  “He’s always had bad asthma. I’ve told her we have to let him grow up and she can’t look after him all the time. It’s gamers camp, it’s not like he’ll be running everywhere.” The man held out his hand for Gary to shake. “I’m Malcolm, Alfie’s Dad.”

  Nicola and the other parents huddled together, sharing their sadness.

  “Dexter Price?” Jessie carried on calling the names and one by one they slowly joined the queue. There were a few children left outside the station, Kieran was starting to worry that he’d been forgotten because all his friends were ready and waiting to board.

  “Kieran Kealey?”

  “Yes!” Kieran yelped with happiness. He leapt away from his mother’s arms and headed towards Jessie who was waiting fairly patiently.

  “Ahem?” A voice called from behind.

  Kieran turned to look at his mum who was wiping tears away from her eyes. Inside he felt awful for leaving, this would be the first time ever that he had spent more than a few nights away from her. A feeling ran through his stomach, he was so excited to go but he missed her already. With that he lunged at her once more and hugged her really quickly, then he released himself from her clutches.

  “I love you lots like Jelly Tots.” Nicola wasn’t quite smiling but she managed a saddened smile.

  “Mum!” Kieran grimaced and ran towards Jessie, thrust his papers at him and queued up before his mum could embarrass him anymore.

  “I hoped they’d forgotten you,” Richard sneered as Kieran passed by. “But don’t worry, you’ll be so rubbish at camp that they’ll be sending you home.” Richard’s remarks faded as Kieran joined the back of the queue.

  “I’ll make sure of it!” Richard laughed.

  “Don’t worry,” Owen rolled his eyes, “we all got our little comments from him.”

  Next to them stood a coach, just a normal coach, the same sort of thing they would have used for any school trip. Kieran was disappointed; he was expecting a big yellow bus, one that had the camp name tattooed across the side. Then again most of the camps he knew about were only what he’d seen on TV. He was starting to realise that this was somewhat different. There was no over-enthusiastic person trying to rally them all up, and no camp name like ‘Camp Gamers’ to be seen.

  “Right, onto the coach,” Jessie called interrupting Kieran’s wishful thinking.

  The line started to move and they filtered on to the coach one by one, of course Richard was at the front with his group of friends. Kieran and his friends had managed to stick together, so with Owen in front of him and Dexter behind him, they all boarded the coach. As soon as he stepped on, the usual coach type smell filled Kieran’s nose, it was a mixture of diesel and bleach. Kieran spotted the coach driver, who didn’t look like the typical coach driver. He wore the same uniform as Jessie and the other leaders, he had short cut hair and sunglasses on. The whole time they boarded the driver was silent and kept his eyes forward, Kieran smiled but there was no response.

  The queue continued to move and they filtered through the narrow aisle looking for a spare set of seats. The back seats were taken by Rich, his crew and a newly formed girls gang. The few rows in front of them were taken too so Kieran slipped in next to Owen in the middle of the coach, Thomas sat next to Isabelle in front of them and Dexter sat with Alfie to the side.

  “This feels more like we’re going to prison than summer camp!” Kieran whispered and settled into the high-backed seat. He fidgeted around until his backpack was safely sitting on the floor between his feet.

  Owen chuckled, “I think it really is army camp, and our parents want us off the Xbox for the summer!”

  “Ha!” Dexter said louder than he meant too. He got a disapproving glare from Jessie who started to make his way over.

  “Everything alright here?”

  Dexter sank down into his chair and looked at the floor, “Yes…sorry.”

  “I don’t know guys,” Thomas spoke in a very hushed tone, he watched as Jessie walked to the front of the bus. Jessie started talking into a walkie-talkie. “See, that’s army issue.”

  “I could not see you in army gear,” Owen whispered through the gap in the seats to Thomas and Isabelle.

  “Oh yeah, like he’d get that nit infested mop shaved off,” Isabelle sniggered from beside him.

  “I do not have nits!” Thomas growled back, scratching his head.

  Another cross stare came from Jessie’s eyes just before he slipped his sunglasses on. Kieran couldn’t understand the need for them as they were inside still. “Smile and wave campers.”

  Kieran looked out of the window as the coach started to move, they waved to their parents who were still dutifully standing under the train entrance canopy.

  “Oh god mum, stop!” Alfie groaned and lowered himself under the window.

  Kieran craned his neck and watched as Alfie’s mum near enough ran after the coach waving her arms like she was landing a plane. Alfie laughed with embarrassment and buried his face in his hands.

  “Summer camp here we come!” Dexter called.

  5

  The coach had travelled for miles along the motorway until they finally came off the slip road. The journey had seemed fairly short, and they had stopped four more times to pick up other campers. Kieran had expected that soon the coach would pull off the main road, and start heading into a densely wooded area, but the trees never seemed to appear on the horizon. Instead the coach carried on through the vast suburban area that was littered with houses and tall glass buildings. Kieran stared out through the window, looking and hoping for some clue as to where they were going…was Thomas right, were they off to army camp?

  Finally, after ten minutes, the houses started to thin out, they dotted here and there and opened up onto farm land and fields. Still no trees were in sight, instead the sea started to appear at the edge of the fields.

  “We’re not going to camp are we?” Kieran sighed under his breath.

  “I don’t think so.” Thomas replied from the seats in front.

  Suddenly the coach pulled off the main road; everyone stared out of their windows as the road disappeared into the distance. When they looked to the left it seemed as if they were driving through a farmer’s field. Voices slowly started to erase the silence, sounds of confusion and gasps of shock bounced around the interior of the coach.

  “What the…?” Dexter said with his nose against his window.

  The road wasn’t bumpy as expected. Kieran leant over Owen to check out if they were actually driving through the farmer’s wheat crops, but he was shocked to see a tarmac road.

  Jessie, who had sat down to talk to the driver, stood again and slowly walked down the aisle, which instantly silenced any whispering that had started.

  “We’re nearly there!” Dexter called in delight but as he turned to face Jessie’s large body towering over him, he quickly closed his mouth. “I can see trees!” Dexter mouthed whilst Jessie had his back turned.

  “Where?” Kieran mouthed back.

  Dexter gestured his head forwards to the front of the coach, Kieran leant his head into the aisle and squinted his eyes to see the trees. Sure enough, far ahead trees could be seen.

  “We’re definitely going to summer camp,” Kieran whispered to Owen through gritted teeth.

  “Are you sure?”

  “There are trees, and if there are trees there are huts.” Kieran looked back out of the window and saw power lines that ran parallel to the road. “See there’s the power for consoles, screens and stuff.”

  “I’m not so sure.” Thomas whispered from in front of th
em. He was biting his nails and his legs were nervously bouncing around.

  Suddenly the coach came to a stop and everyone looked at each other excitedly. Jessie and the other camp leaders stood by the door and waited for them to open, as soon as the door swung open the four men and the driver got off the bus.

  “What on earth?” Isabelle said in a fairly high pitched tone.

  “Maybe they all needed the toilet?” Owen laughed.

  “And they’re too scared to go alone?”

  “I’ve seen camps on TV,” Kieran leant forward and said through the gap in the seats. “The log cabins have loads of spiders and possibly some wild snakes in them. Maybe there are wild bears in the woods.”

  “This is England, Kiwi,” Thomas turned around, “and by my calculations we’re somewhere near the coast. I think the worst we might face at night is a badger, a fox or a badly confused seagull. No bears though.”

  Kieran sat back against his chair, the heat of the sun through the windows made his back all sweaty but the air-conditioning made his arms cold. Voices could be heard mumbling outside the coach, then there was a clattering of plastic. Jessie and one of the other leaders appeared at the steps, in his hand he was carrying a lot of identification badges on long ropes.

  “Welcome to summer camp, new recruits.” Jessie finally smiled, almost chuckled to himself, as he started to hand out the badges. Kieran instantly knew what they were as his mum had to wear an ID badge every day at work. “These,” Jessie continued and handed two out to each side of the coach, “are your ID badges, they are to be worn at all times, until you are issued your uniform. Slip the lanyard around your neck and make sure the word visitor is facing forwards at all times.”

  Kieran and Owen received their badges and slipped them on, giving each other a nervous sideways glance at the same time.

  Without warning large engines roared, the vehicle started to shake and the coach floor started to vibrate, each and every camper on board grasped their armrests.

  “Earthquake?” Kieran asked Owen as he looked around, scared by what was happening.

  There was almost panicked whimpering coming from the back of the coach, Kieran turned to look and all the students were gripping their chairs as if their lives depended on it. But far at the back through the sea of worried faces, was one who was crying and yelping in fear. It was Richard, his friends were too worried themselves to take any notice.

  Four loud clonking noises echoed around the outside followed by the sound of metal screeching and groaning. The noise happened again and the coach shook briefly from side to side, as if something had hit it. Then the ‘Clonk’ happened twice more.

  “What on earth is going on?” Dexter leaned into the aisle.

  “Battle training for coach wars? How on earth would I know?” Kieran laughed.

  The coach slowly started to turn clockwise as if they were on a turntable. Kieran gripped onto the seats, digging his fingers into the rough material. At that point the remainder of the leaders joined the coach party again, the doors closed and the driver took up his seat once more.

  “We are now heading into the car parking area, just hold on tight and shortly we will be at your new home for the next six weeks.” Jessie called and sat down in the one seat that faced everyone else.

  The spinning picked up speed and slowly the ground started to swallow them up. Darkness filled the coach and all around as the daylight was sucked out of sight. Only one person screamed, it was so dark that they couldn’t see the person next to them, let alone who had screamed.

  “Not in my ear, Izzy,” Thomas groaned.

  “Excuse me, but that was not me!” She shouted back at him angrily.

  “Are you there?” Owen called.

  “Yes,” Kieran whispered feeling around, “Is that your hand?”

  “No!” Owen replied.

  “Then whose hand do I have?” Kieran began to panic as the hand squeezed his harder.

  A faint light started to fill the coach, and glowing lights appeared outside. There was a dimly lit road, that looked a little like a landing strip at night, ahead of them. Kieran thought they must be going down quite far because his ears needed to pop. He tried for a yawn but nothing came, he needed to blow his nose. Kieran looked at his hands and found another hand entangled with his. Slowly looking to the left he followed the arm and found who the hand belonged too. Dexter had jumped out of his chair and huddled in a ball by Kieran’s seat, in sheer panic he had grabbed the first hand he came across.

  Kieran laughed and pulled his hands free of Dexter’s death grip. “Get up, you big girl.”

  Dexter opened his tightly shut eyes and looked around, the gentle lighting inside the coach lit up his embarrassment, and he quickly made his way to his chair.

  “I think we found the source of the scream,” Kieran laughed and nudged Owen, but Owen’s mind seemed to be elsewhere as he had his face stuck to the window, taking in their surroundings.

  The clonking started again but was over within seconds. Everyone sat still and waited to see what happened next. The coach was put into gear and it started moving forwards, through the dull light. It was a long tunnel, no lights above just the odd spotlight along the tunnel floor. The walls looked metallic and arched around over the road. Every so often there was a join in the tunnel walls, massive iron joists arched up and over them, showing tell-tale signs of how well made the tunnel was. After ten minutes, the coach pulled up to a high wall and then a massive gate rolled sideways. Everyone on the bus was bobbing their heads up and down like meerkats, just trying to see where they were going. The coach slowly moved in through the gate and into the light, they all blinked their eyes as they adjusted to the new found sunlight that filled the room.

  The old coach stopped in a parking space, and the engines were switched off. Kieran glanced out of the window to see people moving around, they were everywhere. It was like they had entered an underground hidden civilisation. Each and every person was wearing the same silvery/grey uniform outside. Some, in groups, were exercising by running around and others were walking and talking, there were even some loading boxes into a little van.

  “Seriously, this is like no camp I’ve seen before,” Thomas muttered in shock, his face pressed so hard against the glass, he was crushing poor Isabelle.

  6

  “Where are the log cabins, the trees and the camp fires?” Owen asked looking at everything around them.

  “More importantly where’s the sky?” Kieran gasped.

  “Right you lot, welcome to summer camp. From this point forward you are cadets, not campers not gamers, you are classed as cadets. You will leave in an orderly fashion and you will listen to my every command. Starting with you two.” Jessie said standing over two young boys who were sat at the front of the coach. They stood, shimmied out of the gap and then stepped down off the bus.

  “This isn’t a summer camp,” Thomas mumbled with his half bitten fingers in his mouth.

  “What?” Kieran asked but he felt a presence at his side, slowly Kieran looked up and saw Jessie.

  “You two next.” He said then moved towards Dexter and Alfie.

  The line was moving really quickly and Kieran hadn’t even noticed Thomas and Isabelle getting off the coach. He jumped up and pulled Owen along with him. Owen was the oldest but still so small; some people often thought he was as young as eight. Kieran felt a sense of protectiveness over him, so did the others but as they were paired together Kieran kept Owen close. They shimmied along the aisle and reached the top step and slowly started to descend. There was a florescent glow in the area they stepped into, and it was surprisingly warm. Not knowing how far down they were and the fact there was no sunlight; Kieran had expected it to feel cold with a stale smell to the air. But it wasn’t, if anything the air smelt and tasted cleaner and fresher than the air above ground. Kieran copied the face of the other passengers that were now standing waiting for further instruction, all their mouths were wide open in disbelief.

&
nbsp; “Make sure you keep your badges facing forwards at all times cadets.” Jessie called from the bottom step. Jessie’s attitude had changed, he seemed much happier compared to the grumpy strict man that he had been throughout the journey. Everyone was firmly back on solid ground and huddled in their usual groups. He walked across the perfectly tarmacked surface, “Follow me and stay in line.”

  They walked around the back of their coach and were met by ten cadets all wearing the grey uniform. They were in a line and standing still and straight like proper army cadets, they just stared ahead as the new campers made their way along. Kieran turned around and watched as the cadets started to unload their suitcases from the coach and place them into a buggy that had a trailer attached.

  “I’ve heard rumours about this place,” Thomas said between biting his nails.

  They came to an abrupt stop at the foot of a building. Kieran and everyone in the queue looked up, they had to crane their necks to try and see where the top of the building was. It was a celestial white building that must have been at least fifty stories tall with hundreds of black tinted windows all around. Snapping his head back down he noticed the luscious green lawns that surrounded the building, a fountain sat in front of the main doors and a pond over to the far right. There was no end to where the building stopped and that made Kieran wonder how big it was inside. Cadets were walking around on the grass, some were tending to little flower plots while others played football or read books.

  “Seriously Curly,” Kieran turned to him again, “what is this place?”

  Thomas pointed towards the building where there were big silver letters fixed halfway up. Kieran looked to the letters and read them.

  “WIPI, but isn’t that what’s been on all of the leaders shirts. I thought it was just the name of the camp, you know Camp WIPI?”

  “Worldwide Institute for Protection of the Internet…WIPI,” replied Thomas.