by LM. Preston
Aadi yelled back, “Raiko, go catch him and meet me at the spot!” and Raiko went into hyper-speed which takes her just ahead of Aadi. He glanced forward and Jacob and Mitchell were crossing the bridge. His quad wasn’t cooperating after being hit, as it couldn’t seem to get into hyper-speed. Raiko looked back and noticed. She took out the robot arms from her quad, latched onto Aadi’s quad, and pushed her quad into hyper mode.
“Raiko, we are coming up on the bridge! Watch out for Jacob and Mitchell!” Aadi said.
Raiko looked back briefly and smiled and drove her quad harder. They came up to the bridge, with Jacob and Mitchell riding side by side in front of them. Raiko called back, “I am going to throw you!”
“What?” Aadi yelled back over the engine noise. He braced himself for a hard-hitting landing. Raiko pushed harder, going into hyper-speed. Then, her robot arms braced Aadi’s quad for the throw. Aadi was ready, and he knew he had to land perfectly or he would be going off the bridge and out of the game in one fell swoop. Raiko’s robotic arms threw Aadi up and over Mitchell and Jacob. Aadi struggled to stay calm and to trust Raiko. He searched for his landing point, about six feet ahead of both Jacob and Mitchell.
Landing with a sharp hit upon the edge of the bridge, he was close to the end. He pushed hard, as he was almost to the trading point, and the sphere was now on fire. Racing harder with Jacob on his heels, he saw Raiko speed past Jacob.
“Almost there! Now, trade!” Raiko said as they crossed the bridge and rode onto a mountain ridge that ran the length of the next portion of the race. Aadi rode slightly past her, and her quad robot arms grabbed the fireball of a sphere from Aadi’s quad. The trade was made, and the sphere turned icy white as it was placed onto Raiko’s quad.
Chapter 31
Raiko kicked her quad into hyper drive. Mitchell was right on her heels. She breathed slowly and methodically to keep calm and focused. Mitchell came up behind her, and she looked in the mirror to see him prepare to throw a nasty fireball her way.
“Oh, no you don’t,” she warned as she keyed in the sequence to send a blast of fire in Mitchell’s wake before he had a chance to see it coming.
“Yes!” she yelled out loud as Mitchell almost fell off his quad as the blast hit the front of his vehicle. She drove quickly as she noticed her sphere turn pale orange. She spied the cliff up ahead and braced herself.
“Crap!” she said at the impact from a fireball that hit her back wheel as she jerked forward. The quad was not damaged, but it made her sphere grow to a bright orange. She looked to her right to see Mitchell pass her by, and he turned to her and spat on the ground as he passed.
“Eww! C’mon!” she said. Raiko pushed her quad faster, only to feel the heat of another fireball zooming by her to her right. Jacob gained fast, but he was still a distance away. She prepared for the jump up ahead. Mitchell was already in midair. She came up to the edge of the cliff and analyzed the distance with a look. Then, she backed up to add momentum to her jump. She revved the engine and took off, pushing the accelerator to maximum speed as she jumped. She rode the quad high over the cliff and passed Mitchell to her right. The quad hit the hard-packed purple sand with a powerful jerk. Mitchell was right beside her within minutes. They raced across the sand with the finish line in sight, and Mitchell rode his quad close enough to hers to land a punch on her right side. Her head jerked with the impact, and she winced.
“Oh, that’s it… I am ticked off now!” she said, and tapped her hand to put her quad in computerized drive mode. She jumped onto Mitchell’s quad right behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck. She focused on a specific point at the back of his neck and landed the first punch. Mitchell tried to get her off by moving and hitting behind him at Raiko. However, she couldn’t be moved. She wrapped her legs around his waist like a vice grip as she landed punch after punch at the back of his neck. Mitchell tried to move out of her chokehold, but Raiko refused to give him an inch. She pushed off his helmet and gave him a short reprieve from her punching, only to land a piercing blow to his temple.
She pounded him on the side of his head over and over again. He twisted his back and tried to pull at her arm, her hand, or anything to get her off of him. Raiko thought at this moment that she would put him out, right now as she realized the sphere was on fire. She calmly pressed the pressure point at his neck with such precision that Mitchell didn’t know what hit him, and he fell over the handlebars of his quad with a thump, out cold. Raiko smiled to herself and then slapped her hands together as if wiping off sand. She jumped to her quad, not even glancing back as a sleeping Mitchell fell off his quad and out of the game. Raiko raced to the finish line and won the game.
Thrown back to reality, Raiko shook her head side to side and slowly woke up. Jacob stood over her, smiling with a look of admiration in his eyes.
“Wow! Wow! You are definitely going to be on my team next time,” he said, and Raiko grinned at him. He offered his hand to help her up. “Man, what a rush. You have got to teach me some of those moves,” Jacob said and took Raiko’s hand.
There were other kids waiting outside the room for their turn, so the gamers got up and out in a hurry.
Aadi looked around for Eirena. Slowly, he came out of the initial sting of her betrayal and wanted to make sure that she was all right. He was anxious to leave and started to walk out of the door.
“Hey, why would she leave? ‘Cause she is definitely gone,” Jacob said, wrapping an arm around Raiko.
“Hmm… maybe she doesn’t like being a loser,” Neema replied and looked at Jacob.
“Maybe. Well, this is where we have to part. We have a private session with our team Counselor before dinner,” Jacob said.
“Oh, Aadi and Raiko, let’s do this again,” Jacob threw back, and his team quickly and quietly followed.
“Aadi, thanks for joining us. I’ll be your partner anytime,” Neema said with a flirtatious smile.
“Thanks for inviting me, Neema. It was fun,” Aadi replied and forced himself to return her smile.
“Hmph,” Raiko said in recognition.
“Raiko, you really came alive in the game. I am glad you were on my team,” Aadi said and walked alongside Raiko. Then, he pulled out his yo-yo gasid. “Um, Raiko, why did you take Eirena out of the game?” Aadi asked as he glanced at her.
“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask her why she threw a fire nail at you?” Raiko said in a loud, snappy tone.
“Maybe I should. Although, I must admit, I really don’t have much to say to her right now,” Aadi said. He looked at his yo-yo and pondered what he would say to Eirena when he saw her at dinnertime, if he said anything to her at all.
“Well, I gotta go. We’ll see you at dinner. We have something to talk to you all about, and it must be tonight,” Raiko said, then turned down her hallway.
“That’s fine. See you then. Oh… and Raiko, I am proud to have you on my team anytime,” Aadi said as he walked away.
“Hmm, then why do I feel so bad?” Raiko mumbled in return.
Chapter 32
Raiko hesitated before scanning her eyes for entry. Then she took a deep, calming breath. As she walked in the door, she saw Eirena at the computer. Eirena was working so intently that she didn’t even hear the door open. So Raiko went to the bed and pulled herself up on the top bunk.
“Oh, Raiko, glad you’re back. I was just mapping out how we would get to the locations that I think we should check out tonight,” Eirena said in a fake cheery voice.
“Uh, Eirena, can we talk first about the game?” Raiko said to the back of Eirena’s head.
“What’s there to talk about?” Eirena asked, still not bothering to turn around.
“I am sorry I got mad at you. I shouldn’t have taken you out of the game so early,” Raiko said, a bit silently.
“Well, whatever. It’s over,” Eirena said and finally turned around and smiled at Raiko.
“I probably should have put Jacob in his place a lot sooner, but I wasn’t
really paying attention to him. Besides, he surprised me with the kiss. I don’t like him in that way, Raiko, and I would never steal away someone that you like. I am just not that kind of person. Sorry you felt that way,” Eirena said and then looked directly at Raiko.
“So, do you forgive me? Jacob is kind of a flirt anyway,” Raiko rushed out.
“Yeah, he is. But a cute one nonetheless,” Eirena replied with a smile.
“Oh, he is gorgeous. He also took my arm after the game was over. I can’t help it, but I still like him - a lot,” Raiko smiled and blushed.
“Well, just don’t go around beating up every poor girl he flirts with, okay?”
“I won’t,” Raiko said and tucked her feet under her leg.
“Well, he did give me some information about Trevor, their sixth teammate. He said Trevor broke out in these bumps, more like boils. They were transparent and had some type of bugs moving around in them, he said,” Eirena explained, placing her hand on her chin in thought.
“That’s weird. Is he still on the ship?”
“Well, according to Jacob, they told him they were taking the kid home, but Jacob thinks he is still on the ship. I mean, why would they take him back to Earth until they found out what he had and if it was contagious or not? Heck, I mean, wouldn’t they want to fix him first before his parents saw what the immunization did to him?” Eirena pondered, then crossed her arms.
“Maybe that’s something we can find out tonight. We should check out the infirmary to see what the sick kids look like there.”
“You are right. Okay, I’ll add that to the list since I already mapped out how we are going to get to the other places,” Eirena said as she tapped her lips to let Raiko know she wanted her to read her lips.
“We have to go through the oxygen ducts. It’s the only way to go, undetected? We are going to hit the staff quarters, this place they call the cave, and the infirmary. Splitting up is the only way to go to them all before the expedition tomorrow. Something tells me we need to see this before we go,” Eirena said, looking intently at Raiko.
“I don’t think the boys will have a problem with it. We can probably talk quietly with them about this at dinner, as there are so many kids around they probably won’t be monitoring conversations as much.”
“Good. Let’s get the map and go meet them for dinner,” Eirena said as she went to her bag under her bed to retrieve the map. She then folded it up and put it into her jeans pocket.
Aadi walked straight to his room. He figured he better tell the guys that the girls wanted to talk to them about something serious. He had a feeling he knew what it was about. They all kind of kept quiet after the night in the labs, but he had not stopped thinking about what they had stumbled upon. He wondered what big experiment TEGRC was doing with the campers. He figured it was probably focused on making sure that the camp would do well for their next trip, or at least that was all he was hoping it was. But deep down, he really felt in his gut it was just something too ugly to even begin to consider. It made him wonder if his parents had any idea what they had signed him up for. Also, it made him hope that they had no knowledge of the true purpose of this camp, because any other option would be too hard to accept.
“Hmm. Let’s not skip to conclusions. I’ll just see what the girls figured out. Maybe there is more to this,” Aadi said to himself when he got to the door. He scanned his eyes, and the door opened. No one was in the room yet, so he went over and tapped on the floor. Ebu immediately came out of the backpack and climbed on the bed.
“Hello, Aadi. I was getting really bored today,” Ebu said as he crossed his legs.
“I know, but I am taking you to dinner with me today. The girls want to talk about something important. I think they are onto something,” Aadi said.
“Hmm, okay. Well, I better get in the backpack before the others arrive,” Ebu said, and then he scrambled into the backpack like a good little robot. Aadi grabbed the backpack and put in on with Ebu inside just as the door opened.
Dakota, Damien, and Scott walked in and were talking about the movie they had just seen in the virtual movie room. They had all just come from a horror movie, and each had been the victim of the killer. They were laughing about how each had gotten bitten by the werewolf and who cried like a baby about it.
“Wow, it sounds like a good movie,” Aadi said as he overheard them.
“Man, was it ever! You have got to go to this one! We are going to see it again after the expedition. We started the movie as kids in high school. We all went to a senior hayride and were attacked by a band of werewolves. Man, when they bite you that crap hurts. The movie made me shake like a Mexican jumping bean when I turned into a werewolf,” Dakota said, laughing and slapping hands with Damien.
“Well, I am on my way to dinner, and I wanted you to know that the girls have something important they want to talk to us about. I think it has something to do with our last um… adventure,” Aadi said.
“Interesting, I can’t wait to see what this is about. I have been bored sick since our last ‘adventure,’ and am ready for another,” said Dakota.
“Hey, where are Tacitus and Carter?” Aadi asked while he adjusted his backpack.
“Oh, outside talking to the kid next door. Poor kid doesn’t know what he got himself into asking Carter about how he made out in the movie,” Dakota said while he laughed.
“Oh, he made out all right. He was one of the first people bit by the king werewolf and held in death mode before he changed into a werewolf himself. He couldn’t even make a kill when he became a werewolf because he was easy for all of us to outrun. Useless, he is,” Damien said and then placed his hands on his hips.
“Well, we can grab them on the way out. How did Tacitus make out?” said Aadi.
“Great, of course. Whenever we do the computer generated reality stuff, he just keeps getting better and better. No one could catch him, and trust me, we all tried,” replied Dakota with a laugh. They all headed out the door to find Carter and Tacitus talking to a kid who stayed in the room next door.
“Hey, Sam,” Aadi called as he walked past. “We are on our way to dinner. Carter, Tacitus, are you guys coming?” Aadi called back.
“Yeah, right behind you,” Carter said as he gave Sam the cool handshake. He and Tacitus followed.
They got to the cafeteria in no time flat and saw Raiko waving at them. They walked over to the table and said their hellos.
“Hey, we are gonna get our food first and come back. I see that spaghetti looks really good,” said Aadi to Raiko. He didn’t speak to Eirena or even glance at her, still quite troubled by her actions earlier that day.
“Yeah, it is pretty good, Aadi,” Eirena answered for Raiko. Aadi didn’t reply. He only turned around and went to the food line.
Eirena looked up to see Neema and Jacob walking over to their table.
“Hey, guys, thanks for playing Speed and Fire with us today. We have to have a full team rematch when we get back from the expedition tomorrow,” Jacob said, then sent a dazzling smile toward Eirena. He then winked at Raiko.
“Hey, you guys played Speed and Fire without me? Man, I can kick butt and take names in that game. That would have been more fun than the werewolf movie we saw today,” said Carter, who didn’t do them the favor of following the other boys.
“Um, Carter, aren’t you going to get some food?” said Eirena.
“Naw, I am not hungry. I had food in my room, so I just came to hang out,” Carter said as he got comfortable in his seat and leaned his head on his hand. Just as Carter replied, the others came up to the table.
“Hey, my name is Jacob, and this is Neema. We are Team Fire Six. We were just thanking Eirena, Raiko, and Aadi for playing us today,” Jacob said easily and smiled at the rest of the team.
“Well, this is Damien, Dakota, Scott, and Tacitus. They went to the virtual theatre today and saw the new werewolf movie with Carter,” Aadi replied.
“How was that? We heard it was really scary, bu
t nothing really scares us that easily,” Neema said.
“I guess nothing would,” Eirena replied saucily. Aadi glanced at her and then jerked his gaze back to Neema.
“Yeah, Neema, you are right. You really gave as well as you got on the game today. Next time, I’ll make sure I am on your team,” Aadi replied while he smiled at Neema and took her hand in his. He sneaked a glance at Eirena to make sure she saw the display. Serves her right to be angry, he thought, after what she pulled earlier.
“Eww,” Eirena said under her breath. Then Raiko softly tapped her on her shoulder. It went unnoticed by Eirena, who kept on mumbling to herself. “Oh, he looks stupid,” Eirena thought out loud, “staring at Neema like a lovesick puppy. I so don’t feel sorry for attacking that fool. Oh, he definitely deserved it,” she said without realizing she spoke rather loudly this time.
“Eirena, you need to keep your hateful thoughts to yourself. I can hear you,” Raiko whispered to Eirena. Eirena shook her head to snap out of her anger.
“Well, hopefully all of you can join us in the match next time. Oh, and we will be right behind you in the expedition tomorrow, so see you then!” Jacob said as they went to meet their team at their table.
“Well, well, well… I see Aadi has a pretty groupie hanging on. She sure looks yummy. Did you take a bite? A kiss? A smooch? Man, give us something to dream about,” said Dakota.
“Naw, she’s not that type. We’re just getting to know one another. She is nice, that’s all,” Aadi replied, then slipped a peek at Eirena, enjoying her jealous reaction to his flirting with Neema. He thought Neema was pretty but hadn’t decided if he wanted to pursue her in the way she wanted him to.
“Oh, she is more than nice. She is friggin beautiful, and she wants you, bad man,” said Dakota.