Into Tordon

by Z. F. Kingbolt

  ‘Kira?’

  Beth and Zane edged closer.

  The old man looked familiar too, though there was an urgency in his voice that seemed too private to listen to, as well as tears in his eyes. ‘Did it work?’ he said to the girl. ‘Did it make a difference? Can you hear me? Say something Kira, please. I’ll try harder, I promise.’

  Zane raised his eyebrows at Beth.

  A floorboard under Beth creaked and the old man looked up, his sad eyes hardening. He clenched his fists. ‘It’s all your fault!’ he snapped. ‘Now I have to fix all that you’ve broken.’

  ‘Fix what?’ Zane asked. ‘Who are you?’

  The old man stood. ‘You’re just like the others—a disgrace to my game. Some winner!’ he sneered at Beth.

  Beth stepped closer. ‘Hey, I recognise your voice. You still do your own voiceovers, don’t you? I hear your voice on the game all the time. Zane, this is Aaron Kaleski, creator and developer of Tordon.’

  ‘Mr Kaleski?’ Zane asked. ‘I thought you moved to India?’

  ‘Ha! I would have if Ripple hadn’t fired me.’

  ‘So they did fire you!’ Beth glanced at Zane.

  ‘It wasn’t my fault.’

  ‘What wasn’t your fault?’ Zane asked quietly.

  ‘She,’ Kaleski pointed at Beth, ‘she was supposed to win the final level by killing the Chameleon. If she’d done what she was supposed to, I would have found it.’

  ‘Found what?’

  ‘The bug! The virus! Why else do you think they’re like this?’ Kaleski shuffled down the room. ‘They’ve gone mad, poor kids. Once they’re in they won’t come out— they don’t even know they should! Now they’re stuck in there for another month, until I can find a real winner. It’s the only thing that hasn’t happened yet. Someone has to win.’ He paced further. ‘I should have focussed on inventing another game, get more players in quicker. Now we all have to wait again.’

  ‘How long have they been stuck here?’ Beth looked from one screen to the next, recognising one gamer’s character name after another. They were all past winners of The Chameleon Chart. ‘I haven’t seen some of these players online in months. Is this where they’ve all been? You’ve been holding them captive?’

  ‘Not me,’ he snapped, ‘the game.’

  ‘Why don’t you just turn it off?’ demanded Beth. ‘Don’t you think I would if I could?’ Kaleski glanced back at Kira. ‘See these?’ He held up his hands. Two red bands were fastened around his wrists. ‘If I pull the plug while these are still on we could all go insane. That’s what happened with the original testers. I won’t risk doing that to my daughter.’

  ‘So that’s why you got fired,’ said Zane.

  ‘Kira was helping me. She was so good at games. I thought I’d fixed it too. Stupid, so stupid. I never should have let her play.’

  ‘Um…Beth,’ Zane warned, putting his hand on her arm while looking straight at Kaleski.

  Strange shadows were flashing across the man’s face. It was almost as if two people were occupying the same space.

  ‘You,’ Kaleski turned and snapped at Beth, ‘you were supposed to win. Everyone else lost, all of them, all of them. So I still can’t find it. Where is it? Where is it?’ He shuffled back down the room again and picked up a screwdriver from the table. ‘I’ve got to find it. Then I’ll show them. They’ll buy my game and we’ll be rich, Kira. Just hold on. I’ll get you out.’ The lights started to flicker. ‘What’s wrong now?’ He grunted at a bright flash and started shuffling towards them.

  Beth blinked, and for a split second Kaleski looked like the Chameleon, creeping towards them grinning and wielding a knife. ‘Zane?’

  The same light flashed again, sparking as if something was short-circuiting, and the old man was Kaleski again, holding a screwdriver.

  There was the smell of smoke again, and another flash. ‘Come here, you,’ snarled the Chameleon this time,

  towering over them.

  ‘Zane,’ Beth whispered, backing around the table. ‘Why are we still seeing this when we ripped off our web-interface?’ She glanced at the kids hunched over the table. Parts of them looked like pale creatures with boxes, other parts looked like normal kids typing on keyboards. The Chameleon’s face flashed with Kaleski’s then back again. The different images were flashing on and off like a strobe.

  ‘The bands!’ cried Zane, tugging on his. ‘We’re still getting something through our wristbands!’

  ‘You play to win,’ Kaleski spat, creeping closer. ‘You’re insane,’ Zane said, moving in front of Beth.

  ‘Stay back.’

  ‘Why didn’t you win?’ Kaleski brandished his screwdriver. ‘I could have found it. She would’ve been free.’

  ‘You don’t know that,’ Zane yelled. ‘You said it yourself—you don’t know what the bug is. How many more ‘testers’ will you let play the game? How many more will you trap in here, just so you can find it? The police will find you soon. What about all these kids’ families? They must be so worried! Don’t you care about them?’

  ‘Wait,’ Beth cried, staring at Zane. ‘Why aren’t we trapped? We didn’t win the game, but we’re not trapped like the others.’ She gestured at the other gamers.

  Kaleski stopped moving and stared at the ground in thought. ‘You should have been trapped. The game is only programmed for winners or losers. You must defeat the Chameleon to win. If he defeats you, you lose. Until now, all the losers end up trapped, lost in the worlds. But not you.’

  ‘Because we didn’t win or lose. The Chameleon didn’t defeat us. We fell.’

  Kaleski gazed around the room, hazy from wisps of smoke, flickering as lights flashed. ‘You’ve broken it.’

  Seeing his opportunity Zane leapt forward, grabbing the old man’s arm and trying to knock the screwdriver from his grasp, the knife from the Chameleon.

  Kaleski gripped harder and they struggled against the table, jostling the gamers. Zane just squeezed tighter and tighter until, with a final flick, the screwdriver flew across the room, stabbing the control panel over the refreshments table. Sparks flew out like a firework.

  ‘No!’ Kaleski screamed, shuffling over to the panel.

  There was a blinding flash, then the entire room was plunged into darkness.

  Beth felt a strange buzzing in her head, then a burning on her wrists. Smoke was coming from her wristbands. The heat was unbearable. Tiny cracks in the rubber were spreading like webs. Beth gritted her teeth against the burning and pulled with all her strength.

  Snap!

  The band fell into her hand. She could hear Zane grunting.

  ‘Zane, keep pulling. They come off!’

  She did the same with her other wrist and heard snaps as Zane tore his free too.

  A moment later, emergency lights came on, bathing the room in a pale yellow light.

  Beth blinked, then squinted through the haze to see what had happened. She gasped. ‘Zane, look.’ She pointed at the table, her hand shaking. ‘The kids.’

  Before their eyes, the gamers were fading, dissolving, one by one, just as the other characters had done earlier in the tank room. The gamers weren’t real.

  No, Beth realised, not all the gamers. One figure remained solid and she was staring around her in confusion as she tore at her own bands. A moment later they were in pieces on the table.

  Kaleski stumbled over to his daughter. ‘Kira?’ he murmured, wrapping his arms around her. ‘Oh Kira.’

  ‘Dad? Oh Dad, it is you!’ She threw her arms around him.

  ‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. It’s over,’ he murmured into her hair. ‘Thank you, Beth, Zane. You brought her back to me. Thank you.’

  Zane exhaled slowly, then smiled at Beth, until a loud click made them both jump. A door had opened at the back of the room and, while it was faint, the unmistakable glow of daylight shone through it.

  Beth peered out to see a shadowy wooden staircase. It was Kaleski’s hallway.

  ‘Let’s go,’ Kale
ski said, ‘quickly. We have to get them all out!’

  ‘All?’ Beth said. ‘There’s only Kira and us.’

  ‘Are you mad?’ Kaleski screamed at her. As he gestured around the table, Beth suddenly understood. Two red bands still hung on Kaleski’s wrists. They hadn’t cracked when the control panel short-circuited.

  ‘He doesn’t know,’ she gasped. ‘Zane, he’s still stuck in the simulation. Look!’ She pointed as his wrists.

  ‘Quick!’ Kaleski demanded, stepping away from Kira. Sweat gleamed on his forehead. His head started twitching from side to side as he clenched his jaw, green eyes flashing. ‘Quick! The Chameleon’s fighting back! He doesn’t want to lose! I can’t hold him off, please hurry,’ he begged. ‘The Chameleon is still here!’

  ‘Mr Kaleski, we need to get your bands off,’ Beth begged. ‘You didn’t trap the other gamers. They did get out. Kira is going to be free too. And you! Here, let me help you.’

  ‘No!’ He stepped away from all of them. ‘You have to leave. Now!’

  ‘Please Dad.’ Kira reached for his hand. ‘She’s telling the truth. Come with me and I’ll help you. You’re still in the simulation. There’s no one else here. Others did come, I remember now, but when they lost they simply left the house and went home.’

  ‘But, if others came,’ Zane asked Kira, ‘why haven’t we heard about all this in the chatroom?’

  ‘Security systems,’ Kira explained. ‘They delete unwanted comments from the chatroom automatically. Lock out certain players. Dad, there really isn’t anyone else here.’

  Kaleski closed his eyes, took a large shuddering breath then looked up at them again, calmer. ‘You’re right. It just feels so real. Now let’s go together, please.’ He gestured for Beth to lead the way.

  Beth wanted to sprint down the hallway ahead of them all, feel the hazy sun of home on her face. But Kaleski looked so weak, shuffling forward supported by Zane and Kira. They needed to stay together and help each other. So she edged across the dim floor, checking for any obstacles, and savoured the fresh but thick air breezing down the hallway towards them and the distant sound of cars from the street.

  As they reached the door, she looked up at the sky. It wasn’t as blue as some of those she’d seen lately, but at least she knew this sky well. And there was the driveway. She stepped onto it and blinked. It felt like she and Zane had walked down it a lifetime ago. Wait, was that VlahPaul, Wolk and 6thDan still walking away?

  They’d been gone no time at all!

  No wonder no one else had spoken about the house on Daintree Street. If Zane and Kira weren’t with her now, she’d probably be confused and questioning whether any of it had happened at all. She might even think it had all been a dream.

  ‘Beth!’ Zane called out, panic in his voice.

  She looked back inside the house.

  Kaleski was slumped against a wall just beside the doorway, cowering from something, his face crumpled in shock. ‘No!’ he groaned. ‘They’re are back! That’s impossible. Get away, get away!’

  ‘What is it, Dad?’ asked Kira, still holding his arm. ‘The game…it short-circuited. No-one’s controlling it now. So why are they here?’ His eyes flicked about wildly. ‘It must be…it’s re-setting itself. Get out! The mutts are coming!’

  ‘Dad, come on!’ shouted Kira, tugging on his arm. ‘It’s just your wristbands.’

  Zane went to pull the old man out the door but he pushed them both away.

  ‘It’s too late for me!’

  ‘We’re going to have to carry him out.’ Zane told Beth as she hurried over to help. ‘Ready?’

  Beth nodded and the three of them heaved him to the doorstep. The daylight grew brighter and brighter, until… flash! A shockwave made them drop Kaleski and they all fell backwards, out onto the driveway.

  ‘Dad?’ Kira yelled.

  Slumped on the hallway floor, Kaleski ran his hands over the floorboards. ‘The leaves,’ he moaned, ‘everywhere.’

  Kira went to help him up, but hit an invisible barrier. ‘Dad?’

  He turned his back on them, then slowly stood up and spread his arms wide. Fibres shot out from the door frame, coating his body and limbs. He looked around, amazed as if grass were sprouting around his feet and trees soaring overhead. When he finally looked back at them, a hint of the Chameleon stared out of the old man’s eyes. An evil grin crossed his face. ‘The game ends now,’ he said, and the Black-Door-With-No-Doorknob fell down with a slam, shutting him inside.

  ‘Dad,’ Kira sobbed, collapsing on the doorstep. ‘He’s trapped in there!’

  Beth crouched and put an arm around her shoulders. ‘He’ll find a way out, I know he will. Especially now he doesn’t have to worry about you.’

  ‘You don’t know that!’ Kira cried. ‘He’s in there all alone!’

  ‘Yes, but he’s the best of the best!’ Zane said, crouching by her other side. ‘He’s Aaron Kaleski. If anyone can find a bug in a game, it’s him.’ He glanced at Beth. ‘And, now we know about it, we can organise a rescue from the outside. We’ll get all sorts of people onto it, like my dad. He really knows a lot.’

  Kira sniffed, but glanced at him with hope.

  Beth felt for the girl. She’d only just been reunited with her father. To lose him so soon had to be like a thousand nightmares come true. Beth hugged her and helped her up, then took a deep breath and gazed down the street towards home. Kira wasn’t the only one with a father she loved. She glanced at Zane, who nodded.

  It was time to go home.

  One Year Later

  It was the first time Beth had sat at her computer since her time in the house on Daintree Street. Zane, DaveT, Kira and herself had been spending more time at each other’s houses rather than playing games online, because if there was one thing Beth had learnt from going into Tordon, it was that there were no shortcuts to making friends.

  ‘Here you go, Bethie,’ her dad said, passing her a fizzy drink and a chicken sandwich. ‘I’m off to work, so don’t play too long, your eyes will go funny.’

  ‘Yes, Dad.’

  ‘Remember I’ll be late home too.’

  ‘I know. Someone’s going on a date!’ she teased.

  Things had changed a lot over the past year.

  ‘Yeah, yeah,’ her dad smiled, closing her bedroom door.

  The movement made the newspaper clippings on her wall flutter. Beth was pictured in one of them as the inspiration behind the revolutionary new game being released by Ripple today. It was a ‘local girl done good’ story. Dad was in the photo alongside her, quoted as saying his daughter’s achievements had inspired him to face life afresh too. Beth was so proud of him—a new job, new girlfriend, things were going great.

  After Kaleski had been trapped inside the game, he’d done just as Zane had said and worked on the game’s problems from the inside, while technicians worked on the outside. Finally, the game was bug-free. Kaleski had been freed, sold his game to Ripple and, in thanks for their help, he’d shared the money with everyone who had ever ‘tested’ it for him, including Beth and Zane.

  Beth went to pull down the sleeves of her top, then realised she didn’t have to anymore. She could afford a new top every growth spurt now—more if it took her fancy, which it rarely did. Instead she wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans and typed ‘The Chameleon’ into her search engine. A familiar-looking house appeared in the centre of the screen. Her heart pounded. This was it, the moment she’d been waiting for all year—the moment she got to face her arch enemy again, this time on her own terms. Ripple’s new game allowed gamers to compete in teams, and she wanted more than anything to win the chance of taking part in the game’s virtual Grand Final with her friends. After all, they’d had enough practice.

  Logged in and ready to go, she switched on her motion-sensor interface. She’d wave open the onscreen door as soon as she got a certain notification in the screen’s chat list. A few moments later, she got three.

  Zane007—Ready to play?
/>   Beth smiled and typed her reply.

  BGwarrior—Only because I have the best partner.

  Another avatar appeared in the chat list.

  DaveT—Partner? Make that a team.

  KiraSun—I’m here too!

  Beth took a deep breath and smiled to herself. It was time. She gestured at the door and the countdown started.

  3—2—1

  Let the game begin.

  About the Author

  Z.F. Kingbolt is a

  Northern Beaches Writers’ Group pseudonym

  Into Tordon is a collaborative project between:

  Editor-in-Chief

  Zena Shapter

  Editors

  Zoya Nojin • Zena Shapter

  Authors

  Leah Boonthanom • Tracey Jackson • Liz Michell • Mijmark • Tony McFadden • Zoya Nojin • Kristin Prescott • Zena Shapter • Kirsten Taylor

  zfkingbolt.com

  Acknowledgements

  We would like to thank our wonderful families for their constant support and love. We could not have written this book, or any of our individual writing projects, without your understanding and patience. Thank you.

  Thank you, Anna Solding at MidnightSun Publishing, for bringing Into Tordon to life. Thank you Lynette Washington for your keen eye. Thank you Mat Wilson and Abigail Nathan for your expert advice on gaming and technology. Thank you Fi Michell for creating with us while you could.

  Finally, thank you dear readers for welcoming Z.F. Kingbolt into your lives. We hope this story gives you an adventure you won’t forget, and the odd chuckle along the way.

  Find us online at zfkingbolt.com

  MidnightSun Publishing

  We are a small, independent publisher based in Adelaide, South Australia. Since publishing our first novel, Anna Solding’s The Hum of Concrete in 2012, MidnightSun has gone from strength to strength.

  We create books that are beautifully produced, unusual, sexy, funny and poignant. Books that challenge, excite, enrage and overwhelm. When readers tell us they have lost themselves in our stories, we rejoice in a job well done.