by Logan Byrne
“Are the other people being nice to you?” my mother asked.
“Most people stick with their team members. We don’t really want to get close to one another because of the competition and all. It’s okay, though. I’m getting by fine,” I said.
“What’s your partner like? Are they any good?” my mother asked.
“He’s great. His name is Liam, and he and I get along great. We’ve been going over a lot of strategy, and I really think we have a chance at doing well,” I said.
“Is he cute?” Saraia asked.
“He’s…not ugly,” I said, before laughing, as I could feel my cheeks get a little warm.
“I know you’ll win, Alexia. People at work have been coming up to me on their breaks and telling me how they’re rooting for you. They say that they’re going to watch every night until it’s over and you win,” my mother said.
“Tell them thank you for me. That’s really sweet of them. How are you two holding up, though?” I asked.
“Oh, we’re doing okay. It’s been difficult, with you gone and all, but my bosses have been considerate and are allowing me to take care of your sister and get her to school and everything. Mrs. Jones down the street will also take her once a week now so that I won’t miss out on work hours. I don’t want to worry you, though. You have enough on your plate,” my mother said.
“I miss you a lot. I have so much to tell you when you get home,” Saraia said, smiling.
“I miss you too. I can’t wait to hear about it all. I’m going to be home soon, okay?” I said, as I felt a tear run down my cheek.
I saw my mother’s face, not quite as optimistic as Saraia’s, though she kept her mouth shut, not wanting to upset her. I knew that even though she wanted me home, and even though she thought I could have a good chance, I was still up against eleven other teams, twenty-two other competitors. My chances weren’t amazing, and me winning wasn’t set in stone. Anyone could win this.
“When you come home in a couple weeks, will you braid my hair? Mom doesn’t do as good of a job and I want to look pretty for school,” Saraia asked.
“Yup, we can do all of that. Whatever you want, sweetheart,” I said, before I bit the insides of my cheeks to stop my lips from quivering.
“I’m glad you’re doing well, baby. They’re saying we have thirty more seconds. I can’t believe it’s gone by already,” my mother said.
How could my time with them be up already? We just got on the call and I had to get off? I felt like I barely got any time with them.
“I’ll talk to you both soon, okay?” I asked.
“I love you,” Saraia said.
“I love you as well,” my mother said.
“I love you both. I’ll see you soon,” I said, forcing a fake smile as I waved, tears running down my cheeks.
The feed cut off, the booth a little darker, as the screen went blank and awaited the next person. I wiped away my tears, trying to keep myself composed, before I walked out of the booth and out the door, looking to my left. I didn’t see Liam anywhere; his call was likely taking place. I could really have used a hug right then.
Chapter Eleven
A couple days had passed since I got to talk to my mother and sister. I thought about them all that night, unable to shake their faces out of my head, their words sticking in my mind longer than I ever thought they would. I had talked to Liam later, both of us exchanging how our chats went, both of us a little sad that they seemed to end so soon. We knew we needed to win this thing, but the question of if we could ran supreme. It’s easy to say you’re going to win, but an entirely different thing to actually do it. Getting the win meant we needed to be able to predict what everyone else was going to do. We needed to take our strategy seriously and really pay attention whenever Quinn was speaking. Her words, for us at least, were pure gold.
Even though we weren’t sure how far we’d get with this plan, Liam and I were both fired up, knowing that our fates were in our hands and our hands only, and we would keep them closed, making sure nothing could harm them.
Christian told us last night that today was our third phase test, the survival test. We weren’t told what the fourth and fifth phases were, so they were a complete mystery at this point, but with Petram teaching us today, I knew we were in for a treat. He seemed to be the nicest and sweetest of the teachers, a skinnier man who was fairly soft-spoken and never seemed ill-tempered or easily annoyed. We hadn’t interacted with him much at all, but today was our chance, and I knew his skills would come in handy.
We were all marched to see him after breakfast, Christian taking us into the massive cargo elevator, before hitting a few buttons and swiping his key card, the elevator quickly moving.
We went down far, further than I think we had before, until the elevator stopped, the doors opening as my ears popped a little. Christian, walking in front of us, led us through a few sets of doors before opening metal ones that had trees painted on them.
As the doors opened, a multitude of scents tickled my senses, the bright light shining into my eyes before I came in, putting my hand up like a visor to see the massive room.
Some competitors gasped. The room was bigger than anything I had seen before, and it seemed like getting lost in it was a true possibility. Different areas, two of them looking kind of similar, were sectioned off. They were both filled to the brim with trees, though the types of trees were wildly different. One of the areas had trees more akin to the forest in my room, while the trees in the other part were skinnier and had towering canopies with vines that slung back and forth between them. As we all looked around, Petram walked up, smiling like always as he waved, Christian leaving us in his control.
“Good morning, and welcome to my domain. I’m sure some of you are in awe; I know I was, when I first came down here and saw where I’d be working. You’ll be going through survival training today, learning different survival skills so that you may thrive while you’re inside the competition. As you all know, your sensory organs are alive and well inside WorldNet. You can feel, smell, get tired, and get cold, and you’ll need to eat and drink water. So, you need to be able to survive so that you don’t perish from something that could be easily prevented. Now, looking around, what do you see?” Petram asked, scanning the horizon with his hand.
We all looked around, some more than others, as he waited for a reply. It was hard to even describe what we were looking at. The stage was different, separated into three different and very distinct settings, though only one of them looked familiar. The familiar one looked like a forest, like the one in my room. Two of them, the forest and the other tree-filled one, looked fairly similar, but the third, the one covered with white sand, was very different.
“What we have here are three different ecosystems. You might be wondering why these are here, and I’ll tell you. Things are a little different this year. Every year before this we have used a forest setting. This year, though, we added two more ecosystems, and WorldNet will change them randomly every two to three days,” Petram said.
“They just…change?” Greg asked.
“Essentially, yes. Every two to three days the change will occur, and you’ll never really know when it will hit. The earth will shake, and the grid under you will shift, changing, and the landscape will be new right under your feet. The temperature and climate will change, fog could set in, and the grid could get warmer, or worse, colder. You’re lucky that it’s one of only three, though,” Petram said.
“What are the three?” a voice behind me asked.
“Well, you have the standard forest that we’re all used to. The competition has always been in one, so keeping that was fairly important to us. The second is close to a forest, but it’s a rainforest. The air will be humid, dense, like molasses in your lungs and on your skin. The third and final stage is an island, which is one we’re very excited about. There will be sand, brush, caves, small mountains, and water as far as the eye can see. Don’t get too comfortable, though, as you won’t just be looki
ng over your shoulder for other competitors. There will be other beings there, some a little more friendly than others,” Petram said.
“What, a bunch of animals? Like they can hurt us in there. They aren’t even real,” Jason said, ending with a chuckle.
“The animals in there might be part of the grid, but so are all of you. If you see a panther coming your way, you shouldn’t take it so lightly. It is very possible that you’ll get knocked out not because of another player, but because of a hungry beast,” Petram said, with a stern look on his face.
Petram took the bag off from his back, opening it up, and pulled out a few items, most of which I had no clue what they were.
“This is a survival pack. It’s a backpack that’s filled with various treats and toys, each pack containing different items. As you can see, some of the items I have in here and in my hand are very useful. Take this canteen, for example. Each of the ecosystems has water in it, usually in the form of creeks and micro ponds, though some larger lagoons and small lakes are possible. Having one of these means you can take your water on the go, not having to depend on the small amounts of water strewn about the map. You can, of course, avoid that with a feast card, though those are harder to come by,” Petram said.
I looked closely at the items as he pulled them out one at a time. There was the canteen, a field first aid kit, some snacks, a waterproof heat blanket, and much more. I knew that finding one of these packs, even just one between the two of us, could really make a difference in our fight for the win. The only thing Petram didn’t tell us, though, was how to get one.
“Do we each get a pack?” David asked.
“I’m afraid that’s the disappointing part about them. You won’t get one. There will be six that are spread out across the map, hidden, and they won’t even show up for your hackers, unless they can crack the code and find one very close by. You will have to find one to get access to the goodies inside. I know that might sound daunting, but if you keep your eyes open, it will be easier than you think. Now, we should get started with the training for today before you have to take your skills test,” Petram said, as he put away the things in the bag.
He set the bag down, pulling out a digiboard, before scrolling through it, looking intently as he hummed lightly to himself.
“You will have to know techniques in each scenario, as your skills test will randomly pick one ecosystem. We will go over how to make fire, how to purify water, tracking, identifying berries and plants that are edible, and how to make a shelter, should you need it. Now, we better get to it. If you’d all follow me, that would be great,” Petram said.
He picked up his bag and we followed him, walking into the forest setting, where there was a large area with fallen logs lying about for us to sit on around an instruction area in the center. Petram picked up some tinder and sticks on the side of the circle, putting the tinder into the middle of a group of rocks that acted as a barrier.
Petram reached inside his bag, pulling out a small metal cube, which he held up for all of us to see.
“This is a fire starter. All you do is press the button on top and sparks come out the bottom. You aim the bottom over some tinder, click a few times, and voila, you have fire. I know that this isn’t always an option, though. You might not have a pack, as all of you won’t at first, and you’ll need to make a fire by hand if you do choose to make one at all. I’ll show you how to do that now, so pay attention. I’ll only be showing this method once,” Petram said.
I scooted in, making sure I had a good view, since some of the other competitors were both very tall and also wanted to get a good look, making the front row real estate around Petram fairly sparse.
“This is a piece of wood that I had cut down into a board. You’re going to make a little notch here, and then use this spindle to quickly and effectively make a little coal, which you’ll then carefully place into your pile of tinder. Here’s the technique,” Petram said.
Petram took the skinny spindle, placing the butt end on the notch in the board, before placing his palms around it at the top while keeping them flat. With what seemed like one motion, he spun his hands down, getting near the bottom, before quickly bringing them back up, his biceps flexing and tensing as he went. Within a couple minutes the notch in the board was smoking a little bit. Petram took the spindle off and brought the coal over to the small pile of tinder he had waiting next to it. He slowly dropped the tinder in, holding the tinder pile in his hand, before he cocked his head and started to gently blow into it.
Each breath of air made the coal inside a little more red and orange, lighting up like it was on life support, before some smoke started to appear. Petram didn’t stop, instead kept going at the same pace, giving the coal the spark of life it needed to turn into a hot, bustling flame.
Within the blink of an eye it happened, the coal taking, lighting up the tinder in his hand. Petram put it in the rock circle, gently topping it with small, dry sticks.
“Now, we want to nurse the fire at this point. You want to feed it, though you don’t want to overwhelm it. You need to keep the fire safe and strong, and there you go. That’s a method for fire, though I hope all of you will have fire starters. It is much easier and there is a smaller chance of error with them. This method will work in all three of the ecosystems, so don’t worry which one you’re in and whether or not it will work. It might be harder in some of them, but it’s possible,” Petram said.
Petram kept the fire going before reaching into his bag and pulling out two items. One item, the canteen, I instantly recognized, but I wasn’t sure what the other was. It was small, a little bottle, but I knew it wasn’t quite big enough to store water in, unless you wanted just over a thimble’s worth.
“Those of you lucky enough to have canteens will need to know how to use them for water. I know I’ve talked a little about them, but do you know how to purify water?” Petram asked, looking around at all of us.
We all looked blank, nobody speaking up, not even the usual suspects who always wanted to raise their hands and look like they knew something.
“Right. This is standard in the packs, and it’s for water purification. They’re purification droplets, a chemical substance that’s more than safe for humans and will destroy any bacteria or pathogens that could be in the rivers or creeks you grab water from,” Petram said.
“But isn’t this all digital? How could bacteria and pathogens be in there?” a guy from Denver asked.
“You may be in the digital realm, but trust me, it’s more than real. For each canteen of water, you want to slowly and accurately drip two drops of the solution into it. No more, and definitely no less. I know some of you may be wondering what happens if you don’t have these drops, though. Maybe you found a canteen or lost the drops, who knows. You’ll then need your fire, which will be used to boil the water, doing essentially the same job as the droplets, but taking much longer. Bring your water to a boil, let it sit for a few minutes, and then take it off and let it cool down before drinking,” Petram said.
The more Petram talked, the more I knew Liam and I needed one of these bags. They seemed like the lifeline inside the grid, the one item that would help us in any situation or ecosystem. Sure, we could get good cards like the feast one I had in the strategy phase, but that was only so much. We needed things like fire and water, and I wasn’t sure there were any cards that could provide those for us. The only other option was a bag.
Petram showed us different plants and berries in each ecosystem, including ones that were dangerous to us. Each ecosystem was so different; the jungle and the forest were similar, but their flora and fauna were almost night and day. The berries were hard to decipher. Liam did a better job than I of keeping them straight, as there were a few that were reddish in hue, though their different strengths of red meant different things. If we ever had to pick berries, we were going to have to remember which shades were safe and which ones would kill us. I knew we would be in the digital realm, but all of our sen
ses were intact, and I didn’t think being poisoned would feel all too good.
We had shelter training next, which Liam and I were surprisingly good at. I used to make forts inside the house with Saraia all the time when she was really young, both of us playing in them and imagining we were somewhere else, so it wasn’t all too new to me. While using sticks, fallen branches, and leaves were brand new concepts, much different than pillows, chairs, and blankets, the general idea was still the same.
Petram showed us a basic A-frame, which consisted of two larger branches propped up against another, a longer branch going down the center, which was then connected by another A shape from two more large branches. You then covered it with branches, sticks, leaves, and really anything you could find to close up holes and make it watertight and secure. It wasn’t pretty by any means, but it would certainly get the job done of keeping you out of the elements, which would readily come in handy in the rainforest ecosystem.
Some of the other competitors asked about more advanced techniques, though I didn’t think those were really that necessary, considering we weren’t going to set up camp and live there. Not only that, but who wanted to put all of this effort into something when you could be using that time and energy to search for the talismans?
“With each pack comes a medical kit, which is something all of you will need to hold onto if you should be lucky enough to get one. Inside you’ll find all of your standard fare, like bandages and pain medication, as well as some items that are a little more advanced. Some of those items are like these, cauterization liquid and medical devices like splints and slings. Can anyone tell me what you’d do if you or your partner had a deep gash that was bleeding?” Petram asked.
I looked around the area, nobody answering, as Petram watched each and every one of us. I knew the answer, or at least I thought I did, but didn’t say anything just yet for fear of looking like a fool. I swore we learned about cauterizing in school once, and I definitely knew you’d wrap it with gauze so nothing got in it.