
He starts shooting toward the direction of Siff’s snipers, drawing their fire to himself and rushes messily toward them with his wounded leg. With all fire being drawn Bear’s direction, Siff continues her ascent and escapes the kill-box. She looks back to see Bellerophon being lit up from multiple directions as his bodysuit shuts him down. Siff grins knowing he’ll get on her case about this later, but right now there’s nothing stopping her from reaching the hilltop first.
With the win in sight Siff picks up the pace, scrambling over rocks and through foliage to get to the goal. A few seconds away from victory her headset suddenly flashes a thick yellow dotted line overlaying the VR jungle, leading away from the hilltop. She shakes her head and the line glitches before re-establishing itself in her VR. She stops and gives the side of her head a smack, but the malfunction is still there. Her eyes follow the yellow path to the left through the jungle and she is intrigued. She tries to crane her neck to see through the foliage to where the path leads, then stands to get a better look. She is immediately shot in the back and falls to the floor.
It is only a few minutes before the game is over, Siff and Bear sit up and remove their headsets.
“Really? You made me go through that just so you could stand up in the middle of the endgame? Really?”
“It’s not my fault! The headset was malfunctioning! We would have won easily if my vision hadn’t been messed with.”
“Yeah, sure.” Bellerophon gets to his feet, “It’s always me that has to take the damage. Next time it’s your turn.” He knows that isn’t going to happen.
“But you looked so glorious! It was a heroic death!” Siff laughs and pushes him as they head to the change rooms.
“Let’s play something where I don’t have to get shot for you.”
“Shot for the team!”
“For the teeeeeaaaaaam…”
3
Out in the park their game is much more calm. Siff and Bear compete as investigators in a fantastical murder-mystery. This time only wearing headsets, the game’s reality is superimposed on the real world. They scour the park looking for clues and discussing the case with different creatures until Siff’s headset flashes again, showing the same yellow dotted line as before. She sees Bear talking with a mini-dragon in a different section of the park and decides to sacrifice her very obvious lead in the game to investigate where this line goes. She follows it across two bridges and streams, past multiple families and other gamers until it starts to lead out of the game arena. Siff furrows her brow with suspicion, but continues on her quest.
After several minutes of curious following, Siff is led to a garbage disposal site, with the yellow line ending behind a box of rotten fruit leaned up against the wall, “What the hell! Stupid VR!” she pulls the headset off and begins angrily walking back to the arena. It isn’t long before she runs into Bellerophon, “What are you doing, Siff? The game’s way over there.”
“My stupid headset’s broken again! Today sucks.”
“Aw, c’mon. Let’s go eat and relax for a bit.” Siff huffs in agreement and they head back to hand in their headsets, then make their way to Mencho’s restaurant.
As they sit snacking on dinner, Bellerophon tries to change the subject from the games, “So. Noven, huh? You must really like him.”
“Huh? Yeah, I suppose.”
“You suppose? In all the years we’ve been friends, and even when I was in school with you, you never let me even look inside your locker. He must be pretty special.”
“I guess. We’ve been dating a while now and I figured I should start trusting him more.”
“As opposed to your best friend who you still don’t trust?”
“Come on Bear, that’s not fair. I’m allowed to have my privacy.”
“Sure, I guess I’m just a little jealous. There’s a part of you that has always felt off limits. Like…you hide it away.”
“Can we change the subject, please? How’s pilot school going?”
“Oh my god it’s so awesome! Okay, so, just today we got to…” Siff knows Bear can talk about flying all-day every-day, and she’s heard most of it before. She knows it’s the perfect subject to start when she doesn’t want to talk about something. She is still nervous about trusting Noven to go into her locker, but fortunately she is away from school tomorrow on a field trip to the Needle.
“…and as we were flying around the ship…”
“Hey Bear.”
“…Yeah?”
“Did you go on the field trip to the Needle when you were in school?”
“Of course! It was awesome! You get to see The Chosen Ones from a birds-eye view and all the control systems that keep their environment running. I didn’t understand any of it, but I had a great time! I’m surprised your dad hasn’t taken you there yet, I bet he’s in there a lot.”
“Well, you know him, all protocols and logistics. My dad is by the book with everything.”
“Guess that’s why he got all the way to the top. You know in pilot school we study textbooks your dad wrote?”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. He’s great, but always busy. I wish he was around more.”
“I can see that, but he really loves you Siff.”
“I know. And his responsibilities take up a lot of his time. At least he chose to raise me.”
“Yeah that’s rough about your mother. And she just got elected Prime Minister last month. How are you handling that?”
“It feels the same as always: she’s dictating my life from afar. Except now she’s dictating everyone’s lives from afar.”
“Hah! I guess so.”
“How are you doing, Bear?”
“Oh you know me, chasing the dream and getting everything I want. I’m the luckiest guy I know!”
“Ha! Isn’t that the truth! I’ve never known you have a
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