Chapter Nine

Every morning around five o'clock, the house always felt brand new. A crisp chill had settled, with amber streaks cutting through kitchen windows.

Dressed in a hoodie and jeans, Mego felt pumped up with a new sense of purpose, a feeling that this was going to be a good day.

Pouring out some cereal, she kept an eye on the coffee machine, which fed a hot stream of Americano into a square blue mug.

While waiting, her thoughts turned to Shin; how he stuck around, unlike her so-called work buddies, who had suddenly felt the need to go radio silent.

Popping a blister pack of Microdycoatamins (Brazilian Nitrate), she scooped the tablets into her mouth. It wouldn't keep the monsters out of her head, just long enough to keep the babbling at bay.

***

Descending the steps, Mego found the bunker shrouded in velvety darkness, with a single spotlight illuminating the workbench. After bagging four rats with an air rifle, she put the sack aside.

Against her better judgment, Mego sniffed at an ancient coffee pot and backed away, coughing slightly.

Bad idea.

Making a mental note to order more coffee (and a machine), Mego followed a group of cables snaking from the base of a ball turret toward a large cylinder topped with three red bulbs.

Mego wondered if being a gamer was worth it.

A part of her baulked at the idea of wasting days or even months for the promise of an imaginary reward, but remembered there was nothing else to do all Summer.

Staying in her room had lost its appeal. Nor was she keen on finding herself under her mother's feet for the rest of the day.

Mego took a deep breath and climbed into the Ball turret.

Buckled in, she traced a finger over the surface of the CorDex 'Money Deck' and watched blue squares rotate in sequence.

The clock in the basement read 6:18 a.m. Go time.

***

9.00 am. – Mego becomes adept at the tutorial mode, to the point where it is almost second nature. She develops better spatial awareness and soon threads through the green rings much faster. Dies three times. Ten-minute rest.

11.23 am – Exits tutorial mode. Fights easy boss. Levels up to yellow. Enemy planes swarmed her rear until hunger pangs kicked in, causing her to lose concentration. She spends more time thinking about peanut butter sandwiches. Leaves to get a sandwich. Watches the last half hour of E.T. Ami points out that the full title of E.T. is: Extra Terrestrial The Extra Terrestrial, but Mego’s mind was on the stealth mission she keeps failing.

2.00 pm. – The stealth mission is finally accomplished. Enemy jets were sneaky, but Mego’s became less of an open target, the better she got at barrel-rolling out of certain death. Shin returns with a new coffee machine and a bag of Americano. Mego is overjoyed. They grab a coffee, make out and chat for an hour. Shin finds a door behind a stack of tyres, thinking it might be a toilet. The two of them discuss whether it is worth using. Ami is not on board with the idea.

4.45 pm – Mego is fully adept at slipping under bridges. Her skill level soars as she blazes into firefights with multiple enemy targets. Overconfidence gets the better of her, which leads to quick deaths. Supper time is a Spinach Quiche. She complains bitterly about how cheap the enemy is. Ami pretends to care.

7.00 pm – Another stealth mission. This one requires a low altitude to avoid detection. Frustration spills into recklessness. Level fail. She exits the ball turret and wonders if it is worth getting coffee. Has coffee. Decides to finish the level.

9.30 pm – Shin is back. After flicking through the manual, Mego discovers the option to take phone calls during the game. Shin tests it out. It worked! Mego can talk to Shin without leaving the turret. She calls herself "FoxLight". Shin is denied the name "Lantern" and is called "Knob Waffle." She starts the S-Rank levels, where everything is a nightmare, amusing Shin to no end.

11.45 pm - Shin goes home, just in time for Mego to experience rage-quit mode. She receives a phone call from Ami. They have hot chocolate. Mego is considering giving up the Fortress level because it is too harsh. Ami reminds her she didn't raise a quitter, saying: "Young lady, you get back in there and waste your life until it is finished." Before quickly adding: "The game that is, not your life."

2.00 am - Mego was getting tired. Almost at breaking point, she remembers her mother's words: "No one won a prize for hugging the mat." Determined, she fires up the turret once again. The Sensurama is running hot. The air tastes old and metallic. Mego’s head feels like it is full of water. She doubts everything. Why am I here? I don’t have to do this. I’ve got all summer to play. I feel strange, like…I can’t leave it undone. I want to win for myself, because everyone’s depending on me. Wait, no it's a game. She rolls her shoulders; muscle memory in lockstep with the targeting reticule.

2.20 am - The last three elite planes are a pain to take down. No escape. She dies multiple times. In the corner, she sees it. The waterfall has a sinkhole! Three planes swarm her; she rolls out of the missile fire. Yanking the flight stick, she points the jet skywards, then dives-bombs toward the waterfall. The other jets scream past, but miss. Before they can catch up, she is already underground. The cockpit shakes as the G's pile on Mego's frame, alarms howl in her ears, and she grits her teeth. The walls are too close.

2.35 am – The secret tunnel opens out into the centre of the fortress. Careful not to shred the wings, Mego comes out to the underground hangar, which returns flak fire in her direction. She is all over it like Christmas morning: strafing enemy guns, shredding towers and unleashing missiles which explode from all sides. Darting away from the rolling inferno, Mego escapes as the fortress collapses. Outside, the Elite planes are the first to greet her. She quickly rakes one with gunfire. Splash one. The second one flies up in sympathy, only to be taken out with a broadside attack. Two down. The last one flies like an eagle, and it's on point.

2.45 am - The missile detection alarm screams, a loose sidewinder catches Mego's plane and goes into a graveyard spiral. She grabs the flight stick with both hands, fighting to level out. The other jet closes in for a finishing move, but in a 'dying grenade' moment, Mego rotates one hundred and eighty degrees before firing all her missiles at once. The enemy becomes swallowed up in a storm of hellfire. Nothing is left. The screen goes black. Job done. No fanfare, no cut-scene. It just ends. The V.R. dribbles back to reality.

Mego looked around, confused. "That’s it?”

Too tired to swear, everything about her was on fumes. She tried to stretch, but her bones had become jellified, causing her to wobble and steady herself. Is this what it means to be a serious gamer? The dopamine hit of success, followed by the emptiness of reality?

On her way out, she saw all three red bulbs lit up, with a small receipt protruding from the slot. Mego studied what appeared to be a lottery ticket.

A receipt?

It took all of her remaining effort not to screw the paper up in disgust and flush it down the toilet.

Closing her fist, she trudged off to bed.