I THREW THE BOX OFF and ran toward the doors. I almost pounded on them. But just before my fist hit metal, I paused. What if I slid through one of the windows instead? I could sneak out that way and nobody would know that I had been there in the first place.

  I went back to the inner door and turned the knob, sighing with relief when it opened. I felt a little guilty as I stepped inside the cabin. But then again, Andrew did invite us to stop by anytime.

  I sprinted to one of the windows and peeked out. A couple of students walked past on the nearby road, but I didn’t see Andrew or the twins. They must’ve already walked down the trail, into the woods. I was in the clear.

  I reached up, preparing to open the window, and a rock formed in my stomach. The window was solid; it wasn’t meant to open. I checked the other one. It didn’t open either. I glanced around the cabin and goose bumps formed on my skin. There was no way out.

  I needed another plan. I was pretty sure that Andrew didn’t lock the outer doors. Theoretically, anyone could open them from the outside. I just needed to get someone’s attention.

  I reached up and knocked on the window, trying to get someone to notice me. Unfortunately, the windows were built with two pieces of clear plastic. The panes were layered several centimeters apart from each other, so I’m sure they were very well insulated against hot or cold temperatures. Of course, this also made them insulated against sound, too. As much as I knocked on the inner plastic pane, no passersby seemed to notice. I finally gave up after the tenth person passed without hearing me.

  “Okay,” I said out loud. “Time for Plan C.” I would just have to call Noah and have him come and free me. I reached for my phone and moaned with disappointment. Why, you ask? My phone was back at the clearing, attached to a tripod. Okay, I really needed a Plan D.

  I sighed and plopped down on the couch. There was nothing to do but wait for Andrew to return and deal with the consequences.

  I looked at the big-screen television and considered watching a movie or playing a video game. But I didn’t think I could relax enough to do either, even if it was just to pass the time.

  I sat in silence for a few minutes until I heard faint voices. Were Andrew and the twins headed back already? I turned toward the door but no one entered. Then I heard the voices again, still just as faint.

  I glanced down and noticed a VR headset on the couch beside me. Of course it was one of those expensive high-end jobs, with a built-in microphone and headphones. With sound still coming from the headphones, it looked as if someone was in the middle of a game and left the device on.

  I picked up the visor and put it on. What kind of VR game were Andrew and his goons playing?

  I inhaled sharply when I saw the outside of the Swift Academy there in the viewscreen. How did Andrew Foger get access to Noah’s game? The only people who knew about it were academy students. Then again, the virtual school wasn’t exactly a big secret. If Andrew had someone vandalizing Swift Academy inventions, why wouldn’t he or she share the login information for Noah’s game?

  I adjusted the headset’s speakers and microphone. Then I picked up the left- and righthand controllers. If I was going to be stuck there in the cabin, I might as well pass the time checking out some of the new mods in Noah’s program.

  As I stood there on the front steps of the virtual school, two more avatars appeared out of thin air.

  “He’s supposed to meet us in the gym,” one said to the other before they both ran up the stairs and through the main entrance.

  That’s why I heard voices before I put on the headset! While Noah made it so only the four of us spawned in the basement, everyone else began the program outside the school.

  I moved my avatar up the steps and through the main door. Inside, everything looked fairly normal. Well, normal for a video-game version of our school.

  “Dum-dum-dum!” came a voice from the administration office. I moved into the offices and down the back hall. I turned into the principal’s office and burst into laughter. Mr. Davenport stood on top of his desk wearing nothing but tighty-whities and a flowing red cape. Some Swift Academy student had actually dressed our principal as Captain Underpants.

  I backed out of the office and hoped that I wouldn’t crack up the next time I ran into Mr. Davenport in real life.

  I moved my avatar into the main hallway and toward the gym. I saw a few other avatars come and go, and the sounds of cheers grew as I moved farther down the hall. When I got to the gym entrance and peeked inside, I was amazed at what I saw. Our school gymnasium was now the size of a large coliseum. The stands were full, and the audience roared with delight as several monster trucks raced, jumped, and crushed one another in the dirt field below.

  Now, there weren’t enough Swift Academy students to fill a quarter of that coliseum so I guessed that the audience members weren’t avatars of real people. But I would bet that the monster truck drivers were all students. Anyone can go see a monster truck show, but how else would a kid get to drive one?

  I considered making my way down and hopping into one of the monster trucks. But then a thought occurred to me. What if I told one of the avatars that I was trapped in the cabin? It would almost be as good as flagging someone down from the window.

  Except most of the avatars in the virtual school probably didn’t represent students actually at the summer camp. Sure, I had seen a few people at camp with VR headsets, but that was a small percentage of the amount of avatars I had already seen in the game. And I hadn’t even made it off the first floor yet. Plus, with all the Swift students at camp repairing their vandalized projects, I doubted any of them had time to stroll the virtual halls like I was.

  I supposed I could tell one of the students to text Noah and tell him to let me out of the cabin. And even if Noah was somewhere in the camp with decent cell service, that still left another problem: I didn’t know who the vandal was. It could be any avatar I ran into.

  That only left one option. All I had to do was get to the basement and leave a message for Noah, Sam, or Amy. Sure, Sam and Amy didn’t know about the cabin, but Noah did.

  I backed out of the gym and headed for the stairs. Unfortunately, with the gym now a huge monster-truck-battle dome, I got turned around and headed to the east stairwell by mistake. Just like in the real school, only the west stairwell went down to the basement.

  I spun around and went back the way I had come. As I neared the gym, a huge monster truck tire flew through the open doorway.

  CRASH!

  The tire smashed into the wall just a few feet in front of me. The entire hallway was now blocked by a giant tire and twisted school lockers. I couldn’t get to the basement from there.

  Noah had mentioned that the game would reset at some point, but I didn’t know how long that would take. Instead of waiting, I turned around and headed back for the east stairwell. I would simply go up to the second floor, cut across, and get to the west stairwell on that side.

  I hit the stairs and ran up to the next level. When I reached the second floor, I saw that someone had spray-painted a red Z over the number 2 in FLOOR 2. I didn’t know what that meant, but I spotted the virtual spray paint can on the floor. I made my avatar pick up the can and activate the button. Red paint squirted from the nozzle. Perfect. Now I could leave a message for my friends.

  As I walked out onto the second floor, the creep factor dialed up to eleven. The entire floor was deserted and looked like it had been decorated for the apocalypse. Shredded books and splintered desks littered the area. Fluorescent lights flickered and a smoky haze filled the air. My avatar was the only one there.

  Whoever made this mod to the program did an excellent job. I actually felt my heart beat faster just by being immersed in such an eerie environment.

  I slowly inched forward. I thought about zipping down the dark corridor as fast as I could, but something gave me pause. Maybe it was the creepy scenery, or the instincts I had picked up from every horror movie I’d ever seen. But it was a good thing I didn’t run blindly down the corridor.

  Shambling figures began to exit every doorway on the floor. Just one or two shuffled from the classrooms closest to me. But steady streams poured out of the doorways at the far end of the corridor, and the entire second floor slowly filled with zombies.

  These zombies looked very realistic—too realistic. My heart beat faster as I began to back out, returning the way I had come, but at that point I had already passed a couple of classrooms. Four zombies were behind me, blocking my escape.

  Even though it was against my instincts, I thought about letting one of the zombies kill me. That way, I would respawn back in front of the school and I could just skip this floor altogether. But I didn’t know how many lives my character had or if this game even worked that way. With everyone going in and making changes to the program, there was no telling what would happen if my avatar was killed.

  “Look out,” a voice said as a large figure pushed me aside.

  A woman in glinting silver armor drew a long broadsword and attacked the nearest zombie. It disappeared when her blade slashed through it. She made quick work of the other three before guiding me back to the stairwell.

  “Who runs the zombie gauntlet with just a can of spray paint?” the woman asked. At least, she sounded like a woman. There were the electronic hints of a voice modulator at work there.

  I held up the can, forgetting I was holding it. “First time here?” I replied.

  The stairwell was better lit and I could make out more of my rescuer. She was a good foot and a half taller than me, had curly black hair, and wore a gleaming helmet that matched her suit of armor. The helmet had white wings on either side. She was a formidable figure from Norse mythology—a Valkyrie.

  “I’m trying to get to the…” I almost said “basement.” Only the four of us knew the code to get into the basement. Noah would kill me if he found out I let other people know about our secret room. They’d be bugging him for days trying to get the code out of him. “I’m trying to get to the first floor,” I told her.

  The Valkyrie pointed down the stairs.

  “On the other side,” I specified. “The monster truck tire blocked it off.”

  “Ah,” said the woman. “Happens all the time.” She turned and moved up the stairs. “We’ll have to cross the third floor. I hope no one’s triggered the dinosaurs yet.”

  “Dinosaurs?” I asked as I followed her up the stairs. “As in, plural? I thought there was just the one T. rex.”

  The Valkyrie stopped and turned to me. “And I thought this was your first time here.”

  “I heard about it,” I said.

  I waited for her to continue up the stairs, but she didn’t. Instead, her avatar just stared at me.

  “Who are you, by the way?” I asked.

  “Anonymous,” she replied, before continuing up the stairs.

  “What a coincidence,” I said as I followed. “Me too.”

  I was thinking about asking the Valkyrie avatar for help with my little entrapment problem. But when she acted so suspiciously, I thought it best to stick with my original plan. After all, if this were the vandal, or a friend of the vandal, then I would be playing right into his or her hands.

  We entered the third-floor landing and ran down the long corridor. “Looks like we got lucky,” the Valkyrie said.

  Everything was quiet until we passed the biology classroom. Two other avatars ran out of the room just before the giant T. rex crashed through the wall.

  “Not so lucky,” I said as we ran toward the other stairwell.

  As we neared our goal, the Valkyrie drew her sword. “Keep running,” she ordered. “I’ll hold them off. I’ve fought them before.”

  I didn’t have to be told twice. I kept my avatar moving as two classroom doors burst open behind me. I glanced back to see a Velociraptor leap out of each doorway. The Valkyrie batted one away with her sword but the other one leaped onto her back. It clawed at her armor while the other dinosaur recovered and moved in. All the while, the T. rex thundered down the hallway behind them.

  I didn’t feel great about it, but I ran down the stairwell as fast my avatar could move. The Valkyrie had a sword and a suit of armor. All I had was a lousy can of spray paint. There was nothing I could do to help and I knew it.

  I made it down all three flights of stairs and into the basement level. It really looked just like the real one. Just beyond the stairs, a security door blocked access to the basement floor. I ran up to the door and raised a hand toward the keypad. I carefully had my avatar enter eight, three, eight, four—just like the real access code in our school. The door opened and I stepped inside.

  This part of the school looked just as it was when Noah first showed us the game. Even though he turned it over to the other students to change, they couldn’t get to this part of the virtual school, both in the game and in the code. Only the four of us had access.

  I raised the virtual spray can and began to leave my message on the wall. It took a while and I had to write in giant letters so the spray-paint lines would be legible, but I got it done. When I was finished, my message covered a huge portion of the basement wall.

  Trapped in Andrew Foger’s cabin.

  Please help. ~Tom

  Now there was just one more thing to do. I had to take this avatar and leave it somewhere outside the basement. I stepped out of the basement door and found myself face-to-face with the Valkyrie.

  “How did you get in there?” asked the Valkyrie.

  “Uh—” I stammered. I didn’t know what to say. It turns out I didn’t have to say anything.

  Suddenly, the VR visor was pulled off my head! And just like that, I was ripped out of the virtual world. I left the basement and the Valkyrie behind to find myself back in the real world. Back in Andrew’s cabin. Except I wasn’t alone anymore.

  “How did you get in here?!” Andrew Foger asked.

  12 The Delusion Conclusion

  I DON’T KNOW IF IT was being ripped out of the virtual world or the fact that I was startled by the arrival of Andrew and the twins. Maybe it was a little of both. Either way, a chill rippled through my body and I was in full-on fight-or-flight mode. My eyes darted toward the door.

  Mark and Mike must’ve caught my look. They split up and moved around the couch, flanking me.

  I shrugged. “You said to drop by anytime,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.

  Andrew stabbed at my chest with the VR visor. “This is trespassing, Swift. Breaking and entering. You’re gonna get into so much trouble for this.”

  I flicked his hand away. “What about vandalizing inventions?” I asked. “Think you might get into a little trouble for that?”

  Andrew exchanged a quick glance with the twins. “What is that supposed to mean?” he asked.

  I nodded. “I heard you talking all about it.”

  “Oh yeah? Prove it.” Andrew grinned and crossed his arms. “I haven’t touched anyone’s anything.”

  “No, you got someone from our school to do it,” I said. “Who was it? Who did you talk into doing your dirty work for you?”

  “That’s for me to know…,” Andrew began.

  “And for you to find out,” I finished for him. “Yeah, yeah, I remember. Well, wait until everyone finds out what you did.” I tried to step around the couch to leave, but one of the twins shoved me back.

  “Hey, it’s your word against mine,” Andrew said.

  My eyes narrowed. “I can be very convincing.”

  Andrew threw up his hands. “Okay. You got me. I wanted Bradley to get the grant this year. And since your dad is too good to work for my dad, I wanted every invention in your stupid school to fail.” He turned and jutted a thumb at the door. “I’ll even go to the teachers right now and confess everything.”

  “Oh really?” I asked skeptically. I narrowed my eyes. “That seems quite reasonable of you.” Too reasonable.

  “Oh, sure,” he replied. “And I’ll tell them how your friend Samantha was the one who helped me. Simple as that.”

  “That’s not true,” I said.

  “Yeah, but they don’t know that,” Andrew said. “Everyone already thinks she’s guilty, right?”

  There was that stupid rumor again.

  “So, you can keep your mouth shut,” Andrew said. “Or I can take your friend down with me. What’ll it be?”

  I felt another rock in the pit of my stomach. Not only did I start the stupid rumor, but now this guy was going to implicate her if I said something.

  The only thing that made me feel better was imagining what Sam would do in a situation like this. Sure, she didn’t like being wrongfully accused of something. Who would? But I know my friend; I know there is no way she would let a bully like Andrew win, no matter what the risk. She would definitely call his bluff.

  “I say we help him make up his mind,” said Mark or Mike. They both took a step forward, closing in on me.

  “What’s it going to be, Swift?” Andrew asked. “All or nothing.”

  I shrugged. “Nothing, I guess.”

  I snatched the VR visor from his hands and tossed it into the air. When Andrew leaned forward to catch it, I climbed over the couch and jumped off the back. I darted through the door and out of the cabin before the three of them could touch me.

  I chanced a glance back as I ran down the main road. The three of them rushed out of the cabin and sprinted after me. I turned and ran as fast as I could.

  The rest of the road was deserted. Everyone must have been either busy with their own experiments or on their way to lunch.

  I thought about running all the way to the chow hall, but that was a long distance to keep up such a fast pace. I decided to try to lose them down one of the hiking trails. I turned right into the first trailhead I spotted, and darted down the twisting trail.

  If I had the map with me, had time to memorize it, or if I knew the camp better, I’m sure I could’ve quickly taken trails all the way back to the clearing where we had launched our rockets. And I’m sure Noah would be furious when I saw him—he had to pick up all the rocket components by himself. But I had no doubt he’d cut me a break when he found out what I knew and saw who was chasing me.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9