cyberteens - fiction

Adventure in Vidbit

by Ricky Frank, 13, USA

It was 6:12 a.m., Pacific time, and all up and down the coastline of California, the horizon was beginning to yield forth beautiful shades of red and yellow in preparation for the rising sun. In a beach house on Malibu, where it was barely light enough to see the surf lapping up against the coast with its usual rhythmic melody, 12-year-old Kid Vid sat on a couch in front of his television, playing his new game, "Killer Androids from Mars." As we switched off the game deck and prepared for school, only the blue and black bags under his eyes and an occasional yawn revealed to a waking world that he had stayed up another night playing video games.

He hoisted his backpack over his left shoulder and set off on his way to school. As he scooted down the nearly deserted suburban streets on his new hover-scooter, his mind began to replay the events of the game he had just experienced. He could picture every detail as if he were playing right now, as if it were real. As far as his mind knew, however, it was real, for the system he played on, the Metro-Virtual X (MVX), was state-of-the-art and like no other. With the technology available on his MVX, he could travel into virtual reality without the assistance of one of the clunky helmets that was used in the 20th century. There were not even game pads; the game was controlled by the mind. In fact, one could get so easily wrapped up in this "artificial" reality, that there was an escape button built onto the console that housed the game CD. If things got nasty in the game--which they sometimes did--the player could pull himself free of the danger without frying a brain cell.

When he neared the school, Kid Vid's hover-scooter began to slow and came to a stop. He stepped off the scooter, ordered it to park itself, watched as it whisked away, and then turned and walked into the school building.

In the classroom, he took the seat next to his friend, Ice Tray. Tray looked up and smiled at Kid Vid, then returned to her school work.

"Not as good as you might think," he replied. "Sometimes I wish there were a game so hard that it took forever or was even impossible to beat. That way, I wouldn't beat them so fast that they were no fun."

Their conversation was cut short when the teacher wadded up a sheet of notebook paper and chucked it at Kid Vid.

"Pardon me," said the teacher, "but if you two are done, I would like to begin class."

The next eight long hours passed uneventfully for Kid Vid. He sat through biology, algebra, English, and the rest, listening to the tick of the clocks, while visions of an unbeatable game danced through his head. When the 3:00 bell rang, signifying the end of yet another school day, Kid Vid dived out of his seat and fled from the building onto the front steps where his hover-scooter was waiting. He jumped aboard, and with a mere utterance of a single word from his lips, Kid Vid and his scooter were racing down the street toward his beach house.

Later that night, Kid Vid was sitting in front of his television when a loud knock came upon his door. He rolled onto his back and looked at his watch, which read 12:00 sharp. "Who could be at my house at midnight?" he wondered. He turned his television to the channel that displayed what was seen by the video camera at the front door. For a brief instant, his eyes were stunned by a bright array of flashing colors. Then the colors were gone, and with the exception of a small package, the porch was deserted.

He walked to the front door and went out onto the porch to retrieve the package. As he lifted it to eye level, his eye caught a glimpse of a note pinned to the package. He returned to the warmth of his living room and began to read the note aloud.

"This package," he read, "contains the answers to all of your wildest dreams. Play at your own risk, but remember, once you begin a game, you cannot turn back until you have finished."

Kid Vid anxiously ripped off the note and tore at the package's wrappings. Soon, he managed to open the package, only to find that it had no contents to examine. "Just another one of Ice Tray's jokes," he said to himself. Disappointed, he turned around in just enough time to catch a quick glance at the vivid array of colors beginning to swallow him up . . .