Evolution (Book 1 of POE chronicles)

Chapter 20 Let the game begins

Personally, I had absolutely no idea how can people navigate with a compass, let alone how people navigate through a forest without a compass. But Diego was doing it well, or he had confidence in where he was going, because we were just marching straight through the forest without a break. I didn’t even remember which general direction either sections were when the stimulation went life.

We ran through the forest, occasionally jumping over a fallen log and crossing a few streams. I had to concentrate on running methodically otherwise the beautiful scenery around me would distract me. This is part of the game too; I reminded myself, don’t be fooled by it.

I glanced down at my wrist, wanting to check the time but found that the bracelet had replaced my watch. We were not allowed any technological device in the game to keep it fair. Actually, we weren’t allowed any outside devices period. However I noticed that the screen now has some numbers displaced on it.

06:37:45

That must be the time left in the game, which meant that we had been on the move for the last 22 minutes 15 seconds. Funny, it felt both longer and shorter than that.

I had lost count of how many creeks, streams and fallen logs we had passed. I could only wonder how stupid we look if all the stimulation was taken away. Eight people running on treadmill plates. We kept as quite as possible, not knowing whether we will encounter any sentries or other teams.

Finally we stopped at a little valley, everyone was slightly out of breath and Diego motioned for Nate to set up a force field to block out our sound. Casey had also closed her eyes to work on an illusion around us, making us seems invisible, but it’s merely a mind trick on ones optic nerves. They had been working on that for the past week in those ‘little exercise’ we did.

‘So are you going to tell us what we are going to do now?’ Casey asked, Diego smiled secretively and nodded.

‘I am sorry that we have to keep you guys in the dark, but the less people know about the surprise attack, the better.’ Diego said, speaking in hushed voices, making us all leaned closer towards him.

‘First, we need the element of surprise, so Casey and Nate, you need to try and cover our track as much as possible. The force field needs to extend underground because the Earth Elementalist can feel it miles away. Then the plan is to enter the base through the second storey window. We are relaying on Gail and me to get us up. And here’s the tricky part,’ Diego said, his eyes sweeping across the face of whose name he mentioned. I was trying hard to memorize all the things that he was saying. I did not want to make a fool out of myself at my first game. I have the scary new girl reputation to maintain.

‘Holly, you need to disqualify the guards on the second floor as quick as you can.’ Diego said, and Holly nodded. ‘It really depends on luck whether there will be a lot of guards when we break in. So Owen, it is up to you to tell us the whereabouts of them.’

Owen’s power is incredible. He could sense things with his mind, literally everything. He could even tell if it’s living or not. He was also physically fit (well, most of us are being raised in Citybases), hence quite an asset to the group when fighting, since he could feel his surrounding even with his eyes closed.