"Yeah!" Brian yelled. He had been playing the game for about a half-hour, and his score had just reached 5000. Just need another 1200 points or so to beat the high score, he thought. It hadn't taken him long to get back into his old groove. He had only lost one life so far, which meant he had two to spare, and he was feeling pretty good.
Then, at 5520 points, he inexplicably drove his base into an invader blast and lost another life. If he lost one more, it was game over. He whipped his hand up to wipe sweat from his face and took a deep breath.
All right, calm down. Just need another 600 points.
You can probably do it, Brian. You have only a 35% chance of failure.
Brian frowned. Uh, thanks. He thought TV could use some training in what not to say when attempting to provide encouragement.
Brian tried to clear his mind of distractions, and just focus on the game. He successfully destroyed 5 more aliens, netting 90 points.
Well done. You only need 401 additional points to win.
You get points in multiples of 10, TV, aren't you paying attention?
Well done. You only need 410 additional points to win.
Thanks. Now shut up and let me focus, Brian thought, shaking his head.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. 110 points.
Brian heard a high-pitched siren sound, the telltale sign that a Mystery Ship was about to fly across the top of the screen. He had been waiting for this. Successfully destroying one of these on his next shot would award 300 points.
As the Mystery ship appeared on screen, moving from right to left, Brian dragged the joystick to the left, preparing to time his shot just right to strike the ship when it reached the left side of the screen. Calculating in his head when he would need to fire, he noticed an enemy blast coming toward his base. This was going to be close. He would need to fire his shot and immediately dodge out of the way.
The Mystery ship reached the position Brian had been waiting for. He fired, then swung the joystick to the right an instant later, narrowly avoiding the invader's laser blast. "Yes!"
He watched in slow motion as his shot traveled up toward the Mystery ship at the top of the screen. Then he heard a sickening sound. Brian stared at the screen in disbelief. In his distraction, he had maneuvered his base right into enemy fire.
* * *
Jessica looked at Carol, uncertain of what to say.
"We lost our uplink again!" Frank yelled, staring at his laptop with his mouth hiked open.
"Are you sure?" Carol said.
Frank flipped the laptop around, as before. This time, the screen showed a view of the satellite truck driving away, followed by a Humvee. And then someone could be seen approaching the camera, stopping and peering into it.
"Who is that!" Carol snapped.
The camera zoomed in, and Jessica squinted to see him better. It was that guy from the woods! Dale's cousin. Dwayne, was it? What was he doing there?
He directed a big toothy grin at the camera and waved. And then he turned around, grabbed a hold of his pants and . . . Oh my! Jessica thought, looking away.
"We have ten minutes to launch!" the voice on the speaker said. "What's going on, there? Why haven't you transmitted the signal?"
Carol's shoulders sunk. She walked over to Frank's laptop and slammed it shut. Then she turned to Jessica.
Jessica had expected to see some form of anger on Carol's face, but she saw something else entirely. Jessica tried to read it. Surrender?
"Do you realize what this means?" Carol said in a soft voice.