A Buried Spark by P. J. Hoover

Author:P. J. Hoover [Hoover, P. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Book 3 in the Game of the Gods series
ISBN: 9781949717105
Publisher: Roots in Myth
Published: 2019-08-26T16:00:00+00:00

XXII

The world of floating squares zips by as I fall. My arms scramble to grab hold of something, but there is nothing safe. Nothing reachable. I am going to die. And so is Zachary, all because my stupid pride was too much to let him help.

My heads-up display flashes. Death Imminent. As if I needed some kind of reminder. I start to grasp the power, to build something to stop my fall. But then there’s Zachary also. We’re falling too fast.

Wait. The power isn’t all I have. My inventory also has another item.

I parse through the menu of the heads-up display and select Reset.

Confirm use of Item Reset, my heads-up display says.

“Confirm!” I shout at the same time I select it. Every second counts. I brace myself, ready to hit whatever is at the bottom of the zone.

Use of Item Reset confirmed, the heads-up display says.

Immediately my surroundings change. I’m standing on a cube at the beginning of the playing field. Zachary and Taylor are right next to me. I’m breathing hard, still thinking I’m about to die. So is Zachary for that matter. It takes a few seconds for my mind to figure out and accept that I am no longer falling.

“What happened?” Taylor says. “You guys fell off the side of the world. I thought you were dead.”

I was dead. Or nearly was. Would have been if I hadn’t used my item.

“Reset,” I manage to say as I catch my breath. “It’s what I picked as my item at the start of the simulation. I used it.”

I pull myself to my feet. We’re back exactly where we started, the grid of squares ahead.

“Are you kidding me?” Taylor says. “We have to do all that again?”

I nod, not caring. I’m happy to be alive.

“You want to take the lead this time?” I ask Zachary. It kind of pains me to do so, but I also don’t want to die. I’ve played lots of games, similar ones to this, but not this complex. And with not only my life but my friends’ lives on the line also, I can’t make another wrong move.

“You can,” Zachary says.

I shake my head. “You got this. I should have let you from the start.”

“You’re really smart, Edie,” he says. “You’re like the smartest girl I know.”

My face feels warm, but I try to brush off the compliment. “Not that smart,” I say. If I was, I wouldn’t have almost died.

“Yeah, that smart,” he says. “And I’m really glad you’re alive.”

“Enough, you guys. Let’s get this shit over with.” Taylor steps forward.

We all do. We retrace our steps back to where the first blocks move. But instead of telling us what to do, Zachary asks me. “What would you do?”

And we talk about each move, just like that. Sometimes we’re so far apart that I have to shout. Another time, Taylor almost gets sliced open by one of the spikes. She’s ready to kill us, I think. But within a couple hours, the destination squares are finally visible.

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