Multiplayer by John C. Brewer

Author:John C. Brewer [Brewer, John C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: racism, reality, virtual reality, Iran, Terrorism, young adult, videogame, Thriller, MMORPG, Iraq, Singularity, Science Fiction, MMOG
ISBN: 9781937979003
Amazon: 1937979008
Publisher: PlotForge, Limited
Published: 2012-01-04T22:00:00+00:00

Ch. 20

“Chaz is dead,” said Hector’s mother.

Hector sat in the kitchen, still half asleep, trying to decipher what his mother had just said. “You mean Rada’s dead,” he yawned sleepily, not sure how she knew. “Chaz’s barbarian. Couple of days ago, I guess.”

His mother shook her head. The look on her face made Hector’s heart stop. “No Hector. Not the game. Chaz Martin was killed last night. Struck by a car on his way home.”

The room was suddenly spinning. Hector had risen as always, come downstairs to the kitchen for breakfast, and his mother had told him to sit down. Then she became very serious and told him Chaz was dead. But she couldn’t have said that. He’d seen Chaz just the night before. Had parted up at the school. Was he still asleep? “What?” he managed to force out, trying to grab onto something of substance. The world seemed to be dissolving around him.

“Your friend, Chaz Martin,” she said again. “I’m sorry Hector.”

“I’ve got to go,” he mumbled, stumbling up, grasping at the air. “I’ve got go see Sabrah. She won’t… this… what… Sabrah…”

Hector clawed at the air, his eyes filling with tears, his hearing strangely muffled. Confusion. Pain. Emptiness. The world was spinning. Again. He was falling down a hole into blackness. He felt someone’s arms wrap around him as his soul filled with cold ashes and all turned to darkness.

That evening, his mother drove him over to Sabrah’s house. She collapsed into his arms and he held her tight, feeling her slender body heave with sobs. She’d been crying all day and her eyes were swollen and bleary and lifeless. The two of them spent the rest of the evening talking about Chaz. Mostly Hector listened. That’s what he remembered from when his father had died. The people who would sit and listen to him talk about his father, smile with him at the good memories, and weep with him at the loss. It made him feel less alone. And while his own sense of loss at Chaz’s death was surprisingly poignant, like having a great treasure swept out of grasp just as it was discovered, he knew Sabrah’s pain must be far deeper.

She wasn’t in school the next day, or the day after that. Hector went to her house and they talked some more about the details of Chaz’s death. He’d been hit by a car after walking her home. No witnesses. No one stopped. Random. Life was like that, Hector figured. Entirely random. Nine-eleven, random. Chaz, random. His dad getting killed. Random.

After a few days, they headed to the school. The rooftop wasn’t the same. Without their friend’s mirth, it became a cold, lonely place despite the heat radiating from the bricks after a day in the sun. Still, it felt like the right place to be.

“Irony,” said Sabrah, leaning against the brick wall. “At lunch last week, you said Chaz was dead. But you meant Rada. He dies in the game, then dies in real life.

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