Gamer (Gamer Trilogy) Read Online Free Page A

that Lily and I were both sporting several cuts, scrapes
and bruises of varying sizes. This is what Elitus truly made of
its students, I thought. Looking at my watch, I saw the
screen had cracked.
The trees themselves, I realised, were wondrous; I wouldn’t
have even been a fifth of their thickness, or a thirtieth of their
height. To say they were huge would’ve been an
understatement.
The gruelling strain started to take a toll on us and Lily and
I began to pant heavily. Perhaps this was the start and end of
Simulator. Maybe the test was to outlast fatigue and the
challenge lay in avoiding impalement. There would be a
winner, that’s for sure. But then it didn’t matter what the test
was, did it, so long as I was the one to survive.
Adrenaline was still coursing through my veins and now I
was standing to back to back with Lily, drenched in sweat
and straining my senses for the sound of huge amounts of dirt
being shifted. Nothing. The onslaught seemed to have
ceased for the time being and both Lily and I collapsed to the
ground, already exhausted.
The trees had blocked out any light from above and for the
second time, we were shrouded in complete darkness as well
as silence.
“Thanks,” I managed to say between breaths.
“No problem,” her voice sounded hoarse.
We sat for a moment and just waited.
Slowly a pulsating ball of light formed above us, bobbing up
and down. Lily immediately jumped to her feet but I was less
concerned than her. I climbed to my feet at my own pace and
curiously observed the ball swishing and swaying and the
darkness.
In the small area of grass it lit up, I could make out a path
that was slowly forming itself. Silently, stones emerged from
the earth, along its edges flowers budded and stones became
borders. It flourished into something quite picturesque and
as the light rose to reveal further into the distance, the
pathway seemed never ending. It began to look inviting but
we were reluctant to move without having to, especially
down a path that could be very well leading us to our deaths.
I looked over to Lily and she looked back, then mulled it
over and nodded. We both began to follow the path, which,
conveniently, didn’t have any trees within a meter of it. I
seemed hypersensitive though, already my body had begun to
adjust and at the smallest noises, I leapt into the air. I raised
my arm and tried to touch the light but it swooped out of my
reach.
I then squinted and tried to look into the distance but I
couldn’t see anything past the light. We really had no choice
but to walk along with it now and when the light seemed to
climb higher, we could see that the path still seemed to be
unfurling itself, like it was only here because we were.
My pulse slowed a little, I began to breathe normally and I
noticed that Lily’s hand was clutching mine, she, who had
kept a level head throughout the entire forest eruption ordeal,
now looked traumatized.
“The silence,” was all she said.
I nodded in acknowledgement and understood.
Grimly I took note of her temporary, aware that it might
help me eliminate her later on.
I was about to point out to her that the path was
disappearing behind us but we emerged into a clearing.
The light rose even higher into the air and my heart beat
harder again. We were standing in a circular patch of dirt,
surrounded by glass trees. Glass trees. Exact replicas of the
ones from my dream.
The light dimmed again and I could just make out the trees
around us melding back into the ground. The sound of
things quietly shifting became more pronounced and then,
the light became yellow and it now hung from within a light
bulb.
The forest setting had been completely replaced by a room.
Lily’s grip on my hand tightened a little and I looked around.
The room was hexagonal in shape, with a platform placed at
each of the room’s six corners. Standing on those platforms
were the other Testees. I almost exploded with relief when I