It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm back actually with a novel that my dad wrote a while back and i thought i'd love to share it with you guys-
it's a novel that touches on the fragility of humanity and the bonds that we supposedly die by. it's not too heavy a novel but definitely an impactful one so i sincerely hope everyone could give it a shot!
i'll be uploading snippets of it every day or so, so please pick up your reader's glasses, put on some atmospheric music and get reading. i hope you enjoyed as much as i did.
cheers.
WORLD WAR AMERICA
The WarGames stadium at the University of California was a roaring, seething mass
of humanity. It was the last match of the season; a college championship decider, or
“the Big Game,” as they called it.
Parents, friends, and fans jostled for their seats, peering down into the glass-
domed arena and its simulated terrains, mounted laser turrets, and defensive pillboxes.
Within the war zone waited two teams in black combat fatigues, their faces tipped
toward the umpire’s box.
The game would soon begin.
Around the field, 3D conglomerate advertisements burst atop the helmets of
the players, each cutting-edge animation vying to be the biggest, brightest, and most
explosive. In recent years, Chinese companies like Haier, Alipay, and Xiaomi had
begun to crowd out the smaller advertisements put up by Pepsi-Cola, McDonald’s and
Apple, but the home crowd didn’t care; their eyes were glued to the young men and
women before them as “The Star-Spangled Banner” rumbled through the speakers.
Kaden Sun stood within a two-story observatory tower—the team headquarters. It was shaped like the bishop piece from a chess set, its crystal top offering a complete view of the arena.
He licked his lips—still cracked from an early jog into dawn wind—and scanned the faces of his group below.
Some were lost to anxiety, others were simmering with hunger for the fight ahead. Kaden was sick with
nerves and glad that no one’s eyes were directed at him.
His team’s chief strategist, Kaden waved a palm over the dashboard and instantly conjured a holographic topography of the ground below, including the opposing team’s tower, located at the far end of the stadium.
Upon his chest was stitched the small blue-and-gold square that everyone wanted. The object of the game
was simple: get the flag, win the championship.
But that was where the simplicity ended.
“Speed up, Zac. Five minutes and counting,” Kaden said, frowning at the half-finished barricade below.
His best friend’s voice returned through his earpiece, so clear he might have been standing at Kaden’s shoulder.
“This is crazy,” he grumbled. “Championship game and half our team’s out
with gastro…It’s gotta be rigged.”
“Obviously,” cut in their manager, Johnson, who was seated in the VIP box
but had his own comm system. “No one’s heard from the cook since breakfast; he’s
probably halfway to Mexico by now.”
This was met with a loud sigh, and Kaden could see Zac shaking his head
below. “You sure you want us to go ahead with this, Kay? Surely it’s better to forfeit,
than lose?” Zac asked.
Kaden’s eyes scanned the multitude of offensive and defensive formations he
had tirelessly developed. “Love your fighting spirit, Zac. Now shut the hell up and
focus.”
The crowds were whistling as the official countdown began and Kaden delivered his preparatory instructions. Cheerleaders danced on a pavilion that hovered above the players and aerial cameras whirred their way around the contestants. The whole thing felt like flies buzzing over a carcass. They weren’t dead yet, but for all his bravado, Kaden knew they were in for a massacre.
“Jeremy, you’ve got the nanomirrors all sprayed up?’ he asked.
“Aye, aye, Captain!”
Two minutes and counting.
“Now, listen in team.” Kaden spoke in a slow, deliberate tone. “We’re ten
soldiers short, and they know that. They will attack with everything they have and try
to punch a hole right through our front. I want you to let them.”
Brief silence was quickly filled with a flurry of curses and uninvited opinions.
“I thought you wanted us to fight?” said Ryker, his communications officer.
“Oh, you’ll get your chance to fight,” said Kaden. “Jeremy, take six to the
front line. Fall back as you need to, but stagger it, and stick to the corridors of the
nanomirrors. Remember that.”
“Er, roger.”
Kaden couldn’t help but smile at the tone of his sergeant’s voice. Clearly, they
all thought he was mad.
“Zac, bring Ella and Mia with you on the right turrets and hold off their pincer
attack. Ki, you do the same on the left with Miles and Gatwick.”
“Got that, CS.”
Even though the weather had cooled to a refreshing sixty degrees, Kaden had
to wipe the perspiration from his brow.
As the countdown dribbled into single digits, the crowd reached a fever pitch.
Kaden watched as the referee—a lumbering, bull-necked man in black-and-white
stripes—pointed to a dark-suited army corpsman with a red peak cap. The soldier
responded by raising his bugle to his lips, the shrill but authoritative timbre of “To
Arms” jolting the players into action. They grabbed their laser guns and double-
checked their equipment, giving final waves to the crowd as it roared behind the glass
enclosure.
Kaden’s heart pounded and, for a moment, he wondered if he might be sick.
There was a large vase nearby, but he turned from it and pulled his safety googles
down, adjusting his helmet and checking the laser tags on his head and chest. If they
were covered up they could cost the team the game and label them cheaters.
He felt isolated in his transparent container, beading sweat as he took in the
twenty thousand onlookers around him.
Above him to the left was the commentator’s
box; the game was being beamed live to every household across the United States.
Millions of others were watching, and the thought sent a fresh wave of goose bumps
across Kaden’s skin.
Down the field he could make out the vague outline of the opposing CS, also
encased in his tower. Kaden guessed their guy was probably feeling the same way.
Then again, maybe not. He was the son of China’s wealthiest industrialist, a
conniving businessman who was said to have cheated and bribed his way into the
highest echelons of material success.
Kaden had crossed paths with the son, Wang Hom, several times. By all accounts, the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree.
Right now, Hom was probably fine-tuning his victory speech.
The bugle sounded again and the announcer blared:
The players dashed toward their assigned positions.
“All right guys, this is it,” Kaden said with a breath, but before he could even begin to deliver his launch instructions laser beams of red and blue flared across the war zone.
As suspected, the opponents had massed their attack in the middle of the
battlefield, right toward the heart of Kaden’s defense, concentrating their firepower at
the defenders stationed behind the barricades and mounted turrets.
Kaden placed his hands on the panel in front of him and leaned forward. Gee,
Hom, going straight for the kill?
“Jeremy, try to hold your position for the next ten minutes. Zac, man the
pillbox below the turret; two encroachers coming your way.”
“Miles has been hit, Kaden. He’s down!” Ki cried.
“Stay your course, Ki. They’re massing a secondary attack on your side to
draw us over and open us up.”
Kaden tried to swallow and couldn’t.
“Our formation’s breaking up,” Jeremy’s urgent voice came through. “They’re
all over us. We’re going to have to move.”
Kaden narrowed his eyes at the action unfolding before him. “Jeremy, deploy
a man over to Ki and retreat along the preassigned pathway. The nanomirrors will
confuse them. Do you read me?”
After a tentative pause Jeremy responded, “Roger, proceeding.”
“Zac, push Ella and Mia behind the advancing enemy, and don’t attack unless
they fall back,” Kaden said, his voice rising.
“What? I should be out there with them, instead of being stuck in this turret.
There’s no one coming our way!” Zac exclaimed.
“Stay.” Somehow his voice was firm, even as the endless barrage continued.
“Jeremy, invite them in along the mirrored corridor; staggered retreat. Ki, you must
hold off their attack—do not let them break through.”
“There are too many!” Ki cried. “I can hold them for five minutes, tops.”
Kaden pressed his lips together. If Ki’s position became compromised, Hom
would be able to overrun them before they could launch their own strike. Kaden
checked his screen: fourteen blue enemy blips in front of Jeremy’s position and
streaming in. Seven surrounding Ki’s defensive pillbox. With only one fighter held in
reserve, it was clear Hom was not out to entertain the fans with a full hour-long
spectacle. He simply wanted to win and as quickly as possible
.
“Okay, guys. They think they’ve got us cornered like rabbits. Jeremy, fall
back to your target destination, now. Encircle the corridor exit and wait for their
frontal assault unit. Ki, if you must, retreat to Jeremy’s assembly point and defend
from there. Ella and Mia, there’s one bogey at the ridge just north of you. He’s the
enemy’s reserve and a sniper—track and kill! Zac, get ready. I’m coming in.”
“You’re what?” Zac stammered. “You can’t expose the flag like that!”
The adversary pack was beelining into the marked passageway like a school of
fish in a narrowing net. The mirrors disoriented the attackers and veiled the locations
of his defenders. Kaden glanced at his screen again. He allowed himself a half smile.
Once the bulk of them had moved into the most exposed section, Kaden issued his
order.
“Jeremy, fry the fish.”
A flash of red beams from Jeremy’s troops sent the enemy falling like pins in
a bowling alley. Each laser contact short-circuited the victim’s nerve impulses,
causing a temporary muscle malfunction that left them immobilized. The crowd
exploded in rapturous applause as the bodies flopped atop one another on the big
screen.
“Ella and Mia reporting in. Bogey is down.”
Kaden grinned. “Great work, ladies. Now get back and finish off anyone
trying to retreat from Jeremy’s bottleneck.”
“The raiders are through!” Ki yelled. “They’re coming for you!”
“Keep them engaged,” Kaden calmly replied, picking up his weapon and
moving to the stairwell. **“I want their CS to think we’re defending our HQ to the last
man.” **
He jogged down the steps, hand pressed to the flag on his breast. Pausing a
moment at the bottom, he took a deep breath before swinging the door open and
running out to his right.
“Zac,” Kaden called, “I’m beside your bunker. Come out and
cover my ass.”
Zac’s head popped out of the turret just meters above, his face creased into a
smirk. “About time you let me see some action.”
The pair moved carefully, Zac guiding the way as Kaden checked his wrist
map to scrutinize the little blue and red dots swarming across the screen.
“Their CS is probably choking after losing his advantage,” panted Kaden.
“He’s alone in his fort. I’m going in, so you cover me from here.” Neither CS player
wore a tracker—the risk of leaving the tower too great to consider one necessary—so
Hom would have no way of sensing his location.
“That’s crazy!” answered Zac, eyes wide with shock. “Why not send the
girls?”
Kaden sighed, trying not to lose patience with his friend’s constant
questioning.
“Because I need them to keep his soldiers off our tower. As soon as they learn
it’s deserted, we’re toast.”
A tingling sensation came over Kaden as they scrambled beneath clumps of
vegetation and into the shadow of the enemy prize. Kaden looked up to see Hom
stomping around, his can of sponsored Pepsi hurled against the shatterproof windows.
Alone, he appeared to be screaming at his troops and both his hands were waving
forward in a frantic order to advance all forces.
Kaden grinned. One big fish, alone in his tank.
He gripped the steel ladder alongside the structure and climbed. At the top of
the observatory he pulled the handle of the makeshift paneled door and held his breath
as it opened slowly, Hom’s vociferous cursing loud enough to make him wince.
Kaden gripped his laser gun and aimed at Hom’s back. “Careful, my friend.
One wrong move and you’ll be on the ground, writhing like a worm.”
Just like that, the howling stopped...
Hom turned and faced Kaden, eyes widened in shock—and anger.
Kaden’s mouth curled in bemusement as he nodded. “Yup, fair and square.”
“But the real world... it doesn’t play by a rule book.”
He tapped a button on his wrist comm, his cunning eyes narrowed in satisfaction.
Kaden squared his shoulders. “Who’s gonna stop me huh, Hom?” He waved his
hand toward the outfield. “Game’s over, we won. Blame it on the home crowd
advantage.”
Hom smiled thinly. “The advantage is all mine,” he said, eyes moving beyond
Kaden. “You just don’t know it yet.”
To be continued...