An unreadable message appeared, but nothing happened. He checked the piece of paper, but some of the writing was no longer clear. He thought that maybe one of the letters was an R, not a B, but he couldn’t remember. He retyped it using R, and this time received a different but still unreadable message. In despair at not being able to read the code, what he was typing, or the message, Zak slammed both fists down on the desk. He let out another cry of pain.
A voice came over the communication channel.
‘Hey, how’s it going?’ said Van, with excitement in his voice.
‘It’s a disaster,’ replied Zak, coughing to clear his throat.
‘Oh,’ said Van, surprised. ‘I’m having a great time. I shot a Spongey off the top of the tower, and the cheat came on as he was falling. By the time he hit the ground he’d turned human.’
‘Yeah great,’ said Zak flatly. ‘But Tom’s dead, and I’m injured all over.’
‘Tom already! How was his death?’
‘His head was shot off.’
‘Brilliant!’ said Van, laughing. ‘Gotta see the vid of that.’
Zak wasn’t seeing the funny side.
‘I don’t think I can carry on,’ he moaned. ‘I want to turn off the cheat.’
‘What!’ snapped Van, ‘You have to carry on,’ he said sternly.
‘Are you injured yet?’ asked Zak.
‘No.’
‘Then you don’t know what you’re talking about.’
Zak heard Van tutting. This annoyed him. He stood head bowed, hands on desk, breathing deeply, hoping for the throbbing pain to subside a little. Just as it did, he coughed, and that ignited all the pain again.
‘This is what it’s all about Zak,’ said Van. ‘It’s what we’ve been waiting for. I can’t believe you’re complaining.’
‘I’m not complaining,’ said Zak. ‘I just didn’t realise it would be this gruesome.’
‘It’s meant to be realistic,’ said Van. ‘What you see on TV has all the bad bits turned off.’
Zak groaned as his back reminded him that it too was in pain.
