When he removed his headset, he was faced with a strange sight: all the noisy gamers jumping and running on the spot, each in their own little spaces. He was glad to see that Lance and Lia were really enjoying themselves. As he’d envisaged, Ant would easily be able to sneak off for an hour of Kismet Cosmos and be back before they realised he was gone. He jogged to the adventure playground, where younger kids played as usual, while their parents looked on. Ant squeezed through the gap in the railings into the Dell and took up his usual position in the small clearing on the other side of the fence.
It was such a relief to be back in Kismet, playing alongside his legit, wonderful Pradahl. After a particularly intense fight against a nasty pair of stingwangers, Ant paused the game and removed his headset to take a swig of water. That’s when he heard the sirens, lots of them. There was something going on in the park. Snatching up his things, Ant squeezed back through the railings and ran towards the sirens.
Most of the gamers were still playing and enjoying themselves by the look of it. But some of them were standing still, frozen in odd poses. The paramedics were running towards the frozen ones. DJ Choonetto waved his hand in the face of a woman in an expensive pink costume. He was holding a bunny-eared headset that probably belonged to her. She was staring into the sky, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Her hands were clasped over her chest in a double fist. Ant moved closer.
‘Nothing,’ said Choonetto, glancing at Ant. ‘Not a dicky bird. I don’t know if she can hear me or what? She’s got a pulse and she’s breathing. She’s just kind of … frozen. Statue-fied, if there is such a word.’ There wasn’t, but Ant could see exactly what he meant.
‘How many are like this?’ he asked. From where he stood, he could count seven frozen gamers, bunny woman included.
‘It’s hard to say. They’re all over the place.’
A paramedic rushed up and patted Choonetto on the arm. ‘We’re going to have to stop the game,’ she panted. ‘We don’t know what we’re dealing with. They could all get struck down and there’d be too many for us to cope with. Can we stop the ones still playing and get them out of the park without creating a mass panic? Then we can see how many are … like this.’
Choonetto and Ant ran around, persuading the gamers still playing to deactivate their suits. Word spread that something was up. There was a lot of moaning and groaning, until Choonetto ran to the bandstand and made an announcement, explaining as much as he could about what was happening. There were gasps and a few screams but Choonetto managed to quieten everyone down. He reassured friends of the frozen gamers that everything was being done to help them and it was best to leave the paramedics to do their jobs in peace. He told everyone to exit the park as quietly and calmly as possible.
Griff watched hundreds of gamers gather their belongings and head to the main gates. He couldn’t see his mum among them. Yes, he’d seen her frozen, but that was only in the game. This was real life and Paula was such a strong person, she would never be one of the people going to hospital. Something else had to be wrong with those players. Paula must be among the crowd or she had left the park already, Griff kept telling himself. Even so, his heart was pounding.
Was this connected to the rareio he’d unleashed? No, that was silly. The rareio was just inside the game. Games were games. They didn’t affect reality, it was impossible.
The crowd walked uneasily past the living statues. Ant caught up with Lance and Lia, who had been searching for him. His sister hugged and kissed him, hugely relieved he was all right.
‘It was weird,’ said Lance. ‘Someone said something was happening down by the lake. Some kind of enormous rareio ran riot, apparently.’
‘It’s unbelievable. I heard this girl say it was jumping into people and freezing them,’ said Lia. ‘Wow, I’m glad I never caught one.’
‘But an enteo from a game shouldn’t be doing this,’ protested Lance. ‘Not freezing people in real life. This is real life, Lia!’
Ant looked around and, yes, life had suddenly become all too real. The frozen gamers could have been playing musical statues. There were far more of them than he’d first realised. Now the park was emptying, it was easier to tell.
‘Twenty-nine,’ one of the paramedics called to another, as though he’d read Ant’s thoughts. ‘Ring the hospital and let them know.’
The first ambulance was driving out through the park gates. People stood aside to let it pass. Turning to watch it go, Ant nearly bumped into Griff, Lyle and Boom. They were too busy arguing to notice him.
‘So, what? You’re saying this is all my fault?’ Griff was pointing back at the park.
‘Yeah, but keep your voice down,’ said Lyle. ‘You don’t want everyone knowing, stupid.’
‘You’re stupid,’ said Griff. ‘Aren’t you forgetting something? I’m the one who just won Ray-Chay in the Park for Westford Abbey!’
‘Seriously? Do you think that matters now?’ Lyle rolled his eyes.
Griff looked as though he’d had all the wind knocked out of him. It took him a few moments to come back at Lyle. ‘You can’t blame me for what happened by the lake.’
‘Hey, hold on. You’ve confessed you took that rareio from your mum’s cache,’ Boom joined in. ‘Just admit it, you shouldn’t have taken it. It was from level 21 while you’re only level 17, same as us. You corrupted it. You turned it into the devil, you idiot. No wonder something bad’s happened.’
‘These people are
