“For you, maybe,” Yano agreed. “But not for winged superior magical beings like me. For me—it’s just a merry jaunt. A mere hop, skip, and a flight.”
Lilli raised an eyebrow. “Um, yay you?”
“Yay me, indeed.” Yano flapped his massive wings. “And yay you as well! Since I plan to take pity on your sad human state and allow you to get on my back and experience a tremendous travel experience. Now, come on. All aboard.”
I watched as he lowered his metal wing, unfurling it so that the scales became like steps up onto his back. Which was really cool, I had to admit, until I got a better look at his back. No saddle, no handholds, no seat belts. No possible way to ensure you wouldn’t just slide off his back midair and crash helplessly to your death below.
So… yeah. Did I mention my paralyzing fear of heights?
Daredevil Lilli, of course, had none of these concerns. She was already scrambling up Yano’s wings like he was a new ride at Six Flags. I watched as she swung her leg over the dragon’s back as if mounting a giant horse. Then she beckoned for me.
“Come on!” she scolded, clearly catching my look of pure dread. “It’s just virtual. If you fall, you’ll die. We’ll pick you up in the nearest graveyard. No biggie.”
Easy for her to say.
“Or we can meet you there,” Yano suggested. “And you can fight your way solo through the streets of New Angeles on your way to the Radiated Forest. Of course, then you’ll have to start dealing with zombies.… The Radiated Forest is filled with zombies. Hope you can up your sneak skills before you get there. Oh, and then there’s the Pool of Piranha. That’s a great zone if you like water levels.”
I did not like water levels. Which he well knew.
Or zombies, for that matter.
Ugh. Fine. I forced my feet to propel me forward, then climbed gingerly onto Yano’s back, settling in behind my sister and reluctantly wrapping my arms around her waist. Maybe a little too tightly, but who could blame me?
“You got something to hold on to up there?” I asked.
“I’m fine. As long as you stop cutting off my circulation,” she replied with a laugh. I grudgingly loosened my hold. Just a tad.
“You ready?” Yano called out. Without waiting for an answer, he flapped his metal wings. They slapped against the ground with a loud bang that made me nearly jump out of my skin. I tried to remind myself that none of this was real. It was just a game. I was not really on a cyborg dragon about to launch into the air. I was at home, curled up in my sister’s bed, safe and sound and cozy. My game body might be ready to die tragically, but my real one would be just fine.
“What are you waiting for?” I called to Yano, hoping I sounded super brave and not at all freaked out. “Let’s do this already!”
I felt the dragon lower to the ground like a lion ready to leap. I held my breath, my heart pounding in my chest. Three, two, one…
Liftoff! Yano shot into the air like a rocket, leaving my stomach somewhere back on the ground. I screamed, instinctively tightening my grip on my sister.
“Dude! You’re going to break my game ribs!” she complained.
“Sorry!” I squeaked, but I couldn’t loosen my hold as we climbed higher and higher into the sky. My stomach lurched in a mixture of nausea and terror as wind blasted our faces, causing tears to stream from my eyes. At one point, I made the grave mistake of looking down, and the ground wove and spun beneath us, looking literally a million miles away.
This was so freaky. So scary. So—
“Amazing!” Lilli cheered in front of me. “Can you do a barrel roll?”
“Don’t you dare!” I threatened before Yano could reply. Of course Lilli thought this was cool. Like the world’s biggest, baddest roller coaster. Meanwhile I was just trying to pull my stomach back up from my knees. Even if it wasn’t my real stomach. Or my real knees, for that matter.
We soared through the sky across the game world. After a while, I got up the courage to look down again. I had to admit, it actually looked pretty cool down there. We’d left New Angeles behind and were now flying over some apocalyptic countryside, with a lone road cut into the forest and winding through the trees. The Radiated Forest, I guessed. Everything was overgrown, grass and weeds sticking up through cracks in the pavement. Colorful vines climbing telephone poles and wires. Abandoned cars sat motionless in the middle of the road, as if they’d just frozen up one day and stopped running where they were. There were even a few NPCs hanging out, with silver dots over their heads, indicating quests to be given out, just like in Dragon Ops.
I had to admit, a small part of me wished we were down there. Questing, fighting, doing all the normal things we were supposed to be doing in a game like this. But we had a higher calling. We couldn’t afford to become distracted. Still, it reminded me how much I’d missed gaming over the last months. And to be this close, it was quite the tease.
Finally, we reached the mountain in question. If you could really call it a mountain. Up close, I could see it was more like a giant trash heap. A towering pile of rusted metal, garbage, and other unidentifiable refuse rising high into the sky. Stuff precariously piled on stuff, teetering dangerously at some points.
“This is it?” Lilli asked, shouting to be heard over the wind.
“Lovely, isn’t it?” Yano replied. “And just breathe in that sweet eau de garbage scent!”
“Ew.” I buried my nose in Lilli’s back as the wave of stink hit. “So gross.”
“Hold on,” Yano shouted.
