The Gamer's Guide to Getting the Girl Page 12

  In mere seconds, the deafening sound has passed, though we can still hear it as it moves away from us, the tornado carrying on its path. Slowly, we start to sit up and gather ourselves again. Almost everyone is either crying or sitting in a state of shock. The air is thick and muggy; despite the open door above letting in the early dawn light, it’s hard to see through the particles that swim around us.

  “Everybody okay?” Erwin calls out. No one really answers. I wonder how George is.

  “Coop?” I ask. I move off of him to give him some space.

  He sits up and brushes himself off. He gives me a slight grin to let me know he’s okay. “Well, that was something,” he says. Maybe someday this will make for a pretty epic story, but right now we’re just shell-shocked.

  I can’t go another minute without making things right with him.

  “Coop, I’m the biggest jerk. Honestly. I’m so sorry,” I start.

  “It’s fine,” Cooper assures me. “It’s done with.”

  “No, it’s not. I should never have accused you of trying to get with Samara. I was totally out of line. And then this tornado …” My throat closes up and I can’t get my words out. “I can’t imagine something happening to you.”

  Cooper nods. “I know. You threw yourself over me. I could barely breathe.”

  “I won’t ever let a girl come between us,” I say pointedly.

  “Deal.”

  “No, seriously. I mean it! The bro code all the way.”

  Cooper nods. He holds out his hand and we fist bump. Then he gasps. “Zach! You’re bleeding!”

  I look at my arm where I felt the glass hit, and sure enough I have a large gash. Blood is dripping down my arm.

  “I’m fine,” I say, but I feel a little woozy when I see the cut for myself.

  “That doesn’t look fine.” He calls down for the first aid kit and it slowly gets passed up to him.

  “You guys need a hand?” Erwin asks.

  “No, we’re good,” Cooper says. He looks for a roll of gauze and the scissors.

  “Your turn to play doctor,” I say. My voice is shaky and small. I almost don’t recognize it.

  “This looks pretty bad, Zach.” Cooper grabs the flashlight from me and inspects my arm closely. “You’re going to need stitches.”

  “Just wrap it. It’ll be fine,” I say. There are far more important things needing attention than my arm. “We’ve got to make sure everyone is okay. George, Samara, Peter, Mildred, Valerie, Ira …” I pause. I don’t want Cooper to think I’m leaving to play hero again.

  “Okay. Let me get this wrapped and then we’ll check on everyone.” He looks me in the eye. “Together.”

  I nod. This is why Cooper is my best friend.

  I watch him wrap my arm carefully. He secures the gauze and then places the remaining items back into the first aid kit. My arm throbs but I can’t think about it right now. I have to know if everyone is okay.

  “Let’s go!” I say.

  Cooper helps me up.

  Now that the door has been ripped off above us, I have a straight view right to the sky. My mouth drops. “Oh my God, can you believe that?” Despite the dawn light that streams through, there’s also a dark haze over us — a dust that permeates every inch of air space. When I look up it makes me cough.

  “Cover your mouth!” Cooper says. I pull my T-shirt over my mouth and start to step up toward the light. I can’t resist having a look.

  “Zach, no, don’t do it!” Cooper yells. “We don’t know if anything is structurally safe.”

  He’s got a good point. The last thing we need is everyone surviving the storm only to get hurt trying to get out of here. I turn back toward Coop and we slowly descend the stairwell to check on everyone.

  “Please, everyone, check yourself for any possible injuries,” Rory is saying. “With all of the debris flying around you might not have even noticed something happen to you.” I look everyone over quickly as I go down the stairs. Cooper helps check everyone with me, shining the light wherever it’s needed. By some miracle, everyone looks unscathed — the only evidence of the storm on their bodies is the blank, stunned expressions they wear.

  “One, two, three …” I count the people as we walk. Liam and Henry are huddled in tight with Nancy. They look up at me with wide eyes. I give them a reassuring smile.

  “It’s going to be okay. It’s over,” I say.

  Olivia and Brandon wave us by to let us know they’re okay. We get to Peter and Mildred. Peter holds Mildred close to his chest. She looks up at him and asks, “You got Farrah out, right? She’s safe?”

  Peter sighs and rubs her back. “Farrah is safe, my love.”

  Mildred visibly relaxes. The lump in my throat forms again. I try to swallow it down over and over again. “You guys aren’t hurt?” My voice comes out ragged.

  “No, we’re just fine,” Peter says. “Not sure how George is doing, though.”

  I nod. “Yeah, I’m anxious to see how he’s doing.”

  I move down to the man in the business suit. He’s still wearing handcuffs.

  “Are you all right, sir?” I ask.

  “Do I look all right?” He’s gruff and sour.

  I mean, physically he looks fine, but I’m sure being in handcuffs isn’t the most fun. I resist giving him a smart aleck comment, even though it’s tempting. It’s better to just keep on walking.

  Rory rubs his head. He looks exhausted. “I’m fine, too, Zach.”

  I wave thanks and continue down the stairwell. Everyone seems to be fine, which is a huge relief.

  Valerie has Ira curled into her chest. He’s sucking vigorously on his soother. He flashes me a big smile from behind it and I light up.

  “Hi, Ira!” I coo. To my surprise, he even reaches for me, and Valerie passes him over. She looks remarkably calm given the disaster we’ve just lived through.

  “Thank goodness you guys are okay,” I say, my voice cracking with emotion. I’ve grown attached to these people. Ira rests his head on my shoulder and grips my T-shirt collar with his pudgy, dimpled fingers. It makes me melt.

  “I think the worst is over,” Valerie says. Her relief is palpable. “I don’t know what I would have done if something had happened.” Her voice catches in her throat.

  Ira pulls on my collar and drums his hands playfully against me. I smile and rub his back. His flannel sleeper feels soft and warm against my skin.

  “You’re a brave little guy,” I tell him. “Good job keeping your mom safe.”

  Valerie smiles.

  “With the storm passing, hopefully we’ll be able to get out of here soon.”

  “I hope.”

  Ira lets go of my shirt and explores my face with his hands. He looks up at me intently, pressing my cheeks.

  “I got your fingers!” I say, snapping my jaw at him, pretending I’m going to chomp his fingers. He erupts into a huge belly laugh and the soother hangs loosely from his mouth. We play this game over and over again, and each time he dissolves in a fit of giggles.

  “I think that’s the best sound in the world,” I say. Everyone around us nods in agreement. Ira’s joy infuses us all with a little bit of hope.

  Ira stops and stares at my gauzed arm.

  “Yeah, Zach got an owie,” I say.

  Ira doesn’t try to touch it. He just looks up at me with his big brown eyes.

  “Well, buddy, I have to go check on George.” I reluctantly hand him back to Valerie. Ira fusses a bit at being passed back, but I wave at him and he tries to wave back.

  “That’s the first time he’s ever waved!!” Valerie’s excitement adds to the boost of morale in the room. “He waved to you, Zach!”

  “Right on! Next up is the fist bump,” I tell him. I wave again and then continue down the stairs behind Cooper. The dust is slowly settling, and starting to allow the morning light from above to penetrate a little. We could almost get by without the flashlight now.

  “So glad you boys are okay,” Erwin says to
Cooper and me.

  “How is George?”

  George’s face is ashen. He looks terrible. He’s propped up on a stair and slumped against the wall, and he appears to be sleeping. Or at least I pray he’s only sleeping. Erwin sees my dumbstruck look.

  “He’s just resting. His pulse is weak and thready, but he’s still with us.”

  I lean toward George’s face. “George, help is on its way. Just hold on, okay?”

  Cooper wrings his hands. His eyes are as bug-eyed as mine as he studies George.

  “I’ve checked outside the door,” Erwin tells us. “You’re not going to believe your eyes.”

  And then it occurs to me. Where’s Samara?

  “Samara? Where is she?”

  Erwin looks alarmed. “I haven’t seen her. Last time I saw her was quite a while ago. She ran past me up the stairs when you came in together.… Wasn’t she up there with you?”

  “No!” Terror gnaws at me at once as I realize she must have gone out the upstairs door ahead of me. “That means … she could be out there!” I point to the rest of the mall above the stairwell.

  Cooper pulls open the lower door and more light pours in from the gigantic hole in the second-floor ceiling.

  “Zach …” Cooper stands stunned. “Come here.”

  I’m scared to see what awaits me. I step beside Coop and my mouth drops open. Broken slabs of concrete are in piles everywhere — snapped off as effortlessly as bread crumbs. Glass litters the floor in a dazzling array of sparkle. Merchandise from various stores adds colour to the chaos but it’s difficult to tell what’s what. The security doors have all been blasted off of the storefronts for as far as we can see. They lay like heaps of broken accordions in weird angles. We’re standing in a roofless building, and despite the haze that permeates the main floor, too, we can see that the storm is over. The sky is resting.

  TIP #14

  Your true character is revealed when no one is watching

  Neither of us says a word as we take it all in. Cooper puts his arm around me.

  “Hey, look, I didn’t get to mention how boss it was that you saved George’s life.”

  “Thanks. I wasn’t the only one.”

  “Are you kidding me? You were giving him CPR! Straight up — no joke.”

  I picture George lying lifeless in that stairwell and myself pumping on his chest hoping for a breath, a movement, anything that would indicate that he was going to be okay — there are no words for a moment like that. A human life hanging in the balance, knowing that you can only do so much … it’s as though time stood still.

  “Looks like Bronze Cross really paid off. Not everyone can say they’ve done something like that.” Cooper’s words are like a salve to me.

  “Yeah. I’ve never been so scared in my life. But the feeling afterward … I can’t even describe it.”

  “Maybe medicine might be for you after all.” Cooper smiles. He of all people has known how unsure I’ve been of myself.

  “Maybe.” I play it down but I think this experience has just cemented my career path … if I can deliver. I know it’s going to be a long and hard road.

  “I’m really proud of you,” Cooper tells me. “And jealous. I don’t think I could do something like that.”

  “That’s the thing! I think Samara was right. No one really knows what they’re capable of until they’re in a desperate situation.”

  “I think we’ve had our fair share of crazy for a while,” Cooper says, laughing. “I’m thinking a hard-core Fortnite session is in order once we get out of here.”

  “Definitely!” I say. “And some Doritos. I hope my mom lets me chill for like a week at least after this.”

  “Yeah, I’d say you earned that.”

  “Remember when we tried to convince my parents that gaming was really just preparing us for our futures?”

  Cooper laughs. “Yup.” We were about twelve at the time and my mom was concerned that I was spending too much time on electronics — as though I were different from any other kid my age on the planet. So we came up with a plan to change their minds about gaming.

  Coop and I researched the benefits of playing video games; we dressed up in suits and ties and pleaded our case. We must’ve impressed her with our stats: how gaming can help ease pain, how it may slow the aging process, how it reduces stress, how the vivid displays and immersive experience can lead to an interest in history.

  “Remember how she said she thought I was becoming a recluse? I showed her that I had no trouble making social connections because I had you and twenty-eight friends on Discord.”

  “Twenty-eight. That’s awesome.” Cooper laughs. “My favourite was when you told her that you’d need to improve your hand-eye coordination if you were going to become a doctor.”

  “Yeah, that was the clincher!” I chuckle.

  With all of the negative media surrounding screen time, we thought it was important to point out the good things it had done for us. Besides the benefits we’d researched, gaming had other positive effects on our lives. It had become an outlet for us to reinvent ourselves and gain confidence in a new world that didn’t have the same social parameters as the one we were actually living in. In the real world we were always feeling like we didn’t quite fit in, but online under our gamertags, we could be anything we wanted to be. The playing field felt more even.

  It had also become a creative outlet and a stress reliever for me. Some kids draw, others play sports or go into drama; gaming was my way of putting my stamp on the world, even if it was virtual. And after seeing me code, even my mom couldn’t argue with that.

  We even convinced my mom to try Fortnite and she had to admit that she liked playing it a lot more than she had expected to. I learned two rules when it came to playing with her: never ever troll her and always let her get the upper hand.

  “When she started playing she finally understood why we couldn’t just shut it off randomly wherever we were in the game.”

  “Yeah, that was pretty cool,” I say.

  “Your mom is so awesome,” Cooper says. I nod. A lump develops in my throat. We both grow quiet again. It’s hard not to imagine the worst. Our city looks like a wasteland from up here.

  “They are all going to be fine, Zach.” Cooper must be thinking the same things I am.

  “I know.” My voice is ragged. It’s just that some of our group aren’t fine, like George, for example, and we have no idea what’s been taking place outside of this building. What if they aren’t okay?

  And then I remember: “Samara!” Thinking about her still out there makes me want to throw up.

  “What do you mean?” Cooper asks.

  “I thought she was in the stairwell the whole time but she’s not here. She must’ve gone out the upstairs door just before I came out to find you.”

  “You mean she was out there during the storm?” Cooper’s eyes grow wide with alarm. It doesn’t look like anything could have survived the storm out here. “Samara!!” he yells.

  We hear nothing.

  I join in. “Samara!!” I can’t handle the idea that something might have happened to her.

  “There’s no way …” Cooper says carefully, trying to convince himself. “She wouldn’t have stayed out there.”

  “Yeah, but look how fast the tornado hit. Maybe she tried to get back here in time but never made it.” We’re both stunned at the thought.

  The debris is piled high, and the mess of tangled metal and concrete and wood is blocking any sort of path. There’s a total absence of sound, as though the world has been put on mute.

  “This is eerie,” Cooper says. If the dark mall looked haunting before the storm, it’s a hundred times creepier now. Although light is trying to filter in, the destruction is horror at its best.

  “We no longer have outside contact,” Erwin tells us. He holds up his radio. “I’ve got nothing.”

  “But they know we’re here, right? It’s just a matter of time,” Cooper says.

 
“I don’t think we’re getting out anytime soon.” I point to the mess outside the door. “It’s going to take them a while to get through that in order to get to us.”

  “I don’t think we can wait,” Erwin says. “George is pretty unstable. I’d prefer to get him over to the food court doors somehow. That’s where I told the paramedics to enter the building.”

  “So, what are you saying? We should carry George over there?” I ask. That seems like a pretty tall order given the state of the rubble inside the mall.

  “How do we even know that the building is structurally sound?” Cooper asks.

  “Well, we don’t,” Erwin says.

  Cooper gulps. “I don’t think this is such a hot idea.”

  “And what about everyone else?” I ask. “Are they supposed to stay here or follow?”

  Erwin chews his lip. “I think we all stand a better chance if we can get to those food court doors. Maybe we can find something to make some kind of stretcher.”

  I raise my eyebrows. I have no MacGyver abilities that would help me make a human-worthy carrying vessel of any sort. But Coop, on the other hand, has been a Boy Scout for years. “You could do that, Coop.” I pat him on the back.

  “Uh, I don’t know about that,” Cooper says, incredulous.

  “George’s condition is worsening. If he’s going to stand a chance, we have to get him out of here now.” Erwin’s voice is grave.

  “We’ll go check things out,” I say. “C’mon, Coop.”

  Cooper reluctantly follows me out of the stairwell and into the main mall area. The whole building shifts in minute ways — a shudder, a groan, a scratch of metal against metal. It’s a symphony of building materials settling into one another.

  I don’t know where to step or where to look first. Twisted rebar juts out of concrete slabs like spikes. The small areas of floor space that remain free from debris are at least six inches deep with murky water. The water is ice-cold and it makes the floor slippery.