Gamers Con: The First Zak Steepleman Novel (24 page)
Four out of five of us.
I just sat there, grinning to myself for a few moments, thinking about how these people I’d met at Gamers Con had somehow become my very best friends—and in such a short time.
And there was just one of them missing.
Over the past few days, I’d noticed that Alan was online less and less, and I knew that was because of his parents’ financial problems, that they were finding it tough to slip back into their life . . . after a little while, a couple of days, we’d told Alan that it was better for him to tell
his
parents the truth.
Yeah, and a fat lot of good that had done him.
They’d forced him to go and see a psychologist.
And when those issues had got worse, he told us that his parents
also
had gone to get themselves checked out for what seemed like several years of amnesia, just stuff they couldn’t remember at
all
. . . like how they’d lost their house for one.
It was going to be tough for them, but the good thing—for Alan—was that the four of us, the others who’d all been involved with Alive Action Games, would all be here for him.
Ready to chat whenever he wanted.
I guess, sometimes, there’s stuff that’s more important than video games, though it breaks my heart to say it.
I got chatting with the others, and we started off our daily argument about which game we were going to play tonight.
Like always, James was fighting the corner for
Golden Bullets Bite Hardest
: a comedy-horror-mashup game, while Chung was going on about
Ladder to the Stars
which was this really lame,
experimental
title where you have to climb on up into the night sky . . . and then, as usual, Kate wanted to play
Summoner’s Apprentice
which wasn’t actually as bad as it sounded.
As for me, I was just happy playing whatever.
But it seemed, right here and now, that I had somehow ended up having the casting vote.
Right when I was on the point of choosing, I noticed the little popup: that Alan had just logged on.
For a long few seconds, the chat window between the four of us—already online—went totally quiet, as if we were sort of in
awe
of Alan.
He was, after all, the Grand Tournament Champion . . .
And then, right when I was sure that it might’ve been a mistake, that he’d simply flipped on his Sirocco while he’d been moving something, I saw his message come through:
You guys ready to play?
I felt the smile almost burst right off my lips, and I could hardly keep myself from breaking out laughing as I padded over to the Sirocco, dug around about the back and found the infrared panel.
The sensation was kind of itchy.
Then the world went kind of black.
And, just like that, I was with my friends.
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INSIDE KIDS: THE SECOND ZAK STEEPLEMAN NOVEL
Zak Steepleman: Not your average teenage gamer. He determines to become the greatest gamer on planet Earth. Only one thing stands in his way:
His games console.
After Gamers Con, Zak forges friendships with his competitors. They move online. Adventure beckons. Just one problem:
What offered them a world of wonder…
Will bring them a world of pain.
Inside Kids: The Second Zak Steepleman Novel
Please visit:
www.dibbooks.com/inside-kids/
for more information!
ALSO BY DAVE BAKERS
Series
Short Stories
Zombies are Overrated and Boring
Collections
Getting into the Game: A Zak Steepleman Collection
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Wish you could transport into your favourite video game?
So does Dave Bakers!
In fact his character,
Zak Steepleman
, managed to find that button . . . you know, the one right at the back of your games console?
Go on, take a look, he’ll wait . . .
Dave keeps a foot in the real world with some of his short stories (‘
Orphans
,’ ‘
The Fight
,’ ‘
Rhys’s Friend
’), but just as often fails to do so (‘
Zombies are Overrated and Boring
’ and ‘
Graveyard Club
’) and don’t even get him started on Zak Steepleman.
You can find all his stuff here.
His website:
www.davebakers.com
TABLE OF CONTENTS
JOIN DAVE BAKERS’S READING CLUB!
JOIN DAVE BAKERS’S READING CLUB!
INSIDE KIDS: THE SECOND ZAK STEEPLEMAN NOVEL
