“Hey everybody, come look at this!” Raymond didn’t turn to see who had spoken, but he knew that the young man was referring to him. “He’s goin’ to beat it! He’s goin’ to beat it!”

Ray felt the crowd gathering around him and started to feel a shot of nervousness creep through him, like a toxic poison searching for the brain to turn it off. He fought off the feeling.

The arcade was as noisy as a flock of birds squawking in unison, but Ray didn’t hear any of it, his concentration was so deep.

“…goin’ to win…”

“…win the contest…”

“…go get em’ Ray…”

A crowd gathered quickly around him as word spread throughout the arcade, and people left their games without finishing just to see what the commotion was about.

It was a two-player game where each player has a gun and must rid the town of all sorts of decomposing creatures and aliens. The screen was rather large, about a 100 inches or so, and the players stood about five feet away from it. The guns were wired to the game and the players shoot the screen and try to get rid of all the creatures. Reloading the gun during the game required the player to shoot it off screen. Ray was playing with both guns at the same time.

There were fifteen levels to the game and Ray was almost through the fourteenth.

There was a contest going on with this particular game. The rules were pretty simple: The highest score for the year, or the first person to beat the game, wins any game in the building.

“Level fifteen,” someone shouted behind him, “He’s made it to fifteen!”

Whoever it was that knew him, started a chant, and the entire building took it up…

“Ray, Ray, Ray, Ray…”

Behind the main counter, where people came to trade in their tickets for stuffed animals and cheap plastic toys, the owner of the arcade stepped into a small office, nestled in the back corner behind the counter. He didn’t have to find the phone number he was searching for, he had it in memory on his phone. It was answered after the second ring.

“Yes.”

“Mr. Singleton?”

“Ah, yes, Mr. Ervin. How may I help you?”

“I think I’ve got someone here that’s about to beat the game.”

Many cheers echoed through the building then, and Aaron Singleton heard it though the phone.

“Very interesting, Mr. Ervin. I’ll be there shortly.” He hung up and Ervin replaced his end of the phone in the cradle. Something about talking to Singleton always made George uneasy. He didn’t know what it was, just a feeling he supposed, but an unnerving one none-the-less.

He left the office to join the crowd around Ray, and to watch for Mr. Singleton.

Ray had never heard such cheering in his life. The speakers of the game were still echoing the last of his “gunshots”, but the people around him drowned out the sound. They were cheering for him…FOR HIM! Raymond Gest, computer geek, school nerd, voted most likely to never marry by the senior class, never won a thing in his life, and now look at him. He was the object of all this cheer. Him! Raymond Gest! Suddenly, George Ervin was standing in front of him, pumping his hand up and down in an almost violent handshake. He was a short fellow, with a huge gap between his two front teeth that caused him to whistle slightly when he talked. Everyone called him Whistling George. He even thought the name was funny. “Congratulations, Ray. Congratulations!” George led him over to the counter, through the throng of people.

“Ray, you forgot to put your name in the machine!” someone shouted from behind him.

“Excuse me a second, will you, Mr. Ervin.”

“Sure, sure, go ahead.”

As Ray moved back through the crowd, Aaron Singleton stepped off the street and into the foyer of the arcade. George saw him smile from across the room and he thought that it looked a lot like a demon’s grin.

Ray punched in his initials and for the crowd, that act made it official. They roared louder than ever and Ray had to cover his ears for the noise. He joined George back by the counter and found him talking with a tall, gray haired man in his forty’s. Ray had never seen him before.

“Raymond Gest?” The man stuck out his hand and Ray grabbed it. The man’s hands were so soft they felt like his mothers.

“Yes, sir.”

“Just call him Ray,” George piped up. “Everyone else does.”

“Ray. Very good.” The man looked around the arcade and turned to George. “Is there a quiet place where we can talk, George?”

“Sure.” He led them back behind the counter and into his office. “Make yourself at home, Mr. Singleton.”

George tried to enter behind Ray and Aaron, but Aaron was shutting the door in his face. “If you don’t mind, George. I’d like to speak to the boy alone.”

“Oh, sure, Mr. Singleton. Go right ahead.” You could tell by the look on his face that he didn’t like it though.

As Singleton turns to the boy, he pulls a folded piece of paper from inside his jacket. “Ray, would you mind signing this for me?”

“What is it?” Ray was curious, but wary too.

“It’s just a form saying that you give us permission to use your name and photo’s of you for advertisement purposes. It’s no big thing. Your parents don’t even have to sign it.” His big grin and the twinkle in his eye were all it took to convince Ray that this guy was trustworthy. Why would Singleton want to do anything bad to Ray anyway? Ray took a pen off the desk and signed where he was supposed to at the bottom of the page. “Good boy,” said Singleton, patting the boy on the shoulder. Ray actually thought Mr. Singleton was talking to a dog.

“Now. What game would you like to have?”

“Isn’t this Mr. Ervin’s place? Shouldn’t he be asking me this?”

“Yes, Mr. Ervin does own the arcade. But my company is the one sponsoring the contest. We’re the one’s that have to replace whatever game it is you decide on. In fact, you’ll not really be taking an actual game from the floor out there, but will be receiving a new one directly from my factory.”

“Cool.”

“Well? Which one?”

Ray looked away, thinking. “I’d really like the one I was playing.”

“Then it’s yours.”

Ray looked back at Singleton and said, “but I’ve heard rumors that there are some better games in a basement somewhere on this block. I’ve heard that they hire kids sometimes to test them out. Is this true?”

Singleton stood there for a long, drawn out minute before answering. “Yes, Ray, there is such a place.”

“Can I have one of the games there?”

“Well, most of the one’s down there are just about near completion and ready to put into arcades, so I don’t see why you can’t choose from those as well. But it may take a couple extra weeks to get it too you.”

“Oh, that’s OK. I don’t mind waiting. I’d just like to see what’s down there.”

“There’s one think I need you to do though.”

“Yes, sir.” Anything, Ray though. He just wanted to see the new games.

“I need you to sign a privacy agreement saying that whatever you see down there, you won’t discuss any of the details or ideas behind those games, or that you have knowledge that those games even exist.”

“Sure,” Ray said. Where do I sign?”

The basement was dark as pitch and smelled like rats, but when Singleton found the breaker and flipped on the lights, Ray saw that the entire floor was spotless, dry, and clean as a whistle. There were no games lining the walls and none stood in the center of the floor, at least as he could tell there wasn’t.

In the center of the floor was a large sphere. The surface of it was milky white, but also semi-transparent. Ray could see what looked like a airplane cockpit within the sphere. Around the sphere was a framework of small metal beams with small video camera’s attached to each ninety degree corner, pointing inward toward the surface of the sphere. There were four cameras on top, four around the widest perimeter of the sphere, and another four pointed up from the floor to the bottom half of the sphere. A thirteenth camera pointed straight down at the top of the sphere from another beam that ran across the center of the top of the framework.

The sphere sat on a stage that contained the cockpit and under the stage was a complex series of wires and hydraulic arms. These arms were bolted securely to another frame that was also bolted to the floor.

“Well, how do you like it?”

Ray jumped. He was so engrossed in the thing that Singletons voice startled him.

“It’s…it’s…amazing,” he finally got out. “What is it?”

“This…” Singleton said, running his hand across the smooth surface of the sphere like a lover would caress a mate. “…this is my baby. This is the next evolution in high tech video games.”

Ray couldn’t speak, but Singleton knew what was going through the boy’s mind.

Singleton went to what must have been the back of the game and pushed a concealed button. A keypad flipped down from a flat section of metal with a small screen that flashed “upload?” across its surface. He pushed enter and a long menu list appeared. Ray looked over the other man’s shoulder and read some of the items on the menu.

“Oohh…Choose the space scenario!”

“OK.” Singleton scrolled down to the bottom of the list and pressed enter when the cursor rested beside the appropriate selection.

“Loading” appeared on the screen and the whole sphere lit up and the same word began to scroll around the sphere in large, bright red letters.

“This will take about five minutes,” Singleton said, as he led Ray around the machine. The whole room began to hum quietly.

“Hey, you’ve got another one over there.” Ray pointed to the far wall, where another sphere rested in a dark corner. This one was a little different than the one they circled, but the lighting was too bad over there for Ray to pick out the differences in the machines.

“Yes, that one’s still in its experimental stage. I’ve still got a few bugs to work out of it.” He walked on around the game and started describing how it worked. “These,” Singleton said, grabbing onto the hydraulic arms under the stage, “are what make this game so lifelike. These move the stage in sync with the rear video projection. This game is pretty much a flight simulator on acid.

“You can do barrel rolls, loops, engage in dogfights, just about anything a plane or spaceship can do, you can do here.” He touched the sphere again, his hand blocking the projection of the cameras and cast a shadow across the face of the sphere in the shape of his hand. “Are you ready to try it?”

“Am I? You bet.”

Singleton led him to a door cleverly hidden within the sphere. The hinges and locking mechanism were all made from the same milky material as the rest of the sphere. He opened it wide and Ray didn’t hesitate walking in.

“Now, you must use the safety harness, this thing will throw you around pretty good until you get used to the controls.”

Ray strapped himself in and examined the console in front of him. There was a stick in front of him with several different buttons and a trigger in the front where the index finger would go. A big red start button was on his left with a few other buttons in front of it, each with symbols of different types of weapons. There was a helmet on the console in front of him and he put it on. A small screen lay embedded in the console underneath it.

“The helmet is more for show than protection. It has a hidden wireless receiver that transmits your points and other information onto a heads up display built into the lenses of the helmet. It’s a little disorienting at first but I promise you, It’s everything you would ever dream of in a flight simulator.”

In front of Ray, the message displaying on the console said “loading complete”.

“Now what?” He was ready to try it out.

“First, let me get out of the way. Then you push the start button. You’re a smart kid, so I think you can figure out the controls in no time. Have fun, I’m going to go back up stairs and speak with George for a few minutes. If you are destroyed and must start over, just press the start button again and you can start over, or press the trigger when the game is over and the menu screen with display on the console and you can upload another scenario.

“You got it?”

“Sure.” Ray was ready for him to leave. All he wanted to do right now was to push that bright, red button.

Singleton closed the door and slid the latch into place so the door wouldn’t fly open during play. When Singleton stepped out of the framework and was a safe distance from the sphere, he shouted, “Let her rip, Ray.”

Ray hit the start button and watched the most amazing thing he had ever seen.

The blackness of space was stretched out before him. He could hear the gentle hum of engines from the speakers within his helmet. A computer voice came through, announcing that enemy fighters were being detected dead ahead. Ray glanced down at the console and the screen showed what appeared to be a radar blip. There were four red dots directly ahead of him.

Ray looked behind him and underneath. The projected images appeared to be flawless. The programming even included the rest of the star ship around him. There was a planet below and he banked the ship in that direction. The stage under the sphere cocked on its side and Ray was given the believable feeling that he was changing directions. The planet rushed up toward him when the computer sounded an alarm through the helmet.

“Warning, warning. Evasive maneuvers.”

Ray banked to the left and glanced over his shoulder as four space craft buzzed by with a roar of sound so deafening that Ray almost threw off the helmet. His adrenaline was rushing hard through his veins, like a drug. The planet got closer underneath him, and the cockpit started to shake violently, just as if he were really entering the atmosphere of a real planet. One of the spacecraft sped by him and he banked hard to get behind it, firing his lasers rapidly. It exploded violently in front of him and his ship went directly through the blast. The cockpit shook violently beneath him.

Ray couldn’t get over how real this felt. It was just like he was in deep space, flying over a distant planet, and fighting against an unknown enemy. But something kept driving his mind away from the scenario unraveling before him and kept wondering to the other game system pushed in the darkness over by the far wall. The computer warned him again of an enemy encounter, but Ray ignored it. He let the ship shoot him down and watched as his points, kills, and shots fired displayed across the lenses of the helmet.

“Game Over!” scrolled across the surface of the sphere.

Ray undid the harness belt and exited the game.

Why did he want to see the other one so badly? He crossed quickly to the other game and looked at the rear of it. Sure enough, it was set up almost like the other game system. He turned on the power like he had seen Singleton do and got the keypad and screen to fold out of the back of the console. There was only one item listed under the menu and he selected it to upload. The cameras hummed to life and illuminated the sphere. “Loading” scrolled across its smooth surface.

This game system had a completely different look from the other. Instead of the sphere being in a fixed position over a cockpit like the other system, this one was a complete sphere that rested on large rubber rollers that looked much like ball bearings.

“Wow,” he said out loud. He placed his hand on the surface of the sphere and pushed downward on it. The sphere moved easily under his hand and Ray realized how this one worked.

He found the door and crawled inside, locking the door behind him. A plastic gun lay on the floor. He picked it up. Besides the trigger, there was a start button on the side of the barrel.

The program was still loading so he tested his theory on how the game worked.

This system was made for someone to actually walk in. As Ray stepped foreword, his weight of his body made the sphere glide over the rollers beneath his feet. It was kind of like walking through the moving tunnel at a carnival funhouse, but this one moved in every direction, depending on which way Ray walked. It was awkward when he stopped because the sphere still moved under his feet slightly, but it was something that wouldn’t take long to get used to.

“Ready,” flashed across the sphere.

“Here we go,” Ray said to himself, and pushed the button on the barrel of the gun.

Ray found himself standing in a warehouse. There were boxes stacked upon boxes, upon boxes, and the sphere beneath his feet vibrated slightly to the sound of explosions. The speakers must have been placed beneath the sphere for this game system. Another explosion vibrated around him and it sounded closer. Ray rushed down through an alley of boxes and saw a bunch of people fighting an army of metal robots. Lasers zigzagged everywhere and boxes exploded on impact.

A man turned to look at Ray and said, “come on man, give us a hand.”

A laser struck him and he fell over, dead.

Ray found a target and fired the plastic gun. On the surface of the sphere it appeared that a laser came from his gun and struck the robot, destroying it.

“Wow.” This was his type of game. This was the type of game that he’d won this contest with, and Ray didn’t care how long it took, He hoped that He could talk Mr. Singleton into letting him have this one. Something stung Ray in the arm and he looked down to see the sleeve of his T-shirt had been burned by something.

“What in the world?”

Another beam streaked by, grazed his pants leg, and singed the skin.

He looked at the scene in horror then. The robots were steadily killing off the people, and were getting closer. More lasers streaked by and Ray ducked back down the row of boxes. He turned to run and stopped short. A man stood there, holding a gun much like the one Ray had.

“We don’t run, man. We fight to the death.”

“No, wait,” Ray pleaded. All sense of reality was gone now. His eyes showed him a believable world and his mind began to except it as such. The man lifted the gun and fired.

Ray fell to his knees. The gun dropped out of his hand. He looked down at the hole in his chest and wondered what kind of game this was. Ray didn’t know whether it was the game that went black on him, or his own vision. He was pretty sure it was his vision, but all he could concentrate on was the searing, burning hole in his chest.

Singleton arrived before the turn of the next hour to find just exactly what he had expected to find. Both game systems were activated and he didn’t even glance twice at the one with the flight cockpit in it. He walked to the one against the far wall, found the door, and looked in at Ray’s body lying in the center of the sphere. The interior smelled like burned flesh and Singleton had to remove a handkerchief from his pocket and place it over his mouth just to breathe.

Aaron pulled a phone out of an inner pocket and punched in a series of numbers that would connect him with the head programmer for the sphere prototypes.

“Ben?” he said.

“Yah,” came the voice from the other end of the line.

“I’ve got another one down here.”

“OK. I’ll be there shortly.”

“And, Ben?”

“Yah.”

“Call Jeremiah for me and tell him he really needs to get these lasers taken care of. This is the fourth kid this year.”

“No problem, Aaron. I’ll take care of it.”

“Thanks, man.”

Singleton turned off the games and returned upstairs where he’d have to wait another few months or so for another volunteer for his little known government project. A project that would train elite military forces for years and years to come. Singleton just wished that they could get the lasers calibrated correctly. Oh, well, he thought. Trial and error. All we can do is adjust them and try again some other time.