Kit woke with a start. The alarm clock failed to go off once again. He tapped his temple, silently cursing his mom for not spending the credits to get his equipment looked at.
Suddenly, an all-too-loud alarm clock blared to life, making his ears ring.
“Off!” he shouted, cursing several times even after the noise went away.
It was time for school. Usually, he preferred to enjoy a leisurely shower and some semblance of a breakfast before leaving, but that routine would have to change for a day.
He mumbled a greeting to his mom as he ran past, grabbing a pop tart to eat cold on the way.
Once he was away from home, he made another command. “Activate Dark Offerings.”
The interface flared to life, revealing waves of shamblers off in the distance. Kit scanned the horizon for any sign of stragglers. He only met with his normal group after school, so any experience points to be earned here would have to come solo.
He made it about halfway to class before he found what he was looking for. A single fat shambler shambled next to a field of shamrocks. Sneaking up on it wouldn’t matter, as the big ones never ran fast. Instead, Kit drew his weapon, an axe that, under normal circumstances, would be way too big for him to wield. Fortunately, in augmented reality, players did the impossible all the time.
The game even had a way to simulate acts of superhuman strength, such as levitation and even flight. The way it worked was simple. The system employed microscopic drones to provide camera feedback straight to the player’s implant. It was a true out-of-body experience. None of that was needed, in Kit’s case. He was a simple Berserker, or Zerker as he liked to call it.
The shambler looked up, right when Kit got there. It was too late for it to do anything about it, though.
Kit’s axe slid through the mob like a knife through butter. What he didn’t expect to happen was for it to explode. It wasn’t fat after all. It was one of those rare occasions where the monster either evolved or became trapped. Maybe a mix of both.
Guts and viscera flew in every direction, and Kit wasn’t spared. His health pool took a sizable hit as the hot steamy sludge splashed all over his school uniform. Physically, he was dry, but he hadn’t equipped his armor, so anyone with their implant active would see it. That included his teachers.
Kit sighed as he mucked through the remains of the shambler. He’d hoped to find a hidden weapon or piece of gear but only found a strange blue pearl. It was better than nothing. Perhaps the appraiser would give him some good news. But that would have to wait until after school.
He sprinted the rest of the way to school. Maybe the nurse would have a spare outfit in the lost and found he could equip. It had happened before.
Kit snuck in the back gate and tried to stay out of sight on his mission to find new clothes. Unfortunately, Mrs. Humgold was doing her early morning patrols.
“Hold it right there, mister,” she called after him as he tried to sneak past. “What did you do to your uniform?”
“Sorry, ma’am,” he pleaded. “I encountered a zombie on the way to school. You know how they are sometimes.”
“Zombies are slow,” she spat back. “You should have outrun it. I don’t want that kind of muck in my class this morning. You can spend the day in detention. The homework packet is already prepared for download. Work on that and be sure to watch my lecture later.”
The implants were made so kids didn’t need to attend school physically anymore. Not really. All lectures were recorded and cataloged. Students had full access to a library of lessons they could download and listen to any time they wanted. Even lessons from years before were still easy to access. There was quite a collection of bloopers where teachers had done something funny or put on skits that kids downloaded and commented on regularly.
Kit didn’t care about any of that, though. He was more concerned about the mark on his record. This was another detention. It would get back to his mom, and that meant another lecture.
He was still five detentions away from any kind of permanent punishment like suspension, so he wasn’t worried about that. Still, being in detention sucked.
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Then, his breath caught in his throat.
A beautiful girl walked by. Her flowing brown hair and slender body never failed to catch his eye. While she wasn’t “hot” by cool kid standards, she was exquisite in Kit’s eyes.
The girl’s name was Azerail. He knew she played Dark Offerings, though she’d turned him down every time he offered to play with her. It didn’t help that he got choked up and stuttered every time he saw her.
“H-hi, Az,” he said nervously as he entered her bubble in passing.
She glanced at him absentmindedly. Was she trying to remember who he was? He’d talked to her at least ten times this year. Did he ever tell her his name? Had she ever even looked at his profile?
“Hi, Kit,” she replied, flashing him a smile.
Well, that answered that. Only he’d hesitated, and they passed in the hall. Was this what it meant when two ships passed in the night? He sighed and continued to the nurse’s office.
On arriving, the nurse, Mrs. Jensen, gave him a stern look. “Kit, whatever is that muck?”
“Got attacked by a zombie,” he reported, trying to wipe away the sludge he knew wasn’t physically there.
She sighed and pulled up a tablet. “All I got is a small gym shirt. It might be a tight fit for you. Are you sure you want it?”
He sighed. “It’s either that or go through school slimed today. I’ll take it.”
She pushed a few buttons, and he got a notice.
NEW MAIL
Kit thanked the nurse and ducked out of her office. For the first time, detention seemed like a good thing.
He swapped shirts on the way. The nurse was right; it was a tight fit. While it didn’t feel any different, the tight overlay had a very unflattering effect on his body. Certain curves and protrusions he wasn’t exactly proud of were pronounced in the grey shirt that said, “Sunset High.”
Detention wasn’t crowded. It never was. There were only a few students there. The regulars consisted of three kids, two boys, and a girl. Sam and Jensen were class clowns and people said detention was their new homeroom. Kit wasn’t sure how they hadn’t been expelled yet, but they were still around.
The girl’s name was Alexa. She was friendly enough, but constantly late. He heard she had an even worse home life than he did, though she never admitted it.
A few other kids he didn’t know made up the rest of the class.
Kit sat in the back and flicked his interface to bubble mode. Under normal circumstances, bubble mode allowed him to do whatever he wanted, seeing no one outside of the bubble or them being able to see in. However, there were a few restrictions in school. For one, the teacher could see him right through it. For another, he was only allowed to access educational content.
Since his options were limited, Kit sucked it up and tackled some of his backlog of assignments. He could watch a video, but he’d rather do that in bed. School videos were a great way to fall asleep, and the system had no way of telling how conscious he was while viewing them. They simply played the videos and marked him off.
For today, he was going to do some physical education. He mentally selected a few options, and the bubble faded, revealing him to be in the middle of a forest. The lesson he chose was perception. That way, he wouldn’t have to move too much. While he could do a more active lesson in class, he risked hitting his shin on a desk or doing something embarrassing that might alert his classmates.
Perception training was simple. Creepy crawly things moved around in the forest, and he had to zap them with laser beams from his eyes.
Kit looked around anxiously, hoping nothing gave him a jump scare.
Something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He swiveled his head in its direction just in time to see a squirrel flying through the upper branches. It had made no noise. He focused on it and a pair of green lasers shot through the silent forest, incinerating the tiny rodent.
Kit was just feeling smug when he turned to scan again to find a bear right in his face. The audio suddenly kicked in just in time for it to roar.
He jumped out of his chair as the simulation ended in failure.
“Stupid jump scares!” he muttered, climbing unceremoniously back into the chair.
***
Detention seemed to last forever. He rotated between more educational games and mundane paper assignments while listening to music. At least the schools allowed music. They hadn’t for a long time until they passed a law making it compulsory.
Kit ate his packed lunch in detention. He devoured his sandwich and apple before resting his head on the desk to get some much-needed sleep. While he had a few friends, he was still sleepy from staying up too late.
***
After school, Kit met up with his friends. Jarrod and Will stood at the front gate looking out for him.
“There he is,” Jarrod announced as he pointed in Kit’s direction. “He’s wearing a fugly shirt.”
Kit groaned, equipping his battle tunic. “Shut up, man! It was all the nurse had.”
“Why did you have to get a shirt from the nurse?” Will asked.
“Because I forgot to equip my armor again this morning,” Kit admitted sulkily.
“Typical Kit,” the two said in tandem.
“There’s a pack close by,” Will said, pointing toward the mall. “If we hurry, we can get to them before anyone else.”
“Good idea,” Kit replied. “I need something good to happen today.”