Tobias was ten years old when the System came to Earth.

Being underage, he slept through the first initialization message. Instead, he was jolted straight out of bed by his mother's screams. It was a warm, sticky summer's night in central Tennessee. The type where clothes cling to skin. So he ran downstairs in only his boxers.

His mother was in the living room surrounded by several of his father's stable hands. That wasn't weird as they had been working with his dad for years and were family friends. A few usually stayed late for a beer after a long day's work.

Tonight, it was as if all of them had lost their minds.

Mom was crying and batting her hands in the air as if trying to swat down something invisible. Some of the stable hands were yelling at each other. Something about classes? Were they talking about school?

"This is a prank or some shit!" one of the hands, Rob, yelled. Tobias didn't like Rob very much because he and Mom were always giving each other looks when Dad wasn't around.

Rob glared at the others. "Which one of you assholes spiked the water?"

"You saw the message, same as all of us," Reid, another one of the hands said.

Jose spoke up. "What the hell does it mean by 'support class''?

"You ever play a video game, stupid?"

Tobias had to raise his voice to be heard. "Where's Dad?"

His mom stopped beating the air and turned to him, snapping. "Down at the stables, of course. That's the first place he goes, the second there's an emergency."

Emergency? Was something wrong with the horses? Then why were the stable hands up at the house?

Tobias opened his mouth to ask when Rob turned to him. "Toby, do you see it too?"

"My name is Tobias." He scowled. "Toby’s a kid's name."

"Answer him!" his mom snapped. "What do you see?"

Abruptly, Tobias realized he was the focus of attention from all the adults in the room. He shifted in place, uncomfortable. "See what?"

"The box in the air," she said impatiently. "What does it tell you? No, wait." She snapped her fingers as if remembering. "Say 'Status'."

"Status?" he repeated doubtfully.

A grayed-out box filled with words erupted before his eyes. Tobias jerked back in surprise, but then knew what they had meant when they talked about video games. The box looked a lot like the virtual goggles his Dad insisted would never be allowed in the house.

Tobias felt a tiny jolt of guilty glee. He liked video games but was only allowed to play them when he was over at a friend's house.

Reaching up, he touched under his eyes to make sure he wasn't accidentally wearing the goggles. But no, that was silly.

"You see it, don't you? What does it say?" his mom demanded.

Due to under-age status, System is locked.

System unlock: 7 years, 10 months, 3 days, one hour, 30 minutes, 29 seconds...

28 seconds...

27 seconds...

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"Well?" his mom demanded.

With a frown, Tobias looked at her. "It says my System is locked."

"You saw the rules," Rob said, then reached out to grab his mom's hand. "He has to be eighteen years old."

"I don't care about that! How do we make this go away?" With one step forward, she crumpled against his chest and started to weep.

Tobias stared with wide eyes while the rest of the stable hands looked uncomfortable.

But his mom and Rob seemed to be in their own little world. Rob said in a soothing voice Tobias thought was only fit for horses, "You have to choose a class. Then... I guess we fight."

"Or we serve," Reid grumbled. Tobias saw him shoot an angry glare at his Mom, too. She wasn't the most popular with the guys. His dad was their boss, which was strange why they were up at the main house right now and not helping him. As far as Tobias knew, some of the mares were close enough to be giving birth to be on foal watch. He would have liked to stay up and help, but he had school in the morning.

"But I don't want to fight!" his mother said in a petulant voice.

"Fight what?" Tobias asked. He looked around at the other hands. If his mom wasn't going to tell him what was going on, then maybe Reid or Jose would. "What's going on? Why can I see a video game box?"

As if his words were an omen, the lights flickered and went out, plunging the house into darkness.

Is there a lightning storm? he wondered. The electricity did go out during bad lightning flashes. Was that the emergency? A tornado warning?

For some reason, his mother screamed.

Her scream was immediately drowned out by a monstrous roar outside. A flicker of orange could be seen through one of the tall living room windows.

Immediately, the stable hands crowded close. Tobias did too, though he had to push past the men to get a good look.

A fifty-foot-tall monster made of living flame strode out from a nearby stand of trees. It was shaped like a thin human with spindly arms and legs. Its head was stretched out with the top flickering and dancing where hair would be.

The trees it walked past burst into flame.

I'm dreaming, Tobias thought, and then amended. No, this is a nightmare.

The flame monster paused for a second, elongated head swinging back and forth between the house and the stables.

All the men drew back, and his mother gave a whimper.

Then there was a piercing light from the stables. The generators must have kicked in when the power went out. Late summer nights could be brutal enough to make air conditioning a requirement. His dad would never allow the horses to go without fans or air conditioning during the worst hot and humid nights.

The lights that beamed out through the suddenly open doors were like a beacon. Tobias's father stood silhouetted out in the middle. And if that wasn't enough, he had an LED handlamp he waved at the monster.

He was trying to catch its attention.

"What's he doing? He's going to lead it to the horses!" Tobias yelled. Turning, he ran to the door.

His mom caught him before he got more than a few steps. Hands on his shoulders, she shook him. "Shut up!" she said, louder than Tobias had been. "That thing will hear you!"

"But–"

"He knows what he's doing, son," Rob said in a heavy voice.

Son?! Outraged, Tobias turned to him.

Then the monster gave a crackling roar and swung one of those too-thin arms. It hit the roof of the stable, which immediately burst into flames.

"No!" Tobias twisted again, ripping loose from his mother’s grasp, and headed straight for the front door. The logical part of him knew what his father had just done, of course. He had seen the monster trying to make a decision and Dad made sure that it chose him and the horses instead of his family.

But... but his dad... the horses...

It was impossible through the sounds of snapping wood and monster roars, but Tobias swore he heard the mares scream...

Again, his mom caught him before he made it to the door. When had she gotten that fast? Tobias tried to wrench away, but her grip was strong. Too strong.

"Your father made his choice!" Suddenly, she pulled him to the side, and he found himself practically being dragged by the arm through the house.

Shocked, he took a good look at her and saw well-defined muscles peeking out from her tee-shirt. It was more than the arms of a woman who worked for a living. These were the muscles he would see from a bodybuilder.

Tobias had no choice but to run along with her out the back door. Once they were outside, Tobias looked over his shoulder.

The flame monster was so huge it was visible over the house's rooftop. It bent over the long roof of the stables, reaching in like a kid would with a jar of candy. He didn't want to think about what it was reaching for, or the dark object it pulled out and tossed into its open jaws.

Tobias was too stunned to cry. He just looked away.

Some of the stable hands had followed his mom out. Jose ran forward to the Jeep parked nearby, but soon swore and jumped out again. "The car ain't starting!"

"Remember the message?" Rob yelled. "All higher tech is banned."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Run for it!" Rob snapped. "Run!" He reached out with one meaty hand, pressed between Tobias's shoulders and pushed hard to hurry him along.

Numb, Tobias ducked his head and pelted down the long driveway on foot. It was the only thing he could do.

Behind him, his father, world-renowned bloodlines of horses, and stables that had been in his family for generations went up in flames.