Free The Game by Terry Schott

Today we weren’t tracking the first child born at Midnight. They’re trying to identify the first child born at 12:21, since some believe there is importance with those numbers. Experts predicted a lot of confusion trying to pinpoint who the clear winner of this would be, especially with the abnormally high number of births occurring. But yeah, this is a bit strange, I guess — at 12:21, only one child was born. On the entire planet. Does that even make sense? Well, that’s what my paper says. A young man living in our own city, if you can believe that. Trew Radfield was born at precisely 12:21 to happy parents Louis and Carol. Not sure what the prizes are for being born at the correct time on the day the world is said to end, but I’m certain it will be something interesting.’
      Bingo! I jump up and quickly write the kid’s name down. Better get his parents’ names down, too. Trew Radfield . I feel compelled to keep an eye on him, and my gut is always right.
    If I’m looking for him, it’s a good bet others will be, too. I wish there were a million kids born at that time; it would have made things easier. Trew Radfield is shining like a bright candle in the darkness to every nutjob out there, and to people even more dangerous than that.
     
     

Chapter 14
      There are an incredibly large number of attributes, power ups, scenarios, and skills that can be purchased for a Gamer’s play. The sheer volume of combinations ensures that each avatar will be extremely different once they enter the Game. It’s this diversity which enables individuals to learn, and also provides viewers with a wealth of choices for watching. Some of the common attribute selections are Longevity, Health, Intelligence, Strength, Love, Relationships, Focus, Spirituality, Intuition, and Aptitude. Strategies abound for advancing in the Game, but the Mainframe makes it impossible to develop a clear path to the top rankings. What might work for one Gamer will not for another. Repeating a strategy doesn’t produce identical results for the same Gamer on their next play. Intuition and Spirituality are not often invested in heavily, but when they are, it can lead to the avatar searching for meaning from its life on Earth and the existence of some higher intelligent lifeform that guides them. Major religions being formed are often the result of players who have spent extreme amounts of credits on these attributes. Attributes alone are not enough to provide religious breakthrough, however. A Gamer must skillfully and correctly invest in scenarios, skills, and power ups at exactly the right moments in their avatar’s lives to increase their odds of successful revelation.
    Excerpt from ‘Gamers Manual 7 - Human level guide book’
    Earth - years before December 21, 2012
      I’ve been sitting at this crowded cafe for over an hour and a half. The computer is open, the blank screen looking back at me. That annoying little cursor flashing, blink, blink, blink. Are you laughing at me, little cursor? Are you trying to make me get scared and give up again?
      This book has been in my head for too long. Something always seemed to come up, to distract me from writing it. Well, nothing’s distracting me anymore. My kids are gone. No grandchildren survived the crash either. My wife. No, don’t think about Tricia right now, George!
      Damn it, why did I not get on that plane with the rest of them? How can one 74-year-old man have a business meeting on the day he’s taking his whole family to Hawaii for a big vacation? All of them, gone...
      Okay, I have to calm down. This isn’t what I’m going to write about. People can find that story all over the Internet. I swear, if one more person sends me a message saying how sad they are for me, but the bright side is that I’m lucky I wasn’t on that plane… I’m going to run them over.
      All right. I’m writing this. People have laughed at me all my life for my crazy theory. If I was born 200 years