Free Wheel of Fortune by Cameron Jace

my red button as fast as I can and say, “I am alive!”
    I guess we’re still kids. Death games or regular games, we still have the enthusiasm to compete and play. Maybe this is what they can’t take away from us. The power to play.
    The Summit might be full of grownups, older and more experienced, but they don’t have the energy or the magical love for life we possess.
    Vern is the last to say he is alive.
    “Indeed you are,” Timmy replies enthusiastically, which worries me. Why would Timmy feel good about us surviving? My fears are confirmed when I hear the following sentence. “But only because it is still summer.”
    I roll my eyes. What does he mean by that?
    “Let’s test your survival rate in winter time,” he says.
    What?
    The screens show a close-up of the creepy Dame Fortuna, rolling the Wheel of Fortune one more time. The smirk on her face shows awful yellow teeth with a golden one in the middle that scares the kittykats out of me. The voice the wheel produces is deafening, squeaking and crackling slowly as it rolls. I feel like some evil creature is scratching its long nails against the wall to scare us all before it attacks.
    The wheel turns, and it’s winter again…
    The Artificial Sky changes. In a flash, it is raining heavily from above. I hate this.
    I spit the pouring rain out of my mouth. It’s getting harder to hang onto the net in the rain. It’s irritating and we might get a cold if it doesn’t stop soon. Other than this, I don’t see the danger of it. The net is just getting a little slippery. That’s all. What does Timmy have in mind?
    The rain falls onto the Zeppelins too. The audience likes the scenery, shielded behind the glass. Some walk out to the balconies, wearing umbrellas. So classy, I must say! This must be the pinnacle of entertainment for humankind in all their history, watching people die up close and personal in such an unimaginably fake and artificial atmosphere. It’s even better than movies. And in the past, they thought 3D was the pinnacle of entertainment. Life itself has become an enormous, deadly 3D movie already. Anyone for a sequel?
    But that’s not just it. One of the iScreens shows a boy wearing the ClairVo, feeling so excited, standing out in the balcony without an umbrella, shivering in the cold. The ClairVo, strapped around his head and covering his eyes, is all white, looking cool and fashionable. One of the iScreens shows his friends sitting miles and miles away in their homes, wearing their own ClairVos, connected to the boy standing in the rain. His friends at home are as excited as him. They are shivering exactly like him as if they were standing in the rain like him. Whenever he feels anxious, they feel it too. It shows on their faces. Whenever he shudders, they shudder. What is this ClairVo thing? I can send someone else my feelings from miles away.
    Suddenly, Pepper shifts her position, lending a hand to Vern who is about to fall into the pool. She is hanging upside down, with her legs close to my face.
    Stupid me. I see Timmy’s dangerous trick now. The rain will raise the water level in the pool, which has walls high enough to meet with the hole at the bottom of the net. It’s only a matter of minutes before the crocodiles surface on the rising water and reach for Vern.
    I don’t know if I should support Pepper and help Vern. I couldn’t shoot him because I believe no one has the right to end anyone’s life, but when it comes to him dying on his own because he can’t save himself, I don’t know if I should risk my life for him. It’s a survival game after all. I’ve done all I can.
    Pepper tries harder, stretching her arms. “You can do it, Vern,” she spits out, not mentioning that the crocodiles behind him are only two feet away from his legs. She amazes me sometimes, believing she is destined to die, yet having the will to save others.
    “I don’t like this game at all,” Vern shouts. “Where is my bonus life?”
    I crawl on