Chapter 37
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Things were going badly for Brayden. After he’d crossed into enemy territory, he’d covered his friend Charlie, who’d managed to get past the snipers and behind a safe barricade. Now it was his turn to dodge gunfire and join his friend. He’d worked out his strategy and timed it perfectly. Charlie agreed to cover him on the count of three. He was just heading for the targeted area when suddenly a group of armed rebels appeared from nowhere, surrounded him, and opened fire. Within seconds, they’d obliterated his character.
“You gotta be kidding me.” Brayden felt like pulling his headphones off and throwing them across the room, but instead he just said, “I hate this game.”
On the other end, Charlie said, “Yeah, it sucks. It seems like everyone’s cheating these days.”
“Like where did they even come from? How can we ever get ahead?”
Charlie said, “Sorry. Maybe we should switch to something else?”
“Maybe. Ethan plays some game that looks pretty cool.” Ethan was going to be his roommate next fall. The university had randomly put the two of them together, and his parents had insisted on going out to meet Ethan’s family in April. Brayden had been mortified, but luckily Ethan’s parents were also complete idiots and all four of them got along, leaving Ethan and Brayden to hang out without anyone hovering over them. Ethan seemed like an okay guy, much to his relief.
“Wait a minute!” Charlie sounded alarmed. “I’m looking out my window and there’s some weird light thing moving through the trees. I think it’s a drone?” A second later, he clarified. “Yes, it’s definitely a drone. Heading your way.”
“We should shoot it down,” Brayden suggested. Not a bad idea, although he didn’t actually own anything capable of shooting down a drone, unless you included his middle school archery set still sitting in the back of his closet.
“No, this is a big one and it’s loud. We should call the cops, at least get it on record.”
Brayden got up and looked out his bedroom window. Sure enough, the drone was at least three feet across and heading right toward his aunt’s garden. “It’s here now,” he said, picking up his phone and snapping a few pictures as it circled the outside of the statuary area. “I’m going to call the police. I’ll let you know what they say.”