"FWLS37" - читать интересную книгу автора (A Future We'd Like to See)

Twink was already 600 steps ahead of me, swiftly entering
the left room. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! I never even heard the
computer bad guys scream. He was that good.

"Here you go," he said, reentering and dropping a few health
potions at my feet. "I split it evenly. Now grab this stuff and
let's go get those bastards."

I grinned behind the space marine mask, and dashed along
behind Twinkie. He was already through the door and blasting
away, moving onward towards the first possible drop point when I
saw it.

I was wondering if this was revision 1.2 of the game, or
something, because it wasn't any monster I had seen before. Most
of the monsters were basic humans or these spiky brown things...
this was a cloud of some kind, swirling dots of tranluscent color
and all sorts of weird patterns. I paused a second, examining
it. It examined me back.

Well, I THINK it examined me back. I can't remember how,
because it had no eyes, no sensors, no actual features... just
dots. I knew it was examining me, though. It's a weird feeling,
being examined like that... felt like a thousand fingers of anger
reaching out for your soul. Or maybe it was just gas. When it
got bored, it examined Twinkie.

I can't remember much about what happened next. There was a
flash, and the cloud swarmed over Twinkie. I got really enraged,
for no apparent reason, as the cloud expanded, then contracted
itself inward... The game got a bit unstable, textures warping,
the monsters rotating around entirely the wrong axis. Then
everybody jacked out.

"What happened?" I was asking, pulling the trodes off. The
other two guys... typical sloping forehead gamers... they looked
just as confused as I felt.

The manager was running over, yelling what the hell is going
on, what the hell is going on... lights all over the arcade were
flipping out, games spazzing and shutting down. I didn't really
watch any of the mayhem, the commotion.

I was more worried about Twink, who was clearly dead.

*

"I don't get it, man."

"What? Look, don't give me that crap, I spent a LOT of time