A Sequel to the Quillan Games

Chapter 2: Arrival at the Castle

"Layra?" thought Bobby.

Who the heck was Layra and how did she know about him and the other Travelers? The question was: how much did she know? Was Layra in fact a fellow traveler or worse, was she an accomplice of Saint Dane or worse, was she going to play him over and betray him and the rest of the travelers, exactly what Nevva Winter had done? Was she aware of the shape shifting, demon traveler named Saint Dane? He wasn't too sure on that one. She obviously knew about Travelers, but hadn't mentioned Saint Dane.

Did she know of Acolytes and above all, of Halla? A million thoughts flashed through his mind while he drew closer to the end of the flume. When finally the ride came to an end and the jumble of musical notes came to a stop and he was dropped off, he came face to face with a familiar destination. He’d been here before and he never hoped on coming back. But there he was.

Like his first drop off on Quillan, he’d landed in a storage like room that was simply filled with boxes. Hundreds and hundreds of boxes, all stacked on top of one another. They were of all sizes too, some small, some big, some not so small and some not so big. You get the idea.

Like last time, there were again, those plates with the logo Blok written along the bottom. He could only remember that dreaded company too well. Over time, the cooperation of Blok had eventually taken complete control over the territory and forced the citizens to participate and become involved in a harsh, cruel way of life; by being a part of a series of deadly games with deadly outcomes. It scared Bobby thinking he was actually back there and feared how worse things had become here on this game playing territory. Or had things not changed at all? Were things just as he'd left them? He was about to find out.

Luckily he didn’t have to worry out those creepy crawlers, the robotic, quig spiders. As long as Saint Dane was nowhere near this territory, he was safe from those freaky critters and from what he was seeing, he wasn't there. Surely by then, the quigs would have bounced into action but strangely enough, they were nowhere to be seen. What a relief.

He moved his way through the alley of boxes and in no time, found his way out through the tall, double wide door, climbed up a flight of stairs and found himself in that all too familiar game room. Or at least what he called a game room. He was once again, at the arcade.

The room stretched off for what seemed like forever with a variety of loud, hollering games from pinball to shooting games to races and even something quite similar to dance dance revolution. Sure, it would have been great to plump down at one of those babies and start playing, if he weren’t so terrified of losing and being snatched and taken away by a Dado. For him, the place was like any guy's dream, without the additional part of either-you-win-or-you're-dragged-off-by-a-couple-of-freaky-robot-thugs. As for the dados, those guys were flat out creepy and not because they were tall and intimidating, but because they were robots. They knew no emotions. They were just…emotionless. All they knew were commands and doing only what they were told.

He strolled by, observing each game and turn and saw a couple of people playing. No surprise there. He felt bad for them, wondering how close they were to failing and being dragged off by an army of giant robots. They said nothing to Bobby as he walked by. They were too focused and some didn't even give him a second glance. Their eyes were fixed on the screens. They were fixed on winning.

He wasn’t sure if it was because they were so hauntingly focused on winning or if it was simply because they weren’t aware of his presence. Probably both. He guessed it was a little of both. There were even, sadly, a few kids playing but they were so caught up in the excitement of the game, they hadn’t yet caught onto to what happened if you didn’t win. He wondered where their parents were and why they were allowing their young ones to play. Or maybe...they had no parents. Bobby shivered.