Video Games Take Over

• Paul Steinbacher, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2018

We were the best gamers in the school. But then a new game came out at the arcade just down the road. The arcade was packed with people. There was a school excursion on and everyone was going crazy! We versed a new kid from the other school. He looked really mean and by the end of the game, he was laughing. And I know exactly why – he had just beat the best gamers in our school!

We decided to go home but before we could get out the door, a virus moved down the main street and into the arcade. It had used all the power in the city to produce a portal and sent Mia and me flying around the room. We both got hold of the chandelier above the portal but all of a sudden, the chain broke and flung them straight into the portal.

We found ourselves in a room. There was a big button on the wall that said START.
“Where are we?” I said.
“I don’t know,” said Mia.
So together we pressed the START button.

In the distance, we saw a big, pixelated passages everywhere. It was a maze and we knew exactly what it was… PACMAN! The only thing was, we weren’t ghosts from the game, we were Smurfs! We started chasing Pacman.
“Go left!” I said.
“Go right and we’ll trap him!” said Mia.
We kept on running. Then all of a sudden, Mia touched Pacman and he exploded. We didn’t know where in the passages Pacman had regenerated so we started investigating. Suddenly, we heard a noise behind us. We turned around to see that Pacman had just eaten a power pellet. We ran as fast as we could and hid in a crater in the wall. It was quiet and then…

Out of nowhere, Pacman came running to eat us. Luckily, the wall had a glitch and sent Mia and me all the way over to the other side of the passage.
“We lost Pacman!” said Mia.
I climbed a wall and found that Pacman was just on the other side of the wall. So, I jumped over and landed on top of Pacman. Suddenly, he split into two! We ran away as fast as we could.

“I just want to go home,” said Mia.
“But there’s no BACK button in here,” I said, “only a NEXT button.”
So together, we pressed the NEXT button…

Now we were faced with Donkey Kong and rolling barrels. How were we ever going to get out of here and back to the arcade?