Trapped!

• Charlie Roden, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2019

Almost there.
I slide my bike expertly under a huge block of falling concrete - straight into an energy field.
“Are you serious?” I ask, throwing my controller down on the couch. Alby - our puppy - leaps up and nudges me. “Yeah, go on. Show me how to do it.” I sigh. Alby bounces off of the couch, and trots over to the cupboard. He nudges it open, leaping up onto the console, to get his custom-made controller.
Although, as soon as his paws touch the PlayStation 4 he dissipates into nothing.
“Alby!” I yell. I bolt over to the cupboard and grab the PlayStation. However, it is then that I realise my mistake. I feel a cold falling sensation, as though someone has pushed me into a freezing cold pool, and the lounge room swirls and distorts, disappearing in a flash of light.
Half a moment later, I’m standing in a huge garage, full to the doors with... BIKES!
“Oh, you’re kidding me, right?” I’m in my favourite game: Hydro Takeover: Reckless Riding II. I grab a 100-horsepower racing bike, heading over to the Customisation Zone. I walk over to the ColourPad and paint the powerful bike a deep red, with blue flames running down the side. Then I remember Alby...and something slams down on top of my head with a loud “YELP!” Alby flops onto the concrete floor and starts running around in circles, barking his head off. He then bolts into the maze of bikes and disappears from view. I clamber onto my bike and wait for him.
A quarter of an hour passes before Alby returns, revving a futuristic quad bike - but this didn’t look like anything I’d seen before; it’s effectively four paw-sized, motorised, ionized roller skates (try saying THAT five times fast) connected by six flexible, extendable, invincible metal rods.
Five minutes later, we’re off, skidding around corners, navigating craters the size of cities. Finally, we reach a huge arena, with a colossal starship - the Leviathan - looming ominously above.
“A boss battle? Really?” I flip open a compartment in the back of the bike. I trigger a nanoscopic switch, transforming the vehicle into a titanic armour-suit, with a shoulder-mounted blast-proof cannon, retractable wrist-mounted stinger guns, therefore it was named The Stinger. I swing up into the cockpit and crash my way into the arena (literally). The crowd went wild the moment I set foot in there. But it wasn’t for me. It was for the huge, hulking extra-terrestrial monster who had just come crashing down into the arena.
“CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON!” It rasped. I grab a huge shield and hammer.
Even though he’s twice my size, the fight was over crazy fast. Light flashed down, encasing Alby and I. We’re instantaneously transported back to the lounge room. Absolutely NO time had passed since we were transported into the game. I get up and pick up another game. A grin spreads slowly across my face. Minecraft.