Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind Read online

  “Anyone want to fill me in?” Willa asked.

  I explained, “Whenever Veratrum announces a new game online, they always announce it here in town a few hours earlier by unfurling a banner on their building.”

  She pointed. “So that’s why that one’s being pulled off?”

  We all looked. Sure enough, two men on the roof were pulling off the old Alien Invasion banner, which had replaced the previous Monsters Unleashed banner. I wondered what would be next. That old excitement started to bubble up inside me, but I shut it down. No matter how cool the game sounded, I could never play it. We could never trust a Veratrum game again.

  “We all have to promise never to play it,” I said. “We’re just here to see what it is.”

  But before anyone else could agree, Charlie shot to attention, his focus fixed on something in the employee lot. He raised an arm and slowly pointed. “Look.”

  I followed his line of sight. Willa and Marcus must have found it at the same time as I did because they simultaneously gasped.

  The Meleski Plumbing van that had been following us was in the Veratrum Games employee parking lot.

  “Well,” Charlie said, “the good news is that a secret government agency hasn’t been following us.”

  “The bad news is that my favorite video game company has,” I said, pretending to be calm.

  Marcus shook his head in disbelief. “Since when do game developers stalk people in fake plumbing vans?”

  Willa snorted. “Since when do video game monsters escape into the real world and real aliens teleport to Earth through an app?”

  “Point taken,” Marcus said.

  Charlie puffed out his chest. “Bex is right. We have to agree, no more messing around with Veratrum Games. Never play it. Never download it. Never open it. Not once.”

  “Shall we make a pact?” Willa asked.

  “Hands in,” I said.

  We all held our arms out and placed our hands on top of one another’s. Then we each solemnly swore with the words, “I promise.”

  I looked around at the four of us banding together and felt a warmth spread through my chest. We’d been through so much in such a short time. I felt like I could truly trust them. I had found my people.

  “Hey,” Marcus said with a little smile. “I guess there is a Gamer Squad after all. It’s us.”

  The small crowd of people leaning against the chain-link fence roared and clapped. They must have unfurled the new banner. I took a deep breath and turned around to see what the next game would be. The sign read:

  Get ready for Veratrum’s newest

  augmented reality game….

  ZOMBIE TOWN

  Charlie and I looked at each other uncertainly.

  Gulp.

  Acknowledgments

  I could not have written this book without a little help. Thanks to:

  My agent, Kate Testerman, and my editor, Christina Pulles, for being on my squad.

  Dr. Maria Womack, astrophysicist extraordinaire, for helping me with my astronomy questions and for being a good friend.

  The Clay Center Observatory, for having public telescope nights when I could research this book.

  Anna Staniszewski, for connecting me with Ray Brierly, who so generously answered all my programming questions.

  Mike, Ryan, my parents, and all of my family and friends, for supporting me, making me laugh, and not minding that I’m a total dork.

  The first sign that something was wrong was Robbie Martinez projectile-vomiting in science class. We were learning about viruses. And though I didn’t think it was barf-worthy, we all have our own threshold for gross. Apparently Robbie’s was thinking about a virus invading and reproducing in previously healthy cells. Or so I thought. But when Isaac made the liquid scream in math when we were only talking about ratios, I started to wonder if something else was going on.

  “Hey, Bex.” My best friend and neighbor, Charlie Tepper, came up to me in the hall with a concerned look. “Why is everyone eating backward today?”

  I struggled to pull a book from the pile in my locker without making the rest of them come tumbling out, too. “Must be some kind of stomach bug.”

  Charlie grimaced. “I remember last year in Runswick a norovirus went around and half their school got it. That’s how contagious it can be. They had to close the school for a week and bring in a cleaning crew.”

  “Gross.” I closed my locker door and turned around. My friend Willa Tanaka staggered up to us, clutching her stomach.

  “Willa!” I cried. “Are you sick, too?”

  She shook her head, and her long black hair flowed from side to side as in one of those slow motion commercials. “I don’t have whatever this illness is. But I just watched Mr. Durr upchuck a week’s worth of groceries on the whiteboard. So that made me a little woozy.”

  Yikes. This flu was tearing through school fast. I really didn’t want to stick around and risk catching it, but I couldn’t just walk out. Maybe I could call my parents and ask them to get me released.

  “Bex,” a voice called from behind me. “Bex!”

  I turned around to see Marcus Moore waving at me from the doorway to the computer lab. My heart sped up. Marcus was the fourth in our little group—Charlie, Willa, Marcus, and I made up the Gamer Squad. Self-titled, but still totally cool. We’d saved the town from video game monsters over summer vacation and an accidental alien invasion in September. My phone was responsible for both disasters, and I still felt a little guilty about that. But it had been a month without drama, and things seemed okay. Mostly because we’d agreed never to play mobile games from Veratrum Games ever again since they’d developed both games that had gone so wrong. In fact, if Veratrum’s latest game were called Flu City instead of Zombie Town, I would have wondered if they were involved with the puke-a-palooza going on right now.

  Even though Marcus was one year older, he and I had a lot in common. We were awesome gamers; we both wanted to be programmers; and we both agreed that Speedy’s Pizza was far superior to the Wolcott House of Pizza, which was an unpopular opinion in town.

  I’d had a crush on Marcus forever. Back in September, my dream came true when he told me he liked me. But now it was October, and we’d never really talked about it since. I’d been hoping that he’d ask me to the Halloween Dance, but he hadn’t. At this point, it was only a week away; so my high hopes were currently somewhere in my shoes.

  “Bex, c’mere!” Marcus waved excitedly.

  Willa poked me in my side. “Go see your lover boy.”

  Charlie tried to cover a chuckle with his hand.

  I rolled my eyes at both of them.

  The four of us had been spending a ton of time together since the Gamer Squad formed last month. We hung out in school, played games after school, and talked all night on a group chat. Charlie had been my best friend forever. Willa and I were friends when we were little, then not friends when she dumped me for the popular crowd, then friends again. Now we were closer than ever. And Marcus, … well …

  My stomach did a little flip-flop as I walked toward the computer lab. Was this it? Was Marcus finally asking me to the dance?

  I reached the doorway to the lab and put on my best nonchalant totally-not-expecting-you-to-ask-me-to-the-dance-and-I’m-actually-really-chill-right-now-and-not-nervous-at-all fake voice. “Hey, Marcus. What’s up?”

  He motioned for me to come into the room. “I want to show you a game I made.”

  My heart sank. A computer game? I’d gotten my hopes up—again—and he’d only wanted to talk about games—again. I mean, gaming was my favorite hobby and would hopefully one day be part of my career, but a girl wanted to be asked to a dance now and then, too!

  I glanced at the wall clock. “Okay, but I only have three minutes before my next class.”

  Marcus was beaming with pride, but his fingers were trembling a little. Why was he nervous for me to see his game? Was he worried I wouldn’t like it? He led me to the closest computer termina
l. His hand hovered over the keyboard.

  “Are you ready?” he asked with a giant smile.

  As I opened my mouth to say yes, the intercom clicked on and our principal, Mr. James, began to speak.

  “The school is releasing early today due to the—” He paused to let out a moderately gross burp. “Due to the illness affecting many students and staff.”

  His voice sounded weird. As he tried to begin his next sentence, he gagged and gurgled. I knew what was coming next, but thankfully the intercom clicked off before we all had to listen to it.

  Marcus’s smile fell.

  “That’s okay,” I said. “You can show me the game tomorrow.”

  “Sure,” he said, nodding, but the disappointment didn’t leave his eyes. Whatever this game was, it seemed really important to him.

  Charlie poked his head into the room. “Did you hear? Mr. James is letting us out early. My mom already got the emergency autocall and texted that she’ll pick us up.”

  “Okay, cool,” I said, reentering the hallway.

  With school canceled, kids were rushing out at record speeds but without the usual glee that came along with the early dismissal of a snowstorm or holiday. They were either sick themselves or trying desperately to leave without touching anything or anyone. And as Andy Badger recycled his lunch on the floor in front of me in a colorful display, only one question went through my head: Why did this have to happen on Taco Tuesday?

  The next day, I would have many more questions.