Olympus: It's Not Just a Game

Chapter 51

They tried to keep quiet, for Karl's sake, the next morning in his room. Karl was a little embarrassed to be the center of attention, and Nancy made it worse by giving him a huge kiss on the cheek. "What was that for?" he asked.

"You're here!" she said. "And you're alive!"

"Barely," he whispered. He turned toward Mr. Huber. "Dad, I apologize for running away. I was so wrong. I am so sorry!"

Mr. Huber looked flustered. "Oh, that's okay, Karl. Boys will be boys."

Mr. Avery winced. The boy needed forgiveness, not excuses. Then he turned to Karl. "You owe me an apology, too."

"I'm real sorry," the boy whispered. "Really."

"Karl, you were wrong to run away, and foolish to stay away," Mr. Avery replied sternly.

The nurse on duty stopped him. "He doesn't need you making him worse!"

Karl interrupted her. "No, it's okay. He's not making me worse. He's making me better."

Mr. Avery rejoiced at his words. "Karl, I forgive you from the bottom of my heart."

Noah waited a respectful moment, but his curiousity compelled him. "What happened in there, anyway? We thought you were going to die!"

Karl tried to find words, but none came. Nancy supplied them. "It was awful, Noah. All the fury, all the evil, all the rage of all the gods in Olympus fell on us."

"But they were just computer-generated images, Nancy. It was just a game!"

Mr. Avery shook his head. "The human mind wasn't designed to handle that kind of terror, Noah. It was an experience too real to forget, and too painful to remember. A mind can fracture under such stress."

At that moment, several doctors trooped in. They eyed Karl in a way that made him feel more like a museum exhibit than a patient. "We have concluded that this was an unusual case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder," the first doctor said.

"Unusual?" another burst in. "Unique! Completely unparalleled. I have decided to name it 'ultraphobia'."

"Ultraphobia?" asked Mr. Huber. "What's that?"

A third doctor rubbed his hands together excitedly. "Terminal terror," he answered. "The medical condition of being literally scared to death."

The attending nurse took one look at Karl's pale face, and shooed the doctors out of the room. "Take your newfangled diagnosis out of here! This young man doesn't need you frightening him all over again." She glared at the Hubers and Averys, but Nancy looked so meek that she relented. "You can stay, if you're good. Just don't say anything that will disturb my patient!"

"He better not see this, then," Mr. Avery whispered to Jacob. "Take a look!" He handed Jacob a newspaper.

"I don't like the headline," Jacob winced. "'Wild Kids Roam Streets. Salmon Falls, NH. Almost eight hundred teenagers were turned loose in this quiet New Hampshire town after lawyers forced their release from a state sanctioned foster home. In defense of the controversial program, director Martha Sparrow assured reporters that any problems would be quickly corrected. 'We care about kids, and we will not let our opponents turned back the clock on children's rights.'

Jacob continued reading. "Most of the teens released last night were refugees from abusive homes. Experts agree that these children will wind up back in state custody in the near future. Community residents expressed concerns that crime will increase as a result of these previously detained youths. 'Lock them all up, that's what I say!' insisted long-time area resident John Gagne. 'Young punks, that's the best thing for them.'

"Others had extensive criminal records, although some had done nothing more serious than run away. 'It was awful,' sobbed one young African-American woman. 'We were slaves. Slaves!'

"Director Sparrow dismissed such complaints as the product of overactive imaginations, and expressed hope that the center would reopen soon. 'We are advocates for children,' she said. 'It's in their best interest to have a secure environment again as soon as possible.'" Jacob stopped reading. "This is terrible!" he whispered.

"Don't worry too much," Mr. Avery assured him. "The FBI is filing federal kidnapping charges for every kid they found in CyberCamp, and Officer O'Reilly tells me they're looking into wire fraud and racketeering charges, too."

Karl heard them whispering, and looked over at the newspaper. He noticed the colored comics. "Is it Sunday?" he exclaimed. "Is it only Sunday? Eight days ago," he continued, looking up at the clock, "right about now, we were heading off to the mall to play Olympus."

"It's Sunday, Avery," Mr. Huber chided. "I thought you were supposed to be in church."

"Your boy is alive again, Huber," Mr. Avery snapped back. "I thought you were supposed to start praying now."

"I did say that, didn't I?" Mr. Huber looked surprised at himself.

"You could come to church with us next Sunday," Mr. Avery suggested.

Mr. Huber looked at Karl, and at Jacob's eager face. "Well, okay," he mumbled. "I don't want to appear ungrateful. I guess I owe the man upstairs."

"Was it only eight days ago?" Nancy whispered. "It seems like a lifetime."

"For Karl, it almost was," Mr. Avery noted.

There was a knock at the door. April trotted over to open it. Wheeler rolled in, with his mother behind him carrying a huge pot of African violets.

"Wheeler!" Nancy cried. "I hardly expected to see you here!"

Noah shot a warning glance at Nancy. "What happened to you, Wheeler?" he asked. "What made you snatch Nancy?"

"Snatch Nancy?" Wheeler asked. "What are you talking about?" He had no idea what had happened to them since the moment he had been seized. As they explained all that "he" had done to hurt them in Olympus, his face went pale. "So," Wheeler concluded, grimly, "he made a mock-up of me, and used it like a puppet just to get at you." Pain was etched into his face. "He never wanted me at all."

"Well, he was sure threatening to take you from me, though," Mrs. Morrison broke in. She turned to the adults. "They had the papers all drawn up to take Simon away forever."

Mr. Avery was appalled. "What will you do?"

"Oh, it's fine now," she replied. "We just got back from the detective's office. Ray has agreed to drop his custody claims against me and turn State's evidence if they'll drop criminal charges against him."

"Wheeler, I'm sorry I ever believed you could be so vile," Nancy said. She bit her lip. "But you did say you would do anything to be with your Dad!"

Wheeler stared at the floor. Mr. Avery gazed sadly at the young man, as broken in spirit as he was in body. But Mr. Huber was too full of his own happiness to share the pain of this boy who had lost his father. He had his own son back. "The important thing," he cried, "is that you got him back, Sheila. You must be very happy!"

Sheila Morrison looked up from Wheeler's grief to Mr. Huber's joy. "Dan's right," she forced herself to say. "It's a happy day. Karl's alive, and I've got my only son again. Right, Simon?" She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, kneeling down to give him a grateful mother's hug.

"I couldn't live without you, Mom," Wheeler said. "I just had hoped that we could all be together."

"Well I'm glad you're back with us," Nancy declared. "Hey, we need somebody like you on our team!"

"Team? What's this team stuff?" Mr. Huber protested. "I mean, I appreciate the help—from all of you," he said, looking around gratefully at Mrs. Morrison, Mr. Avery, Nancy, and Noah. "But the team is hereby dissolved. This game is over!"

"No, Dad," Karl answered. There was a troubled look in his eyes, which seemed to see far beyond the hospital room. "It isn't just a game.

"And it isn't over."