Anda's Game Read Online Free PDF Page A

Nigricans.
    > A condition involving darkened, thickened skin. Found in the
    > folds of skin at the base of the back of the neck, under the
    > arms, inside the elbow and at the waistline. Often precedes a
    > diagnosis of type-2 diabetes, especially in children. If found in
    > children, immediate steps must be taken to prevent diabetes,
    > including exercise and nutrition as a means of lowering insulin
    > levels and increasing insulin-sensitivity.
    Obesity-related diabetes. They had lectures on this every term in health class — the fastest-growing ailment among British teens, accompanied by photos of orca-fat sacks of lard sat up in bed surrounded by an ocean of rubbery, flowing podge. Anda prodded her belly and watched it jiggle.
    It jiggled. Her thighs jiggled. Her chins wobbled. Her arms sagged.
    She grabbed a handful of her belly and squeezed it , pinched it hard as she could, until she had to let go or cry out. She'd left livid red fingerprints in the rolls of fat and she was crying now, from the pain and the shame and oh, God, she was a fat girl with diabetes

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    "Jesus, Anda, where the hell have you been?"
    "Sorry, Sarge," she said. "My PC's been broken —" Well, out of service, anyway. Under lock-and-key in her dad's study. Almost a month now of medications and no telly and no gaming and double PE periods at school with the other whales. She was miserable all day, every day now, with nothing to look forward to except the trips after school to the newsagents at the 501-meter mark and the fistsful of sweeties and bottles of fizzy drink she ate in the park while she watched the chavs play footy.
    "Well, you should have found a way to let me know. I was getting worried about you, girl."
    "Sorry, Sarge," she said again. The PC Baang was filled with stinky spotty boys — literally stinky, it smelt like goats, like a train-station toilet — being loud and obnoxious. The dinky headphones provided were greasy as a slice of pizza, and the mouthpiece was sticky with excited boy-saliva from games gone past.
    But it didn't matter. Anda was back in the game, and just in time, too: her money was running short.
    "Well, I've got a backlog of missions here. I tried going out with a couple other of the girls —" A pang of regret shot through Anda at the thought that her position might have been usurped while she was locked off the game "— but you're too good to replace, OK? I've got four missions we can do today if you're game."
    "Four missions! How on earth will we do four missions? That'll take days!"
    "We'll take the BFG10K." Anda could hear the savage grin in her voice.

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    The BFG10K simplified things quite a lot. Find the cottage, aim the BFG10K, fire it, whim-wham, no more cottage. They started with five bolts for it — one BFG10K bolt was made up of 20 regular BFG bolts, each costing a small fortune in gold — and used them all up on the first three targets. After returning it to the armory and grabbing a couple of BFGs (amazing how puny the BFG seemed after just a couple hours' campaigning with a really big gun!) they set out for number four.
    "I met a guy after the last campaign," Anda said. "One of the noobs in the cottage. He said he was a union organizer."
    "Oh, you met Raymond, huh?"
    "You knew about him?"
    "I met him too. He's been turning up everywhere. What a creep."
    "So you knew about the noobs in the cottages?"
    "Um. Well, yeah, I figured it out mostly on my own and then Raymond told me a little more."
    "And you're fine with depriving little kids of their wages?"
    "Anda," Lucy said, her voice brittle. "You like gaming, right, it's important to you?"
    "Yeah, 'course it is."
    "How important? Is it something you do for fun, just a hobby you waste a little time on? Are you just into it casually, or are you committed to it?"
    "I'm committed to it, Lucy, you know that." God, without the game, what was there? PE class? Stupid Acanthosis Nigricans and, someday, insulin jabs every morning? "I love the game, Lucy.