Si in Space Read Online Free PDF Page B

clones.”
    “No, I think it’s cones.”
    “A cone is like an ice cream cone. A conehead.”
    “Well, whatever. Clone, cone. These regular-looking people are anything but.”
    You realize you’re speaking in a very loud whisper, so you look around to make sure nobody’s listening.
    “So what do we do?”
    “I say we pick someone who looks like us and follow them.”
    “A guy in camo with a big beard and glasses who’s walking around with a teenager?”
    You think for a minute. “Okay, let’s just find another teen boy. Clean-cut. Good-looking like you. Likable.”
    “And what?”
    “Follow him.”
    That’s exactly what you end up doing. The boy you see is wearing jeans and a New Orleans Saints jersey, so he has to be a good guy, right? He’s from New Orleans. He’s practically family.
    Which may be exactly what they want you to think right before they decide to eat you . . . well, right before something happens. You and John Luke just need to find out what that something will be.
    The teenager walks by himself in a crowd full of these regular-looking people heading toward an elevator while the two of you follow a dozen yards behind. He puts a hand up to push a white square panel on the wall, and a door slides open to his left.
    You stop and pull John Luke back.
    “Shouldn’t we go in?” he asks.
    A part of you says no. Another part says yes. And another part wonders how Rocky beat Mr. T in Rocky III . Because, really, there’s no way that could have happened.
    “I pity the fool.”
    “Uncle Si?”
    “Maybe we should split up.”

    Do you both go inside? Go here .
    Do you tell John Luke to go inside alone, while you take the elevator to another floor to look for the crew? Go here .

END OF THE LINE

    “I DON’T THINK GOING BACK out there’s gonna help us any,” you tell John Luke.
    You realize this room has started glowing.
    Suddenly you feel a bit light-headed. Sorta strange. Hey   —you’ve been a little off ever since coming to space, but now you’re feeling really wacky.
    “You feel that, John Luke?”
    “Yeah. Kinda seems like I’m floating.”
    “Well, we are in space, you know.”
    “Yeah. But this is different.”
    The door opens.
    “Quick, let’s go!” you tell John Luke.
    But as you start to run, something happens to you.
    You find yourself in the driver’s seat of a car. Wait, Jack   —a hologram of a car, not a real one. It’s half-there and half-not.
    You’re no longer running. Now you’re racing.
    “John Luke?”
    He blows by you in a Jeep. A 3-D hologram-like Jeep.
    “Look at this, Uncle Si!” he shouts. “I think we just morphed into a video game.”
    You’re moving at breathtaking speed on some kind of grid. You try to keep up with John Luke but can’t.
    Then you turn around and see more glowing cars following you.
    You wonder if the others can hear the awesome techno music accompanying this race.
    A nice little drive in the middle of the 3-D video game funky dunky solar system.
    That’s a fact, Jack.
    You ride around for a few minutes, sending the chasing cars in circles and causing some of them to crash and explode. But they blow up just like something might in a video game or a book that has twenty-some endings. You don’t take it to heart.
    “I see an exit, Uncle Si!”
    You keep leaning forward. That’s what’s propelling this game.
    John Luke’s glowing Jeep Wrangler takes a jump and goes flying.
    “You okay, John Luke?”
    He’s hooting and hollering.
    Soon you’ve evaded all the cars following you.
    The song is coming to an end.
    The Exit sign is approaching.
    You aim your car straight at it and then . . .
    You’re out.
    You’re floating, flying, rushing   —hey, wait a minute. Now you’re falling, fumbling, tumbling, turning over and over.
    Then your head hits something and you black out.

    When you wake up, you call out for John Luke, but he’s nowhere to be found. You’re in a large, empty warehouse, and it’s glowing, but