Too bright sun, and endless heat. Skin cancer by age 40. Skalla wasn't going to stay on Lorcunstus for the rest of her life; she was going to win the game. She pushed her sunglasses a little higher on her sweaty nose and examined the competition. The fifty other newly declared adults looked a lot like her, caps and uniforms of unmarked white, their faces nervous, but determined. Most were mumbling mantras or practicing visualization techniques, inwardly focused, but as she examined the crowd, one young man, with dark wisps of hair curling from under his cap looked back and and smiled. "Good luck?" He had a nice voice, deep and rumbling like the ore trains passing by below, but warmer, and far more cheerful than anyone stuck on this hellhole had a right to be. Skalla found the corners of her mouth curling upward in response, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to wish him luck in return. It didn't seem to matter, he noticed her smile and his own brightened. Skalla found herself wondering what color of eyes hid behind the round lenses of his glasses, but she could not be distracted for long. The glasses themselves were a reminder of why she was here. *I will win the game*, she repeated the promise silently to herself. *I will win the right to transportation to another world. A world whose sky is blue or violet, and not a washed out yellow-green. A sky with clouds.* Her gran had told her about clouds; showed her the old survey pics of Lorcunstus before the mining consortium had taken it over, stripped away the flora and fauna, and killed the rain. All the water was trapped in pipes and holding tanks now, and there was nothing to block the merciless rays of the sun. Not content with ruining the planet, the consortium had then conspired to trap their employees on its withered surface. Sixty-year contracts, lines of credit, reimbursement for life faculties-- they were all designed to prevent anyone from leaving. The game was the only way out. Granny called it barbaric, and wouldn't allow Skalla to watch it, but there was no getting away from the game on Lorcunstus. It was the major sporting event of the world --the most popular game show. It was a race, a maze, a puzzle, a gladiatorial arena... but only virtually, of course. Despite Granny's claims to barbarism, no one ever really got hurt in the game. And the winner was free to find a life elsewhere. Although some fools, afraid of virtual pain, or terminally shy, or simply unaware of how much better life could be, did not grasp at the only chance they'd ever have. The doors of the game center opened, and this week's fifty contestants surged towards them. The press of people flung Skalla against another one of the contestants, and she stumbled. *The game goes not to the athletic, or the skilled, but to the clever and determined*, she reminded herself, as she fought to regain her balance. A hand grabbed her elbow and steadied her, and she looked up at the fellow with the dark curls and smile. "Thanks," she managed to mumble. "Steady now?" "Yeah." His smile was, impossibly, just as bright in the dull yellow glow of the room lights as it had been in the white glare of the sunshine. "I'll see you inside." "Inside, but we're... Oh." Skalla tried not to let the wince show on her face. He meant inside the game, of course. "Yeah, sure. I'll see you there." Long rows of couches awaited them, the headsets ready to be fitted to the inputs on their caps. An attendant was standing ready to check the connections and offer assistance to anyone who needed it. Skalla chose one at random and lay down right away. She was beginning to feel sick to her stomach and she knew that the familiar routine of the VR checks would help settle her. *I will win the game*. The mantra wasn't nearly as soothing as it was supposed to be, but the connections clicked into place just behind her ears, and a comforting blue glow encased her mind. The parameter adjustment routine was almost enough to get her feeling comfortable again, only it went by too quickly. Next was the contract, its 'hush clause' was just as unwelcome as it had ever been, but she had known it was coming, and there was no point in hesitating. And then she was left waiting while the others finished. The soothing music that enveloped her wasn't the least bit soothing, and she thought that the game commission might have had the grace to play something upbeat and energizing instead. But finally the music faded away, and the mirrored walls of an avatar fitting room materialized about her. There was no fitting to be done, this time. The game chose her avatar for her, one better looking than her physical self, she noted, but otherwise very much alike: same round-lensed sunglasses, same cap, same spotless white uniform, same determined look. The mirrors melted away, and she stood among the avatars of the others facing down a long, long room that vanished into the distance. "The first one to reach the crystal ball, may choose a destination from among those pictured within," the announcer proclaimed the long memorized words with style. "Begin." One hundred eyes faced into the unseeable. One hundred feet thundered forward. Skalla's heart was beating wildly as she thrust herself toward the distant goal, and found herself traveling exactly as fast as everyone else. Neck and neck, shoulder to shoulder they swept toward the unknown. *The game goes not to the athletic, or the skilled... * The words rang in her mind, and her step faltered. She fell a little behind. The line ahead of her dropped abruptly, and she skidded to a stop, her hands weaving a frantic semaphore as she tried to stop her heedless descent into the pit that had just swallowed most of the others. Her feet slipped, and she fell, twisting, her forearms slammed into the edge and her hands caught and held despite the wrenching of her shoulders. Below her were shrieks and screams. They weren't growing fainter, so she knew that the bottom wasn't endless, it was merely a very painful drop. She looked down and saw some of the others pulling themselves to their feet and limping along what seemed to be a tunnel under the floor. Gingerly she looked over her shoulder. The far side of the gap looked further away than the floor, so it seemed that the tunnel was the only choice she had. Gritting her teeth, she let go of the edge. The floor plunged toward her far too quickly, and although she tried to land and roll like she had been taught in her fitness class, the shock of it jarred her teeth and made her ankles ache. She climbed to her feet, and turned to look down the tunnel -- only it wasn't a tunnel, it was twenty-five different tunnels. *And here's where it starts getting interesting*, she thought grimly to herself, walking determinedly into the tunnel mouth directly ahead of her. This is the opening of the story I wrote for a contest here, only to discover that it was about four times as long as it needed to be to fit the guidelines.