Invitation To The Game

Lisse and her group wake up in a plastic hull later revealed to be a spaceship pod in Chapter 9. They feel ill and fatigued. When they exit the pod, they find the same landscape where they played The Game, except it feels different. They do not realize they have traveled to another planet and that The Game was a computer simulation preparing them to live here. They tire more quickly, due to the change in gravity, but they do not understand why.

They set up camp for the evening, expecting to return to the Barton Oaks station once they fall asleep. When they wake, they are still on the same planet. Lisse develops a theory that The Game is like a video game and that they have beaten its first level. In this next level, the environment is less welcoming, and they don’t wake up in the real world after a day in The Game. She shares her theory with the others.

The group uses their survival skills to cope with the rainy, wet conditions as best as they can, but they miss their comfortable life in the city. Lisse catches a cold.