2

Built by a motion picture entrepreneur and former actor named Nicholas Knight, the Desert Oasis Hotel and Spa was located at the spot on Old Highway 10 near Hitchcock, California where the old Fowler Hotel once sat before the tragic shootout between the police and Sidney Krueger, a German crime boss from Texas in 1943. Seventeen people were lost in the shoot-out, four of them were civilians, but after the FBI shut the place down, the hotel was seized by Federal agents to investigate hotel owner Clayton Fowler of suspected mob ties. They never found anything, but the once prospering town never survived. Since then, it had become a vague UFO mecca for paranormal researchers that came looking for lights in the sky since Clayton's daughter, Nancy Archer reportedly saw a UFO in 1957. Knight acquired the derelict hotel when he purchased the decommissioned missile base up in the hills to create his landmark attraction, but he actually had it demolished and rebuilt further up in the hills atop the old military installation. As his new grand resort was taking shape, he sent a shuttle bus to pick up Leonard, Raj, Howard and Sheldon in Pasadena and drove them the three hours out of town to be his guests at the location preparing to open.

As they arrived, the guys looked out and saw a hotel that looked like the giant lodge from "The Shining." Four stories tall with the main entrance under a tower that included an observation deck, it looked at if it had over 500 rooms, each with a small balcony overlooking the property. Built of shimmering blocks of limestone from the pits cut out of nearby San Cristobel, it had a circular driveway with a fountain and Mexican gardeners planting bushes and gardens and cleaning a decorative frieze over the entry way of the hotel atop an elevation over twelve stairs. From a distance, it had looked like a huge white ocean liner with a single smokestack perched up top on an ocean of desert, but up close, it looked like a giant institute of learning. There was still scaffolding as men filled in patching in the masonry, and workmen were running lines and positioning both internet leads and security cameras. Howard's eyes glinted with excitement at the sight of this place, and Leonard grinned like a giant kid.

"My parent's house in India is bigger than this place." Raj commented. Sheldon looked at him.

"Could you imagine what I could do with the money made to build this place funneled into my research?" Sheldon perched his head left and right taking it all in. "I could not only re-write the rules on physics but create the world's first time machine!"

"Sheldon…" Howard spoke. "I would pay you $100 just to not say a word for an entire month!" The shuttle bus had stopped and the driver slipped out to pull their baggage down off the roof of the vehicle. Pouring from their ride slowly and uncertain of their surroundings, the four prodigies strided forward unsure what they were about to find. They were in a resort in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by palm trees, gardens, a swimming pool and golf course, and yet, all they could think about was the games they would be playing. What kind of games would they be playing? Would they be live action or simulated? Would they be role-playing games or computer-generated? All they did find were workmen on scaffolding perfecting every last detail of this place. With their driver pulling in their luggage on a cart, Howard looked up to the painting, mopping, renovating, decorating and all the other work still going on around him and the guys. Raj stood wide-eyed under the high-domed ceiling of the entry hall, and Leonard slightly scowled a bit confused to where the games were. Responding in short quirky bird-like motions, Sheldon looked bored and distracted. Another guest ahead of them was being taken to the elevators from the admissions desk.

"Welcome to Game-World!" Nicholas Knight came to meet them. Six foot two with large shoulders, an uneven beard and a thinning hairline that ended at a brunette ponytail behind his head, he wore a black long-sleeved form-fitting shirt with blue jeans and carried a computer clipboard, a screen which he tapped and used his finger to type out messages and notes and moved around programs. Turning off his ear bud of employees sending him messages across the hotel, he came to meet the guys after gesturing to one of his clerks to take their baggage. "You must be Howard, Raj, Leonard and Kelton…"

The guys chuckled with a low throaty chortle.

"Sheldon…" Sheldon corrected him. "Doctor Sheldon Cooper…"

"My mistake…" Nick spoke like a former football player and gestured to two of his guys to take the guys overnight bags. "You guys are going to love this place. It's over a square mile of a former underground military silo from the Forties that was closed down in 1983. I bought it in 2005, and I've been installing game-filled theme rooms underground connected in between by mazes and elevators. Deciding on how you navigate the maze and play the games decides how far you get, how many points you receive and where you go. I've got almost fifty game rooms for you guys to visit under our feet and miles of tunnels, hallways, corridors, stairs and elevators to navigate, but don't get scared, it's all monitored by computer so no one gets lost or injured."

"So, how do we play?" Leonard looked around as Nick took them to the admission desk. "Together…" He looked to the guys. "Or alone?"

"Either way if you like…" Nick gave them forms to fill out and wavers to sign. The desk clerk also scanned their thumbprints into the hotel files. "But I think you'll have a lot more fun if you split up. There are so many games I think you'll have more fun by splitting up. Some parts of the maze have doors that close and rooms that change so it would be kind of hard for a group of guys to keep up with each other."

"So let me get this straight…" Raj was intrigued. "It's a maze of game rooms…"

"Yes."

"Controlled by computer…"

"Yes."

"Each room has a different game in it…"

"Yes."

"Earning points along the way?"

"Yes…"

"Intriguing!" Sheldon spoke up, looked around and noticed the guys were being led toward an elevator. "Finally, a challenge for my intuitive, cognitive and intellectual processing faculties." He had developed a cocky little grin. Leonard looked at him reticent and sighed tiredly.

"I can't wait to start…" Sheldon was being led with the guys. "Where do we go?"

"Tomorrow morning…" Nick told them. "There's a few last minute simulations we're testing but I've got all of you set of with private rooms for the night because tomorrow morning, the action starts."

"And that's when I put these guys in their place with my superior mind." Sheldon and the guys heading toward the stairs, but then realized the place had an elevator. Shades of their building back home, they realized how conditioned they had become and joined Nick and the attendant with their luggage in the large elevator.

"Sheldon, you get winded going up and down the stairs." Leonard pointed out his physical limitations.

"Wait a minute, if we're really doing this separately than together, who's to say I won't win more points than the rest of you?" Raj responded as the elevator closed on them.

"Your Far Eastern stamina against the superior cognitive power of my brain? Don't be ridiculous."

"Are you suggesting an actual competition of our selective abilities and game-playing skills?" Howard got into their debate.

"Wait, guys, I think…" Nick started speaking.

"Now, wait a second…" Leonard interrupted him. "I believe there's one gamer among us more than capable than coming out ahead of the rest."

"Thanks for the vote, Leonard." Sheldon simpered a small grin.

"I was talking about myself."

Nick and his employee shared furtive confused glances as they reached the second floor.

"Are we really going for a free for all against each other?" Howard stepped first from the elevator.

"Why not?" Leonard palmed his hotel room card and followed his luggage on the cart. "Maybe we finally find out who's the best gamer?"

"Which would be me." Sheldon spoke up out loud. Nick had opened Howard's room across the hall from Leonard. He then covertly turned to Mike, his room attendant as the guys continued arguing and debating.

"Going to be an interesting weekend…"