[ WP ] Addictive new video game is a secret government drone program .

The first time I'd heard of *Arabian Amulets* was the morning of my church's youth summer camp. I'm not much of a facebooker; that was a bit too `` old people'' for me, but I wanted to let my family know that I was on my way upstate for two weeks. All over my feed were status updates: Grandma had unlocked Map 312, Uncle John was giving Dad ten free daily amulets. 
 
 At first I'd thought it was another online game, like *Candy Crush* or *Farmville*. So I had n't given it a second thought when I loaded my bags onto the church bus and settled in next to my friends. Immediately, though, they all began pulling out their phones and tuned the world out. Usually we would chat and play card games and sing for the six-hour trip, but the bus was dead silent as we drove off, save for the occasional beeps and chimes. 
 
 After a half hour of silence, I finally gave in and asked my friend Britt, `` what are you all playing?'' 
 
 `` *Arabian Amulets*,'' she replied flatly, not looking up from her game. `` It's fun; you should download it. Add me as a buddy so we both get fifty free amulets.'' Since it looked like I was going to be ignored for the foreseeable future, I looked it up on the Play Store. Already it had been downloaded over 50 million times in less than a week. How had I not heard of this game already? 
 
 The game itself was quite simple. It was one of those number puzzles, where there was one open space in a grid, and you slid the mixed-up numbers around to put them in order. You got five puzzles a day, but could buy more with amulets you earned. Between signing up with my Facebook and being Britt's buddy, I already had 150 amulets. Of course, you could always purchase more amulets from their store. 
 
 Once you got the numbers in the correct spot, the game switched to a seek-and-find puzzle. A cartoon map would be revealed, and you'd have just a few seconds to find an object on the map: a car, a certain house, whatever. Finding the object not only earned you amulets, but it also locked everyone else out of the map; only one player could ever solve a map. Most of the time, even if you found the object, you'd get a message saying something like, `` player 420blazeitxoxoxo claimed this map! Try again!'' 
 
 The first puzzle I completed took a long time. I had n't played anything like it since I was a kid, so I ran out of time with just a few tiles out of place. The second puzzle I finished in the knick of time, but could n't find the object in time. The next few puzzles I found the object, But the maps had already been claimed. 
 
 After about an hour of this, I finally earned my own map. Here's how it happened. I'd solved my puzzle quickly, enough to earn a five-second bonus on the seek-And-find portion. The cartoon was of what appeared to be a courtyard in a large stretch of desert. There were dozens of stereotypical Arabic people who looked like they were having a party: belly dancing women, swarthy men in gold chains and sunglasses. I had ten seconds to find a wedding cake, which was easy enough. I tapped on it, and my screen flashed. `` Congratulations Player Stef_the_giraffe_101! You've earned your first map!'' But then something weird happened: the cartoon map turned into a grainy black-and-white video for about a second. I could see people -- real people, not cartoons -- dancing. There were kids running about, even though there had n't been kids in the cartoon. The video seemed to zoom in rapidly on the wedding cake I'd found, then... nothing. My screen went blank. 
 
 I restarted the app, and It booted up as if nothing had happened. I'd been credited 20 amulets. It must've been a bug, I thought. It was a new app; maybe it was still being developed. 
 
 The whole thing had slipped my mind during church camp. I never managed to unlock another map, And after a week I'd grown tired of the game. By the time I'd arrived back home, most of my friends had moved on to the next popular app. 
 
 My parents were watching the news when I got home. After hugs and discussing how camp had been, my dad carried my bags to my room while my mom worked on dinner. I was n't really paying attention to the TV until I heard the anchor mention that the US government was being criticized for another drone bombing. For whatever reason, I could n't turn away. There, on the news, I watched as they played a video clip of the drone footage. At first, it seemed to circle above a busy city, not really doing anything. Then it suddenly zoomed in on a group of people, about 30 or so. Then I watched as the black-and-white video feed continued to zoom in rapidly, then cut to black as the shape of a wedding cake cane into view.
