In fact, Jack had spent so much time playing Arena Deathmatch that he now ranked in the top 10 of competitors on the online scoreboard, boasting an impressive 2,374,898 points, with a record of 5,689 wins, and 76 losses. His exact ranking was number two, being bested out of the top spot by his online arch-nemesis, some kid from Korea known to him only as H8daPlya, the boy’s online screen name.
Because of his high ranking, two things tended to happen. A lot of the best online players wanted to team up with him, and a lot of the best online players wanted to beat him. This led to Jack taking the game very seriously – not just so he wouldn’t let down his teammates who looked to him for leadership during their battles, but also so he could completely destroy the opposing team. If there were one thing that could be said about Jack Finnegan, it was that he absolutely hated to lose.
When Jack had gotten home from school that day, he had found a note from his mom. She had pulled yet another double shift at work but had come home long enough to fix Jack some beef stew and garlic bread for his dinner before heading out again. One of the waitresses at the Fox Hole Diner where she worked had given birth not too long ago, leaving them short-handed, so Jack’s mother had been picking up the slack. This meant that there was no one around to force Jack to do his homework when he got home, which was fine by him. His mom typically worked nights, so Jack had gotten used to being on his own for the most part, but the call of Arena Deathmatch had made the time he spent alone seem to fly by, for which Jack was grateful.
However, in an attempt to keep his promise to improve his grades, Jack tried reading the three chapters of his English class assignment, but there was only so much he could take of old British people talking about how much they wanted to get married if it weren’t for the fact that one person was a peasant and the other person was rich, or royalty, or something stupid like that. If schools really wanted kids to learn, why did they insist on picking books that were so boring and had absolutely nothing to do with something real people would experience in their lives? It wasn’t long before Arena Deathmatch was beckoning him, and he tossed aside the stuffy old novel for a romp on the lava arena of Brimstone 6.
Each Deathmatch consisted of five rounds. The team who won the best of five was declared the winner, and the only way to win the round was to kill all the opposing team members before all your team members were killed. Jack’s team had just won a close fourth round against a very competitive clan, tieing the score, and his teammates now had one minute to strategize in their online lobby before the next round started.
“I’m telling you guys,” Jack said, speaking into his headset, “they have no rearguard. The team leader always goes for the rocket launcher in sector twelve first, which leaves them open to a flanking attack from behind.”
“But if they get the Rocket Launcher first, we’re toast,” said Jack’s teammate, KalSchoolz2 (Jack had no idea what his real name was).
“Not if we flip the second lava trap. That’ll cut him off from the rest of his teammates and allow us to pick them off while he’s stuck on the lower platform. I don’t care if he’s got the rocket launcher or not. It won’t do him any good if his team is dead and we have the high ground.”
“I don’t know,” chimed in Bill, a.k.a. “GhostSlaya95,” a frequent teammate of Jack’s who sounded like he was way too old to still be playing video games. “Sounds awful risky.”
“Hey, you wanna win this match or not?” said Jack. “It’ll work. Trust me. These losers will never know what hit them! They’re gonna be crying like little babies after we’re done with them. We’re gonna unman them so hard, they’ll have to take up tea parties and macramé in their spare time. We’re gonna spank them so bad, we’re gonna leave handprints on their–”
Suddenly, there was a knock at the front door. Jack turned, startled. It was nine o’clock at night, who’d be visiting him this late?
“Hey, guys,” he said, “hold on a sec. Someone’s at the door.”
“Hurry, we only have about 30 seconds before the next match,” said Bill.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make it quick,” said Jack as he got up and tossed off his headset.
Jack bounded to the door and opened it up expecting to see a salesman of some type, an overly ambitious Girl Scout, or his mom coming home early, only to discover she had forgotten her keys.
Instead, he saw Anna Shepherd standing on his front steps.
Had it instead been Bigfoot, a scary man in a hockey mask, or some type of crazy dancing Leprechaun, Jack was pretty sure he would have been less surprised than he was at that very moment.
“Hi,” said Anna, smiling.
“Anna, it’s so great to see you!” is what Jack would have liked to have said, but unfortunately his mouth wasn’t quite working in sync with his brain at that moment, so all he could squeeze out was a passable:
“Uh… uh… um… hi?”
The dumbfounded look on Jack’s face must have been obvious, since the smile on Anna’s disappeared. “Did… did I come at a bad time?”
For a split second, Jack thought about his Deathmatch clock ticking down, but then, he thought of the real live girl standing in front of him and how the two simply did not compare, on any level, ever in the history of time, space, and all that was holy. “No! No, not at all, I was just… ah… working out.”
“Really?” said Anna suspiciously, her lovely smile now back.
“Yeah, you know… I like to stay in shape. I’m up to benching 200 now. It’s pretty awesome.”
“That’s very impressive,” said Anna.
“I know, right? You wouldn’t know it to look at me, but I’m… ripped.”
At that, Anna laughed. That made Jack laugh. And then after the laughing, an awkward silence descended upon the two like a smelly fart neither wanted to acknowledge.
Invite her in! Invite her in! Invite her in, fool! was the thought that ran through Jack’s brain... followed by images of dirty dishes over-flowing in the sink, dirty clothes littered all over his room, and a sneaking suspicion he had forgotten to flush the toilet after he’d last used it.
“Would you, like, excuse me for just two seconds?” Jack asked.
“Oh, uh… sure,” said Anna.
“Just give me two seconds,” smiled Jack. “Don’t go anywhere, okay? Be back in a jiff…” and with that, he closed the door and frantically went to work trying to make the place passable.
He flushed the toilet, kicked all his clothes under his bed, and threw a towel over the dishes in the sink. All too late, he saw that his Deathmatch had started, and the bloody letters “YOU LOSE” were painted across the screen as he had just been fragged by the other team’s rocket launcher, but for some reason at this moment, he didn’t care about the match. He had Anna waiting for him.
Jack swung the door back open, and sure enough, Anna was still waiting patiently outside.
“Would you like to come in?” Jack asked, trying to act as smooth as possible, yet slightly out of breath.
Anna hesitated. “I’m sorry for dropping in like this so unexpectedly,” she said. “You said you keep you nights open, but… I guess I shouldn’t have taken that so literally.”
“No!” said Jack. “No, I’m glad you’re here. I just… well, I wanted to tidy the place up a bit before you came in, is all.”
“That’s… very sweet of you,” said Anna. “But, I - I think I should probably go. I’m sorry for bothering you.”
“Oh… uh, okay,” said Jack.
Anna turned and began to walk away. Jack suddenly noticed that his throat was tight, as if it were closing up to keep his heart from jumping up out of his chest. The girl of his dreams had shown up, and now she was leaving. For some reason, the image of his Deathmatch game popped into his head, with the words “YOU LOSE” painted in blood on the screen. And suddenly, Jack remembered how much he hated to lose.
“Wait,” he said, so forcefully he startled even himself.
Anna stopped and turned toward him. Jack
stepped out of the trailer and approached her.
“Was it the trailer park?” he asked. “Did you take one look at this place and realize what a loser I am?”
Anna’s eyes grew wide in surprise. “No! No, not at all! I don’t think you’re a loser.”
“Then why’d you come all this way just to turn around and leave?” he asked.
“I – I just…”Anna looked as though she were struggling to figure out what to say. Jack couldn’t help but think she looked even more beautiful when she was confused and flustered. “I guess I just got to thinking about what you said to me before… and I decided that ever since I’d gotten here… well, I hadn’t really had all that much fun.”
Jack flashed his best smile and said, “Well, that’s because you haven’t been hanging out with me!”
At that, Anna smiled. “I guess that just might be true.”
“So why would you want to ruin it by walking away now?” asked Jack. “Especially after I went through all the trouble of planning out, like, the funnest night ever for us.”
Anna raised an eyebrow. “You already planned out an evening for me?”
“Yeah, I’m quick like that,” said Jack, smiling. “So what do you say?”
Anna looked at Jack, her blue eyes seemed to sparkle despite it being dark outside, and Jack’s heart felt like it stopped beating in the breath it took for her to answer him.
“I guess it depends,” she finally replied. “What do you have planned?”
Jack could finally breathe again. “Well, are you hungry? Because I know this great place with incredible food that I can, like, totally afford.”
Anna cocked her head to the side and furrowed her brow. “Ah, sorry. I don’t like food.”
“Oh… uh, okay… that’s not a problem…” said Jack, slightly confused. A great deal of his hastily formed plan had a lot to do with food.
“Jack,” said Anna with a smile, “I’m joking.”
Jack raised his eyebrows. “Of course you’re joking! I knew that. Who doesn’t like food, right? I was worried we might have a problem because I’m a big fan of food, but since you’re joking, crisis averted. And it’s a good thing I did not take you seriously for one instant, because otherwise you’d never get to experience the culinary joy which is the 24-hour burger shack located just down the street.”
Anna laughed. “In that case, I would love to get something to eat.”
Jack clapped his hands and smiled. “Excellent! Just let me grab my jacket, and then be prepared to be a slave to delicious flavor. Sound good?”
Anna nodded. “Sounds good.”
As Jack rushed back into his home, Anna couldn’t help but dwell on the notion that for the first time in a long while, she was actually starting to enjoy herself.
For some reason, this boy was not like the others she’d encountered on this planet. He had an energy to him that she had not felt in a long time, and despite the fact she had made it a point to try not to get attached to anyone here, she had the nagging feeling that Jack was starting to grow on her.
Little did she know, her enjoyment would be short-lived. For far off, in the night sky above her, Earth’s doom was approaching…
Chapter 9
Captain Rylack looked at the unremarkable blue-green planet on the viewscreen and cursed his luck. On the list of the last things he wanted to see before he died, this blasted back-woods planet was not among them.
He coughed, and his lungs burned as though they were being seared with hot irons. Shivers of agony spidered through every muscle in his body, and as much as he resisted, he couldn’t help but let a pathetic sob escape from him.
He gritted his teeth, trying to pull himself back together. But it was getting harder and harder. He knew that though it felt like an eternity since the torture had started, very little time had actually passed. His pale green eyes were watery with tears and he blinked to clear them. Not much good that did, though. Darkness surrounded him, with the exception of a tiny pool of blinding light that hammered down from above so brightly it hurt.
Rylack could hear the sound of his tormentor’s footsteps casually circling around him. Though he could not see much past the bright light that engulfed him and the large viewscreen projecting the image of the planet, there were others in the room, too; he was sure of it. They made no sound, but their very presence made his skin crawl, and that was enough to confirm his suspicions.
He was on his knees, and his hands were bound behind his back so tightly he could feel them throbbing and swelling. Whatever bound him was not rope or metal but some type of energy that coiled around his arms and made his skin seem like it was on fire. He almost wished whatever bound his arms was actually burning him. At least then, the nerve endings would eventually be destroyed and the pain would cease. Whatever it was that had him in its grasp, it was unrelenting.
“Where is the girl?” the voice from the darkness asked, as it had again and again since the interrogation had started. It was a deep and gravelly voice, and it made Rylack’s ears hurt just to hear it. He looked up and saw the glow of two red eyes in the darkness gazing at him with contempt.
“Gone,” he croaked. “Far away. You’ll never—”
A clawed hand reached out and suddenly Rylack cried in agony. The hand never touched him, but his skin felt as if it were being pierced by a thousand needles, digging into his muscles and burning them with flames. He felt waves of pain wash over him, and a hollow pit of despair opened in his gut, as though his very soul were being torn apart within him by a ravenous wild animal.
The pain stopped and he crumpled to the floor. He gasped for air, but each breath was a labor of agony. His lungs felt as though they would burst through his chest, and his head pounded with the fury of a thousand drums. As soon as he caught his breath again, he could not help it any longer and began to cry.
“Shall I ask again?” came the charcoal voice from the darkness.
Rylack steeled himself. For all the pain, he was able to find a small spark of courage deep within him. He had a duty – a duty to his Princess. He could not allow himself to give her up to these monsters. But the pain…the pain was so great, he did not know if he could last much longer.
“Ask all you want,” he muttered. “My answer’s the same. She’s gone–”
Another jolt of pain. This time, it was quick, like a spear being jabbed into his back, twisted, and then pulled out again. He jerked and spasmed from the blow, a sharp cry escaping from him.
“You are lying to me, Captain,” the voice said. “I always know when your kind is lying. Just tell us where she is, and this will be all over. The pain will end, and you will be taken to a comfortable cell. You have my word.”
“Your word means nothing to me…” he said, as defiantly as he could.
Something that Rylack could only assume was a laugh echoed from the darkness.
“I will give you credit, Captain,” the voice said. “You’ve lasted longer than most in your position would have.”
Icy cold tendrils snaked through Rylack’s body. He gasped as he was yanked up into the air by the invisible hooks that had just wormed their way inside him. He hung there, suspended, helpless, with icy agony chilling him to the core of his being. He tried to cry out in pain, but his throat closed up, and the only thing that could escape him was a feeble gurgle.
“But you cannot outlast me,” the voice said. “I will not allow you to pass out. I will not allow you to die. Every moment you resist me is a moment you will bear witness to unimaginable pain and suffering, and it can go on as long as I wish it to.”
Suddenly, the pain stopped. Rylack could breathe again. His muscles were relaxed, the frigid cold that had dug into him moments before was replaced with a soothing warmth, and he felt an overwhelming sense of peace descend upon him.
“I can also make it end,” said the voice. “Just tell me what I want to know…”
The icy scourge of agony came rushing back, racking Rylack’s body. He struggle
d helplessly against the invisible daggers as they burrowed through his muscles, into his bones, and back out again. Then, the pain disappeared, and that feeling of peace returned to him.
“Please…” he begged.
“Tell me,” the voice insisted.
More pain, then peace. Pain and peace, pain and peace. For some reason, every time the pain went away, the fear of it coming back began to grow and grow, and the thought of it returning once again was far more frightening than actually enduring it. Images of his family flashed into his mind – his wife, with her shy smile, the smell of her cooking at night, his son and the times they played together…
And then those memories were all ripped away, replaced by the blinding scream of agony. Try as he might, he could not withstand any more, not even for his Princess.
“I’ll tell!” he cried.
The pain once more subsided, and whatever unseen force had hold of him, let him go. He crumpled to the ground.
“Where is she?” the voice asked again.
For a brief moment, Rylack considered giving false coordinates, one last ditch effort to keep his oath to protect his Princess. But he knew it was no use. The demon in the darkness always knew when he was lying, and he would make him suffer greatly for it if he did so now. Rylack licked his parched lips with a dry tongue and did the unthinkable…
“Planetary sector, Kappa-642…” he muttered. “Grid D-12.”
The planet on the viewscreen grew in size as it was zoomed in on. Computer-generated grid lines appeared; one flashed, leaping up to fill the screen as another grid formed, and soon a plot of land could be seen. It was the town Rylack and his crew had been monitoring for so many months, and the sight of it made him feel sick with betrayal.
“Deploy the extraction force,” the voice ordered. “Scan that area for all energy readings. I want the girl found, and I want her taken alive.”
Rylack could hear movement as the others in the room scuttled off to do their master’s bidding.
Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet Page 8
