by Ian Woodhead
“Diane, wait up!” He stopped and folded over, feeling a stitch developing. When he sensed her shadow over him, he looked up and wiped his forehead. “You said we were contestants? Does that mean we could win something?”
She crouched down and looked over his shoulder. “I used that term a little wrong, I think, Kenny. Look, I still have no idea what show we’re in.”
“Does that make a difference?”
“Are you serious? Of course it does. If we were in The Last One Standing, then they’d be another twenty with us, all trying to kill each other. Or what about Infection Hunt? Three ‘lucky’ individuals are given very big guns and are told to bring down two prisoners that are about to turn. The winner is the first one to take out the prisoners with headshots.”
Kenny’s stomach rolled. “Right, so no matter what game this is, the chances are that we’re bait?”
She pulled him onto his feet. “We need to get to that building as soon as we can, Kenny.” Diane set off again. “And this time, don’t stop,” she cried, looking over her shoulder.
He tried to keep up with his sister as she raced over the broken rocks. Kenny kept his eyes and ears open for signs that they were no longer alone. His gut feelings told him that running from those dead things when he woke up would probably have been the easiest part of this fucked up game. Kenny pledged, there and then, that if he did survive this lunacy, Rossini was going to end up properly dead.
Diane had already reached the building. He slowed down and stared at it, trying to work out where he’d seen it before. Kenny sighed before running through the open door. It had taken him a few moments but the memory did seep into his brain. This was a replica of the palace that used to sit in the center of the city. The original building had long since gone. The authorities had filled the interior with chained-up convicts, cut them all and left a trail of blood up to the doors. The waking corpses in the city had converged on the palace like flies around shit. Once they’d bolted the doors, the officers had set the building on fire.
“What the hell is this doing here?”
Diane ignored him and pushed past Kenny to shut and bolt the door. He watched her run over to a large painting of some old monarch and try to pull it off the wall.
“Are you going to tell me what you’re doing?”
“Shut up and give me a hand.”
He hurried over and dug his fingers under the frame. “Wait, I can feel a draft.”
She nodded. “Yeah, it’s a secret exit.”
Did he just hear that correctly? Kenny kept his mouth shut and helped his sister lift the painting off the wall. Sure enough, he saw a large hole cutting through the plaster and stone. He pushed his head inside and ran his fingers over the bricks that lined the hole. They felt like real bricks. He expected them to be made from polystyrene. Kenny looked back at Diane. “Okay, this has totally fucking melted the inside of my brain.”
“Look, this arena is just one of a few that they use in their programs. It just happens that I remember a rerun show from a couple of days ago where three young men used this tunnel to travel from one arena to the one next door. Don’t look at me like that, Kenny. I’m serious. We could use this to get out of here.”
He sat down. “I’m sorry, Diane, this is just too much for me. I mean, if the cameras are watching us, how do you expect us to get out of here? Come to think of it, how is this make-believe bullshit tunnel going to help us, considering it just leads into another film set?”
She crouched in front of him. “We are still alive, Kenny, and we’ve not seen anyone else, apart from a few zombies since we got here.” She lifted him back onto his feet. “I know you’re not familiar with the new shows but, apart from the extreme violence, the format hasn’t changed. The audience craves thrill, spills, and edge of your seat excitement. They ain’t getting that from us, are they?”
“You think we’re not being filmed?”
“Would you tune in to watch us? Apart from the zombie chase at the beginning, not much else has happened. I’d have turned over by now and watched something else. Don’t get me wrong. I’m pretty sure that Rossini hasn’t gone to all this trouble to forget about us.”
“You think that maybe he’s gone out for ice cream before murdering us, or perhaps decided to have a bit of a nap?” Kenny smiled at his sister, glad to see a hint of a grin appearing on her face. It did feel a bit odd that, despite their predicament, he did feel pretty much okay. Before he did bash that Rossini’s head in, he’d have to find out what was in all those syringes.
“There’s no need to lay on the sarcasm. You know what I mean.” Diane reached up and grabbed the edge of the hole. “Come on, give me a boost up.”
Kenny locked his fingers, bent over, and tried not to grimace as she pushed her muddy boot into his hands. He stayed motionless as she pushed her body up and crawled into the hole.
“Okay, it’s your turn now,” she said, dropping both her arms down. Kenny wiped his muddy hands on the wall, wrapped his fingers around her wrists and scrambled up. “I don’t understand, Diane,” he said, gazing along the long, brick-faced tunnel. “What difference will it make if we go through here? None of this is real. We’re still two rats in one big fucking maze.”
Her smile widened. “I never thought that anything my annoying flatmate spouted on about regarding her obsession with these TV shows would ever be of any use.” She pointed to the ceiling. “Can you see those bare wires dangling down?”
He nodded.
“That’s where the cameras used to be, Kenny. They sold the studio next to this one to another company.”
Kenny had no wish to pop her happiness bubble but even if the next studio was owned by somebody else, they would still be trapped. He followed her along the tunnel, wondering if he ought to remind Diane that Rossini didn’t have to lock them in a studio to hunt them down. The bastard had obviously bugged them, considering he found them easily enough in that medi-center.
His sister stopped when she reached a metal plate covering their only way out. “Shit,” she said. Then again, what else did she expect? They were hardly likely to keep it open.
“It’s looks like we’re going back then, Diane.” He placed his hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, at least you tried.”
Diane brushed his hand away. “Don’t be in such a bloody rush to give up, Kenny.” She dropped to her knees and ran her fingers along the edge of the plate. “I mean it, you really do throw in the towel at every opportunity.”
He turned away from the woman and bit his lip before he said anything that he might regret. God, did she even have a clue what his life was fucking like? How could she, when she and her friends were safe in their ivory towers, well fed and comfortable? Kenny loved his sister but there were times when her naïve attitude really got on his nerves.
His teeth almost bit through his lips at the sudden deafening crash of metal hitting stone. He spun around and saw Diane staring at him with a huge smirk plastered across her face.
“Oh ye of little faith,” she said.
He hurried up to her and leaned over, looking into the room beyond then back at Diane. Of all the things he’d expected to see, a dusty store room, full of old boxes, was not one of the options. Judging from his sister’s expression, it wasn’t what she’d expected to find either.
“How old was this rerun, Diane? I mean, it doesn’t look as though anyone has been in there for decades.” He inched his way past her and kneeled down, by the edge. The stale air smelled of old paper and something very familiar. Kenny could detect the faint stench of bad meat. Kenny climbed through the hole, turned and dropped into the room, then helped Diane do the same. It looked like this discovery had really shaken his sister. She’d probably expected to find another studio set.
This was real; there were no props here. Kenny ran his index finger along one of the metal shelves, watching the dust motes caused by his disturbance rise into the air. “Come on, let’s see where that goes,” he whispered, pointing to a door
at the end of the room.
Diane turned the other way and walked towards a bank of filing cabinets at the other side of the store room.
“What the hell are you doing?” he hissed. Kenny looked up at the hole, expecting to see company at any minute. “Come on, we need to move.”
“Wait,” she replied, reaching the cabinets and opening the top drawer. “You have no idea where we are, do you?” His sister didn’t turn around. She shut the top drawer, crouched down, and opened the drawer below. “Oh fuck me,” she whispered.
He ran over to her. “What’s wrong?”
“This place shouldn’t be here! We shouldn’t be here. I don’t understand any of this!”
He snatched the buff file out of her shaking hands and stared at the faded lettering on the front. Was this a joke? Kenny opened the folder and looked in confusion at the first report of the dead overrunning Government House in the center of the capital. He looked up at Diane. “This didn’t happen. I’m pretty sure I would have remembered it.” Kenny looked at the cover one more time, just to see if he had mistaken the city’s name.
“Kenny, look at the date.”
This had to be a joke; according to the file, the city was overrun over two decades ago. He looked across the room. They must have stumbled onto a movie set, it was the only logical answer. No matter how implausible it sounded, what else could it be? “They must be making a film, Diane, or perhaps a new type of TV show.” He shrugged. “Come on. It can’t be real.”
She slowly blinked. “Yeah, of course, I’m being stupid.”
“Come on, we’re still alive and there’s no sign of anyone. Let’s get as far away from here as possible, before our luck does run out.” Kenny dropped the file and walked over to the metal door on the other side of the room. He grabbed the door handle, twisted it, and pulled. As the door flew open, Kenny stumbled back as three corpses fell into the room. He cried out as he fell backwards.
“It’s okay!” said Diane, pulling him out from under the bodies. “They’re just dead, they won’t hurt you.”
He scraped away the bits of rotting fabric and other indescribable lumps before getting back onto his feet. Diane was right, these things couldn’t harm him. Kenny looked into the corridor, smiling at the sight of an open door at the end of the hallway. It looked like their luck was holding out. He turned back to his sister, intending to apologize for his behavior, but his face dropped when he looked at Diane’s expression, frozen in shock.
“What’s wrong with you?”
She pointed down at the bodies. Kenny followed her shaking arm and looked into Rossini’s decomposing face.
Chapter Nine
Tony’s stomach lurched to the other side of his body. He moaned out a single wet croak and swallowed down what felt like a lump of bile-flavoured chewing gum. The only reason why he didn’t empty the contents of his guts was the vague notion that somewhere, swimming through all that mushed up mess, were the remains of some tablets that were stopping him from changing.
He had no idea where his ravaged body lay, only that the floor was surprisingly comfortable. Apart from the overwhelming urge not to let his body eject those precious tablets, his slippery mind struggled to hold on to anything else of value. It took him a moment to remember his own name.
The situation with his mental capacity could stay just how it was, as far as he was concerned. Something deep down told him that he didn’t wish to know anything of his recent activity. He was quite content to stay exactly where he was, huddled in a tight ball, waiting for this reeling nausea to leave him the fuck alone.
“I see you’re beginning to stir. That’s a relief, I thought you were going to stay asleep for hours.”
That voice sounded so familiar. His mind opened up a crack to allow Tony to pull out a single name. He opened one eye, then promptly shut it again when the harsh white light from the fluorescents burned a hole in his brain. He moaned again.
“How do you feel, Tony?”
Was that a serious question? “I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck,” he muttered. Tony took a deep breath and slowly got into a sitting position with his back pressed flat against the wall. He opened both eyes and this time he kept them fixed on the dark blue carpet. Of all the random thoughts rushing through his head, the only one that he could focus on was that they used to have this style of carpet in their house, back when he was a kid. He ran his fingers over the long pile, trying to remember the last time he’d actually felt a carpet so luxurious.
“Okay, so you don’t feel too good. That, I can relate to. At least you’re not shivering though, not now, anyway.”
Pieces of memory flashed before him. He saw some guy wearing funny clothes dropping some tablets and he saw his hand reaching for them. “I’m not surprised, Joseph. Not after what I found.” He sighed with relief when he noticed that the nausea had diminished somewhat. “Not too sure about the fucking bad acid trip that followed though. Jesus, those things were strong.”
The young man walked over to him and dropping to the floor, sitting cross-legged directly in front of him. “I viewed the CCTV while you were recovering, Tony. I must say, your actions shocked the hell out of me, at least the ones I saw before you shifted over.”
Tony lifted his head and stared into the man’s shining eyes. Joseph’s piercing gaze unsettled him. Although he had to ask, Tony knew he wouldn’t like Joseph’s reply. “What do you mean by shifted over?”
The man turned his head and pointed at a sofa on the other side of the room. Tony’s eyes went wide at the sight of two youths jerking like puppets; the only reason they weren’t on the floor was that both boys had leather straps across their waists.
“They’re both wearing VR sets.” Tony took his eyes off their shuddering bodies and turned back to the man whose grin had become even wider. “Just like the one you gave me to test.”
“It isn’t VR, Tony. Those two men are actually somewhere else, at least, their minds are. You, on the other hand, you took your body out of this world as well. Tony, you actually moved yourself into another world.”
It took him a second to realize what Joseph had just said to him. He leaned forward, staring deep into the man’s eyes, waiting for the catchphrase. “You had better repeat that, Joseph. I’m not sure I heard correctly.”
“Oh, you heard alright, Tony.” He got to his feet and walked over to the two boys. “These things on these boy’s heads haven’t taken them into some kind of computer-generated world, Tony. Come on, do you honestly think that we possess the technology to research, develop, and produce a bunch of elaborate video games?” Joseph lifted one boy’s arm and placed it on his chest. “We spend most of our money keeping the dead things from taking over the city and trying to keep the inhabitants alive.” He shook his head. “Seriously, have you any idea the costs and resources that go into feeding half a million people every day?”
“This is so much bullshit. Come on, you have to be playing some kind of cruel joke on me here. Come on, you don’t have the technology to build a bunch of fucking video games but you can invent a device that can send people into another dimension? Joseph, just fuck off. I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous in my life.”
“Can you remember the initial outbreak?” asked Joseph, softly. “What were you doing at that moment when the news broke that the dead were coming back to life.”
The sudden question threw him. It also opened his mind, bringing all of his recent memories back to him. Tony remembered his journey down to this level, the zombies that he’d dispatched, and how everything looked so off kilter. Tony shook away the thoughts and saw himself at home, watching as the newscaster on TV delivered a news bulletin that sounded as though it has been ripped straight from a cheesy science fiction movie. The videos that followed, showing thousands of corpses shambling through all the citystates on the planet, somehow didn’t feel so fake.
“The refusal to believe that the dead had risen was the main reason why the things were able to almost w
ipe us out,” said Joseph. He stared at Tony. “The plague didn’t originate from this world.” He ran his hand along one of the devices. “We were visited by travellers, three desperate individuals searching in vain for a cure to their plague. Each of them carried one of these black devices. Their mission was quite simple: they needed to find three brothers, just three people on the planet who were immune to the plague. The only problem was that in their world, the brothers had already died.” He sighed loudly. “They also brought the plague with them.”
Tony thought back to his experiences whilst wearing that helmet. “Where was I then? Joseph, where did that helmet send me?”
The man took a deep breath. “It sent you to the source world. At least, we think it was where the infection originated. We do know that world was where our three visitors came from. There’s only one other world, besides this one and the source world, that we have been able to visit, both as fucked as this one. As for where you went when you physically shifted over?” He shrugged. “I was hoping you could tell me.”
Tony could now recall the thoughts going through his head whilst running through those corridors. They weren’t his, that much he did know. That hatred he felt for those invaders clung to the inside of his head like wet shit sticking to clothing. That other Tony detested the otherworlders. His blood ran cold when he realized that the other Tony must have been talking about this world. It must have been us who had enslaved them. “I saw endless fields,” he replied, slowly.
Joseph nodded. “Then you must have ended up on the other world. The third world. It’s where most of our food comes from. We set up a trade agreement with them.”
Tony kept silent.
His colleague looked back at the two boys. “We really did want to find their equivalents on the other world, you know.” He stared intently at Tony. “These guys are the reason why we are all still alive. It’s the serum that we have taken from their blood that allows us to continue living. Without them, we all would have succumbed to the infection long ago.” Joseph paused. “Have you started to believe yet?”
