by Jeremy Bates
Mr. Kim grabbed the roll of tape off the coffee table, tore free a three-inch piece with his teeth, and slapped it across Pips’ mouth, silencing him.
A flashing icon appeared at the top of the smartwall, accompanied by a musical jingle
“That would be the police, Whiz,” the house informed him.
Mr. Kim hesitated.
“I would recommend you answer—”
“Fine!” he said. “Answer it! But no video!”
“Charlie?” a no-nonsense man’s voice said, filling the room. “Charlie Kim? I’m Officer Ryan from the LAPD. I’m right outside your house. You want to tell me what’s going on in there?”
“I didn’t mean it!” Mr. Kim wailed. “I was just trying to copy her traits.”
“Copy her traits?”
“My neighbor’s Mech!”
“Why did you want to copy her traits?”
“So I could give them to my Mech! But the more I dug around inside her head, the more things started to go wrong. Programs shut down, firewalls went up. So I had to start taking her apart to access her hardware. Then she wouldn’t even turn back on—”
“Hold on, hold on,” Officer Ryan said. “All this is just about a Mech? I was told something about a murder—”
“My neighbor, George, he came over looking for his Mech, and he…he ran straight into my knife.”
“He what?”
“I didn’t do anything! He ran straight into it. It was his fault, not mine—”
“Charlie?” Officer Ryan said. “Listen to me, Charlie, look…the best thing you can do is just come on out of the house so we can talk about this in person. Okay? We’ll sort it all out—”
“I want the street cleared,” Mr. Kim said, taking control of the conversation. “Except for a getaway car. Which I want backed right up to my garage door. And the batteries better be fully charged. No funny business. And…and…I need money. Whatever money you can get together, I want it in the car, on the back seat. You following me, chief?”
“I hear you, Charlie, but—”
“And I want a Mech too! Yeah, put a Mech in the car. But she’s gotta be hot, and she’s gotta have all top tier traits—”
“Charlie! Charlie! Listen to me—”
“Do it!” Mr. Kim yelled manically. “I have a hostage!”
“Who’s the hostage?”
“His name is Pips O’Connor. He lives down the street from me. So you better do what I say, or I’ll off him. Got it?”
“I’ll see what I can do—”
“Oh, you’ll do it!”
“Where are you planning to go?”
“Mexico,” he blurted, though in truth he hadn’t thought about it yet.
“Mexico?” the cop repeated.
“Yeah, Mexico, which is out of your jurisdiction, bro. So hasta la vista, baby, you know what I mean? Now, get moving on this! And like I said, no funny business—”
Mr. Kim caught a flash of movement near the ceiling of the living room, and he only had time to think, Drone! and, How did it get in? before it fired a laser beam that eviscerated his heart.
Epilogue
“I’m so secluded. Very alone.”
Yves Saint Laurent
Mr. Kim opened his eyes. He was in a bright room with white walls and no windows. Cutting-edge electronics the likes of which he had never seen occupied most of the crowding tables and shelves. Rocco and a big man with a red beard, both of them dressed in white lab coats, stood before a holographic projection display filled with lines of code and mathematical symbols.
“System’s now up and running,” Rocco said in an ascetic voice.
“Vitals all looking good,” the other man replied.
“Everything’s syncing…” Rocco said, clearly growing excited. “Everything’s working…”
“One giant step for BCI…”
“One really giant leap for mankind!”
Rocco made a few final hand gestures, then both men turned to face Mr. Kim, who felt confused and dreamy.
Rocco stepped forward, cautiously, curiously, how you might when approaching an unknown yet decidedly harmless animal.
“Whiz?” he said. “Buddy? You in there? You see me?”
“Rocco…?” Mr. Kim said, his thoughts beginning to clear. “Where am I? What happened?”
“You’re at BrainGate, dude! And you’ve just made BCI history!”
BCI… Mr. Kim thought. Brain-computer-interface…
Then he remembered his talk with Rocco at Cassandra’s first rolling party, Rocco asking for his brain if he died, and all that mumbo jumbo about merging human and machine consciousness.
“Am I dead?” Mr. Kim asked, filling with dread.
“Not anymore, dude. You were for a little bit. They pretty much vaporized your heart. But they saved your brain.”
“And…you did it?” he said, the dread quickly morphing into excitement. “You merged my brain with a Mech’s?”
“Damn right I did, my man! And there’s no sign of rejection. It’s all working!”
“So…I’m a Mech?”
“Even better, Whiz—you’re a human-Mech hybrid!”
“I’m a hybrid?”
“Damn right you are!”
“So I’m…immortal?”
“Pretty much!”
“Pretty much?”
“Well, if you’re in a airplane that blows up, you’re probably not going to make it. But otherwise, you no longer age, so theoretically, if you’re careful, you can live forever.”
“Awesome!” he cried.
“Yeah, it’s pretty damn awesome, dude.”
Mr. Kim attempted to thrust his arms over his head in celebration, but he discovered he couldn’t move them. In fact, it seemed he couldn’t move any part of his new body except for his eyes and his facial muscles.
“Hey, man,” he said. “Why can’t I move?”
Rocco cleared his throat. “Right…well, we haven’t activated that part of you yet.”
“Well get to it! I want to test out my new bod!”
Rocco shook his head. “Can’t do, dude.”
“Can’t do?”
“There’s the small problem, see, that, you know, you’re now an infamous murderer…”
Mr. Kim recalled stabbing his neighbor George, the police surrounding his house, the sniper drone. “I’m infamous?” he said, a little bit thrilled by the possibility.
“They were calling you the Mech Mangler in the media.”
“The Mech Mangler?” he said, liking how that sounded.
“Yeah, and that’s a bit of a problem for us, because we can’t exactly tell people the first human brain in a Mech came from the notorious Mech Mangler. Not great for publicity, right?”
“No, I guess not…” Mr. Kim said. “So what do we do?”
“Well, here’s the good news, buddy. You don’t have to do anything. Just close your eyes and relax. It will be over in a minute.”
Mr. Kim frowned. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“We got to roll you, man. It’s the only way.”
“Roll me? Roll me?” he sputtered. “You—you can’t!” Terror bloomed inside him. “You can’t roll me, dude! My mind will be wiped clean!”
Rocco took Mr. Kim’s left hand in his and gripped his pinky finger. “Relax, man. You won’t feel a thing.”
“Whoa, wait, stop it!” Mr. Kim cried. “Stop it! Stop it, you stupid shit! You can’t roll me! You can’t roll The Whiz! I’m immortal—”
Rocco twisted, turning out the lights, this time for good.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Thank you for taking the time to read Re-roll. If you enjoyed the story, it would be wonderful if you could leave a review on the Amazon product page. Reviews might not matter much to the big-name authors, but they can really help the small guys to grow their readership.
Also, please check out the books in the award-winning “World’s Scariest Places” series below:
BOOK 1: SUICIDE FOREST
> SUICIDE FOREST IS REAL - ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK
Just outside of Tokyo lies Aokigahara, a vast forest and one of the most beautiful wilderness areas in Japan…and also the most infamous spot to commit suicide in the world. Legend has it that the spirits of those many suicides are still roaming, haunting deep in the ancient woods.
When bad weather prevents a group of friends from climbing neighboring Mt. Fuji, they decide to spend the night camping in Aokigahara. But they get more than they bargained for when one of them is found hanged in the morning—and they realize there might be some truth to the legends after all.
“In Bates’ (The Taste of Fear, 2012, etc.) horror novel, a simple excursion into a reputedly haunted forest turns into a nightmare when people start dying in conspicuously unnatural ways. Ethan Childs, an American teaching English in Tokyo for the last four years, plans to climb Mount Fuji with girlfriend, Mel, and a few pals. But when a looming storm nixes the outing, Israeli tourists Ben and Nina convince the group to join them on a hike through nearby Aokigahara Jukai. The forest is infamous for an incredibly high number of suicides, reportedly in the hundreds per year, and some believe the ghosts of the dead haunt it. What begins as an unsettling ambience (there are no sounds of animals or any trace of wind) quickly gives way to serious, tangible threats when one of the party members dies from an apparent suicide. Ethan and company are soon lost, and the noises they hear in the woods either confirm the existence of ghosts, or perhaps worse, mean that a murderer is tracking them down. Readers may recognize a slasher-film vibe—people willingly go into the creepy woods—and familiar characters…But Bates’ approach to the story is surprisingly restrained, cultivating impressive frights in the unnerving environment…No one is sure whether the unseen villain is human or apparition or whether they are simply victims of unfortunate circumstances…Bates’ choice to avoid brazen scares makes for an understated horror story that will remind readers what chattering teeth sound like.”
- Kirkus Reviews
BOOK 2: THE CATACOMBS
WELCOME TO THE EMPIRE OF THE DEAD
Paris, France, is known as the City of Lights, a metropolis renowned for romance and beauty. Beneath the bustling streets and cafés, however, exists The Catacombs, a labyrinth of crumbling tunnels filled with six million dead.
When a video camera containing mysterious footage is discovered deep within their depths, a group of friends venture into the tunnels to investigate. But what starts out as a lighthearted adventure takes a turn for the worse when they reach their destination—and stumble upon the evil lurking there.
“Some books use different approaches to characterization as their ‘hook’ and others have a twist to their plot, but few sport the attraction of The Catacombs, a novel in ‘The World’s Scariest Places’ series, set in the catacombs of Paris. Why should the setting be such a draw? Because in creating a story that revolves strongly upon a sense of place (and an unusual place, at that), it succeeds in making a horror story like none other. There really could be no better place for horror than the Catacombs, when you think about it: an ancient burial place for the dead, they hold antique mysteries and a foreboding reputation as “the world’s largest grave”…The first-person story of growth and challenge fuels the underlying horror in The Catacombs: readers live every footstep, every decision, and every uncertainty in a gripping story that is hard to put down. The protagonist, a feisty female whose new moniker is ‘Stork Girl’, is anything but staid and retiring and drives a story replete with as many twists and turns as the Catacombs themselves hold. It’s the ‘you are there’ feel that creates compelling tension throughout… Readers don’t just follow the story line; they are in the Catacombs right there with the protagonists, reliving the decisions and choices that come with exploring the unknown…If it’s one thing that can be said about The Catacombs, it’s that the combination of a back-and-forth perspective that enhances overall events and a focus on action that is less than anticipated makes for a read that will delight horror fans who want their novels steeped in psychological suspense as well as action.”
- Midwest Book Review
BOOK 3: HELLTOWN
NO ONE LEAVES ALIVE
Since the 1980s there have been numerous reports of occult activity and other possibly supernatural phenomenon within certain villages and townships of Summit County, Ohio—an area collectively known as Helltown.
When a group of out-out-town friends investigating the legends are driven off the road by a mysterious hearse, their night of cheap thrills turns to chills as they begin to die one by one.
“I just tore through Helltown by Jeremy Bates and I have to tell you—I am fast becoming a fan! The latest in Bates’ World’s Scariest Places books is a bloody romp through backwoods horrors and Satanic Terrors. Reminiscent of books by Richard Laymon, the story telling is hard and fast, barely leaving you any breathing room between thrills. Now this one isn’t quite as epic as some of the others. While we get a little of the history of Helltown, I wanted more history to add to the atmosphere. This is a little more of one of those 1970’s horror flicks starring Ernest Borgnine mixed with a little Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Still supremely cool, but I did miss the history and the atmosphere that Bates had in his books in Japan and Paris. Nitpicking aside, this is still good, gruesome horror. And the fact that it takes place in a place you could actually visit only adds to the fun. I’m on board for whatever Bates throws at us next!”
- OulawPoet [Top 1000 Reviewer Vine Voice]
BOOK 4: ISLAND OF THE DOLLS
THE CREEPIEST ISLAND ON EARTH
Deep within an ancient Aztec canal system on the outskirts of Mexico City lies Isla de las Munecas…a reportedly haunted island infested with thousands of decrepit dolls.
While there to film a television documentary, several friends discover a brutal murder. Soon fear and paranoia turn them against one another—even as the unknown killer stalks them throughout the longest night of their lives.
“Island of the Dolls adds to the ‘World’s Scariest Places’ series with Book Four. Each book’s setting is actually a real-world place, and so Isla de las Mune-cas (the Island of the Dolls) is actually a floating garden in Mexico. A legend about a drowned girl and dolls that haunt the premises forms the foundation for a gripping story that is a fine addition to the series, but also stands well on its own, making it an attraction for newcomers. The tale opens with a little girl’s near-drowning and the threat from gruesome dolls that leads her to flee. The compelling opener immediately shifts to the first person as the protagonist awakens from a nightmare and an alcoholic binge from the night before. He’s part of an ad hoc TV documentary group that has come to investigate the legend of an area haunted by dolls, but the truth is even more bizarre when they find themselves immersed in murder, mayhem, and a legend that may prove all too real for comfort…Thriller fans and readers of Stephen King, Joe Lansdale, and other masters of the art will find much to love in this highly recommended, action-packed read.”
- Midwest Book Review
For a limited time, visit www.jeremybatesbooks.com to receive a free copy of the critically acclaimed novella Black Canyon, WINNER of Crime Writers of Canada The Lou Allin Memorial Award.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeremy Bates is a USA TODAY bestselling author of more than a dozen novels and novellas, which have been translated into several languages and downloaded more than one million times. He has won both an Australian Shadows Award and a Canadian Arthur Ellis Award. He was also a finalist in the Goodreads Choice Awards, the only major book awards decided by readers. His debut novel reached #1 in the Amazon Kindle Store, while the novels in the “World’s Scariest Places” series are set in real locations, and so far include Suicide Forest in Japan, The Catacombs in Paris, Helltown in Ohio, and Island of the Dolls in Mexico. You can check out any of these places on the web, or visit his website at: JEREMYBATESBOOKS.COM
