Frags

by Thomas K. Carpenter

  Gabby had her arms crossed and was tapping her foot at the three of them. No one could make eye contact with her. She wanted to scream at them for their foolishness, but their sagging shoulders in the face of her disappointment softened her heart.

  Gabby looked to them, one by one, until they made eye contact. She tried to tell them with her hesitant smile that she wasn't really that mad.

  "I'm sorry, Milton. You had to leave your new girlfriend back at the Farm to come here. And all three of you risked a year's service on the Train for me. I shouldn't be mad, I should be happy to see the three of you. It's just I didn't want to put you guys into any more danger than I had to."

  Milton was about to speak up when Michael put his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Gabby," he said weakly, making her wonder what was truly wrong with him, "we've been trying to figure this mystery out long before you came along. Remember we were the ones that told you about this whole mess. It's our burden too."

  "But you're in the Freelands now. You can start over, you don't have to get mixed up in it," she said. "But I need to get Zaela back."

  "But we want to." All three of them nodded, making her feel simultaneously giddy with happiness and thoroughly guilty.

  Gabby sighed. "Fine. You guys win. I'll stop trying to leave you behind." For now. "But we have to get somewhere quiet so I can fill you in on the rest."

  Michael met her gaze with his crystalline blue eyes, sending shards of ache through her soul. "I have something I need to tell you as well. Something everyone needs to hear."

  They shared glances and Gabby started to pull up her interface to find where the nearest lodging might be when a deep voice cleared his throat. Gabby turned to find a tall man with a bushy mustache wearing a ten gallon cowboy hat standing behind her.

  "Gabriella DeCorte, as acting judge of the Freeland called the Double Eagle, I hereby put you under arrest."

  Chapter Nineteen

  "You're kidding right?" asked Milton, stepping in front of Gabby.

  She put on hand on Milton's shoulder and he stepped aside. "Are you Jaxon?"

  The man in the ten-gallon hat nodded. The Collector hadn't told her how big he was. Gabby felt like she was staring at a mountain. Jaxon wasn't as tall as Drogan, but he was wider and fatter. His arms were bigger than her legs.

  "We haven't done anything wrong," she said, though she wasn’t so sure. Gabby checked with the other people passing on the street to gauge their reaction. A man (or at least she assumed it was a man) wearing a gorilla skin barely even acknowledged the five of them huddled near the train station.

  Right behind gorilla-man, strutted a peacock woman naked from the waist up. She poked Milton in the ribs before he could say anything in case it would get him in trouble, too. The other townsfolk she could see further down the street wore skins stranger and more unbelievable.

  Back in the GSA, only minor modifications were allowed. The basic human form had to be maintained, though that left a wide margin for playful skinning. In the Freelands, it appeared there were no rules on shape or form.

  Jaxon poked the tip of his hat upward with a meaty finger. "You were havin' a street meeting without a permit. We don't take to foreigners mucking up our free air."

  Michael stood up to Jaxon like a toothpick before a hurricane. "Wait a sec. I thought the Freelands were about acceptance and joining?"

  "First you got to learn the rules, skinny. Then come talk to me about what's right and wrong. Until then, the girl comes with me to be written up for convening this here meeting," said Jaxon.

  The big mayor started wobbling away toward the center of town. When Gabby didn't move, he yelled over his shoulder, "I can make this a lot worse if you don't want to play along."

  Everything about Jaxon seemed wrong. Gabby had no intention of going with him to wherever he was going, but she had to talk to him about LifeGame, so she ran to keep up.

  "I don't know what your game is," she said, "but I know this isn't what the Double Eagle is all about. Speak your purpose or I'm not going any further with you."

  It was a bluff, but she felt like she was being gamed. Jaxon raised a mischievous eyebrow at her and then stepped in front of her, blocking the other Frags from her sight.

  "If you want to know what she's done," Jaxon barked out, "then read these." With an off-hand flick, the mountainous mayor threw three card programs at them.

  Gabby knew exactly what he was doing the moment he threw the cards. She stepped around him and yelled, "Don't take them!"

  But it was too late. Michael, Milton and Mouse each had the programs in their hands, curiously staring at little white rectangles that symbolized information. The cards could be helpful, or they could be a malicious program. When Jaxon started morphing into a different form, Gabby knew it was the latter.

  Her three friends began to shimmer, alternating between static and a rainbow miasma. Jaxon had become a big-headed yellow creature with huge green eyes and purple lips. The creature, an imitation of a giant puppet with legs, skipped away singing a twisted nursery rhyme that would have frightened Drogan.

  Gabby struggled to bring up her interface, wanting to understand the level of damage from the virus. After a quick scan, she found a tag on the program naming it 'HR Buf-n-stuf!'

  She shook her head, remembering the Collector's warning about the Double Eagle. She hadn't thought to tell her friends, but if she had, they might not have accepted the program cards. Gabby considered chasing down the prankster, but decided she'd be better off fixing her friends.

  The name of the virus clued her into the potential results. 'Buffing' was a common LifeGame word to indicate changing or enhancing appearance or skills. The yellow headed trickster must have figured out they were former LifeGamers or had come from the GSA himself.

  When the multicolor prisms of her friends stopped flickering, Gabby took a step back. In Milton's place, a voluptuous woman wearing fishnet stockings and only bare scraps of cloth serving as covering, reviewed herself from head to toe.

  "Wowsers! I look hot. Why haven't I ever done this before?" Milton's voice coming out of a knockout gorgeous body was unnerving.

  To his right, a pair of familiar red eyes quickly glanced up at her. Mouse's voice coming from the Coder's body unnerved Gabby. "I don't understand. Why are you three looking at me like that? I haven't changed."

  "Uhm...Mouse, you look like Mr. Johnson. Red eyes, weird sword and complete retro-fantasy attire," said Gabby.

  The street walker Milton shook his head. "That's not what I see." He chuckled. "Though what I see is pretty darn funny. Mouse looks like Gabby wearing a velvet purple pimp suit. I swear you could be right out of Leisure Suit Larry."

  "What do you see, Michael?"

  An agitated buzzing came out when it appeared he tried to speak. The area around his mouth turned fuzzy and pixilated, so even if Gabby could read lips, she wouldn't be able to. Michael tried a couple of times before throwing his hands up into the air.

  "Great," said Gabby. "You're a buxom whore, Michael can't communicate with us, and Mouse looks different to at least two of us." She sighed. "We need to find a place to stay so I can try and get those viruses out of your systems."

  "Yeah, might be a good idea. And I might need a little private time in the bathroom," said Milton.

  Mouse and Gabby both exclaimed, "Milton!"

  Michael might have also said something but only a strange buzz came out while a black box briefly covered his lips.

  Gabby shook her head. "And don't take anything else from anyone. The Double Eagle motto is 'your own business is your own business' so I doubt anyone is going to help us if we catch anymore viruses."

  "I found a hotel," said Coder/Mouse. Gabby jumped inside every time she looked into his red eyes.

  "I need to get you guys fixed soon. This is confusing."

  They found the hotel soon after. Milton paid the owner, who took no interest in the buxom woman. The unabashed sexuality was probably too normal for him. Gabby was gl
ad for the structured nature of the GSA and LifeGame, she wasn't sure how she would have handled growing up in the Freelands.

  In their room Gabby tried to untangle the HR Buf-n-stuf virus. She was working on Milton, since she couldn't take one more of his sexual innuendos. The whole way up to their room on the second floor, he had kept bumping into walls and door jams and yelling 'booby bumpers!'

  Once she'd gotten him to sit on the bed, she dug into the code, carefully working through it, since it seemed to have a number of tripwires. "I don't like this Milton. I'm afraid if I dig further, I'll make it worse. The n-stuf portion of this virus has been buffed to the max."

  Milton the street walker shrugged. "I don't mind staying like this for now, but if you want to try poking around in me, feel free, though it's not my fault if you catch a virus."

  Gabby rolled her eyes. The coding representation floated before her as a tangle mass of wires. A section of code further into the program intrigued her, so she delicately pushed the blocking wires aside.

  As she did, a loud buzzer sounded and the ball of wires began to rotate and then they flashed and disappeared back into Milton. When he opened his mouth to speak, instead of his voice, a deep husky woman's voice came out.

  "What happened? Oh that. Oh wow. I think I'm turning myself on."

  Gabby pushed Milton back onto the bed. "Oh shut up, please."

  "I wonder what would happen if you made another rookie mistake? It might almost be worth it to find out." The street walker grinned a very vacant-headed grin that Gabby wanted to punch.

  Michael pined in the corner with his arms tightly crossed. He'd tried to communicate with them several times since the street, only to be blocked by buzzers, ringing and pixilated obscuring mists.

  His brilliant ice-blue eyes begged her, but she didn't know what for. He'd been about to tell them important information before the faux-Jaxon had showed up. Whatever he wanted to tell them would have to wait, but she could see it was eating him up inside.

  Mouse, on the other hand, sulked in front of the window, staring out like she expected to see someone she knew. Occasionally, she glanced back to the rest of them, just to make sure they were all there.

  Defeated by the virus and not willing to risk any more examinations until she understood it better, Gabby sunk into the chair in the corner. Mulling her options made Gabby clench her jaw harder. She only remembered to stop grinding when Coder/Mouse cleared her throat.

  "Huh?" Gabby glanced up.

  "I'm going to get us some food. I'm hungry," said Coder/Mouse.

  "Bring me back some big, thick sausages!" moaned Milton from the bed.

  Gabby shot Milton a cutting look only to receive a playful shrug. "Yeah, fine. But you have to take someone. No one should go out alone."

  Coder/Mouse checked between Milton and Michael before she reached out and grabbed Michael's hand. The two were out the door before Gabby could say otherwise.

  "Great," Gabby mumbled to herself, "I'm such an idiot sometimes."

  "What did you say?" asked the whore Milton, busy cupping his chest together and staring at it.

  Gabby buried her face in her hands. She'd forgotten to tell them about the impending invasion and the importance of Jaxon. Nothing was going as planned.

  Chapter Twenty

  Gabby sulked while Milton strutted around the room in fishnets and high heels, preening before any surface that reflected his image. She'd told him what she knew from the Collector. He seemed less concerned about it than she would have liked.

  Bringing up the Double Eagle interface provided a distraction from street walker Milton, though the way she had to flip through layers of command structures to even bring up a map of the town infuriated her.

  "This interface is so debuffed! I can't figure out how to do anything. Nothing's standard and everything is customized. Even the Flock had a better interface than this piece of garbage." Gabby put her throbbing head in her hands. She wanted to close her eyes and rest for a minute, but it felt like the Southlands could invade any moment.

  Milton paused from checking out his rear end in the bathroom mirror and sat in the chair in the corner. The buxom woman crossed her legs and Gabby wasn't sure if that was the program creating the illusion, or Milton getting into his part.

  "You ain't kidding, Gabby. This interface is more confusing than a tuna factory full of—"

  "Enough! Please..."

  Milton the street walker sighed. "Okay, I'll rein it in, but it's hard. It's not every day I get to look like this. Sure, I always thought about trying out a girl skin, but never dared to do it."

  He scrunched up her face. "You will, of course, keep that little fact to yourself, right?"

  Gabby nodded. "Only if you figure out how that map works and where to find Mayor Jaxon."

  "I thought we...oh yeah. I'll get right on it." Milton paused and tilted his head, staring at Gabby. "You look like you just grinded a whole level in a week without sleep."

  Gabby tried to push her eyes open with her fingers. They were rapidly closing on her.

  "Get some sleep, Gabs. You need it."

  "Uh, huh. Just for a minute..."

  As soon as she set her head on the pillow, she was out. Dreams alternated between trying to outfly Vernon through a maze of canyons and being eaten by the smoke dragon Asphyxia. Gabby woke and instantly knew it was a different day. The light burst through the window, making her put her arm up to shield her eyes.

  Gabby wondered who the strange woman sitting in the chair was when she realized it was Milton. He'd changed his outfit to a sleazy black slip of lingerie. A plate of sliced sausages, bread and cheese waited by the bed.

  "Where are Mouse and Michael?" she asked.

  "I told them everything you told me. Mouse said she'd go scout Jaxon's house for us, though between you and me, it seemed like she had something else to do. I tried to go too, but she dragged Michael out the door. Michael beeped and buzzed the whole way out."

  "Why didn't you wake me?"

  "You slept like a log through the whole thing. Trust me," said Milton the street walker, "I would have followed, but I didn't want to leave you alone. You told us not to split up."

  Gabby wrinkled her brow. "Why did you say you didn't trust her?"

  The buxom woman delicately picked up a hunk of cheese between forefinger and thumb and took a tiny bite. Gabby tried to refrain from rolling her eyes at him. He was taking his new image too far.

  "It seemed like she wanted to leave as soon as I told her about the Southlands invading. She'd been just sitting on the edge of the bed and rubbing her eyes before I'd told her."

  Gabby opened her mouth, hesitated and then decided to tell him anyway. "I've suspected something strange going on with Mouse since we were back in the GSA. When we raided the hovercraft tower, Mouse went into a room full of guards and they didn't react, assuming they saw her. And then she came out with a red box and when I asked her about it later, she denied it and tried to tell me there was no box."

  Milton finished the cheese, uncrossed his legs, and started tapping his foot in a very unlady-like fashion, even for a scantily clad whore.

  "I wish Celia was here, she could question Mouse and find out the truth."

  Gabby slapped herself in the forehead. "Why didn't I think of that? I could have found out the truth a long time ago. I'm sure it's nothing, that there's a reasonable answer, especially since she was with us in the GSA for so long without betraying us. It would have been easy for her to just send a signal and call the Coder down on us."

  "Nope," said Milton in the husky woman's voice. "I had both your systems on lockdown. I let you think you had access to the rest of the GSA, but you didn't. If either of you had tried to contact the Coders, I would have known."

  "You didn't trust us?"

  "I didn't want to end up like those two kids in the tent. Most ex-LifeGamers never make it out of the GSA," he explained. "Paranoia is a useful strategy."

  "Good point. But that still doesn't
explain what that red box had in it, or how the Coder found us so easily both times."

  The buxom woman shrugged and Gabby was reminded of a pair of bald heads nodding.

  "Let's get out of here. We can track them down and then find Jaxon's. I'm sure it's nothing," said Gabby.

  The pair left the room. The breakfast room downstairs had a half dozen patrons in it and Gabby's face flushed bright red as she left the hotel with the barely dressed Milton in woman form. The uninterested sideways glances told her that Milton's appearance was entirely unremarkable.

  The Double Eagle interface didn't allow them to track their friends, since privacy was paramount, so they had to find them on foot. They cut up and down the streets looking for Mouse and Michael.

  After an unsuccessful morning, Milton stood on a street corner, hand on hip, casually scrolling through his interface with a limp hand, while Gabby sat on the curb with her head on her knees.

  An antique store across the street displayed a model flying airplane. It reminded Gabby of the hovercraft they'd taken with them from the GSA. Gabby wondered if Celia had gotten it working.

  "I know why they make this interface so difficult to use."

  Gabby grunted, so Milton continued explaining, "They don't want it easy for people to communicate with each other. You've seen the way people barely even glance at me. It almost makes this skin not as much fun as I'd like it to be. It's hard to be shocking if no one cares."

  "Well, they don't know you're a guy under all that bouncy flesh and makeup."

  "Good point."

  Milton continued with his analysis of the Double Eagle and their ultra-privacy focus, while Gabby stared down the street. She was about to give up and head back to the hotel when she saw Coder/Mouse cross at an intersection two blocks down. She glanced in Gabby's direction but kept going.

  "There they are!"

  "Where?"

  Gabby indicated the direction with her outstretched hand. "I just saw Mouse, well, the Coder, either way, let's go."

  They ran down the street to the location where she saw him. As they reached the intersection, Coder/Mouse and Michael appeared around the corner. Michael's head had sunk low and he barely even glanced at Gabby.