Frags

by Thomas K. Carpenter

  She clenched her fists in frustration. The oversized mayor of Double Eagle was going to get himself killed and take the truth about LifeGame with him.

  When Gabby heard the scream a second time, she located Jaxon's daughter Patricia on their roof, crouched into a ball with her hands over her face. He was going to get his daughter killed in a last stand of foolish pride.

  Two platoons from the other side of the town were now hurrying toward Jaxon's place. Gabby glanced from Damon, to Patricia and back to the Frags. She had enough time if she went right away.

  "Stay here," she told them. "I have to do something stupid."

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The frenzied run to Jaxon's place seemed to take forever. What should have been a quick three block run, felt like a long slog over dozens. When she crossed the second intersection and didn’t reach his place, Gabby wondered if her reality had been hacked.

  Checking behind her for signs of troops, Gabby didn't see the Southlander soldier step out of a doorway. Thankfully, he hadn't seen her either. He was busy fixing the clasp on his pants.

  Gabby hit him at a full run and the two of them tumbled onto the pavement. The gun shoved in her pants skidded across the ground, well out of reach.

  Gabby gasped when she looked into the face of the soldier. She was expecting a hardened mercenary with a gristled chin and scars as badges. Instead, she stared into a blond, pink cheeked boy no older than her. He could have been a classmate in the GSA and he had a resemblance to Daniel, which made her hesitate when he reached for his rifle.

  Years of gaming had trained her reflexes and she hopped from her knees into a kick to the chin that leveled the blond soldier. He spun and fell back onto the pavement, hands lifelessly held over the rifle.

  Gabby checked his faint pulse before pulling the weapon from his weak grasp. She grimaced when she realized the brief tussle had cost her valuable time and scooped up her other weapon before continuing her run. The platoons would be arriving soon and she had to get to Jaxon's fast.

  When she rounded the corner, Jaxon nearly blew her head off. He pointed his twin automatics into the sky.

  "What the hell are you doing here?"

  "There's two platoons headed your way," she said through heavy breaths.

  A grim smile appeared on his face, giving Gabby the shivers. "Good. More of them dirty Southlanders to kill."

  "What about your daughter?"

  The smile disappeared from his face as fast as it had appeared. "What about her?"

  Gabby glanced to the roof to see Patricia peering over the edge.

  "Do you really want to let her see you die?"

  "Who says I'm going to die? The safest place for her right now is on that roof."

  Gabby shook her head. The man was a fool.

  "If you really want to help, go up and keep her company while I take these idiots on."

  "What if I can get her out of town?" Gabby couldn't get herself out of town, but she wanted him to have hope for his daughter's safety.

  Jaxon nodded toward the roof. "You don't want to be going anywhere right now. There's a ladder on the backside. Hurry before you miss the show."

  She ran to the ladder with no intention of watching him commit suicide while his daughter looked on. But the delays had given the platoons enough time to reach the street as Gabby crawled up with Patricia.

  The girl had huge red circles around her eyes. Dried tears had left white streaks of salt on her face.

  "We have to go," whispered Gabby, tugging on the girl's arm. Patricia shook her head, making the tight little curls in her hair dance.

  The two platoons entered both ends of the street. Jaxon stood in the middle with one gun pointed in each direction. The soldiers meandered toward him, breaking formation in a confidant display of control.

  "Don't tell me you Southlanders are afraid of me?" shouted Jaxon. His big belly heaved with each word. Gabby tried to put her hand over Patricia's eyes, but she kept pushing them away.

  The sergeant of the far platoon motioned for a particular soldier. A tall man came to the front with an abnormally long gun. Gabby recognized the sniper rifle.

  The sniper knelt down and began taking a bead on Jaxon. Gabby hastily pulled her rifle out and aimed it at the sniper. They'd kill her too when they realized she was on the roof, but she couldn't just lie there and let Jaxon be murdered.

  As she aligned the notch in the sight over the kneeling man, she took a deep breath and held it to steady her aim. She could feel the sniper doing the same, but tried not to hurry herself. Making a shot from this distance with the quality of weapon she had was going to be a tough shot, even with all her experience in shooter games.

  With the sniper in her sights, she hesitated on the trigger. Killing another person in a game was one thing, taking a life in the real world was another.

  The world slowed down to a crawl. Gunfire in other parts of the city seemed muted and so far away it was on another planet. Her shouted name filtered down around her from above. The Frags were shouting a message, but Gabby ignored it and willed herself to pull the trigger. The sound of Jaxon laughing was the last thing she heard before the street exploded.

  Gabby threw herself over Patricia as bits of brick and wood rained down. Her ears rang from the force of the explosion. Gabby glanced down expecting to see Jaxon laying dead in the street only to find him still standing with his guns pointed to the sky in salute.

  "I told you there'd be a show."

  Gabby wanted to throw a piece of brick at him. He'd blown up the street and put his daughter in danger. But then she saw the dead soldiers, buried under a fallen building. He'd saved her, too.

  Patricia pointed above her. The Frags were still yelling and pointing to the south. With the street sightline irrevocably changed, Gabby could see more vehicles streaming their direction. Jaxon had defeated the two platoons, but stirred up the hornet's nest. Based on the directions the Frags were pointing, Gabby assumed they were completely surrounded.

  "It seems I got their attention," said Jaxon. "Maybe I can keep them distracted while you two get away. Though I'm out of big tricks now."

  "It's too late now," said Gabby. "We're surrounded."

  "Why'd you come anyway? You don't owe me nothing. In fact, you have quite the beef with me about the way I treated you last time we talked."

  A mottled green troop carrier rumbled onto the street. The soldiers, having seen the destruction of their friends, fanned out and took to the side streets as they approached. Judging by their frantic glances, the soldiers assumed the rest of the area was wired with explosives, too. Jaxon fired randomly in their direction, forcing them to take cover.

  "I thought I could get your daughter away to safety before the troops arrived. I was wrong."

  Jaxon ripped off another spray of bullets and stepped around a parked truck as the soldiers returned fire. A troop carrier had dropped off another squad, cutting her off from her escape route back to the Liberty Hotel.

  Jaxon yelled over his shoulder as he kept laying down fire. "We expect people to take care of themselves in the Double Eagle." Jaxon ducked as the glass exploded around him. He knocked a few pieces out of his hair and took down a soldier making a run down the side of the street. "But I appreciate your sacrifice. Even if it was a foolish one."

  Soldiers dodged through the houses as Jaxon kept his suppressive fire up. Gabby thought about taking shots, but didn’t want to put Patricia in danger. The girl was curled up in a ball with her hands over her ears.

  She glanced once more at the Frags on the roof of the Liberty Hotel and gave them a final wave. Whatever happened next, she doubted she'd get another chance to say goodbye. They would either kill her or enslave her in the Southlands.

  Gabby put her arm around Patricia. As she started to wonder if the soldiers would even notice they were on the roof, the ladder began to rattle against the drain.

  She almost made it to the ladder to push it over when the soldier stepped onto the roo
f. He wasn't a green horn like the boy she'd taken down in the street. He met the mental image she had of a hardened soldier.

  He blocked her roundhouse and counterpunched with a left hook. Gabby flew back onto the roof. The soldier advanced on her, contented to engage her hand to hand.

  His blows came as a whirl of callused fists, putting Gabby on the defensive. Gabby kept the advantage of higher ground on the high side of the roof, but the soldier kept pushing her backwards. Soon she'd be on the downside and he'd only have to knock her off the edge. The fall would probably kill her and if it didn't, the soldiers converging on Jaxon would.

  Gabby blocked a kick to the ribs with her forearm. The blow rang up her arm, making her teeth hurt. Her intention hadn't been to get involved with Jaxon's fight, only to save his daughter and maybe convince him to give up his information about LifeGame. She wouldn't have a chance to get Zaela back without it.

  Her arms ached from blocking the soldier's blows. Sensing her weakness he continued his assault, pushing her over the apex of the roof and gaining the upper ground. Once there, he kept his punches and kicks coming.

  Standing with her back to the edge, fighting a hardened soldier of the Southlands in hand to hand combat while a battle for the city raged around them, Gabby had a moment of serene desolation. She'd set off on this quest to get her friend back, but had she really believed it would happen? Jaxon was right. She'd been a fool to come to the Double Eagle and twice the fool for coming to his daughter's rescue.

  No one in the town had listened to her. They hadn't cared about a couple of kids from the GSA, trampling their precious grasses and bothering them with obligations.

  As her heels were getting closer to the edge of the roof, Gabby remembered what Ben had told her back at the Blood Farm. The only definition of a leader was that people followed them. But there on the roof of Jaxon's place, Gabby had never felt more alone.

  Even her friends had been smart enough to stay on the roof of the Liberty Hotel, while she stuck her neck out being foolish once again.

  Would anyone remember her in a few years after she was dead? Would Zaela even know she'd tried to get her back? What had been the point? The dead couldn't lead anyone.

  Distracted by her thoughts, Gabby missed a block and the soldier hit her squarely in the jaw. Her foot reached back only to find empty air, sucking her momentum over the edge.

  Gabby's arms wheeled over her head. The sky tipped over. The soldier stood menacingly at the edge as she fell from the roof.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  When Gabby had been younger, her parents had taken her to the local swimming pool. Sense-webs and eye-screens could imitate the feel of water on the skin, but playing in water couldn't be completely replicated. The only problem was that swimming brought real dangers of drowning and so she had to learn to swim.

  Her father had taught her by first gaining her trust. He had Gabby stand at the edge of the pool, close her eyes and fall backwards into his waiting arms. Once she'd gotten it in her head that he was there to save her, she threw herself into the lessons until she was a little dolphin in the pool.

  Gabby never forgot the feel of her father collecting her in his arms as she fell backwards into the pool. He cradled her fall, never letting the impact of her back onto the water frighten her.

  For a moment, Gabby had the sensation of being caught by her father as her downward movement was suddenly arrested as she hit a hard and unyielding surface. The soldier stared wide eyed and began to reach for his holstered gun.

  As she slid away from him, Gabby realized there was black plastic beneath her. Her hand found a rope as she began to slide off. Then the hovercraft, which she was now sprawled upon, rose up and shifted back toward the soldier. He was so intent on removing his weapon, he couldn't duck as the hovercraft rammed into him, knocking him from the roof.

  "Celia!" she cheered, knowing instantly who'd saved her as she climbed to her feet on the hovercraft.

  The Caterpillar rumbled up the street, piloted by Drogan behind a half-shield of steel plate. Townies ran along side, firing at the soldiers with rifles and handguns and other assorted weapons including one woman with a composite bow. Celia stood in the middle of the Caterpillar, looking like a doll with her arms limply at her side.

  Gabby waved, as her heart jumped for joy seeing her friends once again. Then she saw the others following behind: Mouse, Milton and Michael. The loner Damon was there, staying close to Mouse.

  The ping of impacting bullets pulled Gabby around. Southlands soldiers were still arriving to the scene. Suddenly, a directional grid pushed into her interface. Sensing Celia had given her control of the hovercraft, Gabby wrapped her hands around the rope and pushed the craft forward.

  She brought it around to Patricia and coaxed her onto the craft. Patricia crawled onto the hard plastic until she wrapped her arms around Gabby's leg. Once secure, Gabby flew low over the buildings, trying not to give the soldiers a profile to shoot at before shooting straight up to the roof of the Liberty Hotel. Patricia would be safe on the roof until the battle was over.

  Then she leaned forward, flying through the air like a diving hawk. So enthralled by her flight, Gabby almost didn't pull up in time and barely surfed over the heads of the Double Eaglers. The hovercraft was much faster than before and she blew past the soldiers raising their guns to fire.

  After circling around to her friends, Gabby hovered near the Caterpillar. At least thirty townies had joined them in the battle. Bullets rang around them, so Gabby stayed low behind the profile of the big vehicle.

  "I thought I was going to die back there," said Gabby.

  Milton shook his mane of hair. "We're sorry we didn't come sooner. With Damon's help, we figured out a way to broadcast the battle to surrounding lands. Anyone checking the news feeds would have seen you and Jaxon battling the Southlands soldiers. I guess the locals were inspired by your bravery and finally decided to raise a defense."

  "Watch out!" yelled one of the townies. A soldier had sneaked up behind a half-exploded car and was aiming his gun at Gabby. There was nothing she could do to stop him.

  Then a red crosshairs appeared on the soldier. Mouse leveled her gun and fired. The man went down in a tangled heap. When she noticed Gabby watching her, Mouse hid her face shyly behind a cupped hand.

  "Thank you." Gabby touched her hand to her heart.

  Mouse half-bowed and then saluted her.

  "I shouldn't stay here, we need to keep moving. I need a weapon if I'm going to be of use. Can one of you hand me one of those iron bars?"

  Michael stepped forward. His brilliant blue eyes cut a hole right into her chest. "You can have mine."

  Hearing him speak made her feel dizzy. She took the iron bar from him. The metal was warm where he'd been holding it.

  "You can speak?"

  "Milton fixed it while Mouse and Damon were working on the broadcast," said Michael. "I have to talk to you, Gabby."

  A building on the next street exploded into rubble. Gabby wasn't sure if it was the Southlanders or Jaxon who'd done it.

  "No time." Gabby gave him her most heartfelt smile. "And I know. Mouse told me. I'm sorry for both you and Celia."

  "Mouse told you?" The hurt was evident in his voice.

  Not wanting to have her focus clouded by emotion, Gabby lifted the hovercraft and sped around the corner.

  She heard Michael yell, "That's not..."

  As the wind rushed through her hair, Gabby funneled all the emotion teeming through her limbs into the battle at hand. Her vision opened up wide as she could feel the flow of battle around her. A lone soldier was running ahead of her. Gabby flew by him and struck him in the head.

  When the soldier spun onto his side, Gabby realized it was a her. A girl not much older than herself. Not unlike the boy she'd knocked out in the street. Gabby hoped she hadn't killed her despite knowing they were enemies.

  Then she flew up above the buildings to scout the Southlands advance. What she saw when she c
rested the building made her blood grow cool.

  The force she'd seen in the valley, the one that had first attacked the town, was only a vanguard for the real army. A regiment at least five times the size of the other was heading into the city. It appeared they'd only paused to gather their forces, but as soon as they entered, they would outnumber the tiny resistance by at least a hundred times, not including the heavy artillery support and other assorted vehicles.

  Then as she flew closer, a wave of vertigo hit her. The edges of the city began to peel away like paint chips. A presence in the Southlands' army was warping the landscape. Gabby could feel it in her breastplate. The indicators in her interface were going wild and only her rapid retreat and the proximity rules of the Freelands appeared to keep her safe.

  Gabby circled back to find Jaxon before the presence invaded her system. Gabby found him taking a swig from a jug of water. The cowboy hat was still firmly attached to his head.

  His eyebrows spiked upward when he saw her. "What the hell is that thing?"

  "Nevermind what it is. You have to lead everyone out of the city. You're about to be overrun. The soldiers we've been fighting were only a scouting force."

  Jaxon nodded. "I thought as much." He seemed to take her news with grim resolve.

  After a pause he said, "But I'm not leading everyone out of the city."

  "What? Are you crazy? Who's talking foolishness now?" Gabby pointed the iron bar at him.

  Jaxon held his palms toward her. "Whoa. Don't take me the wrong way. I'm not leading them out of the city because I'm going to cover their escape. You're the one that's going to lead them."

  "Me?"

  "Yes, you. Don't look at me like that. You're the one that got the damn town to rally to your cause."

  The truth hit her squarely between the eyes. They'd come because of her. Yet she still felt the fool.

  "Don't question it. Just keep doing it."

  "What are you going to do?" she asked.

  Jaxon glanced in the direction of the Southlands' army and chuckled. "I've got a few more tricks. This little pause in the battle should give me time to get them set up. A few have volunteered to stay while the others help you get out of town and rendezvous with the people that didn't get taken already."