by Justin Sloan
My throat went dry, and a moment later I was even more confused as the tall form of Glider was replaced with a shorter, slightly pudgy African-American woman. Both were still attractive, just not the video game fantasies of so many out there.
“How do you like that?” Rivera said with a laugh. “So you two… you’re for real?”
“Very real. And if they could see us, the world over would be searching this very moment to match our faces with our real names,” the one I’d called Glider said. “However, we’ve blocked the signals as best we could. So as you were worrying—no, they can’t see us in here. For now, keep calling us Glider and Banshee, though.”
“And to answer the question in your mind right now.” Banshee stepped over and leaned against the bar to pour another shot. “The offer still stands.” She lingered there for a moment, her small breasts nearly showing with the low cut of her camo tank top.
“Thank you,” I said, but shook my head. “I’m in the middle of a war, in case you didn’t notice. This might be a game to you, but my friends died back there. Our friends,” I corrected myself with a nod to Rivera. “Now my life and the fate of this war kind of relies on what I do next, and I’m fairly certain neither getting drunk nor having an orgy would help in that regard.”
“Yet, you need rest,” Rivera said. “If you’re worried about me saying something… hey, I wouldn’t fault you for getting a quick simulated blow job before catching some shut-eye. Count on me to keep first watch.”
I laughed, closed my eyes, and tried to push the image of those two ladies going down on me out of my head. “Sorry, just… sorry.”
With that I gulped down the last of my Scotch, went over to one of the couches in the bar, and leaned back. “First watch?”
Rivera nodded, giving me a confused look. “Something wrong with…?”
“No, no. Just wake me up in two hours, no longer. I want you rested out there too.” With a glance over at the other two ladies, both looking at me with pouts, I said, “Oh, now that I see you’re not NPCs… You two take turns, pairing up. Double watch.”
“You don’t think we should each take a couple hours?” Glider asked. “Let everyone get more sleep?”
I shook my head as my eyes closed, and said, “Fine, give me four, max. Then we need to get back out there and strike again.” A thought hit me and I sat up, doing my best to fight off the drowsiness. “Hold on. How do I know you’re not the hackers behind all of this?”
“Because if we were, wouldn’t we just kill you instead of trying to sleep with you?” Banshee said with a wink.
“Good point,” Glider said. “I was going to argue that if we weren’t on your side, we’d just end it here instead of joining forces to try and take down the enemy.”
“Unless you’re both trolls,” I said. “Mess it all up, then join me and Rivera here to screw with us. Not just screw us… er, me.”
“We’d gladly do her too,” Banshee said with a grin in Rivera’s direction. It wasn’t returned. “But no, we’re not just messing with you. We were there watching when everything went wrong, and then the feeds were cut off and—”
“But you said you had something blocking the feeds,” I pointed out, eyes narrowed suspiciously. “So…?”
“Right. The live feeds to the public went out, but the governments are of course still watching.”
“Ah.” I leaned back, pursing my lips. “Yeah, that makes sense.” I stretched, yawning. “What do you think, Rivera? Trustworthy?”
“Two hackers?” she scoffed. “Not going to take my eye off of them for a second. We’ll be inseparable. That said, we need all the help we can get.”
“How do you know so well how to fire a rifle?” I asked the newcomers.
Glider scoffed. “While you’re in a simulation that requires you to know how, all we have to do is scroll and click. We’re good.”
“You’re not in the simulation?” I frowned. “Then the whole seduction thing, you wouldn’t have felt it anyway.”
“But we would’ve loved watching it happen,” Banshee said with a laugh. “Can’t fault us for trying.”
I frowned, leaned back, and let my eyes close again. “Actually, I can,” I said, and then drifted off to sleep, more confused about them than before.
13
It wasn’t one of the ladies that woke me, but the sounds of distant gunfire.
I staggered out of bed, glad for the fact that I didn’t have to take a piss—something they hadn’t wanted to include in the simulation, though we were in all ways anatomically correct. They had, to my relief, decided that wouldn’t be necessary for live television. While my body back in the real world was resting, sleep was still an unfortunate need, as our brains needed time to shut down and recharge.
“How long was I out?” I asked, glancing around to see that Rivera was up and at the window again. The other two were totally passed out. They were back in the forms of Glider and Banshee, surprisingly, wrapped in each other’s arms on another couch. “And what’s with them?”
“They said they want to be in that form in case the live stream breaks through whatever they set up,” she replied. “And only an hour and a half. The shooting started a couple of minutes ago.”
I listened, more awake now and able to comprehend what was going on. The shots weren’t close, that was for sure. But that didn’t make sense—what were they shooting at?
“I’m not convinced the other ones are even their real form,” Rivera said.
“What?” I turned to see she was still looking at the ladies, and I joined her. “What makes you say that?”
“Could be, sure.” She shrugged. “But what good would it do to really reveal themselves like that? For all we know, they could be some super-smart teenage boys. In here, it’s whatever you want, especially for a good hacker.”
“So if I had gotten down with them…”
She laughed. “I was impressed, by the way. But, why not? I’m not a lesbian at all, but even I have to admit that was hot.”
“It’s complicated.”
“Your wife?” She looked away when my eyes shot up to hers.
“Maybe it’s not that complicated.”
She shrugged. “Major Ellis, the man who left because he couldn’t get over his grief. I wasn’t sure about you, when I heard they were recalling you. But look at you, the only one alive.”
“The only one of two,” I replied with a wink.
“Ah, right. Of course.” She cocked her head, then motioned to the ladies again. “But come on, that was two years ago. This was women, right now... purely physical—hell, not even real. It’s all simulated. Maybe it could’ve ended up being three.” She shrugged nonchalantly. “I’m not saying it would’ve, but gotta ask… why not?”
“Two years is nothing,” I said, turning my attention back to a new round of gunshots, closer now. “We might have to move.”
“We might. So you’re really not going to give me more explanation?”
“What more could you want?” I asked. “I was in love. Still am, it just happens that the woman I love has moved on from our world.”
She considered me for a long moment, then nodded. “I can respect that.”
“Yeah?”
“Of course. Not the same at all, I get that, but… I had a pet rabbit once. Cutest little thing. And I’d always loved rabbits, always wanted one. One day, I wasn’t paying close enough attention, and little Squibbles runs out into the street. Gone, just like that. As much as I’d always wanted a rabbit, I never got another one after that.” At the look I was giving her, she held up her hands in surrender. “Hey, no offense. Like I said, not the same situation at all, but I think I can almost understand.”
“Thanks,” I said. “No, I mean, pets can be like children to some of us. I understand.”
“And even if I was out of here and we went into a pet store and they tried to give me three for free right now, I wouldn’t even consider it. No way. It would feel like a betrayal.”
“Still…” She looked at me. “People are different. People need comfort, we need that connection, and sometimes it helps us move on to—”
“I’m not interested in moving on,” I cut her off.
“Ah, but would Donica agree? Would she want you to move on?”
I blinked, licked my lips, and frowned. “I never told you her name.”
Before she could respond to what I’d just said, there was a loud explosion nearby from one of the claymores she’d set up. Our eyes went wide, and I moved to grab our gear while she woke Glider and Banshee.
I returned to the window with my rifle at the ready, only to see a mech rising into the sky in the distance between two buildings. My first thought was that we were in some deep shit, but my second was confusion at the rocket I saw lighting up the sky nearby and the massive explosion that resulted a moment later. The mech, what was left of it, fell from the sky, and more gunfire sounded from that direction.
That’s when the first round hit the glass of the half-opened window, shattering it. I spotted two of them in the alley below us and returned fire. Rivera was shouting for me, Glider and Banshee with her, all three with weapons at the ready at the doorway.
“One sec,” I replied, then leaned back and let my laser-sight guide me. Bam! Bam! Two down, but I delivered a few more rounds to be sure. A second later and they were gone, pixelating out of the game.
“Move your ass!” Rivera shouted.
“Move your ass, sir,” I corrected her, charging back to follow them out through the door. As we descended the steps, I said, “I saw someone shoot down a mech. We have allies out there.”
“The six?” Rivera said with excitement.
“What are the six?” Glider asked.
“Some reference to that Land of Gods book?” the other said. “Wasn’t there a bad guy group like that in there?”
“Nothing as ominous as that,” I replied, clearing the next level down, then leading us out through the door to a hallway. “Earlier, there were at least six others from our side who had survived the initial slaughter, but I thought for sure they’d been taken out when the napalm strikes came in.”
“They were there one minute, fire and brimstone the next,” Rivera said. “There was nothing we could’ve done.”
“And now you think they’re over there, fighting back?” Glider asked.
We hit the ground floor. Shots came through the doorway, so we took cover. I waited, then threw a flashbang and followed it shortly after, charging out and lighting them up. Three dead.
“I didn’t see anyone else alive, before,” I said, then moved out to clear the area. I turned back and motioned them to follow, and we pushed through the streets of fake Shinjuku. At the next corner I held up a hand, hearing a familiar thud, and checked to see one of those mechs storming down the street.
My heart thumped, and I felt my arm tense as my trigger finger moved along the side of my rifle, ready to make its move.
Only, when I turned back, Glider and Banshee were gone and there was that strange monk in the sky, clouds floating past. And then he was gone, too. The sky flickered for a moment, our surroundings being replaced with rocks and trees… and then the buildings were back.
“Someone’s trying to reset the sim with us in it,” I said when I’d returned to Rivera’s side. “We need to end this, ASAP.”
“And the other two?”
“They were here one minute, readying their rifles, then gone.”
Together we crept along the nearest building, relieved to hear the mech keep moving. Apparently, it was going for the other fighters who’d survived.
“We can’t let it get to them,” Rivera said, throwing herself up against a wall and pulling me with her. A red orb flew through the sky, lines of red light shooting out from it and scanning the street.
“We don’t stand a chance against a mech,” I said, then pointed to the sky. “And whatever the hell that was.”
“Is that going to stop us from trying?” she asked.
I glared, shook my head slowly, and she grinned.
“Then let’s save them or die trying,” Rivera said.
14
We had our new loot, we had our mission. Sure, we were two women down, but if our hacker friend (or them, if they were behind the hacking) could get back in the game, they might show up randomly. Chances were they could show up in the middle of a gunfight, or not at all. Either way, we needed to get this show on the road.
Rivera and I cleared one street and then made our way through the building closest to the location we’d seen the mech go down. From there we were able to make our way across walkways between the buildings. Only scattered shots told us we were going in the right direction.
“So let’s check this out,” I said as we continued at a jog, wanting to reach the others quickly, but cautious about walking into a trap. “Their side puts up this ring thing that blocks us from seeing what’s happening—”
“Blocks everyone back home, too, most likely.”
“Right. So we’re blocked, everyone’s blocked. And then they make it so they can not only respawn, but pull in ported aircraft and mechs. Probably some high-tech weaponry, too, I’d bet. But then we have someone working on our side who… what? Makes some strange test situations similar to old games and books, teleports us with one such reference, and sends us two women NPCs to help the fight, only to take them away for no apparent reason?”
“Or they might be the hacker, or two hackers,” Rivera countered. “Or maybe a room full of hackers.”
“A room full of hackers is going to try to get me to sleep with their avatar in the middle of a life-and-death simulated war?” I shook my head. “Not likely.”
“But who knows. Could be on the other side, even. Messing with us.” Rivera paused, checking a window, then came back over, picking up the pace to catch up. “I’d lean toward the idea of one hacker though, for now, and Glider and Banshee being nothing more than ported characters, with slight modifications.”
“Even after all they said?” I asked. “Okay, assuming that, we can say that this shadow monk figure is related. Maybe some form of showing us when he’s watching or making an action. I don’t know. But… why?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why the tests? Why doesn’t whoever is doing this—this hacker person, whoever’s helping us… why don’t they just go to command and get this figured out, work together with them?”
She thought about this, and we paused at the edge of an escalator as two figures ran by below. When they were gone, we heard more shots, and she smiled before replying.
“My guess is he’s not with either side, or maybe he’s with one of these countries that’s now part of the EAC, but wants out. Think about it—two Americans, while fighting on the side that could result in his freedom… that still doesn’t mean he can necessarily trust them. The Americas have a reputation over there, and it’s not all sunshine and lollipops. Then there’s the risk of exposure—maybe some of this is even to cover his tracks?”
She made a good argument, one that got my brain moving. “And the choices of how, those are probably more related to what games and code he has access to,” I said. “He can port over something, if he has access and if the new system hasn’t already put a block on it.”
Rivera nodded. “So let’s prove to him that we mean business.”
“That we’re here to win this,” I added. “That we mean business, and nothing will stand in our way.”
“Damn straight,” she replied, then nodded to the escalator.
I led the way, charging down with my lightning pistol at the ready. We emerged to find the mech facing away from us, thrusters on as it moved to a new section of the building and let out a blast from its cannon. Shots came back at it from attackers on the move, two floors above it. More of the enemy appeared, running along behind to intercept the attackers above.
We had to deci
de whether to try and move and intercept them as well, or do what we could here. Chances are that if we went after them, the enemy would reach them first. Instead, I decided to distract the mech. I took aim with the lightning pistol and unleashed a torrent of electricity blasts, while Rivera took out three sticky grenades from our last looting and charged forward.
“Keep blasting him,” she shouted.
She was halfway there before two of the enemy turned to return fire. She had to dive to her left behind a ledge of plants and a statue, but from there motioned for me to continue. I fired more electricity at the mech, freezing it in place before it too could turn on her.
I charged forward and unleashed my next round on her attackers, but she shouted for me to get the mech at that moment, so I turned my attention back toward it. Rivera jumped up, ran for the mech, and tossed the first two grenades. Each hit a leg, and she turned back and opened up on the attackers with her rifle. She dove as the explosions took out the mech’s legs, and it fell, crashing into the building in front of it. We were up again. The two attackers fell as well, while more gunfire sounded from above.
A shot hit the stairwell railing to my left as we charged up, but then we were out of their line of sight as we moved into another building to try and find the six. Another attacker holding a pair of blades jumped out at me, bringing a barrage of knife strikes toward my neck. I dodged left and punched him in the forearm, causing him to drop one of the blades.
He cursed and came back with the other, but Rivera dropped him with a bullet to the head.
“That way,” she said, indicating a sign for more stairs on the opposite end. Shooting sounded from ahead, then a missile in the air and a chopper went down—I hadn’t even seen any choppers before that! Another explosion rocked the building, and we were moving into a wide sort of conference room, where we came upon a team of enemy soldiers with their backs to us.
In a war like this, forget honor. We opened up on them, taking out half before they realized what was happening. When they turned to us, more shots hit them from the opposite direction. Two more fell, leaving one terrified, young soldier. He screamed, took out two grenades, and charged us.
