She nods slowly, but doubt still clouds her eyes.
“Don’t frighten her,” I warn him.
I pass Ashley as I step out into the hallway past the remains of the demolished door. She’s still groggy. She calls my name as I hurry past, but I ignore her, too, and instead head for her room.
By the time I return, Tanya’s dressed—thank God for small favors—though still just standing there. Ash has made her way into the room. She’s crying, holding Micah’s hand. He’s telling her he’s staying and trying to tell her she needs to stay, too. It’s crazy talk. I pull her out of the way. She protests weakly and tries to move back. I don’t let her. I tell Reggie to take her out of the room.
“What are you doing?” Reggie asks, when he sees me switching out Micah’s IV bag. “Do you know what that is?”
“Sedative. You wanted me to take charge, so I am.”
Micah glances up and frowns. He tries to protest. He reaches out at me and grabs my arm, but I open the drip all the way and within moments his hand falls back to the bed. His eyes droop. Half a minute later he’s asleep.
“That’s some powerful shit,” Jake says.
I turn the drip rate down. I don’t want to kill him.
I pull the wheelchair to the side of the bed and instruct Jake to help me get Micah into it.
When we’re done and the IV and catheter are repositioned, I check the time on Mabel’s Link. It’s almost six thirty. I toss the Link into the corner of the room. I don’t want them to track us through it.
“Half an hour before the prep nurse shows up.”
I push Micah out into the hallway.
“Once we find the shuttle they’re coming on, you guys are leaving.”
“Us?” Jake says. “You’re coming with us, aren’t you?”
“Kelly’s still here,” I say. “I can’t go home until I find him.”
Chapter 23
The sound of the generator grows loud when we push through the door. We all hesitate for a moment so our eyes can adjust to the gloom. Our nerves are on edge.
From what I can see, we’re standing inside the international terminal, the abandoned kiosks and stainless steel counters and conveyor belts twinkling dully in the dim light of morning. The high windows across the empty room are so dirty that very little light manages to filter through. If it wasn’t for the sun shining low on the horizon, it’d be hard to know if it was morning or the middle of the day.
Ash shuffles over to me. She’s almost fully recovered from the sedative by now. “You can’t stay.”
“Recognize anything?” I ask Jake, pushing her to the side.
He shakes his head. “I remember seeing the control tower as we came in, but from in here I can’t tell which direction that was.”
“That’s probably behind us,” I say. “Out by the runways.”
We keep walking, not sure which direction to take but feeling better just to be moving.
We reach an escalator. It’s not moving, of course, so Reggie and Jake lower Micah down it a step at a time.
Ash goes ahead of us to scout for food and water. She returns just as we reach the bottom. She’s got a bagful of old candy bars and sodas.
“Junk food,” Jake says, making a face. “Twelve-year-old junk food.”
“Fine,” Ashley says, swiping the Milky Way with the faded wrapper out of his hand. “I’ll eat it. I’m starving.”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t eat it.”
“No Red Bulls?” I joke.
“How much time we got?” Reggie asks.
I check my Link. “Quarter to seven. The shuttle should be here any minute now, and we still have no idea where it is.”
“I do,” says a voice from the gloom.
We turn as one—all except Micah, of course. He’s passed out cold in the chair, his elbows dangling off the armrests and his head flopping to his chest. Reggie’s tied him in with a sheet so he doesn’t fall out.
A figure materializes from behind a coffee cart, cobwebs tenting the ancient urns and the display of teas beside the cash register.
It’s Kelly.
I drop the backpack I’ve been carrying and run over to him. He throws his arms wide and I launch myself into them. And now—now when I finally see him standing there, when his arms wrap around me and hold me like a promise to never let me go—only then do I finally let myself collapse. Only then do I let myself let go of the belief that I was never going to see him again.
He waits a moment before speaking. Everyone has gathered around, clamoring for information.
“There’s a shuttle arriving at seven,” I tell him.
“I know. And I know where it comes in—down in baggage claim—but we need to hurry if we’re going to get there in time.”
“How do you know where it is?” I ask.
“Been watching for days now. They bring meals and supplies each morning. This is a minimal operation here. Always the same two or three people.”
He gives Ashley a quick hug and nods to Jake and Reg. They both exclaim how glad they are to see him, but already his gaze has passed from them to Micah and finally to Tanya. I can see the questions in his eyes, the sudden suspicion of this stranger in our midst.
“She’s not a part of this,” I hurriedly say. “But she needs our help.” I don’t mention how it’s my fault she’s here.
Kelly leads us through the darkened terminal, deep into the bowels of the airport and into places that were once off limits to the public. We probably would have figured out where to go ourselves by following the doors which have been propped open or whose locking mechanisms have been disengaged. If we were thinking clearly. If we had time.
“After I escaped, I hid out here for a while and kept watch, trying to figure out what they were doing. Trying to figure out how to rescue Jake.” He glances over. “I wanted to try and get you, but I never got the chance with the door locks. I considered destroying the generator, but I didn’t know if it might do more harm than not. Then I saw them wheel the rest of you in a few days ago. I didn’t realize it was you at first—everyone was covered up—but then I overheard this one guy talking, some guy named Harrison, Padraig Harrison. He was talking to this other guy about doing some experiments on a bunch of kids. He mentioned that you were all gamers and hackers, so I knew it had to be you.”
“It’s Arc,” I tell him. “I don’t know what they’re planning.” I gesture at Tanya’s back and whisper, “I think they were going to volunteer her.”
Kelly’s jaw clenches. “Fuckers,” he spits. “I didn’t want to believe it was. How could they do this? God damn liars. ‘We serve the people’ my ass.”
I frown at him. He shakes his head bitterly.
“What do you mean? What did they lie about?”
“Nothing, Jess.” He sighs. “Everything. ArcWare, Arc Entertainment, ArcTech. They’ve been fucking lying to us since day one. They’re just out to make money. They don’t care who they screw to do it!”
“Tanya works for Arc,” I whisper.
Kelly’s eyes narrow again as he stares at her back. “Remind me again who the hell she is.”
I quickly tell him about my bus ride to Hartford to get the replacement Link. When he hears this, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out my lost Link and hands it over. I thought I’d be glad to see it, but suddenly it feels dangerous, like a ticking time bomb, no longer a part of me but rather a part of this place. I cradle it in my hands, expecting it to suddenly bite me or something, but it just sits there.
He reaches over and wakes it. The screen brightens and I see the picture Kelly had sent to me just moments before the zombies attacked us at the fueling station, when I’d lost the Link in the first place.
I quickly close it. He tries to grab it away again, but I pull away, crossing my arms around my chest.
“Jessie.”
“Not now, Kel. Please.”
“I need to know!”
“You left me!”
“I had to.”
Ever
yone stops and turns around to stare at us. I keep walking, passing them. We’ve reached the carousels and I have to admit that I don’t know which way to go next. I spy a door standing open across the room, so I head for it.
“Jessie, please.”
“Can we talk about this later?”
“This is our future we’re talking about, Jessie.”
I stop and slowly turn. “You’re worried about our future? How about worrying about our present?”
He catches up with me and takes my arm. “Just tell me why not then.”
I sigh and look around at the others. All of them look back at me—all except Micah, who’s still out cold, and Tanya, whose face looks as blank as if she’d had a lobotomy. Do they all know? Do they expect me to answer Kelly’s question? We’re standing in the middle of an abandoned airport in the middle of the Forbidden Zones on Long Island with an Undead nurse upstairs and people trying to kill us so they can reanimate us. And they all want to know if I’m ready to get married?
It’s too surreal for me to even contemplate.
“Kelly, I—”
But then there’s a heavy clang coming through the open door, a hiss of iron wheels on steel tracks. There’s a squeal and another release of compressed air. We all look at each other. Then we hear the voices.
“Hide!” I whisper.
But too late we realize that there’s no place to hide in the baggage claim’s wide open space. And once again, we don’t have a plan.
Chapter 24
Reggie runs straight toward the door, grabbing Jake and Kelly as he goes. Jake nearly trips over his own feet. The scuffles sound loud in my ears and I can’t believe anyone on the other side of that door didn’t hear it. But the voices—a man’s and a woman’s—don’t stop.
I hurry over to Micah’s wheelchair and gesture to Ash to grab Tanya. Together, we quickly move to one side, out of direct line of sight of the door. There’s no place to conceal ourselves, not here, but from the way Reggie and the others are crouched against the wall, it doesn’t look like they intend to remain hidden for long anyway.
We wait, but our captors don’t come through right away. Snatches of conversation reach our ears:
[Female voice]: “—surance the coder will be ready in time? CUs are dangerous enough…three times as potent.”
[Male voice, louder, clearer]: “Potency’s not the issue, Novak. We’ve been through this. It’s the ability to maintain more than just basal functions. This is the breakthrough the boss has been aiming for since the first Zulu.”
[Female voice]: “I’m worried about transmissibility.”
[Male voice]: “…worry.”
“What are they talking about?” Ashley whispers to me.
I gesture for her to be quiet. My guess is they’re talking about the alpha treatment. Tanya stands with her back against the wall, her eyes staring out into the gloom. She has no affect on her face at all. It’s like she’s really not there at all.
And I don’t like it.
“Hurry up with that cart!” the male voice suddenly shouts. A second male voice responds from deeper inside the room.
A shadow falls across the doorway and a moment later a woman walks through, completely absorbed on her Link. She’s followed immediately by a man carrying a small, black case. Jake and Reggie are on them before they know what’s hit them. Kelly slips into the room. I hear him shout at someone inside: “Get your hands up where I can see them. I said up, asshole!”
A moment later, a young man stumbles out through the doorway, tripping over his own feet. He lands on the floor before Kelly steps through holding a pistol directed at the man’s head. It appears to be the same gun I’d found inside the fueling station in Long Island City. I’m actually glad to see it again.
Reggie has Miss Novak’s arm wrenched behind her back. He’s holding her up against a column. I can see from the look on her face that she’s not used to this sort of treatment. There’s no fire at all in her eyes, no fight. She gives up too easily.
The man, however, struggles with Jake. He manages to slip from his grip and spins around with the case, aiming for Jake’s head. The sound of it hitting reverberates across the empty room. Jake staggers backward several steps and trips over the luggage carousel.
He quickly recovers though, and lunges at the man. But the man’s ready and steps away. Jake stumbles past, looking like an amateur instead of the green belt he really is.
“How did you boys get out?” the man demands. He grabs a luggage cart and thrusts it at Jake, who deflects it. He’s puffing, whereas the man looks like he’s barely exerting himself. “Ah, Mister Corben,” he says, spotting Kelly. “We thought we’d lost you.”
“Shut up!”
“Why the hell were we being kept prisoner?” Reggie demands.
“Prisoner?” The man laughs and jockeys himself around a set of chairs. He still hasn’t seen the four of us huddled in the shadows. “You’re not prisoners. You’re pioneers, the lucky chosen ones in a grand new world order.” His laughter crackles against the walls and makes my ears hurt.
“I don’t remember signing up for anything, asshole,” Reggie growls. “And I’ve already seen the new world order. It’s no better than the old one. In fact, I think it stinks.”
“This is your chance to change it, Mister Casey. Soon you’ll see. You’ll be heroes.”
Kelly’s kneeling on the other guy’s back. I get a good look at his face. He doesn’t appear to be much older than the rest of us. Tanya’s age, maybe. He looks terrified.
I edge my way around behind the man. I know Jake can see me, because he moves in such a way so that he keeps the man’s back to us.
“What do you know about heroes, old man?” Reggie spits, also making sure the man doesn’t see me as I slip from the shadows.
“I know a lot about them, son. I helped create them.”
“I’m not your son, so stop calling me that.”
“Listen to me, boys. I think maybe there’s been a misunderstanding. Let’s start—”
“Shut the hell up!” Jake suddenly screams.
The man lunges. He moves so quickly that I barely have a chance to react. I kick out with my foot just as the young man beneath Kelly shouts a warning. My toe manages to catch the other man’s ankle, but it’s enough to throw him off balance. He crashes to the floor and I’m on him in a flash. Jake steps in and begins whaling on the man, kicking him in the side and face. I can feel his foot hitting beneath me, can hear the man’s grunts of pain keeping time with Jake’s grunts of effort.
“How’s—” huhn “—this—” huhn “—for a—” HUHN “—misunderstanding, asshole?”
“Stop it!” I scream. I glare at him in shock. Where did this violent streak come from? “Stop!”
He staggers away.
“You’ve got it all wrong, son,” the man coughs. He turns his head and when he sees me he smiles. “So, the gang’s all here. Nice to see you again, Miss Daniels. I trust you’ve been keeping well since the last time we spoke.”
Everyone looks at me, shock on their faces, shock and suspicion.
“What does he mean, Jess?” Kelly asks. “Do you know his guy?”
I yank the man’s head up by the hair, the same way I’d done to Nurse Mabel. I’m totally ready to slam his head into the floor, just like I did—
No!
It’s the image of that woman, Mabel—that monster I turned her into—that stops me.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, asshole. I’ve never met you before in my life. I’ve never spoken to you.”
He laugh-coughs, but doesn’t correct me. Instead he asks about my grandfather. “I hope he’s doing well in his old age. One of the fortunate few who’ll never be conscripted.”
“You look like you might be about conscription age,” I say.
“Oh, I’m not, really.”
“Ignore him,” Kelly says.
Jake appears with some coiled flexible wire that he ripped out of som
e ancient device. It’s coated in brittle rubber that rubs off on his skin, turning it bright red. He binds the man’s wrists with it, and not very gently either. The wire cuts into the man’s skin.
I look over and see the young man kneeling now, his hands clasped behind his head. Kelly’s standing behind him. Reggie’s still got the woman shoved against the column.
“What should we do with them?” Jake asks.
“Tie her up,” I tell Reggie. “We’ll leave them here.”
“We should take them back with us.”
“Actually,” Jake says, “we should kill them.”
“No,” I say, “I don’t need that on my conscience.”
There’s already enough weighing it down.
Theoretically.
A vision of Mabel comes to me. I want to feel guilt for what I did, but somehow it’s just not there. Maybe it’ll come later. I doubt it. And maybe that’s why I decide to let these two live, so I won’t have to ask myself to feel guilty about doing to them what I did to Mabel. Because I know I won’t be able to. I can’t live like this, torn between how I should feel, and how I actually do feel.
“We’ll take him,” I say, gesturing to the boy. “For insurance.”
“You can’t leave,” the man says. It’s not an order or a warning. He says it like he’s simply stating a fact.
“Shut up,” Jake tells him. “Or I’ll kick your sorry, puny, wimp-shit ass again. And this time I won’t stop until you’re bleeding from every orifice you’ve got, including a few new ones. Do you understand me?”
I stare at Jake in shock.
Back when I first met him at the dojang—god, was it only a week ago?—he’d confessed that his previous trainer emphasized brutality and aggression. It was the reason he left his studio for Rupert’s. It looks like that training is kicking in, and it scares the hell out of me.
“He’s right,” Miss Novak says. “It’ll only make things worse if you leave.”
“Nothing could be worse than this, lady.”
Reggie’s still holding her arm behind her back. He looks uncomfortable, like he doesn’t want to hurt her.
GAMELAND Episodes 1-2: Deep Into the Game + Failsafe (S. W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND) Page 30
