Jake turns to her and says, sneering, “Maybe he won’t kick your ass up through your neck, but I wouldn’t think twice about doing it.”
“That’s enough!” I gasp.
“You can’t leave,” she repeats, daring Jake to act on his threat.
He looks at me, grunts once and turns away.
I stand up quick and get in her face. “I’m going home,” I tell her, snapping my words. She doesn’t even flinch. “We all are. You can too, when you get yourself free. If I weren’t so forgiving, I’d have you all killed and stuffed.”
“Tell us how the shuttle works,” Jake demands. “Tell us and we won’t hurt you.”
I narrow my eyes at him. Since when does he make the rules?
“It’s a simple switch,” the young man answers. “The tram rides a track through a tunnel under the East River. Push the lever one way and the tram moves in that direction; push it the other and it goes in the opposite direction. In the middle it stops. But—”
“What’s on the other side?”
“The tunnel opens up in a warehouse in Hunts Point. It’s abandoned now, of course.”
“Is it guarded?”
“No,” the woman says.
“Don’t you fucking lie to me.” I walk over to Kelly and grab the gun away from him and point it at her head. She still doesn’t flinch. Now I realize what I’d mistaken for fright is just composure.
I swing it over to the young man’s head instead. “Is it guarded?”
“N-no,” he answers. “It’s not. Honestly.”
“Gather everything up,” I tell Kelly. I glance over at the man still lying on the floor. “I don’t know what the hell you people are doing, but we’re going home. Leave us alone! Understand? If I ever see any of you again, I won’t hesitate to kill you.”
The man just stares.
“Are we ready?” I ask everyone. Jake nods grimly. So do Kelly and Reg.
“But you can’t go,” Miss Novak insists, as Reggie ties her up.
“Miss Novak,” the man grunts. He chuckles. “Let them go. It’s not the end of the world for us. There’s always the backup plan.”
“What does he mean by that?” Jake asks. “What the fuck do you mean backup plan?”
“Nothing, Jake. He’s just screwing with your mind.”
I go over and kick the man in the kidney. Then I lean down so my mouth is inches from his ear. I want to tell him he’s an asshole. I want to say he has no right to live.
Instead, I just say: “You’ll find Mabel in Room Three. I think she’ll be happy to see you.”
Chapter 25
“Tie up his hands, but not his feet,” I say, pointing at the man kneeling on the floor. “Let’s get out of this pit.”
Kelly bends down and grabs his arm and yanks him upright. The guy starts to protest, but Jake glares at him and he quickly quiets down.
I march through the doorway into the dimly lit room beyond. It must’ve been an old transportation link for airport employees. Railcars sit on tracks that lead into several different tunnels. A colorful map on the wall shows lines connecting the various concourses and terminals. I wonder if they all still work.
“What’s your name?” I demand.
“S-stephen,” the man answers.
“Well, Stephen, which one gets us out of here?”
He gestures with his bound hands to a two-car tram along the far wall. The door to the engineer’s compartment stands open. I walk over and look inside. The controls are lit up with a faint green glow.
“Can someone call this remotely from the other end?”
He shakes his head.
“How about from this end?” Another shake. “Good.”
I instruct Jake to grab the cart that Stephen was pushing in when we ambushed them. The smell of Insta-Meals wafts from inside and my stomach grumbles. My knees shake, but I ignore them. We need to get on the train car and get moving first. I’ll think about my own personal needs once we’re on our way.
A black satchel sits on top of the cart. A stethoscope dangles out. The bag probably holds the injection Miss Novak had been planning to give to Tanya. I wonder if they intended the same injection for any of the rest of us or if we were going to be used for some other plan.
We have our backup.
If there were more time, I’d tell him to explain. I’m even having second thoughts about leaving them behind, but now’s not the time to be second guessing my own decisions.
I watch Jake roll the cart toward the tram. I have to resist the urge to get the injection out and administer it to one of them instead. But who knows what horror that would unleash. I doubt that Stephen is completely aware of what Arc is doing. He must think he’s in over his head by now, wondering what nasty shit he’s gotten into. I wish I knew, too.
Once we get back to the mainland, I’ll turn him over to the cops. He’s weak. He’ll give up Arc. Hopefully, it’ll be enough to put them permanently out of business.
Reggie comes through the door pushing Micah. Tanya follows behind him like a drone, blinking and shuffling. I wish I knew what they’ve done to her. She should’ve gotten over her shock by now. She’s nothing like the bubbly woman I briefly met on the bus.
“I’ll drive,” Reggie volunteers. He’s back to his old self, that’s for sure.
I shrug, and no one argues with him. They all make their way to the open car. Everyone just wants to get back home.
I take Micah’s wheelchair from Reggie and enter the car, finding a space that’s not in the way. Jake brings the cart in and positions it next to Micah. Then he settles himself down in the adjacent seat, smoldering. I wait until Ashley brings Tanya in, leading her by the elbow. They sit down across the aisle from the boys. Jake watches them both for a moment, rubbing the bandage on the back of his neck. He suddenly looks completely depleated. They all do, especially Kelly.
Stephen stumbles in, Kelly poking him in the back with the pistol. “Sit down and don’t move!” he snarls. But even I can tell it’s more bark than bite.
Stephen just lowers his head into his hands and tries to wrap himself up. He looks like a man condemned to early conscription. A bubble of sympathy floats through me before I remember what he’s a party to. Even if not entirely aware of all the details, he’s still guilty of some complicity.
I join Reggie in the engineer’s compartment and tell him we’re ready to go. I watch him as he turns a key. Dials spring to life. A half dozen gauges do their brief jiggity electrical dances before steadying. We have power and brake pressure and who knows what else. It’s old tech and I don’t really understand much of it. It reminds me a lot of Micah’s old Ford. All I know it that it still works, so somebody must’ve been maintaining it all this time.
A low hum vibrates the air.
“I guess that means everything’s good,” Reggie says. “No red flashing lights or alarm bells. No sirens. No explosions.” He gives me little shrug and grins.
The word ‘explosion’ sets me on edge again. “Let’s go then,” I say impatiently.
I know it’s just nerves, but I can’t shake the feeling that something’s not right. It’s been troubling me ever since I broke out of my room. Maybe I’m just being extra paranoid, but ever since finding out that our ‘impromptu’ plan to break into LI was really part of a larger scheme involving Arc, I’ve been second guessing everything, every decision, every move.
How did they know? Who could’ve told them? Jake?
Grandpa?
God, we thought we were being clever and secretive, a bunch of juveniles getting away with random crap that we really had no business messing around in. The only part of our excursion that was truly our own decision and not Arc’s was when we came back. And we screwed that up.
Who can I trust? Who can’t I?
It makes me suspect everything that happened, starting with Reggie’s suggestion to come here in the first place.
Was our earlier attempt to hack The Game some kind of trigger that set our pat
h?
What about when we hacked the old government computers for the maps?
And my faulty rebreather in the tunnel. Accidental or intentional?
How about the sudden appearance of the zombies on LI?
Was meeting Tanya on the bus part of the plan?
Reggie curls his fingers over a control lever and slowly pulls it down. The external doors close. A bell chimes and a female voice announces that we’ll be moving soon. There’s a chuff of air as the brakes release. I brace myself, but we don’t move.
“What’s going on? Why aren’t we going?”
He shakes his head and studies the control panel. The he reaches over and pushes a red button with the palm of his hand. The train car lurches. We begin to move.
“Seems our friend was holding out on us. It’s not just a lever. It’s a lever and a button.”
I hope it’s the last surprise.
“Let’s go home, Reg.”
“I’m with you on that one, girl,” he replies. “And never come back, neither.”
‡ ‡
[END OF EPISODE TWO]
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed these installments of the GAMELAND series. The entire 8-episode series is available in digital and paperback format. For more information and availability, please visit me at my website, Tanpepperwrites.com.
If you’d like some insight into the world of GAMELAND, pick up a copy of Golgotha, which takes place roughly fifteen years earlier and describes the death of Jessie Daniel’s father and the rise of the Omegamen Forces with her grandfather at the helm.
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I welcome your thoughts. If you’d like to leave a review, you’ll find a helpful link after the page-turn.
‡
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My undying thanks to the devoted staff of Brinestone Press for their keen eye and gentle but firm touch in helping me bring this story to life, for believing every step of the way that I could raise the dead.
To my devoted fans and followers on Twitter (http://twitter.com/saultanpepper), especially the zombie apocalypse junkies. Everything’s better with the #zombie hashtag.
My deepest gratitude goes to my family for their unflagging support. Without them, I would not be able to create worlds with such richness to them.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Saul Tanpepper is a writer of speculative fiction for teens and adults. A former molecular geneticist originally from Upstate New York, he now calls Northern California home.
If you enjoyed his Gameland series, please check out his other titles, available in digital and print form from Smashwords and all major book distributors.
For more information about the author and his writings, please check out his website: http://www.tanpepperwrites.com and Facebook pages at http://facebook.com/SWTanpepper.
More GAMELAND titles by Saul Tanpepper
Golgotha (prequel to GAMELAND)
Individual episodes
Multi-episode packages
Season Omnibus
Paperback
(individual episodes and omnibus editions)
For ages 16 and up
Other titles available by Saul Tanpepper
Insomnia:
Paranormal Tales, Science Fiction, Horror
Seven short stories and novellas
(all titles also available individually):
The Grin
The Scenario Egg
A Thing for Zombies
Reached in Error
Raise the Dead
The Sacrifices We Make
The Promises We Keep
Approximately 84,000 words
For older teens and adults
Other titles available by Saul Tanpepper
Shorting the Undead and Other Horrors:
A Menagerie of Macabre Mini-fiction
Eight terrifying tales of the Undead and the Unliving.
(all titles also available individually):
Occupied
Mr. November
The Headhunter
The Object of Her Obsession
Nocturne
Outsourced
Open Wide
Golgotha
Approximately 88,000 words
For older teens and adults
S.W. Tanpepper’s GAMELAND: Episodes 1 and 2
by Saul Tanpepper
Copyright © 2012 by Saul Tanpepper
All rights reserved.
1st Published August 2, 2012 by Brinestone Press, San Martin, CA 95046
Cover design K.J. Howe Copyright © 2012
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
D2D LICENSE NOTES
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
http://www.brinestonepress.com
Tanpepper, Saul (2012-08-02). S.W. Tanpepper’s Gameland: Episodes 1 and 2
Brinestone Press Digital Edition (rv130312)
For more information about this and other titles by this author:
http://www.tanpepperwrites.com
GAMELAND Episodes 1-2: Deep Into the Game + Failsafe (S. W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND) Page 31
