by J C Lane
She sighed. “It’s a long story.”
“Can I hear it?”
Laura grabbed his arm, pulling him even closer. She looked at her new friends. “Will you tell it? I just…can’t.”
“Of course. Let’s…” Sydney studied the abandoned building with its No Trespassing sign. The weeds growing through the cracks in the concrete. The traffic whizzing by.
“We’ll sit in the car,” Adam said.
Laura and Jeremy slid into the backseat of Adam and Sydney’s rental, where Laura sat so close to him she was practically on his lap. Adam and Syd took the front, Syd turning completely around to perch on her knees.
“Should I start?” she asked Laura.
Laura leaned her head on the seat and closed her eyes. Sydney’s voice went up and down while Adam interjected details. Jeremy asked the occasional question. His grip on her tightened as the story sank in.
“She was going to kill her?” he finally said. “And you didn’t call the police?”
Laura’s eyes jerked open.
“You don’t understand—” Sydney began.
“You bet I don’t. You knew that girl was going to kill her and you didn’t tell anybody? What’s wrong with you?”
“Hey…” Adam said. “It wasn’t Syd’s fault.”
Laura put a hand on Jeremy’s face and turned it toward her. “Don’t yell at her. Please, Jer. I never would have made it without her. Without them both.”
His face softened and he closed his eyes, leaning his forehead against hers. “I’m sorry, I’m just…what would I do if something happened to you?”
Laura wanted to promise him that nothing ever would. That life would go on like it always had. That everything would be fine.
But she no longer believed those things.
She waited for the hiccups to start, but they didn’t come. She tried to smile. “I’m here now. And so are you. That’s all we can count on. We have to hold onto that.”
“I don’t…” But he didn’t finish. Instead, he put his arms around her and held her close.
“Syd.” She turned her face toward the front.
“Yeah?”
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
Syd gave a shaky laugh. “Better than a crappy day being a tourist.”
“Adam? Thank you, too. You guys are the best.”
He nodded.
Laura smiled.
“What?” Sydney said.
“You two…get it together.”
Their eyes rounded.
“You love each other. Just admit it, already.” She turned back to Jeremy. “And don’t waste one minute you can be together.”
Laura slid out of the car, Jeremy right behind. As they pulled away from the gas station in the familiar Civic, Laura’s hand grasping Jeremy’s so tightly she felt his bones creak, she looked back.
Sydney was sitting on Adam’s lap, covering his face with kisses. Adam’s arms encircled her.
Laura hoped she could get lost in Jeremy’s arms again.
But somehow she knew it would never be the same.
Amanda
Pizza boxes and pop cans littered Amanda’s basement, and the strains of X’s new game, Just Dance Minecraft Zombie Wars, filled the air. Of course Queen was the predominant soundtrack.
Charles sprawled on the couch, munching on popcorn and laughing as X and Solo fell all over each other. They peppered him with invitations to join, but he wasn’t quite ready to throw himself into the melee. He hadn’t thought himself ready to enjoy a night eating pizza and hanging out with friends, either. He’d surprised himself with how fun it actually was. Who knew?
Amanda and Nerys sat in the gaming chairs the others had pushed to the side to make room for the mad dancing. They talked about the room they’d found. The voice and visual replacement apps, the crazy hacked-in research software, the remote killing machine. Amanda was finally starting to feel normal, now that they’d distanced themselves from Chicago and the Game and the crazy killer Ref.
Who was gone with the wind.
Amanda had no way of contacting the Runners directly. The watches’ signals had been terminated. She’d reached Laura’s boyfriend using the numbers still on X’s laptop and had asked him to relay the message that it really was over. He had no idea what she’d been talking about, of course, but Laura would tell him.
She didn’t call anyone for Tyrese, because what would she say? She would wait and see if his disappearance came up in the news. She’d step forward with the information if she had to.
To keep the whole thing “legal” she’d called the cops and told them about the Ref’s lair with all of its incriminating data. Their little group had argued about it, especially since Charles would be in the system.
“No worries,” he said. “I removed everything that had to do with me.” He smiled at her. “And with you. And with both the other Runners. No reason they should suffer.”
“But won’t the cops know things have been deleted?”
“Nah. That’s what’s good about being a super genius. I made it look like the files had been corrupted. No one will be able to break through it. They’ll find information about the other Its, any freelancers the Ref used, like whoever delivered your watch, and whatever might be there about the Ref. That’s it.”
Now he looked like a happy…kid. Which made Amanda happy, too, even though he’d been out to kill her less than twenty-four hours ago.
But then, hadn’t she been out to kill (virtually) Nerys, her archnemesis? She sat sideways, head cocked, watching Nerys in the gaming chair.
“What?” His eyes flicked toward her. “Have you finally realized you’re madly in love with me and have been all this time?”
“Why do X and Solo adore you so much?”
He shrugged. “Charm?”
“Seriously.”
“Okay, charm and the fact I saved their butts once.”
“How?”
He stretched, smiling as he let his arm fall across the back of Amanda’s chair. She let it go.
“To make a complex story simple, I’ll just say that Solo and X found each other in tech club freshman year, and became basically inseparable. Her home life is crap, so she became X’s unofficial foster sister. Anyway, one night when they were supposed to be sleeping they decided it would be a good idea to hack their way into the Pentagon to get background for a Call of Duty-World of Warcraft mash-up, and they were about to entertain the entire military in their basement. Or at least the ones who matter. I knew them from some local gaming matches, and they called me in desperation. We were able to destroy their tracks.”
“Wow.”
“I know. I’m awesome.” He grinned. “Anything else you want to ask?”
“Yeah. What’s your real name?”
His smile faltered. “Not a fair question, Goddess. It’s in your own Behavior Agreement. Them’s the rules.”
“The rules are so far gone I don’t even remember what they were anymore.”
He ticked them off on his fingers. “No profanity. No sexual innuendo. No killing each other’s specified handcrafted, multi-layered avatar.” He winced.
She clenched her jaw. The pain of PeruvianGoddess13’s destruction hadn’t lessened much, and it wouldn’t for some time. But even at that early stage, she realized she was probably better off with the real, live people present in her basement. Not that any of them were as awesome as PG13.
Nerys was still talking. “And finally, no cyber stalking, which includes any investigation into each other’s personal lives, i.e. addresses, family, and names.”
“Nerys.”
“Yes?”
“You’re in my basement.”
“And a very nice basement it is.”
“You know my real name.”
“I do, and a very nice—”
/> “You saved my life.”
“Oh. Well, there is that.” He ran a finger across the back of her neck, sending chills from her scalp to her toes. “Doesn’t that mean your life belongs to me now, or something like that?”
She brushed his hand off. “No. But don’t you think you could at least trust me with your actual, given name?”
He picked something invisible off his jeans. “Yeah, probably.”
“So?”
He ticked his head sideways.
“Nerys.”
“It’s a dumb name, okay? I don’t want you to know it. I’d rather you just call me Nerys.”
“A Bajoran woman’s name. Who doesn’t really exist.”
He placed a hand on his heart. “Don’t say that. I hope someday to marry her. Well, if you won’t have me.”
“Come on.” She nudged him. “I won’t laugh. I promise.”
“You won’t tell the others?”
“It’s your name to divulge.”
He breathed in through his nose and looked at her from the corner of his eye. “You swear?”
“On PG13’s grave.”
“Oh, well then.” He looked away. “It’s Henry. Henry Good.” When she didn’t reply, he glanced over. “Well?”
“What’s wrong with that? It’s a fine name.”
“It’s…ordinary.”
“That’s your complaint? It’s ordinary?”
He shrugged, looking like a puppy left out in the rain.
Amanda leaned toward him. His eyes widened as he studied her face, ending up staring at her lips.
“Henry Good, you are the least ordinary person I know.”
He made a face. “Is that…good?”
“It’s perfect.”
“But you’ll still call me Nerys in front of other people?”
“I will do that for you. But you still may not call me babycakes, or sweet thing, or sex pistol, or—”
“I got it, I got it. But can I do this?” He put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her closer, until their faces were mere inches apart, and Amanda couldn’t breathe.
“Aw, man!” X whined, breaking the spell. “That is no fair. You can’t take a Queen song and mix it with Bruno Mars!”
“Why not?” Solo said.
“Because! Tell her, Charlie!”
Charles held up his hands. “I am not getting involved in that. No way. Nuh-uh.”
“Nerys? Amanda?”
Amanda laughed and pulled Henry up from his chair. “Come on, Nerys. It looks like we need to entertain the children.”
He got up, but grabbed Amanda around the waist, sliding her toward him and making her heart beat very loudly in her head. He looked at her for several agonizing seconds before saying, “I’ve loved you ever since I killed you in that very first contest.”
“Yes, I know.”
He waited. “And? Do you love me back?”
She eased away. “Let’s play a round of Just Dance Minecraft Zombie Wars. If you win, I love you.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Time will tell if there can ever be anything between us.” She skipped over to the TV, laughing out loud.
Who ever thought she’d actually root for Nerys?
Sunday, Early Morning
The Referee
The boy and his dog made a romantic image, wandering down the train tracks, watching for a good hiding place during the daylight hours. They could have been a Norman Rockwell painting, a runaway boy with a stick over his shoulder, his faithful dog at his feet.
But this painting had a different backstory. The boy wouldn’t be as young as he looked, always mistaken for eleven or twelve, when really he’d graduated from high school the year before. A couple years early, of course, but still, he was sixteen. He had a driver’s license.
His pockets were filled with money, and hundreds of thousands of dollars lay gaining interest in secret bank accounts he could tap into any time he wanted.
The dog…was just a dog. For some reason, it actually liked him.
The Game had been engaging. Almost enough to chase away the loneliness. Meeting the Runner and her It in the apartment stairwell had thrown him for a moment, but they had no idea who he was. They’d been smart enough to pinpoint his equipment, perhaps even to stop the Game, before he was ready, but not quite smart enough to realize how close they’d come to actually finding him.
He’d have to figure out something different now to pass the time.
The boy whistled a song he’d heard that day. The words resonated with him. Something about needing no sympathy, and killing a man. Old music. He’d have to look up that Queen group whenever he got where he was going.
He clucked his tongue at his dog, and made his way down the track.
Discussion Questions for
Tag, You’re Dead
Each It has a specific reason for buying a place in the Game of Tag. What are these reasons, and with which do you identify the most? Or do you find all of them foreign?
In contrast, each Runner has a specific skill that will aid in the playing of the Game. What are these skills, and which one would you find most helpful? What skill do you have that would be a benefit if you had to play the Game?
How do the parents of each Player influence the Game? Are they important to the decisions the Players make, or simply a side note? What about other adults involved in the story? Do they miss something they should be seeing and fixing, or are they simply pawns in this Game where the teenagers need to figure out their own strategies?
Each Player deals with secondary characters throughout the day. Which of these characters do you find most influential in the Game? Which ones hampered the Players’ ability to succeed? Which one would you most like to have as a teammate?
The city of Chicago becomes its own character in the book. What aspects of the city play a large role in the Game, and how would the story differ if it were set in another place?
In contrast to dystopian novels, such as The Hunger Games and Divergent, Tag, You’re Dead takes place in the here and now. Do you think it’s possible that such a Game could actually happen? Which aspects seem the most real to you? Which ones seem too far advanced? Do you find the technological or human aspects more realistic?
Discuss the ways the Ref influences the Game. Do you think the Ref has a personal bias and influences action, or is the Game allowed to play out as it was set up to run?
How is each Runner changed by the Game? Will it affect their quality of life? The way they each live and think? How about the Its? What does this do to their lives moving forward?
Imagine describing the Game to your friends and family after you played as a Runner. Would they believe you? Would they want to call the authorities? Would you want to forget about it, or would you relive it for others in order to deal with the aftereffects and stop any future Games?
Discuss the Ref’s next move. Do you feel sympathy or revulsion for the Ref? Or something different? Where do you think the Ref will go next? Did the Ref learn anything from the Game, or will life simply go on as usual?
Come on over to jclanebooks.com to discuss the story and its characters. I’d love to see you there!
—J.C. Lane
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