Ascending the Boneyard

by C. G. Watson

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  For Argo . . .

  who heard

  who saw

  who knew

  .5

  Everything’s a battle.

  The way my brother Devin and I always fought for space and attention, from the second he was born up until the accident.

  The constant slaughter and resurrection of cockroaches in every rotting corner of our trailer.

  The old man at max volume, having it out with my mom for the 1,586th day in a row. Ever since the accident. Every single day.

  Scratching day-old mac-n-cheese and dried beer foam out of his stubble as he rants. Such an ass, I can’t even think of him as my dad anymore.

  Haze was there. He knows what it’s like to have to live with that kind of memory. Thinks I’m stuck on that one day at the go-karts, that it’s still breaking me down after four years. Thinks I’m gonna get lost in the game.

  “You need to get off the computer,” he says, as if that’ll fix everything.

  He doesn’t play, so he doesn’t get it.

  Doesn’t get that I actually feel like I can do something meaningful in the Boneyard. Y’know?

  Free the hostages.

  Kill the roaches.

  Become Worthy.

  Ascend.

  1

  Saturday afternoon, Cam Tyler bursts into my room like it’s a matter of national security.

  “You gotta try these, man. They’re off the hook!”

  I’m barely awake, but I slip the specs from his hand. By all appearances, they’re ordinary goggles with a yellow tint to the lens. I cut him one of those sidewinder looks.

  “No one says ‘off the hook’ anymore,” I tell him, throwing my legs over the side of the bed, kicking a dirty cup and plate out of the way as I head to the desk.

  “My dad does.”

  “Your dad thinks he’s the long-lost drummer for KISS, dude. He’s an eighties throwback. Of course he’s gonna say ‘off the hook.’ ”

  Cam hops around my chair, pushing his long, curly hair out of his freckled face. “Fire up the Boneyard, dude! Try ’em out.”

  I go to put the glasses on, but he balls his pasty hand into a fist and punches me in the shoulder.

  “No, wait! Put ’em on after you’re in the Boneyard. So you can tell the difference.”

  That, of course, will mean waiting at least five minutes until the rickety, limping carcass of a Dell PC in my room—the Relic, I call it—coughs itself back to life. I rub my arm in the meantime.

  Cam fills the dead space with an endless spew of chatter.

  Out front, the old man barks about the mail, like he’s incapable of walking twenty-five feet to get it himself.

  My eyes blur as I stare at the computer screen, waiting, blocking out the noise from the TV in the front room. I can hear Devin banging through the cardboard-grade wall that separates our rooms, feel the entire trailer rattle as my mom paces the back end of the hallway. The energy outside my room feels like just before an UnderWorld raid—all the crackle and sulfur of unleashed rage and the fear that everything’s about to blow wide open.

  I have a couple more minutes of wait time till the computer boots up.

  “Don’t touch anything,” I tell Cam. “I’ll be right back.”

  I ease the door open and hook a quick U-turn into Devin’s room. He’s pounding on the tray of his wheelchair.

  “Hey,” I say, low and soft so he doesn’t spook. “Hey, it’s all cool, kid. Your cup’s right here.”

  I’m careful not to cover up the Batman logo on the side of the cup as I hold the sippy part against his lips. He hated Batman before the accident. Any ten-year-old who likes superheroes is an ass-nugget, he’d say.

  Now it’s the only cup he’ll drink from.

  Half the water goes into his mouth. The other half slides down his chin. I pat him dry with a soft cloth, pretending it’s all water and no drool.

  “You probably wanna go watch TV, huh?” I say. He can’t nod or anything, but in my mind he does. “Maybe later,” I say. “After the old man calms down a little. Okay, kid? Want me to put some music on?”

  He’d nod if he could—I know it—so I hit the power button on the radio, tune it back to the emo station he always listened to. The old man changes it to country every freakin’ chance he gets. Can’t even let Devin have this one little thing.

  I smooth my brother’s hair down before heading back to my room.

  When I get there, Cam holds his hands up like proof he didn’t touch anything. Which of course tells me he most likely did.

  As soon as I sit back down, the Relic sputters itself into existence and I head straight for the Boneyard. I click the skull-and-crossbones icon, the one with the bullet-riddled military helmet that spins as the game loads agonizingly slow.

  Suddenly my character screen blazes into existence, and massive relief washes over me. I pick T-Man, my only level-cap toon, and enter.

  More waiting.

  Out in the living room, the old man switches channels. Something ridiculous. Promzillas, if I had to guess.

  On-screen, the load bar crawls past so slowly I want to punch something.

  Cam yammers on about how I need a new computer, maybe an Alienware, like I have three large lying around under my mattress.

  And then, finally, I’m in.

  T-Man drops onto a dark road, and as soon as he’s on the move, I put the glasses on.

  “Whoa . . .”

  “See? Right? See what I mean? It’s sick, man, it’s totally sick!”

  I have to admit, they’re pretty cool. Edges are sharper, colors are clearer, and there’s almost a 3-D depth to scenery on-screen.

  Comments fly by in the chat window, glowing and totally readable, not the blur it usually is. Raids are firing up everywhere. Everybody wants a piece of this battle, especially the special-bonus armor and the max-damage weps that drop if your platoon rocks UpRising.

  I keep my eyes plastered to the screen, my hand near but not on the mouse. Close enough to touch if I have to.

  Watch the comments fly by.

  Psychobatter’s on about some dumb bullshit. I wouldn’t raid with that guy if I had to. He’s an idiot.

  Supershooter says he needs a shield tank. Super’s in Tenth Warriors—pretty awesome platoon. Maybe I should drop in with them. But no. I promised Haze no raiding. Raiding’s where I get a little lost sometimes.

  Deathtoaliens claims 10/12 for UpRising.

  LAST TUNNEL—need dps.

  Last tunnel? Shit on a stick—somebody’s that close? Wait a second. Death? Death’s in Doomstalkers—that’s my brigade.

  Since when does Doomstalkers have a group that close to kicking UpRising?

  I adjust the goggles, squint closely at the monitor. Seriously though. It’s crazy how something so simple brings everything else into such intense focus.

  Just when I think it can’t get any cooler, I hear the old man squawk, “How many times are they gonna send us the same damn bills?” and suddenly my brigade chat window goes batshit crazy.

  Deathtoaliens: T-Man! You in?

  Bruisedozer: T-Man, dude, bring the heat.

  Sixkindsofwhoopazz: T-Maaaaaaan!

  “These are dope,” I tell Cam about the goggles, distracting myself so I’m not tempted to get pulled into the action.

  My hand
s are adrenaline-shaking as the raid invites pop up. Eleven people, all begging for me to join. They need me to help break through to that last tunnel, take down the boss. We could do this, no question. It could be our screenshot on the forums. With one incomparable grenade launcher, I could kill anything in the game.

  “My dad bought two pairs of those goggles,” Cam says. I just bet he did. One for Cam and one for himself, no doubt. The guy’s a sixteen-year-old trapped in a thirty-five-year-old body.

  My finger twitches, and before I know what I’m doing, I click “join.” I try not to pay attention to everybody’s typing as the lines fly by, players telling me how we’re gonna crack this now that I’m back in, names I mostly know and a few I don’t. But of course I know Bruisedozer, who’s handing off rations, and Six, who’s buffing everybody like crazy.

  The walls shake as my mom paces the narrow hall, and I wish one of those buffs could go to her. She needs something today, I can tell.

  “Hold up. I thought this one got paid.” Only the way he says it sounds like an accusation.

  I hate him for the way he talks to her. Every day. Ever since the accident. Sometimes I wish she’d get angry back. But she knows better, talks to him like she’s reading how to reheat soup off the side of a can.

  “You’re drifting, dude,” Cam says.

  I turn back to the screen. Behind the raid, a horde of mobs sweeps up and down the street, up and down. Christ, that’s a lot of cockroaches. Bruise is going over strategy on voice chat like always—drones on forever before anybody gets to start shooting.

  “So what’s the point of these, exactly?” I ask, slipping the goggles back off, inspecting them.

  “Cuts the glare so you can game longer,” Cam says.

  I’m totally down for hanging out in the Boneyard all night and helping Doomstalkers take UpRising. Only at that exact second, Haze comes cruising into my room, still sporting the cop shades and painter’s mask he wears for work that got him affectionately dubbed the “Napoleon Burger Unabomber.” No one twirls a sign like my man Haze.

  I try to body block the screen so he can’t tell that I’m breaking a promise to him about getting off the Boneyard. You’re gonna lose yourself in that game one of these days, he keeps telling me.

  My hand goes limp on the mouse.

  Haze toggles his mirror-lensed gaze from me to Cam.

  “What’s going on?” he asks.

  Cam and I both answer, only he says “Boneyard” and I say “Nothing,” and it’s obvious Haze believes Cam and not me.

  My hand bumps off the mute by mistake, and now he can hear the raid chat and Bruise yelling that this time they better keep the tank from getting crushed under all those roaches.

  “You guys need to get your story straight,” Haze mumbles in disgust, aiming those mirrored cop shades straight at me. “I thought you were off that shit, Tosh.”

  “I am,” I say, quick kicking the mute back on. “I mostly am.”

  “Dude, chill,” Cam says. “The guy needs a little break from—”

  The sound of glass striking and then shattering recoils through the entire trailer. Devin’s music goes dead—I’m not sure how—and the footsteps in the hallway come to a complete stop right outside my door. Seconds tick past as we all just sit and stare at the walls and wait. My pulse revs up with nowhere to go.

  “Seven hundred dollars? For what?”

  The old man lets fly, his voice is so sharp it could split the fake-wood paneling on the walls. When I close my eyes, I can see her face—that look she gets, like she wants to shout back. But she never does. Just lowers her chin, shakes her head small enough so he can barely see, and whispers her thoughts to herself.

  Fifteen hundred and eighty-six days of the old man’s rage being fueled by her silence.

  I adjust the goggles, grip the mouse, click on my max-red stance to boost damage as far as it’ll go. It’s a calculated risk, I know. I could totally die. It could all be over in seconds. But right now I don’t care. Right now I seriously need to kill something, that’s all.

  “Seven hundred bucks, Amy. That’s rent. That’s two weeks of groceries.”

  She says nothing. What could she possibly say to a guy who hasn’t worked in almost four years? Who looks at those bills every month like he’ll find cheat codes hidden somewhere in all those numbers? Who’s so far into this maze, he’ll never get out and he knows it? What do you say to a trapped animal? I want to bolt off the chair, go out there, help her find the words, only the last time I did, he let me have it.

  There’s nothing I can do for her. I’m powerless.

  “Two weeks of groceries sittin’ useless in that goddamn chair!”

  Cam’s been bouncing his scrawny ass behind me, just itching to get his hooks on the mouse. But he and Haze stop cold and stare at the bedroom door at the sound of the old man’s voice, full of shrapnel and hopelessness.

  “Go,” Bruiser barks over the headphones, and I turn just in time to catch the platoon plunge onto the once-empty street in the Boneyard.

  Mobs swarm toward us, screeching and snapping bug jaws and firing acid spit. One of the healers takes major damage. I shoot the bug that’s trying to take her down, watch the metal helmet fly off as it falls over onto its long, flat back, six hairy cockroach legs wiggling in a melodramatic death dance. He’s not dead; that’s all I know. In a matter of seconds he’ll flip over and scurry back to his place in line. They always do—they’re roaches. It’s almost impossible to kill the damn things. You have to whack ’em multiple times before they’ll actually die.

  She says something back to him, her muffled voice skulking along the walls of the trailer, too soft to make out the words.

  “Like hell,” he says. “That son of a bitch pays you minimum wage. And he still charges us to come out and spray!”

  Never mind the place is still crawling with roaches. But he doesn’t mention that.

  My eyes dart away from the screen for a second. I let the echo of his words get distant in my ears, try to tell myself it doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, I’ve either heard it 1,586 times before or I don’t want to know. I try to convince myself that the old man’s lucky there’s a raid going down in the Boneyard, that it’s the only thing keeping me in this chair right now. But that’s a lie. The truth is, I’m a complete chickenshit when it comes to him. I can’t even nut-up enough to protect her.

  I adjust the headset over my right ear, pop an earbud into my left, and crank up the volume on both. A couple of clicks on my mp3 player, and Motor City’s meld of punk and metal becomes the best raiding soundtrack ever.

  Cam leans over my shoulder, breathes wet air next to my ear. “Kill that one!” he says, pointing.

  Haze stealth-approaches my closed door, eases his body against it.

  The whole house shakes from the impact of my old man’s words on our reality, rattling the thin pane of glass on the windows, until—

  Bruiser panic-shouts, cursing over the headset as Six screeches, “Second wave! Second wave!”

  A fresh surge of roaches storms over us.

  “Shoot those guys!” Cam shouts, leaning way too far into my personal space just so he can point at the screen.

  “Dude, back off,” I tell him as I click away, giving T-Man an automatic rifle and watching his spread take out six roaches at once. He keeps at it. They’re going down, extermination style.

  “Buff up!” Bruise calls out over the headset. “Healers, rez the dead now. We’ve only got seconds.”

  “Tunnel maps?” I hear over the speaker. I don’t recognize the girl’s voice. “Need the mapper up front.”

  “Who are you?” I ask.

  “Militiababe,” she answers.

  Ah. The one from Crazyfire. I think she’s a Medic.

  We sure as hell could use some heals right about now.

  We can’t hold out long against numbers like this. The trick is to keep yourself alive, hit the tunnels in the right sequence so you can unlock the last one to the b
oss before everybody dies. I happen to know how righteously hard it is to stay alive when you’re under constant attack, when you can’t seem to get the sequence right. We’re damn good raiders, but for some reason we can never quite reach that last tunnel. No Ascent Credits. No becoming Worthy. Total fail.

  One of these times, it has to end differently.

  “I’ll map,” I say, squaring myself on the seat as I tune out the noise out front.

  “Whoa, you’re almost to Turk’s lair!” Cam shouts. “Yo, T-Man. Assault!”

  Haze kicks back over to my bed, tosses his painter’s mask in disgust onto a pile of dirty laundry, plops down on the dusty mattress.

  “Tosh,” he says, his voice a mesh of worry and irritation.

  Haze is more of a see the world, live in the now kind of guy. He doesn’t understand the importance of all this. I’ve never told him, so of course he wouldn’t know. How a fail like me, a guy who can’t get it right in real life, would have to roam these maps, to complete these missions. Have to kill the roachlike UnderWorld mobs, rescue the babelike UnderWorld hostages, raid with platoons through the abandoned highways and buildings of the UpperWorld, killing infiltrators and trying to bank Ascent Credits. That’s why I bought the new expansion pack. ASCEND: Armageddon. It has everything a guy like Caleb Tosh could want in a game: hot chicks, vile insectoid enemies, and the chance to go back and fix whatever I messed up on as long as I don’t care how fast I level. If I can nail these missions and get promoted, if I can become Worthy, even an inept guy like me can Ascend a place like the Boneyard.

  “Tosh,” Haze says again. “Will you get off the game already?”

  “He can’t!” Cam shrieks. “His platoon is one tunnel away from Turk—the boss, the Cockroach Commandant! Make it happen, T-Man!”

  I stare at the tunnels. Twelve of them. My brain whips through all the sequences I’ve tried in the past. I have a list, only I don’t remember where I put it. No time to look, either. The platoon masses behind me, ready to defend, because the second I hit the first tunnel, those cockroach mobs will attack.

  “Got your back,” Militiababe murmurs as she puts herself between T-Man and the platoon. She’ll be my healer, but if I don’t map fast and shoot straight, she won’t last long.