by Logan Byrne
We decided that this was as good a spot as any, and made camp, though it wasn’t too homey. We had no tent, no blankets, and worst of all, no fire. I took out my cards, rummaging through them in the dark, only the moonlight giving me illumination, before finding my feast card, which was a good thing to have when you were stuck in the wilderness. I knew the six-hour cool down would be fine, since both of us were soon going to sleep, and it was better to at least eat a little bit instead of waking up hungry, especially if we had to move quickly.
“I forgot about this,” I said, seeing the plasma shield card, its gold front piquing my curiosity again.
“Oh, that? I thought you knew,” Peter said, though he’d told us before we found camp that he would soon be leaving for the rest for the night.
“They never told us anything in training about gold-faced cards,” I said.
“Figures. The quality of their education program has been really falling in recent years. I’m thinking of starting a petition—” Peter said.
“Peter,” Liam said, interrupting him.
“Right, I’m sorry. Gold cards can be of any type, and they’re one-use cards. While regular cards can be used every six hours, once you use a gold-faced card you can’t use it again, so use them wisely. Black cards are a different story, though,” Peter said.
“How many different types are there?” I asked.
“Just regular, gold, and black. The black ones are incredibly rare, nobody’s ever found one before, not even with the help of their hackers. They’re faceless, just the black metal and a magnetic strip. One’s extremely good, the other’s extremely bad,” Peter said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, one will do something incredibly helpful, but you don’t know what it is or what it’ll do until you swipe it. The other will do something incredibly horrible, possibly catastrophic, and works the same way, you won’t know until you swipe it. You have no idea which one you have until you swipe it. It’s a game of chance and luck, but don’t worry, I don’t expect you to find one. Nobody ever has,” Peter said.
“Yeah, probably not,” Liam said.
Holding the feast card in my hand, I put the stripe through my skimmer. It was the first card we’d used in the competition so far. Nothing happened. I swiped again, this time slower, but again, nothing happened, like it was a dud. It would be my luck that I got the only faulty skimmer in the competition.
“Why isn’t this working?” I asked.
“You’re not saying ‘modify,’” Peter said.
“I thought that was just for show,” I said.
“Nope, it’s for real. You have to say it right before you swipe, or else it’ll do nothing at all,” Peter said.
“Modify,” I said, the tip of the card in the grooved edge of the skimmer, and then I swiped the card through.
The chime went off overhead, and I looked up, then back down, seeing a spread of food in front of us. There was cheese, bread, meat, bottles of water, and two cookies, one for each of us. Liam and I dug in, my stomach grumbling, as I’d only had the small breakfast this morning and no lunch. It was surprising that my hunger translated in here, even though I was supposedly hooked up to that IV, but I guessed WorldNet was that realistic. It truly was a place to live your life without really living it.
We ate in the dark, wishing we had some kind of fire card, as the five minutes that passed by while we were eating chilled the air even further, the cold air rolling in, our surroundings devoid of any light. We could almost see our breath in front of our faces. We stayed huddled up, neither one of us having anything more than our uniforms to protect us, though the little nook we were in did seem to hold heat a little better than if we were in the direct wind. The wind was now blowing over top of us, rustling some branches, making them sway gently in the breeze.
“How are you holding up?” Liam asked, after he had eaten his final piece of bread.
“I’m okay. I guess when we were going through training, and when I was thinking of what we would be doing in here, I never really planned or thought about nighttime. It’s so uncomfortable here. I miss that bed, and those blankets!” I said.
“Yeah, a big fluffy blanket would be kind of nice right now, wouldn’t it?” he asked.
“Yeah. A lot of things would be nice right now,” I said.
“It’s strange how quiet it is here. Even back home, in the city, it’s never really quiet, is it? There’s always some kind of noise, whether it’s traffic, sirens, family members, or just random street noises. I’m not sure I’ve even ever heard true silence, at least not that I can remember,” Liam said.
I stayed quiet, listening to the reverberating silence, realizing that I hadn’t ever heard it either. Sure, there were some branches swaying and some leaves blowing, but it was quiet. No cars, no sirens, and most eerily of all, no other people. They could’ve been nearby, maybe even within a minute or two of us, but we didn’t hear them, that was for sure.
“I wonder if we’re being watched,” I said, looking up to the trees in vain, as I wouldn’t be able to tell if anything, or anyone, was up there.
“Probably. I have a feeling you’re not going to be able to sneeze without someone seeing,” Liam said.
“At least you took care of the problem earlier, even if Peter was a little uptight about it. I really appreciate it, you know. You took action, you protected me from it, and that means a lot,” I said.
“Was just doing my job,” he said.
“What job?” I asked curiously.
“Protecting you,” he said.
“I’m a big girl, Liam. It’s not your job to protect me.”
“Sure it is, just like it’s your job to protect me. We’re partners, Alexia, not just two random people in this for ourselves. We’re supposed to take care of one another out here, and I want you to know that I’m going to do that. I’ve told you that I’m here for you and I’ve got your back, and I mean that, in every way,” he said.
I smiled, my cheeks heating up a little, as I nudged him with my shoulder. He pushed back gently, neither one of us saying a word. He was a sweet guy, the kind you never worried about, and I was glad I was here with him, even if we were cold, in a forest, and without any real comforts.
I yawned, my hand covering my mouth, as I felt my eyes water a little, exhaustion taking over my cold body. I clasped my hands together in my lap, my legs closing, trying to keep myself warm.
“Tired?” Liam asked.
“Just a little,” I said, yawning again.
“Go to sleep. You’ll need your rest for tomorrow,” Liam said.
“What about you?” I asked.
“I’m going to stay up a little while longer. I’ve been thinking about some stuff, and I want to make sure we’re alone here before letting my guard down,” Liam said.
“Thinking about what? Want to talk about it?” I asked, yawning as I spoke, my eyes getting a little heavy.
“Maybe another time. Just go to sleep and get some rest,” he said.
I closed my eyes all of the way, my back up against the dirt wall, my mind not able to shut off as I kept fidgeting around, trying to get comfortable, though it wasn’t happening. The ground was too hard, the air was too cold, and every time I started to doze off my head leaned forward, the sensation of falling waking me up and making me jerk back.
“Come here,” Liam said, after one of those times.
“What?” I muttered.
“Use me as a pillow. You’re never going to fall asleep that way,” he said.
He leaned back, forgoing being comfortable and sitting straight up, and I leaned up next to him, crouched down as my head fell to his shoulder, nuzzling it just perfectly as I felt the heat of his body against my cheek.
“There. Now sleep,” he said.
I bit my lower lip a little, feeling a calm wave of security as a couple leftover butterflies tickled my tummy, my hands still in my lap, getting slightly warmer as the minutes ticked by.
&nbs
p; With my eyes shut and my head stable, I drifted off to sleep, stupidly hoping I would wake up from this dream in the morning. With one day down, I hoped we didn’t have many more in here.
•••
My eyes slowly opened the next morning, my vision a little blurry, taking a few seconds to come back into focus. I had slept well enough considering the circumstances, Liam and I staying fairly huddled up for most of the night to try to escape the bitter cold. As my vision came back, though, I noticed Liam was still asleep. I looked just barely to my left, pushing back in fear, waking Liam up, as I saw two people standing there.
“Relax,” the woman said.
It was Jamie. She and Matthew were sitting there; they’d been watching us sleep for who knows how long. My escalated heart rate started to tone back down, as I remembered that we had a pact with them and they wouldn’t hurt us. Besides, wouldn’t they have gotten us easily in our sleep if they wanted to eliminate us?
“How did you two find us?” Liam asked.
“Our hacker. He’s pretty good at that kind of stuff,” Matthew said.
“Well, he didn’t know it was you two, just that two people were close. We just, well, found you both as we walked further,” Jamie said, touching her arm.
It looked cut open, gashed, though it wasn’t bleeding, at least not anymore. Matthew looked a little banged up as well, with the early makings of a black eye. I could tell they both were tired, hungry, and worst of all, hurt.
“I wish I had something to help,” I said, pointing towards Jamie’s arm.
“Oh, no, it’s okay. It doesn’t hurt too badly anymore. Thank you, though, for your kindness,” she said, looking down.
“We’re actually pretty happy we found you two. Running into some friendly faces in this place is a godsend, if you ask me. We haven’t had the best experience so far,” Matthew said.
“What’s happened?” Liam asked.
“Well, it was that one group, the ones from Los Angeles. What were their names?” Matthew asked, looking at Jamie.
“Jason and Bridgette,” she said.
“Yeah, them. Jamie and I were just minding our own business, resting a bit, and they came out of nowhere, demanding we give them our cards or they would eliminate us,” Matthew said.
“You didn’t do that, did you?” I asked, in shock.
Giving away your cards, while not against any rules, was the stupidest thing you could do in here. They were our lifelines, our tickets out and for an overall easier time, especially if you had any good ones.
“No, we didn’t give them anything. They attacked us, though, when we stood our ground and told them to get lost. I think that Bridgette had something sharp, because she sliced Jamie open pretty well. I got into it with Jason, but we were able to run away, luckily. They chased us for a little bit, but ended up giving up. I’m hoping we can find one of those survival packs, if only for the first aid kit. I really want to get her healed up,” Matthew said.
“We haven’t found one, either,” Liam said.
“Dang. I was really hoping you had one and could let us use it. We really need it,” Matthew said with a discouraged tone.
“Maybe we could find one, though. Our hacker is pretty good,” I said.
“I don’t think you should,” Peter said, in my ear. “Don’t let them know I’m talking to you guys, but I just don’t trust them fully like you two seem to. I think they want something more than just a first aid kit. One rule of the grid is to never trust anyone who isn’t your own partner.”
“He’s telling us right now that he’d love to help,” Liam said.
“No! I’m not!” Peter exclaimed.
“He says we should get moving right now, actually,” Liam said.
“Fine, I’ll help you find a survival pack, but only because I want you two to have an easier time in there! You better not give it away to them, though. There’s only six, you know,” Peter said.
I smirked, Liam looking back at me and doing the same, before I gently shook my head, trying not to laugh at Peter. At least I had some form of amusement in here.
We stood up. I opened my card pouch, making sure everything was in there. I had my five cards safe and sound. There was a little bit of dirt still on the terraform card, but I didn’t take it out to clean it, not wanting to show it off or cause a rift with Jamie and Matthew. I had no idea what kind of cards they had, and I felt like they would’ve told us had they picked powerful ones. It almost seemed like a source of pride to know you were well off.
“I was already hacking in and found something about half a mile from your location, if you want to go to that. Can’t promise it’s a pack, but I guess even a card would be a good way to start the day,” Peter said.
Chapter Eighteen
There were no trails where we were, the hilly terrain of the forest steep and unpredictable. Small rocks jutted out of the landscape, making us pay close attention so that we didn’t trip.
The hills were hard to traverse, with only a sparse scattering of thin trees there to hoist ourselves further up, though the loose dirt played against us, our feet slipping as the tumbling clumps brushed against the person unlucky enough to be behind you, them having an even harder time getting up with the foot holes worn away.
It took us almost forty minutes, having to stop every now and again for Peter to guide us further, since Mathew and Jamie’s hacker wasn’t contributing anything to the quest. In fact, they didn’t even talk to him once they were with us, for whatever reason.
Matthew had a tougher time than the rest of us, saying he’d sprained his ankle a little when he was running away from Jason and Bridgette, something that made me feel a little sorry for him. Your ability to walk was your only true lifeline in this place, and being incapacitated would practically write your prison ticket.
“Okay, guys, you’re coming up near its general area,” Peter said, a few minutes later.
“There’s a lot of shrubbery. I don’t even see any trails or a cleared area,” Liam said, looking around, his hands on his hips.
“Well, it’s around there. It could be northeast of your current position,” Peter said.
I looked at Liam, shrugged, and we started walking, looking all around for anything helpful we could find. The ground was covered in green overgrowth, the plants growing one to two feet high, moss present on the sides of a few trees. It was hard to focus your eyes on the ground, if you could even see it at all.
“Alexia,” Peter said.
“Yeah?” I asked, stopping in place.
“Take like, five steps to your right. It’s near,” Peter said.
I turned to my right, taking five fairly normal-sized steps, not running into anything besides a bunch of overgrown plants.
“I’m just standing in the same type of stuff as before,” I said, as Liam, Jamie, and Matthew all kept looking around not too far away.
“I’m seeing something and it’s almost right next to you. Can you see the ground at all?” Peter asked.
“Well, not too well. There are some gaps between the plants, but nothing significant,” I said.
“Try getting down there then. Maybe push them away,” Peter said.
I hunched over, my hands rotating back and forth, in and out, as I scanned the ground with them, hoping I’d find something. Though it wasn’t impossible, I knew it would be difficult to find any type of card this way.
“I’m not feeling any—” I said, before stopping.
I hit something, the side of my right hand bumping into it, before I pushed the brush aside, uncovering whatever it was. It was a survival pack. The green canvas blended in perfectly with the surroundings; the four of us likely would have never been able to find it without Peter’s help and skills. I lifted it up in the air, calling for Liam. He looked over, a look of shock on his face, before they all came rushing over, ready to see what I had found.
“You found it!” Liam exclaimed.
“Please let there be a first aid kit in there. Open it u
p!” Matthew said.
We walked over to an area that was a little clearer, all of us kneeling down, before I unclasped the top of the bag, which was held together with two clips. I reached inside, finding a treasure trove of goodies, and started pulling some of them out for all of us to look at. There was a Mylar heat blanket, a canteen, and better yet, a first aid kit.
I thought that Jamie had almost started tearing up a little bit when I pulled it out, handing it over to them, both of them opening it up and going through it together. Matthew gave Jamie an antibiotic and wound healing accelerant cream, which she hastily applied, a soothing look of relief on her face as the cream touched her gash.
I gave Liam the bag and he rummaged through it. I caught him sneaking something out, a fire starter, and into his pocket. I didn’t know why he’d bother to hide it from Jamie and Matthew, since it was a fairly insignificant part of the survival pack, even though it would be useful. Since it was our bag, you’d think he’d just keep it tucked away in there for safekeeping. I soon forgot about it, though, as I knew if he had a reason for doing that, then I should just trust his instincts.
“Is there anything else in there? Like food?” Matthew asked.
“Uh, no, there isn’t,” Liam said, as he looked through it more.
“I’m so hungry,” Jamie said.
“Yeah, we haven’t eaten since yesterday morning. I’m too old for that kind of stuff,” Matthew said.
“Why don’t we use my feast card? It’s been well over six hours since last night,” I said, looking at Liam.
“Yeah, we could definitely share that with you guys. Besides, my stomach is growling a little as well,” Liam said.
“You have one of those? Oh man, we would appreciate that so much! I’m so glad we ran into you guys, for more reasons than one!” Matthew said excitedly.
I opened my pouch, scanning through my cards, before coming across my feast card and pulling it out, Jamie and Matthew looking on intently.
