S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND, Season One Omnibus

by Saul Tanpepper

  I glance over and give Ash a dirty look, though I doubt she can see it in the gloom. Kelly’s in front with the flashlight and all we have is the glow from our Links to keep the shadows at bay. Hell, I can barely even make out Stephen and he’s right next to me pushing Micah in the wheelchair. I can hear him, though, the dry rattle of his breathing and the squeak the chair has picked up in the past ten minutes. The sounds are really starting to get on my nerves.

  Reggie and Jake bring up the rear, Tanya slung between them. She’s conscious, but still completely useless. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was faking it. The suspicion makes me feel a little guilty. She looks miserable. But then again, we all do.

  I know I’m responsible for her being in this situation. Me and no one else. Arc had been monitoring the Stream for pings to Kelly and when I met Tanya on the bus coming back from Hartford the day I applied for my replacement Link. I’d used hers to see if Kelly had come back from rescuing Jake. That’s the only reason she’s here, because I’d borrowed her Link. It’s the only reason she was kidnapped and why she’s had a new implant put inside her brain. It’s the only reason she’s now trapped here on Long Island with us. And it’s the only reason Arc planned to inject her with whatever Stephen injected into me on the tram.

  I reach up and feel my neck again. The bleeding there has stopped and formed a hard, crusty scab. Whatever the alpha treatment is—whatever was inside that syringe—it still doesn’t seem to have had any effect on me.

  Yet.

  “Can we rest?” Ashley asks.

  Really? What does she have to complain about? At least she’s got shoes on—brand new ones, even. I’m back to being barefoot, since I returned Tanya’s shoes. They were killing me anyway, squishing my toes together, giving me blisters. Thankfully, the floor of the tunnel isn’t all that bad. Or maybe it’s because the bottoms of my feet are covered in such a thick layer of greaser and grime that I might not even feel it if I did happen to step on something sharp.

  “Stuffy,” Ash says. “Hot.” And when I don’t answer, she moves up to see if Kelly will give her any sympathy.

  When the others aren’t looking, I slip the inhaler from my pocket and take a hit. My grandfather’s words come back to me: You’re special, Jessie. You need that medicine so you won’t get sick. It’s just wishful thinking, I know, but it does make me feel better, and you know what they say about healing: it’s fifty percent psychological.

  Kelly keeps dropping back to ask me how I’m feeling. He touches my forehead, checks my eyes. I can see the wonder in his eyes. He’s puzzled too. Nobody else knows yet. Neither of us has said anything to them.

  But we’ll have to. Soon.

  Eventually.

  Maybe.

  I look over at Stephen. He hasn’t spoken in at least three hours now. He just keeps walking, stepping and pushing, like a machine.

  “We should be trying to get some information from him,” Reggie says, startling me.

  I shrug. I’m too tired to even think about it.

  “Hey, asshole,” he calls. His voice raps off the walls. They hurt my ears. “You can make this easier on yourself if you’d just talk to us.”

  Stephen doesn’t answer. I hadn’t expected him to.

  “Who the fuck gives a crap about him?” Jake says.

  I turn and glare at him.

  “Ignore the kid,” Reggie advises. “We’re all tired and hungry.”

  “And my head is god damn killing me,” Jake complains.

  Great, another complainer.

  I don’t feel very sorry for him or for Ash. We’re all feeling terrible. There’s no sympathy left inside any of us for someone else’s whining.

  Finally, just as it feels like we can’t go any further, the light changes. We reach the tunnel opening and step out into the airport terminal. I quickly gesture at everyone to stop and keep quiet. “Let’s check things out first.”

  “I told you we shouldn’t have left those two here like that,” Jake grumbles. “They probably got loose five minutes after we left.”

  “Somebody tell him to shut up,” Kelly whispers.

  He and Reggie offer to scope it out, leaving us hidden in the darkness of the tunnel. When they return twenty minutes later, they report that the baggage claim area where we’d left the two Arc employees is completely empty.

  Reggie shows us the bindings we’d used. “Bet they went upstairs to check on Nurse Bitch,” he says.

  “They’ll be in for quite a surprise.”

  “This is not good,” Jake says, shaking his head.

  “What’s the worse they can do?” Kelly asks. “It’s not like they can communicate with anyone outside the barrier—”

  “Not that we know of,” Jake counters.

  We all have to concede that point. As far as we’ve been able to determine, our Links won’t function across the EM, but who’s to say Arc hasn’t worked out a way to overcome that barrier. In fact, given their business here, it’s probably safer to assume they have the means to do practically anything they want.

  “We know nobody escaped through the tunnel,” Kelly says. “We would’ve known. This is the only way in or out of LI now that the other tunnels are gone.”

  “Again, I wouldn’t assume that.”

  “Yeah,” Ashley says. “What about Volunteers? And equipment?”

  Nobody answers her. Nobody wants to talk about Volunteers.

  Kelly turns to Jake. “Fine. What do you think we should do? We can’t leave.”

  “We can’t stay either.”

  “So we wander around the island until someone finds us?”

  “No, we get Stephen to tell us how to defeat the failsafe mechanism.”

  “We will,” I say. “But we need a place to hole up.” I gesture at Micah. “He’s still too weak to do much running.”

  “I agree,” Reggie decides. “We do what Jessie says. She’s in charge.”

  Jake looks surprised. He opens his mouth to say something, but I cut him off.

  “Let’s go back upstairs then.” Everyone nods.

  I don’t know why they’ve chosen me to become their leader. I don’t know if it’s because I was the one who managed to escape and rescue everyone. Anyone in my shoes would’ve done the same. Or maybe it’s because I’m no longer burdened by the new implants. Well, neither is Kelly, but he’s never tried to be a leader of our group.

  It’s just that he has no interest in leading. That much is clear. Nor does Reggie. It’s Micah we normally follow, but with him out of the picture, that leaves me and Ash. And Jake.

  “First thing we need to do is block this doorway,” I announce. “So when they come through the tunnel for us, they won’t be able to get in. We need it strong enough to buy us time to get away. But we also need to be able to get through it later when we’ve figured out how to bypass the failsafe. Let’s figure on maybe being here a max of two days. That should be enough for Micah to get better.”

  The others look doubtful. In fact, I think two days is far too short for Micah to get back on his feet, but I don’t want say that.

  I gesture to Ashley. “The second thing we need to do is have you hack into those servers upstairs and see what they’re about. They might help us somehow.”

  “Anything else?”

  I turn and gesture at Stephen. “Yeah. We need to get him to tell us everything he knows. I don’t care how, either.”

  “Leave him to me,” Jake says.

  I had hoped that Reggie would offer to use his powers of persuasion to get him to talk. Now I regret throwing it out there for Jake to pounce on.

  I just hope he doesn’t try anything stupid or irreversible.

  Chapter 7

  “There,” Reggie says, standing back to inspect his handiwork. “Done. What do you think?”

  “That should hold them,” agrees Jake, though he looks a bit skeptical, “at least for a while.”

  Several of us have just spent the past half-hour moving luggage carts and a
nything else we can find to block the doors.

  “Wouldn’t take much to get through, though. A couple grenades, maybe, or—”

  “Anything like that, we’ll definitely know. We’ll be gone long before they get to us.” I do a last visual check to make sure everyone’s accounted for, then add, “Besides, we’ll post a couple people down here to keep watch.”

  “Or we could just leave now.”

  “And go where?”

  “I don’t know. Anywhere. I’d feel better if we weren’t so close.”

  “We’re not going anywhere until we absolutely have to,” I say. “And we know how to.”

  His hand reaches up to the back of his head. He peels away the bandage and checks it before tossing it aside. “I wish I knew what those bastards did to us,” he says.

  “I do too, Jake. But if anyone can deactivate the failsafe, it’s Micah and Ash.”

  “Speaking of which.” Reggie points. Ashley and Kelly are just returning from scavenging for food. The remaining Insta-Meals had done little to satisfy the gnawing holes in our stomachs.

  Their backpacks are full and heavy. I can hear glass clinking.

  “There’s not much worth eating,” Ashley reports. “Enough to last us a couple days, if necessary, but nothing you’d want to eat long-term.” She digs into her pack. “Pickled olives and canned maraschino cherries from the bars. We found some peanuts, but they didn’t smell right so we left them. Oh, and beer. Lots of beer. And hard liquor.”

  “I think it’ll better if we lay of the alcohol,” I tell them. They all nod. Most of them know about my problem with my mom’s drinking. Only Kelly knows about my own drunken history.

  “Leave everything in the packs for now. We need to move.”

  “Upstairs?” Jake asks, and when I nod Ashley gives a noticeable shudder. It means going back to where we left Nurse Mabel. Back to where we were prisoners.

  “At least to begin with,” I tell them. “We need to know what happened to those other two, see if they’re up there. I’m hoping they are and we can, I don’t know, catch them. If we can, then we’ll have a much better chance of figuring out how to deactivate this thing in our heads.”

  “In our heads,” Jake says. “Not yours.”

  “What’s your point?” Kelly asks.

  “I’m just saying.”

  “No, you’re not just say—”

  “Both of you,” I nearly shout, “knock it off. We’re going upstairs. If it turns out we have to stay here for a couple days, that’ll be the best place. At least there’s power.”

  “Still got the cardkey?” Kelly asks. I lift it up to show him. He nods.

  “Reggie?” I spot him standing over to one side, talking with Ash. “Can you get Micah? Kelly, keep an eye on Stephen. Ashley and Jake, help Tanya.” I grab the four backpacks and somehow manage to shoulder them, even with my sore wrist. It’s swollen and starting to bruise, but at least it doesn’t hurt as much anymore. “Let’s go.”

  We go slowly, cautiously, so it takes us nearly twenty minutes to get back up to the rooms where we’d been held. When we do, we stand outside the TSA security door for several minutes, watching and listening. The door is closed, just as we’d left it. It’s eerily quiet.

  Too quiet.

  Kelly snaps his fingers. “The gennie’s off.”

  “Might’ve run out of fuel,” Reggie suggests.

  Kelly shakes his head. There was plenty. “I think they might’ve turned it off so they could get inside here. No power, no power door locks.”

  “Wait. All the doors?”

  Kelly nods. His eyes widen. We all know what this means. “Mabel,” he whispers.

  The silence inside now troubles me even more. I check the time on my Link. It’s now been almost six hours since we ran into the man and the woman downstairs and we escaped on the tram, more than enough time for them to free themselves and get up here.

  “Could be a trap,” Reggie suggests. “Why wouldn’t they restart the generator?”

  “Maybe Mabel got them.”

  Kelly shakes his head. “Or they could’ve come and gone already.”

  “And taken Mabel with them?”

  “Wishful thinking. But there’s only one way to find out for sure.”

  “I’ll do it,” I tell them.

  “No, Jess. I’ll—”

  “Kelly, please. I’m already…”

  He purses his lips and shuts up.

  “Already what?” Reggie asks.

  “Nothing. Just watch my back. I’m just going to see if I can hear anything. Sit tight. I’ll be right back.”

  I get up and slip over to the security door and place my ear against it. I don’t hear a thing, but that doesn’t mean very much. The doors are thick. This one’s metal and plastic, unlike the wooden one we broke through inside.

  I close my eyes and concentrate. After a moment I think I can hear the faintest sound, a whisper. It could be Zombie Mabel pawing on her door inside the room I’d locked her in. It might just be the distant sound of the waves of the East River on the shore coming through the ground. Or it could be something else.

  Like my own heart trying to scratch its way out of my chest.

  “Hey,” Kelly whispers, startling me as he kneels down.

  “I told you to stay put.”

  He frowns. “I checked the gennie. It’s got fuel, just as I thought. It was turned off.”

  “So they were here.”

  “And left.”

  “Ever the optimist.”

  He pulls me up by the arm. “The door should be unlocked, though. Like I said, it needs power to stay latched. Did you hear anything?”

  I shake my head.

  He places both hands on the handle and slowly begins to pull it open. There’s a puff of air. Carried on it is a thick, coppery smell, stinking of saltwater and rotting meat.

  “Shit!” he says, gagging. Letting go of the door. It bumps closed.

  I hurl myself against it just as something heavy bangs against the other side.

  “Don’t just stand there! Help me!”

  Kelly pushes. The door shudders beneath Mabel’s weight as she throws herself against it.

  “Reggie! Jake!” I scream.

  They come running over.

  “Hold the door! Quick. Kelly, you need to go back and restart that generator. We need to lock this thing! Now!”

  Jake crawls beneath Kelly while Reggie reaches over him. Kelly slips out the side. Nurse Mabel’s first moans are barely audible through the door, but they’re definitely growing louder, more frantic. She starts scratching. The door pops open an inch and just as quickly slams shut again.

  “How the hell can she be so strong!” Reggie shouts.

  The door slams again, even harder this time.

  “Christ! She’s going to fucking break it!”

  “Hurry up, Kelly!” I scream.

  “I’m trying. Shit! I can’t see where the starter is. Who’s got the flashlight?”

  “I do,” Reggie shouts back. “Hold on a sec.”

  “No! Don’t you let go!”

  Kelly comes running back. “Where is it?”

  “Back poc— oof! Shit, she’s like a god damn battering ram! Back pocket, Kelly!”

  Kelly runs off again. I turn to switch shoulders on the door and see Ashley standing helplessly off to the side. “Go find something to defend ourselves with!”

  “There’s a machete in my pack,” I hear Kelly shout.

  Jake rips the pistol from my waistband. “Just shoot her through the fucking door!”

  “Give me that back! We can’t waste the bullets.”

  “Screw that, Jessie. We need to save ourselves!”

  Ashley runs over with the machete in her hand. It’s from Jake’s uncle’s army surplus store. Kelly must’ve brought it with him when he came the second time.

  “Just hold onto it, babe,” Reggie says, grunting. “Let’s see if Kelly can get the generator going again.”

 
; “Who’s watching the others?” I say. “Ashley? Who’s watching Stephen?”

  “Shit!” She spins around and runs off again.

  “Leave the machete!”

  Mabel’s moans growl louder. She doubles her efforts, clawing and hurtling herself against the door, which bangs and rattles in its frame, threatening to come off its hinges.

  “Hurry up, Kelly!”

  “He’s gone,” Ash shouts.

  “Kelly’s gone?”

  “No, Stephen’s gone. Oh, god, it’s my fault! I was supposed to watch him!”

  “Never mind that, Ash. Get back here with that machete!”

  “Screw that,” Jake shouts. “I’m using the gun!” He pushes away from the door and moves back. “Get out of the way.”

  “Get back here, Jake!” I scream.

  Mabel slams through the door just as the generator starts. I get a glimpse of the horror inside as I’m flung to the floor. Mabel grabs Reggie’s arm. She’s amazingly fast. Reggie screams and pulls back. The door slams shut, but not before she comes through and locks us out here with something much worse than anything we’d encountered in Long Island City.

  She opens her mouth and seems to smile as she bends down to bite Reggie in the face.

  Chapter 8

  There’s a flash and a loud explosion. A puff of red bursts from Mabel’s back and half of her shirt disintegrates. She rocks backward, but the impact of the bullet and the damage it does to her body don’t slow her down at all.

  Reggie backpedals as fast as he can. Mabel doesn’t let go of his wrist, so he ends up dragging her along with him.

  There’s a second blast from the gun. I feel the bullet whiz past my head. This one completely misses her and explodes into the wall.

  “Shop shooting!”

  “Get her off of me!” Reggie screams, swinging her around. “Help me!”

  Jake fires a third time. This time Mabel jolts before collapsing onto her side. Half of her thigh is missing. Incredibly, she’s still holding on to Reggie. Now she’s getting back up again.

  “Jake! Stop shooting,” I scream. “You’re going to hit one of us!”

  He lifts the pistol again and takes aim.

  There’s a flash, and a silver arc appears between Mabel and Reggie, seeming to split the air. They fall apart, each to the floor. Reggie quickly scrambles away, waving his arm frantically and slapping at the stub of Mabel’s hand still attached to him. “Get it off! Get it off!”