Much more.
“YOU DEAD?” STREETER asked.
It hurt to smile. “Not yet.”
Chute was kneeling on the other side of my bed. She caressed my arm, squeezed my shoulder, and wore worry lines across her forehead. Streeter shook his head.
“Where’d you go?” he asked.
“Give him a sec, will you?” she said. “He just woke up. Take these.” Chute passed me a glass of water and two ibuprofen. I’d been asleep long enough to take two more. “Your mom went to the store. She’ll be right back.”
Streeter was still shaking his head.
“So you know?” I said. “About this.”
“It’s dating your sister.”
“Yeah, it’s nothing like that.”
His lips curled, eyes squeezed shut. He clutched his stomach and dry heaved disgust.
“All right, all right,” I said. “Relax.”
“This better not screw us up.”
He was afraid of losing her. Once you cross the girlfriend-boyfriend line, friendship was no longer an option. But how could I tell him that Chute and I were made for each other, that we’d be together to the very end. Yeah, that was emo, but not in this case. I could feel it was true.
I could feel a lot of things.
The front door opened. Mom was home with groceries and Chute went to help. Streeter waited until we could hear them talking.
“So where you been?”
I looked off. Memories were still elusive. Like catching fog with your fingers, there was nothing to grasp. All I could do was shake my head.
“Gearheads,” I said. “That’s the last thing I remember. That and fire.”
“Ha, yeah. Fire. A lot of that. You burned it down.”
“Gearheads?”
“No. You burned down virtualmode. All of it. Chief’s network is cooked. He kicked us out for life.”
“Wait, what?”
“It was so worth it. Everything Josh had is toast. I mean everything. Whatever the hell you plugged in, it followed him back to his account and fried it all. His entire account is powder. It was awesome.”
Josh.
Through the flames, I remembered the dragon shooting flames from a nostril. My sim charred. The data-eating bugs and holes in the sky.
And a hospital!
That was it. I was in a hospital. I remembered the smell, but couldn’t open my eyes. Cold compresses and sterile bandages on my neck. And... what else? Something else.
“How’d you do it?” he asked. “I never seen a weapon like that. More importantly, can you do it again? I mean, that was total annihilation, complete incineration. We get that weapon in our toolbox and we wipe out the competition—”
“I don’t remember.”
“What do you mean?” He waited for me to explain. “You don’t dial up a weapon like that on accident, Socket. What’s going on?”
That was the big question. What’s going on? Streeter was trying to figure out how to dominate virtualmode while my life was turning inside out. Couldn’t he see the cocoon sitting in front of him? He’s still normal.
“So where’d you go?” he asked.
“I told you, I don’t remember.”
“No, I mean how’d you get out of Gearheads? You were gone when Chute and I got back to the skin. Chief was distracted with the crash but never saw you leave. Sort of left us on the hanger.”
“For what?”
“He blamed us for everything. But then you weren’t at home for a day, and she—” He jabbed his thumb toward Chute “—was all freaking out and going to call the police when your mom left a message, said you’d be home in a couple days. There ain’t no back door at Gearheads, so how’d you get out?”
It was all impossible, but for some reason this all had to do with time. I didn’t exactly know what that meant and I sure as hell couldn’t explain it, but it was time.
What happened with time?
“Sorry,” I said.
“For what?”
“Getting us kicked out.”
“Don’t worry.” He waved it off. “I’ll upgrade my home gear and there’s always Buxbee’s lab. It was worth it.” He pushed junk around my desk, picking up a frayed pair of portals. “I’ll get you upgraded, too.”
Chute returned with a fizzy glass of ginger ale. I didn’t have a fever anymore. She sat on the edge of the bed and took my hand, our fingers weaving together.
“Can we not do that?” Streeter stared at us through my outdated pair of VRs. “I need more time.”
We ignored him. Streeter distracted himself with new plans for upgrades, where we were going next in virtualmode and how we were going to do it. “That flame weapon,” he said, eyes dreamy. “We need that...”
One day, we’d find the reason for the flames, but it would be nothing like he thought. Nothing anyone could’ve guessed. When it came time to leave, Chute kissed me and Streeter gagged. He was still choking when he stopped in the doorway.
“Almost forgot.” He tossed a black flash drive on the bed. “Chief found it in our room. I searched it for the flame weapon, but it’s still empty.”
I had left it at Streeter’s house. So how did it end up in the room? The wrinkled air.
I’d forgotten about that weird little event that started under the bleachers. I’d seen it just before we uploaded in Gearheads; it was in the room with us. I was feverish at that point, so it could have been a hallucination. Maybe if that was the only thing that happened, I would’ve believed it.
Still, how did it end up in the room?
“Where’d you get that?” Mom said.
She held out her hand. I gave it to her and the worried lines returned. She looked at me without saying anything. Her secrets seemed to hover just below the surface. She wouldn’t let them out, but I had the strange feeling that if I just concentrated, I could pull her thoughts into the open. And then I’d know everything.
Was I ready?
My true nature wanted to be discovered. When the time came, the world would know my true nature, too. The universe would sing it.
I am Socket Greeny.
WHAT TO READ NEXT?
THE DISCOVERY OF SOCKET GREENY
Book 1
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SOCKET GREENY SAGA
http://bertauski.com/socket
Get the
BERTAUSKI STARTER LIBRARY
FREE!
Just tell me where to send them.
Send me the free books
bertauski.com
Copyright © 2015 by Tony Bertauski
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
This book is a work of fiction. The use of real people or real locations is used fictitiously. Any resemblance of characters to real persons is purely coincidental.
Don't miss out!
Click the button below and you can sign up to receive emails whenever Tony Bertauski publishes a new book. There's no charge and no obligation.
https://books2read.com/r/B-A-HME-VDLH
Connecting independent readers to independent writers.
The Making of Socket Greeny Page 6
