S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND: Season Two Omnibus (Episodes 9-11)

by Tanpepper, Saul

  She was sound asleep when her Link pinged the next morning. She knew it was morning because when she cracked an eyelid, the light streaming in the window was so bright that she had to block it with her hand.

  After the second ping, Kelly shifted beside her. “You going to answer that?” he mumbled, smacking his lips sleepily.

  She extended a hand from beneath the covers, enjoying the feel of his skin on her naked thigh, then groaned as a thought came to her: What if it’s Citizen Registration?

  It won’t be them, she reminded herself. Today’s Saturday and they’re not open.

  What if they are? They said they’re pushing hard to meet the compliance deadline.

  The pinging stopped.

  “Must not have been important,” Kelly mumbled, still half asleep.

  Jessie rolled back over and threw a leg over him with a smile. The awake half of her mind was trying hard to rouse the still-sleeping half. Worries over her implant were already fading away.

  “I’m sorry, Jessie,” he murmured. “About everything.”

  She frowned. Not now, she wanted to tell him. Just a few more minutes. Can’t we just pretend none of it happened for a few more minutes?

  He turned over, displacing her hand on his hip, and repeated the words. “I should have told you sooner about Doctor White. And Kyle.”

  Jessie sighed resignedly, but didn’t answer. She didn’t want him to go on, but the warm feelings she’d had upon waking up next to him had already fled. They might as well get it over with.

  “If it wasn’t for Doctor White,” he went on, “Kyle would’ve died a long time ago. He could still die.”

  “She said you’d explain his part in all this, how he’s connected to the cure.”

  Kelly nodded, took in a long breath and slowly let it out. He rolled over onto his back and crooked an arm over his forehead. “When Kyle was six months old, he was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer. I can still see him, so tiny, his skin so pale all the time, although maybe that was after they started him on the chemo. It’s all a jumble, and I can’t remember it all exactly. After months of treatment, his immune system was shot. Though the cancer was gone, he desperately needed new marrow.”

  “I thought it was some organ thing. His kidneys.”

  “That’s just the story we told people.”

  “I don’t understand. Why would you lie about something like this?” She pushed herself up onto her elbows. “Why not just tell the truth?”

  “Because they would’ve taken him away.” He sat up, wincing. The tape on the bandage was pulling. “The hospital identified a suitable donor in the registry. They were able to get a hold of the guy, but he was on some business trip to the west coast. My parents requested the next best match from the registry, but I guess this guy decided to catch the red-eye out of Sea-Tac Airport. He pinged en route and said he’d be landing at Logan around six AM and could be down here by nine at the latest. He really wanted to help.”

  Jessie waited.

  “I remember being in Kyle’s room at the hospital with my parents. He was really weak by then, terribly skinny, IVs dripping medicine into his frail body, tubes slipping nourishment down his throat. Morning came and we were on pins and needles for the ping to come through, praying it would be soon and wondering if maybe it would’ve been better to go with the next best match.

  “All of a sudden these two nurses came rushing into the room and they pulled Kyle out. The donor had arrived. He’d come straight from the airport in a limo and was being prepped. The doctors processed the marrow and transferred it into Kyle within a half hour. By the afternoon, he was back in recovery and the doctors were saying the next few weeks would be crucial. Nobody knew if the graft would take.”

  “So, what happened?”

  “What happened was everything went to hell. The donor was infected.”

  With what? Jessie was about to ask, but then she knew and the shock hit her like ice water. “Oh my god!” she exclaimed, sitting up. “The Seattle outbreak! The donor, he was there when it started!”

  Kelly nodded.

  “B-but wouldn’t they have known he was bitten? Wouldn’t he have?”

  “That’s the thing: he wasn’t bitten. Not by a Reanimate anyway. And remember, they never did figure out exactly how the outbreak there started, but Doctor White always suspected it was mosquitoes.”

  Jessie stared at the wall for a moment, remembering. Eric had taken her to Washington that very same summer. The mosquitoes had been horrible. She remembered the bites covering her body, the terrible itching. Eric, too. Was it possible that some of them could’ve transmitted the disease?

  “During the procedure,” Kelly continued, “the donor mentioned he was achy. He’d been running a low-grade fever since arriving off the plane. It was barely above normal, actually, and the doctors had passed it off as fatigue. A few hours after the transfer, while they were both in recovery, the guy went into cardiac arrest. We were all in the same room, just on the other side of a curtain. Kyle was in the next bed over. I remember they pushed us all out into the hallway to make room for the crash team. Mom didn’t want me to be scared so she took me down to the cafeteria while Dad stayed with Kyle.”

  He paused, and Jessie could see he was having difficulty continuing.

  “My father saw it all unfold. Of course, he didn’t realize what was happening at first. For all he knew, the donor’s heart had restarted and for some unknown reason, he was attacking everyone. He killed the entire crash team, as well as two security guards, before Dad figured it out. He managed to wedge an empty gurney against the door. By then, the first victims were starting to reanimate.”

  “I never heard anything about it.”

  “Nobody did. Arc suppressed it, paid off the families of the victims, falsified reports. The NCD officers were all bought and paid for at the time. My parents knew the truth, of course, but they kept mum. Arc must’ve threatened them. I only found out the barest details right before we went to Long Island. Doctor White pinged me out of the blue and told me to meet her. I didn’t believe what she had to say, but Mom and Dad confirmed everything.”

  “Doctor White,” Jessie spat quietly. “I don’t trust that woman.”

  “She saved Kyle’s life. If she hadn’t known about Halliwell and been at Sisters of Mercy when it happened . . . .”

  He shrugged. “That night, after we returned from the island, when Doctor White asked about whether I’d sent you the picture, I got really angry at her. I didn’t understand what it was all about. That’s when she told me about the file on your Link. And how you’d left it behind.”

  Jessie scowled at him. “And she told you to go back and get it?”

  “No. She warned me not to.”

  “Then why did you?”

  “Because I knew you would, if no one else did. I honestly didn’t care at all about some stupid file. I would’ve been more than happy to let her deal with the mess herself. If it was only about the file.” He sighed. “But it wasn’t.”

  “Jake.”

  Kelly nodded. “I knew the moment we got back. I could see it in your eyes. You’d already made up your mind and nothing was going to stop you. There was no way I was going to let that happen, so I went back myself. But when I got there, I couldn’t find him. Thankfully the IUs were gone, so I could search.”

  He chuffed at the memory. “I was ready to kill him, that’s how pissed off I was.”

  “At me?”

  “At Doctor White.” He sighed. “I found your Link near the gas station, then promised myself I’d leave if I couldn’t find Jake before the tide shifted. Shortly after I did, we crossed paths with those two jokers from the Coalition, Shane and Casey.”

  “So, the whole marriage proposal thing was just—”

  “No, Jess. That was real. I meant it, you know that.”

  She wanted so badly to believe him, but there was still so much she didn’t know, so much that he and the doctor hadn’t explained. “If yo
u’d told me sooner, I wouldn’t have embarrassed myself accusing White of having an affair with you.”

  Kelly stared at her, blinking in surprise. “An affair? You thought I was having an affair? With her? Oh my god, Jess! She’s so old!”

  “But pretty.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. You think so?”

  “Shut up.” She punched his arm.

  He cracked a smile. “You know I would never cheat on you. How could I ever think about anyone else?” He leaned over to give her a kiss. Before he could pull away, she reached around his neck and held him close, prolonging the embrace. She could feel her want, her need for him, stirring inside of her. And then his hands were on her and hers were on him, and they were everywhere, pulling and pushing. She arched her neck as he kissed her throat and moaned.

  “Jessie?” Eric called up the stairs. “Come down!”

  “Ignore him,” she whispered.

  “Jess!”

  “Oh, come on,” she whined.

  “It’s Reggie’s mom. She wants to speak to you!”

  They broke apart, their eyes wide. Jessie jumped up and grabbed her robe and wrapped it around herself. She could hear Kelly fumbling with his clothes behind her, but she didn’t wait for him before hurrying from the room. She flew down the hallway to the stairs. Eric met her halfway. He was already dressed in his NCD uniform.

  “You’re going to work?” she asked incredulously.

  He handed her the house Link and nodded.

  “This is Jessie! Missus Casey, is Reggie—?”

  “Oh, thank heaven, Jessie.”

  There was something in her voice that struck Jessie as odd.

  And why is she pinging here?

  Eric stood next to her biting his lip, waiting.

  “Is he there?” Missus Casey asked. “With you?”

  Jessie frowned. “Excuse me? Is who here? Kelly?”

  He came stumbling down the steps, his fingers fumbling the strings on his sweat pants. He looked over and Jessie could see the concern in his eyes.

  “Reggie,” Missus Casey said. “Have you heard from him? Have you seen him?”

  “Um, no. I haven’t.” Jessie gave Eric a questioning look and mouthed Reggie’s name. He shook his head, shrugged. “I don’t understand what—”

  “He woke up last night.” Missus Casey sighed, and in that sound Jessie could hear the depth of her despair. “It was just before midnight. I was asleep on the chair but Bob was awake when it happened, standing beside the bed. He said Reggie opened his eyes and tried to get up. The noise woke me and I went right to him, but it was like he couldn’t even see me! The nurse had to give him a shot to settle him down. He even ate some food when Bob helped.”

  “What’s going on?” Kelly whispered. Jessie put her Link on speaker.

  “The doctors did another brain scan and didn’t see any swelling or damage. They said he was fine so they took out his catheter. They said they were going to move him to another ward. And everything was happening so quickly,” Missus Casey wailed, her words tumbling out faster and faster, as if trying to capture their meaning before it escaped.

  “Okay, Missus Casey. It’s okay. Just tell me what happened. Did you take him home?”

  There was a sob. “No. He went back to sleep. The doctor—”

  “Was it Doctor White? A female doctor?”

  “What? No. No, it was a man, some young guy. A resident, I think. What was his name, honey?”

  They could hear Mister Casey in the background, along with other voices.

  “I’m sorry. The police are here, of course, asking questions. I don’t know why they’re so interested in my Reggie.”

  Jessie glanced at Eric, but except for a slight raising of his eyebrows at this, he showed nothing.

  “Oh dear, I’m afraid I don’t remember the doctor’s name.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Just— What happened? Did he leave on his own? Did someone take him? I don’t understand why you’re asking if he’s over here.”

  “They were going to do an implant scan as soon as the machine arrived from Hartford, and he was sleeping, so Bob and I went down to the cafeteria to get something to eat, and when we got back, he wasn’t in bed. We didn’t think anything of it. We just thought he’d been wheeled off to some other test. But the nurse came in a little while later and asked if Reggie was in the bathroom, because it was time to move him. We looked everywhere, but he’s not anywhere here.”

  “Are his clothes there?”

  “They’re gone, along with his shoes, his Link . . . everything.”

  “Okay, Missus Casey. He’s probably just walking home. Kelly and I will start heading toward the hospital. Are you sure he didn’t say anything to—”

  “I told you he didn’t say anything! Why do you keep asking me that?”

  Jessie frowned. Kelly and Eric looked at each other in alarm. They could tell she was lying.

  “Maybe he’s got amnesia. It’s possible what happened yesterday could be from a concussion. Maybe he fell or—”

  “It’s not a concussion! Christ, I don’t even know why I pinged you people. You kids are useless. You don’t know anything!”

  “Missus Casey? Hello?” Jessie looked up and shook her head. “She disconnected.”

  “I’m going to get dressed,” Kelly told her, heading back up the stairs. Jessie turned to follow, but Eric put his hand on her elbow. “I can’t help you look for very long. I have to be at work at eight-thirty and—”

  “Work? Really? Eric, this is Reggie, remember?”

  “I already missed half of yesterday. My boss was angry enough about that.”

  Jessie didn’t say anything, just stared.

  “Look, I’ll give you what I can.” He took a deep breath. “I’m sure Reggie’s just confused from waking up in the hospital and finding no one there for him. Trust me. By noon he’ll be home.”

  Jessie pulled away, but not before giving her brother a disapproving look. She started back up the stairs. Kelly passed her on his way down and went to get something to eat.

  She found them in the kitchen after she dressed, their heads lowered over the house Link on the table.

  “There’s two main roads between the hospital and Reggie’s,” Eric was saying, glancing up at her and nodding. “I’ll drive along this road. Kelly, you and Jessie can take the other.”

  “No,” Jessie said. “I’ll walk along the creek.”

  Eric looked up, confused. “I doubt he’d be down there.”

  “It runs parallel to both roads,” Jessie explained. And also—” She traced a line with her finger from the hospital down Yale Drive. A mile past it, she stopped. “He might be going here.”

  “Micah’s place?” Kelly asked. “Why would he go there?”

  “It’s where he went the last time he blanked out, the night he ended up here. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I think someone meant for him to go there.”

  “Someone?”

  “Call it a hunch,” Jessie said.

  Eric stared at her for a few seconds before shaking his head and shrugging. “Fine. We’ll meet up at the bridge in half an hour. Then I’ll drive us over to Micah’s and we’ll take a quick look around there. You guys’ll have to walk back.” He grabbed his work bag and headed out to the car.

  Kelly pulled Jessie to the side and asked, “What’s this all about?”

  “It’s that gear, Kelly. I think someone hacked it.”

  He stared at her for a moment, frowning. “That’s not possible.”

  “Whether it is or not, I’m checking the creek.”

  He stopped her again. “You really think he could be down in that mess? It’s all brambles.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “What aren’t you telling me, Jess?”

  She was remembering the dream she’d had over a week before. It had felt so similar to the one which she’d had up in Hartford. Somehow — she couldn’t explain how — she’d been with Reggie. She was sure of it.
>
  “I think someone’s taken control of his implant,” she told him, confessing the idea that had begun to take form the day before in the hospital. “I think they used the game equipment to do it.”

  “He’s not connected to The Game now,” Kelly countered. “Besides, who would do that? Who could?”

  She raised an eyebrow at him.

  “Micah? Jessie, he’s dead.”

  “He had all our implant identifier codes, Kelly.”

  “Why would he do it?”

  “Revenge.”

  “Revenge for being conscripted? You’re saying a dead man hacked into Reggie’s implant?”

  “I don’t think he’s dead.”

  “We saw them reanimate him, Jess.”

  “No, Kelly, we saw something that looked like a conscription. I think it never happened.”

  ‡ ‡ ‡

  Chapter 33

  Jessie leapt off the top stair of the back porch and landed hard on the packed earth below. A clump of dead grass grabbed at her ankle and twisted it. Red hot spikes of pain shot up her leg, but they were minor compared to the urgency impelling her forward. She wobbled for a moment, caught her balance, and took another step. Her whole body felt wrong, stiff, achy from abuse and idleness. Running would work her muscles and joints loose again.

  She sprinted past the broken picket gate. Eric had erected it to replace the section of fence that had been crushed when a tree fell on it during a storm. The tree had been promptly removed, but the neighborhood association never got around to repairing the hole, and nobody ever complained. Jessie certainly didn’t mind. It gave her access to the wilderness behind the house.

  She charged past the brambles and plunged through the curtain of vines. Down into the bracken. Down into the relative coolness of the trees, where the rising sun couldn’t reach and the dew would remain until midday. The path that she’d taken nearly every day from sixth grade till ninth was barely visible anymore.

  How long has it been since I was here last?

  At least a year, maybe two. It certainly felt like it’d been only days.

  It has.

  She slowed her pace and began sweeping her gaze from side to side. Her eyes pierced the shadows beneath the trees, seeking evidence that someone had recently passed this way. Birds rustled in the thickets. Gnats rose in agitated waves, swarming into her eyes and nose, sticking to her hair. The growth was jungle-like over the path, and the worn trail had diminished to a narrow runnel in the dirt. The grass folded over it concealed treacherous roots meant to snag her feet. Leafless branches, brittle in death, snagged at her clothes and hair. The path was rarely used anymore, unless it was by small animals.