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

by Tanpepper, Saul

  A shot rang out, shattering the silence. The sound ricocheted off the buildings and passed over them, rippling the air. Jessie dropped to her belly and scanned for the source of the attack.

  Brother Walter had stopped climbing. He clutched the ladder, his knuckles white with effort.

  “Hurry!” Jessie urged. And then she saw the blood. It dripped from the cuff of his pants. “Oh god! Brother Walter?”

  A second report came, startling the birds roosting in a distant tree. They flew off, circling widely, before settling raucously in the very same one. Brother Walter had resumed climbing, but it clearly took considerable effort. His hands shook, and his feet stumbled before finding the rungs. The second shot had missed, but it may not have been necessary.

  “Get away from the edge!” he told her.

  She saw Andy Emerson sprint across the empty tarmac to the right of them and disappear into the building below. She scanned the area but saw no further movement, and it surprised her that he had been the one to survive the fire at the house, rather than Jo.

  “You should have used your own gun,” Brother Walter said. His face was twisted in pain.

  “Just hurry!”

  He tossed the rope onto the top of the wall. The movement made the ladder jump to one side, tilting dangerously off balance. The rope began to uncoil into the gap below, dragged down by its own weight. Jessie scrambled to catch it, but by then Brother Walter had stepped off the ladder and stopped her. He still had the other end tied to his belt.

  He quickly unknotted it and threw it over the Gameland side.

  “Go!” he told her.

  The bottom of his shirt was drenched with blood. Jessie wanted to check him, but there was no time. And no time to argue either.

  Over the side went her backpack, hitting the ground with a dull thud a moment later. She donned the leather gloves he’d found in the shipwright’s workshop, then looped the rope behind her like he’d shown her. There was no time to be afraid of heights.

  And then she was dangling, her heart thrumming with fear. The lip of the wall was above her and there was no going back.

  Don’t look down. Don’t look down.

  Hurry. Hurry!

  She slid more than rappelled. Fifty feet rushed past her, and in a matter of seconds that felt like years, her feet were on the ground again. She called up to Brother Walter. “And bring my sword!”

  But he didn’t appear. A third gunshot sounded. Then a figure toppled over the edge. Jessie dove out of the way as the body plummeted toward her. It landed with a sickening crunch where she’d been standing just a moment before.

  Chapter 43

  From the driver’s seat of her mother’s ArcTic Explorer LE, Siennah Davenport watched the two boys exit the rundown shack the Daniels called a home. She slid down in her seat in case they happened to look over. Unlike her own car, a flashy red ArcTouris Coupe which she’d bought with her gaming earnings, the off-white Explorer was much less ostentatious. The last thing she wanted to do now was draw anyone’s attention. That was certainly not the case with her coupe.

  They were carrying a large, heavy-looking cardboard box, which they set on the porch railing so Kelly Corben could shut and lock the front door. She could hear him give that Neanderthal, Reggie Casey, directions while backing awkwardly down the porch steps: “Careful now. Don’t push!”

  “I told you, dude, you should just let me carry it. I can handle it myself.”

  “No,” Kelly answered. “It’s too important to—”

  His foot missed the last step and he fell. Reggie tried to adjust, but something inside the box shifted and everything crashed to the ground.

  “A gaming console?” Siennah whispered to herself. And an old one at that, from the looks of those goggles and the size of that drive. “What the hell are they doing with that?”

  “Dude,” Reggie cried out. “You just told me to be careful! How’re they going to ping Jessie and let her know we’re coming if it’s broken?”

  “Keep it down!” Kelly snapped.

  Ping Jessie? Coming?

  Ever since her last confrontation with the bitch in The Game, it had been driving Siennah batshit trying to figure out how she’d known who was operating Micah Sandervol. Now she suspected she knew. The boys had told her with that machine.

  Although she wasn’t a computer tech geek, she did have a rudimentary understanding of Arc’s firewall restricting communication between Gameland and the outside world; only the gaming systems were capable of slipping through.

  She chuckled and nodded appreciatively. It was a simple, yet brilliant hack.

  The boys hurriedly repacked the box and placed it into the trunk of the junker car the Corben boy drove. Siennah shrank down even further in her seat when they shut the hatch and looked around, as if sensing they were being watched. Then they got in the car and pulled out.

  “Start,” Siennah said, and the electric motor hummed quietly to life. If not for the gentle vibration beneath her and the gauges leaping on the dashboard, she wouldn’t have known the Explorer was even on.

  There were surprisingly few vehicles on the road. Most people were being good little citizens and obeying the mandatory shelter-in-place order. But rumors were spreading that the outbreak was getting worse and that the police were too busy trying to contain it to bother with arresting those who ignored the travel ban. The official statement from the mayor’s office was that there was no risk, and yet they still asked everyone to stay indoors. Siennah knew her father was lying. She could always see it in his face when he did, and this had been one of those times.

  Not that it bothered her much. To be perfectly honest, she thought the whole outbreak thing was kind of overdue. The damn town was in a coma and badly needed to be woken up. Or shaken up. And it wasn’t like she’d actually seen any Infected walking around anyway.

  She really wanted to see one. She thought it might be cool to watch one go berserk on some stupid idiot who couldn’t run fast enough or fight hard enough to prevent becoming lunch. If they were that stupid and that slow, they deserved to become one of them.

  She had a long list of people she wouldn’t mind seeing becoming a zombie, her parents being two of them. At least then there’d be something beneficial to the network going down. Seeing them die would totally make up for all the money she was losing by not being able to play.

  The thought of lost earnings drove her into a fit of pique. She took the so-called glitches as a personal affront, as if Arc really didn’t want to make it easy for anyone to capture and kill Jessie Daniels. But it really was unfair, especially after all the money she’d spent to buy Micah. She still had every expectation that she would be the one to kill that zombitch and collect the ten million dollars. But if the fucking network wouldn’t work, how was that going to happen?

  Her father insisted the glitches weren’t intentional. They weren’t directed at her. Or at anyone specifically.

  But he was lying again. She could see it in his face. He didn’t even believe himself.

  Well, whatever. One thing at a time. First, figure out what the bitch’s stupid husband and that ape were up to. She might as well do something useful while she waited to get back on-line.

  She followed them from a distance, her irritation growing in inverse relationship to the slowness of Kelly’s speed. “Who the fuck goes twenty-four miles an hour in a fucking residential zone?” she screamed. The few other people driving had raced past them, obviously in a hurry to leave town. That boy was such a fucking goody goody, always following the rules and shit. “Damn college track fucker,” she spat. “Thinks he’s better than anyone else.”

  He drove northwest to the outskirts of town, heading to the older part of Greenwich. They came to a neighborhood that was mostly block apartments. The structures were all rundown, painted in ugly shades of avocado and piss yellow, the graffiti covered over with poorly matched paint that washed away in the next rain. The stucco was dingy from years of accumulated grime.
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br />   She held even further back, balancing her fear of losing sight of them with the fear of being seen. In a place such as this, and with so few cars on the road, even the Explorer stood out.

  The car pulled over to the curb outside of a nondescript building, just one of several that looked exactly the same. There was an overabundance of chain link fencing, as well as wrought iron bars on the windows. Trashcans seemed to be everywhere, occupying the spaces beneath steps and the middles of sidewalks.

  Siennah pulled up behind an old septic pumping truck, one that advertised work by real people instead of conscriptees, and she snorted at the idea that anyone would pay to have a living person fix their sewage tanks. Or, even more incredibly, that someone living would actually want to do that sort of work when they didn’t have to.

  The boys got out and quickly retrieved the box from the trunk. Once again, they shared the burden between them; once more Reggie tried to convince Kelly to let him carry it himself. The guy was freakishly strong, Siennah had to give him that, but he obviously had nothing between the ears.

  They made their way up the walkway and disappeared into a courtyard through a broken gate. Siennah made sure to lock the Explorer and set the alarm when she got out to follow them.

  * * *

  “Damn it, Siennah! Your mother has been beside herself with worry,” Henry Davenport shouted at his daughter. “You didn’t tell her you were leaving. You didn’t tell anyone where you were going! And you took her car without asking. You could have been arrested!”

  “Shut up, Daddy,” she said. Normally, she wouldn’t talk to him like this, but he was being so freaking pigheaded, as if she actually gave a crap about breaking the law. “You just need to shut the fuck up for a moment and listen to me.”

  He staggered back a step, blinking like she’d physically slapped his face. “You— you can’t—”

  “I followed that Corben boy,” she said, “the one who married Jessica Daniels. The one Arc’s going after in Gameland right now. Hello?” She snapped her fingers at his face. “Are you listening to me?”

  He nodded, but he didn’t shut his mouth.

  “He and this other guy — his name’s Reggie Casey — they were sneaking around the Daniels’s house, and they took something out.”

  “Looting?”

  “Jesus, Dad. Would you just listen for a second? It was a gaming console. I heard them talking about it. They hacked it so they could communicate with people inside Gameland. With her. That’s how she’s managed to survive for so long. They’re helping her out.”

  Henry Davenport finally realized his mouth was still open and shut it. Siennah smiled. Now she had his attention. And, more importantly, his interest.

  “Why didn’t you tell someone where you were going?” he asked again. It was another feeble attempt to exert control over her, but there was no strength in his words at all.

  Siennah ignored the question. She was thinking about how Arc would reward her for this information. Surely they wouldn’t want people cheating.

  She had hidden behind an overgrown shrub, which actually hadn’t been that necessary, since the daylight was failing by then and the boys were clueless they were being watched. They’d gone up to one of the apartments and knocked on the door. Imagine Siennah’s surprise when the bitch’s mother answered.

  “We brought the console,” Kelly said. He pointed at the box they’d set down on the walk outside the door. “It’s just like I explained. You connect by inputting the identifier code. You’ll need to wear the goggles to see and hear, though. It won’t work if the Stream is down.”

  “Come inside,” Missus Daniels urged. “Just for a few minutes. Please.”

  Kelly looked over at Reggie, who shook his head. “No, brah. I’ve already had that conversation with my parents. I’m not doing it again.”

  Missus Daniels turned toward the darkness inside and quietly said a few words Siennah couldn’t hear to someone she couldn’t see. Another woman appeared, her face wet and her eyes red from crying.

  “Jesus, Mom,” Reggie said. “I can’t do this now.” He tugged on Kelly’s sleeve. “Come on, brah. We need to get ready.”

  “We can at least take the equipment inside for them,” Kelly replied.

  Missus Daniels shook her head. “Leave it on the step. Bob can bring it in.”

  “Who’s Bob?” Siennah’s father asked, when she reached this point in the story.

  “Mister Casey. They’re all hiding there, in that apartment— Missus Daniels, the Caseys, the Corbens. I think they’re trying to hide from the police. I bet even the Evans are there.”

  “The missing girl?”

  Siennah nodded.

  Her father looked troubled. “We’ve had them all under surveillance for a few weeks now. I’ll talk to the police and see what they know.”

  “They might want to make them a top priority.”

  “Why, honey? What are they doing? What’s so damn important that you’d risk . . . .” His voice faltered.

  “Risk what, Daddy? Your precious reputation?” She shook her head in disgust.

  He frowned at her. “You said they were getting ready to do something. What?”

  “They’re going back. They’re going to try and rescue her.”

  This caught Henry Davenport’s attention. He sat up straight and grabbed her arm. “When? How do you know?”

  “Tonight. And I know where she’s going to be. Daddy, Arc needs to turn the Stream back on. I can get my Player to her. Daddy, please, before it’s too late.”

  He took his time standing up. “Okay,” he quietly said. “I’ll think about it.”

  “Think about it?”

  “That’ll be all, sweetie.”

  “But, Daddy—”

  “I want you to leave me now. Go to your room.”

  “Arc’s going to want to know about this!”

  “No,” he answered, shushing her. “No. Nobody is going to tell them anything. I’m finished. Now go to your room!”

  “But—”

  “Now!” he roared, and slapped her cheek.

  Siennah blinked away her tears of frustration. Her father had never lifted a hand against her. He’d never raised his voice, not like this. She felt betrayed. After all she’d done for him, he was supposed to be pleased with her.

  She jumped from her chair and ran from her father’s office. But she didn’t go to her room when he shouted after her. She grabbed the keys to her car and went out into the night.

  Chapter 44

  “This is it?” Reggie asked. He shook his head incredulously. “It’s practically a swimming pool toy.”

  He gave the narrow raft a halfhearted slap and shook his head.

  “I have to say I’m a little underwhelmed, too,” Kelly admitted. “How are we supposed to fit three of us in there?”

  Doctor White pulled the plastic boat from the back of her car and set it on the ground. “There are two paddles,” she said, ignoring their complaints. She handed one to each of the boys. “You’ll need to hold onto them. Smooth strokes, no splashing.”

  “Oh sure, let the men do all the physical labor,” Reggie complained.

  “I need to check for unexploded mines—”

  “Whoa, whoa! Wait a second,” Reggie exclaimed. “Now you’re saying there might be bombs? Because before you were like, ‘Nope, no mines, brah.’ ”

  She shook her head at him. “You can still back out. It’s not too late.”

  “No way, lady. I ain’t backing out. I’ve already been blown out of the water once. Can’t say as I enjoyed it any, but I lived to tell about it. I’m just saying.”

  “Then let’s go,” she told them, and led the way through the darkness.

  Kelly and Reggie each grabbed an end of the raft and picked it up.

  “What’ll we do with the cars?” Kelly asked.

  “Does it matter?” Doctor White replied over her shoulder. “They’ll either be here when we get back, or they won’t.”

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sp; “Really?” Reggie exclaimed. “That’s your answer?”

  Kelly shrugged.

  They could hear the Sound lapping against the rocks somewhere ahead. The water was already up to Reggie’s ankles, inside his shoes, though still too shallow to set the raft down. Their feet splashed as they went, and the noise seemed to carry forever.

  But there was no one around to hear it. No lights, no voices. No one to question them. Or stop them. Just the blackness of the water between them and the blackness of the island ahead and the blackness of the sky all around. The only color came from the stars above, a rainbow of pinpricks that couldn’t provide enough illumination to guide them anywhere.

  “We’d better hurry,” Doctor White said. She pointed back the way they’d come, where a pair of headlights twinkled through the dead trees. It was still far away, and might not even be travelling on the same potholed road they’d taken, but any car out here in the desolation of the South Harlem wastes was unusual enough, especially since nobody was supposed to be out at all. Even more alarming was the speed at which it was driving, and the way the lights bounced all over the place.

  “Damn,” Reggie murmured. “That’s gotta be hell on the suspension.”

  “Do you think it’s the cops?” Kelly asked.

  They turned to Doctor White, but she was already gone, a ghost in the darkness ahead, and the sound of her splashing quickly merging with the sound of the waves lapping over the rocks.

  Chapter 45

  “You need to kill him.”

  Eric’s eyes remained glued to Marco’s face, though his attention was trained on Stu. The man he’d knocked out finally regained his consciousness after ten or so minutes. Stu coughed once and rolled over onto his back and lay there panting and staring at the ceiling.

  Shock, that’s what was wrong with him. Eric hoped that when he came out of it, the fight would be gone out of him, too. It certainly appeared it had.

  Still, he was wary of the prisoner. He braced himself should an attack come.