The Making of Socket Greeny: A Science Fiction Saga
Page 7
Josh.
Through the flames, I remembered the dragon shooting flames from a nostril. My sim charred. There were 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.
I was missing something.
It turned out, I was missing a lot. There was nothing concrete after the dragon. Nothing but flames. It would be quite some time before I remembered where I was.
“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 left and—”
“I don’t remember.”
“What do you mean you don’t remember?”
“I just don’t.”
“You don’t just dial up a weapon like that on accident. 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?
“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 when we crashed all the servers but said he never saw you leave.”
“Crashed the servers?”
“You flamed out his network and he blamed us. We’re banned for life and I don’t blame him. I mean, I was pissed at first; you kind of left us high and dry. We took the fall for the awesome weapon that you have no idea how you unlocked, but whatever. But then you weren’t at home for a day, and she—” He jabbed his thumb toward Chute’s voice “—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, figured something weird happened that, again, you don’t remember, but like I said, whatever. There ain’t no back door at Gearheads, so how’d you sneak out?”
I was shaking my head with a strange intuition. 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.
Time is malleable.
Einstein recognized time as a dimension that could be manipulated. All the strangeness leading up to Gearheads was nothing compared to whatever happened in the fire.
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 wasn’t sick anymore, just sore. But I took a sip. She sat on the edge of the bed and took my hand, our fingers weaving together.
“Can we not do that in public?” Streeter stared at us through my outdated pair of VM goggles. “I need more time.”
We ignored him.
Our boyfriend-girlfriend deal was his problem.
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 find that…”
We’d find the reason for the flame weapon, but it would be nothing like he thought. Nothing anyone could’ve guessed. Me included.
When it came time to leave, Chute kissed me on the forehead to the sounds of Streeter gagging. She almost knocked him over. He was still dragging the joke out when he stopped in the doorway. “Almost forgot.”
He dug in his pocket and tossed a little black square on the bed. The flash drive.
“Chief found it in our room,” he said. “I searched it for the flame weapon, but it’s still empty. Don’t know what use it is, but he still blames us. Whatever.”
I held it between finger and thumb—an ordinary black square that appeared to have no data. 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 of course, it could have been a hallucination. Maybe if that was the only thing, I would’ve believed it.
Still, how did it end up in the room?
“Where’d you get that?” Mom stood in the doorway.
“Just… found it. Why?”
She held out her hand. I gave it to her and the worried frown 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 sensation that if I just concentrated, I could pull her thoughts into the open. And then I’d know everything.
Was I ready?
It wasn’t my choice.
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.
Enjoy this free book?
Pay it forward with a review.
Continue the Socket Greeny journey
Discovery (Book #1)
Training (Book #2)
Legend (Book #3)
The Socket Greeny Saga
Get the
BERTAUSKI STARTER LIBRARY
FREE!
You’ll get 3 full-length novels and 1 novella…for free!
Just tell me where to send them.
Send me the free books
Novels by Tony Bertauski
CLAUS
Claus Boxed Set (Save 30%)
Claus: Legend of the Fat Man
Jack: The Tale of Frost
Flury: Journey of a Snowman
Humbug: The Unwinding of Ebenezer Scrooge
FOREVERLAND
Foreverland Boxed Set (Save 30%)
The Annihilation of Foreverland
Foreverland is Dead
Ashes of Foreverland
Seeds of Foreverland (Prequel) FREE!
HALFSKIN
Halfskin Boxed Set (Save 30%)
Halfskin
Clay
Bricks
Halfskin (The Vignettes) FREE!
SOCKET GREENY
The Socket Greeny Saga (Save 30%)
The Discovery of Socket Greeny
The Training of Socket Greeny
The Legend of Socket Greeny
The Making of Socket Greeny (Prequel) FREE!
DRAYTON
Drayton (The Taker) FREE!
The Drayton Chronicles (All 5 Drayton novellas)
Drayton (The Taker)
Bearing the Cross
Swift is the Current
Yellow
Numbers
Read more authors from DeadPixel Publications
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.