The distinct crunch of feet on a grimy alley floor told me there definitely was someone out there.
I glanced up to the school up and in the distance. It was closer, but still too far to do us a damn bit of good. There was no way we’d be able to get to the elevator before whoever was out there got to us.
“Motherfucker,” Kris growled.
Four shadows resolved out of the darkness, but they stayed in the shadows.
“What do you want?” I asked.
There was laughter from the four. Two of them stepped forward revealing a couple of familiar faces.
“Man, you assholes should’ve seen the looks on your faces!”
“Greg? Kyle?” Kris said to the two who’d stepped forward. “And does that mean that’s Trent back there acting like the big bad calling the shots?”
Motherfucking Trent. Think your typical sports big man on campus and that’s your guy, minus any sort of talent to actually win at the football games that supposedly gave him that big man status.
“Shut the fuck up Kris,” Trent growled as he stepped forward.
Fucking great. It was bad enough to cross his path at school. It was worse luck to run into these assholes out here where we didn’t have teachers keeping them in line.
Also? I was wondering who the fuck was still hanging back in the alley, but that wondering didn’t extend to wanting to spend any more time around these pricks than I had to.
“Nice meeting you out here,” I said. It wasn’t. “But you guys had your fun, really funny how you made us think you were going to rob us and kill us there, and we’ll be on our way to school now. Don’t want to be late or anything.”
“Whatever Colin,” Trent said. “It’s not like you have anything worth stealing anyway.”
“Fuck off,” I said without thinking about my words or their potential consequences. “You’re just as poor as the rest of us.”
“Am I?” he asked.
“Yeah, you are,” Kris said.
“Oh yeah? Then how did me and my boys get early access to Lotus?” he asked.
His words landed like a punch to the gut. I guess that was better than the literal punch to the gut he could be hitting me with, but not by much.
“What are you talking about?”
“Shut up Trent,” the fourth figure said. I recognized that voice, and my cheeks colored.
Kara was the last person I wanted to witness Trent pushing me around. She stepped out of the shadows and, as always, she looked stunning. The head cheerleader and most beautiful girl in our school all wrapped up in one tight package, so of course she’d be with Trent.
For all that Trent was terrible at football, and Kara was actually pretty good at the whole stunting and tumbling thing that went along with being a cheerleader.
“Shut up Kara,” Trent said. “Or do you want out of the deal?”
She opened her mouth, but didn’t say anything. Trent nodded in satisfaction, but she didn’t look happy.
“How did you get into Lotus?” Kris asked.
“He’s lying,” I said, holding Trent’s gaze. “He’s just as poor as the rest of us. No one on ZZ-Alfa level can afford to get into Lotus.”
“Yeah? Well things are changing,” Trent said. “I rule this school, and soon enough I’m gonna rule in Lotus too!”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “You think because you’re in sports at our shit school that makes you better than me?”
“Prick like him can’t be that high and mighty considering the football team hasn’t had a winning record against any of the other levels since he joined the team,” Kris said.
“You shut the fuck up,” Trent growled.
“Whatever,” I said. “You’re not worth it.”
I turned and motioned for Kris to go. It pained me to retreat, especially since the more caveman parts of me were screaming that I shouldn’t retreat with Kara standing right there watching me turning tail, but that’s what I did. Discretion is the better part of valor and all that.
Only something spun me around before I got very far. Trent stood there glaring down at me, and he looked pissed.
“Did I give you permission to leave?”
“Fuck you Trent,” I said, that caveman part of me writing checks my ass couldn’t cash, to quote an ancient movie. “And your stupid team that couldn’t win if the other team sat down on the field and let you.”
“Fuck you Colin!” he shouted, loud enough that his voice echoed all around us.
I looked at those alley walls as a plan started forming to get away from these fuckers without them beating the shit out of me and Kris. That plan would have to come together fast. Trent seemed more unhinged than usual this morning.
Unfortunately getting away involved getting him more riled up. Which meant I was risking a punch to the gut before this was all over.
“Why should I shut the fuck up?” I asked.
I raised my voice. It echoed through the alleys. Greg and Kyle were looking around like they didn’t like all the noise, but Trent was fuming. I couldn’t tell what Kara was thinking. She was a surprisingly cool customer for a pretty young girl walking through the alleys.
“And what the fuck about you?” Trent growled. “Spending all your time crying about your dead sister? Please. You’re a fucking loser out here, and you’re a loser in those games.”
I threw myself at him. Luckily Kris was there to hold me back from doing something stupid. Trent was way bigger than me, after all.
“He’s not worth it,” Kris said. “We need to get going.”
I heard something shuffling in the distance. Usually that wasn’t a good sound, but right now it was exactly what I was hoping for.
“Your friend’s right,” Trent growled. “Run off and cry, little loser.”
That shuffling was getting louder. A calm came over me. It was the kind of feeling I got whenever a plan started to come together.
“Go fuck yourself Trent!”
I yelled it at the top of my lungs. Loud enough that all the tweakers and other unsavory types who haunted the alleys would hear it for sure.
“Come on Colin,” Kris said.
Shadows appeared behind Trent and company. I was about to go with Kris, but one of those shadows stepped forward revealing a dude with way too much wild hair and way too few teeth. He wrapped his arms around Kara whose eyes went wide, then she started kicking and screaming.
Trent turned and stared. The wannabe tough guy took in the legitimate danger all around us for the space of a breath, then turned and ran. Kyle and Greg waited for a beat before they ran screaming like the little bitches they were.
Leaving Kara all alone to deal with the assholes I’d called down on her in the hopes they’d distract Trent so Kris and I could make an escape.
Talk about a plan working way better than I ever could’ve hoped for.
“What are you waiting for?” Kris asked.
I looked at Kris. Then to Kara who was still struggling against that tweaker. And I knew that I wasn’t leaving while she was in trouble, for all that she’d been palling around with Trent and the asshole brigade.
“We can’t leave her,” I said.
“Son of a bitch,” Kris said, reading the tone and knowing it meant we were about to leap headfirst into the shit.
The big difference being this was happening in the real world where there was a good chance one or all of us might get shanked instead of getting sent to a respawn point.
8
Stupid Hot
“What the hell are you doing?” Kris shouted.
“I don’t know!” I shouted back at her, my feet running ahead of my mind and critical thinking skills.
The tweaker with his arms around Kara had a moment to look surprised before I slammed into both of them and we went tumbling.
The wind was knocked out of me as we hit the ground. It was weird. I’d had the wind knocked out of me before, but my most recent experience was in a VR game where there was usually a bar t
hat popped up to let me know how long I had until I could breathe again.
It felt weird having the same thing happening in the real world without a heads up display to helpfully inform me how fucked up I was. Though from the crunch and yell the tweaker let out as we rolled he was getting more fucked up.
At least I hoped that crunch was from the tweaker and not Kara. Or me. Adrenaline was a hell of a drug, after all.
We rolled a few times and then I landed on top of something soft. I balled my hand in a fist and held it up, knowing that fist wouldn’t do any good if the other assholes lurking in the shadows came at us but knowing I had to do something to save…
“Kara?”
“It’d be great if you didn’t punch me,” she said, staring up at me and cocking an eyebrow.
“Sorry,” I said, then I realized I’d landed right on top of her.
I looked down. I was pressing against her in all the right places. Talk about a situation I’d been dreaming about for years, and now that it was happening it turns out I should’ve been way more specific about how my fantasy scenario came true.
“Sorry,” I said, rolling off of her.
“You’re crazy,” she said. “But thanks for helping me.”
She looked to where Trent and company had disappeared. I’m sure she was thinking a few uncharitable thoughts about that asshole, but she kept them to herself.
“No problem,” I said. “But we’re not out of it yet.”
I got up on my knees and took stock of our situation. It wasn’t good.
We were still stuck in a narrow street surrounded on all sides by narrow alleys that could bring more tweakers down on us as they got word there were teens ripe for the robbing here.
“Shit,” Kara hissed, staring at the same shadows I was. “Not good.”
“Tell me about it,” I muttered, low enough that they wouldn’t be able to hear us.
Hey, we might be fucked, but I didn’t want to let on how fucked we were. That was the kind of talk that would only hasten the fucking.
A moan drew my attention away from the shadows. Shadows that, for some reason, weren’t moving in like the world’s druggiest zombie movie. Which was a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one.
The moan came from the tweaker I’d slammed into while I was under the influence of a pair of pretty eyes and a body that wouldn’t quit. I was going to have to be careful around this girl if she had that effect on me.
She stared at the guy I’d tackled. “Looks like you really did a number on this one.”
“I didn’t mean to,” I said, though I couldn’t bring myself to feel too sorry for the asshole. He was rolling on the ground clutching his arm like he’d suffered some serious damage in the fall.
The jerk might’ve just broken his arm, but the thing probably broke because he was so weak from all the shit he was constantly putting in his body. Not to mention he was the one who made the choice to attack us, which meant he was getting everything he deserved as far as I was concerned.
“Bastard,” Kara said, scrambling to her feet and spitting on the guy.
I stared in astonishment. I had a few classes with her and I’d chatted with her. It’s not like I was the kind of person who was terrified by a pretty girl even if I didn’t think I had a chance with her. At school she was always bubbly and happy.
It was weird seeing this other side of her. For all that I agreed with this side of her. For all that I found this side of her… intriguing.
“Yeah, bastard,” I said, though I didn’t spit on the guy.
“Um, guys, spitting on the scary drug addict might be fun and everything,” Kris said. “But I think we should get the fuck out of here before the rest of the scary drug addicts decide to dogpile us.”
I looked out at those lurking shadows threatening us. Only they still hadn’t attacked. Then I looked down at the one with the broken arm and started to put two and two together as another half baked plan started forming.
I stepped over the addict who seemed a hell of a lot less threatening rolling around on the ground moaning in pain, and threw my arms out to address the rest.
“Who else wants some?” I shouted. “Come on!”
“What the hell are you doing?” Kara asked.
“Probably something stupid to try and impress you,” Kris said.
“What?” she hissed at her. “I’d be impressed if we were getting the hell out of here!”
I beat my hands against my chest. Kris was sort of right. It was a damn good thing it was still dark and I was facing away from them. Otherwise the blush that hit my cheeks would be obvious.
If I was being perfectly honest, there was a part of me that was doing this because I wanted to show off in front of the pretty girl, but mostly I was doing it because there were a lot of druggies out there who wouldn’t bat an eyelash at rushing us and stealing anything they could, and maybe worse with Kara and Kris, or maybe worse with me depending on which team they played for, and I wanted them to think we were more trouble than it was worth.
“Come get some!” I shouted, pointing at the asshole cradling his broken arm. “See if I don’t do the same to you!”
There was some muttering from the shadows. Shadows that were getting more and more human as the lights overhead turned everything from pitch black to the twilight that passed for daytime around here. The busted light panels overhead only ever provided a fitful, flickering light.
“That’s what I thought,” I said.
I forced myself to turn my back to them. I wanted them to think I wasn’t afraid, for all that my bowels were on the verge of turning to liquid and all it would take was the sound of a couple of those tweakers coming at me to get all that liquid to come spilling out in an embarrassing display.
Only none of them made a move. I guess the sight of one of their own rolling on the ground in serious pain was enough to get them to think twice.
It was one of the oldest rules in war, for all that this was a bunch of druggies threatening to rob us and not exactly a war. So many people thought the point of a fight was to mess up the other guy. Sure that was part of it, but the real point of messing up the other guy was to make the enemy think it’d be way too costly to continue fucking with you.
“Are they moving any closer?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“Nope,” Kris said. “I don’t know what the fuck you did there, but it’s working.”
“Their friend got fucked up on accident in that tackle,” I said. “With a little luck they’re worried I’m going to do the same to them.”
Kris snorted. “You? Fucking up one of them?”
“Not so loud,” I said. “What they don’t know might keep them from hurting us.”
I tapped Kara’s arm. She jumped and looked between me and the assholes gathered behind us like I was a madman. It was a look I was used to getting from Kris. Typically in the game and not in the real world, but still.
“Walk this way if you want to make it out of this in one piece,” I said through my teeth.
“They’re not coming after you,” she said.
“That’s the idea,” I replied.
“Why aren’t they coming after you?” she asked.
“I’ve learned it’s usually better to go along with whatever plan Colin’s running and ask questions later when you’re out of danger,” Kris said.
“You sound like you’ve done this a lot,” she said, but she fell into step next to us.
“Mostly in games, but yeah,” Kris said.
“Speaking of,” I said. “Did Trent really get into Lotus early?”
Kara stared at me for a long moment, then shook her head and sighed.
“He’s telling the truth,” she said. “He got into the game somehow, and he’s bringing some of his friends along.”
There was something to her tone. She had the look of someone who was only telling part of the truth. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what that would be unless…
I nearly tripped
over my feet when it hit me.
“You’re in Lotus with him,” I said. “Aren’t you?”
She looked away. Meanwhile Kris chuckled as she looked at me, then to Kara, and shook her head. It was the sort of knowing look she gave me when she thought she knew something I didn’t.
Which didn’t happen all that often. That made it all the more annoying when it did happen.
“She’s dating the dude,” Kris said. “If that asshole figured out a way into Lotus then it makes sense he’d bring his girlfriend along with, right?”
“I’m not his girlfriend,” Kara spat.
I blinked. It was surprising that she was saying she wasn’t his girlfriend, sure, but it was more surprising that she got so angry at the insinuation she was his girlfriend. Like she really didn’t want us to make that mistake.
“Oh yeah?” Kris said. “So just a good enough friend that he’s using money he doesn’t have to get you a ridiculously expensive early access key to the hottest thing in the history of gaming?”
Kris wiggled her eyebrows as she said it. The implication was clear. She wasn’t buying the “not dating” line.
“I’d just as soon date that tweaker back there as date Trent,” Kara said. “And if you’re going to act like this then I don’t want to be around you either.”
“Wait,” I said. “Kris can be a jerk sometimes, but she’s not trying to be an jerk.”
“Hey!” Kris said.
“Come on,” I said. “Maybe you could be nicer? She just had a bad experience.”
“Yeah, and maybe you’re just thinking with the wrong head,” Kris said.
“I don’t need this,” Kara said. “Thanks for tackling that guy back there. And thanks for… whatever the fuck that was you did with that posturing.”
“I was trying to intimidate them,” I said.
“You what?” she asked.
“I was trying to intimidate them,” I said. “Didn’t you see how they weren’t attacking us? Usually you get mobbed if you’re unlucky enough to get a crowd around you like that, but they weren’t doing anything.”
Spellcraft Page 5
