by P. J. Hoover
“Maybe,” Zachary says. “But let’s just say that my level of bullshit is less that the average.”
This is a conversation that is going nowhere. We need to stay on track. “Can you snap your fingers?”
“Sure.” Zachary holds up his hand and snaps.
I rolls my eyes.
“Oh, you mean can I snap my fingers and magically transport somewhere? Sure.” He snaps again, and this time he vanishes.
“No way,” Taylor says.
I stare at the spot where Zachary was. Even after everything we’ve been through and everything we’ve seen, it is still almost impossible to believe. I count the seconds as they go by.
Taylor clears her throat. “Is he coming back?”
A horrible thought passes through my mind. What if he doesn’t come back? What if this has all been part of a trick to keep us out of the simulation and we’ve fallen completely for it? Now, not only are we out of the Nether Zone, we have no hope of getting into Simulation Omega.
But no. This is Zachary we’re talking about. He’s given me no reason to doubt him.
“Yes,” I say, hoping I sound confident.
Sure enough, less than thirty seconds later Zachary reappears. He’s in the exact same spot where he started.
“Did you miss me?” he asks.
“No.” Taylor is blunt and honest.
“Great,” I say. “So you’re taking us to the volcano.”
“Well,” Zachary says. “That’s where it gets a little tricky. I can move myself around between layers, but I can’t move you guys around.”
“Have you ever tried?” Taylor asks.
Zachary’s eyes flash my way. “Maybe.”
Taylor’s right eye widens. “You tried to move Edie?”
“When?” If this is true, then I was totally unaware of it.
He gives his head a small shake. “Long time ago. When you were about to fall into that pit back in Louisiana. Do you remember that?”
Of course I remember that. The world had split in half and dead things had crawled from the ground. It was impossible, and yet I’m sure if Cole hadn’t pulled me out, I would have died.
“You were watching me then?” I ask.
He won’t meet my eye. “I told you. It was my job to watch you.”
“Watching people is creepy,” Taylor says. “You shouldn’t do it.”
“Maybe,” Zachary says. “Unless the people that you’re assigned to watch are more important than they know.”
Important in that we were needed to go into the labyrinth simulation. If we’d died before then, the gods would have been short contestants. It’s halfway amusing that they watched out for us only to put us in life-threatening danger shortly thereafter.
I cross my arms. “So you can’t transport us around. That means it’ll take us forever to get across the country.”
Humor I don’t understand lights up his eyes. “Oh, right. I keep forgetting that you don’t think like a god.”
I find this insulting and reassuring at the same time. This means there might be an easier option.
Neither Taylor nor I say a word. We wait.
“Okay, fine,” Zachary says, and he puts up his hand. “Remember what you said about the ocean?” he asks Taylor.
“It’s draining?”
“Not that part. The part about the volcano.”
Taylor frowns. “That’s a different one.”
He laughs. “You guys really need to think more like gods. You can’t limit the way you view things. The volcanos . . . they’re all the same one.”
All the same one. I don’t try to figure out the physics behind that because I’m sure that no matter how much sense I try to make of it, it will never come together. Maybe that’s what thinking like a god comes down to. I need to eliminate common sense from everything.
“So we visit this volcano,” I say. That our journey could be so short fills me with hope. “It’s off the coast of Cape Canaveral. That’s where my parents went.”
“Right you are, Eden Monk,” Zachary says.
Taylor points to the right. “Ocean is that way.”
Even if I didn’t hear it, I’d know which direction it was. I also know that it’s not far. Even walking, it’s only a couple miles.
We hurry along toward the cape. Taylor leads the way, using the Oculus to navigate a safe path. I try to ignore the damage around me, but mentally I begin to make a list. I list out all the things that need to change. Things that need to be fixed in order to get the world back on track. With this much damage, it’s a huge job. It needs to be done in layers. Fixing the core of the earth . . . that has to be a starting point. If earthquakes are going to destroy anything we repair, then the earthquakes need to be eliminated. Fixing the weather and atmosphere. Recycling the debris for future use. I piece through them, partially to help bring sanity to the situation and partially to distract myself. I’m so much in my own world, I haven’t even noticed that Taylor is far ahead of us.
“What happened with Cole?” Zachary asks. Taylor can’t hear. Otherwise I think she’d knock him upside the head for asking.
I shrug and try to act like it’s no big deal even though it rips a fresh hole in my chest to think about it. “He left me.”
“Maybe he had something to do,” Zachary says. He holds his voice steady, as if he’s offering up the words to help me feel better.
“No. He chose Pia over me. They left together. Went across that lava river and into Simulation Omega without me and Taylor. That’s all there is to it.”
He narrows his eyes. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s fine,” I say, though it’s not.
“Not just about him being crazy for leaving you,” Zachary says. “Though anyone who would leave you is nuts. But it’s the whole thing with the power you two got back in the labyrinth.”
“What about it?”
“That’s the reason that Chaos cut off access for you. Why you couldn’t get into the simulation. The prophecy said that whoever had that power would have the ability to defeat him. You weren’t the only one with the power. Cole has it, too.”
I parse through his words. “But he got in. He paid with the coin and got across the river.”
“And that never should have been able to happen,” Zachary says.
“Maybe Pia had something to do with it.” After all, Cole wasn’t alone. He could have slid through security that way.
“Pia . . . ,” Zachary says, rolling her name around. “You know I did some digging around after you inserted yourself into Simulation Avine. It was when I was trying to hook into the heads-up display. She wasn’t part of the original simulation.”
I stop walking and face him. “What do you mean?” A horrible feeling begins to form inside me, like rotten food sitting in my stomach.
“I mean that she was inserted into the simulation later,” Zachary says. “Just before you guys placed yourselves in there.”
Not in the original simulation . . .
I think back to when I’d been trying to locate the signatures for Owen and Abigail. I’d hacked into the system. There had been the four of us, me, Taylor, Cole, and Hudson. We were the last to enter. There had also been Owen and Abigail. But between our groups there had been one single person. I’d wondered about it at the time, but I hadn’t had time to look into it.
“Why?” I say. “Who put her there?” My stomach twists. Something is wrong. Very wrong. I hadn’t trusted her, and maybe there was a very good reason I shouldn’t.
“I don’t know,” Zachary says as we start walking again, hurrying to catch up with Taylor. “But I do know that she was not part of the original plan. And changes like that have to come from the gods.”
“Like Chaos,” I say, barely able to fathom the thought. But the reality that Chaos could have
inserted Pia into the simulation is unsettling to say the least. “She can read minds.”
Taylor has stopped, giving us time to catch up. “Yeah, well I can see the future, and in every future I see, next time Pia comes across my path she’s going down.”
It sounds like a good plan to me. But it also ignores the fact that Cole is with her right now.
“Can you see Cole?” I ask Taylor.
She glances to Zachary, like she wants to check out his reaction. He holds his face so steady it’s obvious he’s trying not to move, as if maybe he wants to see the Oculus in action.
She shrugs. “No idea.” Then she focuses her eyes ahead, almost like she’s looking at her heads-up display. But her eyes don’t flicker as they would if she was reading data. Instead they narrow.
“What?” I say.
“He’s alone.”
Alone.
“You’re sure?”
Taylor nods. “No sign of Pia.” She looks through the Oculus for another moment. “I can’t see her anywhere. It’s like she’s been removed.
How nice that would be if Pia simply vanished. I know it’s a horrible thought, but I don’t care. Regardless, Cole alone means something has changed, and when we finally get into the simulation, we’ll find out what. But for now, we need to get to the memory banks.
“Come on,” I say, and I start walking again, quickening my pace. One thing at a time, but that doesn’t mean I should waste a second of it.
Before long the beach comes into view, and alongside it, a marina. If we’re going to get to the volcano, we’re going to need a boat. But because of the lower water level and the damage resulting, most of them are a wreck. The only one far enough out that looks halfway usable of course needs a key to start. A key we don’t have.
I kick the boat. “Stupid thing. Would it be too much to ask for something to go our way just once?”
Taylor jumps back onto the dock and stares out at the water, but Zachary places his hand on my arm. “Edie, come on. You’re not thinking like a god again. Remember? You need to think this through logically.”
“How would a god think?” I ask, jumping onto the dock also. “No key. No boat. That’s pretty logical to me. Unless you can hot-wire this thing for us.”
He shakes his head. “Not that part. Didn’t you decide this was all a simulation?”
A stupid simulation that is falling more into ruin with every second that goes by. But simulation or not, it’s the world I lived in. The world I need to save. “So what?”
“So look at the boat,” he says.
I do. I look at it. It’s a useless boat unless we want to row. That’s looking more and more like our only option. Except then my vision flickers and the heads-up display comes to life.
Select item to Interact
I look to Zachary, eyes wide. A simulation like the others. And that means we have the ability to execute commands through the heads-up display.
“Really?” I say.
He smiles. “Really. See? Logic. It always works.”
I turn back to the boat and select it using my heads-up display.
The boat turns in the water and faces out toward the ocean.
On my heads-up display are the words Board Ship. I’m not sure it’s a ship. Maybe that’s a flaw in the programming. But regardless, I step aboard and the motor roars to life.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about,” Taylor says, and she steps on after me.
VII
Zachary is the last to board. I expect the simulation to recognize this and launch the boat, but it doesn’t move.
I look to him, but he only shrugs.
“Oh, I get it,” Taylor says. “You want us to move it.”
“Well . . . ,” he says. “Maybe not you, Taylor.”
I have never seen Taylor move so quickly. She is up in his face in a second. “Why not me?”
He pushes her back gently. “Because your heads-up display isn’t working right. Is it?”
She waits a few seconds before responding. “And that matters why?”
“Because that’s how you control things in the simulation. Until you find another way, that’s how you guys interact.”
I roll my eyes and access my heads-up display. Zachary and Taylor could make an Olympic sport out of bickering, but that won’t get us to the volcano. In a couple quick commands, the boat begins to move.
Taylor sits back and crosses her arms. “I could do that, too.”
“Good,” Zachary says. “Keep me updated on your progress.”
I take hold of the steering control even though the boat seems to be guiding itself. I don’t have the coordinates of where my parents’ ship went down, but that doesn’t seem to matter. The boat glides through the water, evading debris, like a pre-programmed transportation item in a video game. It moves quickly, too. Way faster than it should.
The next thing I know, Taylor shouts, “There it is.”
On the horizon, set against the blue water of the ocean, is a black mountain with smoke curling out of the top of it. I focus my heads-up display on it to see if any commands come on-screen, but the display remains blank. But with every second, the volcano gets larger as we approach. I can’t look away from it.
The same volcano. Here. In New Mexico. Possibly all over the world. In New Mexico, a garden had surrounded the volcano, protected by a nest of sirens. And within moments, I realize that though there doesn’t seem to be a garden, the security is the same.
Music drifts to my ears. Music I’ve heard before.
“Cover your ears,” I shout, and then I press my hands on either side of my head, blocking out the sound.
Taylor and Zachary immediately do the same. I look to Zachary and raise my eyebrows. He mouths something in reply, but I can’t hear what with my ears covered. Maybe even the gods aren’t immune to the song of the sirens.
As we approach the shore, I see them. Three women sit on the rocks, basking in the brilliant sun. They’re barely dressed. Their long hair covers their chests. Their mouths move with the song they sing. And their eyes, piercing blue, are focused directly on us.
They beckon us. We have no choice but to move closer to them. I can only hope that without us hearing their song, they are powerless.
Taylor watches them. With the Oculus, maybe she can see more. Her eyes never leave them. Our boat glides by, avoiding landing near them. Instead it continues around until they are out of sight.
I dare to pull a hand from my ear. The music is nothing but a whisper. Far enough away that it has no power over me. I drop both hands from my ears. Then I look to Zachary.
Almost like he knows what I’m thinking, he says, “I have nothing to do with them.”
“Then where do they come from?” Taylor asks.
He shrugs. “They’re an element of mythology from the era of the ancient gods. Not just the old gods. The ones even before that. They still exist, though before the barrier was ripped open, they were kept at bay. But they and others like them shouldn’t be here. They should be contained.”
His words form layers in my mind like a pyramid built from the ground up, one level at a time. “The ancient gods. And the old gods? Was there a struggle for power before this?” It’s hard to believe that thousands of years ago the same struggle among the gods could have happened. Hard to believe and yet it fits together logically.
“There’s always a struggle for power,” Zachary says. “We’re at the brink of a new era now, but down the line, there will be another challenge after this. The new gods now will be the old gods. And other gods will take their place. It’s the way of things.”
An eternal struggle for power. A way to put the gods in place. And when the gods begin to slip, they get replaced.
“Wait, so you’re telling me that thousands of years ago the gods did this same virtual real
ity thing?” Taylor says. “I don’t believe it.”
Zachary actually laughs. “Not virtual reality. They didn’t even have computers back then.”
“Really?” I say. Sarcasm drips off my voice. But does he think we’re idiots?
He puts his hands up in surrender. “Yeah, I know you know that. What I’m saying is that there was no concept of computers. Your generation has the concept of computers. Gaming. Virtual reality is what made the most sense.”
“So what did the old gods have then?” Taylor says.
“I wasn’t there,” Zachary says. “But from what I’ve heard, it fit in with the times. Olympic games. Gladiator-type fighting. Mythical beasts. Actual labyrinths. Stuff like that.”
Given that technology has helped us so far, I’m glad to have the added advantage of computers and coding.
Our boat has pulled up against a wooden dock built into the side of the volcano. Dark water slaps against the wooden supports that disappear beneath the surface. The wood of the dock is weathered but solid. That said, I still test it before putting my full weight on it. The last thing I want is to disappear beneath the waves. If sirens exist out here, I can only imagine what hides in the water. If Hudson was here, I’m sure he’d be more than happy to explain every potential mythological threat. But Hudson’s not here. I hope by now he’s managed to subdue Owen and Abigail.
I hope he’s alive.
Where we’ve docked, the flow of lava is minimal. A staircase is carved into the side of the volcano, and though I can’t see all the way to the top, from here it looks safe.
Safe. It’s a ridiculous word to use. Nothing we’ve been through could ever be considered safe.
“I’ll go first,” Taylor says, and before I can disagree one way or the other, she’s five steps up. She grabs a rock and holds it in her hand like a weapon. I reach for one myself, but then I hear Zachary’s word in my mind. You’re not thinking like a god.
As soon as the thought is there, an idea forms. I reach out with my powers and search the materials around me. There’s lots of soft stone, from the cooled lava, but there’s also obsidian. I pull bits and pieces of it apart with my powers, and I reshape it. When I’m done, a shiny black knife waits for me.
