Code Jumper

by Zachariah Dracoulis

  “Uh…” I groaned out with my hands in the air, ready to snap my fingers and turn all their bullets into dirt, “because I’m your only hope of unlocking the base game and getting things back to normal?”

  The other players looked to the woman, waiting for her response but still keeping their guns trained on me until, with a weak sigh, she shrugged and pointed her weapon at the ground, “Alright then, what’s the plan?”

  A little laugh escaped me as I equipped my own gun, “Honestly, I was hoping you could tell me.”

  JUST A LITTLE...

  The obvious solution to my little predicament was to simply hack my way through the round. Pop the entire enemy team like bloody water balloons, turn the map into a flat plain so I could shoot them all, or simply turn them all into cows.

  Those were just some of the options available to me.

  Problem was that I couldn’t just do that. I hadn’t had any Freedom, and while the automated security system was probably putting most of its effort into policing the base game, there was every chance that one of the opposing players who I hadn’t had the opportunity to talk with would file some kind of bug report, which would be bad.

  Very bad.

  Problem the second was the fact that outside of the familiar code, I had no idea what I was doing.

  The gun was heavier than I was used to, and while I had discovered that my pistol was strapped to my thigh, I wasn’t sure that it’d have enough kick to get through the armor unless I managed to catch them in the face.

  Good news was that I wasn’t alone, and that Mirri, the woman who’d only a minute prior to her teaching me how to survive had had a gun to my face, was a pretty solid strategist.

  “So you’re sure you’ve got it?” Mirri asked while I nervously looked between the four doorways which the rest of the men had just run out of.

  “Yeah, yeah. I stay here aiming at that door,” I replied, pointing to the one that I’d been warned was the primary point of ingress, “while you guys go out and kill ‘em all, getting you one step closer to winning this match, yeah?”

  “That’s the one. And remember, no matter what, you stay in here, alright?”

  “Course, why would I leave?”

  “Good, any questions?”

  I thought on the one question I was desperate to have answered for a good few seconds before deciding that I’d not get another opportunity, “What’s the go with the flag?”

  Unsurprisingly, Mirri wasn’t overly impressed with that question, letting out an annoyed huff as soon as the words had left my lips, “It’s a weapon. It’s used solely as a weapon. No one uses it to get points. This is not CTF. This is TDM. Clear?”

  In that moment I thought she was just being bitchy for the sake of being bitchy, but looking back on it I’m of the mind that I most definitely was not the first person to ask that question, and that it was kind of like having your younger sibling demand a turn of your game then immediately ask how to move.

  Still though, it offended me some, so instead of doing the adult thing and thanking Mirri for clarifying, I dropped to a knee and aimed at the door.

  “That was rude of you,” Quinn said after Mirri had let out an unimpressed huff and run out to the battle, “she could’ve just shot you, you know.”

  “I am well aware of that fact,” I bit back venomously, “but I don’t appreciate being treated like a child.”

  “Think of that before you freeze someone then.” Quinn replied in kind, “Honestly? I think that you’re just upset that they didn’t treat you with all the fear and admiration you’re used to.”

  “What? No!” I exclaimed with all the innocence of a teenager being asked if they masturbate, “I just… Ugh, maybe you’re right. Code Jumpers didn’t exactly leave the best mark last time we were here.”

  “That’s an understatement…” Quinn muttered, “But I see that you’re trying to make it right, and I know you’re trying to make things right between us. I think it may take a while for things to normalize though, let alone get better.”

  I let out a chuckle and nodded, “Damn right. Doesn’t help that we haven’t gotten to familiar territory, you reckon we’ll make it to the base game soon?”

  “I can’t say anything for sure, especially considering the fact that what little I’ve been able to scan from the portals is useless without me being able to measure it against more of them.”

  “How many more?”

  “Difficult to say, but we’re getting close.” Quinn said almost hopefully, “It’s hard though, I think I’ve figured out that there’s a line toward the end that’s counting down.”

  “So, what? We count down to one and we find where Messiah’s holed up?” I asked, trying my hardest not to sound too enthusiastic.

  “I mean, I think so?” Quinn replied uncertainly, “I’m not sure, it’s not like I can watch a couple of episodes of Stargate and figure it out.”

  “Comparing lines of code to chevrons isn’t exactly fair, now is it?”

  “I don’t see why not, it’s… Mirri’s in danger, the enemy team has her pinned down.”

  I was thrown by her sudden robotic tone, but I quickly got over it and started for the door, “Where?”

  Quinn seemed to go to reply with exact directions before coming to a simpler conclusion, “Head outside and I’ll be able to guide you from there.”

  I did as I was told, stepping out through the doorway after making sure I wasn’t going to get my head blown off the moment I did, and started making my way toward the sound of gunfire and the bursts of muzzle flash that I could just barely make out through the heavy fog.

  What little I’d seen through the doorway proved to be nothing compared to what actually awaited outside the safety of the base.

  It was radioactive for sure, I’d played enough survival games to know that much, but other than that it was all so foreign. It didn’t feel like some crazy TDM map, it didn’t have the vibe. Instead it was like I was actually in some kind of warzone, fighting factions that would rather see me and mine dead than bunker down in safety.

  There were gutted commercial planes, overturned vehicles, and general rubble all over the place, and I swear I could hear some kind of distant music.

  “Stop!” Quinn yelled in my ear, making me wince, “Go right, now.”

  I didn’t think to argue for a second, instead running to the right and crouching down behind the chest-high brick wall that looked to be about a butterfly’s fart from toppling.

  “What’s going on?”

  Quinn waited a few moments, obviously doing some calculations or something like that, before responding, “Once you go another ten feet in Mirri’s direction you’ll become visible to those who’ve got her pinned down, and they definitely have the advantage over you.”

  “How’s that?”

  “It’s a shooting gallery, and you’re the sole duck. From here it’s a single lane street that has literally zero means of cover, beyond the ditch that Mirri’s dropped into, of course.”

  I started cursing under my breath, trying desperately to think of a way for me to somehow save Mirri without getting riddled with bullets myself, and then I had a thought.

  “Heh, I’m such an idiot sometimes.” I quietly laughed to myself before snapping my fingers, giving myself infrared vision like my boy Predator, “Showtime.”

  With a quick relaxing breath I popped up and took aim, firing at the first of the enemy soldiers with my beefy gun, hitting him square in the chest and knocking him flat on his ass.

  “Do you really think it’s wise to mess with the code?” Quinn asked as I started moving closer to them, firing at the first guy again as he went to scramble to his feet.

  “Hey, what they don’t know can’t hur… Well, you know what I mean.” I said while I did my best to move in such a way that the confused players couldn’t pick me out in the fog.

  “Still though, seems unfair at the very least.”

  “Well unless you can think of another way to lo
cate the portal without me being ganked,” I quietly grunted as I struggled to handle the strong kickback of the gun on full-auto, pausing in the hopes that Quinn would, in fact, think of another way, “this is the only option we’ve got.”

  Quinn stayed silent for a while, before letting out a dejected sigh, “Alright, just… do your best to stay alive, okay?”

  “Naw, it’s almost like you do care.” I chuckled before dropping to a knee and firing a few more bullets, finally managing to kill two of the retreating, but still firing, enemies.

  “Only because I’m symbiotic with you.” Quinn replied matter-of-factly.

  “Don’t you have to be alive in order for-” I managed to get out before Quinn decided to cut me off with sharp gasp.

  “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Who in the Hell is firing!?” Mirri roared as I neared her position, “If that’s that Code Ju-”

  I managed to jump into the ditch, which appeared to be a section of road that had been recently mortared, and clap my hand over Mirri’s mouth before she could give away my identity to the other side.

  “Get your filthy hand off of me!” Mirri scolded as she pushed my hand down and stuck the barrel of her gun under my chin, “I told you to stay at the base.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t do well with orders.” I replied with a gulp so hard that it shifted the end of Mirri’s gun so that it was aiming at my throat, “Besides, if you die, who’s gonna help me with what I need? We did have a deal after all.”

  Mirri shot me a severe glare, then lowered her weapon with a quiet snarl, “Thanks for the save, I s’pose…”

  “You’re welcome.” I said with another gulp as I rubbed the spot where the barrel had been, “So, how do we get out of this?”

  “We’ll have to kill the rest of them so the others can respawn and we can head back to base to prepare for the next round.” Mirri replied before looking over her weapon, “I’m fresh out of ammo though, and I’m gonna take a stab in the dark and guess that you didn’t manage to take any of ‘em out?”

  “Two, actually.” I said proudly, ignoring the fact that I’d been threatened with a useless heap of metal, then immediately regretted my arrogance when I saw Mirri’s sarcastic smile.

  “Well bully for you,” she mocked, “I’m sure the other five’ll be just shakin’ in their boots.”

  It was weird, normally I’d have told her to go screw herself, done something with a snap of my fingers and tried my luck with some other avenue, but I couldn’t.

  I wouldn’t.

  Don’t get me wrong, I realize how ridiculous it sounds, if she’d died she’d have just respawned, but I still didn’t want her to die. Her life meant something, along with the other poor bastards who’d already died, including the ones I’d shot.

  Something about being around real people again had changed me, I mean Hell, I was seeing them as real people. They weren’t just lines of code, they were human beings who deserved to live long and happy lives, and I couldn’t help but sit there in that pit thinking about that.

  Then a grenade fell at my feet.

  (L)AIMBOTS

  Quinn was screaming about something or other, Mirri was trying to scramble her way out of the pit without being shot, and I was sitting there, staring at the little ball of death like an absolute stoner.

  I don’t know what it was, but something about that moment in time made me want to just watch it go off. Could’ve had something to do with the fact that it would’ve taken responsibility away from me, that the option would no longer be in my hands and that the fate of the world would’ve been decided by a grenade, not whether or not I had what it took to stop a psycho.

  Or, you know, genuine shock.

  I’m not sure how long I let the grenade sit there, nor how long it had left until it went off, but I do know that I managed to pull myself out of the pit of self-doubt and snap my fingers, turning the deadly grenade into a mostly safe rock. ‘Mostly’ because it was a rock, rocks can be thrown and cause little boys to cry in front of their crushes when they’re fifte-five.

  Five, that’s what I meant to say.

  Anyway, Mirri was still panicking, understandably, so I did the only thing that seemed reasonable and dragged her back down into the pit with me.

  “What the Hell are you doing!?” Mirri growled as she tried to crawl back out, “It’s going to…”

  “Yeah, yeah, no it ain’t.” I replied with an innocent smile before pulling the clip out from the bottom of my weapon, “I reckon you’ll make a lot better use out of this than I will.”

  Mirri spent a while looking at me confusedly, her head slightly tilted to the side as she tried to get a read on me, before finally smiling and snatching the clip from my hand, “Ha, you think?”

  “Honestly? I don’t know,” I teased, “you were gone maybe five seconds before you were out of ammo.”

  “Ha-ha, very funny.”

  “Eddie,” Quinn whispered, “someone’s coming up on the pit, and he’s got two friends covering him from the burned out car about hundred feet north of you.”

  “How far?” I asked, gesturing for Mirri to stay low.

  “I just-oh, you mean the one approaching your position? He’ll be on top of you in maybe three seconds?”

  Without wasting a second, I bent over, grabbed the rock at my feet, and threw it over my shoulder, “Tell me w-”

  “Now!”

  Quinn’d barely gotten the word out before I’d snapped my fingers, turning the rock back into a grenade that instantly exploded, thanks to its practically zeroed out timer, showering Mirri and I with dirt, blood, and gore.

  I took the opportunity and pulled my pistol from its holster, “Quinn, hun? I could use a little bit of help.” I said as I popped out over the ditch and found my targets.

  Quinn didn’t reply, instead opting to simply give me my targeting system and letting me go to work.

  Several red rings appeared in my vision over my targets, as well as a crosshair that, when I moved my gun, lined up with the rings.

  A vibration tickled my finger as I lined up a shot and I pulled the trigger, catching one of the cowering soldiers in the spot just above his lip and under his nose.

  “Bullseye.” I quietly muttered to myself with a smile before Mirri finally decided to join the party, firing in the general direction of the remaining enemies.

  I wasn’t the biggest fan of utilizing aimbots, I mean, half the fun of guns was the learning curve required to fire them, but when the situation called for it… well, let’s just remember that I was saving the world, okay?

  “How’d you do that?” Mirri asked after I’d locked on to and shot another player in the face.

  “Hacks,” I replied, remembering all the times someone had screamed that over the headset at me, even when I hadn’t been cheating, “lots and lots of hacks.”

  The two remaining members of the other team started to retreat again, but instead of firing back at us, they just ran as fast as they could toward their base.

  For a moment I was pleased with myself, but that moment was quickly overshadowed by the fact that there wasn’t much my pistol could do to their beefy armor.

  “No need to get so glum,” Quinn said as I climbed out of the pit and started running toward the escaping chickens, “I’m sure that gun of yours will do some damage.”

  “I sincerely doubt it.” I grunted between breaths.

  “Well, why don’t you go ahead and give it a try anyway?” Quinn suggested suspiciously, “It’s not like it could hurt.”

  Have to admit it, I was curious as to what she had done, but slowing down to take a shot at the guys seemed like a bad idea, especially considering I was probably only barely going to be able to catch them before they got behind the safety of their walls.

  “C’mon, please?” Quinn practically begged as I passed the burning car, “Trust me, you’re gonna like it.”

  “Ugh, fine.” I said as if I wasn’t dying to know before raising my
gun, aiming it at one of the troops, and pulled the trigger.

  Now, I was happy to have the auto-aim on my side, don’t get me wrong, but as I watched the small mushroom cloud engulf the two runners I couldn’t help but wish that I had been the one to make the shot.

  As the cloud dissipated, Quinn let out a giggle that would put even the silliest of schoolgirls to shame, “Told you you’d like i-”

  “Blue team wins the round.” a crackly voice interjected through what sounded like old high school speakers, “Return to bases and prepare for round four.”

  “Well, that was just rude.” Quinn snapped, her previously cheerful demeanor having been ruined by the interruption.

  “Hey, at least we got to try out your fun little toy.” I said with the genuine hope that it’d cheer her up a little, “Mind turning off the auto-aim? It keeps targeting Mirri.”

  “Not a problem.” Quinn replied as I watched Mirri climb up out of the ditch, “And thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

  “That…” Mirri said, gesturing for me to follow her back to base, “was absolutely amazing.”

  “Heh, thanks. Quinn should take most of the credit though, without her we’d have been toast.”

  Quinn didn’t say anything, but I could tell that she was doing whatever her equivalent of a smile was.

  “Fair enough,” Mirri replied dismissively, “point is I reckon we could use you here for a while.”

  “I’m sure you could, but I can’t stick around.” I said, trying my best to sound as upset as possible, “There’s a whole world out there that needs my help.”

  “Yeah, yeah, and I’m sure you couldn’t even spare five minutes to get us through this match.” Mirri taunted, “Anyway, what was it that you needed from us?”

  “Information, unless Quinn’s had any luck in finding the portal?”

  “Believe me, if I knew where it was, I’d have told you.” Quinn said, clearly surprised that I’d thought for a second that she wouldn’t bring it up.

  “Portal you say?” Mirri muttered curiously, “Looks like a tear in space made out o’ jello?”