The Ragdoll Sequence Box set

by J P Carver

  "We are, after all, in a game. Guess you gotta pull the plug now, huh?"

  She walked around the cage, the flame spreading out in front of her. "Are you really calling my bluff?"

  "Sure, why not? It's not like I've got anything else to lose in this. Come on, let's get this over with."

  She stopped and scowled at me before a smile played across her lips. "Gotta keep to the schedule. It always makes more of an impact when something happens at a predetermined time." She waved her hand, and a video window appeared in the air. A news program was playing, but she had the sound off. The anchor said a few things, then a video of Sammy started to play. On the bottom scrolled the words "Players trapped and won't be released."

  "Get comfy, Ragdoll. You'll be here a bit longer."

  "Who is Spectow?"

  She stopped on the trail of blue flames and looked back. "Where did you hear that name?"

  "He mean something special to you?"

  She shook her head. "Not me, no. He meant something to my sister. He was the one that got her into the game. How'd he get out?"

  "He died, you bitch. They tried to pull him out of your—whatever this is—and it killed him."

  She shrugged and started moving down again. "Then justice is served. I wish I could have ended him with the rest, but I guess not everything goes according to plan."

  I watched her go and felt worry grow in the pit of my stomach. There were only two ways it would end if she wasn't bluffing. Either she would kill us all, or Nina would figure the book out and save us. I had a lot of faith in Nina, but I tried to make peace with the possibility that I would die in a game.

  Seven

  Overload

  "Doll—"

  I started awake at the voice that called from the side of my cage. I thought it was Winter at first, but when I got to my knees and looked toward the sound, I nearly fell over. Marcus stood on the steps next to the cage with a stupid grin on his face. Wistam stood beside him, gazing toward the font of blue fire. "Hey," he said, "I thought for a moment that she already did you in."

  I rushed to the bars and grabbed his arm, so happy to see him that I stumbled over my words while looking between the two of them. "How—what—I didn't think—" I took a deep breath and squeezed his arm. "I am so damn glad you're here. How did you get in?"

  He nodded toward Wistam. "Crow figured out the book and found a way around this bitch's setup. But we didn't know where you guys were, as we didn't set up the tracker because someone decided to get herself captured. Luckily, Wistam told us she'd been tracking the demons back here, and Crow made a portal using the new spells she learned."

  "Where is she?"

  "She logged out. Can't take the chance of her getting captured, plus she can do more outside. She's already working the back door that this woman installed during the patch and is in touch with the devs of the game. They are pissed right now, so they're giving Crow whatever she asks for. I'm hoping we get some cool items out of this." He grinned, and I fought back a laugh. "But we were right. This woman ain't with the company. She's like us—a cracker. She piggybacked on the Halloween patch to get her code into the system in the form of a GM item that was bound to a quest. Once we lock her out, we can get everyone out of here alive."

  "How long is that gonna take? What time is it?"

  "We got about twenty minutes, so we need to stall her so that I can plant the book here."

  "How we gonna do that?" Winter called and stuck his head out of the cage, the long blond hair of his avatar obscuring his face. "She's got her mind made up and doesn't need to deal with us anymore. She can just pull the plug now and get it over and done with."

  "Nah, she won't. You heard her—she wants to send a message." I moved back from the bars of the cage. "Plotigan, can you get us out of here?"

  "I can try—" His voice was cut off in a muffled explosion that sent Wistam and Marcus flying into the wall. My cage swung and missed Marcus by only a few inches. It slammed into the wall with such force that it shattered, and I was in free fall.

  I caught one of the planks that made up the stairs. It broke under the impact, and I continued to tumble to the floor. When I hit, I saw stars for a good minute before my vision cleared enough to look around. Marcus and Wistam lay on the ground about ten feet away, the wind knocked out of them, but they were slowly getting to their knees.

  "I don't know how you got in here, but I do know you won't be getting out the same way." Sammy stood before us, her robe glistening with a blue aura. Blue flames flared to life in her hands, and she played her fingers through them. Another explosion sent Marcus and me back a few feet and flat on our backs. "You've all been far too much trouble… I see no reason to keep you around anymore."

  Marcus groaned as he stood and pulled me to my feet. He grinned down at me, his teeth smeared in red. "I guess this works too."

  "Tell me you've got a plan." I wiped blood from my forehead.

  "I've got a plan."

  "A good one?"

  "You didn't specify it had to be good."

  "Jackass," I said. "What's the plan?" Wistam staggered over to us, breathing heavily and clutching her abdomen, so I turned to her. "You don't by any chance have a plan? It's gotta be better than whatever this guy came up with."

  "I'm just here for the killing, not the thinking." She stretched then drew her sword and charged Sammy with an angry scream.

  I turned to Marcus and sighed. "All right, let's hear it."

  "Crow needs an access point here. She cracked the book and got a tunnel into the system, just as this woman did. We need to use the book to create that access point."

  "So where's the book?"

  Wistam tumbled to a stop in front of us, and another explosion of fire went off a few feet away. We were ready, but even then, we barely managed to dodge it. Wistam became separated from Marcus and me.

  "Sammy, you have to stop this. It won't change anything." Wistam struggled to her feet. She tore off her helmet and tossed it away. "This won't fix it."

  "How are you here?" Sammy said, staring at Wistam's face. She backed away, her blue aura slowly fading with each step. "No, you're dead. You can't be logged on."

  "So… that's why I haven't been shut off in so long." Wistam hung her head. "She's really gone, then?"

  "What are you talking about?" Sammy said, her voice cracking.

  "I'm Claudia's bot for this game. When she couldn't play, she would activate me. I did most of the simple stuff, like collecting resources and crafting materials. I enjoyed it, though." Wistam smiled. "But if she's gone, then that means I'm on my own, right?"

  "Now's my chance," Marcus whispered and darted behind the row of cages to our right, disappearing into the shadows. I wanted to call after him, afraid of what stupid idea he had come up with, but instead, I stood and listened to the two women in front of me.

  "She'd never use a bot. She'd never take the chance of getting banned."

  "She was afraid of that at first, but she realized how much time she spent playing. She was trying her best to wean herself off, playing for only a few hours at a time. How did she die? I hope it's not how I think."

  Tears ran down Sammy's cheeks. Her flames had completely died away, and the font at the other end of the room faded to a low burn. "Wh-why should I tell you? You're just a stupid program. You don't actually care. You were part of the goddamn problem. This entire game ruined my sister."

  "She programmed me, so I'd like to know how my creator passed on."

  "She couldn't program…"

  "No, but she learned. She wanted to make games. Please. Tell me what happened."

  "She—I found her in her room on her bed. She still had her headset on." As Sammy spoke, her anger caused a flare-up of flames around her again. "This game killed her, just as I said."

  "No, it didn't. She hasn't logged in for more than an hour in weeks. She was busy working on her own stuff, Sammy."

  "No… no, she was in the system. She left me for a goddamn game. If
she had taken care of herself—"

  "What really happened, Sammy?" I asked, and she turned to me, shocked. "I doubt your sister programmed this avatar to be able to lie, so what happened?"

  "I don't know, I just—I just found her like that."

  Marcus appeared at the other end of the room and stopped at the large font of flames. He glanced back at me, grinning as the book appeared in his hand. He gave a slight wave before moving closer to the font.

  "Is it possible she killed herself?" I asked and took another step toward her. Sammy shook her head and turned to look at the font. I cursed as flames rose around her.

  "You tried to trick me," she screeched, and a wall of blue fire traveled the length of the hollowed tree and slammed into Marcus.

  The world slowed down, and each second became a minute. Marcus tumbled into the air, the book held tightly in his left hand. I watched in horror as he came down and went directly into the font, disappearing into the blue flames. I screamed and took off running. The world around me began to fade to faint ghosts and afterimages of cages and wood walls.

  I thought my vision was going weird, but then the world turned black, with objects slowly fading away in dense wire frames. The occupants of the cages hit the ground running and took off past me toward the other side of the tree. Somewhere, Sammy was screaming incoherently, and Wistam was shouting back.

  I hit the wire-frame outline of the font and peered down into the abyss. The flames were gone, and so were Marcus and the book. My legs went weak, and I dropped down, my hand falling as the font disappeared.

  "How? How did you do this?" Sammy shouted from behind me as her world disintegrated. "What did he do? All that work… all that planning, and it was for nothing?"

  "It was always for nothing," Wistam said. I turned to see them floating in darkness, Sammy in Wistam's arms and facing down. "You know why Claudia died. You just don't want to admit it."

  "What the hell would you know?"

  "A lot. She used to talk to me. I am a fairly basic AI, but I have memories. You berated her. You looked down on her. She stopped playing because of you, but the reason she lost herself in the game was never fixed."

  "You're blaming me? It wasn't my fault."

  "No, but you didn't really help her either." Wistam turned Sammy to face her. "It wasn't the game's fault, and it wasn't your fault. Claudia was sick, Sammy. She tried to fight it but… she must've given up."

  "No, she wouldn't have done that. She loved me. She loved life before this game."

  "It was life that drove her to the game. You didn't see the pain because she hid it, but she told me. We talked as a way to build up my response system to make me harder to pick out in the game. She would have hated what you've done here."

  "But I-I miss her… so much."

  "I understand," Wistam said and brought Sammy into a hug. "I do too."

  Sobbing, Sammy dissolved away, and I started to do the same soon after. Wistam was left in the darkness, looking serene. She gave me a wave and walked out into the abyss.

  Nina stood above me when I woke. Her eyes danced over my face, and she smiled and smoothed back my hair when our gazes met. "Got it figured out, Raggy. Took the game down once I logged everyone out. Also sent her location to CES using that card you gave Merigold."

  I tried to shake the tingling feeling out of my head and neck, but I could only move an inch or so to either side. Being forced to log out like that made the numbness worse. "Marcus?"

  "He's here." She turned my head to where he lay on the bed beside me, his eyes still closed and his VR helmet resting beside him.

  "He's… he's not awake yet?"

  "We disconnected you all. I figured he was just last in line." Nina knitted her brows together. "Did something happen?" She left my side and went to his bed and patted his cheek. "Come on, you idiot, wake up." She looked back, startled. "Why isn't he waking up? What happened in there, Raggy?"

  I forced myself up and off the bed. This was the fear all along—that they would come to help me, and someone would get left behind. I took his hand and squeezed and looked around the room for help. I found Merigold slowly getting up from her chair. "Why isn't he waking up?"

  Merigold shoved her way between Nina and me. She removed the headset and turned Marcus on his side. She then checked his vitals and his eyes. "He's alive." She dropped him onto his back and slapped his face, the sound loud enough that I squinted.

  His eyes shot open, and his hand went to his face. "What the hell was that for?"

  "To jar you awake, jackass."

  "Stop calling me that." He rubbed at the red handprint on his cheek. I squeezed my way in front of Merigold and grabbed his face between my hands. He stared at me, mouth slightly open in surprise.

  "If you… ever do something so stupid again, I will blank you. Do you get me, Marcus?" I said.

  His eyes were dancing, and he smiled. "I got it. You gonna kiss me now?"

  I shoved him back into the bed and stood away. "In your dreams."

  "I like my dreams. You're much nicer to me there." He laughed when I gave him the finger. Merigold tapped my shoulder, pointed out the door, and walked over to it. I hesitated for a second before going with her.

  Ziller was outside the door, his eyes moving over an invisible screen. When he noticed I was there, he closed out what he was working on and gave me a frown. "Somehow, you still made it out of there. That was a stupid risk, girl."

  "Sorry, Dad," I said in a mocking tone as I went to the vending machine across the hall.

  He followed. "Don't start that shit. It feels more and more like you've got some death wish. Back in August, you walked into the lion's den, and here you did it again. One of these times, that lion is gonna eat you and… and I worry that it won't just be you when that happens."

  I chose a snack and turned to face him once I'd picked it from the slot. I took a bite. "But I'd taste really terrible, all chewy and stringy."

  "I don't think they'll much care, smartass. Stop trying to take it all on yourself. You're part of a team, but when you do this type of crap, you put us all in danger, not just yourself."

  I took a step back from him, and the candy bar oozed caramel as I crushed it. "Look, I'm sorry, but I didn't see another way at the time. I didn't plan on getting captured."

  "Maybe, but when the option showed up, you took it without a second thought, and then we had to rescue you too." He hit the wall beside me with his huge fist, and the drywall buckled under it. "You put yourself in danger like this again, without looking for another option, and you might just find no one is there to come help." He wiped his hands on his pants and went into the room.

  "What the hell was—"

  "You scared him." Merigold placed a hand on my shoulder. "Again. He still isn't over what happened to you in August. He doesn't really mean what he said at the end."

  "Sure he does. Maybe I should just leave if all I do is put everyone in danger."

  Merigold grabbed my arm painfully, and I looked up. "See, that's the problem. Ever since that shite in August with Vera and the CES, you've been pushing for something. You're so worried about everyone else that you don't see the real danger you're putting yourself in. Ragan, this team can't function when you go off on your own and we're left behind trying to pick up the pieces while guessing what you're planning."

  "I can take care of myself. I didn't ask anyone to—"

  "So if Plot and Crow hadn't been there, you'd have gotten out? Don't kid yourself. Get a handle on this martyr thing you've got going on before you get really hurt, or someone else does… please." She patted my cheek and went back into the room.

  I stared at the candy bar in my hand then chucked it down the hallway. I'd put myself at risk to keep my friends safe. How was that bad? Everything I did was for them and… in the end it had put them in danger. Marcus could have died. Winter could have died, all because they were left picking up my lead and guessing at what trouble I was in. I did actually plan on logging out, but I took
a hit I didn't expect. That wasn't a good excuse. Had I run with Marcus and Nina, we might have gotten everyone out even sooner. They wouldn't have had to worry about me, and Marcus wouldn't have had to take that risk with the font by himself.

  A team. Somewhere in my rush to keep everyone safe, I'd forgotten that they didn't need me to—at least, no more than I needed them to keep me safe. That didn't mean I thought Ziller's teardown was fair… but I could understand it. I bit my lip and shoved my hands into my pockets, not sure what to do.

  Relationships with people sucked.

  A few hours later, I went home, settled down in front of my holoscreen, and felt dead. One of Ziller's movies was streaming on the screen, but I saw very little of it. The entire day had left me drained, disconnected. It was mostly because of Ziller and Merigold—I just couldn't get their words out of my head. My life just seemed to get more and more complicated and dangerous the more people I let into my little world.

  It made sense to me that so many crackers stayed lone wolves and only made alliances when needed. No ties meant not getting dragged into the problems of others or worrying about them. I'd tried to make it on my own, and without the Mourning Stars, I'd have probably ended up in a neural-nightmare chair by my twenty-first birthday.

  I lay back on the couch and cursed. I didn't know what made me throw myself into these things. I just thought it would be better if something bad happened to me rather than to them. I couldn't stand knowing that Nina or any of the other Mourning Stars were in trouble.

  My link started to beep, and I answered without thinking. Dougherty showed up in the communications window with a wide smile on his face. "Evening, Miss Eisen."

  I sputtered. "What—what do you want? How'd you get this link connection?"

  "Take a breath. This is just a friendly call. I wanted to thank you for telling us where to find Samantha Wildrow. Your information led us directly to her. I appreciate that. Though, when out techs went to get everyone out, it was already done."