by Ryan Lohner
Jim said, “I don’t see why that’s even a discussion. It’s your program. Plus, well, you do need it the most. Sorry, but it’s true.” He had the grace to look embarrassed at his frankness.
Matt grinned. “Don’t I know it. Okay, then. Ready yet, Bram?”
“Almost,” said Bram. And after a few more keystrokes, “Okay, there. Just stand in front and press the last key, that one,” and he pointed to a key near the center. “That will start the process. It’ll only take a couple minutes.”
Matt did as he was told and suddenly felt a sensation like nothing he’d experienced before. It wasn’t anything visual, as the screen appeared to be projecting nothing but white. And there was nothing unpleasant about it, as he now realized he’d been expecting since he first heard of the idea of complex knowledge being forcefully implanted into the brain. Instead, it just felt … the best way he could think to describe it was a light massage. He was vaguely aware of Bram going through the same introductory process at the screen next to him, but somehow it just didn’t seem very important compared to what was happening in front of him.
When it ended, there was a slow fading away of the sensation, allowing the real world to reassert itself on his senses. Jim was now busy with his own program, so Matt turned to Jane and smiled. She glared at him and said, “Don’t you dare say it.”
Matt replied, “Okay, I won’t say it. But I do.”
* * *
Jane groaned inwardly at Matt’s inability to resist the cliché entirely, but then her attention was turned back to Bram who was currently at work prepping a third monitor for her own procedure. Watching him go, she suddenly started wondering something that had never occurred to her before in the rush to prepare for this day: did she really want this? She’d always prided herself on her femininity, not feeling any need to roughhouse with her brothers to feel confident in herself. And as necessary as uploading new knowledge into her head might seem at the moment, she couldn’t help but think it was a surrender of that pride in herself and the person she wanted to be.
Jim’s session ended, and he and Matt looked at each other and grinned smugly. But Jane noticed something a bit off about this. She turned to Bram. “Jim’s program had already started by the time Matt’s was done. So how come you’re still working on mine?”
Bram paused and sighed. “I messed up, okay? It’s a scary situation, and I’m actually kind of proud I got through two in a row with no mistakes. But on this one I did, and I had to start over, and I was kind of hoping you wouldn’t notice. Now, if I can get back to work?”
Jane said, “Oh, absolutely, go ahead.” She was pretty annoyed with his rudeness, truth be told, but she realized he was under a lot of stress already and further arguments would just make the wait even longer.
That was when the sound of several people running through the hall outside became audible. “Well, I don’t think you’ll have too much longer to finish. No pressure or anything.”
“Guys, hold the door!” shouted Bram.
Jane looked around with the others, but there was nothing close at hand to hold the door shut. Everything useful was kept on the other side of the room and by the time they got it and brought it back, it would already be too late. They shrugged at each other and ran to hold the door closed with their bodies. A few seconds later, the pushing began. Jane pushed back along with Matt and Jim, all heaving their backs against the door and struggling to keep their feet from sliding forward. Unfortunately, the tile floor didn’t offer nearly as much traction as the rough practice mats further inside the room would have, so they were constantly slipping forward and having to shuffle back again. Each time it happened, Jane felt sure that this time, she wouldn’t be able to get back in time, and they’d be in real trouble, with Bram unable to finish her setup. Luckily, as long as it seemed in the moment, they actually didn’t have to keep it up for long before Bram shouted, “Got it!” Not so lucky was that only a couple of seconds later came the moment that Jane had been afraid of and they were thrown forward as the door burst open.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Four policemen came into the room. Upon observing the situation, one of them said, “One for each of us. Convenient.”
Bram scowled. “I wouldn’t be so sure. They’ve all just got a boost from your training programs, and they’re pretty eager to try it out.”
Jane winced inside. Bram was completely bluffing where she was concerned, and while she understood why, she wished it hadn’t been up to her to live up to the lie.
Another of the men smiled. “We recently got upgraded ourselves, actually. So, who wants to go first?” And with that he darted toward Jim, the one closest to him, while two of the others went after Matt and Bram. Jane was stunned at the result. Despite all she’d heard about what those programs could do, actually seeing the two of them fighting as impressively as Bram was something she wasn’t quite prepared for. But there it was right in front of her; Matt’s opponent threw a punch, he moved his arm perfectly to deflect it and used that momentum to move forward and drive his elbow into the man’s chest, which was then itself countered by the policeman grabbing his arm and bringing up his knee for an attack to the side, and on and on it went. Jim was doing just as well, but, Jane felt somewhat guilty realizing it was just more impressive coming from someone who’d been so hopeless just minutes before.
And then she remembered the one man unaccounted for and saw that he hadn’t moved. Now he held his hands up. “I don’t like fighting women. Call me old-fashioned, but something about it just doesn’t feel right. So if you could just surrender on your own, that would really help me out. What do you say?”
Jane just stared at him for a couple of seconds, struggling to figure out what she could do, then hit upon the first idea to pop into her head. “How about …” and with that she turned and ran further into the room. Upon reaching the mats she instantly felt the better traction and began feeling better about her chances, until she remembered that her opponent would have the same advantage. And even without looking back, she could hear that he was right on her tail. She looked around for anything she could use and quickly spotted a stand of loose weights. She ran over and grabbed two light ones near the top of the stand, then spun around and swung wildly at the man.
The weights weren’t very heavy, only three pounds or so, but she’d paid enough attention in physics class to know even that would add a good deal of heft to her blows. And it seemed her opponent knew it too, as once she turned around, his eyes widened and he jumped backwards out of the way of her swings. Unfortunately, they were so powerful that they also put her badly off balance, so she then had to veer away, lean into the momentum and keep running before she ended up on the ground. This sent her straight toward a set of mirrors along the left wall, which was where the cop threw his arms around her.
Jane’s own arms were now pinned to her sides, so she did the only thing that came to mind and lifted her legs to plant her feet on one of the mirrors. A bit to her surprise, it didn’t shatter under the pressure, instead turning to a regular non-reflective wall. In any event, she pushed against it, and that was enough to get the man to loosen his grip before both of them were sent tumbling over. Jane landed flat on her back and instantly rolled away from him and back to her feet. She swung the weights at him again, but this time he was ready and caught both her wrists.
Then came something odd. He moved his hands close together, still holding her tightly, and then raised his right index finger. Then, not seeming to even notice her struggling, he used it to turn a dial just inside the end-piece of the weight in her right hand. And as soon as he did, it began getting heavier, until she felt it starting to slip through her fingers. She did the best she could to hold on, but she could tell from the start it was a losing battle. With her hands being held still to prevent her being able to regain any of the grip she was steadily losing, there was only one way this was going to end. The man grinned at her, as she could only imagine her face was showing the struggle she was now going
through to keep hold of her only advantage.
But even as the weight grew more uncomfortable, Jane glanced down and saw one chance the new situation gave her. She instinctively bit her lip in the gesture she always liked to use when getting an idea. She changed the angle of her hand slightly, hoping her opponent would just think this was part of her attempts to keep hold of the weight. Luckily, he didn’t try to stop her and just altered his own position and kept going. Just like she wanted, because now she let go, while also flicking her hand to the side, beyond the point where he was holding her arm immobile. This put just enough lateral force on the weight to make it land squarely on his foot.
Instantly, he let go of her and crumpled to the ground, shrieking curses that made Jane turn quite red. She quickly got back to work, found the same dial on the weight still in her left hand, and turned it up, until she had to use both hands to hold it. The dial must have controlled the weight’s density or something, just one more scientific advancement of this world. Once that was taken care of, she glanced down at her opponent still moaning in pain and holding his foot, and didn’t hesitate as she swung around in a circle once to build up momentum, then clocked him on the head with the weight, knocking him out.
She allowed herself a small smile and a, “Surrender, huh?” Then her good mood took a hit as she saw the others were still having trouble with their opponents. They were all still in the entrance area and managing to hold their own, but Matt and Jim seemed to be tiring. She remembered what Lilah had told her, about the programs doing nothing to a person’s muscles and realized they wouldn’t last much longer, no matter how good their new skills were.
She glanced to the wall, where the monitor was ready for her to use. It would give her the skills to join the fight, giving them all the numbers edge. The only problem was that she’d seen how long it took Matt and Jim to go through the process. Maybe it wasn’t actually that long under normal circumstances, but now, with every second counting, she doubted she had enough time to go through it before her friends lost the fight.
Jane groaned out her frustration and charged into the fray, toward the one who needed the most help. “Look out, Matt!” she shouted. Matt was currently backed against the wall, barely managing to keep up with the attacks he faced. Upon seeing Jane, he ducked, but unfortunately she didn’t have a repeat success as the policeman turned around in plenty of time to dodge out of the way of her blow with the weight. But this did give Matt the chance to tackle him, and once on the ground he rammed the man’s head into the hard tile floor over and over until he stopped resisting.
Suddenly, the remaining two jumped away, both shouting, “Hold on!” The fight suddenly paused, and one of them continued, “Look, we don’t know what you’re doing here, and we don’t really care. We just wanted to take care of this because it would get us more money next year. But if we’re going to get this badly hurt, I don’t want to be part of it.”
Bram turned to the other man and said, “What about you?”
Jane suddenly noticed how young he was, probably very new to the job.
He looked terrified as he said, “Oh, absolutely. We all just walk out of here and go our separate ways. I know I’m fine with that.”
Bram nodded. “All right. I would certainly be happy to get out of here with as little fuss as possible. And if everything else today works out, you won’t have to worry about it at all, trust me.”
The first man nodded. “So we have a deal. We’ll even leave first. But I should warn you, there are plenty more people coming here, so you should get out as soon as you can.” With that he winked, and the two of them left.
Bram now turned to Jane. “Well, it’s your mind. So, I leave it up to you. You want to risk staying to get your program or not?”
Jane took in all three of the others, noticing that Matt and Jim were still looking sweaty from the fight, and Matt was still having to make an effort to control his breathing. Then she thought back to what she’d just done and what she’d seen Matt do. And she made up her mind. “Actually, I don’t. I was just having second thoughts, and now I’m sure. I don’t want that thing in my head, messing up everything about me.” She realized how that sounded and quickly added, “I’m sure it’s perfectly fine for both of you, but not me. Besides,” and now she let herself smile, “I think I just proved I can take care of myself pretty well already.”
Bram nodded. “Okay. Then let’s get moving.” As they entered the hallway again he got out the group’s phone and said into it, “We’re heading for the teleporter now. Should just be another few minutes, then everyone needs to get out of here. I may be busy soon, so you pass the word on.”
But everyone did their jobs and no more policemen accosted the group. Then they reached the teleporter and another of the teams arrived just seconds later. All part of their coordination that Matt had made possible. Jane was quite proud of him for that, however he thought of himself. Among the new arrivals was Lilah, who handed Jane’s phone back to her.
“I guess the other one’s not coming back – this was supposed to be at the same time,” said Bram. “Sorry about that, Jim.”
“Oh, I so don’t care. Let’s just get out of here, huh?”
Lilah smiled at Jane and the others. “I guess this is it. I didn’t know you guys for long, but it’s certainly been memorable. Good luck.”
Bram cut in. “Time’s wasting. Let’s go, everyone.”
Jane couldn’t think of anything to say to properly convey her thanks, so she just smiled at Lilah in return and stepped into the teleporter along with Matt and Jim. Just like before, Bram pressed two fingers to his neck and said “Corridor,” in another voice.
During the explanation of the plan, they’d learned that all government buildings had teleporter connections, so they wouldn’t have to worry about getting back to the place that would send them back home on foot. Jane laughed a bit as she thought that was actually quite considerate of the Krell government.
Just as before, the light grew momentarily brighter, and then faded to the familiar sight of those long, confusing corridors they’d seen when they arrived in this world. But there was one surprise: Jane heard herself gasp along with Matt as she saw the single person standing in front of them. His uniform was identical to the soldiers they’d seen before, so she might have thought this was just a piece of bad timing with a patrol in the hallway, except for one thing.
He was Dave Polsik.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Matt barely had any time to take in the impossible sight in front of him before Dave gave a huge grin. “Matt! Jane! Oh, you have no idea how good it is to see you!”
Before any of them could respond, Bram pushed his way in front of them all. “Okay, you stay right where you are. How many others are out there?”
Matt put his hand on Bram’s arm. “Hey, it’s okay. This is my friend, Dave, the one we came here to find.”
Bram replied, “Well, he certainly bears a striking resemblance to someone I saw wipe out one of our patrols. And that was a month ago. So I don’t think you’re right.”
Jane said, “No, seriously. It’s him. I was looking at his face pretty closely.” She blushed after saying too much.
Dave held up a hand. “Believe me, there’s a perfectly good explanation. But first,” he paused and pulled out a pulser and looked at Bram. “You, get away from them.”
Bram didn’t say a word; Matt supposed he just couldn’t see any point in further protest. Instead he simply complied, stepping out of the teleporter. Matt and the others followed and Matt said, “Dave, he’s our friend. He helped us get all the way here!”
Dave shook his head. “I don’t think so. Whatever he told you, I know these people. They’re absolutely vicious, and they’ll stop at nothing to bring this government down. The only thing keeping order in this world, and they want to get rid of it.”
Bram laughed. “Have you ever taken a good look at this orderly world of yours? People are going through hell down there. They
can’t get jobs, they can’t eat, they’re all just slowly dying.”
Matt interrupted, having noticed a quite crucial detail in what Dave had said. “Wait a minute, Dave. What do mean you know these people? Didn’t you get to this place just a few days before us?”
Dave’s expression wavered a bit. “Technically, yes. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been here before. In fact,” and here he took a pause, steeling himself for a big statement, “I’m from here.”
Matt couldn’t say anything; his mouth simply dropped in what he would imagine later was a quite comical expression, which Jim and Jane were also sporting.
Jim was the one who broke the tension. “Wait, so we went through all of this, and he was perfectly fine?”
Dave frowned. “I’m sorry, who are you?”
“Jim Serris. You know, these two were worried sick about you. They even latched on to that thing you said about the woods, trying to find some clue because they couldn’t stand doing nothing. I just came along because I was interested in the girl, but them? You put them through hell, and for what? Did you even care or was whatever your super-secret mission was for this place just too important to worry about it?”
Matt was still reeling from Dave’s return, but one more thought now managed to creep in: he was very moved by what Jim said. Everything he wanted to say, but couldn’t, had now been said for him. But then he looked at Dave again and was surprised to see tears in his eyes.
“Oh, I cared. Believe me, I cared. Matt, at first I didn’t think anything of saving you from those bullies. It was just something that seemed like a good idea at the time. I was sent to your world and ordered not to get attached, but I saw someone who needed help, and, well, there didn’t seem to be any good reason not to give that help. But then we kept hanging out, and …” he paused and wiped his eyes. “We were friends. True friends. And it killed me to have to leave without any explanation. Knowing what it would do to you was almost more than I could stand. But this is my home. It’s where my loyalty has to be. Please, try to understand.”