by Phoenix Ward
When he approached the weapon, he realized it was an ancient musket rifle, and the box was a bunch of metal marbles and packets of gunpowder. He groaned as he thought of the tactical disadvantage he’d be in. Someone could have an automatic laser rifle or some magical staff that could turn him into dust, and he’d have this antique to defend himself with. It was better than nothing, though — even as a blunt weapon — so he took it into his inventory.
There didn’t seem to be anything else in the bunker, which disappointed Ethan. He was hoping to find some armor or healing items if he had to be stuck with such a sub-par weapon, but there was nothing. He knew he had to move on to the next area if he wanted to stand a chance against the others.
As he turned to leave the bunker, he heard footsteps. Someone else was rushing into the bunker, clearly hoping for decent loot themselves.
The other guy appeared in the entrance, a crossbow cradled in his arms. The intruder’s expression turned to surprise as he tried to get his crossbow aimed and ready. It was clear to Ethan that the stranger didn’t expect anyone inside the building. He used the moment to pull his musket up and fire. A ball of lead ripped from the end of his archaic firearm and right into the stranger’s gut. As it hit his target and the wind was knocked out of his lungs, the other player vanished and a wooden crate with all his items fell to the ground where his body was just a moment prior.
Ethan’s heart was racing. The gun and the bullet and the crossbow were all fake, but the adrenaline was real. He needed a moment to steady his nerves as he shuffled through the eliminated kid’s gear.
He swapped the musket out for the crossbow, shuddering at the thought of reloading the colonial weapon. There was also a magical amulet item that he took. Looking at the item description, he learned that it could help him find nearby tracks and help him figure out which participant they belonged to.
Gotcha, Taylor, Ethan thought. He could catch the birthday girl by surprise and take her right out of the match. Then it would be an easier win for him.
He left the junk items behind, including the rest of his musket pellets and gun powder plugs. Without delay, he abandoned the bunker and started to run with the cliff on his left.
The rock formation led into a sort of canyon that ran between it and another cliff face, where a number of alpine trees grew. The trunks were too close together for Ethan to see past the canyon.
He whipped out the magical amulet and tried to activate it. Nothing happened. For a second he thought it was broken, but he realized it was probably just because there were no tracks to pick up on. He felt a little more comfortable, so he made his way into the forested canyon.
The distant ring of gunfire met his ears. It sounded like someone had found a machine gun and was unloading the entire clip at another unfortunate player. There was some return fire and several explosions. He recognized the whistle of rockets being fired and realized the other combatant must have found a missile launcher.
I’d love to see that fight, he thought. But I hope I don’t run into either of those guys. At least, not until I have a rocket launcher of my own.
He was only a hundred feet into the canyon or so when the amulet started to vibrate. He pulled it out and a few footprints started to appear on the trail before him. They glowed with an otherworldly orange light that almost seemed to drift upwards like smoke. They were easy to make out, even through all the roots and brush.
It looked like someone had slid down the far cliff wall and into the valley, then fled down the way he was already headed. Activating the amulet, he could see a small descriptor appear next to the tracks:
TAYLOR, it read. 2 MINUTES 43 SECONDS AGO.
Ethan grinned. I’m on her trail, he thought. And she wasn’t here too long ago.
He kept the amulet level with his heart as he followed the orange footsteps. He could see the occasional orange handprint on the tree trunks where Taylor had regained her balance, or perhaps pushed off to give her a little more speed.
Keeping a steady pace, he made sure his crossbow was loaded. It looked like it even had fire bolts, which would ignite whoever he shot into a ball of flames. That would be useful whenever he encountered Taylor. She was a skilled fighter, as he’d seen in a number of simulated melees with her. He knew he had his work cut out for him. Any advantage he could get was welcomed.
It felt like he had been following the winding path of Taylor’s tracks for hours, going between trees and even around parts of the cliff wall. He found a couple of spent rounds on the forest floor. It looked like Taylor had some kind of powerful handgun and used it on some other unlucky participant. As he took a few steps away, he found the death box to confirm it.
I’m right on your trail, Taylor, Ethan thought. Better look out.
He heard a twig snap from behind him, to his left. His heart leapt as he turned toward the source of the sound. Instinctively, he propped the crossbow up against his shoulder.
His eyes shot wide when he saw the red hair and thick glasses. It was Gauge, the strange man who had told him that the real world was a lie. Ethan didn’t lower his crossbow.
“Ethan,” the man greeted him.
“What are you doing here?” Ethan asked. “What do you want from me?”
He cast a couple glances around the area to make sure Taylor didn’t get the jump on him, now that he was distracted.
“I have to show you something,” Gauge said. His tone was hurried like last time. Ethan couldn’t help but wonder how he had gone undetected by the system for so long if he wasn’t supposed to be there.
“Why?”
“Because I need you to believe me,” the redhead replied.
He put his hand in his coat pocket, and Ethan raised the crossbow a bit higher as a warning. Gauge raised the other hand and moved slower to show that he wasn’t going for a weapon. He retrieved a small rectangle from his jacket. It looked like an old fashioned smartphone — at least a hundred years old.
“Watch this,” Gauge instructed. Then he tapped the front of the rectangle and it came to life. An image appeared on screen, showing a couple of surgeons standing around a feminine form on an operating table.
There was the sound of drilling, and Ethan could see the surgical tools they were working with. Upon closer inspection, he also noticed that the surgeons didn’t seem to be human. They were machines made to resemble people.
Robots, Ethan found himself thinking.
As a couple of the automaton surgeons shuffled out of the way, Ethan could see the patient better. She was young, no more than twenty years old. Her hair was completely shaved off and she was asleep. The terrible buzzing continued, and Ethan noticed a bit of blood on the side of her scalp.
“Who is that?” Ethan said. He felt like he knew her.
“That’s Nadia,” Gauge replied. “Your friend who graduated about six months ago. This is her in the real world.”
“What are they doing to her?” the teenager asked.
“They’re lobotomizing her,” Gauge answered. “They’re destroying her brain.”
Ethan’s face fell. He shook his head as if to say, “No, that can’t be right.” The words never came, though. He looked back down at the screen and saw what they were doing to her.
Gauge turned the screen back to himself, then swiped at it a little with his thumb.
“You also need to see this,” he said, turning the device back so Ethan could view it.
There was a young man, probably still a teenager, suspended in a clear coffin of jelly-like material. Over a dozen wires connected the boy to the container from various parts of his body. Ethan could see similar tanks on either side of the young man.
“I don’t understand,” Ethan said.
“That’s you, Ethan,” Gauge explained. “That’s the real you. And they’re going to destroy your brain next.”
Orders
The sergeant seemed like a stressed-out guy, even for an officer of the law. His bodyshell was a bit larger than both of the women in h
is office, particularly in the middle. He was designed to look more like a bodybuilder than a cop.
“A neuroscopic recorder?” he asked for clarification. “What for?”
“Best we can understand, they were trying to install themselves,” Abenayo answered. “Everything we were able to find out indicates that it was a central motive for this group.”
“To install themselves?” the sergeant asked. “But why?”
“We’re still doing our best to understand it, but from the information we’ve gathered, they are a religious cult that idolizes installed intelligences,” Abenayo explained. “Our best guess is they believed installing themselves would bring them closer to God.”
“So they killed themselves?” the sergeant asked.
“That’s right.”
“And you,” the sergeant started, addressing Tera. “Did you notice anything else about the cult?”
Tera had been immersed in her thoughts while the other two talked. She couldn’t help but picture the church over and over again. She could see the man with the knife in his neck, staring at her with joyous eyes. It was like something out of a nightmare, and it wouldn’t stop haunting her.
She looked up when she realized they were staring at her.
“Sorry, sir,” she said. “What did you ask?”
“Did you see anything else that could enlighten us about these fanatics?” he asked again. Annoyance crossed his features.
“No, sir,” Tera replied. “Nothing that Officer Abenayo didn’t already comment on.”
“Well, we need to learn something about these freaks,” the sergeant said. “The last thing we want is a bunch of slum dwellers all riled up because they’re afraid of some cult.”
“There’s the matter of recruitment, as well,” Abenayo said. “We’ve seen some flyers for the group around the slums. No doubt a few people will come calling.”
“Good point. We don’t want them surging their numbers. What do you recommend?”
Tera looked over at the office’s door and thought she saw the cultist again, the slit in his throat expanding. She blinked, and he was gone.
Either my eyes are malfunctioning, or I’m losing it, she thought.
“We should start bringing in anyone known to associate with them,” Abenayo answered. “Any flyers, any announcements — we should be taking them all seriously.”
“Should we bring in more officers to patrol the slums?” Tera spoke up. “To keep the people safe, I mean.”
Abenayo and the sergeant looked at her with amused expressions before laughing. When they noticed she wasn’t joking, they quieted down.
“We aren’t going to waste any resources on the fleshies, Officer Alvarez,” the sergeant said. “As long as we can keep people from panicking and indulging this cult, we should be fine.”
“What if they perform another attack?” Tera wanted to know. She was clearly asking questions beyond her pay-grade, but she couldn’t help herself.
“Then we will contain the mayhem and lock the attackers away,” the sergeant answered. “We’re not going to cry over a few slain humans.”
“But, sir —” she started.
“Alvarez, put it out of your mind,” Abenayo said. “If you know what’s good for you.”
“She’s right,” the sergeant said to Tera. “Besides, you two are going to have your hands too full with other work to worry about it. In fact, there’s an important job I want you both on today.” He turned to Abenayo. “It will be a good learning experience for her.”
Tera felt a little strange being spoken about as if she weren’t there.
Abenayo nodded. “What’s the job?”
“An eviction,” the sergeant replied. “It’ll take you to the ruins just outside of town. I need you to get moving soon, understand? And don’t forget to bring some gear — these ferals can be a little hard to remove.”
“Yes, sir,” Abenayo said, rising to her feet. She looked down at the rookie. “Come on.”
Tera pictured the man with the knife in his neck, seated across from her in the chair where the sergeant sat. Blinking, she was able to get the image out of her head. As if just woken from a trance, she rose slowly, then followed her partner.
Cattle
“Why?” Ethan asked the strange man. “Why would they want to lobotomize me?”
Gauge needed a moment to think of how to answer. “To understand that, you need to know the truth about the world out there. It’s kind of a long story.” He looked up at the tree limbs to make sure no one was hiding in them, just in case.
“Then talk fast,” Ethan said. He wasn’t sure if he should trust the strange man. Even if it was risky, though, he needed an explanation.
Gauge looked defeated as he took in a sharp breath. It was clear that Ethan wasn’t going to take him for his word.
“Humans, like yourself, are no longer in charge of the planet,” Gauge started. “They were defeated in a war against installed intelligences. These I.I.s, as they’re called, are digital copies of people’s brains. Things between humans and I.I.s have always been tense. Some people didn’t think of digital minds as real people and found the idea of legal equality appalling. On the other side — the side that won, mind you — some people think that humans are an outdated version of the species. They think that homo sapiens are evolutionarily inferior, and the future belongs to the I.I.s — homo aeternus.”
Ethan was trying to follow as best he could, but it was a lot of information to take in. He wasn’t sure if he even understood what Gauge meant by “digital copies of people’s brains”. He couldn’t even picture it.
“Why didn’t I hear about any of this?” Ethan asked, his brow wrinkled with confusion. “None of this matches what we were taught.”
“Of course not,” Gauge said. “The I.I.s that run the world are the ones keeping you here. They don’t want you to know the truth and cause a panic. They don’t want you to know that you’re cattle.”
“Cattle?” Ethan didn’t understand.
“They’re keeping you here until your body has grown enough,” Gauge started, “at which point they will destroy your brain and use your body for their own.”
The teenager’s jaw fell open with disgust, but his eyebrows were still cocked as though he couldn’t grasp the full picture.
“My body?” he said.
“That’s right,” Gauge replied. “They’ve been growing you since birth for that purpose. You’ll be what some people call a ‘meat puppet’. ”
“But why?”
“Because, for all their evolutionary superiority bullshit, the I.I.s in charge miss being alive, with flesh and blood,” Gauge explained. “They miss the feeling of a good meal or a decent fuck. In fact, empty human bodies like yours fetch a high price among the elite. They raised you to have well-toned muscles, trained reflexes, and flawless bone structure. You were chosen out of countless rejects.”
Ethan put his hands up to his temples and brushed his hair back. He felt like his head might explode just from trying to rein in everything Gauge had said. His head started to feel light and he wanted to sit down. He almost forgot they were in the forested valley of the Last Stand map. His crossbow had fallen out of his hand a while ago.
“When are they going to do this to me?” Ethan asked.
“What do you think your ‘graduation’ is?” replied Gauge.
Eviction Notice
Tera was hoping they would be given an autocar to fly out to the ruins, but they were forced to go on foot. There was an apparent shortage of vehicles and the Council didn’t think a trip just outside the walls was worth the hassle. Despite how close their destination was, it still took a couple of hours to close the distance on foot.
Faces turned toward them as they made their way out of the city’s southern gate. Travel in and out of Shell City wasn’t a common sight, so Tera was sure they were all wondering what mad purpose would drive two I.I. police officers out into the wastes. Abenayo paid them no second thought, ma
rching past them with a scowl.
Once they were on the other side of the gate, there were almost no people. There were, of course, the few refugees in line to see if they could get in, but Tera knew the line wasn’t likely to get any shorter. Shell City wasn’t likely to admit refugees — and they weren’t likely to turn away.
Life out in the wastes was almost like a glimpse into the pre-international history of mankind. The nations that popped up, the roving tribes, all “feral” by the modern standard.
The Council considered any human without a neural implant a feral. They couldn’t be controlled by an I.I., and therefore were considered a threat. While they were allowed to exist out in the desolation between cities, the unimplanted humans would never be welcomed into civilization.
With a life like that, no wonder they still try to get in, Tera thought.
Abenayo ignored the refugees like she did the people inside the gate and led the trek into the abandoned city ruins that stretched out to the southwest. Tera matched her partner’s pace and took in the depressing sights.
It was her first trip out of the city, she realized. She had seen footage and heard stories from the wastes and ruins that surrounded Shell City, but never saw them firsthand, until now.
There were sundered buildings all around them, some looming down at them from over ten stories high. Their windows were all broken out, either from the wind or bored teenagers. In a way, they resembled decaying skulls embedded into the earth, staring down at the two cops with their empty eye sockets.
They stepped over the cracked pavement at a brisk pace. Weeds grew out of long fissures where traffic lane paint had once been. The street had likely been busy back in its prime, and Tera imagined it much cleaner and pristine. Like the Pavilion in Shell City, but full of people. Not bodyshells and meat puppets.
“Those humans sure can build a city, can’t they?” Abenayo said, breaking the silence. Her tone was sarcastic, but whimsical. “Didn’t even last fifty years without them.”