In Beta

by Prescott Harvey

  “That’s right, Hal.” Jay was nodding at Jeremy. “I brought reinforcements.”

  Hal watched the trucks swerve into the A-Court parking lot, shuddering over the speed bump as their headlights swept the asphalt. Hal scoffed.

  “That’s your plan? You think I didn’t see you go down to party spot seven and—”

  The sheriff’s car plowed into Hal from behind. It’s hood crumpled, a headlight shattered, and Hal flew forward, skidding over the asphalt. Jeremy urged the car onward until it bounced over Hal’s downed body with a ka-thunk. Jeremy shifted back into neutral and pulled the parking brake.

  Across the parking lot, the angry murmur of the riot streamed over the middle school, mixing with the retort of the Johns’ guns. Jeremy kicked open his door, grabbed his shotgun, and fired four shots into Hal’s body.

  A defiant scream rang out. Hal’s legs were pinched under the rear tire. His shirt and shorts were speckled with gravel. He was squirming, furious, like a trapped animal. Jay saw his fingers reaching for his black remote, which lay a few feet away on the asphalt. Liz ran over and kicked it so that it skittered out of his grasp. From where he lay on the ground, Hal wrapped both hands around the car’s rear tire and pushed, straining. The car began to lift. Jeremy fired again, and the car fell back down.

  “You’re not going anywhere.”

  “Hrrmmm,” Hal breathed heavily.

  “It’s over, Hal.”

  Hal smiled. “Even if I do nothing, the riot will overpower you. There’re too many of them.”

  “What if I have this?” Jay picked up the black remote. He examined all the unmarked black buttons.

  Hal snarled. “Don’t touch that.”

  Liz leaned down next to him. “You’re stuck here, Hal. Your body will get hungry. You’ll grow lightheaded. You’ll wet and shit yourself. Then, days from now, when they find your body, they’ll laugh. Sound familiar?”

  Hal shifted slightly so that his dark eyes looked at Liz. “And what do you think will happen to you, then? With no one to change your IV? And the rest of Bickleton? How long will The Build survive if there’s not someone on the other end, monitoring the CPU, searching out the infinite loops and freeing up memory inefficiencies? Who’ll pay the electric bill? My computer uses a lot of energy. Caring for this game is a full-time job, and I’m the only one who knows how to do it.”

  Jay looked across the parking lot. Faceless figures streamed down from the farms, surrounding the truck.

  Hal snarled. “I’m getting real sick of high school. After fifteen years obsessing over this place, I think I’m finally ready to move on.”

  Hal threw his arms up and pushed on the car frame, tilting it wildly. Jay, Liz, and Jeremy all jumped to add their weight to the car. But it was too late. Hal rolled free and kicked Jay’s leg out from under him. He tripped, dropping the remote, which Hal grabbed.

  “And if you won’t destroy this town, I’ll do it for you!”

  Jeremy threw the car into first gear. The tires tore through the school lawn and slammed into Hal. Hal threw his weight against the hood as the tires spun on the soft ground. The car squealed, fishtailing—but Hal held it still. He leaned in, straining, a Cheshire cat grin breaking over his face as he whispered through the broken windshield.

  “This isn’t even my final form.”

  He pressed a button on his remote, and his smile spread, twisting back to his ears as his skin began to crack and his body twitched and convulsed.

  Boss Monster

  Hal’s body stiffened, his skin shriveling into black tissue. Farther up the parking lot, the Johns’ trucks screeched to a stop. John D pointed at Hal and shouted something. Over the squad car bumper, a tentacle of flesh ripped out from Hal’s body and flailed in the headlights. Smoke rose from Hal’s skin. His head reared up, mouth falling open, jaw detached, dangling in the night. An unearthly shriek echoed over the parking lot.

  The shriek struck fear in Jay’s heart. He recognized the cry. He’d been listening to its sixteen-bit equivalent all spring. The Mantis. The only boss monster from the Secret of Mana he couldn’t beat. Jay turned to the others.

  “Run!”

  Hal’s body grew, lengthening, bunching flesh, hardening into a cocoon. The skin around his face pulled taut, then burst into a hideous, glistening membrane. Two giant, lidless eyes swiveled back and forth in a triangular head. Slime dripped down from two mandibles.

  The monster threw two jagged mantis arms down onto the hood of the car and stretched out its legs, lifting to its full height, towering into the sky. Even in its 16-bit form, the monster had given Jay nightmares. The unbeatable boss.

  “Get to Tutorial!” Jay screamed.

  He heard the Johns’ truck doors open and the sound of their footsteps as they ran, glancing over their shoulders to fire at the white forms of the riot. The monster hurled its two pincers into the squad car frame, lifted the vehicle, and flung it into darkness. There was a distant crash of metal as it tumbled over the baseball field.

  “Move! Follow me!” Jay waved, grabbing Liz’s and his mom’s hands and rushing past A-Court. Shotguns boomed behind them, and they heard the monster scream. A hideous gurgling noise followed. Jay looked back.

  “Acid breath,” he whispered.

  The creature’s head snapped back, and a stream of bile burst from its mouth, hitting one of the John’s trucks. The truck melted into a puddle of metal. Shotguns rang out in the night as the Johns fired at Hal.

  Jay, Liz, Jeremy, and Kathy were running.

  “You got a way to stop that thing?” Jeremy called back to Jay.

  “I hope so.”

  They plunged into the gloom between the buildings. A-Court was still in flames, the fire on its roof flickering orange. Jay stumbled, feeling his way with his hands, his breath catching with each scream of the monster. Then the chirp of crickets grew louder, the roar of the monster faded, and the group was in the open courtyard. The moon hung low, enveloping the school in shadow. A faint breeze caught them, and then they were on the moonlit grass. Jay tugged on Liz’s hand, and they ran farther into the night.

  Access Denied

  Colin sat in his tower, meditating. He’d learned through years of practice that he could warm up his body by slowing his breath. It was a technique he used during math quizzes. Breathe in. Hold in. Exhale.

  The moon had dropped and the night had grown colder, and Colin saw flecks of frost on his little rampart.

  Breathe in. Hold in. Exhale.

  Above the thick chirp of crickets, he thought he heard shouts, followed by what sounded like gunshots. Whatever it was, it was coming closer.

  Breathe in. Hold in. Exhale.

  He heard a roar. Colin thought he recognized the sound, but couldn’t place it. It reminded him of Jay, for some reason.

  Breathe in. Hold in. Exhale.

  “Colin!”

  That was Jay’s voice! Colin’s eyes flew open, and he ran to the edge of the roof. His mouth dropped. In the distance, A-Court was on fire. A wall of white things was running toward Tutorial, scrambling like a swarm of spiders. And in the farther distance of the A-Court parking lot, a giant dark shape lumbered slowly, moving its pointy legs. Colin watched, mouth open, as the creature’s head swiveled toward him.

  Jay ran around C-Court, hand in hand with Liz and his mom.

  “Colin!”

  Colin saw his friend’s tuxedo was bedraggled and burned in places. Liz still wore her sequined dress. Colin didn’t have time to respond before all the Johns and Jeremy ran around the corner behind him, still in their tuxedos, carrying guns.

  Colin pointed and screamed, “Jay, look out! The Johns are all armed.”

  “I know!” Jay puffed back. “They’re on our side.”

  Colin climbed down the ladder, landing on the packed earth around Tutorial. Jay ran up to the ramp, admiring th
e towers that now surrounded the portable.

  “You guys are already in the computer?”

  “It’s okay.” Colin held up a hand to soothe Jay. “We can see where Hal is looking, so—”

  “No, this is great. Hal’s already in the game. He’s the Mantis Boss.”

  “Has Stevie figured out—” Liz asked Colin.

  Colin motioned to the ramp, and the four of them ran up and into the classroom. The lamps inside were flickering ever so slightly with the uneven pulse of the generator. Stevie sat before the computer, bathed in blue. She smiled as they came in, as calm and collected as if she were sitting in second period.

  Ms. Banksman surveyed the room in horror. “Does Miss Rotchkey know about all this?”

  They ignored her. Jeremy slipped in the door behind them. Jay pointed to a beanbag chair. “Mom, take a seat and stay safe. Jeremy, keep those things at bay. Stevie—”

  Stevie turned and smiled. “I found a folder marked weapons. Would that help?”

  “Yes!” Jay shouted.

  Stevie turned to the computer. “Let’s see . . . I’ve got a power suit, plasma blaster, minigun . . .”

  “Yes to all of it.”

  There was a metal clang on one of the desks. Jay whipped around. Guns appeared in midair, falling onto the Bakelite slab and clattering down to the floor. Colin and Jay ran over, sifting through the pile, pulling out different weapons. From outside, a screech tore through the air.

  “Give me that railgun. Okay, Stevie, now you have to find a way to get Liz out.”

  “How?”

  “I dunno. See if you can find a master directory. We need to get into the operating system on Hal’s computer.”

  Stevie nodded, determined. Liz stood behind Stevie’s chair, hands sinking into the headrest.

  “What can I do?”

  Jay shook his head. “Be ready to run, the moment you’re back in your body.”

  Jay’s mom looked up from the beanbag chair. “You’re not going back out there, are you son-bun?”

  “It’s okay.” Jay picked up his railgun. “Colin and I have been training for this our whole lives.”

  He turned to Colin, who was now completely encased in a futuristic metal suit. Through the window, the howl of the riot grew louder. Jay stomped out the door. The stars were fading into the blue hues of dawn. Colin hit the Power button on the sword on his suit, and electricity arced down the side of its gleaming metal. Jay gave him a thumbs-up.

  “We said we’d beat the Mantis Boss by graduation.”

  They stepped back out onto the Tutorial ramp. Angry murmurs mixed with the sounds of smashed glass and bent metal. Jay saw the riot figures were swarming C-Court. On the rooftop, the white creatures sunk their long fingers into the wood to tear out individual shingles. More shapes swarmed the C-Court parking lot, slamming fists into cars. Jay watched a group lift the Batmobile and hurl it onto its side, blowing out its windows.

  The horde swarmed the perimeter, standing at the edge of the moat, their pulsing bodies pushing to get at Jay. Then, all at once, the figures stopped.

  “Boss time,” Jay muttered.

  Colin pressed a button on his armor, and flames shot out of his jet pack. Jay dropped his railgun and leapt up onto the Tutorial window, grabbing the tar-paper roof and pulling himself up. From this new vantage, he could see out across the great mass of white bodies. They covered the C-Court roof and the courtyard before the library. Beyond them, all of A-Court was in flames. As he watched, the bodies began separating to make an aisle. Something was slithering down its middle.

  The hideous head of the Mantis erupted from the horde. Its lidless eyes swiveled over to Jay. He sighted his railgun and fired. A vapor trail pierced the air, and the creature opened its mouth and screamed. Colin flew into the air, hosing the monster with a stream of bullets.

  The riot backed up farther to make room for the monster. Its two massive pincers unfolded and slammed into the side of C-Court, pulling it onto the roof.

  “Tag team!” Jay shouted.

  Colin floated over to where Jay could grab him, and together they flew toward C-Court. Jay’s legs dangled out in space as he fired, watching his bolts disappear into the monster’s head. Jay turned to watch the Johns firing below, and in that fraction of a second, the creature’s head darted down. Jay spun back around as the pincers tightened around his waist, crushing him so he couldn’t breathe. His head swam with the pressure. The dark, red cavern of the monster’s mouth grew. Below, he heard faint yells, and the small pop of rifles as the Johns fired.

  The creature’s mouth widened, and Jay recognized the sickly sweet smell of vomit. Spots swam before his eyes. Jay felt himself slipping into unconsciousness as he waited to feel the blast of acid.

  Somewhere to his left, he caught a glimpse of Colin’s face, twisted in rage, rocketing toward the monster. The monster’s head jerked back, ready to blast Jay. Colin slammed into the creature’s brain, knocking it sideways. Its acid breath missed Jay and instead scoured the C-Court roof, leaving a smoldering hole.

  Jay felt the pressure of the monster’s pincers release from his waist. His vision returned, and he felt the cold rush of air. He was falling. He hit the roof and rolled. He tried to breathe, but daggers were in his lungs. He sucked in, eyes swimming.

  The monster swiveled in the air, snapping out, ramming into Colin and sending him tumbling. His power suit slammed into the roof, and the monster’s pincers chopped down, hurling wood shingles into the air. Jay realized he was out of ammo. He watched the white riot descend on John W, enveloping him. It was too much. Hal had them. If only they had more Johns.

  More Johns: that was it!

  He raced up the ramp, the white riot right behind him. Their bodies swarmed Tutorial, falling over guardrails, hurling themselves at the walls. Jay was through the door, holding it shut. He heard the riot clambering on the roof, ripping into the wooden frame with their long clawed fingers. Any moment, they would destroy the generator.

  “Stevie!”

  Jeremy took over for him, straining to hold the door shut. Jay could see the thick muscles tense on his forearms. The walls of the portable cracked and shivered; long thin arms burst through. Liz was holding the window shut as white arms flailed, smashing the glass.

  “We lost!”

  Jay ignored her, rushing over to the computer.

  “Stevie! Stevie!”

  He saw Stevie had paled, and she was no longer smiling.

  “We need more Johns!”

  “What?!”

  “There’s a folder called johns!”

  Stevie spun back to the computer.

  “Okay. So?”

  “So give us a million of them!”

  The rioters leapt up at the window. He heard a tear above him and looked up to see a long white arm through the roof. They’d be inside any moment.

  Then something crashed onto the roof, and the arm of the rioter went still. Something else fell to the ground outside the window. It struggled up to its feet, and Jay saw it was a John. Not a John he recognized—this John had freckles and long arms—but the Neanderthal look on his face was unmistakable. The John looked confused. He stood just before the neighboring rioters turned and pounced, burying him. But another body fell. And another. All over the grass outside, Johns fell flailing from the sky. The rioters turned and attacked them, but still more fell.

  “Guns! Give them guns!” Jay shouted.

  And then there were weapons mingled with the falling bodies. Shotguns, railguns, and miniguns dropped from the sky. Jay watched in amazement as the Johns scooped them off the ground and fired into the horde of white bodies. The rioters were being gunned down, and still more Johns fell on the Tutorial roof, in the C-Court parking lot. The sky was thick with falling Johns. Jay laughed in delight, and then a John’s limp body smashed down through the roof,
crashing into Todd’s desk before falling limp on the ground.

  “Okay, that’s enough Johns.”

  He peered out the broken window. Every square inch of ground was occupied with the Johns. Jeremy opened the Tutorial door and Jay slipped out, pushing his way through the crowd, holding fingers to his ears to muffle the gunfire. Above this vast sea of noise, Jay heard a roar. The Mantis rose up over C-Court. Instantly, all the Johns turned and fired. Thousands of streams of bullets pelted the creature. Through the open window, Stevie’s voice rang out.

  “Nine hundred thousand hit points!”

  The monster turned and crashed toward Tutorial, pincers churning the air.

  “Five hundred thousand.”

  Energy crackled around its eyes, and a burst of acid oozed from its mouth, searing a path through the Johns. Jay watched their bodies hiss and fizzle as the bile blackened the asphalt. More Johns moved in to fill the gap.

  “Three hundred thousand!” Stevie shouted.

  The monster reached the edge of the C-Court roof and leapt down onto the ground.

  “One hundred thousand.”

  Bullets streaked the air, lighting up the grounds. The monster gave out a last desperate groan . . . then fell. It hit the earth with a force that made the ground tremble, flattening a large swath of Johns.

  Jay rushed back into Tutorial.

  The classroom had been destroyed. Bookshelves were overturned, loose books strewn across the floor. The classroom’s globe lay smashed on one side, like a broken pumpkin. Huge holes punctured the walls, and Jay could see outside. Through the broken sections of the ceiling, he saw dozens of Johns milling about on the roof. His mom was coughing behind Ms. Rotchkey’s desk. Liz grabbed his hands, searching his face. In turn, he turned to Stevie.

  A smile spread across her face. “I’ve got him locked out. Once he leaves, he won’t be able to get back in, or access The Build.”

  “Does he know that?”

  She shook her head. “Not yet.”

  A tired grin spread across Jay’s face. Onscreen, the monster’s pixelated body twitched. Jay rushed the Tutorial door, passing Jeremy. The Johns were whooping and cheering now, trading high fives. Jay squeezed between them as he rushed down the ramp, picking his way over the dead riot bodies that now choked the moat. Then he came to a halt.