Lucas stepped forward with his hands raised and put on his best charmer’s smile. However, the burns he had suffered made the scarred left side of his face stiff and immobile, turning the smile into a sort of grimace. “Alright miss, we see that you have the upper hand here, but if we leave our weapons on the ground and walk back out there, we are as good as dead. How about we make a deal? Maybe there’s something we can do for you?”
“Don’t need no help. You just…” Before she could continue, she choked and went into a series of wet hacking coughs that wracked her entire body. She lowered her gun and put her face into the crook of her elbow. Boothe saw Scarlett’s eyes move towards the shotgun on the floor near her feet. He could see the thoughts going through her head - could picture her grabbing the gun in a blur of motion and blasting the old woman away in a blink. He had no doubt that she could do it, but he held out his arm in front of her to hold her back. She narrowed her eyes at him, but didn’t try to move for the gun. Then the old woman’s coughs passed and she raised her rifle once again.
“You sound very ill,” Braddock said. “I have medicine that could help with that.”
“You a medical bot?” she asked.
“Well no, but I have some training.”
“Yeah he fixed me up the other day,” Lucas said. “I nearly died, but he saved my ass.”
Boothe saw the old woman’s face loosen some, the tip of her rifle lower just a bit, her muscles relax - they were getting somewhere.
“Okay robot,” she said. “We might be able to make a deal. You come with me.” Then she pointed to Boothe. “And you, you’re the leader of this little group, right?”
Boothe looked around at the others, who were all staring back at him expectantly.
“I guess I am,” he said.
“You come too then,” she motioned for them to follow her. “The rest of you, stay really still and B’wenzi won’t hurt you any.”
The five-hundred-pound pistol-wielding gorilla smiled, showing his three-inch-long canines.
“You want to do this?” Scarlett asked.
“Doesn’t look like we have much of a choice,” Boothe said.
“We could fight.”
“No,” Braddock said. “I do not think she is a bad person. She needs help, so I am going to help her.”
“Okay,” Scarlett said. “Go on then. We’ll be fine here.” She looked over at the gorilla nervously. “Maybe hurry though?”
Boothe and Braddock followed the woman down the hallway away from the rest of the group, but Boothe left Marty behind so that he could keep an eye on them.
“Now don’t try anything funny,” the woman said. “I’m trusting you here. You don’t look like you’re all bad, and I don’t really want to kill anybody. Too much mess to clean up, and I’ve got better things to do.”
She opened a door and motioned them into a room. The air here was musty and smelled of animal fur and the death-like stench of infection. Boothe soon saw the source of the odor when he spotted the small unconscious gorilla lying in the corner. Another larger gorilla sat near it, brushing a hand over the smaller one’s head.
“This is Noharu and her son Kira,” the woman said. “Zola got out of the compound, went into the jungle and was attacked by one of Maliki’s pride.”
Braddock approached the gorillas. The mother stepped in front of her child protectively, baring her teeth.
“It’s okay Noharu,” the woman said. “They are here to help.”
Noharu closed her mouth, her shoulders went slack, and she stepped aside. Boothe was amazed at how expressive her face was - no different than a human’s.
Braddock knelt next to the baby gorilla, while Boothe watched over his shoulder. Dirty rags - what looked like old shirts - had been wrapped around a wound on the gorilla’s leg. Blood had soaked through, turning them all red. Braddock unwrapped the rags, releasing that sickening smell of infection. Bloody gashes were cut across the gorilla’s leg - claw marks that went down to the bone.
“Tell me what you came here for,” the old woman said. “Tell me what I can give you in exchange for you helping the child.”
Braddock wasted no time talking. He opened the compartment in his chest and began pulling out medical supplies - gauze, needle and thread, antibiotics - he had everything in there.
“We’re supposed to retrieve something and return to our people as quickly as possible,” Boothe said. “Do you know what tungsten is?”
“Some type of metal, isn’t it?” the woman said. She was barely paying attention to him, her eyes focused on Braddock as he worked over the gorilla. She had placed her rifle on a table nearby, no longer keeping up the pretense that she might shoot them. “Oh wait, I know exactly what you’re talking about. There’s a whole crate of that junk. That’s all you want?”
“That’s it,” Boothe said.
“You save Kira and you can take the damn stuff,” she said.
“Ma’am we would have saved him, even if there were no tungsten in the whole park,” Boothe said.
She looked at him and smiled. “I bet you would have, at that. My name’s Lauranne. Sorry about my manners - been a long time since I’ve talked to somebody that weren’t covered in fur or scales.” She held her hand out to Boothe and he shook it.
“It’s okay,” Boothe said. “I’m sorry that we barged in on you like we did. We never expected to find anybody living here. You know that there are other people out there, right? Whole towns full of them. People who are trying to rebuild the world.”
“Bah,” she said, waving the concept away. “Who needs ‘em. They had their chance and they screwed the pooch as far as I’m concerned. Better off staying here. Besides, somebody has to keep this place going.”
After this speech, she broke into another one of her coughing fits. She covered her mouth with the crook of her elbow. When she lowered her arm again, Boothe noticed a few drops of blood mixed with the spittle on her chin.
“There’s people out there who might be able to help you,” he said. She waved him away again. “How long are you going to be able to keep this up?”
“Not too much longer it seems,” she said with a laugh, and that was the end of the conversation.
A few minutes later, Braddock stood back up and said “The infection is bad, but I think he should be okay. I cleaned it out and gave him a steroid shot and an antibiotic. His system should take over and heal itself in two or three days.” He handed Lauranne two small bottles of pills. “He’ll need to take the orange ones there three times a day until they’re gone. That should get rid of the infection. The white ones are for you - they will help with your cough. I’ll leave clean bandages with you too - you will need to change them once or twice a day for approximately one week.”
“He’s going to survive?” Lauranne asked.
“Yes,” Braddock said. “He will be fine.”
“Oh thank you,” she said and she stepped forward and threw her arms around the robot. Braddock looked surprised, then his camera-eyes widened even further when the mother gorilla walked up and put her long arms around his waist as well.
“You are welcome,” Braddock said, patting the gorilla on her back. “Both of you are very welcome.”
Lauranne motioned for Boothe and Braddock to follow her and said, “Well come on and I’ll give you the crate that you came here for and you can head on back to wherever it is you’re from.”
She led them back down the hallway towards where the rest of Atomic Massacre was still being held up by the angry-looking gorilla and snarling tiger.
“They’re okay,” Lauranne said to the animals. “You can stand down.”
Immediately, as if he had been holding his breath, the gorilla sighed and lowered his revolver. He ran up to Lauranne, knocking Lucas aside as he passed, and looked at the old woman expectantly.
“They got him all fixed up,” Lauranne said. “Go see.”
I smile overtook the gorilla’s whole face ad he ran off towards the room where th
e other gorillas had been.
The tiger stopped snarling and now rubbed its body against Scarlett’s legs, allowing her to scratch his head while he purred happily.
“He’s not going to eat me, is he?” Scarlett asked.
“Nope,” Lauranne said. “He seems to have taken a liking to you. Zoya’s a big kitten - I’m surprised he was able to act vicious for so long.” She walked into the bedroom and took the oil lamp and book off the crate next to the cot, placing them on the floor. She popped open the lid of the crate and motioned towards it. “Here’s the tungsten. Take the whole crate - I can find a new nightstand. Sorry again about nearly shooting you.”
“It’s no problem,” Boothe said. “Thanks for not pulling the trigger.”
She wrapped her arms around Boothe. Her limbs were bony and she smelled of dirty animals, but Boothe hugged her back.
“Are you sure you won’t come with us?” Boothe offered once again.
“I’m sure,” she said. “You’re always welcome to come back here and see me though. Any of those other towns you told me about still have coffee?”
“I’m not sure,” Boothe said. “We’ve have some things to take care of, but when that’s done, we’ll come back. And if I can find some coffee, I’ll bring it.”
“Oh, that would be great,” Lauranne said. “Lord, I miss coffee.”
She showed the group an underground exit that took them out of the zoo walls. Boothe and Braddock carried the crate of tungsten to the Falcon and tossed it into the back seat, then they said their goodbyes and left Lauranne and her animals behind.
Back in their vehicles, they raced towards the Palisades, driving as fast as the Falcon would go down the highways.
“You think we have a chance?” Scarlett asked.
“That took a little longer than I’d have liked,” Boothe said. “But if we don’t run into any more trouble, we could still beat the others.”
No bandit trucks attacked them along the road this time, and they made it back to the nest in only ten minutes. Boothe slid the Falcon to a halt in front of the building and hopped out. He didn’t see the other team’s vehicles - that was a good sign.
He and Lucas grabbed the crate from the back seat and ran through the entrance doors, across the lobby and into the conference room.
Panting, Boothe looked over at the podium.
Abigail stood there, with Cthulwho in front of her, shaking hands.
“Congratulations on making it back first,” Abigail said. “This Saturday, Orange Horizon will lead the attack against Orion.”
Interlude 12
Scarlett
“This sucks!” I said. “We’ve been on the top of the rankings since the game launched. Hell, we’re still technically the top ranked cell in the Eagles, but we don’t get to lead the attack? Instead, freaking Paul with his new friends gets this reward because he won one damn mission? How is that fair?”
“It’s not,” Scarlett said. “But it’s done. We can’t change it now.”
I laid in bed with the phone up to my ear. I had angrily logged off the game as soon as I saw that we had lost the race.
“I mean, why should we even play then?” I said. “We’re just going to watch Paul beat the game?”
“They’re going to need our help Bran. Paul’s team might be leading the attack, but the base is big. All the players are going to be there, fighting at the same time. There’s going to be plenty of bandits to kill.”
“I don’t want to kill more bandits,” I said. “We’ve killed enough bandits. I want to kill Orion. I want to win the game.”
“You sound like a big baby right now.”
“This just all feels so pointless,” I continued. “I guess all the time I put into the game was just a big waste.”
“Really?” Scarlett asked. It was the first time I remember hearing genuine anger in her voice - directed at me. “Because I enjoyed every minute that we played together. I met you in that game, and even though you’re acting like a whiny child right now, I like you. You think all of that was a waste of time?”
My heart sunk. I sat in silence for a moment. She didn’t speak either. Then I took a deep breath and said, “I’m sorry. I’m being an idiot and you’re right. Of course it wasn’t a waste of time. Your friendship is the best thing about my life right now, and way more important than leading the attack on Orion.”
“That’s better,” Scarlett said. “Are you going to chill now?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m chill.”
“So, we may not be fighting Orion, but this Saturday is still the big battle. Are you going to drive up to meet me and play in person?”
“Hell yes,” I said. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you so much.”
“Good,” Scarlett said. The argument had passed and I could hear the smile in her voice when she spoke again. “I’m really looking forward to it too.”
Saturday, two days later, I woke up at half past eleven. I had barely been able to sleep all night, rolling back and forth, my mind racing. The assault on Orion’s base was scheduled for 4pm. The plan was for Foster to come over to my house around noon, then we would drive up to Sherman together. Scarlett had to work a half-day, but said she should be off before 1pm. So Foster and I would meet her at Whataburger, get some lunch, then head back to her place to play together.
My mind was still running through all the possibilities. What if she’s different in real life? What if we don’t get along? What if she doesn’t like the way I look? What if it’s all just too awkward?
I looked through my closet, trying to decide what to wear. Was a t-shirt too childish? Should I dress nice, or would that make this feel too much like a date? I mean, we’re eating at Whataburger, and Foster is going to be there. It’s not a date.
I decided on a black polo shirt and jeans. Simple. I tried to make my hair go into place, brushed my teeth and put a pack of Mentos in my pocket so that I wouldn’t have fast-food burger breath. Then I unplugged my computer and started hauling it out to the trunk of my car.
As I was carrying out the heavy monitor, my arms barely wrapping around the thing, my dad stepped out of his room.
“You’re taking the whole computer with you?” he asked.
“Yeah Dad,” I said. “Kind of need the whole thing to play the game.”
“I guess you do. Want a hand?”
“Sure.”
He helped me pack the rest of the computer into the trunk of my car.
“You be careful, okay?” he said. “People on the internet are weird, you know.”
“She’s not weird Dad. I like her.”
“I hope so. Let me know how you feel about her when you come back home tonight. You are coming home tonight right?”
“Yes Dad,” I said.
Foster pulled up to the curb in his yellow VW Beetle and stepped out. He practically skipped over to the car where we stood.
“Hey Bran,” he said, then looked at my dad. “Hey Bran’s Dad.”
Dad smiled and shook Foster’s hand.
“It’s Jack,” he said. “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too sir,” Foster replied.
“Alright,” Dad said. “You boys be safe, okay? Call me when you get there. I’ll be home until five.”
“I will,” I said.
Foster hopped into the passenger seat and I got behind the wheel. Dad stood in the yard and watched as we pulled out of the driveway, then gave a little wave before we drove away.
“Your dad seems nice,” Foster said.
“Yeah, he’s alright,” I agreed.
The drive took about an hour, a straight shot north once we got to Highway 75. As we drove further away from Dallas, the large buildings and busy highways dwindled away, replaced by vast fields of corn and wheat, with a few small towns between them. Sherman itself was a little larger, but still tiny compared to Dallas, or Austin.
Foster read me the instructions that I had printed off MapQuest and led me to the What
aburger. The restaurant was across the street from a pool hall with a line of motorcycles parked in front and next to an old empty shopping mall that looked like it had closed years ago.
“This is it,” Foster said and I pulled into the mostly empty parking lot.
“You think she’s here already?” I asked.
“Only one way to find out.”
I took a deep breath, trying to rid myself of the butterflies in my stomach.
“You’ll be fine,” Foster said. “Trust me, this is going to be one of the best days of your life.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“I just have this feeling, you know?” He opened the door and stepped out of the car. “Come on.”
I got out and followed him into the restaurant. I spotted her as soon as we walked through the door. She didn’t quite look like her character model, who was a sexy long-legged woman that looked like an action movie star, but I could see some similarities. In real life, Scarlett was shorter than her digital counterpart - around five feet - and a little thicker around the waist and the hips. She had curly black hair that came down to her shoulders, just like she did in the game. She wore thick-rimmed glasses and was dressed in a t-shirt with the Wonder Woman logo on it and tight-fitting blue jeans. She looked more cute than sexy.
When we started walking towards her, Scarlett stood up and looked past Foster directly at me.
“Hey Bran,” she said. Our eyes met, and a smile lit up her face.
Correction - she wasn’t just cute. She was beautiful.
“Hi Scarlett,” I replied.
She walked up and hugged me. She was so warm, and soft and seemed to fit perfectly in my arms. Then we let go, and she looked over at Foster for the first time.
“Hi Foster,” she said, hugging him as well.
After the greetings, we ordered burgers and sat at a booth - Foster and I on one side, and Scarlett on the other. I could barely take my eyes off her. It felt so surreal. Could I really be sitting in a dumb fast-food diner with Scarlett - the girl who I’d been playing with online for the last couple of months?
The awkwardness of the situation passed quickly, and soon we were talking normally - just like we did all the time - chatting about things that happened in the game, and school, and work, and our home lives.
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