The last of the players filed down the stairs. The air smelled of Fezzik’s cologne and sweat. Funny that the Emperor of Arcadia had tried to give us advice on how to return to the real world. What if I took his advice and stopped playing games just to become like him? Rejected and pathetic?
I was about to descend the stairs, when a voice stopped me.
“I broke three fingers once.”
I peered around an air-conditioning unit and found Aurora, sitting on the roof’s railing. Her hair was a white blur against the night sky.
“Um,” I said. “Okay?”
“I was eleven,” she said, eyes on the sky. “I was trying to get superpowers by sticking my hand inside a geode.”
I snorted.
She made her hand into a claw like it was still crammed inside the geode. “My hand got stuck. So I got a hammer, and . . .” She raised her other hand in a fist.
“Ouch,” I said.
She dropped both hands. “It hurt.”
“I’ll bet.”
“The pain was like a carousel,” she said. “Just going round and round. I could barely think. The doctor tried to give me oxycodone”—she shook her hair—“but I refused to take them. I said, ‘Aurora, you should know better. Feel the pain so you won’t be tempted to stick your hand into any more geodes.’ ”
“Uh . . . huh,” I said. “Why are you telling me this?”
She peered around the air-conditioning unit to make sure no one was at the door. “I hope Fezzik doesn’t go back to Arcadia, just to make his broken heart feel better.”
“What does that have to do with pills?”
She intertwined her fingers in front of her. “I was thinking about what you said about your mom and Dr. Mario. I think video games are kind of like medicine.”
I leaned against the air-conditioning unit and considered that. Games were the perfect way to get rid of stress. Crappy day at school? Chainsaw an alien in the face. Rejected by another girl? Burn your Sims in an apartment fire. Concerned that you’ll be alone for the rest of your life? Stomp some monsters made of marshmallow.
“So just because something helps you forget your pain,” I said, “you should stay away from it?”
Aurora kept her fingers twined and bounced them against her knees. “Maybe only when you’re trying to recover from something big. Like getting your hand stuck in a geode or breaking up with someone.” She crossed her feet, uncrossed them, and then crossed them again. “When your insides are like skinned knees and curdled milk, you gotta learn how to feel better all by your lonesome, without pills or games or anything like that, or else those bad feelings will just keep coming back.”
I joined Aurora on the roof’s edge. The stars shone on the dunes. Ever since my mom had left, that skinned-knee-and-curdled-milk feeling had rarely left me. Not unless I played video games.
Aurora cleared her throat. “That’s why I’m not drinking horchata anymore. Or masturbating. Gotta feel that pain. Gotta get over it all by my lonesome.”
My heart fluttered, and I chuckled. “You should tell Meeki that tactic.”
Aurora folded her hands between her legs. “I’ve got enough to worry about for myself right now.”
She stared into space. I stared at her.
The air-conditioning unit grumbled to life.
“Like what?” I asked.
Aurora tucked her hair behind her ears, and by the light of the moon, I saw her eyes for the first time. I mean I really saw them. She had two pupils in each eye.
I quickly looked away like I’d been caught staring.
“Coloboma,” she said. “It’s a condition where my pupils never fully formed.”
I looked into her eyes again. Sure enough, her pupils were pinched, like the black holes of her eyes were slurping in either side of her irises. They were weird and scary and beautiful at the same time.
“They’re pretty, Aurora.”
At some point we’d gotten really close to each other on the railing. Our eyes stayed locked until she gave her head a little shake and looked back at the sky.
“We are all made of star stuff,” she said. I was halfway through an eye roll when she finished, “But then again so are dog taints.”
I laughed so hard I nearly choked on my own spit. Aurora blushed and smiled. I hadn’t really seen her smile before.
Before my heart could make a dive, I pushed off the railing and brushed the roof’s dust from my pants. “I think I’m over that kind of medicine,” I said. “Video games. I’m ready to figure out the real world.”
Aurora jumped up too. “Let’s get you out of here, then.”
I nodded at Orion, forever chasing those sisters. “I thought you said I was going to be here for a long, long time.”
Aurora shrugged. “Let’s prove me wrong. We can’t have this many broken hearts in one place. Yours, mine, Fezzik’s. The whole building might collapse. And then the walls will come crumbling down on our heads. And there will be a timer and we’ll have to escape before we’re crushed to death.”
“Sounds fun,” I said. I tried to catch her eyes again. “What’s breaking your heart, Aurora?”
She just gave a half smile and shook her hair.
“Are you going to break up with Max?” I asked.
She looked at me with those strange eyes of hers but didn’t answer.
“Let’s get us both out of here, then,” I said. “Tomorrow’s the paintball tournament. Let’s win the shit out of it.”
I opened the roof door, breaking the spell of the evening with fluorescent light. We descended the stairs. Aurora twined her fingers in front of her skirt and walked with her eyes fixed on her feet.
A small ticking echoed down the hallway.
“Uh . . .” I touched her shoulder. “I’ll, um, catch up with you.”
She nodded and returned to the Nest while I jogged to the eastern hallway and found the heating vent.
“Soup?” I whispered.
The tiny green lights had all gone out. The space between the walls was silent.
Side Quest
For the first time since being committed to V-hab, I woke before the rooster crowed. No speckled nose peeked over my bed. No nasally voice sang “Moooooorning.” I peered down and saw a half-finished cross-stitch that read Gravity is soooo sitting on the unruffled sheets of Soup’s empty bunk.
I collapsed back onto my pillow. What had I done? I actually felt guilty now. Not just in an “I’m going to lose points” way. I lay there feeling very uncomfortable in my skin until the rooster crowed.
“Where’s Soup?” Aurora asked, entering the Nest with her toothbrush.
“Who cares?” Meeki said, still wrapped up in her sheets.
I kept my eyes on the ceiling.
“I’m sure he’ll turn up,” Fezzik said. He didn’t sound worried, just heartbroken. His giant shoulders didn’t seem so giant anymore.
I felt bad for him. Until he approached my bed.
“Morning, Miles.” He took a deep breath. I could tell I did not want to hear what he was about to say. “I’ve given it a lot of thought, and I’ve decided not to give you the points for those cross-stitches.”
I jerked upright. “That’s not fair.”
“No,” Fezzik said. “It wouldn’t be fair to you if I did give you the points. It would be like giving level forty armor to a level five character.”
I stared deep into his eyes. “Just because it didn’t work out with the Silver Lady, doesn’t mean you should take my chance at happiness away.”
I could tell that hurt him. But he didn’t back down. “I’m trying to do the opposite,” he said. “I don’t want you making the same desperate mistakes I did.”
The speaker crackled above my bed, and G-man’s voice came through. “All players to the Hub for an emergency meeting.”
Fezzik turned away. My stomach twisted.
I followed the Fury Burds, minus Soup and Zxzord, to the Hub. Part of me was racked with guilt for talking to Fezzik
that way, but most of me was trying to figure out how to make up for those missing points. . . . Wax the floors? Do every guild’s laundry? Find the missing player I’d lost?
If I made it to my date, I’d make it up to everyone else.
Gray light seeped through the tall, frosted windows, giving the Hub an apocalyptic Diablo feeling. I sank into a beanbag chair and braced myself for G-man’s announcement. I imagined this numbness was the feeling people got when they realized they’d forgotten to feed their pet for a few days. Or worse, opened an air-conditioning grate, tossed the pet between the walls, and then locked it inside.
G-man climbed onto the stage, clasped his hands together, and stared at us with those shiny, sincere eyes of his. The players sensed something serious was going down and got real quiet real quick.
“We have a Video Horizons first today,” G-man said softly.
Oh God. First what? First missing kid? First victim of the thing that dwells between the walls? First splattery death?
G-man bowed his head. Then, lifting it and with increasing volume, he shouted, “Someone found our first side quest!”
A gasp ran through the crowd.
“Come on out here, Soup!”
Soup came in through the side door, looking sheepish, exhausted, and yes, even a little heroic. The knots in my stomach unwound as my head began to throb. What had I missed out on?
G-man threw an arm around Soup’s shoulders and addressed the players. “We want to instill a sense of adventure in you guys. A sense of exploration. Sometimes the greatest rewards in life are off the beaten path. You have to break the rules a bit”—he raised his hand in caution—“while still respecting the space you’re in.”
Dorothy raised her hand. “What was the side quest?”
“That secret is reserved for the player who was sharp enough to discover it and daring enough to follow it to its end.” Damn. “But don’t worry. We’ll have another side quest set up by next week.” Dammit. “Although, I am not telling you guys to tear this building apart looking for the next one. It should be pretty obvious when you see it.”
Dammit all to hell.
“So,” he continued, “for the act of curiosity, for impeccable instincts, and for an adventurous spirit, I award you, Soup S. Soupington, five hundred thousand points.”
The air was sucked right out of the Hub. Before the Master Cheefs had a chance to boo, Aurora and Fezzik leapt to their feet and burst into applause. I felt the color seep out of me.
But if I felt miserable, it was nothing compared to how Soup looked. If I had been onstage, if instead of wasting my time at pointless star class, where I watched Fezzik make a fool of himself and received zero points for it, I’d actually gone on the side quest and won 500,000 fucking points, I’d have acted like I was on The Price Is Right in the middle of Mardi Gras. I’d have ripped off my shirt and helicoptered it over my head while running around the Hub, screaming like an idiot.
Soup looked like his grandma had just been cut in two by a train.
“And these are golden points,” G-man said. “Which means you cannot lose them, Soup, no matter what you do.”
“You just made that up!” Lion called out.
“Yes, I did,” G-man said. He jostled Soup’s shoulder. “That officially makes you a third tier, buddy! You’ll be out of here in no time.”
That was when I understood. G-man wanted Soup out of V-hab. The kid had been point dodging for weeks, and now it was time for him to go home. The side quest had been real, but it was probably only worth 100,000 points at most. I say “only,” but that would have made up for the cross-stitches. And a silver medal in today’s tournament would have put me over the top.
Dammit.
“You have anything to say, Soup?” G-man said.
All heroism had leaked right out of Soup’s pale little face. He searched the audience and found my eyes. “I couldn’t have done it without Miles Prower.” His face brightened. “Hey! He was the one who made me do it! He showed me where the entrance was and everything!” He looked up at G-man. “Can I give Miles my golden points?”
The Master Cheefs booed. The Sefiroths hissed. My heart lifted.
“Shh, none of that,” G-man said. “No, Soup. You cannot give points away. Miles needs to earn his own way out.”
Soup frowned at me apologetically.
G-man cleared his throat. “We’ve got our big paintball tournament this afternoon.”
“YES!” Lion shouted.
The rest of the Hub whooped and clapped.
“Normally,” G-man called over the noise, “I wouldn’t condone any activity that encourages harming others, but it’s what the board wants, so . . . I’d like to encourage the team-building element. That’s why I’m going to give the surviving players a bonus twenty thousand points for every one of their guildmates still alive at the end of the final match.”
Twenty thousand. I experienced pure elation . . . followed by pure fear. All was not lost. I could make it to Gravity. But only if I won the paintball tournament. And at least one of my guildmates wasn’t totally incompetent and stayed alive.
“Okay, everyone,” G-man said, “grab some breakfast and get to class.”
Soup staggered offstage, arms dangling. He ignored Aurora’s congratulations and collapsed into the beanbag next to me.
I patted his little shoulder. “That was a nice thing you did, Soup. Or tried to do.”
He stuck out his bottom lip. “I guess—” he said in an unnervingly pouty voice. “I guess the thing that makes it better is that I know when we get back home, we get to hang out.”
That was so sweet, I could’ve hanged myself.
“You wanna tell me about the side quest?”
That perked him up. “It was the most awesome thing ever.”
He told me about it. It wasn’t that awesome.
• • •
I spent the rest of the morning trying to kill it in my classes while completing every bonus task I could along the way. Soup returned to the Nest to sleep off his adventure. This was good. My brain was freed up to concentrate on guns and shooting people with those guns.
For breakfast I scarfed down the greenest of greens and the fruitiest of fruits to remain spry. +1,000. I was still woozy from my crash, so I fought off invisible ninjas in tai chi until I was so exhausted, I thought I might lose the battle against absolutely nothing. +2,000. During music I imagined the Silver Lady’s bongo playing as a war march. The rhythm made my heart beat kill and kill and kill. The ukuleles only slightly spoiled the effect. +2,000.
During lunch my leg was a jackhammer. I’d killed thousands in Arcadia. Now I just had to shoot a few real people with paint. I was violently stabbing up asparagus when I felt a sharp pinch on my love handle.
“Gah!”
“For improvement through pain,” Aurora said.
“Thanks. Ouch.” I rubbed my side. “Do we have to bleed to improve?”
Aurora shrugged and slurped up spaghetti.
“Greetings, adventurers,” Fezzik said in a painfully morose voice.
His lunch tray was full of zero-point foods—mashed potatoes and french fries and ice cream. His obvious return to an old addiction made me uncomfortable.
“Today,” he said between bites of fried chicken, “I want to talk to you guys about process addiction and intermittent reward. Process addiction is like grinding in Final Fantasy when you’re already at max level. You just keep entering battle after battle because it feels so . . .” He trailed off and looked at us. “Is any of this getting through to you guys?”
“I don’t know what ‘inter-mitten’ means,” Soup said.
Fezzik sighed. He set down his chicken. “What games were you guys playing when Command and Conquer took you?”
Meeki grunted. “I was right freakin’ in the middle of Fire Emblem.”
“Arcadia,” Aurora said.
“Game of love,” I said.
Meeki rolled her eyes.
“Arcadia,
” I said.
“I was picking peaches for my raccoon friend,” Soup said. “Conquer ripped the 3DS right out of my hands. It hurt my hands. And my feelings.”
“Zxzord was probably in the middle of something else,” Meeki said, and chuckled.
Fezzik stared at his food and nodded. “Great games.”
We fell into silence. Over at the Sefs’ table, I noticed that Dryad sat alone, occasionally touching her cheeks, while over at the Cheefs’ table, Dorothy and Scarecrow sat too close and laughed together. I would have almost felt bad for Dryad if she hadn’t almost murdered me on the racetrack and smashed my valuable egg.
The Silver Lady came into the Feed, sat next to Dryad, and consolingly patted her back.
Fezzik stood up abruptly. “Excuse me, guys.” He left the Feed with his tray.
“He’s never talked to us about video games before,” Aurora said, watching him go. “Only as references for surviving real life.”
“What’s wrong with him?” Soup asked.
“He proposed to the Silver Lady last night, and she totally rejected him,” Meeki said, eating a mouthful of mashed potatoes. “Dude should have realized he didn’t stand a chance.”
I agreed with Meeki but refused to acknowledge it.
“So now what?” I asked. “Fezzik’s just going to go right back to video games like he told all of us not to do? Isn’t he supposed to be our healer?”
Aurora gazed toward the door. “What if giant heartbreak is more painful than a regular-size one?”
No one answered.
“I should go talk to him,” Aurora said.
She left the Feed.
“I gotta get to class,” I said, and slid my tray toward Soup. “Thanks, buddy.”
Fezzik’s story was tragic and everything, but there was nothing I could do about it. Besides, Meeki was right. A dude that big should have known he didn’t stand a chance.
I jogged to gardening. I had triggers on the fingers. I had bullets on the brain. I had blood in my . . . blood. I asked the Silver Lady if I could water, set the nozzle to jet stream, and scored head shots on the tomatoes, imagining each as a red helmet on a Halo map.
Cure for the Common Universe Page 15