by Mars Dorian
I breathed in. “I think I can handle it on my own.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yep. I think I chill for a bit, stare holes into the wall, and think of an action plan.”
Sparrow shrugged. “If you need help, just shout out into the woods. A forest elf will answer.”
It took me three seconds to realize she was referring to herself. “Right.”
I retreated to my room, locked the door, and slumped into my chair. I called up Yumi-D who picked up on the first ring.
“I was wondering when you would call.”
“Still can’t wrap my head around it.”
“I called Cruz after L’ocean’s death.”
Cruz=L’ocean. It still took seconds to link the female TechMage to the buffed up guy who played her. Player avatars be damned. I dreaded the next words. “What did he say?”
“I better tell you in real life.”
“But you’re so far away.”
Yumi-D paused. “You live in Colorado, right?”
“Boulder.”
“Cool, I’m from Austin.”
I remembered. I had first met her at the Austin Game Center where I also met Cruz for the first time. It wasn’t that far, considering that half of the Crystal Crusade players hailed from across the world.
Yumi’s energetic voice soothed my stress levels. “I can hop into the next Hyperloop as we speak. Will only take me a couple of hours or so.”
“Are you serious?”
“Absolutely. I always wanted to visit Colorado. Why not now?”
She bought a Hyperloop ticket as we spoke and shared the arrival data with me. Just like in the game world, Yumi-D moved quickly. A Windcutter dart oiled with passion. “Tell me a place where we can meet up.”
“Right.”
She ended the call and left me with a barrage of smiley faces. I was looking forward to meeting her. I still remembered how we danced together at the Austin Game event while Aeonsmith blasted in the background.
Good times.
Times I wanted to experience again.
Besides, I needed some time away from the game and the house. As sweet as Sparrow was, I needed someone else to talk to. Someone more relatable. So I packed my jacket and slipped on my sneakers. Sparrow’s head peeked from the living room. “Where are you going?”
“Getting some fresh air.”
She scratched her black nails at the door frame. Scratch scratch like a cat. “Are you meeting someone?”
She delivered the question with subzero frost, like a hard-boiled detective trying to squeeze out her prime suspect. My alibi came quickly. “Truth is, I’ve been playing the game nonstop for the past weeks and I’m feeling like the walls are squashing me. Remember that scene from A New Hope where Han and Luke fall into the imperial trash compiler?”
“Yes.”
“Well, that’s how I feel right now.”
Her eyes stayed with me, but they lacked emotion. “Am I the metaphor for the walls crushing you?”
“No, no.”
Her lips arched down. I knew she wasn’t buying it, but despite her odd behavior, Sparrow could read my gestures like an FBI profiler. Being vague worked better than straight-up lying to her face. “We’ll talk soon. Good luck on your game sessions.”
“Mmmm.”
Enough with her mood swings. I shut the door and ventured outside. The warm air brushed at my face and mitigated the headache. A woman wearing a nano-fibered sport attire jogged along the boardwalk. An enhanced Doberman followed her and shared the same features as the woman. Maybe his genetics were altered to be a feral lookalike.
My lungs filled up with fresh Colorado air.
Missed the outside.
Missed the warm sun and fresh breezes caressing me.
No matter how great VR turned out to be, it still lacked the smells and hectic touches of real life. After all, my adrenaline needed to replenish for the upcoming sessions.
Beep beep.
Yumi-D shared the time of arrival and teased me with ‘incredible insights’ she was going to share.
20
I spent hours strolling around Boulder before I met Yumi-D at Central Park, no, not the big-ass version of NYC; the tiny slide located near the Farmer’s Market. The scenario looked straight out of a cheesy Disney holo-flick. Birds chirping, emerald green trees weeping, folks smiling.
I was expecting little dwarves to dance out brushes, singing songs about believing in yourself. Made me almost forget about the troubles of the world. I approached the café where I was supposed to meet my trusted co-player. Yumi-D spotted me and waved me over. She sat at a wooden, round-shaped table, located behind a gothic fence of the European-styled ice-cream parlor. I sat down in front of Yumi-D and enjoyed her relentless smile. She looked like her game avatar—tall and slender, with her blonde hair woven into a cute braid.
Now she stood up and saluted me. “Greetings, Syndicate prisoner.”
“Eh, better imprisoned than dead, I guess.”
She hugged me and patted my back. When it came to body presence, she was the opposite of Sparrow. All touchy and close.
I liked that.
Yumi-D tapped the menu of her wristband. “Judging from the reviews, this place is the secret kingdom of flavors. Over one hundred and counting.”
“Nice.”
The ice cream parlor lacked printed menus and offered only the digital version for sustainability reasons. I swiped through the augmented menu and gasped at the prices. A single cone cost almost five bucks while a hot chocolate with sweet cream amounted to almost ten dollars. Looked like the government had upped the sugar tax again. In a few years, I’d be spending a Benjamin on a couple of cones and a single hot chocolate. Not surprisingly, most of the customers sitting nearby looked like middle or upper-middle class. The girl of a family sitting two tables next to us even owned a dogbot. Metallic woofs sounded my way.
“Love those,” Yumi-D said, smiling at the artificial creature. “I’ve got an advanced sentinel version at home. Composite armor, adaptive AI, and a gun mount with a Taser.”
“You’re kidding?”
She shared her 3D motion images. Yumi-D posed in front of her ranch house and gestured the victory sign. A military dogbot with camouflage armor roared next to her while a giant Texas flag was blowing in the wind. Looked like the quintessential patriotic ad.
“Texas level: over nine thousand.”
She giggled. “At least ordinary citizens still can defend themselves.”
“True. In Colorado, you can get charged with battery if you defend yourself from burglars in your own house.”
“Really?”
“Let’s not talk politics.”
“Sounds good. Let’s talk about something nicer—your imprisonment.”
I was about to open my mouth when the service bot hovered to our table and brought the creamy goods. A chili-peanut flavor sundae with lychee sauce for Yumi and the classic vanilla-chocolate combo for me. The black and white-shaped cone onslaught towered in front of me like the mountains of Western Norsefalia.
Yumi-D smiled. “Relax. It’s not going to bite you.”
True, but it was going to bite a hole through my budget. Better not think about it.
“Don’t worry so much about your capture. In Fourlando, players drown, freeze, burn alive, fall from the sky, suffocate in sand pits, get shot, sliced, decapitated, blown from ledges. And the list goes on and on.”
Yeah, but I was aiming for a pro career. Unlike casuals who wanted a VR distraction, I needed to make money before my roommate kicked me out.
I said, “You’ve been imprisoned, right?”
“Happened almost two years ago. I was doing a quest in the Eastern part of the mainland with two other players when a bunch of rogues ambushed us in the woods.”
Her body slumped. The memory pulled down her weight. “We were being hit with poison gas that clouded my view range. Within seconds, I was being isolated from my team and captured with a
web sling attack. I was brought to their forest base.”
“What did you do?”
“Well, one of the capturers turned out to be a corrupt NPC. He walked up to my bars during nightfall and offered to release me for a healthy sum.”
“Did you pay?”
“Yep. The thing is—I could have broken free as well. There were lots of tools around that I could have used to cut the bars, but I was too lazy. I didn’t want to do a long-ass stealth mission during the night so I paid that NPC a few thousand credits.”
Her story soothed me already. Her words clang with hope and freshness. “The game gives you many options, Dashiell.”
“Didn’t give L’ocean many options.”
“She—he should have stayed away from close-quarters combat, especially when using the frail TechMage class.” Yumi-D steered the cream in her café. “I’ve kept on thinking about the fight… we should have fought the giant outside the outpost. He was big and slow. We could have easily outrun and surrounded him in the open field. But in the tight courtyard…”
“Yeah, Sparrow said the same.”
“Sparrow, eh?”
I detected a tinge of attitude. A tinge.
“So how’s living with the weirdo bird? I’ve heard she’s crazy.”
“Define crazy.”
“She still doesn’t leave the house, right?”
“Who told you that?”
“Voices from the community. Voices that say she’s ruling over a trash kingdom while relying on drone deliveries.”
I paused because I failed to deliver a defense, which made me wonder why I needed to defend Sparrow in the first place. “Maybe she’s just shy.”
Yumi-D smirked. “C’mon, Dash. We both know what’s going on with Sparrow.”
“I wish I did. Maybe then, I could help her.”
“One word to solve your confusion—Hikikomori.”
“Hikikomori?”
I had heard that Japanese word before. Hikikomori were reclusive adolescents or adults who withdrew from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement. Thinking about it… the typical symptoms of hikikomori applied to Sparrow. She:
—amassed piles of trash
—avoided outside physical contact
—lived exclusively digital
Damn.
“Are you okay?” Yumi-D asked.
Couldn’t hide my astonishment, nor bothered to. “I thought she was just a shy gamer hooked on The Crystal Crusade.”
And frankly, my problems had distracted me from other people’s issues. When family and financial trouble plagued your mind, empathy backed down.
Yumi-D laid her hand on top of mine. My first impulse was to yank my fingers away, but I enjoyed the warmth of her palm. She intensified the eye contact before her smile eased my pressure. “It can be stressful to both become a pro player and live with a troubled roommate.”
“She’s paying for everything. I can’t even pay a single cent of rent.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. I’m sure you’re a terrific roommate.” She soaked up the sunshine. “Boulder’s actually pretty; well, compared to the rest of the country. Maybe I’ll stay here for a while.”
“Just like that?”
“As long as I have Internet and my VR set, sure, why not? I’m a digital nomad.”
She tilted her head in a playful way. “This town desperately needs more Yumi-fication, don’t you think?”
“No doubt about that.”
Her smile connected with mine. For a second, even the annoying children of the nearby table faded out. “I’m going to stay here for a few days, just to see how Boulder and I fit.”
“You got your VR gear here?”
“Waiting at my hotel room, calling my name.”
“Cool.”
That was the only thing I had to say.
Cool.
The afternoon sun knocked on the treetops. Leaves surfed the winds and rained down on our table. A weird silence settled in, as if the universe was pushing me to do something.
I didn’t.
“Well, I better play a new session. Can’t keep my fans waiting forever.”
“Me too.”
We stood up at the same and looked each other in the eyes. She hugged me first and give me a soft kiss on the cheek. “You’ve been rabble-rouser so far. Don’t you dare slam on the brakes now, mister.”
Half-way across the grass field, she called my name and formed her fingers into a phone symbol. “Let’s meet up in the next days, Dashiell. And if you need more help, find me on the Internet.”
She summoned an auto-ride and vanished around the corner. I could have called my own unit, but my body was too wired. I felt electrified like the Energizer bunny on steroids as I walked down the street, soaking up the sun and feeling like the universe’s long lost son.
About twenty minutes later, I entered Sparrow’s street and halted. A guy stood in front of her door, his blocky head geared at her smooth face. He looked like an old-fashioned college professor at first, with his outdated suit and his stiff movements. Yet, something about this person looked awfully familiar.
Oh no.
It was him…
The government guy, Ben Ustinov.
21
Couldn’t be.
Shouldn’t be.
But it was. Ben fucking Ustinov in Boulder, lurking in front of Sparrow’s door and trying to talk like a human being. My roommate leaned against the doorframe, the way she always did, listening with mild curiosity.
No sign of fear.
No sign of annoyance on her moon-shaped face. But maybe she didn’t know who it was she was talking to. After all, she hadn’t experienced the mind games that creep pulled on me back at home.
The whole military manipulation scheme.
For a second, I pondered running over there and warning Sparrow, but then I’d walk straight into Ustinov’s trap. And the last thing I wanted to happen today was dealing with the government guy.
Damn.
I felt like Frodo after having put the ring on. I mean, how the heck did Ustinov find me? I didn’t tell anyone, not even my mother. I only told her that I was in Boulder, and that…
Shaina.
I had called her using my social ID. Her wristband saved the geo-location of friends and family members. Double-damn. She must have given the information to Mom who then handed it over to Ustinov.
I hid behind the nearest tree and observed Ustinov hundreds of yards away. He spent at least five more minutes talking to Sparrow before he said goodbye and returned to the sidewalk. I positioned myself behind the tree to avoid entering his line of sight, stealth style. Ustinov remote-opened an auto-ride with voice command, but before he stepped inside, he raised his chin as if answering to a higher power. His eyes closed as his nose wiggled. Goddamn it, was he sniffing the air? Sniffing me out like a feral predator?
He brushed his nose, crawled inside the car, and drove away. I waited at least five more minutes because I wanted to ensure the freak was far, far away. After yet another minute, I moved away from the tree, crossed the street, and approached Sparrow’s door. The adrenaline sizzled inside my veins. A shiver shook my limps like an electro-attack. The tap taps of socks on carpet sounded from the inside.
Sparrow opened the door with a curious glance. “The hawk has returned to the nest.” Her fingers moved past the door frame. “I was wondering when you were showing up again.”
“What was Ustinov doing here?”
“Oh, you mean Ben?”
Ben. She used his first name and made him sound like a friendly neighbor. Like good ol’ buddy Ben, coming over with a six pack of ‘Merica Light, watching a family-friendly feed, and offering to wash the dishes.
I breathed in deeply to keep my cool. Was tougher than it sounded. “Remember the psycho who came to my trailer park to manipulate me? That was him.”
“Are you sure? He was actually friendly and had a way with words.”
&
nbsp; A way with words?
Anger seethed deep within me. I could suppress it, but the fire liquid flame up my arms. Ustinov always triggered my adrenaline. Fired it up like a flame in a diesel lake. “He’s a psycho, Sparrow. He took my VR set away and tried those mind tricks on me. You exposed him. Remember all the tips you gave me?”
She shrugged. Sparrow seemed awfully indifferent about my struggle with Ustinov. Like she couldn’t care less.
“What did you tell him?”
“He was just curious about you. He said your mother was very worried and that she was disappointed that you gave up on the training period.”
“Did he say training period?”
“His exact words.”
My head instinctively turned around and scanned the sidewalks. Sparrow tiptoed away but left the door open. I closed it myself and looked through the peephole, making sure Ustinov didn’t hide somewhere in the bushes, ready to spy on me. Sparrow reappeared with a Tandoori ice cream cup in her slender hands. She scratched the inside of the bucket with her spoon. “How was your date?”
Four words cutting like a wind blade. How in the hell did she know? I hadn’t been streaming my conversation with Yumi-D. Or did Sparrow somehow tap into my wristband’s geo-tag? Nah, that was impossible. She wasn’t a hacker.
“I was just chilling the park near the Farmer’s Market.”
“Chilling? I’d assume she’s the kind of gal that sets men’s hearts on fire.”
She knew I met up with Yumi-D, even though I hadn’t told her. “How do you know I met up with someone?”
“You’re avoiding my question.”
“I don’t think I need to disclose my privacy.”
“See, you’re evading.”
“Sparrow…”
“You can admit you had a fun time with her. I mean, what guy wouldn’t? Cheeky personality, tall, slender build, long, blonde hair, and a body to die for. And I bet it’s all natural. Although you never know with female pro players these days. Some of them fall back into conservative beauty standards and sell out.”
How was I supposed to answer that? Despite her snarky attitude, all of Sparrow’s descriptions of Yumi-D rang true. Every word shot with sniper precision.