S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND, Season One Omnibus

by Saul Tanpepper

  I tell her about Ashley and Jake and Tanya, and Mom holds me, cries with me, even though she only knew Ash, not the others who had also died.

  “I’m just so glad you’re back,” she says. “With me.” And the guilt crashes down over me.

  I tell her about Stephen. “Enoch, rather. I guess his real name was Enoch. Enoch Bloch. He was Halliwell’s son.”

  I feel her stiffen next to me.

  “What is it?”

  She doesn’t speak for a moment, then takes in a shaky breath and says, “I knew him, though only when he was a little boy. I knew his mother Geena. She was so pretty. Beautiful, actually.”

  “Eric says you were all friends once.” I’m relieved to be talking about something else, anything else, even if it’s this.

  “We were close. All of us. Gene—Professor Halliwell—was Richard’s best friend.”

  “What changed?”

  She sighs. “Richard changed,” she says. “Your grandfather…” She shakes her head. “I don’t want to talk about it. That was all in the past.”

  “He killed Dad. Halliwell did. That’s what everyone says. That’s what Eric says. Did you know he saw what happened?”

  She draws away, but continues to look at me for a moment. Then she nods. “Yes, I knew. We found him. Well, your grandfather did. In a closet in the old house. I wanted to take him to the hospital, he wasn’t talking or eating. But Ulysses insisted we stay home. He said it was too dangerous. He didn’t want anyone talking to us.”

  I don’t know why, but all this feels strange, like something she’s simply reciting.

  “Kelly and I are getting married tomorrow. We want you to come with us when we register.”

  “I’ll be there. I promise, honey.” No surprise. No argument. No nothing.

  We hold each other at arm’s length, and I try to believe her. I want to believe her. But after coming home late from Reggie’s last night, I’d found her sprawled on the couch, empty beer cans littering the floor. I remind myself that she is trying. So she slipped back a little, it happens. I just need her to keep it together through tomorrow.

  “Honey, are you sure about this?” she abruptly asks. “Are you sure it’s not because of everything that happened?”

  I’ve been asking myself that for the past few days, but now I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a moot point. “Kelly’s dying,” I tell her. “He was bitten. We managed to buy him a little time, but… I want to do this. I do.”

  “How?” she asks, her eyes narrowing. “How did you buy him time?”

  “Halliwell’s blood.”

  Her face blanches.

  “I know. It’s terrible to think about. But he was immune.”

  She looks away, tears pooling in her eyes.

  “That’s not all.”

  She waits, touching her shaking fingers to her quivering lips.

  “I was bitten, too.”

  And now she pulls away from me and stands up, not from disgust or fear, but what seems like indecision. I can see it in her eyes, the struggle with something deep inside.

  “Mom?”

  “I…” She shakes her head, starts to say something else, then stops and runs her hands through her hair. “I should have told you sooner.”

  “Told me what?”

  “The truth about your father.”

  “What about him?”

  “I’m so sorry,” she sobs.

  “Mom, you’re scaring me. What about Dad?”

  “Not Dad. Your father, Gene Halliwell.”

  Chapter 40

  We’re still going through with it. I’m still marrying Kelly. Now that I know I’m immune too, and not dying. My blood can save him, but what good is that if I don’t know how to prepare the activator? Halliwell’s dead. The only other people who might know how to make it are hiding somewhere on Long Island.

  Do we go back? I don’t know. I don’t know if I could face that again.

  Then again, how can I not?

  I don’t tell Kelly. He’d panic. The first thing he’d assume is that I’ll go back. He’ll tell me not to. He’ll say he’s made his peace, tell me it’s not worth it. So I don’t tell anyone. I need time. Time to process. Time to plan.

  I’m not even sure I understand it all yet.

  “You had an affair?”

  “It was a long time ago, honey. Richard was dean of students at Harvard Medical School, working night and day. He was so ambitious. Gene was a professor at Royce State in Montana. They’d won the Nobel Prize—them and Geena, shared it—and we were all in Stockholm for the ceremony. It just… It just happened.”

  I’d stared at her. Things like that don’t just happen.

  “Everyone was drunk. He made a move on me. I should’ve been expecting it. No, I think I was. Gene was always flirting, with me, with Geena.”

  A tear rolls down her cheek.

  “Enoch would’ve been about three at the time, and Richard… Well, he confronted Gene afterward, said he knew what had happened. Said he knew Enoch was really his son.”

  “Why?”

  “Why? I don’t know. Richard was always gone, too busy for me and his family.”

  Excuses. That’s all they are.

  “All these years, I’ve hated myself for the pain I caused, but if there’s one thing I don’t regret, it’s you. Not for a minute.”

  How does a person reconcile that? I regret all the pain I caused, but I don’t regret you.

  By punishing herself. The booze… The men…

  Grandpa knew. Of course he did. He knew and so did the man I’d always thought of as my father. Halliwell knew, too. That’s why the two men hated each other. Because of me.

  “Did Eric know?”

  “No. We never told him. We never told anyone.”

  But they couldn’t have known about the immunity, not at first, not until after Halliwell’s failed experiment, after he’d realized he hadn’t died and come back. At some point he realized he was immune, that it might even be heritable. At what point did he know Stephen wasn’t immune? When did he realize I was?

  “You can’t tell anyone,” Mom warned me. “They will come after you. They will put you in a laboratory somewhere and they will kill you.”

  So that’s what the inhaler was for, the deprolidone. It wasn’t to boost my immunity. It wasn’t to block the infection or treatment. It was to mask the immune prion from detection: prevented the prion’s detection in all known diagnostic assays. Grandpa was protecting me.

  That’s why he killed Halliwell, so it wouldn’t get out.

  Stephen, my own half-brother. He knew I was immune and he wasn’t. He hated me and his hatred drove him crazy.

  No, my own blood did that. I realize that now. The fight on the tram. I thought he’d given me a shot in my neck. He had stuck me with the needle, but not to inject me. He’d extracted my blood. He’d extracted it and given it to himself.

  Now we will be the same.

  He thought it would cure him, but he’d done it wrong, and it made him go crazy.

  Just like it did Ben.

  Kelly pings me at ten the next morning. I hadn’t slept a wink all night, wondering what to do, whether to break the news to him, that he’ll live if I can go back and find the secret to the activator. I decide I can’t, not just yet.

  First, we get married. I’ll figure everything else out afterward.

  “Can you come over before we go?” he tells me. “My mom wants to talk with you.”

  I ask if he’s said anything to them about being infected. He’s quiet for a long time.

  Looks like you’re not the only one keeping secrets from the people you love.

  Protecting them.

  “Don’t,” I tell him. He doesn’t argue, but I can tell he’s wondering. I can tell by the sound of his breathing that he knows I know something.

  I just need time to come up with a plan.

  † † †

  Mrs. Corben has always given us space. She has always tolera
ted our relationship, even though we weren’t always very discrete about our activities. “Keep the door open,” she always told us, yet never came up to check in on us. Today, however, she seems cold, distant.

  We sit at the kitchen table and she prepares some coffee and tells us that she doesn’t understand why we’re doing this. “You shouldn’t rush into marriage. You’re both barely eighteen.”

  “People are getting married earlier, Mom,” Kelly tells her, and she sighs and shakes her head and continues to express her displeasure.

  “Well, I can’t stop you. I won’t. Neither will your father. But after what just happened in Lo—”

  “Nell,” Mister Corben says. He gives his head a warning shake.

  “Can’t even talk about it in our own home,” she says, giving him a dark look. She turns back toward us and says, “I don’t approve of this.”

  Eric pings me while I’m there and says he’s on his way from work. “Go on ahead,” he says. “I’ll meet you in half an hour. I’ll ping Mom and tell her to come, too.”

  We go in the Corben’s car, Mister Corben driving. Mrs. Corben stays home to be with Kyle. It’s better that way, I think.

  We stop and pick up Reggie before heading over.

  Eric’s already there when we arrive. We stand around outside and wait for Mom. Five minutes. Ten. Eric tries her Link again, but she doesn’t connect. “She’ll be here,” he assures me. “She promised.”

  But as the minutes tick by and we all start to get antsy, it becomes clear she won’t.

  “Let’s just do it,” I finally announce. Eric’s face pinches. He gives me a sad look and shakes his head. He knows how disappointed I am. I can see how disappointed he is, too. “Just a few more minutes, Jess.”

  But I say no. I was afraid this would happen. I’m just so disappointed it would be like this.

  We go in and give our information. The registrar taps a few keys on the computer and then nods. “Congratulations. That’ll be seventy-eight dollars.”

  And just like that, it’s done. No big ceremony like the rich folks do. We pay the fee, and then we leave. When we get outside, Kelly gives my hand a squeeze. He leans in and I’m aware of everyone looking at us, aware of what a charade this all is, afraid that everyone looking at us will be able to see it, too.

  “For better or worse,” he whispers in my ear.

  In sickness and in health, I think.

  Till death do you part.

  I think I’ll leave tomorrow. Early, before everyone is up. No sense to waiting. If I do, I might chicken out.

  Mister Corben goes home alone; he says it might be best for us to give his wife some time to get used to the idea of us being married. I think maybe Kyle is upset about it too, about me taking Kelly away from him. I’d tried to tell him it was like getting a new sister, but I don’t think I fooled him for a second.

  We get into Eric’s car and Kelly wrinkles his nose and asks, “What’s that smell?”

  “Jessie’s backpack,” Eric answers. “I’m throwing it away today if you don’t take care of it.”

  I reach down at my feet and open it up and start to pull things out: the stuffed rabbit, now lumpy and moldy, permanently stained with mud and blood; the rusty pistol, now useless; Jake’s shredded Playboy magazine, which Reggie quickly claims with a shrug; a single ampoule of smelling salts; various pieces of junk.

  “What’s this?” Kelly asks, reaching for a small white rectangle of laminated paper. He pulls it from my hand and scrapes the mud off. “Di…thio…threitol? Polyethylene…glycol? Sounds like chemicals.”

  He hands it over and I stare at it, remembering Brother Matthew’s words: The chemical formula for the stabilizer is written on a card inside the satchel with the syringes. Instructions for how to prepare it—

  “What is it?”

  Excitement wells up inside of me, as the weight of a thousand deaths is lifted from my shoulders. A million deaths.

  And one in particular.

  “It’s a miracle,” I tell him, though in truth I know it isn’t. It’s just dumb, stupid luck. We finally caught a rare break.

  He gives me that half smile I’ve so dearly missed, waiting for me to explain.

  But I don’t give it to him just yet. I want to savor this moment, the moment it hits me that we really do have all the time in the world now. And this is just the beginning of it.

  ‡ ‡

  [END OF EPISODE 8 & SEASON 1 - READY FOR SEASON 2?]

  MORE GAMELAND!

  Thank you so much for reading GAMELAND. I hope you enjoyed the series.

  Please check out these companion titles on Saul's website:

  For more GAMELAND thrills, check out Season Two!

  Please note that the entire 8-episode series, as well as the follow-up novels are all available in paperback format (individual episodes, novels, and series omnibus). Visit my website for availability. Signed copies also available for order.

  CHECK OUT THE NEW SERIES FROM

  SAUL TANPEPPER!

  BUNKER 12 and the companion series THE FLENSE

  THE FLENSE follows a troubled young reporter as she attempts to uncover the links between several seemingly disconnected disasters to hopefully head off an extinction event predicted by the prepper group sponsoring her. BUNKER 12 begins three years after that event, known as the Flense. It tells the story of a young man and his friends as they emerge into a new world. They have been told that the secret to the disease — and a means to cure it — may be found within a mythical shelter known as Bunker 12.

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  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  My undying thanks to the devoted staff of Brinestone Press for their keen eye and gentle but firm touch in helping me bring this story to life, for believing every step of the way that I could raise the dead.

  To my devoted fans and followers on Twitter, especially the zombie apocalypse junkies. Everything’s better with the #zombie hashtag.

  My deepest gratitude goes to my family for their unflagging support. Without them, I would not be able to create worlds with such richness to them.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Saul Tanpepper is the speculative fiction pen name for Ken J. Howe, a retired PhD molecular biologist and biotech entrepreneur who writes full time in multiple genres from his home in California.

  Saul is the author of the epic post-apocalyptic series GAMELAND, in which a group of young computer hackers break into a live action virtual reality gaming arcade populated by the resurrected bodies of executed criminals.

  If you prefer shorter works, check out his two story collections, Insomnia: Paranormal Tales, Science Fiction, & Horror and Shorting the Undead: A Menagerie of Macabre Mini-Fiction.

  Look for Lockdown, a standalone story in the world of THE FLENSE, an international conspiracy thriller about a French medical reporter investigating a series of mysterious events threatening to push mankind to the brink of extinction. For fans of post-apocalyptic tales, try the companion series, BUNKER 12, a high-octane thriller about a group of survivors who must leave the safety of their shelter to find the cause — and a fix— to a medica
l disaster that has decimated humanity.

  To learn more about Saul's writings and for availability, please visit his website (http://www.tanpepperwrites.com). For a free starter library and to receive news of releases, exclusive pricing specials and giveaways, sign up to receive his newsletter (https://tinyletter.com/SWTanpepper). Finally, if you really want to pester him, stop by his Facebook page (http://facebook.com/saul.tanpepper) and tell him to stop wasting time writing limericks about zombies.

  S.W. Tanpepper’s GAMELAND: Season One Omnibus Episodes 1 - 8

  by Saul Tanpepper

  Copyright © 2012 by Saul Tanpepper

  All rights reserved.

  1st Published April 23, 2012 by Brinestone Press, San Martin, CA 95046

  Cover design K.J. Howe Copyright © 2012

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  LICENSE NOTE

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.