by Matt Ryan
“YES!” LUCAS JUMPED IN THE air with his bow in his hand. “That was awesome.”
He stopped his theatrics as Nathen, the trainer, gave him a stern look. But how could he not be excited? He just shot flaming balls coming at him while riding in a zeppelin.
Best. Video. Game. Ever.
“I noticed a few times where you stopped smiling and just made the shots,” Nathen said. He paced next to Lucas and tapped the end of his chin with his finger.
“I call it the Zone. Like a poor man’s version of what Joey does, the world around me just comes into focus. When I’m in the Zone, I’m the best shooter in the world.”
“Let’s strive for more of these in-the-zone moments, shall we?”
“Bring on the next game,” Lucas said in the calmest voice he could manage.
The jungle formed in front of him with large trees pressing in on all sides. He couldn’t stop smiling even after he saw the half-man, half-monkey things holding knives. They were jumping around in the trees and screaming at him.
A knife flew by his head and he spotted the man-monkey that threw it. Oh, hell no. No digital man-monkey was going to throw knives at his pretty face. He pulled back an arrow and let it fly, replaced it with another, and fired it into the trees at other mankeys. Ha-ha! Mankey . . . Just thinking of it made him smile. The mankeys fell from the trees with arrows in each one. Nathen patted Lucas on the back and the room dissolved into white
“Take that, mankeys,” Lucas cheered.
Nathen chuckled. “Okay, good job. But let’s say there’s a situation where you have to keep your friends alive.”
“Like when my parents fought MM?”
“Yes, like then.”
Lucas lowered his bow and shuffled his feet. “Did you get to meet my mom?”
“Mm-hmm, while she was pregnant with you.”
“What was she like?”
“I didn’t have much interaction with her,” Nathen said. “But your dad loved her very much. There wasn’t a training session that went by where he didn’t talk about her. His face lit up at the mere mention of your mom’s name.”
Lucas controlled his breathing and felt tears in his eyes. He wasn’t going to cry in front of this guy, but no one ever spoke of his parents like that. He dreamed of being able to see them the way Nathen described. He and his dad had love, but it felt colder. There was a wall between them that kept him from getting close.
“I think you’ll like this next scene.” Nathen pushed on his Panavice.
The room changed to a ledge. Lucas stood on the ledge and looked down at the half-mile drop. A flying pig squealed with large fangs. It flew at him and he pulled back an arrow, letting it fly—sending it sailing past the pig.
The pig growled, showing its pointy white teeth. Lucas yanked another arrow in place and took a breath, lining up the shot. He fired and struck the monstrosity in the gut, sending it falling to the earth below.
“I found a bow in my dad’s closet a few years ago. I bet it was the same one he used here.”
“Maybe.”
“Was he a good shot?”
“He wasn’t too bad, but he had his mind on other things while they were here.” Nathen chuckled. “He must have spent a long time training you.”
Lucas frowned. “No, he didn’t. Even this summer, when he finally started showing me a few things, it was like pulling teeth.” Lucas took a deep breath and looked way down to the bottom of the cliff where there should have been a splattered pig. “I think I was too good for him. I just got the feeling I was disappointing him by picking it up so much.”
“Sometime parents don’t want us stepping in their footsteps. Especially when they’ve stomped in the mud.”
JULIE SAT IN FRONT OF her very own Panavice. She caressed the cold edges of it with her hands and tried to contain her excitement while sitting next to Doctor Almadon.
“While the barbarians play with tools, we’ll be learning the true weapon of this world, technology. Everything is connected, in some way, digitally. Once you find your way around the digital walls, the world will be yours.” Almadon pressed the screen on her Panavice. “I’m sending you the first training round.”
Julie stared at her screen. Level One appeared.
“You’re going to go against a level-one com.”
Julie held the Panavice in her hands. It was thicker than her cellphone, but the screen was larger and clearer. When she tilted it, the tabs on the screen moved from the background, giving it a 3D look.
She pressed the tab with the cracked safe and it opened a new page. From there she saw every computer nearby. Each one had a label, Medical Equipment, Elevator 4, Lighting, Panavice - Almadon. Then she spotted it, a level-one label. She pressed it and a wall of code floated on the screen.
“There is software I installed on that Pana to help you break through many of the walls.”
She saw the walls, but why use a sledgehammer when she could tip toe around it and sneak in? The codes on her screen scrolled with her finger swipes. Then she saw what she was looking for and typed into the keyboard. She pressed the last key and she was in.
The wall dissolved and a digital flower twirled on the screen.
“Nice, Julie. Now again, but this time try using the built-in software. It’ll help you when you can’t find a sneak. Level two.”
Level two went down in under a minute. Julie set her Panavice on the table.
Almadon set hers down and furrowed her brow. “I suspected something on the first go, but now I am certain. Where did you learn these systems?”
Julie locked eyes with Almadon. She fidgeted with her hands in her lap and felt like a kid in the principal’s office, confessing to prank gone wrong. “I used the computer in my room.”
Almadon leaned back and touched her chin. “Find anything interesting?”
“I searched through MM’s mainframe. . . .”
“What? That was incredibly foolish.” Almadon jolted forward in her chair. “How? Those are meant for watching shows and browsing the net.”
“I found a cloud that had unlimited storage and set up a basic operating system to penetrate walls,” Julie said. “But I made sure I used a stack of proxies. They shouldn’t be able to find me.”
Almadon’s mouth hung low. “Why, what were you looking for? Not to mention how dangerous that is. There are things on this net not to be trifled with.”
“I know, and I found something strange. Deep in the code, it seemed like a hidden underground river, streaming through the background.”
Almadon raised an eyebrow. “Probably just a data feed.”
“I thought that as well, but then I wrote a program and found a back door into the stream.”
Almadon’s eyes twitched and she leaned closer. “And?”
Julie looked at the table. “Nothing at first, it just seemed to be a backup stream, but then I saw it deleting things, everywhere, like a virus.”
“The Harris virus.”
“Yes, but it did more. It pulled in vast amounts of info, yet had a very limited output, like it was being choked.”
“Anytime someone writes anything about Harris on the net, this program finds it and deletes it. It’s common knowledge.”
“I know.” This was the hard part for Julie. She almost didn’t want to say anything to Almadon about it, but she needed to tell her. “It found me. It called herself Alice and appeared on my screen as a young woman. She asked me who I was, but it freaked me out so bad I turned off the computer.”
“Alice actually talked to you?”
“Did I screw something up?”
Almadon stretched her fingers out in front of her and then proceeded to take great interest in smoothing out her shirt. “Alice is a whisper on the net. A myth to most. Some think the net itself birthed an A.I.”
“I thought artificial intelligences were illegal.”
“They are, but this one is different. MM has let her be, which makes me think she is part of MM. Possibly impleme
nted by Marcus himself.”
“Did I mess up? I’m so sorry; I just got all caught up in the level of computing power. I didn’t think there was any limit to what I could do within your internet.”
“It’s probably nothing, but if you can get into systems like that, I think we should jump to level twenty.”
She looked at the screen and Level 20 popped up. There were more layers to this one, but she had already seen the flaw. She typed quickly and saw the swirling flower on her screen.
THE NEXT MORNING AT BREAKFAST, Compry pushed the food cart, hitting the table again. Joey jerked back at the noise of plates clattering. Thoughts of creepy rollerblading people and old gunslingers floated around in his mind.
“Breakfast is served,” Compry said as she handed plates out.
“Thank you.” Poly got up from her chair and helped her pass out the plates.
Compry rolled her eyes.
“Easy on the plates, lady.” Harris smirked.
She scowled. “This is the last day I’m the breakfast maker.”
“Actually, the deal was for a few more days after this,” Harris said and leaned back in his chair. He grinned and linked his fingers behind his head.
Compry’s eyes widened. She pointed at Harris and her eyes narrowed. “Not another day.”
Harris made a face and winked at her. After some silent communication between the two, he sat forward, and directed his attention to the group. “Would you guys like to meet the person behind everything? The man who wants to suck the life from your very veins?” He grabbed his Panavice and flipped it around towards the aisle. “Let me introduce you to Marcus Malliden.”
Joey choked on his eggs and reached for the gun at his side, scanning the room for the man. Then he noticed the image projected from Harris’s Panavice. He finished swallowing and sat down. The projection showed a man in a white robe, typing into a computer.
Marcus turned to face the camera. A good-looking young man with unkempt hair and an innocent smile. He turned back to his computer. Joey leaned forward in search of the horns he was sure would be coming out of Marcus’s forehead. The plainness of Marcus made him think there had to be a mistake.
A voice-over started.
“There was a time in history when we had no path, no solutions to our problems. Our lives lasted mere decades. Birth defects were rampant.”
The video showed a two-headed baby, and then another mutated baby that Joey couldn’t watch.
“Then, we were rescued by the wonders of genetic breakthroughs. Marcus Malliden saved the world by creating the first, perfect baby. Free from defects, we no longer have to roll the dice between two people’s DNA. Marcus took the guessing out of reproduction and brought a new age to the world, where people don’t die of disease or aging. As long as you keep Orange in your life.”
The screen switched to the voice-over guy, who took a drink of an orange liquid and smiled at the camera. A line of text scrolls across the bottom of the screen. Orange, it makes you live.
Harris turned the screen off.
“What the hell was that?” Lucas asked.
“That’s a commercial for Orange, an old one, but a classic,” Harris said and Compry let out a small laugh.
“You see, at the start of MM’s new genetic design, the world was against it, but when the babies he designed lived far longer and healthier than any naturals did, the world became obsessed with having their babies modified. Unfortunately, MM didn’t factor in the problem at hand. He played God and God fought back. It was as if your life span was a rubber band, pulled and stretched way out, but eventually, the band would break. People started to become ill and long-closed hospitals starting opening. Marcus, in a scramble, invented Orange.”
Harris lifted his glass of orange liquid.
Compry said, “This drink is the torture and stranglehold that MM has on the world. Once he had the world on Orange, he knew every person who wanted to live was at his fingertips.” She took a drink. “This drink keeps you alive, but also makes you the slave of MM.” The disgust spread over her face. “Some chose death, but most simply fell in line and took the drink. MM Corp, with its massive power, gobbled up any competitors; they bought all the politicians and turned them into a one-world order.”
“This is a video our group had made and are sometimes able to get into the state TV broadcasts,” Harris added, and tapped his Panavice.
A similar voice-over started, but it sounded just different enough. “Marcus Malliden, the man behind Orange. He brought you life and he brings you death.” A montage of towns getting bombed, and old people dying, flashes on the screen. “Orange and MM allow you to live, for now.”
Harris turned it off. “If your town or province gets out of line, the shipments of Orange stop. Then people turn on each other and the town falls into chaos. This gives MM cause to step in and crush the towns.”
“If your population is addicted to this Orange drink, how can you remove it? Won’t you just all die?” Julie asked.
“Yes, we’d die without it. We are not looking to remove Orange, but the man who controls it. Marcus Malliden keeps the world under his thumb and he presses hard,” Harris said. “You see, this man is the one who killed your parents to get what he wants.”
“And what does he want?” Joey asked.
Harris made direct eye contact with him, “You, Joey.” He paused and then continued, “Marcus would take any of you, but he wants what’s in you. Isaac’s experiments resulted in his greatest accomplishment with you. You’re his best chance of staying alive and he wants to keep living very much.”
Everyone at the table stared at him. Joey felt his heart beating hard as he shared looks with each of them. It felt like another weight thrown on his back.
“Is that why I have my . . . ability?” Joey struggled to get the words out, even if he already knew the answer.
“Yes. Isaac experimented heavily on the people of Ryjack and . . . well, you saw the result, but I think he perfected it with you kids.”
“All this effort and death is for one man’s wish to live forever?” Julie asked.
“It is a deeply personal mission for Marcus. He is the last naturally born person on the planet. Everyone else is a genetically modified MM baby.”
“How’s he still alive then?” Lucas asked.
“He used to have a man named John Smith. His body kept him alive for a while, at least until Harris ended that lifeline,” Compry said. She placed a hand on his arm for a moment.
Harris lowered his eyebrows at Compry. “He finds unusual ways to stay alive. Not too long ago, we were able to take one of those things away from him, John Smith, a man we believe they made in Ryjack. He was sort of a cheap version of you guys.”
“Where’s this John Smith now?” Julie asked.
“Dead.” Harris pushed his plate forward and stuffed his Panavice in his jacket pocket. “Let’s get back to training.” He stood from the table.
TRAINING WAS SIMILAR TO THE first day, with many scenes popping in and out. By the end of the day, Joey’s eyes hurt and he stumbled into his room, burying his face in his blankets. He was glad to have the room to himself. He didn’t want to see the looks they might give him for being different, or worse yet, pity. He heard a quiet knock on his door.
Poly stood at the door and smiled at Joey. She was wearing a yellow dress with a floral print. The flowers changed colors as she moved. “You like my dress? Compry gave it to me.”
“It’s very . . . nice,” he said. He kept his eyes focused on her face. Otherwise, his eyes tended to wander and travel over her body.
“You’re all by yourself in there. Aren’t you getting lonely?”
“Not really, my thoughts keep me occupied,” he lied.
“I thought you might need a break.” Poly grabbed his hand. “Come with me. Julie found something I wanted to show you.”
“YOU HAVE TO WALK LOW,” Poly said, crouching down.
“Why’s that?” Joey asked.
“It’s only sneaking around if you’re crouching, duh.” She playfully rolled her eyes.
He laughed and watched her sneak up to the elevator button and press it. He played along and crouched down, putting his back against the wall and looking left to right. “Where we going?” Joey asked in an exaggerated whisper.
“It’s a surprise.”
The elevator doors slid open. He followed Poly in, hugging the walls. She pressed the button and spun around, smiling. He couldn’t help but feel happier around her. She was a bright light in a dark room.
Upon exiting, Joey crouched lower and followed Poly through a few hallways and into a room with white walls and ceiling. He raised a questioning eyebrow; half thinking she was going to run some training drills with him.
“Just wait for it.” She slid her finger against a screen on the wall, it lit up, and she pushed a button. “It worked!” She pulled a Panavice off the wall next to the screen.
The room changed to a grassy meadow with a large oak tree at the top of a grass hill. Poly laughed and ran to the top of the grass hill.
The heat from the sun felt good. He took in the fabricated fresh air and looked at the blue sky; taking in the moment, as if it was real.
“I even have a blanket here so we don’t get our clothes dirty.” She laid the blanket on the grass next to the oak tree. Laying down on it with her face to the sky, she clasped her hands behind her head. Her dress pressed against her body.
He took in her form, for probably too long.
She raised her head and smirked when she caught his observing eyes. “Come on.” She patted the space next to her.
Joey wiped his sweaty hands on his pants. Looking at the blanket, he reluctantly laid down on it, keeping a large gap between them. His heart raced lying next to Poly. The Preston Six travelled as a pack. He could count on one hand the times he and Poly were alone together. He kept his eyes on the leaves above his head, fidgeting with his hands. Why was he so nervous?