S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND: Season Two Omnibus (Episodes 9-11)

by Tanpepper, Saul

  Kelly tapped on Doctor White’s door. There was a faint rustle of movement from inside the office, then a thump and the door rattled in its frame as something heavy fell against it on the other side. He stepped back in alarm, the hairs on his arms and neck raised. “Doctor White?” he called. “It’s Kelly Corben.”

  The door rattled again, then there came a scraping noise as something soft slid across it. Kelly leaned his shoulder and ear to the wood, but the sound didn’t repeat. “Docto—”

  The door opened and he stumbled into the office, falling onto the desk. The smell of sickness filled his nose and spilled into his throat.

  “I told you not to come,” Doctor White croaked. She shuffled back to her chair and sat heavily into it, letting out another foul exhale. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Kelly demanded. He pushed himself away from her and stared. The woman’s face was as pale as the hospital bed sheets, except for the dark circles around her eyes. Her cheekbones stood out sharply, the pale, shiny skin drawn tight over them, accentuating the hollows of her jaw and her neck. “And why’s it so hot in here?”

  “It’s this fever,” she said, her voice barely reaching his ears. The chattering of her teeth was louder. “S-strep throat.”

  Strep throat my ass, he thought. She looks like death warmed over.

  “You sh-shouldn’t be here, Kelly.”

  “I was already in the hospital.”

  “You should’ve pinged.”

  “I have. You haven’t been responding.”

  Doctor White lifted a trembling hand from the desk and gestured weakly at a chair.

  “Reggie’s awake,” he said. “The police are interrogating him now.”

  “And Jessica? Any news?”

  Kelly sat, leaning back. The heat and the smell were getting to him, making his stomach roil.

  “We made contact at noon, but Eric disconnected.”

  “Why?”

  “Because of Ashley Evans. Jessie found her at the Jayne’s Hill complex. Alive.”

  “I thought sh-she was dead.”

  “We all thought that. Apparently Eric now believes the hacker theory, except he thinks it’s Ashley, not Micah.”

  White barely moved her head, but it was enough to tell Kelly she was paying attention.

  “He searched the Evanses’s house, looking for some kind of proof. We’ll need it to get Reggie off the hook.” And me, he thought. “And to bring Jessie home. But he didn’t find anything.”

  “You sound like you doubt Ashley’s involvement.”

  “I’m not convinced of anything right now.”

  “Well, this feels personal,” White said. “It’s not Arc or the Coalition.”

  That’s what scared Kelly. He looked away, sighing. In the past several weeks, Jessie had suffered betrayals of one form or another by nearly everyone she knew. He hated to think that the worst betrayal might be from her own best friend.

  You need to step up, be the man she needs you to be.

  The time for that was long overdue.

  “I sent Jessie a text about her mother. I hope it gets through. At least it’ll give her a reason to want to come home.” He paused. “Sooner.”

  Doctor White’s nod was barely perceptible. She leaned over and woke her Link on the desktop. “Well, at least I’ve got a bit of good news. I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Kyle’s blood test came back clean. He’s no longer infected.”

  “Does that mean you have a cure?”

  She hesitated, then nodded. “It needs to be independently confirmed, of course. But, yes, I believe we finally do.”

  ‡ ‡ ‡

  Chapter 65

  Jessie stared at the message for several seconds. She’d lost complete awareness of everything else— the bindings on her feet, Ashley, the pistol pointed at her head. Her vision had tunneled and focused on that one last word: DEAD. How could it be possible?

  The fury which she had held inside of her, had suppressed and denied for so long, rose up again. But instead of impelling her to act, it began to forge something new inside of her. Any connection the two girls had once shared was incinerated from her mind.

  She looked up and wasn’t surprised to find Ashley studying her, a quizzical look on her face, as if she’d been expecting something else.

  “Nothing?” she asked. “I guess I overestimated what your mother meant to you.”

  “No, you overestimated your ability to hurt me,” Jessie lied. She slipped the Link into her pocket while keeping her eyes locked on Ashley’s.

  Ashley simply laughed. “As much as I’d love for you to have a reminder of what I did to your mom, I’m going to need that back. I’m not quite through with you. I still need you to get me Micah’s other tablet. And after I’ve broken through the firewall on your Link and taken those files, then the real fun will begin.”

  Jessie brought her hand up to her cheek and rubbed it. A murky image popped up in front of her, difficult to distinguish against the brightness of the fluorescent lights. She turned to the wall.

  Tree bark. It’s in the forest.

  “The question,” Ashley continued, “is what to do with you now. It’d be so much easier if I could control you to begin with instead of making it the end game.”

  Jessie pictured the gate, the control panel, her fingers typing in the code. She concentrated on sending the message. Or image. Or whatever the hell it was.

  The package.

  Now she wished she’d trained longer. She had no clue whether it would even work. If she could even get the Player to respond.

  The double image shifted, one half sliding over the other. The Player was moving.

  Coincidence.

  She turned her attention back to Ashley. “You got what you wanted. So finish it. Put a bullet in my head.”

  Ashley smiled. “That would be too easy. I want you to suffer.”

  The superimposed image grew brighter. The Player had emerged from the woods.

  She pictured the gate, the keypad, the numbers— not the code she’d tried before, but the one she’d watched Ashley input after closing the gate.

  It hadn’t registered then, but now it was clear: the blood on the wrong numbers, why she hadn’t been able to turn the fence off herself before. Ashley had reprogrammed it. She almost laughed when it clicked in her mind that the new number was Jessie’s Link identifier.

  The gate was ahead. She could see it now, a ghostly apparition of a lone IU standing there, staring up at the sun.

  Go to the panel.

  “I’ll hack it,” Ashley said. “You’ll take me to the other tablet. It’ll have my program on it, too, my nifty little heuristic algorithm.”

  Jessie shook her head.

  4 – 1 –

  Ashley thrust the muzzle of the gun under Jessie’s throat. “You’ve got no choice.”

  6 – 3 – 1 –

  “You’re wrong,” Jessie said. “There’s always a choice.”

  9 – 6 – 4 – 6 – 6 – 3.

  “Get up!”

  Open the gate.

  “Kind of hard to walk with my feet bound.”

  Ashley stepped back. “Untie them, bitch. Then get up.”

  Jessie reached over and began to work the knots. Her fingers did not feel fat and clumsy as they had when she’d tied the strap a half hour earlier. Now they felt as strong and focused as her mind. They knew what needed to be done. She was, mind and body and soul, of one intent.

  Walk forward.

  She was Operator and Player.

  Turn around. Close the gate. Come.

  She pictured the gray-green door, and watched it draw closer.

  She rubbed the soreness from her ankles, then stood up. “You’ll never be able to get to the others.”

  “I don’t have to. You will. You’ll be my own personal Player.”

  Ashley grabbed her arm and wrenched her around, thrusting he
r through the door of the room. Jessie’s feet tangled and she stumbled, but she caught herself on the jamb. Out into the hallway.

  Wait there.

  “Move it!” A hand slammed into Jessie’s back, launching her forward. Once more, she managed to keep her feet beneath her.

  Wait.

  “Stop. Turn around.”

  Jessie slowly turned. Her heart skipped once, then settled back into that slow, calm, steady rhythm.

  “We’re going to need food and water.” Ashley stepped back and gestured to the open doorway with the pistol. “Empty out the duffle and fill it. You’re carrying the supplies.”

  Jessie returned to the room. Her eyes quickly scanned it, came to rest on the metal chair pushed to the side of the door. Ashley gave her another shove in the back, expelling the air from her lungs.

  “Don’t even think about it.”

  She did as Ashley instructed, filling the bag with the water first, then throwing the cans and packaged food in after. Her back strained when she lifted it, but she smiled inwardly, knowing she wouldn’t be carrying it for long. She slung it over her back, looping a strap over each shoulder, and grunted when the edge of a can hit her spine. But the pain was a distant thing and it soon faded away from her.

  They returned to the hallway, once more with Jessie in the lead.

  Into the lobby.

  Wait.

  To the door.

  Almost there.

  “I hope you’re ready for a long walk,” Ashley said. “It’ll be hot. And I set a mean pace. But don’t worry. After we get to the end, you won’t have to worry about anything anymore.”

  “Yeah, I’m ready,” Jessie said, and stepped out into the bright sunlight.

  ‡ ‡ ‡

  Chapter 66

  “Well, the good news,” Eric said as he removed a glass from the cupboard and poured himself some water from the tap, “is that Arc wants us to hold onto Reggie until they can run a diagnostic on his implant. Hopefully that’ll buy us enough time to come up with some proof of the hack.”

  A bead of sweat trickled from the hairline on his forehead and curled around his eyebrow. He thumbed it away. “It’s hot out there today.”

  “It’s hot every day,” Kelly noted. “I’ll be glad when it’s winter and the thermometer maxes out at seventy.”

  Eric refilled the glass. “They’re going to make an announcement this afternoon, Arc is. It’s a good sign. It means they’ll finally acknowledge the problems.”

  “Do you think they’ll suspend The Game?” Kelly asked, surprised.

  “I don’t see how they can’t, not after what my boss and I told them.”

  “She believed you then? Everything?”

  Eric nodded. “I was a bit surprised at how easily she accepted it, but it corroborated a lot of what Reggie had already told her. Convincing Arc, though. That’s another story.”

  He wiped his lips on the back of his sleeve.

  “Harrick told me that when she finally managed to connect to someone in charge over at Arc Headquarters, they demanded proof.”

  “If there is proof, it’s on their servers,” Kelly said.

  “Exactly. And they know it. She managed to get them to agree to take a look. They had her on hold for twenty minutes, and when they finally got back to her, all they promised was that they’d make an announcement at the start of the four o’clock showing of Survivalist.”

  Kelly grunted.

  “Cheer up, Kel. This bodes well for everyone involved.” He checked his Link. “I’m going to head back over to the hospital to be with Mom.”

  “I texted her. Jessie, I mean. I told her she was out of her coma, but I don’t know if she got it.”

  “Texted?”

  “Sent it through the gaming console, so I’m not even sure if it worked.

  Eric set the empty glass in the sink and rubbed his chin. “I wish you hadn’t.”

  “Jessie’s smart enough to figure it out about Ashley, Eric. I just wanted to give her some good news.”

  Eric stepped over and placed his hand on Kelly’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “I know you mean well.” He dropped his hand and headed for the door.

  “Four o’clock is the announcement?”

  “Yes.”

  Kelly let out a heavy breath. “Doctor White told me something today. Good news.”

  “What is it?”

  “The cure she was working on? It looks like it’s real. Kyle’s last blood test came back negative. He’s completely free of the virus.”

  Eric raised his eyebrows. “I’m still getting used to the idea that he’s been infected all these years and that Jessie’s blood has been keeping him alive and none of us knew. Well, me and Jessie, anyway. Maybe Mom did. But a cure, that’s fantastic, Kelly!”

  Kelly nodded and tried to smile. He was glad for his brother, of course, but it bothered him what she’d said about getting independent verification. How was she going to do that?

  ‡ ‡ ‡

  Chapter 67

  NOW!

  Jessie dove to the cement beside the walkway and rolled to her right, even as she pictured her hands going to Ashley’s throat. The bag on her back threw off her balance and she landed hard on her shoulder, scraping both her elbow and her forehead. For a moment, she saw stars, losing her grip on the image at the front of her mind.

  There was a thump and a cry behind her, and before she could spin around to look, the loud blast of a gunshot shattered the still air, followed by the clatter of something small and hard hitting the cement.

  Jessie shrugged the straps off her shoulders and jumped to her feet. The Player was standing with its head cocked strangely to one side, and for a split second Jessie thought Ashley had shot it. She expected it to collapse in a heap.

  There was a flash of movement off to her left. She saw it out of the corner of her eye. Jessie reacted by lunging after Ashley, and they both tumbled to the sidewalk. Ashley threw up an elbow, aiming for Jessie’s neck, but her shoulder took the brunt of the hit. She felt Ashley’s fingers tighten around her throat, and the image of Siennah’s face turning blue popped into her mind. If she didn’t extricate herself soon, Ashley would choke the last bit of air from her lungs.

  Jessie tried to bring an arm up to get to Ashley’s face. One was trapped between their bodies, and Ashley was forcing the other away.

  Do something!

  But she heard nothing from the Player.

  Get the gun!

  She pictured the pistol, pictured herself picking it up. She tried not to picture herself firing it.

  Pick it up and bring it here!

  A foot slid past beside their heads. Ashley’s eyes flicked to it, then back to Jessie’s face, widening in confusion and alarm. The momentary distraction was all Jessie needed. She untangled her arm and planted her hand on Ashley’s face, hooking a thumb beneath her nose. Ashley jerked her head from side to side as she tried to dislodge it, but Jessie just pushed harder. Finally, with a grunt of pain, Ashley reached up and twined her fingers in Jessie’s hair and pulled down, wrenching her head back.

  The pain was exquisite, a searing, ripping, white hot pain that felt as if her scalp was lifting itself off the top of her skull. Jessie’s hand slipped. Her thumb slid off Ashley’s nose, then caught higher up on the bony ridge of her eyebrow. She shoved down and in, feeling the orb of the eyeball shift in the socket.

  Ashley screamed and let go of both Jessie’s hair and her neck and began to pelt her with her fists. Jessie pushed even harder, digging her thumbnail in, locking the knuckle, squeezing with all of her fingers. She could feel the skin ripping, the nails of her fingers digging in, tearing the thin flesh lining Ashley’s forehead. A series of blows caught the tip of Jessie’s ear, strong but weakening. Another slammed her just above her left eye.

  Stars, whiteness.

  Jessie lowered her head to avoid the torrent that followed. They landed ineffectually on her back and shoulders.

  “You brought this on
yourself,” she growled, her mouth close to Ashley’s cheek. “I loved G-ma Junie just as much as you did.”

  This only seemed to infuriate Ashley all the more. She cuffed Jessie on the side of the head, catching her on the temple. Jessie’s eyes were squeezed shut, but she still observed another flash of white and felt the world lurch beneath her.

  Ashley levered her hands under Jessie’s shoulders and shoved forward with a scream. Jessie’s thumb popped free of the socket and she rolled off. She tried to scramble to her feet, but stumbled in her dizziness and tripped backward over the duffle bag.

  Ashley crawled in the opposite direction, whimpering like a wounded animal. She raised a hand to brace herself against the wall of the building and began to pull herself up. Blood streamed down her face from her swollen eye socket, from her forehead. The eye seemed to still be intact. Whether it was functional was another story.

  Jessie turned to look for the Player.

  Give me the gun. Bring it to me.

  She reached out as it stepped toward her. Ashley crouched against the building and shot a glance at her with her good eye. Jessie couldn’t tell what she must be thinking.

  She stood up. The Player extended the pistol, its hand on the grip. She only saw its finger on the trigger after Ashley launched herself against the monster, pushing it on top of Jessie. The barrel of the pistol stabbed her in the belly, felt as if it was going to pass right through her. She tried to pull away, but the momentum of Ashley’s body was too much and the three fell in a heap.

  Get up off of me! Let go of the gun!

  The skin on her belly tore as the pistol twisted between her and the Player, pinching, ripping as the end of the barrel angled to one side. But the pressure lessened.

  “Bite her!” Ashley screamed, pushing herself off and kicking and punching the Player. “Bite her, you son of a bitch!” She grabbed the pack on its back and tried to pull it up, but the zipper broke and the bag ripped open, spilling the bottles of water and food Jessie had stowed in it onto the ground.

  Get her! Squeeze her neck!

  The Player planted a hand on Jessie’s shoulder and pushed relentlessly down, shoving her onto the hot cement as it stood up. Panting, Jessie moved away and felt for the gun. It had slipped off of her body. Her hands were shaking terribly and they felt strangely numb. They skittered over her shirt. She raised them to her eyes and saw that they were bloody.