S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND, Season One Omnibus (139 page)

“
I get it!” I say, weakly, trying to make him shut up.

But Reggie's on a roll. “And where the fuck did they go anyway? Come in here and then leave like that.” He tries to look out through the door. “Why are we supposed to stay in here while they go traipsing around—”

“
Reggie, please.” I squeeze my head in my hands, not sure if it'll keep the pieces of my skull from suddenly flying apart. The noise of his voice is like someone rattling gravel in a can inside of my head. Sister Jane said my infection would get worse before it gets better, and though I want to trust her, warning bells are ringing too loudly inside of me. How can I trust her?
Why
should I?

I manage to get myself sitting up, though the pain in my back feels like somebody implanted a meat grinder inside me and switched it on. It's now chewing its way out through my spine. Still, it's better than lying down. I feel too vulnerable down there on the floor. I don't even want to sit, but I don't think I could stand right now. So I sit hunched down over my lap and try to breathe in long, deep breaths. The nausea comes in waves, a strange dull, burning ache that doesn't make me want to throw up breakfast as much as it makes me want to tear out my intestines.

Kelly just lies there, not sleeping, but not waking, either. I wonder if he's aware of what's happening. A piece of me wishes I could be in his place, oblivious to all of this.

I think about Brother Matthew telling me the treatment wouldn't work for me. Why didn't I ask him to explain? I should've asked him. I should have asked Grandpa and the doctors about my inhaler. All my life, I've been too complacent.

It's a blocking agent.
That's what they'd said, down in Brookhaven. They said there was something inside of it, some chemical, depro-something, something that blocked…what? I don't know. What is it? Some kind of experimental medicine? A secret antidote?

Why would they only give it to me? Why
would
they even give it to someone like me? After all my father had done, after what Grandpa did, you'd think the last person they'd give it to would be a Daniels. We don't deserve it. We deserve to all be made into Undead and to serve everyone else.

I wonder why my grandfather was always so insistent that I take it. What did he know? What was his connection with Arc? Did they steal this from Halliwell? Or did my father make this before Halliwell killed him? And then, did Grandpa have to make some kind of deal with Arc so I could get it? Maybe that's what happened to his career. Did he give it up for me?

That seems a little far-fetched.

And then it hits me: maybe Eric is getting this stuff, too. I never saw him using an inhaler, but something like that would be easy to hide.

But if there's already a treatment, this depro-stuff, then why is Father Heall's blood so important to Arc and the SSC?

I think about this, too, and it troubles me. Competition, maybe. The stuff in my inhaler could be worth billions, but not if there's a treatment. Heall's blood would render it useless.

So, you didn't really need the injection.

I don't know.

Sister Jane returns with fresh bandages and a freshly prepared bowl of the same poultice Brother Nicholas had slathered onto Jake's neck yesterday. She bends over me and gently pries the old pad off, wincing with every whimper and sharp breath that comes out of my mouth. Some of the blood has dried and it sticks to my skin and pulls it away.

“
You should be lying down.”

“
I don't want to.”

“
Look,” Reggie says, coming up and standing behind her, “I think it's time to we got a few answers.”

“
That will have to wait a moment.”

“
You get to decide what's good for Jessie, but I don't?”

“
That's right. Now sit down before I knock you down.” She gives me a wink.

“
The hell I will.”

“
Reggie,” I tell him, alternately panting and grunting from the pain. “Not now. Please. Just…go sit down over there.”

I hear him grumble unhappily, but he backs up a couple steps. He keeps his thoughts to himself.

“
This is a deep bite, honey. Luckily it's mostly just muscle here, no organs.”

“
More like fat,” I say through my clenched teeth. “That's all right. I needed to lose a few pounds, anyway.”

She gives me an appreciative look. “You're too skinny.”

“
Just wish he'd bitten me in the ass. It's too big.”

She chuckles. “We'll call it the Forbidden Zone Diet.”

“
Everyone's dying to try it.”

“
You're not going to die,” she gently chastises. “Not just yet, anyway.”

“
Not yet?” I ask, alarm bells ringing again.

She shakes her head. “Everyone dies someday. You've got many more years ahead of you. Trust me.”

I don't know what triggers the change, but suddenly I do trust her. I still don't understand how she and Micah came to be here—together—and I do plan on getting that information from her soon, but for now I'm content enough with her gentleness and the kindness she showed me last night that I can allow myself to relax my guard a little.

She finally manages to get the bandage fully off and drops it to the floor to one side. It lies there, thick and bloody and looking like mutilated roadkill. “You've lost a lot of blood.”

“
I can make more.”

“
You're going to have to.”

She pours cold water on me and it scalds, feels like fire. I hiss, but then it quickly starts to numb.

“
There's some extract in it,” she tells me. “Helps a little with the pain.”

“
Feels good.”

Next she starts packing in the poultice and soon the numbness begins to spread, infusing my whole body. The relief isn't complete—I can still feel the pain—but it somehow feels more like a memory than the real thing.

“
That's better,” I tell her. Even the gnawing in my stomach feels different. It feels…less.

“
The anesthetic is only temporary. But if things go as they should, you won't need it for long.”

“
If?
You don't sound very confident.”

“
The treatment isn't foolproof. I'm sorry, I shouldn't say anything.” I wait and she sighs and shakes her head. “I've seen it fail, once. We don't know why it happened, but even a single failure means we can't say it always works.”

“
Brother Matthew said something about side effects.”

“
Mostly from injecting it wrong. Mostly.” She doesn't elaborate. “We need to get you to Father Heall.”

Reggie groans. “We need to get her home.”

Sister Jane turns her head and looks up at him. “That's not going to happen anytime soon.”

“
I already explained why to him,” I tell her. “About the repeated injections. He's just stressed.”

“
Damn right I'm stressed.”

Sister Jane nods. “Well, then I won't have to explain it to him. Now, let's have a look at this one.”

She waddles over to Kelly and begins to cut away his shirt. She sucks in her breath repeatedly, every time she uncovers another wound. “Could be worse, I suppose.”

“
Where did Micah get to?” Reggie asks. “Who's watching him?”

A shadow flickers over Sister Jane's face. She doesn't answer.

But I recognize that look. “You don't trust him, do you?”

The line of her jaw tightens, but all she says is, “It was Father Heall's decision to send him out here.”

“
Here, to the hill?”

She shakes her head. “No, coming here to you was my decision to make.”

“
Then where?”

“
To retrieve his son's body. To bring it back.”

“
Stephen?”

“
Enoch Bloch.”

“
Bloch?”

“
His mother's maiden name.”

It sounds familiar, but I can't place it. I let it go and instead watch her attend to Kelly. “So…Father Heall wanted Micah to bring Enoch's body back. He trusted him to do that. But you don't trust him.”

She stops a moment but doesn't look at me. “No.”

“
Why not?”

No answer.

“
How did you know we needed help? How did you know to come here? And how did you control those Players out there?”

“
Too many questions.”

“
You promised to answer my questions last night.”

She sighs. “We found the washed out road, traces of blood on it, broken glass, one of the brother's shoes. Then we found the car partially submerged in mud downstream. No bodies, but that doesn't mean anything, as you must know by now.”

I nod. We could've walked away on our own, as I did, or walked away infected but still alive, as Brother Matthew did, or we all could have been carried away and eaten.

“
Then there was the break in the wall,” she continues. “We found the house where you stopped. More blood, and this.” She reaches into her breast pocket and pulls something out and hands it over to me. It's the photo of the little girl, Cassandra, the photo I'd found in the house just inside the Gameland wall. Shinji's girl.

“
Micah recognized your pants. He knew you were in trouble. He used that phone-thing and tried to call you.”

“
His Link?”

She nods. “But he couldn't get through. We were on our way here when you called him.”

“
Pinged him.”

She frowns.

“
It's called pinging. Calling is like when someone's standing across the room and you say his name.”

She smirks, like she knows better. But things have changed since she was a part of the world. “Pinging. Linking,” she says. “Anyway, we started heading for here. After you two linked or pinged or whatever you call it, I got worried. He was angry at being left behind, but also very worried. Then the connection got cut off and he couldn't connect again.”

“
And what about the Players? Who's controlling them?”

“
The Deceivers?”

I nod.

She frowns at me for a moment. I can tell she doesn't like them. The feeling of antipathy for them is strong. “Help me turn your friend,” she says, gesturing to Kelly.

“
Is it Father Heall?” I ask. “Is he controlling them?”

She shakes her head.

“
Is Father Heall all right?”

“
He was fine when we left this morning.”

“
Does Micah know where he is, where he's going?”

She lifts her eyes to mine, even as she finishes wrapping clean cloth around Kelly's middle. I can see this is making her uncomfortable. She gives her head a quick shake. “Father Heall is somewhere he can't be found.”

I breathe a sigh of relief.

She ties a knot in the bandage. “I think it's only fair that you know, young lady, I don't trust you either. That photo wasn't the only thing I found in your pants back there.”

Reggie watches us, a scowl on his face. His arms are crossed across his chest and a smoldering rage burns in his eyes. I'm still waiting for him to start flipping out about Ashley. I think he's in denial. He's just dealing with it by refusing to talk about it or think about it.

Sister Jane pulls another bandage from her pack. I watch her in silence as she cleans another of Kelly's wounds, then applies the poultice and covers it. She works quickly and efficiently. She repeats the process until he's covered with bandages. When she's finished, she places the unused supplies back into her pack and stands up.

“
We should move everyone upstairs as soon as we can.

“
Someone will have to carry Kelly.”

She nods. “There'll be more men here for that soon enough.”

“
What do you mean?” Reggie asks. “Who's coming? More brothers?

“
Not Father Heall's brothers,” Sister Jane says. She turns to me. “Just one. Yours.”

 

“Eric's coming?”
I ask. “He's coming here? When? How?”

Sister Jane shakes her head. “I don't know all the details. It was that boy, Micah, who arranged it. Another reason I don't trust him. Or you. You know how we feel about the Deceivers. I—”

But Micah comes in right then and we all look up. He stops and stares at us suspiciously.

“
Why didn't you tell me?” I demand. I pull myself to my feet despite the abrupt pain and nausea that wells up inside of me. I step over to him. “Why didn't—”

He flinches and tries to tell me to be quiet. “Those Players out there are—”

“
Fuck them. Fuck you, too! Why didn't you tell me Eric was on his way here?”

I lift my arm to point my finger in his face, but the movement causes my bandage to pull and I double over in agony as new pain rips through my side.

Reggie grabs my arm and supports me while I wait for it to pass. “You need to take it easy, Jess,” he tells me. “Slow down.”

“
No,” I pant. Sweat and tears pour off my face and my nose decides right then that now is a good time to start running like a faucet. I feel like I'm leaking from every pore of my body. “I…have to…go.” I try to straighten up, but another spasm hits me.