S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND, Season One Omnibus (42 page)

I stare at Jake in shock.

Back when I first met him at the dojang—god, was it only a week ago?—he'd confessed that his previous trainer emphasized brutality and aggression. It was the reason he left his studio for Rupert's. It looks like that training is kicking in, and it scares the hell out of me.

“
He's right,” Miss Novak says. “It'll only make things worse if you leave.”

“
Nothing could be worse than this, lady.”

Reggie's still holding her arm behind her back. He looks uncomfortable, like he doesn't want to hurt her.

Jake turns to her and says, sneering, “Maybe he won't kick your ass up through your neck, but I wouldn't think twice about doing it.”

“
That's enough!” I gasp.

“
You can't leave,” she repeats, daring Jake to act on his threat.

He looks at me, grunts once and turns away.

I stand up quick and get in her face. “I'm going home,” I tell her, snapping my words. She doesn't even flinch. “We all are. You can too, when you get yourself free. If I weren't so forgiving, I'd have you all killed and stuffed.”

“
Tell us how the shuttle works,” Jake demands. “Tell us and we won't hurt you.”

I narrow my eyes at him. Since when does he make the rules?

“
It's a simple switch,” the young man answers. “The tram rides a track through a tunnel under the East River. Push the lever one way and the tram moves in that direction; push it the other and it goes in the opposite direction. In the middle it stops. But—”

“
What's on the other side?”

“
The tunnel opens up in a warehouse in Hunts Point. It's abandoned now, of course.”

“
Is it guarded?”

“
No,” the woman says.

“
Don't you fucking lie to me.” I walk over to Kelly and grab the gun away from him and point it at her head. She still doesn't flinch. Now I realize what I'd mistaken for fright is just composure.

I swing it over to the young man's head instead. “Is it guarded?”

“
N-no,” he answers. “It's not. Honestly.”

“
Gather everything up,” I tell Kelly. I glance over at the man still lying on the floor. “I don't know what the hell you people are doing, but we're going home. Leave us alone! Understand? If I ever see any of you again, I won't hesitate to kill you.”

The man just stares.

“
Are we ready?” I ask everyone. Jake nods grimly. So do Kelly and Reg.

“
But you can't go,” Miss Novak insists, as Reggie ties her up.

“
Miss Novak,” the man grunts. He chuckles. “Let them go. It's not the end of the world for us. There's always the backup plan.”

“
What does he mean by that?” Jake asks. “What the fuck do you mean backup plan?”

“
Nothing, Jake. He's just screwing with your mind.”

I go over and kick the man in the kidney. Then I lean down so my mouth is inches from his ear. I want to tell him he's an asshole. I want to say he has no right to live.

Instead, I just say: “You'll find Mabel in Room Three. I think she'll be happy to see you.”

 

“Tie up his hands
, but not his feet,” I say, pointing at the man kneeling on the floor. “Let's get out of this pit.”

Kelly bends down and grabs his arm and yanks him upright. The guy starts to protest, but Jake glares at him and he quickly quiets down.

I march through the doorway into the dimly lit room beyond. It must've been an old transportation link for airport employees. Railcars sit on tracks that lead into several different tunnels. A colorful map on the wall shows lines connecting the various concourses and terminals. I wonder if they all still work.

“
What's your name?” I demand.

“
S-stephen,” the man answers.

“
Well, Stephen, which one gets us out of here?”

He gestures with his bound hands to a two-car tram along the far wall. The door to the engineer's compartment stands open. I walk over and look inside. The controls are lit up with a faint green glow.

“
Can someone call this remotely from the other end?”

He shakes his head.

“
How about from this end?” Another shake. “Good.”

I instruct Jake to grab the cart that Stephen was pushing in when we ambushed them. The smell of Insta-Meals wafts from inside and my stomach grumbles. My knees shake, but I ignore them. We need to get on the train car and get moving first. I'll think about my own personal needs once we're on our way.

A black satchel sits on top of the cart. A stethoscope dangles out. The bag probably holds the injection Miss Novak had been planning to give to Tanya. I wonder if they intended the same injection for any of the rest of us or if we were going to be used for some other plan.

We have our backup.

If there were more time, I'd tell him to explain. I'm even having second thoughts about leaving them behind, but now's not the time to be second guessing my own decisions.

I watch Jake roll the cart toward the tram. I have to resist the urge to get the injection out and administer it to one of them instead. But who knows what horror that would unleash. I doubt that Stephen is completely aware of what Arc is doing. He must think he's in over his head by now, wondering what nasty shit he's gotten into. I wish I knew, too.

Once we get back to the mainland, I'll turn him over to the cops. He's weak. He'll give up Arc. Hopefully, it'll be enough to put them permanently out of business.

Reggie comes through the door pushing Micah. Tanya follows behind him like a drone, blinking and shuffling. I wish I knew what they've done to her. She should've gotten over her shock by now. She's nothing like the bubbly woman I briefly met on the bus.

“
I'll drive,” Reggie volunteers. He's back to his old self, that's for sure.

I shrug, and no one argues with him. They all make their way to the open car. Everyone just wants to get back home.

I take Micah's wheelchair from Reggie and enter the car, finding a space that's not in the way. Jake brings the cart in and positions it next to Micah. Then he settles himself down in the adjacent seat, smoldering. I wait until Ashley brings Tanya in, leading her by the elbow. They sit down across the aisle from the boys. Jake watches them both for a moment, rubbing the bandage on the back of his neck. He suddenly looks completely depleted. They all do, especially Kelly.

Stephen stumbles in, Kelly poking him in the back with the pistol. “Sit down and don't move!” he snarls. But even I can tell it's more bark than bite.

Stephen just lowers his head into his hands and tries to wrap himself up. He looks like a man condemned to early conscription. A bubble of sympathy floats through me before I remember what he's a party to. Even if not entirely aware of all the details, he's still guilty of some complicity.

I join Reggie in the engineer's compartment and tell him we're ready to go. I watch him as he turns a key. Dials spring to life. A half dozen gauges do their brief jiggity electrical dances before steadying. We have power and brake pressure and who knows what else. It's old tech and I don't really understand much of it. It reminds me a lot of Micah's old Ford. All I know it that it still works, so somebody must've been maintaining it all this time.

A low hum vibrates the air.

“
I guess that means everything's good,” Reggie says. “No red flashing lights or alarm bells. No sirens. No explosions.” He gives me little shrug and grins.

The word ‘explosion' sets me on edge again. “Let's go then,” I say impatiently.

I know it's just nerves, but I can't shake the feeling that something's not right. It's been troubling me ever since I broke out of my room. Maybe I'm just being extra paranoid, but ever since finding out that our ‘impromptu' plan to break into LI was really part of a larger scheme involving Arc, I've been second guessing everything, every decision, every move.

How did they know? Who could've told them? Jake?

Grandpa?

God, we thought we were being clever and secretive, a bunch of juveniles getting away with random crap that we really had no business messing around in. The only part of our excursion that was truly our own decision and not Arc's was when we came back. And we screwed that up.

Who can I trust? Who
can't
I?

It makes me suspect everything that happened, starting with Reggie's suggestion to come here in the first place.

Was our earlier attempt to hack
The Game
some kind of trigger that set our path?

What about when we hacked the old government computers for the maps?

And my faulty rebreather in the tunnel. Accidental or intentional?

How about the sudden appearance of the zombies on LI?

Was meeting Tanya on the bus part of the plan?

Reggie curls his fingers over a control lever and slowly pulls it down. The external doors close. A bell chimes and a female voice announces that we'll be moving soon. There's a chuff of air as the brakes release. I brace myself, but we don't move.

“
What's going on? Why aren't we going?”

He shakes his head and studies the control panel. The he reaches over and pushes a red button with the palm of his hand. The train car lurches. We begin to move.

“
Seems our friend was holding out on us. It's not just a lever. It's a lever
and
a button.”

I hope it's the last surprise.

“
Let's go home, Reg.”

“
I'm with you on that one, girl,” he replies. “And never come back, neither.”

‡ ‡

[END OF EPISODE TWO]

I wait for the tram
to pick up speed, but it just clicks quietly along at a steady pace, no faster than a jog. At this rate, it'll take us an hour to get to the mainland.

“
Must be low on power,” Reggie says.

“
See if you can figure it out.”

The darkness of the tunnel envelops us and we're left in the meager glow of the safety LCD lamps shining down on us from the ceiling of the car. They turn Reggie into a pale ghost.

“
Let me know if you see anything strange.” I point at the grainy black and white image showing the leading end of the tram and the tracks that lie ahead. He nods. “Give us a couple minutes warning before we get to the mainland side. I want to make sure we're prepared for whatever might be waiting for us.”

“
What do you think is waiting for us?”

“
I don't know, Reg.”

I also have no idea how he'll know when we're getting close, but I trust he'll figure it out.

I open the compartment door and head back to the main car where the others are seated. Nobody talks or moves. The door slides shut behind me.

I wish I could shake this feeling of unease, or at least understand what's causing it, but the stress is making me even more lightheaded than I already am. I can feel it in the back of my head at the base of my skull, a dull pressure, radiating toward the front. It feels like a caffeine headache, the kind I get when I drink too much caffeine too fast.

Kelly stands up and walks over. When I gesture for him to sit, he settles into the hard plastic seat next to me.

“
I'm sorry about back there,” he says. “I was just so crazy worried about you, and then, when I saw you, I just about lost it.”

I sigh and try to rub the tension out of my neck. I don't say anything. I can't even think straight right now.

“
I want you to know why I did what I did, Jess.”

“
I think I already know,” I say. “It's all right. Micah told me. He said it was for love and responsibility. He said you did it for Kyle.”

“
For you, Jessie. I did it for you. I wanted to protect you.”

I'm tired of that old argument. It doesn't hold water with me anymore. “You see,” I tell him, “that's the part I don't understand. Your brother Kyle? I get that. You needed money for his hospital bills, so he can get the treatment. What I don't get is all the rest.”

“
You figured that out then, the part about the bills and needing money.” Kelly exhales heavily and looks away, pinching his nose. “Yes, the first time we went, that was more about Kyle. But it's not what you think.”

“
What I think? What I think is that I can't believe you kept it from me. You ask me to spend the rest of my life with you, and then you turn around and keep secrets from me. How am I supposed to trust you?”

“
It's because I love you that I kept these things
from
you. I love you, Jessie.”

“
What did Arc want you to do in return? Be a Volunteer?”

“
What? No! I would never do that!”

Kelly sags away from me, holding his head in his hands. For a moment I think he's crying, but then quickly dismiss the idea, so I'm surprised to see his face is wet when he looks up.