S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND, Season One Omnibus (88 page)

“
Nothing Stephen told us is reliable. You know that, Jess.”

“
Regardless, I can't believe Micah wrote something that would've kept us all trapped here, including himself. Hell, it could've killed us all!”

“
Shh!”

“
Why would he, Kel? He's always been about sticking it to companies like Arc, hacking their software and trashing their firmware. Why would he work
for
them?”

“
I don't know. But Ashley has proof. She showed me. Remember when she sent him her fix and he was supposed to be checking it? She knew it wouldn't work; she knew Micah would easily have figured that out, too. But he never said a single word about it.”

“
He did to me. He knew.”

Kelly frowns and steps back. “No.” He shakes his head. “There are way too many similarities in the failsafe program's code with his hacks. Too many of his signatures. I didn't want to believe it at first, either, but it's undeniable.”

“
Like what?”

“
Remember that light saber hack he'd written for
Zpocalypto
? Turns out the sequence of codes he used for that little bit of magic was the exact same sequence used for part of the failsafe—not just the code, of course, but the god damn
architecture
of the executable files.”

“
Yeah, but—”

“
He used the exact same registry codes, Jess.”

I shrug. “So? You sent Arc the hack, didn't you? Remember? You told me you had. Maybe Stephen got a hold of it and—”

“
Yeah, like one or two days before,” he says. But then he balks. “Shit! I also sent Arc the tracker Micah wrote. Christ Almighty.”

“
I don't know, Kel…”

He runs his fingers through his hair and exhales. “Please, you have to believe me. We can't trust—”

I bump him with my elbow. “He's coming over.”

Kelly turns around in time to see them getting up and walking over to us. We step out of the elevator car to meet them.

“
We're going to try again to get Ashley's Link,” Reggie tells us.

“
How?”

“
There's a small access hatch in the ceiling. I'm too big to fit through it and Ashley's too short to reach the ladder on the wall.”

“
I could do it!” Ash protests. “I'm not
that
short.”

Reggie throws his arm around her shoulders and squeezes, but he doesn't argue. “I don't want Jessie trying it, not with her shoulder hurt.” He gives me a sad grin. “You look like someone used you for a punching bag.”

I open my mouth to protest, then change my mind. “Okay, so it's either Micah or Kelly, then.”

Reggie stiffens at the mention of Micah's name, which tells me he knows, too. He doesn't want Micah anywhere close to Ashley's Link. I guess I wouldn't either, except what's to stop Micah from doing something to her Link remotely? He could do it. Still…

“
I'll do it,” Kelly says. Reggie hands him a flashlight.

“
There's not enough space beneath the floor of the car and the bottom of the shaft for you to crawl into, so after you're on the ladder inside the shaft, we'll ride the car up topside again to move it out of the way. I'll take Micah up with me to scout around.”

Micah frowns. “Is that necessary? I thought I'd check out the mainframe.”

“
Naw, it's cool, brah,” Reggie replies, maybe a bit too eagerly. “Besides, I need you to watch my back.” He gives Micah a smile that doesn't fool anyone.

“
Check on Shinji for me,” I tell Micah, and he nods. His face is back to being stoic again.

As I turn to make my way over to Jake, I hear Reggie ask what Shinji is.

“
Not what, who,” Micah answers. “I'll explain on the elevator ride up.”

 

“I'm afraid your friend
will turn soon if we can't manage his fever.”

I turn to face the man who suddenly appears beside me. I hadn't heard him approach, and it raises the hair on my neck.

“
He's in very serious condition.”

“
Isn't there somewhere we can take him? Something we can do?”

“
Out in this heat?” He shakes his head. “Not recommended. He was lucky to be here when it happened. Outside, he'd definitely turn by sundown. Besides, you'll want to keep him still. Movement only hastens the disease. Although, you know it's just delaying the inevitable.”

I close my eyes for a moment as the truth of this finally comes clear: Jake won't be going home with us. He's got less than two days left to live before he dies and reanimates. Two days, before one of us will have to put him out of his misery. No, less than two days. This man is suggesting that we quiet him now.

“
I'm sorry…” I'm barely able to keep my voice from breaking on the sob welling up inside of me. I swallow hard and steel my nerves, trying to recall the man's name, but for the life of me I can't remember it. “Who the hell exactly are you? And why are you even here? I didn't think there were live people in Gameland.”

He doesn't seem surprised by my hysteria or flinch at the withering glare I give him. “My name is Brother Nicholas,” he quietly answers. “You've met Brother Matthew.”

He pauses, perhaps waiting for me to give him my name. When I don't, he gestures at a chair and tells me to sit. I do, suddenly grateful to take the weight of the world off my feet.

“
My name's Jessie,” I tell him. It's an effort just to speak. I give him no last name. I won't. So far, a first name is all he's given me, and who's to say it's even his real name?

“
You're the leader of this group?” he asks.

“
Hardly.”

“
That young man you were just talking with indicated that you are.” He gestures at Kelly, who's feet are disappearing through the ceiling of the elevator car. This little tidbit of information both surprises and bolsters me, despite recent setbacks. But then the thought crosses my mind that it also makes me responsible for our being here, not to mention everything we've done and everything that has happened to us. I'm not ready for that kind of pressure. Nor do I deserve it. I didn't cause what happened to Jake. That one's all on himself.

“
Well, he might think I'm in charge, but he's probably the only one who thinks so.” I point to Jake. “Until this happened, he was in supposed to be charge.”

“
Be that as it may,” Brother Nicholas says, and I can tell he doesn't believe a word I've just told him, “it seems you're in charge now.” He waves Matthew over to join him.

Brother
Matthew, I remind myself.

To my mind, the ‘Brother' part just sounds stupid and pretentious, like a role they're playing. But I tell myself that until we know a little more about these people and what they want, until we know for sure they're not going hurt us, then we'd better just play along.

Brother Matthew comes over and stands on the opposite side of the table and waits. Ashley glances warily over at us but stays put by the elevator. The doors are shutting, which tells me that Kelly is now somewhere inside the elevator shaft. I hope and pray he'll be able to get Ashley's Link without hurting himself. I keep picturing all those cables and pulleys inside the shaft and all the tight little spaces and Kelly getting tangled up in them. So much could go wrong.

I push the images aside. I have to trust that he'll be okay.

“
Do you want to explain to us what you kids are doing here?” Brother Matthew finally asks.

“
You first,” I answer. I've already decided I don't like him as much as Brother Nicholas. Not that I like either of them all that much.

He gives me a hard look.

Brother Nicholas coughs into his hand, then quietly says, “We're just trying to understand what's going on here.”

“
Not that it's any of your business,” I snap.

He exhales through his teeth, whistling with frustration. “We know you're from the real world. We know you don't particularly want to be here.” He gestures at the table. “What we can't tell is whether you came here of your own volition and, if so, why.”

I study the dirt in my fingernails for a moment. What are the answers to those questions? No matter how I answer, I'm being dishonest. “We're not Volunteers, if that's what you mean. Or these Deceiver things, as you call them.”

“
Good. That's a good start. Now, look, we're not your enemy. In fact, if my guess is correct, we're on the same side.”

“
And what side would that be?”

He raises an eyebrow.

“
Arc?” I ask.

“
Are you saying you're not with them? If so, then we can help each other out.”

“
You want
my
trust? Maybe you should start by telling me a bit more about who you are and why I should believe you're not part of Arc's sick plans for us.”

Brother Matthew and Brother Nicholas glance at each other. Something passes between them. I see the latter give a slight nod. Brother Matthew takes in a deep breath and says, “My name was once Egan Wallach. Before the evacuation, I was a post-graduate fellow in neurochemistry at Brookhaven.”

“
Left behind? Or did you stay willingly?”

“
I was caught in the lab running an experiment, a rather…extensive and complicated one. I was dosing cells in dishes with—” He waves his hand distractedly. “The exact details don't matter now. What matters is that I didn't heed the evacuation orders until it was too late. I didn't make it out in time.”

“
And him?”

“
Born Thomas Nguyen.” He offers his hand, but I don't shake it. “Right. Anyway, I was a stock broker in Manhattan. My family and I were vacationing in Mashomack—in one of the stilt cabins at the very tip of Long Island. Fishing, you know? Anyway, when the evacuation was called, we packed up as quickly as we could and managed to get back in through the eastern wall and across the island. But there was a ten-mile traffic backup just getting to the bridges to Manhattan. Took us sixteen hours to go four miles. Everything was jammed up and the outbreak was spreading fast. We didn't want to get caught in it, so we got out of the car and started walking.” His face blanches. “The Elders—sorry, the Undead—were everywhere. We ran, hard, and got to the bridges just as the military started bombing them.”

“
Your family? Where are they now?”

“
My wife and two sons were… They were bitten.” His face shows nothing, but I can hear it in his voice, the sorrow and bitterness. For some people, thirteen years might be enough to heal over the scars of watching your loved ones being turned into zombies. Apparently Brother Nicholas' scars are still raw. “All but my youngest daughter. She was a year old during the evacuation. I was carrying her in my arms as we were running. Lissa—” His voice breaks, and now the past begins to show through on his face. “My wife tripped. Bennie and Kyle stopped to help her, my sons. At least I still have my daughter. She's almost fourteen now.”

“
I'm sorry about the rest of them,” I tell him.

He coughs and blinks away the wetness in his eyes. “I couldn't save them. I…” He looks at Brother Matthew. “I did what needed to be done. They're at rest now.”

He lays a hand on Jake, as if to send the message to me that it's now my turn to do what's right. But how can I? Killing Tanya was one thing, and I would've done it if needed. But this is somehow different. I don't know why, but it just is.

“
How many people were trapped on the island with you?” I ask.

Brother Nicholas sighs. “At first, thousands. Tens of thousands, maybe.”

I'd always been told it was just a few hundred. Even though there were rumors that it was much more, none of us ever truly believed them. “Where are they all now?”

“
Most are gone. Turned. Laid to rest. There aren't that many of us survivors left. A hundred maybe?”

Brother Matthew nods in agreement.

“
Why do you even stay?”

“
What choice did we have?” Brother Nicholas says. “There's the wall, of course. Many of us considered climbing over it or blasting through it. Some tried. I never heard from them again. Besides, then what? The waters surrounding the island are mined. We tried escaping by flying out. A group of people with me took a couple of small planes at Calverton Airfield. There were two pilots in our group; I was one. I was flying the second plane, my daughter sitting in back, when a missile came out of nowhere and blew the first one out of the sky. We barely made it back to the ground. After that, the military came in and—”

He fingers a long scar running the length of his arm, but what catches my attention is the strange mark on the back of his other hand. It looks a little like a fraternity brand: two perfectly shaped semi-circles, omegas, their horns not quite touching. The scar tissue has knitted thickly over them. There's nothing like it on Brother Matthew's hands, so if it is a fraternity mark, it's not one they both belonged to.

“
After a while, the thought of escape leaves you and survival becomes second nature. It's a hard life, as you can imagine, but now I wouldn't trade it, not for what's on the outside.”