S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND, Season One Omnibus (89 page)

I frown at him. How could he possibly believe that? As bad as it is in New Merica, this is so much worse.

“
Father Heall has been bringing the Children together,” he adds. As if it explains everything. “He has given us purpose.”

Children?
I have to keep from rolling my eyes and crying out in disbelief. They're all whack jobs, a cult of zombie lovers. Or haters—I'm still not exactly clear on that. New age whack jobs, as Kelly said.

I wave a dismissive hand at the small pile of leaves that Brother Matthew collected earlier. Some of the leaves have been made into a slurry in a plastic bowl. The rest have been bundled and tied with twine. One end is burnt, and the air smells of incense. “And that?” I ask.

“
A slurry of willow leaves,” Brother Matthew says, holding up the bowl. “Willow contains an analgesic. The other is mugwort. When held against the skin and burned, some of the bad spirit is drawn out.”

Dear lord, really? Voodoo magic. Herbal medicine. What next?

Brother Matthew grows indignant at the look on my face. “There are rational,
scientific
, bases for why these work!” he says.

“
Science has been outlawed,” I tell him. “I'm beginning to think so has rationality.”

“
Outlawing the truth doesn't make it go away.”

“
Fine. Whatever. You still haven't told me why you're here.”

“
We followed the Deceivers.”

“
How did you get in?”

“
The gate was open. The power was shut off.”

“
What are you talking about? Nobody turned off the power!”

“
Somebody accessed the panel by the gate.”

“
Bullshit!”

Brother Matthew sighs. “There's a switch inside a panel by the main gate. It controls both the lock and the voltage running through the fence and is accessed by a keypad. Someone here either knew the code or guessed correctly. They turned off the electricity, which incidentally also unlocks the gate. We followed the Elders and the Deceivers right in. Then we found your friends.”

I cringe. Nobody knew the code. It must've happened when Kelly overloaded the circuitry. The surge must've tripped the controls.

“
We reset the switch, but this is what happens when you kids start messing with things you have no idea about,” Brother Matthew says.

“
It was a power surge! It nearly electrocuted my boyfr— It nearly killed Kelly. Nobody intentionally turned it off!”

Brother Matthew frowns. “A power surge wouldn't physically open the panel and key in the proper code to shut off the current.”

My eyes drop to Jake, but I immediately dismiss the idea. First of all, how would he know the code to the access panel?

Lucky guess?

Unlikely. Even a simple four-digit sequence would have ten thousand number combinations. Not impossible but highly improbable. Maybe one of us could do it by hacking in, but not him.

Pretty sure he's got a few secrets he's not telling us.

Is that what Kelly meant earlier? Did Jake do it? He certainly had opportunity.

I still don't believe it. Why would anyone want to mess with something like that? Why would any of us want a bunch of Undead to gain access? I shake my head. “I don't care what you think. Nobody here opened that gate.”

Both men purse their lips, but they don't argue.

“
And why were you following the Players in the first place?” I ask.

“
It's our job.”

“
Your job? What, like, you get paid to babysit them or something?”

“
Something like that.”

“
So, you
do
work for Arc.”

“
We don't.”

They're both getting more and more impatient with me, and this just makes me all the more impatient with them in return.

“
Look, okay, thanks for helping my friends. But right now, as you can see, we've got some heavy shit to deal with. You say we can't move Jake, fine. But we still need to get Ashley's Link back, because without it, we can't leave your little Garden of Eden. I've got three days to get my bo—to get Kelly back to Arc so he can be cured—”

Brother Matthew's head pops up. “Arc has a cure?” He turns to Brother Nicholas, who shakes his head. “We would've heard if they'd developed one.”

“
Excuse me,” I say, “but you've been here for thirteen years. There's probably a lot you haven't heard about.”

“
We may be isolated, but it doesn't mean we're out of touch.”

Brother Nicholas clears his throat. Turning to me, he says, “The boy in the elevator, Kelly, he's your boyfriend? He's infected, too?”

I nod.

“
When was he bitten?”

“
It wasn't a bite. He was injected.”

The men exchange another troubled glance. “Enoch?” Nicholas says, and Matthew nods. “Excuse us for a moment,” they say and then move off to talk in private.

“
What aren't you telling me?” I ask, but they ignore me.

 

I speak softly, more so that I can still hear the men talking—even if I can't make out all the words—than for privacy. Something about the way they're arguing gives me hope. For what exactly, I'm not sure, but their disagreement suggests to me that there may be something to hope for.

Ashley shrugs. She eyes the men and says, “Haven't heard a peep from the boys in a while. I hope that's a good thing.”

I nod and shrug. The elevator call button taunts me. I want so badly to push it, to bring them all back with Ashley's Link, but I know if Kelly's down below, the car could crush him.

“
It's just so hard to stand by and do nothing,” she says.

“
I know.”

I feel restless and helpless, too, especially now that we've come up with a way to bypass the failsafe—
Micah's
failsafe. It's not ideal, nor is it a permanent fix, but at least it'll get us off the island and out of direct harm's way. Despite knowing that Kelly's infection isn't going to be fatal—not in the short run, anyhow—I've still got this feeling of urgency in me. I don't know if it's instinct or a sense of impending doom, but something inside of me has been telling me to hurry.

But now, because of Jake's poor judgment, leaving seems just that much further out of reach. If it weren't for him, we'd have been back on the road already and heading out of here. We could've been outside of Gameland by noon and most of the way back to LaGuardia by nightfall. Manhattan by tomorrow night at the latest.

One simple selfish act and now nothing is so simple anymore.

Who will make sure he doesn't come back?

It has to be me. I don't want Kelly to do it. He's always been a healer; he doesn't need this on his conscience. And Micah's out of the question. If he really is a traitor, then Jake deserves better. And forget Ashley. Never happen. Which leaves me and Reggie.

And I can't see Reggie doing it, either.

Ash glances at the men, still deep in discussion. “What are they talking about?” she whispers. “Do you think they can help us?”

I glance over. Brother Nicholas is still nodding and Brother Matthew is still shaking his head. What the hell do they have to argue about for so long? The latter is rubbing his shoulder. The collar of his shirt pulls down and I see a scar there, almost white and standing in sharp contrast against his sun-browned skin.
It's a hard life
, Brother Nicholas' voice whispers at me. But the mark looks familiar.

Who the hell are they?

The bell for the elevator dings and the soft chug and whisper of the motor inside comes to us. I'm only remotely aware of it. Ashley grips my arm in anticipation. She thinks that we'll be able to leave as soon as she gets her Link back. But first there's one piece of business that needs to be finished: Jake.

…ding…

That nasty-looking scar on Matthew's shoulder.

“
Jessie?” I'm only dimly aware of Ashley squeezing my arm. I ignore it.

…ding…

“
The boys are coming back.”

…ding…

“
We'll be able to go home.”

Except now I know for sure we won't be. Not anytime soon.

…ding…

“
Jessie, what are you looking at? Hey!” She shakes me.

“
What?”

“
The boys are coming back. We'll be able to leave.”

…ding…

I blink stupidly at her, the half-formed thought in my head quickly fading. I feel like I was right on the edge of understanding something very important.

“
What?” I snap, irritated.

“
What are you looking at?”

I turn my eyes back to the opposite side of the room, to where the men are still talking. Matthew rubs his shoulder and there's that scar again. I can't stop staring at it. I'm sure I've seen something like it before, but where? It looks—

For some reason Kwanjangnim Rupert comes to mind.

“
What are we going to do about Jake?”

Not Master Rupert, but Brother Nicholas. It's the same odd, circular brand that's on Brother Nicholas' hand.

…ding…

“
Who's going to do it, Jessie?”

I turn to her and say, “Nobody, Ash. He's not going to die.”

Because what I'm looking at isn't a brand, it's a bite.

 

“Why didn't you tell me
you already had a cure?” I demand, pushing Brother Nicholas aside and confronting Matthew.

He looks over at me in surprise.

“
What makes you think we have a cure?”

“
Don't bullshit me!” I grab Brother Nicholas' hand and hold it up so everyone can see it. “This is a bite. A
human
bite! Just like the one on your shoulder. Don't even try to tell me it isn't.”

Brother Nicholas yanks his hand back. “It doesn't matter. Even if we did have a cure—which we don't—we still wouldn't be able to help your friend. I'm sorry, but we just can't help him.”

“
Can't or won't?”

“
If it were possible, we would, but—”

“
You were infected, weren't you?” I demand. “You were bitten, and yet you've survived. How else could you have if there's no cure?”

Behind me, the elevator dings one last time and the doors open. I ignore them.

“
Where is the cure?” I shout.

Brother Matthew looks away.

I turn to Brother Nicholas. He opens his mouth to speak, but then Ashley lets out a wail of despair. I spin around and find her collapsed on the floor, the three boys surrounding her. Reggie is on his knees with his arm around her shoulders. I hurry over and ask what's going on.

Kelly's eyes lock onto mine. His face is smeared with soot and grease. He gives me a quick shake of his head.

“
You didn't get her Link?”

“
I couldn't reach it.”

“
Bullshit!” I march over to the door and look down through the crack in the floor. “There has to be a way. I can see it. It's right there!”

“
There's a cage, but it's padlocked.”

I stare at him for a moment, completely dumfounded. “Really?” I finally say. “What about the bolt cutter? Remember? Do I have to do all the thinking around here?”

Kelly shakes his head again. “Would if I could, but there's not enough space down there. The angle's all wrong.” He holds his hands about a foot apart.

I shake my head and anger flairs up inside of me. “No! I don't believe it. There has to be a way.”

“
We'll keep trying.”

I raise my hands to my face and hold them there for a moment. I want so badly to cry, to just crumple to the floor. I can't do this anymore.

But I have to.

I drop my hands and take a deep breath. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have freaked out like that.”

Kelly waves it off. “It's not hopeless. We can see her Link. It's just not going to be as easy as we thought.” He turns and points at the men. “I thought I heard someone say something about a cure.”

“
They have one. They're denying it, but—”

“
Now hold on,” Brother Matthew says. He comes over, Brother Nicholas trailing behind. “We don't have a cure.”

I reach over and grab his shirt and yank it down. Brother Matthew doesn't try to resist. He sighs and shakes his head and turns away.

“
What am I looking at?” Kelly asks.

“
The scar,” I tell him. “What does it look like?”

He shrugs. “I don't know. A nasty burn or something?”

“
It's a bite. From one of the Infecteds.” I pull up Brother Nicholas' hand. “This is, too. They've been bitten—
ages
ago—and yet they're fine.”

Both Reggie and Ash look up, startled. Ashley sniffles, her tears completely forgotten. “Is it true? Can you cure Jake?”

Micah shakes his head angrily. “There's no cure!” he stubbornly insists. “Everyone knows that.”