S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND: Season Two Omnibus (Episodes 9-11) (110 page)

“What are
you
doing here?” she sobbed.

I was supposed to be your Player. That was the plan.

“What plan?” she shrieked as she scrambled away. “What the fuck are you talking about? Why the fuck can I hear you?”

She gripped her head, certain she was losing her sanity.

Quiet! You need to be quiet and listen.

Listen? She needed to run!

She crab-crawled away, terrified, confused. What the hell was going on?

Dead Micah let out another moan as he pushed himself up. He resumed his steady creep toward her.

“Oh my god, Micah. Oh my god! What the hell are you?”

I said be quiet!

Jessie got to her feet. She could hear other sounds now in the woods around her, leaves crunching underfoot, twigs snapping.

“I'm going nuts,” she muttered. She spun around to get her bearings. The shuffling noises were getting closer, louder. She heard more moans. “It's finally happened.” She grabbed her sword. “I've fucking lost my mind. I can hear dead people.”

Micah planted a foot beneath him and rose.
We're not dead, Jessie.

“Yes, you are! You're dead! You're fucking dead!”

She pushed him down and started to run. She'd had enough.

The network's down, Jessie!

Leave me alone!
she screamed in her mind.
Go away!

She could hear dead Micah lurching after her, but he was far enough away that he couldn't reach her. She turned around. “This isn't happening.”

The knees of his Player's uniform were torn, and a viscous bright red goo was seeping out.

Go away!
she screamed in her head.
Go the fuck away!

But he just kept coming.

“I don't want to talk to you,” she cried. She was sobbing now. “I don't want this to be true.”

We're connected, Jessie.

He'd closed the distance between them. Thirty feet now. With each ungainly step he shortened it by another foot. Behind him, Jessie saw another figure emerge from the trees.

No
, she thought.
I don't want to be connected to you.

You have to speak out loud to me, Jessie. I have to hear your words.

“No!” she screamed, then clamped her hand over her mouth in horror.

The second Infected turned toward the sound of her voice. A third stepped out from the trees and into its path. The pair collided and almost fell over.

Behind you, Jess.

She spun around and saw two more, not ten feet away. She'd been so focused on him that she hadn't even heard the others coming out of the trees. They lunged just as she raised the sword, deflecting it. It twisted in her hand and clattered to the road. They were on her then, sprawling into the mud.

She fell beneath them, the impact knocking the wind from her lungs. Something hard in her backpack jabbed her painfully in the ribs and spine. One of the two zombies had bounced off, but it was coming around again.

She tried to yell, but all she could manage was a breathless wheeze.

I can't help you, Jessie. I can't control my body anymore.

The zombie on top of her was jerking in a strange way. It seemed to be having trouble moving. Jessie struggled to push it away but it wouldn't budge. Her shoulder screamed as she reached up with both hands and shoved.

The other one was back on its feet. It hissed at her and fell onto the pile. Another shallow gust of air left her chest. Her lungs refused to inflate.

Slide to your right, Jessie.

She wanted to tell the thing that was Micah to shut the fuck up, but she knew it was all in her head, the stress of seeing him dead like this, combined with the lack of oxygen to her brain, lack of food, lack of sleep. He wasn't talking to her. She wasn't hearing him. He was dead.

To your right I said!

She could feel her arms growing weaker, her mind shutting down.

Hurry!

She heard the scrape of his shoes just a couple yards away, sensed him getting closer.

I can't help myself.

It sounded so corny, like something Reggie would say to Ash, that Jessie actually laughed out loud. Air pushed into her lungs and a little bit of the fog in her mind lifted. It was just enough to get her moving again.

She reached up with her bad hand and shoved the two dead things to her left. They wouldn't budge, but she felt herself slide a little to the right.

They're stuck. Hurry!

They were clawing at her. She could feel their bony fingers on her face and arms, scratching, trying to grab her. Trying to pull her to their gaping mouths rather than bringing their mouths to her. She grabbed the ears of the bottom one and smashed its head up and into the skull of the other. It pulled away, taking a chunk of the leathery scalp between its teeth. It chewed for a moment, then opened its jaws to moan again, and the dead flesh fell out.

She finally managed to push herself out from underneath the pile. She jumped to her feet just as Micah stepped to her side, and she grabbed him by the collar and spun him around. He nearly fell, but she held him up.

“That's the problem with these uniforms Arc puts you in,” she grunted, as she shoved him back toward the second pair of zombies. “They're too loose.”

One of them fell over, while the other spun away. Micah somehow remained on his feet. He immediately twisted around and came right back at her.

Jessie grabbed the sword from the ground. The first two were still lying in the dirt like a pair of beetles on their backs. Something was sticking out of the one on top. She raised her arm to strike them with the sword.

Wait!

“Shut up! Shut the fuck up!” she screamed at Micah. She drew her arm back, faced him, then thrust the blade straight forward. The point pierced the eye socket of the zombie behind him and exited the back of its head. It slowed but didn't stop the monster's advance.

Spinning away, Jessie pulled down on the hilt, brutally wrenching its head down. She used its body to block Micah from getting at her. He tripped and went sprawling.

Now, leaning against the weight on the end of her sword, Jessie kicked out at the IU getting back to its feet. Her heel connected with the side of its head, which hinged back with a resounding crack. It fell, but started to rise again.

“Damn it! I'm getting really sick of doing this!” she hissed, and she yanked the katana out, slashing hard while doing it. The left half of the monster's skull separated, and it fell motionless to the ground. In the same sweeping movement, she redirected the blade downward and sliced through the other's neck. It, too, fell silent.

She raised the sword and pointed it at Micah once again. Her arm was shaking badly, and for a moment she wasn't sure she even had the strength to finish him off. “Stay out of my head!”

He stepped toward her, reaching out with his lifeless hands. She stepped back, keeping the distance between them constant.

“Please. Just get out of my head.”

Listen to me, Jess.

“Fuck you. Stay away from me.”

I can't. I wish I could, but I can't
. He stepped forward, pressing his chest against the point of the sword. He pushed harder, forcing Jessie's elbow to bend.

“No, please. I don't want to.”

The tip dug into his chest, and soon a dark red stain began to bloom there.

You have to hurry, Jessie.

“I can't.”

Tie me up. Chop off my arms. Please, Jess. You have to stop me.

“You're already dead.”

My body, but not the part that matters. I'm still me inside.

He pushed harder and the tip pierced deeper into the flesh. It stopped when it hit bone. Once more, there was no knowing by the look on his face if it hurt him.

I can't feel a thing, Jess.

She twisted the sword a quarter turn, heard the edge of the blade scrape against bone. She watched it sink even deeper. Two inches. Four. He didn't stop pushing. Finally, she relented and pulled away.

“You can't feel that?”

No. I can't feel anything. I can't control anything.

Jessie whimpered. She didn't want to hear him. She didn't want him in her head. She didn't want to believe he was still alive.

“I'm going crazy.”

You're not
, he told her. He stepped forward; she stepped back.
I'm still me, Jess, but this body isn't mine anymore.

His hand swiped clumsily at the blade, trying to bat it away. She forced her arm to go rigid again, burying more of the metal into his chest. This time, she knew it had pierced his heart.

I was supposed to be yours, Jessie.

This time, she didn't laugh at how corny it sounded.

“I'm sorry you loved me, Micah, but—”

Your Player. I was supposed to be your Player.

She frowned. “What? I don't understand.”

It was the only way to make sure. And now I know, just like you need to know, Jessie.

She shook her head slightly, then again more firmly. “No!”

This is bigger than you. Bigger than me.

“No.”

It's about Arc and the battle to control us, control our minds.

He pressed forward. She could feel the sword meet some new resistance, a back rib, or maybe his shoulder blade. The front of his uniform was gummy with coagulated blood.

“I could kill you now, Micah. I should. You're an abomination.”

This body, maybe. And when it comes time, I hope and pray that you will, but not just yet. Right now, you need me.

With a cry, she thrust the sword forward with all her strength. Micah fell back a step. But then whatever bone the sword was caught up on slipped and the tip ripped through his back. He sunk toward her, stopping only when his chest met the guard. He reached for her face.

Even with her arm fully extended, he could reach her. He was taller than she, his arms longer. His palm brushed her cheek, fell to her good shoulder. He began to squeeze and the strength in his grip was incredible.

She twisted away with a yelp, this time withdrawing the sword completely. Off balance, Micah stumbled past her, exposing the back of his neck. She raised the sword and aimed.

But she still couldn't kill him. How could she? What if she really wasn't crazy?

She spun around and knocked him to the ground, then fell on top, pinning one arm beneath him and wrenching the other up to his shoulder blades. If he were alive, the move would've incapacitated him. But he wasn't alive, or at least he couldn't feel pain. He squirmed beneath her.

She dropped the sword and reached back and removed the laces from his right boot and used them to bind his hands. Then she used the other lace to tie his ankles to his wrists so he couldn't get up.

Only now did she return her attention to the first two zombies, the ones that had fallen on her. They were still on the ground, and she realized that they were impaled onto some sort of long, flat metal object that had become embedded in the ground. It was a piece of a helicopter blade. The first zombie must've been carrying it around in its chest for the past couple of weeks. She was lucky it hadn't landed directly on top of her when they fell.

“What about you two?” she said to them. “Are you going to speak to me, too? Are you in there somewhere?”

They are, but they can't.

“That's right, and neither can you, Micah, because you're all dead!”

Trapped, Jessie. We're all trapped. They can hear you, they just can't speak to you.

She turned to Micah, frowning.

“They've been dead for a dozen years! Are you saying . . . ?”

Trapped all this time.

A whimper escaped her lips. “They're dead.”

Only their bodies.

“And so are you.”

We're connected, Jessie. You and me. That's why you can hear me. I programmed our implants to connect in case I died.

“You knew this would happen?”

There was a long pause before he answered.
I wasn't sure, but I needed to know. I needed
you
to know.

“So you allowed yourself to be conscripted on a
theory
?” Her voice rose, despite knowing she needed to keep quiet. She couldn't help herself. “You died just to prove you really hadn't died? That's fucked, Micah.”

I was right, wasn't I?

“Don't sound so smug.” She kicked at the two stuck zombies. “So, Jake? And Master Rupert? Am I connected to them, too?”

Micah didn't answer.

“I heard them.”

No. Your implants aren't connected.

The zombies on the ground were still struggling, and by now the chopper blade had sliced open their abdomens and spilled their guts onto the road.

You'd do them a favor killing them, Jessie.

“You don't know that!” she snapped. She turned to the thing that still looked like Micah, still spoke to her in his voice. “You can't know that.”

I do. And when this is over—

“It is over.” Jessie lifted the katana over her head. But she still couldn't do it.

Jessie.

“No!” She bent down over him and sliced away the laces she'd just knotted up. “Get up.”

Jessie, I think the Stream is coming back. You need to know something. It's about the person who's my Operator.

He lumbered to his feet. At first his movements were clumsy, but then something seemed to shift inside of him, as if a switch had been flipped. He raised himself up to full height, and he was different than he was just a moment before. Now he looked almost alive. His movements were more fluid. He seemed stronger, filled with purpose.

“Micah?”

The Stream's back. My Operator, Jess, she wants to kill you. I can feel it. I'm sorry. You need to run!

He began to circle around her, instead of lunging straight at her as one of the Uncontrolled Infected would do.

“I'm not done,” she said, keeping out of reach.

There's no time!

She dropped the sword, let it clatter to her feet.