S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND: Season Two Omnibus (Episodes 9-11) (40 page)

The gear compartment on the bus was still open, but so was the driver's door. She could see neither the driver nor the guard.

It's now or never.

Six feet separated her and the bus, much of it illuminated from the low floodlight mounted on the corner of the guard shack. The Live Players were still piling in, towering tall above her, gawking at the Undead Players not more than a few feet away. They were jostling each other for the closest seats to them, their machismo on full display. No one was looking out the windows.

The driver stood at the front of the bus yelling at everyone to just take whatever seat was empty. He was trying to count heads. Jessie shrunk against the front of the shack and steeled herself. Pulling the straps on her pack tight one final time, she stepped out into the light. At the exact same moment, the gate guard exited the shack to her left.

“Hold up!” he shouted. Jessie froze. But the man two-stepped through the gap without even looking over at her. “One last check!” He stepped up into the driver's compartment.

Jessie sucked in a sharp breath and rolled herself into the luggage space, her heart hammering away. She cursed her bad timing, thanked her lucky stars.

But she immediately realized she'd just traded in one set of problems for another. The compartment was open on both sides. Anyone standing outside of them could look right through and, if they did, would see her. There were only a handful of bags in the compartment and they were all small.

In a panic, she began to pull a couple toward her, but the doors gave a sudden hiss and began to close on their own. A moment later, she was swimming in darkness. There was no turning back.

The engine revved and the box filled with choking diesel fumes.

“Exit checks,” someone shouted into the din above her head. “Links out for scans!” Footsteps pounded her ceiling. The bus creaked and rumbled, and gears clanked as the vehicle lurched forward. “Come on, dig ‘em out! We're not passing through this gate until we've cleared!”

“I think I left mine in my pack down below,” someone cried.

Are you shitting me?

There was a collective groan from the cabin.

“Never mind. Here it is.”

The groans turned into catcalls. Jessie breathed a sigh of relief.

“Not too late to turn back,” the driver shouted. “Last chance!”

“Fuck no!” several people chorused. “Let's go!”

“Now that's what I'm talking about!”

† † †

The heat in the compartment had gone from being merely uncomfortable to almost unbearable, and the fumes only got worse. A couple of times Jessie felt like she was going to be sick. Her lightweight Operator's outfit was beginning to itch. It was meant to be worn in air conditioned rooms, not the insides of exhaust pipes.

The worst part about the whole deal was realizing how poorly she'd planned. She'd remembered to bring a gun, as well as her escrima sticks. Even a few energy bars. But no water. No knife. Just her Link and a few stupid trinkets.

What the hell were you thinking? This isn't some little walk around the block. You've got no right being here.

She bet none of the Live Players was half as stupid.

She shifted a pack to try and get more comfortable. A flashlight. That's what she needed. She had her Link, of course, but—

Idiot! You're sitting on a pile of supplies.

None of it was hers, of course, and would mean someone else was going to enter the arcade short. On the other hand, Arc would probably pull them out anyway, once they figured out what she had done.

That was
if
they even made it in.

But, once she managed to find and stop Micah, then they'd thank her. They'd have to. She was about to expose the worst hack of their systems ever. Of course, they'd be forced to shut everything down and fix it.

If they fix it.

She found a flashlight in the third pocket of the first pack she checked, along with a canteen filled with fresh water, some of which she drank. The rest she poured over her head to cool herself down, then doused someone's shirt and held it over her nose and mouth. In another pocket, she found a bottle of water sterilizing pills, a lighter, and a small multi-tool knife, all of which she pocketed. A tag on the pack indicated it belonged to someone named Henry Jayco.

“Sorry, bud.”

But she knew she'd already crossed the line somewhere back there, long before the doors had closed her in. She didn't know exactly when, but the point of no return had happened days, if not weeks, ago. Realizing this, she felt good about what she was doing. She was all in.

She raided the other packs, transferring a couple canteens and some food into her own bag. She emptied the remaining water bottles onto the floor of the compartment along the seam where the door pressed against the side of the bus. Any noise she made was covered by the thumps and creaks as the bus jounced along.

After a half hour, the racket the passengers were making started dying away. The reality of their situation was finally sinking in. By the time they reached the ferry terminal an hour later, after having passed through least three more checkpoints, most of the people above her had grown silent. She heard them pile out and wander off to get coffee. She readied herself in case the compartment door opened.

But it didn't. Instead, the bus jerked forward unexpectedly, slamming her head-first against the back wall and wrenching her neck. They were taking the bus onto the ferry.

The engine cut off with a rattling cough. She heard the driver step down, shut his door, and walk away. She was alone.

There was no way to open the door from the inside. She tried wedging one of the knives she'd found in one of the bags into the seam, but if there was a latch, it wasn't one she could pop. She'd have to wait.

She pulled out her Link. There were new pings that she had missed in the past few hours, twice as many texts as voice messages. She quickly scrolled through the texts for news of her mother and learned that they had given her dialysis. Though she was beginning to respond to strong stimuli, she remained unconscious, and the prognosis remained unchanged.

There was no news on Reggie or whether he'd yet been scheduled for a hearing.

How can they try him if he's not aware, not able to defend himself?

After the two conscriptions she'd witnessed, Jessie didn't think that would make much difference in the eyes of the law.

It was now half past three. She had overheard someone say that the ride across the sound would take twenty minutes once they separated from the dock. She calculated that they would expect to enter Gameland around four-thirty at the latest.

She pinged her brother's Link.

He answered immediately and asked where the hell she was. “CR showed up at the house. They were asking about you. And they had state police with them.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think, Jessie? They don't want you running around, causing problems for them. I told you to lay low, keep your head down.”

“And where would I be now if I had?” She sighed. “They would've come anyway.”

“Just tell me where you are.”

“You know what's funny, Eric? If they just asked Arc, they'd know exactly where to find me.”

“I don't doubt that they have. But Arc's giving everyone the runaround, refusing to respond to requests for dialogue, sticking to some arcane message that everything is fine.”

“How's Mom.”

His face relaxed slightly. “Maybe a bit of an improvement. We did have a little scare earlier. Her electrolytes were so out of whack that her heart started spasming. The nurses caught it right away and managed to correct it. You should be here with her, Jessie, instead of trying to do something you know is impossible.”

“And what exactly am I trying to do?”

“Jessie,” he said, shaking his head. “You're only going to make things worse trying to go back to that place.”

“No, I'm going to fix things. I'm going to find Micah and bring him back. Once everyone knows what he did, Arc will have to shut things down. They'll thank me. I'll be a hero.”

“Is that what this is all about? This isn't like you.”

“It's about doing the right thing.”

“The right thing would've been to let me handle it.”

Jessie didn't answer right away. “Tell me the truth, Eric. Would you go to your boss with my theory?”

“I would need proof, Jessie—”

“And what do you think I'm doing? I'm getting it for you.”

“No, Jess, that's what people like me are supposed to do!”

“So, I should've stayed behind and let CR pick me up?”

“Why are you whispering?”

“Because I'm somewhere I'm not supposed to be.”

“Jessie—”

“Just listen for a second without interrupting, okay?” she said. “Are you home?”

“At the hospital. Kelly's at his parents'.”

“Okay, well, we won't be able to test my theory then. Just . . . . Do you still have the gaming equipment?”

“Yeah. It's useless without a Player, though.”

“I want you to do something. I want you to ping me at noon tomorrow. That is, if I haven't been arrested or I'm not already dead.”

“What are you planning, Jessie?”

“Don't worry, everything's under control.”

Eric was quiet for a moment. “How will I know if you're not dead or arrested?”

“Because if I am, then it'll be all over Media.”

“God damn it, Jessie! Tell me what the hell you're planning.”

“No. But here's what I want you to do: Get Ashley's Link— it's in the top drawer of my dresser. Keep it handy. Tomorrow, tell Kelly to reprogram the gaming gear. He's to replace the Player's code with my Link identifier.”

“I can do that, Jess. I'm not exactly ignorant. Besides, it won't work. You're never going to get into Gameland.”

“I'm already halfway there.”

“Turn yourself in. Don't go through with this.”

“Once Kelly's reprogrammed the gear, or you have, insert Ashley's Link and connect to
The Game
. Noon sharp, not a minute sooner. That'll connect the Links.”

“It's not going to work. Jessie, you need to come home now! Mom needs you.”

The ferry engines juddered and the boat slowed. “I have to go, Eric. Remember, tomorrow at noon sharp. I'll talk to you then.”

“Jes—”

She disconnected, verified that the Link was on silent mode and slipped it into her pocket. As the engines groaned against the ferry's momentum and the water churned beneath her, Jessie closed her eyes and focused on her breathing, just as Rupert had taught her to do.

Poor Rupert.

She hoped Arc would take him back with the others, too, instead of letting him loose inside the arcade.

Please, make this work
, she whispered into the stale air. It was the closest thing she had to praying.

For the hundredth time that day, she hoped Eric and the others were wrong, that she hadn't made a terrible mistake. That somehow, against incredible odds, she was going to get in. Because that was the only way to make things right.

‡ ‡ ‡

The shuttle came to a stop and the engine cut out for the second time that night not fifteen minutes after they had left the ferry terminal.
We're close
, Jessie thought. She could feel the effects of the wall on her mind, making her agitated, making the surface of her body and her brain itch.

She had hoped that the luggage compartment doors would open before anyone got off the bus, giving her a chance to slip out unseen. But no such luck. In the darkness of her cage, she heard the passenger door swish open and the footsteps of a single individual stomping down the steps off the bus. She heard the crunching of shoes on gravel a few feet away from her head, and she tensed up, one hand on her pistol, the other on the large knife she'd helped herself to. Her pack was already on her back.

There was a lot of shuffling going on directly above her, but somebody shouted to stay put. “We unload the Omegas first.”

Moving quietly, Jessie shoved all the gear bags, now zipped up tight again, against the right side hatch and positioned herself as far to the left as possible. Having to deal with the lone driver instead of the half dozen Live Players and the attendant Arc guards would give her a slight advantage.

The Player off-load took a good ten minutes and the Live Players were getting restless. Jessie listened to them as they chatted nervously. She tried to place voices with the faces she remembered seeing in the cafeteria during lunch and dinner. Her muscles were starting to cramp up from waiting to leap through the opening the moment the door unsealed. She could feel herself shaking with anticipation.

They're certainly taking their time about it.

Someone clomped onto the bus and announced the Omegas were ready. “Okay, listen up LPs! We'll send the avatars in first. Once they're in the portal, we'll release the implant hold. They usually scatter pretty quickly because of the EM signal, but sometimes one or two of them won't get the message and they'll hang around. Because there's no Operator, they'll be acting just like IUs. If they get aggressive, Boss here'll hit ‘em with an EM blast. My advice is everyone stand back until we're clear. That is, unless you want a faceful of EM yourself and a nasty headache for the rest of the day once you wake up. And there's no guarantees your fellow LPs won't molest your body and steal your chocolate while you're out.”

I didn't find any chocolate.

He let the bray of laughter die down before continuing. “Understand something: you are
not
to engage these Omegas! Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, sir!” came the chorus. Jessie thought she heard amusement in their voices. There was certainly a patronizing tone to their banter. They were eager to get started.