S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND: Season Two Omnibus (Episodes 9-11) (46 page)

Just give her a few minutes to collect herself. It can't have been easy, realizing your friends left you to die. You'd be pissed, too.

But Jessie frowned. Sure, she'd be angry. But only for, like, five seconds. And it wouldn't be the first thing she'd feel. Maybe after the shock and relief wore off she'd be mad, but not from the get-go.

But Ashley's not you.

No, she wasn't. Sometimes you couldn't tell how Ash might respond.

Jessie took a deep breath and went after her friend. She paused at the door just long enough to glance back one last time to make sure the Undead weren't going to overwhelm the fence. She thought she could see Kwanjangnim Rupert's ashen face among them, but she couldn't be sure.

Sighing, she pulled the door open and stepped inside.

The familiarity of the building's interior struck her immediately, especially when she saw the dried pools of blood marking where her SSC captors had died. Ben had delivered the mortal wounds with his own hands, but their misery and reanimation had been ended by her own. The bodies had since been removed — to where and by whom she didn't know, nor did she particularly care — but the musky, coppery tang of their blood was still thick in the air, and bits of hair and dried gore were still embedded in the dark, dried pools on the linoleum tiles.

“Ashley?”

She found her sitting on the floor in the corner of the room where the elevator was located. It was the same room where she, Kelly and Reggie had held off the CUs Ben had sent in to kill them. The door, which had started to break away, had since fallen off and was on the floor next to the desk. Pieces of the shattered jamb puckered away from the wall, torn by the force of the horde that had tried to get in at them. The scene brought back terrible memories she thought she'd buried forever.

Turning, she saw that somebody had scratched FUCK YOU in the paint on the elevator door. I WILL KILL ALL YOU FUCKERS.

She lowered her eyes. She didn't know who had scribbled those words, whether it was Ashley or Micah, but she was fairly sure she knew who they were meant for.

“I couldn't go down there,” Ashley muttered, holding her head in her hands. She looked up and her eyes blazed through the puddles of her tears. “You left me here, trapped among these—”

She waved her hand tiredly toward the front of the building.

Jessie went over and kneeled down. She wanted to hold Ashley, but the girl had wedged herself in tight between the wall and the heavy filing cabinet they had used to block the door.

“I thought if I could just get down to the mainframe, I might be able to figure a way out of this place.”

Jessie shook her head. “When they come to get us, they'll bring your Link.”

Ashley stared off to the side, her eyes unfocused. “Firewall?”

Jessie pulled her Link out— she wanted to check the time anyway, since she knew it was getting close to noon and pretty soon Eric or Kelly would connect.

“I'm not sure when, but my grandfather had it installed, supposedly to block Arc from activating it. This photo was the last thing added.”

“Kelly's proposal?”

“There's a packet of data embedded inside of it. Father Heall's research. It was supposed to go to this woman, a doctor at Sisters of Mercy, but I'm pretty sure my grandfather wanted it for himself.”

She knew it was the oversimplified version of events, but there would be time later to fill in the details.

“The problem is the government's going after anyone without a functional implant. Citizen Registration tried to replace mine, but they can't turn off the autodestruct. Now, they want to lock me up.”

Ashley stared at her for a moment. “Why all of a sudden now?”

“Things are getting bad out there. We had an outbreak alert in Greenwich a couple days ago. Manhattan has been on lockdown since we broke in. And there have been isolated network problems in other places throughout the country. Arc's not taking it seriously, and neither are most people. They think the government's overreacting.”

“Wait, so the firewall blocks access to your Link?”

“Yeah.”

Noon was only minutes away. Now she worried how Ashley would react when Eric or Kelly connected. Would she get angry all over again?

“The other reason I came back is to find Micah.”

“He's here, too? You think he'll be able to hack the firewall?”

Jessie shook her head. “That's not why I want to find him. He betrayed us, Ash. We found out he was working for the Coalition. He was supposed to be conscripted, but it was faked, and now he's hacking our implants.”

Ashley straightened in surprise. “He faked being conscripted?”

Jessie nodded.

“And you think he's here?” Ashley raised her eyebrows. “I haven't seen anyone.”

Jessie let out an exhale of frustration. “He—”

Jessie? You there?

Ashley's eyes went to Jessie's Link.

“Is that your brother?” she asked. “He's on the island, too?”

Jessie shook her head. Holding up a finger to stop her, she whispered, “I'll explain in a second.” Pulling the Link to her face, she said, “I'm here, inside the complex. And look who I found!”

She swung the screen around to Ashley, who just stared at the blank screen.

Silence came from Eric's end as well.

“Aren't you going to say anything?” Jessie asked.

“I'm . . . just surprised, I guess,” Eric said. “We thought she was—”

“Yeah, I already explained that,” Jessie cut in. “I only got here a little while ago and I was just trying to get her up to speed.”

“Jess, don't you think we should talk first. In private.”

“Why?”

Silence.

“Eric?”

Another long pause. Jessie wished she could see what was happening at home.

“Eric? Are you there?”

She stood up and shook the Link, as if there was a loose connection. “Eric?”

“What happened?” Ashley asked.

Jessie shook her head. “I lost him.”

‡ ‡ ‡

Kelly reached over to flick the console back on. “Why'd you disconnect?”

But Eric grabbed his hand to stop him. “Because Ashley's alive. Jessie's with her now.”

Kelly stared at Eric, his eyes flicking between the goggles cocked up on the top of his head and back to his face. “You saw her? But, how?”

“I can't explain it. But they're inside the Arc complex. Together.”

“
Okaaaay
. I still don't understand why you disconnected.”

Eric pulled the goggles from his head and stood up. “Think about it, Kelly. If those Arc guys are to be believed, then it's Ashley you two saw up on Jayne's Hill, not Micah. Who else do you know that's capable of something as sophisticated as hacking implants?”

“I thought you said you didn't believe that,” Kelly said.

“I said I needed proof. It doesn't mean it's not true. And since Jessie first proposed it, I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with an alternative explanation. I can't.”

“But you believe it now?” Kelly shook his head. “You're confusing me.”

“Did you kidnap my mother?”

“No!”

“And do you believe Reggie did?”

“No, not Reg.”

“Then how do you explain my finding him with her? How do you explain my finding your button there?”

“I can't.”

“I didn't think Jessie'd find anyone on Jayne's Hill, but now . . . .” Eric took a deep breath. “Do you think Ashley would do something like this?”

Kelly sighed and shrugged. “If it was just me she was messing with, maybe. She never really accepted me in their little club; she only tolerated me because of Jessie. I'm not much of a hacker, not like she or Micah were, and I'm not as good of a gamer as the rest.” He coughed lightly into his fist. “But it's not just me. She wouldn't do this to Reggie.”

“He loved her, but did she love him back?”

“Sure, I guess. I never really paid much attention to them. They were kind of embarrassing, to tell the truth. But they were never exclusive to each other— everyone knew that and was okay with that.”

Eric nodded. “You could tell just by looking at them that they cared for each other.”

“So, why would she hurt Reggie? And, for that matter, why Jessie? They were best friends for years.”

“Because we all left her there. Jessie included. Especially Jessie.”

Kelly shook his head. “So, you're saying she's punishing us by kidnapping your mother?”

“Can you explain the coincidence that it was her house I found her in?”

Kelly didn't have an answer for that.

“You should've warned Jessie,” he said. “If you think Ash is out to hurt us, then you should have told her about Micah.”

“Ashley was standing right there. I couldn't.”

Eric crossed the basement, and when he came to the dryer, he stopped and leaned on it. “I need to know why her parents disappeared the way they did.”

“They were embarrassed,” Kelly offered. “Hurt. Nobody knew how Arc or the authorities would react after we got back. We all thought we'd be arrested and conscripted, especially after Micah's trial.”

“They left before the trial.”

Kelly shrugged. “Ashley was dead— or, we thought she was. Maybe they couldn't bear all the reminders.”

Eric shook his head. “I don't think it was that at all. I found a box of Ashley's belongings in the house. If they were so brokenhearted, why would they leave anything behind?”

He spun around and mounted the stairs, taking them two at a time. Kelly called after him, asking where he was going. “I want to take a look through that box,” Eric yelled.

“You should've at least told Jessie about your mom.”

Eric paused, and for a moment Kelly thought he was going to turn around. But he didn't. In a moment, he was gone, through the house and out the back door.

Kelly didn't move for several minutes. Finally, he turned to the game console. He pulled Ashley's Link out and typed a message on it. When he was finished, he reinserted it, flipped the console on and connected.

‡ ‡ ‡

Ashley studied the photo on Jessie's Link. Her mind still reeled from the shock of finding her outside the gate. Since discovering the complex abandoned over a week ago, she'd thought of almost nothing else than her best friend.

They thought you were dead.

She was angry. Much of it was directed at Jessie and the others. But she was mostly angry with herself for acting the way she had, letting her emotions get the best of her.

After what you've endured, you have every right to lose your self-control. You shouldn't have to apologize.

She stood up from the desk she was sitting on and walked over to the elevator door and placed her ear against it. There was no sound coming from the bottom of the shaft, and she was beginning to get nervous that something bad may have happened to Jessie. It was possible that there might still be Undead down there. But Jessie had promised to be careful.

Nevertheless, twenty minutes had already passed and there wasn't a peep from below. All Jessie was supposed to do was remove Micah's tablet from the mainframe and bring it back up so that Ashley could try and hack the firewall.

She thought about what might be inside those files. Was it a cure? Something like that could be worth millions— billions, even. Not that Ashley cared about the money. Money didn't solve problems, it only caused them.

She didn't think cracking the firewall would be all that difficult, especially once she got the program she'd written to break her way into the Arc codex, the one inside the tablet Jessie was supposed to be getting.

Where the fuck is she?

“Steady,” she muttered to herself. It wouldn't help if she lost her temper again.

Even without the program, she was already working out how to crack it. After all, Ulysses Daniels didn't have the ability to write the firewall himself. He had to have had help. She'd bet anything it had been Micah. And everything he knew, he'd learned from her.

The elevator bell finally dinged. Jessie was on her way back up.

Ashley relaxed and smiled weakly to herself. Once she got the tablet, cracking the firewall would be a pleasure.

She looked down at the stupid bitch's Link —
Relax, Ash!
 — and was startled to see a new message on it. She quickly read the text. Then, with the barest twinge of guilt, she erased it.

‡ ‡ ‡

Jessie had forgotten how long it took the elevator to descend from the ground floor to where the mainframe was located. It gave her time to reflect. Too much time, in fact, so that when the doors finally opened, she found herself unable to contain the tears she'd been holding back. It was all she could manage to step out into the main room, fall to her knees, and bury her face in her hands as the emotions overtook her. First guilt. Then joy and relief. Finally grief.

She knew that nothing would ever repair the friendship that had once existed between her and Ash. Even if everything wasn't falling apart outside the island walls, the world she had once known was gone forever, irrevocably changed. The world had tilted off its axis, and it was about to fall away into darkness. She felt this to be true, down to her very core.

When the tears ended, she stumbled to her feet and wiped away the wetness on the hem of her shirt, cringing at how filthy she was already and how badly she smelled. Only now did she bother looking around her. She became aware of the quiet and the doors behind which the corpses of the zombies they had slain now rotted. The filtration system was doing a decent job of keeping the stench from polluting the air.

She made her way into the back corner of the room and into the hallway that led to the glass-walled chamber which housed Arc's computer mainframe. There was dried blood everywhere, and even scraps of clothing and bits of hair and flesh. Evidence of the battle they had waged here only three weeks prior. She didn't want to see it, to relive those moments, so she kept her eyes from straying to the side and tried not to think about it.