Bahliah woke up, still mostly clothed but under the covers. It was quiet. She crept out of her room barefoot. There was Jessi, passed out naked in the living room. Oddly, the table was wrecked.
“Did your squeeze leave you already?” Bahlia asked. “Where even are your clothes?”
There was a pair of pants she didn't recognize. She reached in and pulled out a card. It must have fallen out of his wallet. It was for a sandwich shop. An expensive one. The card was filled out by hand, with good penmanship. It read: “Alexander Strothheim.” Apparently they had swapped pants at some point. This kind of thing happened often with Jessi.
She went to the kitchen to make some coffee. Jessi was a bit of a coffee fiend. He had 5 different types of coffee beans from 5 different local roasters. He had a French press, an aeropress, a chemex, the list went on. She settled for pourover. She put the light-roasted Mexican coffee in the fancy grinder and picked a large size.
As the coffee was ground, she got the electric kettle filled and heated, then went back in to check on Jessi.
That was when the doorbell rang. The overlords voice chimed in, and it sounded different. Sound quality and volume were way better than before.
“Lily is at the door with a package.”
Putting a blanket over Jessi's exposed form, she went to the door. Her doorbell camera displayed the cute pink-haired pixie girl on the other side, a large package on a dolly next to her. Bahliah opened the door.
“Hey girl!” Lily said cheerily. “This one needs your thumbprint. Delivery confirmation and all. They also left a note to tell you happy promise day! Congrats!”
Leaning in slightly, she asked, “Is that the lucky guy on the floor?”
Bahliah was momentarily speechless. What was going on? Numbly she pressed her thumb on the pad Lily was carrying.
Looking at the giant package, she asked, “Can you help me put it somewhere? What even is it?”
Lilly took out a utility knife with a smile, “That's what I've been wondering.”
One-handed, she pulled the dolly into the living room. she opened it, to reveal a large metal box. It was an espresso machine. The fanciest one that Jessi had on his wishlist but could never afford. It was written on with a gold script:
“To Bahliah and Jessi, remember that love is a grind.”
That was her father all the way. The machines' tasteful curves were all her mother.
“Um, can you put it on the kitchen counter? I don't think I can move that beast.”
“Sure can!” Lily replied. Bahliah openly ogled her butt as she bent down to pick the thing up, glutes powerfully propelling it up. Her tanned arm and shoulder muscles rippled as she got it situated against her chest and then put it on the counter.
It was apparently already assembled, and Bahliah saw that it was configured to make two shots at a time.
“Thanks!” Bahliah said. “Do you want a cup?”
“No thanks,” Lily said. “I'll get the jitters with how much Red Steer I've already had. Besides, I've got more deliveries here.”
“All right well, see you around,” Bahliah said lamely.
“Cheers!” Lily replied.
She watched her ass all the way out the door.
Turning to the new machine, It took a video tutorial, but she figured out how to work the thing. She had to grind a different coffee than the one she'd picked out, a dark roast Ugandan blend.
Soon the house smelled heavenly. She found another small box in the one that Lily had brought, containing a set of small espresso cups and saucers.
It didn't take long for Jessi to start moving, brought to consciousness by the smell of coffee. He tossed off the covers and sat up crossed legged. He realized he was naked and pulled the covers across his lap.
Graciously, Bahliah presented him with the espresso. He just stared at it.
“We don't have an espresso machine. Where'd you get this?”
“Gift courtesy of my parents - happy promise day apparently.”
Jessi was sipping his drink and coughed on it.
“Say what!?”
Bahliah gestured at the room around them. “Notice anything different?”
Jessi frowned, and looked around. “Well I remember all our shit being in one room last night... And a balcony?”
“The overlord’s different too,” Bahliah said. “We're not in the same apartment.”
"Hey,wait, where's Alex?" Jessi asked suddenly. "He is not the type to leave early."
"Normally, I find you two spooning." Bahliah changed the subject by pointing at the broken side table. "And, that mess I cleaned up?"
Jessi looked sheepish.
"That was Alex, but you know he pays for damages." Jessi grinned at her. "Played an awesome western game with him last night on that monstrosity."
Bahliah's face lit up and Jessi was glad to distract her from the table.
"Did you get my pms? I sent you stuff!" She said excitedly. "And I found something we can play together you'll like!"
"I didn't look. Too much whiskey." Jessi rubbed at his face, wincing at the sharp headache. "Speaking of, what's for breakfast?"
"You mean afternoon snack?"
Despite their playful jokes both eyes fell on their new console. Jessi and Bahliah sipped their coffee before Jessi spoke
"That's not what we bought, right?" He asked.
Much to Jessi's dismay Bahliah pulled up the reel he'd seen last night. Except the console wasn't what he remembered buying. Instead of the gaudy monstrosity was now a lovely oak carriage.
“Um… is this some mandala shit?” Jessi asked. “Did we change realities or something?
Bahlia went up to the Antique Horizon or whatever it was now and touched the screen. “What the hell, how do you have so many CCs? You've barely played.”
“Hold up, before we do that, I want to see when Alex left.” He pulled up the security footage of the living room. There they were, they turned on the game and… the footage cut out, with a message saying that the recording of the next 4 hours 36 minutes was unavailable. It automatically skipped to the end, with Jessi sprawled out on the floor.
He tried their doorbell camera. It also had an outage at that time. Apparently their whole system was having issues.
Bahlia's phone chimed. It was her mother.
[
YoMamma: How's the esspresso maker? I know you two bonded over coffee. Enjoy!
]
Jessi was taken aback. “But we told them we were just friends. Except in the game but… that's a game!”
It was his turn to check his phone as it vibrated on a couch cushion.
It was a text from Alex's mother, Joyce.
[
Moma Bear: Is Alex with you? He was supposed to be here over an hour ago.
]
Jessi sighed and pulled up Alex to call him. It rang on his end twice before Jessi heard a ringing from under the couch. Bahliah frowned and reached under. She held up Alex's phone.
Jessi hung up, confused. Alex's pants were over the back of the couch and he could see his blazer on the floor by the door.
“You did check the apartment, right?” He asked, only to get an eyeroll for a response. “The apartment changed. Maybe there's a room you missed.”
He stood up and, not finding his own pants, he pulled on Alex’s. Despite giving an exaggerated sigh, Bahliah stood up to help him search the new apartment.
As Jessi remembered, there was only one room setup as a bedroom. It was the master bedroom suite, complete with walk in his and her closets and smart shower system. One room was clearly Bahliah’s streaming studio while the third bedroom was a home gym.
They found no sign of Alex inside and Jessi had a moment of panic when he spotted the doors to the balcony again. Bahliah grabbed his arm before he could sprint to them.
“Alex didn't get drunk and fall off the balcony.” She said soothingly. “I already checked it out. No bodies or sirens out there.”
Relieved, Jessi sat back down on the couch heavily. He was quiet, trying to gather his thoughts around his hangover. Bahliah scrolled on her phone with a frown
Finally, Jessi broke the silence.
“Our apartment changed and your parents are sending us promise day gifts. Your mom hates me and this arranged charade.” Jessi pointed toward the large gaming console. “Alex died in the game last night and he's missing now. What the fuck?”
He was answered by Bahliah holding a finger to her lips as her phone rang on speaker phone. Maryam cheerfully answered on the first ring.
“Did you get your gift yet? I'm sure you'll both love it!" She asked, even though she knew exactly when it was delivered.
"Yes, mom, we did. Hey-”
Bahliah was cut off by her mother, who maintained a one-sided conversation. Bahliah tried several times to interrupt, but ended up silent.
Jessi was about to lose his patience when Maryam asked a question that caught them both off guard.
“Bahliah, dear, have you noticed the family portrait in the entry? It was stained with wine and ruined, but I never noticed until today. Should we plan a new one? Perhaps include Jessi this time?"
Bahliah and Jessi locked eyes with shock and concern.
Finally managing to speak, Bahliah cut in over her mother.
“Mom, I gotta go. Love you. Bye!” She quickly hung up before Maryam could say more.
“I guess it really works,” Bahliah said. “And we completely fucked our lives up.”
Jessi rubbed his palms over his face before holding one finger out.
“I need a minute to process," He then pointed to the espresso maker. "But with coffee.”
It took Jessi only a few minutes for him to figure out the machine. He went about making both of them a cup while Bahliah went back to their new leather sectional. Jessi joined her, handing off her cup, and sat in silence.
“So, let me get this straight." Jessi said once they both finished their cups. “That game had us go back in time and change the past and now we're in a relationship? No fucking way."
Bahliah waved her free hand at their new surroundings without speaking.
“Someone's fucking with us." Jessi countered. "Maybe Alex or someone.”
"Ha!” Bahliah laughed and it had a hysterical note to it. “No way my mother is in on it. 'Happy promise day'!”
Jessi sighed, seeming to deflate in defeat at how easy it was to debunk his theory.
"Well, uh, we need to reset this and find Alex.”
“So the last place you saw him was the game, yes? Maybe we should check there,” Bahliah said, trying to keep her voice level. “Maybe someone will know what happened to him.”
They went to the hub, and marched towards the Momento Smorgasboard. Through the double doors, they were halfway to the bar when Jessi spotted him.
“Alex! We were worried sick!” Jessi and Bahliah came up to him quickly. Alex slowly took another sip of his whiskey, not reacting at all. He had a dour look on his face, and he was dressed as his avatar had been, white hat and all. Jessi waved a hand in front of him. He didn't even blink.
“Alex? What's going on man?” Jessi’s tone grew more worried. Achingly slowly, Alex turned toward him.
“Can I help you pardner?” The voice was Alex’s, and the accent sounded like he was trying to talk like a cowboy after too many shots of jaeger. It was jarring.
Jessi opened his mouth to speak but Alex kept on going. “Wanna try this here European Reserve? It wets my whistle it does.”
The smell rode his breath right to Jessi’s face.
“Dude, you better not be pranking us. We're worried about you! Are you mad? Fuck’s sake!”
Mechanically Alex went back straight and he took a long slow sip of his whiskey. Then his head turned back.
“Can I help you, pardner?”
“Jessi!” Bahliah hissed. She pulled Jessi by the arm back a ways.
“He just looped his dialog. I think he's some kind of NPC.”
“What the fuck does that mean? He's a fucking zombie!”
“I’m saying that’s not really him. It's like a robot.”
“Why does it look like him? And wearing fucking spurs?”
Bahliah was still trying to think of what to say when Daisy called out across the bar, “What are ya'll doing talking to that stiff? He won't say nothing else!”
The two looked at each other helplessly. Then they came over to where she and William sat.
Cautiously, Bahliah asked, “Do you know any more about them? We're worried about our friend.”
“That Davy Crockett era, eh?” William laughed, pointing towards Alex. "We didn't make it past Maria either. She didn't take kindly to buying her contract!”
He had noticeably dropped his fake English accent halfway through. Daisy giggled, elbowing him as if he made a great joke.
"That one was fun! Did you know you can murder the general store and get all his belongings? Brilliant!”
"Too bad we didn't have a fancy machine like that back then!”
“We had to make sacrifices the old fashioned way." She waved her arms in the air, twirling her wrists and fingers as she spoke.
“Sacrifices? What do you mean?” Bahliah asked.
“Oh like your dear stiff here. The only way to bust into the game is with a game piece.”
“A game piece? We don't have those,” Bahlaih said. “Do you mean the keys? The things that poke your finger and light up?”
“Precisely,” William said, his fake accent back. “In our time, it was a little board game. There were only two player pieces - hers and mine.”
Jessi looked pale, “What happens if you don't have one of those?”
“Then you're chow, and how!” Daisy said, and cackled.
Both younger players were taken aback.
“You mean, the game ate him? And what's that over there, a ghost?” Jessie asked.
“It takes something from you, you see? It comes back over time, like for dear Sully here.” William pointed a thumb at the approaching bartender.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Sullie looked a bit furtive. “A disciple is here. Ix nay on the ecrtsay.”
“There goes the neighborhood!” Daisy said, tossing back her liquor. “It's time we scram Billy-boy.”
William had already finished his. He tipped his hat to them. “Good day, friends, and good luck. Cheerio!”
The two of them disappeared instantly. No sooner had they than a swarthy dark haired man in a full cultist robe walked in.
They could see his username and rank.
[
Xx_necrodweller_xX (Whispering Acolyte)
]
He stopped just inside the door, surveying the room. His eyes were black with red irises and they skipped over the ghosts, Sully, and Bahliah. Fangs showed when he grinned after spotting Jessi.
“Bro! Sick offering!” He pointed finger guns at Jessi and fired. Little puffs of colored dust poofed from his fingertips. Then he looked Jessi up and down.
“Nice outfit, but you gotta change that generated username." He paused for a minute. “There. Sent you the 500 ccs for it since you'll wanna save what you just got.”
“Who the hell are you?” Jessi asked belligerently.
“Call me Necro.” Taking on the same tone, Necro added, “And, I'm the guy in charge of keeping wanna-be shitheads like you in line."
Jessi’s face got red, and he seemed to swell up. He stepped forward, but Bahliah grabbed his arm, hissing out his name quietly.
“I'm not a wanna-be anything - it's Mr Shithead to you, fucker. Now tell me what happened to my fucking friend!”
“Same thing that'll happen to you if you keep speaking to me that way.” He stuck a finger in Jessi's face. Before he could say anything, Jessi tried to grab the arm.
It was a poor choice. The moment he touched the man, red lighting flowed out and sent shooting pain through Jessi's whole body. Jessi collapsed on the barroom floor, Bahliah quickly crouching down to see if he was okay.
Necro brushed off his sleeve where he had been touched. “Next time I expect to see proper respect. And you.” He looked right at Bahliah for the first time. “Quit slacking. You should be on his level by now.
With that he disappeared in a large cloud of colorful dust.
“Shiva, Jessi, you're an idiot." Bahliah griped, helping Jessi stand back up. "I was telling you in PMs not to mess with him. Did you even see it?”
Jessi yanked his arm from hers, rounding on her and yelling, “No, I didn't fucking see it because your goddamn game ate Alex!"
Bahliah took a step back. Her eyes flashed with instant anger, before it disappeared and was replaced with surprise. Jessi had never yelled at her before. He was normally the calm one.
"Jessi, I-”
"How the hell do I tell Joyce this?” Jessi cut her off. "My fake fiance, no, real fiance's game ate him and spat him out as some…”
He gestured helplessly at the cowboy version of Alex. Just looking at the man seemed to take the anger from him, giving Bahliah a chance to speak.
“We're going to get him back, Jessi. I don't know how, but I'll figure it out. It sounds like part of him is still here, and he'll come back to himself.”
“Even if he does, even if he's as lucid as Sully here, he's still stuck in a fucking game. Where's his body? What do we do when people start to look for him?”
Bahliah snapped her fingers, “That's it! We'll talk to Sully and go back to before you went into the game with him.” She turned hopeful eyes to the bartender who was idly polishing a glass. He was already shaking his head.
He set the glass down and grabbed another from the bar. He silently filled them up - Jessi's with bourbon and Bahliah's with feni.
His eyes looked pained. “I can't tell you anything. They wouldn't like it.”
He nodded toward where Daisy and William had been, “it's easier for them. They can come and go as they please. They're players.”
“Players of what, exactly?” Bahliah asked, sipping her drink. It was cashew feni, and apparently fortified by chocolate liqueur. It was fantastic.
Jessi drained his bourbon in one go as Sully continued.
“It has many names. What it's called doesn't matter - you're in it now, and you've ante'ed up. These people play with lives.”
“I just want my friend back. He's right there!”
Sully refilled his drink.
“They won't let you do anything to revert the sacrifice. I can't say more - I've said too much already.” A brief smile played on his lips. “Though maybe check your messages."
Sighing, Jessi finally did and directed his attention to the HUD.
[
Player chat:
Bahliah: Woah, don't mess with this guy, he's a beast
Bahliah: I inspected him through the system
Bahliah: Jessi calm down
Bahliah: Hello?
Surkesh: If you want to help your friend, come to -1003, -205, 425 at 1225. It doesn't matter which day.
]
“What the fuck? Who is Sur-” He was interrupted by Sully throwing his whiskey on him.
“What was that for?”
Sully simply put the glass down and filled it back up. “Apologies, sir. Slip of the hand. Better that than a slip of the tongue around here.”
[
Bahliah: did someone send you a message?
Jessi: yeah, ill send it to you.
Bahliah: Hold up. I've got to find some way to encrypt the chat.
Bahliah: Give me a sec, I'm going to play with this thing
Jessi: dont go blind
]
Bahliah went still and appeared to be staring a hole in the wall.
[
Bahliah: This whole thing is a command line.
Bahliah: I've found a way to override the messaging protocol. It now uses #BahliasSuperSecretHash
Jessi: you had to put a hashtag in it?
Bahliah: Actually, yeah. That completely broke the parser.
Jessi: english please
Jessi: or at least Hindi
Jessi: i can understand that better
Bahliah; It means we can message whatever we want, our PMs are encrypted.
Jessi: you mean they weren't before?
Bahliah: Nope.
Jessi: and I have auto-chat spewing my stream of consciousness?
Bahliah: Yup.
Jessi: fml
Bahliah: Okay, you can send me the message
Jessi: how do I do that
Bahliah: Command: copy and Command: paste, obvi
Jessi: copypaste
Bahliah: Those look like 3D coordinates. 205 meters below the ground? How would we get there?
Jessi: well probably by teleporting like every other fucker around here does
Bahliah: I've got to ask Daisy and William how they do that. Maybe if I do this…
]
While Bahliah talked to herself, Jessi asked, “So you can't help us save Alex. Can we at least un-fuck our lives? We're apparently dating or something now, and that was not the plan.”
“Well, I can take you to a different period in your life now that you've ranked up. But the time you just changed is still fragile. If you try and change it again so soon it'll shatter spacetime. That's a big no-no.”
“Well, how long do we have to wait?” Jessi asked.
“Depends on how big the changes are. The one you did wasn't too extensive - come back in a week and we'll see how it is.”
Bahliah's head snapped up from her terminal. “A week?! What are we supposed to do in the meantime?”
Sully pointedly refilled her half-full glass.
“Fuck waiting, what else can we do?” Jessi drank deeply again, then began feeling at his pockets.
Sully pulled out a pack of cigarettes. They were unbranded. The label read, “Old Time Smokes.” He handed one to Jessi and lit it with a zippo lookalike.
Jessi dragged deep on it and then had a coughing fit. “What the hell is in this thing? Hits harder than my blunts.”
Sullie smiled thinly, “I know a guy that rolls them himself. They taste like your first smoke, every time.”
“Sheeet. Is that why I feel like I've just been launched off a rocket? Damn.” He looked down at the lit cigarette morosely, “Free drinks and killer smokes. Alex would have loved this shit.”
Bahliah leaned over and gripped his free hand. “We'll get him back. Somehow.”
Jessi took another long drag before asking, “What do I tell Joyce? She'll know something's up if I don't answer her."
Bahliah drank her feni while she thought. Joyce was a second mother to Jessi and he wouldn't like lying to her.
“Fuck. Well, we need to stall for time until we can figure this out." She finished her feni. “Want me to answer her? I'll say you forgot your phone and are scouting out spots for your pubclub.”
Jessi nodded numbly.
[
Bahliah: Here, run this:
]
What followed were English words that Jessi recognized, in a configuration that was utterly baffling. He copied and pasted it. Suddenly a portion of his vision was taken up by an ugly black box.
[
Jessi: wtf is this
Jessi: did you just do that while we were talking
Bahliah: It's searching all the instances of this bar for Daisy and William's player id's.
Bahliah: When it finds them it'll stop.
]
Sure enough, the flickering text stopped after a minute.
[
Instance found
Infernal Nexus - 2 active players
To join, run Command: Join Instance “Infernal Nexus”
Jessi: it did the thing
Jessi: what now?
Bahliah: Copy the command and paste it like before.
Jessi: Command: Join Instance “Infernal Nexus”
]
The world morphed in front of Jessi. Bahliah and the ghostly patrons all vanished. New shadows took their place, as well as Daisy and William. Sully was still there, but wearing different clothes.
William raised his glass, “Jessi my boy! Where's your lovely companion?”
“She sent me here looking for you,” Jessi replied
“Why didn't she just message us? We would have come to you.”
“Uhhh,” Jessi stammered.
[
Jessi: why didn't you just message them
Jessi: why all this convoluted bs
Bahliah: …
Bahliah: Yeah that might have been easier.
Bahliah: Tell them to meet us at Restful Mermaid
Bahliah: Then copy-paste Command: Join Instance “Restful Mermaid”
Jessi: should i even ask about that name?
Bahliah: No probably not.
]
Jessi relayed the message, at which the two disappeared. Then he ran the command himself and found himself once more at the familiar bar. An old-fashioned was waiting for him, as well as moonshine for Daisy and what he assumed was gin for William. Bahliah was already sitting at the bar, hiding behind what looked like a strawberry daiquiri.
Daisy took one look at Bahliah's abashed face and burst out into cackling laughter. William was more polite, but couldn't hide his smile.
Jessi just grabbed his drink. It was made just how he liked it - a double shot of whiskey with simple syrup instead of a sugar cube and extra bitters. The cherry at the bottom was divine.
The other three were talking, but Jessi tuned them out. He waved down Sully.
“Do you have a joint or something? I really need a smoke.”
The bartender reached in his jacket pocket. “I have a blunt, will that do?”
“Sold. I don't even care if it cost credits either.”
“On the house, sir.” The bartender handed over a tapered cylinder the size of a small cigar.
Bahliah noticed right as the bartender's lighter was setting it aflame.
[
Bahliah: Are you sure now is the time?
]
Jessi simply inhaled deeply and blew her a shotgun. Aloud, he said “Get your own. This one is mine.”
The mixture of rich tobacco wrapper and earthy weed filled the room. Bahliah found the smell intoxicating. It was like being in the living room with your pipe-smoking grandfather and pothead grandma, neither of which Bahliah actually had growing up.
Dragging herself away she focused on what Daisy had just said.
[
Daisy: We've figured ways around this newfangledness. The old methods still mostly work, they have to to support the old-timers stuck in their ways.
Bahliah: You mean like, séances and such?
William: Quite right. Before these “computers” of yours, they were the only way to act upon such powers.
Bahliah: Will you teach us?
William: Well that's a pickle. We like you two, we really do. But we've kept our heads thus far by keeping them low.
William: Why should we stick them out for you?
]
Bahliah sighed, took a sip of her drink, and then snatched the blunt from Jessi. Dragging deep on it, she felt transported. She nearly dropped the thing, but Jessi had roused enough to take it back.
“Well, we could probably do something for you. Might be nice, having someone on the outside, I should think,” she said thoughtfully, having a sip of her drink.
Daisy just shrugged, but William looked like he was thinking about it.
“Tell you what,” He said. “We'll chew it over. We like you two, and we wanna help. We're just a tad set in our ways.”
“Always the bleeding heart." Daisy quipped, but stood up. “Time to go Billy-boy. We've got a date to keep."
Daisy disappeared. William toasted them with the last of his drink and joined Daisy in vanishing.
Jessi stared at the empty spots then turned to face Bahliah.
“Well, now what, Brain?"
“It doesn't sound like we can do anything right now. Maybe it's time to log out.” She jerked a thumb at Alex, “The drinks are fire and all, but it's kind of depressing here now.”
Jessi took one last drag on his smoke, then nodded.
[
Bahliah: Command: Exit
Jessi: Command: Exit
]
Back in their new apartment, Bahliah climbed out of her seat, surprised they were both conscious this time. Jessi followed suit, moving to pick up Alex's belongings.
Bahliah grabbed Jessi's phone from the couch. She unlocked it easily and sent a text back to Joyce.
[
Jessi: It's Bahliah. They forgot their phones. Looking for a building for the pubclub.
Mama Bear: Of course... ETA?
Jessi: No clue, but you know them. I'll call when I hear something
Mama Bear likes your reply.
]
With that done for now, she turned to Jessi, who was just grabbing a bottle of tequila from the fancy bar just off the kitchen. He poured two shot glasses, but refilled his twice before Bahliah joined him.
He grabbed his glass pipe and grinder. “I'll be on the new kitchen balcony.”
Deciding to let Jessi be alone for a while, Bahliah went to her streaming room, which Jessi called the Command Room. It was not only set up for streaming, but also for her various tech pursuits.
It was time to do some research.
Jessi heard the doors open behind him. Nearly two hours later, Bahliah had come out to join him. She sat in the bamboo lounge beside him. He handed over the pipe and she took it after setting down her tablet and the notebook she kept notes in.
He waited until she sat back with a round of coughs.
“I tried looking up that thing.” He sighed in defeat. “Can't find shit."
Bahliah nodded in agreement and handed Jessi the tablet.
“Ditto, but I looked up the people in the games. They're real though there's not much."
Jessi looked over the open file folder. There were a few folders, text documents, and addresses.
[
William Arthur Kepler
Daisy “Bloody” Alden
Maria Freedom
Dulce De’Leon
Jedediah Buckshot
Whitman Wheelhouse
Antique horizon notes.txt
]
He tapped the Dulce De’Leon folder. He found birth and death certificates, criminal records, and an image of her mugshot.
"Okay.” Jessi drew out the word, then pointed to the notebook. “And what's in there?"
“It's the plan.”
“The plan to…?”
She opened it, rapidly flipping paper. “We need to save Alex first. It sounds like he might regain consciousness if we wait long enough, but we don't have the time. That leaves your mysterious friends.”
“Which we need to teleport to.” Jessi said.
She raised a finger, still looking at the paper. “Which William and Daisy will teach us how to do once we've sweetened the pot. I have some ideas for that.”
Jessi ignored her in favor of hitting his pipe. He shook his head as he exhaled the smoke while talking
“No fucking way. I don't want to fuck with it any more except to get Alex back."
Bahliah had expected that answer from him. Like many others, the Great Disconnect had affected Jessi greatly.
The most costly disaster in the history of the world, the Great Disconnect was on March 3rd, 2042. A lagless virtual reality program was used by most of the subcontinent - for work and play alike. Most call centers in the world used it. Jessi's parents had been there on business and checked out one of the arcades. The immersion offered by VeiddiWorkspace was unparalleled, and it was only available with a direct connection to the central server.
No one had been able to replicate it elsewhere. So it was mostly India that felt the blow when every concurrent user of VriddiWorkspace failed to log out. None were responsive even after the gear came off.
Bahliah had just been in herself, only logging out at a desperate call from her Nona. Her parents had received word of a cyberattack, and took it seriously. The word went out with only minutes to spare.
Jessi was left with no parents. Bahliah's family moved from India, taking her with them. She was old enough to stay if she wanted, but her home was suddenly a wasteland. She didn't want to be there alone.
After the attack, most of the world had taken a step back from the rapid advancement of technology - Jessi included. When they met, Jessi didn't even have a cell phone and it was only a year ago that Bahliah had convinced him to get one. She was surprised when he came home with a touch screen.
“Jessi, I think this is how we save Alex. I can write the scripts for you, but it's got to be you that activates them. Unless you think I should sacrifice someone to upgrade my access?”
“Fuck no!" Jessi choked out around another hit. He couldn't talk around his coughing fit and Bahliah just waited for it to pass.
Finally able to talk, Jessi continued. “No one else gets zombified. Jesus, Bahliah, there's got to be some way else like maybe the feds or csi or…"
He trailed off, knowing what he said wouldn't work. Bahliah was already shaking her head no. He leaned back in his chair, sighing.
“Fine. What the fuck do I do?"
“For now, I'll need to explore the command line interface and figure out their scripting languages.”
“I'm gonna need breakfast and coffee before I hear any more technobabble out of you,” Jessi said, holding his head as though it hurt.
Bahliah supposed it did at that.
Jessi seemed to come out of his funk as they opened the fridge. It was enormous, and had extra panels that slid out, making it seem like you were inside the fridge.
“I guess this is what we get with the good grocery allowance,” Jessi said.
With much deliberation, he pulled out some large tortillas, eggs, green bell peppers and onions he'd already sautéed at some point, and a seitan chorizo. From experience with Bahliah, he knew this was one of the good ones.
Breakfast burritos and orange juice followed, with a homemade salsa Bahliah freely admitted was the bomb.
Despite him cleaning as he cooked, Bahliah handled the rest of the dishes and cleaning. Jessi figured she was doing it to get in his good graces.
He prepared two more tequila shots and Bahliah joined him. She held up her shot glass to him.
“To saving Alex."