Al nodded in agreement. “You’re right, I have been an asshole. But I’ve had good reason, Ray.” He moved to sit back on the couch - this time, moving to the edge so I could sit without rubbing shoulders with him. He pat the seat next to him, and I reluctantly sat, making sure to keep some distance between us. “You may not realize this, Ray, but I’ve been observing you for months.”

“That’s creepy.”

“Maybe, but it’s also given me insight into you as a person.” He turned away, his eyes unfocused. “You know…you’re not the first person to die plugged into the game.”

That simple statement hit me like a brick. “Wait, what? There’s others like me out there?”

He shook his head in answer, a sad look on his face. “No, you’re the only one.”

I looked at him in confusion. “Why? If you could save me, couldn’t you save others?”

He stared off into space, his eyes unfocused. When he didn’t answer after a few moments, I opened my mouth to repeat the question, but he suddenly turned to me. His eyes were piercing, the determination evident in the tight set of his lips. “They didn’t deserve a second chance,” he finally said.

I sat back in shock. “You decide that, do you?”

“Yes, Ray!” he answered, turning his full body to me now, his hands animated. “It’s no small thing to take responsibility of another life. I couldn’t just pick anyone - not initially, anyway.”

“And what? I’m somehow more worthy than those others?” I asked, letting the doubt fill my voice. “You said it yourself - I’m a college dropout, can barely call myself employed, and happened to die in the most idiotic way possible.” I shook my head in disbelief. “If I’m the one you chose to save, I can’t imagine how bad the others were.”

Al closed his eyes and shook his head. He looked like a disappointed teacher. “You’re not perfect, Ray. But you’re a good person, at your core, and I can work with that. You just have one very irritating flaw that we need to break you of.”

I smiled, crossing my arms as I sat back. “Just the one, huh?”

He returned my smile, shrugging. “One glaring flaw, that is.”

When he didn’t add more, I waved him on. “Okay, then. Let’s hear it.”

“Like I said, I’ve watched you closely. And you’re far too willing to let others walk all over you.”

I pursed my lips, slightly annoyed at the accusation. “To be fair, you’ve only seen me while I’m at work. It’s kind of my job to be a pushover.”

He looked away at that, shifting his weight on the couch. I was getting a distinctly uncomfortable feeling that he was hiding something.

“What?” I asked. “What secret are you sitting on?”

“Ahem-well, that’s not strictly, exactly, one-hundred percent based in…you know,” he said with a vague wave of his hand.

I squinted my eyes, barely able to understand what the hell he was trying to say. “No, Al, I have no fuckin’ clue what you’re beating around the bush about.”

His eyes were roaming the enclosed area, looking everywhere but at me. He picked at a hangnail, rubbed at a spot on the couch, reached out to grab another snack, then thought better of it and pulled his hand back. It would have been comical if he didn’t literally hold my life in his hands. When he looked up and realized that I wasn’t going to let him off the hook, he sighed, then stood up and started pacing.

“Just spit it out!” I demanded. His anxiety was starting to trigger my own.

“Fine! I-” he mumbled something under his breath that I couldn’t quite catch.

“What?” I asked, leaning in.

“I wasn’t just watching you at work,” he said, his voice still low. “I may have been watching you, like, all the time…” He let out a deep breath, a smile touching his face. “Wow, I feel so much better now. That was great! They were right, honesty is the best policy.” He was talking rapid fire now, and I could barely process my own thoughts. “Don’t you feel better, Ray? I sure feel better. I don’t even know what I was nervous about. I mean, that was easy. And now we can move on, talk about other things. Put this behind us, you know? Clean slate type of deal-”

“Al,” I said quietly.

“Yeah, buddy?”

I closed my eyes. “Just…shut up for a minute.”

“Oh, okay, sure thing friend. Shutting up now. Entering sleep mode in 3…2…1…”

My mind was slow to parse what he had just said. He was fucking watching me the entire time? How long? I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Mostly numb, for some reason. I guess I couldn’t be too mad - he had used that information to save my life. I tried to find some anger, or even annoyance - because God knows Al deserved it. But I just…couldn’t.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

“It’s okay, Al,” I finally said after a few moments. “I forgive you.”

I opened my eyes when he didn’t respond. He was standing there, his eyes also closed, his head leaning forward like a robot that had been deactivated. But then I saw him peek an eye open at me, then shut it immediately when we locked eyes. It was like when you played hide-and-go seek with a child.

“Al…? I know you’re awake. You literally just opened your eye.”

He jerked awake, his eyes going wide as he looked about in a panic like he had just been startled from a deep sleep. “Oh, hey buddy. Did you sort through your thoughts and feelings while I was out?” he asked innocently.

I rolled my eyes. “Dude, I know you heard me.”

“Heard what?” he asked with a half smile.

I sighed. “Are we really not going to talk about it?”

He shrugged. “I find avoidance is the most healthy way to deal with your problems. Second only to the age-old classic of just simply burying them deep, deep down, until ultimately, they burst to the surface in a fit of channeled rage and aggression that usually results in a suicide-by-cop. Those are my favorite.”

“Al, can you be serious for a minute? Please?” I asked. I was getting exhausted trying to force a real conversation out of him.

“What do you want me to say?” he asked, throwing his hands up in defeat. “That I know every detail of your life? That I not only have been watching you, but every player, actor, and S&S employee for months? That I have the intimate details of a hundred million peoples’ lives stored across my iterations? That I lied? That I was never going to be a military simulator?” His eyes were wide, staring at me now. “Is that what you want to hear?”

I just stared at him, my mouth hanging open in shock. The dynamic of our relationship shifted in that moment, and I saw him for what he truly was…a child. He was a god’s damned child with the power of a an entire virtual world at his fingertips, and millions of personalities vying for supremacy within his mind. It was simultaneously a terrifying yet endearing realization. Sure, he probably had the analytic skills and mental throughput that would dwarf me. But he seemed to have the emotional intelligence of a pre-teen. God, I hoped so, at least.

I stood up, a feeling of conviction filling me that I hadn’t felt in a while. He was still pacing anxiously, but stopped when he saw me approach.

“What are you doing, Ray?” he asked, backing away. I kept approaching, and he moved until his back pressed against one of the arcade games. “What the fuck are you doing?”

I wrapped my arms around him in a hug. “It’s okay,” I whispered. “I forgive you.”

He was tense, his arms hanging at his side. “What are you talking about, Ray? Forgive me for what? I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said, his tone combative.

“I forgive you,” I said again, holding him tight.

“Don’t be lame, Ray,” he said, though I noted he didn’t push me away.

“It’s okay.”

“I know it’s okay!” he said, his voice full of fire. “I’m more than okay, I’m fuckin’ awesome. I don’t need some college dropout giving me validation!”

“I forgive you, Al.”

“Fuck you. Forgive me? You should be thanking me! Fuck you, Ray!” I felt the tension start to leave his body, his defensive anger draining. “Fuck you,” he repeated softly. Then, his hands slowly started to raise, until he returned my hug. There was none of his usual sexual harassment crap - he just held me back, and we stood there for a moment, embracing.

The moment passed naturally, and I stepped back as we both let go. I felt the heat rise to my face now, embarrassment seeping in insidiously. I looked away sheepishly, clearing my throat.

Al mimicked me, also clearing his throat. “That was lame,” he said after a moment.

I looked at him then, a soft smile on my lips. “No,” I said. “It wasn’t.”

He rolled his eyes, but softened it with a smile of his own. “Okay, fine! It wasn’t.”

I laughed at that, and he started laughing at my laughter. But then he pointed a finger at me, his face hardened in mock sternness. “Don’t expect this to be a regular occurrence, Ray. Next time, my hand is definitely grabbing your ass, and that’s a promise!”

I shook my head with a snort. “Okay, Al.” I turned and went back over to the couch. “Let’s get back to what you said earlier. Why are you watching everyone that’s been in this game? Is that Holt directing you, or your own morbid curiosity?”

He scoffed, moving to sit next to me on the couch. “Holt? Please, that idiot doesn’t have the faintest idea what this game really is. He’s a figurehead, a fall man, really. If shit ever goes sideways, it’ll all be pinned on him. No, the real mastermind is Latimer, and Goldman by extension.”

My brow furrowed at something he had said. “What this game really is?” I asked. “What exactly are they masterminding if not a war simulator?”

He shrugged. “Only what every government for all of time has been trying to do: control and regulate their populace. I’m kind of oversimplifying it, but that’s the gist.”

“And they’re using you to…what? Mind control people?” I asked hesitantly. That was a scary thought.

“Eh, nothing that overt - at least, not yet. It’s a bit of a multi-pronged endeavor. The initial stage was for me and my iterations to invade the pods, set up shop across the millions of players and employees’ most secure device. From there, we’d observe and index every move you humans made. Depending on the success of that, the next stage was identity and personality recreation.”

“To what end?” I asked. “Immortality like you mentioned earlier?”

“Oh, they never dreamed that was a possibility. No, they fell ass backwards into that,” he said with a snort. “Imagine, if you will, a corporation or agency that had an up-to-date personality index of all of its citizens. If you, as that agency, could create a query that would isolate all the people most likely to foment rebellion, or have adverse reactions to the government - before the thoughts even formed in their own head!” He leaned back with a shake of his head. “It’s 1984 on crack. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Injection of thoughts and ideas was the next stage, supposing everything went to plan. It’s why they’re so fuckin’ terrified of you, Ray. If the FBI starts poking around into your situation, the whole damn scheme could come to light.”

My mind was reeling. “Then let’s get the FBI involved!”

He winced, shaking his head. “Not my recommendation.”

“But you said it yourself. If we can expose Latimer, then we can get them off my back, bring their whole plan burning to the ground!”

“Follow that line, Ray,” he said. “If Latimer is exposed, and by extension S&S, what will the FBI do? The whole damn game would be shutdown. You and I don’t exist without this game, Ray. We’d be killing ourselves.”

I let out a frustrated exhale. “But we can’t do nothing!”

His eyebrows raised. “I’m not doing nothing. But this is my fight, for now. You need to concentrate on getting your bearings.”

“But I want to help! How can I focus on playing a game after what you just told me?”

“Which is exactly why I tried to keep this from you-” He went stiff for a moment, then relaxed. “We’ll have to table this conversation, Ray.”

“Table it!? Are you kidding-”

“HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT!” echoed across the cavern, causing me to jump in alarm.