TJ forgot all about his research to leverage information to change Beth’s mind, and instead turned his attention to trying to make sure she didn’t sue him when she finally got out of the game. If she got out of the game.
“Sir,” one of the programmers said.
TJ turned to the man with short, dark hair and a scraggly beard. “Yes?”
“I found some code that indicates once she finishes day one-hundred, the game will automatically kick her out. So if we can’t find a way to get her out before that, at least we have that small safety net.”
TJ nodded. “Good work.”
But that begged the question, what happened if she lost both of her lives and didn’t finish the game? Did it kick her out then too? He voiced his concerns to the programmer.
“I’ll see what I can find.” He pulled a pair of blue light glasses on and dropped back into his chair.
Would changing the programming right now have an effect on Beth? Surely tweaking the code couldn’t hurt. He could change the game duration to eight days and get her out of there by tomorrow.
“What do you think about changing the coding to shorten the game?” TJ asked.
His techs exchanged a glance. “We’ll look into it. I don’t think we should do anything yet, until we know how her body is reacting to the implant. It might affect her in ways we certainly don’t want it to,” a red-headed tech said.
TJ nodded and waved away any more comments. “Figure it out.” A headache was building behind his eyes, and he was frustrated that this wasn’t working out how he’d planned. He rubbed his eyes and walked back into his bedroom to watch Beth. She’d built another set of columns around the outside of her base, equidistant to the previous set, making it significantly wider. She’d also framed it in on the second floor and added wooden grates. TJ was only sorry he hadn’t thought of that himself. Shooting through the wooden grates was an excellent idea.
Brian leaned back and pushed away from his desk. “I need a break. I texted Gary, he’s on his way.”
TJ climbed back into the micro-bot tank. They automatically shuffled and shifted to make room for him.
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“Hey, Mr. Carothers?” Brian leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees.
TJ raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”
“Since you started from the master mainframe, we should be able to get you more lives.” A smile tugged the corner of his lips. “You know, in case she shoots you again.”
TJ nodded. “Noted.”
He laid back and closed his eyes, ignoring Gary coming in to take Brian’s place.
}}}====>
Helios woke and stood, pushing his weight onto Maverick. Nyx had already left the base, and Helios decided to build it up to help her out.
He opened one of the storage boxes and found tree seeds, then went outside the base, hopped over the wooden spikes, and began planting them a few yards from the base. The trees would mature in 7 days and they could chop them down. It was a tree farm, and one of his favorite ways to get wood without having to travel too far.
He climbed the ladder to the second floor and continued building the columns up, making them tall enough for a third floor. Then, he went around the perimeter of the second floor, building grates up like an exterior wall. They’d be able to see the zombies approaching and snipe them from afar. It would be awesome. They were already on Day 7. Only three days until their first horde night.
Helios filled in the second floor’s floor with wooden blocks. They’d have to have a ladder in the center that allowed them to go from one floor to the next, but in the later game stages, there were military zombies that had guns. He certainly didn’t want two grated floors that would give the zombies a clear shot to them.
They should also consider building outward and making a garden area on the second or third floor, out of reach of the zombies. He didn’t have time, or resources to do it right now, but he would do it in the future. As the game progressed, food got harder to find, so they’d need to plant it.
By the time he finished building the second floor, Nyx still hadn’t come back, and it was almost 22:00. She was going to get herself killed if she wasn’t more careful.
“Nyx!” Helios shouted, reminding himself of Stanley, in A Streetcar Named Desire. It played on Broadway last year, and he’d been twice.
He started placing storage crates. They’d have to build a roof on this thing before horde night, the zombie birds really came hard from the top. For now, though, they were good.
Helios sorted through his inventory; they really needed a forge. Something to make iron into iron ingots that they could use to reinforce the wooden grated floor downstairs. Iron ingots turned to steel, which would come in handy after they turned the stone into cement.
They also needed to consider finding a vein of lead so he could start making ammo. Helios decided to play as if Nyx would need to make it through all 100 days, giving her as many advantages as possible.
TJ shook awake, looking up into the startled face of Gary.
“Wha—”
“It’s the Poky testing site. It’s been robbed.”