Chapter 34
Demon Game
Friday, September 19th, 2059
27 days to Armageddon
Leo was dreaming. One year in the previous future.
“Men. Women. Weird goblin creature. On your feet!” A large man with no neck towered over the terrified new recruits.
A week after Leo had killed a man for a rabbit, he'd tried to rob a foraging team and gotten captured. He'd somehow convinced them not to kill him.
“Go! Go! Go!” the man shouted. One by one the recruits grabbed spears from a rack and took turns running through an obstacle course, jabbing wooden balls with Afflicted faces drawn on them.
Leo was terrified, not of the obstacle course. He knew he could handle that, but if he didn't cut it with this group of survivors, they likely would kill him.
***
Friday morning started uneventfully.
“But Mom, the movie stars, Maxine and Tomi, stress the importance of a healthy balanced diet,” Lydia whined.
“Well, they can do our shopping for us,” an unsympathetic Mom responded, drinking her Bio-Blessed energy drink. “There's celery and a banana in the fridge.”
“Yuck!”
“That's enough, Lydia. I tried to save some ham for you, but Dad needed a midnight snack... and I kind of joined him.”
“I'll take the celery and banana,” Leo said, looking up from his bowl of cereal. “It occurred to me, that I've never tried a banana and peanut butter sandwich before. I think I'll do that.”
“Because you hate bananas. Mom, Leo's being weird, again.”
“I know, Lydia. He's becoming a teenager,” Mom responded tiredly.
***
After an uneventful walk to school in which the scary girl from Wednesday was nowhere to be seen, Leo entered the hallway and wandered over to Jason, who was surrounded by Brick and his cronies. Great.
“Hey, Brick, old friend. What's going on?” Leo said.
“We need to talk to you about that game you're playing, School's Out,” Brick said, using his height and size to look down on Leo and Jason.
Great. Now what? “What about it?” Leo asked.
“It's dangerous. Everyone's calling it 'the demon game.'”
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“It's just a first-person shooter, Brick,” Leo responded. “We run around shooting these zombie-infected. It's not even that exciting.”
There was a quiet snort from Jason.
“The game sucks!” Left Crony said. “I tried playing it. You have to use one of their characters, you can't build your own. There's only one difficulty setting—hard. You can't save the game. If you die, you go back to the beginning. I must have died more than 20 times, and that was just in the tutorial.”
“It's still in beta,” Jason responded, sounding defensive. “They're working on it.”
“If you trade Schools Out for Divine Ultimate Destiny, they throw in their DUD expansion pack, a cool DUD tee-shirt, and a hundred-dollar bottle of Bio-Blessed pills.” Right Crony pulled out a pill container with the Bio-Blessed logo on it and tossed back a large pill, making a show of chewing it up with his mouth open before swallowing.
“I owe Jason an apology,” Leo said. “I had no idea School's Out was that good.”
“We're serious. Schools Out was programmed by crazy implant-wearers who talk to demons—and aliens,” Brick said.
“They speak to aliens?” Leo asked, suddenly interested. “What aliens? and what did they say?”
“You're so stupid,” Brick responded. “The programmers are crazy. The game is cursed. Crazy implant people play it. People who worship the devil and have sex with children.”
“We are children!” Leo said, starting to get annoyed.
“Other children.”
“Are you trying to pick a fight with me?” Leo asked. “If you're picking a fight, you can kiss that thousand dollars goodbye.”
Brick raised his hands and backed up. “We're just warning you. We won't get paid if you go all psycho-crazy on us, either.”
“I think we're too late. They're already crazy,” Right Crony said.
“I don't care. They're still paying. One way or another,” Brick responded as the three walked away.
“Okay, Jason,” Leo said. “Tell me everything you know about the game's programmers and tell me now.”
“All I know is a husband-wife team did most of the programming and game design, but before the game was released, they both had some kind of breakdown and got sent to a rehab facility in an undisclosed location.”
“I need to find them. Maybe they can tell me what the aliens are up to?”
Jason sighed. “I'll text FluffyDemon, the guys who produce Schools Out, and tell them my friend needs to speak to their programming team to find out what the aliens are up to. I'm sure they'll be happy to help.”
“Great,” Leo said, ignoring the obvious sarcasm. “Let me know if you find anything.”
***
In homeroom class, the boy he'd hit the day before glared in Leo's direction, a large bruise on his face. But he left Leo and Jason alone.
Jason showed Leo a flier he'd gotten from a classmate.
AWESOME PARTY AT DAVID'S HOUSE!
EVERYONE INVITED!
EXCEPT
LEO EDWARDS AND JASON YOUNG
BECAUSE THEY ARE LOSERS
REPEAT
LEO EDWARDS AND JASON YOUNG
ARE NOT INVITED
“Who cares,” Leo said. “Not like we'd go, anyway. They'll be playing that stupid DUD game you hate.”
“I know,” Jason sighed, looking gloomy. “But he and Evan will rub it in next week. Telling us what a great time they all had.”
Last time around in the previous future, Leo suspected he had gone to David's party. He remembered hanging out with a more dangerous crowd the month before the change. He hadn't spoken to Jason much after he'd gotten his implant.
“I think we need a third player for Schools Out,” Leo said, changing the subject. “Preferably a Terrible Teresa character.”
“No.”
“She's small. She has drones and can get us into places we couldn't get to on our own, find us better equipment.”
“No.”
“Who cares about a kissing cut-scene? Take one for the team already.”
“No.”
“Okay, okay. Just think about it. Anyway, I told my mom I'm spending the night at your place. Terrible Teresa or not, let's kick this game's ass.” Leo raised his fist. They fist-bumped.
At lunch hour, Brick and his cronies all gave Leo the finger, but otherwise left the two of them alone.
That afternoon at Jason's house, Jason had a surprise.