Chapter 61
The Games Begin
The first thing Mr. Osmond had done, when Leo arrived at his house early that Saturday morning, was take Leo's pack, now containing the shoes and clothes he'd worn when he'd killed the early-bloomer Afflicted.
“Could I see your wallet?” Mr. Osmond asked.
“I guess,” Leo said, not seeing the point. He handed his torn but still functional wallet to Mr. Osmond.
The man opened it and looked through the pitifully few items Leo kept there. A few dollars, a school ID, and a couple of coins he'd believed were lucky in a previous life. That was it.
“What do you want with it?”
“Just checking,” Mr. Osmond studied the school ID for a second, then put it down. “Making sure you didn't take money from...”
“I'm not a total idiot,” Leo said, glaring at Mr. Osmond. Taking money or valuables from a woman he'd just killed and keeping them in his wallet would be the height of stupidity, and he was hurt that Mr. Osmond would even ask. “And I'm older than you. Please don't treat me like a child.”
“I'm giving you a debit card with a thousand-dollar limit,” Mr. Osmond responded, putting the card and Leo's school ID back into Leo's wallet and returning it to him. “This is for buying necessities and running occasional errands I might require from you. Since you're older than me, I trust you will use the card wisely.”
“Yes, sir. Thanks. I guess.”
Six state-of-the-art pods took up most of Mr. Osmond's living room. They were much nicer than the pods he and Jason had gotten busted for using the week before.
“So how did you afford these game pods?” Leo asked. “Even mortgaging your house shouldn't have given you this kind of money.”
Mr. Osmond chuckled. “After I cashed out my investment in Body Booster, I have one point nine million dollars. It should have been more, but taxes and fees took a sizable chunk of my winnings.”
“But Body Booster crashed,” Leo said.
“It's called short-selling. Basically, I bet the stock would crash. Which, of course, it did.” Mr. Osmond stood up. “People should be arriving soon. I have to leave the house for a bit. Mom's brand-new electric car won't start and she's stranded at the mall. When I get back, we'll finish running pod diagnostics and play the game.”
***
Gavin
Gavin awoke in the tiny school storage area he'd turned into his home. His bed was a makeshift affair of an old blanket and a couple of coats lying on the dirty, ceramic tile floor. After rolling up his makeshift bedding and stashing it behind some boxes, he took a hit of medication on his vape pen.
He withdrew his most prized possession, a picture of his mother from his wallet, and kissed it. “Sorry Mom. Just trying to get through school. Doing the best I can.”
She'd died of a bad flu that turned into pneumonia several months before, and he'd been on his own ever since.
After showering in the boy's locker room, he put on clean clothes from his locker and washed his dirty clothes in the sink, wringing them out and hanging them up in his locker to dry. He heard the voices of teachers and students entering the school, beginning their school day. He pulled out a couple of newspapers he'd rescued from the trash and read them, breakfasting on a half-eaten bag of chips (also rescued from the trash).
As he was about to join the other students and head for his homeroom, he heard screams.
Joseph
“You worthless waste of space!” Joseph's dad shouted at him. A thrown bottle shattered on the wall behind him, leaving broken glass around his feet. The smell of cheap booze filled the air.
“Yes, sir,” Joseph said. The fifteen-year-old boy wearing poorly fitting combat fatigues had been through this enough to know to stand at attention, eyes forward.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“When I was your age, I was making something of myself!” his dad shouted. “I was joining the military, not playing stupid computer games!”
“Yes, sir,” Joseph responded. “Thank you for that bit of constructive criticism, sir.”
“Are you being smart with me?”
“No sir, I thought we'd agreed I was stupid.”
“When I was your age, I was training for the military. I was making something of myself. Just for having a smart mouth, you can walk to school!” Joseph's father limped away on his badly fitting prosthetic leg. There was a crash from their barren, garbage-infested front yard, and the sound of breaking machinery.
Joseph trudged past his broken motor-scooter and slowly walked to school, not caring that he was late.
It wasn't until he approached the school entrance that he saw people running and heard screams and shooting.
***
Trent/Pyro Mage 43:2: I hope there are no hard feelings, Leo. I'm getting myself and my family out of here. In Zota, people live on five dollars a day. Nobody can afford Bio-Blessed. When this Change hits, there shouldn't be any Afflicted around. If the Change doesn't happen, we'll return.
Leo/Future Man 10/16: Good thinking, Trent. If I was in your place, I'd do the same thing. Best of luck.
Pyro Mage 43:2: It will be safer there, right? This is the right thing to do?
Future Man 10/16: After The Change, nowhere is safe. But living in a place like Zota should give you weeks, maybe months of relative safety. Use that time to get yourself and your family as strong as possible. And find some good underground hiding places. When the Bosses come, you will need them.
Pyro Mage 43:2: What do you plan to do?
Future Man 10/16: I don't know. Changing the future is my one and only priority. If I fail at this, there won't be a future for any of us.
Pyro Mage 43:2: Good luck to you too.
“Trent Douglas and Isabelle Chandler, please report to the front desk.” The voice over the loudspeaker jerked Trent back to the here and now.
He tried to stay calm as he and Isabelle approached the front desk with their passports. What could they possibly want?
“Reason for your trip, sir?” a man in an official uniform looked over their five passports.
“It's with the church,” Trent lied smoothly. “We're assisting in providing vaccinations and medical aid to people in rural Zota. The kids are joining us for educational purposes and to broaden their horizons.”
“I see,” the man said. “Well, your kids are fine, but there's something missing from you and Isabelle's passports.”
“We don't need visas to travel to Zota, I checked,” Trent said.
“No, no, that's fine, but to leave the country, all adult passports need a loyalty stamp. It's a new rule. Not surprising you haven't heard about it. We'll hook the two of you up to lie detectors and ask if you're terrorists, plotting against the country, wearing implants, the usual. It will take five minutes. You'll be done in plenty of time for your flight.”
Pyro Mage 43:2: What should we do, Isabelle? I don't think I can fool a lie detector test.
Naughty Nurse 87: I'm scared. If we go back there with this guy, we're not coming back. What happens to the children?
Pyro Mage 43:2: I'll make a scene. Play along.
“You can't do that!” Trent snapped. “Loyalty oaths are against the laws of self-incrimination! You are violating our constitutional rights!”
“It is the law, sir,” the man said. “Part of the government's new security act. If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.”
“Well, this is garbage. I'm going to sue this airport and the government!” Trent shouted.
“Easy, Trent, It's okay, I don't mind,” Isabelle said, patting Trent's arm, pretending to calm him down.
“No. We're leaving,” Trent said.
“But Trent, it's not that big a deal. Let's just do it.”
“No. Come on. Let's go.”
“I'm sorry about this. I'll talk to him,” Isabelle said as Trent dragged her and the kids away.
Fortunately, it was much easier to leave an airport than it was to enter one. A couple of guards looked at them suspiciously as they left, but didn't bother them as Trent dragged his family from the airport and found a driver to take them home.
“Some bad men told us we couldn't go,” Isabelle explained to her kids.
“Fine by me. I didn't want to go anyway,” Tamara said.
Neither adult had the energy to respond.
Once they were home, Trent put his head in his hands. Damn it. Was this God's punishment for trying to run away rather than stay with his church and fight for his home? Though if Leo's claims were true, he'd be stupid not to run. “Suppose there's a good place to go in this country?”
“Don't know,” Isabelle responded quietly.