Chapter 13
Demon Game
Friday, September 19th, 2059
27 days to the apocalypse
Leo was dreaming. It was 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 faces of the Afflicted 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 would likely 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 a pork chop 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? He thought. “What about it?” Leo asked.
“It's dangerous. Everyone's calling it 'the demon game.'”
“It's just a first-person shooter, Brick,” Leo responded. “We run around shooting these zombie-infected people. 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 School's Out for Divine Ultimate Destiny, they throw in their D.U.D expansion pack, a cool D.U.D 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. School's 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-wearing people play it. People who worship the devil.”
“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.”
“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 and 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 School’s 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 D.U.D game you hate.”
“I know,” Jason sighed, looking gloomy. “But David 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 School’s Out,” Leo said, changing the subject. “Preferably a Terrible Teresa character.”
“No.”
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“She's small. She has drones and can get us into places we couldn't get into 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 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.
***
“Wow. I didn't know you were rich,” Leo said, looking over the two brand-new, state-of-the-art, coffin-sized gaming pods.
“We're not,” Jason said. “My brother brought them home as part of his work. He's doing a study or something. He said he'd kill me if I so much as looked in their direction.”
“I see,” Leo said.
“But he's on a trip, and this is more important. These gaming pods are the latest in gaming technology, so if anything can prepare us for the real thing, it's these.”
“How do they work?” Leo asked.
“Get inside. They're supposed to do the rest.”
Leo slid into one of the pods. A gel-like substance conformed to his body. He felt a little panic when the lid slid shut, trapping him inside, but he had no problem breathing. A minute later he was back in the game where they'd left off last time, with the still-burning wreckage of the helicopter behind them. They'd crashed in the forest, in the middle of nowhere. He and Gavin were the only survivors.
“Wow,” Leo said. He could hear the wind rustling through the trees and feel the uneven ground beneath his feet. He could even smell the fresh forest air combined with smoke from the burning wreckage and feel the wind on his face. Leo laughed. “This is amazing.” He felt the bark on a nearby tree. It didn't quite feel like the real thing, but it was close.
“This is better than I thought.” Jason/Gunslinger Gavin jumped up and down and walked around in circles, getting used to the new system. “Okay, the helicopter crashed in the middle of nowhere and we're the only survivors, so now we have to fight our way through the monster-infested wilderness to safety. Online gamers were cursing this section. The Hills Have Teeth is supposed to be even harder than The Infected Base, the section we just got through.”
“That last section was hard? Bunch of losers.” Leo/GI Joseph studied the terrain. “I think we should head down that ridge. There are fewer trees and it'll be harder for them to sneak up on us.” In his previous life, there were fewer Afflicted in the wilderness, but the few that were there were sneaky and mean.
***
Hours of gaming later, Leo pulled up his game stat sheet.
Name: GI Joseph
Level 9
Hit Points: 20
Strength: Okay
Agility: Decent
Intelligence: Satisfactory
Social Standing: Still a Loser
Skills and Abilities:
Expert in video and VR gaming.
Can chug a liter bottle of Mountain Dew.
Sleeping in class.
Walking long distances.
Special Skills:
Ultra Blademaster. Level 4
Passive skill. Superior skill with a knife and other edged weapons.
Augmented Armor. Level 2
Passive skill. Augments any existing armor, making it more effective, reducing all damage from attacks.
Maximum Surge.
The symbiotic alien parasite living inside your brain has made you stronger and faster than you would have been without it. It also gives you the ability to boost your speed for thirty seconds. The world will appear to move more slowly during this time. Maximum Surge is a stronger version of Surge.
Super Surge.
A weaker but longer-lasting version of Maximum Surge.
Prolonged Surge.
A weak, long-lasting, version of Super Surge and Maximum Surge. Useful for longer-term projects.
Inventory
One dirty, banged-up AK-47
12 pistols in poor condition
80 bullets
4 med kits.
10 packs of Dr. Bubbles. A safe, nonaddictive, derivative of crystal meth. Speeds up thought processes and increases the effectiveness of thought-related skills. Beware of the completely safe side effects: sleeplessness, paranoia, and loss of teeth.
Two large combat knives (Kukri) in good condition, razor-sharp edges. The reward for defeating the boss known as Cyclops in single combat.
16 knives in poor condition with dull edges
5 dirty meat cleavers. Recommend washing before use.
10 pairs of dirty torn combat fatigues
2 bags of jerky. Pork?
2 sandwiches. Pork?
5 jars of salted meat. Pork?
One pair of dirty combat boots in good condition.
17 watches in fair condition
81 candy wrappers
6 dirty individual combat boots in fair condition
3 devil drop candies. Aliens love them.
5 bottles of moonshine
1 six-pack of cheap beer
2 cans of Pepsi
1 2-liter bottle of Mountain Dew
50 band-aids.
The list went on and on. Good grief, Leo thought. No wonder he was suffering from decreased mobility. He couldn't figure out how to make the game's search feature more selective, and it wasn't like he could sort through his inventory while fighting Infected.
Leo/Joseph went through the rest of his inventory, discarding everything that wasn't keeping him alive, creating a huge pile of junk almost as tall as he was.
Ahhh. Much better.
Leo focused on the cut scene where Jason/Gavin was arguing with a government official.
***
Soldiers were loading trucks with the small prepper survivalist community's food and supplies. The preppers’ makeshift wooden fence had been destroyed, and bodies of preppers who'd fought back lay on the ground nearby. A large, forlorn “Don't Tread on Me” flag covered with large footprints lay on the ground nearby. The surviving preppers were packed together in an angry, unhappy crowd. Frightened children cried, hiding behind surviving adults. In the distance, a huge man in a general's uniform was giving orders.
Leo/Joseph and Jason/Gaven had just come out of the mountainous wilderness, having encountered and fought their way through five scary Bosses and a bunch of inbred mountain men who'd been cannibals even before they'd been taken over by alien parasites. Leaving the wilderness, the two boys had fallen directly into this cut scene.
What Leo found amusing was that in his previous future, the soldiers always loaded the people (living and dead) onto the trucks first, hauling them off like cattle, before bothering with supplies. Human soldiers serving Afflicted Bosses were very concerned with keeping themselves and their families off the dinner menu. In fact, in the previous future, Leo had gotten his best scavenging hauls from just this sort of situation, sneaking over and running off with supplies before anyone thought to come back for them.
In addition to the supply-stealing soldiers, the government agency, Divine United Management Bureaucracy, or DUMB, was making an appearance as well, in an attempt to restore trust in the government. The woman from DUMB sat at a folding table holding pamphlets with titles like, “The Government is Your Friend” and “How to be a Happy Citizen”.
“Last year your agency denied my mother's life-saving medication!” Gavin pounded the table with his fist, snarling at the uniformed DUMB official with a glare that would have killed lesser beings. The woman at the other end of the glare looked back, not even blinking, plastic smile firmly in place. As long as this cut scene went on, Jason was forced to watch his character, unable to take control until it was over.
“As a ranking DUMB representative, I'm sorry you had a less than positive experience with our agency. Sadly, it's against DUMB policy to give out free medications. Did your mother have money?”
Gavin put his vape pen with his medication to his lips with a shaking hand and inhaled. “Who's responsible for your agency's policies?”
“If your mother didn't have money, our agency is required to tell your mother to f-- off and die. We regret any inconvenience your mother f--ing off and dying might have caused you. Can I offer you a complimentary happy cake?”
The under-18 version of the game bleeped out swear words and digitally blocked anything the producers thought was unsuitable for children. It was annoying at times.
The “happy-cake” looked like an ugly brown Twinkie inside packaging covered with smiling, flag-waving children. Leo had encountered happy-cakes previously in the game and as close as he could tell, they had no nutritional value.
Unlike Jason/Gavin, Leo/Joseph was free to look around.
A nearby soldier was speaking to the surviving preppers. “The general wishes to make it clear that the I Don't Give a F-- amendment of the Constitution specifically states that General Schultzberg has the right to enter your property without permission and take whatever he wants. If you don't like this, you can always complain to General Schultzberg. He's in charge of our complaints department. But I strongly advise against this course of action, because he eats people like you for breakfast, and I mean that in the literal sense, sir.”
Leo looked back to see Gavin pulling a gun on the DUMB woman. “Who the f-- is responsible for your agency's policies?”
The DUMB representative's plastic smile didn't waver. “Just because your mother is dead is no excuse for being anything less than civil. Words are violence, you know. If you like, you may fill out a questionnaire that may help us provide better service in the future.”
Gavin's response was to suck on his vape pen, taking another hit of his own medication, and kick over the woman's table, sending pamphlets and questionnaires flying everywhere. He pointed his pistol at the woman's face. “I asked you a question,” he said in a calm, measured voice. “If you don't mind, I'd appreciate an answer.”
Time stopped. Leo's screen popped up with a list of possible options.
Your companion has gotten himself into a bit of trouble. Do you:
A. Try to de-escalate the situation. Just because Gavin's mother was killed by a heartless government bureaucracy, is no reason for him to start pointing guns at the people responsible.
B. Shoot the DUMB representative in the head. She's a bad person. You kill bad people.
C. Shoot the soldiers now pointing guns at your companion. The soldiers are following orders of a high command they know perfectly well is morally challenged.
D. Shoot General Shultzberg in the head. Anyone who's bothered to take a high school civics class knows an amendment to the American Constitution must be ratified by at least three-fourths of the state legislators, and it's common knowledge that over 90% of the state legislators have become Infected or eaten, rendering his personal I Don't Give a F-- amendment invalid and his behavior treasonous.
The answer was obvious. Since de-escalation wasn't an option, they had no choice but to shoot it out with the military. When engaged in a shootout, always eliminate the most dangerous opponent first. That was just common sense. The distant general was a huge man, none of it fat. He moved like a hungry lion looking for his next meal, and it was obvious his men were terrified of him.
Leo picked option D.