Chapter 7

Jason

Mr. Osmond's look of concern vanished. He grabbed Leo's arm and dragged him into an unoccupied classroom. “Are you insane?” he hissed. “I'm supposed to report anyone with an implant to the federal government! If I saw something, which fortunately for you I didn't, I'd get fifty thousand dollars for reporting you. They'd cut off your left forearm and possibly send you to prison. Do you understand me, Leo?”

“I think you have an implant too,” Leo said, “and that's why you're not taking Bio-Blessed. When I got my implant yesterday, I had a vision. In that vision, I heard you saved a bunch of kids a month from now, after the Change turns most of the Bio-Blessed users into monsters.”

“First, Leo, I'm a law-abiding citizen. Second, while I want to be known for my heroic teaching abilities, I'm no hero. Any zombie apocalypse will find me hiding in a closet. Hence my inclination to consider your vision a fake.”

“My vision was real and I'm trying to warn you,” Leo said, trying desperately to think of a way to convince him.

“Please come with me,” Mr. Osmond grabbed Leo and dragged him out of the room and down the hall, not stopping until they arrived at the nurse's office. Mr. Osmond smiled nervously at the nurse. “Found this boy in the hall. He appears to have suffered head trauma and is acting confused. If you don't mind, Leo, I've got a class to teach.” Mr. Osmond pushed Leo into the nurse's office. In a lower voice, he added. “Remember what I told you earlier.”

“Wait.” Leo pulled out a sheet of paper on which he'd written the timeline of everything he could remember about the next month and stuffed it into the man's jacket pocket. Mr. Osmond turned away and left.

***

“Dammit, Leo. Are you fighting again?” Mom spun the car's wheels as she pulled out of the school parking lot.

“I didn't have a choice, Mom. Some kids were picking on my friend. Trying to make him take Green.” Leo had spent the last hour trying to convince the school nurse that he wasn't either suffering from head trauma or using drugs. In the end, they'd called his mom.

“Green?” Mom asked.

“It's nasty stuff, it... uh, I heard it makes people sick and strung out.” When Leo had tried the so-called herbal performance enhancer last time around, he'd been sick for two days. The only good thing about Green, as far as he could tell, was no actual Bio-Blessed had been mixed with the herbal extracts.

Mom sighed. “We can't keep doing this. First your phone, and now I have to take you to a clinic to make sure you don't have a concussion.”

“I don't need a doctor, Mom. I just need some more ice for my face and to lie down for a bit.”

“Are you sure?” Mom looked worried. “Your sister was telling me you got into a fight with a seven-foot-tall biker who hit you on the head, and now you're dumber than usual. I'm keeping the source in mind, but still.”

“I'm fine, Mom. I promise. I was joking. It's not my fault she's so gullible.”

“Okay, Leo, we're going home, but if you start to feel worse, you wake me up, okay?”

“I will.”

Soon Leo was back in bed, multiple ice packs on his face. His poor twelve-year-old body had had enough. He was too exhausted to move, and everything hurt like hell. School could have gone better.

He decided to use a trick he'd picked up a decade after the Change. He hated using it because it wasted Demon Tears, but his training was more important right now. He certainly wouldn't accomplish anything lying around.

By focusing on his implant, he was able to mentally pull a single red, glowing, Demon Tear from the twenty he'd accumulated. Drawing it into his body and moving it to where he hurt the most, he held it there until it burst, spreading warmth through that part of his body.

His implant's passive healing gift didn't require a cooldown period and he could use this technique to speed up his body's healing as long as his Demon Tears held out. Ten Demon Tears and three hours later, his facial swelling was down, his pain had decreased, and he could move again.

He was haunted by his memory of Trent, the kindhearted man who'd helped him when he’d needed it. Leo had to warn him, but how? He didn't know the man's last name, where he lived, or much of anything else about the man's life before the Change.

He hopped on one foot while trying to juggle (to improve his agility), while trying to figure out what a Pythagorean Theorem was. This would hopefully also level him up at multitasking.

There was a loud knocking on the front door.

***

Leo went to the front of the house and looked out the window. It was Jason. He opened the door for him. “Shhhh, Mom's sleeping.”

“Sorry. I had to see how you were doing. What happened? Mr. Osmond wouldn't tell me.”

“I can't explain, Jason. Sorry.” Leo wondered how he could get rid of this kid without hurting his feelings. “You need to go. Mom's grounded me for fighting.”

Jason started to leave but turned back. “You got an implant, didn't you?”

Leo grabbed Jason and dragged him into the house. “Jesus Christ, Jason, could you not tell everybody!”

“I was right.” He looked at Leo, wide-eyed. “That's why you've been acting so strange. What's it like? Is it driving you crazy? Do you feel like killing people?” He seemed more interested than frightened.

“Aside from present company? No. My sister cannot find out about this. She would tell everyone.” Leo dragged Jason to his bedroom and shut the door. “And don't ever use the i word. Cellphones and walls have ears. I got that ’plant from this old man I helped with groceries, and I knew Brick was after me, so I put it on.” Leo told Jason what had happened, about how Imp had given him quests to gain Demon Tears, and how he'd had a vision where he'd lived some fifty years in the future before dying. “I won't blame you if you think I'm insane.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Is this end-of-the-world Change like the game School’s Out?” Jason asked.

“Uh, that's the game with the fast-moving zombies. Right?” Leo asked.

Jason looked at him strangely. “We played it last Saturday.”

“Told you, my memories are messed up. But, yeah, there are similarities.”

“That's so awesome! The world is about to turn into my favorite game!” Jason practically jumped up and down with delight, a big smile on his face.

“In this game, you get one life, the food sucks, and the monsters are pretty scary,” Leo said.

“And the 'plant is part of this game? You use the 'plant to grind up levels, improve stats, and it gives you powers?”

Leo nodded.

“Are you sure this vision isn't caused by the 'plant?”

“I hope it is. But, no, I don't think so. It felt real,” Leo answered. “You can believe what you want, but I think this vision is real and I have to figure out how to stop it from happening.”

“Neat! Except for the last part. Got any chips?” Jason asked. “Video games and zombie apocalypses make me hungry.”

“Pantry. Maybe.”

“So you really think the world's going to end?” Jason asked a minute later, munching on a bag of potato chips.

“I don't know. I'm hoping I can stop it, but I don't see how.”

Jason seemed to take it in. Then he shrugged. “Want to go to my place? We can play more School's Out. Prepare ourselves in case you're right and we do get stuck in this game world.”

Leo reached out a hand for the potato chips. “I got a quest, Jason. I need to find a man named Trent with a tattoo of a cross on his right hand.”

“Can't it wait?”

“You know I got my ass kicked for you this morning, right?” Leo said. “I need to find this guy. It's important.”

Jason sighed. “I suppose. Did you get his phone number? E-mail address?”

“No. He's a large man with dark brown hair in his thirties with a tattoo of a cross on his right hand. That's all I know.”

“Not much to go on. This tattoo of a cross. What did it look like? Could you recognize it in a tattoo parlor?”

“No. Pretty sure it was a homemade thing. Maybe he got it in prison?”

“So maybe an ex-convict?”

“I don't know. I think he was about six feet two inches, but he looked taller because he wore motorcycle boots. Don't think he was married.”

“So he's single, and a biker? That's something at least. What kind of bike? Part of a bike club or gang?” Jason took a sip of his Coke.

“No idea.” Leo helped himself to a handful of chips. “You know, I forgot how smart you are.”

“People often do. But you still haven't given me much to go on. Does this guy have interests? Hobbies?”

“I remember him saying something about going to church and being a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. He was drunk when he told me this, but I think he was telling the truth.” Leo struggled to think of anything that might make this man stand out.

“Thousands of churches in this city have Alcoholics Anonymous branches,” Jason said. “It could take years to find this guy.”

“Wait! How many churches hate Bio-Blessed?”

Jason snorted. “Nobody hates Bio-Blessed. It's got the Pope's seal of approval. Evangelists think Bio-Blessed is God's greatest bounty. Churches that won't let you see a doctor let you take Bio-Blessed.”

“Yes!” Leo said. He rushed to his laptop and typed in “Churches that hate Bio-Blessed.”

He got twenty articles on Christian terrorist hate groups. Leo chuckled. “Jackpot.”

***

Jason left Leo, who was still surfing the internet, and headed home. The most logical conclusion concerning his friend's vision was that Leo was insane. But what if he wasn't, and it was real? What if the world became like his all-time favorite game, School's Out? That would be so neat. It was all he could do not to jump up and down from joy. Even a short run-in with Brick couldn't put a damper on his excitement.

After entering his house, brushing leaves and stickers from his clothes as he did so (Brick had pushed him into a pricker bush), he was attacked by a giant monster.

“HEY JASON! CHECK ME OUT I'M RIPPED!” Jason's older brother, Chris, shouted as the 6-foot, 200-pound, eighteen-year-old effortlessly picked Jason up like he was a toddler, high enough to bump Jason's head against the ceiling, before dropping him, causing him to land painfully. “And I don't even exercise! Bio-Blessed is the greatest thing ever!” Chris ran out the front door.

Ow. Jason waited to be sure Chris was gone before he got to his feet and limped to his bedroom. If he'd somehow gotten really lucky and the world was going to turn into his favorite VR game next month, he needed to level up in the game, fast.

It would also mean his older brother would turn into one of those fast-moving zombies Leo kept talking about.

Jason wasn't sure what to think about that.

***

Leo found the article after hours of online searching.

The God's House Church of Fellowship is a hate group of so-called Christians who strongly disapprove of Bio-Blessed.

“Nothing blessed about Bio-Blessed. It's the devil's nectar,” the church's pastor, a small woman named Gretchen Whiteworth, said. “We had a cancer patient taking Bio-Blessed and... (passage removed due to the false and inflammatory nature of the statement)

The article went on to discuss how the sane denominations were trying (so far unsuccessfully) to shut this and other bad churches down.

The church in question was in the city, five miles from his house. Considering the pastor called Bio-Blessed “the devil's nectar,” just like Trent had, it couldn't be a coincidence. Trent had to be a church member.

That evening Leo moaned and kept ice packs on his face when his parents were around. So, after a long lecture from Dad about conflict management and going to the principal if he felt threatened, his parents let him take the next day off.