Gamers - Amazon (8 page)

Gabby had never ridden in anything other than a FunCar and those could only fit two people, three if they had small waists. When they'd been younger; Gabby, Zaela and Dario would ride together in one, giggling and scoring mad points.

She'd played in other imaginary vehicles as LifeGame was full of them: racecars, airships, waterrockets, and other fantastical modes of transport. But none of those prepared her for the cobbled monstrosity the Frags called the Caterpillar that lumbered across the gravel.

The vehicle had more in common with a chimera than a FunCar, though she could see why they called it the caterpillar. The backend had conveyor belt tracks around steel wheels while the front had three sets of gnarled tires. A long arm with a clawed hook protruded from the front.

Celia was piloting it from an open seat using a handlebar steering mechanism. Drogan stood behind her, perched on the seat behind with his hands on her shoulders. Each hand dwarfed the shoulder it rested on.

Drogan was shouting, "Left! Left!"

Celia was giggling and clearly ignoring Drogan's directions. Gabby didn't know how she was seeing as the black bandage across her eyes blocked all vision.

Gabby wanted to be worried, but Michael and Milton weren't. They seemed to have shaken off the serious conversation from inside the farmhouse as they laughed and shouted directions from their safe spot in the grass.

Celia steered the vehicle around the FunCar in wide figure eights. It seemed to be made from parts of dozens of other vehicles. The noise from it was surprising as well. It growled and rumbled and belched black smoke from its rear pipes.

The FunCars, in contrast, were completely silent so the occupants could concentrate on their games. They were, essentially, meant to be invisible. The vehicular monstrosity had an individual personality all its own.

Michael tugged on Gabby's arm. "Come on. I need help with some traveling supplies."

"Traveling? I didn't come all this way to go on
another
trip," she said.

Michael ignored her and led her to the barn. The inside smelled like a mix of burnt oil and old manure. Disassembled hulks of old vehicles littered the bottom floor. What Gabby assumed to be an engine hung from a chain beneath a loft.

As she swiped at a stray bug floating near her head, Michael grabbed an olive dufflebag and launched it at her, hitting her in the chest.

"Hey!" she said. "That hurt. What have you got in there, rocks?"

Michael eyed the bug as he grabbed two other duffle bags and hauled them toward the door. "Camping gear."

Gabby chased him outside. "Wait. I can't stay long. Maybe tomorrow afternoon at the latest, but next week is Final Raid. I've got to get back home so I can grind points."

Celia had stopped the strange vehicle and the other two boys were loading boxes into the back.

"You won't understand unless we take you a little further," he said.

Gabby dropped her dufflebag. "I'll believe you. I promise. Just tell me. I can't be gone another day."

Michael shrugged and threw a dufflebag up to Drogan, who was bouncing the monstrous vehicle as he stacked the bags.

"If you're as smart as Milton says you are then you won't have any problem catching up next week," he said. "And showing you is the only way." He winked. "Come on. It'll be fun. Everyday's an adventure out here."

The offer was tempting but she hated to throw away a lifetime of work for one joy ride. Plus she'd told Zaela she'd be back tonight. Gabby knew that Zaela would cover if she didn’t return, but then she'd have to explain why and she didn't want to get her mixed up with the Frags.

Standing in the vehicle, Michael held out his hand. His ice-blue eyes twinkled at her. She was thoroughly annoyed by the way they were making her feel.

And she was curious. Milton's story had been heart-wrenching. She wondered if the others had similar ones. If she left, she'd never find out why Michael and his sister Celia had run. Then again, she realized, her blindness probably kept her from playing LifeGame and made her a target to disappear. Michael had probably run with her rather than lose his sister.

"Okay," she said. "I'll go, but you have to promise I'm back in that FunCar tomorrow morning."

Michael held his hand over his heart. "I promise."

As he pulled her onto the Caterpillar, he squeezed her hand. Fearing her hormones were betraying her good sense for his crystalline eyes, she dropped his hand.

Behind the driver seat, three rows of benches were room enough for a dozen people and behind that was a spacious wagon bed filled with supplies. Seated next to Michael and behind Drogan and Milton, the Caterpillar rumbled to life.

As Celia steered them into the trees, Gabby leaned over and whispered into his ear, "Can your sister see?"

"Better than we can," he said.

An insect was perched on the bench between them. Gabby raised her hand to squash it and Michael grabbed her arm before impact.

"Please don't," Michael yelled over the engine noise. "Celia doesn't have many left."

"The insect is hers?"

"It's a micro-machine. A mechanical insect. Part of her sensor network," he explained.

"She sees with it?"

"You could say that."

Gabby watched Celia steer the Caterpillar. She was preternatural in her stillness, not moving her head to watch the path. The afternoon sunlight drifted through the trees, forming dappled patterns across the ground, making judging surfaces difficult.

But Celia piloted the craft around hidden dips and fallen trees easily. In fact, they seemed to be following an old trail through the woods, heading deeper into the mountains.

Celia hardly moved except to take a sip from her water bottle every once in a while. Gabby would have guessed that Michael or Drogan would have driven the Caterpillar just based on the arm strength probably required to steer and not the blind waif.

As they rumbled across the hills, Drogan bounced in his seat singing nursery rhymes. Though it brought a smile to her face, she was thankful he could hardly be heard over the motor noise.

Milton spent the time immersed in coding. She was familiar with the signs: vacant stare, mumbling lips, and finger gestures in the air. It was different than gaming, which had a flow to it. He was clearly working on a difficult problem, an exploit maybe. If she had an opportunity when they stopped, she planned on comparing notes with him about it.

Finally, her gaze fell upon Michael. He was leaning away from her, watching the sun drift toward the peaks. His hair was scattered askew on his head, and his jaw pulsed with a hidden dilemma.

She wondered what it would be like to give up her life to run away with her sister, if she'd had one. Would there be regrets?

Gabby watched him for a while and found she enjoyed looking at him. Though she couldn't figure out why.

He wasn't straight-out handsome, totally buffed with good looks, she decided. He wasn't average, either. His nose might have been broken at one point, angling just slightly to the right, but it made him more interesting.

And his eyes, though mind-numbingly crisp, weren't what made her stare, since he was facing the other way. Instead, she thought, he had a kind face and was just the right height that she could nuzzle into a hug.

A warm flush rose to her face. Gabby found her cheeks radiated heat when she touched them.

Suddenly, the Caterpillar lurched right and she was thrown onto Michael's lap.

"Hey!" he said smiling. "If you wanted to sit in my lap you just had to ask."

Gabby untangled herself from him. The heat in her cheeks burned hotter. She found Celia had her head turned toward them with an impish grin. Checking behind them she saw no reason the Caterpillar would have needed to jump like it had.

"When you say your sister can see better than we can," she asked. "Do you mean she can see beyond just the light spectrum?"

Michael nodded. "She has M.A.S.S., a Mobile Auxiliary Sensory System. Her mobile sensors, the bugs, can see other things than just the normal visible spectrum, like heat or vibration."

"Where did she get that twinked gear?" Gabby asked.

"Our parents were, are I guess, researchers for the government, the military part." Michael pulled an olive green canteen from a backpack at his feet.

"When Celia was born mostly blind," he continued. "They developed the M.A.S.S. to give her sight, attaching sensors to the unused nerve endings. The government paid for the research because of the implications for the military."

"Can she tell what you're thinking?" Gabby asked, wondering about being knocked into Michael's lap.

Michael laughed. "Sometimes I think she can. Never play poker with her. She sniffs out all your tells."

"She doesn't talk much," Gabby remarked.

"Not really. Too overloaded with information, I guess. I have to remind her to eat regularly," he said.

Their conversations inexplicably and uncomfortably fell silent, so Gabby went back to watching the scenery.

As she breathed in the cool autumn mountain air, she realized that in the last day she hadn't gained one single point. She couldn't remember a day she hadn't, and for the last few hours she hadn't checked her LifeScore either.

Though thinking about it, she glanced left to see the number she already knew. Gray, lifeless, and hadn't moved one decimal point since yesterday.

Gabby sighed. She was going to have to figure out what to do about these Frags. She found herself liking them, which would make turning them into the LGIE even harder.

When the sun slipped behind the mountains and plunged them into darkness, a cold wind rose up from the valley they were passing through. Michael pulled out blankets and they each cuddled beneath their own.

Celia continued driving through the darkness, which Gabby found unnerving. They'd passed treacherous cliffs and rock slides on the way, and in the dark, it felt like they were constantly headed toward one.

At least Drogan had stopped singing nursery rhymes. Michael had to put his hand on the big guy's shoulder a few times to let him know they were with him.

Finally, they stopped and made camp. Michael made a small fire with wood they'd brought, while the rest unpacked.

Once they were warming their hands around the fire, Milton spoke up. "We'll get up early and make the last push to our destination. The earlier the better so we're not seen."

"What's our destination?" Gabby asked.

The Frags remained silent over the flickering light of the campfire. Michael stared into his cup, while Milton shrugged. Drogan hadn't been listening and probably didn't know what they were talking about, anyway.

Celia, who had changed into bulky overalls that she barely fit into, though blind, seemed to be staring right through her. Or at least, Gabby felt that way, wondering where her sensor bugs were and what they could read from her.

After a dinner of roast rabbit, which Gabby found tough and gamey, they settled into their sleeping bags. Lying near the rear track of the Caterpillar, Gabby watched the stars unfold their glory above her.

In the city, she'd never really seen the stars. Here, the broad brushstroke of the Milky Way arched over her. When an owl hooted nearby, a chill went down her spine.

Gabby remembered the cover of the book that Blair had given her. The one about the long dead philosopher that had an owl on the front.

"Hey, Michael?" she whispered in the dark.

His voice came back unladed with sleep. "Yeah?" He must have been thinking or watching the stars, too.

"Did you put an owl in your hack when you tried to see me at school?" she asked.

A shooting star streaked across the sky, disappearing behind the nearby trees.

"No," he said after a long while. "Why would I put an owl in my hack?"

"Must have been someone else then."

Gabby sighed, wishing she had Celia's M.A.S.S. to know if he was lying.

She rolled onto her side. She was never going to get sleep with a view like that above her. Then again, she wasn't going to get sleep anyway, since she still had to decide if she was going to turn them into the LGIE.

Chapter Ten

The easy adventure feeling from the day before had disappeared. The Frags were on high alert as the Caterpillar rumbled across the mountainside.

They had been able to stay level before, but were now tilted sideways as they passed through higher elevations. Frequent rockslides tugged at the track and threatened to drag it down.

Whenever the tracks slipped, Drogan started singing a nursery rhyme about a cradle falling. She'd never heard it before, but the words were surprisingly cruel for the intended audience. He seemed to break into the song whenever he got nervous.

Gabby was nervous, too. Her stomach and fists were clenched, but she kept a smile on her face as she didn't want the Frags to know.

Celia's pauses and obvious frustration didn't help. Michael explained that they neared the zone that patrols frequently passed.

Celia had even stopped and turned off the Caterpillar for a ten minute stretch. They waited in silence and Gabby kept expecting guys with guns to run out of the forest. She checked her system more than once to make sure she was not broadcasting her location during that ten minutes.

Eventually, they reached the ridge of a mountainside. They were on the north side of an angled slope that led to the peak. They hiked up another hill. The forest was unnaturally quiet on the way up. Gabby hoped it was their presence making the wildlife nervous.

A small silvery black bug rested on Gabby's shoulder. When she noticed it, she swore that its tiny black wings waved. Celia was smiling, so Gabby restrained the urge to smash it.

As they neared the ridge, Milton motioned for them to crawl. Drogan had to be pulled down with the others as he didn't understand why they had to get dirty. Gabby found it amusing since the big redhead had grease stains on his shirt and pants.

While the four of them elbow crawled to the edge, Celia stayed below, cross-legged and concentrating.