The Participants (8 page)

“I've had some time to work with both of
you,” Erik said. “But now comes the real test. I want the two of
you to decide which one deserves to sit in the electric chair
overnight. I'll begin accepting nominations . . . now.”

Bridgette looked to the ground. The silence
stretched.

“Really? No one wants to volunteer a name? I
thought there would be a race to self-sacrifice. What do you think,
Elza? Should it be you? If no one can give me a name, then I'll
have to work out some form of couple therapy.”

Bridgette looked at him suddenly. “This is
your fault.”

I don't want it to be
me,
Zack thought. “Take her,” he said
aloud.

The flash of anger on Erik's face
disappeared behind a mild smile. “So much for true love. What do
you think, Elza?”

Bridgette shook her head. “Take Hess
instead.”

The woman named Erik pulled her tazer and
blasted Bridgette. “The chair is in the basement of the house. Get
her strapped in. I'll be right behind you.”

When the others were gone, Erik seized his
face and stared into his eyes. “Why did you do it?”

“I'm not who you think I am. I don't care
what you do to that woman.”

Erik considered him for a long moment. “I
could almost believe you. But I don't. You're not going to escape
me. Not in this life and not in the next one. I have a new calling,
Hess. I'm going to be the Creator's enforcer.”

Elza stumbled forward at the side of Hess as he
shouted at her. “Faster!” He looked over his shoulder every few
steps to judge their lead over their pursuers. Elza's rasping
breath didn't provide enough air for her to object. Hess ran
easily, carrying both their packs and looking like he was just
hitting his stride.

The hunters behind them
howled like animals. They
were
animals. They decorated their territory with
hideous displays made from human corpses as warnings to intruders.
Unfortunately, once you trespassed, leaving the area as quickly as
possible wasn't enough. Hunters had found their trail.

It was only twenty days since they left the
tribe of Kallig. Twenty long days filled with heated arguments and
cold silences. The only thing they could agree on was the fact that
the two of them would never agree on anything.

The exertion was too much
for her. Elza's vision began to dim and she staggered to a
halt.
Did he bring me here on purpose to
be rid of me? I shouldn't have told him he deserved to be unmade by
the Creator.
Sight returned to normal and
Elza saw Hess by her side still. “I can't run anymore,” she panted.
“If I stay still after they kill me, it might trick
them.”

“When they cut you into pieces for one of
their displays, they'll notice that your body parts vanish and come
back together.” Hess looked around as he spoke. “I want you to go
deep into that thicket, lay down, and try to make your breathing
sound less like a bear's.”

Elza stared at him. “You're leaving me?”

“Worse, according to you. Now go.” Hess ran
to the crest of a hill as she tripped through the dense undergrowth
in the direction he had pointed.

Their pursuers appeared before she could
hide herself. Three charged after Hess while two turned in her
direction. Elza mentally prepared herself for what would come. She
had been killed once for trespassing. It wasn't one of her more
cherished experiences, but she hadn't had nightmares about the
incident in close to a century.

The fastest of their
pursuers let out a whoop as he closed on Hess, who faced the charge
with stoic resolve.
I wish I'd let Hess
take his spear when we left his tribe.
Hess spread his arms and the hunter drove the spear
home.

Quick as a flash of lightning, Hess seized
the spear with one hand and pulled it further into his body, at the
same time bringing his other fist up to the opposite shoulder and
then viciously chopping the throat of his attacker. That man
stumbled back holding his neck.

The second hunter closed on him. Hess pulled
the spear free of his body. With casual elegance, Hess twisted to
the side and used the body of the spear in his hands to deflect
that of his enemy, then drove his own spear home. A second man fell
to the ground.

Once more weaponless, Hess charged the third
hunter, dodging a thrown spear. When Hess hit the man, he did so in
a low dive, forcing his target's knees to bend in an unnatural
direction. Both of them disappeared from view as they rolled upon
the ground.

Hess rose and staggered into an unsteady
sprint towards where Elza watched, holding his bleeding abdomen
closed with his hands. One of the two hunters pursuing her sprinted
away, fleeing into the forest. The second crashed through the dense
foliage of the thicket, struggling to reach her. Elza tried to
judge the speed and position of the two men. Hess was moving
faster, but she didn't think he could close the distance in
time.

The hunter reached her first. He seized Elza
by the hair and rested the point of his spear beneath her jaw. When
Hess reached them, the hunter spoke. “Stop or I will kill your
woman!”

“That would make me very angry,” Hess said.
“I would have to kill your entire tribe. But if you release my
woman, I will let you go.”

The point of the hunter's spear drew blood
as the man trembled. “Are you an evil spirit?”

“Yes,” Hess whispered. “I am the body of a
man killed by your tribe. You should not keep us above the ground
where we can wake up. We get angry, sometimes.”

The hunter threw Elza to the ground and fled
in the opposite direction, hindered by the thick vegetation. Hess
pulled Elza to her feet.

“We need to leave,” he said. “We’ll walk
until my bleeding stops, then run again.”

The Observers placed him face down for the night,
left hand cuffed behind his back to right ankle, right hand to left
ankle. They had moved him to the house, where a cramped family room
had been cleared to serve as a holding area. The room’s single exit
led directly into the kitchen area, where two of his captors drank
tea.

The man called Ingrid spoke. “We should bury
him immediately.”

The voice of a woman responded. “Erik wants
her fun.”

“This isn’t about playing games. We serve
the Creator,” Ingrid said. “Hess needs to be removed from events
quickly so we can return to our observations.”

“Just give Erik a few days with him.”

Zack had twisted around to face the light
that shone from the kitchen. In the night, fear of his immanent
burial lurked closer to the surface. He concentrated on the
soreness his unnatural position caused his shoulders. Pain was a
safe thought.

What does Lacey think
happened to me? She probably assumes I abandoned her.
Zack hoped that in time she found someone who
could love her. It was such a simple thing for a person to want. He
had thought he could fake the emotion for her, but Zack knew better
now. He would make an even worse person than he did an
Observer.

The shadows from the kitchen moved from time
to time. Even if Zack could free himself, the windows were boarded
up and two armed guards prevented his escape through the kitchen.
Still, he watched. After a few hours, the shadows stopped moving.
If he knew a way to escape, this would be the time to do so. The
darkness rose within and Zack had to suppress it. The darkness had
been active ever since the shooting, threatening him day and
night.

One of the shadows from the kitchen shifted.
Zack watched it move silently, growing larger. The form of the man
called Ingrid appeared in the doorway. He placed a finger over his
lips, bidding Zack to remain silent. Then Ingrid slipped over to
kneel at his side. Ingrid seized Zack’s restraints. “When I free
you, leave the house silently. The keys to the truck that brought
you here are on the counter. Move somewhere far from here and don’t
draw attention to yourself.” In rapid motions, Ingrid freed Zack,
feet first, then seized Zack’s chin. “The woman downstairs is not
who she claims to be. She’s Kerzon, trying to wound you in the way
she thinks worst. Elza is still out there somewhere.”

Zack crouched silently, cradling his arms
close while strained shoulders healed. “I don’t know who Elza is. I
am not Hess.”

“I don’t have time to argue. You can’t go
anywhere associated with your Zack identity. Drive to somewhere
with public transportation and disappear. The truck has several
thousand dollars stashed beneath the seat. Be quiet. Erik didn’t
drink any tea.”

Zack followed Ingrid out to the kitchen,
where Ingrid settled back into his seat and slouched forward onto
the table as if asleep. With swift motions, Zack swiped the keys
from the counter and went out the kitchen door. He ran to the
truck, clawed the door open, leaped inside, jammed the key into the
ignition, twisted hard, shifted into drive, and hit the gas.

The truck bounced the
entire length of the dirt driveway, then shot into motion when it
reached the road. Zack’s heart raced faster than the truck as he
split his attention between the road ahead and the rear-view
mirror. He took route twenty-eight south towards Pittsburgh,
slowing to five over the speed limit.
Can’t get pulled over now. I have to find a bus station or
something.
Zack punched the seat. He
didn’t know where to find a bus station in Pittsburgh or anywhere
else. He didn’t know where to find anything. In the past five
years, he had rarely traveled more than ten miles from rural
Sarver.

He tensed every time he saw
headlights behind him, until he was hunched over the steering
wheel.
I don’t know where I’m going. I am
tired and confused and emotional. I need a map and some
rest.
One of the false memories that came
with the identity of Zack Vernon recalled itself suddenly. It was
of a road trip taken with his parents. They had stopped at a hotel.
While his parents went through the process of checking in, Zack had
perused a display on the local attractions, paying particular
attention to a map of the area.

Now where is a
hotel?
The answer to that was easy. Along
route 28, just south of Tarentum, was a shopping complex known as
the Pittsburgh Mills Mall, a beautiful facility full of retail
locations suffering from lack of business. A hotel sat behind the
mall. Hopefully he could discover the location of a bus terminal
there.

Hess paced while Elza read the document. They
were inside their private sanctum, the central chamber of their
palace. Outside, bells called out the hour. Elza's eyes rose from
the parchment.

“They want to surrender,” she said. “Sidon
is sailing at us with an army, but his administrators write to
request our aid.”

“It's a hedging tactic,” Hess said. “Their
King is away, the people are restless, and we keep winning battles.
So far, at least . . . .”

Elza compressed her lips. “You want to
introduce liquid fire.”

“King Sidon has a superior navy.”

“Using a weapon like that undermines the
principles of our Empire. How can we preach humanitarianism while
introducing this world to chemical weapons?”

Hess crossed his arms. “It was never going
to be perfect.”

“The Empire might fall short of its ideals,
but we don't. You agreed that we would walk away before we violated
the rules. No technological breakthroughs allowed. Sorry.” Elza
crossed the room to wrap her arms around him. This world saw her in
a body most kindly described as mature, while he was perpetually
stuck in the final days of puberty. He sometimes suspected the
Creator had a sense of humor. The age difference bothered Elza more
than him. She always worried when his form was more attractive than
hers.

“Then we'll have to move our ships into the
harbor and prepare for a siege. King Sidon can't beat us on land
and we can't match his fleet.” Hess planted a kiss on Elza's nose.
“I ever tell you I have a thing for bossy noblewomen?”

“I smell mead. Did you open a fresh jug
while I was meeting with the federal reserve chairmen?”

“I thought you might need a drink after
manipulating the currency.”

“Math doesn't give
me
headaches.”

“It doesn't cause me pain, Elza. I just
don't think those types of studies are something an Observer needs
to know.”

“I thought you were an Emperor.”

“That’s more of a hobby,” Hess said.

“You couldn't do this without me. Conducting
wars and giving speeches are very nice, but this Empire keeps
running out of money. Your welfare state doesn't have the resources
to fight wars. Fortunately, our trading partners are as bad at math
as you are. Reserve banking and derivative options have turned this
world upside down.”

Hess poured two goblets of mead. “You know
what else I can't do myself?”

Elza took a sip. “So help me if you say this
decrepit body is your favorite.”

The mead stung his mouth. “Wow. This is
strong.”

“Do you remember Iteration twenty-six?” Elza
swirled the contents of her cup and took a gulp. “You were such a
beer snob.”

Beer? What is Beer?
Hess sent a query into the abyss of his memory,
seeking for beer and Iteration twenty-six. He took another drink,
feeling the liquid burn like fire down his throat. “This is my
favorite body of yours,” he said.