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Authors: Jen Alexander
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can smell the acidic soap he used an hour ago when he washed up in the privy downstairs. Feel the tips of his fingers pressed into the flesh on either side of my belly button.
I’m not sure I want his hands on me anymore. Because nothing about the two of us is what I thought it to be. Our bodies are being used by Olivia and Landon.
Please, just let me go.
Olivia makes me turn slightly, smile up at him. She moves my hands so that they curl over his forearms. “That settles it. Group Save.”
Olivia sets my character on something called Self-Sustain Mode. I watch through her eyes as she configures my Self-Sustain list. One protein bar a day. Two bottles of water. Enough food and fluid to keep me alive, but nothing more. Well, as far as she knows. But I don’t plan on eating any more stale protein bars in the near future. Once I’m outside of the game, I hope I won’t ever have to even look at a protein bar again.
She leaves me in the room over the bar with the others, cloaked in semidarkness, lying next to Ethan. I use whatever link I have to her brain to make sure she is completely away from the game before I consider moving. Then, just for good measure, I wait about another two hours, staring at Jeremy, who’s motionless in the chair across from the bed. Finally, I unwrap myself from Ethan’s arms and ease up from the flat mattress. I grab a flashlight from my bag.
My legs are numb from the position Olivia left me in. I shake them out and pace the small room a few times before kneeling down to look for April’s holster of weapons. She’s on the floor with her blue eyes open, lying on her side on one of the ripped plastic mats we brought from the jail. I find her knives in her backpack, which she’s hugging to her chest.
“You’ll get more,” I whisper. But I still feel wrong for stealing them. Her arms tighten around my hands, and I let out a high-pitched shriek, sprawling backward to land on my bottom.
Slowly, April sits up. She presses her back to the wall and reaches into her bag. The tiny hairs on the back of my neck and arms stand on end, and my fingertips tighten around the Glock. Her blank eyes stare right at me. She starts to draw something from her satchel.
Her gamer is back. Her gamer has returned and she’s found me out and I’ll have no other choice but to defend myself.
But I shine the flashlight over the objects in her hand and realize she’s not holding a weapon at all. She’s just reached for food and water. I watch as she takes mechanical bites of her snack cake, a few sips of water. This continues for about five minutes. Then she wraps her forearms around her backpack again and resumes her position lying down.
What I just witnessed must be Self-Sustain in action.
We’re like robots.
My stomach pitches violently, and I fight back nausea as I crawl back to April and take her knives from the bag. I drop the weapons into my own backpack and start to leave, but something stops me. My world may not be what I thought it was, but these are the people I had believed I cared about. That I still can’t help caring about, even if everything they’ve ever said to me were someone else’s words.
I have to try to wake them.
“April?” I touch her shoulder, shaking it softly. I bend until my face is close to hers and our eyes meet. “Do you... Are you in there?” She doesn’t move. No blinking, not even a muscle twitch. She just continues to look straight ahead, clutching her bag like a child would her favorite toy.
I try the same thing with Ethan and Jeremy, but it’s no use. They’re just as unconscious as she is.
Shoulders slumped in defeat, I walk to the door and grab the knob. A sharp jolt of electricity streaks up my arm and through the rest of my body. I fall to my knees, screaming.
CHAPTER SEVEN
I’m on the floor facedown, convulsing and choking, for what seems like an eternity. When I finally work up enough strength to push myself onto my hands and knees, the current is
I’m not sure I want his hands on me anymore. Because nothing about the two of us is what I thought it to be. Our bodies are being used by Olivia and Landon.
Please, just let me go.
Olivia makes me turn slightly, smile up at him. She moves my hands so that they curl over his forearms. “That settles it. Group Save.”
Olivia sets my character on something called Self-Sustain Mode. I watch through her eyes as she configures my Self-Sustain list. One protein bar a day. Two bottles of water. Enough food and fluid to keep me alive, but nothing more. Well, as far as she knows. But I don’t plan on eating any more stale protein bars in the near future. Once I’m outside of the game, I hope I won’t ever have to even look at a protein bar again.
She leaves me in the room over the bar with the others, cloaked in semidarkness, lying next to Ethan. I use whatever link I have to her brain to make sure she is completely away from the game before I consider moving. Then, just for good measure, I wait about another two hours, staring at Jeremy, who’s motionless in the chair across from the bed. Finally, I unwrap myself from Ethan’s arms and ease up from the flat mattress. I grab a flashlight from my bag.
My legs are numb from the position Olivia left me in. I shake them out and pace the small room a few times before kneeling down to look for April’s holster of weapons. She’s on the floor with her blue eyes open, lying on her side on one of the ripped plastic mats we brought from the jail. I find her knives in her backpack, which she’s hugging to her chest.
“You’ll get more,” I whisper. But I still feel wrong for stealing them. Her arms tighten around my hands, and I let out a high-pitched shriek, sprawling backward to land on my bottom.
Slowly, April sits up. She presses her back to the wall and reaches into her bag. The tiny hairs on the back of my neck and arms stand on end, and my fingertips tighten around the Glock. Her blank eyes stare right at me. She starts to draw something from her satchel.
Her gamer is back. Her gamer has returned and she’s found me out and I’ll have no other choice but to defend myself.
But I shine the flashlight over the objects in her hand and realize she’s not holding a weapon at all. She’s just reached for food and water. I watch as she takes mechanical bites of her snack cake, a few sips of water. This continues for about five minutes. Then she wraps her forearms around her backpack again and resumes her position lying down.
What I just witnessed must be Self-Sustain in action.
We’re like robots.
My stomach pitches violently, and I fight back nausea as I crawl back to April and take her knives from the bag. I drop the weapons into my own backpack and start to leave, but something stops me. My world may not be what I thought it was, but these are the people I had believed I cared about. That I still can’t help caring about, even if everything they’ve ever said to me were someone else’s words.
I have to try to wake them.
“April?” I touch her shoulder, shaking it softly. I bend until my face is close to hers and our eyes meet. “Do you... Are you in there?” She doesn’t move. No blinking, not even a muscle twitch. She just continues to look straight ahead, clutching her bag like a child would her favorite toy.
I try the same thing with Ethan and Jeremy, but it’s no use. They’re just as unconscious as she is.
Shoulders slumped in defeat, I walk to the door and grab the knob. A sharp jolt of electricity streaks up my arm and through the rest of my body. I fall to my knees, screaming.
CHAPTER SEVEN
I’m on the floor facedown, convulsing and choking, for what seems like an eternity. When I finally work up enough strength to push myself onto my hands and knees, the current is
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