Neverquest - Part 107
Characters: Sophia, Jesse, Alyssa, Russell, Michelle, Wallace, Pip, Neil, Roy, Mack, Jeff, Bob, Guy
Location: The basement of CNN
Time: Day 4 - 11:45 PM
“I know you don’t like this,” Russell said, looking up at Sophia from his Neverquest chair, “but we don’t have a choice in the matter. I know this game. I know how Tony built it, how he wanted it made…”
She shook her head. “You don’t know anything about it, Dad. All you did was finance this insanity.”
“But look what it’s become.”
“I’ve seen what it’s become. And I hate it.”
Michelle came up from behind and brushed a hand across Sophia’s shoulder. “Sophia, we need you at the main computer.”
“I’m busy.”
“Now, Sophia.”
Sophia scowled, but there was no one left to scowl at but her father. Michelle had walked away.
“…It’s okay,” Russell said. He reached for his game helmet and let it hover over his head for a moment. “Sophia, it’ll be okay. We’ll be okay. Would you trust me?”
“Have I ever?”
Before he could answer, she turned her back and disappeared. He sighed and looked over at Wallace, who was in the seat next to him. “How can you live with someone for twenty years and still have no idea what’s going on in their head?”
“Dunno,” Wallace said. “I wonder the same thing about my wife.”
“Still married?”
“Three daughters, sir.”
“That’s good… Real good. …God, I hate getting old…”
“Sir?”
“I’m sorry we haven’t had a chance to talk in a while, Wallace. Things have been so busy at the office, between the meetings and new accounts…”
“We’re both just doing our jobs, sir. It’s nothing we should be ashamed of.”
“Well, what do you say to a round of beer after this? My treat.”
“That sounds good, sir.”
“Hell, yeah, does that sound good!” one of the security guards said, slapping Russell on the shoulder. “Good to see you, Russell—you old man, you. Figured you’d stop on down to see us pups again?”
“…Roy, didn’t I fire you last week?”
“Yeah. Yeah, you sure did. Fired me good. I remember it like it was yesterday.”
“Then why are you still here?” Russell turned to Wallace. “Why is he still here?”
“Oh, you old dog!” Roy laughed and slapped him on the back. Then he plopped down in one of the open chairs. “This is exciting, isn’t it? Just think, in a few minutes, we’ll be whizzing through cyberspace. Whooooosh! Flying at the speed of light! Our molecules will be turned into billions of tiny pixels and carried across the galaxy to a world that exists…only in our minds… Freaky. …Hell, yeah.”
“You do know we have rules against drinking and playing, don’t you?”
Roy laughed again and picked up his game helmet, turning it around. “Alright, boys, how do you turn this thing on?”
Roy wasn’t the only security guard to show up. To fill the remaining seats, four more came. First, there was Mackenzie—Mack, to his friends—who was a gruff African-American with wire-frame glasses and a head of hair shaved so short that he was nearly bald. Then there was Jeff, a rather plain man who liked to twirl his security stick around his index finger. Then, wearing bright red shirts, Bob and Guy sat down together and put one leg over the other, sipping coffee, and discussed the events of their day.
While they talked, Michelle finished her lecture to Sophia. “…Now, we’re not going to be able to pull ourselves out of the game. It can only be done from this computer. That means it’s essential you know what’s going on to everybody inside the game.”
“But nobody can really get hurt, right?” Sophia asked.
“I don’t want to get your hopes up. This could be very dangerous.”
“I know… I just wanted you to tell me that.”
Michelle smiled, but it was the hopeless kind. “I know you don’t like me very much, Sophia, but I do love your father. I will do everything I can to protect him when we’re in Neverquest. You have my word.”
“That’s not enough.”
“It’s all I can give you.”
Sophia glared at her for a minute, but it wasn’t until she finally looked away that she spoke again. “…Look, you do what you have to and I’ll do what I can from here. No promises, no false hopes.”
“We’ll be honest then.”
“Fine.”
“…Good luck then, Sophia,” Michelle said with one last smile, stepping back towards the circle of Neverquest chairs.
Sophia watched her go without a word.
Michelle sat down in the last open chair. “Helmets on, boys. We’re ready.”
They obeyed. Almost in unison, they picked up their game helmets, which were all connected by tubes to a large modem in the center of the circle, and slid the visors over their faces. Their world turned black. Silently waiting, they listened to each other breathe. In and out. In and out. They closed their eyes and they could still hear it.
“Systems on,” Pip called out from across the room.
Neil flipped the switch, throwing his whole body into it. “Ten seconds.”
Russell took a deep breath and clutched his chest. Sophia looked at him for a moment and slowly slid a pair of headphones over her ears, positioning the mouthpiece below her lips.
“Nine seconds…”
Clenching his teeth, Roy squealed like a little kid. “I’ve never been to a fantasy world…”
“Eight seconds…”
Jesse came up behind Sophia and tied his arm around her. They both stared at the circle of chairs.
“Seven seconds…”
Pip swallowed hard and stepped away from the controls.
Neil joined him. “Six seconds…”
Alyssa took a step closer to Jesse.
“Five seconds…”
Bob and Guy touched hands.
“Four seconds…”
Jeff put his hand over Michelle’s hand.
“Three seconds…”
Michelle slapped him.
“Two seconds…”
Alyssa reached Jesse. She put her arms around his and rested her cheek against his shoulder.
“…One second… Good luck, guys…”
Suddenly, the room filled with a blinding light. Jesse slapped one hand over Sophia’s eyes and the other over Alyssa’s eyes and turned away. Neil and Pip were blown back, shielding their own eyes against the sudden wave of energy that shook the room. The coffee mugs left on the table shattered against the floor. The lights flickered. The computers began to buzz and then wail until blue streaks of electricity shot from the center modem like an orb of magic.
The players in the chairs screamed—all except Roy, who hooted into the wild hurricane of light and pretended he was on a horse, yelling, “Oh, yeeeeah! Come on, give me all you got!”
Wallace squeezed the arms of his chair, nearly crushing it under his brawny fingers. The veins in his knuckles throbbed. He grinded his teeth together and shook his head like a mad dog, but the helmet wouldn’t budge. He could feel his mind warping.
Russell’s head was snapped back. He opened his eyes—or tried to—and stared only at 0’s and 1’s everywhere. Static flooded into his retinas. His pupils turned into computer screens and his body went numb, like under a sea of ice. He felt nothing. Nothing but the ringing in his ear, the echoing screams of his friends, the spinning world before him.
“Dad!” Sophia cried, tearing away from Jesse. She jumped over the desk and ran for the circle of chairs. “Shut it off! Shut off the damn game!”
“We’d kill them!” Neil screamed.
“Shut it off!”
Neil reached for the switch.
Pip threw himself into Neil’s arm. “No, don’t!”
“If anything happens to them, Pip, I swear, I’ll—”
“It won’t! Look!”
Almost as quickly as it had started, the wailing died down to a low hum, the electric sparks from the modem faded, and the bodies of the players relaxed into a comatose state. Even Wallace’s fingers released the arm of the chair and, with a final twitch, hung down like the branches of a dead tree.
Alyssa opened her eyes, still clutching to Jesse. “Are they…?”
The giant monitor on the wall clicked on. Eight panels divided the screen. One by one, the panels opened to the eyes of the other world.
Sophia fumbled for her headset. “Dad? Dad, are you okay!?”
The darkness had lifted. The numbness was gone. Russell groaned, reaching out for something that was gone. He remembered what it was like to be young, to be free of this old pain in his bones… He remembered until it was real again. Before his wife, before Sophia, before the merciless clocks had turned him into an old man… How could he have forgotten this? This freedom…
He flexed his fingers first, remembering the feeling, the sensation of touch, now against the blades of summer grass. Grass. He wrapped his fingers around it and remembered everything. Had it always been like this? Had it always felt so real? When he was younger, when he could move like they did on stage, when life was more than a dying breath…
No. It was an illusion.
No more lies.
“So…” he grunted, trying to remember how to speak. It was like he wasn’t programmed for memory, like he wasn’t meant to remember. What was it? What had it been? Distant memories. Forgotten words. “So…phia…”
“Dad! Are you okay!?”
“Sophia…”
“Dad! Dad, say something… Please… … Dad…”
Giantess World
