Digital Heretic (14 page)

Chapter 30

  “Hello, Trew fans. For those of you who missed our coffee session with Trew this morning, I have two things to say.

 
First of all, shame on you! There’s been some great stuff revealed at the coffee sessions. It’s becoming a ten minute regular spot on the feed and it really brings some excitement to the day.

 
Secondly, let me give you a quick recap of what was covered this morning. Trew has decided to postpone his address to the world by a day, or perhaps two. Outsiders are not sure why, but it looks like many players are being ejected from the Game and Trew has opted to wait until they are present on Tygon to witness his address.

 
When asked about the large player ejection, Trew told us he wasn’t sure why it was happening and guessed it had something to do with another anniversary event. We’ve contacted Brandon Strayne and he said the exact same thing, which is no surprise; the two men spend a significant amount of time with each other and are likely agreeing to tell the same story to the press.

 
Over the past few hours, millions of players have been ejected from the Game. The vast majority of players were low ranked and non-viewed, although some of them had channels and the small viewership of each have reported watching the avatars experience violent and often pointless deaths.

 
Earth newscasts and Tygon teams have noticed one specific group of people are being targeted for death; members of the religious movement ‘The Game Is Life’ are the primary targets so far, with just

over 25 million of them killed over the past few months inside the Game (hours of play for Tygon viewers).

 
With no other groups coming forward to offer assistance, it appears the other religions of the world are in agreement and aren’t unhappy to see one of their most recent — and up until now fastest growing — competitors being destroyed.”

Trew

 
“I feel horribl
e
,” Trew said.

  “
I don’t understand why,” Brandon said. “You aren’t responsible for this.”

  “
Who is? Was this your idea, Brandon?”

 
Brandon looked at the monitors around the room. Some were live feeds from player perspectives which involved gruesome scenes of death. Others were feeds from newscasters inside the Game reporting on the deaths. Still others were Tygon feeds showing combinations of both. He looked back at Trew, “It wasn’t my idea, Trew,” he said. “I’m not sure why this is happening.”

  “
You could have been more clear to Daniel,” Trew said. “The Devil seems to have taken your orders and twisted them into a sick game.”

 
“More clear about what? Who to eject from the Game?” Brandon asked.

  “
Yes,” Trew said.

  “
It really doesn’t matter who is ejected, and that’s why I didn’t give more specific instructions. I’m not surprised that he put a creative spin of his own on it; he does that. Look, I know you’re upset. You feel responsible because millions of people who believed in your vision of the Game are being targeted and ejected.”

  “
Killed,” Trew said. “Let’s not get too fancy with words. They might be ‘ejected’ from the Game, but in fact they are going to wake up and the horror, pain, and other trauma associated with their ejection will remain as a very real memory for them for the rest of their lives on Tygon.”

  “
Which is nothing new,” Brandon said. “If you play the Game, you die. How many memories of death do you have, Trew? Many. And some of them are much more painful what’s being dished out at the moment.”

 
Trew said nothing.

  “
Danielle has stepped forward to lead the survivors,” Brandon said.

  “
Yes,” Trew admitted. “ They’ve been encouraging everyone to go into hiding.”

  “
That won’t be successful,” Brandon said.

  “
I know, but they’re restructuring and rebuilding. The best defense in this case is to simply go underground. I’m amazed it didn’t happen sooner. We spoke about it many times, but Raphael said that with the numbers involved, it wasn’t possible. Most of the current known members will die — over a hundred million. A small few are being spared, called out before group killings and left unharmed. Families are wiped out except one or two members who are left alive. With those survivors, we will rebuild. There were also tens of thousands of members who never revealed themselves, in case just such an attack ever became a reality. Almost all of these people have been left unharmed.”

  “
Secret meetings, small groups of cells that never know about other groups. Cell leaders given specific tasks in such a way that know only their goal, not the bigger picture. The bigger picture is known only by a few at the top, and the ones at the top are unknown to everyone,” Brandon said.

  “
Exactly as we have discussed,” Trew said. “Few know that Danni is the leader, and her history of being away from the movement aids her in staying secret.”

  “
Raphael is truly the master strategist and implementer for this type of campaign. We’re lucky that Mainframe gave him to Danni.” Brandon said.

  “
If luck had anything to do with it,” Trew said. “If I had to guess who is really responsible for this happening, you would be first, Sylvia would be second.”

  “
Both good guesses.”

 
Trew laughed. “She answered as neutrally as you when I brought up the subject earlier.”

 
The two men sat in silence as the sounds from multiple feeds played softly in the background. Finally, Trew spoke.

  “
I do feel very bad,” he admitted. “These avatars all followed my message, and because of that, they are being ejected.”

  “
Look,” Brandon said, “you didn’t put a gun to anyone’s head and force them to agree with you. All you did was say ‘I have an idea, and this is what it is.’ It was up to people to decide

whether they accepted it or not. Millions did. That’s a great thing, Trew, no matter how you look at it. Religious targeted killing
isn’t new, and it isn’t going to stop with ‘The Game Is Life’ members. Maybe there’s a reason for it, maybe there isn’t. Interviews with recently ejected players indicate they don’t blame you at all.”

 
Trew nodded. He’d watched countless interviews with newly ejected players. None of them blamed Trew or the movement for their deaths. The players freely admitted that they had become lost and off course from their intents, and they’d been wasting their time inside the Game. It was no surprise to them that they’d been ejected, In fact most pointed out that the only good thing they had managed to do during their recent play was join Trew’s movement.

 
The Game ranking system seemed to agree. Credits were generously awarded to all players who had joined the ‘Game Is Life’ movement versus those who hadn’t.

 
Another interesting phenomenon was occurring. Players were following Trew’s lead and keeping the name of their last avatar.

 
Trew might be losing followers inside the Game, but it looked like he was gaining them by the millions outside of it.

Chapter 31

“Someone needs to wake up and take a good long look at what’s going on with the students who don’t make it to retirement age in the Game.

 
Traditional schools are worse than prison. When a child is too old to return home, but too young to be considered an adult, they are simply taken and used.

 
We are all so busy watching the Game that none of us are asking the difficult questions anymore. Who works to clear the trash? Who puts themselves in danger to maintain the sewer systems and electrical plants? Who recycles the waste and turns it into desirable products?

 
It’s our children, and many of them are dying to give you the lifestyle that so many of us take for granted.”

Excerpt from
‘What happens to children when they fail out of the Game?”

Interview with Lilith Branshaw, prominent business woman

Recorded 24 years after the Game began

Tygon, School District 13

 
The Toad sa
t
in his office and watched his monitor as static hissed on the screen.

 
He considered the title the students had bestowed upon him… ‘Toad.’ They whispered it secretly behind his back, making bulging eyes and other lewd gestures when they thought he wasn’t looking. Of course, to his face, they displayed the proper amount of fear, but he’d always known what went on behind his back.

 
He sat at his desk in his pitiful office, the cold air conditioning blowing on his head as it forced his thinning hair to tumble around in chaos. He was depressed with how his life had turned out.  

 
He knew it was because of the visitor who’d just left. Meeting with the great Gamer Trew had drudged up these unpleasant thoughts and feelings of regret inside of him. Seeing Trew reminded him of all the things he had wanted, and never accomplished. It was painful to admit that he was a loser, especially when sitting in the presence of a winner. Things hadn’t turned out as he’d hoped when he was a young man playing inside the Game.

He owed Lilith for helping to put him in this position; that was why he’d agreed to meet with Trew in the first place. The Toad looked around and barked out a bitter laugh. Trew had done his best to be polite, but it was obvious how disgusting this place was. Yet the Toad was proud to be here? Pathetic.

 
As a Game dropout, this was a very desirable place to be, and the Toad knew that he was lucky to be here. He had food, shelter, clothing… Most importantly, there were very few who bothered to bully him.

Safety from the others was the best one could hope for, and this position provided as much safety as possible, for a failure. He, in turn, offered as much shelter and protection as he could to others

that Lilith sent his way. It had been too little for so many of them, but it was the best they could do in a world where the losers were discarded like garbage.

 
Trew had come asking questions about Alexandra, and Toad had done his best to answer. The meeting was short, because the Toad

didn’t
know that much, only that he had tried his best to give her the easiest assignments, and whenever possible he attempted to shelter her from the packs of dangerous dropouts, or fallen, as they were all called.

 
As much as he wanted to hate Trew, the Toad had warmed to him quickly, given all the information he could, and was sorry to see him leave. He always had good instincts about people, which had helped him to survive in this wild environment.

 
His instincts said that Trew was someone sincere, a leader that deserved to be followed.

 
He picked up his phone and dialled it. As principal, he was allowed a viewer and given an account to follow ten channels — a tiny number, really. Most children were allowed five times that number. Toad had never bothered to subscribe to even one. To see others playing inside the Game was too painful a memory for him; of what he had been, and of how little he now was.

  Trew’s
visit had changed something inside him, though. The Toad wanted to watch the Game again.

  “
Yes, hello,” he said into the receiver. “I would like to subscribe to the Trew channel, please. And perhaps also to Danielle’s channel.”

***

  Trew’s mood was dark as he took the private transporter back into the city. The filth of the school, the absolutely horrible conditions that the dropouts — the Fallen — were made to endure, all because they couldn’t afford to buy back into the Game. It was disgusting.

 
He had met the principal and toured the school. He walked the same halls that Danielle — or, rather, Alexandra — had walked for almost a year.

  “
Well? Not good, right?” Lilith sat across from him in the transporter.

 
He looked at her with venom in his eyes and bile in his throat. “No. Not good.”

  “
That was one of the best schools that exist,” she said. “We can tour the worst, if you like?”

 
Trew said nothing. His jaw twitched angrily.

  “
He said that they called her ‘Fallen,’” Trew said.

  “
Yes,” Lilith nodded. “They are all known as fallen, but among them, she’d climbed highest in the rankings, and fallen the hardest, so they gave her that title. It was used to label and condemn her.”

 
Trew nodded. Then he watched the buildings of the city grow closer as rain splattered on the windows.

 
After a time he sat up straight and sighed, looking back towards Lilith.

  “
This world is worse than the one we play the Game in, isn’t it?” he asked.

 
Lilith nodded sadly. “Yes, my dear boy. It certainly is.”