Gamers' Rebellion (12 page)

‘Lucky I’m here, then,’ said Zyra.

‘Oi,’ Tark protested. ‘I know which direction it’s at. And I figured that out myself.’ He pointed in the direction he was walking in. ‘It’s over thataway … somewhere. It was jamming my communications with Josie — she’s the rebel leader.’

‘So we’re on our own,’ said Zyra.

‘Guess so,’ said Tark.

‘Just the way I like it.’ Zyra smiled.

‘Me too.’ Tark smiled back. ‘Let’s go.’

After a few minutes, Zyra noticed that she was sweating. She wiped an arm over her forehead.

‘Is it getting harder?’

‘Yeah,’ agreed Tark. ‘I think so.’

‘Must be getting closer,’ said Zyra.

They continued on, each step getting more and more difficult. Until they finally came to a halt. The sweat was now dripping from both of them and they were panting with the strain.

‘Some sort … of security …’ panted Zyra. ‘Must be… trying to stop us.’

Tark nodded his agreement.

‘Got to … keep going.’ Zyra took hold of Tark’s hand.

He looked into her eyes and smiled. The two of them struggled on for a few more minutes.

‘Still don’t … see anything,’ said Zyra.

‘Me neither.’

And so they kept on walking. Zyra put on an extra burst of effort, increasing her pace. Tark matched it.

‘Something’s wrong,’ said Tark.

‘What?’ asked Zyra. ‘I’m okay.’

‘Me too,’ said Tark. ‘That’s the problem. I’m finding it easier.’

‘Oh.’ Zyra stopped walking. ‘You’re right.’

‘We’ve missed it,’ said Tark. ‘If it’s getting easier, we must be going away from it.’

‘How?’ Zyra looked around in frustration.

‘Dunno,’ said Tark. ‘But we better go back.’

Zyra groaned, but followed him.

Again, her steps became more and more difficult, as if someone were pushing against her, trying to keep her back.

‘Stop!’ she suddenly called.

‘What?’

‘This is it,’ announced Zyra, turning and taking two steps back. ‘This must be it.’

‘What?’ asked Tark again.

‘This spot,’ said Zyra, pointing down at the ground. ‘This is it. This is where it is hardest. From here it starts to get easier again.’

She turned to the left and took a few steps, nodded to herself and came back. Then did the same to the right.

‘Yep,’ she said. ‘This is it.’

‘There isn’t anything here,’ complained Tark. ‘Except those spiders.’

‘Spiders?’ Zyra looked down to see two robotic spiders darting around her feet. She promptly stepped on one and then the other. They made a satisfying crunching sound as they crumbled.

‘There must be something here,’ said Zyra, looking up.

‘There isn’t,’ insisted Tark, arms spread wide.

Zyra looked down at her feet and then up at Tark. ‘You don’t suppose?’

Tark looked down. ‘You’ve gotta be kidding me.’

Zyra got down onto her hands and knees and banged on the ground. There was a dull thud.

‘Well, if it is down there, how do we get to it?’ asked Tark.

‘We need something to dig with,’ said Zyra.

‘I left my shovel at home,’ quipped Tark.

‘Ha, ha,’ said Zyra. ‘You’re such a comedian.’ She stood up. ‘If we can select weapons, maybe we can also get digging equipment.’

‘Fair call,’ agreed Tark.

‘Access digging equipment,’ called Zyra.

A selection of images appeared, ranging from trowels and spades through to heavy-duty mining drills.

‘This should do the trick,’ said Zyra, choosing a hand-held laser drill.

The image flashed red and text appeared:
Access denied. Insufficient game points.

Zyra noticed a points tally above the images. She was five hundred points short.

A spider popped up out of a hole in the ground beside Zyra’s foot.

‘Oh, it couldn’t be that easy,’ said Zyra, looking down at it. Quickly she crushed it under the heel of her boot. Her points tally jumped up … by five. ‘At five points a pop, it’ll take ages.’

‘Well, we better get to it then,’ said Tark, crushing a passing creature. He scoured the ground, jumping here and there, attempting to gather points.

Zyra shook her head at the ridiculousness of the situation. ‘Maybe we could combine points,’ she mused. ‘Tark! Come here. Let’s select the drill together.’

They both touched the image of the drill. It flashed green and the display disappeared.

Zyra crouched down and picked up the handheld laser drill. She pointed it down and pressed a button. A bright red laser beam dug into the ground. After a few seconds, it had cut a fist-sized hole, so Zyra hit the off switch. She got down on her hands and knees and peered into the hole.

‘Can’t see anything,’ she said. ‘Just darkness.’

‘Access lighting equipment,’ said Tark, stepping on a passing spider just in case. He chose a small torch and handed it to Zyra.

‘Getting the hang of this,’ she said, shining it down into the hole. ‘Nothing!’

‘Now what?’ asked Tark.

‘I don’t know,’ admitted Zyra. ‘But it’s got to be here somewhere.’

‘Maybe we’re in the wrong environment?’ suggested Tark. ‘Josie sent me here because some informer dude told her to. Well … maybe he lied to her.’

‘No,’ said Zyra, standing up and handing the torch back to Tark. ‘Robbie knew about the hidden area and he sent me here himself.’

‘Robbie!’ Tark’s expression darkened. ‘What’s with that clone dude? Why are you hanging around with him? And what makes him so special that he knows where this hidden area is?’

‘Well, for starters, he saved my life,’ said Zyra, scowling. She was on the attack now. ‘Secondly he sent me here to help you, so don’t you get all funny about him. And hey, you’re hanging around with that Josie chick.’

Tark gritted his teeth, spun around in frustration and threw the torch up into the air with all his might.

The torch smashed in the air several metres above them, the pieces raining down onto the featureless ground.

Tark and Zyra looked down at the pieces, then up above their heads, and then down at each other. All their aggression drained away.

Zyra smiled. ‘It’s above us.’

Tark smiled. ‘Yep.’

‘Hmmm.’ Zyra pointed the drill above her head and gave it a thirty second blast. ‘Look!’ she gasped.

Up above them was … something! It was insubstantial and it shimmered like a mirage in a heat haze. And it was enormous, stretching out in all directions. It must have been at least half a kilometre in diameter.

‘Wow!’ breathed Tark.

The mirage faded away.

‘Now, how do we get in?’ asked Tark slowly.

Zyra powered up the drill again. As the laser beam struck the surface, it shimmered into visibility. Zyra kept the drill running, focusing the laser onto one spot.

An intense point of light appeared on the shimmering surface above them.

‘Something’s happening,’ said Zyra.

‘We’re doing it!’

Zyra upped the intensity and the spot of light brightened. The shimmering outline faded as that one spot of light slowly grew.

And then it shot down at Zyra.

She dropped the drill and leapt out of the way as the ground exploded.

‘That is not good,’ said Tark, staring at Zyra.

‘Neither is that,’ said Zyra, pointing up.

There were now two points of light, one above each of them. Tark grabbed Zyra’s hand and they ran. The spots of light shot down, exploding on impact with the ground.

Zyra glanced upwards.

‘Oh no,’ she panted.

Above then, multiple points of light were forming.

‘We’re going to have to jump,’ she said. ‘Or exit.’

‘I still don’t have the hang of jumping,’ said Tark.

‘Just keep holding on to me and I’ll jump us,’ said Zyra.

Spots of light exploded around them.

‘Anytime now would be great,’ called Tark, gasping for breath.

‘I’m trying. But it’s not working.’

‘We’re gonna have to exit, then,’ shouted Tark.

‘Exit!’ they both yelled.

More explosions. One of them a little too close for comfort.

‘We’re trapped!’ shouted Tark, panic edging his voice as they ran and dodged.

Suddenly the explosions ceased. Tark and Zyra stopped running.

‘We must have gone beyond the edge of that thing,’ said Zyra.

Tark let go of her hand and paced back and forth.

‘Should have known that thing’d have security.’

‘We should try jumping now,’ suggested Zyra.

Tark took hold of her hand again and looked into her eyes.

They now stood in a field of golden flowers.

‘Why here?’ Tark kicked at the nearest bloom.

‘Don’t start.’ Zyra held up a warning finger. ‘We’ve got to work things out.’

‘Tark, are you there?’ Josie’s voice broke into Tark’s thoughts. ‘Where are you? Answer me!’

‘I’m here,’ said Tark. ‘Just had a bit of trouble.’

‘What?’ demanded Josie. ‘Report!’

‘Is that the Josie chick you’re talking to?’ asked Zyra.

‘The hidden place is huge,’ said Tark, nodding at Zyra. ‘And it’s got security. Blocks out communications. It kinda makes you tired. And when we tried to get in, it shot at us.’

‘So now what?’ asked Josie.

‘Don’t know!’ said Tark.

‘The Ultimate Gamer,’ whispered Zyra.

‘What?’

‘The Ultimate Gamer.’ Zyra’s voice was louder now. ‘We need to get his help. If there is anyone in the Game who can get us in there, it’s him.’

‘Are you sure he isn’t, like … dead?’

‘Yes and no,’ said Zyra. ‘The Ultimate Gamer is Bobby. And Bobby is Robert. And although Bobby died in the Game, Robert is still alive in the real world. And he says he can go back in whenever he wants.’

‘Okay then,’ said Tark. ‘How do we get him to help?’

‘Now that, I don’t know,’ admitted Zyra.

22: Designing

Robbie’s eyes snapped open. He was standing in Designer Prime’s room, syringe in hand.

‘How did it go?’ asked Robert, eager to know.

‘According to plan,’ answered Robbie, wiping his nose. ‘Zyra’s safely in the Game. I have taken her to Tark. And they’re attempting to gain entry to the secure environment that Designer Alpha has created.’

‘You just used two contractions,’ noted Robert.

‘So I did.’ Robbie put the syringe back in the dispenser. ‘I will need to distract Designer Alpha. The longer it takes for her to realise what has happened, the longer Zyra and Tark will have to achieve their goal.’

‘What did you have in mind?’ asked Robert.

‘I will go and speak with her.’

Robert’s chair glided across the room. He stopped in front of the door that appeared in the far wall. ‘I have a better idea,’ he said.

If Robbie had eyebrows, he would have raised one.

‘I am still a Designer,’ continued Robert. There was a determination in his voice – a determination that Robbie had not heard in a long time. ‘I am the original Designer. I think it is high time that I did some designing.’

For the first time in years, Robert’s chair exited his room.

Robbie watched his creator glide out, and smiled before following.

Robert silently went to the programming portal. He glided in on his chair, going straight to the centre of the room. Robbie followed him in, staying by the door as it closed.

‘Activate portal,’ said Robert.

‘Security scan,’ announced the disembodied, androgynous voice.

Waves of green light flickered across Robert’s face and chair.

‘Identity confirmed,’ said the voice. ‘Welcome, Designer Prime. Level one portal access granted.’

Holographic controls materialised around Robert. He lifted his arms unsteadily, experimentally flexing his real fingers and his mechanically enhanced ones. Robbie noticed that his real hand shook slightly.

Robert took a deep rattly breath and his hands moved across the displays, slowly and unsteadily at first. Strings of code opened up in front of him, hovering about him in the chamber; his hands found their old confidence, picking up speed and moving instinctively across the controls. Numbers and symbols flew across the room, rearranging themselves, forming new patterns and making corresponding changes within the Game.

As the Designer’s hands slowed down, the coding melted away, replaced by the visuals of a Game environment. Tall glass and metal structures reached high into an indigo sky. A grid-work of roads worked their way amongst them. The environment looked deserted.

The image around the Designer zoomed in, down through the buildings focusing in on a crossroads. At the intersection, a swirl of pixels coalesced into four bronze figures, backs to each other, each facing down one of the roads. With heavy steps, they walked purposefully along the roads.

In unison, the four bronze figures raised their arms. Energy crackled through their bodies, along their arms and out towards the structures around them. Buildings exploded, debris raining down around them. They continued walking, arms raised, more destructive energy shooting from their fingertips.

A frisson of grey static formed above the figures.

‘Ha.’ Robert laughed. ‘That should distract Alpha for a while. An infringement in a priority-one military training environment. An infringement that the standard anti-virus software will not be able to deal with.’

Robert swiped his hand over the holo-display and the image of the environment dissolved, replaced again by numbers and symbols, floating in the air around him.

‘Now to the real work.’ Again, his hands flew across the controls. ‘Time to go a little deeper.’

Strings of code moved around Robert. It was like he was travelling through it, navigating his way around the binary intricacies, through the highways and byways, the avenues and boulevards behind the unreality. Numbers and symbols flew by at an astonishing rate, but Robert’s eyes flicked across every one of them, guiding the flow, following the nuances to his destination.

‘Access denied,’ the androgynous voice suddenly announced.

‘What?’ demanded Robert, hands pushing forward on the holo-display.

The coding had stopped dead. He could not push through.

‘Access denied,’ repeated the voice.

‘Oh, I don’t think so,’ said Robert.

A new display of controls appeared in front of him.