Gamers' Rebellion (17 page)

‘Oh, Robert,’ Zyra whispered.

She looked across at Robbie. Tears were streaming down his cheeks.

‘What do we do now?’ asked Zyra.

‘I don’t know,’ said Robbie. ‘I don’t care.’

30: Hope

Tark was lying in the rubble of a ruined building. His eyes were still tightly shut, his leg burning with agony from where he had been shot.

‘Tark?’ asked a familiar voice.

‘Tark, you’re hurt.’ Tark relaxed slightly and found himself looking into a pair of very familiar eyes. At first he thought it was Zyra. Then he looked at the rest of the face and realised it wasn’t. It was …

‘Hope?’

Tark could hardly believe it. Hope – the daughter of a previous Tark and Zyra. It was she and
his
Zyra who had gone in search of, and found, the Ultimate Gamer.

The woman nodded and crouched over him, examining his leg. ‘What happened?’

‘I’ve been shot by an insane Designer.’

‘Really?’ Hope stared at him, crow’s-feet crinkling around her tired eyes. ‘Still living the exciting life. I guess we better fix you up.’

‘Don’t worry about that,’ said Tark, grimacing. ‘I’m not staying. I’m betting I’ll be okay when I exit the Game.’

‘Exit the Game?’ Hope stood up and put her hands on her hips. ‘Come and go as you please, do you?’

‘Something like that,’ answered Tark, looking up at her.

She looked different. Her clothes were just a variation on what she was wearing the last time he had seen her – black leather with spiky metal bits. But her face, her hair …

‘What happened to you?’ asked Tark. ‘You’re old!’

‘And you’re not,’ said Hope, stating the obvious.

‘How come you’re old?’

‘Well, let’s see,’ said Hope, looking at the ruined buildings that surrounded them. ‘It might have something to do with the fact that it’s been over thirty years since you and Zyra exited the Game.’

‘Thirty years!’ Tark looked dumbfounded. ‘No way! It’s only been … what … less than a day?’

And what a day it had been. He had thought his life in the Game had been excessively filled with danger and adventure and over-the-top threats, but it was nothing compared to what had been happening in the real world.

‘Trust me,’ said Hope, looking back at Tark. ‘I’ve been keeping count. Thirty years, five months and seven days.’ She lifted up her arm and checked her watch. ‘You want it down to the hours and minutes?’

‘Time must work differently inside and outside the Game,’ said Tark.

He looked at Hope. It was strange enough that his sort-of daughter had been a couple of years older than him when he had last seen her. But now she was in her forties and he was still sixteen. It was just too weird for words.

‘I wonder why Mel sent me here?’ he whispered to himself.

‘Who sent you here?’ asked Hope.

‘Mel,’ answered Tark. ‘A girl who’s been trapped by the Designers in a hidden environment along with a whole bunch of other kids.’

‘Right,’ said Hope. ‘So you haven’t really done anything. Thirty years and you haven’t found a way out for the rest of us.’

‘It’s only been a day,’ said Tark, defensively.

‘So you keep saying.’

‘Well, it’s the truth,’ insisted Tark.

‘Your truth,’ corrected Hope. ‘Our truth is a little different. Our truth is thirty years long. In our truth, my father is dead. In our truth, we have more Outers than we have ever had. In our truth, we …’

‘Tee is dead?’ Tark said slowly.

‘Yes,’ said Hope, sombrely. ‘The first Outer to die of old age.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Tark’s voice was tiny, hardly a whisper. ‘I really am. But we
are
trying. We are fighting the Designers. We’re trying to stop them.’

‘Well, let us help,’ said Hope. ‘There are hundreds of us now. Let us be useful. Let us do something.’

‘I have to get back,’ said Tark.

‘What?’ Hope looked angry. ‘What about us? Are you going to be gone for another thirty years? What are we supposed to do?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Tark. ‘I don’t really know what’s going on. All I know is that I’ve got to get back and find Zyra. And help the rebels against the Designers.’

‘Rebels?’

‘Yes, rebels,’ said Tark. ‘I guess you could call them the Outers of the real world.’

‘Real world.’ Hope said the words with awe.

‘Yes, real world,’ said Tark. ‘There really is a real world out there. But it’s really no better than this one. It’s just as unfair. Just as difficult. Just … different.’

Hope stared at him, her expression unreadable.

‘Tark!’ Josie’s voice broke into his thoughts. ‘Where the hell are you? Are you okay? Your vitals are through the roof.’

‘Yeah, I’m okay. Sort of,’ said Tark. ‘Too much to explain here. I’ll fill you in when I get back.’

‘Tark,’ said Hope, a strange look on her face. ‘Who are you talking to?’

‘Josie,’ he said. ‘Leader of the rebels. You can’t hear her?’

She shook her head.

‘Josie,’ said Tark. ‘Can you hear Hope?’

‘Who’s Hope?’

‘Never mind.’ Tark faced Hope again. ‘She can’t hear you either. Doesn’t matter. Listen … I’m not sure why I’ve been brought here. But I’m guessing it was to find Outers … to find you. So be ready. I have a feeling you are about to join a rebellion.’

31: The Plan

‘Snap out if it,’ said Zyra. She was holding Robbie by the shoulders and shaking him. ‘This isn’t over.’

‘Isn’t it?’

Zyra looked into Robbie’s tear-filled eyes. It was as if all hope had been drained from them.

‘It isn’t over,’ Zyra repeated. ‘Robert is gone. Yes. But he got the nanobots reprogrammed, didn’t he?’

‘Yes,’ agreed Robbie. ‘But who knows if it will do any good.’

‘Robbie, listen to me,’ said Zyra. ‘You can’t give up. Robert would not have wanted you to give up. He obviously had great faith in you. Don’t throw that away.’

‘I am just a robot … a clone.’

‘No,’ insisted Zyra. ‘You are not just a robot. You are not just a clone. You are your own person. You are who you want to be. And I think that Robert knew that. Now snap out of it.’

Robbie nodded slowly.

‘Right,’ said Zyra. ‘The nanobots have been reprogrammed. So that means that the children have been freed?’

‘No,’ said Robbie. ‘At least not straight away. It’s going to take a while for the new nanobots to do their work. And remember, we’re not actually sure what the effects will be once the children take on a physical presence in the Game.’

‘So, what can we do?’ asked Zyra.

Robbie straightened up, pulling back his shoulders and standing taller.

‘Well, for starters, we can check on the progress … assuming I can get access to the portal. Help me with Robert.’

They picked up Robert’s frail, lifeless body and carried it to one corner of the room, laying it down gently. Robbie then positioned himself in the centre. He glanced nervously at Zyra. ‘Activate portal.’

‘Security scan.’

Robbie’s whole body tensed. Waves of green light flickered across him.

‘Identity confirmed,’ said the computer voice.

Robbie visibly relaxed.

‘Praise be to Designer Prime,’ the computer continued. ‘Unrestricted access granted.’

The holographic controls materialised around Robbie.

He looked over at Zyra, eyes filled with wonder. ‘It thinks I’m Designer Prime.’

‘Robert is dead,’ reasoned Zyra. ‘He said there was a sleeper code. He must have programmed the computer to recognise you as Designer Prime if he died.’

Robbie’s hands shook a little as they operated the controls. Strings of code materialised around him, moving around in patterns. ‘Nanobot reprogramming confirmed,’ said Robbie. ‘Dispatch in progress. It will take several hours to complete. The nanobots need to replicate themselves. There are a lot of children. Robert has set it up so that they are distributed as they are replicated. It has already started with the most recent of those connected. That’s Mel.’

Robbie worked the controls with greater confidence. The strings of code faded and were replaced with the environment menu. He looked through the options and chose one.

‘Designer Alpha’s environment is no longer concealed.’

The display showed the familiar desolate landscape that Zyra and Tark had travelled through. As Zyra watched, Robbie guided the display through to the breach in the hidden environment, and inside. Designer Beta was standing beside the tank, staring as the liquid bubbled away.

Inside the tank, the ghostly image of Mel pressed herself up against the glass, hands splayed out against the surface; then she passed through the glass.

Designer Beta backed away till he reached the computer equipment. He immediately began working at his consoles.

Mel stared at her hands, slowly gaining solidity. Behind her, more images approached the glass, pressing themselves up against it.

‘It’s working,’ said Robbie.

‘Alert!’ The computer voice announced. ‘Attempted breach of prime programming portal.’

Robbie swiped his arm across the display. The image of Mel and Designer Beta vanished, replaced by status reports.

‘Designer Alpha’s grunts are trying to get in,’ said Robbie. ‘They’ve been unsuccessful thus far. But they have now brought in a heavy-duty laser drill. It is only a matter of time before they break through.’

‘What do we do?’ asked Zyra.

‘We can’t stay here too much longer,’ said Robbie. ‘We need to finish up and move out.’

The display around Robbie wavered and dispersed to be replaced by an image of Designer Alpha, surrounded by her own set of holographic controls within her own personal programming portal.

‘You stupid robot,’ she said. ‘Do you realise what Designer Prime has done?’

‘Yes,’ said Robbie.

‘No, I don’t think you do,’ said Designer Alpha. ‘The entire Game is under threat. As each child wakes, the instability will grow. The longer they have been connected without any physical presence, the more disorientated they will be – and the greater the instability within the Game. The environments will begin to collapse.’

‘What will happen to the people inside the Game?’ asked Zyra.

‘The Game entities? As the environments collapse, they will cease to exist.’

‘No,’ Zyra gasped.

‘Yes.’ The Designer’s voice was bitter. ‘All those years of work … gone.’ She fixed Zyra with a hateful glare. ‘So let me tell you something. I am a vengeful person. And I will make you and the robot pay for what has happened. You may have placed the Game into a state of chaos, but I still control things in this establishment. My guards will get to you. They will bring you to me. And I will make you pay. The brain analysing nanobots are still waiting for you.’

She turned her attention to Robbie. ‘And as for you. I will wipe your mind and use your body for spare parts.’

‘Close communication,’ said Robbie.

Designer Alpha’s image vanished.

‘Can we get people out of the Game?’ asked Zyra, suddenly.

‘What do you mean?’ asked Robbie.

‘Like Tark and I got out,’ explained Zyra. ‘There are lots of cloned bodies available. Burrows told me about them. Lying there … waiting for Game entities to be downloaded into them.’

‘Yes,’ Robbie agreed. ‘In theory that is possible. If I can find a record of your download.’

Robbie straightened, flexing his hands and fingers. ‘I am engaging stealth nanobots,’ he explained to Zyra, his hands speeding through strings of coding. ‘Now… hmmm. No record of your download.’

‘That’s probably why Designer Alpha needed the information from me,’ interjected Zyra.

‘Without that information we can’t download Game entities,’ said Robbie.

‘Bobby,’ said Zyra. ‘He’ll know.’

Robbie turned his attention back to the display. ‘I can’t find him. Search functions are only showing residual traces of his coding.’

‘Oh, he’s there somewhere,’ said Zyra thoughtfully. ‘Watching. Waiting to play. Finger on the pulse of the Game. Can we put out a message that only he will be able to access?’

‘Yes.’

‘Send this,’ said Zyra. ‘Endgame approaching. Details of Tark and Zyra’s download needed to win.’

Within seconds of sending the message, the required information streamed into the portal’s display.