Authors: Terry Schott
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
“You make it sound so simple, Brandon.”
“There are so many steps that must all fall in place, at both the right time and with the right orientation, for us to have any chance of success at all. The odds favour this being a complete failure.”
“Then why attempt it?”
“I attempt it, Father, because it looks complicated to the average person, but to me it’s simple.”
“It looks extremely complicated to me.”
“You might not see what I’m about to attempt, but there are other areas where you are without peer.”
“Very amusing, boy.”
“I didn’t mean it as a joke, nor did I intend to insult you. There is one fact which you must keep in your mind during this project, Father. It will serve you well over the times that are to come.”
“What fact is that?”
“The thinking that created the problem will not solve it.”
“Are you saying you are able to outthink me, Brandon?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“For the sake of our entire world, which faces total extinction thanks to my mistakes, I hope you’re right, son, because I can’t begin to come up with an idea to save everyone.”
“I can, Father.”
Excerpt of private conversation recorded by Brandon on Tygon during the first year of the Game.
Lisa Rohansen looked around the luxurious room until her eyes rested on the still form of Alexandra Montoyas. She couldn’t believe that she was sitting in the corner watching the most popular player of all time. The viewer on the wall displayed Danielle inside the Game as she prepared to attempt something that had never been done before.
“Okay, Lisa, we’re ready to go live.”
Lisa looked at the camera and smiled. She nodded her head and waited for the red light to appear on the camera.
“I am reporting to you live from Danielle Radfield’s, or should I say Alexandra Montoyas’ private gaming room. I will continue to call her Danielle until she comes out of the Game and announces what she would like to be called.
“In a few moments we expect Danielle to attempt something that no one has ever accomplished; she will wake up from the Game and her essence will return to her body here on Tygon.
“Please bear with us; from now on, we will be speaking very rarely, if at all. Cameras will continue to roll as Trew and a select few stand by Danielle’s side and wait for her to wake.
“I’m Lisa Rohansen, and I couldn’t be more excited!”
===
Trew stood outside Danielle’s game room and listened to Cooper’s update. “Lisa is in the room now,” Cooper said. “She’s been instructed to remain quiet and out of the way. The cameras will be rolling and she has already brought the audience up to speed.”
“Good,” Trew said. “There will be a split screen feed so that viewers can see Danni in the Game and her body on the table?”
“That’s right,” Cooper confirmed. “They will see her close her eyes and begin to meditate in the Game, and if everything goes well, they’ll see when she opens her eyes here.”
“Or they’ll see if she doesn’t.”
Cooper nodded.
“We’ve cut every other feed and made Danni’s channel available to everyone who turns on a viewer at no charge for this event,” Trew said. “The whole world will be watching.”
“What if she doesn’t wake up and the Game ends?” Cooper asked. “The half a billion kids still inside the Game will all die.”
Trew nodded, “That’s another reason I cut all the feeds and am showing only Danielle’s. If this fails and the Game ceases to exist, then I will address the nation to prepare them as best I can,” he made a wry face and shook his head. “We’ll have to prepare for all-out chaos and destruction if that happens.”
“Any clues from Sylvia?”
“She refuses to answer me, but I’m going to feel confident everything will be fine. Brandon bet our very existence on it.”
“That’s reassuring,” Cooper said. “Everything’s a game to that boy. He won more than anyone I’ve ever seen, but he also lost.”
“Life’s a Game, Cooper,” Trew said. “We’ve all played the best we could and there’s nothing to be done now except see if the rolling dice land so that we can make the next move.”
Cooper grinned at Trew. “You really are just like him, boy.”
“Thank you. Shall we go in?”
Cooper opened the door. “After you, sir.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Danielle - 71
I turn my head slowly to soak up the sounds and sights of this reality in the early morning light. I believe that this world is a computer simulation, and that certainty instills me with wonder at the complexity of the computer running this universe. It’s so real; I wonder if my home reality will be noticeably different from this one. The others wait patiently behind me, and I turn to face them. “This is it, then,” I say.
Azrael smiles and nods.
Raphael hugs me. “You will be missed,” he whispers into my ear and I blink back a tear.
After a long moment, we separate and look at each other.
“The Colony is ours again,” I say. Stephanie left as promised, and we found that she had been true to her word; it was in excellent shape and the people were living a safe and normal life — as normal as life can be in this bleak and powerless setting.
Raphael nods. “This morning a new group arrived at the Colony. I thought you would be interested to hear the news they brought with them. It’s a large family of about forty people made up of cousins and brothers and sisters and their children. One of the teenage boys made a startling discovery a few months ago on their way to us.”
Raphael pauses dramatically and I wait for him to continue. “They claim the power is back on.”
I sigh with relief. “That’s excellent,” I say. “I was hoping someone would eventually figure it out and say something.”
“What do you mean?” Raphael asks. “This isn’t news to you?”
Azrael chuckles. “Danni knew the power was on. She’s the one responsible for restoring it.”
The small group of Timeless look at Azrael and then glance at me for confirmation. I nod slowly, it must be okay to speak about it now that someone else has informed them. “Yes, that’s why I left the Colony,” I admit. “To find a way to turn the power back on.”
“It was Shane?” Raphael guesses. I nod and he claps me on the shoulder. “Well done, Danni! Why didn’t you tell us?”
“That was his condition for restoring the power,” I say. “I couldn’t tell anyone, someone else needed to discover it.”
“Well, thanks to one curious teenager, and a stroke of luck that they ended up on our doorstep, now we know.” Raphael says. “That will keep us extremely busy over the next few years.”
“What about people dying?” I ask. “Have there been many more?”
“No,” Azrael says. “After the first wave of deaths, it appears to have stopped.”
“Strange,” I say.
“Perhaps it was a signal,” Raphael says.
“Perhaps,” I say, “or maybe it was just a strange virus that burned itself out.”
“It was a signal,” Azrael says. “More puzzles for those of us left behind to solve.”
“Okay, I get the hint.” I smile and hug Raphael one more time, then walk to the edge of the bluff and sit down in what has become my most comfortable meditating spot.
“Wish me luck,” I say.
“Luck!” the small group says in unison.
I close my eyes and sense Azrael as he sits beside me in his customary place.
“Safe travels, Danielle,” he whispers softly. “Give my regards to Trew and Cooper. I will see you again very soon.”
I wonder what he’s talking about; will he be coming with me? There’s no time to ask him, though. I can feel the golden glow humming to life around me and then covering me like a thin, warm film from head to toe. I control my breathing rate and feel the world around me fade, to be replaced first by darkness, then by the golden glowing colour, and then I’m standing on the edge.
I’m surrounded by a glowing matrix of colours, similar to what I saw in the cave, but more expansive and colourful. I stand on a tall cliff, with the various intersecting lines above, below, and all around me. I look down and feel the smooth cool stone on my bare feet. The stone ledge is narrow and my toes hang over it, extending into empty space. A quick look behind me shows Earth with its colours and scenery slowly dissolving. In a few moments I’m completely surrounded by the digital matrix; it is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
“It is time,” a voice says. I turn my head, expecting to see Azrael standing beside me, but instead I smile in surprise as I see who my companion is.
The old man floats comfortably in the air, his legs crossed and hands resting on his knees in a traditional meditative pose. He looks as unkempt and scraggly as ever, with his black garbage bag garments and loose fitting black army boots. The red pop bottle cap gloves chime cheerfully as he raises one hand and waves in greeting. He winks at me and flashes a mischievous smile.
“I haven’t seen you since we concluded our long journey,” I say.
“I’ve been busy,” he says, “but thought I should make an appearance before you head out. It’d be rude of me not to say goodbye. While I’m here, I may as well help send you on your way; Owl Boy had his chance. I swear sometimes that kid slows the whole process down more than it needs to be. I would have kicked your arse over this cliff weeks ago.”
“That might have been premature and I would have failed.”
He shrugs his shoulders. “It’s worked for birds for millennia,” he says. “Kick the little bugger out of the nest and let them fly to join the world.”
“Some don’t make it,”
“Some never will,” he says. “Doesn’t matter how long they sit up there in that safe nest; some will simply freeze up when the air hits them in the face and they find themselves plunging for the ground.” He looks at me shrewdly and grins. “That’s not you, though, Danni. You will always succeed. You are a special jewel, girl, and don’t you ever forget it.”
“Thank you,” I say.
“Sure thing.” He points down and looks at me with a smile. “Ready to go?”
I nod, “Yes. Let me get into the right frame of mind, and then I’ll surrender.”
The old man chuckles. “You’ve already surrendered, Danni, or you wouldn’t be here.”
I look down and my eyes widen in surprise. The cliff has disappeared, and I’m falling, or floating; it’s hard to tell what is really happening in this environment.
“See?” he says. “You’ve surrendered and you’re almost there. Just one more thing to do, darling girl.”
“What’s that?” I ask.
“Open your eyes and say hi to your home reality.”
===
Trew stands close to Danni and holds her hand. He glances quickly at the monitor to make sure her Game avatar is in a trance.
At the moment he looks back down, her eyes open.
She looks up and sees him. Then she smiles.
“Hi,” she says.
Trew’s eyes fill with tears. They were never supposed to meet in this reality again, but here she is, alive.
He blinks rapidly and cups her cheek with his hand. In a husky tone he answers her simple greeting with one of his own.
“Hi.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Raphael
Azrael — I think I’m finally getting the hang of calling him that — opens his eyes and stands up. The others have left and only the two of us remain. Both of us look at Danni’s body, which has slumped gently to one side.
“The avatar is still breathing?” he asks me.
“Yes.”
“Good. I need you to find a hospital and see if you can bring the power back up enough to equip a monitor and table. There will be usable intravenous solutions to keep the avatar nourished and hydrated; secure those items as well.”
“We have everything to accomplish that at the medical facility in the Colony,” I say.
“Good,” he pulls up his hood. “Get it hooked up as soon as you can and keep it in good condition.”
I nod. “Are you going to assemble the groups of thirteen?”
“Yes,” he says. “It will soon be time to send them back to the Dream. Melissa will likely be up and mobile by now. She’ll reintegrate them and work to restore power to the Dream.”
“Why groups of thirteen?” I ask.
“I have no idea,” he shrugs. “When Shane realized that some of the fractured individuals were members of the ‘Avatars of the General’ from the Dream who’d been sucked into the game against their will, he started gathering them together. No matter what he tried, he was never able to restore their sanity if they were in groups of more than thirteen. He couldn’t make it work with less than that, either; they had to be assembled into groups of thirteen to reintegrate their brains and personalities.”
“How many groups did he manage to restore?” I ask.
“Guess,” Azrael smiles, and I see my old friend Brandon in his eyes.
“Thirteen?”
“You always were clever, Alan,” he says.
“Is Miranda one of them?” I ask.
“No,” he says.
“Then one of the groups is only made up of twelve?”
“Nope,” he shakes his head. “That particular group has thirteen; the thirteenth member just happens to be a cell-sized, sentient nano computer.”
“How will that transfer back to the Dream?”
“I have no clue. Maybe it was a person in the Dream who chose to come into the game as a nano computer, or maybe it won’t transfer over — it doesn’t really matter. We can still succeed if some don’t make the transition.”
“That sounds a bit cold, doesn’t it?” I ask.
“I made peace with that sentiment long ago, Alan,” Azrael says. “When we entered this simulation, we knew that billions would die if we failed. If we can save the majority of them, then that’s gonna have to do. When all this is done, perhaps I will mourn those who don’t make it. If we can save most of them, I’m going to feel much better than I have for decades.”
“What do you want us to do after we stabilize Danni’s avatar?” I ask.
Azrael smiles at me and points west towards the Colony. “Spread the word about the power coming back on, and put that large group of yours to work restoring it. I would advise that you start searching the globe to see if anyone else has stumbled onto the same realization. We have just under twenty-three years to finish this plan before Dream players die en masse. Melissa opened the door, and now Danni has driven a wedge under the door to force it to remain open. Now we get to work and teach everyone else how to wake the hell up and get back to their bodies in the Dream. One of the keys to doing that will be bringing this world back to an era of instant global communication. We’re going to have to assemble and train billions of NPC’s, and the Gamer movement will be responsible for that. I want everyone to join the movement. Soon I will provide the Prophet, but it’s important that everyone can witness the arrival.”
“We’ll need people to spread the word and teach the way,” I say.
“Ah, yes,” Brandon says. “Get everyone you can ready for a worldwide increase in births.”
“How big an increase?”
“Five hundred million,” he smiles. I shake my head, wondering how Earth will handle that giant flood of players. “Get ready for a big batch of baby turtles to hit the beaches, Raph, and here’s hoping many of them make it to open water so they can do what we need them to.”
===
Trew sat and held her hand tightly, staring at her while the doctors and nurses made certain she was healthy. She looked at him often during the half-hour process; the medical professionals were very patient as they repeatedly asked questions to grab her attention back from him. Each time they would repeat a question and she would respond with, “Pardon?” Trew would grin, the kind of grin you know is likely making you look silly but you just can’t help yourself. Smiles of relief, joy, happiness, and overwhelming thoughts of a future full of possibilities that Trew had feared would never be raced through his mind while the doctors and nurses did their job.
In the far corner, Lisa the reporter sat quietly, her body shaking as tears of joy poured from her eyes. She raised the microphone to her mouth a few times to whisper into it, but quickly lowered the mic and let the cameras silently capture the moment for fans all over the world.
Trew had glanced at Cooper just once during the initial moments, his look asking if the Game was still live; whether half a billion children continued to live inside the simulation. Cooper had nodded clearly and patted him on the back, and then stepped outside the room to give Trew and Danni some privacy as the medical staff finished their work.
Finally the doctors were done, and Trew pulled Danni towards him. She giggled like a schoolgirl, which she technically still was, despite her decades of life experience. Then they kissed. It had been days for Trew, but years for her. The two became lost in the moment, their love and energy mixing together in a kiss that left them both breathless.
Trew smiled and looked over at Lisa, who had become so engrossed in the moment that she’d forgotten to breathe herself.
“The camera was on, right?” Trew asked with a smile.
“What?” Lisa stammered. She looked at the camera in alarm. “Yes, of course it’s on, Trew.” Lisa came closer and looked at Danni, then threw her arms around the girl and began crying teas excitedly. “We are so happy that you are back with us!” Lisa exclaimed.
Danni laughed and returned the hug, not sure who this woman was, although it was obvious that she’d been following Danielle’s life inside the Game.
After a few moments Lisa let go and sat down in a chair that one of her crew had placed near the couple. “So now that you’re back, what do we call you?”
Trew winked at Danni and she nodded. During their time together in the meditation chamber, Trew had told her about what was happening on Tygon concerning the Gamer movement and players keeping their names when they left their last plays. She looked at Lisa for a moment, and then smiled and nodded her head. “I think it’s best if you continue to call me Danielle,” she said.
They were several levels underground, but Trew thought he could hear roars of approval from the crowds assembled outside the Game Centre.
Lisa smiled and nodded her head. Then she looked at Trew and her face became more serious. She turned and addressed the camera. “As I informed you already, we knew that we would need to leave soon after Danni arrived to let her recover in peace. Trew has assured me that in a few hours we will be invited back to speak further with our returned heroine, but for now we must sign off. Welcome back, Danni, and thank you, Trew, for allowing us to be a part of this magical moment. Ladies and gentlemen of Tygon, you see before you the first person to ever leave the Game and return to their body without dying. This has been a miraculous moment in the history of the Game, and I want to thank you all for tuning in to witness it with us. Stay tuned for repeats of this program and up-to-date interviews and discussions about what happens next in the Game during this incredible thirtieth year celebration.”
Lisa smiled and waited for the camera feed to end, then she nodded and put her microphone down, grinning as she looked back at Danielle and Trew. “Wow!” She said. “This has been quite a ride. I can’t imagine what it’s been like from your point of view, Danni, but let me just say that as a fan, you have taken the Game to a whole new level of excellence!”
Danni smiled and nodded. “Thank you, Lisa, that’s very kind of you.”
“Kindness has nothing to do with it!” Lisa stood up. “What a life you just lived! It’ll be a long time before anyone comes even close to accomplishing what you did during that play. Well, I’ll leave you two to celebrate, and I can’t wait to interview you again.”
Danni pursed her lips together and smiled with a quick nod.
“Thank you so much for the exclusive, Trew,” Lisa said.
“It was my pleasure, Lisa. There’s no one who can cover an event like you. Thanks for giving us the superb coverage we can always expect from you.”
Lisa smiled and nodded, hugged Trew briefly, then headed for the door.
They were alone.
Trew stood up slowly and walked to the wall, turning off the monitor so that the room was quiet. They moved from the sterile area of the room where the stasis table was located into an area that resembled a luxury hotel’s living area. They stood close, holding hands and touching foreheads lightly. Smiles broke out on their lips and then disappeared like flashes of lightning in a summer storm. They stood this way for minutes, enjoying being in each other’s company.
Danni thought about the years since she’d been this close to him, the void that she had felt from his absence for so long. She realized that for Trew it had been only a few days, and for that she was glad. Eventually she leaned forward, slowly resting her head on his chest. The tears of happiness began to flow, and after a moment she sobbed loudly to release the years of silent pain that she had endured. Trew held her, stroking her hair and whispering how much he loved her. He told her how proud he was of her, and that she truly was the best this world had ever produced.
Finally Danni leaned back and looked up at him. They smiled and kissed again, and she decided it had been worth the wait.
Danni saw something in Trew’s eyes, and she paused thoughtfully, nodding as if reading his mind.
“Time works differently here,” she said.
“Yes.” Trew looked both happy and sad.
“We have work to do, don’t we? Work that needs to be done sooner rather than later?”
“I’m afraid we do, my love.”
Danni sighed and nodded. She blinked back tears as she smiled. “I had hoped that just waking up would end my play,” she said, “but your look tells me that there’s more for us to do.”
“There is,” he said.
“Do we get to spend at least some time together?”
Trew’s eyes lit up. “Yes, sweet girl, we get to spend some time together.”
Danni shook her head and pulled him towards the third room in the suite. “Don’t tell me how long we have until we leave,” she said.
Trew grinned and followed her willingly. “Deal,” he said.