Gamers - Amazon (18 page)

Not long after they arrived, while the others had curled up on their mats: Unthar snoring deeply on his back, and Mouse curled up like a cat; Gabby realized Avony was staring at her.

"What?" Gabby whispered.

"Thanks for figuring out that puzzle," said Avony.

Gabby rubbed her shoulder, remembering the mace hit that had numbed her arm. It had feeling now but was sore, possibly bruised though she hadn't checked it. "I didn't figure it out soon enough. Stephan got hurt."

"Wouldn’t have mattered. They would have never listened to you on the levers," said Avony. "I almost didn't too, until you sent the mind-text. We'd all be fragged by now."

Stephan moaned softly, moving his head as if to ward off something bad. The girls shared a look of concern.

"If it were you in the center chamber, you would have figured it out sooner and Stephan wouldn't be hurt," said Gabby.

"Why do you say that?" asked Avony. "You're the brilliant strategist."

"It was your kind of problem," said Gabby, willing herself to make eye contact so she could so show how earnest she was. "You have a knack for social problems like the way you keep the Evil Dolls all working together and how you used me as an example. You would have gotten that it was a convoluted Prisoner's Dilemma right away."

Avony's eyes welled with a strange sympathy. "You're talking crazy."

But Gabby thought Avony did know what she was saying. She was just being too nice to point it out.

"It's like the Blades class," continued Gabby. "I suck at neural shaping, but I know you're a natural at it."

"Well it
is
my strongest class," said Avony.

Gabby tilted her head in confusion, "Then why'd you pick Warrior-Maiden?"

"Just a little debuff is all," she said, clearly repentant of her earlier choice. "Seems silly now to sabotage the team like that. Should have taken Blades so you could have Warrior-Maiden. If we all don't get through this, I think none of us will. But at the time, I just wanted to keep you from scoring points."

Gabby smirked, sharing a smile with Avony. "Can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing in your situation. It is a competition, after all."

"Yeah," Avony said wistfully. "When we get out of here, we'll be back to being mortal enemies. At least for a few days."

Gabby nodded, and the silence overtook them. Gabby wanted to speak, pour out her feelings of regret for all the nasty things she'd done to Avony over the years. She realized then it was the system that had demanded their battle, not their feelings for each other. They had been best friends once.

Avony chuckled, amused by something private. When Gabby made eye contact, Avony said, "I know why you suck at neural shaping."

Gabby laughed, "Why's that?"

"Because you think you're too good to manipulate people," Avony said, her laughter disappearing under a hesitant frown.

"I don't think I'm too good for it," Gabby said. "I just hate to do it. I'm not like you."

Avony met her eyes with a level gaze, white robes and blonde hair making her into a defiant princess, all traces of their earlier laughter gone. "You've been manipulating Zaela all these years, so you could keep her with you, even though you know she doesn't deserve to be this high of a rank in LifeGame, nor do I think she wants to."

The truth of Avony's words reflected her boiling anger back on herself. Gabby looked away, toward the tunnel opening.

Avony moved near, just close enough she could feel her heat. "I'm sorry, Gabby. I shouldn't have said that. I think you're wearing off on me."

Gabby flinched when Avony put a hand on her shoulder.

"Can I at least show you what you're doing wrong on those neural shaping problems?" asked Avony.

Gabby agreed, but only because she needed a distraction.

They relocated to a nearby passage that had room to practice. It was close enough they could hear Unthar's snoring which they used to tell if everything was okay.

Avony had Gabby run through each form: Two Moon Sweep, Cat and Cut, Flying Fish, Angry Cloud, and Bladestorm. She performed the maneuvers in teaching mode so Avony could see the underlying problems being solved, or not solved in her case.

Either Gabby was exhausted from a lack of sleep, the raid, or her mind was so worked up about Zaela she couldn't concentrate and even the simple problems from Two Moon Sweep, and Cat and Cut were laborious to perform.

"Heavens to Mario, Gabs. Did someone debuff you with stupid?" Avony stood to one side, hand resting on a hip in an appraising manner. "I think you've gotten worse."

Gabby sighed and crouched near the floor. "And I know I have."

Avony took position next to Gabby. "I can practically see you thinking as you solve those problems. There's no way a girl with such high TPS scores should think that slowly."

"I can't help thinking that I've manipulated Zaela for my own selfish purposes. She's who I'm thinking of when I solve those problems," said Gabby.

"Come on," said Avony, pulling Gabby to her feet and setting herself into a sparring position. "It's not like you're actually mind controlling her. Or anyone for that matter. Neural shaping just adjusts the world to encourage people to make the right choices. You don't make that choice for them."

"But it feels wrong." Gabby matched Avony's stance, except with her two blades drawn.

"If you hadn't helped Zaela all these years, she'd be disappeared with the rest of the losers. Who knows, she might be dead."

Avony twisted around, unleashing a spin side kick that Gabby had to block with Cat and Cut, using the flat of the blade.

"Let's face it, Gabs," said Avony, attacking with a round-house. "It's a competition."

Gabby sidestepped, wishing she was a Warrior-Maiden too.

Avony continued, "We're leaders, you and I. Part of our job is to buff our followers so we can collectively get better. That's why neural shaping is so important for LifeGame. As a society, we all need to get better."

"You sound like an advertisement for the very system that may kill you if you fail," said Gabby, with a touch of anger seeping into her words.

"I'm not planning on failing," said Avony. "That's why I'm helping you get better at the Blades class."

Avony unleashed a series of attacks, forcing Gabby to utilize the various styles, clumsily though.

"You're still thinking too much," said Avony through gritted teeth, clearly frustrated by Gabby's lack of progress.

"That's because I'm not leading Zaela or Dario. They're my friends, not my followers," said Gabby, a little louder than she'd meant to.

Avony's normally cheery doll face, grimaced as she threw a devastating combination, resulting in a blow to Gabby's chest as she missed her Cat and Cut block.

"The difference. Between you and me." The hit Gabby had taken had knocked her wind out, so she heaved heavily between words. "Is if I. Manipulate, as you call it. My friends. I do it to help them."

Gabby straightened, filling her chest with a huge gulp of air. She thrust her blades forward in a ready action, motioning with the tip of her sword for Avony to attack.

"Whereas you, my oldest friend and enemy," said Gabby. "Do it for your benefit alone."

They flew at each other in earnest; hair, blades, and limbs spinning wildly, blows bordering on dangerous. During their skirmish, which lasted for as long as a dozen of Unthar's great undulating snores, Gabby imagined she was manipulating Avony with the neural shaping problems.

Replacing Avony in Zaela's place in the problems, delayed her attacks, but she was faster than before. She wasn't sure of Avony's intent, except that she brought each blow severely, challenging Gabby to correctly block.

She was forced to use each Blades power, except for Bladestorm which was only useful against large numbers of opponents, to counteract Avony's attacks.

When Gabby drew the tip of her blade across Avony's arm, causing her to scream out, Gabby paused, blades quivering with momentum.

Avony backed away from Gabby, holding her arm, still grimacing from the cut. Blood soaked the white sleeve of her outfit. It would close on its own as it was only for show, but the pain on Avony's face was real, relayed through the sense-webs.

"Our practice is over," said Avony. "I think you learned the lesson."

Avony marched back to the camp, leaving Gabby alone. When Gabby returned a few minutes later, after catching her breath, Avony was curled up on a mat, facing away.

Since her watch was about over, Gabby nudged Mouse to take her spot. Mouse instantly reacted to something in Gabby's body language, asking "What's wrong?", soon after she sat up.

Gabby realized the blades were still in her hands, and replaced them on her back.

"Just practicing," she said.

Mouse nodded, slowly, still appraising her and took the spot Gabby had been sitting in earlier. "Sure."

As Gabby tried to sleep, which eventually came after much tossing and turning, she couldn't help but wonder if Avony had been manipulating her, too.

Getting her to get over her issues with neural shaping helped the team, which in turn helped Avony, but was that manipulation? Gabby could only assume that Avony had selfish intentions, though she had no proof--just a long history of clique warfare in school.

And was what she did for Zaela manipulation, too? Even if it were for Zaela's benefit, it was still manipulation, of a different sort.

In the end, mostly what Gabby felt was longing to see Zaela again. Manipulation or not, Gabby enjoyed time she spent hanging out with Zaela. She provided balance and perspective to their hectic lives as they grinded away at LifeGame.

Gabby couldn't help but think back to their last ride in the FunCar playing Brush Battle. While the game had provided almost no points, they'd laughed and giggled like girls half their ages.

That's what Gabby missed most of all. That absence of overwhelming responsibility that threatened to choke away that part of themselves. Much the same way the smoke dragon had choked out the giant who was only playfully building a sand castle.

Remembering the giant, brought her right back into thoughts of the game, the Coder, and the consequences of losing. If Gabby had any hope to continue those feelings of freedom with her best friend, she would have to focus on the task of winning the raid.

Gabby squinted through half-clenched eyes at Avony, now peacefully snoring on her mat. If Avony was capable of helping her greatest enemy to reach the end of the raid, she was probably capable of stabbing her in the back when they were almost finished.

She vowed to double her guard versus Avony lest that happen.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Stephan woke the next morning, moaning groggily and holding his head.

His eyes had blackened slightly from the fall, or some trick they'd done with the sense-web, or maybe it was just painted on his face. Gabby didn't like the implications if it were the first.

"Have a nice nap, pretty boy?" said Avony, sitting against the wall, gnawing on a jerky stub.

Sitting up, the blue robed mage tried to open his half-closed eyes. "I have the worst headache," he said. "Did I really fall from that platform?"

"Yep," said Avony. She threw him a water pouch. "You're probably dehydrated. Drink up."

Gabby had been practicing her Blades moves off to the side, watching Stephan's return with interest.

"Not to rush you," Gabby said. "But when can you move again?"

Stephan took a long draw from the pouch and hung his head down and coughed softly.

"Doesn't look like very soon," said Avony.

Avony gave her a practiced smile. Gabby wondered if it were the same grin Avony used to get the teachers on her side. Gabby returned it, though belatedly, not wanting to spook their fragile alliance.

"I didn't think the sense-webs could really make you feel that bad," he said.

"They could kill you with it if they wanted."

Unthar's baritone voice startled them, as much from the content as his usual silence. He'd been leaning against the tunnel wall keeping watch in his ambivalent menacing pose.

"What do you know about the capabilities?" asked Gabby.

The big Brute pulled out a knife from a hidden sheath and flipped it, catching the handle in a practiced motion. Once he'd flipped it a few times, he spoke again.

"Special Forces have been recruiting me and I got to do some training with them, to get a feel for it," Unthar said.

Gabby had long thought those were rumors. It would explain why he was so arrogant.

"We did some training on high pain settings," he said. "When I made a dumb mistake, they unloaded a shotgun into my chest from point blank."

He flipped the knife again, nimbly catching it, despite his meaty fingers and grinned.

"When they woke me from my forced nap, I knew these guys were serious. My stomach was bruised for weeks," Unthar said. "Later, one let it slip that they could kill you with your sense-web. Fooling your body to shut down."

Unthar seemed to be enjoying his tale, Gabby thought. More that he was trying to scare them rather than give them useful information.

"Thanks for that bit of information, Captain Carnage," said Gabby.

Mouse giggled and Avony shot her another grin. Stephan couldn't do much more than moan and sip water.

Gabby stared at Stephan a little longer, thinking about how if she didn't win the raid, she'd disappear forever probably. She rubbed her sore shoulder and stretched her neck.

"Well, I know you're feeling majorly debuffed and all," she said to Stephan. "But we really need to get moving."

"I'm afraid if I move I'll throw up," Stephan said. "Can't I have a bit longer? You're just trying to rush me since you're bottom on points."

Gabby stamped her foot. "If we finish too low in the standings we all could be in danger of getting--" When Avony shot her a wide-eyed look, she paused, reconsidering her words. "--not making University. Every one of us, no matter what your current LifeScore."