“Truck’s Raiders?” Abenayo asked for clarity. Her posture tensed a little. “The roving bandits?”
“Yes, but we’re exiles,” the man explained. “We are no longer members of any tribe.”
“Why were you exiled?”
The man looked around at his compatriots, who were starting to emerge and show their faces a little more.
“Some of us expressed interest in this place of yours, this Shell City,” he said. “We may have mentioned a desire to come here, to meet your benevolent Council.”
“I take it Truck didn’t like that?” Abenayo asked.
The man looked taken aback, like the police officer had smacked him in the face with the name. The others seemed a little alarmed at their former leader’s mention.
“It is a serious crime to fraternize with ghost people like yourselves,” the man said. “If we did more than simply contemplate such a thing, we would have been executed. Still, they want nothing to do with Council sympathizers. We are without a home now. It’s been a long trip, but we decided to see if your city would let us in.”
“I take it you’re all unimplanted,” Abenayo said, more as a statement than a question.
The man and a few around him nodded.
“Then there’s no chance you’d be admitted,” the senior officer replied. “You can turn around now.”
A worried look crossed the man’s face. For a moment, it looked like he might break down and weep or something. His mouth hung open as he looked around, as if someone might be able to deny Abenayo’s claim.
“All due respect, but we’ve come a long way,” he said. “I think we’d all feel a lot better if we could hear that from the Council themselves.”
“We are here on behalf of the Council, human,” Abenayo said. “You are hearing it from them.”
“But — where will we go?”
“That’s not our concern. You are not allowed within Shell City and we are here to tell you to vacate.”
The man seemed flabbergasted.
“We’re not in Shell City!” he replied, outraged. “If they won’t let us into the walls for whatever reason, can’t we just stay out here until we know where we’re going?”
“No.”
“But it’s just ruins!”
“It’s still property of the Council of Shell City,” Abenayo said with a firm voice. “You are ordered to pack up and leave immediately or you will be removed with force.”
The man’s face started to turn red with anger and indignation. Bits of spittle flew from his lips as he spoke.
“But we’ll die out there!” he pleaded.
“I don’t care,” Abenayo replied. “If you don’t leave, you will die out here.”
The man took a deep breath, then seemed to become resolute. Like, somehow in the last thirty seconds, he had accepted his fate.
“That’s the way it has to be, I suppose,” he said. “It has to come down to this.” He stepped forward as if to intimidate the female bodyshell with his sheer size.
“It does,” Abenayo confirmed. She stepped into him rather than backing up. She was not impressed with him.
Then, without warning, a ball of electricity appeared between the two I.I.s and the man. It was like a thunderstorm that grew instantly out of a single spot. For Tera, everything went dark.
Disconnect
Ethan started to grow a little skeptical. As he stood there in the forested valley of the Last Stand map with the strange man named Gauge before him, he remembered what Sharpe had said. About how Gauge was likely part of some new adventure that Replication Systems wanted people to test. Maybe they wanted to preserve the surprise hook by sharing it with just a few unwitting people. Sharpe’s logic was making more and more sense as Ethan thought about it.
There was another thought present, though. One that begged him to consider one terrifying possibility.
What if it’s real? he asked himself.
It could be some elaborate game, or maybe even a prank Sharpe and Taylor were pulling on him for his birthday, but he didn’t think it was worth the chance. If he plays along and it turns out to be a joke, then he’ll be a little embarrassed, but that’s all. If it’s true that his “captors” were going to lobotomize him, though, and he didn’t take the threat seriously…
He didn’t want to think about the implications.
“Okay,” he said after a long while of thinking. “So what do we do?”
“We have to make our escape,” Gauge said, grabbing Ethan by the shoulder. He started to lead him in the same direction that Taylor’s tracks went. “Now is our only chance. It has to be today.”
“Where do we go?” Ethan felt at a loss.
“Follow me,” Gauge said. He let go of the birthday boy and started to lead the way at a brisk pace.
Together, they weaved between the trees as they made their way through the rock-walled passage. Ethan had no idea how much farther the canyon went, but he imagined it let out soon.
“You see, I was the one who convinced Taylor to use this map for your guys’ birthday,” Gauge explained. “I did it subtly, but it was effective. I was able to alter the Last Stand map to make us a sort of escape hatch. Something they don’t know about. And we have to get to it now if we want to save your brain.”
“What about the others?” Ethan asked as he followed the redheaded man.
Gauge looked back at him as we walked. “We’ll do what we can,” he said. “I won’t guarantee anything, though. I need you to trust me, and I won’t get that by lying about things like this, even to make you feel better. But I promise you that we will try to get your friends and everyone else out — before it’s too late.”
They finally reached the end of the canyon, and the forest thinned out as well. Eventually, there were no more alpine trees; fields of grass stretched out for miles.
