Deep Into the Game: S.W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND (Episode 1) (Volume 1) (S. W. Tanpepper's GAMELAND) Read online

  Contents

  “Dear Friend”

  (a quick note before entering)

  Episode 1: Deep Into the Game

  (chapter index)

  Author’s note

  Copyright notice

  Acknowledgements & About the Author

  Other titles by Saul Tanpepper

  ***FREE EBOOK OFFER***

  S.W. TANPEPPER’S GAMELAND

  Episode 1:

  Deep Into The Game

  by Saul Tanpepper

  S.W. Tanpepper’s GAMELAND: Episode 1: Deep Into The Game

  by Saul Tanpepper

  Copyright © 2012 by Saul Tanpepper

  All rights reserved.

  1st Published May 1, 2012 by Brinestone Press, San Martin, CA 95046

  Cover design K.J. Howe Copyright © 2012

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  http://www.brinestonepress.com

  Tanpepper, Saul (2012-04-23). S.W. Tanpepper’s Gameland: Episode 1: Deep Into The Game

  Brinestone Press Kindle Edition

  For more information about this and other titles by this author:

  http://www.tanpepperwrites.com

  Before you enter Gameland

  Dear Friend, a quick word about your purchase:

  First off, a heartfelt thanks for taking that leap of faith when you purchased this book. A new story isn’t like a can of Coke or a McDonald’s hamburger, but rather like a Forrest Gump box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get. Nevertheless, you have my following pledge: I always strive to write the most entertaining stories in the best way I know how.

  If this is your first introduction to my work, I hope you’ll find the experience worthy of your continued patronage. If you’ve enjoyed my other titles, I’m thrilled you’re back. It’s my fervent wish that this new effort exceeds your every expectation.

  I must also thank you for placing your trust in this grand new experiment of mine: the serialized publication in eight ‘episodes’ of a ‘made-for-TV’ novel.

  Which means what exactly?

  GAMELAND was the brainchild of discussions between myself and my publisher, Brinestone Press, back in 2011. Together, we fleshed out an overarching storyline to be told over the course of several books. Each action-packed ‘episode’ features a group of recurring characters, tells its own self-contained story, has its own theme, and works out its own particular issues. Structurally, the series is modeled after popular television shows (think Fringe, Bones, The Walking Dead), with each episode roughly the equivalent of a one or two-hour commercial-free program. Conceptually, however, GAMELAND is wholly unique.

  What you’ve purchased is the first of these eight episodes. In a sense, this is the series ‘pilot’ and so it introduces you to the main characters, their foibles and strengths, their world and the issues confronting them. The larger story issues will mature over the course of the series. It is my hope that you’ll enjoy this work, both as a separate and independent experience, but also recognizing that it exists in a much larger framework. This file contains Episode One: Deep Into The Game. Each subsequent episode will be released separately on each first day of the month through December 2012. If you wish to follow the entire series, I recommend that you consider purchasing the entire 8-episode package, a “buy once, get the full series” deal that provides fans a considerable discount over the individual episodes.

  If you would like news about the GALELAND series, just shoot me an email to [email protected] and ask me to add you to the GAMELAND mailing list.

  I also invite you to join the discussion on Facebook, where I am hosting a growing community of fans. In addition to update notifications, I’ll also answer questions, post news, hints, contests, and other items of interest.

  Lastly, I value your opinion and so encourage you to offer your thoughts on this work, positive or negative, publicly or privately. I want to know what you think and always give any feedback serious consideration. Note that I do not engage reviewers or their posted comments in public. I want my readers to feel comfortable expressing their honest and thoughtful opinions without fear of being stalked by me. Additionally, if you like the work and choose to post a public review, I have a special offer for you at the end of this book.

  Now, sit back and enjoy Episode 1: Deep Into The Game. I hope to see you back for the next installment of GAMELAND.

  And, once more, you have my deepest gratitude for your support.

  Saul

  San Francisco, CA

  May 1, 2012

  CHAPTER INDEX

  Prologue

  Part One

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Part Two

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  † † †

  Gameland

  It wasn’t Reggie’s idea to break into Gameland, not initially, though of course he took all the credit. He liked being the go-to guy whenever it was something the five of us could all get behind. He was funny that way—a big brute of a kid with all kinds of brains and good looks and a huge gaping insecurity complex that needed constant attention. But whenever something turned out to be not so good after all, he was usually the first to distance himself from it, claiming he always knew it was a bad idea, right from the beginning. That’s just the way he was.

  He had a way of picking the bad ideas, which is why we should’ve just said no.

  We were in Micah’s basement. He and Kelly were team-playing Zpocalypto, which is supposed to be something like The Game. Except it turned out to be nothing like it at all. First of all, it was nowhere near as real. There’s no VR and the action’s totally lame. Plus, the holographics are just so-so. You don’t get a good feel for what it’s like to be in the actual Gameland, fighting actual zombies, trying not to get eaten. Now I know.

  I also know this: Not even those lucky rich pricks have any idea what it’s like, the ones who are connected enough to pay for a state-of-the-art cybernetic setup and a Player, plus weasel the necessary invite into The Game. Arc Entertainment didn’t just let anyone pl
ay. They only wanted the best.

  Like us.

  Reg and I were bookending the couch. Ashley was sprawled out between us, her feet on his lap and her head on mine. She was drinking a Red Bull through a straw, the can wedged between two cushions to keep it upright. Reg had chugged his and had tossed the empty at the old milk crate in the corner. He missed, of course, and blamed it on the lighting, which admittedly was piss-poor. Micah’s HG setup was old and glitchy, so he had to keep the lights dimmed.

  Reg was antsy. He was always antsy, but probably more so then because of the caffeine. He kept asking us if we were finished with our drinks. I’m sure he thought the first miss was just a fluke and wanted to redeem himself. That’s how self-deluded he could be. But I’d barely even touched my RB. I like the taste of it, but the stuff gives me a headache if I drink it too quickly. And Ash was purposefully nursing hers just to be a pissant.

  I was messing with her coppery hair, twining it between my fingers, trying to straighten the curls and watching them spring back. For some reason it struck me as comical and I kept giggling, even though I wasn’t even the slightest bit drunk or stoned. Not like Micah. He was the druggie in the group.

  The rest of us got our highs playing games or hacking them. That was our escape from the misfortune of being born into families that couldn’t afford to buy a decent entertainment system. My family was once so lucky, but after my dad died and Grandpa was fired from his prestigious command post in the Marines, that all went away. Of course, that all happened fifteen or so years ago, so as far as I could remember we’d always been as poor and out-of-the-loop as anyone else in that room.

  I caught Reg glancing over at us—probably envisioning me and Ash acting out one of his perverted girl-on-girl fantasies. I obliged him. Sort of. I reached over and pinched Ash’s nose until she slapped my hand away with an inviting shriek. The movement caused her to dig her heels into Reggie’s crotch, which was precisely what I was going for. I saw him jerk in pain. He tried to hide it, but I saw.

  “What’s so funny, Jess?” Ash asked me, gazing up at me with those brilliant green eyes of hers. They were so innocent looking, but I’d always known how manipulative they could be.

  “Nothing,” I answered. Then I coughed, trying to hide another snort of laughter.

  Reggie groaned out loud. Then, trying to hide his discomfort, he started complaining about how bored he was: “This scene blows, guys,” he whined. “You know what we should do? We should break into Gameland.”

  “We already tried, Reg. Remember?” Kelly replied. He was referring to Ash’s and Micah’s attempt to hack The Game a couple weeks earlier. But I sensed that Reggie was talking about something else altogether, something a hell of lot more illegal and a shit-load more dangerous.

  I watched as Kel’s and Micah’s zombie hunters searched through a dark warehouse looking for food. I’d never played this level before, but I could guess what was going to happen. There were certain patterns to how Zpocalypto was constructed. Once you recognized them, it was a lot easier to survive and advance to the next level. If my guess was correct, they were about to be jumped by a bunch of the Undead at any moment.

  “Not The Game, dweeb,” Reggie barked. “I’m talking about breaking into Long Island itself. We should actually physically go there ourselves.”

  Kelly didn’t look up. “Yeah, man. We’ll just hop onto the next transit over there right now.” He exhaled with disgust when a zombie slipped out of a shipping crate and chomped down on his ankle, immediately crippling him. If he didn’t make it back to his antivenin kit within the next few minutes, his character would be dead and return to undo everything he’d accomplished to get this far.

  The “antivenin kit” was one of those things that irritated me the most about Zpocalypto. First of all, the bite causes an infection; it’s not a poison, like a snake bite. They should’ve called it an anti-infective. Secondly, in real life, if you’re bitten, there is no cure. What’s the saying? Once bitten, twice dead? That professor who tried fifteen years ago proved that. The one who everyone says killed my father.

  “I’m not talking right this minute, brah,” Reggie answered.

  “I’m up for it!” Micah said, as he lopped the virtual head off a virtual zombie with a virtual light saber, something the game was obviously not programmed to provide.

  Ash raised her head and looked at me in disgust after seeing this. I just shrugged. It didn’t surprise me anymore. Micah was always reprogramming the game in his favor.

  “But we should try soon,” he added, throwing the severed head into his virtual backpack. “Like, this weekend.”

  “Where’d you get the light saber?” Kelly asked. He sounded jealous.

  Micah smiled his shit-eating grin. “I did a little creative recoding yesterday.”

  “Cheater.”

  “Well…yeah.”

  “Why this weekend?” I asked, only because I was curious to see how far the boys were willing to take this conversation. Theorizing something as blatantly illegal as breaking into LI was much more entertaining than watching the boys play a game they’d hacked. It was also more entertaining than seeing how springy Ashley’s hair could be. Or causing Reggie bodily harm and insult.

  “Because in two and a half short weeks, our lives are totally going to be over, girl. That’s why.”

  Micah was referring to the start of our senior year in high school. Well, Ash would technically be only a junior, but she had enough credits to graduate with the rest of us, and probably would.

  Just three more weekends before our last year of incarceration. Nineteen more days of parole before we were all swallowed up in that mess of a penal system that masqueraded as a social welfare program. It was ostensibly there to prepare us for the harsh realities of an even harsher world, but it failed to do so on so many levels that it was almost ridiculous.

  As far as the majority of kids my age were concerned, school was just another relic of the past. How was studying mid-sixteenth century literature supposed to help us deal with rising sea levels in the mid-twenty first century? How was knowing the sum of the angles of a triangle going to help us in the event of another outbreak? If it wasn’t for the fact that getting caught skipping school was pretty much a death sentence, signing years of our afterlife away into conscription, we wouldn’t even bother going.

  I exhaled, trying to quell the sense of panic and anticipation rising up inside of me. I didn’t like to be reminded of time slipping away, of what awaited us on the other side of August. I reminded myself that I had to suffer only one more year of that institutionalized prison, then I’d be free to do whatever I wanted to do. We all would.

  Most of us were planning on skipping college and going straight into one of those high-paying jobs as a coder with ArcWare. Kelly was the only one of us giving college any serious thought. He was always the one who had to be different from the rest of us. That’s what first attracted me to him, his long view, and it’s what I so dearly loved about him.

  Out of all the guys I’d ever dated, he was the kindest, the most caring. Anyone who knew the Corben family—who knew Kyle, Kelly’s little brother—could see that.

  On the outside, Kelly wasn’t much to talk about: brown hair and eyes, an average build, average looks. A girlfriend probably shouldn’t say this about her boyfriend, but he was…forgettable. Nevertheless, he more than made up for it with his earnestness. I’d rather be with a guy who was honest with me than one who was easy on the eyes.

  Lately, though, he’d been acting all strange. He was moody, inattentive, distracted. Just once in a while I wished he’d lighten up and relax.

  “Wait,” he said. “You’re not serious, are you?” He jerked his body to the left, then twisted it as he tried to get his player to respond faster in the game, but the cheap sensors were low-res and iffy and it made his hunter look more like one of the hunted, all lurchy and uncoordinated. “You mean, like, actually break into Long Island?”

  “Dead serious,
brah,” Reggie replied. He laughed, probably realizing he’d inadvertently made a funny.

  Reggie was Kel’s opposite. In fact, he was pretty much the opposite of any of us. “Big, bald and brash,” Micah always said about him, a stark contrast to his own blond, blue-eyed, befreckled boyish good looks and charm. “A brute with a heart the size of Texas.”

  And Micah would certainly know about Texas. He was once a Republic good old boy before his parents defected to Connecticut. He always had a smile on his face and a reputation for never hurting a soul. A living soul, that is. When it came to zombies, on the other hand, he was a stone-cold killer. The Undead rarely stood a chance against him. He was the best game player I’d ever seen. Probably the best hacker, too.

  Kelly wasn’t nearly as good as Micah in the gaming department—or me, for that matter—but still a hell of a lot better than most. Better than Reggie, anyway. And while he could hack, he didn’t like doing it. He was too uptight for any of that action, though not enough to not hang out with us.

  Yet, as different as the three boys were, they were all brilliant, and they all shared the same passion for gaming. We all did, which is what brought us together in the first place. It’s what kept us together despite the immense differences in our personalities.

  “Why would we even want to go to the Wastes?” Kelly asked without looking away. The Wastes were the places that had been decimated over the past thirty years by rising sea levels. Pretty much every coastal city had such areas, variably referred to as the Wastes or Wastelands. They were urban ghost towns, and LI was just one of many. Perfect breeding grounds for outbreaks.