The Excisionists: Book 1 Page 18

  His antennae twitched. “I could if I knew where I was connecting the manifold. You got a map?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, here.” When I pulled up the map, it was blank. “That’s strange.” I tried it again but got the same results. “Um, I’m not sure why this isn’t working. Let’s do something else. Can you follow me under water?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

  Suddenly, I was distracted by a creature with yellow eyes standing behind Amber. “What the heck is that?”

  They all looked in Amber’s direction, but no one seemed to see what I did.

  Iolite looked back at me. “What’s what?”

  I pointed to the creature behind Amber. “That thing with yellow eyes standing right there, right behind Amber. Can’t you see it?”

  The creature grinned. “You see me?”

  I nodded and pointed to him. “Right there.”

  Everyone except Amber was confused. They stood there looking at me like I was crazy. Amber shook her head and discretely put her fingers to her lips. I blinked several times. “Sorry, I guess I’m seeing some sort of glitch.”

  “I’m no glitch.” He disappeared from behind Amber and slid out from behind me putting his spiny face in mine.

  I turned my eyes in another direction and pretended like I couldn’t see him. “Uh, why don’t we try something else.”

  The creature turned and pointed at Amber. “I told you I’d make it into the system. You didn’t believe me, but now it’s really happening.”

  Crispin didn’t seem to like waiting for me to finish what I’d started talking about. “Go on.”

  The yellow eyed creature did a little dance and stuck his tongue out at me.

  I rubbed my brow and focused on the ground. “I need all of you to keep guard around the castle. Amber, I need you to go with me into the Emerald Room and I’ll carry the mirror.”

  Crispin crossed his arms. “I’ll go with you.”

  I shook my head and tried to ignore the bouncing babbling distraction. “Uh, no. I can only manage um, one other person and I need Amber to, ah, help me.”

  “Why her?”

  “Um, I need someone small to get me into the room and uh, retrieve some stuff I saw last time, but I couldn’t get to because…because I’m too big.”

  They all stared at me like I was talking gibberish.

  Amber must have understood why we needed to go in to the castle because she took the lead. “Yeah, no problem. Let’s get in there as soon as possible so we can pass this thing off. Oh, and by the way, we’ll need to turn of our communicators so we don’t attract any ghosts.”

  “Great.” I started off and then was stopped dead in my tracks by the armored humanoid creature with a metal spike on his tail.

  Amber grabbed my arm and pulled me around the beast. “Let’s go this way.”

  I followed after her as we wove our way through the crowd. I was exasperated by the time we entered the dusty interior. I was about to speak but she held her finger to her lips and pointed to the door that was still open. She shut it quickly and turned back to me.

  “Now we can talk.”

  I pointed to the thing traipsing about the main entry of the palace. “What is that…that thing?!”

  Her eyes darted over to him and then back to me. “You can really see him?”

  I ran my fingers through my hair and tried to focus on her instead of the creepy critter. “Yeah. Why? What it is?”

  He popped up behind me again which made me jump. “I’m the Commander. Pleased to meet you.” He bowed and bore his teeth in an evil grin.

  Amber squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them again. “What I can’t understand, is why you can see him.”

  I tried to hide my disgust. “What is it?”

  She threw her hands up in exasperation. “Sorry, this thing is something I’ve been plagued with since I was a kid. Until now, he’s been my delusion only. I…I just don’t understand it.”

  He seemed offended. “Plague? That’s what you really think of me? What about all those times I’ve helped you, kept you safe, gave you a friend when you needed one? Some thanks that is.”

  She pursed her lips and then continued as he droned on in the background. “When we were on Bwetye, he said something strange. He told me that the Excisionists had figured out a way to get him from my mind into an A.I. by mimicking something in my brain and doing something with signals…honestly, I can’t remember exactly what it was, but I think maybe he was telling the truth. It makes me wish I’d paid more attention to him then.”

  His arms opened wide. “Of course I was telling the truth! You never believe me until it’s too late. Like that one time–”

  We both cut him off at the same time. “Shut up.”

  We both laughed at our duplicate responses. “Okay, back to that thing. Even if we don’t exactly understand how it all worked to get him here, why would they do it? What would be the benefit or motivation?”

  She shrugged. “I bet if we figure that out, we will be able to figure out a lot more about this game.” She sighed. “I’ve kept this to myself because everyone would think I’m crazy–”

  “You are crazy. You made me up right?”

  I picked up the nearest object and threw it at him, but he dodged it with ease. “Amber was talking.”

  A half smile crossed her face. “Thanks.”

  “You were saying?”

  “I think this game is more than just a game. There’s so many weird things that happen and it makes me think they’re doing experiments on us or something.”

  I nodded. “Like the pain levels and the things that are meant to scare us.”

  She scratched her nose. “Exactly. So, what was it that scared you?”

  I didn’t want her to think I was an anxious little kid. “Oh, well not me exactly. I just mean that some of the creatures or the situations you find yourself in could be a little…nerve racking.”

  She tried not to display her mirth at my comment. “Oh, I see. Well, I guess I can see what you are saying. On a side note, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that those of us who were picked for this game from Dr. Sonnet’s troubled kids list joined the same party either.”

  “What do you mean?’

  “I’m pretty sure there’s some other reason Jinx asked us to join.”

  The Commander popped back up right next to us, startling me yet again. “I told her that too, but she never listens until it’s too late.”

  I tried to look at his face, but it was still creeping me out, so I looked back at Amber. “Why are you here? Like, why can I see you?”

  His glowing yellow eyes neared my face. “I think that’s a question for the Excisionists. Turns out, they’ve been running a scheme all along but none of you were wise enough to see it.”

  Amber ran her fingers through her hair. “Alright, if you’re so smart, then what’s the scheme?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “That’s not for me to say. Anyway, I think the two of you are intelligent enough to figure that out.”

  Finally, the beast moved away from us. “Amber, I think we need to get up to the Emerald Room. But if you see anything, and I mean anything that’s pointing to the real reasons behind this game, I want to know.”

  We started walking up the cold stone stairs. She bit her lip. “I think Jinx is going to be the one we need to extract information from. Her dad is the one who built this game after all.”

  “Yeah, she said that, but I don’t know what that really means. Do you think she’s working for him somehow?”

  “Maybe.”

  As we reached the top of the stairs, something shadowy moved across my field of vision. “Did you see that?”

  “See what?”

  I peered into the dark corner and focused on the shape. “That, right there.” I pointed to the furthest corner from where we stood. “Hello?”

  An adolescent male voice emanated from the shadows. “I got my gun trained on you both.”


  I was surprised to see another player here. “That’s fine, we’re just here to get to the Emerald Room again. What’s your name?”

  He remained in the shadows. “Beech. And you?”

  “I’m Edan and this is Amber. Are you with anyone?”

  “Yep. Got a group waiting for me to get back with the mirror.”

  I walked closer to the shape in the darkness and held up my mirror. “Are you talking about this one?”

  He finally stepped out and revealed himself. He was another Tuman with jet black hair, dark gray eyes, and thick spikes on his armor. “I got one too.”

  I stared at the shiny surface of the mirror and watched as the ghostly figures floated around a central dark shadow. “You’ve got the ghost army already? Wow.”

  He nodded as his lips twisted into a wry smile. “Don’t worry though, there’s plenty of them left. The level resets itself for each party.”

  I was dumbfounded. “How are you already here and done with this quest?”

  “What, you thought you’d be the first ones here? Not likely. I’m not even sure that I was the first one here.”

  I didn’t like him and wanted what he had. “Tell me Beech, how does the mirror work? How are we supposed to get the army inside it?”

  He sneered. “What’s in it for me to tell you?”

  I shrugged. “Nothing I guess.” I turned my face to Amber while keeping Beech in my peripheral vision. “Say Amber, did you have anything we might give to Beech to give him an incentive to help us out?”

  “Probably. Let me check my pouch.” She started rummaging around in the bag to find something suitable to trade for information.

  I stepped closer to Beech and leaned down to inspect his mirror. It was exactly like the one I had with the exception of the floating entities inside it. “How long did it take you to get what you needed?”

  He shrugged. “I might tell you if you got something good for me.”

  “Here, hold this for a second.” I stood up, handed him my mirror, and reached into my pocket. “I just remembered I had this.” I pulled out a small seedpod and held it out to him. “Have you found many of these yet?”

  He held both mirrors against his leg and stared at the pale white pod. “What is that?”

  I pushed it into his hand. “It’s from the Nix plant. They are used for increasing health, trading for weapons upgrades, and making you resistant to attack. Eat it. Then you can tell us what we’re supposed to do here.”

  He turned it in his hand and then popped it into his mouth. “Where’d you get it?”

  “You can buy them from any of the vendors in Adara.”

  He cringed at the bitter aftertaste. “Ugh, that was terrible.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, but the benefits are worth it.”

  He looked up at his stats and then back at me. “When’s it supposed to increase my health?”

  I watched him for a second. “It takes a minute, be patient.”

  Seconds later, he started to swoon. I pretended to look back at Amber to see what she’d found but instead grabbed his mirror and stabbed him with a knife. He cried out and tried to fight back, but the poison had already taken effect. I grabbed him by the arms, swung him around behind me, shoved him down the stairs, and then tossed my mirror on his chest. Seconds later both he and the mirror evaporated leaving me with the mirror he’d already filled with the army we’d come to get.

  Amber was aghast. “What did you do that for?”

  I tucked the mirror under my cloak and jogged down the stairs. “I did that to save us time, and speaking of that, you need to get down here before he respawns and comes after us for the mirror.”

  Her eyes widened at the thought. “Oh, you’re right.” She ran down the stairs after me and we found ourselves back in the crowd outside the palace.

  I switched my communicator back on to warn the rest of the party. “Hey, you all better get back to the ship. And I mean now. We’ve got someone following us so be ready to go.”

  Iolite was the first to respond. “Amber better hurry then, ‘cause none of us can fly the ship.”

  Jinx’s harsh tone came next. “Why would someone be following you? What did you do?”

  “Nothing. Just be–”

  Laser blasts struck my shoulder and knocked me to the ground. I rolled to the left, pulled up my hood, and vanished before another hit could take me out. Amber ducked behind a cart, and people scattered in all directions. I kept low and scoped out my enemies while I drained half of the concoction Mica had given me. My health jumped to nearly full which bought me time to figure out how to get back to the ship with my prize. I could see six different players shooting and tossing grenades in my direction. I had to wipe them out at nearly the same moment which would take good timing. I drew out my sniper rifle and aimed it at the first. I took the shot and watched as he crumpled to the ground. Without a second’s hesitation, I dropped the next four players, but had to take three shots to hit the last one. Mica shifted the sands and shielded us with dunes as we ran.

  “Amber, get to the ship!”

  I grabbed the mirror and gripped it tightly running as fast as I could. When I got to the Leyv, everyone was ready to go. I pulled back my cloak, handed them the mirror, then turned and watched as Amber approached. Suddenly, I saw something from the corner of my eye hurtle toward her. It was a bomb that would take out everyone in this ship along with its pilot. I couldn’t react fast enough. I closed my eyes as it arced downward and braced for impact.

  No blast came. I opened my eyes and saw Amber standing right in front of me with an angry look on her face. “What happened?”

  Phineas placed his hands on his hips triumphantly. “I generated a manifold and closed it before it blew. I also transported the enemies that respawned on the opposite side of the planet with the bomb. It’s like I’m a superhero or something.”

  I laughed. “A superhero, huh? Are you going to start wearing tights and a cape?”

  He smirked back. “No, I’ll leave that to the real women in the room, you know, like you.”

  I squinted and curled my lips sarcastically. “Ha, ha. Very funny.”

  Amber pushed past me and hopped into the pilot’s seat. “We need to get out of here.”

  I jumped into the closest seat and strapped in. When I finished buckling myself in, I looked up and saw everyone staring at me. “What?”

  The ship took off and blasted out of the atmosphere.

  Iolite tilted her head and stared at me. “Are you going to tell us what happened back there?”

  Mica joined in. “Yeah, what’d you do?”

  I shrugged. “Nothing really, I just saved us a bunch of time. That’s all.”

  Amber slammed her fist on the arm of her chair. “That’s a lie and you know it.” She pointed to the black rimmed mirror. “He stole that from Beech. What’s the matter with you anyway? Why would you do that? Now we’re going to have another group after us for the rest of the game.”

  I leaned back in my chair and interlaced my fingers behind my head. “We’ll just have to stay ahead of them. You worry too much. It’s not like he wouldn’t have done that to us if we’d gotten there first.”

  Jinx was stunned by this new development. “You mean to tell me there’s other players that got here before us?”

  I nodded.

  She was floored. “That’s impossible. We were so far ahead that there’s no way…”

  “Why are you so shocked? It’s not like we were the first ones to start the game.”

  Jinx furrowed her brows. “What? What are you talking about?”

  My smile was a little too smug for her and it was a good thing she was strapped in because she almost jumped out of her chair at me. “I’m surprised you didn’t know. After all, your dad wrote the game, right?”

  Her lip lifted in a sneer. “Don’t be childish with me. Tell me what you know.”

  I relished knowing something she didn’t and considered not telling her, but the likel
ihood of the others turning on me made me speak up. “Fine, I’ll tell you. Jinx isn’t the only one who has a parent involved in the setup of this game.”

  Iolite folded her arms across her chest. “Go on.”

  I scanned the group as I spoke, watching their reactions so I’d know who’d be on my side. “There’s a bunch of us that come from high society stock. In fact, almost half the people in this game came from an Excisionist household. The day before the rest of you were allowed in the game, we got to pick our avatar and play it for a while. None of them wanted to see us end up in the bottom ten percent that’s going to be cut from the game and implanted with an Omega Wave Interceptor Device. Plus, it gave us a chance to get used to the drugs they’re pumping us full of which gives us an advantage over other players.”