Ready Player None

Chapter 11.2 - Kate "Learning To Fly"

"Beastie, love, you're going to visit Auntie Rache for a little while. She will take you out to see some nice places, with lots of green grass for your tummy. You be good for her, ok?" Rachelle had agreed to help out before we even left, but I hadn't planned on letting her. She was really interested in allying with one of the other bovosaurs on Luconica, as I had done, which crossed way over the line of 'imitation' and was living dangerously far into 'I'll Cut You' land.

Plus she insisted on calling Beastie a 'pet'. He's not a pet, he's a friend, the best one I'd ever had. (Including you, Rachelle!). Plus plus, there was always the teensiest tiniest chance he'd become attached to her. Of course he wouldn't, but he might, you know? It would only be for a little while, and he needed the company. The few times I could check in on him while we were traveling clearly weren't enough human contact to make him happy, and the sight of his poor, lonely face looking up at me was just too much. His big, sad eyes. It was like his life was over without me around.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I sent a note to Rache, who agreed way too quickly. I regretted sending him over to her immediately, a feeling that doubled when she kissed him on his nose, and then tripled when it became clear that he liked it. The Trak was moving away from our last checkpoint, so I'd be losing contact any moment now, so I hurried to say my goodbyes, and made her promise not to take him anywhere that was dangerous. If I didn't know better, I'd swear they both rolled their eyes simultaneously.

Oh. Yeah, we had started traveling again. Kind of forgot that part, sorry.

We were descending through some very pleasant country, even as recreated through the washed-out colors of night vision. There's something about being up high, looking down on a huge open valley, my mind following the path of the road in front of us as it danced in and around the geography. It was a little scary at certain points, when one of the larger delivery trucks would roll through, and our Trak would dutifully edge toward the side of the road to give them a clear path.

Connectivity was hit or miss. It seemed to relate to how far north we were, or maybe it's south, whatever. The road didn't appear to care whether I was online; each time it twisted, bent or curved, the connection rolled the dice again, usually coming up snake eyes. I soon gave up. For now. I'd try again when we looped around to the.. east?

How could I keep myself entertained? Conversation works.

"So, Alex, what's the first thing you're going to do when we get your account fixed?"

"The first thing I'm going to do is lay down flat on my stomach. I have a terminal case of numb-butt. I'd give anything just to get out, walk around, maybe jog alongside the Trak for awhile."

"You have numb-butt?" I giggled, mostly at the fact it sounded so funny coming from my brother.

"Well, it may not be an actual case of numb-butt. I might just be butt-numb, and unable to tell the difference."

I couldn't help but laugh, then. That made him laugh, which made me laugh even harder, and pretty soon we weren't able to breathe. It might not be funny later, but it was funny at the time. Trust me.

The silence stayed away for a short time, wary of our laughter, but eventually it settled in even more deeply than before.

There was something I had always wondered about, and it seemed much more relevant to me now, since we were actually Outside. Well, to be honest, I just needed some noise in my ears. "How did all this happen, Alex?"

"All of what?"

I pointed vaguely towards the screens. "The world, the desert, everything. The OASIS shows me every day what the world used to be like. Why does it now suck so hard to be outside?"

"We killed it all."

"I did no such thing," I said, offended.

"You would have. If you had lived a hundred years ago, you would have watched it happen and not done one thing to stop it. We've always known that things were going to get worse, the planet was going to get hotter, food was going to become scarce, the seas would rise, and people would die. Now all of that has happened, and what do we do? We hide away, and pretend none of it matters, as long as we remain entertained."

I became worried that my brother might drive us off the cliff. "We survived it, right? The Earth will heal, and we will rebuild? That's what Mom told me."

"If it were just the temperature, maybe so. But she hazy see tong." Ok, now I wasn't worried about him driving off a cliff; instead I was worried he was having a stroke.

He could see the confusion in my eyes. "It means 'The Scorpion's Sting'. There's an old legend about a scorpion that was very hurt, and near death. and was wildly stinging everything it could reach out of desperation. The last sting was to itself. Now, the phrase refers to the last weeks of the Chinese government, when two billion starving people were in open revolt against their rulers, alongside the militaries of neighboring countries with their own vengeful reasons to be there. Despite winning everywhere they fought, the people couldn't root out the deeply-bunkered military that retained control of the vast nuclear arsenal. If generals had surrendered, they would have been torn limb from limb. If they stayed underground, they would starve."

He paused, possibly regretting beginning this story, but thinking I probably knew all about it anyway. I didn't. "So they decided to fire everything they had, directly at their own country. Not only levelling cities, although they certainly did that many times over. But they also needed to kill a lot of angry farmers, and a lot of angry farmers' families, so they detonated half the missiles straight into the lower atmosphere. I suppose they thought they could quickly kill off anyone who cared about China, and rule over a nation of corpses. If so, they severely underestimated the pure volume of nuclear weaponry that they had launched. It killed everything, including themselves, and most of the rest of us. To use another Chinese phrase, an ill wind blows a very long way."

I didn't know what to say. I just stayed silent. So did Alex.

Another large delivery vehicle rumbled towards us, looping around a curve directly ahead as we descended. Our Trak submissively moved to the outside in order to make room, just like it had done several times before, and then time slowed to a crawl.

Alex's eyes were wide. He was starting to say something.

Our side of the road wasn't there. It had been washed away, and not repaired. A sickening silence replaced the comforting sound of grinding wheels on gravel.

Every part of me felt strange, as my body began to lift from the seat, and I could suddenly feel every hair on my arms, and gravity turned in on itself. I began to realize what was happening, but I couldn't remember how high up we were, even though I was sure it was really important.

Our viewscreens were the solid red-grey nothingness of the sky.