Glitch #ONC

Chapter Nine

When Mel finally left the farm for her drop-offs at the markets Luke breathed a sigh of relief. Her reluctance to leave him only added to the challenge of figuring out how he felt. This nightmare, or memory, left him shook and wary of doing anything else that might allow more to leech through the cracks in his mind.

Queenie called him as she thundered her way back up the pasture. She had won the race against the truck and wanted her reward.

Luke shook his head and fetched her morning haynet. With her hungrily snatching mouthfuls from the net he struggled to navigate his way to the shelter. He pushed her away but it quickly turned into a game. After three failed attempts to secure the net to the tie-ring, he gave up and dumped the hay out onto the floor.

He was just stepping out of the shade when he noticed the telltale dust cloud of a vehicle coming up the drive. 

Well, that lasted long, she's either forgotten something or changed her mind.

Luke threw the net over his shoulder and patted Queenie. He let himself out of the paddock. Throwing the haynet down by the corner post, he picked up the wheelbarrow, careful to keep his hand on the fork handle to stop it rolling out. As his hand closed on the bolt, he realised the droning of the approaching vehicle sounded too throaty to be his truck or his parents' tiny car. 

Alex's head appeared out of the driver's side window, allowing Luke to take a deep breath and quell the panic. Luke pulled the wheelbarrow away from the gate and walked towards the sun-bleached 4x4.

"I thought I saw your girlfriend leave alone, I hoped you would be here so we could chat." Alex killed the engine and jumped out.

The hairs on the back of Luke's neck jumped to attention. "Okay."

"You look a lot better than you did the other day, I'm glad."

"Yeah, I feel a lot better than I did."

"And the nightmares?" A hungry look developed in Alex's eye, almost predatory, looking for deception. 

"Pretty much all gone now." He lied.

"Really?" Alex leant back against the door of his truck. "Because I'm still having those voices and felling all the wires whenever I try to sleep. I thought since both of us experienced that black-out we might experience the same things after."

"I don't understand." Luke felt Queenie blow warm air on the back of his neck. He used her as an excuse to look away. The compulsion to tell the truth forcing him to bite the inside of his bottom lip.

"We are on a restricted 'server' for want of a better term. I am deemed high risk due to stuff I did on the outside. You could be too, or perhaps you haven't taken to the sim as well as others and they can keep a closer eye on you. Most of this world in NPC's. I'm trying to figure out who is and who isn't, and even those that are genuine avatars only a handful experienced the glitch."

"Oh to be so lucky." Luke rolled his eyes.

Alex walked over to Queenie and rubbed her head. "They've got to you, haven't they?" he whispered.

"What?"

"What did they threaten you with, to get you to stop asking questions?"

"I wasn't threatened by anyone, I just realised that I liked knowing my life here rather than all the uncertainties of outside." Luke sighed and decide to tell him the truth, "Mel chose to live here in the sim, she has her reasons for not wanting to go back to life outside."

"And you want to be with her, I get that, love makes us do crazy things." Alex offered the back of his hand for Queenie to sniff. 

"Look, don't get me wrong, I want answers but I'm not going to put her at risk."