Chapter 6
Mara
A countdown had appeared in the upper-right corner of the forum. Ten minutes. That would explain being thrown out on my first visit, though I was certain I hadn't been given this long before.
The thread was still open where I'd left it. It had acquired a bright red HOT tag and more than ten pages of replies. Before finding out what had made me so interesting, I checked something I'd neglected last time. Dying and waking up in a video game had done very little for my attention to detail.
The original post was dated June 23, 2062, at 4:46 a.m.
My surgery had been in January. The same year. More than five months had passed in the world I'd left behind.
I skipped to the last page and checked the newest reply. Only a day separated it from the original post. Time was moving out there while I lived through it in here, but the two worlds plainly weren't keeping pace. With so little to compare, I couldn't work out the relationship yet.
I went back to the replies I'd missed. The first thing waiting for me was a set of screenshots.
#44 · OP Fair warning. Possible spoilers below. Stop scrolling if you don't want them.
#45 · OP [image.jpg] [image.jpg] [image.jpg]
In the first, a woman sat in a wheelchair with her hood pulled down, leaving only her nose and lips visible. In the second, fleshy growths protruded from a Devourer's distorted face. The third showed the aberrant reaching out of his body, straining to catch the woman's wrist as she looked back at him.
I knew that corridor. I knew exactly what it had felt like to have that thing reach for me.
Was this a new scene written for the public release? Had I happened to arrive in time to step into it?
#49 · OP Switched out of Joker's POV to the bonus third-person scene at the research center and got this. In all three earlier tests Mara didn't meet an aberrant OR a Devourer until after leaving A-001.
#50 That's your evidence they're gonna kill her? Seriously?
#51 ^ this
#55 · OP Okay, guilty of clickbait. Sorry. But they left her story alone through every previous test. If they changed it for release, there has to be a reason.
#58 OP has a point. If they're rewriting her so she does something besides hold him back and guilt-trip him, I could live with her.
There was a gap of several hours before the next set of replies.
#65 Oh come ON, Joker. He's off doing Central's dirty work while his people are about to take his home out from under him. For more free labor on that damn old-stock project.
#70 Started his route because of this thread. Now I'm mad too. What changed? Same bullshit as before.
The argument that followed divided its attention between me and River. At least it confirmed my suspicion about where he'd been these past few days. Haven.
I was losing interest, but none of that explained why this thread had suddenly become so popular. I made myself go another page. Then I found the reason.
#110 What happened?? Mara's a Devourer now???
#112 holy shit?
#115 HOW. Details please. What aberrant even wants an old-stock body? What does it get out of that? Worst deal in history.
#120 The Devourer in OP's screenshots got loose. His aberrant moved into Mara. The third-person scene follows Caesar, though, so we don't see how. It's over by the time he finds her.
#121 I NEED TO KNOW. Aren't those things supposed to be smart? WHY her?
#133 Probably because it's smart. If it hadn't made a deal with her it would've died there.
#140 133 might be onto something.
#158 Am I the only one thinking she'll be less useless now? Aberrant powers have to beat burning through everybody's resources just to keep her breathing.
#163 Maybe. It's low-threat, might not even have an attack worth mentioning. Becoming a Devourer doesn't fix old stock. Same dead weight, now with extra instability.
#169 Popping the champagne early. Don't care about the rest. Devourer means Mara dies FASTER. Cheers!!
I'd gone after 256 myself. Everything that had happened in that corridor had followed from a decision I'd made, and here were the players discussing the result.
I could change the story.
That meant I could change the ending waiting for Mara. For me. I held on to the thought for a moment, letting myself believe there might be a way through this that didn't end in an aberrant's mouth.
It also made the future considerably harder to predict. Whatever the forum could tell me about what had already happened, my actions were changing the things that came next. I couldn't count on the old plot holding still while I worked my way around it.
I'd played the second test. Apparently there'd been a third, and that must have been when Devourers were added. Everybody who'd played before release seemed to know what they were.
Two minutes remained. I left the thread and searched the main page.
Cities of Ash had offered two routes during my test. The one inside Haven followed the struggle for power around Central. The one outside followed River as he fought aberrants and built a new faction. Eventually the two stories met, with their people on opposite sides. Third-person scenes featuring other characters filled in what the main perspectives couldn't show.
I'd hurried through River's route without touching the one in Haven. There was a very simple reason for that. His was free.
Had I known I'd end up living in this game, I would've paid the few bucks, played every route a hundred times and memorized the lot.
There was supposed to be a third option, unlocked after finishing the first two. Make your own character and explore, with far more freedom than either of the scripted routes. The beta had offered the promise without the actual route. Looking through the main page now, I found discussions about Haven and about River, but nothing about that third choice.
It looked as if they'd cut it. Players were unpredictable enough when confined to a story. Let them loose to do as they pleased and I could imagine the trouble involved in keeping the plot together.
My own small part hadn't acquired any more attention. Outside the HOT thread, nobody on the front page was discussing me. Irritating people apparently didn't guarantee much screen time.
I checked a few more posts before the countdown expired and the forum vanished. This time I let out a long breath without quite the same sense of having the door shut in my face. I still had plenty of questions, but at least I could see a way forward.
I finished washing and changed into clean clothes. My hair was still half-dry when the visitor alert sounded and June's face appeared on the display by my door.
“Ms. Arkwright? Is now a good time?”
“Of course, Dr. Shaw. Give me a second.”
I pulled on a jacket and used the room controls to open the door. Annie was with her. Perhaps they wanted somebody on hand in case I decided to repeat my performance with 256.
We walked to the research wing in silence. June kept watching me, which didn't improve the atmosphere. At the entrance Annie stayed behind, and June took me into a room with an older woman and a much younger man with European features. Their badges supplied the names. Evelyn Hart. Elliott.
I remembered Elliott. June had mentioned him in the conversation I'd overheard. He'd been the first to realize thread vipers lived as a colony.
“How are you feeling?” the director asked. Her voice was gentle.
“Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Any strange voices in your head? If anything feels wrong, you can tell us.”
There'd been plenty of voices until I'd told them to shut up. I hadn't heard a peep since. But if she was asking, I knew which answer would be more useful.
“Yes. Lots of them, all talking at once. It's giving me a headache.” I frowned and made an effort to look as if it hurt.
Elliott leaned into view with his notebook, visibly excited. “Can you understand them? What are they saying?”
“I—I can't make it out.”
June pulled him aside. “Calm down. What are you doing?”
“The ones we catch are always out of their minds. We hardly ever get one this lucid. I got carried away.”
“Pay no attention to him,” the director told me, with a look of resignation. “Try to ignore the voices. Don't attempt to make out what they're saying. That will accelerate the… damage to your body.”
I suspected she'd chosen that last word to be kind.
She asked a few more questions, which I answered as best suited the circumstances. When she wanted to know why I'd agreed to fuse, I didn't hesitate.
“They were going to kill me. I didn't have a choice.”
The vipers objected, very quietly. I left them out of the discussion.
The director accepted the explanation. While she questioned me, June and Elliott withdrew a little. I could still hear them.
“Why aren't we doing an IT scan?” Elliott asked. “Intrusion would show us what the aberrant's doing inside her.”
“We can't use intrusion scanning on her.”
“Oh. Right. Old stock. That much external radiation would kill her.”
June sighed. “The aberrant doesn't have much offensive capability. Perhaps she'll have a little longer.”
June
Miss Arkwright had come in smelling faintly of body wash, her hair still half-damp down to her waist. Clear eyes, clear answers. None of the confusion we saw when a new Devourer's body reacted badly to the fusion.
We'd reviewed the corridor footage. Whatever had happened behind the vipers covering the cameras, by the time we could see again they'd already left 256 for her. From the state of his body, she'd apparently used the terrain against him while he chased her. That had surprised more than one of us.
Her account of the fusion made sense. An unusually intelligent aberrant, weighing its chances and choosing the body that might get it out alive. I could believe that. It didn't improve what came afterward.
The longest an ordinary human had survived as a Devourer was a year. Usually their minds began to give way about halfway through whatever time they had, and then came the violence. I couldn't see how being old stock would buy her more time.
Somebody still had to explain that to the commander. I was trying to work out how when the access system sounded outside.
Identity confirmed · Joker
Commanding officer · Shelter A-001
Access granted
The door opened, and he strode in.
“Mara…”
