15
I stand still in the middle of nowhere, shocked by the news. Does that mean the Summit won't wait one more year for Jack's ranking? Should I confess to the Summit about switching the iAms? Will that help them? What about Eva? Granting her hope and taking it back again isn’t fair.
I want to call Ariadna, and check with her to see if my family is all right. If they are, I'd feel better, and keep looking for Woo. But Monsters in the games aren’t allowed to initiate calls with anyone outside the Playa. The only way to call someone is to ask permission from the Trickster. I dial three sixes on my iAm, the hotline number of the game’s headquarters.
It takes forever for someone to answer. I am expecting Timmy to pick up, but he is nowhere to be found. He must be preparing himself to wear a wig, or get into character to answer the call, and entertain everyone.
Timmy finally picks up. “Yes, sweetie. This is your aunt speaking.” He is dressed in an old woman’s bathrobe with his brown wig in rollers, as if he just came out of the shower. “How may I help you?”
How much money do they spend on this show? We could use it down here.
“I need permission to call someone,” I tell him.
“No can do, dear,” replies Timmy in a high-pitched voice. “No calls allowed before the number of Monsters alive is reduced to ten.”
“Since when does this rule apply?” I grit my teeth.
Timmy, looking at his big pink watch, says, “Mmm. Since just before you called.”
“Listen up, you piece of--” I am losing it, watching him on my iAm. Timmy’s eyes pop out, fixed on two spiral springs, and his ears grow bigger like a rabbit, each shaped like a phonograph. These effects are made using Instant-CGI technology. I’ve seen it on TV. They are CGI effects like in older movies, in real time. I live in a world where reality can be manipulated on the spot. Should I be questioning if any of what I see is even real? “I want to check on my parents. I don’t want anything bad to happen to them. My brother is a pre-Nine. I want to make sure the Summit understands.”
Timmy is impersonating a judge, wearing a French wig in a courtroom full of wailing Monsters, real monsters: goblins, trolls, werewolves, vampires, ghosts, and more, with full makeup. Timmy’s whole body is shaking when he sobs, “Her brother is a Nine,” he weeps. “A Nine!” He slams a sponge hammer against the desk. It spatters pudding all over his face. “It’s not the court’s responsibility to stop the Summit from whatever they plan to do with your family.” The camera closes in on his face. “Only when there are ten Monsters left — alive — and you are actually one of them, can I grant you a phone call. If you really want to speed up the process…” He blinks repeatedly, his eyes roll like a slot machine. When the rolling stops, they don’t show apples or money bills. They show a gun in each eye. “You might want to kill ‘em yourself. Boo. Boo. Boom.”
The viewer counter increases dramatically. Almost two million viewers are watching right now. Those are just the national viewers. Worldwide, they might be ten times this number. It really scares me.
“I am going to hang up now,” Timmy says. “Since your family is broke and is about to be evacuated, I don’t think they will appreciate paying for the phone call. It costs ten times as much calling from the Dizney Battlefieldz. It’s considered long distance, you know.”
“What? So you know what will happen to them?” What have I done?
“You will know what you need to know, when you downsize the Monsters to ten. Maybe your zippy-zap boyfriend could help you.”
“He is not my—”
Before I could finish my sentence, Leo appears from nowhere and disconnects my call.
“I told you to wait for me, not gossip on the phone,” he says flatly, and tosses some clothes at me: blue jeans, white t-shirt, and a hair band. He is wearing a new blood-smeared white t-shirt, instead of the one I ripped open. And the leather jacket, of course.
“I am sure they’re your size. If the pants are a little tight, don’t worry. You'll lose that butt of yours by tomorrow night, running for your life,” he says.
“I don’t have a big butt,” I protest. I can’t believe he said that. I don’t know who is worse, him or Timmy. I use the hair band, which I think is a good idea, then check out the pants and the shirt. They are blood-stained, but dry.
“Where did you pick those up?” I am in shock.
“The pants are from an exploded girl. She had no head and no upper body, so I knew she was a girl from—” He shrugs. “From…whatever.”
I won’t comment on that. I put on the pants, trying not to think about the blood, or about the fact that I am wearing a dead girl’s pants. I hold my breath and squeeze myself into the jeans.
“The t-shirt belongs to a boy. He had his legs chopped--"
“Stop. I don’t need to hear this. I don’t want to hear about your shopping trip in zombieland.” I raise my hands in the air. “The only reason I am doing this is because I know I can’t spend the rest of the games semi-naked in a ruined dress. Now turn around!”
Leo puts a poker face on, but turns around eventually. I put the shirt on, and throw the dress away.
“If you don’t like my taste, be my guest and do your own shopping from the dead bodies lying in the streets,” he says. “There is Prada, Versace and—”
“Not funny,” I fire back. “You can turn around now.”
“As if I’d wait for your permission,” he mumbles, looking at me. It seems as if something about me amuses him. “Wow. You look good,” he says. Finally, he says something nice to me. “In blood,” he adds. “Here, take this.” He throws a knife at me. It swooshes next to my ear and sticks to the trunk of the tree next to me.
I am not going to question his sanity anymore. I am worried about my family, and I need to stay alive, and maybe downsize the others.
“Do you know what happens to our families when we’re outranked?” I interrupt him.
“All kinds of bad things.” He doesn’t even look at me.
“Are you for real? What are you?” I try to focus. I can’t seem to put the puzzle named Leo together. “Who are you? Why are you even here? Why did you come back? How do you know my name? Why did you have a bomb in your mouth?”
“Xitler wanted me to explode. It’s his way of punishing me for rebelling against the Summit.”
“And why does a Nine rebel against the Summit?”
“Don’t you ever stop asking questions? My grandma doesn't talk that much. Where is your off-button?” He flips me around like a doll. Is this his excuse to check out my ass?
“That button is definitely not there!” I purse my lips.
“So you do have an off-button. It just isn’t there.” He smirks, and marches on. “Come on. I take it that you can pull the knife out from the tree by yourself?”
I pull the knife out, thinking that I might stick it in Leo’s back eventually. Right now, I have to learn all I can from him.
Suddenly, I hear a voice behind me in the bushes. When I turn around, I see a young girl.
Once she sees me, she runs away immediately. I run after her, but then one of the spying iSees buzzes over my head. It’s not a good sign. What if the girl is sent by Woo? I need to distract the iSee, so it doesn’t follow me to his hideout. I trip on purpose in those tight jeans and moan. Nothing easier in the world than convincing it you’re a complaining sixteen-year-old with angst issues. The iSees abandons the pathetic version of me.
I make sure it’s gone, stand up again, and follow her direction. But I am too late. I am standing on the threshold of the darkness in the forest, unable to find her. The girl looked about seven or eight years old, which doesn’t make sense. If Woo and other survivors from the previous games have managed to survive, they would be older than me, not as young as her. I am such a dork. How could I just trip and fall?
I call out to the girl, but I get no reply, except the echo of my own, lonely voice. Did I imagine her?
Standing at the forest’s threshold, I realize that I have blown my chance to find her. It could take hours to scan this place. However, I find a thin white plastic ring on the ground. I pick it up. Did the girl leave it behind? Is it a secret message from Woo to me? When I put the ring on, it feels as if it buzzes slightly. What’s with all the buzzing devices here? But nothing else happens. I rub it with my fingers. “Is that you, Woo?” I whisper to the emptiness surrounding me.