Riser (Teen Horror/Science Fiction) (Book #1 in The Riser Saga) ((Volume 1)) (17 page)

I was expecting huge gusts of wind from the height we were at, but it was completely devoid of any draft or even a breeze. There were Hover-Shuttles and cars landing everywhere in a constant buzzing and whizzing of sound, but it was calm, like being in the eye of a storm. That’s when I noticed a slight blurring of sky every time a car or shuttle came in to land and realized it was a kind of force field set in place to protect people and vehicles from weather. I had only read about technology like that in school. I had never seen it in person.

I might never go to class again.

It hit me hard. I hadn’t thought about that.

But, if I’m supposed to stay hidden, it’s not like I can go back to school. Great. I’m officially a high school drop-out. As much as I used to complain about homework and class, I realized I was actually going to miss it. And even though my motivation to go to one of the best schools in the country was to keep Bruce alive, it still meant something to me that I was able to get accepted into a school like that. Now that was over. No. I couldn’t think like that. Maybe when I talked to Jason he’d be able to clear things up for me so I could go back. I didn’t know where I’d get the money for tuition, but I’d find a way somehow.

Focus. I needed to find a phone.

I watched where everyone was headed and saw several hundred mini-platforms all along the outer edge of the circled roof. I saw as someone would stand on the platform and be sucked down the building. It must be some kind of elevator tube. Another thing I had only heard of before, but had never been in. I took a deep breath, good thing I wasn’t scared of heights. I waited in line for my turn as I watched people pop out of view as soon as they stood on the platform. The lady in front of me was wearing her screaming daughter like a spider suit, the girl’s grip was so tight. I couldn’t blame the girl. We were essentially on top of a mountain about to be propelled down to the ground in a tiny vacuum tube. My stomach started to churn. I had to keep reminding myself that people did this everyday and I had never heard of any mishaps. I had seen one of these elevator tubes on holo-tv, but it always looked like fun. Or it was so quick I didn’t think much of it at all. But standing in line waiting to be sucked down the abyss, I really wanted to vomit.

The lady and her tormented child stepped onto the platform in front of me and…

WHHOOOMP!

They were gone, crying and all.

Me next.

I swallowed hard and shuffled forward.

“Come on, kid, we don’t have all day!” the jerk behind me yelled in my ear.

“You go.” I couldn’t do it yet.

He shoved past me and with a roll of his eyes…

WHHOOOMP!

He was gone.

“Are you waiting for someone?” the next woman in line asked me.

“No. I’m just… I’ve never done this before,” I confided.

“You want me to go with you? It’s better in pairs for your first time.” She looked like she was thirty so I knew she wasn’t a rich jerk.

“That would be great, thanks,” I sputtered.

“Move it, ladies!” The line was getting agitated.

The lady smiled at me, encouraging. “Don’t listen to them. Everyone is always in a hurry. Here.”

She grabbed my hand and moved me forward. “Gotta do it quick, or you’ll never do it.”

I nodded and squeezed her hand a little harder than I should have.

She looked at me and gave me a wink of confidence. “One, two, three.”

And we stepped on the square platform.

WHHOOOOSH!

We were flying down the tube at a ridiculous speed, but it was completely exhilarating! The wall in front of us was glass and the city whizzed by us in a blur of silver and black. And two seconds later a door slid open and we were street side. A digital clock was directly over the door and it was counting down from five.

“Quickly, unless you want to go back up.” The lady pulled me out of the tube and onto the crowded streets of Los Angeles.

“Thanks again,” I said to the lady and she nodded and waved.

“Any time, dear.” And she was off, heading up the street, pushing her way through the large throngs of people.

Cities were one of the only areas in the world where they actually kept the old pavement and concrete in tact. There wasn’t a lot of concrete in the world anymore. I could feel the heat from the sidewalk through my shoes, which was both comforting and weird, not like the cobblestone in front of Mel’s. It was like flooring with grit.

I decided to walk in the same direction as the lady that helped me and scanned the area for a pay phone. I didn’t have to go far. I found one on the corner of Olive and Sixth Street, right in front of Pershing Square. I had only read about the place, but it was far more impressive in person. Even the holos didn’t do it justice. It was lined with forty-foot pines acting like sentries to Los Angeles’ oldest park. It had its own water silo in the North West corner to keep the vegetation vibrant and breathtaking. Roses of every color imaginable, giant seven-foot sunflowers, red-orange hedging, plants and flowers I had never even seen before made up the inner square. In the dead center of the park was a perfectly coiffed square of the brightest green grass I had ever seen. According to what I’d read, every summer and spring they’d have outdoor concerts and in the winter they’d bring in an ice-rink for skating. It was also the one place I’d seen so far that wasn’t entirely packed with bodies. For some reason it seemed like everyone had a quiet respect for the place of beauty and didn’t want to see it trampled by foot traffic.

I picked up the phone and was about to place my thumb up to the money scanner when I realized that if Turner
was
looking for me I would be giving him a giant flag as to where I was. I put my thumb down and looked around for a volunteer. The large shuffling crowd of passer-bys looked like the last thing they wanted to do was stop, so I scanned the park. A man was sitting at a bench, head bent over his electronic reader. I walked over to him with as friendly a smile as I could muster.

“Hi. I don’t mean to bother you, but is there any way you could thumbscan the payphone for me? I’m all out of credit and I need to call my dad.”

The man sighed heavily as if I was asking him to lift one of the skyscrapers towering above us. “Yeah, fine,” he muttered, annoyed, but willing to help.

I’ll take it.

He walked over the payphone and scanned his thumb.

“Thanks,” I said, wanting him to leave, but he just continued to stand over me.

“Well, call your dad. I want to make sure this isn’t for drugs or some virtual reality bar scam,” he sneered at me.

Okay, so he was paranoid. I could understand that, but I hoped Jason would play along.

I pulled out his number and dialed. The man looked at me suspiciously, obviously upset I had to look at a number. I guess he figured if it were my dad I’d have the number memorized. I turned to him, “He just got a new cell phone.” I probably shouldn’t have tried to over-explain, but I tended to crack under pressure when I lied.

The phone rang once. “Hello?”

“Dad? It’s Chelsan.” Please, please, please remember who I am.

“Smart girl. Is Harry Dalop standing over you?” Jason’s voice sounded amused and I was instantly relieved. Jason must have some kind of caller I.D. and the guy next to me, Harry, apparently, showed up on it.

“Yeah, I ran out of credit again. I can’t meet you at seven, can we meet at seven-thirty, somewhere closer?”

Evidently, Harry had heard enough of the conversation to feel content with his decision to help me out and went back to his reader on the bench.

“Okay, he’s gone,” I whispered.

“We have to go on the assumption that Turner has put out a voice recognition alert on your dear old pipes so let’s make this quick. Where are you?” Jason was all business, which put me ill at ease. I wanted to be the only person paranoid; I needed an anchor of calm if I were to get through this.

“Downtown. I wanted to keep my friends out of this and they knew where we were meeting.”

“Gordo’s Virtual Reality Bar off of Pico and Central. Seven-thirty.” Click.

The suddenness of Jason hanging up the phone made me jump a little, but I took a sigh of relief. At least, Nancy, Ryan and Bill wouldn’t know where I was going. And a virtual reality bar was as seedy and sleazy as they come. The complete opposite of Alby’s Bar and Grill at the Riverside mall. I had an instant pang of fear going to place like Gordo’s, but the more I thought about it the safer I felt. It would be the last place Turner or anyone would expect me to go.

I looked at the digital clock on the pay phone: six-thirty. I had an hour. I decided to head over to Gordo’s to get a feel for the place. I wasn’t sure how long it would take me.

Once I started walking off the beaten path, there were fewer and fewer people, only the distant sound of whirling hover cars above to keep me company. The closer I came to Gordo’s the dirtier and more rundown the area became. The trailer park looked like the Ritz Carlton compared where I was now. Cluttered metal lay in clumps in alleyways, stacked up to eight feet high. It felt like I was walking through the dumping ground of Los Angeles. No wonder Jason chose this part of town. Geoffrey Turner wouldn’t be caught dead at a place like this.

I turned onto Pico and that’s when I saw the blazing holographic sign of “Gordo’s Virtual Reality Bar,” hovering over the square metal building like a cloud. There were no signs of windows anywhere on the structure, only one opened door in the front with an attendant waiting for customers. I couldn’t find a clock anywhere so I had no idea what time it was. I figured I’d wait inside. I knew I was early. It felt like a good thirty-minute walk over here, which meant I had a half an hour more before Jason arrived.

I took a deep breath and marched up to the entrance of the bar. The attendant was a guy dressed all in black with a pencil-thin mustache that made him look like something out of a villain encyclopedia. Appearance-wise he was mid-twenties, which, judging by his occupation, put him in the category of black market Age-pro or actually in his mid-twenties, you never knew. He was skinny like his mustache and smiled at my approach.

“We don’t get very many pretty ladies that often. What brings you here? Street fight? Mugging?” He paused for emphasis, “Murder?”

“None of those. Just meeting someone here.” I tried to sound as casual as possible.

Virtual reality bars were humanities solution to working out all their pent up aggression. When Age-pro hit the market, I guess society used to be full of violence and war, but when given the option of living forever, people didn’t want to be killed or locked up in prison where they’d have to live a life without the anti-aging pill. But according to leading scientists in human genetics, humans needed to satisfy their violent tendencies hence the creation of virtual reality bars. A place where you could be anywhere or anyone and kick the crap out of something. Virtual reality technology had been around for over three hundred years and hadn’t changed much.

“Are you sure? You look so innocent on the outside, but I’m sure there’s a demon ready to jump out of you.”

Was that some sort of pick-up line?

“No demons, just meeting someone.” I didn’t really want to engage in this conversation he thought we were having.

His face fell a little as he smoothed his creepy mustache with his hand. “Go on in. Bar’s down the hall to the right.”

I moved past him without a glance or a word. I was afraid he’d ask me to thumbprint, and then Turner would know where I was. I figured this was probably the reason why Jason picked this place. It didn’t look like they thumbprinted people that often.

Once I entered the building, I had to walk down a long corridor lined with glass doors. It was hard not to peek in at the inhabitants of the padded virtual rooms. It would have been almost comical, if it didn’t make my skin crawl. Everyone was dressed in the official blue spandex suits made for comfort and flexibility. Each suit was laden with sensors to make the experience as real as possible. To top off the outfit was a black helmet contraption with a visor that made the whole virtual experience happen. There was an array of padded props in each room, I guess depending on the individual fantasy of the person inside. The first lady I passed was literally strangling a life-size dummy. She was pouncing and throttling the poor stuffed person like she wanted to rip it into a million pieces. She screamed a triumphant and terrifying screech that chilled me to my bones. After that, I diverted my eyes from the rest of the rooms. It felt like I witnessed a crime the way that she strangled the stuffed man. And knowing that to her eyes, she really was killing someone somehow made the virtual reality experience a little too real for me.