The Troll (10 page)

“
Consider
that there is such a thing as the perfect plan—that there
exists an absolute—a wall that can’t be knocked down.”

“
Whether
that’s true or not, right now, all we have to do is focus on
getting out of here. If we can get to the Mississippi, I can get us
much farther undetected, but we need to plan for unexpected
surprises.”

“
Like
what?”

“
They
don’t plan on us making this journey, but maybe they
have
a fail-safe. Maybe Rainbow doesn’t actually work or maybe all
ten will be waiting for us when we get there, or maybe they never
really extracted Psi from your head.”

The
Troll stopped in his tracks and frowned. “All they did was put
this scanner up to my head and said it was gone.”

“
Supposedly,
that IS the process, but that doesn’t mean they took it out.”

The
Troll went into panic mode and his body froze in place. He needed to
get rid of The Guide now, before the sun went down and the bounty
hunters were no longer restricted by a ‘no kill’ order.
“You’re right,” The Troll said. “Maybe we
should split up.”

“
What
are you up to Troll?” The Guide asked. His eyes burned through
The Troll. It was a matter of time before The Guide kicked his ass,
took his belongings, and left him there. And then what? He’d be
killed for certain. All he could do
was
tell the truth: Or at least some of it.

“
I
don’t want to do this, and I don’t plan on. I want them
to let someone else try. I want to wait for someone to come for me
and bargain with them.”

The
Guide laughed. “They’re not going to do that. Are you
stupid?”

“
I.
Did. Not. Deserve. This.”

The
Guide grew serious and stepped forward, getting in The Troll’s
face. “Guess what: Neither did any of the millions of innocent
people who were killed by The Moderator. You’re one in a
hundred million victims of this. Why do you deserve to live more than
all those who died?”

“
Because
I complied by the rules.”

“
Seriously
Troll, if I ever meet Iris, I’ll kick her ass as badly as you
probably want to, but she chose you and as much as it sucks,
complaining is a waste of time, because you have two options: You can
fight the odds, hope to break Psi, and we’ll figure out life
from there without being under the rule of Prime, or you can attempt
to get in bed with them and I promise you Troll: You’ll be
killed.”

The
Troll fell silent and weighed his options. He hated not knowing what
he was supposed to do. He always had the answers, always had a
response, always gained the upper-hand. The Guide didn’t know
that The Troll had an out, and he hated having to disappoint him in
the way in which he inevitably would, but at least The Guide would
then understand that he didn’t only have two options…that
he wasn’t as dumb as The Guide was treating him.

The
Guide looked in the horizon. The sun was setting and the air was
getting cool. As the shadows of the day began to stretch, he started
formulating their plans for the night. The Troll waited for him to
make a suggestion. Eventually he would have to sleep, and when that
time came, The Troll could transmit and escape his clutches.

“
We
need to find a place to hole up for the night,” The Guide
finally said, to The Troll’s relief.

All
over the land were abandoned buildings, most of them stripped of
their goods by The Moderator’s people or the masses. Most of
these places were void of electronics, but even those which still
housed appliances, were useless because no electricity ran through. A
best case scenario would be to walk into a home that still had canned
goods or boxed cereal, but it wasn’t likely. They would have to
live on the land like everyone else, which meant building a fire and
catching an animal. The Troll wasn’t sure he had the energy,
but they had been walking for hours and he felt starved.

In
the distance, The Guide spotted a barn and they redirected their
walk. “What’s the deal with trolling?” The Guide
asked. “What’s so fun about it?”

“
I
don’t know. I’m good at it.”

“
Isn’t
that like being good at being an asshole?”

“
You
know, the government used to hire trolls to push their agendas and
sway people for or against politicians and policies.”

“
So
what?”

“
So
it was a necessity.”

“
Because
the government did it?” The Guide asked with a chuckle. “You
really have a messed up sense of priorities.”

“
What
else am I going to do? Most people on the boards are just worshiping
idols of some sort. How’s that much better?”

“
People
use the boards to connect. You try to come between them. You ruin
things instead of building them.”

“
Says
the guy who is trying to restore the chaos that the world once was.”

The
Guide stopped, and suddenly, he was angry. “First of all, the
world wasn’t chaos. It was free. We were allowed to make
choices, and a lot of people made bad choices, but we were at least
free to be who we wanted to be and not worry about someone hacking
our brain and killing us. Second, the fact that you’re not
pissed off about what happened to everyone is staggering. Who cares
how many people were murdered before Psi? The Moderator has killed
more people than anyone in the history of the world. What does it
take to make you angry?”

The
Troll shrugged as if he didn’t know the answer, but The Guide
suddenly saw the truth and let out a small gasp. “You want to
be with them, don’t you?” The Guide asked. “You
would have done the same thing in their shoes.”

“
Maybe
not the same way, but I can’t argue with a better world.”

“
It
wasn’t just bad people who died when Psi froze us all. It was a
randomized group of people who needed to NOT be paralyzed in that
moment. No one was targeted. All they cared about was the takeover
and of the millions who died, not one was selected because of who
they were. All that mattered was that The Moderator wanted power.”

“
Can
we not talk about this?”

“
Some
troll you are. Aren’t you supposed to be the one doing the
provoking?”

Some
troll he really was, The Troll thought. It really was different face
to face. He didn’t have time to plan his answer or use trickery
against his opponent. In the real world, with real issues, facing a
real human being, he was stumped. The Troll couldn’t wait to
get away from The Guide. He clearly was looked down on by everyone
that was part of the resistance: The Surfer, The Guide, they all saw
him as the wrong pick, and he felt uncomfortable around them.

When
they finally made it to the barn, the smell of straw filled the air.
The barn was two tiered and musty, as if nothing had been inside for
a long time and was left to marinate in its own odors. The wooden
beams were strong, and it would be a good hideout for the night. They
could even stay for days if they wanted the bounty hunters to
pass…maybe weeks if they hoped to be forgotten entirely. The
Troll ran strategies through his head of the many ways they could
beat the folks at…

And
then he snapped out of it. For a second, the thrill of the game
overcame him, but he dismissed it and reminded himself of the real
mission: Escape the clutches of The Guide, find the nearest tower,
and transmit the signal. He was lucky The Guide hadn’t forced
him to hand over Rainbow, and even luckier that they had found a
place to sleep with plenty of time to call off the hunt. He was
cooperative with The Guide and tried to get along the remainder of
the evening. The last thing he needed was to be discovered for his
real plan. They hunted together and managed to find and capture a
rabbit. They found a pond with fish and dinner was fantastic. It
wasn’t roast duck, but as hungry as The Troll was, it could
have been.

At
the end of the evening, when their eyes were heavy, they covered
their bodies with hay and closed their eyes. The Troll kept himself
awake until The Guide was finally out. He rolled over a few times to
test The Guide’s reaction to movement, but he didn’t
budge. It was safe to say that despite the setback The Guide caused,
it should be easy from here.

The
Troll rolled out of the bed of hay and got to his feet. He looked
down at The Guide momentarily and nodded his head as if to say
goodbye. Moments later, he was out of the barn and walking toward a
line of trees in the distance. If The Guide were to exit the barn
within the next five minutes, he’d be discovered, but it seemed
as if he would have at least a six hour head start, which would be
enough distance between them. When The Guide woke up, he wouldn’t
have any idea which direction he headed, but he’d likely assume
he went west, toward Vegas. Instead, The Troll would actually be
making his way back to the city to transmit. He thought about what
The Guide said about his options and wondered if there really was a
possibility they’d kill him, even after he transmitted. It
seemed to him that The Moderator seemed sincere—that he would
be a man of his word.

He
approached the line of trees, but stopped suddenly when he heard the
crackle of branches behind him. He realized someone was there. “I
need to do this alone,” The Troll said, assuming he was talking
to The Guide. Instead, a woman’s voice spoke.

“
You’re
not going to run away from this,” she said. “I chose you
for a reason.”

The
Troll spun on his heal and faced her, his jaw wide open. “Iris?”
he asked.

“
Go
back to the barn,” Iris said. “We need to talk.”

Chapter 2

When
the clock struck midnight, The Moderator cursed quietly to himself
and rolled out of bed. He paced in his office as the minutes passed
and grew angrier with each passing moment. He was positive The Troll
would opt out of the mission, and though he still could, it would
have been most effective if it had been done quickly. He hated that
there was someone out in the world that could potentially be creating
hope for all who hated Psi. He tried to guess how many people that
was. A few? A lot? Everyone?

It
had been a risk taking Iris up on her challenge, but there were so
many fail safes in place that The Troll couldn’t possibly
succeed. It wasn’t that he worried about the shutdown of Psi so
much as he worried about how the people would feel about his journey.
His bounty hunters were out in the world where if enough of the
population was against Psi, his friends would be outnumbered.

The
group of men The Moderator sent out were his closest friends and
confidants. It pained him to know they were exposed to the world and
he stayed in constant contact with each and watched the monitors
closely, guaranteeing there was movement from all ten of his friends.
They were the foundation of Circular Prime, all men who had lost
their jobs before they turned Psi on the people. Something about the
confrontation with Iris had gotten to him—as if she was
challenging him to make him seem like a coward—or make him lose
control. He did what would prove her wrong: Comply. Now, all he could
think about was all the ways the game could go wrong.

He
hoped it would be over fast, and it should have been. The Troll was
somehow distracted, or hurt—something didn’t go as
planned. He had sized up the behavior of The Troll and determined
there was nothing more to him than just a troll, who sincerely feared
for his life and wanted to be a part of their group. Yet, he’d
never transmitted.

The
Moderator needed to get some air. He needed to feel strong and in
control again. He spent the next hour in his office, which overlooked
the city below. He took the elevator to the first floor, exited the
building and wandered the streets, occasionally picking up trash and
tossing it into the nearest wastebasket. Their population was so
small that Chicago was a long way from looking perfect, but someday
it would. He was selective of who he allowed in. Everyone would by
law be injected with Psi. Populations would be in control, crime
would not be tolerated. Only perfection was allowed. Once they
perfected weather control, they would wipe out whole cities to keep
the population contained and controlled. No one would know these
disasters came from Chicago and the world would forever be shaped by
what he decided was best.

As
the sun began to rise, his impatience reached a new height and there
was only one person he could take out his anger on. He walked back to
Circular Prime and through the underground passages until he reached
what was once a parking garage, which had now been blocked off
without a way in or out, other than the tunnels that led to an
elevator to the bottom level.