Читать книгу The New Order - Sean Wolfe Fay - Страница 10

Stan could not deny that he was very happy he had been re-elected, but right now, he could not hide his annoyance. He had explicitly told the guards of the castle that he would talk to anybody who needed him the next day, but not tonight. Yet he had still been woken up four times, by DZ, Kat, Charlie, and DZ again. His friends only wanted to congratulate him, but Stan was far too tired to appreciate it. Stan ordered the guard firmly to tell everybody to leave him be for the rest of the night, and slammed the door irritably.

Stan got back into bed, glad that the campaign was over and that he could now get some real sleep for the first time in days. He pulled the covers up, closed his eyes, and was about to fall asleep when a faint voice caught his ear.

“Stan … hey, Stan, are you awake?”

“Whoever you are, GO AWAY!” barked Stan, hiding his head under his pillow in his angst.

“Oh, OK then. I thought that you’d be rather happy to hear my voice again, noob, but if you’d rather sleep, I get it …”

Suddenly, Stan was wide awake. He glanced wildly around the room, daring to hope that it could really be true, that the voice could really be that of …

“Sally?” Stan asked tentatively.

“Yeeeees?” came the sarcastic, smirky voice.

“Oh my God. It’s you!” cried Stan, his eyes brightening in delight. “You’re alive! But how … where are …”

“No, you idiot! I’m not alive, Minotaurus cut me open with an axe, remember?”

“But … wait a second …” said Stan, his elation suddenly shifting to a sudden-onset headache. “If you’re … but then … Sal, how are you talking to me if you’re dead?”

“Well,” came Sally’s voice, the source of which Stan still could not distinguish, “ever since I died, I’ve been trying to find ways to get back onto the server. I’ve gotta hand it to King Kev, he really did his research. I’ve tried every method of rejoining, of hacking my way in, of bypassing the blacklist … you know, the list of people who have been banned from Elementia. But what you hear now is the closest I’ve been able to get.”

“So … can you see me?” asked Stan.

“Yeah, I see you,” she replied. “It’s weird, my view of you keeps shifting around the room, though, and I have to really focus on you to keep my sight there. Frankly, you’re not too much to look at, so I think you owe me an apology there.”

Stan chuckled. “Well, death hasn’t changed you much, Sally. Is this the first time that you’ve managed to do this … this … well, whatever this is?”

“No,” Sally said. “I’ve been able to do this for about the past week or so, and it’s so strange, I really don’t have that much control over where I get to see. It’s like I see flashes of things that are happening all over Elementia. Sometimes I see trees in the forest, or pigs in the plains, or buildings in the city. Anyway, if I don’t focus on what I’m seeing really hard, I lose the connection.”

“That is weird,” said Stan, thinking about what might cause this but drawing a blank. “So, have you talked to anybody else?”

“No, frankly, most people are too boring to focus on,” replied Sally, and Stan could almost see the sarcastic simper on her face. “I just happened to have the luck of teleporting directly into your bedroom. By the way, it was cute when DZ tried to come in twice to congratulate you. And also, congrats, Mr Two-Term President. Not bad for a noob who can’t even flop down onto a pillow correctly.”

“Are you ever going to let that go?” Stan whined, but he was laughing. Even though he couldn’t see Sally, this was as close to old times as he could possibly get.

“No,” replied Sally simply, and Stan chuckled some more, but when Sally spoke again, her voice was as serious as Stan had ever heard it. “Actually, there is something important I have to tell you. I saw Caesar and Leonidas.”

Stan’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait, you saw those two? Leonidas is alive?” he asked in shock.

Sally grimly continued. “Yeah. One time, I tried to join, and I went to this place I didn’t recognize. It was really dark, and I could barely see anything, but Caesar and Leonidas were there. They were saying something I couldn’t hear to a big group of guys that seemed to be listening to them. I tried to focus in, but I lost the connection.”

“So they had people with them? How many, Sally?” asked Stan, panic creeping into his voice as he began to contemplate the possibilities of what this development could mean.

“There were probably about twenty-five, total. I couldn’t tell, but it looked like Caesar was giving some sort of speech, and they were cheering for him.”

Stan gulped, sweat breaking out. “So … does that mean … that Caesar and Leonidas are gathering followers? What about Minotaurus, was he there? Did they have weapons?” Stan was talking very fast now, panic rising in his throat. “What were they doing there, Sally? Can you tell me anything else?”

“I don’t … oh, wait … oh, no …” Sally’s response was suddenly punctuated by static, like a radio signal was being jammed. “I’m … losing the con … the connection, Stan … I’ve got … got to go …”

“No, Sally! Don’t go!” Stan was on edge now. With his fatigue, the knowledge of an organization headed by Caesar, and finding out that Sally could still speak to him, Stan was in a very unstable state. He was desperate to find solace in the now fading voice of Sally.

“Go … go to sleep now … Stan, you’re exhausted … be careful … I promise, I’ll contact … contact you again … again very soon …”

And then there was a static crackle, and the voice ceased. Overwhelmed with exhaustion and despair, Stan gave a moan of dejection and passed out on his bed.

“I’m telling you, it was the weirdest thing!” said Stan, pulling back the ceremonial presidential gold helmet to wipe away the sweat accumulating on his brow. All the councilmen and the president were required to wear them around the town, and they were the only ones by law allowed to do so. They were also each equipped with a golden weapon of their choice, for the sake of ceremony as well as self-defence. Stan had a golden axe strapped across his back, and Charlie, who was walking next to him, had a golden pickaxe latched to his waist.

“Stan, listen, I get that you really miss Sally,” said Charlie. “But there is no way that she telepathically contacted you or something. Trust me, I’ve read pretty much every book in the library about this game and the stuff in it, and there’s no way that it’s possible. I’m sorry, Stan, but Sally’s dead.”

Stan sighed, his tolerance wearing thin. “Charlie, I am positive of what I heard. Sally was speaking to me, and she told me that she had seen Caesar and Leonidas talking to a whole group. And personally, I think it’s very possible that the remnants of King Kev’s army have banded together.”

“Stan, stop!” Charlie butted in. Having lost his cat, Lemon, in the Ender Desert during their quest to take down King Kev, Charlie understood what Stan was going through. However, he felt Stan’s grieving had reached a point of crazy obsession. That Stan was having this kind of hallucination three months after the fact made Charlie seriously question Stan’s mental state.

“Stan, listen to me very carefully. You were dreaming. Sally is dead and she is not coming back. You miss Sally very much and I get that. But do me a favour, and don’t talk until we get to the arena. On the way there, I want you to ask yourself if you really heard Sally talking to you last night, or if you were just hearing things because you were very tired after a long campaign.”

Stan followed his friend’s instructions. And the more he thought about it, the more he realized that Charlie was probably right. Stan certainly had done his fair share of grieving over Sally, but he realized that his exhaustion after the campaign may very well have caused him to hear voices. By the time Stan, Charlie and the throng of players around them had crossed the grassy courtyard and entered the Element City Spleef Arena, Stan had dismissed his late-night conversation with Sally as nothing more than a delusion.