Fisher stuck his head through the Rhodes’s front door. He called out, “Captain…!” before he saw Rhodes standing there. Fisher frowned. “You okay? What are you doing in here?”

  Rhodes strode over to his friend. “We gotta get out of here, Fisher. We’re prisoners of the Masks. We’re being drugged and kept in this Grid landscape to stop us from escaping.”

  Fisher blinked at him and then burst out laughing. “Good one!”

  Rhodes groaned. “You don’t believe me.”

  “Come on, man! We’ve lived here all our lives! No one is stopping us from escaping. Where would we escape to? There is nowhere else.”

  “Don’t you remember us going out to defend the town from the Inviria invasion?”

  Fisher furrowed his brow. “Inviria? What’s that?”

  Rhodes gave it up, strode past, Fisher, and left the house. “Forget it. You’ll remember as soon as we go back into battle—which we’re bound to do eventually.”

  Fisher hustled to catch up with him. “Did something happen? Did you get in a fight with Ora or something?”

  “Don’t talk to me if you can’t take this seriously,” Rhodes snapped over his shoulder.

  “I’m sorry. I just….I’ve never seen you like this before.”

  Rhodes didn’t say anything. Fisher didn’t remember anything.

  That wasn’t his fault. Rhodes had to keep reminding himself of that. The Masks made sure Fisher didn’t remember.

  Rhodes stormed back to Koenig’s eatery and found Wild sitting by the fire. “I need your help, Wild,” Rhodes blurted out.

  Wild didn’t look up from his pipe. He bent over, tapped it out on the hearthstone, and fished in his pocket for a leather tobacco pouch. He used it to repack his pipe. “What do you want?” Wild growled under his breath.

  “I need your help to get the battalion away from the Masks. I know you remember everything. I know you see through this illusion. You and Dietz are the only two in the whole battalion that know what’s going on. I need you to help me.”

  “There’s no way out from in here,” Wild muttered without turning around. “We have to wait until they send us out against the Legion again.”

  “We can’t wait that long,” Rhodes insisted. “We might all forget by then and we would risk Fuentes or someone attacking one of us again. There has to be a way.”

  “There isn’t,” Wild growled. “I’ve tried. I’ve thought about nothing else since we wound up in this shithole.”

  Rhodes stared down at the old man’s white hair. Wild never took his eyes off the flames. If Wild thought it was that hopeless, what chance did Rhodes have?

  “Did you talk to Dietz about this?” Rhodes finally asked. “He says he remembers everything, too.”

  “Dietz can’t help you any more than I can, Captain,” Wild replied over his shoulder. “I’m telling you we’ve tried everything. What the hell do you think we’ve been doing here ever since the bastards sent us here? Do you really think I’ve been sitting in this damn chair the whole time?”

  Rhodes opened his mouth. He almost said that, yes, he really did think Wild had been sitting in this chair the whole time.

  What did Rhodes know about what Wild had or hadn’t been doing?

  If Wild said he tried everything, Rhodes could believe him. Rhodes couldn’t imagine what Wild might have tried, but it would have been a whole lot more than what Rhodes had tried.

  He’d already started to give up on finding a way out of The Grid. He’d already come to believe that going into battle against the Legion was the only way out.

  Rhodes wanted to believe more than anything that he could avoid someone in the battalion turning on him again. Anything would be better than that.

  Killing Fuentes wouldn’t solve anything. What was Rhodes supposed to do—kill every battalion member the Masks hacked to turn against him and the Legion?

  He might wind up killing everyone. That was not the solution. He didn’t know what was, but it wasn’t that.

  Rhodes couldn’t think of anything else to say to Wild, but at least Rhodes knew now that he could rely on Wild. He and Dietz were the only members of the battalion who knew what was going on besides Rhodes himself.

  Rhodes started to turn away and nearly collided with Fisher standing there. He gaped at Rhodes in stark horror—like maybe Rhodes really had lost his mind at last.

  “Do you believe me now?” Rhodes waved at the back of Wild’s head. “I’m not the only one who knows.”

  Fisher started to open his mouth, but no sound came out. At that moment, Koenig came out of the back kitchen with Van. Dietz followed a few paces behind them.

  “Captain!” Koenig exclaimed. “It’s good to see you up and around again. We were worried after the way you got injured.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “How did I get injured?” Rhodes asked.

  Koenig’s jaw dropped. “You…you don’t remember?”

  “I remember getting caught in an explosion when two Legion Ravagers ran into each other. Lauer pulled me out of the way, but Thackery and Coulter got caught in the middle of it. You should have gotten killed along with Thackery, Koenig…and Van should have gotten killed along with Fuentes when he and Dietz got shot down….but you don’t remember that, do you?” Rhodes turned to Dietz. “I bet you remember, don’t you?”

  Dietz shrugged. “I might.”

  “Wild says there’s no way out of The Grid from in here. He says our only way out is to wait to go out into battle again. Do you agree with that?”

  “He’s right, but I don’t think we’ll have to wait too long before they send us back out,” Dietz replied. “They’ll send us soon enough. Then we can do whatever we’re going to do.”

  “What makes you so sure? Their representative just told me they plan to keep us here until they regulate all our systems.”

  Dietz waved around him. “Do you see any of our systems out of regulation? That’s the point. We all function just fine as long as we’re in here. You might even go so far as to say we function just fine out there, too. We only have a problem when they try to control us or make us do something against our core nature—which is what they always do.”

  “The problem is if we go out and one of the others malfunctions—or doesn’t malfunction according to your way of seeing it,” Rhodes pointed out. “It would work better if we could convince everyone while we’re still in here. Then, when we go out, everyone is on board.”

  “You won’t convince them,” Wild growled from the fireplace. “They’re too happy here.”

  “All of them?” Rhodes asked. “What about Oakes?”

  Dietz cast a sidelong glance at Koenig and Van—and then another one at Fisher. “Some of them will never turn. Others….you might be able to. Then again, you might not. I guess it depends on the person and the circumstances.”

  “We can’t wait for a battle,” Rhodes decided. “You guys have to help me.”

  “Forget about Lauer,” Wild muttered. “I’ve already tried a thousand times.”

  “What about Coulter and Murphy?” Rhodes asked.

  Dietz shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  Rhodes glanced around. “Where’s Zen? He’s been awfully quiet since this whole thing started.”

  “You won’t convince him,” Dietz replied. “Don’t even try it.”

  “Have you tried it?” Rhodes asked.

  Dietz looked away. “Only once. Just keep away from him.”

  “Why?” Rhodes asked. “We need to convince all the SAMs. They could cause more problems than Fuentes if they decide to work against us.”

  “Zen will cause more problems than Fuentes if you try to convince him.” Dietz compressed his lips and looked away. “Just take my word for it, Sir. He’s trouble.”

  Rhodes didn’t argue. He didn’t know Zen very well—precisely because Zen kept to himself so much. He kept to himself even more than Wild.

  Zen hardly ever got involved in the battalion’s conversations. He played his cards close to his vest, but Rhodes trusted Dietz. Dietz knew Zen better than anyone.

  Rhodes had his work cut out for him convincing all the others. Van raised both hands. “Don’t even ask me to talk to Rudy. He’s intractable.”

  “Is he just as intractable here as he is in the real world?” Rhodes asked.

  “More so—but in a different way.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Let’s just say he’s very happy here. He won’t get violent about it the way he does out there, but he won’t budge, either. He’ll stick his big toe in the ground and turn a deaf ear to anything you say.”

  Rhodes frowned. “That’s not good. Who does that leave?”

  His question answered itself when Dash came down the stairs just then. He was still in the act of tucking his shirt into his belt and arranging all his weapons.

  His quick, dark eyes darted around the group. “Are we having a conference or something?”

  “We’re talking about what we’ll do the next time the Masks send us out against the Legion,” Wild growled from his chair.

  “It’s simple,” Dash replied. “We’ll wipe the floor with them.”

  “Who—the Masks or the Legion?” Rhodes asked.

  “The Legion, of course,” Dash exclaimed. “We have to defend the Masks. They’re our own people.”

  “So….you don’t remember you and Oakes being part of the Legion?”

  Dash made a face. “We were never part of the Legion. We’re Masks—all of us.” He waved at everyone, but mostly at himself, Koenig, Van, Fisher, and Wild. “We couldn’t do anything to betray them.”

  “Do you remember anything about the way they captured us on the battlefield—and what they did to Oakes in their lab?” Rhodes asked.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dash returned. “The Masks never captured us on the battlefield. We’ve been here the whole time.”

  “What about the times we’ve fought on the battlefield?” Rhodes asked.

  “We fought with the Masks, didn’t we? We fought to defend ourselves and all our people.” He waved again—at Stonebridge this time. “Only a traitorous piece of shit would let his own people go down to a bunch of scum like the Legion.”

  He walked out of the building and left a tense silence behind him. “See what I mean?” Wild snarled. “The others will be exactly the same.”

  “I can’t believe that about Oakes,” Rhodes replied. “Lauer is only deluded by all of this. He’s still loyal to the Legion underneath.”

  “Good luck getting through to him,” Wild muttered.

  “You saw him on the battlefield. He tried to stop the Masks from making him shoot at the Legion. He’s been trying to break the control all this time. As soon as he snaps out of it, he’ll be with us—which is more than I can say for Fuentes.”

  “Don’t expect Lauer to come out of it before then,” Wild replied. “He loves this place with a passion. Why the hell do you think I’m in here instead of out there?”

  Rhodes didn’t answer. He really didn’t know what to say. He always thought Wild stayed in here by the fire because, like Thackery said, he was just as antisocial here as he was everywhere else.

  Wild must have tried to convince Lauer. Wild must have tried to convince Lauer first—back when no one else even realized what was happening. It must not have gone well.

  That also explained why Lauer encouraged everyone else in the battalion to give Wild his space.

  Of course Lauer wouldn’t want Wild to give anyone else any crazy ideas about Stonebridge not being real and the Masks being the battalion’s enemies instead of their friends.

  Rhodes turned to leave the building. Some instinct told him not to ask Koenig to help convince Thackery.

  Rhodes couldn’t explain how he knew this. Koenig had always been the more cooperative of the two.

  As soon as Rhodes turned around, he came face to face with Fisher again. Fisher stood there gaping at Rhodes like Rhodes just sprouted three heads.

  Rhodes leveled Fisher with a direct stare. Rhodes couldn’t pinpoint where Fisher stood in all this—the human Fisher.

  Rhodes know for damn sure where the real Fisher stood. This joker standing in front of Rhodes right now…..

  Rhodes couldn’t even think of Fisher like that. This Fisher was the one who broke through The Grid to warn Rhodes that one time.

  Fisher only did it once, though. This human version of Fisher never helped Rhodes any other time—but maybe Fisher couldn’t help Rhodes any other time.

  Maybe Fisher was trying to break through right now and couldn’t. How would Rhodes really know?

  He decided not to try to convince Fisher, either. Fisher already knew everything Rhodes knew.

  Fisher stood here listening to Rhodes’s conversations with Dietz and Wild. If that didn’t convince Fisher, nothing else would.

  Either way, Rhodes could wait until he got the real Fisher on the battlefield. Then Fisher would come to his senses. He always did. Rhodes would be able to rely on him then—but not before.

  End of Chapter 29.

  ? 2024 by Theo Mann

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