Date: 2019-06-09 04:00:00+00:00
Description: Necrovoid - The latest immersion gaming sensation to sweep the world. Enter a world torn apart by shambling undead monsters, help the survivors kill the zombies, get the girl and discover who unleashed this nightmare upon the unsuspecting populace. For Jordan Ellis, this game sounded like the ideal way to escape his tiresome family and his tedious life. He couldn't wait to roll the sense-net over his head and start blowing away the undead! Perhaps Jordan should have read the instructions first? If he had then events might have played out differently. Join him as reality blends with digital fan
Publisher: 4864 Publishing

Necrovoid

Book one – The Immersion Seeds
by

Ian Woodhead

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright June 2019 by Ian Woodhead

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, scanning or otherwise, without prior permission of the author.

Cover designed by Stephen Landry

Chapter One

NOW

What was the point of busting their guts, so they could reach that farmhouse now? Jordan Ellis slammed a hand over his mouth and screamed into it in pure frustration. He didn't know what to do anymore. The only choice left was to stay here and wait for the inevitable, to wait for Jenny to die. He couldn't leave her alone, he just couldn't do it.

“Please, just go, Jordan. You know it's what you have to do.”

He moaned silently then dropped to his knees beside the sitting woman, the wet grass soaked through his trousers in seconds. “That is so not going to happen.” Jordan gently pulled her hand away from the bite mark on her neck, trying not to grimace at the damage. The blood flow had stopped now but that was no cause for celebration. It just meant that the infection had taken hold, and they both knew what that meant.

Both Jordan and Jenny were fully aware of the implications even before either of them had met. The authorities had drummed in that particular warning days ago, a couple of days after what the media had called 'Zero Hour'

He ground his teeth in annoyance, determined not to let his mind drift away from the task at hand. What they did to them, both the media and the authorities, would come back to bite them, literally, that much, Jordan did know. Right now though, he needed to focus.

Jordan threw the bloody tissue that she'd been holding against the wound onto the ground then pulled out his remaining tissue and placed it into her hand. “Here you go. This is the last one. I need you to hold this against the wound.”

She just stared at him, not moving an inch. “What's the sodding point, Jordan? I'm dead already. We both know there's no coming back from this.” A single tear rolled down her left cheek. “Jordan, I can't feel my hands anymore. I think it's starting.” She dropped the tissue. “I'm about to turn. Oh, God! Please, you need to get away from me. Get out of here before it's too late!”

He violently shook his head. “No way. Not a chance, Jenny. I ain't going to leave you to those bastards,” he said. “They'll rip you to bits!” Jordan twisted his body. He couldn't see them but that didn’t mean anything. Their three pursuers will have reached the foot of this hill by now. It didn't matter that the mist hid their approaching bodies. They could hear their mournful howls for miles. He pulled himself up then forced Jenny onto her feet. “I'm not leaving you here,” he repeated. “So you can get the dumb thought out of your head, right now.” Jordan pulled her further up the gentle incline. “That farmhouse has got to be around here somewhere.”

He looked over his shoulder and could now make out their pursuers' rough outline. There were five down there now. Five down there and very soon, one up here. He looked deep into Jenny's large brown eyes. “I don't know what to do anymore, honey!”

“Yes you do,” she replied, sighing softly. “The farmhouse will give you temporary sanctuary. There are enough supplies stored there to keep you alive for months. You'll be safe from attack. You just need to sit tight and wait until the powers that be sort out this mess.”

He looked away, not wanting her to see his face. Jenny didn't know what those bastards had done to them.

She grabbed his hand and squeezed. “I need you to promise me something.”

“I'm not sure I can, not knowing what it is.”

She forced out a smile. “That one again. Jordan. When you think of me, I want you to only remember the fun we had. Don't dwell on what happened in that grocery store. That wasn't your fault.”

Jenny touched his lips. “Don't interrupt. You know what to do. You have to leave. There is no other choice. Do it, Jordan. Leave me here and save yourself!”

He shook his head. “I just can't do it.”

Jenny let go. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him before releasing him. “I'm so sorry about this. I really am.”

Before he could respond, the woman punched him hard in the guts then spun around and raced away, running back down the hill and towards their pursuers. Moments later, the sound of her agonised shrieking reached him.

Jordan choked back the sobs, not believing she'd just done that. “Oh, God, I love you, Jenny!” he shouted. His only response was the sound of wet chewing coming those hateful monsters. He rolled onto his front and started the painful crawl towards where he thought the farmhouse would be. Just for a moment, Jordan almost gave up and stopped moving. Better to wait for them to find him than to continue without her. A couple of seconds of utter agony and then it would be all over, an eternity of blessed oblivion. The only thing that kept him going was the thought that the bastards who released this on their own people were still alive.

Hate kept him going as well as the need for revenge. The people who did this were going to pay dearly.

SIX HOURS EARLIER

He ran his fingers along the top of the weapon while doing his best not to lift it closer to his face so he could sniff the smooth surface. Jordan chuckled to himself. This was just incredible! The feel of the cold metal under his skin, the smell of machine oil in his nose and the weight of it. That's one thing he never expected. This shotgun was heavy!

“Do you want me to leave so you two could have a moment?” The young woman winked. “You know, in private.”

Jordan knew that his face had gone as red as the walls in this shop. “I bet I look like a kid who's just been given a new toy. Sorry about that. It's just that over here, we don't really have access to guns.”

Her name was Jenny Saunders. She lived on the east side of the United States. She was only supposed to be staying for a week before going back to her parents. All this Jordan already knew.  They had exchanged the briefest of introductions just ten minutes ago after bumping into each other. She knew his name, that next year, Jordan would be hitting the big three zero in four months time and had a part-time job, working in a body shop on the other side of town. Jordan kinda looked forward to explaining the difference in car part names to the American. As sad as that sounded, he believed it would help to take both their minds off from the nightmare happening to them right now.

“Don't worry about it, Jordan,” she said. “You don't have anything to prove.” Jenny approached him, placed the tin of pineapples she had found on the empty white shelf next to Jordan's shoulder and gently squeezed his arm. “After all, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be here.”

He felt himself colouring up again. "Er, thanks," he stammered. Just ten minutes earlier, the pair of them were running through the town's shopping mall, thrown together through mutual circumstances. Jordan wasn't quite sure that he could take full responsibility for saving this woman’s life. All he had done was to run into that toy shop to avoid the two infected who'd been chasing him ever since he had made the stupid mistake of setting foot inside the mall. It's just a coincidence that Jenny had been there already. She too was hiding from her attackers. The only difference was her pursuers had followed her inside and had been slowly making their way down the games and outside toys aisle when he ran inside.

The noise he'd made by falling against a space Lego display had given Jenny the distraction she needed to climb out of the giant pale blue doll-house she'd taken refuge inside. The girl managed the evade her attackers and escape through the fire exit on the other side of the shop, pulling Jordan through the open door after almost tripping up over his sprawled body.

“Have you ever fired a gun before, Jordan?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I was in the army cadets for a few years so I'm used to most military weapons that our lads use. Granted, that was a few years ago but I haven't forgotten. I've not fired anything like this though.”

“That's a relief,” she replied, smiling. “That means you can teach me.”

He hadn't expected that answer. “Wait, I thought you guys grew up with guns? That you could fire a weapon before you learnt to speak or something.”

She giggled. “Right. I think someone has been taking too much notice of the cop shows on  TV. We're not all gun-crazed yahoos, Jordan. Believe it or not, my parents have never even  owned a gun. Come to think of it, apart from a couple of the older folks on the outskirts, nobody on our street has a firearm either. Granted, I guess our town isn't exactly typical of our country but we've had no problems so far.”

Jordan opened his mouth then closed it again. Spouting out that her town might now be in as much shit as this place probably wasn't the greatest idea he had ever had.

Thanks to the communication blackout and the quarantine imposed on their country, they didn't have a clue what was happening beyond their borders anyway. Nobody knew whether the authorities had this disaster under control or if the infection had spread past their borders.

“Is that thing loaded?”

He shook his head. Jordan had already checked the chambers. No, it's empty. I'll have a scout around, see if I can find any shells he might have dropped. Why don't you see if you can find anything else to eat? There's bound to be a few more tins knocking about.” He made his way towards the window, still expecting to see a column of tanks and APC'S rolling down the middle of the high street, mowing a path through the hordes of infected while searching for anyone still alive.

Fat chance of seeing anything like that. The only movement he saw through those windows were four infected on their knees. They were grouped in a semi-circle and feasting on... Jordan turned away, feeling his guts slowly churn at the thought on what or who they could be feeding upon.

“I suppose we're lucky to be alive. You know, it could be me and you out there.” Jordan kept his voice quiet, saying the words solely for his benefit. He didn't really want his new friend to hear him comparing themselves to the dozens of chewed up corpses they'd already passed to reach this shop.

He turned away from the window and continued the search for some shotgun shells. Jordan started by returning to the corpse where he'd originally found the weapon.

The dead man lay close to a coffee machine at the back of the shop. Judging from his military type attire, this guy must have belonged to one of the new militias formed by the new government a few months ago. Jordan remembered a few of his neighbours thinking of joining up when the leaflets dropped through their doors back before anyone realised how bad it was going to get, but he didn't really take much interest.

He had already checked the body once but it didn't harm giving the corpse another search. Jordan leaned over the corpse and checked all his pockets. Apart from a wallet and a couple of chocolate bars, he had nothing else on him. Jordan sighed. This meant the gun was next to useless. He was hardly likely to stumble across any ammunition anywhere else.

“Maybe he wasn't alone? Maybe...” Jordan stumbled back when the corpse moved his head. “Oh shit!” Jordan's blood ran cold when the thing slowly began to sit up. “We need to get out of here!” He spun around located Jenny and ran towards her. “Jenny!” he hissed. “We're not alone in here.”

The woman had already noticed their unwanted occupant had started to move about. Jenny ran over to Jordan. She looked at the corpse, took a deep breath and snatched the shotgun out of his heads.

“Jenny, what the hell are you doing? Didn’t you hear me telling you that it’s empty? He cried. “Seriously, it needs shells. The damn thing is useless without them. Come on, we have to get out of here!”

“Listen to yourself. Just where are we going to go?” she snapped back. “You know as well as I do that these damn shuffling monsters are everywhere.” Jenny ran up to the corpse. The dead thing’s legs were now drawn up to its chest and now looked like it was trying to remember how to stand up. A moment later some old memory must have reached the corpse’s rotting brain as it started to lift its body. The corpse had almost stood upright when it must have realised that there was fresh meat close by. The corpse turned its head, looked straight at Jenny and hissed.

This did not deter the woman. Jenny jumped the side, away from the thing’s grasping hands then swept her leg in a low arc. Her foot caught the back of the dead thing’s ankle and it fell back down. She then booted it straight in its expressionless face. It took another savage kick before the back of the dead thing's head bounced on the floor tiles.

Before it could recover, Jenny smashed the gun's stock into its face. Jordan involuntary winced when she hit it again and again. The sound, once she'd smashed its skull, wasn't too dissimilar to the noise those dead things made once they started chomping their way through their victims.

“That was gross,” she muttered, climbing off the mutilated body. Jenny dropped the gun, wiped sweat from her forehead then walked over to him. “Hey, what’s with the face? Don't look at me like that, Jordan. I had no other choice. If I hadn't smashed its head in, the bastard thing would have alerted all its buddies.” She took both his hands. “ You know, do you think it might be better to stay here, just for a bit longer? Maybe all this will blow over?” She leaned forward and softly kissed him. “I’m sure we can do something together to occupy the time?”

His mouth had gone drier than the bottom of a budgie cage. He couldn't believe this. They were stuck in the middle of the greatest disaster ever to happen to their species and this young attractive woman was coming on to him. “I’m sure we can hang on for a bit longer,” he stammered. If we can find enough food.”

Jenny just laughed while dragging him towards a door situated behind the shop counter.

Present

It had only taken him a few minutes to locate the farmhouse but those minutes seemed to stretch for hours. Stumbling through the thigh-high, wet grass while holding his bruised guts and listening to those horrors get closer and closer was not his idea of a having a good time.

He lay on the hardwood floor, listening to those things scratching at the thick door. Jordan had learned the hard way not to trust his life with a few inches of wood. Once he stopped hurting, Jordan intended to move further into the building. With luck, there should be a cellar packed with enough supplies to keep him alive for the next few months.

He didn’t intend to stay here for that long, just enough for those things out there to lose interest and leave. Jordan slowly sat up, the pain had started to dissipate. If they ever do bugger off back down that hill.

There wasn't much of interest in here. Apart from a single wooden chair by his side and a small wooden chest by the left wall, this room was empty. Hopefully the rest of the farmhouse would offer something a little more of value. Perhaps the two doors behind him would yield some goodies.

“Another shotgun with a thousand shells would be nice,” he muttered.

This room wasn't that large, he guessed it was probably a little larger than his old bedroom. From what he could work out, the building seemed, at least from the outside, to be quite large, meaning the other rooms ought to be a decent size.

Jordan moved closer to the window, he wanted to see how many of those dead things were out there now.

He got to eight and stopped counting. Where the hell had the others come from?

“No way!” He moved back, not believing how many had appeared. That scratching had gotten frantic. They knew he was in here! Jordan scrambled away from the window and raced to the back of the room, fully aware that time was running out. He had hoped that the few of them out there would just get bored and forget he was here before leaving the farmhouse in search for more accessible prey but that obviously not going to happen, not now.

The front door had already started to splinter. He reached the next door which, he prayed, would lead to another way out of here, when several spears of muted sunlit stabbed wall in front of him. Jordan spun around.

A single arm poked through the bottom of that door. Within seconds, another one joined it, followed by two more as the wood started to give way.

Jordan stood, frozen to the spot, watching in revulsion as those arms waved around like octopus tentacles, periodically slapping against the floorboards and the side of the ruined door. Thick, dark red blood spurted from their damaged fingers everyone a limb made contact with a surface.

Another section of the door broke away, letting in another small sliver of sunlight. The light suddenly vanished when one of their heads slammed through the hole.

Jordan moaned in terror, feeling his bowels wanting to discharge when that dead thing lifted its head and growled at him before it opened its mouth wide and bit into the side of the door.

His self-control only returned when yet another dead thing pushed its arms through the top of the ruined front door. It wasn't going to last much longer and if he didn't do something right now, he was dead.

“ Oh, come on man. Get a sodding grip. That poor girl didn't sacrifice herself so you could give up.”

The door handle had stuck into his spine when he fell against the door. Without taking his terror-struck gaze off the once human monsters, desperately trying to get inside, Jordan reached around. He managed to wrap his sweaty palms around the cold metal handle, and twist it both ways until the door finally opened.

He wept with relief when he fell back into a narrow corridor. Jordan kicked the door shut, stood up, then looked for anything heavy he could use to block the door.

The sunlight filtering through two skylights gave him plenty of light to see there was nothing in here, save for a wardrobe at the end of the corridor, opposite the only other door.

He ran up to it, looked at the oak panelled, blue painted door for a second before getting around the other side of the wardrobe. While he so needed to get as far away from those dead things, Jordan still needed to at least try to slow them down. What if there wasn't another way out of here? He shook his head, not wanting to even think about that.

From the room he just left, the sound of that front door finally giving up the ghost reached his ears. Jordan spun around and leaned against the furniture, not knowing what to do now. He dare not open the other door, in case those bastards heard him. One thing he had learned in the brief time the dead thing's began to move is that not only were they persistent, those dead bastards had exceptional hearing. It also meant he couldn't move this wardrobe either, they were bound to hear hear the bottom of the wardrobe scraping across the floorboards.

Maybe he could stay here? Now that those vile monsters couldn't see or hear him, they might finally leave. It sounded like the only option he had left. If they did open that door, at least he still had the one escape route still to use.

Jordan sighed quietly. It also sounded like the worst idea he'd ever had. Like those bastards were going to just give up, turn around and vanish into the sunset. He had already discovered their tenacious obsession with following their prey. That flimsy door wasn't going to keep them at bay, that's for sure.

He had to block the door. It really was that simple. Jordan flattened his hands against the side of the wardrobe and pushed.

Nothing happened. The wardrobe just wouldn't budge! “Come on,” he muttered. “Give me a break.” Jordan had no other choice but to get the hell out of here. He grabbed the door handle then paused.

He turned to gaze at that piece of furniture. It didn't look solid. If anything, the wardrobe gave off the impression that it had been put together using plywood and staples.

Jordan grabbed the brass wardrobe door handle and pulled. Both doors swung open to reveal another corpse. This one couldn't get to him. Both its wrists and ankles were attached to thick metal hoops on the inside of the wood with wire.

It might not be able to reach him but that didn’t stop the dead thing from trying. It pulled repeatedly at the tight binding, not noticing the wire cutting deeper and deeper into its purifying flesh. It lunged at him when he got a bit too close. Jordan jumped back. He was about to flee when the corpse lifted its head. It slowly turned, stared straight at him and opened its mouth. He thought it was going to follow the example of all the other dead things by growling or hissing at him. Jordan believed that all the way until it actually spoke.

“For crying out loud, Jordan. Mum has been shouting your name for the past ten minutes. Get off this bloody game and go eat your food.”

Chapter Two

The colours of his bedroom wallpaper seemed so jaded and washed out compared to the sensory bombardment that he'd just experienced.

“Holy shit!” he whispered.

“ Jordan, did you hear what I just said?”

He nodded, unable to tear his eyes off the sensenet  now lying on his bed covers. According to the bedside clock, he'd been in deep for almost two hours. How could that be possible? His mind told Jordan that three days had passed since he first unrolled the sensenet  over his face.

“Are you nodding at me or your new toy, you sad twat?”

Jordan had no intention of trying to defend himself. There really was no point. He simply gave her the single finger salute, waited for his sister to slam his bedroom door and storm back downstairs before turning around.

The urge to forget this reality and plug himself back into Necrovoid almost overcame him but Jordan resisted. It'd be a better idea to mull over what he'd just gone through first. Besides, his stomach felt like his throat was cut. Jordan really ought to give this body of his a little energy.

He packed the sensenet  back into the box, set that under his wall TV then made his way over to the door. Jordan glanced back at the TV, while wondering if Jenny was another player or simply just part of the narrative. There'd be no way of knowing.

God, how intense was that? Jordan couldn't remember any other game that had gotten him so excited or, for that matter, so emotionally drained.

The guys who made the game were onto a winner, that's for sure. Jordan smiled. Liked they needed him to tell them that. Necrovoid had already outsold its nearest rival, some crappy platform game which looked positively 8-bit compared to Necrovoid. Not a bad accomplishment considering you actually had to physically travel, on feet, to the shops. This baby wasn't available online or via delivery. Jordan actually had a game box, complete with instructions and a poster which now adorned his bedroom wall.

Even his dad had commented on the company's 'retro' method of running their business. True, unlike everyone else, his old man complemented them on forcing the kids to use other muscles instead of the mouse finger button. Jordan grinned to himself, while wondering if his did had grasped the concept of just how little exercise the kids would be doing once that sensenet  had enveloped their heads.

“I think I'm going to need to grab myself some protein bars for the next time I plug in.”

His heart jumped into his mouth when he opened the door. Just for a second, Jordan actually believed that a dead thing would be on the other side, waiting for him to become its next meal.

“Get a grip, you bloody idiot,” he muttered.

Jordan passed the bathroom door, grabbed the banister and walked downstairs, while listening to that idiotic sister bad-mouth him in front of mum and dad. Words like geek, loser, weirdo, waster, and freak made up about a third of the conversation. His darling Susan was sure in fine fighting form today.

He just tuned her out. There were far more pressing concerns in his life at the moment, namely, Necrovoid, and what to do next. Jordan still had the option of a full game reset. Basically, to start at the beginning. Thing is, would that really be the wisest choice? Sure, it did sound like his only option, considering he had lost Jenny, was trapped in some farmhouse and, from what he remembered, close to having a breakdown. He still lived though, and that, despite his current bleak circumstance, was still a bonus.

Who's to say that if he did reset, his outcome would be any better? Who's to say that he wouldn't make the same choices and end up back in that farmhouse again? Maybe next time, with an infected wound? Hell, even if he did figure out what he'd done wrong, there's be no way of taking that info back with him when he did immerse himself in the Necrovoid world. He had already found that out.

“Oh, hello there, Jordan. So nice of you to join us.”

“Hi, mum,” he replied, smiling. Sorry I’m late. I didn't hear you.” Jordan sat in his usual place by the dinner table, gently ran his index finger across the bamboo place-mat and treated both his mum and Susan to a big sunny smile. He waited until they silently turned and left the room before the smile turned into a big grin.

They no doubt expected him to either play the sullen mood game or allow himself to defend himself against Susan's argument. Granted, it had occurred to him to do just that, especially considering his sister still had no idea that her older brother knew all about Susan and a certain boy she had been seeing for the past couple of weeks. Jordan picked up his knife and fork in readiness for his meal.

The blackmail material could wait for another day. The simple fact of the matter was he wanted to eat his food and quickly as possible before retreating into Necrovoid for another few hours.

He checked the time. The wall clock beside the dining room bookcase informed him that it had gone six. Maybe the game could wait for a bit longer. If he still needed those protein bars then he'd need to get to the town's only shopping mall before seven.

If only he could go back to this time last week and inform his past self that he would be leaving the house not once but twice in the same day. The younger Jordan would call bullshit, that's for sure. He had two weeks off from work and he hand intended to spent almost all of it logged into the Bard's Realm server, his previous game obsession.

Had it only been just a week since the company released Necrovoid into the unsuspecting public? It was so weird to think that seven days ago, nobody within the gaming community even knew about the game. That was just too odd for words. You would have thought that somebody, somewhere, a mole inside the company or someone along the supply chain would have let the cat out of the bag, but no. Not a peep.

“Okay, who stole my son and replaced him with a clone?” Jordan's dad lowered his newspaper. He folded it up and placed it on the table then leaned forward. “Seriously, what's with the abrupt change of personality?”

Jordan shrugged at the same time the microwave in the kitchen pinged. At last, food was on the way. He hadn't felt this hungry for a long time. He should have opened that tin of pineapple chunks that Jenny had found in that building. Jordan chuckled, yeah, like that would have helped.

“Jordan, you're starting to freak me out. Are you smoking something illegal? No, don't answer that one. I don't think I want to know”

“No, dad. Of course not. I just don't see the point of getting into an argument, that's all.”

“Fair enough. I can't argue with that one. So, tell me. How are you doing with the online gaming course you enrolled into a couple of weeks ago?”

“I've read through the basics,” he replied. Jordan had started glancing through the coursework, a day after the membership details had come through, then closed the tab when he'd received a game challenge on Bard's Realm. He hadn't looked at it since. Now that he had another game to rule his life, the chances of him ever looking at it again were slim to none. “Yeah, looks pretty interesting, dad.”

His mum placed the plate in front of him then turned to his dad. “Stephen, I thought we were supposed to be meeting Alan and Gail in the Horse and Crown?”

“We are.”

“Then shouldn't you be getting ready?”

His dad scraped his chair back, stood up, grabbed the newspaper and left the room without saying a word. Jordan watched him go. It dawned on him that his dad hadn't said so many words to him for months. Granted, Jordan hadn't spent much time downstairs recently, so that probably accounted for that.

“Me and your dad's going out for a bit. Your sister has already left, so I need you to keep an eye on the house.”

Jordan quickly swallowed the mashed potato. “What if I want to go out too?”

The look on her face told him that she obviously hadn't expected him to go anywhere apart from back to his bedroom once he'd cleaned the plate.

“Fine. I'll leave the spare key on the coffee table in the living room. Just make sure you lock the door if you do go out.”

Having said her piece, his mum stepped back. He watched her from the corner of his eye while he spooned more mash, fish fingers, peas and parsley sauce into his mouth. It looked like she wanted to say something else. Before he was able to empty his mouth to ask her, she too left the dining room.

“Okay, so that was a little weird,” he muttered. It wasn't often that his mum was lost for words. “Maybe my happy face caught her off-guard?” Jordan decided to go with that assessment, it seemed a good explanation as any other. Chances were, she was probably about to repeat her warning about locking the door when something else, probably a thought about dad got in the way and disoriented her. He smiled to himself. Like any of that mattered. Within an hour tops, he'd be back inside Necrovoid, battling to survive against the zombie horde!

A few minutes later, his parents re-entered the dining room. His mum repeated the request to lock the door if he did leave the house before they left him. Jordan waited until the outside door closed before looking up.

The terrible feeling that he was never going to see his family again engulfed him and totally soured his previous chilled and contented outlook. “Just stop it, you idiot.” He jumped up, ran to the dining room window and caught a glimpse of their backs as they turned out of the garden, heading to meet their friends. Jordan returned to the table and sat down. He looked at the remains of his food then pushed it away. His appetite had left him.

“Everybody is leaving me.” Jordan picked up the bamboo placemat and rolled it over his wrist while wondering how effective it would be against a zombie bite.

He suddenly dropped the placemat. That's where he'd experienced these damn emotions! After he rolled that sensenet  over his head for the first time and made his way through the annoying health and safety notices and finally navigated the menu system, those feelings of extreme anxiety, terror, and loneliness, slammed into him before he could even work out where or who he was.

Jordan had opened his eyes, a few seconds later when some part of his battered psyche healed enough for him to remember his name. He'd shuffled backwards and hid under a table while desperately trying to figure out just what the hell was going on. At that precise moment, one of the dead slowly shuffled past his hiding place. Jordan fearfully peered out from under the maroon tablecloth and watched it leave through the open door.

He scraped the chair back and stood up, still shaking at the memory of what that damn game had put him through at the beginning. He still remembered watching the dead thing, some man, wearing biker gear, Stumbling through the overgrown, weed infested garden while trying to work out where he'd seen him before. Just as the memory clicked into place, the game then chose that moment to fill his aching head with his character's history as well as the back story.

According to the game, he played a character who had witnessed his own dead wife tearing into their only child, a seven-year-old girl called Charlotte. He had only just managed to escape becoming her next victim. That happened yesterday morning and since then, his character had spent the next two days been chased through the town, running, hiding and generally being scared shitless.

He knew that none of it had really happened. It still didn’t stop him from feeling like he'd just inherited another life, another personality. Somebody else's hang ups. That made him pause. If he did reset the game would he find himself inside a different Jordan? One who didn't lose his Charlotte and wife to this zombie plague, only to fall in love with some stranger called Jenny?

“Talk about messed up,” he muttered. Jordan did find it a little disturbing to find that one of the reasons he did want to reset the game was so he could try to save Jenny's life. He hadn't given a thought about saving his daughter or wife.

His character sounded like a complete cockwomble. Then again, maybe he shouldn't be so judgemental? After all, the other Jordan had just lived through the trauma of being smack in the middle of a worldwide zombie outbreak. The poor bastard was bound to have a few issues.

“Even so, to not care about his own kid? That's just wrong.” Jordan chuckled quietly. He was getting all worked up over some computer generated fictional character. Jordan used to have a go at his mum for doing the same thing, only for her it was getting all annoyed at the characters in the soaps she watched.

How incredible was this game? Jordan couldn't wait to get past all the mushy rubbish and into the real action. He needed to dispense with all that pointless emotional baggage and get out there with his trusty shotgun and turning all those dead things into lumps of unrecognisable scorched flesh.

Jordan reached the stairs and began to climb, while going over what mistakes he could have possibly made on his first go. He had found the shotgun easily enough. Jordan figured that must be the default weapon. Jordan shouldn't have left though, not without locating some ammo first. That must have been his worst mistake. That alone probably fucked up any chances of getting any further in the narrative.

He reached his bedroom, sat on the bed and slipped on his trainers. He decided to do the reset and try to coast through all the mush. Jordan decided that he would probably be fine once he found the shotgun shells. One of the reasons why he played games in the first place was to get away from the family drama. Especially all the crap associated with her sister. That woman couldn't get through a single day without either getting upset, upsetting someone or creating an emotional cyclone which dragged in anybody unlucky enough to be close by. She'd always been like that. Jordan couldn't understand how anybody could live as some kind of frigging trauma magnet. His mum could be just as bad. Not quite so needy as Susan. Jordan guessed that age had mellowed her. That and dad's calming influence. His old man was a lot like him, preferring to keep himself to himself and not to make waves.

Jordan picked up his phone then gave the Necrovoid game box a fond little wave, silently promising his hidden sensenet  that he wouldn't too long, Jordan then ran down the stairs, fully aware that time was a wasting. He scooped up the keys and hurried over to the kitchen door.

His parents should be in the Horse and Crown by now. Dad at the bar, ordering in the first round while mum and her friend, Gail, already settling in, on the far table, in the corner of the pub, right where the cigarette machine used to stand. Gail's husband would be in the games room, setting up the pool table, as well as shouting jibes and jokes across the empty pub with dad. Jordan knew their routine off by heart, it’s what they got up to at least twice a week. Getting in there early enough to avoid the local teens, who generally piled inside at about eleven. One of those local teens would be his sister.

Before the next generation appeared to ruin the night, the old folk would be gone from the Horse and Crown, abandoning that pub in favour for the Fruitbowl, situated on the other side of the town. Dad told him that not so long ago, his mum and dad used to be the ones who invaded the Horse and Crown after the grey-haired gang buggered off for pastures new.

It's weird how his old man never saw just how sad it was to follow same predicable pattern from one generation to the next. Once uni was over, he intended to make something of his life, something that didn't involve getting drunk. Jordan was able to find other methods of fulfilling his young life that didn't involve getting out of his face through the consumption of fermented vegetable drinks or getting embroiled in the private affairs of other people. No doubt his mum and Gail would be doing just that right about now.

Jordan stopped at the front door. A cold shiver ran down his spine. It just occurred to him that in the game, Gail was the name of his wife. “Alan and Gail's daughter have a young girl called Charlotte.” He opened the door. “and she'll be twelve this year.” That had to be a coincidence!

Chapter Three

All the essential items he needed for his next trip under were already laid out on the bedspread. He figured he'd need all of this gear for when he resurfaced. His shop purchases, three remaining protein bars (he'd scoffed two of them already) Strawberry flavoured. They hadn't tasted as bad as he thought they would. He could now understand why the local gym crowd seemed to live on the things. He'd also bought a couple of energy drinks too. Normally, he wouldn't go anywhere near the things but he figured that the situation would warrant their procurement. Having to show his identification to some teen younger than him made him smirk. He gently patted his greatest find in all of today. His pride and joy, a pile of home-made vanilla slices that he'd found by the side of the fridge. Mum must have made them earlier on in the week and not bothered telling anyone. Jordan had eaten one on his way up the stairs. They were a bit stale but still edible. They would be for his expected sugar rush.

He smiled to himself. Now he was prepared for anything that the game could throw at him. Well, apart from all the emotional trauma that the bastard software threw into his face right at the beginning. With a little luck though, it shouldn't be as bad the second time around. Sure, he doubted that that his previous game-time accounted for all that much, that because of the game's inbuilt restrictions, the user couldn't bring their previous experience into a new game, that didn't stop his gut instinct and optimism telling him that his next game would be a little less of a mental fuck up.

Preparation was everything. Something that he should have remembered the first time around. Hell, Jordan hadn't even bothered to read the instructions. He'd just torn the clear wrap off the box, pulled out the sensenet  and slipped it on his head. He'd already rectified that oversight and discovered, to his joy, that the user could set their own time-limit before plunging into the narrative. It meant that he wouldn't crap his pants when some rotting dead thing jumped out of a wardrobe and give him a right proper bollocking for not coming downstairs to eat his dinner.

As it was the start of the weekend, Jordan figured that he'd have the house to himself until well past midnight. After his parents stumbled out of the Fruitbowl, they'd either fall into the Balti-house on Cunningham street or grab a Chinese before taking their bags of grease over to Gail and Alan's place. As for his sister? Well, who knew what time she'd get back, or cared for that matter. It's likely Susan wouldn't turn up until tomorrow morning.

Nevertheless, Jordan decided to stay inside Necrovoid for two hours. It should give him plenty of time for him to come around before the two drunken idiots fell into the house. Jordan hoped to wind down a bit too before bed. A sci-fi movie ought to take his mind off the game. Jordan sighed. Like anything like some crappy movie would be able to do that. Chances were that as soon as he came out, he'd want to dive straight back inside. Jordan was already addicted.

He took the sensenet  out of the box. No matter what, he would go through with his plan of playing for just two hours and then spend the rest of the evening Necrovoid free.

Jordan could do that. He was strong enough, even if he knew the game wouldn't be that far from his thoughts for the rest of the night. No amount of science fiction could change that outcome. Hell, he'd probably end up dreaming about the sodding game.

“Okay, let's do this!”

He closed his eyes rolled the sensenet  over his head, Jordan waited for the intro screens to finish before navigating through the menus, this time, he activated the time restriction option. Jordan jumped at the sudden noise of sirens blaring. The game menu and the floor abruptly vanished as did his memory of who he was.

Second Insertion

It took Jordan less than a minute to run from that house and into the shed at the bottom of the garden. He carefully laid his daughter on a wooden box, covered in ancient Hessian sacks.

“You rest your pretty head, baby,” he whispered, gently stroking her forehead. Thankfully, she had managed to sleep through the whole nightmare. Jordan had no idea how that could even be possible but he was thankful for it all the same.

Not that he wanted her to see what he'd just been put through. Jordan had to slam one of the loose sacks into his mouth to stop himself from screaming. When he trusted himself not to cry out, Jordan dropped the sack and wiped away his tears. His darling Gail, the only woman that he had ever loved, had changed right before his very eyes into one of the things the authorities had been warning them about for the past few weeks.

There was nothing he could do about it either apart from save himself and his daughter. He wiped thick cobwebs from the window. “Oh fuck!” Gail hadn't given up after all. She somehow found a way to get past the fridge he'd tipped against the wall on his way out, as well as opening the kitchen door. Right now, his dead wife was shambling down the back garden path, she'd bypassed the gate, leading onto the high street and was heading straight for the shed. How the hell did she know where they had gone?

Like it made any difference. He picked up Charlotte. She moaned softly when he turned her face into his soft jumper. Jordan caressed her damp hair. “Please don't wake up.”

He carried her over to the door, managed to pull it open using his foot, and run across the lawn. The thing which used to be his wife awkwardly turned to face them and shambled her way straight through their vegetable patch, kicking away cauliflowers and cabbages in her need to fasten those teeth into their soft flesh. Jordan put on a burst of speed, wanting to at least get to the garden gate before that thing got too close. He had already seen just how quickly she could move when she smelled fresh meat. His dead wife had almost caught him just ten minutes ago, in the living room, when he'd underestimated her agility.

Once out of the garden, he should be able to get to the closest safe house without fear of being attacked. The local protection group had already put down most of the poor bastards already infected with whatever this was.

There were just a few more paces to go when the unthinkable happened. Charlotte stirred, then jolted awake. The shock caused him to trip over a jutting out rock. Jordan fell forward. He tried to turn so he'd land on his back, hoping to cushion his daughter from the fall but Charlotte had already left his arms, her screaming body rolling down the lawn and straight into the waiting arms of his dead wife!

Jordan scrambled to his feet and rushed towards her but she was quicker. Gail snatched up his daughter, fastened her jaw around her neck and bit down. The dead thing growled deep then pulled her head back, taking a mouthful of flesh with her. Hot blood geysered from the ragged hole, covered Gail's face and neck.

He sunk to his knees and screamed when the creature dropped his daughter, her now lifeless daughter flopping onto the wet grass. The dead thing stood like a statue, only her chewing mouth moved, its doll-like eyes gazing straight at him.

A moment later, it lunged for it, moving faster than it seemed possible. Only his sudden jerk to the left saved him from feeling those thick fingernails from sinking into his arm. She swivelled to face him and dived forward. This time there was no escape. The dead woman fell on him, her arms automatically reaching around his back. Jordan looked at his broken daughter, whispered a silent prayer then squeezed his eyes shut and hoped the pain would not be too agonising.

The bite didn't come. Jordan snapped open his eyes when the weight left him. He saw two more people in his garden. One he recognised, the other, a woman, was a stranger. “Barry? What are you doing here?”

The dark-skinned man didn't even bother making eyes contact. Jordan guessed that had something to do with him straddling his ex-wife. He took one hand away from her throat. “Don't just look at me, Jenny. Hand me the fucking hammer.”

Jordan groaned softly when he realised what was about to come. The woman passed Barry the hammer. He raised his arm into the air and then he did glare at Jordan. “Don't you fucking dare close your eyes again!” The arm came down and the hammer's business end slammed into the woman's forehead. Barry smashed the tool into the same spot three more times until Gail finally stopped moving.

The man climbed off the motionless figure, breathing heavily. He nodded over to the woman who walked over and stood in front of him. He took a pistol from out of his back pocket and slapped it into her hand. “You know what to do, Jenny,” he said, staring at Jordan.

Thick tears ran down his cheeks. He watched the woman raise the gun and point it at his face while the man who owned the motorcycle repair shop in the middle of town approach his daughter, he still gripped that hammer, its head coated with a sludgy layer of his dead wife's brains.

“Please don't do this,” begged Jordan. “Not to her.”

“It's okay, you can close your eyes if you want,” whispered the woman.

He shuffled to the side, until her body no longer blocked his view. “Please, God. I'm begging you, Barry. Don't hit her. It's just not right.”

The other man spun around. “God? You dare to mention God?” he snarled. “Do you honestly think he has anything to do with this?” Barry leaned closer and used his free hand to push Jordan backwards. “Just be thankful that you're not infected, or you would have been getting the hammer next.”

The girl threw the gun at Barry. “Christ! Just get on with it.” She kneeled and wrapped her arms around Jordan. “Don't you think he's been through enough?”

Jordan couldn't help but jump when he heard that man's hammer smack into her skull. He only heard the other man do it once but even that was enough. He growled, clenched his fists and attempted to push the girl off him but she held on.

“Stop it, Jordan!” She cried. “There's nothing you can do. This is for the best.” Jenny pulled back enough for him to lift his head. “My husband came after me after I thought he'd passed on! He almost got me too. If it hadn't been for Barry, I would have ended up as one of the infected. I’m sorry, but we really can’t take any chances.”

“It’s okay. You can let him go, Jenny. It's done now.”

The man's voice had changed dramatically. The woman did as Barry asked and released him. Jordan slowly got to his feet, keeping his fists clenched tight. His wife's crumpled form lay close to their ruined vegetable patch but he couldn't see his daughter, not at first, not until Barry moved out of the way. After the man had done what he needed to do, he had then covered her body with a piece of old carpet, that had been left over when he and Gail had redecorated the living room a couple of months ago.

“It's probably best that you come with us.” he sounded twenty years older. “It’s pretty obvious that you wouldn't last the night otherwise.” He bent down and picked up the gun. “This is probably a waste of time but do you have any weapons in your house?”

Barry had put the hammer away, which Jordan was eternally thankful for. He had a couple of similar tools in the garage but there's no way he could use either of them to do what the other man did. The thought alone made him want to throw up. Jordan shook his head. “Wait, I think there's a cricket bat in the spare room.”

Barry laughed. It wasn't a pleasant sound.

“A cricket bat. Are you having a laugh? By the time you've swung that, the dead bastard will already be eating your face. This isn't the fucking movies.” He sighed loudly. “No matter. It was a long shot.” Barry spun around. “Come on, we'd better get going. Time is running out.”

Having said his piece, he abruptly left the garden. Jenny gently patted his wrist. “We'd better try to catch up. What's your name by the way?”

“Jordan,” he replied. Jenny nodded to herself. “That's a nice name. Kinda suits you. Oh, you'd better go dig out that cricket bat. I don't care what he says about it being useless. It's alright for him. He has the gun and the hammer.”

Barry had stopped close to a parked white van. He didn't look to be any hurry to go anywhere. Jordan spun around and hurried back to the open front door, keeping his eyes fixed on the letterbox to avoid the temptation of staring at his lost family.

“Don't take too long, Jordan. I don't want him to leave us here. This area hasn't been cleaned out yet.”

He ran back inside resisting the temptation to lock the door, run upstairs and hide under the bed. Instead, he fell against the hallway wall and dug his fingers into the door frame. The inevitable shakes gripped his battered body, while tears started to flow again. A small part of his mind tried to tell the rest that it hadn't really happened, that it's all just a big joke but he only had to look at the devastation caused by him fleeing the house and his dead wife chasing after them to know he hadn't imagined any of it.

“Are you okay in there?”

Maybe if he ignored her, the woman would go away and leave him alone? Jordan slid to the floor. He felt so cold and the shivering was getting worse. Jordan heard a woman's voice calling out his name. Could it be Gail?

It seemed unlikely, not at this time. She was supposed to going out tonight, a couple of drinks at the Horse and Crown with the girls from work, allowing him to have some precious playtime with Charlotte. She wanted him to watch one of her soppy romances on the Blu-ray. He'd agreed as long as she helped him to finish off the colouring in book that he'd bought her last week. Charlotte had pulled a face but reluctantly agreed. Jordan couldn't believe how fast time was going. It only seemed like a blink of an eye since she was learning her first words.

Jordan so hoped Gail be careful out there. That infection seemed to be spreading. Still, he shouldn't let it spoil his evening. His wife could look after himself and whatever it was, knocking their neighbours off their feet was bound to pass.

Everything would be alright.

“Oh Christ, look at the state of this place.”

The owner of that voice pulled him off the floor. It was Gail, that much he did know.

“Jordan. You so need to snap out of it. We have to go!”

He sensed an urgency in the strange woman's voice but refused to respond. His inner voice warned him not to open that can of worms. He sure hoped Charlotte was alright. Was she in bed? He couldn't remember. That voice sure sounded familiar. That inner voice became more frantic, urging Jordan to leave it alone, that to pursue that line of enquiry would result in him landing in the worst nightmare he could ever imagine.

Jordan's foot brushed against something soft and he instinctively knew that he'd just touched George, Charlotte's small blue teddy bear. She dropped that when, when. He choked back a sob when everything flooded back. He watched it tumble from her hands, bounce down the stairs and land at the bottom, next to where the telephone stand used to be. The fluffy toy made hardly any noise but it still attracted the attention of his dead wife.

She came shambling out of the kitchen, just as he had reached the foot of the stairs. It was only sheer luck that stopped her from grabbing Jordan right there.

“Nightmare?” he screamed. “I'm already in one!” He snapped open his eyes and saw the startled woman reaching for the brush next to her. He realised that Jenny intended to hit him with it. “They aren't here anymore, are they?”

The woman dropped her arms and her eyes and shook her side. “No, Jordan. I'm so sorry. They have both gone to somewhere quiet and peaceful.” She crossed the hallway and placed her arms on his shoulders. “Jordan. We really can't stay here anymore. We have to move out before it's too late. All the noises we've made is bound to attract more of them. She took a deep breath. “There are so many of them now.” Jenny pulled him towards the door. “I should have never let you go in here alone.” She grabbed the door, eased it open, looked out and breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God, He’s still there. Now why don’t you tell me where your cricket bat is while you keep a look out?”

He pointed over at the end of the hallway.”

She left him alone and tip-toed through the detritus. Jenny jumped over what remained of the cutlery set that Gail's mum bought them as a wedding gift and skirted past the pile of washing that he had pulled over in his attempt to slow the monster down.

The woman reached the bat buried under a pile of paperbacks at the same time as Jordan noticed that Barry was no longer alone. There were four of them, in a garden on the other side of the road. The man was too busy watching this house. He hadn't seen them!

“Behind you!” yelled Jordan.

Barry spun around as two of them threw themselves over the low fence. Jordan turned. “Hurry up!” Jenny was already on her way. He snatched the bat out of her hands then raced across the lawn. The other man raised the pistol.

“Oh fuck!” As he neared them, Jordan saw that the weapon was only an air-pistol. That thing wasn't going to do much damage to anything. The man fired once. The report was lost in the wind. The pellet didn't even slow the dead dead thing down. The remaining two were now halfway across the road.

Barry pulled out the hammer, its head still covered in dark grey slop. He swung it into the first dead thing, Jordan heard a wet thud. The first attacker dropped to the pavement. Barry bent over and tried to pulled the hammer out of the hole he'd made only the other dead thing to fall on the back of his head. Jordan reached the other side of the fence at the same time as the dead thing sunk its teeth into Barry's shoulder blade.

“You dirty bastards!” He hit the thing as hard as he could. The blow smashed into its upper arm. He heard its bone crack but it was too focused on chewing through Barry's skin and muscle to even notice. Jordan moaned in both terror and desperation but the other man's wild shrieking drowned out every other noise, including the excited groans coming from the other walking corpses.

Jordan hit the thing again, this time the bat skidded across the top of its head. When he tried for a third time, Jenny stopped him. She wrapped her arms around his chest and pulled him back.

“Stop it, you idiot,” she shouted. “The poor bastard's done for, and so are we if we don't move!”

She jerked his head up. There were dozens more leaving houses, sliding out from under cars as well as appearing around corners. Jordan stopped counting when he past thirty. The woman took his wrist and dragged him back to the house.

“We'll have to shelter in here until they've finished with him and gone back to wherever the fuck they'd appeared from. Oh Christ, I didn't realise they were so many!” Jenny reached the front door and pulled him inside. She pushed him against the wall and eased the door shut. “It won't take them long. The woman shuddered. “Believe me, it doesn't take them more than a couple of minutes to strip a body down to the skeleton.”

He looked at the bat still gripped in his hand then dropped it onto the carpet. The other man was right, it really was a waste of time. Jordan shouldn't have gone back to get it. He should have listened to him. Jordan ran up the stairs and looked out of the window. There were even more of them now. He even recognised a few faces. Neighbours who he and Gail had gone drinking with or invited over for barbecues. There were even a couple of kids who Charlotte went to school with down there. Jordan turned when he heard the woman at the foot of the stairs.

“We had better find something to block the doors, Jordan. Just in case they do come this way.”

“No, we can't stay here,” he replied. Jordan walked back down the stairs, pushed past the woman and entered the kitchen. He chose the two largest knives he could find, they were from a set that Gail had bought in a sale several years ago. Jordan didn't think they'd even used them. He passed a plate full of vanilla slices that she had made yesterday. He had to turn away from Jenny to compose himself.

“Here, take this,” he said, handing her one of the knives.”

“What do you mean, we have to go? Have you seen how many there are out there? They'll cut us to pieces as soon as we step out of the door.”

Jordan shrugged. “It was your idea to find somewhere safe.” He looked out of the kitchen window. He could see a couple standing on next door's patio and one more slumped against the fence. He figured they could get past them easy enough. “Look for yourself, Jenny. There's only a few out there. Certainly nothing like the numbers out front. We have to go now. Leave it any longer and we'll never get out.” He licked his lips. “Believe me when I say this, Jenny. Once they've finished off Barry, they'll come for us next and that front door will only hold them for so long.”

“You don't know that.”

“Yes I do.” He had no idea how he knew but he wasn't going to question his conviction. Jordan only knew it was a fact. He pushed the knife into his belt and hurried over to the side door. “Where's the safe house?” he asked.

“They've moved to the pub in the middle of the town, the Horse and Crown. It's the only secure place they could find that's accessible to everyone. The town is pretty clear.” She shivered. “I can see why now, the bastards have all come back home.”

“It makes sense, I remember the TV, radio, and social media telling everyone to stay home and to let the authorities deal with this fuck up. The dead things feed on us, the living so they're just following their food source.”

Jenny stopped by the sink. She picked up one of the vanilla slices and took a small bite. “Tell me something Jordan cos I'm really fucking confused now. See, a few minutes ago, I could swear that you'd practically come apart at the seams. Yet, here you are, as calm as you like, knowing all the answers and acting like some macho action movie star. Was all that an act earlier?”

That broken man had not gone away, he still lurked under the surface, like some malignant weed, ready to burst through and flower. Jordan had no intentions of allowing that. He faced the woman. “Barry died because of me. My wife died because of me.” Jordan grabbed his trouser fabric to stop himself from wrapping his arms around her waist. “My own daughter died because of my ineptitude. Nobody else, Jenny. Do you understand?” He pulled open the side door before she had a chance to respond. “Listen to me,” he whispered. “We can't go back to the pub, we'll end up bringing the dead horde right to their door. I know where to go though. There's an old shop past the new shopping mall. There's everything we need to stay alive in there.”

The woman didn't follow him. She stayed beside that open door. When he turned and gestured that Jenny needed to follow him, the woman simply shook her head. All Jordan could do was to shrug. She had obviously made her decision. He turned away and ran over to the gate, keeping his eyes fixed on the two dead things on that patio. So far they hadn't noticed that food had just ran past them.

Jordan jumped over the gate at the same time, he heard a crashing noise coming from the other side of the house. The dead things were at the front door! He spun around hoping that this would persuade her to stop acting so stubborn and to follow him only to find that two were already halfway over the fence! He grabbed the gate and...

Chapter Four

Jordan ripped the sensenet  off his head and threw it on the bed. How unfair was that? He was actually getting somewhere this time and Jordan had started to gain control of the situation. How this had come about was a complete mystery but he wasn't going to grumble. Jordan figured that his subconscious must have finally had enough of all that whiny, self-pitying, emotional bullshit and decided to do something about it. He'd seen enough zombie movies to know that the MC just didn't act like that. The hero wasn't supposed to go to pieces like some namby-pamby big girl's blouse. Oh no, he picked up a golf club or baseball bat and twatted his way through the dead bastards until the streets ran with their freezing blood.

He chuckled to himself. Maybe he was getting a bit too carried away there. Jordan unwrapped a protein bar, stuffed it into his mouth and chewed while contemplating what to do next. According to the instructions, the game wouldn't allow the user to immediately jump back in after a session, apparently there was time limit. He pulled the leaflet from the box and double-checked. There is was, in black and white, so he was basically stuffed. Jordan wouldn't be able to dive back into his game for another three hours. Fuck, did that mean that he'd pick up the narrative with him trying to save Jenny from the dead things climbing over that fence? He sighed. Somehow, he figured that would be the least of his problems. From what he'd discovered, Necrovoid had a pretty steep learning curve. By the time he did persuade the girl to follow him, chances are that the corpses from the other side of the house would be on their tail too, meaning he might end up in the same situation as the first game. Would it be worth doing another reset?

Well, he'd have to find out when the game finally did let him back inside. To be honest it was probably a good thing anyway. He was already dead on his feet. The last game had already knackered him out. How it was even possible to feel so tired when his body hadn't moved for two hours was beyond him. Nevertheless, he couldn't deny how he felt. Perhaps it would be best to skip the movie altogether, have an early night and start again in the morning when he felt bright-eyed and bushy-tailed?

Jordan grabbed the remaining protein bar and unwrapped it while climbing off the bed. He padded over to the window and leaned on the windowsill. Jordan rested his forehead on the cool glass and gazed down onto the street below. Sure was quiet out there tonight. Weird considering it had just gone nine. From where he stood, Jordan could see most of the town centre, including the one off-licence right in the middle where the local kids tried to buy their booze. Most of the time, the owner told them to piss off but, if they were lucky, the wife would be serving and she didn't care how old you were as long as you had the money to pay for it. Even he had managed to procure a four pack of strong lager from Mrs Hussain back in the day. She had no morals. The woman would have made to terrific arms dealer.

The shop nearly always had a few kids hanging around. Not this time. In fact, he saw no movement at all, not even a taxi.

“Okay, so this is a bit weird.” Jordan took a bite from the protein bar, intending to savour this one at all costs. Perhaps they were all playing out their own Necrovoid game? As daft as that sounded, it could be a possibility. The game had broken all records, becoming the fastest selling game ever. It wasn't just the geeks like him who'd snagged themselves a copy. This damn game had spanned the generations.

Jordan finally spotted a young couple walking down Fingle lane, holding hands. The game might have taken the country by storm but he still doubted their were that many players in his backwards town of Greyfield Flats. Well apart from him and a few others who'd emptied the shelves of Digital Dreams, the town's only stockist of anything vaguely interesting.

He knew of at least one local who grabbed a game. A certain Barry Davis. Jordan wasn't too sure how he felt about Necrovoid splicing bits of his life into the narrative. He couldn't work out if it was a work of genius or slightly creepy. Then again, it wouldn't be the first time that anyone had mistaken his mate for a NPC. Even though the Barry in his game was one.

Maybe he hadn't done all that bad considering it had only been his second go? He decided against going for a reset. Okay, so he'd lost Barry but he didn’t think that was a bad thing. Jordan wasn’t too keen on what the game had done to his best mate anyway. No way was Barry like that in real life. He nodded to himself. Yeah, that character was better off as zombie food. He still had the lovely Jenny so that was a bonus. He just needed to persuade her to follow him to that damn shop. That shouldn't be a problem once she realised that there was no other option. As for the following horde, he'd soon sort them out once he found those shells. The knife his character carried ought to make short work of that dead thing in there.

God, why was he so hungry? There were still three slices left on that plate but Jordan craved something savoury. He gazed out onto the street again. Living so close to the town centre meant he had plenty of choices for hot food within walking distance. Normally he'd order online but as the town looked like a morgue, Jordan decided to stretch his legs, confident they he wouldn't bump into any of the local dickheads.

Something to eat followed by a few hours kip is just what the doctor ordered. Jordan had no problem with getting up in the middle of the night so he could plug himself back into Necrovoid. It's not like he had any fear of his family disturbing him, not at that time. He doubted he'd see any of them until the afternoon. On a Saturday evening, mum and dad put away a large amount of booze between them!

He left the bedroom and made his way downstairs, passing one of his sister’s old cuddly toys lying on a step. It didn't shock him in the least that it was a small blue teddy, just like one that Charlotte had dropped in the game.

Once again, Necrovoid had found another way to fuck with his head. Jordan unlocked the front door, opened it and stepped out into the cool night. No doubt, as he became more engrossed in the game's narrative, he'd see more and more objects and people he saw on a daily basis spliced into the plot. Jordan grinned at the possible prospect of shooting his zombie sister in the face. Oh yeah, he'd be able to do that more than once!

Jordan walked past the chip shop. Despite the mouth watering odours of fresh battered fish and chips, smothered in salt and vinegar drifting out of the open doorway, his stomach had already decided that that only type of food needed to satisfy the raging beast was a large donner kebab. That choice pleased Jordan as they only took a couple of minutes to prepare, meaning he'd be able to get home sooner. Being out at this late hour on a Saturday night made him nervous, even though he still only had himself for company.

The dazzling lights from Amir's Snack Shed on the other side of the road called to him. This was his favourite takeaway in town, He ate from here at least twice a week. From this side of the road he saw the young proprietor laughing with another staff member. It felt so odd to actually see them in person.

His stomach chose that moment to ruin the nostalgia remind him that the warm pitta bread, spicy, sliced lamb and chilli sauce won't magically appear in his hand. He took three steps across the empty road when Jordan found it wasn't as empty as he first thought. Another set of dazzling lights blinded him.

“Get out of the bloody road, you retarded clown. Are you trying to get yourself knocked down, or something?”

Jordan's heart almost jumped out of his mouth. He stumbled backwards until his heels slammed against the kerb. Christ, he hadn't even heard the car's engine. What was wrong with him? There were more than a few dickhead drivers in town who wouldn't have stopped.

The dark estate rolled forward until the driver's door was level with Jordan. The window rolled down. “Are you on drugs?” yelled the man inside. “I nearly hit you.”

“I'm sorry. I guess I wasn't looking where I was going.”

“You got that right.”

The driver leaned forward, pushing his head out of the window. Whatever calmness that had found its way back into Jordan's mind vanished again when he saw the man's face. He stepped back again, forgetting he'd reached the kerb, and fell onto the pavement.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Look at him. He is on drugs.”

The man driving the car shouldn't exist! He is only supposed to be a fucking game character, lying dead on the dusty floor in that shop holding the shotgun. This can't be happening. What the hell is going on?

“Barry, Will you stop messing about! If we don't get Charlotte to the hospital, she's going to die. Leave the loser be and put your foot down.”

He knew that voice! Jordan got to his knees, just as the driver wound his window up. The car set off. “Wait!” he cried. Jordan jumped up and ran after the speeding car. Moments before it turned off the high street, another face appeared in the rear window. He moaned to himself at the sight of Jenny staring back at him.

Jordan stood in the middle of the road, panting like an old race-horse, aware that both Amir and his fellow employee were stood outside their shop, arms folded, while staring at him. No doubt wondering what the hell had just happened. They weren't the only ones either.

He could understand Necrovoid splicing the people he knew into the game but how the hell did that work with total strangers? Unless he did know them? Back before he left school and turned into what mum called, a digital hermit, he must have passed dozens of people every day either walking to school or going out shopping with his parents. Jordan couldn't remember all of them, and yet, their faces were probably still locked away inside his mind, just waiting for some piece of invasive software to pluck them out.

Jordan hadn't thought about it like that before. The idea of some quasi-intelligent piece of code rummaging through his mind made him question his new obsession. Did he really want to put that sensenet over his head again?

Like he didn't already know the answer to that one? Okay, Jenny and the dead guy existed in reality as well. So what? Instead of blaming the game for doing what it was programmed to do, the easiest solution was to not go outside until he'd completed the Necrovoid narrative. It made more sense to him. Jordan hadn't been too crazy about going out anyway.

Still, he was here now, and his stomach still needed filling. The two shopkeepers vanished back into the shop when Jordan glanced over his shoulder. If he walked inside, they were bound to ask him questions, to try to initiate a conversation.

His natural urge to find some-place to hide away from this potential confrontational encounter was nowhere to be found. He simply spun towards the shop and slowly walked across the rest of the road.

He wanted that donner kebab.

Chapter Five

He lay on top of the bed covers, listening to the sparrows and starlings fight over whatever scraps Mrs Spicer will have thrown onto her bird table this morning. Jordan closed his eyes and listened to their noisy scrapping, wondering what she had given them this morning. Mrs Spicer, although well-meaning and usually pleasant had been slowly losing her marbles for the past several years. The sparrows and starlings could expect anything from stale bread, to unopened ready meals all the way to old shoes and newspapers.

The birds around here were better fed than the town's only homeless guy. Well, were when she actually put out something edible. Still, those birds managed to make good of a straw hat that Mrs Spicer placed on top of the bird table last Wednesday.

Jordan tried to imagine the homeless guy wearing that hat and found himself chuckling. Yeah, that would be a sight to see. He wondered what the old guy was called. As far as he knew nobody in town knew his proper name, they either called him Jesus, due to his appearance or insulted the poor bastard. Jordan decided that if he ever saw him again, he'd buy him a bottle of glue and a bag of feathers then show him where his insane neighbour lived.

When he found the energy to move, Jordan decided to throw the remains of last night's meal to the birds. From what he could remember, it hadn't been very nice. Jordan turned to the left. There it was, thrown on the floor, splashes of chilli sauce and garlic mayo had already dried into the Blue carpet weave. Mum would throw a right fit if he didn't get those stains out. The kebab must have fallen off the bed when he'd turned over.

Jordan slowly sat up and rubbed his temples. The wall clock told him it had just gone two in  the afternoon. Bloody hell! He'd slept for almost sixteen hours! Jordan pulled the remaining vanilla slice off the plate. The morning sure had turned the sweet into a slimy, sticky mess and half of it stayed on the plate when he pried it off. Not that he cared, it just meant consuming this delicacy would be more of a challenge.

He watched the second hand travel around the clock while listening to bird song and licking icing off his fingers. The Necrovoid box lay where he last put it, untouched from his second go. Jordan hadn't entered that strange digital world after coming home. He'd just eaten half of that disgusting kebab, had a drink of water to cleanse his palette then fallen asleep.

“Obviously, I must have needed the rest,” he whispered. Then again, yesterday had been a pretty strenuous day. Not only had he fought zombies, ran through that strange town not once but twice, he'd even gone outside in the real world! “And almost got run down. Let’s not forget that bit.”

The last thing he thought about before going to sleep was what had been wrong with that car's other passenger. Jenny called him Barry. Jordan found it strange to think that despite all the weird shit that had happened to him yesterday, all he could think about was why this kid needed to go to hospital. He'd even dreamed about that car journey. The only difference to what Jordan had witnessed last night was he was the one in the car and Barry had been the gormless bastard who'd stopped the car. He also remembered moving Jenny’s hand away from his sweating forehead to see why they'd stopped. It hadn't surprised him to see that Barry looked exactly like his dad. Unlike the girl's mysterious ailment, Jordan knew exactly why these two were rushing him to hospital. He was pregnant. Some random shrink would have a right breakfast with his fucked up mind, that's for damn sure.

He licked the plate as clean as he could get it then leaned over and carefully placed it on the carpet. There was no way he was going to drop the plate. If that broke then his mum really would break his neck. Speaking of his parents, the two ancient ones must surely be moving around by now and yet, apart from bird song, he heard nothing. Well, apart from his own breathing. Jordan couldn't even hear his sister mouthing off either. That was a rare thing. Sunday afternoon nearly always kicked off with at least one of them getting all rowdy.

Jordan shrugged to himself. He might as well enjoy the silence while he could. He leaned over the bed again and picked out a couple of cold donner meat slices, flicked off a few bits of brown iceberg lettuce and popped the meat into his mouth.

“Okay, let's do this,” he said, after swallowing the chewed up food. It's time he caught up with the fun and games in Necrovoid. Jordan reached for the box, took out the sensenet and rolled it over his head. He couldn't wait to rescue Jenny, get that shotgun and shells, get all romantic with her then find out more about that damn conspiracy. After all, getting to the bottom of who started this infection and why was supposed to be the while point of the game. Oh, he also intended to blow away as many of those walking dead bastards as he could too!

Third Insertion

Jordan raced over to the two dead things, intending to stab them both in the neck. Before he could reach them, they both just let go of the wood and fell, landing in a single heap of tangled limbs.

Two of those limbs pushed through that pile and grabbed one of his ankles, he shrieked out in utter agony when those fingers squeezed tight. Jordan didn't know what to do! Out of sheer desperation, he stamped down on the closest wrist. He heard bones snap but the bastard thing still didn't let go of his leg. Panicking now, Jordan slammed his foot on their arms, over and over. All the time, acutely aware that the two dead things still had an arm each to spare and they were doing their best to grab hold of his other leg. The pain had become unbearable and he knew that he was about to lose his balance. If that happened, it really would be all over. The fuckers would crawl all over his helpless body, just like Gail did to him.

He pulled out the knife and slashed at their arms, cutting deep into the flesh. Blood spurted everywhere, covering his hand and the knife in cold blood. He heard someone saying something about the blood running down the streets. Jordan didn't realise the voice had come from him until the knife slipped from his fingers.

Their remaining limbs reached for his other leg while two sets of teeth snapped at his fingers, missing his tender flesh by just a couple of millimetres. Jordan used his remaining strength to try to get away from those monsters one last time. “Oh, God. Help me!” he screamed. Jordan turned his head towards the door, to see Jenny had just wrestling with the other dead thing. She growled then rammed her knife into its eye, then pulled the blade out. Jenny pushed it away then raced over to Jordan.

The two corpses had managed to pulled Jordan to his knees. Their jaws lunged towards his face. The woman dropped beside him and thrust her blade up through the nearest dead thing's jaw. The creature immediately stopped moving.

It fell backwards, taking her knife with it.

“Kick the bastard, Jordan! Don't just look at it, boot the bloody thing in the head!”

He did as she screamed and kicked out, twisting his other ankle in the process. Jordan's boot connected with the dead thing's forehead, lifting its head up. He kicked it again, while Jenny scrabbled over their bodies. The moving corpse still managed to wrap its fingers around her foot. Jordan cried out when it pulled her back but it was too late. The woman had already jerked the blade out of the other dead thing's skull. She wrapped her own fingers around its neck and forced it into the long grass then pushed the tip of the blade into one of its nostrils and pressed down.

The pressure on his leg suddenly vanished. Jordan put his arms around Jenny and pulled her body off the vile monster. “Thank you,” he whispered. “I thought I was a goner just then.” He lay in the grass, listening to bird song and the sound of his heart trying to beat its way through his ribcage and wondered how he was going to stand, let alone walk or run.

“I still expect to hear the sound of the cars, you know. I just can't get used to all this damn silence.”

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I think so. Just a few more bruises to add to the ones I already have.”

“It's not totally quiet, Jenny.”

“Oh, you mean the birds? Yeah, They are out in force today. Probably laughing at us stupid humans, waiting for us all to stop moving so they can reclaim the planet.”

“Yeah, give it another thirty years for us survivors to finally die out and those annoying winged bastards won't have to worry about us trying to wipe them out along with every other animal species.” The image of thousands of starlings, all wearing straw hats entered his mind for some weird reason. “Jenny, I think I'll need you to help me up.”

The woman got to her feet, pulled the knife out of the monster's nose, wiped the mess on its jumper and put it away before she grabbed his outstretched wrist and gently pulled him up. “Can you walk unaided?”

“I'm not sure I want to put that to the test just yet,” he replied. Jordan dare not look at the damage those bastards had done to his ankle. Even so, they couldn’t stay here. “Jenny. I might have to use you for a bit longer.”

The woman pulled his arm over the back of her neck and guided him back over to the gate. She opened it and turned left.

“Jenny, we need to go the other way.”

“Don't start that again. I'm taking you to the contact point and that's final.”

As the woman passed the gate, he reached back and wrapped his fingers around the top wooden slat.

“What the hell are you playing at?”

“I'm holding this gate, my dear. Holding it as tight as those two dead bastards held my poor ankle.”

“You're insane!”

“Perhaps. Just tell something, Jenny. This contact point, you mentioned, are the people in there well armed? You know, with hunting rifles, perhaps a couple of pistols, maybe a Gatling gun?”

She shook her head. “Barry had the only gun.”

“You're shitting me? He had a sodding air-pistol! Those things are about as dangerous as a fucking egg whisk. Look, Jenny. You need to listen very carefully. Those dead things have our scent. Where we go, they'll follow, meaning if we do go back to your contact point, we'll end up bringing all those flesh hungry ghouls with us. We will have signed the death warrants for all your survivor friends.. Is that what you really want?”

“How do you don't know they'll follow us?” she snapped back. “I bet you've only been out of your house a couple of times since this nightmare started. I've been fighting those things ever since it began. If anyone knew how they acted, it would be me.”

Jordan heard the anger but he also sensed the uncertainty in her voice. “Do you want to find out if I'm right, Jenny? I'm not going to let go. So you can either take my advice or piss off and leave me here.”

“You're impossible. Do you know that? Okay, fine. We'll go the other way. Christ, talk about acting like a spoilt brat.”

“You're welcome, and you can thank me for saving your life later, Jenny.” He took his fingers off the wood as Jenny turned and started to go in the direction that he wanted. “When we pass a shop, do you think we'll be able to check if they have any painkillers? My leg feels like it's on fire.”

“After the way you've been acting? I still have a good mind to drop you and leave.”

“Please?”

She sighed deeply. “We don't have to stop. Remember what I said about fighting those dead things since day one?” Jenny tapped the small grey canvas bag on her back. “I'm always prepared. I have some pills in here as well as a bottle of water. “If it is true about what you said, it's probably best that we keep moving. At least, not until we reach this place you keep banging on about.”

Jenny pulled him along the cobbled road, past another dozen houses. He saw a small amount of dead things either stood motionless in the gardens or leaning against the back of the houses. None of them made any attempt to chase after them, obviously Jenny did point this out but Jordan opted to stay quiet. The woman was already walking a bit too quickly for his liking and wasn't too keen on piss in her off anymore, in case she started jogging or even worse, she did decide that he was too much trouble and left him behind. If that happened, you could be sure that all of the dead things currently doing garden gnome impressions would soon start to shamble his way.

“I think we had better get those painkillers down your gob, Jordan. You're starting to to look a bit pale.” Jenny slowed down then stopped and leaned him against a lamppost. “I sure hope you're right about this, Jordan.”

“I am. As soon as we're tooled up, we'll go back and get your friends, then we'll work out what to do next.”

She dropped a couple of white capsules into his palm and handed Jordan a bottle of water. “You know, it’s weird isn’t it? I mean, I know I’ve said this already but I just can’t shake the feeling that the authorities will arrive at any moment, with their sirens blaring.” She took a deep breath. “I ask you, what a sight that would be, to see dozens of cop cars screaming down the main road, followed by some fire engines. Those dead things wouldn't last five minutes after a bunch of fit men train their fire hoses on their stinking bodies.”

“I think the army would be better suited, to be honest. Flame-throwers and assault rifles would be more effective than a bit of water.” Jordan drank his own water all the way to the bottom then threw the bottle onto the grass verge. “Gail would have thrown a right strop if she'd seen me do that. She had a bit of a thing for dropping litter. Don't suppose it matters anymore.”

Jenny fastened the bag, threw it over her shoulder then grabbed Jordan's arm. “I suppose we had better get going. I'm not too keen on getting caught in the open when the sun goes in.” She started moving, a little slower than before. “Jordan, why do you think we never saw any police? We never saw any soldiers either for that matter.”

He shook his head. Jordan had become aware of a dragging sound coming from somewhere behind them. He turned his head but saw nothing. It didn't mean the dead weren't following though. Sound travelled a long way in a silent world. “Gail asked the same question a couple of nights ago. I thought the answer was obvious. They're as human as you and me, meaning they were just as liable to become infected too. Think about it. Imagine just two soldiers turning overnight while everybody is asleep in their beds. How many do you think they'd be able to infect before someone sounded the alarm? At least soldiers had weapons. Imagine the same scenario inside a police station or a fire station?” He paused to listen for sounds they were being followed. A few seconds later, he made out that same distinctive noise of one of those things dragging their feet. “We're lucky to live in a small town. From what we saw before the TV and internet died, the cities and large towns really did turn into hell on Earth. I daren't think how many must have died during the first few days, or, for that matter, got back on their feet after their hearts stopped beating.”

The sound had become more distinct now. Even Jenny turned her head. “Shit,” she whispered. “I can hear them.”

Jordan nodded. “They've been behind us for a while now. Cut down Brick lane, and onto Commercial road. We can lose them in the shopping mall. It's what...” his words tailed off.

“What were you going to say?”

He shook his head. “Nothing. It doesn't matter.”

Jordan was about to say that it's what they did the last time. Was he losing his mind? He glanced over his shoulder. The dead things certainly were visible now. Oh Christ. It looked like half the town were behind them, with more joining. Two dead things slid out from under a parked green van and were swallowed into the mass.

They had walked past the bloody van just minutes before. Why had they waited until now before making their presence known. Jordan decided that he didn't want to know the answer to that as they still had to walk past a load more cars, parked on both sides of the road, before reaching the shopping mall. Thinking about what might lay under all those cars really could send his mind over the edge.

“I think we ought to stay away for the cars,” he hissed. “Stay in the middle of the road.” Her silence probably told him that she'd already had the same thoughts.

Jenny speeded up. “Nearly there, Jordan.”

He nodded and gritted his teeth against the pain. The drugs had already started to where off. When they found somewhere totally safe, he'd take a look at what those things had done to him. Right now, it felt like the bastards had squeezed all muscle away from the bone. Jordan honestly believed that when he did finally summon the courage to roll up his trouser leg, he'd see ten deep, purple grooves in his flesh.

“Crap. We need to run, Jordan. Will you be up to it?”

He looked behind him. Another five things had joined the huge crowd. They'd also gained ground too. “Like I have a choice in the matter? Jenny, leave me, and go that window put through. There's half a brick behind that's trade bin, next to the newsagents.”

“The doors might be open.”

“They're not! Just do it, Jenny, we're running out of time.”

The woman dropped him and raced over to the doors, despite his words, she still tried the door before finally resorting to what he asked in the first place. He continued to limp and hop towards her, fully aware that the dead were almost on him.

The sound of the bottom window smashing sounded like high-pitched thunder. It was so loud. Jenny ran back, grabbed his wrist and pulled him over to the mall. “Get though first. Jenny.”

She nodded, dropped to the pavement and crawled thought the smashed window-frame. Jordan followed. He had just about gotten all the way through when he felt fingers brushing against his feet. He yelped out in terror, believing that at any second, that horde of moving corpses would pull him back outside. Jenny turned around and helped him through, before they did fasten their hands on him again.

“Can you run?”

“You've already asked me that!” he panted. The dead things were having trouble working out why they couldn't reach them. That wouldn't last long. “I can move, I think that's about it.”

Jenny ran across the light brown tiled surface and picked up her brick. It had come to rest beside a shop selling stationary. “We'd best see if we can slow them down even more then.”

She walked over the shattered glass, stood beside the hole she'd made and watched as the first dead thing finally figured out where the pair of them had gone. It slowly lowered its body then just fell onto the floor. After another moment, it started to crawl towards the hole

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Shut up a second.”

The dead thing pushed its arms through the hole and dropped them onto the tiles, straight into the glass. Thick blood pooled around the digits but the corpse obviously wasn't concerned with that. Jordan took a single step back. His gaze shifted back to the huge crowd of monsters outside. As if on cue, they all began to lower their bodies. “Oh crap. We are so fucked now!”

Jenny looked at him and grinned. “Don't be such a big pudding.” She then slammed the brick down on the back of the creature's head. Jenny left the brick lodged in it head and moved around the now still thing. She grinned again then took his hand. Okay, we can go now.”

He looked over his shoulder and watched the second creature try, with no success, to push its own body past its companion only to find itself in the same predicament. “It won't hold them for long.”

“True, but it will buy us a bit more time.”

“Smart arse,” he replied, finding himself smiling for the first time since the tragedy. Jordan suddenly stopped, pulling Jenny back.

“What are you doing?”

He looked at the escalator which led to the mall's eatery. “I'm really hungry, Jenny.”

“You're kidding.”

Jordan shook his head.

Chapter Six

He tore the sensenet off his head and threw it on the floor. What the bloody hell was all that about? Like the MC is suddenly going to fancy a fucking burger right in the middle of the apocalypse. Jordan mentally traced his progress through this session, trying to figure out what he could have done wrong. Why had it taken them so long to get to the shopping mall? It didn't make sense. In his first game, he'd done all the usual boring stuff right at the beginning.

Maybe it had something to do with Jenny rescuing him instead of the other way round? After all, in the first session, His wife had turned almost straight away, munched down on the kid before trying to sink her teeth into him. It looked like he'd been right about the game being part sandbox, part narrative.

Jordan gazed at the empty plate on the carpet, next to that very ill looking kebab in mourning. Christ, he'd swap his right bollock for just one more piece of mum's vanilla slice. Speaking of which. He sat up. It had just gone four and the house was still as quiet as the grave. That really could not be right. Where the fuck was all the sound?

No TV noise, no voices, no clattering in the kitchen, nothing but bird song. Bird song? He shouldn't even be able to hear that either. It took him a moment to realise that since emerging from the game, not one car had passed by the house.

His sensenet lay by his feet. Jordan reached down and grabbed it. The urge to roll it back over his head and get back to his adventures proved almost impossible to ignore. It's only when he spotted a tiny light at the bottom of the first flexible ring flashing red when he remembered he wouldn't be able to do shit for at least another couple of hours.

There wasn't much he could do apart from to leave his bedroom in search of something to eat. He'd better wake up his lazy parents too. Sleeping until this hour. Who did they think they were, a pair of teenagers? It was about time those two started to realise they weren't saplings anymore, that their nights of drinking the Horse and Crown dry were long past. Jordan had nothing against his mum and dad if their weekend sessions didn't impact on him. He sighed heavily, spun around and placed his feet on the carpet. While those two were busy nursing hangovers from hell, this poor bastard had to do without anything substantial in his stomach.

Mum ought to be in the kitchen, cooking the Sunday dinner. It's what she always used to do when he was younger. Even right up to his late teens and early twenties, mum would have found the time to lay out a decent spread. Nowadays, she just put out a large plate of hot beef sandwiches, smothered in thick gravy.

“Not today though.” There wouldn't even be any leftover takeaway downstairs either. They never brought anything back from Gail and Alan's place. From what he'd overheard, Gail's pet Alsation ended up with the leftovers.

“That damn dog is better fed than me” he muttered. Jordan even contemplated diving into the old donner kebab. The two flies he spotted crawling through the congealing garlic mayo that stopped him from picking it up.

“Stop acting like a spoilt brat,” he said, not believing he'd almost eaten the rest of that slimy-looking grease box. Not believing that he actually said his mum starved him! Jordan picked it off the floor and decided to give it to the birds, guessing it was bound to taste better than what the mad old bag would have thrown out this morning. Knowing her, it was likely to be the contents of her cutlery drawer or a probably something weirder like a load of buttons or something.

Jordan reached the closed window and stood motionless, mouth agape while wondering if he really was out of the game. Just like last night, he saw no people anywhere down there. All that moved were a small flock of starlings, flying from roof to roof and the hazard warning lights belonging to a dark blue estate car, splayed across the middle of the road. Was it the same car driven by the dead guy from last night? No way, the chances of it being the same car was astronomical. Jordan shifted his gaze from the empty car to the pavement and to the shop doors, looking for any sign of life at all.

That feeling that he'd been thrown onto the deck of some sinking cruise liner returned with vengeance. “Come on, please. Somebody show up. Our town isn't that bloody small. I want to see another person!” Jordan stayed where he was for another couple of minutes before reluctantly turning around and walking back over to the side of the bed. It's only when the covers brushed across his knee when he realised that he still held the kebab. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” he growled. Jordan ran back to the window, turned the latch and threw the mess outside.

He waited in the vain hope that somebody might show up this time. The only change he saw were those lights dimming, that told him that the bloody car must have been there for a good few hours. Jordan remembered what Jenny said in the game about there being no police or fire-fighters. “Bugger off, stupid imagination,” he snapped.

Zombies didn't exist. There was bound to be a logical explanation for all of this, there just had to be. He looked back at his sensenet lying at the foot of his bed and tried to imagine everybody in town lying in their beds, and plugged into Necrovoid. Well, why not? It was a hell of a lot more plausible than believing he really was in the middle of a real zombie apocalypse.

Jordan raced out of the bedroom and ran into his parent's bedroom without even bothering to knock. The enraged shouting which he hoped to receive never materialised due to the bedroom being empty. He couldn't even tell if they'd slept in the bed. "Fuck. What do I do now?"

He left the room, hurried down the hallway and stopped in front of his sister’s bedroom door. How knew the penalty for not knocking and waiting was certain death but this was an emergency. Jordan pulled down the handle and pushed the door open. Just like the other room this one was devoid of human presence. The panic had really settled in now.

Not knowing what else to do, he spun around and headed back to his room. Jordan never reached the door. Just as he was passing the stairs, a scraping sound coming from the kitchen reached his ears.

Somebody else was in the house after all! It had to be dad. Both his mum and Susan were unable to stay quiet for longer than a few seconds. Their constant prattling on about utter shite used to drive him up the wall. God, what he'd give right now to hear his mum's musical voice banging on about what happened in last night's Eastenders, or his sister bellowing out from the other side of the house that he was a useless prick.

He stood at the top of the stairs and leaned forward, using the bannister for balance. Jordan couldn't see anybody down there, apart from the occasional moving shadow. Jordan opened his mouth, then snapped it shut again. What if it wasn't them? What if it... He stopped himself from saying the word zombie right at the last second. Christ almighty, what was wrong with him?

That moving shadow passed in front of the fridge. It wasn't his dad down there, that much he did know. Jordan grinned to himself. Not unless the old man had covered himself in black fur and grown a tail.

“How did that get in?” Jordan ran down the steps and into the kitchen. He shut the door and turned around. A big black cat, continued to clean its paws while sitting on the counter top, not a bit bothered that some strange human had seemingly appeared from nowhere.

“Hello there, pussy cat.” He approached the animal. “I hope you don't intend to bite me.” Jordan gently patted it on the head and was rewarded with purring. “You’re a friendly little bugger.” He scooped it off the counter. “Still, you don't live here and if mum knew you were in her house, she'd hit the roof. Come on, let's get you outside.” Jordan walked over to the side door, while tickling under its chin. It wasn't until he reached the dining table when he felt something lumpy under his shoe. He looked down and discovered there was glass everywhere. It had come from the bottom window in the door. The damn stuff was across the tiles. Jordan crouched and let go of the cat.

It leapt onto the floor and ran out of the hole in the door. It took Jordan a couple more seconds to work out what had happened. The half brick resting against the cooker gave him his biggest clue. Some little shit must have lobbed it against the glass. He jumped up. Did that mean they'd been burgled? That someone had been in the house while he'd been upstairs?

He ran into the living room. The TV was still there, as was the DVD player as well as dad's computer. Mum's CD's hadn't been touched either. Then again, who in their right mind would want to listen to the rubbish she liked? It must have been some kids. They threw the brick, the window smashed, they crapped themselves and ran away. As strange as it sounded, this rather made him feel a little better. It proved that he wasn't totally alone after all. Even so, he couldn't leave the kitchen open to the elements. The last thing he wanted was for his mum to return only to find half the stray cats in town covering her furniture with fur.

The cat had not returned when he walked back into the kitchen, which made him feel a little sad. It might be only a cat but at least it had been company. Jordan pulled the table across, turned it on its side and pushed the surface against the hole. It wasn't great but it would do, at least until his parents came back and rang around to find someone to fix it.

“Everything is okay,” he murmured. “This is just another normal, boring day.” I reckoned if he said the words out loud, they'd sound truer. All it did was to reinforce the fact that for the past couple of days, the only conversations he'd had been with himself, a computer generated woman, oh, and a cat. Then again, how else was that scenario any different to any other day? Apart from the cat bit.

Jordan spent most of his time alone anyway, totally oblivious to the coming and going, the drama, and usual inane mediocre verbal bullshit which passed for conversation amongst the other members of the house. Why should it even concern him that his parents and annoying sister had decided to keep away for today?

He walked over to the sink, leaned over and pressed his nose against the window. It didn't surprise him to find the scene outside hadn't changed. Apart from the hazard lights had completely died now. Why should it bother him if he was the last person on the planet? He didn't need anybody else in his life anyway. Other people just made his life too complicated.

It occurred to him that as he had the run of the house, He'd be able to do pretty much whatever he wanted, as long as the others didn't find out. Looking for his dad's vintage porn mags was pretty high on his personal list, as was finding out where mum had hidden his collection of games, she took off him almost ten years. She swore blind that they'd not ended up on Ebay, that they were in a safe place and once he grew up and started to accept his responsibilities, then he'd have them back. Well, he'd grown up alright and found himself getting bored with console games anyway, once the immersion sims started to hit the market.

Pleased with his plan of action, Jordan left the kitchen, after stealing a tin of hotdogs from the cupboard on his way out. He closed both doors then made his way back upstairs, eager to start on his new quest.

Jordan paused at the top of the stairs, closed his eyes, then felt his way past the window. Once satisfied the view could no longer tempt him into doing something totally stupid, like leaving the house so he could check out that the inside of that estate car, to see if he could find any identification, he opened his eyes and ran over to his parent's bedroom.

“I'm alone and they are the only options you can think of?”

Hell, both choices were dangerous. They also placed him firmly on the other side of that line that he swore never to cross, to involve himself in their sad lives. If Jordan was going to risk his his life his life then his life then it should be for something worthwhile?

His mind offered him another option, something far more dangerous than rifling through his parent's possessions. A quest which could very well end in his termination. Jordan smiled. Yeah, looking through his sister's stuff to find that diary she kept going on about could end up with him sucking his food through a straw, but only he failed to locate it and she somehow found out that he'd been going through her stuff. How likely was that to happen though? He was hardly likely to grass himself up.

“Let's do this,”

He ran out of the kitchen, up the stairs and stopped beside the bathroom. Jordon's heartbeat refused to slow and it wasn't due to the unexpected exercise. He padded over to her door. “Come on, man,” he muttered. “Grow a pair. What is she going to do. Eat you? Well, why not? The cow comes into my bedroom and goes through all my gear all the time.”

If he did find her diary, there'd be a good chance that the name of this boy she was seeing would be in there. That info alone would be worth its weight in gold.

“Leave me alone or I'll tell mum who you're sweet on,” he whispered. “Even better, don't speak to me ever again.” Yeah, Jordan liked that one even better. He crossed the carpet and ran into his sister’s room before his bravery deserted him.

The placed smelled of cinnamon, lavender and something else, a subtle but persistent odour which seemed to cling to his clothes. Jordan couldn't place the smell despite being positive that he'd smelled something similar recently. Thing is, he was sure that had been while playing inside Necrovoid.

The stronger smells came from the remains of a couple of scented candles on the windowsill. Purple and brown melted wax had dripped off the wood and dried on her radiator. God, dad would rip her head off if he saw that! Jordan made a beeline for the girl’s dressing table, figuring the drawers were the most obvious place to check. If they yielded no results then he'd have a look under her mattress, although Jordan doubted that even Susan would be dumb enough to hide it in such an obvious place.

The nasty smell had gotten stronger. He stopped and wrinkled his nose. That really did smell bad! What the hell was it? Then again, judging by the amount of half-used perfume bottles cluttering up the surface, the stink could be coming from any of those bottles.

He'd just have to hold his nose for the next few minutes, that's all. Jordan sat on the chair in front of the dresser and got to work, opening drawer after drawer, looking for anything resembling a diary. He was on the third drawer, wondering if he'd be able to sell her underwear to whoever she was going out with when something behind him crashed onto the carpet.

Jordan shrieked out and jerked back, almost falling out of the chair. He grabbed the edge of the desk. Something else fell onto the carpet but that was his fault. He'd knocked two perfume bottles off the desk. He turned, expecting to see his furious sister standing behind him.

A glass beaker, now empty, lay beside her bedside table, its previous contents now soaking into the carpet. He stood up and took a couple of steps closer to the side of the bed unable to figure out as to how the beaker could have possibly fallen off the table.

He backed away, deciding that looking for his confiscated games and his dad's dirty mags sounded like a much better option. Hell maybe that pile of naughty comics could be used as blackmail material? He doubted mum knew about them or maybe she did? Maybe they read them together while... Jordan shut that thought down straight away. This place was seriously creepy enough without subjecting his poor mind to such images of vile depravity.

Jordan stifled another shriek when he heard the sound of scratching coming from under the bed.

“It's just the cat. Nothing else.” His words offered no comfort as deep down he knew it couldn't be the cat. Jordan had watched it run out of the house. “Yeah, just a cat,” he repeated. The scratching stopped.

He thought his head was going to explode when a blood spattered hand appeared from out of the shadows. Jordan jumped back while shaking his head, unable to believe what his eyes were showing him. The hand moved a little closer, revealing an arm, another arm and then a mass of dishevelled blonde hair.

“Susan?”

The figure stopped crawling and lifted her head. Jordan groaned. Oh fuck, it really was her! “What the hell happened to you?” He received an excited growl in response, before she resumed her crawling. The woman was already halfway out from under the bed when he finally saw where the blood had come from. There was a deep ragged gash, stretching from between her breasts all the way down to her pubis, and as she moved, pieces of her insides fell out, littering the carpet with bloodied lumps of soft offal.

“No!” he whispered. “This can't be happening to me, it just isn't possible!” His dead sister continued to pull her body out while keeping her doll-eyed gaze on his face. Jordan whimpered then spun around and fumbled for the door handle. His sweat-soaked fingers kept slipping off the metal.

“Please don't eat me, Susan!” She had finally emerged from under the bed. He saw the fiend through the dressing table's reflection trying to stand up. She got onto her knees then suddenly fell forward when her intestines dropped out of her stomach cavity. Jordan's bladder emptied its contents down both legs. Tears were rolling down both cheeks. He finally grasped the metal just as his dead sister managed to get to her feet. The dead girl growled again then took one unsteady step towards him.

Jordan pressed the handle down and the door opened a crack, letting in cool air. He opened it just wide enough for him to squeeze through before slamming it shut. All the strength in his legs left him, and he fell forward, hitting his head on the floor. Somewhere inside him, Jordan heard someone laughing. It sounded like Barry. What was he doing in his head? The chuckling continued as he crawled across the carpet, and didn't stop until his hands curled over the top step. Jordan blinked rapidly. The laughter had gone but the terrible noise coming from the other side of Susan's door continued. He turned around and sat against the wall, not knowing what the fuck he was going to do now.

The moaning sound eventually died down. All he could hear now was more scratching. She was trying to get through the door. “She wants to eat me, to dine on my flesh.” Jordan burst into tears. “This can not be fucking real!” he shouted. “Stop it, leave me alone, it's all a dream, an illusion, nothing but sodding fantasy.”

He rested his hands on his thighs while watching his sister's bedroom door. The scratching noise had stopped now. The voice in his head didn't look like it was going to make another appearance. Even his heartbeat had slowed down to the point where he no longer feared that the organ was about to burst through his fucking rib-cage.

All he could hear was birdsong. Jordan vaguely wondered if the mad old bat had thrown out an umbrella or a couple of eggcups. No, not this time. From the sounds of it, it was real food this time. The feathery bastards sounded like they were having a party.

Underneath the all the squawking, he could just about make out the sound of scratching. He remembered finding a cat in the kitchen earlier on. Did he throw it out? That bit was vague. Obviously not, either that or it had sneaked back inside. It sounded like it was in Susan's bedroom. Fine, let it stay there. The birds were safer with the cat locked away. Besides, there was no way in hell that he'd dare go in there. The last time Jordan entered his sister's bedroom without permission, she threatened to remove his bollocks with a butter knife.

“My mind is broken.”

He raised his left hand, turned it around so his palm faced him, he spotted what looked like traces of purple wax stuck to his fingers. It smelled like lavender. How the hell had he got that stuff on his skin? The only person in this house burned scented candles was his...

Jordan quickly made a fist. He growled to warn those volatile memories to stay the fuck away then smashed his fist into the wall. That hurt, that really did hurt but at least the pain gave him something else to focus on.

The scratching had started up again. Christ, that cat be getting really upset by now! He frowned. He once only just escaped from a bedroom by the skin of his teeth when a dead thing crawled out from under the bed and try to rip off his face. Jordan couldn't remember which insertion that had been in. The last Necrovoid session probably, it did feel fairly recent.

Necrovoid. Those two hours must be over by now! The sensenet lay between his legs. He didn't remember dropping it there. Then again, why should that surprise him? His memory had started to get a little flaky of recent. He had remembered to lock the side door like mum asked? That's one task that hadn't slipped his mind. Wouldn't it be hilarious if it turned out that his slutty sister really had stayed at some lad's house all night? How would she get in if all the doors were locked? Apart from smashing a window, she couldn't. That thought made him smile a lot.

He picked up the sensenet and rolled it over his head. He was eager to get back into the game and show that Jenny just how useful he really was. That would start by getting out of that damn shopping mall, limping over to that shop and snagging the shotgun from the shop. This time he intended to find the shells. Jordan still believed they would be in the shop too. It's just a matter of looking more thoroughly. First though, the dead thing in there needed putting down. Killing it before the bastard got back up so it could drive Jenny and Harry to the hospital.

Jordan frowned again. Forget the last bit, he just needed to get to that shotgun, so he could actually start rescuing Jenny instead of the other way around. It felt a little ironic to think that Necrovoid was starting to make more sense than actual reality.

Fourth Insertion

The shuffling came from the level below them! He rolled his trouser leg down, covering up the bruises. Thankfully, they weren't as bad as he first believed, which is bloody odd considering how much they hurt just an hour ago. How could that be possible? Sure, the painkillers had helped, but they only helped to numb the pain, they couldn't get rid of bruises. “Jenny, did you hear that?” He used her shoulders to stand up.

She nodded. “I heard something. They couldn't have gotten through that window so quickly. Even if they had, the lower level was blocked off a couple of days ago. Do you think there's more in here with us?

“Wait on, should I not be asking you that question? After all, you're the one who said earlier on that Barry and some of your other survivor pals had cleared out this place yesterday.” He held up his hand. “Sorry, that came out as a bit bitchy. Look, it doesn't matter, maybe your friends missed them on their search? I think we ought to be making tracks. I don’t like it in here. It feels too claustrophobic.” Jordan walked unaided, towards the sport shop exit. He felt a lot better now than he did when they first stepped foot inside here. The food had helped, certainly.

He walked out, into the Mall's wide pedestrian way and leaned against the waist-high glass wall and waited for Jenny to catch up. One of the food outlet shops still had power, meaning everything was still working. Granted, Burger Giant had never been his favourite place to eat in the mall but when your selection is narrowed down to either that place or grabbing a tin of spaghetti the grocery store on the level above, you didn't complain.

Two burgers, cooked by the lovely Jenny, and as much coke as they could drink made them both feel almost human again. The backpack, which he'd grabbed in the sport shop was now filled with enough food to keep him going for at least a week. Jenny had cooked another dozen more burgers. They had let them cool down while they ate their food. She explained that this might be the last time they eat fresh meat so it's best to take as much as they could. It made sense. The power in here wouldn't last for much longer, so there'd be no more frozen food to enjoy. From that point on, it really would be tinned food or dried stuff.

Thinking about those burgers, made Jordan want to dive into the backpack and take another one. He resisted the temptation, promising himself that as soon as his fingers were wrapped around the shotgun, and they'd find the shells, then he would scoff one more burger.

“What are you grinning at?”

Jordan shrugged. “I’m not sure, perhaps it's because I'm still alive, with a full belly, my leg doesn't feel so bad anymore and let us not forget that I'm also in the presence of a beautiful woman.”

“Are you getting high on those painkillers? That's probably the creepiest thing you've said to me so far.”

The woman suddenly grinned then leaned forward to kiss the tip of his nose. “Keep em coming,” she whispered in his ear.

Jordan so wanted to kiss her. He never got the chance as she got there first. Her soft lips pressed hard against his. Jenny held his cheeks and kissed him deeply He thought he'd gone to heaven. That exquisite sensation fell by the wayside when another sound reached his ears and Jenny pulled back.

“What the fuck was that?” She leaned over the glass wall and her gaze darted from shop from to shop front on the level below them. “It sounded like a scream.” Jenny faced him. “A human scream.”

“Yeah, I heard it too. You reckon there is somebody else in here with us? Another survivor perhaps?” Jordan moved a little closer to Jenny while silently wishing the sound that both of them heard was nothing of consequence. He wanted her to kiss him again. She smelled divine, sort of cross between lavender and cinnamon.

“Wait here,” she said.

Jordan grabbed her arm. “You're not thinking of going down there, are you?”

The woman shrugged his hand off. “Of course not. At least not without you. Now, wait here.” Before he could respond, she ran back into the sport shop and returned a moment later, holding a metal pole as tall as Jordan. “I spotted this on the way out,” she explained. “I think it's part of a rail or something. Has some weight to it too.” Jenny hurried over to the escalator, close to Jordan. “Come on then, let's see what's down there.”

“Yeah, sure, that's a good idea,” he muttered. “Let's go fight zombies. Hang on. What about me? What am I supposed to use, my cold burgers?”

She turned around and grinned. “Don't you worry, my prince. I'll protect you from all the nasty monsters.”

“I'm serious, Jenny. What am I supposed to do?”

“Run away?”

She reached the bottom while Jordan stayed right where he was, halfway up the escalator. There really was no need for this. In all probability, the noise will have come from a trapped dead thing. All she was doing here was exposing herself to needless danger. Just how the hell was Jordan supposed to protect the woman when she kept doing stupid stuff like this? It had occurred to him that if she hadn't done that stupid thing by rescuing Jordan from his dead wife, he would not to stood here having this conversation with himself. Let it be said that he wasn't the type of guy who let facts get in the way of a good sympathy whine.

The woman entered the toy shop and vanished from sight. Jordan counted to ten before he made his way down the remaining steps. He couldn't just allow her to face danger alone, despite proving over and over that she was more than capable of looking after herself. Jordan followed her into the shop, while thinking that Barry probably thought he could look after himself too and look what happened to him!

God, he hadn't been in here for years and yet, the place hadn't changed all that much. Jordan wandered past the shelves of games and toys for girls, remembering how excited he used to get when his mum took him and Susan in here every Friday afternoon, so they could pick out a new toy. The boys toys were right at the back of the shop, so he had to wait for his annoying sister to choose something before his mum took them towards the stuff he wanted to look at.

Jordan reached the checkout and climbed onto the desk, believing a higher elevation would help him located Jenny and the source of the noise they heard upstairs. In his haste to find Jenny and get out of here, his left foot caught the side of a large display full of interactive animal/human hybrid dolls. The display fell backwards, crashing into a shelf holding slime puzzles and magnetic football card collections. He winced at the noise. Jordan quickly stood up and turned in a circle, trying to see if he could see Jenny.

“Oh no!” He spotted two young boys who had quite clearly passed to the other side, stalking Jenny. She was glaring at Jordan, mouthing something he couldn't make out but it doubted it was anything good.

“There are two dead things right behind you!” he yelled. Jordan jumped off the desk, grabbed the heaviest looking object he could find, a large pink crossbow, then raced to the end of the aisle.

Jordan rushed past the remaining girl's toys while pulling the crossbow out of the box. The thing was next to useless but it was better than nothing. He ran around the end of the aisle and straight in Jenny. There were no sign of the two dead boys. Jordan spun around. “Where did they go?”

“Who? Look, this place is empty. I've gone around the shop three times now. There's nothing in here.”

“Don't look at me like that. I swear down, the little freekazoid bastards are in here somewhere!”

“You sound just like my little brother.”

“Whatever,” he replied. “And you sound just like my...” Jordan. Caught his breath. “Never mind. Look, they're in here.” He skirted around her and headed for the boy's toys, not caring if she was following him. Jordan almost said she sounded like his sister. What the hell was he smoking? His mum and dad never had anymore kids after him. He stopped dead. If that was the case, who the fuck was Susan did he have such clear memories of his mum, who looked nothing like his mum, bringing him and her into this shop?

“Shit, Jordan. Are you alright? You look awful!”

He turned around, dropped the crossbow and wrapped his arms around her. “No, I'm not alright. I don't know who I am. Something weird is happening to me, I'm losing focus and getting so confused over just about everything.” He was about to tell Jenny about his non-existent sister as well as believing Barry was still alive when a small shadow passed over the fixture next to them.

They must have climbed up the other side of the fixture! How had they done that without making any noise? Jordan dragged Jenny to the side just as the two kids threw themselves at them. He rolled over to the shelf base and lifted it up. Dozens of cardboard boxes containing model tanks and aircraft flew into the air. He held the metal base in the air before slamming the top edge over his head. The shelf sliced through one of their necks, almost severing the kid’s head.

The other one went for Jenny but thanks to his warning, she was prepared for the attack. The remaining boy dived at her only to meet with the business end of the metal pole. She smashed it into the dead boy's shoulder. The impact threw him into boxes of construction sets. Jordan had already jumped back onto his feet and was about to shout out a warning but there was no need. The woman had already anticipated the dead boy's lightning fast recovery by following him down. She stood over the moving corpse, the metal pole already in motion.

Jordan winced at the sound of the boy's skull cracking open. Jenny hit it again before dropping the pole. She staggered back into his waiting arms.

“I don't think I can take much more of this insanity,” she said.

Jordan gently stroked her hair. “Come on, let's get the fuck out of here.”

Jenny took his hand then climbed over the fixtures, pulling Jordan with her. Once they were outside the shop, she looked over to the exit. “Jordan, do you still want to go to that shop you mentioned?”

He nodded. Jordan was about to mention that the dead were not going to stop following them now but after looking into those haunted eyes, his warning words died in his throat. To be honest, Jordan hadn't given much thought about what to do once they did reach that shop.

“You did good back there.” She turned around and softly kissed him. “You haven't lost focus, Jordan. All this is just,” she closed her eyes and drew in a large lungful of air. “It's still new for you. It's takes a while for your mind to attempt the acclimatisation, as well as trying to desensitise you so you don't end up wanting to stick a barbecue skewer through your own temples when you end up doing something like this.” She pulled him through the shop. “Come on. I need some fresh air.”

“What are you talking about, Jenny? We already are outside.”

Chapter Seven

A couple of raindrops splashed on the top of his head, one after the other. Jordan lifted his head back and gazed into the dark and cloudy sky, unsure of how he'd gotten out of the house. He looked around his back garden, immediately spotting the cat, sitting on Mrs Spicer's shed roof. The remains of a starling lay at its feet.

He turned to face the house and saw splashes of blood on the path directly outside the broken glass door. Were they from him? Jordan turned his hands around. “What the fuck have I been doing?” He picked three pieces of glass out of his palm, gritting his teeth in discomfort as the last piece refused to budge, not helped by the blood making his thumb and forefinger slippery.

In the end, Jordan had to use his teeth to pull the final piece out of his flesh.

“Oh, that really hurt,” he said after spitting the glass fragment onto the path. The cat meowed once then ran across the shed roof and jumped off into next door's garden.

“Shitting cats,” uttered a voice coming from behind dad's greenhouse. His friend, Barry, stepped out, jumped over a row of roses and landed on the path. “Hello there, Jordan. How's tricks?”

“How's tricks? How's fucking tricks? Is that all you have to say? What's going on? What am I doing outside?” He paused. His hands slapped the top of his head. “Wait on, where's the sensenet gone?”

Barry looked down at his feet. “That'll be me, dude. I kinda took it off you and threw the bloody thing away.”

“You did what?”

“Look, man, calm your jets. Believe me, it's the best thing I could do.”

“Give me it back, or so help me, I'll punch you into the middle of next week.” Jordan took three paces towards his friend, gaining an enormous amount of satisfaction when Barry retreated, only stopping when his back hit the gate. He could see the fellow nerd whom he'd grown up with, who had both suffered beatings at school. Who, after the pair of them had gotten utterly hammered in Barry's loft, declared his undying love for Jordan's sister. He only saw the man who killed his wife and daughter. “Where is it, Barry?”

“What part of 'cool your jets' did not reach you, dude? Christ, just look around you, haven't you figured out what's going on?” Barry brought up his hands then pushed Jordan in the chest. “That game has been fucking with your head, man. Just like it did with mine.”

Jordan was ready to hit him right in the chops until Barry ducked under him, ran over to the front door and dived through the hole. “Get back here, you little shit!” he raced after him, this time he scraped the bits of glass on the pavement with his foot before kneeling down and crawling through the hole.

The lack of light confused the hell out of him when he got back onto his feet. “Where the hell are you, Barry?” A disc of bright, white light dazzled him.

“Over here. Come on, follow me.”

“Get that torch light out of my eyes, you retard!, when you've done that, give me back my sensenet and then fuck off out of my house.”

“Ooh, aren't you the grumpy twat, all of a sudden. You know, anyone would think you're suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Do you not think that's a bit weird? What am I talking about? Of course you don't, at least, not yet.” Barry, clicked off the torch, he pushed it into his back pocket then hurried over to the end of the hall. “I hope you don't mind me hanging onto this, I think it'll come in handy.” He ran up the stairs.

“Get the fuck back down here, Barry.”

“No, I don't think so. Why don't you come on up, Jordan? I have something that you'll really want to see.”

Could he have hidden his sensenet down here? If that was the case, then why did Barry want him to go upstairs? There was only one way to find out. Jordan walked over to the foot of the stairs and slowly made his way up, deciding that if his friend didn't tell him where it was then he'd simply beat the shit out of him. That sounded like a reasonable deal.

“I see you still have a face like a smacked arse, Jordan.”

“Very funny, If you don't give me back what's mine then your face is going to be covered in blood in a second.”

“Oh God. Listen to yourself. Man, why aren't you asking the proper questions? You know, like where are your parents? Why house your house in darkness?” Barry suddenly ran forward and pinned him against the wall. “What's wrong? Are those too hard for you? Okay, Let's start with an easier question. Tell why all you're bothered about is some stupid game while the world has literally turned to fucking shit?” Barry let him go. “You see, you're so focussed on Jenny, the shopping mall, and the need to get that shotgun, you're just not seeing what's happening outside of Necrovoid.”

Jordan's jaw dropped. It took him a moment for him to get it together before he could respond. Barry beat him to it.

“Oh, come on, man. What? You figured you were the only dude playing the game? I so wish you could see your face, man. You seriously look like you've just found out that your mum is a bloke or something.” Barry shook his head. “I know this is frigging hard. Hell, it took me a good few hours to get it out of my system.”

“Get what out?”

“The game, man. The game!”

“What are you going on about?”

“Okay, tell me what you're thinking about right now, Jordan?” He held up his hand. “No, don't bother. I already know. You can't figure out why you can't get out of the shopping mall. It should be getting to the point where it's hurting your brain as to why you can't leave the place and get that shotgun.”

Jordan nodded. “Yeah, something like that.”

“I take it you took out the zombie kids in the toyshop?”

Jordan nodded again.

“Thought so, that's one of the early tasks. How about when Jenny pulls you onto one of the tables in the eatery for spontaneous sex?” Barry chuckled. “Just kidding. There's a zombie hiding in one of the cleaner's cupboards that jumps out when you pass the door. Jenny gets her shoe stuck in a grate, just as three of them lurch around the corner. Believe me, man. That place sucks you in. You end up saving each other from life threatening situations for ages.” Barry took a deep breath. “I thought I'd missed some clue, you know like not picking up the bat from the house, or not going back inside my house to find some food. I even wondered if that teddy bear had something else to do with the plot, you know? Anyway, all that was going through my head when I came out of the ninth insertion.” Barry walked over to the window and looked out. “Daft question, but why is there a frying pan and a lampshade on your neighbour's garden shed?”

“The woman next door is as mad as a box of frogs. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me to look out there one day and actually see a box of frogs on the roof. Look, never mind about all that. What happened when you came out?”

“My mum was standing at the foot of my bed, staring at me.” He shuddered. “I knew straight away that something was really wrong with her. I mean, she just stood there, as still as a statue. Not even her eyes were moving. It's the smell coming off her that scared me more than anything else. The odour reminded me of a time when dad drained the liquid from the base of our plastic compost bin. I tell you, that stuff seriously made your eyes water.”

“What did you do?”

“Yeah, well that's the thing. See, I'd just twatted this shambling dead woman who had almost taken a bite out of Jenny's neck. We were on our way to see if we could get out of the fire exit at the back of the mall when it crawled out from this overhead air-duct and dropped right on our heads. It looked like my mum, even down to the clothes.”

“Oh God.”

“You don't know the half of it. As for what I did? What do you think? I stayed on the bed, trying to stay as still as my mum, hoping that she'd either fuck off or that I'd be able to dive straight back into the game despite the two-hour limit.” Tears ran down his cheeks. “Looking back, that probably wasn't my finest moment.”

“Shit, man. I don't know what to say.”

Barry just sighed. “I guess there was still some part of me which wanted to live because my mum must have figured out that I'd become concious, that I was no longer plugged in Necrovoid. All of a sudden, she fell onto the bed. I must have already figured out what she was about to do cos I rolled off a second earlier.”

“A lucky escape, by the sounds of it.”

“Are you having a laugh? No, don't bother replying.” Fat tears rolled down both cheeks. “Do you know what really hurt? I mean, more than finding out that my mum was dead and had come back to life as a fricking zombie?”

Jordan shook his head. He wasn't sure whether he wanted to know.

“It was the the image of my mum, lying on my bed with her arms outstretched, those long fingers reaching for me and her teeth clattering like a pair of fucking castanets, that will be forever imprinted on my mind but all I could think about was I couldn't get my sensenet because she was lying on them.”

“I'm sorry about your mum, dude.” Barry must have been smoking his older brother's special cigarettes or something. Did the guy honestly think the zombie apocalypse had started? What part of 'it's only a game' did the dude not grasp? Jordan would laugh this off as one big stupid joke if his friend didn't sound so sincere.

“Not having access to my electronic comfort blanket kinda helped me break the grip that sensenet had on me. That and finding out that my mum wasn't the only one who had turned. Both dad and my brother were on the landing when I left my bedroom. I was able to get down the stairs and outside the house before they even realised that I'd slipped past them.”

Jordan fought the urge to laugh. “Shit, man. Seriously, you need to give it up now. The joke's wearing a bit thin.”

Barry walked over to his sister's bedroom door. “I've had my dose of reality, now how about me doing the same to you?”

Jordan shook his head. “No, don't open that!” The smell of lavender and cinnamon flooded his nose. He ran over and slapped Barry's hand off the handle.

“You leave me no choice, Jordan. If you don't face up to what's happened, you're going to be no use to me or the others I've found.” Now, are you ready?”

“Seriously, don't open it.”

“Have you been inside? I mean in the past two days?”

Jordan frowned, then shook his head. “No, of course not. Susan freaks out. She hates anyone going in there.”

He pulled the torch from out of his back pocket and slapped it into Jordan's palm.

“I'm not going in there.”

“Do you want a bet on that?” Barry's arm snapped forward. His fingers tightened around Jordan's collar. “Enough yapping. You clearly don't believe anything I say.” He twisted the handle and pushed open the door. “I think it's time for your reality dose. Get ready to really freak out, dude!” Barry pushed Jordan inside then slammed the door shut.

He grabbed the handle and tried to push it down but the damn thing wouldn't budge. Barry must have put something under it. “Let me the fuck out, you twat. I swear, Susan is going to murder the pair of us. You know what she's like.”

The sound of hysterical giggling coming from the other side of the door, was Jordan's only reply. He turned around and rested the back of his head against the door. He didn't know what Barry's game was, he just hoped that Susan would understand that Jordan had nothing to do with it.

Jordan turned around. It was pitch black in here. He switched on the torch and shone the light around the room. God, it must have been ages since he last came in here. It didn't shock him to see that Susan was still a messy bitch. Her clothes were strewn all over the floor. Coke cans and empty takeaway cartons competed with scented candles for space on every available surface. This place really was a pigsty.

He slowly made his way through the mess, heading towards the window. He stopped in the middle of the room. There was a weird and nasty smell coming from somewhere in here. The sickly sweet stink of countless scented candles had already assaulted his nose as soon as that bastard threw him in here but this was something else, a really bad smell, like something had died in here.

A scratching sound started up. It originated from under the bed. Jordan suddenly knew what was lurking under there! It was as if a dam of suppressed recent memories burst, flooding his mind with every unfiltered memory from the moment he picked that damn sensenet . Including what was under the bed.

He ran back to the door, stepping on everything from filthy panties to leftover takeaway food. Jordan reached the door and bashed his fists against the surface. “You need to let me out, Barry. Let me the fuck out! I remember now. Oh God, will you please open the door?”

Jordan shone the torch towards the bed and fought back the urge to scream when the white light reflected off a pale arm reached out from under the bed.

“Susan, I'm so sorry.” He grabbed the handle, just as his sister's movement increased in speed. She must have sensed him and this time wanted to make sure that her prey would not get away. His dead sister had already cleared the bed and struggled onto her feet. She lunged at him and Jordan just knew that his time was over.

Her fingernails brushed over his face. Jordan whimpered and slid closer to the floor. He heard growling and moaning but those teeth, or nails never touched him. Jordan opened his eyes. Susan's arms were flailing around, trying to grab hold of any part of his body but it appeared that the dead girl was stuck.

It took him seconds to work out why she couldn't get him. Her insides were wrapped around the bed leg, tethering the dead thing.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me!” he screamed.

Jordan turned and managed to get to his knees when the bedroom door opened a crack. “Let me out, you twat. Hurry up before she gets me!” The door opened a little wider. Jordan gripped the edge and and wrenched it open. He rolled to the side and ended up on his back.

Susan's intestines stretched and then snapped. The dead thing flew towards him. Jordan screamed again. His sister's grasping hands never reached him as Barry stepped over Jordan's body. His friend swung a wooden pole into the dead thing's head. He dropped the pole, bent down, grabbed Jordan's shoulders and pulled him out of the room before slamming the door shut.

“Well, that was fun.”

Jordan just leaned against the wall, panting heavily. He decided that once he got his breath back, his first job would be to smash Barry's face in. “Was that really fucking necessary?”

Barry sat down beside him “I'm really sorry, dude. Honest I am. Do you think I would have put you through all that trauma if there'd been an alternative?”

Maybe he wouldn’t hit him after all. The guy did sound genuinely upset. “How did you know she was in there?”

“I took a look earlier while you were still plugged in.” replied Barry. “I kinda figured that you had already been inside the room.”

“How could you know that?”

“There's purple candle wax on a couple of your fingers.” He turned his head. “Tell me how you feel.”

Jordan shrugged. “What sort of a question is that? How do you think I feel? I don't know, drained, I guess. Not to mention fucking terrified.”

“You haven't come apart though. I mean, you're still functioning.” Barry tapped the door a couple of times. The creature inside threw her body against the other side. “You see, I think that your emotions have already gone through the ringer both outside the game and inside. Necrovoid has helped to toughen you up, in order to ready yourself for what comes next.”

“Wait. You honestly think what's happening out here is somehow linked to the events in the game?" Jordan laughed. "Don't talk out of your arse. That's just stupid.”

“Oh, so you think it's all just a sodding coincidence then? Wake up, dude. Of course it's linked.” Barry took a deep breath. “Do you know what I think? I believe that Necrovoid is not just a game but some kind of training manual, designed to help the players adjust to these new surroundings. I think that Necrovoid has perception filters built into the software. In fact, I'm sure of it. We already know that they mess with your head by splicing in people you know into the game. It isn't that much of a stretch to believe it can alter what you see or think when you're not plugged in. Who knows what weird shit Necrovoid implants in you when you're inside its game environment.”

“Fuck me.” Jordan moved away from the door and managed to reach the bathroom before throwing up in the toilet. Once he had stopped retching, Jordan turned around and found Barry leaning against the door-frame.

“Are you alright?”

He fought back the urge to punch him down the stairs. Barry had a cheek to ask him that after he'd spurted out that doozy. Was the clown serious? “As right as I'll ever be,” he replied, after wiping his mouth. Jordan wandered back into the hallway, gave his sister's door a wary look before sitting on the top step. “What are we going to do now?”

Barry shrugged. “To be honest, I haven't got that far. I mean, obviously, we'd have to get back into Necrovoid. The clues are in there. Thing is, I'm not comfortable in doing that.”

“Are you sure the two are connected?”

“Of course I am. That much I do know. I just don't know how, not yet anyway. I do think it has something to do with the first insertion. That first game played out like a movie trailer. Giving you lots of little pieces, none of them made much sense but there was enough there to hook you. The conspiracy bit is what got me, Jordan, and I think that's the section that we have to figure out. that is, if either of us dare to actually roll a sensenet over our heads. Also, there's still the small matter of getting out of the shopping mall.” Barry walked towards him. “You know, I still can't get over how dissimilar the two scenarios are. In Necrovoid, the TV showed riots and mass murder. There were people everywhere, even in the small towns, like ours. Yet here, apart from you, a couple of dead things wondering about and maybe evidence of a few more living people, I haven't seen a soul. It's almost as if everybody in town stayed inside once this started.”

“Maybe that's a good thing? It means there'll be less chance of the dead things turning the living into more dead things or consuming them.”

Barry shook his head. “I doubt it, more likely, it'll just delay the inevitable. Come on, man. Don't look at me like that. Think about it! What do you think will happen when all those people currently hiding in their houses start to run out of food and water? They'll have to leave then, won't they? That's when the slaughter will start. The streets really will run with blood. I reckon, we'll need to get this mess sorted out before that happens, man.”

“Wait a minute!” replied Jordan. “You're talking as if this damn zombie outbreak is somehow reversible. Shit, man do you not know that once a dead thing, always a dead thing.? That's one absolute fact that no bastard dare mess with. It's one of the reasons why that zombies are so fucking terrifying.”

“You don't change, do you, Jordan. Talk about stuck in your ways. No wonder you haven't been able to figure it out. Good job I'm here to help you out.”

“Barry. I'm too tired to listen to you kissing your own arse. Just tell me what you're banging on about.”

“It's obvious, man. Look, Necrovoid is a product of our technological society but it doesn't need the tools used to create it to operate. No online network, no external power supply, but it does need users. People like you and me, dude. Without us, its just a fancy looking headpiece. We're the missing link, the crucial element. Without us, its nothing and believe me, there's just no way that, after all its accomplished, Necrovoid isn't about to commit suicide.”

“You have it all worked out.”

“Yeah well, I've had nothing else to think about.” Barry grinned. “Before we decide what to do next, we're going to need to do a bit of searching for food. I've already gone through your kitchen cupboards and found nothing edible.”

Jordan took the last tin of hot dogs earlier on. That meant they'd have to leave the house and look for food elsewhere. He didn't want the streets to run with his blood! “Wait, I think mum and dad might have something to eat in their room. It won't be much. Mind. Mum likes to have a packet of crisps at night. Dad might have some jerky kicking around though.”

“Jerky is ideal. It’s a good source of protein.” Barry held out his hand. “Okay, I’ll go get the gear. Pass me the torch, dude.”

“Wait on, shouldn't I be going first? You know, with it being my house and everything?” He walked past Barry, got within a metre of his sister's bedroom door and stopped. He could hear her by the door, those fingernails which almost punched holes into his flesh scraping away the paintwork. “Tell you what, Barry. I'll let you go check it out. It's about time you did something useful for a change.”

Barry took the torch out of his hands. “If you insist, dude. I have no idea how you managed to stay alive before I turned up on the scene.” Barry grabbed hold of the handle and pushed it down and pushed the door.

Two pairs of grasping hands reached through the gap. They grabbed Barry's hair and clothes. Jordan stood, frozen to the spot while his mum and dad pulled the shrieking boy into the pitch black room. “Mum? Oh, God. Please, not you as well!”

The scratching coming from behind Susan's door grew in intensity when Barry's agonised screaming suddenly cut off. With only the wet sound of chewing and slurping now emerged from inside his parent’s room. Jordan finally found the strength to move forward a couple of inches. Every part of his being told him that there was no hope of saving his best friend, that he had passed on and yet Jordan still found himself hoping that against all odds, Barry might still be alive.

His dad's snarling face put paid to even that dying hope when it emerged, coated in a layer of blood and gore, from inside Barry's stomach cavity. The dead thing's mouth moved up and down and side to side, like a contented cow chewing cud.

He had to get out of here before they both realised they had an audience. Jordan moved away from both doors, keeping his gaze fixed on his dad but, as in life, the old man didn't even seem to notice his existence. He reached his own bedroom door, his sanctuary. The only room in the house where Jordan had ever felt secure. He pushed open the door wide and saw a figure sitting on his bed. Jordan let out a single disbelieving howl.

How the fuck could he be sat on the bed, plugged into Necrovoid when he stood by his bedroom door looking at himself? Jordan backed away from the bedroom, aware that letting out that God-awful noise probably wasn’t the best idea he'd ever had.

Both his mum and dad now stood by their door, the mutilated corpse of Jordan's best friend seemingly forgotten. “So that's it, you two? You obviously prefer your food to move.” They stepped into the hallway.

Jordan spun around and ran down the stairs. The two dead things raced after him. He panicked when his mum's long nails missed his cheek by a whisker. This wasn't fair! The dead things weren't supposed to move so quickly! He threw himself through the open door and into the kitchen, remembering, at the last moment to shut the door.

It took him seconds to pull the stuff away from the broken window and crawl outside. Jordan ran to the gate and turned around. He had to hold onto the top of the gate so he wouldn't fall. The shakes had seized him yet again and this time, the bastards didn't appear to be in any rush to leave him alone.

“What was he going to do now? Just where the fuck could he go? If he gripped the wood any tighter, Jordan was sure that his fingers would sink into the gate. He wanted to moan and cry and weep for his total loss but Jordan couldn't even do that, despite losing everybody dear to him.

The shakes had eased off just a fraction, although Jordan had no idea why that was any cause for celebration. Barry had been right about the blood in the streets. His friend just didn't know how right he was. The remaining survivors, the living, like himself, would stand absolutely no chance at all against the dead, not if they all were able to more as quickly as his now deceased parents. Oh my God! Dad never moved so quickly when he was alive!

His fingers found the gate latch. He pulled it back and slowly moved forward. Jordan silently thanked God that dad had oiled the gate hinges a couple of days ago. The gate used to make enough noise to wake the dead, until his mum nagged his old man every day for almost a fortnight to do something about it.

Wake the dead. Oh fuck, why did he have to even think about that? The image of the untold millions of rotting corpses clawing their way up to the surface in order to join their converted pals almost made him piss himself again.

Jordan still didn't have a single clue where to go. In this world, he had no Jenny, no shopping mall and definitely no fucking chance of stumbling over a shotgun left behind in some abandoned shop.

The gate opened wide enough to allow him to leave the garden. He stepped out onto the street, feeling more vulnerable and exposed than he had for a long time. Jordan took in a mouth of cold air, not realising until that time that he'd been holding his breath. Where was he going to go? The only place he could think of was to head for Amir's takeaway. It's the only place in town, beside his house, where he felt comfortable. He could head for Barry's house. He had spent a lot of time there when they were younger but knowing Barry, he would have already emptied the place of anything valuable before setting off. Despite his friend's apparent bravado, Jordan knew that Barry was as much housebound as himself and it must had been something fucking traumatic to make the kid leave his fortress. Besides, Barry lived on the other end of town, almost four miles from here and Jordan doubted that he'd survive long enough to make the journey.

The dead could be watching him right now, looking out of the many windows surrounding him, licking their lips and drooling at the prospect of sinking their teeth into his soft, tender flesh.  “Stop it, you fucking clown,” he muttered. Like he didn't have enough problems already without making up a load more. This didn't stop Jordan from checking out every window he could see, just to make sure that none of them were watching him. His gaze stopped at his own house. He knew he needed to get away from here but Jordan just couldn't help himself from checking out his own bedroom window, just to see if he could spot his other self. There was nothing up there but a black rectangle.

That had to be an illusion, some kind of fake vision, brought on by whatever that sensenet had done to his mind. Maybe, if he did somehow survive the coming night and, hopefully, find some other survivors, again hopefully, all tooled up with weapons, then he'd ask them to bring him back here to double check.

His gaze moved down to the kitchen window. “Oh no!” Two pairs of eyes stared right back at him. Jordan stepped back, finally letting go of the gate, just as the window exploded outwards. They galloped across the lawn on all fours. Almost reaching their garden shed before Jordan's own survival instinct kicked in.

He heard them smack straight into the gate but by that time, Jordan was already across the road. He risked a peek over his shoulder and immediately wished he hadn't. That solid piece of wood hadn't stopped them at all. The dead things just kept running into the gate until one of them, his dad toppled over it. His mum joined him after another two attempts. Jordan carried on running, his target, the shop was at the end of the street. He ran past the estate car and skidded to a halt, knowing those corpses would have caught up with him before reaching the shop. Even if he was able to outrun the bastards, it might not even be possible to get inside. Hell, the snack shed had steel shutters on the window and the door and from here, he couldn’t see if they were down or not.

Jordan chose the only option left and threw himself inside the car, closing the two doors still open and locking every door while praising the lords of fate for leaving him a old car that wasn't a slave to modern electronics. He wasn't sure whether the two had seen him get into the car, but just in case they had, he slid into the foot space, pulled a blanket covering the seat above him and laid it over his body.

Were the car windows open? Jordan bit his lip to stop himself from crying out. Believing that even the slightest sound might give away his position. He dare not move the blanket to check either. Through the gaps in the weave, Jordan saw nothing but shadows but those shadows were moving. They were there, his dead parents, right outside the fucking car window! Oh Christ, like it mattered if one of the windows were open a crack. The bastards had already proved what they were prepared to do in order to reach their next meal. Jordan waited for the inevitable as he knew that staying motionless and quiet while knowing those two flesh-eating monsters were waiting for him just inches away would prove impossible.

“Fuck it,” he whispered. There was no way that those things out there was going to dine on him while lying in this car. Jordan knew what to do. He had to make a run for it. He figured if he pushed the door hard enough, the force might be strong enough to knock at least one of them over, giving him some time to try to get away from them. Sure, the chase would be short but at least he'd go down doing something.

Jordan slowly pulled the blanket away from his face. As it fell down to his neck, something fell off the blanket and slid between his side and hand. As soon as his fingers curled around the object, he immediately knew what it was.

He brought the sensenet up and instinctively unrolled it over the top of his head. Being eaten by zombies who shouldn't exist while fighting fictional zombies in some stupid computer game sounded like a much more attractive option than his last idea. The last noise he heard from that reality was something trying the car door handle.

Chapter Eight

Fifth Insertion

The pair had traversed the shopping mall in relative silence. The sounds of the recent dead were around them and growing in volume whenever they passed by a locked shop, holding their previous tenants. Every time that Jordan heard their mournful whine, he found himself moving to the other side, much to Jenny's bemusement. He couldn't understand his behaviour either. It's not like those shambling monsters could smash their way through the glass.

Jordan had advised the woman against taking the direct route through the old covered market which had been the only moment when they had struck up a real conversation. He said that they should find an alternate way, perhaps by cutting through one of the larger clothing shops. Asked why, he could only shrug and say he had a bad feeling.

The woman had released a dramatic sigh and muttered something about questioning the validity of someone having a feeling who thinks the dead can break through glass but otherwise stayed silent.

Their journey brought the pair to the destination without incident. Jordan saw the occasional wispy cloud floating across a light-blue sky. He almost spoke out, advising Jenny to do the same and look up, that perhaps the illusion of serenity might help to smooth out some of the rough edges. After some deliberation, Jordan decided that telling a stressed-out woman to 'calm down' might not be the best idea he'd ever had and a second after uttering those fateful words, he'd find himself plummeting towards the ground floor after she pushed him over the balcony.

“ That looks pretty.” he turned his attention to the woman, currently staring at the shuttered up shop on the other side of the mall. Jordan had never seen the town's only game shop shuttered up before. It felt a little weird to see the place looking more like a shop situated in the middle of the rough housing estate at the other end of town than the warm and welcoming place where he spent many a happy childhood hours.

Jordan also found it a little strange that none of the other shops in the shopping mall they had passed were shuttered up.

“If you're trying to butter me up again, Jordan. Forget it. I'm not in the mood.”

“I was talking about the clouds, that's all. The clouds are pretty.” He leaned over the balcony, wondering if he would die on impact if she did push him over. It was highly likely, at was a long way down. Jordan's heart rate increased when he saw that not all of the dead things were locked inside the shops.

“Oh shit,” he muttered. “That's not good at all.”

Jenny joined him. “What is it?” she hissed.

He pointed at the next level down, the one they'd just left. There were two of them, both young teenage females, crawling along the top of a vent pipe which stretched the length of the wide corridor. That's the original direction that Jenny wanted to go in order to reach the main stairs which would lead them up here. They would not have spotted those dead girls, not unless either one of them were looking up.

Jenny grabbed the back of his hand. “Shit. I almost got us killed.” she squeezed hard. “I almost got us killed.”

“But you didn't, we're still here. Don't stress over it.”

“Yeah, thanks for that. It's okay for you. You're the type of guy who can shrug this all off and still find time to stare at pretty clouds.”

Jordan pulled her away from the balcony, wrapped his arms around the woman and gently kissed her. He could have explained that not two hours ago, she was the level-headed one who had done her best to put Jordan in the right mind so he could stay alive. It's just that the tables had turned right now. He guessed that come this time tomorrow, if they were still breathing, it might be her turn to do the same to him. Jordan had no intention of saying any of that. Not while this beautiful woman continued to respond to his kiss.

After what felt like an eternity, she pulled away. The pleasure that Jordan saw in her face vanished in a blink of an eye, and Jenny resumed her earlier 'cold fish' pose.

“We need to make a move, Jordan. There's not much daylight left.” She cast her gaze towards the skylight. “Even your pretty clouds have fucked off.”

The woman checked the straps on her backpack then turned and strode towards the direction of the old market, leaving him wondering if that kiss really happened.

“Are you coming or what?” she asked.

“Sorry, yeah, wait up.” He ran after her, still thinking about how easy this woman could change her mood. Was this ability she had to turn it off and on like a tap something that Jenny had always been able to do or was it a new development? Hell, even after being married for ten years, Jordan still had no clue about how the minds of the opposite genders worked. Come to think of it, did that assessment also not apply to every man on the planet?

“Are you alright?”

He had been so wrapped up in his thoughts, Jordan hadn't even realised that they had reached the entrance to the old market. “Yeah, I'm fine,” he replied.

“You don't look fine. Is there anything you need to get off your chest?”

Jordan pointed to the games shop. “Yeah, can you tell me why that is the only shop with its  heavy shutters down?” He had no intention of asking her if that kiss meant nothing to her and the mystery of the games shop seemed like a reasonable distraction. The more he thought about it, though, the more convinced that finding out why the place where he spent most of his childhood and pocket money now looked like a fortress.

“I don't understand why this is suddenly so important to you? I mean, would it not make sense that if the owners were inside when the shit hit the fan, that they'd do anything and everything to prevent the monsters from getting to them? That would mean putting down their shutters, would it not? After all, I guess the guys who own that shop are as geeky as you which also leads me to the conclusion that they are just as weird as you.” She chuckled. “They probably believe the dead things can jump through glass too.” Jenny grabbed his left arm and led him into the old market. “Look, leave it, Jordan. Enough of the distractions. You said that the place beyond the mall has weapons. Then let's go get them, for crying out loud! There are people back in town who were relying on me and Barry to bring them supplies. They probably think we're both dead by now.”

Was that a dig at him? Perhaps suggesting that if they hadn't stopped to rescue him, she'd be back there by now, with the supplies the group needed as well as a still living Barry?

“Sorry, you're right. Come on, let's get out of here. I've no idea where I was going with that shop anyway.” When she took his hand, he decided that she wasn't having a go at him after all. “Just look at the pretty clouds,” he murmured.

“What are you on about now?”

He shook his head and grinned. “Nothing. Don't worry about it. I'm just talking to myself. It helps to calm me down.”

“Do you know what helps me calm down?”

He shook his head.

“ It’s the thought of getting into a hot bath and staying in there for a couple of hours.” She sighed. Perhaps a couple of scented candles burning away at the end of the bath, filling the room with a lovely aroma of vanilla or sandalwood.”

“We had no water after the first few days back home, no power either. I can't remember the last time I had a bath.”

“We have power and water, Jordan.” Jenny wrapped her arm around his waist. “That's what I intend to do when I get back. By the way, The bath's big enough for two, so you can run your fingernails up and down my back. Is that not a better image to help you stay calm?”

He nodded, positively drooling at the erotic image which wiped out any lingering doubts over why the game shop should be so significant. “Oh yeah. I'd like that a lot.”

“That's good to hear.”

“As long as the candles are not lavender or cinnamon,” he added.

“Is this another one of your feelings?”

“Sorry, Jenny. I don't even know why I said that.”

“ it doesn’t matter,” she replied. Come on, we'd better pick up the pace as I sure as hell don't want to be stuck in here overnight. The thought of what could be lurking in here scares the crap out of me.”

He could relate to that. The mall was bad enough but the old market seriously gave him the creeps. This place was so claustrophobic. Walking side by side meant they could touch the stalls by simply holding out their arms and if there were any dead things hiding inside, the flimsy looking wooden boards and the thick fabric which made up the stall construction would do little to stop those bastards from tearing into them. No wonder Jenny was shaking. He wanted to squeeze her hand for reassurance but he guessed that if he did that, he might end up shaking too.

Jordan stopped dead.

“What, what have you seen?” she hissed.

It took him a couple of seconds to reply. “Sorry,” he replied. “I thought I saw a man-shaped shadow move in front of one of the stalls.” He shook his head. “It must have been a trick of the light. Come on, let's keep going.”

“You don't have to apologise. It's better to be safe than sorry.”

Jordan was apologising for the lie he'd just told. There'd been nothing there. He had only stopped because he just saw himself standing at the bottom of a stranger's garden. Suffering from the shakes so bad that he had to hold on to the gate for dear life to stop himself from falling. The false memory only lasted for less than a second but the damn thing was strong enough to make Jordan feel that it had really happened.

“Are you sure you're okay?”

He turned to the side. “Should I not be asking you that? You're the one who is shaking like a leaf.” Jordan slowed down and then stopped. He placed his finger against his lips. This time he really had seen something that looked out of place. “Can you see that?” he whispered.

Jenny leaned forward and squinted her eyes. After a couple of seconds, the woman shook her head. “No. You've got me. What are you pointing at?”

He counted to five then moved forward a couple of paces then stopped again. Jenny had been right about taking no chances earlier on. The thing he'd pointed at still had not moved. Perhaps it wasn't going to move?

“Oh shit. I can see it now. What the bloody hell is that thing?”

Jenny tightened her grip on his hand then pulled him back. “No. Forget about it. Let's just get out of here.”

Jordan wasn't going to leave. Not this time. She had got her own way at the game shop. That wasn't going to happen here. His feelings told him it was too important. He gently pulled his hand out of her sweaty palm. “This won't take a moment.” Jordan turned around and strode over to his find before she could object. The feeling of her doing just that was pretty strong, he had no idea why either.

He stopped a metre away. At first, when Jordan had first noticed this, he thought it could be a dark green sleeping bag belonging to one of the small band of homeless who drift through the town during the summer. “Oh Jesus,” he mumbled, doing his best not the throw up at the vile stench drifting off it.

Jordan now understood Jenny's reaction. It looked like a giant pea pod, covered in finger-thick dark green tendrils which formed a web around the foul smelling object. He tentatively pressed the tip of his shoe against the surface, jumping back when the pressure caused the pod to release a jet of black fluid which splattered against the stall behind him.

“You stupid bastard, you just had to go and touch it.” Jenny grabbed his shoulders and dragged him away. “You've done it now.”

“Wait, you know what they are?” Several vines detached from the pod's surface and reared up. They grew in length a couple of inches until their tips touched the stall beside the pod. The vile smell suddenly intensified before the vines vanished through the wood. “Christ, what the fuck is that thing?”

“We need to go, right now, before…”

“Before what, Jenny? Before that pod thing down there magical grows a pair of legs and runs after us?”

“Shut up, you clown. What, do you think the dead things are the only problem we have to face in our new world?” She pulled Jordan further away. “Please, will you stop dragging your feet and come on! You don't know what that thing can do!”

Several more vines had broken off the pod and were now crawling up the side of the bookstall. They anchored themselves onto the wood then the tips bifurcated and began to grow away, heading towards a flower-stall on the other side of the walkway. “Tell me what is happening, Jenny!” he growled. “You've obviously seen this happen before.”

The woman shook her head. “I'm sorry,” she whispered. “I can't. They are dead now, there's no way we can help them. Please, let's go before it really is too late!”

Her words hit him like a sledgehammer! There were people in there and that thing was doing everything it could to get at them! “And I fucking activated it,” he moaned. “This is all my fault.” Jordan shrugged off her grip and raced back to the stall, ignoring the woman's panicked cries to come back. What the fuck was wrong with her? He couldn't leave people in there to suffer whatever fate that plantlike thing had for them. No way, it just wasn't right!

“Please, get back here!”

Jordan stopped dead, about a metre from one of the stalls when an agonised shriek blasted out of the bookstall. The noise chilled his blood and made his bladder want to release its contents. More than anything, it made Jordan want to spin around, run back to Jenny and to get as far away from here as quickly as possible. It didn't stop either. The screaming went on and on. Jordan looked at the flower-stall and then over his shoulder and Jenny who was now sat on the floor, rocking back and forwards.

He clenched his hands into fists and covered the last few steps towards the flower-stall in less than a second. Jordan bashed his fists as hard as he could against the door. “You need to get out of there right now!” he yelled. “Don't worry, it's safe out here, there's no dead things.” He glanced up and saw the growing vines had almost covered the gap between the two stalls. In the seconds since he last saw them, the thing had almost tripled in size.

Jordan smashed his fist against the wood again. Was there really anybody in there? The shrieking coming from the bookstall suddenly cut out, leaving a ringing in his ears. He leaned his body against the door and hoped that whatever agony those vines had inflicted on that unfortunate person hiding in that stall was over with and their soul could now rest in peace. Jordan pressed his ear against the door.

There was somebody in there, he could hear them moving about! Jordan stepped back, he was about to hit the wood again when he heard the sound of a lock clicking. At last! It took him a moment to realise that it wasn't the lock from the flower-stall!

He turned his head, while listening to his heart speed up. Above his head, the vines continued to grow, they had now reached the top of the door and unlike him, had no trouble in gaining access. Two of them had already pushed through the narrow gap between the door and the frame.

The door slowly opened. Jordan watched the bookstall, his mouth as dry as desert sand, unable to move his body despite being aware that two of those vines had split from the main column and were growing towards his head.

A middle-aged man, wearing a chequered waistcoat and pale jeans, burst out from inside the bookstall. He staggered three paces then fell to his knees. Apart from a few cuts on his cheeks, he looked in good shape. The man certainly wasn't dead, that's for sure! Jordan moved away from the door, noticing that the vines close to his head were starting to shrink away. Even the ones which had slid through the gap above the door were retreating towards the main column.

“Hello, are you alright?” he called to the man. “Do you need any assistance?” The man looked like he hadn't heard. He continued to stare at the floor. The only visible movement came from those vines which continued to retreat. Most of them had already shrunk back into the huge pod. Jordan noticed that it started to change its colour to match its surroundings. The last of the vines vanished inside and the rent across its top sealed up.

He shifted his attention away from the unexplainable object when the other man slowly turned his head. He got back onto his feet, while continuing to gaze at Jordan. “Do you want me to get help?” he spun around, moved away from the door to the flower-stall and tried to locate Jenny. Where the hell had she got to? “Don't you worry, my friend will be able to sort out those cuts on your face. Jenny is pretty good with first aid.”

There was no sign of her anywhere! Had she really left him? It sure looked that way. Jordan couldn't see her anywhere. Jordan glanced back at the other man. “Well, she was here a minute ago. I think she…” He shut his mouth when he saw the man obviously wasn't as fine as he first suspected.

It was clear that the bookseller wasn't looking at Jordan, as his gaze hadn't moved from the door to the flower-stall. The man wobbled back and forth then slid his left foot forward a couple of inches. “Do you need any help?” Jordan edged a little closer to the man then stopped dead when he spotted something move under the man's waistcoat.

“What the fuck was that?” The man moved his other foot forward then stopped as if to regain his balance. To Jordan's eyes, it looked like the man was learning how to walk.

Jordan was beginning to think that he should have listened to Jenny in the first place. Something was seriously wrong with this whole situation. Where the hell had she gone? Had the woman really left him inside the mall?

It looked like the other man was now getting the hang of walking. He had started to move with a little more confidence. As the man moved, so did whatever was under his waistcoat and Jordan now saw that this unnatural movement had spread down beneath both his trouser legs all the way to his ankles. The man reached the door, he placed both hands against the wood, spread his fingers out and pressed in.

“What are you doing?”

The man didn't respond, he simply continued to press his palms against the wood. The stench returned, worse than before. It took Jordan a second to work out that smell was drifting off the man and not the pod. In fact, the pod had now drastically reduced in size. The thing wasn't that much larger than a melon.

“Don't fucking ignore me. I asked you a question,” he growled. The man finally shifted his avid attention from the door. His head rotated away from the stall, continuing to swivel until he faced Jordan. “No, no way,” he spluttered. That's not even possible. “What the fuck are you, part owl?”

The rustling under the man's clothing grew more violent. Both his waistcoat and trousers began to strain as whatever lay under the material pushed against it. Jordan couldn't take any more of this weirdness. He thought his head was going to burst. As he slowly backed away from the man, those hands literally pushed through the wood, like the stuff was made from sponge. The screaming started up but it didn't come from the man or the inside of the book-stall. It now came from inside the flower-stall!

The man's fingers gripped the edges and tore the wood off, making the hole even larger.

Oh no, there really was someone hiding in there! Jordan didn't know what to do. That thing clearly wasn't human anymore. He couldn't leave whoever was still inside though, he just couldn't! Jordan took three paces closer. “Get away from there!” he shouted.

For his efforts, the other man-thing opened his own mouth. His jaw continued stretching until it reached his chest. At that point, Jordan knew he had to get the hell out of there but by the time he managed to get his leg muscles to respond, it was too late. The man's clothes shredded when the stuff underneath burst out.

Dozens of pale cream tendrils, covered in watery blood and tiny bits of flesh, whipped around his ankles and pulled him onto the floor then started to drag him closer to the man-thing. Jordan screamed out and struggled like mad while trying to pull the thin tendrils off his legs but the stuff was wedged tight.

The man-thing wasn't even looking at him anymore. It continued to rip off the wood, obviously only caring about reaching its next victim. The distance between him and the monster continued to decrease and the closer he got, the tighter the vines became. He felt himself beginning to black out due to the pain. When Jordan saw what awaited him, perhaps losing conciousness was a good thing.

The tattered remains of the man's skin had already fallen away, to reveal to tight network of flexible pipes of various width, coiled around each other and his spinal column but the spine had detached from the hip bone and in the space where his backside used to be was a swirling vortex of hundreds of hooked needle thin teeth and that is exactly where the vine were taking him.

He managed to flip himself onto his front. The only chance left for him was to see if he could grab the metal chair bolted to the stall he'd just been dragged past. Jordan's fingers scrabbled for the cold metal and after two attempts he was able to curl the tips of his fingers around the thin leg and he hung on for his life while those tendrils never once relinquished their prize catch.

He howled as the pain grew more intense, vaguely aware that his skin around his ankles had already torn in several places. In his mind’s eye, Jordan believed his skin had slipped down his ankle like a bloodied sock.

The faint hope that perhaps his blood would make everything too slippery for the tendrils to keep hold vanished when his body lifted a couple of inches off the floor.

His fingers started the slip, there was no way he'd be able to keep hold of the chair leg for much longer. Everything was going grey. Maybe he should let go already. Why delay the inevitable? Jordan let go of the chair and the same time the pressure around his ankles vanished.

Jordan slammed his hands on the floor, saving his nose from damage, then rolled onto his back. The man-thing must have decided not to consume him after all. He had no idea why, nor did he care. Jordan craved just one thing right now and that was to crawl away from this place and sleep for a week.

“Oh God. You really do look like shit. Here, let me get you up.”

He recognised that voice. The market roof tilted backwards as he moved forwards. The concerned face of the woman who previously told him they were going to share a bath together, helped Jordan up into a sitting position. Fat chance of him having a bath now, not for a while. Oh Christ, look at his ankles, those vines had mangled his flesh! He looked like he'd been paddling in tomato soup!

“We need to see if you can stand up. It'll be preoccupied for another few minutes but after that, the bastard will come back for you. That much I can guarantee.”

She waved a lawn trimming tool in front of him, she must have used that to cut through the vines. Clever girl.

“This won't stop it. Now, are you ready? This is going to hurt.”

The woman moved out of his vision and Jordan now discovered why everything had gone so quiet and why he was still alive. The man-thing had broken through the door, entered that flower-stall and already immobilised the woman hiding in there. She lay on the floor in amongst the crushed remains of her stock, with the man-thing sitting on her hips.

Its hands were spread over her breasts, while those vines, which had previously threatened to pull Jordan into that gaping maw, had regrown and were now in the process of winding around her still body. It was difficult to work out where the vines started and the woman's crushed flowers ended.

“Okay, let's do this,” said Jenny. “Are you ready for more pain?”

He nodded, despite not being ready at all. The woman gave him the lawn edging tool.

“Use this to help you get up.”

She then put his other arm around her shoulder and held his hand tight. When Jenny slowly stood up, Jordan's view shifted once more and he finally saw the woman's face. It was his mother.

Chapter Nine

“Oh, God. Mum!”

The blanket fell onto his knees when Jordan sat bolt upright. He stifled a gasp and threw himself back down. What the hell was he thinking of? It's almost like he wanted those dead things to smash through the car windows, drag him out onto the pavement and eat his fucking face!

Okay, so Necrovoid, being the bitch that it was, showed him some weird plant-thing monster 'changing' her into God knows what the manic sexually-repressed software designers cooked up. Like he hadn't already seen her devolved already? Jordan slowly pulled the blanket back up to his chin and silently counted to ten.

By the time he reached five, the idea that the dead things might not be dragging him outside began to form. The optimism gained more weight when Jordan hit the magic ten. He gave it another ten count, just to be sure before rolling onto his front and peering over the edge of the glass.

The only movement he saw were the ornamental trees, planted along the edge of the path on the other side of the street. Their top branches swayed with the wind. Nothing else moved. The dead things had either wandered off, in search of more food, or they were hiding. Jordan then  remembered how the dead in Necrovoid hid under the cars and his traitorous imagination showed him the image of two pairs of hands ripping away this vehicle's undercarriage while he lay on the seat above, his bulging eyes unable to tear away from the spectacle of their fingers inching closer and closer to his tender flesh.

“Christ on a bike,” he whispered. “What is wrong with you?” Jordan took a deep breath then sit up again. As far as he was concerned, that mind of his could go fuck itself. He might not be able to live without it but he could, on occasion, blank the fucking thing. Jordan even slapped the floor, just to prove that nothing had slid under the car.

He climbed onto the back seat while searching for movement out of the opposite window. Aside from a couple of starlings pecking at an old bicycle wheel on top of Mrs Spicer's garden shed, it really did look like it should be safe to leave the car.

Jordan pulled the sensenet  off his head and dropped it beside him and stared at it for a few seconds. Just how had his device ended up inside the car in the first place? He knew that Barry had banged on about hiding the damn thing so he'd never find it, not in a million years but he knew what Barry was like. He would have just thrown it inside the washing machine, or dropped it into the cornflake box in the cupboard or screwed it up and hid it inside a shoe. Basically, nothing that elaborate.

His house still offered sanctuary. Even with the broken windows. Jordan knew Barry would have felt the same, especially after travelling all the way from the other side of town. Would he have had to avoid the window-smashing, speed-junkie super-zombies at some point? You could bet your bottom dollar at that one, which meant his best mate sure as fuck wouldn't have left the house just to place this damn sensenet  inside this car. So where did that leave him?

How about with yet another unanswered question to add to the ever growing pile of unanswered questions? Jordan picked up the sensenet  dropped it by his feet then covered it with the blanket, while secretly believing that when the time came to enter Necrovoid again, that bastard thing will be right where he needed it to be.

There was one particular question which he did need an answer to. Jordan looked across at his bedroom window, knowing that before long, he would be back in there. Right now though, he couldn't leave the safety of this car without at least dispensing with one task, to see if he could figure out the identity of the real Jenny, the dead guy from the shotgun shop as well as this Harry guy, whoever the fuck he was.

Those three were just another piece of this huge, nonsensical puzzle which appeared to be hitting on his head at every opportunity. Just like the mysterious appearance of that sensenet , the chances of those three almost hitting him was just astronomical.

He leaned over the passenger seat, checking down the side first. He spotted a few empty sweet wrappers beside the handbrake but nothing else of interest. Jordan reached over and pressed in the glove box button. The door fell open to reveal an inch-high pile of folded, white papers lying on top of a road map with a bright red apple next to them. He pulled out the apple, inspected it for blemishes before throwing it on the back seat. He'd eat that later. Jordan grabbed the papers and sat back down, almost expecting to see an achievement unlocked icon flash in the corner of his vision until he remembered that this wasn't the game.

The image of seeing himself plugged into Necrovoid and sitting on his bed flashed before his eyes. Once again, he found that his traitorous mind was always on hand to remind him of just how fragile his grasp on reality really was. Jordan examined his options and came up with his only real choice. He told his mind to go fuck itself.

That didn't work though, not this time, as his mind followed up the planting the seed that he might still be in Necrovoid by reminding him that the last time he glanced upon his dotty neighbour's shed roof, he saw a frying pan and a lampshade. Where did the bicycle wheel come from?

“Fuck off,” he muttered. “Leave me alone.”

Jordan turned the pile of papers over and over. A red elastic band kept the bundle together but by the looks of it, that band was not going to be able to keep doing its job for much longer. The rubber had frayed in a number of places. A sharp jerk should be all it took to snap the band, which is exactly what he did. The band flew off and vanished, leaving him with several sheets of yellowing paper with absolutely nothing written on any of them.

“What the hell is this?” Jordan unfolded them all and laid them flat on top of each other on the car seat. It wasn't until Jordan reached the last sheet when he actually found something of interest, although the word was very loosely defined as he had never, in his life, found the picture of a sword in red silhouette remotely interesting. He went through the sheets one more time, just in case he'd missed anything. Nothing, not a thing, apart from that sword picture. He so wanted to hit something. So much for unlocking any achievement. What was the point of that? Jordan pulled out the last object and unfolded the map over the seat. The map showed an unknown town in high detail. Jordan frowned. It's strange how it all seemed familiar but at the same time strange. He folded it up and pushed it back into the glove box. He then changed his mind pulled it back out, folded it again and pushed it into his back pocket.

It was time to investigate the mystery of the second Jordan, a task that he so was not looking forward to. After grabbing the apple, he slowly opened the car door, checked and double-checked to make sure no dead things were on their way back, then left the car. He ran over to the kerb, turned around and crouched so he could look under the car.

“There you go, traitorous mind, there's fuck all there.” Jordan jogged back towards his house while reassuring himself that going home would be the last place his dead family would be, well, except for Susan. They were just creatures with only their primal instincts working. They only craved fresh meat and that was one thing that wasn't in the house. “Well, except his other self.” No, that was an illusion, there's only one of him and he was right here, just about to reach the garden gate.

Jordan stopped, before he did enter the house, perhaps now was a good time to examine exactly what happened in the game? If Barry had been right, and there was no reason not to think he was, what happened in Necrovoid kinda mirrored or at least was related to what was occurring in the real world, meaning discovering the plant pod and what it did to the man before attacking his game-mum had to be important. It's clear Jenny had prior experience with those things and they just had to be crucial to the narrative because of the way she reacted upon the first sight.

Could they be the cause of the infection in the game? If that was the case, then exactly how did they fit into the plot as well as the conspiracy? Jordan frowned. That reminded him, what the hell was the conspiracy now? Hell, in the first insertion the game had literally laid out for him. Jordan had known exactly what had happened as well as who or what was responsible. Now. Well, now he knew absolutely bugger all. It's as if with each insertion, some piece of the first game is either masked over or changed completely, like the game showed the newbie all the juicy bits to hook them in before throwing the user in the shit on the second game.

“You've seen the box belonging to the jigsaw puzzle, now I take it away.” Yeah, that sounded about right. The simple fact was, until he entered the game again, Jordan would have to confine himself to guessing.

There was also the game shop in the shopping mall to think about, namely why did it hold such attraction to his other self. That was yet another mystery he wouldn't be able to solve until he re-entered Necrovoid. Until that moment, all Jordan could do was to...

There was someone in his house! While he'd been sodding wool-gathering, stood in the open, vulnerable and exposed, a face had appeared at his window. Jordan ducked behind the dense bushes. Had she seen him? Well, he'd soon discover the answer to that dilemma if Susan jumped through the glass, raced down the lawn and dived through his mum's cherry laurel.

What was he going to do now? The panic he previously felt when he realised that leaving the house was his only option, reared its ugly head. "Wait in the car? Wait for what? Yeah, that's right, maybe she'll die again and this time, stay dead. Oh wait, no. She'll be sneaking out of her house when it gets dark to meet up with her secret boyfriend. Was he dead too?"

Jordan could hear himself muttering but he no longer cared. He could let his voice continue chatting shite while the sane part of his head figured out what to do next. Hell, at least it was a bit of company until he met up with Jenny. She'd know what to do to.

For one thing, Jenny sure as fuck wouldn't go into town, not in this world anyway. At least you could get away from the dead things in Necrovoid. The woman wouldn't stay here either, being out in the open, in one spot was just asking for trouble. Come to think of it, so was going back to the car.

“Come on then, Jenny. Little miss high and mighty, the one woman, digital or otherwise, who'd dropped all my emotions into a paper shredder and pressed the button. What are we going to do?”

Several seconds passed with no forthcoming reply from his imaginary, CGI love of his life, until he remembered that she had already told him what to do in Necrovoid, back when she'd just rescued Jordan from the clutches of his dead wife. Locate more survivors, find weapons and find food.

Jordan had no idea where to even start to look for anything that had the power to stop the new super-zombies short of an anti-tank weapon and that is one piece of ordinance that Jordan wasn't going to stumble over. He guessed there could be some shotguns inside the farms on the edge of town. Hell, there could even be one or two illegal guns stashed away in one of the houses in the middle of the estate. Neither option really appealed, not when it meant walking past literally hundreds of windows where behind each one, a super-zombies could be waiting, just for him to walk past, all unsuspecting like. The last thing that Jordan would ever hear was the sound of breaking glass.

He shivered. No, bollocks to that. There had to be an alternative. There was. Search each house, starting with Mrs Spicer's place. That sounded like a safer plan. He doubted that the old bag would have much in the way of weaponry, but she was bound to have food of some description squirrelled away.

The woman's house beckoned! Jordan ran past his gate, after checking the coast was clear, before he leaped over the old woman's gate. As Jordan approached the back door it did occur to him that if his dead sister hadn't been standing by his bedroom window, at the exact moment he reached the garden, he would have gone straight into his house without any knowledge that Susan was no longer trapped in her bedroom. Even with an empty stomach cavity, he just knew his life would be over, the moment she saw him. Unencumbered with the ballast. He viewed the dead thing would be even faster than his deceased parents.

“A super, super zombie.” he murmured. Jordan tried to block out the ridiculous image of his sister in blue spandex, with a red cape, flying over the rooftops while her flesh rotted off and focussed on how he was going to get inside if the woman's door was locked.

He tried the handle, not too surprised to find it locked. Mrs Spicer's brain might have gone walkabout into the past but some of her facilities were still buzzing around in that big empty head. Jordan took a step back to see if any windows were open. Again, not shocked to find the place shut up tight. He only had one choice left.

Jordan selected a nice rounded rock from the edge of the woman's flower bed, stepped over Mrs Spicer's daffodils and approached the living room window. It felt so strange to see the house from this angle.

Their family moved in here just before he was born and in all that time, they had the mad woman as a neighbour. Back when he was younger, Jordan did actually go outside but tended to stay away from the house on account his older sister had this annoying habit of trying to land him into trouble for anything that entered her sadistic mind. This included trashing their neighbours' gardens and blaming him or shoplifting from the corner shop and planting the goodies in his bedroom.

The only way he was able to avoid punishment was by ensuring he had an alibi. That generally ended up to be either Barry or his parents. Playing anywhere near his own house was far too dangerous.

Jordan ducked under the window and listened for any sound which may give away her presence. If Mrs Spicer was inside, then she'd be probably watching TV. It took him the time for a single bee to hop across four flowers before he remembered the fucking power had gone. “You idiot,” he muttered to himself.

He jumped up and pressed his nose against the glass, to find the Mrs Spicer staring right back at him. Jordan stifled a panicked yelp, turned and tripped over his own feet, and fell into the flowers. Panting and moaning, he scrambled to his feet and ran back to the closed gate. It wasn't until he'd fumbled open the gate when he realised that there had been no breaking glass. He dared himself to look back.

The scene had not changed, with the exception of the flattened flowers, the place looked just as it was when he first entered this garden. Jordan looked at his own house then back to this one, while trying to work out what to do. He'd been fucking inches from the old woman and yet, he was still breathing. He knew that if that had happened earlier while fleeing from his parents, he definitely wouldn't be here to have this mental dilemma. It might be a better idea to skip over this one and try the next house.

The Soaper family lived at number twenty-two. All five of them. The parents and three teen boys. No, fuck that. Going up against five super-zombies inside a confined space was suicide. He wouldn't even make it out of the kitchen! Jordan retraced his steps. Perhaps she was still alive but sleeping? Okay, so her eyes were open, but he had heard of some people possessing this ability. Maybe she was in a trace, or the woman might actually be really dead, as in dead like it used to be before all this happened?

He grabbed his stone. His answer would soon become apparent. Jordan brought his arm back and lobbed the missile at the window, aiming for the bottom left corner. If she was still alive, Jordan had no wish for his stone to smack her on the bonce. He was dealing with enough traumatic issues right now without adding murder to the list.

The tremendous crashing his stone made when it smashed through that window was probably heard in the next county. Jordan brushed away thoughts of every super-zombie in town stopping what they were currently doing in order to investigate the sudden noise and walked through the already destroyed flower bed.

Mrs Spicer hadn't moved in inch. Did this mean that the old dear really had passed to the other side? That there would be no sudden arm grabbing when Jordan climbed through the hole he'd made? He picked a piece of old, rotting fence post up from against the wall and proceeded to knock out the loose glass. He winced at the noise it made when the damn stuff fell inside and smashed when it landed on the edge of the old woman's coffee table but what choice did he have? Something told him that the super-zombies were more likely to react to the scent of flowing blood from his cut arm rather than the sound of glass breaking.

It took him another few seconds to clear out enough for him to climb inside without the fear of slicing open an artery. He still expected the woman's eyes to start following him as Jordan climbed through the window. That fear soon vanished when he jumped off the beige sofa and approached her and prodded the woman’s arm.

“Oh, Jesus!” he gasped, jumping back. When Jordan had been of the tender age of seven, his granddad passed away. The family had an open casket. When the others had left the coffin and gone into the living room for the default cucumber sandwiches and wine, his sister dared him to put his hand inside and touch him. To prove to the cow that he was no yellow custard coward, Jordan had dome just that.

Mrs Spicer had felt exactly the same, cold, very dry and just a little unpleasant. It kinda made him grateful as well as a little sad. Grateful for not having to tackle yet another deadly super-zombie but sad because, unlike his granddad, there would be nobody left to mourn the old lady or to put her in the ground. If Jordan really was experiencing first hand, the end of days, then poor Mrs Spicer would stay in this position of kneeling on the end of her sofa while resting her chin on the back. The only time she was ever going to move was when her flesh rotted into the fabric causing her skeleton to collapse.

He walked over to the living room door, wondering what could have happened to her. Heart failure maybe? That sounded about right especially considering her position. He imagined her looking out of the window, probably confused as to why the birdies were not eating that rather tasty looking bicycle wheel when, all of a sudden, two super-zombies come out of nowhere and tear into to some little girl who'd just happened to pass Mrs Spicer's gate on her little pink bicycle. Something like that was liable to give anyone heart failure.

Jordan gave the old woman's backside a little wave then opened the door and stepped into the hallway. Several framed prints, each one showing a picturesque scene of the same country cottage hung upon the wall opposite. The kitchen door was already open and from his vantage point, Jordan saw even more prints of a similar design on the far wall. He guessed that somebody must like that house. Perhaps she once lived there as a kid? He mentally shrugged. Who cared? Did he not already have enough on his plate without filling his battered head with even more trivia? As for plates, that reminded him as to one of the reasons why he had risked his neck to get inside this place.

There was a narrow route along the once-maroon carpet, leading to the kitchen as well as another door which he guessed would take him to the bottom of the stairs. Mrs Spicer obviously never threw anything away. Dozens of supermarket carrier bags, packed full of crap were piled high against each wall.

This place looked like someone had tipped the contents of a landfill site onto her carpet. Christ, what a dump, literally. No bloody wonder their local feline population were given such weird stuff to eat. It did make him wonder why nobody had brought this up before. She had a family. When they first moved in, His mum used to tell him about the woman's son who was always tinkering with cars fit only for the scrapyard. Apparently, Mrs Spicer's garden wasn't always such a tidy place. The renovation only happened when the son moved out, leaving all his car parts behind.

He stopped by the kitchen doorway. His mum never told him what happened to the garden, Jordan guessed that either somebody got onto the council or the woman paid somebody to get shut of the stuff. He decided to go for the latter. After all, if the council saw the state of this house, they'd have brought in the social straight away.  Perhaps he ought to thank the woman for going down that route. Who knows what family might have moved in here when the social service put the mad old bat into a home.

The kitchen offered nothing much in the way of food, aside from a half empty box of cornflakes that he found under the sink. He left that where it was, Christ know how long it had been there. Due to the colony of beetles nesting inside, Jordan guessed it had been there for quite a while. The cupboards were all stuffed with even more carrier bags. Jordan began to think that this had been a huge waste of time, until he turned around and saw that the wall opposite held something a little more useful than a picture of a stupid cottage.

“You have got to be kidding!” he murmured, walking closer to his all time greatest find in the whole of today. Jordan spun around, knocked a blue plastic basket full of screwed up newspaper off a wooden dining chair and dragged the chair over to the wall. He then climbed on to the seat and lightly ran his fingers along the handle.

Just what this strange old woman was doing with a samurai sword displayed on the wall was beyond his power to answer but there's no way that he intended to leave it there. Thankfully, it wasn't bolted to the wall, she or whoever put it up here, had rested it precariously on three thick hooks. It came off the wall with the minimum of ease. In fact, it came off as little too easy for his liking.

Jordan stepped down and held the sword in front of him. He looked at where he'd removed it and then at the door leading to the garden directly below. All it would have taken for this sword to fall off was a single door slam. He sat on the chair and looked outside while considering what to do next. This had been the prize of the century, that's for sure. He now might actually stand a chance of surviving the outside.

Jordan swung the sword, getting a feel for the weapon. Over three years had passed since he'd played Samurai Alien Killers in the town's gaming arcade, but he obviously hadn't forgotten the moves. He jumped back and spun around while bringing the blade down on the back of the chair. Jordan found himself grinning from ear to ear upon seeing the sword cut through the wooden slats with hardly any effort. This thing was sharp!

This was the first time he'd ever handled a proper sword but that didn't seem to matter. Obviously, the creators of Samurai Alien Killers had done their research and it so pleased him to discover that the skills he'd picked up in the immersive game had not gone to waste! Jordan tried out his signature move on the woman's kitchen counter. The weapon almost made it through the full thickness before getting stuck.

“Not a bad effort,” he said, prising the sword out of the compressed chipwood. “I think I’ll give you an impressive eight out of ten.”

Feeling so much better for acquiring something of actual use, Jordan left the kitchen and walked over to the door leading to the stairs, hoping he might find something on the next level. As he climbed the stairs, while listening out for anything that might betray the presence of somebody else, Jordan pondered the possibility that something might be seriously wrong with his mental facilities. It had been the total lack of empathy that he showed to that dead woman that tipped him off. It shouldn't matter that Jordan hardly knew her, she had still been a person. Then again, considering what he'd been through, already, should he not be all that surprised to find himself becoming desensitised to the horror of death? After all, in the past few hours, Jordan had lost everyone remotely close to him. Hell, saying that, none of his family had been all that close to him for a good few years. Even so, Jordan couldn't have shed all his deep feelings for his family? What was he, some kind of psychopath? He really had no answer to his question. It's not like he had any from of reference over what to do in the event of a zombie outbreak. Well, apart from his DVD collection of films and TV shows, in the genre, as well as the books he had collected over the years on the subject, as well as the games. Apart from the games that his mum took off him. That stuff was no good, it was all fiction. Everybody knew that zombies were about as real as Santa Claus.

He reached the top step and looked out of the window. It felt weird to see his house from this view. Wait, was that movements that he spotted in the top left window? That was his parent's bedroom! He leaned a little closer and watched, hardly daring to breath at the sight of his sister's head appearing and disappearing. “Just what the fuck is going on?” It looked like she was jumping on the bed! “Okay, so that has to go right to the top of odd things I've seen today,” he muttered.

He moved away from the window and walked over to the first door, resisting the temptation to go back to that window, knowing his luck, he'd see his sister still jumping on the bed but this time accompanied by Santa, his reindeer, while one of the elves filmed it.

“Focus on the task, Jordan,” he muttered.

As the house was the same design as this, that door ought to lead to the bathroom. He gave that one a miss, doubting he'd find anything of value in there. Jordan crossed to the next door. In his house, this would be where his sister had spent her time, plotting and planning schemes in which to make his life a misery.

The door opened with a single soft push to reveal nothing but blackness. He stepped inside and looked around. There was a narrow spear of white light which illuminated what looked like yet another carrier bag. Once his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, he figured out that the old woman had, at some point in the past, put some wooden boards across the window.

He could now make out a little more detail. Jordan spotted another dining chair at the back of the room, next to a single bed. Did she sleep in here? He reached for the torch, not realising until his fingers brushed over the edges of the map, that the torch was in Necrovoid.

“Come on, Jordan, man. Get a grip.” He turned around. There was nothing in here apart from more irrelevant questions. In fact, why was he still in this house at all? The only person who lived here was dead. He'd got the sword, shouldn't he be looking through the contents of another house for supplies and more survivors?

Jordan reached for the edge of the door, his thoughts had strayed back to going home, to check his bedroom one more time before continuing with the search when he heard rustling behind him. He spun around, his eyes squinting, looking into the darkness for signs that something was in here with him. Could his movement disturbed a rat or mouse? He backed away, not stopping until his feet banged against the doorframe. That sounded about right, It made sense that this place was infested with vermin. There must be enough crap in this house to keep half the town's rodent population happy.

The sound of wood scraping against wood reached his ears, then something else shifted, at the back of the room. No rat could have caused that, not unless it was the size of a donkey. “Is there anybody there?”

A single cough answered his demand. Jordan resisted the urge to slam the bedroom door and beat a retreat. “Who's there? Come on, out you get. I won't tell you twice, I'll just shoot.”

“You're going to shoot me with your sword?” inquired a voice coming from the back of the room. “How does that work then?”

He almost did shut the door and run off when he was answered, almost believing that his dad was inside there. His mind caught up with his instinct to flee, a moment later and gently reminded him that his old man had joined the ranks of the super-zombies. The voice simply belonged to a man similar in age to his dad, that's all. Jordan tightened his grip on the sword. The doorway made it difficult to perform his signature move, but he'd still be able to thrust the point into the back of the stranger's skull if he did prove to be a danger. A pair of hands appeared from behind the back of a wardrobe, followed by the rest of the man's body. As the stranger slowly approached Jordan, he began to notice that something about him wasn't quite right. The fact that he flinched when Jordan shifted his position, and that he hadn't yet stood up told him as much. Still on all fours, the middle-aged man stopped in front of Jordan, sat on his backside with his legs crossed, then held out a grubby, calloused hand.

“Hi, it is nice to meet you. My name is Matt. What is your name? That's a pretty sword. My mum had one just like that. She's dead now, and I am not sad at all about this development. Would you like some cheese?”

The man was somewhere between forty and seventy, in this poor light, it was difficult to tell. The man's childlike manner did not help at all. Jordan stepped back without offering his hand. He had this strange picture of grubbily dressed chatterbox grabbing the offered limb, pulling him into his dark lair and doing to Jordan exactly what the sure-zombies wanted to do to his body earlier. He blinked. “Wait, you're Mrs Spicer's son?”

The man nodded. “Yep. That’s me. The one and only. You know it is really nice to meet you too. I guess you don't want to shake my hand? That’s not a problem, most people never wanted to before she took away the light either, on account of me always covered in grease and muck.” He got to his feet, picked up what looked like an old miniature television and stuffed it into the back of his jeans pocket. “ Hey, do you want to race me?”

Before Jordan could answer that bizarre question, the man took off, still on all fours, he streaked past him, reached the top of the stairs and ran down. Jordan heard him running from room to room, laughing and whooping. This went on for another few seconds before he ran back up the stairs and collapsed on the landing. He rolled onto his back.

“Gosh. That was so much fun!” he announced while panting heavily. “You know, I've wanted to do that for years. I kinda reached the point where I thought I'd spend the last of my days in that room. Hey, what about beef pate, do you like that?” Matt sat up. “You've grown, you know. The last time I saw your happy little face, you were like five or something. Wait, have I been in there so long? God, it's so good to talk, to have an actual conversation. Would you believe I was even having second thoughts about killing her?”

To think that he thought watching his dead sister jump on his parents' bed would be the weirdest thing to happened to him. Jordan walked past the middle-aged man, gave him a little wave then slowly made his way down the stairs, not too shocked to find Matt following him at a discreet distance.

Fine, let the strange man follow him back home. It would be nice to have an audience while he got his own back on the sister which made his life a complete misery from practically the moment he was born. Going back home kinda fit in to his goals as well. True, Jordan needed to see if his other self was still there but there was still the problem of food, and he knew that tin of hot-dogs that he'd taken out of the cupboard yesterday was still sitting on his bookcase.

He stopped at the bottom of the steps, suddenly feeling a little sick and disoriented.

“Hey, are you alright?”

Jordan nodded. “Yeah, thanks,” he replied. Jordan made his way into the hallway and then through the into the kitchen. “I don't suppose you know where the key is for that door, do you?”

“I do indeed, young sir.”

Matt nodded while wearing the biggest grin he had ever seen on a person of that age. It made him look a little slow, although, Jordan doubted that he was. If his parents had locked him in a dark bedroom, he guessed that after twenty years, he'd be a little peculiar too. Maybe not as extreme as this guy though. What twenty years of confinement where your only source of conversation is some mad fruitcake who feeds bicycle parts to birds compared to surviving the start of a zombie apocalypse? True, Matt the weirdo is also now part of the zombie scenario but as he was already on the same path as his mum went, it didn't really count.

“Sure I know where the key is. Mum always kept it in the same place. Always had and always will. Are we going outside? Ha! Of course, we are, why else would you need the key?” Matt scrambled over to the drawer underneath the microwave covered in used teabags, opened it and dug inside, muttering as he searched the contents.

Why did he go dizzy earlier? It had something to do with that tin of hotdogs, that's for sure. Was there a tin of pineapples next to the hotdogs too, or was that in the game? Jordan wasn't sure now.

Matt slapped the key into Jordan's palm. “There you go. Good old Matt came up trumps yet again.” He ran over to the kitchen door. “Wait a minute, please. Can you do that? I just need to collect some things first. You won't go without me will you?”

Jordan shook his head. “No, I won't go without you.” He wasn't lying either. The guy, if a little odd was kinda fun company, also, unlike everyone else he'd ever fucking known, had no inclination to bully him, boss him about or, in Barry's case, believe he knew better than him. He listened to Matt run back up the steps while he pushed the key into the key, turn it and open the door. Fresh air battered his face. It smelled glorious. Until now, he hadn't realised just how stuffy this house was.

“Okay, here I am. All set for the great adventure. Isn't this fun, Jordan? You know, this will be the first time that I've been outside since mum took away my toys and punished me. Still, she got what she deserved and that's all I have to say on the matter.”

“That's nice,” replied Jordan. “Do you think it's possible for you to shut your hole then? As I'm not that keen on confronting a horde of super-zombies armed only with this sword. An assault rifle or maybe a Leopard 2 main battle tank, then I wouldn't really mind.”

“Sure, whatever you say, boss.”

Did he just detect a hint of sarcasm in the man's voice just then? “You don't want to get eaten, do you?” he turned around. “Are you even aware what has happened?”

Matt nodded. “Sure I do, boss” he replied. That grin never left his face. “I saw all the classic horror movies back when I was a kid. When there's no more room in hell. The dead will... Well, you probably know the rest.” Matt pushed past him, ran over to the gate and pulled it open. “I’m Ready when you are, boss!”

Jordan put the sword on his shoulder and made his way down the path, His gaze darted from the man's gormless expression and over to his house. He couldn't shake the feeling that his sister was now waiting for him. Perhaps he ought not to bother and explore another house. After all, he knew for a fact that there were nobody else in there who still lived, not unless his parents had a secret child they kept in the loft.

He reached the gate, still deciding what to do, when Matt made the decision for him by running down the path, opening his gate and scooting up to his back door. “Christ, you're so going to get yourself killed, Matt!” He ran after him. By the time Jordan reached the door, Matt had already crawled inside.

He got down on his knees. The man's head poked out through the broken window.

“Come on through! Your sister is still upstairs. You have a lovely house, it's a lot cleaner than mine. You know, it's odd to walk through rooms and not seeing carrier bags everywhere.”

Jordan bit his bottom lip to stop himself from releasing a verbal outburst. He just waited until the man moved out of the way before he crawled through the hole. He placed his sword on the table and walked over to the cupboard, he had no idea what had made him do this, only that he just needed to see if that tin of hotdogs was still inside. Right at that moment, needing to know this was even more important than checking his bedroom for his other self.

The cupboard door swung open of its own volition. “What the fuck is going on here?” Dozens of tins of hotdogs filled the top shelf, while tins of pineapples occupied the bottom shelf. Jordan spun around, intending to ask his new weird pal if he had any clue. Matt had picked up the sword and was using the tip to deface his mum's table. “Put that down, right now!”

Matt shook his head. “No, finders keepers.” He darted out of the kitchen and ran up the stairs.

“This is getting beyond a joke,” he growled, racing after him. Jordan reached the top of the stairs, to see Matt run into his bedroom. “You little shit. Give me that back!” He ran across the hallway. He was so focussed on getting his pride and joy back, that he hadn't noticed his parents' bedroom door now stood ajar until it was too late.

His sister ran out of the room, her arms outstretched. He yelped, dropped to the floor and rolled to the left. She followed him down, her knees landing on Jordan's ankle. He screamed out as the sudden pain enveloped his leg. Susan's arm snaked towards his face. He could only watch, helpless, as those jagged fingernails streaked forward.

The view suddenly changed as another hand grabbed Susan's hair and dragged her off his body. Matt ran around grabbed Jordan by the wrists and dragged him into the bedroom. The older man slammed the door shut.

“Phew, that was a close one!” he said, while giggling.

Jordan sat up. He carefully rolled up his trouser leg. It hurt so much! “Thanks for saving my life. Can I have my sword back now? You know, before she bursts through that door and eats the pair of us?”

Matt shook his head. “I’m sorry, boss, but it doesn't work like that.” He picked up the sword that he had leaned against the side of Jordan's wardrobe, he then opened the door and climbed inside.

“What the fuck are you playing at?”

Matt closed the door. “Your sister will be through that door at any second, Jordan. You have only two options. Look at what's on your bed.”

“Open this sodding door and give me my sword back, you weird freakazoid!”

Matt laughed. “That's not going to happen. Now, do as you're fucking told, you annoying shit. Christ, haven't you got it yet?”

The sudden change in Matt's voice scared him even more than the imminent threat of his sister bursting through the door. “Barry? Are you in there as well?” Jordan thought his head was going to burst. He backed away from the wardrobe. Not stopping until his legs hit his bed. Jordan turned around. The sensenet  lay in the middle of his bed covers.

“Well done,” said the voice from the wardrobe. “Now put it on. Jenny has some things to explain to you and when you come back out, I'll do the same.”

What other choice did he have? Jordan climbed on the bed, rolled the sensenet  over his head, just as his bedroom door burst open.

Chapter Ten

Sixth Insertion

They sat on the wall outside the shopping mall. Jordan took another bite out of an apple he found on the wall beside him, while Jenny carefully wrapped a bandage around his ankle. It had been almost an hour since that plant-pod monster almost killed him and in the intervening time, all he had really cared about was for his ankle to stop feeling like someone had forced it into a wood chipper. The pain had only receded somewhat when Jenny had pushed open the fire-door, a few metres away and led them into the twilight.

“Thank you for saving my life, yet again.”

Jenny finished off tying the bandage, stood up and sat next to him. “If you had listened to me in the first place, this wouldn't have happened.”

“Yeah, thanks for the reminder,” he replied. “You could have just told me, you know.” The pain really had diminished, he might even be up to hobbling to the other shop. The town looked so different now. There wasn't much sunlight left and back before this happened, all the street-lights would have come on by now. If they didn't set off soon, then as weird as it sounded, they might end up getting lost in his own town. The cloudy sky ensured no moon or stars would help them light their way either.

“I think we should make a start, Jenny.” He started to get up, only for her to push him back down.

“Wait,” she said.”Not yet. Look over there.”

He followed her pointed finger and spotted movement close to a bus stop. It was another dead thing. It didn't seem to be moving very fast. “I wonder what it's doing?”

“I would guess that it's waiting for a bus.”

“Don't take the piss, Jenny.”

“I'm not. We've noticed this type of phenomenon a few times. The dead, trying to replicate motions from the time they were alive. I think it's a little sad, you know.”

“Great, so we're stuck here?”

“It won't be long, give it a few minutes and it'll wander off.”

Jordan threw the apple core behind him.”In that case, why don't you tell exactly what that plant thing in the shopping centre was doing.”

Jenny just looked at her feet. She then took a deep breath. “I hadn't realised any of those bastard things were still around. Finding one more, just like that, well. Well, it kinda freaked me out.” She took another jagged breath. “Like that isn't the understatement of the decade.” The woman lifted her gaze and looked straight at him. “They are the cause of all this, Jordan. Those things are responsible for this whole fucking nightmare. Barry called them Seeder pods, and the poor bastards who were caught, like the man in the book shop, Barry called them Seeders. I guess the name speaks for itself, you know? Although I had never heard of a Seeder physically attacking another human like that before. The ones we saw, just staggered into the closest crowd and detonated.”

“They what?”

“Detonated. You know, exploded. It wasn't like blood everywhere, people picking out tiny bits of flesh and bone fragments out of their hair or anything, it was more like watching the contents of an over-full vacuum cleaner bag exploding. We think that the Seeder pods converted their captured humans into some kind of spore factory and it's the spores which turned living humans into dead, walking humans.”

“Fucking hell, that's just horrid.”

She nodded. “That's not the worst of it.”

“How can it get any worse?” he asked.

“In the first wave, the Seeders only infected a small percentage. It was enough to cause a panic, obviously, but the authorities managed to contain it. They imposed some pretty draconian measures, at least, that's what it looked like to us.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, the usual, curfews, shooting anybody remotely suspicious. Raiding houses belonging to people suspected of harbouring a dead thing. That kinda stuff. It was working though, so most people didn't kick up a fuss. It's only when the second wave hit and even more people were infected when the panic really did set in.” Jenny wiped her eyes. “I lost most of my friends in the second wave.”

“I'm sorry.”

Don’t bother, there’s no need, it's not like you knew them, is it? Anyway, by that time, order had just about broken down. That's when they struck again.” She looked back at the fire-door. “Christ. We are so fucked now.”

“No we’re not. We've survived the worst of it. All we need to do is get tooled up, get some food and meet up with your friends.”

“You still don't get it. Tell me something, why do you think we haven't been changed yet?”

He shrugged. ”I'm not sure, because we're immune?”

“Yeah, Barry said the exact thing.” Jenny jumped off the wall. “Come on, let's see if you can walk on that leg.”

“Wait, don't stop. What are you getting at?”

Jenny pulled him up and made Jordan walk a few steps. The pain wasn't too bad now, it just felt numb and every so often, his whole leg twitched but on the whole, he felt confident that he'd be able to complete the journey to the shop.

“What I mean is that most people were immune to the effects of the first wave.” She paused to lick her lips. “The plant-pod things must have known this would happen. No two people are the same, you know? The second wave changed even more people, people who thought they were immune to these spores. Don't you get it? That's how it works. With each wave, the stuff adapts and improves.”

Jordan looked back at the shopping centre. “Oh, so when that thing bursts, it's likely that you might change, or me. Fuck, or both of us?”

“Yeah.”

He started to hobbled back to the fire exit. “Then why are we still outside? Come on, Jenny, we have to stop it!”

She ran after him and pulled Jordan back over to the wall. “What is wrong with you? Do you think that'll be the only one? It's the start of the next wave, Jordan. There's going to be thousands of the things spread across the planet, all getting ready to release their deadly contents into the atmosphere.”

“Great, just fucking brilliant. So, how long do you think we have?”

She shrugged. “A couple of days at the most, I think. Probably less. I'm not sure.”

“Oh, that's okay then. Not only do we have to cope with all these shambling dead monsters all out to eat us, we now have to look forward to us changing into a monster in the morning?” He took the backpack off, placed it on his knees and undid the straps.

“What are you doing?”

“I'm having my last meal. What does it look like?” He pulled out one of the burgers and carefully unwrapped it. Jenny snatched the burger out of his hands, then pulled the backpack away as well.

“Stop acting like a brat,” she shouted. Jenny dropped the food back inside, strapped it back up and threw the pack at him. “Get that back on, right now. We have places to go, or have you forgotten that already?”

“What's the fucking point? We're both going to be dead in the morning. Why not just face the inevitable and enjoy the brief time that we have left? Makes sense to me.”

Jenny spun around and walked away. “Fine, you do that, you selfish bastard.”

He ran after her, wincing every time he put his weight on his bad leg. “Wait, Jenny. For crying out loud. Will you slow down?” Jordan managed to grab her shoulder. “What is wrong with you?”

“Are you that nihilistic? Great. Fine. Let's go with your idea then, shall we? Let's forget everything, we go back to the safe house and get drunk, have lots of sex and try to forget about the horror of what will happen to us in the morning. Then when morning does arrive, you find yourself alone, or I find myself alone, in the midst of monsters.”

“So what do you suggest?”Jordan laughed. “No, don't tell me. Let's spend what little time we have left, trying to find the evil bastards who did this, deal with them. Once that's done, we then try to find some way to change all these people back. Oh, and if we have any time left, we could always make ourselves a cocktail. You know, to celebrate. Have I missed anything out?”

“Yeah, how about the bit where I smack you in the face?”

“Come on, Jenny. Face the facts here. Even the chances of us even finding who were responsible are like a million to one. As for a cure, come on. How are we supposed to do that? We're not even scientists. What you are asking is impossible, it's beyond hopeless”

She nodded. “So what? Maybe it is. Does that mean we should just give up? What are the chances of us still being alive when most of the human population have turned into those monsters? I bet it'll be far more than a million to one.”

“That's not the point.”

Jenny shrugged off his arm, ran back to the wall, picked up his backpack and strode back over to Jordan. “Would you do it for Gail? She went in the last wave, Jordan. If you knew that you were going to lose her the next day, would you not do everything you could to find a way to stop it from happening?” She threw the backpack at him. “Or would you have a little party? While you were at, maybe you'd slit your daughter's throat while she slept?”

“You bitch,” he growled. “That is so not fair.”

“Not quite so retired to your fate now are you?” Jenny pointed to the fire door. “This is your town, you I guess you know the way back to your home. If you do make it back there without getting eaten, have a beer for me.” She turned around and started to walk away. “I'll be seeing you. Or not, as the case may be”

He waited for her to vanish around the corner before he sat down next to the backpack. Jordan was right about this. What hope was there for any of them? He toyed with the idea of stuffing his face with the rest of the burger meat while thinking about what sex with Jenny might have been like. “She is right about you,” he murmured to himself. “You are a selfish bastard.”

Jordan leaned over to unstrap the bag when he felt something fall out of his pocket. He turned around and saw a folded up sheet of white paper lying on the floor. He knew for a fact that he did not put that in his pocket.

He unfolded the paper on the floor. It was a crude hand-drawn street map of what looked like a portion of some town. Jordan guessed the two square black outlines in the middle of the sheet were houses, the fact that somebody had written 'my house' on the left one, kinda gave that away. He wondered who Mrs Spicer could be. The road leading from the outlines continued past a dozen more buildings. Only two more were named. A chip shop and a fast-food take-away joint on the other side. The road carried on all the way up to a larger square outline on the edge of the paper. Jordan had no idea what that could be, judging from the size, if the scale was right, which he doubted. Whoever made this map obviously didn't include drawing as one of their talents. If it was correct, though, the large square could be anything from some kind of government building like a school or library, to an office block. Jordan had no idea where this place could be, and yet, it looked so familiar.

What did make his heart beat a little faster came from the red icon right in the middle of building. It looked a bit like an apple tree. He had seen this before! Jordan folded the paper and stuffed it back into his pocket. Jenny needed to see this!

“Good job, you dipshit, you have ruined your chances with that one,” he said. Jordan shook his head. No, no he hadn't. Just a little falling out, that's all. She'd soon understand once she saw the map. Jordan threw the backpack over his shoulder and set off, convinced that he'd find her within a few minutes. Hell, she'd hadn't been gone all that long!

He took off, jogging and limping, down the street, stopping every few seconds to listen for any sound of her footsteps. It wasn't until he reached the end of the road and was confronted with an option of three different roads, when it hit him that his task was far more difficult than he first believed. “Where could she go? Come on, man think!” As far as he knew, Jenny could have only gone in one direction, and that was back to the safe house, meaning taking a left. He crossed over the road and went straight ahead instead. Deciding not to trust his own judgement at all. He hadn't exactly done a great job of guessing anything right since this whole nightmare began.

Jordan carried on a few more paces, passing a bookkeepers and a sewing shop until he stopped dead outside a grocery store. He knew this place! Well, of course he did, after all, this was his home town. He must have passed this shop hundreds of times. Thing is, Jordan knew for a fact that he had been inside recently, even though he also knew for a fact that he hadn't.

The door was already open. He pushed his head inside and looked around. He saw no sign of life. An unpleasant odour drifting from the interior reached his nose. Somebody had died in here, quite recently too. This was the damn shop that he’d been banging on about ever since he left his house. Thing is, Jordan had no idea as to why this place should be so important. There was no doubting that.

Jordan had to go inside. The urge to do that was almost as strong as showing Jenny the map he had found.

“Nothing is making sense any more,” he muttered. Jordan closed the door behind him and walked over to the counter. It did look like he had the place to himself but judging from the empty shelves, somebody else had been here and taken everything of value. All he saw was a single tin of pineapples stood all by its lonesome on a middle shelf and and a tin of hotdogs on the shelf above. To their left were a couple of chest freezers. The foul stench appeared to be coming from them. Perhaps he had been wrong about someone dying in the shop? With the power out, whatever was left in there was bound to smell pretty ripe after a few days.

Jordan walked over to the counter and leaned over the glass top to check the hidden space behind the till. “I don't believe it!” A grin spread across his face when he discovered the one object that he never actually thought he'd get to hold. He reached down and nervously wrapped his fingers around the shotgun barrel and carefully lifted it up. The damn thing was a lot heavier than it looked, that's for sure! Now all he needed was the shells to go with it. They were bound to be around here somewhere.

He placed the weapon on the counter, walked around to the other side and went through all the cupboards. All he found was a box of chewing gum and a can of fly spray. Jordan stood up and gazed at the empty shelves for a moment. Something here just didn't add up. If looters had removed all the stock, why the hell had they left this behind? He placed his hand protectively over the stock, just in case anybody else suddenly decided to come back for it, right at that moment.

The looters had been thorough, so they would have found the gun, that much was obvious. Did somebody bring it after the looters had left, perhaps someone like him, looking for food, supplies, or other survivors? If that was the case then the owner might still be in here with him? “Shit,” he whispered.

The deja-vu feeling had returned and for no reason he could think of, Jordan grabbed the shotgun and strode over to the back of the shop, his heart hammered and his mouth had gone dry. He knew exactly what would be there, and it didn't shock him to find a pair of boots, attached to an older man who appeared to be dead.

“You're not really dead, are you. You wasn't before and you sure as fuck are not dead this time.” The words made no sense to him, but it still felt like the right thing to say. Sure enough, the dead man's head shifted to face him. His eyelids flickered open and his fingers started to twitch. Jordan spun the gun around and slammed the stock into the dead man's face. His movements abruptly stopped.

He dropped the gun and stumbled back against a shelf. Jordan turned, fell onto his knees and threw up. Jordan stayed in that position for a couple more minutes, waiting for his guts to stop swirling and for that inner voice to shut up about him being a brutal murderer. He only moved away when another part of his mind convinced him that the man wasn't yet dead and right now, was crawling towards his feet.

How was he going to be able to use the shotgun now? It lay on the dusty floor, a few inches from his head with its stock coated in a thick layer of grey and red slime. Even if he washed all that off, it would still be there in his mind. A passing testament to his previous crime. Jordan plucked up enough courage to look at what he had done and forced himself not to look away.

It all came down to the simple fact that he really didn't know if the guy really had joined the horde of the shambling dead. For all he knew, he might have only been sleeping. It's not like Jordan gave the poor bastard time to actually say something. Oh no, in he went with the shotgun, turning the man's face into mush, like the coward that he was.

“I think I'm going to be sick again.”

Jordan got up and dragged his feet over to the window. He'd give his right arm for his Jenny to be here with him. Why the hell did he let the only person he had left in the world to bugger off like that? He opened the window a crack to allow some air inside, with the hope that it might calm his stomach.

The scene outside had not changed. He saw no Jenny, or any more dead things. He turned around. Jordan would feel so much better if he was sure that the corpse really had been dead and reanimated before he got here. Was there any possible way for him to find out if this guy was dead before the shotgun made sure that he was really dead? It's not like there were any teeth to examine for traces of human flesh. Most of his teeth were probably embedded in the back of the poor bastard's throat right now. How about his fingernails? The undersides might contain torn off pieces from his last victim? Or how about his general appearance? Or is there a bad smell coming off him?

He moved away from the window and approached the body. Jordan gently moved the man's arm closer to the side with his foot. The truth of it was that he really had no way of knowing. Aside from some vague recollection of being in this situation before, that is.

Did he have second sight? Was that the reason? That would explain for so much! Jordan tried to laugh off the ridiculous idea and almost burst into tears. “Fuck off, Jordan, you idiot. Stuff like that doesn't exist.”

Three fingers belonging to the hand that he moved with his foot twitched. He only saw them in his peripheral vision but it was enough of a warning for him to jump back. Both of the dead man's arms snaked out, the left one almost making contact with Jordan. He ran back and snatched up the shotgun. “Why are you not dead?” he said. “I thought you were dead, but I didn't know. I didn't know.” He found himself wiping off the jam-like mess off the gun's butt and stopped, when it stuck him that it really wasn't going to matter in a second.

The dead thing had successfully sat up. Several shotgun shells fell out of his pockets. Two rolled across the floor and stopped by Jordan's feet. “You have got to be shitting me.” He scooped them up and, without taking his eyes of the corpse, figured out how to open the barrel and insert the shells. He closed it with a satisfying click, pushed the butt hard into his shoulder, took aim and gently squeezed the trigger.

A nuclear explosion went off inside his head at the same time as the dead thing's mutilated head vaporised. The headless corpse lay back down. Jordan gathered up the remaining shells, then searched its pockets, finding another five. He had in total twelve shells. Jordan couldn't exactly take on the town's entire population of dead things but at least he now had the means to protect himself.

He ran over to the door, picking up that single tin of pineapples. He couldn't stand pineapple but maybe Jenny did? It wasn't quite as good as flowers and chocolates in the way of an apology but it was better than nothing. The hotdogs could stay where where they were.

What had just happened to him in that shop? Jordan decided that perhaps following that train of thought would not be in his best interests. He had the shotgun and a few shells, there was some kind of map in his back pocket and Jordan had found a tin of pineapples. What more could he want?

That answer came in the way of his beautiful Jenny running towards him with two dead things close behind. Jordan cracked open the barrel took out the spent shell and replaced it with a fresh one. It was time for him to rescue his girl, and to finally play the hero.

Chapter Eleven

The fact that he still lived came as a bit of a shock to Jordan when he opened his eyes. Susan had made a right mess of the room. Upturning the bookcase, shredding his clothes, not to mention turning the bedroom door into splinters. His bed remained untouched, as were the covers. Jordan unrolled the sensenet , dropped that on the carpet and quickly checked himself for bite marks.

His dead sister wasn't in the room, he also saw the cupboard which previously held the sword thief was wide open and empty of both Matt and his sword. Just great, Jordan was once again, totally alone and without any means to defend himself.

He felt like he'd accomplished nothing. “Wait, stop it with the pity-party. You wasted enough time feeling sorry for yourself in Necrovoid.” That was true. He couldn't believe that the damn game made him expend so much or his time and emotions on thinking that he might have killed that guy! Still, at least his other self now had the shotgun as well as the girl.

Jordan's eyes bulged in excitement when he suddenly remembered that sheet of paper. Christ on a bike, that damn thing was showing him where to go right here. His house, the old bat's place, even the takeaways. That meant he now knew his destination.

He excitedly pulled the map out of his pocket and stared at it in confusion. Jordan wanted to smack himself around the back of the head, like it was possible to physically bring something out of a game. Hell, if it were, He'd have brought out the shotgun, even the fucking super-zombies wouldn't stand a chance with that baby in his hands. Wait, did that mean the next time he entered Necrovoid he'd have a proper chance to show off his shooting skills on a moving target? That would be something to look forward to.

The map now showed the town from the other game, he recognised it now. Why it didn't click when he first pulled it out of the glove-box was beyond him. Probably that had something to do with his traitorous mind constantly telling him things that just weren't true, like a super-zombie hiding under the car. Still, Jordan felt pretty sanguine right now. He put that down to finding the shotgun in the game as well as coming out of Necrovoid and finding himself still breathing. It did annoy him a little that Matt had fucked off and taken his sword. Still, that wasn't a major hurdle. The freakazoid couldn't have gotten that far.

The map marked out the route in red pen which he and Jenny had taken, from his house, through the shopping arcade and to the last shop. There were two green 'x's. One inside the arcade and another further out, beside a long line which stretched from one edge of the map to the other. Could that be a river?. The mark inside the arcade either meant where the plant-thing almost killed him or, it pointed to the game shop. Even now, Jordan thought there was something weird about that place. The other 'x' was a bit of a mystery. He had no idea where that could be.

Perhaps, it would become clearer when he put the sensenet  back on his head. Jordan picked up the map, started to fold it then stopped.

“Wait on. This makes no sense. How the fuck could this map possibly show the route that he and Jenny took?”

“It could be because there is only one route through the game?” replied a voice coming from outside his bedroom.

That did not belong to Matt.

“No, that can't be right. Necrovoid is a sandbox game. Everybody knows that!” A familiar head peered around the doorframe. “I just can't think of another explanation though. Can you, Jordan?”

“I thought you were dead?”

“Well, ain't that a nice way to treat an old mate,” replied Barry. “Thanks for that, and I love you too. Well, I don't, you're a bit of a spaz, but the slight to my character is still valid.”

Jordan slid off the other side of the bed, hoping that perhaps Matt had dropped the sword in this mess before scampering away. “You can't be here. My dead mum and dad fed on your guts, man! This isn't happening.”

Barry entered the bedroom, kicked away a scattered pile of Jordan's DVD's, books and fantasy figures then sat on the bed. “God, you really are thick.”

“You are dead, man!” he repeated. “I saw you die.”

“Yeah, you've already said that. Yeah, you're right, you did see me die. You complete clown. It's not supposed to happen like that! Christ, what a fucking amateur. Jordan, did it never occur to you that your mum and dad might have been inside the house Come on, wake up and smell the frying bacon. Where else were they going to be?” Barry slapped his forehead. “Have you any idea of the fuck up you created because of your noob move?”

Jordan slowly blinked. “Wait, so this isn't real life, I'm still in the game?”

“Well, durr! Like Mrs Spicer kept her son locking in his bedroom for, like twenty years? To be honest, I'm fucked if I can work out why Necrovoid came up with that implausible scenario. It usually goes for some more realistic figure plucked out of your memory to act as your NPC companion. Than again, thinking about it, what else could it do. You kinda backed the software into a corner. You’re a sad loser noob with only one pal and even I think you’re a cockwomble.”

“Shut up. Just shut the fuck up. I want out. This is mental. Seriously mental.” Jordan waded his way back to the other side of the bed. “I mean it, enough with the bullshit. I want to go back to reality.”

Barry scrambled off the bed and ran out of the bedroom.

“Come back here,” screamed Jordan. “I'm seriously going to knock you out.” He jumped onto the bed and off the other side. The map fell out of his back pocket and slipped under the bed. “Bugger off, I'm not getting that.” The clattering coming from the kitchen told him exactly where the pretend Barry had gone to.

Jordan ran through the hallway and over to the top of the stairs. “I mean it, get your arse back up here. I want out of this right now!” He received no reply, not that he expected one. Barry was acting like a twat. Oh, God. This was unreal. Even his NPC behaved like the real Barry! He got to the landing window and just happened to look outside before he ran down the stairs. Seeing a yellow and blue striped deckchair and a space-hopper on Mrs Spicer's shed roof did not shock him in the slightest.

He found Barry sitting on the kitchen counter, opening a tin of hotdogs.

“Okay, less with the stresshead, man. Fine. I get it. You want to go back. If that's what you really want, then no problemo.” He popped a hotdog into his mouth. “Only if you're really sure. You see, if you do go back to reality now, all your game progress will be lost. I'm talking in-game and out here, in the surface game. You might not think it, but you've done pretty well and it would be such a shame to lose all the work you've put in already.”

“Like I give a shit anymore? Whatever. I really don’t care, man. Just do it.”

“Then what, Jordan?” Barry shoved the last three hotdogs in his mouth and dropped the tin on the floor. “I mean, what’s your next move, oh great one?”

Jordan watched the tin roll across the kitchen floor while thinking of how much emotional trauma that this bastard game had put him through already. He so wanted to punch the pretend Barry into the middle of next week. “What the fuck has that to do with you?”

“Hey, cool your jets. I'm only asking, man. See it as me helping to make this product even better than it already is. I mean, if you, the user, thinks that listening to Susan make you feel like an inch high, is better than the delights which Necrovoid promises then I'm obviously doing something wrong. Or let's consider your mum. Don't get me wrong, she's a lovely woman but thanks to your attention-seeking daughter, her constant worry that they'll be thrown out of the house because they can't afford the mortgage payments, and the fact that her boss won't leave her alone at work” He grinned. “You don’t even want to know what body part he took a picture of last week. Yeah, that was one shocked woman when she opened that text on her phone! What else? Oh yeah, she also thinks that her two old friends are about to split up. That poor lady hardly knows you exist. In fact, she secretly prefers how you have turned out, Jordan. It's less stress for her.”

“Shut up. Just fucking shut up. This is all lies!”

“As for your father, you have no idea how much of a disappointment you are to him. He had such high hopes for you, taking you for your first pint, helping you learn to drive, giving him grandkids. It's got to the point where he'll settle for you leaving home so he can turn your bedroom into his own mancave.” Barry jumped off the counter, walked past Jordan and entered the living room. “Right now, your mum and Susan are having a right go at each other. Mum's found out who her daughter's been seeing and she is absolutely steaming.” Barry came back holding a copy of Necrovoid. “I bet you a million pounds that Susan will blame all this on you. Even though you had nothing to do with it.” He placed the box on the kitchen table. “Do you really want to go back to that? Come on, at least give it a couple more hours, you know, until you get to the end?”

Jordan shook his head. “No, I'm sorry. I can't deal with this anymore. It's seriously doing my head in. I don't know what's real and what isn't. I'm so confused.”

Barry opened the box, took out a sensenet  and placed it in front of Jordan. “Fair enough. If you insist. You can't say I didn't try.”

Jordan went to grab the sensenet  only for the NPC to place his hand over his. “Wait, before you do make what I think will be the biggest mistake of your life,would you mind if I ask you just one more question?”

He shrugged. “I guess, but I'm not going to change my mind.”

“Well, you're not the only one who's confused here. I get that this game has screwed up your head. Believe me, I do get that. It's doing what it's supposed to be doing, at least, that's what it does in the beginning before...” Barry winked. “Before all the fun stuff starts. Wait, I'm going off track here. Look, Jordan. My question is this. When you get back, and after your family makes you all miserable, guilty, worthless, and probably very fucked off, what do you plan to do then? You've played all your other games to death. I guess you could go for a walk, perhaps join your mum and dad at the Horse and Crown for a drink? Maybe even tag along with your sister when she visits her mates? There's always Barry, I suppose. Not that you'll get much out of him. He's deep inside his own Necrovoid game, and believe me, that kid's a natural!”

Barry took his hand away. He walked back over to the kitchen counter, jumped back up and grabbed another tin of hotdogs.

Jordan picked up the sensenet  and placed it on his head. “Fun? How the fuck can you call what's happened here, fun?”

Barry put the tin down and held up his left hand. “You're still alive in both scenarios,” he replied, pointing to his left thumb. “You have the girl in the deep game.” Barry pointed to his left forefinger. “You now have the primary weapons and believe me, that's an achievement! Even Barry doesn't have the sword in his game.” The NPC folded three fingers then pointed to his ring finger. “Hell, you even have most of what's happening figured out in the deep game. Okay, so you don't have a fucking clue what's going on in this scenario, but that's not unusual. Nobody who's reached this stage has figured that bit out yet.” He looked at his two remaining fingers for a moment before folding them as well. “The fun? Come on, man, work it out! In the deep game, you're armed with a shotgun, there are zombies all around you. A beautiful girl is clinging to your arm, and you're racing against time to reach the farmhouse before the last wave of spores erupt and infect everybody else except you two. Well, that depends on if you reach the farmhouse or not. If you don't then, you two are as fucked as everybody else on the planet.” Barry chuckled. “Oh dear, spoilers!”

“There's nothing stopping me from playing again though, is there?”

“Of course not, man.”

“Well, there we go. What's with all the pleading and crying?”

Barry sighed. “Do you really want me to do the finger thing again? If you leave this game, all your progress is lost and the parameters will reset. The deep game scenario will change, meaning that you'll lose Jenny. Not to mention that the amnesiac subroutine will apply to the surface game as well. Believe me, you do NOT want that. You think this is confusing? Man, you ain't seen nothing yet. The difficulty level will go up one notch and the prospect of finding any weapon in both scenarios before the shamblers in the deep game or the runners in this level eat your face will be pretty much nill. Is that what you really want?”

Jordan shook his head.

“Look, man. I'll cut you a deal. Just continue playing for just a couple more hours and if you decide to chuck it in, fine. Go for it. Hell, I'll even forego the amnesiac subroutine application on your next play. How does that sound?”

“Two hours?”

“That's all I ask. Are you in?”

Jordan nodded. “I suppose.”

“Nice one, man. You won’t regret this! Matt 's gone back home, by the way. The sword's with him. Oh, and don't forget your map!”

Barry jumped down, ran past him and out of the kitchen. Jordan kept the sensenet  in his hand while listening to the NPC rummaging through the crap under his bed. He fell into the chair next to him. Oh Christ. His family were still alive! Until now, this earth shattering news hadn't sunk in. The sensenet  fell through his fingers. He grabbed the edge of the table and focussed on not crying while the shakes slammed through his body. Jordan wanted this to stop!

The pretend Barry brushed past his chair and dropped something on the table. Right at that moment, Jordan didn't care about any map. He just wanted the pain to stop. The NPC sat opposite him, reached out and gripped both his hands.

“You know all those volatile emotions that you're currently experiencing and have turned you into a big bowl of green jelly, with or without ice cream? Well, that's how you would have felt if all this had been real.”

Barry clicked his fingers and the underlying terror, the fear of loss and the overpowering grief suddenly vanished, the shakes had not gone but they had subsided.

“What the fuck did you have to do that for?”

“Would you like me any less if I simply replied with, for fun? No, don't pull that face, Jordan. See, you'll experience something similar as soon as you come out of the game, and given your limited range of emotions, I'm not sure how long it'll take you to snap out of it. Call me selfish, if you like but I'd rather you finish what you started. You get me?”

Barry slapped his palm on the map. “Make sure you put this in your pocket before you go”. He stood up and walked around the table. “You're going to have such a brilliant time. Lots of zombie killing, severed limbs flying in every direction, oh, and don't forget rescuing all those pretty survivors!” Barry leaned closer. “Is there anything else I've missed out? You know, I do believe there is. See, Jenny exists in this game as well. Ain't that a double bonus! If that doesn't get your juices going, I don't know what will! Right. TTFN. I'm out of here. Which is what you should be doing. You had better go find your NPC companion before the dim twat accidentally cuts his head off with your sword or something. Shame you fucked up earlier on. You could have had me instead of the dim bulb. Still. Well, you live and learn.” Barry left the kitchen. “Have fun, dude!”

He gave it a couple of minutes before moving, just in case Mr Barry Freeman, Mr annoying but confidant shithead decided to make a re-appearance. His first action was to pick up the sensenet  and place

it on the table. Jordan resisted the urge to stroke the damn thing. To stop it from turning into his little comfort blanket, he shoved the insurance policy into his front pocket and leaned over to grab the map, curious to find out why pretend Barry was so eager for him to have the map.

"Oh right," he muttered, after examining the paper. It showed this scenario and not the in-game town. A red line started from this house and followed the main road, through the middle of town and stopping in front of a large building. Now the software wasn't messing with his head, Jordan knew exactly what it was supposed to be and it certainly wasn't a government building but yet another shopping mall.

Back in-game, this map showed the picture of a red tree in the middle of the shopping mall. A smile face had replaced the tree. "I guess that's where I'm supposed to go? Are you going to spoon-feed me every clue, you spanner-faced tossbag?"

Right before his eyes, the map changed back to how it looked earlier. Jordan resisted the urge to grin. It looked like he touched a nerve. If also reminded him that Big Brother did indeed exist inside this game and obviously had a bit of a complex. It also taught him a lesson about watching his words.

Jordan walked over to the outside door, got to his knees, crawled through the gap and into the garden. He walked down the path, through the gate and leaped into next door's garden. Not once had Jordan kept an ear out for any super-zombies that might be lurking close by. The way he saw it, the game's main antagonist wouldn't be paying him a visit until Jordan had tooled up.

Thanks to Barry's shocking revelation, everything around Jordan had lost its menace. He kinda felt a bit pissed off now. Granted, this was only a surface emotion. A feeling created by the software and after the mental horror that Barry had just subjected him to in his kitchen, he found himself smiling.

Maybe Barry was right about him staying in this game. From what Jordan figured, he'd entered the meat of the game. Wall to wall slice and dice. The zombie equivalent of a shooter bullet hell. This is the reason why he unrolled the damn sensenet  over his head the first time! Jordan ought to be grinning from ear to ear.

So why did he still have the urge to sack it all in and go home? Like that even needed answering. Thanks to the pretend Barry laying out the naked truth while acting like a complete cockwomble, Jordan now felt like a cog inside some vast machine. Unimportant and totally replaceable. Oh sure, Barry didn't want him to leave the game but his disappearance wouldn't make that much difference in the long run.

He pushed open the door and walked into Mrs Spicer's dining room. This was affecting more than it should. Hell, everybody and his dog was playing Necrovoid. Jordan knew that even before he bought his own copy.

“You thought this was special, didn't you?” he whispered. Jordan looked up as he passed through the doorway, just to make sure the odd ball hadn't put the sword back. It was true though. He actually believed that the world had come to an an end, that his family was dead. It wasn't that he thought what had happened was special, it made him feel special. “Christ, you really are a fuck up.” So what was this? Some kind of anti-climatic come down?

He'd rather look at how he felt right now as his head trying to wrap itself around the fact that his parents and Susan were not in fact flesh hungry zombies at all. He pulled the sensenet  out of his pocket. All Jordan had to do was roll this over his head and the game would end and everything would be back to how it always was.

“I promised him two hours.” Jordan stuffed his insurance policy back in his pocket, checked the living room then made his way up the stairs. How could he have even believed for one minute that this was reality? He forced out a laugh. Like anything so unbelievable could possibly happen to him.

One of the bedroom doors opened. That'd be the Matt NPC making his entrance and getting ready to spew out whatever speech the the game had shoehorned into his subroutine. Jordan bet himself a pork pie and a can of coke that the mental case would now be insisting that the pair was to leave this place and follow the map.

“Saving game progress. Get ready to play Chapter Two.” He stopped at the top of the steps, refusing point blank to look out of the window. “No way this could be Chapter Two, “ he murmured.

“I said you'd be safe!” said Matt, while stumbling towards him. “Didn't get I say you'd be safe? See, you ought to listen to good old Matt, cos I know things. I know lots of things. Are you hungry? I sure am.”

Chapter Twelve

He sat on the side of his bed with the sensenet resting on his left thigh. The sound of sparrows fighting for food competed with the noise of the Monday morning commuter traffic. He lifted his head, breaking the contact between his eyes and the carpet. A moment ago, he was sure there was a dark patch by the door of his bed, matching the area where the surface-game donner kebab had fallen. There wasn't any stain on the carpet. Of course there wasn't. The empty protein bar wrappers weren't there either.

Dad had gone to work. His sister was at college and the town centre shops had pulled his mum away from the washing up. Normality reigned supreme. Almost. Jordan had one more task to complete and that proved harder than he thought possible. He knew that if he really did want everything to return to how it is, he needed to throw his sensenet in the bin.

The birds outside and the traffic weren't the only noise filtering into his bedroom. From downstairs, he heard the droning voice belonging to a reporter coming from the news programme on TV. His dad hadn’t switched off the set before rushing out. He couldn't hear the individual words but as the clock showed that it had just gone ten, the programme will be repeating today's news headlines.

The Necrovoid game dominated the channel. It was the only news item on today's programme. At least, that's what it felt like at the time.

Ninety minutes earlier, he'd found himself stood in the middle of their living room. Jordan couldn't remember if the disconnect from the sensenet happened here or in his bedroom and just happened to walk down here without realising it. His last vivid memory concerned that idiotic NPC asking him if he could use the sword to slice up some pineapple chunks and a few hot dogs. That had been the last straw. Jordan pulled the sensenet out of his pocket and rolled it over his head, despite Matt begging him to stay.

The family were in the kitchen. Dad and his sister sat at the table and mum trying to find a radio station on the wireless which worked. He walked in, expecting all activity to cease and three jaws to drop before the inevitable burst of questions started. He received a good morning from mum. His dad asked him to get the salt out of the cupboard and his sister did what she always did by acting like Jordan didn’t exist.

His fingers gently caressed the sensenet , as if the damn thing had magically turned into a necklace of rosary beads. The only one to gape was him. He stood there framed in the doorway while his family carried on their normal lives like nothing weird had happened. In their books nothing strange had gone on. It took him exactly two seconds to decide that perhaps the adventures, as fucked up as it was, in Necrovoid was far better than reality.

Jordan even turned around and almost reached the bottom of the stairs when something happened which altered everything. His dad changed the channel on TV just in time to watch the latest developments regarding the Necrovoid crisis. He listened, open mouthed as the newsreader told them that Germany had just reported another two thousand individuals had fallen into a coma whilst playing the game, making a total so far to eight thousand. The newsreader explained that this number was expected to rise as they were still waiting for confirmation from the medical authorities in the USA, Japan and South Korea.

Naturally, three pairs of eyes switched from the TV screen to him. Jordan had already stuffed the sensenet into his pocket. His parents buffeted him with a stream of questions, each one a thinly veiled accusation, like the mass downing of every geek on the planet was his fault. Did he know about Necrovoid? Had he used it? I'm not having anything like that in this house.

Once they'd established that he wasn't a player, the discussion turned to pitying the poor parents belonging to the kids in comas. In all the discourse, his sister hadn't said a single word which made Jordan wonder if the NPC had been telling the truth about mum finding out about her daughter's secret man.

His mum passed him a plate containing a couple of bacon sandwiches and some biscuits. With his feast clasped firmly in his hand, Jordan made himself scarce by retreating to his bedroom to let those three carry on with their own little tasks and routines. Jordan needed some alone time to think about what to do now.

The last words Jordan heard from his dad as he climbed the stairs concerned the youth of today unable to interact with real people any more and perhaps this disaster would be a wake up call to the parents to start restricting their time on all these evil electronic comfort blankets.

They weren't comfort blankets, more like the drug of choice for this generation. Nothing would stop them from getting that fix. Not their parents that's for sure. Jordan even doubted the sight of all those kids in comas would stop the die-hards. It did concern him though as he believed he knew what had happened.

The ones in comas were obviously noobs, who hadn't figured out the game had more than one layer. The poor bastards were probably still in the deep game, running around that fucking shopping mall like rats in a maze. There was one piece of this dilemma which did worry him. How could they still be inside Necrovoid if they no long wore the sensenet ?

Jordan dropped his own sensenet on the licked clean plate and stared at it, still not sure what he was going to do. He pulled out his phone, selected Barry's number from the directory and hovered his finger over the call button. Was there any point in calling him? Barry was either still inside Necrovoid, in hospital or asleep. Even if he was awake, the annoying twat wouldn't answer his phone anyway. He never did. Sighing, he dropped that on the bed as well

Maybe it would be best to wait just a while longer before taking the momentous decision to bin the sensenet . It more than likely that the kids will start waking soon. He looked at his fingernails. Wait, maybe there was another explanation? Could it be possible that the designers of Necrovoid had engineered this as a publicity stunt? Sure, that did sound possible. Everybody knew that Bad news always travels much farther than good news. The game designers of the most addictive and most complex game ever created were not like poor Matt dim bulb Spicer. They obviously did this to create tension, to provoke an outcry. To grab the headlines. Even the ones who had never heard of the game would be sitting up and paying attention now.

In another hour or two, when the designers have milked out every drop of the headline news, that's exactly what those coma patients will be doing. Sitting up and paying attention, and they won't be demanding mummy hugs either, they'll be demanding their sensenet s back. That's when the shit will really hit the fan!

“Or they might all just die,” he muttered.

Jordan ran his fingers through his short hair. The birds had started up again. Mrs Spicer must have thrown some more food on the shed roof. The mad old bat was alive and well. He watched her chuck a couple of bagels up there earlier on. She must have sensed Jordan was watching because the old woman looked right at him. Jordan did his best not to flinch as her hard brown eyes appeared to drill twin holes through his head. He gave her a little wave which turned into a single finger salute once she had turned her back to him.

Another sound joined the bird song. Somebody had opened their gate. At first, Jordan thought mum was back home but dismissed that notion. On a Monday morning, his mum's pay-check for the cleaning she did over at the community centre was paid into her account. She wouldn't be back for hours, her arms laden with carrier bags full of bargains she'd picked up at the many pound and discount stores which littered their town. Could it be Barry? That was a possibility. He hoped so. Jordan couldn't wait to tell him about dim bulb and that the game had chosen his mate to be an NPC companion. Would that mean in Barry's game, he might be the one ordering him about?

He stood up, saw that it was only the postman and sat back down again. The letter box opened a moment later. Probably either junk mail or some more stupid scented candles for that annoying sister of his. Jordan listened to the postman walk down the path and open the gate.

Bloody hell, just how giddy had he just become at the thought of trading war stories with his mate? “You so need to get yourself a real girlfriend, you sad little fucker.” Jordan grinned to himself. No, maybe not. If they were anything like his sister or his mum and her mate, then he was better off without them. He'd stick with Jenny. At least his game avatar knew how to interact with her. Thinking about her brought up his previous question of whether she existed in real life.

He grinned again when he remembered how he reacted at the sight of her in the other game. God, he'd almost pissed his pants in terror! So did she exist in reality? He wanted to think so, after all. He already knew the game plucked random people from the user's memories and inserted them into the game's narrative. That meant the girl of his dreams might even live in his own town!

Jordan decided to put looking for the real Jenny on his to do list. He found himself stroking the sensenet again. Yeah, that sounded like a plan. Find the real Jenny but not before he'd gotten naked with the digital Jenny. “In both game levels.” His grin got wider.

Why bother lying to himself any longer? Of course he would be rolling that sensenet back over his head. Like the possible threat of ending up in a coma would stop him from partaking in the drug of his choice. His explanation concerning the reason for the coma patients, no matter how improbable it might sound under scrutiny was good enough for him.

All that remained now was to work out how to crack both game levels, kill the zombies and bed both Jenny's before he really did end up in a coma. It shouldn't prove too difficult. He'd solved far more complex game puzzles in the past, and didn't the NPC say that Jordan had almost finished the deep game?

He grabbed the empty plate, tipped the sensenet on the bed and padded over to the door. To solve this beast required more food. The bacon sandwiches filled a gap but considering Jordan hadn't eaten real food since Saturday, he was going to really have to stuff his face with goodies from the fridge.

A plateful of those vanilla slices would have fitted the bill. It's just a pisser that his real mum lacked the culinary skills needed to create such sweet delights. No wonder all those kids were in a coma. Their brains must have blown a fuse while trying to keep track of who's who and what's what.

That wasn't going to happen to him. Jordan was made of sterner stuff. Hell, it wasn't a boast to declare himself a genuine gamesmaster. He stopped at the top of the stairs and looked out of the window, just to make sure that everything was still how it should. Granted, there were a couple of odd items on her garden shed but, as far as he knew, that rotting picture frame and bicycle wheel had been up there for months and he was sure the mad old bag hadn't put them there.  More likely, it had been kids. As long as there wasn't a deckchair and a fucking space hopper, That's all what mattered.

Jordan took the steps two at a time, reaching the bottom hall in no time. As far as he could make out, it was the maps which held all the clues to both game levels. As long as Jordan kept his head screwed on and refused to allow the game mechanics to fuck with his mind anymore, he reckoned Necrovoid was crackable.

The first sight which greeted him upon entering the kitchen almost made him wonder if he was even paying attention to his surroundings. Jordan gazed down at the tiled floor, noting the obvious lack of broken glass. Why hadn’t he spotted that when he first came downstairs? What else had he missed? Jordan needed to be more observant, especially when he entered those two worlds again.

He pulled open the fridge door, selected an already opened packet of roast beef, a couple of hard boiled eggs and a trifle. This should keep him going for the next few hours. Jordan made himself a promise that when he did finish this damn game, he'd celebrate with the biggest donner kebab that Amir's take away sold. The double mix monster kebab. It might cost a tenner but he reckoned there was enough meat in between the two naan breads to last him a couple of days.

Jordan piled the food on the table then shut the fridge with his foot. He might have to stay in his bedroom for a while anyway as none of this food belonged to him, meaning it probably belonged to his sister. He grinned. The annoying cow would go spare if she knew her brother had swiped something belonging to her.

Jordan grabbed his booty and wandered out into the hallway, he started to climb the stairs and attempted to form a plan of action for when he plugged himself back into the game. What did the NPC call it, an amnesia subroutine? Something like that. It was essentially a memory blocker. Whatever it was, that was going to be annoying, although he now saw  the genius of the game's dual game play mechanics it was a double-edged sword. The deep game provided more weapons, more items and the zombies were shamblers. The down side is that once inside, the user wasn't aware of the other game or reality. The other, higher level game complemented the full awareness with hardly any weapons, ultra fast super zombies “Let's not forget a dipshit as the NPC companion,” he said.

Jordan couldn't quite open the door, so he turned around and used his backside to push the handle down. His mind was full of ideas and strategies concerning both games which was probably the reason why he didn't realise he had company until it was too late.

The sour scent of lavender scented candles hit his nose at the same time he spotted somebody else sitting on his bed. He stood perfectly still, not remotely concerned that the food in his hands most likely belonged to the woman glaring at him him. Jordan returned the glare.

“Hello, shitbag.”

She actually smiled at him. His sister radiated calmness and serenity. What was she playing at? He'd never seen her look so at ease. Not to him anyway. It proper freaked him out.

“I kinda wondered how long it would take before you decided to raid the fridge. You know that's my stuff there. Looks like I caught you red handed. I may have to hurt you.”

“What are you doing in here?” he replied, refusing to allow her change of tactic to rile him. She might be acting like some stoned country vicar. The attitude wasn't there but the words remained the same. “This is my bedroom. Get out, you're trespassing.”

His sister crossed her legs. The grin widened. “I’m trespassing? That’s terrible. You had better call the police then. You know, you're so cute when you get all manly, Jordan. It kinda makes me regret what I'm about to say next.” She leaned forward and the girly attitude evaporated. “I know it was you who grassed me up to mum, you dirty little fucktrumpet.” She then reached across the bed covers and her fingers curled over his sensenet . “Maybe if I slapped you into orbit, when you return to Earth you might actually start fucking acting your age?”

Her pointless insults slipped over him. He'd been hearing the same kind of nasty shit from her for years, they had absolutely no impact on him. His sister's words didn't hurt but her fingers certainly had the power to cause damage. “You put that down. It isn't yours.”

She patted the side of the bed with her other hand. “Nice firm mattress you have. I think the next time I sneak my fella into the house, I'll let him take me on here instead of using mum and dad's bed. It'll probably be the only time ever anyone's going to have sex on this bed, you sad virgin.” His sister stood up, still holding the sensenet . “Look at you, telling your own sister what to do. It’s almost like you’ve suddenly grown a set. I guess that’s what happens when I take away your only girlfriend. By the way, what do you think mum what do if she found out you had this?” His sister tilted her head. “Have a fucking heart attack is my guess. I could sell it, I guess. Thanks to all your other virgin losers falling into comas, I bet these things are now worth a fortune.”

Jordan no longer knew what to do. His bitch of a sister obviously had no intention of handing that over. That was obvious. He placed the food on the dresser next to him and held out his hand. “Please? Look, I didn’t tell our parents anything, I swear down it wasn’t me. Please, you have to believe me.”

“Oh my God, I think you’re about to start weeping.”

Jordan snatched his hand back when she jumped forward. The hate really did show in her eyes now. He reached for the door handle, wondering if it might be best to get away from her and come back later when she’d calmed down. He frantically listed all the items within arms reach that he might be able to throw at her. The only thing that might actually cause damage was his ancient games console. If he could at least daze the nasty bitch, it might even be possible to snatch the sensenet  out of her hands before having to emigrate to Australia.

His sister held the sensenet  just out of his reach. She curled both hands around the thin device then pulled. A triumphant smile grew across her face when it snapped. She let go then casually brushed her palms together. “Now, how do we deal with the other problem? Namely, you being a thief and a snitch?”

He heard the accusation but paid no attention, all his focus lay with ruined sensenet . What was he going to do now? She was right about the price. Even if he could, by some miracle, find somebody willing to sell theirs, the price would be astronomical. It also meant he’d have to start the game from scratch as he was sure that individual game saves were not transferable.

“Shitbag. I asked you a question. I said, what am I going to do about the snitching?” His sister then slammed her foot on one half of his sensenet  and ground it into the carpet. She glowered at him when he finally lifted his head. “I can’t stand a grass. Now, trashing your beloved techy shit should be enough but running to mummy isn’t the only thing you’ve done. You’ve been in my room, you little turd, and for that, I really am going to fucking hurt you.”

“Bollocks!” Jordan saw red. How dare that bitch accuse him of going anywhere near her shitty room. “I haven’t been anywhere near your room. Get out of my bedroom before…”

“Before, what?” she interrupted. “Before you go running off to mummy again? God, you are such a fat liar. I know you’ve been in my bedroom. There’s purple candle wax all over your fingers.”

“What?” He turned his hands around and brought them closer to his face, despite already knowing what he’d see. His nose got there first. The sickly, sweet stink of lavender and vanilla had already buffeted his sense of smell. Purple and cream wax coated his fingertips. It looked like he’d dipped them into the fucking glass holders. What the fuck was going on? “I swear to you, I’ve been nowhere near your room. Apart from in the game but that doesn’t count, I…” His remaining words died on his lips.”

“Oh, yeah. I really am going to hurt you,” she growled.

“I’m still in the bastard game!” Jordan stood frozen to the spot. Transfixed at the sight of his sister’s fingers elongating. She threw back her head and howled. Her flesh tone lost all colour, and her jaw expanded as a new set of larger, sharper teeth grew up behind her old ones. His sister lowered her head. She narrowed her crimson eyes, lowered her body and snarled.

He shrieked, spun around and flew out of the room. He ran along the hallway and down the stairs, fully aware that she was right behind him. Just one misjudged step would end him. That thing, that whatever it was, would shred his body. So he was still inside the game. So fucking what? Jordan had no doubts that he’d feel the agony as her claws ripped through his flesh. He reached the bottom, pulled open the door, slipped through and slammed it into her face. The howling, rage-filled scream which passed through the wood turned his blood into water. Her frustrated roar wouldn’t be the only thing to get through this thin wood if he didn’t get the hell out of here. How long would it last against that monster, a few seconds, a minute?

Oh fuck, what was he going to do now? Jordan looked wildly around the kitchen, for anything to defend himself with. What was he thinking of? Like he’d even be able to kill, let alone stop that creature. What was he going to use, a fucking fish slice? He even considered just letting it in to finish him off. After all, this was only a game and games had rules. She'd kill him and he’d wake up, simple as.

The noise stopped. Had she given up? Jordan grabbed a dining chair and pushed the back up against the door handle. What if he didn’t wake up? What if the kids falling into comas were happening in reality too? Jordan might end up reliving this fucking scenario over and over for the rest of his life!

“Games have rules,” he repeated. Jordan ran over to the door, thinking that all he had to do was get over to Barry’s house and use his sensenet . The fact that in this particular game scenario, the main antagonist appeared to be werewolves had already sunk in but he brushed that away, needing to focus on one step at a time.

The door refused to open. It wasn’t locked, the damn thing just wouldn’t move. He moaned out in pure agony when he saw the wooden door frame just melded with the door itself. Oh Christ, now what was he going to do? Jordan heard a noise, he looked over at the other door. It sounded like heavy footsteps bouncing on wood. He frowned, then moaned again when he figured it out. His werewolf sister was climbing the stairs, getting ready to run back down. That door would stand no chance and neither would he!

In his panic, he booted something lying on the tiles. He glanced down. There was a parcel by the table leg addressed to him. “Since when did I get stuff through the door.” Jordan scooped it up. It was a rectangular parcel, wrapped in plain brown paper with his name and address written in red marker. He turned it over and saw a small sticker in the corner displaying the return address.

“Pitstop Games, Unit nine, Highgate Shopping Centre.”

That was the game shop from the deep game! He didn’t even try to work out what was happening, his mind too preoccupied at the sound of his sister thundering her way down those stairs reached his ears. He whimpered while ripping off the brown paper. The box slipped out of his hands and fell on to the tiles. Jordan caught the word Necrovoid, a moment before the box opened and another sensenet  fell out.

He laughed out loud, picked it up and quickly rolled it over his head, just as the inner door broke open. His werewolf sister raced towards him, her fangs dripping with thick saliva. Jordan chose the only option left. He sat on the remaining wooden chair, gave her the middle finger then closed his eyes.

Chapter Thirteen

Seventh Insertion

He dare not move. Jordan struggled to keep his breathing shallow. Oh God, what were it doing to that dead woman? Jenny's fingers threatened to break his bones and he suspected his fingers were doing the same to her too. She shuffled a little closer and that slight movement caught the attention of the thing which they hadn't been able to shake. The thing which took two shotgun blasts without flinching. Jordan pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth. The thing which now stared directly at their hiding place.

Its green lantern eyes stared without blinking at Jordan's face for a full minute before returning to whatever it was doing to that dessicated body at the entrance to the alley. Jenny eased the pressure on his hand. It hadn't seen them! Maybe they'd live through this after all.

This thing was what Jenny had warned him about earlier on, the next evolutionary step for those plant-pod creatures. It truly was the product of nightmares. Although its bilateral body symmetry betrayed its once human origin, precious little remained of the host creature. It stood around seven foot high, its grey, ostrich-like legs holding up a thick barrelled torso, packed with hard muscles. Two over-long arms held thick builder's hands, each one equipped with bone knives. Right now, this monster used those knives to open up the corpse by slicing the dry flesh along the spine. Once it had pulled the skin back, it then leaned over the body, opened its snake mouth and fastened those jaws over the exposed spine.

Jordan thought it was going to bite through the bone but it looked like the damn thing was giving it the kiss of life. Another full minute passed before this monster released the body. It threw the corpse on the ground, turned around and scuttled off in the opposite direction.

It took Jordan another minute before daring to move. "Are you okay?" He hissed. Jordan took the barely noticeable nod as a confirmation before untangling their fingers and moving out of the shadows. The damp stone had soaked his clothing. Jordan couldn't stop shivering but it wasn't because of the cold water sticking his shirt to his back, it was solely due to what he now saw in the distance. That nightmarish creature had found another dried up body in the doorway of a shop. It dragged it into the middle of the road and performed the same macabre  procedure to what it did to the dodgy close to them.

He took a couple a paces towards the mummified body, curious to see why the creature targeted that instead of continuing its pursuit of them. Not that he was complaining about that weird bastard's change of prey as he knew if that the dried up dead thing hadn’t stumbled out of its hiding place and tried to snag them, that nightmare would have eventually found him and Jenny.

They had easily evaded its grasping arms, and just as they were too fast for it, the dead thing had been much too slow for the new monster. It had even attempted to shamble away but the nightmare simply snapped out its terrifying arms, dug its long claws into the dead thing's face and dragged it back.

Jenny pulled at his sleeve. He started, not realising she'd followed him onto the path.

“Don't get too close,” she said.

“Relax, Jenny. I think it is truly fucking dead now, especially since that the long-legged freekazoid sucker out its spinal juice.”

“You think that's what it did?”

He shrugged. “I’ve no idea but it's the only thing that makes sense.” Jordan nudged the thing with shotgun barrel. Grimacing when a chunk of skull flaked off. “That's just nasty,” he muttered. “Okay,” he said, turning back to Jenny. “We'd best start making tracks. I think that thing has gone now. Thankfully, in the opposite direction to the way we are going.” She wanted to go and visit a factory which manufactured chemicals. Orchard Industries they were called. Their facility was situated on the edge of town, behind guard towers, high fences tipped with razor wire, guard dogs and closed circuit television. Jenny had argued that any place with such over the top security precautions were bound to be hiding something.

He wanted to argue that the damn place stored possibly large quantities of chemicals many of them having the dual purpose of bomb making, hence the reason for all the security measures. Jordan kept silent. He knew her determination to find a cure for this wouldn't be put off by anything he could say otherwise. The girl needed to come to terms with their desperate situation on her own as it was pretty fucking obvious that she wasn't going to listen to common sense from him or anyone else for that matter. Fine, let her drag them around some abandoned chemical factory which made shampoo and toilet disinfectant. Whatever, it isn't like his events diary was all that full anyway.

The place wasn't that far from here, less than half a mile. They should be there in a few minutes. Jordan looked back at Jenny intending to ask her if she had thought of a way to get inside. His mouth opened then shut when he saw her shaking. “Jenny, what's wrong?”

She didn't say a word, just extended her arm and pointed at his feet. Jordan spun around and saw the mummified dead thing was no longer still. In fact, it had managed to roll onto its back and sit up. He jumped back when one of its arms reached for the shotgun.

He reacted instinctively. “Get the fuck away!” he screamed, while jumping back. Jordan raised the gun, his finger already on the trigger. Jordan heard a woman's voice begging him not to shoot. He might have even listened to the warning if the dead thing didn't get off the floor and run at them.

His finger squeezed the trigger which blasted out the weapon’s deadly contents straight into the target’s chest. The damn thing literally exploded, showering them both from head to foot in foul smelling grey powder. Jordan fell back, gasping and choking as the stuff clogged his nose and throat. He dropped to his knees, hacking and coughing. Jordan couldn't get out a breath, he couldn’t see either as the powder had gone into his eyes, he couldn’t even hear very well. The torture did diminish due to his body ejecting most of the foul powder out of his throat and the non-stop tears clearing his eyes.

He lay there, watching, through blurred vision, as several more of those walking spore factories neared his location Jordan reckoned he had another few minutes before moving, they weren’t travelling that fast. “Oh God, I feel like I’ve just swallowed the contents of a cement bag,” he croaked. “Jenny, how are you doing?”

Jordan moaned when he received no reply. “Jenny?” She wasn’t there! The woman was already on her feet and sprinting away from him, heading straight for the canal. Jordan tried shouting but the words stuck fast in his mouth, causing him to start coughing again. Nevertheless, he still attempted to give chase. Jordan couldn’t lose Jenny as well. Whilst chasing after her, he spotted several more of those walking spore factories, they emerged from inside buildings, rolled out from under vehicles or, like the one which got them, simply reanimated, twitching at first then trying to stand up and moving from the place where they originally fell.

That single nightmare on legs couldn’t have possibly reached all of these dead people so quickly which meant there had to be another one or possibly a number of the new nightmares running around.

Jordan did his best to calm his volatile thoughts. He dare not go to pieces now, not while his Jenny was in such a traumatic state. He tightened his grip around the shotgun. Let the bastards come. There was plenty of shells left. Tackling with him would be the worst thing they did, that’s for damn sure. He raced along the pavement while keeping his attention on the running woman.

His last entanglement with that single nightmare had resulted in no damage whatsoever to the nightmare. Jordan knew that, his mind knew that too, he just chose to ignore it, preferring to believe in his hastily constructed fantasy of him standing on top of a pile of their bodies, his smoking shotgun in one hand while Jenny held his other hand.

The stupid dream came to an abrupt end at the sight of the woman jumping into the middle of the canal. “What the hell is she playing at?” Jordan reached the wall separating the road from the canal, leaped over it and scrambled down the embankment. He couldn’t see her anywhere. What was he going to do now? He couldn’t swim.

“Jenny?” he screamed. “Are you alright?” What a fucking idiotic thing to say. Of course she wasn’t alright. Nobody in their right mind throws themselves into the local canal. Not even the wildlife went anywhere near the water. Christ knows what was in it. He approached the edge, already fearing the worst. What if Jenny couldn’t swim either? “Jenny!”

He spotted a couple of bubbles, a metre away from where he stood. Jordan leaned over. “Jenny?” It was difficult to see anything in that murky gloop. “Jenny!” He managed to get out a single shocked yelp when an arm emerged from under the surface, it grabbed his ankle and jerked him into the freezing water.

Panic overtook his entire system. He shrieked out which then turned into a bubbling choke as the stinking water gushed down his throat. Jordan was vaguely aware of being dragged to the other side of the canal and of somebody pulling his soaking body out.

“You need to calm down, you idiot.”

Somebody got Jordan onto his knees and bent him over. He continued to cough, his stomach throwing up a mixture of canal water mixed with the dust and somewhere in that mixture, Jordan felt the mushed up remains of his burger meal forcing up his throat and out of his mouth.

A pink blob appeared in his field of vision. The blob transformed into Jenny’s concerned face. She picked him up and pulled Jordan over to the side of a brick building next to the canal footpath. She gently stroked his cheek and after a few more seconds she slowly lowered him to the ground.

“You can’t swim. Sorry, I didn’t know that.”

How could she possibly know that anyway. Oh hell, he leaned forward and coughed up some more unidentifiable bits of Christ knows what. Jordan wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before turning his head. Jenny dug out a bottle of water. She wiped the cap on the grass, unscrewed it, took a few swallows then passed it to him. He lifted the bottle up only for her to grab the bottle.

“Small sips, Jordan. If you start gulping it down, you’ll end up bringing it all back up”.

He did as she suggested. The clean water just had to be the best ever cold beverage to grace his throat. Jordan took a few more sips before reluctantly handing the now half empty bottle back to her. He waited for the woman to finish the bottle before speaking. “What the hell were you thinking?” It took a small degree of effort to reign in his volatile emotions. Jordan knew exactly why she did it. Having a mummified zombied monster thing exploding all over you was bound to make you feel like having a fucking bath. It was her doing the road runner act which pissed him off more than anything. She left him up there.

Jenny looked him in the eye. She didn’t say anything for a few seconds then her face crumpled up. “We’re fucked, Jordan. Totally and utterly fucked!” She caught her breath. “I can still feel that foul stuff inside me. We’re both infected. What are we going to do now?”

He wrapped his fingers over hand. “You don’t know that. Neither of us do. The water will have gotten rid of the stuff before it could do any damage.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s not possible. We’re infected.”

Jordan though it wise not to mention that the reason why the canal smelled so bad was probably down to the chemical facility she wanted to visit. Christ knows what shit they had dumped in here over the years. “Hey, enough of this. Come on, Jenny. What happened to the woman who refused to give up?” He stood up and pulled her onto her feet. “You’re the one who told me that there was always a chance, no matter how slim. Are you telling me that you’re going to throw your philosophy out of the window just because you got covered in a bit of dust?”

“Are you fucking shitting me. A bit of dust? We both got the full brunt. Do you know how much stuff it took to infect people the last time this happened?”

He shook his head, dreading the answer. It was pretty clear that she’d already made up her mind. As far as she was concerned, they were both condemned to death, all that remained was the time limit.

“It took a spoonful,” she spat. “A fucking spoonful. Jordan, be honest with me here, do you think we received a bit more than a spoonful?” Jenny lifted her head and gazed at the passing clouds. “Oh, it’s okay. Take your time. I know it’s a difficult one to answer. Would you like to phone a friend?”

Jordan turned around and looked back to where they had come. He saw about a dozen of those walking spore factories now. They weren’t doing much of anything apart from generally milling around. Jordan figured they needed live bodies close to them before they got all excited. He then looked at the footpath which followed the canal. The last time he followed the route was a couple of years ago when he took Charlotte and Gail for a picnic. They ended up in a pub garden about two miles from here due to a group of idiots on mountain bikes deciding it would be hilarious to cycle through the middle of their picnic. He seemed to recall Gail managing to pull one of the teens off his bike and busting his nose before the terrified brat managed to jump back on his bike and get away.

When that woman got on one, she was formidable. Strange really. Gail had no problem with the kids acting like they did, the tipping point only came when two of them started hurling abuse at Charlotte. Jordan caught a glimpse of Jenny from the corner of his eye. Yeah, that expression. That’s the same one Gail had painted on her face the moment before pulling that kid off his bike.

It had occurred to him that his feelings towards this apparent stranger was all to whack. He had no idea who she was and yet, he so needed her. What was all that about? Why did he not feel any loss for his family? It’s not like he didn’t love the girls. They weren’t exactly on the verge of a divorce. Hell, he adored the pair of them.

Jordan turned his back on her and started to walk away, following the canal footpath. It took a couple of seconds for Jenny to catch up. The girl still wore that expression, the one which, if his wife had painted on, would mean he should prepare himself for another dipping. Jordan ground to a halt and turned to face her. “Tell me something, Jenny. When this last happened, you know, with all those dead things throwing the contents of their spoons over people, how long did it take for the changes to take effect?”

She glared at him, he noticed her grinding her teeth. Jordan decided not to give the woman a winning smile, not really wanting to antagonise her any further. Jenny breathed deeply.

“You weren’t around in the beginning. I understand that. You and your little family were all tucked up, being nice and cosy, making each other jam sandwiches and cups of tea, pretending that none of this was really happening. That’s why you’re acting like a complete and total bastard. It’s the shock, you see. Delayed reaction coupled with the fact that we’re both really are fucked. That’s why I’m not going to take my knife and plunge it as deep as I can into your bollocks. It took a few minutes.” Jenny took another deep breath. “That’s all it took, Jordan, a few minutes. One moment they were human, the next, fucking monsters.”

Jordan lifted his arm and tapped the face of his non-existent watch. “We both looked like we’d lost a flour fight before the canal incident. That was a few minutes ago, surely? Does that mean we’re about to change? Or maybe, and I know this is a long shot, but maybe we are immune?”

She shook her head. “No, of course we aren’t immune. It doesn’t fucking work like that.”

“Right, and you’re the expert now?” He turned back around and carried on walking.

“Wait, where are you going?”

He looked over his shoulder. “You wanted to go to the chemical factory,” he replied. “Or have you forgotten that? Well, you’re in luck, Jenny. This footpath goes straight past the back of the compound.” Jordan carried on walking, aware that Jenny followed but at a distance. His lack of remorse over the loss of his family continued to plague him as did the attraction he had for this stranger.

“Sorry.”

He jumped, not realising Jenny was right behind him. How did she do that? The woman put her hands on his shoulders and spun him around.

“I didn’t mean to say that. You just got me so mad, that’s all.” Jenny kissed him hard, her fingers unzipped his soaking trousers and wormed into his boxers. She pushed her tongue into his mouth while gripping his stiffening shaft.

Jordan moaned loudly. He reluctantly pulled back. “Fuck the chemical factory, fuck everything. Lets find an empty house, undress, shower and then…”

“Fuck?” Jenny continued to stroke him, getting faster and faster. His panting became heavier. She then stopped, stuffed his equipment back into his pants and zipped him up. “We check out the chemical factory, as planned, Jordan. Then we find ourselves an empty house. Okay?”

He found himself nodding and grinning. Jordan took her hand. “Let’s get this over with then.”

They reached the edge of the compound a couple of minutes later. Jordan pointed out to her the reason why he chose to go this route. A bunch of kids had once cut a hole in the fence a couple of years ago in order to reach a conker tree which grew on the side if the canal. There used to be several low branches hanging over the fence, a tempting prize for the local kids. The security must have figured out why the kids had broken into the compound as they chainsawed the branches and repaired the fence.

He crouched in front of the repaired fence and with his fingers and some swearing, Jordan was able to unwind the thick wires they used to secure the new section. “There we go,” he said when the new piece of wire fencing fell over. "You want me to go first?" Jordan wriggled his way through before the woman could even reply. He so wanted to get this waste of time over and done with. Jordan should have put his foot down and demanded they changed out of these damn wet clothes before they did anything else. He cleared the fence, turned around and helped her through. Come to think of it, why didn't he suggest they did that first? After all, it made sense. Jumping into the canal wasn't exactly the most efficient way of cleaning off a potentially lethal powder which was once a human. Only thorough shower would have really cleaned out the powder.

He sighed to himself. Christ, Jordan already knew the answer to that one. She honestly believed they were both doomed, that any minute now either him of Jenny would be turning into one of those flesh eating freaks.

Jenny got to her feet. She pushed her fingers through the chain-link fence and stared into the distance. “Will you promise me something, Jordan?” She turned around. “Promise that you won’t let me turn. I don’t want to hurt anybody.” Jenny took a deep breath. “Least of all you.”

“Hey, don’t speak like that. You’re supposed to be the optimist here. We’re not going to turn. I mean, you’re the one who said the last time it happened, the ones infected turned in a couple of minutes.” He put his hands on her shoulders. “Trust me, Jenny. I really do think that we’re immune.” He slid his hand down her arm and took her hand. “Come on, let’s get this over with. I really do need to get out of these wet, stinking clothes.”

Jordan didn’t think they’d be here long. Getting into the compound was one thing but actually gaining entry to the buildings was going to be impossible. He kept his mouth shut, not wanting to ruin the surprise.

“We’ll try the main building first, I think.” She pointed to one of the many signposts dotted around the compound. “I won’t exactly be too hard to find.” Jenny pulled him towards the main carpark. “That’s a bit weird.”

“What is?”

Jenny stopped beside a low metal barrier which separated the storage yards they’d just passed through and the main carpark. “Look around you, Jordan and tell me what you see.”

He stood over the barrier and did as she asked. “Dunno, looks pretty much like it should no people around.”

The girl nodded. “Yeah, that’s just it. “No people, either alive, dead or something in between. I know of a fact that this place employs half the town. So where is everyone?”

Jordan shrugged. “I guess they will have sent everybody home to be with their families. It’s what they said on TV, you know, to keep people from gathering together, to stop the infection from spreading.” Jenny agreed but she didn’t sound all that convinced. “Does it matter? Look at it this way. Finding no bodies, means that we’ll have less chance of getting bitten or chased, or exploded over.” He helped Jenny over the barrier. “Come on, I can see the main building.”

The woman took the lead and headed past a few parked cars. Unlike her, Jordan peered inside every driver’s window, just to make sure nothing was lurking inside. He reached the last car and stopped himself, wondering we he was bothering. Even if any of the vehicles were occupied, it’s not like the dead things could get them.

“What are you doing, Jordan?”

“I’m checking for weapons,” he replied. The lie sounded better than his real reason. Jordan caught up with her and approached the front doors, confident that this would be as far as they would be able to go. Just as he expected, the double doors did not automatically open when they got close enough to activate the sensor. Jordan nodded and sighed dramatically. He was about to turn around and hurry back to the hole in the fence but he saw that Jenny had other ideas. She stopped directly in front of the glass door, placed her fingers against the gap between the two doors and pulled. Both doors slid back. She let go and the door stayed where they were. Jenny ran over to him, grabbed his hand. Smiled, then pulled him inside.

“Do you know where to go?”

“Obviously.” Jenny pointed at the large blue notice board which displayed the routes to the departments inside this building. She pulled him over and tapped the Research and Development sign. “Like I said. Obviously. Come on, you.”

Jenny hurried over to the next fire door, not letting go of his hand. She pulled the door open and ushered him through. “God, to think that we’re just moments away from finding out exactly what happened. It’s kinda exciting and a bit scary too.”

Did she really say that? Jordan put the brakes on. He stopped dead and waited for her to stop pulling. “Hold your horses a minute here, Jenny. I’m sorry, but I can’t stay quiet any longer. This place makes shampoo, carpet cleaner and stuff like pine disinfectant. You’re making it sound like we’ve just broken into some kind of top secret weapons factory or something.” He took a deep breath. "Jenny. Come on, wake up. We both stink to high heaven, we’re filthy, wet and tired. Do you not think it’ll be best to prioritise our hygiene first. This place isn’t going anywhere. If you’re that determined to explore this factory then we can do that in the morning.”

Jenny Looked at him in silence for a few seconds before turning around. She paused then carried on walking down the corridor. A moment later, the girl opened the door at the end of the corridor and vanished, leaving him standing there.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Jenny?” he cried. “This place makes hair products, for fucks sake. Will you come back here?” Jordan leaned to the right and looked out of the window. Across a stretch of grass, he saw another part of the building. A second later, he spotted Jenny. She had no intention of coming back to him. The woman continued to hurry towards the damn Research and Development section.

He ran after her. What else could he do? Jordan slammed through the doors and raced along the corridor, vaguely aware that his footsteps were echoing through the building. His ears detected something else. It sound like a low, collective moan coming from the closed doors that he passed, not that Jordan cared about a couple of trapped dead things. Why was she being so fucking awkward? This place really did make crappy shampoo. Was she really that stupid?

There she was! Jordan spotted her through one of the tiny wire-reinforced windows set in the fire doors. She took an abrupt left and vanished. He put on a burst of speed, ran through the last set of fire doors and skidded to a halt outside the room where she entered. Jenny stood beside an open lift shaft. Jordan pushed the door open and stormed towards her, intending to give her a piece of his mind when he saw tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Jenny?”

She leaned over the edge of the lift shaft. “I’ve failed them. I’m too late, way too late.”

Jordan heard the slamming of doors further down the corridor, as well as those moans getting louder and louder. He pushed the door shut and locked it before approaching the woman with some trepidation. Her last words circled his mind. He suddenly felt like the biggest idiot going. “You, you work here?”

She nodded. “I so sorry, Jordan. I really didn’t mean to deceive you. I just. Well, I just didn’t want you to know what I did until it was too late.”

He leaned over the edge. Two levels below he saw three faces looking back at him. Three dead faces. “So this really is some kind of secret weapons facility and you’re fucking responsible for this?”

She shook her head wildly from side to side. “Of course I’m not responsible. I’m just an assistant researcher.”

“Right, so who are them down there?” Before she could answer, the door windows shattered. Several rotting arms pushed through the broken window. One of them managed to unbolt the door.

“What are we going to do, there’s no way out of here.”

Jordan moaned when he remembered the shotgun was at the bottom of that canal. He spotted a set of ladders bolted to the wall inside the lift shaft. “There, we can use them.” He pulled Jenny over and held her while she reached over the emptiness. After a couple of attempts, she finally wrapped her fingers around one of the rungs. “Great, now swing your legs over.”

The dead things at the bottom of the shaft were going wild. Jenny whimpered before she lifted her feet. Jordan spun around. Two dead things rushed him. He dived out of their way and grabbed a chair. He lifted it over his head and threw it. The wooden back slammed into two of them, throwing the dead things to the floor. Jordan picked up the remaining chair and ran back over to the lift shaft.

“Come on, for God’s sake, get over here before it’s too late!”

Another four dead things were coming towards him. He panicked and lifted the chair a little too fast. His feet slipped off the edge. Jordan fell. The last thing he heard before oblivion took him was Jenny crying out that she loved him.

Chapter Fourteen

He opened his eyes to find a large butterfly crawling over the back of his hand. Jordan watching it spin in a tight circle before it leapt into the air and flew towards the open bedroom window. He followed it, waited for the insect to escape before approaching the window.

The simpleton stood in the middle of his lawn, throwing hotdogs into the air then trying to cut them in half with the samurai sword. Judging from the small pile of cans by his feet, he’d been playing his pointless game for some time.

“You must be the luckiest bastard on the planet, Jordan. Seriously, only you could find a sodding back-door.”

He spun around to find Barry sitting on his bed and from the youth’s sour look, he wasn’t all that happy to see Jordan, not that he gave a monkey’s bollock what the NPC cared about. “What are you doing here? I thought I told you to bugger off.”

Barry picked a toy car off the bedroom carpet and spun the wheels with his forefinger. “The deep game clearly needs some work. A few more million lines of code.” He looked up. “Remember our discussion regarding your emotion limits? Well, that showed and it came so close to spoiling the games narrative.” Barry dropped the car on the bed cover. “I mean, the plot is clear about you forming some kind of bond with the female. That’s normal in these circumstances but you can’t just forget about your wife and daughter just like that. It isn’t realistic.”

Jordan turned. He sat on the window sill and wondered if it was possible to keep the NPC yacking on while he went downstairs and snatched the sword from Matt. Let this pixelated fuckmonkey continue criticising his gameplay while Jordan took his head. He almost found himself smiling. Yeah, the satisfaction of seeing Barry’s head roll off the bed would almost be worth all the shit that the game’s put him through.

“Maybe that’s why you were able to use the backdoor? Let’s be honest here, in terms of character development, you weren’t all that far from being cardboard cut-out.”

“Wait, stop. Just stop. When you’ve quite finished insulting me, I saved Jenny, didn’t I? She’s safe. Anyway, how else was I supposed to get out of there? If I had tried to jump, I’d have missed the rung and fallen into the bottom of the shaft and those things down there would have scoffed me.”

“It’s obvious. You had the burger meat in the rucksack, you dummy. Why else did you think you were you carrying it around? You’re supposed to use that to distract the dead things while you and Jenny got out of there, discover how all this started, work out a solution and finish the game properly.”

“Whatever. Fine, so I fucked up. Go me. Okay, tell me what happens in the end.”

The NPC laughed. “Oh, ain’t you the funny cucumber! How about fuck off, no. I told you earlier. You’re not getting spoilers from me.” He climbed off the bed. “Still, it is a shame. You were supposed to get caught in the main lab, with all these human-made bio-weapons trying to snare you with tendrils and stuff. There’s also the bit with the glass tanks containing all this green slime.” He laughed again. “Trust you to miss out on all the gooey scenes with the flame-throwers and the assault weapons. The last episode in the deep game is a major heart stopper. That’s not all either. There’s pick-ups everywhere and this is the funny part. A couple of those pick-ups are there, solely to aid your progress in this, the surface game.” The NPC walked over to the bedroom door. “Quite frankly, I have no idea how you’re going to complete this one without them.”

“So fucking what? Like I give a shit? I’ll just kill myself like I did in the deep game, meaning that I’ll wake up in the real world. After having some proper non-digital food, the last thing I’ll do before carrying on with my life is I’ll throw the sensenet  into the microwave for a few minutes. Job done.”

“Well, gee. You have it all under control. I wonder why the programmers hadn’t thought of that. Oh wait, they have.” Barry paused by the door. “If you die in the surface game whether on purpose or by accident, you’ll find yourself back in the deep game, right at the beginning, and remember what I said about the difficulty scale going off the charts? You better believe it, baby. Now, time for me to leave, and for you to explore your gamezone. I sure hope you can find your running shoes, matey! I think you’d better look out of the window.”

Matt’s terrified scream reached him before he had time to turn. The front door slammed shut which was followed by somebody thundering up the stairs. Jordan’s heart jumped into his mouth. “You have got to be fucking kidding me,” he murmured. A vast horde of dead things broke the previously serene townscape. There were hundreds, if not thousands of them crashing through the streets, all packed together like stampeding cows. They ran on all fours, thanks to their elongated arms.

A small group of about five peeled off from the main group when the horde reached Jordan’s favourite takeaway. They smashed through the windows and vanished inside. Moments later the sound of distant shrieking reached his ears. “Oh fuck,” he whispered. “There were people hiding in there.”

The five dead things, now soaked in thick, wet blood joined the horde and quickly vanished inside the moving mass. As he watched, the macabre scene of small groups vanishing into buildings repeated. They smashed into vehicles, they even opened up sewer hatches. Nowhere was safe from them.

“What are we going to do?”

Matt had joined him by the window. He pressed the sword handle into Jordan’s hands. “Oh God, what are we going to do now? They’ll be here in seconds. Jordan, you need to protect me. Oh please. I don’t want to end up dead and stiff like my mum!”

Like he had the answer to that. Jordan didn’t know what to do. Running wasn’t an option. That much he did know. Those things would easily catch the pair of them. They wouldn’t stand a chance out there. He pulled the shivering man away from the window. “Go downstairs and find the largest knife you can.” It took the idiot a few seconds for his words to sink in.

“You can’t be serious!”

He nodded. “There’s no other choice!” Jordan pushed him out of the bedroom. “Go, do it now!”

As much as he wanted to get out of this stupid game, he got the feeling that if he did allow the game to complete its goal by eating him and Matt, Jordan was positive that the NPC wasn’t fucking about with its threat. Oh, he did want to meet Jenny again but on his terms this time with all his memories intact.

The running dead things had reached the end of his street, it wouldn’t be long now before some of them split off from the main crowd to come in here. He needed to be ready for them. Would the NPC do as its told? God, he fucking hoped so. Jordan ran down the stairs and entered the kitchen and saw Matt still searching through the cutlery drawer. He already had a small selection of implements already laid out on the counter. Not of them were suitable.

“For crying out loud, Matt,” he snapped. “What are you playing at?” He stormed over, picked up one of the implements and waved it in front of Matt’s face. “Do you really think that a fish slice is going to be of any use?” Jordan pushed him out of the way, he reached over the counter and pulled out his mum’s carving knife. “This will do.”

“That’s not fair, why do I have that and you have the sword?”

He didn’t even bother to remind the idiot that he gave Jordan the sword. He ran over to the other end of the kitchen and pulled open the drawer under the microwave. “This is one freaky and realistic game,” he muttered. Jordan pulled out the masking tape, passed it to Matt then ran into the hallway, just as he heard smashing glass. They were inside! The bastards must have come through the living room window.

Jordan pushed Matt against the front door. He handed the sword to Matt. “You need to keep as quiet as a mouse,” he whispered, while he pulled the knife out of Matt’s hand. He took the mop out of the bucket beside him and turned it upside down. “We only have a few seconds.” Jordan held the knife handle against the end of the mop handle and wound the masking tape around both the handle and the mop.

Matt cried out. “Oh no, there’s one. What do I do?”

He looked up to see the first dead thing creeping towards them. “Kill it,” he hissed, “and stop fucking talking!” He tried to stop the panic from overtaking him, not helped by Matt’s shaking hands holding the knife in front of him, with his eyes closed.

The dead thing leapt forward. Jordan placed his foot on the mop, dropped to one knee and tilted the business end towards the monster. The creature’s momentum did the rest. The blade sliced through its chest. He pulled the sword out of Matt’s numb fingers. He lifted it and brought it down diagonally, the blade cut through its neck, like a hot knife through butter. “Matt, pull the mop handle out!” Another two were heading for them. “Come on, man, help me out here.”

The man did as Jordan demanded while whimpering and asking if he could go back to his room.

“All you have to do, Matt, is if they get too close, thrust the mop forward. Make sure the blade goes into their body and then jerk it back. Don’t worry, To get you they have to get me first, and I have the sword. Are we clear?” There was no time to see if the idiot had received the message loud and clear because the next dead thing charged forward.

He thrust the sword forward, the tip skewering it through the abdomen, but the dead thing carried on regardless. The blade continued to slide through its soft flesh. Jordan started to panic when he realised he couldn't get the sword out. He took his gaze off the approaching fiend for one second and saw another two behind it. Jordan pushed down on the handle, then twisted the blade and pushed it to the right.

The cold blood, guts and gore splattered the wall when the blade slid out of the monster’s side. The thing was almost on top of him! Jordan thrust it forward again, but this time, the tip punctured its right eyeball, pushed through the brain and out the back of the skull. The dead thing collapsed in a heap, the thing’s weight almost pulled the sword out of his grasp!

Jordan whimpered. He ducked as the next monster’s arm swung at him. Its ragged nails narrowly missing his face. The sword wouldn’t budge! “Use the knife,” he hissed. “Hurry up, or we’ll both die.” The blade still wouldn’t move. His next panicked demand died on his lips when Matt slammed the improvised weapon into the other monster’s mouth. He pulled it out and stabbed it again and again, through its cheek and its throat. Matt then landed the killing blow when the carving knife punched through the side of its nose.

The sword finally came free. Jordan lifted it high and brought it down hard on the final dead thing’s head. The sharp blade cut through the top of its skull, slicing through bone, flesh and brain. He held onto it as the final monster fell backwards, using the creature’s own momentum to pull the sword from its head.

Matt stumbled over the bodies. He had the look of a terrified animal caught in the middle of a forest fire. Jordan had to drop the sword and dive at him. His arms circled his legs, bringing Matt down.

The man even tried to stab Jordan. He soon put a stop to that by snatching the improvised weapon out of Matt’s sweaty palms. Jordan flung him on his back and sat on him. “Stop it, you fucking moron,” he gasped. “Just stop it. We’ve done it. We’ve survived!”

Slowly, the man’s eyes stopped rolling. He blinked rapidly, then focused on Jordan. “We stopped them, didn’t we?”

Jordan nodded. “Yeah, we stopped them. Are you going behave now? I need you sharp, Matt. Do you understand? See, if they do come back, and I’m sure they will, we’re going to have to fight them again and if you’re still like this, we’ll both die.”

“I’m sorry, Jordan. I got all weird and spooked. I think my head kinda misfired or something. It won’t happen again. I can be good. I can be a real good boy. Even more than a better good boy when my mum caught me trying to escape through the bathroom window.”

Matt grinned wide. It was obviously faked but it did help to calm Jordan’s heart down a tad. “Good to hear.” He climbed off his body, picked up the sword and wiped the blade on one of the dead thing’s jacket. He then grabbed the improvised weapon and handed it to him. “You did pretty good, just then, Matt, and I’m really proud of you.”

Matt scooped up the masking tape. He wiped off the pieces of brain matter then set about using his teeth to find the edge. “The blade has come loose.” He grinned again, not noticing that his teeth had collected an impressive amount of red and grey lumps. “I can fix it though, Jordan. I’m really good at fixing things. Just you see.”

Jordan turned away, feeling a little nauseated at the sight of Matt’s bloodied mouth. “Yeah, I’m sure you call make it all better,” he muttered. “Come on, we’d better get out of here.” Jordan told Matt to stay by the kitchen door. He then ran up the stairs and looked out of his window. There were just few dead things left now. He watched two more leave Matt’s house. One of them carried Mrs Spicer’s severed head. “Frigging hell. That’s just sick.”

He gazed up towards the centre of town. Jordan still wasn’t sure where to go. He blinked. “Wait on.” Jordan reached into his back pocket and pulled out the folded piece of paper. The map on the other side still showed the town from the deep game but that was fine, as he still remembered how the map looked when it showed this town. There was a large red x in the middle of one of the largest buildings in town and as the largest building in town was the Orchard multi-storey carpark, that had to be their destination. Why the hell anybody would want to go there was anyone’s guess but he figured that, it was bound to be a little easier to defend against those running freaks than this house.

He ran back down the steps and entered the kitchen. “Are you ready?”

Matt tilted his head to one side. “Ready for what, Jordan?”

“We’re going into town. The man grinned again. It pleased Jordan’s delicate stomach to see that Matt had wiped his mouth clean. “Don’t worry. The dead things have gone for the moment. I think they’ll be coming back this way though, that’s why we need to move somewhere else. You need to promise me something, Matt. When we get out there. You so need to stay quiet. Can you do that?”

Matt nodded. “Sure. I can stay quiet. As quiet as a mouse! This so sounds fun, Jordan. I really like going on trips, you know. Almost as much as I like eating food like hotdogs and pineapple and pizza.”

Jordan silently sighed. He moved past Matt and slowly opened the door. Once he was sure that they really had all gone, he opened the door wider and slipped out into the back garden. He motioned Matt to follow him, then ran across the lawn, opened the garden gate and held it so the other man could get through. Jordan eased it closed. “Okay, remember what I said about no noise. We’re going to do a bit a running, so try and keep up. I won’t be stopping. Do you understand?”

Matt nodded. “Sure thing, Jordan. I like running, almost as much as I like going on trips.”

“Well, ain’t that nice to hear,” he muttered. Jordan checked to see that the area was still empty before he took off. He raced along the path, moving past the car and the two takeaways. Jordan heard Matt’s footsteps so he didn’t have to worry about losing the idiotic man-child. He made his way over roads and across pavements, seeing evidence of death and slaughter almost everywhere but he saw no bodies.

He reached the town’s small bus station and stopped to catch his breath. It annoyed him to see that Matt wasn’t even panting.

“Oh boy. That was fun,” he remarked. “Are we at the place now or are going to do the running thing again?” Matt leaned against the side of the wall and added another piece of tape to the improvised weapon.

The simple fact of the matter was that Jordan didn’t know what to do now. He climbed onto the low brick wall beside him. The roof was just about visible. He could even see a couple of cars parked up there. Jordan wondered what could have happened to their owners.

Exactly why should that car park be so important anyway? At no point did it mention a stupid car park on the back of the game box. “Like it’s really go to say that anyway,” he muttered. Matt gave him a funny look. To which Jordan ignored. Then again, it didn’t mention anything about the game being multi-layered either.

It only spoke about the MC, devastated over his family’s slaughter deciding to join up with Jenny and must fight through hordes of mutant killers in a race against time to find the cure before it’s too late. Fine, so there’s two games. Did that mean that the surface game had a similar objective? Two game? What about the one where his sister turned into a werewolf? Was that another game or just a side quest?

Jordan jumped down and watched Matt pull off another piece of masking tape and wound it around the mop handle. God, he wished that a simple task like that would give him so much pleasure. “Okay, I give up. You win. Fine, I’ll go to the sodding car park!” he shouted. “It’s not like I have anything else pencilled into my diary today.”

This so wasn’t fair. Why should he end up with Simple Simon for his NPC? Sure, Barry might have been a pain in the rear end but at least he would have given him some decent advice, in amongst all the bragging and general showing off. He would have known exactly what all that bullshit was about with wolf girl. That’s for sure.

Jordan pulled the map out of his back pocket he held the folded up paper between his thumb and forefinger. He waved it in the air and uttered a silent prayer to the sadist who designed this fucking brain melting game and asked for something a little more constructive than a big red X.

It didn’t shock him in the slightest to find the contents hadn’t changed. “Gee, thanks for that.” Jordan started to fold it up again then stopped. Maybe the pretend Barry did know why the car park was so important. He glanced over at Matt and came up with an idea. Both Barry and Matt were NPCs, both connected to the game, both software. So didn’t that mean that this annoying dork would know something more than he was saying? Well, obviously he did, but surely there must be some way to make the NPC break character, a trigger event, for example. “Here, have a look at this, Matt. Tell me what you think.” He unfolded the paper, half-expecting him to pull it out of his hand and eat it.

The change in him was electric. Matt started to shake. Sweat rolled down his face. It looked like he was about to pass out. His eyes fluttered. “Hey, calm down, man. It’s only a map.” Despite the distress it appeared to be having, he didn’t let go of the map.

“Oh no, no, no, no. That place is worse than the room, it’s worse than anything that mum ever did to me!It’s even more worse than the dead people who want to eat me.” He dropped the weapon and the now empty roll of tape, slid down to the pavement and covered his up his eyes. “That’s no car park, Jordan. It’s just a façade, a mask. It’s where all the bad things are made. Please don’t take me in there.”

Perhaps the sadist answered his prayers after all. Jordan crouched in front of Matt. He picked up the weapon, pulled his hand away from his face. Matt formed two fists. Jordan uncurled the fist pushed the shaft inside and pushed the fingers in. Jordan had not expected that outburst, but it showed him that despite all appearances the NPC really was intrinsically connected to this stupid game. Matt looked a little different too, not quite so gormless, like the light was on and somebody really was home now. Perhaps dazed or sleeping but it had to be an improvement.

“That was quite an eloquent speech, Matt. You almost had me going too. Thing is. You told me that your mum locked you into that room for over ten years. So how the hell can you know anything about what happened outside? You couldn’t have gotten anything out of her, your mum was as insane as they come.”

Matt winked and his grin returned. “You really want to go there?”

“Of course I do,” he snapped.

The grin faded. “I’m not sure that I’m allowed to.” He tapped the side of his nose. “You sure do ask a lot of questions, Jordan. Thing is, stuff happened to me when you broke the fourth wall. Stuff that I can’t explain nor do I want to, you see some of that stuff I saw made me want to pee myself. It was that scary. I did find out about that place you want to visit though and everything about it is really bad. Bad enough that even you will pee yourself.”

“Okay, fine. I get the picture. You don’t want me to go there.” He stood up. “Fine. I’ll go back home. Makes no difference to me.” He turned around. A moment later, Matt’s hands landed on his shoulders.

“Wait, I said nothing about you not going. In fact, Jordan. You have to go there. In fact, you really have no choice in the matter.” Matt turned him around. “The backdoor you dropped through also created a pocket scenario, meaning that you have a time-line error to fix for a start. If you fail to correct the code oversight then it’s likely you’ll be thrown into a feedback loop, meaning you’ll remain here with this NPC and all the arena’s ravenous runners chasing you forever.”

“What the fuck?” He pulled the map out of Matt’s hand. “Just what is any of that supposed to mean?” Matt just gazed back at him for a moment before that happy smile returned. He blinked twice before putting his arms back down.

“Gosh, I am so hungry. Do you have any cheese? I like pizza too. Do you have any pizza?”

“Oh Christ,” he muttered.

He folded up the map, taking his time over the task while keeping a close eye on Matt’s behaviour. As far as he could tell, the NPC had returned to character. Jordan considered pushing the paper back into Matt’s hand to see if he could pull out any more valuable info nuggets. For a start, he’d so love to know exactly what a time-line error was. “Fuck it,” he muttered before pushing the map back into his pocket. It’s more than likely, Matt would spit out yet another sentence of confusing bollocks. He’d got what he wanted anyway. Jordan had to go to the building.

Jordan looked both ways then crossed the road and hurried past the front of the town’s bus station. Instead of trying to figure out the reason for going to this damn building, would it not be more beneficial to work out the objective for this game?

Of course, his rational mind decided that this wasn’t the best way to use his thinking privileges and decided to show Jordan his loving family sitting in the living room, watching some rubbish on TV. Only the so called rubbish was in fact him. They were watching his progress through the game. His dad leaned forward and nodded approvingly, while asking his mum if she remembered the ice rink which the council demolished a decade ago. Mum grinned and told dad that how could she forget their first ever date? His sister wasn’t doing much of anything apart from trying to pick her nose without her parents from noticing. She then gave Jordan a huge smile and asks him if he wanted to hang out next Saturday. They usually met at the park before picking up a couple of mates from the bus station before crashing at somebody’s house for a few hours.

Jordan skidded to a stop in between a pharmacy and a butcher’s shop. He shook away the mental image. Could Necrovoid get any weirder? This was getting more and more confusing. It’s almost as if the damn program was telling him to stop playing the game and go have a life, to leave the house and get himself some real friends just like his sister. What sort of game does that? It’s almost like the game doesn’t want anyone to play or something. He sighed to himself. No, that was insane, he was over-thinking everything again. Besides, he had friends, both online and fully interactive and anyway, all of his sister’s friends were idiots who thought Jordan was some sad, pathetic loser.

“We're almost there, Jordan.”

He looked up to find they’d already reached the outskirts. They passed a stationary ice-cream van and stopped. He gaped in shock at the building that had taken the car park’s place. “You have go to be shitting me,” he said. He found himself staring at the largest funhouse he’d seen in his life. The damn thing had to be ten storeys high. The large placard above the red double doors simply said ‘Necrovoid’.

“The eating things are coming back!”

Jordan nodded. “Yeah, I figured they would be. We don’t have much of a choice in the matter now.” He took a deep breath and walked towards those doors.

Chapter Fifteen

That door looked pretty thick. It took both of them to pull it open. Once they’d managed to pull it wide enough to let them both inside, it had closed easier. Considering the whole street was packed with those things and were almost on top of them, made him feel a better about having that door between them.

It made him wonder how it could been possible that their scratching sounds could travel through such thick wood. That wonder turned into self-evidence when Matt pulled him away, telling him that the eating things might go away if they can’t smell you. It was part of the damn narrative.

Matt’s eyes looked at the door, then back at Jordan, his eyes now wide with terror. “Please, we need to go. Trust me, I don’t want to, Jordan. There are worse things waiting for us in here. Things that makes my heart beat real fast.” He took out a fresh roll of tape from Christ knows where and added another strip to the join.

“Will you stop doing that please? Also, it might help if you unscrew the mop head.” He allowed Matt to pull him away from the door and once they were out of sight, his companion settled down and stopped whimpering. Jordan opened his mouth then shut it again after realising that asking Matt to describe these so-called ‘bad things’ contained within this funhouse would be a pointless exercise. Matt had the descriptive powers of a cheese sandwich. They were bound to stumble upon them soon anyway. God, what he’d do for the shotgun from the deep game. The sword was great but yet again, the game had stuffed them into dark, narrow corridors, making the sword practically useless.

“I wonder who did their decorating?” This corridor wall was covered in dark wooden horizontal planks, each one about six inches wide. The one inch gap between each plank gave this place the appearance of some abandoned animal stockade. He shook away the imagery which accompanied that stray thought. Christ knows what they’d do if a herd of stampeding zombie cows appeared from nowhere.

Jordan placed his hand against one of the planks. The slight vibration he felt told Jordan that something lay beyond these walls, heavy machinery perhaps? Yeah, why not. There was a giant automated machine on the other side, spitting out an endless supply of running things and they were going to jump on them once they reached the end of this damn corridor.

“Or maybe not,” he whispered. The corridor abruptly widened. This made him feel a little better. If anything did come at them now, at least he’d be able to protect Matt and himself. As long as they weren’t zombie cows, that is.

Matt tapped him on the shoulder a couple of times.

“Look at that over there, Jordan. What do you think that is?”

He followed Matt’s gaze and frowned at the sight of the corner of some old brick building sticking through the wooden wall. Jordan shrugged. “You got me there. Looks familiar though.” It did remind him of somewhere. As he neared, it clicked. Jordan grinned. Now he knew it. This was the corner of Amir’s Spice Hut. He’d leaned against that wall on many occasions while he ate his donner kebab, or spicy chilli burger. What it was doing here was a mystery but since when did anything make sense in here?

It wasn’t quite the same though. Unlike the real one, this brick corner had a single poster advertising the circus stuck to the wall. He leaned closer. Christ, must be some sort of freakshow circus. The clowns had spider bodies. The gymnasts performing on the high-wire had tentacles for arms and there appeared to be a bunch of severed heads running about on spider legs in the background.

That is seriously fucked up. Jordan grabbed the corner of the poster and ripped it off the wall. What lay behind it made him want to whoop with joy. “Oh yeah, that’s more like it!” Matt rushed over.

“What is it, what have you found?”

Jordan stood back and pointed. “Just what the doctor ordered,” he replied, pointing at the hole in the wall and at the shotgun lying on the bricks. Sure, there were several thick black metal bars in front of it but Jordan reckoned it wouldn’t take that much digging out. He tapped the tip of the sword’s blade. The mortar looked old and crumbly. It wouldn’t take that long to pull out a couple of bricks.

He got down on his knees at set to work. As expected the stuff came out easily enough. Mortar dust gathered in piles by his knees as his sword made short work of it. The shotgun was as good as his. Would there be enough shells? Jordan pushed that troubling thought to one side. If they were going to make the gun so hard to get then they were bound to supply it with enough ammunition to keep him going for a while. It made sense.

Matt tapped him on the shoulder again.

“Not now. Can’t you see that I’m busy?”

That tapping continued, getting more urgent.

“For crying out loud!” he snapped. Jordan pulled the blade out of the hole and turned his head, intending to give Matt a right proper bollocking. His anger turned to confusion and then to fear when he saw them. “Oh shit! It’s the things from the poster!” Jordan looked at his whimpering companion then back at the several heads, racing towards them. He growled. “Fuck you.”

He lifted the sword, jumped forward and swung it in a low arc. The blade sliced through the first head in two and cut through its pal’s legs, causing it to squeal like a piglet while pivoting on its remaining three legs. Jordan thrust the sword through another one’s eye socket then looked over his shoulder. “Come on, man, help me out here. Use that damn thing!”

Did it make any difference to his ferocity that each attacking head wore his sister's face? Jordan cleaved another one in half. Bits of shredded brain stubbornly clung to the metal when he brought the sword up, ready to kill the next thing. If anything, it made him fight even harder. How he would have reacted if they wore his mum's face or Jenny made him inwardly cringe. Christ, he'd probably find a corner to cower in.

Jordan killed another two and took relief in watching Matt thrusting his bladed mop handle into the mouth of another. “It looks like we've won this battle!” he said, while wiping the sweat from his forehead. “Look, Matt. The remaining three are scuttling off.”

They vanished around the corner. Jordan ran after them, not wanting any of those vile things to continue existing. He screamed out in part relief and part joy. At last, for the first time since this damn game had started, something had gone his way. Hell, he didn't need the shotgun anyway.

He skidded to an abrupt halt after he'd turned the corner and his eyes bulged. “Oh, sweet mercy!” There were hundreds of them, all stationery, all glaring at him, all wearing his sister's face.

“What are we going to do now?” cried Matt. “They are behind us as well. I think we're trapped.”

Jordan moved closer, he gripped the handle as tight as he could. The mass of heads inched forward. “ It’s simple. We fight,” he growled “There's nothing else we can do.”

The heads then screamed in unison. It was a terrible noise which caused Jordan's bones to vibrate. He screamed back at them then ran into the middle, cutting and slashing. Blood, legs and bits of skull flew in all directions. He kept cutting them down, only for more of them to appear.

Two heads leapt onto their comrades then jumped straight at his face. He dodged to the left and his left foot slipped in the gore. Jordan fell backwards and the sword dropped from his wet palm and disappeared under the moving carpet of monsters. The two that caused him to slip reached his boots and cambered up his legs, their sharp claws digging into his tender flesh.

He managed to get to his feet and leaned down to try remove one of the things from his leg. Jordan narrowly missed losing two of his fingers before he was able to grab two of its legs. He flung it behind him, leaving just one still on his body.

Three more attempted to jump on his legs but Jordan kicked back. His boot heel caught one of them in the face. The other two scuttled out of the way. “Matt. Don't just stand there gawping. Come here and help me out. Get this thing off me, for crying out loud.”

His companion rushed over to him, thrusting his knife blade into any head stupid enough to get in their way. Matt booted the remaining head off Jordan's legs then pushed him closer to the wall, stamping on two more heads which tried to scale Matt's ankles.

“What are you playing at, Matt?”

“There's another door over there. Can you not see it?”

He could now. A white panelled door set into the wood. Thing is, Jordan could swear that it wasn't there a moment ago. Not that he intended to bitch about it. A single head jumped onto his boot and refused to budge no matter what he did. “Kill the fucking thing!” he yelled. Jordan then clenched his fist and punched it over and over. “Get off my foot'” His knuckles were covered in blood. He didn’t know if it was his blood or the head thing. Nor did he care. Jordan hit it again. This time, he felt it loosen its grip. With a last roar, Jordan snatched two of its legs pulled it off and smashed the head into the wall.

“Come on, Jordan! We need to go now before they attack us again.” Matt reached the door, turned the handle then grabbed the back of Jordan's collar. He pulled him backwards and through the the open doorway.

Matt kept a firm hold of Jordan's wrists. Which probably saved him from doing anything he might regret. He blinked rapidly while wondering if reality had just kicked him in the face yet again. He saw no blood, no wet gore, no pieces of skull bone lodged in Matt's hair. All that remained from the terror they'd just encountered was the adrenalin surging through his system and even that had began to diminish.

They both wore clean clothes, sporting new haircuts and expensive trainers. Now that Matt wasn't imitating the country bumpkin look, the lad looked pretty normal. Jordan figured that would change as soon as he opened his gob.

That door had brought them into a games store. Jordan didn’t even bother questioning the reason behind this unexpected turn of events. There wasn't much point. It's not like the game was going to spoon-feed him the answers, not after the last time.

This scene they'd stumbled into wasn't in the same time frame as the outbreak. There were people behind the counter chatting to a couple of customers on this side of the counter. He scanned the rest of the shop, gazing past the retro cartridges, the game media accessories and a rotating poster display and spotted several more people browsing through the secondhand games at the back of the shop.

Was this the before time? Or another bullshit scenario like before? Like he even knew the answer to that. Jordan figured that if Matt suddenly decided to turn into a fucking werewolf then he’d have his answer.

Matt wasn’t in any fit state to help him out. A pretty teen beside the counter had caught his attention. “Christ, man. Don’t make it so obvious. Oh, and wipe your mouth. You’re drooling.” Jordan left the idiot to his fantasies and moved further into the shop. “Oh, we’re inside a shopping mall,” Jordan said to himself when he spotted another glass door which led out into the into the mall. There was a jewellery shop directly opposite and a bagel store next to that. A line of people in front of the shop suggested that was the place to go for yummy, cheap food.

He scanned the rest of the mall visible from the shop window, only stopping when his gaze caught the entrance to an older market hall. “Son of a bitch!” he exclaimed when the realisation finally dawned. He was inside the shuttered up games shop that he and Jenny passed.

A young man in a black hoodie and faded jeans walked past him and opened the door. Tuneless muzak drifted inside. I didn’t surprise Jordan to spot a Necrovoid box in his hand. The object of Matt’s ogling caught up with the young man and they both left together, hand in hand. Jordan watched them kiss before the pair joined the bagel queue.

Jordan looked around the shop and noticed Matt acting a little weird whilst standing next to a display stand advertising some Chinese made gaming tablet. When Matt noticed Jordan’s gaze, he coloured up and then ran over to him and started tugging at his sleeve.

“Can we go now, please? That pretty girl has gone now and everybody is looking at me funny. I don’t like crowds and I don’t like all these funny colours and pictures and I need something to eat too. I like cheese, you know. Yeah, cheese is good. Do you have any?”

Jordan put his hand over Matt’s mouth. “Will you shut that hole? We’re not going anywhere. At least, not yet.” Where could they go? He doubted that the door leading to the shopping mall was their answer. “Do you promise to keep it down?” He waited for the slight nod before pulling his hand away.

That girl was pretty though,” he whispered.

“Yeah, she was pretty,” Jordan conceded.

“Can we go now? I’d like to see more pretty girls and I’d like something to eat please as well as find some cheese…”

His voice got louder and louder. All conversation had stopped. “The map,” he muttered. “Shit, I’d forgotten about that.” Jordan pulled it out and slapped it into Matt’s hand. Immediately, he calmed down. He looked around and found only one person hadn’t looked away. A middle-aged man standing by the retro cartridges. “What? You have an issue or something? My brother’s autistic.”

The man shook his head and held up his hand. “Sorry,” he muttered before turning back to the game cartridges.

“Oh, you found it then, Jordan. Well done, that man.”

The confident and calm demeanour had returned and so had the spark behind those eyes. Like before, Jordan got the feeling that those eyes were windows to the game, to the vast intelligence behind Necrovoid. He also couldn’t shake the persuasive impression that it was laughing at him, or at least, having a bit of a jolly fun time at his expense. In fact, it was more than an impression. Those heads all wearing his sister’s face kinda confirmed that.

“Yeah, go me. I’ve found it.”

“Do I detect a bit of resigned sarcasm there? That’s an improvement, I guess, from our last rather brief discourse. I take it that you’ve forgiven me for orchestrating the NPC swap-out? Well, even if you haven’t I’m not all that bothered. But, if it does make any difference, You wouldn’t have reached this game-save with the Barry NPC, not without a lot of luck anyway.”

Jordan stayed silent, unsure of how to answer this entity.

“What, has the cat got your tongue?” It sighed, adding a bit of dramatic flow to the noise. “Fine. I’m not going to argue. After all, it is your hint sheet we’re using up here. Jordan. Well done. You have reached the important time-line event. Now, you have to find a way to correct the illegal subroutine that was kinda shoe-horned into the code.” The entity presented Jordan with a Matt grin. “Oh, I see the frown has returned. I thought it would. Got you all confused now. Well, here’s the kicker. If the code isn’t restored to how it should flow, you will be thrown back into a looped deep game, unable to escape until, that is, you die a true death in reality.”

“Yeah, thanks for that, you fucker. Why don’t you piss off back to where you came from?” Jordan tried to snatch the map out of his hand only for the entity to pull his hand away.

“Not yet, I want to witness this. I haven’t had a laugh in ages.” He wandered over to the counter, climbed on a bar stool and gave a mock salute to the young guy on the other side. Moments later, the guy passed the entity a box of cinema popcorn.

“You have got to be kidding me,” he muttered. Jordan approached the counter, ignoring the entity noisily munching through the box. He wasn’t going to let the game get under his skin. Not in here. This was his territory. Jordan normally felt at ease and comfortable in gaming shops, so why should this one be any different? Okay, so maybe it was a digital version but that shouldn’t change anything. The place looked authentic to his eyes. The game had gotten everything down to pat. From the sarcastic notices banging on about game exchanges to the standard crowd of customers shuffling about inside.

How was he supposed to fix this illegal subroutine when he didn’t even know what it was? Jordan gazed around the shop interior, looking for anything that might give him a clue. “What am I looking for?” he said to himself. It looked like every other game shop he’d been inside. The only real stand out clue he saw were the game posters. They all were for the Necrovoid game. Was that the clue? How could that be the sodding clue? He was inside the Necrovoid game, for crying out loud. Of course it was going to display its own game.

The entity finished the box of popcorn and placed it on the counter. He leaned forward. “Tick tock. God, Jordan. It’s as obvious as anything. Maybe you need a bit more of an incentive? That’s cool. The shit was about to hit the fan an about an hour anyway. I’ll just bring it forward. Tick tock.”

The atmosphere totally changed at the sound of a distant scream. Another one followed and hot on the heels of that agonising noise, there were another two. All the customers rushed to the front window. Jordan hadn't moved from the counter. He didn’t need to gawk as he already knew what was happening out there. Several people rushed past the shop door, which prompted the rest of the customers to rush out, leaving only him, the entity and the two employees and from their startled expressions it wouldn't be long before they scarpered too.

“If you're trapped in here without completing the task then it is game over. There’ll be no more second chances. You’ll have to start again with the difficulty level on a higher setting.” The entity clicked his fingers.

The first employees jumped over the counter and ran over to the window. His companion stood up. “What the hell is going on out there, Barry?”

“I don’t have a clue.”

“Well, what can you see?”

“Just, just lots of people running around and generally looking like they're about to shit themselves.”

This Barry looked a little older than Jordan. Probably closer in age to Matt. He guessed the game shop worker was in his late twenties. The employee took off his black company baseball cap, screwed it up and stuffed it into his pocket. Barry then proceeded to pull out his hair tie. “Bollocks to this. I reckon we ought to get out of here.”

“Do you think it could be a bomb or something? Hang on, let me check online.”

“Give over, Steve. It's not a bomb. It’s not a fire either. This feels really weird. Come on, man.” Barry put his hand on the door. “Are you coming or what?”

“Yeah. Okay, let me just lock up.”

The entity clicked his fingers and the scene froze. He jumped off the bar stool and sidled up to Jordan. “Does it not grind you down being so thick? Come on, the answer is practically staring you in the face.” He clicked his fingers again. The scene continued playing out. Barry opened the door and left the shop. Steve grabbed his coat, picked up a set of keys and pressed a green button on a black pack key fob. The shutters began rolling down.

“You're fast running out of time!”

Jordan so wanted to punch the entity. It was getting to be as annoying as his sister. He stopped dead. His sister! Christ. Of course. That's the answer. The damn side quest! Jordan leaned over the grabbed Steve's arm. “I need a copy of Necrovoid.”

“What the hell are you still doing in here? Get out, man!”

“Not without the game.”

“You’re crazy! Look, forget the game. I can’t anyway. We sold the last one to that couple a few moments ago.” The employee pulled his arm away then jumped over the top of the counter.

“Wait a minute!” he yelled. “Come on. I only need a sensenet. You must have a spare or something.”

“What? No, of course we don't have a spare.” Steve glanced over to the door. “Look, man. I think you have to leave. Seriously.” He tried to pull away but Jordan hung on for dear life. “Will you leave me the fuck alone?”

The shutters were half way down.

Steve pulled his fist back, obviously intending to punch him. Jordan leapt put of the way. He jumped over the counter and ran over to the back table. There had to be one in here somewhere.

“Hey, you can't go in there. You not…”

His complaint turned into a blood-curdling shriek. Jordan looked up from his search and saw that an infected human had managed to squeeze through the five inch gap between the shutter and the floor and had fastened its teeth around Steve's thigh.

“Help me, man! Oh, please. I'm begging you. It hurts so much.”

Jordan turned around. He couldn’t risk losing another second. Besides. Steve wasn't real. He was just another NPC. They didn't count. They weren't human. His hands hunted through bits of PC motherboards, opened game cartridges as well as other assorted junk. Steve continued to weep and cry. “Fuck this.”

Jordan spun around. He ran over to the counter, picking up a screwdriver on his way. “This is such a bad idea,” he muttered while vaulting over the counter. Steve didn't look like there was much life left in him. He continued his attempts to stop the infected man from biting out more chunks of leg flesh but wasn't having much success.

Jordan ran up to the monster who growled at him. “Yeah, that’s right. I'm going to take away your new chew toy. Here. Try this on for size.” He slammed the screwdriver into the man's ear. The monster immediately stopped all movements and released Steve's leg.

Jordan dragged the injured man over to the counter and sat him against the side. “Stay with me, Steve,” he said. “I'll call for an ambulance.”

The entity crouched on the other side of Steve. He placed his hand on the man's face and uttered a few silent words before pulling his hand back. Steve was dead. Jordan checked his heart to make sure but there was nothing. “Why did he have to die?”

The entity shrugged. “Everybody dies,” it replied. Even digital lives have their time. Steve though, well he might be gone, but a lot of the other Steve’s are still in play. This Steve is currently involved in another nine hundred and twenty-seven thousand games. Hell, in some of them, I've let him be the Barry. Anyway, it is good to see that you've still some compassion in circumstances beyond your control. Check Steve's pocket.” He let out a loud sigh. “Don't just look at me like that, you big plank. Do as you're sodding told”

Jordan glowered at the entity before finally rummaging through the dead man’s pockets. He found what he was looking for stuffed into Steve’s back pocket, a crumpled up sensenet.

“Well done, you’ve sorted the mess. The timeline is back to how it should be.” The entity held out the map. “Go on take it. It won’t bite you.”

Jordan kept his hands by his side. His fingers couldn’t stop playing with the sensenet. “Right, so I have what I came for. So, what now, I take it that I put it on and wake up back in reality?”

“Oh, that’s a classic. God, what a dipshit. No, of course you don’t! You and Mr Brainbox here has to go back the way you came. Now, will you take this fucking map off me?”

Jordan shook his head. “No, not a chance. I’m not going back in there.” He snatched the map out of the entity’s hand. “Nothing you can do will make me change my mind either.”

The sensenet had vanished and so had the entity. All that remained was a map that was now half its size, with half the text gone and a very confused and scared Matt. His companion moaned quietly.

“Jordan. I think I fell asleep or something. I dreamt about food and God. Can we go now?” Matt glanced over Jordan’s shoulder. “I spy another sleepyhead. Looks like he’s waking up too. He doesn’t look very happy.”

Jordan’s heart jumped into his mouth at the sight of Steve sitting up. His glazed eyes stared at the now closed shutter. His head tilted to one side. It looked like he was trying to work out what had happened. Jordan knew that wasn’t the case. Steve was dead and now reanimated. A creature operating purely on base instinct. He guessed that Steve could sense others of his kind on the other side of that shutter.

The dead thing attempted to get up, his gaze still fixed on the metal shutter. It looked like he wasn’t even aware that Jordan and Matt were in the shop. Jordan inched back, hoping that perhaps it would stay that way.

“Hello?” yelled Matt. “Are you okay, do you have any cheese or pizza? I like pizza.”

Steve spun around. His mouth opened wide and his lips curled back. He leaned forward, looking like a predator preparing itself to pounce on their prey. It then clicked that was exactly what Steve was doing. The dead thing’s jaw clacked shut.

“Move it!” He grabbed Matt’s arm and pulled him backwards, through the invisible vortex and back into the dark funhouse. Thankfully, dead Steve stayed in the game shop.

The dead Steve threat was the least of their problems! Jordan clearly heard the sound of tiny spider-like feet. The head-things were returning. From the look on Matt’s face, he heard them too. He whimpered and looked around his feet. “I’ve lost my pointy stick!”

“We have to go back for that shotgun!” said Jordan. “We’re dead otherwise.”

Matt shook his head. “We can’t do that. That’s where those nasty monsters are.” He grinned. “Don’t worry. I know a way out. You have to follow me and keep up cos I can go really, really fast when I’m scared.” He turned and raced down the dark stone corridor, leaving Jordan standing. It took the sight of several spider heads creeping around the stone wall to make him race after Matt. “Hey, wait up!”

Jordan gasped in shock when the corridor abruptly changed. He blinked rapidly when he found himself standing outside a white panel door. “What the hell?” He slowly turned in a tight circle, taking in his new surroundings. This was somebody’s house and he stood on the top landing. He leaned over the wooden bannister and gazed down the stairs. There was the sound of a TV coming from down there as well as somebody laughing. That seep voice obviously found something hilarious. If only he felt the same. Jordan was seriously confused over what had just happened. Where the fuck was he?

The door behind him opened. He looked back to find Matt grinning like a loon. “Oh boy, did I not say that I can run fast when I’m scared? I knew it.” He giggled. “I really did know it. I left you behind but cos I’m nice to you and you released me from that room, I came back. I’ve had to go through eight bedrooms but I did it.” He put his hand out. “Come on, don’t be shy. Take my hand. It’s probably what I should have done in the first place.”

Jordan did as he was told, no longer knowing what to do any more.

Matt pulled him through the door.

“It’s some kid’s bedroom,” he muttered. Matt kept hold of his hand while leading him towards a wardrobe. He saw a teenage boy, of about fourteen, sitting on the side of his bed with a sensenet rolled over the top of his head. His eyes fluttered and he moaned softly before flinching. “Christ, is that what I look like?”

“There’s no time to dally.” Matt pulled him into the wardrobe. “More bedrooms to go yet, Jordan.”

They emerged in a girl’s bedroom. The colour and style had changed but the central figure, a teenage girl, wearing a purple dressing gown and bunny slippers, hadn’t changed. Her sensenet had rendered her immobile too. A long rope of drool hung from the side of her mouth and dangled down to a green plate holding the remains of a pizza. Matt changed direction. They passed close by the girl and towards the blue door. He didn’t open it, just passed through the wood. Jordan closed his eyes as Matt dragged his body through.

His companion pulled Jordan through several bedrooms, all occupied by people of all genders and ages, plugged into the Necrovoid game.

“One more to go,” said Matt.

They passed through another wardrobe door and entered a bedroom that he knew very well. “Wait, stop. This is Barry’s bedroom. He looked at the Mecha posters which dominated the main wall then glanced at the calender girl posters on the opposite wall before finally turning his attention to the bed. Unlike all the other bedrooms they had passed through,. This one was empty. “I don’t get it. Where is he?” Jordan turned to Matt. “Shit. Don’t tell me he’s already finished the game!”

“Never mind about him, Jordan. Come on, there’s no time to lose. We’re almost there, almost at the end.” Matt pulled him through Barry’s white wardrobe.

“Oh no!” hissed Jordan. “Why did you have to bring us back in here?” The funhouse was quiet, he heard no skittering feet. It wouldn’t be long before the heads found them again. That much he did know.

“God, ain’t you a little ray of fucking sunshine. You know, I thought you’d be glad to see your old pal.”

Jordan recognised that voice. He turned around and sighed dramatically at the sight of Barry. He sat on a dry-stone wall, next to two black archways. “Oh, there you are, you annoying little shit. I did wonder.” Jordan gave his friend a slight grin. “I didn’t think you’d be here though. See, I thought you’d be in your bedroom, whacking off while thinking about your mum.”

“Oh, you really are so funny!” He replied, bristling. “Yeah, well, I’ll be wiping that smug smile right off your face in a minute.”

“Oh, will you now? Man, don’t give me the tough guy speech. I thought you were a waste of space before this fucking game messed with my head. Admit it, you’re just a pathetic virgin dweeb who’s going to die alone.”

Barry grinned. “Ha! I’ve kinda missed your shitty insults.”

Jordan grinned back. “Yeah, I guess it’s been a while.” He paused. “Wait, are you the real Barry?”

He shook his head. “No, sorry, dude. I’m the NPC. Your pal is still playing.” He winked. “He’s no where near where you are though.”

Jordan looked across at Matt. “Einstein hinted that I was close to finishing. Is that right?”

Barry clicked his fingers and the two black archways blazed into light. Bright blue swirling vortexes reached out then shrunk back. “Indeed it is. You need to choose a portal, Jordan. The one on the left will take you back home, back to your bedroom and out of the game. The portal on the right will take you back into the deep game, to your last savestate before you fucked everything up. If you finish it in time, Necrovoid will reward you with a very special prize. So, which one is it going to be?”

“Would I have had this choice if I’d have stayed in the game shop? See, I reckon I could have found some way to put Steve down. Would that put a spanner in your works? See, it figured out why you had to put me in there. It’s so I could mail the game to myself so I could get out when my sister turned into that werewolf!” He straightened his back and silently dared the NPC to called him a liar. It was Matt who replied.

“Look at what I got, Jordan.” Matt showed him a tablet. “I pulled this off the display stand. Isn’t it pretty?”

Barry laughed. “He’s the reason why you went into the game ship, dude. Matt wanted something better than his old portable TV. As for the timeline error, the code would have patched it. It’s no biggie.”

“Fine, whatever,” snapped Jordan. “You know what? You can both fuck off. I’m going home. Simple as.” He started to walk towards the left portal.

Matt stopped him. “Wait, please. Don’t leave me hanging. I need to know what happens. We all do!” He pointed to the tablet screen. “Please, Jordan.”

Barry chuckled. “What, you thought he really was just watching cartoons on his TV? He’s watching you, man.”

“What are you talking about?” Jordan looked at Matt and tried to see the tablet but Matt held it to his chest and shook his head. He looked back at Barry. “Come on, man. This is a wind up. He couldn’t be watching me.”

“Why not, Jordan?” Barry jumped off the wall and walked a little closer. “You wanted to feel important, to be different. You remember how you felt when I told you that the surface game wasn’t actual reality? I believe you were more than a little upset. Well, good news, Jordan. You are special. Matt isn’t the only NPC watching your progress in the deep game.”

Jordan shrugged off Matt’s hand. “Look, I’m sorry, but I’m not playing this anymore.”

Barry ran after him and stood between Jordan and the left portal. “You wanted to know what the surface game objective is? It’s simple, dude. The objective is to get you to finish the deep game. You were right about this being essentially a sandbox arena. It’s just a reality mirror, that’s all.”

“Bullshit. How can this mirror reality? What about the runners, and the dead things and everything else?”

“Oh, that. Well, I don’t want to be the party pooper here but that’s all your fault. You brought the infection back when you came out of the first deep game. You’re patient zero.”

He pushed Barry aside. “You think you’re so clever. Bollocks, I said I’m not playing and I mean it.”

He hurried towards the left portal only to find a pair of arms clasped around his waist. “Matt, get off me.”

“Sorry, I need to know.” Matt spun Jordan and pushed him into the portal on the right.

Chapter Sixteen

Last Insertion

Jordan dare not move a single muscle. He struggled to keep his breathing light, not wanting to give that thing out there any possible reason to stop what it was doing. Jordan had no clue as to its intent, only that it had shown more interest to the dead woman than to him or to Jenny. Her fingers tightened around his hand as the thing paused. Jenny then shuffled a little closer and that slight movement caught its attention.

Why couldn’t she have stayed still. What was wrong with her? That monster down there had taken two shotgun blasts with little or no damage. Was that not enough reason to stay as still as possible?

After what felt like years, the creature returned to doing whatever it was doing to that corpse. It flipped the body onto its front then ripped open its clothing to expose the back. It then bent over and pushed some kind of proboscis into the spine. It looked like it was sucking out its spinal fluid. In fact, Jordan was sure of it but, deep down, he knew that it was really injecting it with a chemical. How he knew this for certain was a complete mystery but he wasn’t going to argue with this new inner voice.

The monster suddenly lifted its deformed head, it pulled the bone tube out of the body’s spine, let out a quiet yelp then backed away from the body. It then turned around and ran off in the opposite direction and disappeared into the darkness a few seconds later.

“Do you think it’ll return?” she asked.

Jordan shook his head. “No, it’s done what it had to.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

He shrugged. Jordan wasn’t too sure himself. “Come on, I think we need to get away from here.” He pulled her down the embankment, staying well away from that corpse.

“Maybe we ought to see what that monster did to that dead woman? You know, it might prove helpful?”

“No, not a chance, Jenny. Anyway, I thought you wanted to go to that chemical factory? We can go by the canal, I know a way inside.”

Jenny squeezed his hand. She moaned. He turned to see the dead thing sitting up.”

“Oh no! Jordan, you have to shoot it!”

He shook his head. “Leave it. If we get too close, I bet you, they’ll detonate, like the things did in the first outbreak? How much are you betting that they’ll be lots more of them too?”

Jenny stopped dead. “Wait, what’s going on? How come you seem so knowledgeable?”

He shrugged again. “I don’t have a single clue, Jenny. It’s like I’ve already done this once. I don’t know, it’s like I’m reliving a dream or something. I am right about this. This new inner voice knows what he’s talking about.” Jordan took her hand. “Trust me, honey.”

Jordan didn’t bother waiting for her to reply, as he knew they were running out of time. He took her away from the viaduct and into the centre of town, past a few other corpses. Like the first one, he skirted around them all. Jordan kept moving until they reached the canal bridge. “Almost there,” he said.

“That water stinks.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.” Jordan led her down the footpath. “There’s a rumour that some of the sludge coming from the chemical factory is dumped in there. Not sure how true that is. Wouldn’t surprise me.”

He hurried along the canal bank, brushing past some of the heavy foliage. Jordan then stopped when a chain-link fence replaced the brick building beside him. “Right, just a bit further.” He ran his fingers along the metal links then stopped. “Here we are.” Jordan crouched down. “Some kids cut through the fence here, ages ago. They repaired it, but didn’t do a great job.”

His numb fingers struggled to unwind the thick wire but after a lot of quiet swearing and a couple of slips which almost took out the nail on his forefinger, Jordan managed to free the bottom of the panel enough so they could both squeeze through. He waited until her left leg was in the other side before he dropped the panel. That deja vu feeling continued to plague him. If anything, it had gotten stronger.

Jordan pulled her up. “There we are. Did I not tell you that I knew a fast way inside?”

She grinned back. “Don’t get too excited. We’re still only in the carpark, Jordan.” Jenny pointed at the building further up. “We have to get into there next. Thankfully, I know a way.”

They hurried towards the large glass-fronted building, passing a couple of empty cars. Jordan had to stop himself from giving them a wide berth. His inner voice had already assured him that nothing would jump out at him. It stayed silent on what terrors could be waiting for them inside.

Jordan stood in front of the two glass doors. He placed his fingers into the gap between the doors and pulled. Nothing happened, the doors remained shut. “That’s not supposed to happen. Those doors are meant to open!”

“Maybe your inner voice isn’t as infallible as you think, Jordan?” Jenny gently moved him to the side. “Remember I said that I know a way? Well, promise me you won’t get mad?” She pulled out a an ID card card. “Things is. I work here.”

Jordan smiled. He kissed her. “I know you do.”

“How could you possibly know that? Oh, your inner voice told you?”

“Yeah, something like that. Doesn’t matter. Come on, do your thing, we’re running out of time.”

Jenny pushed the ID card into a slot next to the doors and they silently opened. She winked at him. “The complex has its own generator and enough fuel to ensure that its systems stay functional for another twenty years.” She entered the building and turned around after Jordan had followed her inside. “You’re right about us running out of time. You’d better follow me.” She winked again. “Unless, that is, your inner voice already knows where to go?”

He kept silent and waited for her to follow the path to the R&D department before allowing himself a single secret grin. Jordan walked past two circular stands, each one at either side of the reception desk. Ceramic Chinese lions stood on them. He nodded to the large decorations before hurrying after Jenny.

As he followed the woman, that inner voice started to tug at his nerves. His previous worry about a threat hiding within this place grew. Jordan checked and double checked the shotgun. Jenny stopped.

“Okay, why do you keep counting those shells?”

“We’re not alone.”

“Are you sure?” she replied. “I can’t hear anything.”

“Neither can I. They are there, it’s just that we can’t hear them yet.” He dropped the shells back into his pocket. He doubted they’d last long if they were attacked.

“There’s something following us but not quite yet?” She sighed. “Don’t tell me. It’s your inner voice again.”

He nodded.

“Will you stop that, Jordan? It is seriously creeping me out.”

They both jumped when something crashed onto the floor. Jenny looked over her shoulder. “Was that from the reception?”

He nodded. “Yeah,” he whispered. I think it was one of those statues.” He pressed his finger to his mouth and pointed to the next set of double doors. She got the message and ran past him while he walked backwards, keeping a close eye on where they had just walked. She held the door open for him then pointed to the first door to their left.

He shook his head.

“I have to go inside,” she hissed. “I don’t have any choice in the matter.”

Jenny left him by the fire door. He already knew what she was going to find in there. Jordan also knew that if he followed her inside, the likelihood of them leaving the room was slim. He so wanted to curse that inner voice and tell it to shut its gob, that it was spouting utter bollocks.

He stayed by the door, wincing as she approached the open lift shaft. He silently begged her not to look down, but his thoughts just weren’t enough. She stood on the edge, her face showed him the misery and trauma that her work had caused to the poor souls at the bottom of that shaft. He opened his mouth as far as it would go and pushed his fist in there.

What the fuck was going on inside his head? How could he know any of these things? Several long shadows grew along the far wall on the other side of the fire door which put paid to any more notions of him suddenly becoming psychic. You didn’t need to know the future to understand that if they stayed here any longer, they would be dead. He burst through the door, wrapped his arm around Jenny’s waist and pulled her out of the room. “We need to go, right now. There’s company arriving. Lots of them too.”

He kept hold of her hand then raced towards to next set of fire doors. He pulled them open and pushed Jenny through before easing them shut. They had only just made it. Jordan peered through the small window and watched as dozens of dead things piling into that room. He’d only just got her out in time.

“Are you okay? I mean, can you continue?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I’m just a little shaken up, that’s all. How did you…” She shook her head. “Never mind. Your inner voice again, I suppose. Doesn’t matter. Come on, we’re nearly there.”

She stood up. Jordan caught her arm. “Wait. Before we go any further. I need you to tell me what we’re dealing with here and how you’re involved.”

"I'm not too sure that you want to know, Jordan. I mean, I can already tell from the way you've been looking down at me that I've already lost your respect, and I..." She look at the floor. "Sorry, I don't know where that came from."

Jordan put her arms around her waist. "Please tell me?" He lifted her chin and kissed her gently. "Please?"

She sighed. "Despite all the damage and loss of life, none of this was deliberate. Jenny leaned back against the wall. "How insane is that? We created the ultimate doomsday weapon while trying to save our species. They were experimenting on introducing hybridised fungal spores into selected human genomes with the aim of strengthening the immune system. We discovered some mycelium DNA strands had the ability to combat and destroy mutated cells from almost every cancer we know about."

"A cure for cancer," he murmured.

"Essentially yes. The initial tests exceeded all of our expectations. The animal testing commenced a few weeks ago."

Jenny abruptly stopped.

"Go on," he urged. "Then what?"

"That's as much as I know. Last month, they transferred me to another department. I was due back but then this happened. Something had gone seriously wrong."

"No shit," he muttered. "The human species is almost dead. Gee, thanks for that. We'll,  I guess you could say that the experiment worked as I bet there's hardly any more cancer cases now. Congratulations." When her face dropped he eased back on the condemnation. "Sorry. Mouth in gear before brain is online again."

She shrugged  "There's no need to apologise. It's nothing that I haven't already thought about, over and over."

"So, why are we back, Jenny?"

"There's still a chance to stop this thing, that's why. I know we can't bring the dead and infected back to life but there is a chance to stop this from spreading any further. You know, to help the few survivors stay alive."

"Okay. I'm hooked. How are we going to do that?"

"That's simple," she replied. "We're going to make it rain." Jenny walked past him. "We have to go down a couple more levels yet. She stopped by the stairwell. "Prepare yourself, Jordan. I have a feeling that it'll get a bit more intense the closer we get to the main lab." She pushed open the stairway door. "It's a bit dark down here as well. You had better watch yourself."

Jordan followed her down the hard steps, keeping his fingers clasped tight around the metal hand-rail. Jenny wasn't kidding about the darkness. As soon as that fire door closed, it took away most of the available light, leaving a narrow beam, seeping into the stairwell from the gap between the doors and the floor but even that disappeared the moment he reached the first landing.

He finally reached the bottom.

"There's an emergency switch box on the wall to your left, Jordan. See if you can find it? I don't understand what's happened. Every other electrical system is operating as it should. Weird, it's like someone manually turned off the main lighting. Why would anybody want to do that?"

He kept silent, believing that Jenny would not like his answer. He ran his hands along the smooth wall surface. A moment later, Jordan's fingers hit a solid box. He felt around until he found what he hoped was the switch. "Okay, I think this is it." Jordan pulled the lever down and red light bathed the stairwell and the room directly in front of them.

"Come on, Jordan," she whispered. "This way."

Jenny led him through the first room. It looked like some kind of storage area. Metal shelving lined the inner walls. They also formed two lines, cutting the room into three long corridors. She pulled him down the middle aisle. Halfway down, Jordan caught something move on the other side of the shelves. He stopped and pulled her down while motioning Jenny to keep quiet. Jordan turned his head to the side. He wasn't wrong, there was something in here with them!

He crawled towards an upturned cardboard box, while watching through the gaps as a creature, larger than a man shuffled through the room. It didn't act like it knew they were in the same room. Jordan had no idea how long that would last, not when it was approaching the end of the shelving. If it took just two steps to the left it wouldn't fail to see them!

What the hell was it? He looked at Jenny to see if she could supply an answer but she simply looked away, her eyes full of tears. Jordan took that as confirmation to not just what it was but who.

A walking fucking mushroom. That's the best description he could give it. This thing seemed to be covered in some kind of soft fungal tissue, obliterating most of its human features. The stuff even covered the head, leaving a pair of diamond shaped slits for where the eyes should be.

The only aberration to the otherwise homogeneous design were the arms. Their unnatural length reminded Jordan of a gorilla's arms but without the bulked muscle. They looked more like flexible thin pipes which ended with three curved sickle-like claws.

He waited for a another second to ensure it was as far away as possible to them before pushing Jenny forward. The door out of here wasn't too far. If they hurried, they might get out of here without that weird thing even noticing them. Jenny had started shaking again. He gently squeezed her arm, hoping it might help to calm her down. He guided her closer to the door, hoping somebody was there to calm him down.

They were almost there. He glanced over his shoulder to check the whereabouts of that monster before they got the hell out of here. It had gone! The damn thing must have left the room and gone up those steps. Jordan pushed his heart back down his throat and stood up. He then pulled Jenny onto her feet, too. “I think we’re safe,” he said, grinning. It must have…”

A pair of highly flexible arms shot through a narrow gap between the shelving. The ends fastened onto his shotgun and wrenched the weapon out of Jordan’s hands.

It dropped the gun on the other side of the shelving and they whipped back through the gap, this time, those curved blades headed straight for Jordan’s face! Jenny pulled him down right at the last second. She pointed to the doorway. Another one of those mushroom monsters was heading into the room. What were they going to do? The first monster had given up trying to grab him through the gap in the shelves and decided to go for the easier option. It had already reached the end of the shelving.

Jenny pushed him down. She tapped the floor. It took Jordan a moment to work out what she was suggesting. He looked back at the way they had come in and then to where they were supposed to go next before he laid flat on the floor and followed Jenny by sliding his body under the metal shelving.

He gritting his teeth and pushed his hand hard against his thigh while he watched the monster’s huge, bladed feet shuffle closer and closer to their position. As the monster neared, its foul stink became more apparent. Jordan attempted to block his nose to avoid the dirty smell. It reminded him of rotten vegetables mixed with mouldy leaves. It grew so thick that he could taste it. He then realised why. The other monster had just entered the room.

The first one suddenly moved away from their hiding place. It literally launched itself at the newcomer. The newcomer had no chance. It was half the size and Jordan believed that it wasn’t aware the the room already had its own resident freaky mushroom monster. The battle was conducted in relative silence. They made no noise while they bit into each other’s soft bodies and their arm blades sliced into whatever they had for flesh. From his position, the stuff falling off their thick bodies looked like wet, cloudy sponge.

The newcomer abruptly keeled over and the original creature leaned over and slowly began scooping out the dead monster’s soft insides and pushing the stuff into it’s mouth. Jenny tapped him on the leg. He nodded. It was now or never. They had to move while it was distracted. He slid out from under the shelving and helped Jenny. She got to her feet and began to move, only for Jordan to catch her arm.

“Two seconds,” he hissed.

She immediately understood his intention and violently shook her head. He went anyway. Jordan ran over to the shelving and the other side and dropped to the floor then slid under the bottom. The shotgun was almost within his grasp when the creature pulled its blades out of the other dead thing’s guts. It turned and lowered its head all the way down. Jordan gazed at those bright red diagonal slits for a second then reached for the shotgun. The monster ran at the shelving. He cried out. His fingers slipped out of the trigger guard. Its blades snapped forward. Jordan managed to squeezed the trigger and his whole universe exploded. He felt a pair of hands wrap around his ankles and he allowed them to pull him back out from under the metal shelving. She was shouting at him but he couldn’t hear a single word. The ringing in his ears blocked everything. He pointed to the shotgun in the hope that would pacify her but it only made her worse. In the end, Jordan did the only thing he could think of. He placed the shotgun on the shelving wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.

“I love you,” he said. “I’m sorry about risking my life but we need the weapon. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

She pulled him back. The anger was still there but it didn’t look as intense. Jenny replied with similar words before taking his hand. He grabbed the gun and allowed Jenny to take him out of the room.

They traversed through a maze of featureless, grey corridors. Due to the ringing, he heard nothing but knew the area wasn’t totally silent thanks to Jenny jumping out of her skin on at least three occasions. They, thankfully, were confronted with no more vile monsters although Jenny had pressed them to the wall just before they reached another junction. Jordan didn’t need his ears to know that one of the mushroom monsters had passed them. His nose told him that.

Jenny stopped beside the first door they reached. “Can you hear me yet?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I can now, but the ringing is still there.”

“Lets just hope there’s no permanent damage.” Jenny pushed her ID card into the slot beside the door and opened the door wide enough to push her head through. “Oh no!” she gasped, pulling her head back. Jenny looked straight at him. “Maybe it was a good idea to go back for the gun after all!”

“What, what’s wrong? What’s in there?”

“It’s what I’d feared,” she replied. Jenny took a deep breath. “I think I know what happened now, what they did wrong. You need to prepare yourself, Jordan. It’s going to get a little gross and you are so going to need that shotgun.”

“Wait, tell me. I need to know”

Jenny opened the door wide enough so he could look inside. Three rows of glass tubes. Each one about three metres high and about two metres in diameter. Bubbling yellow liquid filled them. He tentatively followed her inside, still waiting for her to reply. He stopped beside the first tube and placed his hand against the glass, a little surprised to find the surface hot. There was a white label, the size of a paperback attached the the tube. He leaned forward and attempted to ready the black text. He couldn’t make any sense of it.

Jordan removed his hand then tapped twice. He cried out in shock when a thin hand, covered in thick fungal growth slapped the inside of the container. “What the fuck? There’s people in there.” He glared at Jenny. “That’s a person!” Jordan looked at the other tubes. “Oh Christ, are they all full of people? What have they done to them, Jenny?”

She walked towards him but he jumped back. “Don’t tell me that you didn’t know about this.”

She slowly nodded. “I knew about it, alright but, I secretly hoped that it wouldn’t come to this. I honestly believed we wouldn’t need to go to full human testing. In fact, it’s that which made them transfer me to another department.”

“No, don’t try to wiggle out of this. This is fucking grotesque.”

“I know, I agree. The government obviously believed that the sacrifice was worth it though. They were the ones who sanctioned the final testing, they also supplied the subjects.”

He blinked. “Wait, what?”

“The subjects were all prisoners. They were condemned to die anyway. Rapists, child killers…”

“Stop, just stop right there. We don’t execute prisoners any more.”

“Sure they do,” she replied. “They just don’t tell anyone.” Jenny tried to hold his hand again, only for him to pull back. “Stop doing that, you idiot!” she hissed. Jenny grabbed him and pulled Jordan closer. “Look over there. I think that’s where our two earlier friends came from.”

He followed her glance and saw that further inside the room, three of the glass tubes were shattered. A lake of thick yellow fluid lay around their bases. “Shit, there’s another broken tube.” He caught his breath when the implication dawned on him. “Oh shit, there must be another one loose!” He stood back and leaned against the wall and brought the gun up. “Where could it be?”

She moved a little to the left.

“Can you see it?”

She nodded. “Yeah, it’s here.”

Jordan rushed over. “Don’t get too close, what are you playing at?” His panic faded away when he finally caught sight of the remaining creature. It looking nothing like the others they had encountered, much smaller for a start. It wasn’t much larger than a toddler. Like the ones before, a thick fungal growth covered its entire body but this creature had no arms. Jordan couldn’t even work out where its head joined the body. It flipped over and he saw its features for the first time. Under the growth, he could make out a large pair of bright blue oval eyes, a nose and a mouth. It opened this and slivers of a translucent glue-like substance dropped onto the floor. Jordan heard a noise coming from it, the thing sounded like it was panting.

“Jordan, put it out of its misery. I think its choking. The air must be killing it. Jordan brought up the shotgun, his finger tightened on the trigger when the tube next to them started to crack. He jumped back. He looked wildly around the room and spotted another four were about to break open as well! “We have to get out of here!” he cried. Jordan raced towards the door, jumping over the choking creature as he passed it. He reached the door, spun around and pulled her through before slamming the door shut.

He glared at Jenny. His emotions were now shot to pieces. How was he supposed to react now? The woman had lied to him, again!

“We’re almost there. “Not far now. “Come on, we need to get this over with before…”

“Before what, Jenny? Before I find out what other monsters that you and your crew of amoral fuck-ups have made down here?”

“Don’t you dare take the moral stand with me! We’re not responsible for…” Jordan spotted the ceiling directly above the woman bulge. He ran for her but it was too late. Something big, scaly and wet burst through a vent shaft, curled around Jenny’s torso and pulled her up. She screamed and struggled, crying out for Jordan to help her. He didn’t know what to do! He couldn’t fire for fear of the shells shredding her. It had already pulled her head into the space above the ceiling. Jordan jumped back, he aimed the gun at the ceiling, a metre away from her dangling body and fired twice.

There was an earth-shattering bellow before something the size of a rhino fell through the ceiling and hit the tiles by his feet with a wet thump. He jumped over the grey, mottled lump of stinking flesh and pulled the weeping woman out of a slime-filled hole. Jordan wiped away the mess from her mouth and eyes, weeping in relief when they both opened. “Oh God, I thought you were dead!”

“Still might be,” she whispered back. “Need to finish this, to get this done. Not far now.”

“Which way?”

“Put me down. Leave me here. I can’t make it, I’m going to slow you down. Please, put me down. I’m in so much pain.”

He shook his head and carried her over the dead monster. “I’m not leaving you, now which way?”

Jenny’s arm flopped out, she slowly raised it and pointed forward. “That way. Straight ahead.” She turned her head to face his. “Jordan. I’m really sorry. I’m sorry for everything.” Her eyes closed.

“I’m sorry too,” he replied. Jordan carried her down the darkened corridor, acutely aware that the walls were beginning to take on a furry composition. The fungus stuff had found purchase on the surfaces and the deeper he travelled into the complex, the worse it became. He finally stopped at a junction. He looked both way, unsure of where to go now. “Jenny, can you hear me? Where do we go now?”

“Operations room. Go right, first door” she whispered.

He followed her instructions and found himself beside another open door. He looked inside. This place was much smaller than he anticipated, there wasn’t much fungal growth in here either. Jordan carried her inside and gently placed the woman into one of the several computer chairs which faced a bank of computer terminals. “Now what?”

She reached into her pocket, pulled out her ID card and dropped it into his palm. “There’s a five digit number on the other side. Enter the number on the console in front of you.”

“Is that all I have to do?” He did as she asked, still not believing this was so easy. Jordan typed in the last digit then pressed enter. He then glanced over his shoulder and was about to ask why they couldn’t have done this remotely when something big smashed into the door on the other side. “What was that?” Like he didn’t already know the answer. He ran over to Jenny and picked her out of the chair. “Where do we go now?”

“We go up,” she answered while moaning.”

Jenny was dying. He didn’t need to be a doctor to know that. The woman felt so light the first time he’d picked her up, now she weighed almost nothing. Two mushroom monsters crashed through the door. They stood together, both staring straight at Jordan. He backed away, still having no idea where to go. Jenny was out for the count. They began to approach him and he continued to back away. He didn’t know what to do now, the gun was no good, he’d left that next to the computers.

“Go away!” he screamed. “Go on, fuck off.” They didn’t take any notice of his shouting and Jordan discovered that he’d just run out of floor. His back smashed into the wall. “Oh crap. Sorry, Jenny. I think I’ve fucked this up.”

The two monsters were getting closer. Jenny opened her eyes. She opened her mouth as well and whispered something. He wasn’t sure but it sounded like ‘press it’

“Press what, Jenny? What do you mean?” He turned. “Oh right.” Jordan pressed the button next to his waist and two lift doors slid open. He backed inside and pressed it to close, just as the one of monsters charged towards him. He pulled Jenny into the side. Waited for it to enter the inside of the lift. He pulled his leg up and smashed his foot into where he thought its head should be. Amazingly, it dropped to the floor, just as the doors slid shut.

It took seconds for the lift to reach the roof and during that time, he kept staring at the monster, expecting it to recover and launch itself at him. Jordan was almost at to the point of not caring anyway. Jenny was so close to death now. What was there to live for anyway?

The doors slid open. He gently picked her up and walked past the creature, noticing that it was finally beginning to stir. The air tasted strange, like a sweet bleach. Jordan lifted his head back and watched as the sky darkened. Several bolts of green lightning shot across the tops of the buildings and then the heavens opened. Thick rain pummelled them, soaking through their skin in seconds. It had an oily texture to it. Jordan lowered himself. He couched while still holding her tight. He heard movement behind him. Oh hell, he’d forgotten about the monster! Jordan turned to find it had crawled halfway out before stopping. “Oh my God!” he murmured. The fungal growth had steamed away, where the rain had soaked the creature’s body to reveal pink, very human looking skin.

“Jordan?”

“You’re okay?” He could hardly believe his eyes. Jenny was awake and smiling up at him. “I’m getting there,” she whispered. “It’s going to take a few weeks. The damage isn’t as bad as it looks.”

He leaned down and kissed her. “It really is raining.”

“Told you it would. We launched hundreds of atmosphere seeders into orbit, there were originally designed to spread the new pathogen. The new number you put in, released the antidote instead.”

“I can’t believe it’s all over, Jenny. Now what?”

She took his hand. “Well, I know of this cabin on top of a hill. I say we go there for a while.”

Epilogue.

Jordan felt like he could sleep for a week. He had finally left the game about twenty minutes ago. He now lay on his back and stared at the ceiling. His face ached from grinning. He had really done it, he beaten the game! He lifted his hand which held his sensenet. It had changed colour to gold as soon as he pulled it off his head. Jordan wasn’t sure if that was significant, nor did he care, not right now anyway.

After taking the devive off his head, it took him ten minutes to stop the uncontrollable shaking and once they had died down to a manageable level, he then spent another ten minutes on the toilet. It took him a while to convince himself that he was actually out of the game for real this time. It was only after he’d checked the kitchen cupboards and found no hotdog or pineapples, watched the news before he started to believe. To make totally sure, he had raced back up the stair, back into his bedroom and looked out of the window. He checked the contents of Mrs Spicer’s shed roof before he believed he was really out.

“Jordan!”

He sat up, stuffed the sensenet into his pocket and padded over to his bedroom door.

“Jordan!” repeated his mum. “Door!”

That would be Barry, no doubt here to boast that he’d finished Necrovoid as well. He left the bedroom and walked over to the stairs, eager to swap stories with his best mate. He couldn’t wait to find out how Barry’s NPC had acted. He stopped at the sight of his sister walking up the stairs. He moved out of the way to let her pass.

She stopped, looked at him, wearing her traditional glare and called him a shithead.

He wrapped his arms around the girl. “Your mum doesn’t know about your new boyfriend,” he whispered into her ear. He let her go. “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.” He turned around and ran down the stairs, he decided to go to the games shop with Barry. He could bring Susan some nice candles back.

He reached the front door and opened it.

A young woman stood on the front step. “I don’t believe you’re real!” She ran forward and hugged him tight. “Oh Christ. You are real.”

“Jenny?”

She pulled him back. “Wait, you don’t recognise me?”

Jordan nodded. “Yeah, I do now. Sorry. The hair is a little different and I think you’re taller and…” his words tailed off, he couldn’t believe it, she was here, at his house. “Wait, how did you find me?”

She chuckled. “Well, in my game, the surface game, I mean. We were both stuck inside your sister’s bedroom while the dead crazy woman from next door was running through the house. You managed to get us both out by twatting her with a metal mop bucket, by the way.” She giggled. “Do you fancy going for a walk? I can’t wait to compare our games.” She took his hand. “Or maybe a drink and a burger? She laughed again. Hey, I don’t suppose in your game, I cooked you a burger in the shopping mall?”

He just nodded, not daring himself to speak.

“Oh, that is so weird. Oh wait, before we do any of that, I think we ought to go back to the game shop before we do any of that though.” She pulled a sensenet out of her pocket. It was the same colour as his. “They have a dozen monitors that are neural-linked to Necrovoid games It’ll be fun to see how some of the others are doing.”

“Jenny, are are our sensenets a different colour?”

She kissed the tip of his nose. “It’s because we’ve beaten it, you dummy! There’s a prize for beating the game, Jordan. A big prize.”

He returned her kiss. “I think I already have my prize.”

The End

Table of Contents

- Necrovoid
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two
- Chapter Three
- Chapter Four
- Chapter Five
- Chapter Six
- Chapter Seven
- Chapter Eight
- Chapter Nine
- Chapter Ten
- Chapter Eleven
- Chapter Twelve
- Chapter Thirteen
- Chapter Fourteen
- Chapter Fifteen
- Chapter Sixteen