Nemesis (Project Nemesis #1)(61)

No one doubted anymore.

"That was a demonstration," he said. "Your true plane of existence has been deemed unsuitable to accomplishing the program's goals. Therefore, you will permanently reside in a simulation of Fire Lake valley." His voice became rigid. "You still must eat and drink. You must shelter from weather, and avoid hazards. You can be injured. You can be killed."

"No, we can't." Ethan pointed at Tack. "Or he wouldn't be here." Ethan spun to face his classmates. "I was a test subject for Project Nemesis. They killed me over and over, but I always came back. Always!"

Black Suit regarded Ethan coldly. "Four subjects were chosen to test aspects of the program in the beta phase. Wilder. Fletcher. Harden. Livingston. That phase is now complete." 

I lurched forward, seeing red. "Five times you slaughtered me like an animal, but I came back. Alive. In the real world, before all this. That wasn't virtual reality. What was the point?"

He ignored me, addressing the group. "System rules have been upgraded. Codes will now reset only within the updated parameters of the program. Reset points have been randomized, and are out of bounds. Only those undergoing a reboot process will have access." The window screen blinked off once again. "I will not appear again until the current phase is complete."

He turned for the open door into Town Hall.

"Wait!" I shouted.

The black-suited man paused.

"That's it? You murder us, stick us inside your insane videogame world, and now you're abandoning us? What are we supposed to do?"

His face was stone. "I am the Guardian. Though I bear his likeness, I am merely an avatar of the MegaCom creator. My programmer did not preserve his own life. He gave all in service to Project Nemesis, so that some spark of humanity might survive, but the scars were too much. He rests now. I exist solely to fulfill his ambitions."

My mind reeled, reassessing everything I thought I knew.

The conspiracy. Those evil men. Their lies, and tests, and casual brutality.

They'd been working to . . . save us. Had dedicated their lives to giving us a chance.

I thought of the pain in Principal Myers's eyes. How broken he'd seemed as I cursed his name. Sheriff Watson had made the ultimate sacrifice. Lowell and Fanelli had tried to encourage us before the gassing, at the bitter end.

Mom.

She knew.

She signed me up for a lifetime of fear and pain, to give me a shot at a future.

And it broke her heart. Every single day.

Suddenly, I understood. And my heart broke, too.

Project Nemesis had been a desperate attempt to keep us alive. They were all dead now. Each had known they'd die. Even the approximate date.

All that sacrifice, so that we could continue to exist.

They're heroes.

The revelation stunned me. Dropped me to my knees. Brought tears to my eyes.

Then a new thought struck, frightening me to the core.

I looked up at the Guardian. Project Nemesis was complete. The conspiracy done. Brave men and women had sacrificed everything for sixty-four teens in the Idaho mountains.

But no one in Fire Lake had been involved in the MegaCom design.

My assassin had built it. What was his plan? What was the ultimate purpose of the program?

The Guardian's eyes hid behind sunglasses as he addressed us a final time. "Phase One is now complete. Phase Two has begun."

"What does that mean?" I whispered, but he heard.

A ghostly smile appeared.

"Would you like me to tell you?"





51


NOAH



Euphoria.

As the Guardian spoke, all my doubts faded to nothing.

I'm part of something. I'm special.

It was almost religious, finding my place after years of loneliness and doubt. Until now, my life had been a disappointment. To my father. My friends. Myself. But that was all washed away. The Guardian had revealed my true purpose-the hidden meaning to a decade of pain and insecurity.



       
         
       
        

Adrenaline surged through me as I listened. The picture being painted was remarkable. I was one of the last surviving members of the human race. A keystone in the government's grand design, selected and preserved against impossible odds. A last stand.

The feeling was indescribable. Intoxicating.

Everything has been leading to this moment. I was chosen. I matter.

I glanced at Min, who was glowering at the Guardian. I understood the rawness of her feelings-I'd been his victim just as many times-but she didn't get it. That wasn't Black Suit up there. It was an illusion. It was like getting mad at a picture.

Things were completely different now. Didn't she understand?

Project Nemesis hadn't been torturing us-they'd been preparing us, for an epic struggle they wouldn't live to see. We should be thanking the Guardian, not shouting at him.

He molded us for greatness. We just have to seize it.

The Guardian's last question was practically a taunt. Min clamped her jaws, refusing the bait. I listened, enraptured, as my former nightmare explained. "Phase Two has begun. Uploaded sequences must be sorted. You must discover your place within the system."

His pronouncement was met with silence.

"What the hell does that mean?" Tack said.

"How are we supposed to do that?" Ethan shouted at the same time.

"You must create the proper population size and alignment. No more information will be given. Those who remain will move on."

Those who remain.

I thought furiously. We had to be sorted? What was a proper alignment?

A dark corner of my mind whispered an answer.

Resets must happen for a reason. That's how the betas were tested.

Min stormed up the steps to stand before the Guardian. "What you're saying is inhuman. You want us to do what, battle each other? That's sick! We're not pawns on a chessboard. How can conflict be a purpose?"

"The purpose is to save the human species," the Guardian replied icily.

My heart swelled. Energy infused my limbs.

His words rang like a clarion call in my soul.

Save humanity.

The ultimate purpose. I wanted to cry tears of joy.

Yet Min was still arguing. Insulting the Guardian. Trying to undermine his instructions.

I couldn't understand it. Felt a flash of anger. Why can't she see? 

"What is Phase Two really?" she demanded. "Why are you doing this?"

"Aggregation," the Guardian replied, his tone indicating the matter was closed. "The program will enforce its rules beginning now. I will not appear again until the cycle is complete."

He turned and walked back into Town Hall. The door sealed.

But in my heart, I felt reborn.





52


MIN



My hands were shaking.

The Guardian was gone, but I sensed anarchy in his wake.

"That's it?" Tack's hands flew up. He raced to the door and swiped the keycard. When it didn't open, he grabbed a brick and slammed it against the closest window. The glass didn't even wobble. Tack grunted in pain, shaking out his fingers.

We're on our own.

Alarm was rippling through the crowd. People clustered together, whispering frantically. It's not every day a hologram tells you you're dead.

My eyes kept darting around the square. Everything looked real. I pressed my hand against a pillar, felt cool, coarse stone beneath my fingertips. Nothing about it felt "virtual," yet I'd seen for myself that it wasn't really there.

Whispers became shouts. The group began to froth like a pot of boiling water. No one had any idea what to do. "How can we be dead?" Jessica screeched, clutching Sarah's arm. "I'm not! I'm right here!" Sarah shrugged her off, hurrying to where Ethan was huddling with Toby and the Nolan twins.

We've got to get out of here.

Several students had collapsed, shell-shocked. Hector was crying softly, while Lars and Leighton were slumped side by side on the steps. "This is all just . . . some computer thing?" Lars asked his friend, fluttering a hand at the sky. Glassy-eyed, Leighton didn't answer.

Tack hustled down to me. "What should we do?"

Heads turned, a circle of desperate faces. I heard "beta" whispered as classmates edged closer to hear my response.

Noah hadn't moved since the Guardian's exit. His head rose when I called out, but he didn't join us. I worried the revelations had been too much for him.

"You know that Guardian dude?" Cash Eaton asked in a shaky voice. "Tell us what he meant! Are we really dead, Min?" The others-perhaps a dozen in total-were listening intently.

"I . . . I think we are. We all saw the programming."

"Oh my God, they killed us!" Anna was clutching her boyfriend's arm. "It's not fair. I don't wanna be dead!" Aiken patted her shoulder, his other hand running a shaky path through his oily hair. People covered their faces. They were about to panic.

Say something.

"Everything he said might be true," I began, "but we're not totally dead. We can't be. We're here, right? Still thinking. Still ourselves. Whatever this existence is, maybe it's a . . . a way to go on."

Traces of hope lifted a few heads. The tension lessened by a hair.

Gather as many as you can.

I spoke so everyone could hear. "We can cooperate and survive, whatever that monster said. We can't let a stupid program dictate our lives. If we stick together, maybe-"