16. Moonlight #2
As he hit the floor, Dylan sped past him.
She stepped on a broken tree trunk to gain speed and jumped at the creature, one foot extended outwards in a kick.
Her booted foot slammed into the side of the closest wolf, through matted hair and neon lights, the impact pushing it away from them.
It snarled and pawed the ground. The blow hurt it, but didn’t stop it.
The wolf was preparing to attack them again, and the other wolf wasn’t far behind.
“You can’t!” Dylan said, her voice shaking. Taking deep breaths, she planted her feet on the ground and took up a fighting posture, one arm raised in front of her, the other arm folded near her body, one leg out in front of her at a ninety-degree angle, hands curled into fists.
Whoa. Again.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Isaak shouted. “I have to shoot them.” He had memorised the repeating pattern of the forest, had timed his jump to land perfectly on the mossy patch he knew was coming up…
“I thought you were vegan!” The lines of her face were drawn in, eyes narrowed, her brows furrowed.
She wanted to do this right now?! He’d hit his back pretty hard, and struggled to get up immediately. “I’m not going to be lectured, Dylan. Step aside!”
“No! I can take them down without killing them!”
Whatever military or guerilla group she’d trained with, it had given her the confidence to stand her ground.
But Isaak couldn’t let her fight. It was too dangerous.
He thought of the man he’d shot. The expression on his face had been one of surprise, he now realised.
Surprise at being shot? Surprised it hurt?
The more he thought about it, the more he was convinced…
“Look out!”
The nearest neon wolf leapt towards Dylan. She bent her legs and built up a punch.
He thought of the huge beast’s metal claws grabbing Dylan’s throat, ripping through her tape self.
Would she die out there as well as in here?
The shot made a mess of the beast, an explosion of black, blue, and pink liquid spraying over Dylan’s face.
She glared at him, covered in gunk. “Isaak!”
He lowered his arm, the black gun still in his hands. “I had to… Look!”
The body of the wolf hovered in the air, its head no longer there, the mess of tubes and cables that connected to it now feeding into nothing.
Around the wolf, or what remained of it, was the faint fizz of electric current.
Then the whole thing turned into the digital dust of the Tapeworld, the light particles shooting off into the distance.
“It’s not real!”
She stared at the space where it had just disappeared. “I thought…” The multicoloured blood of the wolf slowly faded away from her face as she wiped it with a hand.
“You thought,” he said, still kneeling on the ground.
The other neon wolf was nearly on them, paws pounding towards them, snarling, saliva strands connecting the teeth of its large open mouth.
Isaak tightened his fist and shaped his finger around an invisible trigger.
At the same time, the metal wolf leapt in the air towards him. Neon-coloured liquid swirled around the tubing draped over and around its body, fur mixed with rust. It shrieked an attacking howl.
Dylan stood still now, letting him do his thing.
Isaak aimed and pulled the trigger, stopping the wolf in its tracks.
The momentum kept the body travelling forward and its mass hit him even after the wolf was dead.
He grunted from the pain, and fell back to the floor, matted fur pressed tightly over him.
“Help me get this thing off me…” he said.
“Please.” His breathing had become irregular, adrenaline rush hitting him as they surpassed the odds.
He kissed the barrel of the black gun, a celebratory move from his Lazarus days that he’d make after eliminating another player from the match.
The vibration inside his side bag stopped. Was the package some kind of wolf detector? Is that what Astrid has me stealing?
Dylan walked over to him and shoved the wolf to the side.
As it hit the mossy ground, it shattered into thousands of tiny shards, derezzing.
She gave him a hand and pulled him up. Her skin felt electric to touch.
He might have leaned into her and kissed her right there if they weren’t in some goddess-forsaken tape-space Astrid had sent him to, and if he knew she’d be into it.
The forest was quiet now.
It probably should have felt good, defeating the creatures and escaping with their lives, but Dylan seemed upset, and Isaak was angry at himself for putting her in danger.
“These must have been the only two,” he said.
“Yeah… Look, Zak, I’m sorry I tried to stop you. I thought they were real.”
“Those ugly fuckers?” He grinned.
“Still. I’m not supposed to take an animal’s life.” She walked closer to him, stabbing her finger into his chest through the leather jacket. “And neither are you.”
Goddess, she was so close he could smell her perfume. Funny that the tape would include your personal smell. Funny, and fucking exhilarating.
Their eyes locked. The moonlight played off her lips, glints dotted over their curvature. It felt right. He placed his arm around the small of her back and pulled her to him.
Her muscles tightened up.
She moved her face to the side, avoiding his.
“What?” he asked.
“What?” She stared at him, head askew. “Well, for starters, there’s the fact that we have to get the fuck out of here while we can. And after that there’s still a whole bunch of stuff like, what the hell am I doing here? Nevermind what the hell you’re doing here…”
It hit him like a gut punch. He let go of her and walked back.
“Yes! Of course.” He had been so focused on kissing her, feeling her lips on his, her mouth, blindsided by her presence.
He tried again to open a tape-tube, and this time it worked.
In endless electric blue, an oval shape hung in the air. “Let’s go.”
They walked through.
Sweat coated both of their faces. He held her hand to steady her as she walked out of the tape-tube into his chosen tape-space.
Laguna Beach.
The waters washed on and off the shore in a soothing rhythmic motion.
“I really wish we didn’t have to kill those creatures,” Dylan said sadly.
His heart ached. “They were gonna kill us. You know that, right?”
“Can they kill us? In here, I mean?”
He didn’t answer, avoiding her gaze. He looked at the watch on his wrist. “Wait, shouldn’t you be at work?”
“I am at work.”
“You’re taping in from work?!” he asked, raising his voice, panic in his chest. “I told you not to tell anyone about the tape!”
“I didn’t! I’m in the toilet. I just needed to see yo— I mean, to see the Tapeworld, and Kitty!”
Needed to see me?
She shook her head. “I’m not the one who needs to answer questions here, Isaak. I have to go back to work right now, but we’re going to meet after I finish tonight – in real life – and you’re going to explain to me what the fuck just happened.”
He hadn’t met her in the flesh since… well, since they met at Aftershock. It only kind of terrified him, especially now that he’d fucked things up so badly. Meeting outside of the Tapeworld…
Shit.
“Okay,” he agreed. He didn’t know how the fuck he could explain any of it, but he knew he owed her that much.
“You tape out first. I’ll wait here. It’s unlikely anything will get us here, but…
I want to make sure you get out safely. It takes a while for our tape-selves to fully derezz.
I don’t know what would happen if you’re attacked in that form. ”
She looked like she wanted to say something more, but instead just took a deep breath and put her hand to her temple. “I’ll see you after work then.” And she ripped it off, leaving him alone.