32. Foam
Foam
Dylan
The swallowing darkness behind them mirrored the darkness taking over Dylan’s mind. She had hoped for some quick solution, a deus ex machina from this Elodie woman to wake Isaak up and get him back to her. But I have to carry on.
Before he found that blasted sword, and his mum’s photo, it had all felt like a dream. The tape was a world apart from reality, without consequences, a theme park for their budding love to blossom. But it all felt very real now. And somewhere in this dark place Isaak was trapped and helpless.
“Are we actually getting any closer to the end of the tunnel?” Talia asked, interrupting her thoughts.
“I fucking hope so. Navigation in the Tapeworld is weird. I’ve been only to a few places. My space, and Isaak’s space, where we just were. We had to escape from a forest, and from somewhere that looks like London.” She noticed Talia staring at her, eyes glowing. “And the Boulevard—”
“What’s the Boulevard?”
Dylan smiled. “It’s the biggest tape-space I’ve seen so far.”
“Does it have stuff in it?” Talia asked. “Unlike Isaak’s?”
“Yes, and other people too. He calls it the BBD, or Boulevard of Broken Dreams. I think it’s also a pun on Bulletin Board System.”
“Bulletin Board System?”
Talia really had no idea about ancient internet concepts. And Dylan only knew about it because of Isaak…
“It’s from before the internet. Apparently, you’d have to call an individual message board…”
“From your phone?”
“Your home phone!”
They both laughed.
“Can you imagine?” Dylan said. “Anyway, the Boulevard is like the Tapeworld’s lobby. I don’t think anyone knows who made it, it’s just kinda there. We didn’t think it was made by one of the Kingdoms, but after finding the Gunkatana…”
Talia let out another laugh.
“What?”
“Nothing. I just haven’t seen you this excited about something in a long while, Dee.”
It was true. Every tape stride felt exciting.
But it felt that way in large part because of Isaak.
The knot in her throat tightened. They needed to find him.
“You’ve gone quiet, babe.” She felt like Talia could read her mind sometimes.
Dylan tightened her fists. “I’m worried about him.”
Talia nodded, sadness on her face.
“And we’ve been walking down this tunnel for at least ten minutes. I don’t know if we’re ever going to get to the end.”
“Is there anything we can do in here?” Talia asked her. “Can you, like, summon stuff with your mind?”
“I can. But I think what we need is something else.”
I hope this works.
Dylan placed her hand on the wall. She thought of when Isaak first taught her how to manipulate the properties of the Tapeworld, at the beach. She focused her mind.
The walls started burning. Talia’s eyes went wide.
“Be careful!”
But there was no heat to the flame. Dylan stepped back.
They relaxed and watched the tunnel burn down around them, revealing the glow of a summer evening, the sun low on the horizon.
A gold-brown sky that would have been beautiful in any other circumstance.
The silence of the dark place was replaced with the sound of birds.
The nothingness became a cityscape, buildings dotted around them, silhouetted against the setting sun – nondescript residential units, arranged in the pattern of a pleasing melody.
One building stood out. Vast, yellow-dyed metal tubes, attached to a wide, vast white dome.
Talia shared a knowing look with Dylan. “Greenwich.”
Dylan nodded. “The Millennium Dome. He must be there.”
The arena was the home of ReSports. Isaak had been here often in the real world, playing for the London Lazarus.
They made their way to the entrance. The arena was built at the tip of an outcropping of land bathing in the Thames.
She’d walked here many times IRL. But the river here did not look like the Thames out there.
It was a corrupted version, clear but dark.
Particles of the tape stuff gathered like foam on the shore.
They could see a way into the dome. A gaping rip in its side.
“Be on your guard, Tal.”
She nodded, sombre.
A flash of Isaak’s face intruded into Dylan’s mind, then vanished. I’ll find you.
As the torn canvas welcomed them inside, she heard a distinctive, familiar sound.
Their sight warped in front of them, the edges of their vision blurring until a hole ripped in reality and three black spheres emerged from it.
“Holy shit.” Talia stopped. “What’s that?”
“Back away, Talia. I’ll deal with this. If they get too close, rip the tape from your head. You should make it out in time.”
Dylan steeled herself and walked towards the shapes.
A quiet voice told her to run away. It was her own.
Dylan shook her shoulders and grounded herself, planting her feet, before continuing to walk towards them.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Talia backing off to a safe distance.
Ahead, the shapes hovered just above the ground, gas-wrapped and black-tinged. She could see right through them to the opening into the ReSports arena. All the spotlights were lit, but the stands were empty.
“Come on, you bastards!”
The middle shape of the three lunged at her. At arm’s length, it shifted into the shape of a person. No distinctive features to identify it – the skin looked grey, and it had no hair, no clothes.
The figure threw a punch at Dylan, clearly aiming for her face.
She bent her knees and dodged out of the way. Then pushed the shape to the side with a shoulder. “Back off, bitch.”
Left foot planted in front of her right. The kickboxing stance she’d practised for years. It lent an ease to her movements. Her time in the Apocalypse Revolt training camps was finally paying off.
Another shape morphed into a bulkier human and went to grab her. Dylan weaved out of its reach, bending her knees further than before, and riposted with an overhand punch. The bulky shape recoiled, hand on its face.
For a moment, the three faceless bodies stared at her.
One was lean, like a speedy fighter. The middle one was tall. And the right one, the one who’d just tried to grab her, was the largest. Lean, Tall, and Bulk.
“Let’s go!” She was suffused with a new-found resolve like hot lava. She was ready for this.
Without warning, Lean and Bulk attacked from both sides. Pacing side to side with her arms raised in a defensive pose kept them at bay, allowing her to quickly retreat.
But Tall jumped headlong towards her, hitting her with the full force of a headbutt.
“Argh!”
Blood flew out of her mouth. These things were nothing like VR Bob back at the gym.
Still recovering from his attack, Tall’s head was in the right place to smack once and twice with a cross jab to the face, the two punches sending the figure to the floor.
Dylan landed on Tall, her knees striking on top of its chest. She struck at it repeatedly with a fist, then torqued her body against it, the pressure squeezing its torso.
Tall let out a gasp and moaned.
“You can feel pain?”
Bob never reacted like that either. The thought disturbed her at first, but the realisation quickly lead to a grin. She could take these things down.
Tall struggled underneath her. She batted away its arms, which scrabbled to get her.
Lean and Bulk approached rapidly.
Dylan smacked Tall’s head with her elbows, her legs holding it down. “Just fucking die!”
The shape stopped moving.
She took a deep breath.
Lean went to grab her by the neck. Fuck. The shape underneath Dylan evaporated as if it was never there, causing her to fall to the floor. It gave her the opening to roll away. Every move felt easier to pull off in here.
After failing to get a hold on her, the lean shape stopped. It looked at the bulky one and both ushered each other on with a nod.
Lean advanced first. Dylan let it get close, still keeping her stance. The grey-skinned shape launched a kick. She tried to block it, raising her leg, shin out, but it landed on her stomach.
Fuck.
Fight through the pain, Dylan. Fight through the pain. I can’t go down here, I can’t.
Thoughts of what might happen if she was knocked out in the Tapeworld, or worse, threatened to cloud her mind. She focused on her body and pushed them out as well as she could.
She leant her back away from the shape then roundhouse kicked it in the solar plexus.
The grunt it made sounded like a man. The man-shape fell to the floor.
Bolstered by the rush of adrenaline, endorphins, and whatever else the Tapeworld flooded her body with, Dylan took the fight to the other, bulkier shape, using its fallen comrade to boost her jump into the air, throwing a jumping punch at its head.
Bulk defended Dylan’s punch with both arms in a raised guard position. But it still grumbled in pain.
Dylan glanced at the lean man-shape behind her. It was getting up from the floor and ready to strike back. She was cornered between the two figures.
She turned towards it and swept out its leg as it tried to steady itself. The lean grey leg felt slimy against hers… Ugh. The shape hit the floor again and Dylan followed through, mounting it with her legs and punching it repeatedly in the face.
The remaining black shape held the advantage, as she was still kneeling on the lean one until it finally disappeared. Bulk exercised its supremacy by kicking her, first in the stomach, and then a second kick that narrowly missed her head as she pushed herself back up.
Resentment took hold of the black shape, and it became furious, twisting its limbs in a display of anger.
It tossed hasty jabs at Dylan. She dodged most of them, breathing between weaves and swerves, feet hopping side to side, her legs tired. Sweat dripped down her chest and back, her dress coating her form.
The thing’s bloated muscles jostled as it attacked her.
A feint punch from Dylan prompted the shape to leave its left side unguarded.
She roared, psyching herself up. Arms raised, she kneed the shape in its ribs. Flipping her stance into a back kick, she pushed the thing to the floor.
It was still moving, and it thundered out a loud scream. It was about to get up again. Dylan sprinted and jumped, driving her elbow into its head as she fell.
Its head shattered against the floor.
The body turned to mist.
Good.
“Fucking hell, I knew you were good, but not that good! That was insane, Dee!” Talia walked to her with a huge grin on her face, still moving a little guardedly.
Dylan returned the smile. “Took me back to beating up the guys who’d bother you when we were younger.” She pushed her hair back from her sweaty forehead.
“Are they gone gone?”
“I don’t know.” Dylan looked around. “They better be, if they know what’s good for them.” She was putting on a brave face, but it had been a bit touch and go at a couple of points there. If they’d subdued her, would she have died? And what where they? What the fuck is going on…?
She looked at the opening into the arena. Spotlights shone on the field, grass impossibly green.
“Let’s go.”
The two of them walked toward it.
As they breached the entrance, a lone figure stood ahead of them.