Apocalypse, Uploading by Elizabeth J Rekab

Author:Elizabeth J Rekab [Rekab, Elizabeth J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: N04
Publisher: Phoenix Crest Publishing
Published: 2021-06-01T04:00:00+00:00

17

David

The next morning, David was still going over sim results obsessively, like he could read something between the lines, some still-forgotten truth nibbling the back of his brain like a burrowing tick. He had highest marks for strength in the sim—because of course, he did—but lower marks for problem solving and compassion. Probably because of his little gun hiccup with Eddie. David didn’t care though; even after meeting Eddie, or rather Benjamin, in person, he was convinced he’d have reacted the exact same. The guy rubbed him the wrong way. David also had lower marks for his power; apparently, he hadn’t mastered his fire well enough in the game for Pierce’s liking.

Sighing, David set aside the blue file and picked up the tan one. It said a lot of interesting stuff, and he was gradually starting to remember some of it, though there were still large gaps.

David’s father had been a professional football player for the Falcons way back in the day, before the world went to total hell. This prompted David to remember more about his father, mainly that he was a hard ass who always wanted his son to become a football player, like him. He had the right build, and it was a family sport, after all. But David’s mother never wanted that for him, and David never wanted that for himself. He never wanted to be like his Dad, in fact, who drank too much and got too rough with David far too often. He’d never forget when he first started learning about magic as a pastime at age eleven—his mother had bought him props on the down-low—and his father had found him practicing in his room.

“What is this fruity shit?” he’d demanded. His father’s favorite word for him, for anything he didn’t deem “manly” enough. Maybe that was why he hated Eddie—or Benjamin—that much more for using that word derogatorily in the sim against someone he’d grown to care about.

David had stammered out his answer. “Just practicing something new, sir.”

“Well, it ain’t allowed in my house,” his father had retorted with ice in his brown eyes. “This is a waste of time. Be a damn man.”

Then he’d promptly taken David’s magic stash and tossed it in the garbage, which David fished out later and made it a point to hide better from then on. For a long while, he dreamed his Dad would go away, take a long drive off a short pier as the saying went. But he didn’t have to dream long, because one day, his wish came true. Only it wasn’t a long drive off a short pier, but a short drive into an oncoming semi-truck.

“There’s no easy way to say this, but your parents were in an accident.” That’s what the officer that came to their door said, as if “Sorry” could undo what was done, as if saying his parents were in an accident adequately summarized what had happened. The truth was, they’d been in the wrong place at the

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