His hands shook. He must have been wearing the gun in a sheath across his chest, and he just hadn’t had the time or mental clarity to draw it until now.

  Either way, the gun was a surprise to me. That was contraband, serious contraband.

  “You’re one of them,” Niko rasped. The gun shook in his hand.

  I spread my hands. “No, Niko—”

  He fired.

  I couldn’t tell if the shot missed me or grazed me, but it couldn’t have hit anything vital, because I was able to throw myself to the left.

  “Niko! It’s me, it’s Talon!” I shouted, running now. But I knew it was useless. The other shifter had just worn his wife’s body, had already called out to him with her voice. Even if I took off my helmet and showed my face, Niko wouldn’t believe me.

  He fired another shot.

  “You’re lucky his aim is bad,” Dave said, whooshing past overhead.

  “Yeah, well,” I said, ducking behind one of the shipping containers that the supervisors used to keep their food stores cool, “if a leech goes around practicing with something that produces a hundred gods-damned decibels all day, there’d be a fair chance he’d get caught.”

  Dave had fluttered onto a handle on one of the sliding walls of the container. It made for an awkward perch, so I held my forearm out to him. He surprised me by stepping on.

  “I’m going to move you to the corner. Look around it. Tell me his position.”

  “Oh? Am I disposable now?”

  “You’re level 90. Something tells me a bullet won’t do you in, even if Niko could hit the broad side of a dune buggy.”

  Dave snorted in disdain, but didn’t protest as I swung him to the edge of the container. He peered gingerly around the corner.

  I expected the glint of a ricocheting bullet—too many old movies—but he said, “The guy’s gone. I’ll go up top and check if he’s coming around the other side, but probably, he’s just running off.”

  I nodded. “Look for Seth, too!”

  “Uh, about that. The aircar got blasted in half by the piscin’s last beam. I saw it on reconnaissance.”

  By reconnaissance, he meant getting the fuck away from the laser-magnet that is Talon Fields. But he was here now, and that was what counted. He kept returning to me, and he didn’t have to.

  “And Seth?” I asked, daring to hope.

  “He wasn’t in it. Or splattered over it. Didn’t see him.”

  I gave a short, relieved nod. “Okay, find him too. Tell him where I am. I’ll try to get us a new ride.”

  Dave inclined his head and then launched, scratching my wrist as he did so, which probably wasn’t on purpose. Probably.

  I pivoted, scanning the spot where we’d ended up. This was essentially my back yard, where most of the City supplies were stored. The leech-town’s merchants kept their wares here, including one container full of sandbikes. The place was kept under guard, but none of the camera-guns were currently working.

  I surveyed the four shipping containers that surrounded me. They sat in a square-shaped cluster, almost hemming me in. I tried to remember which one housed the bikes, but then I noticed something.

  Near the refrigeration container across from me, the sand was disturbed, as if several pairs of feet had recently stood by its door.

  And it had to be recent. The wind and sand erased footprints within minutes out here. Plus, it was a refrigeration unit. The kind that might be able to hide heat signatures.

  Someone was inside that container.

  I crossed the open space, maintaining awareness of my peripherals. Whoever was inside the container wasn’t likely to hurt me, but anyone approaching from the sides would probably want me dead.

  I reached the unit, grabbed the handle, and paused, thinking of Niko’s gun. I had no idea how he’d gotten the thing, but his and Greta’s niceness made more sense now. They could afford to be nice to people because they had a defense.

  If the person inside this container had something similar….

  “I’m going to open this door!” I shouted. “I’m not going to hurt you! Stay calm. I’m your only way out of here!”

  With that said, I hauled the door open, trying to stay out of the gap so I wouldn’t present a tempting target. Multiple hushed whimpers sounded in the darkness beyond. I shaded my eyes, keeping most of my body out of sight as my eyes adjusted.

  “You’ve gotta be tenning me,” I said.

  Against the back, inside wall of the container, six tiny figures huddled together, their eyes wide, their shoulders quivering from the cold. All of them wore pink, fluffy cat ears.

  I’d just found the Kitty Scout troop.

  I looked around, but there was no one else here, unless you counted the huge hanks of meat hanging from hooks, and the shelves full of jugs and labeled packages. It was cold as balls in here, a freezer unit. No wonder the kids had stayed hidden; they had to be human ice blocks by now.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  I stepped inside, walking up to the little girls, the oldest of which couldn’t be older than ten. Kids their age got ID chips, but they were less complex versions, their software tied to their parents’ IDs. Somehow, that meant the aliens hadn’t been able to drop them in the initial Collapse.

  My stomach flipped over, and I staggered back.

  Setup Mode will end once all Coreless are neutralized….

  I checked the death count.

  Remaining Targets: 6

  “No,” I whispered. “No, no, no….”

  All those aliens in the city. All of them hunting Coreless. Why hadn’t they swarmed the tent city? Why had they stayed inside the walls?

  Because there were hundreds, thousands, of easier targets. There were no children in the desert. Children weren’t able to terraform.

  But the City was brimming with kids.

  A familiar, all-encompassing despair raised its ugly head inside me. As it had once before, I couldn’t tell the pain from the rage that came next. It was all one and the same, all one horrible sensation.

  I stepped closer. Two of the girls screamed. The other four hugged their knees close.

  At that moment, a new icon appeared over all the girls’ heads. It looked like a police badge. The Conscript button.

  I tapped it for each of them, one at a time. They shriveled back beneath me, flinching, but I didn’t touch them.

  I dropped into a crouch after I’d tapped all six. “Okay. Now you’re going to see a menu in front of you, just like a Deck,” I said in my softest voice. “I need you all to tap the Yes button. All right?”

  The girls shook, but one of them—the youngest, with vaguely Indian features—let her eyes refocus to something in front of her. She reached up a finger, and tapped the air.

  Inside my helmet, the sexy voice spoke up again.

  You have gained a Conscript! One of your unallocated stat points has been transferred to the Conscript.

  Name the Conscript? Yes/No

  I selected the No button that materialized under the notification.

  Achievement! Starting a Daycare!

  You have conscripted a Coreless who is under the age of puberty. There’s nothing hotter than a single dad!

  Reward: A [rank3] Daddy Drop!

  Achievement! Stat Waster!

  You have spent more than 5 stat points on something stupid! What are you thinking? Well, I guess there’s nothing hotter than a lovable idiot who is also a dad. That’s the magic sitcoms are made of!

  Reward: A [rank5] You’re Not Gonna Last Long, Are You? Drop!

  As the Host prattled on, I ignored her, focusing on another prompt that had appeared for each girl:

  Assign the Conscript? Yes/No

  I tapped No again, because I could not deal with the particulars right now. Another prompt appeared, this time for Seth. I’d somehow minimized it when I’d conscripted him.

  At least that means he’s still alive.

  After tapping No, I stood up. “Good. Just like that,” I told the youngest kid. She was the only one who’d accepted the conscription so far. “Now help the others hit Yes, okay? I’ll be right back. Take this, and use it if anyone except me comes in here.”

  I lowered the katana to the ground, and slid it over to the cat-eared kid with a foot. It jangled as it went, reminding me of a cat toy. She didn’t touch it, reminding me of a cat.

  It was the best I could do for now. “I’ll be right back,” I said again, and then I closed the container door and looked around. Dave had landed on the roof, above the door.

  “Niko’s dead,” he said.

  “Yeah, I figured.”

  “He shot himself.”

  I fell silent. Then I took a breath.

  “He loved his wife,” was all I could manage. “The girls are accepting their conscriptions. This Setup shit will be over soon. They’re the last six.”

  “They’ll never survive in this mess,” Dave said, not unkindly. “You’re wasting stat points. It would be a mercy to just kill them instead.”

  I wanted to hate him for saying it, but I thought of those fluffy pink cat ears. I knew he was right.

  I knew, but I couldn’t bring myself to believe.

  “What’s next?” I asked him.

  “You mean after Setup? Then we switch to Game Mode. Most of Trash Planet happens over Game Mode.”

  “And what does that mean?”

  Dave cocked his head at me in a very birdlike way, which I supposed made sense. He was a bird.

  “Well, typically, the Conduit select a famous game from the Trash world,” he said. “Then they’ll model the broadcast after that game. That’s why some of the things you’ve seen mentioned so far have been in brackets. It’s all vague, until a game gets selected. Then the ranks and things get actual names.”

  “A famous game?” I asked. The rage inside me caught a spark. “Like something current? Something with stats?”

  “Generally, yes—hey! Where are you going!”

  I’d broken into yet another run. “I’ll be right back! Watch the kids!”

  “Oh, spit generously on that!” he replied, and his shadow joined mine on the sand in front of me. He wasn’t going to leave me, unless I was in trouble. What a wonderful friend he would be.

  As we headed back toward my apartment block, I checked the death count again.

  Remaining Targets: 3

  I hoped that meant two more girls had agreed to conscription. Once the other three followed suit, Setup Mode would end.

  “When we switch modes,” I said, “do we get to keep everything we’re holding?”

  “You mean in your hands?” Dave said.

  I processed that one for a moment. I’d left the katana behind, and I felt its absence much more strongly now. “Yes.”

  “Well, sure. Within reason. Like, you can’t bring a house with you just because you’re holding a door handle.”

  I found it very interesting that he explained it that way. I ran past Niko’s door, to my own, and reached into the pocket of my suit jacket. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized how maddeningly hot I was, even after the fridge unit. I should have taken off this coat ages ago, but I’d been a tad too focused on staying alive.

  “But if I held a small object in my hands, that would be fine?” I said, unlocking the door and stepping through into my one-room apartment. There was nothing interesting about the place. The oven, kitchen cupboards, sleeping cot, and even the toilet were all here, in one single room. My greatest splurge had been the ancient couch in the center, where I sat to record vidcalls to Lore.

  “Yeah,” Dave said. “Small objects should come with you.”

  I reached into the couch, pulled up a cushion, and then dipped my hand into a well-hidden pocket that I’d sewn into the fabric underneath. From it, I pulled out a VR headset. A Leap.

  “What’s that?” Dave asked. “Another helmet? Trust me, you’re going to want to keep the one you have.”

  “Not a helmet. A gaming headset,” I said, holding the thing in both hands now, just in case. The headset had a Net connection, which likely wouldn’t work anymore. I probably could no longer play Seven Keys on it, either.

  However, the thing did have a memory card. And I had saved dozens—hundreds—of recordings.

  “So why do we need it?” Dave asked me.

  “Because I know the game your overlords are going to choose,” I said. “It’s called Seven Keys. It’s a fantasy RPG.”

  “So? You won’t be able to play it with a headset. You’ll be playing it in real time. The Conduit transforms your planet to match it.”

  “I get that,” I replied. “But I have a brother. Lore.”

  Dave stared at me, his black eyes asking the obvious question: And why does that matter, exactly?

  “Lore is good at Seven Keys. Like, really good.” I lifted the headset. “And I’ve saved recordings of him beating almost every boss in the game. We can use those. It’ll be like having a cheat code.”

  Dave’s eyes narrowed. “How good is he, exactly?”

  I smiled. “He’s the number one player on his server. And it’s the toughest server there is.”

  “That… might actually be useful,” Dave admitted.

  Then the Remaining Targets number dropped down to zero, and everything went black.