Chapter 7: Revelations

Lexi got up and stood next to Alex, he had lost the fight, tears were streaming down his face. Slowly she walked around so that she was facing him on level ground, she was a good half a head shorter than him so she turned him to be lower on the slope than she was, now face to face she embraced him. She held him tight and placed her head on his shoulder. It wasn't long until Alex had calmed down again, he wiped the remaining tears from his face and fixed his blazer slowly they started the long walk back down the path towards the school.

"Thank you"

"For what?" asked Alex.

"For telling me about your life, you're past, it must have been hard"

"Oh, that, yea I think it's just because you're the first I've told about it"

"haha" she laughed "that's probably it…wait so I'm the first one you've told?"

"yea, like I said every time I bring it up to someone else they try and change the subject, I guess it's just hard for everyone to talk about their past", he sighed and looked up, it was dark now, the sky was clear and the millions of stars burned bright, "This place isn't so bad, I mean if you stop and look at it for a second, there's always a roof over your head, constant supply of food and drinks and there's the added bonus of being eighteen forever"

"No need to worry about old age then" she remarked

They kept walking and talking, neither aware of the fact that as they walked they went from being next to each other to holding hands to finally as they approached the bridge to the dorms Lexi was leaning her head on his shoulder. The school dorms were west of the school buildings, the dorms were two separate buildings however sky bridges ran between both on numerous levels, they were large towering buildings, with windows illuminated on every floor, as they walked up to the door they heard a familiar voice

"Hey so where have you two been?"

Turning around they saw the source, it was Terri, she came striding up to them slowly followed by Mary and Lana.

"Oh hey, we were up on the hill"

"Out by the football pitch?"

"Yea"

Lana came slowly walking up to Alex, she had the notebook in her hand

"th…thank…you"

Alex put his hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry about it, I'm just sorry about your guitar, I know it ment a lot to you"

She smiled and shook her head, showing him a page from her notebook he saw a design for a new guitar.

"We're gonna make it for her" Mary remarked as she passed

Lana smiled happily as she closed her book and followed Mary inside.

Alex turned to Lexi and said "Well, I'll see you tomorrow"

"Ok" she said waving as she walked off towards the girls dorms.

Alex opened the door to his room and entered. Turning around he closed it and reached for the light switch, when he found it among the darkness he flipped it illuminating the room in a brilliant white light.

Blind from the flash of light Alex heard a voice "Welcome Mr Johnson, I've been expecting you"

Alex spun around pulling the gun from his belt he took aim in the direction of the voice, his vision was fine now he was aiming at the back of his large computer chair, one he had taken from an old computer room, it had been a teachers chair, he could see the top of the person sitting in the chairs head, their hair was red however he could see strands of bright orange streaked through it, he knew who it was the second she had spoken.

The chair slowly turned and Alex was facing the intruder, it was just the person he had thought it was, Blaze. She was smiling menacingly, she stood up and handed him a laptop she had on her knees, "You may wanna see this" she said menacingly, then she let fly a laugh only a criminal mastermind could laugh as she walked up to the door, just as she reached for the handle she turned around and said "Be seeing ya" before laughing again and striding out into the hall, Alex slammed the door behind her.

"The fuck was that about" he said to himself, he pulled the chair over to the desk facing out the window of his room, sitting down he flipped up the lid of the laptop, flashing on the screen was the classic windig logo that was shown on all of the school computers when they were in standby, he rubbed his fingers across the track pad at the bottom of the keyboard on the screen flashed as the laptop started up, as soon as the screen powered on a video started to play, centre screen was a boy, he didn't seem special in any way particular, he wasn't tall or short, he wasn't fat or overly skinney, he was completely average in every way, he had dull brown hair that was neatly cut up out of his face. He was wearing the prefect arm band however his was gold rather than white and he was wearing a black beret with a gold stripe, he started to talk "Hello there, if you're watching this then that means Blaze did her job, that or you killed her on sight, either way the message was delivered" he paused for a moment and a smile cracked across his face "As you can probably tell im no ordinary prefect and of course am not an NPC, I my friend, am the head boy, my name? That's not important you may call me whatever you wish. Now the reason I brought you here" he drew closer to the camera, it jerked and turned to face a multitude of computer screens, he stood back in frame and said "This, this is the Meta player software. You probably know of the Angel player software I obliterated from the school system, am I right?"

He was, Mason had told Alex about it, it was a piece of software that let the user modify himself, it was extremely powerful, however it had its downsides, firstly only people with pure intentions can operate it, next all of the modifications made had to be for defensive purposes, in other words no weapons. Mason had told Alex that before the previous group of humans left Deadman High they wiped this software from all the computers, all but one, the laptop in the old principal's office. So why was the head boy saying he was the one to wipe it, propaganda he thought

The head boy continued talking "Well anyway, the Meta player software is my own creation, it is based on the Angel player program but it has some major improvements, the first being anyone can use it, of course it's only installed on these computers, for obvious reasons" he sniggered "Next and probably the most important improvement any modification can be made using the software, weapons, attacks, it can even make plane old NPC's sentient"

"What!" Alex pulled closer to the screen

"Now here's the good part" sneered the Head boy "A sentient NPC as you know can't pass on like we can, no matter what there still NPC's and in the end that's all they'll ever be, however what if there was a way we could change that, hmmmmm" he smiled menacingly, Alex knew he was playing with him, the head boy knew about Terri, and Lexi, he knew Alex would want to save them, and that's why he had Blaze do this, he knew Alex wouldn't kill an NPC and that he would want to save them. The head boy laughed, chills ran down Alex's back, he knew he had won, with this he had all the cards, the head boy raised a usb drive into the shot, "This, this is it, this drive has the coding to do the impossible, this drive has the only copy of Meta player capable of turning NPC's into souls, this is what you want, isn't it? So here is what I propose, a simple deal really I'm going to leave all the power down to you" he pointed at the camera "I'm giving you a choice" he spun around and two of the computer screens flicked over to still images, they were student ID pictures, the first was of Lexi, it was easy to make out those piercing blue eyes and glorious silver hair, the other, it was a little more difficult, the camera was moved closer and both pictures came into focus, the second image was clear as day now, it was Terri, her ID photo must have been old, she had shorter dull blond hair, it hadn't been dyed yet, Alex thought that it must have been from before she became sentient. The head boy came back into the screen giggling menacingly "time to choose, witch of these beautiful young ladys live, and witch one dies," he gestured towards the monitors, turning back he stopped laughing, the look on his face was now serious, deadly serious, "I'll be waiting for your response" and with that the screen flicked to black, and the computer powered down.

Alex lent back in his chair, he paused for a moment, he stood up, opened the window and promptly threw the laptop out, it hit the ground hard and shattered, glass, plastic and metal went everywhere sparkling in the moonlight. Closing the window he sat down on his bed, it was a bunk bed, made for two people but Alex, with help from Sam had persuaded the NPC boy to leave, he was a little sad about it but overall like the rest of the NPC's was just passive of most of the things that humans did.

Alex lay on the bed now, listening to the MP3 player the NPC had left behind, Alex thought about what the Head Boy had said, "the power to turn NPC's into humans…..the power to….save them".

"Knock knock, come on man wakey wakey"

Alex awoke to a loud banging and calling from the other side of his door, sitting up he untangled the earphones from each other and threw them and the MP3 player onto the bed, he had fallen asleep with them in, the music was still playing, it was some heavy rock tune Alex had heard a few times when he was alive.

"Yo Alex, come on man get the hell up"

Alex quickly stood up, banging his head on the top bunk doing so, "Ahhh fuck"

"You did it again didn't you?"

Alex opened the door to reveal Sam standing there sniggering to himself.

Sam walked into the room, turning to Alex he handed him a paper bag with the school crest on it, these bags were popular, they were given out when you bought a book or food from the shop and some teachers sent messages in them, "You hungry?" he asked as Alex peered inside.

It was a sandwich, a hot sandwich, the smell of the roasted chicken wafted out and quickly filled the room. Alex walked over to the chair and sat down, looking blankly at the desk the laptop had been sitting on.

"Wassup?" Sam asked

"Huh, ow nothing, just thinking" he pulled the sandwich out of the bag staired at it for a few seconds and quickly took a large bite out of it.

"Ya know, that NPC had a good taste in music" said Sam as he fiddled with the ear phones, still playing music although the song had changed, he picked up the MP3 player and started listing off some of the bands, "Guns n Roses, Metalica, Green Day, these are all pretty decent bands" he turned to face Alex who had zoned out again "Yo man, come on stop ignoring me"

Alex jumped, slowly he turned to face Sam, he glanced back at the window behind him, the image of the head boy flashed in his mind, he knew he should tell him about it, he knew he should go to Mason and let him know, his mind told him all the right reasons but still he sat, silent.

"What's wrong Alex?" Sam knew something was wrong, again he asked "Alex, What's up man?"

Turning to face him again Alex said playfully "I never thought the afterlife would have such great food"

"That's it, that's what's bothering you"

"What do you mean that's it, this things awesome" he pointed to the sandwich in his hand, then proceeded to devour it with intentional speed.

"You had me worried for a second there bro" standing up he walked towards the door, come on get dressed, we got stuff to do, he opened the door and went out into the hallway, peering back in he added "I'll meet you in the lobby in 5 ok" and with that he left, the door slowly swung shut behind him. Alex still sitting stood up and went towards the window, looking out he saw the remains of the shattered laptop, just as he had left it, "Good" he said to himself, That asshole thinks he can black mail me, we'll see about that".

Alex quickly got dressed and walked towards the door, stopping he returned to the bed and lifted the MP3 player, before leaving the room, slamming the door behind him.