Freedom

Chapter 45

So you probably can't imagine what it felt like to be me just then. I mean, was I even alive? Hell wouldn't have Velvet, and Heaven wouldn't have people hurting each other. But I wasn't dreaming. At first I hadn't been sure, but there are things you can and can't do in dreams, even lucid dreams, ways you can and can't think. I'm not an expert, but I know that much.

Dreams are supposed to seem real to you when you're in them – but not always. This seemed pretty real, but at the same time it wasn't. There was something about it that I couldn't put my finger on.

But look, it wasn't a normal dream. And I certainly wasn't awake. And I was beginning to think I probably wasn't on drugs, because I felt pretty clear and in control. I was confused, sure – who wouldn't be? But I wasn't drugged. And that didn't leave a lot of options. In fact, I didn't feel like it left any, which made me a little suspicious – but my brain wasn't following orders. I wanted to think about that, about what my mind didn't want me thinking about – but at the same time I didn't. I wanted to think about the present.

The Velvets weren't going to explain things to me – in fact, I doubted they understood it any better than I did.

I realized with a start that I was the only one who was awake. It's hard to look too closely at Velvet – you're just struck by the perfection of her face, or something else – you don't notice that she looks tired. But these Velvets were exhausted. I guess that made sense – they were in a war, and I was getting the impression that they weren't on the winning side. The Hong Kong Velvet was leaning on Wesker Velvet. I wished GI Velvet would do that and lean on me. She didn't. She just hugged her BAR and slept.

I sighed and went quietly to the door. Someone had to keep watch. I didn't know who – or what – these Velvets were, but right now they were helpless.

The street was quiet and empty. I didn't hear any distant shooting. Or much of anything, really. It was dead quiet. Unnaturally so. The falling snow probably muffled things a bit, but there was no wind, nothing. We were on a plane of complete silence.

On impulse, I crept away from the door. There was no apparent danger, and I didn't plan to leave the Velvets alone for long. I found some stairs and headed upward. I climbed and climbed. These buildings were tall.

One thing had bothered me at the back of my mind as GI Velvet dragged me through the city. The architecture wasn't consistent. There were a lot of these big, Pripyat-style tenements, but there was a lot of other stuff, too – most of it unfamiliar to me. That was alarming for the same reason the oddly costumed Velvet was – I didn't see how my mind could've come up with it.

So I kept climbing. I didn't just burst onto the roof – this was a war zone, and there was at least one sniper out there – so I stayed low, and moved carefully, but I had to take the lay of the land.

The view was unique. Nobody's ever seen anything like what I saw. The patchwork architecture was even more apparent from up here, and the strangeness was accented by the damage caused by the fighting. But I wasn't even interested in that – I was looking beyond the city.

We were in a valley. A vast valley, surrounded on all sides by spectacular, snow-capped mountains. There was nowhere like this – nowhere on Earth, at any rate. And there were no words anyway. No advertisements or signs – all the buildings were plain and unadorned.

I wasn't high enough to have a real bird's eye view of the city, but I could see three major landmarks. Going by the position of the sun, I was looking east, at a great, dark, fortress. Like Castle Grayskull on steroids. Directly opposite it, far to the west, there was a much more pleasant-looking building. Maybe I'd have called it a palace. And in the center of the city I saw bright lights. I didn't know what they were – but they were spectacular and flashing, though there was no sound. The ambient colors from those lights splashed across the surrounding buildings.

We were relatively close to the lights, just east of them.

I can't really describe the feeling these discoveries were giving me. I was in a whole new world. There was nowhere like this in the Zone or anywhere. So I went back down to the Velvets, who were still sleeping. It was definitely getting darker out, so this place did have a day and night cycle.

I didn't have a good way to gauge time, but I estimate about twenty long minutes later, GI Velvet came to, followed by the others. They all got up, yawning, stretching, and gathering their equipment.

"Ready?" GI Velvet asked me.

"I guess," I replied, for lack of anything better.

So we crept out of the building and started sneaking. Sneaking was pretty easy; night was falling, and the snow made moving around pretty quiet. It was amazingly uneventful, though fraught with small distractions and annoyances. I got to walk behind the costumed Velvet, but the cape took all the fun out of it.

We were joined about a block away by yet another Velvet, this one dressed in ordinary civilian clothes, like blue jeans and a parka. She had no weapon, but she wasn't like the completely passive Prom Dress Velvet. I didn't know what to think of her. The others greeted her like they were all old friends.

Wesker Velvet made us stop, and we hid as a large patrol of Dark Velvets passed. They marched like Storm Troopers. Storm Troopers with M4s. We watched them, holding our collective breath. I didn't know what would happen if I died in this place, but I wasn't in an adventurous mood. I didn't even know what kind of mood I was in. I wasn't on drugs, but my mind was – well, something wasn't quite in place. That was frustrating.

Soon we were moving again. It was clear to me now that we were heading west, straight for the lights. I wondered if I'd get to see the palace. It had to be pretty spectacular up close.

At first I thought the source of the lights had to be a casino – it really did look like something you'd see on the strip – but I was wrong. It was a theater. An old-fashioned movie theater with the most incredible marquee you've ever seen. It was enormous, the size of a stadium, and the lightshow stretched far up into the night sky. It was so amazing that I actually saw the theater before I saw the barricade and the guns. The theater itself had taken some hits, and the marquee was badly damaged. As best as I could make out, it read:

R GNH LD R M TAD

And a line of ravens – the first wildlife I'd seen – were perched silently above the letters. I had a feeling this was the line one of the Velvets had mentioned. Defensive fortifications, lots of Velvets. Some I recognized, but others I didn't. I catch references to mainstream movies and comic books and stuff, but these Velvets were from all over. It was immediately clear to me they weren't just themed after entertainment. There was a Coca-Cola Velvet, for example. A Chef Velvet with a cleaver. Many, many of them in what I'd call normal clothes, though some of the outfits seemed familiar. There were also a few that I wanted desperately to hang around and ogle, but GI Velvet was dragging me toward a large tent in front of the Marquee. The other Velvets were looking at me with curiosity, but suddenly things were moving quickly, and I was inside.

There were about a dozen Velvets in there, and only GI Velvet came in with me. I won't bore you with the ones that I recognized – but I'll tell you this – whoever made the rules for this place, whoever picked what these Velvets wore, they liked to watch movies.

GI Velvet brought me to another Velvet with a cigar and an eye patch. I knew exactly who she was supposed to be, and that meant she was probably in charge. This was clearly some kind of command tent.

"What is this?"

"I don't know. I found him east of here, standing in the street like an idiot."

"But what is he?"

"I don't know." She was blushing, but just a little. I felt bad. In retrospect, kissing her had been a very wrong thing to do. But I wouldn't apologize. On the contrary – I'd remember Velvet's lips for the rest of my life. But I was trapped in a world that was not, strictly speaking, reality – or at least not the one I was used to – so it wasn't clear to me how long that would be. My gut told me this was all real, but I just didn't see how that was possible.

I didn't get long to think about it, and the conversation between GI Velvet and Velvet Fury was cut short, because the flaps of the tent opened, and the White Queen and her entourage came in.