Chapter Five: Work Is Never Over

  196 Days until D-Day

  “Tell me, what should I do?”

  Marc recalled hearing that desperate plea from Professor Maeda several weeks prior. It had been a shock and one of the most difficult conversations he had faced since coming back to this world, including after his own father had died.

  The usual aloof and high-spirited old man who sat next to Marc at the bar in the Lobo was completely shattered. He had just broken the news that his wife Melanie had been diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer.

  Marc hadn’t seen her in a while and had just learned that reason why was that she had been ill recently. He felt guilty for not following up and visiting his friends, but he had been occupied with the things going on around him after the tournament and subsequent revelations about I.S.K. In truth, he had just been brooding in the woods by himself.

  Finding out about the diagnosis of his friend’s wife had been a kick to the gut, and he felt even worse after learning more about the prognosis.

  At the advanced stage, when the tumors had been discovered late, treatment would be harsh, and chances of success were crushingly low. It broke his heart to think of the suffering of the kind woman who always brought out snacks and lemonade while he and her husband worked away in the forge in the garage. Seeing his friend and colleague sitting at the bar, small and broken, made him wish more than ever that he still had the ability to help those who were suffering. He had never even heard of cancer in the other world, and healing magic would take care of all but the most serious injuries and maladies.

  Then the Professor brought up the awakenings.

  The news had been full of stories of people who had been healed of injuries and diseases after awakening. The problem was that there was too much information. While the official channels avoided talking about miracles and magical powers, they didn’t do much to deny the rumors either. That left the space open for rampant speculation and wild rumors to spread like an outbreak.

  For every story about a miraculous cure to a life threatening disease, or a child seemingly raised from the dead, there was another article debunking it all and calling everything a hoax and a government cover story, or mass hallucinations caused by swamp gas. It was impossible for a reasonable person to know who or what to believe when it came to the new world that was taking shape.

  The Maeda’s were a cautious couple. Melanie, the professor’s wife, had worked at the administration office of the school that he had worked at, and they had both retired after more than thirty years of quiet university life.

  They didn’t understand the talk of video games becoming real, magic crystals that would solve the energy crisis, and superpowers from comic books. The world that they did know, however, was now a dark and depressing state filled with hospitals, painful drugs, and treatments, and would likely still end in death within months.

  In desperation, the Professor had reached out to Marc. He wanted to know if Melanie could be healed, or treated via this new change in the order of the world. It was clear to Marc that the man was desperate.

  At the time, they were still gathering information, so he had asked Professor Maeda to hold off on anything for a little while before committing to a treatment path. Neither Marc nor Sandra had a clear idea of how the awakenings were occurring, and how the people of this world were being affected. He was hesitant to suggest a path to the Maeda’s without a better idea of what the true ramifications would be.

  With this in mind, Sandra had been working closely with Jess and her contacts to understand the process and the risks involved. What they had discovered was both positive, and deeply troubling.

  The good news was that this form of forced awakening appeared to be relatively harmless. There were few verifiable stories of any negative side effects, and the positives seemed to vastly outweigh any problems that had been reported. Improved health and strength were guaranteed, with many people trying it out just to solve things like nearsightedness.

  It didn’t work for everyone, however. While nearly every person who had previously played Awakening was able to see the message inviting them to go through the awakening process, it was far more rare for those who had not played the game before the announcement to see the floating pop-up box. The numbers weren’t official, but some online sleuths pegged the rate at below 30%. Those who did not see the box were unable to awaken in any other way.

  Now that the game had become reality, the old augmented reality video game app had been replaced, and the new World Awakened Association now worked primarily to direct people to local D.A.C. Offices and alert users of portal appearances in the area. In order to awaken now, you were required to go to an association-approved testing facility. In the United States, these were all managed by the D.A.C.

  In order to get tested, Melanie would have to have to go to the center in El Paso.

  Marc asked the couple to meet at the Lobo to discuss what they had learned. A few days later, both Marc and Sandra were sitting at a table with the Maedas in a private room.

  “You are sure this is safe?”

  “No,” Marc shook his head at the old professor’s question.

  “I’ll be honest, there is a lot I don’t know about the process, and even more concerns with the Association in general. That said…”

  “It’s my best chance, right?”

  Melanie looked far weaker than she had the last time Marc had seen her. Still, she sat up with the pride of a woman who had worked her whole life. The skin on her face sagged from her lost weight, and her hands trembled, but her eyes were still sharp and her kind smile belied the fear he could see in her eyes.

  “Yes… I mean, we think so. But you don’t have to decide yet. First of all, you still need to get tested. There is no guarantee that…”

  The look on the professor’s face froze the words in Marc’s throat. Thankfully, there was a knock at the door to the dining room. After a moment, the door opened, and two women walked in.

  “Oh! Selena! So nice to see you again,” Melanie started to rise, but was quickly stopped as the young woman rushed to her side.

  Marc was a bit surprised as the changes to Selena were almost as dramatic as Ryan’s.

  Selena’s usual mop of permed hair had been smoothed and was now tied back in a neat, straight ponytail. The various piercings on her face and ears were gone, and even more striking was that she now wore well-fitted black business attire, with a white blouse and black jacket and slacks. Marc immediately recognized the style.

  Still, the honest look of concern in her eyes reassured Marc that the young woman had not changed inside as much as her outward appearance.

  Coming in behind Selena was an older woman. She, too, had changed since the last time Marc had seen her, but only slightly. She now had a brighter expression, and the bags under her eyes were less pronounced. The color in her face was also noticeably much better now.

  Marc motioned for Selena and her mother to join them at the table, and poured some water from the pitcher to fill two more glasses which he placed in front of them.

  “I asked Selena and her mother to come as they can probably explain things better than I can at this point.”

  Once he and Sandra had decided what they would tell the Maedas, Marc had reached out to Selena. He knew that she had taken the recruiting job with the Association, and that her mother had already gone through the awakening process.

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  He hadn’t spoken to her in person since Salt Lake City, although they had exchanged a few emails. He had intentionally kept his distance so that there wouldn’t be any complications with her new employer. He also felt more than a small amount of guilt, knowing that she had been the most motivated on the team when it had come to the tournament. He never had a chance to apologize properly for his disappearance before the final round.

  “Hey!”

  Her shout and glare made Marc realize he had been staring. He shifted his gaze to the smiling woman sitting beside Selena.

  “Mrs. Padilla, it’s nice to see you again. You are looking so well!” Marc attempted to deflect the attention.

  “Oh, yes. So much better these days. I feel twenty years younger! Not only that, but look at my little Nena now! She has a nice government job and is so successful! I couldn’t be more happy! Well, maybe if she finds a nice Catholic boy…”

  “Mami! Shut up!” Selena growled.

  The familiar tone and expression on the woman’s face were enough to convince Marc that she had, in fact, not changed as much as her appearance had.

  “You do look much better now, Mrs. Padilla. Have you fully recovered?”

  “Oh yes! The cancer, it’s completely gone! Can you believe that? My doctor was beside himself. Not only that-“

  “Mami!” Selena shouted.

  “Oh, yeah. I’m not supposed to talk about it. It’s all thanks to my little Nena.”

  Unable to contain himself any longer, Professor Maeda interjected.

  “So, you have had the procedure? The Awakening? Did it cure you?”

  Melanie grasped his arm and gave him a stern look.

  “Oh, my apologies. Please forgive my manners. My name is Grant Maeda, and this is my wife Melanie.” He gestured to his wife, then sat back down in his chair.

  Selena’s mother leaped up from her chair and ran to Melanie’s side.

  “Oh, of course, I have heard. I’m so sorry to hear about your… condition. I know exactly how you feel. I told Selena that we had to come at once and see if there was anything that we could do to help. She’s a good girl. I know she will be able to help you,” she said while grasping the other woman’s hand with both of her own.

  “Mrs. Padilla…” Melanie struggled to respond.

  “Your daughter… Selina… Thank you so much… She protected us back when the monsters… They attacked, and she…”

  The two women embraced, and soon tears were flowing.

  The discussion continued after a few minutes, but this time, the two women sat side-by-side, clasping their hands together.

  From there, Marc took the lead, explaining the process for getting Mrs. Maeda tested, and what they could expect if she was indeed able to awaken. He was careful not to give them false hope, pointing out that compatibility was comparably low for those who had not played the game before.

  “I think this might help,” said Selena, pulling out her phone.

  Marc gave her a questioning look, and she showed him the phone’s screen.

  “This is a new app that has been made available to Association employees. It will let me do a basic screening field test. They are not as accurate as the new machines they use in the testing centers, but it should give us a better idea of where we stand.”

  Sandra rushed over to look at the screen, but as she did, Selina scowled at her and pulled her phone to her chest, hiding the screen.

  Pulling back in surprise as if she had touched something hot, Sandra backed away.

  Selena looked away, deliberately avoiding Sandra’s shocked reaction.

  “Only approved recruiters are supposed to use the app. It’s still something that is being tested.”

  Still avoiding Sandra, Selena walked around and pointed the camera of the phone at Melanie while pressing a button on her screen.

  After a few seconds, Selena let out a sigh of relief.

  “Yes… It’s good. I think it should work.”

  Marc was dumbfounded. He had no idea how such a thing worked and was surprised that it was even possible.

  “Really? Just like that? You can tell?”

  Selena nodded.

  “Yeah. It gives a score based on a scan. This is an Association phone that they have just started rolling out. It assigns a grade based on compatibility. Anything from ‘A’ to ‘E’ should be able to awaken without problem. Lower grades sometimes also pass the more accurate test in the centers, but a good score from the phone scan is almost always fine. Mrs. Maeda shows a grade of ‘E’. It’s not a high score, but it’s definitely enough.”

  Marc stared at the phone in amazement.

  “What do the higher scores mean then?”

  “Anything ‘C’ and above shows high compatibility. Those who have been able to manifest other abilities early on. Almost all the ‘A’ and ‘B’ rankers were big-name players of Awakening. I’m an ‘A,’ by the way. That’s why I was able to get a priority position from the Association right from the start,” Selena bragged.

  “Yes, she was able to pick her own posting, and can stay here in Silver City, working as a recruiter near the University,” Mrs. Padilla beamed with pride.

  “So… So she is going to be okay? It will work and cure…”

  Professor Maeda jumped up from his seat and pulled up his wife in an embrace.

  Selena nodded with a smile.

  “Yes, I think so. I can book an appointment at the testing center in El Paso, and we can take care of it anytime you want.”

  Marc was concerned, but he didn’t want to appear overly skeptical. The mood had brightened considerably and he didn’t want to worry the Maeda’s unnecessarily.

  “Don’t worry Melanie, I’ll go with you. It wasn’t bad at all. Just a bit of discomfort for the first few days, but soon you’ll be feeling like a new woman!” Promised Selena’s mom.

  “At your rank, it really is quite mild. At the higher ranks, it’s a bit harder. My awakening-”

  Selena stopped mid-sentence, facing down, glares from both Marc and her mother.

  “Oh… sorry. Yeah. You should be fine. Don’t worry. I’ve watched it done dozens of times now.”

  They spent the next half hour working out the details, and answering questions from the Maedas. Sensing there wasn’t much she was adding, Sandra excused herself and went back to the RV. Selena didn’t say anything, but glared at her silently as she walked to the door.

  “Ummm… Do you think you could scan me with that thing too?”

  Sandra turned back to look at the professor.

  “Oh, yeah. Sure. One second.”

  After a quick scan, Selena checked the results.

  “Hmmm. I’m sorry. Your score came out pretty low. I think the chances you can awaken are not that good. But we can get a better reading at the center. There have been a number of cases where the mobile scanner reads the results too low, so it’s always worth checking with the full scanner. Don’t worry, I haven’t heard of any situations where the opposite happened. Mrs. Maeda should be fine.”

  “Oh… I see. Well, that’s good. As long as Melanie is fine…” The professor said with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

  “What was my… grade? By the way?”

  “Ummm. It was an ‘F’. Sorry. Don’t worry, though. I have that they are working on things that will improve people’s compatibility scores. It may take a bit longer, but there may be a way to raise your rating soon.”

  “Bwahaha, and ‘F’! Ha! This is karma for all those ‘F’s you gave to your students over the years.”Melanie laughed, but quickly embraced her husband again.

  “Don’t worry. If I know you, you’ll be top of the class in no time.”

  “Bah! Who needs it? All this magic stuff. Won’t make you any smarter… It doesn’t make you smarter too, does it?” The professor said, looking back to Marc.

  “Haha. Not to my knowledge. The important thing is that Mrs. Maeda should will be better soon.”

  After the Maeda’s had left, Selena left her mother with Lily at the bar. They had avoided food and strong drink while Melanie was there in consideration to her condition, but Selena had wanted to treat her mother to the nicer things, now that she had recovered, and they could afford it.

  While her mother dined on a nice steak with an expensive tequila, Selena had come out onto the front porch with Marc.

  “Thanks… I really appreciate what you are doing for the Maedas.”

  “You jerk! I can’t believe you took this long to get in touch with me. I’ve been waiting for…”

  “Yeah… I heard that you got a job with the Association, so I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to contact you yet…”

  “What do you mean?” Selena glared at him.

  “Well, The Association is I.S.K, Right? I mean, they weren’t too happy with me…”

  “Oh…”

  As that observation soaked in, they stood there in silence.

  “Isn’t this where you took a shot at me?”

  Marc turned and looked around at wooden logs making up the front facade, as though he was trying to find a bullet hole.

  “I’m sure it’s fine now. After all, you were cleared and everything. You should join up! I’m sure they would be happy to have you. Let me talk to-“

  “No… Not yet. We’re still looking into things. I don’t really trust them yet.”

  “But you trust… that woman? Isn’t she the reason all this happened in the first place? Why you got kicked out of the tournament? What is she even doing here anyway?”

  Marc sighed.

  “It’s… complicated. I’ll tell you more later. For now, can you trust me? I promise I’ll tell you everything when we have worked it out.”

  “Can’t you at least come down and get tested? I’m sure you will have at least a ‘B’ rank. All the rankers from the game were either ‘A’ or ‘B’. The perks you get at the ‘A’ rank are insane. I get a free car, an apartment, and a very nice paycheck, even insurance… WITH dental! Not that I need it anymore. We could even work together out of the local-“

  “No. Not right now. It’s not a good idea for me to get involved directly with the Association yet.”

  Marc turned to see Selena pointing her phone at him.

  “Just a second. Let me show you. I bet you have a higher compatibility score than even… What? That’s not possible…”

  Marc was about to tell her to stop when her face paled.

  “What? What’s wrong?”

  “It’s not right. It must be working… It was working a minute ago.”

  She was fiddling with the screen on her phone, but it was clear she was getting more and more frustrated.

  “What’s wrong?” Marc was getting a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach as he moved to see the phone’s screen.

  As he wasn’t familiar with the software, he wasn’t sure what he was looking at.

  “What does it say?”

  Selena turned to look at him with a strange look on her face.

  “It’s… I haven’t ever heard of this. It shouldn’t be possible. Everyone has at least a baseline score…”

  “C’mon! What’s it say?”

  “Zero! You have a zero score. It’s like you don’t even exist.”