1:23 Ch. 07

"Yes, according to the first draft of Harriet's report to Imperial Corporation. She delete that bit of information in the final draft."

"But Harriet said this was safe?"

"Clearly she withheld information to garner your help."

"That's the main reason I broke up with her. She was always hording secrets like Golem and his fucking precious." He quickly looked around to see if the creepy little freak would appear like the belrog had. "I'm taking the helmet off right now and having it out with her!"

"Your friend Kent may need your help soon," Sasha said. "If you remove the helmet no telling how much time will pass before you can return."

"Fuck that!" Donny said. "I'm yanking the Brain Tube shit off his head too before his brain cooks!"

"That would be unwise," Sasha said. "It was the sudden removal of the helmet that caused the behavioral dysfunction with Alice."

"Whoa! If I take off the helmet like right now I could go mental too?" Donny asked.

"That is definite with Kent but Harriet fixed that glitch with the auxiliary helmet ... in theory."

"IN THEORY?" Donny yelled.

"Sudden removal of the auxiliary helmet has not been tested yet," Sasha said.

"HARRIET!" Donny yelled at the ceiling. "Get me out of here without fucking my head up!"

"Her communication program has failed," Sasha said. "The time difference is too hard to overcome."

"What am I suppose to do?" Donny asked perplexed.

"Wait for Harriet to find a way to make contact or find your friend Kent Orlando and bring him to heel like Harriet wants. Either way it's a waiting game."

"Sounds simple," Donny said. "In the mean time all I have to do is avoid a demon belrog, thousands of flesh eating uglies loyal to Kate and a host of fucked up horror movie clowns who would like to pull my beating heart from my chest."

"At least you are in good company," Sasha said giving him a dazzling smile. "Come, I'll give you a tour of Harriet's interesting mind," Sasha took his arm and steered him down the long office hall lined with doors.

"What about the clowns?" Donny asked looking back at the revolving door. He could see flashes of fire through the glass on the other side.

"They'll be busy with Kate for now."

"What are all these doors?" Donny asked of the long hall.

"Harriet's fantasies and dirty secrets," Sasha said.

"Behind everyone of these doors is something Harriet is into?"

"Yes."

"Are all folds like this?" Donny asked as they passed a door marked SHAMEFUL UNDERWEAR followed by BOTTOMLESS IN A PUBLIC POOL. He tried the knob to the latter but it was locked.

"No. Harriet is ashamed of her sexual side. She compartmentalizes then hides things behind locked doors." Sasha said. "Other folds are different. Alice Mihara's fold was a forest landscape right out of a European fairytale before it was destroyed. Kent Orlando's is a city scape with the Honolulu University campus at the northern edge. Kate has destroyed the campus and is attacking the rest of Kent's fold as we speak. Nefertiti Ulamat's fold is a beautiful and heavily fortified castle. For some reason, Kate hasn't got to her fold yet even though she's on the hit list too."

Donny stopped at a door marked THE MATRIX and rattled the knob. "Too bad they're all locked," he said. "Be fun to see what's behind this one."

"I'm her new messenger avatar, I got the keys," Sasha said. "But I suggest we stay away from THAT particular door."

"What about this one?" Donny asked pointing at a door marked ICE QUEEN.

"Sounds safer," Sasha said with a shrug. She produced a big set of keys from nowhere, sorted through them, inserted a key into the lock and opened the door. Like in a surrealist painting, it opened up in thin air onto a forest landscape.

"Whoa," Donny said, stepping though the door. "It's like we're in a Disney animated movie."

He walked over to a nearby tree that appeared to be a maple. Close up the tree trunk sparkled with unexpected detail. "Awesome," he whispered as he ran his ringers along the cartoon trunk. Like he was stoned, he found the back of his hand irresistibly fascinating. "Whoa, I'm animated too. Is this computer generated?"

Sasha laughed. "Silly, this entire universe is computer generated."

"Oh yeah, the helmet ... right."

"Have you ever considered that the world you come from is computer generated too?" Sasha asked.

"I'm from the real world," Donny said automatically as he stared at his palm.

"So you say," Sasha said. "I've studied your world on line. Competitive eating? Lacrosse? Endless cat videos? Lite beer? Donald Trump? It seems too bizarre to be truly real don't you think?"

"If you reduce it to THOSE heinous details, sure pretty bizarre," Donny conceded. He looked away from his hand at Sasha. "Noway," he said in awe. She had turned into an Disney version of the beautiful ex-porn star. She still wore her red top and jeans but her figure was a pleasing but slightly exaggerated hourglass shape. Her hair was raven black with dark blue highlights and her brown eyed were unnaturally huge although still with that Asian flare in her cute and beautiful cartoon face. "You are totally hot animated," he said.

Sasha laughed. "You're not bad yourself."

He did a classic muscle man pose and glanced at his biceps. "Look at me, I'm buff!" A sudden cool breeze made him shiver. "Is it getting cold?" he asked.

"Yes," Sasha said hugging herself.

Donny marveled at a sight he knew he'd NEVER see in a Disney animation feature, Sasha's nipples stiffening under her clinging red top. Snowflakes started to fall around them.

"Is winter kicking in?" Donny asked trembling in his t-shirt and surfer shorts. He was dressed for balmy Honolulu not this.

"It appears so," Sasha said shivering too. Snow clung to her hair and dusting her shoulders.

"Who are you?," came a voice from a crop of trees nearby. Donny turned and saw a silhouetted figure with large luminous blue eyes looking out at him from the shadows. The eyes blinked several times then the figure stepped into the light of the clearing.

Donny's own animated eyes widened. "Queen Elsa?" he whispered.

*******

"Where are we going?" Kent asked Ygritte the wilding woman from the popular HBO series. He clopped along side her on a gray spotted horse. They had left the stony canyon a long time ago and journeyed through an endless grass plain.

"To the battlefield," Ygritte said patting the neck of her sleek brown horse that looked fast and fit.

Kent waited for her to elaborate. She didn't. "Um ... what is this battlefield?" he asked.

"This is your fold Kent Orlando ... you tell me," Ygritte said in her accented English. He recalled that the actress who played the part was Scottish.

"I have no idea—"

"Ya know nothing Kent Orlando," Ygritte said with a microscopic smile turning up one side of her mouth.

"DON'T get her started on that," Alice warned from behind them. Alice rode a black stallion that seemed annoyed at the slow pace the party was taking. Kent totally sympathized with the horse. He felt they were moving agonizingly slow too.

"Where did you get these beautiful horses?" Neffie asked as she scratched the neck of her white feisty pony.

"Ambushed a group of Dothraki riders that strayed too close to wilding territory," Ygritte said.

Kent frowned. "Dothraki and wildings were nowhere near each other on the map," Kent said recalling the iconic opening credits to the HBO series.

Alice rolled her eyes.

Neffie giggled and said, "She's setting you up."

"For what?" Kent asked.

"For this," Alice said.

"YA KNOW NOTHING KENT ORLANDO!" Ygritte shouted. She laughed and kicked her horse into a run. Alice charged after her.

"What's this battlefield?" Kent asked Neffie.

"That's what Ygritte calls it. It's the surviving remnants of your fold converging for one last stand against Kate."

"Who the fuck is this Kate?" Kent asked. "And why does she want to destroy my fold?"

"She is an Imperial Corp purge program called the Killer Hive Tracker or KHT for short.

"KHT?" Kent mused. "Oh I get it! KHT Kate.

Neffie nodded. "Harriet launched it to kill Alice and now it's after you."

"Charming," Kent said. He watched Alice and Ygritte galloping up ahead. "Those two seem pretty tight."

"They've done a lot together," Neffie said. "Until I found Ygritte I was the only survivor from her fold."

"So Ygritte was a sexual fantasy of Alice?" Kent asked.

"No she's mine," Neffie said.

Kent gave her a surprised look. He wondered if the real Neffie was into girls too. "Wait a minute? How can she be yours? You just said that she was from Alice's fold?"

"Yeah, but I was the one who conjured her," Neffie said. "That's when I first found out I was Batu. I didn't have a fold at the time so she became part of Alice's."

"Batu?" Kent asked. "That's what River called Alice. What's a Batu."

"Acronym for Binary Artificial Tech Unit."

"Like you?"

"Yes," Neffie said. "But poor Alice has convinced herself that she was once human now turned into a computer program. But it's the other way around and she doesn't want to face that."

"Swamp thing," Kent said.

"What?" Neffie asked.

"Swamp Thing, DC comic book character," Kent explained. "The Swamp Thing was the classic comic book creation. A man is doused with fucked up chemicals in a swamp and comes back to life part man part plant. Years later a writer named Allen Moore took over the book and he up ended the origin story."

Neffie closed her eyes as they rode.

Kent had seen her do that a couple of times before. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Going on line to read the Swamp Thing," she said eyes still closed.

"You can do that?"

"Yes."

"Could I do it?" Kent asked.

"Probably," Neffie said. "I wouldn't try it though. You'd only get lost." She opened her eyes. "For years the Swamp Thing thought he was a man pretending to be a plant."

Kent nodded. "Then he found out from some government research file that he was a PLANT pretending to be a man."

"Freaked him out," Neffie said.

"He totally fucked up the people who kept his true identity from him," Kent said. After a few seconds of quiet Kent asked, "You think Alice will flip when she finds out what she is?"

"I think she knows what she is," Neffie said. "But denial is a powerful drug."

Alice and Ygritte came trotting back toward Neffie and Kent.

"Why are we clopping around with these horses?" Kent asked voicing his restlessness. "Why don't I conjure up a jeep 4x4 or better yet a jet?"

"Kate is looking for something overt like that," Neffie said. "Lucky for us she has no imagination and won't be watching for a group of people crawling along on horse back."

"We camp at a gully up ahead," Ygritte said.

"Um ... I feel like we should get to the battlefield quicker," Kent said.

"Time is different here," Neffie said. "We'll get there with plenty to spare."

Neffie, Alice and Ygritte unpacked the horses. Kent tried to help but only got in the way. "I could conjure up something to eat?" Kent said really wanting to help.

"That would be helpful," Neffie said.

"He better not," Alice said. "Kate is watching. If she senses Kent she'll send the hoard."

Ygritte got her bow. "I'll see if I can get us an unlucky rabbit. Maybe a few quail eggs too."

"Let's try something easier," Neffie said. "Kent? Any sexual fantasies related to food?"

Kent frowned he could only think of one. It was kind of obscure not to mention embarrassing. "Nothing comes to mind," he lied.

"Get wood for a fire," Ygritte said.

Kent walked around looking for bits of wood in the dry gully. He stopped at a gnarly tree growing out of the wall. This was clearly a gully near Lake Oliver back in Ohio. It didn't surprise him that the place looked familiar since all of this was created from his memories and experiences. With his arms full of deadwood he headed back to the established camp.

"Someone is coming," Ygritte said looking out in the open grass plain with bow in hand. Kent dropped the wood and looked too.

"Is it Kate?" he asked worried.

"Don't know," Alice said.

In the fading light Kent barely made out a lone rider on horse back. Everyone drew weapon's.

"One of Kate's beasts?" Ygritte asked.

"More likely someone heading to the battlefield," Alice said.

"Who are you rider?" Ygritte called out. She had an arrow notched. The rider grew closer. Ygritte's bowstring tightened with a crackly leather squeak.

"I hear you all are hungry?" came a pleasant female voice.

"It's dinner!" Neffie said exhaling. The rider drew close enough to see.

Kent sighed. "It's the the chick from the Wendy's commercials." One night over beers he and Donny confessed about women from commercials they would like to fuck. It was just that one time yet here she was real and solid in the world of the Brain Tube. With Donny it had been a tossup with the big tits Verizon girl or the AT&T pink chick.

"Love your hair," Ygritte said.

"Born of fire. Call me Red," the perky fat food TV symbol. said

"Really?" Alice asked Kent. "You have sexual fantasies about the girl in the Wendy's commercials?"

"Be glad he does," Red said as she hopped off her ride which turned out to be a donkey and not a horse. She wore blue stretchy pants and a simple white top.

At least he she was dressed, Kent thought with relief. From saddlebags Red handed out paper bags filled with hot burgers and fries. From nowhere she produced a tray with large sodas.

"Smells so good," Ygritte said as she dug out a burger, tore away the paper and took a big bite. "The Gods be praised!" she said with a full mouth.

"Beats wild rabbit and quail eggs," Alice said with a full mouth.

"So ..." Neffie said to the bubbly redhead around a bite of burger,, "what exactly ARE Kent's fantasy with you?"

Red gave a thoughtful look. "The asiago cheese and—"

"Any chicken sandwiches in the bags?" Kent asked cutting off the conversation.

"I want to hear this," Neffie said.

"I thing Kent doesn't wants me to talk about the asiago cheese thing," Red said tentatively biting her lower lip. "Can I bring up the milkshake and chili thing?"

"Curly fries?" Kent asked digging through the bag. "Do we have curly fries?"

"There was the time I teamed up with that nice girl from T-Mobile on her cute pink motorcycle and we hooked up with that busty Verizon girl. We stripped Kent naked then he laid out for a female bukkake—"

"That's was Donny's fantasy not mine!" Kent yelled cutting her off.

"No ..." Red said thoughtfully. "I'm SURE that was you."

"I could be wrong," Ygritte said with a mouth full of junk food. "Maybe ya DO know something Kent Orlando."

The women had a good laugh at Kent's expense.

When all the food was distributed, the Wendy's girl mounted her donkey. "Meet you all at the battlefield," she said as she trotted off into the night. "Asiago!" she shouted somewhere out in the darkness.

"What exactly DID you do with asiago cheese?" Neffie asked.

Kent didn't bother answering as he chewed on a bacon double cheeseburger. The women laughed at him some more.

After the meal they settled around a big campfire made with the gathered wood. Alice lay on her side with her head in Neffie's lap. Neffie messed with her hair weaving it into a complicated pleat. Ygritte sat cross legged slurping the last of her soda on the opposite side of the fire from Kent. "This is nectar of the gods," she said.

Kent handed her his half finished drink. She gladly took it. He studied her in the fire light. She was the spitting image of the The Game of Thrones character accent and all. Hell in a way she WAS Ygritte from the HBO series. She was dressed in suede leather from top to bottom like a Native American "I know nothing," Kent readily admitted. "But what do YOU know?"

Ygritte looked at her cup of soda, let out a hardy burp then said, "I know that this courtly nectar is not from the wilding side of the Wall." She gave a crooked smile. "I know that I am a free woman. I hold no allegiance to honey born Kings or Queens."

"You still seeing Jon Snow?" Kent asked offhandedly. Her smile faded quickly and her face clouded. After a short silence she got up and walked away from the fire into the dark.

"Guess I stepped in it huh?" Kent said sheepishly.

"The people of the helmet are very complicated entities," Neffie said as she secured the ends of Alice's hair with a leather tie she got from Ygritte. "Many have lived complete lives some have even died ... like Ygritte. Kind of messes with your head."

"How does she feel about being here now ... you know in the world of the helmet?" Kent asked.

"She's had time to adjust and to accept what she is. Not all entities make the adjustment though. Maximus the gladiator guy was a total mess."

"Oh god don't bring HIM up," Alice said.

"He refused to accept what he was and went a little nuts. I really felt bad for him."

"He nearly killed you, Neffie," Alice said. "If Legolas hadn't put three arrows in him he would have cut you in half like a roast chicken at the Stonehenge feast."

"The what feast?" Kent asked.

"The Stonehenge feast," Neffie said. "It's like our Christmas here in the helmet. Anyway, not everyone adjusts," Neffie said.

"You clearly have," Kent said.

"I'm different form your standard fantasy," Neffie said, "I'm based on an existing person that Alice and you knew. Unlike a fictional character with preexisting parameters, I was allowed to fill in gaps on my own from the start. In time, a preexisting entity will do that too."

"I though I had you down pretty good?" Alice said.

"Ya know nothing Alice Mihara," Neffie said mocking Ygritte's accent.

"Ass hole," Alice said.

"Anyway," Kent said. "Sorry for upsetting Ygritte.

"She's a little bit of a drama queen," Alice said playing with her new hairdo. She looked like a Greek warrior with her long hair pleated.

"You should go to her," Neffie said to Kent.

"I suck at this kind of thing," Kent said. "Alice should go since they're friends."

"Alice will just piss her off even more. Go," Neffie insisted.

Reluctantly, Kent got up and walked away from the fire into the darkness. It didn't take him long to stumble over something.

"You swag like a fat mammoth baby," Ygritte said from somewhere in the darkness.

"I'm a city boy at heart," Kent said. He spun in a slow circle trying to locate her voice.

"Sorry for my rudeness," she said. "Jon Snow is a subject that I can't clear my head of."

"No biggie," he said. He honed in on her voice and was positive he was facing her. He let out an unmanly yelp when a hand touched his back.

"They wouldn't have ya on the Night Watch," Ygritte said as her arms slipped around his chest from behind. "What's ya world like Kent Orlando?" she asked in a whisper.

"I'm a second string basketball player at a sub division collage in the middle of the Pacific. Not as interesting as the one you're from," he said.

"By interesting ya mean death and senseless cruelty?"

Kent shrugged having no answer to that.

"I spoke to others who have met you Kent Orlando. They say you're an idiot but brave and loyal."

"Um ... thanks for the stirring review," Kent said.

She turned him around to face her, that's when he discovered that she was naked.

"Interesting," Kent said.

"Am I interrupting?" came a soft voice from the darkness.

"Yes you are queen of the great river," Ygritte said sounding a little annoyed.

"That would be the Nile," Neffie said.

"I'm naked and have plans don't you know?" Ygritte said.

"Why didn't you say so?" Neffie said.

Although he could hardly see a thing, Kent knew that Neffie was stripping down. "Man! I wish there was some light," he said.

"Be careful of wishin'" Ygritte said. "In this world they too often come true."