The Apocalypse Contract

CHAPTER 15 - PETER

Peter Maxwell was a hero. He had just used nothing but a handgun and three grenades to clear a machine gun nest that had almost taken out his entire squad. His friends were still cheering the victory, their voices intermingling into an incompressible din in his headphones, but Peter couldn't bring himself to join in. "Guys, can you all just shut up for a minute?" He repeated himself, and they became quiet. "Look, I'm worried about Sydney. This is the third gaming session she's missed. That's not like her."

His teammate Mike was the first to answer. "It's not like this hasn't happened before. She's just slammed with some big contract. She'll be back in a week or two bragging about all the overtime pay and the new rig she bought with it."

"This isn't like that," Pete insisted, "She always answers my text messages even when she's buried in work. She's been, like, off the grid for weeks now." He hesitated to tell them that he had also logged into the Bexley network and checked her Internet usage. Her traffic had dropped to zero only a week after getting her new high speed line.

"That email she sent a few weeks ago was a bit weird," teammate Gary admitted. "It was all sappy and going on about how she valued our friendship."

"That's just because she's a woman," replied Mike, "they get all emotional like that."

Melissa snorted. "You should talk. I've seen you cry at Disney cartoons."

"People, we're getting off track. I really think something might have happened to her. We need to find out if she's OK." Peter waited for someone to disagree with him.

"Well, you're the closest to Boston," Melissa responded, "and the only one of us that's ever seen her in person. Why don't you just drive out and check on her?"

Peter thought about it. "Yeah, you're right. I should do that." He said his goodbyes and signed off.

He thought back to the one time he had met Sydney in person. He was going to be in Boston for a conference, so they arranged to meet for coffee. She seemed so uncomfortable the entire time, Peter was certain he must have done something wrong. Then the next day on voice-chat she was totally cool. The same old Sydney. She even said it was awesome finally meeting him. Peter didn't know what to think, but he didn't pursue another meet-up despite visiting Boston a couple of times since then.

Would she think he was some sort of stalker if he just showed up at her apartment? Probably, especially considering she had never actually shared the address with him. He only had it because it was on a Bexley work order for installing Internet service. He would try one more round of messages. Email, text, even a phone message, tell her he was worried and planning to stop over. If she didn't reply to those by tomorrow morning, he would drive the four hours and visit in person. Sydney might be pissed at him for it, but he would rather that than do nothing and find out she needed help.

Peter got up from his computer and went to the kitchen for a soda. His roommate Ed had fallen asleep on the couch again while binge watching Netflix. Peter turned the television off, wrote a note reminding Ed he still owed him money for rent, and taped it to the TV. If that didn't work, he would try changing the Netflix password.

In the meantime, he should probably get some sleep. It seemed likely he would have a long drive ahead of him tomorrow.