Page 39 of Tapeworld Induction

It surely couldn’t be one of the Kings who was responsible for it. All of them would have ripped the place to shreds. Especially the Fifth King – that guy was a nutjob. Always threatening the precarious peace among the Kingdoms and the stability of Earth’s climate-change and plant-based-eating efforts. He’d constantly undermined the furthering of vegan laws. Some countries still depended on meat, according to the Fifth King, though he was never clear about exactly which. It was just an accepted fact that the Kingdom of America provided that meat. It harboured the only known farms still growing cows for the purpose of consumption, rather than preservation. The unlucky few, chosen to feed people clinging to the old ways, while most other animals in the world were safe.

It was widely known that the laws were broken all over the world, but the degree and frequency varied. The FK, under the protection of the Twin Queens and the government of Betty Summers, was the country with the highest adoption rate: ninety percent. The Kingdom of America’s percentage was unknown. And she knew all about veganism adoption rates – she bloody worked here every day.

Focusing on the now, Dylan walked slowly through the tape-tube, continuing to marvel at the shimmering ever-moving lights and glowing shapes. They seemed to move as she did, some closer to her than others, in a parallax effect. A few steps more and the tube dissipated into an expanding horizon of green fields and rolling hills.

The sight left her breathless. She turned around, but the entry tube was gone, dissolved into nothing, like things tended to do in the Tapeworld. She looked down her legs and feet.

What?

Her black Dr. Martens were gone – her toes were among the grass, a temperate breeze blowing around her. Her boots must have been removed by her subconscious when she entered this place. She closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh air. She had no idea how the Tapeworld worked, but she fucking loved it. So much so that the real world was beginning to pale in comparison. Looking out into the fields, the colour of the grass, the blue sky and white clouds, the light of the sun at this particular angle…

“Am I in a default wallpaper…?”

Ahead of her, a gaming chair and desk configured themselves, the space preparing for Dylan automatically. Miss Kitty emerged out of a taller patch of grass, bounding over next to her.

“You’re not in a wallpaper, Dee-lan,” the cat said, yellow-brown eyes twinkling, “but this tape-space is modelled after a famous one, yes.”

“Goddess, you scared me.”

The cat looked at her, expression unchanging, head tilted like she was unable to empathise with Dylan’s reaction to her appearing out of nowhere.

“You’re lucky, you know?” Dylan told her.

“How so?” the cat asked, her hind leg scratching the side of her head.

“You get to be in the Tapeworld all the time.”

A swirling mass of blue and red suddenly materialised in front of her. No. Not just in front of her. All around her. Before she could react, she was pulled into it.

She shuffled back a step, her muscles rigid.

The rogue tape-tube enveloped her until she couldn’t see Kitty anymore, or her green field.

What the—

What’s happening?

With a blast, the particle cloud disappeared from around her. Gone was the sun and the green wallpaper hills of her tape-space, replaced by the golden glow of evening and a thick forest of trees. Nearby was a white house, and…

“Isaak?”

Him. A tightness took over her chest. Her skin was tingling, but she wasn’t sure if it was because of the tape-tube, or because he was right there in front of her, in all his high-def glory.

She’d been bored out of her mind at work, and the Tapeworld and Isaak brought her all the excitement she was craving. Gah, stop swooning.

“Fuck!”

Not the reaction she was expecting.

“Fuck!” Isaak avoided eye contact, shuffling in place like he was in a hurry but didn’t know where to go. “I thought of you, and said your name…”

She pressed her lips together. The tingling dissipated, but her chest remained tight. “Isaak, stop!” Grabbing him by the shoulders, she forced him to cease pacing about. “What’s going on?”

He glanced towards the house. The sky suddenly went from golden end of day to pulsing blackened red. At the same time, a dull, repeating tone echoed through the trees.

“What’s that?” Dylan’s heart rate jumped back up. “I was just in a grass field, and now… Talk to me.”

Isaak was rapidly scanning the horizon. “Quiet,” he said firmly.