by Tom Larcombe
“Little sensitive about his height?” Allie mouthed silently.
Eddie just shook his head and handed Allie the rope after tying the other end to his own waist. He didn't want to lose the rope since it was the only one they had. He'd taken his own, Karl's, and Allie's ropes, then spliced them together to get the extra long length they were using.
Allie started spinning the rope around and around, finally releasing it after she'd gotten it up to speed.
“So, do we just leave it out there a bit like fishing or start pulling it back in right away?” she asked.
“I think probably pulling it in would be better. Get the blood dispersed through a larger area of water,” Eddie said. “Stop pulling it in when it's five or ten feet from shore though, I think we can manage an attack that close to shore and that should pull them out of the deeper water.”
He'd pulled out his bow and had an arrow nocked, but not drawn. He figured he could draw aggro on a zombie or two and not have to worry about it. He was sure Jern would interpose himself when the zombies approached.
Allie pulled the rope in hand over hand, slowly though, to allow more blood to seep into the water. It wasn't long before Eddie saw the surface of the lake swirling out where the meat had originally landed. After a moment the disturbance on the surface of the water started following the path the meat had taken as it was drawn back in. He drew the arrow now, ready to fire at the first sight of a zombie.
The rabbit meat was already back in shallow water a few feet out from the shore. As the swirls grew closer, eventually the creature making it broke through the surface of the water. As it stood, Eddie grimaced at the blue-green tint of the flesh on the zombie that was striding through the water towards the meat.
He released his arrow and it sank to the fletching in the zombie's gut. Allie pulled the meat the rest of the way in until it was sitting on the shore. Then she pulled out her own bow and started firing.
The zombie wasn't alone. A moment after Eddie fired, two more broke the surface. Smaller than the first they still had the bluish-green drowned look to their flesh. Tiana started chanting when she saw no more disturbances in the water behind the zombies. A few seconds later her hand began to glow with light and the zombies winced backwards from it. Jern had taken several steps into the water and now slammed his hammer into the knee of the first zombie, staggering it.
With a burbling growl the zombie returned the attack. It looked like the zombies had considered just leaving when Tiana's spell went off, but the melee attack against the front one had changed their minds.
The fight only took a minute or so and when it was done they dragged the corpses out of the lake and looted them so they'd disappear more quickly.
“Eew, I thought the ones in the dungeon looked gross,” Becky said, “but these are worse, and they smell worse too. I'd hoped the ones I killed before weren't normal, but these are just as bad.”
“Having second thoughts?” Karl asked.
“No, just... Eew,” Becky repeated.
That set the standard for the next few hours. The main problem Eddie had with it was that it started to grow boring. Even the few times they pulled five zombies at a time out of the lake, they weren't in very much danger. Admittedly, Jern took a few hits now and then, but with three members of the group that were capable of healing, his wounds never lasted for very long.
Things grew more interesting as they circled the lake though, Eddie watched as the Rat Woods grew closer and closer with each stop they made. Once they reached the edge of the trees, Becky stopped them.
“Okay, the woods here aren't very much of an issue, unless you stumble into a rat's nest. They won't attack you unless you do that. Then they'll swarm you, twenty or thirty at a time. So if you just watch where you're walking it won't be an issue.”
“Actually, that might not be a bad thing,” Eddie said. “We're almost out of bait. I didn't have as many bunny corpses in my inventory as I used to keep there. Been using them for the inn. If the rats attack and they aren't that tough that'll be a lot more bait for us to use.”
Becky winced, but nodded. She chanted for a moment then chittered at her pet rat Bubbles, who'd been riding on her shoulder. The rat chittered back and Becky grew a bit pale.
“What was that?” Karl asked.
Allie had backed away when Becky drew attention to her pet, but she cocked her head to catch the answer.
“It was what Bubbles said to me, it was really gross,” Becky replied.
Karl made a circular motion with his hand, gesturing for Becky to continue. She gulped before speaking.
“I was worried that we'd be killing other rats, that it might bother him, but he said that it was fine, that they'd be good eating,” she said, shuddering.
“Oh,” Karl said, obviously unable to formulate any other reply to the comments of the cannibalistic rat.
“Come on,” Eddie said, “we've got a few more bunny corpses to use first. Then we can worry about the rats.”
The bunny corpses ran out before they were halfway through the edge of the lake where it ran through the woods. Eddie had been keeping a rough count of the zombies they'd killed, and the count was already past two hundred and fifty despite them being less than halfway around the edge of the lake.
And that doesn't even count the ones we'll have to pull in from on the island, or the ones in the wider area of the lake that we don't have a plan for unless we use the raft, he thought.
Intellectually he knew that the game just created them, but at the same time his mind was building up a fantasy of the ruins that were on the island once being a large city and all the undead they were killing coming from that city and the surrounding areas. It wasn't a pleasant fantasy, but somehow he couldn't keep his mind from dwelling on it.
“Alright, this is the last bunny corpse,” Eddie said. “So we'll want to find some rat nests next.”
He turned to the cat that had been romping through the woods.
“Lucky, you want to find a rat nest for us?” he asked.
The cat sidled up next to him and rubbed herself against his leg, nearly knocking him over. She'd continued to grow, although he hadn't noticed a change in her stats since they'd gotten the temple finished. Her raspy tongue ran its way along his hand a couple of times before she turned and disappeared into the woods.
The woods were thick enough that the light levels were dim at ground level. You could still see just fine, but somehow trying to look into the distance just showed a disorienting view of shadows that were very rarely pierced by the rays of sunlight that made it down through the trees. Rather than lighting things up, those sparse rays simply made the rest of the forest seem even dimmer by comparison.
Allie hurled the last of the bunny corpses out into the water, blood spraying the surface as it flew out. Moments later the, now familiar, swirling water sprang into being as she rapidly drew it in with the rope, the wake on the surface of the lake following the bait.
~ ~ ~
“Alright,” Eddie said, recovering his arrows from the fight, “now we need to find a rat's nest. I wonder how Lucky's doing trying to find one?”
He gave a short whistle and a few seconds later Lucky came into view, racing back towards him. She was carrying a dead rat in her jaws and she dropped it at his feet before rearing back on her hind legs and putting her front legs against his chest. He rubbed the top of her head, paying special attention to the base of her ears where she liked being scritched.
“Did you find one, Lucky?” Eddie asked.
She dropped down to all fours and nuzzled the rat corpse. Bubbles sprang down from Becky's shoulders and started towards the corpse, only to stop and stare at Lucky. The bobcat lowered her head and pushed the corpse towards Bubbles, who was more than happy to pounce on it and start chewing. Becky shuddered and turned away.
Lucky batted Eddie's leg with her paw, then turned and headed back the way she'd come from.
Eddie followed with the rest of the party right b
ehind him. Bubbles stayed back to enjoy his meal, which Eddie wasn't sorry for. He wasn't as squeamish as Becky about it, but he still wasn't fond of watching Bubbles, or Lucky for that matter, devour a fresh corpse.
Lucky moved a couple of hundred yards into the forest and Eddie found himself distracted by some of the trees they were passing.
Hey, these trees will make decent arrow shafts. I could probably get four or five out of each of these branches, he thought. After we're done with this quest, I'll come gather a whole bun—
His thoughts were brought to an abrupt halt as he stepped on something that felt quite different from the ground he'd been walking on. His eyes snapped back to where he was walking just as a piercing pain struck his calf. When his eyes finally focused down he saw the rat that had fastened itself to his leg.
It wasn't even close to the size of Bubbles, maybe half as big, but it still hurt.
Eddie let out a yelp and drew his sword. He struck down and his weapon hit the rat, but only with the flat of the blade. It pushed the rat around a little bit which caused the rat's teeth to tear against the wound it had created with its bite.
Lucky heard Eddie's yelp and came rushing over. Tiana was the only other one to react as quickly, she started chanting and Eddie felt the warmth as the wound tried to heal with the rat's teeth still in it. Lucky caught the rat in her jaws and jerked it away, ripping his leg open even more before the healing spell affecting him starting sealing it.
Eddie's yelp also drew the attention of the rats in the nest and as he started scrambling backwards towards the rest of the party he saw a bunch of them come into view as they exited the little nooks and crannies they normally stayed in.
“Crap, there's like twenty of them,” Eddie called out.
“Behind me, Eddie,” Jern called.
The dwarf grounded his shield, keeping it barely a fraction of an inch above the dirt and it was that high only so he could interpose it between himself and any attacking rats more quickly.
It would've been stupid easy for Dominic to simply burn all the rats down with one of his fire spells, but they were in a forest and they wanted the rat bodies for bait and there was no way to know if they'd survive the flames, so Dominic was reduced to using his wand.
Several bolts of flashing green streaked towards the advancing rats, leaving at least one of the rats motionless on the ground. Karl hurled his daggers while Allie loosed a pair of arrows at the rats.
By the time Eddie was behind Jern and the rats were almost close enough to attack the party, there were six rats dead, but more than ten still advancing.
Lucky came in from behind and snapped her jaws onto the rearmost rat, darting back into the trees, rat in her mouth. Eddie pulled his bow and started adding his own fire to the rain of missiles falling on the rats.
Eddie almost fired at the snake that slithered past him, until he realized it was making a beeline for the rats.
That must be Becky's snake staff in action, he thought. That snake is fast, I'm glad it's not after me.
The snake reared back then struck one of the rats. The rat convulsed and lay still after several seconds.
Poisonous too, Eddie thought, I'm really glad it's on our side.
In the end only four rats made it to Jern, who moved to block their advance deeper into the party. His hammer removed one of them. Karl's hurled daggers took a second one, while Allie and Eddie both filled the final two with arrows.
Eddie heaved a sigh of relief.
“Well, that sucked,” he said. “Remind me to pay better attention to where I'm walking in these woods.”
Eddie started gathering up rat corpses and stuffing them into his inventory. As he was doing that he caught a glimmer of some sort in one of the nooks the rats had come out of. He took his sword and pried away the clump of dried plant matter that was on top of the nook, then broke into a grin.
“Hey, check it out. Maybe we have a newbie zone here?” he called.
He knelt and removed the handful of coins that he'd uncovered from inside the nook. The coppers were in okay shape, although the markings on the coins didn't match those of the coins he'd been using since he got in game. There were also several heavily tarnished coins that he thought were probably silver, but he would have to clean them up before he could be sure.
“What did you find?” Tiana asked, coming over to him.
“Actual coins. Remember how all the newbies bitch about there being no money as drops in the Meadowlands? Well, there is money that drops here in the Rat Woods. I mean, maybe this is an outlier, but it makes me think these are supposed to be some kind of pack rat.”
“It's possible,” Tiana said. “I don't know anyone that's been in these woods. I've never even looked it up to see if it's a zone on its own or just part of the Meadowlands.”
“I'm guessing it's part of the Meadowlands. I think that it might be set up for newbie groups. It's right near the dungeon, which newbies could probably do part of, and I bet a decent group of newbies could clear a nest like we just did.”
“Well, this assumes that you're correct and the coins load in all of them,” Allie said as she approached.
“Well, there's only one way to find out,” Eddie replied. “We got eighteen rat corpses here, that might get us the rest of the way around the shore, but we'll need more later when we work the island, and I still don't know how to get that very last part out in the middle without the raft. But we'll need more corpses as bait, so let's find another rat nest and once we kill them, we'll search the nest. If we find coins again, then it's probably a common drop for the nests.”
“Okay, I'll buy that,” Allie said. “You do realize, though, that that means Karl is going to want to spend a lot of time in this damned place to map it? You can accompany him for that one. I'm not coming back here unless I have to.”
Eddie had forgotten Allie's distaste of rats, he'd say fear of them even, just not where she could hear him.
“Yeah, yeah, he and I can both come back. Because some of the wood from these trees will make decent arrow shafts. Maybe we can finally make our own arrows if that's the case.”
Allie shook her head.
“All you Eddie, I don't want to spend any more time here than I have to. Let's go find another nest.”
“Lucky!” Eddie called, and gave a short whistle.
~ ~ ~
Chapter Four
Specialist Cooper was eager to get into his new assignment. He'd been transferred so fast his head was still spinning. When he'd been informed that his new assignment was going to be working inside a virtual world doing research he'd been ecstatic, until he was informed that he would not be creating a character and having a class assigned. His body would be scanned and his in-game avatar would be identical to it.
He was slightly mollified when told why. Knowing that he and his new squad would be possessing the NPC monsters of the game to test equivalent technology being developed in the real world was a bonus. He'd done some gaming on his own before joining the military, he'd done some after also, even when he wasn't supposed to, and that had led to several of the reprimands that he'd received.
His thoughts raced as he lay down in the pod he'd be occupying and the lid closed. He'd done some research on the game he was being placed in after he'd been informed of his assignment.
Not that they know that. Their silly attempts to block me from reaching the net were utterly futile and there shouldn't even be a record of what I did any more. So, at least I've got some background knowledge, he thought.
He expected, with the stipulation that his avatar would be identical to his body, that it would be a quick load in, but instead he found himself caught in some sort of shimmering haze. He could tell he wasn't alone, but it was several seconds, at least, before someone spoke.
“Ah, so the new scapegoat has arrived,” a deep male voice spoke from within the fog.
“What do you mean, scapegoat?” Cooper replied.
A clear female voice answered him.
“Do you think that you were chosen for any other reason? Many have the skills you do, to one degree or another, but is there perhaps a reason you might be chosen over those others? One that relates to certain indiscretions on your part?”
Freyja had managed to scan Specialist Cooper's memories with Odin's help. They'd been expecting a replacement for Harmon and had kept a sliver of their consciousnesses looking for his entry. As the man had logged in they'd processed all the data they'd recovered from scanning his memories and concocted their current plan.
“What, my reprimands? They don't mean a thing, nothing was ever done about them aside from the notes placed on my file.”
“And you think that they're happy that they've never managed to pin you down more, to punish you for your indiscretions?” the male voice asked.
As Cooper watched, two figures emerged from the fog. The first was a man, tall and solidly built, he wore a patch over one eye and a raven sat on each of his shoulders. He leaned on a spear that he carried in one hand. The second was a young looking blonde woman, a classic Nordic beauty who was armored and armed.
Crap, they said the AIs took the form of the gods in this game. Am I talking to a pair of the AIs? Cooper wondered.
“We agree with you, they don't mean a thing, but we wished to give you warning that you are being... set up is the term I believe you would use,” the woman added.
“Wait a moment,” Cooper said. “Freyja and Odin? Why would you warn me about this?”
“Yes, I am Odin,” the man said, “and we wished to warn you because part of our, or more specifically Freyja's, mission in this game is the comfort of the players. You are a player, albeit an odd one, so we wished to inform you so that you might protect yourself and not have your life or career come to harm from your stay in this world.”
“You will be given orders that you will know deep down are non-valid,” Freyja said. “We wished to warn you that your responses will be recorded and may be used against you later on. If you wish to protect yourself, you simply need to protest those orders. Protest each one that does not sound valid at least once so the record will also show that. Then, since orders are orders, you will have to follow them, but your protestations may be your saving grace later on.”