That Wasn't the Plan

by Jason Cheek

  “By accident,” I replied back in the same tone, doing my best to not say anything about her freak-out. “Because the Dwarves neglected to notify him of the Moonshine they were making during off hours. How would your unit have acted if you’d pulled something like that on one of them for an accident?” My eyes held her gaze like a vice. “It’s more like you were working out your frustration on someone you thought would be an easy target, so cut the shit and take some responsibility for your actions.”

  “Fuck you, Star!” Kenzie shrieked, slamming her blades home into their sheaths. Nonetheless, I could see the truth of what I’d said reflected in her eyes. In her heart, she knew that she’d taken this too far. Not that she was willing to admit to it or apologize for her actions. Instead, she abruptly turned around and stalked over to where Zhou and Darkhorse stood watching, while calling out over her shoulder. “Sometimes, you’re such an asshole!”

  Say the truth about someone’s shenanigans and suddenly you’re an asshole. That seemed to be the new rage lately and the story of my life in a nutshell. Fuck her feelings, it didn’t make what I said any less true. People sometimes needed to hear the truth whether they wanted to hear it or not. Okay, that wasn’t completely correct. For better or worse, I’d done my best to keep away from calling her out on the whole PTSD episode. Nonetheless, I wasn’t about to let her run roughshod over my friends like she did to the Marines in her guild.

  My setting Kenzie straight seemed to reset Domenic somewhat, but I think that was because he was angrier at Helgath at this point. A light bulb went off in my head as I suddenly understood the reason Helgath had decided to intercede on my behalf. She’d known ahead of time that redirecting Domenic’s anger at her would be the only thing that stopped the two of us from coming to blows over this whole stupid incident.

  Helgath had innately understood that Domenic was already feeling singled out. That it was him against the world. Through our link, she’d somehow realized that having Domenic being attacked by allies in his own fortress would’ve been the straw that broke the camel’s proverbial back. A normal reaction to everything that he’d been going through with these PKing asshats. I saw the look of hesitation in Domenic’s eyes, when I turned back to face him. Meaning, he was doubting his anger. While that had been a good plan from Helgath to keep the peace, I unfortunately knew that it wasn’t going to last with what I had to say next.

  Chapter One.Thirty-Nine

  (Thursday, May 8th / Day 18 of The World.)

  “We need to talk and you’re not going to like it,” I said, trying to sound conciliatory, but knowing I was failing miserably as the words left my mouth. “I’m so freaking exhausted. You have no idea of everything I’ve fought through and done to make it to you in time. Honestly though, once I reached your valley, all that I wanted to do was go to bed, but I knew we had to talk this out face-to-face or you wouldn’t believe me. That’s why I’m here.”

  “Just let me finish, before you start in on me,” I said, holding up my hands to override whatever Domenic was going to say. Without letting him get a word in, I continued in a heartfelt tone. “Mike and I have already discussed the issue and we both agree. There is no way we can fight Julie’s alliance of asshats off right now. There’s just too many of them.” Again, I stopped his protests. “If the Emergency Hot Fix hadn’t stopped us from being able to de-level their people, this would’ve been a different story, but there’s no way for us to stop these guys now.”

  “What the fuck, Jay,” Domenic finally exploded. “If you think I’m going to give up everything I’ve been fighting for, you’ve got another thing coming. Fuck, why did the two of you even come all the way out here if you were just going to tuck your tail between your legs and run?“

  “That’s not the plan either, dickhead!” I shouted back in exasperation. “I already told you the plan is to pack up your castle and people to bring them back to my lands where we can fight Julie’s alliance together.” I continued, spreading my arms wide to emphasis my words. “You’re in the middle of nowhere, Dom. Not just that, you’re so far away from my lands that there’s no way I can possibly help you fight the bitch off.”

  “Why didn’t you just bring all of your shit with you then?” Domenic shouted at me darkly. “Why is it that I’m always the one that has to move?”

  “Because, my castle doesn’t move. It’s not that kind of fortification,” I yelled back unapologetically. “Because, it’s strategically sound to fall back to a teammate’s land to rebuild when you’re home base is in the process of being overrun. On top of that, I have a hell of a lot more land and troops than you do and it’s better protected. I can’t defend my lands and your lands when we’re on the other side of the map all at the same time.” Domenic tried to deny what I was saying, but I didn’t let him.

  “With the new Emergency Hot Fixes, there’s no way you’ll be able to hold out against these assholes.” I pointed at the spot where I’d just raised the Dwarves that fell in the last skirmish. “You lost fifty Dwarves in one stealth attack. Killing those players didn’t hurt them except for a temporary five hour debuff. If they repeat the attack every hour on the hour, you won’t have any people of The World left alive to fight for you.” That seemed to catch Domenic’s attention.

  “Besides, this measly force of Julie’s you’re fighting now isn’t even the main concern,” I roared at the top of my voice. My words were for my friend as much as they were for the audience watching. “There is a massive invasion force of Orcs headed this way, and they’re going to wipe out everything within the Kingdom of Kadar.”

  “Great, than my problems should be taken out for me any day,” Domenic said with an angry snarl.

  “Not really,” I yelled right back. “Julie has made an alliance with them.” Seeing Domenic’s mouth snap shut, I continued relentlessly, hoping beyond hope that he’d listen to what I was saying. “She’s using them to take out any resistance in the area. Hell, we were skirmishing with their advance scouts the entire way here.”

  That shocking bit of information caught Domenic off guard as the soldiers and brew masters immediately began talking excitedly amongst themselves. While Domenic might not fully understand what that meant, his people had a much better grasp as to what the Isolde Line actually meant. No, I wasn’t about to tell him that Julie was probably going to get double-crossed by her monster allies. That would have just given him hope that he could play each side off the other and hold out. No, I didn’t explain the whole thing about Nightmare players and that the game was constantly trying to kick us out of our lands by sending more and harder challenges against us. That would have just depressed him. Besides, how could I express my concern for the actual number of Orcs that were going to be in the invasion force? If I tried to compare it to my own situation, the calculations for the invading force were just too unbelievable. So, I stayed with the basics instead.

  “We have a day … maybe two to get all of you out of here before that wave of death crushes everything in its path,” I shouted, as I turned around to look the troopers around us in the eye. “After that, this whole entire area will be overrun, except, I hope, for Palnisdale. I’ve been working with Princess Reeva and Prince Lekroth to send all of the remaining Royal Forces to the Citadel in the hopes that Palnisdale will hold out. Everything else, we expect, will be laid to waste.” I turned back to Domenic to look him in the face.

  “That’s why I’m here,” I said, doing my best to stop the twitching of my eye. It fucking felt like my head was going to explode as I gritted my teeth through the pain. “I have everything in place to evacuate you and your people to my side of the map, but I do not have the forces needed to fight off the enemies here or the ones we know are headed your way.”

  “Do you have any idea how much a couple hundred players could do for defending my walls? Do you know how easy it would be for us to take the battle to the enemy and wipe out their siege equipment and camp?” Domenic hollered back. “Add our NPCs in the mix and this fortr
ess would be unassailable! Hell, just give me one week of holding my walls against these assholes and they’ll give up the thought of even trying to take my fortress.”

  “There is around twenty-five hundred to three thousand PKers right now in the valley below. Within a few minutes to an hour, they could have a total of five thousand players online if needed and that’s without the Orc invasion force that will be here any day. Those numbers don’t even reflect that most of our people are made up of people from The World and not players. Within a few hours, those troopers would be killed off and the odds would change to be a few hundred players against five thousand. There is no way we could face off against odds like that and survive.”

  “I can’t believe you’re not willing to even fight for one week to beat these assholes back,” Domenic barked, throwing his hands up in the air in clear frustration. “Do you have any idea how many times I fought for you against overwhelming odds?”

  “What in the hell are you even talking about?” I shouted back at him. “Those were games that we setup that way to have a better gaming experience or to balance out the teams. Never once have we been in a situation like this.” Getting up into his face, I pointed northwest in the direction of my forces.

  “We have new allies that have joined us to help fight against the Chaos Storm alliance. They will probably be pulled into some bigger battles then they ever expected, but we can probably rely on them as long as the action is fun. Once it’s not, they’re going to go their own way.” I pointed towards the field of PKers attacking his walls. “Those guys out there are probably all professional players getting paid to follow Julie’s orders. They’re running a business and as long as they’re getting paid good money, they’ll continue following the orders they are given because this is a job for them.”

  “Fuck you, Jay! You’re not even willing to ask your new allies if they would fight for me for a week. You’re screwing me over because it’s convenient and-“

  “Because it’s convenient?” I bellowed at the top of my lungs, as my clenched fists turned white. “The entire group of us already discussed the possibility and they said no!” Domenic’s face fell in surprise as I screamed. “All that you can see is what you’re losing. You don’t care that what you’re asking would fuck the rest of us out of our Nightmare quests! You don’t care what we gave up to come all this way to rescue you or that we’ve come up with a way for you to not lose your shit or your people.”

  “If I pull out and leave now, I won’t have the mine that I need to pay off the mercenaries I promised to compensate for fighting with me. Not only that, I’ll lose a week of my time traveling back to your lands. Why the fuck would I do that?” Domenic growled back in fury. “Besides that, I’m near to the coast here which makes exploration easy, not in the middle of a landlocked valley in the middle of a mountain range. Why would I give up all of that to go to your lands?”

  “Because, I have solid defenses in place and you’ll lose it all if you don’t” I shouted, crossing my arms over my chest to signal that I was through arguing about this. We silently glared at each other for over a minute with neither one of us giving an inch, before I remembered what he’d said about the mercenaries. “How much to you need to settle up with your mercs?”

  “I don’t know,” Domenic said, as if he’d bit into something sour. “Two to three hundred gold. There’s no way I’m going to be able to pay that off if I leave the mine-“

  “Here’s three hundred gold,” I said, pulling out the amount in question from my pouch. Using the interface, I removed it fifty gold pieces at a time as Domenic’s hands automatically accepted the golden coins while his eyes bulged out in surprise. What could I say? PKing was good money.

  “Also, there are several good mining spots to set your fortress down at within my valley, so once you get settled, the money shouldn’t be an issue either. Even so, if you still want to return here for the location once we build up our forces to take back the Isolde Line, I promise to help you take your land back.” I nodded to Mike standing next to me. “I’m sure Mike would be willing to help too.”

  For a long second, Domenic looked between the two of us and the pile of gold in his hands as a hush settled over the crowd of onlookers. To any outside observer, it would have been obvious that Domenic’s people wanted to take the exit we were offering them. I don’t know if that was the mercs wanting to get their money and go or the people that had sworn an oath of allegiance to him. An ugly look came to his face as he made a decision.

  “I don’t need your charity or your excuses,” Domenic spat, barely controlling his rage. “What I need are you and your troops! If you’re not willing to fight like you promised, than there’s nothing left for us to say to one another.” Flinging the pile of gold coins at me, his arm shook from the pent-up fury coursing through his body as he pointed towards the outer wall. “Take your gold and piss off!”

  “Not willing to fight like we promised,” I snarled and would have lunged at him if Mike didn’t hold me back. “We’ve been fighting our whole way here as promised, you’re the one refusing to listen to reason!”

  “Just leave him alone,” Mike urged, still holding me tight. “He’s not ready to listen to reason. Besides, considering what just went down with Kenzie and Helgath, he’s got a reason to be angry. Just wait for him to calm down and think this through,” Mike lowered his voice so that only I could hear his next words. “Besides, you know how much of a stubborn jackass he can be. If you push him too far now, it’ll ruin your friendship and mine with him inside and outside of the game.”

  “You know what?” I said out loud. Letting out a ragged breath, I nodded for Mike to release me. There was so much more I wanted to say, but I knew Mike was right. If I pushed Domenic any further now, it would ruin our friendship or worse make him an enemy. To be honest I don't know what scared me more, a psycho Julie or Domenic looking for revenge. If he wouldn’t listen to reason, then I would have to look out for myself and the rest of the guild. “I’m out of here.” The words seemed to hit Domenic like a punch to the gut.

  “Tomorrow morning I’m logging in, packing up my forces, and then getting the fuck out of here,” I stated in a tone that brooked no argument. “You’re welcome to come with me if you want … or not. The choice is yours.” As I turned around and headed for the door hanging from its hinges, Domenic snarled at my armored back.

  “Don’t forget to take your gold with you!”

  Instead of answering him back, I shot him a bird over my shoulder while the rest of my team silently fell in step behind me. As we filed out the doorway, Mike stood there for a second longer eyeing our friend who refused to back down. Shaking his head, he followed after me with Sub-Leader Chuzedros at his back.

  “Fine don’t take it, I don’t care!” Domenic shouted after me. “I’ll just take it as restitution for damages!”

  He said more as I angrily stomped away, but I didn’t hear. I honestly don’t remember anything else until we reached the base of the outer wall where we’d entered Domenic’s fortress and I’d had a chance to calm down somewhat. My mind was so busy churning everything over in my head that I’d been oblivious to everything else going on around me. That was, until Kenzie placed the rope from the grapple in my hand. For a long moment, we just stared at each other without saying a word, before she finally broke the silence.

  “I could’ve handled that better,” Kenzie said, vulnerably looking into my eyes. “You’ve talked about Domenic so much since we met that I sometimes forget that we haven’t had a chance to get to know each other and become actual friends.” Glancing down at her feet for a moment, she raised her head to look into my eyes. “I’m sorry if I screwed this whole thing up with your friend, but being blown up kind of set me off.”

  Instead of answering, I threw my head back and let out a heavy sigh as my eyes searched the stone ceiling above. This was all so fucking typical, I thought, as I massaged the back of my neck. Kenzie being a hard-ass. Domenic being stubborn
as a mule. Psycho Julie not leaving us alone. Taking a deep breath, I looked back at Kenzie.

  “You did fuck up,” I said, giving Kenzie a tired grin, “but shit happens. While I appreciate the apology, maybe you should be giving it to Domenic instead,” I eyed her meaningfully, “since you got all stabby-stabby with him for an accident.”

  “It’s just a thought,” I said, seeing Kenzie’s lips curl into a grimace. It was hard for most people to admit when they were wrong. Giving her a shrug, I shook my head. “You know, even if he blew you up. Those Moonshine elementals were cool as shit.”

  “It’s not like he figured those things out on his own.” Kenzie said with a dismissive sniff, as she discretely wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes.

  “Really?” I asked, giving her a smile. “You know many inventions are discovered by accident, so technically, he did invent Moonshine elementals, albeit at our expense and his.”

  “What other inventions were discovered by accident?” Kenzie flippantly shot back, not really expecting an answer.

  “The microwave,” I said with a knowing laugh. Seeing her disbelieving look, I explained the story. “In nineteen forty-five, Percy Spencer was standing in front of an active radar, when he realized it was melting the chocolate in his pocket and then he went on to invent the microwave.”

  “You’re shitting me,” Kenzie said in disbelief. “He didn’t realize he was frying his whole body while he was working on the radar?”

  “Nope,” I said, giving her a wink. “It’s not much different than blowing yourself up inside a game with a Moonshine elemental.”

  “Gah, I don’t know whether to believe you or not,” Kenzie said, shaking her head. “Now, I’ve got to Google that shit when I logout tonight.” We both shared a much needed laugh as she turned to climb the rope. Pausing once more, she gave me a piercing look. “Are you and Mike going to have a problem now with Dom?”