Continue Online (Part 5, Together)

by Stephan Morse

  My head shook slowly. I couldn’t imagine starting over as a digital person. What would it be like to exist as a piece of software? A compilation of moments that stacked upon each other, then attempted to gather values for each moment of history.

  The building swayed a little and I prepared to [Blink] us to a new location, but we stayed upright. Walls were being knocked down and former buildings pushed together. A few of the Travelers who had stayed behind were strong enough. SheHulk had stayed online and wore a look of glee as she destroyed buildings.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t get you sooner,” I said, switching my thoughts back to Xin. Her ordeal had gone on for a long time, but when did the reconstruction start? Well before I played Continue Online for sure. But did it start one day after death, day ten, or day one hundred? How would I have reacted to waking up and finding her on my television screen a month after the wake?

  “I don’t blame you. How could you have known that all those hours in the ARC, all that testing they put me through for Mars, would lead to this? How could anyone know?” She held her fingers out a short distance from us and studied her nails. I looked down to see unfocused white eyes peering out from a curtain of wet black hair. “A life after death, but instead of another planet, I got a fantasy world where I feel lost. All my pilot training is worth what? A reduction in fall damage? And infinite paper airplanes.”

  She lifted a hand and a small piece of paper appeared, already folded into the shape of a plane. It went off the third story’s side, then was sent crashing to the ground from rain.

  “You trained for the unexpected too.”

  “Within reason, sure. We all trained for life-or-death situations. We ran simulations where I couldn’t tell night from day, or how long I had been inside the machine. Where we decided who died in the crew, or fought in a rigged scenario. At times, I forgot what was real.” She shuddered briefly. “Even now I wonder if I’ll wake up and find this has been another strange test.”

  What the hell could anyone say to that? I completely understood, but admitting my own issues wouldn’t help her. Still, we were married, and if Xin ever felt like she couldn’t find her way, then I had to do it for us. My efforts amounted to that of a fumbling idiot at best.

  “Voices.” I gave a fake startled laugh. “I hope not.”

  “Are you sure you’re not a dream I made up?” She looked up at me. Both her eyes were wet. It might have been the rain coming down, or something else.

  “There are worse things to be than a mad dream of a wonderful woman.” I felt a touch poetic. Maybe Hal Pal had rubbed off on me. The machine had taken to spouting Shakespeare any time we got into the van together.

  Her head shook again. We watched as the building across from us fell to pieces when SheHulk charged through the first floor. Elane’s happily panting form could be seen easily, a bright spot of shining armor amid the rain.

  Xin’s giant skeleton marched to unspoken orders. It traveled through the rubble, pushing boulders aside with an amazing demonstration of [Brawn]. Beyond them, all the four domes were lit with the calmer red and orange light rippling upward.

  “In a play I read, someone said…” My finger lifted and brought up the ARC interface. I flicked through seven different menus to reach a highlighted passage. “‘For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come.’”

  The passage went on. I’d found myself reading it more and more as my time advanced toward an end of this event. My mother was right. I suspected something was coming, and in its wake, I might sleep at last and no longer wake to fears and nightmares or moments which were too sweet to last forever.

  “Then I’ll ask again, am I dreaming this?” Xin’s eyebrows wrinkled. “Maybe that’s it, that’s why everything makes sense but looks so strange. People don’t come back to life and exist as Internet ghosts. Maybe I’m in a coma somewhere.”

  My head shook and my fingers grabbed hers. I had tried to make this confession a few times over the last month, or months together, depending on how time would be counted inside the ARC.

  “When you died out there, I tried to kill myself. Then I tried again a year later. If anyone’s dreaming now, it’s me.” The umbrella wavered a bit as I gestured to the dark gloomy landscape. “This certainly isn’t Earth or even Mars like we planned, but it is a great dream. Maybe the best I’ve ever had.” Or, I thought, the best I might ever have again, but that part went unspoken.

  My prior attempts at suicide were obvious, but we had never directly talked about it. Even when I broke down and asked her to marry me, the admission hadn’t happened. Saying it now made my heart skip and hands tense a bit too hard. Xin winced, but she didn’t move.

  “If it is a dream, then we’re in it together.” I swallowed a lump in my throat and took slow breaths, sucking in a chilled, wet air.

  “Hey!” Elane, SheHulk, or the tiny angry Hispanic woman—depending upon how I felt at the moment—shouted up at us. “Hey, you two! Get off that! We need to break it down for barricades!”

  I didn’t want to leave yet. Not after that admission, not without hearing a response from Xin that meant everything was all right. The building rattled anyway, and rocks further threatened to tumble down.

  “Hurry up! We ain’t got all day for you to make out!” Elane was relentless.

  I leaned over slightly and could see the edge of her mace shaking upward. Xin was already in my arms. [Blink] went off, and the world faded to a new location. A second later, we were standing below, staring at a mace-wielding SheHulk. She had the tower shield in front of her, and dirt from sludge marred the shine of armor.

  “We’re down,” I said.

  “Fucking goddamned Ultimate Edition bullshit.” Elane readied her shield while muttering. “I work my ass off.”

  She charged into the few supports remaining. The Hispanic woman came out the other side, all the while complaining, but it was inaudible compared to the building’s crash.

  Xin glanced at me, and I shrugged. She waved toward the giant skeleton and pointed at our former perch. The white creature started shoveling out a clear path. We parted a bit but still held hands. Her fingers wove tightly between mine, and the pressure made me feel better.

  “Dusk!” I shouted.

  The [Messenger’s Pet] could be anywhere by now. I scanned around for him while Elane stomped back over, still muttering. Her shoulders rolled and lifted the tower shield up, then she slammed it down lightly. Leftover mortar and brick fell. SheHulk’s [Endurance] had to be higher than my [Brawn], which seemed impossible, or she had some sort of [Wrecking Ball] skill that perfectly suited building destruction.

  “A few fucking months of playing, and somehow, just somehow, he turns into a goddamned teleporting ninja warrior Greek god with abs.” Elane’s words were buried under another collapse of a building.

  Dusk landed nearby and chirped at me. Xin pulled out a cupcake and bribed the little guy to come closer. My glutinous sidekick didn’t hesitate, eager for both the attention and more food.

  “It’s bullshit!” Elane yelled and charged once again into what barely amounted to a building near Dusk.

  The [Messenger’s Pet] squawked and lost half his cupcake. A ball of fire blasted toward Elane, which she batted away with the shield. She would soon be out of buildings to destroy.

  “Are you okay, Elane?” I asked.

  Her eyes narrowed at me, then she raised her mace and pointed at the air. “Fucking lame horse shit!” A flash of light accompanied her body going into autopilot mode.

  That version of her looked even more pissed off at the world. SheHulk’s faded pastel autopilot stomped over to the rubble and started clearing a pathway. Rocks went flying into piles at a rapid pace.

  We stepped well away from the Hispanic woman’s avatar and looked around. Dusk trotted after Xin and purred.

  “You dated her?” Xin asked me with a confused look. Her free hand scratched at my companion’s head.

  “Twice.” One hand rubbed at the back of my
head, sending water between my shoulders in a river. Being in a toga with this much water felt uncomfortable, but not unbearable. “I made a bad impression, and neither of us was really in a good place to be dating.”

  “She’s a bitch,” Xin said.

  “She’s not really wrong though.” The player I had been back then was nowhere near what I was now. In nearly all aspects, I had grown stronger, be it in gear, abilities, or general willingness to fight. The change must have been much more obvious to Elane, who had only seen me in the worst of times. “I have gained a lot, far faster than most other people might have ever done.”

  My wife nodded slowly but said nothing else.

  “What are we doing here anyway?” I looked around at the nearly leveled city. This place had once been a small town, then it was ruined under repeated attacks. Now it was like a junkyard of broken buildings.

  Xin pointed into a small crowd of players. I looked around once more to take note of what everyone had been doing. Most players had logged off. A few stood guard, such as TinkerHell and Edward’s autopilot. The blonde and the blue-mustache-twirling man were awfully close together, even in their autopilots.

  TockDoc looked exhausted. He waved as we walked closer.

  “Finally have time to help?” the man asked after a heavy sigh.

  “Yeah. I’m trying to figure out what we’re all doing.”

  “Well, with you guys here, we’ve decided to try something way, way different. Something I wanted to do months ago”—TockDoc waved at one of the Travelers, then he pointed at the ground where connectors were, then one of the wires—“but we couldn’t because Dwight didn’t want to risk breaking the encounter forever.”

  Four people came over and heaved the bulky cable into place. They spread out from there, rolling out tangles and kicking rocks out of the way. Another woman came behind them with large horseshoe-shaped objects that were probably made from ruined building supports.

  “Okay?” I raised an eyebrow, then got distracted as light levels visibly changed. The clouds overhead had started to thin out, and the sun was peeking through.

  “They’re trying to get all the lines into place at once,” Xin said. “It’ll take hours to do that and make sure they’re bolted down.”

  “We tried before, but they kick like a mule whenever we start an event, so we had to reset them every time. This time, we’re going to bolt them down and bury them.” He pointed at the pathways being cleared. Under some of the rubble were thick heavy braces that looked as though they might prevent the wires from getting too far.

  I tried to imagine what would happen. Our wires from last time had been filled with electricity, but they were also moved during the event. Maybe it was a matter of timing.

  “By the time we started really figuring out how to handle things, our resources were being split between the town and supporting our few fighters.” TockDoc pointed up the hill and explained in greater detail than I’d ever expected.

  Each dome apparently had a long groove coming off of it that went to the center of town. The black connecting cables for each dome could be set into those grooves to channel energy from the fight. It drained off into a battery of sorts that they had been using to power lights and enchant gear.

  Xin asked for reasons behind the mechanics. The other Traveler kept answering her questions while I glanced around. Based on their conversation, any wires put in place after the fight didn’t move, but once a boss up above was triggered, they all jerked and kicked out of the grooves. Those horseshoe-like bars were apparently designed to reduce that movement.

  “We had a strategy and were making good money off of it too.” He shrugged then kicked at one of the in-place bars. “You see, normally starting a fight required about eight of us, who usually died eventually. But we could charge the cube, get a few enchantments off, and sell those for gold at an auction. Money was steady.”

  “That sounds clever,” I said. The idea of using a boss event to make gear made sense from an economic standpoint.

  “It worked great until this stupid exodus event started. Then half of us left for Haven Valley. Others logged off and think they’re going to score points by arriving at the last minute. Some of us have brains. It’s work now or lose it all. Dwight pushed for trying to get the Guardians up top out of their domes.” TockDoc looked around and sighed.

  Most of the wires were coming into place, but they each stretched on for half a mile through the city. Most of the buildings nearby looked to have been constructed with extra reinforcements. They had probably been designed to withstand the wire whacking around. I tried to figure out which came first, the barricades or the buildings built on top of them.

  “We hoped that getting them a way or stealing what they were guarding would free up the Guardians to be player controlled. Maybe they could protect us and help Haven Valley if we made it that far.” TockDoc glared at autopilots, who were piling on huge chunks of rock near the cable. His head shook. TockDoc’s eyes looked even buggier behind the glasses. “We originally thought to score points by contributing, and those things are scary enough to do so. I ain’t seen any other players make golems that could reach the same Rank of toughness.”

  The man turned and pointed at other players. One of his hands glowed in the increasing sunlight. That was a neat device, probably used to coordinate movement in rain or overcast weather. He was an odd player, with comical glasses, floppy shoes, and a glowing waving hand.

  I turned to Xin, whose black cloak looked soaked from the rain. She shivered, and I too felt the chill wash over me. Sunlight couldn’t come fast enough. We slid over to one side and joined Dusk in a clearer beam.

  “Are you okay?” I asked in a softer repetition of my earlier question to Elane. An extra four hours in the game world was only one in real life. I was exhausted.

  “I will be. You should get some rest.”

  My fingers poked at the air and brought up a clock. It was already near eight in the morning so skipping work had been the right choice. There would be no going to bed and making it out to a job today. My head swam with exhaustion, but sleep had become harder to achieve since reuniting with Xin.

  I smiled, then asked, “Did you want to join me?” Every minute with her could be another happy memory added to our shared dream.

  She smiled back and looked around for a clear spot. We might be able to set up the [Honeymoon Suite] at the edge of town. There were a few flat spots that led up into the steep hills encircling this valley.

  “Hey! You two will want to see this!” TockDoc yelled in our direction, waving hands that glowed a dim milky white.

  Thoughts of sleep went out the window. We did have a mission to complete, and learning a few more details would help us both.

  I waved back at TockDoc, then walked over. Water formed in puddles. Mud got into the toes of my sandals, and I twisted [Gait of Bowman] and summoned partial metal armor. Xin wore boots, proving that she had more clothing than just a black robe.

  We traveled along the three-foot black cable to a hub of sorts. I lifted larger slabs of rubble, then laid them on top of the grounding lines. All roads down to the small city connected to the spot just ahead. Turning back the way we’d come showed wrecked streets that were being cleared. Their almost-straight pathways led to the opened area belonging to all four domes.

  “All roads lead to Rome,” I said, feeling briefly clever. Only my clothes weren’t Roman. The town name wasn’t Rome, and [Arcadia] certainly didn’t belong to a Caesar. “Or here, I guess.”

  “So you guys spent all your time up there and never thought this might be key to the situation somehow?” Xin asked.

  “We did at first, but then we found the cube and figured that was enough to make money. Come on, it’s down here.” TockDoc waved us forward again.

  The wires led into a sharp bowl-shaped crater. Our path into the crater went down at least twenty feet until we reached the base of a large hollowed out area. I looked around, trying to figure out how we had
missed this place. Maybe it had more to do with the fallen buildings nearby, or everything else going on.

  All four cords went underground and appeared to wire into broken panels that looked insanely high tech for a fantasy world. Xin’s mouth hung open as she walked around the panels, tracing wires.

  Honestly, this entire town felt strange. It was like some crazy player with too much power and time started building something alien to a fantasy land. The domes gathered energy and were protected. Large cable lines connected energy to this point. Then there was a cube—apparently, located at the far end that all the electricity was funneled to.

  I assumed it all led to some large project that may have never been completed by one of William Carver’s real life friends. Maybe there were switches that needed to be pulled. My goal was simply to make this mess work correctly so that the Voices could use it. If such a thing were possible.

  “You an electrician in real life?” TockDoc asked.

  “No.” She didn’t explain further.

  “Huh. Fooled me. Anyway, down here is where I get most of my inspiration for gadgets like the gloves. You can see they’re channeling things, but it’s only vaguely like the real world. Polarities are all wrong, pieces connect together that shouldn’t.” TockDoc waved at various banks of metal. Large slabs looked like slates stolen from a quarry while other bits were clearly hammered out metal. I didn’t understand it.

  “Neat,” I said but had no idea what else to make of it.

  “This almost makes sense.” Xin followed a panel along the ground to the upraised pillar in the middle. At the core of this bowl-shaped basin lay a cube-topped podium.

  “What’s that?” I pointed at one part of the wall that looked flatter than the others.

  “That’s exactly why we’re down here. It’s a door, we think, but the seams are deep and we couldn’t pry it out. Chances are this whole contraption ties into it somehow.” TockDoc sighed.

  My wife stared at the doorway. “That’s suspicious. Does it open?”