Continue Online (Part 5, Together)

by Stephan Morse

  “Strike three, and no one here has a res. Damn.” HotPants’s eyes rolled backward. “It’s been a ride, old man. Do you think my son saw? And that bastard ex? Do you think they’re…” Her ARC must be approaching disconnect.

  “Yeah. I’m sure they saw.”

  “God, my back hurts from carrying those kids,” she mumbled before her health bar hit zero and both arms fell limply to her sides. The staff in her hands clattered to the ground.

  I nodded then closed her eyes carefully. The only comforting factor was that HotPants had gone out in a blaze of glory, and she lived on in physical reality. Strike three would leave her with no way back into Continue Online until the event wrapped up.

  “We’ve got to go,” I said to the orphanage mother. “You and Dusk have to get to safety.”

  She tried to speak, but her voice turned into wheezes.

  “Don’t speak.” I gently reached for Dusk.

  He looked awful, and I wasn’t sure releasing his summons would do any good. If the world here was degrading this badly, what did he have to return to? I tucked the [Messenger’s Pet] into a fold of my toga.

  “Come on. I’ll carry you,” I said.

  Mylia went over my shoulder, and we ran past monsters. They cleared a path, scared away for reasons unknown. The ground itself went by quickly. I felt as if all the regular beasts of this game meant nothing anymore.

  None of this meant anything. All that mattered was getting people out and letting the system finish collapsing. We ran toward the town. Monsters ran, fought each other, and were devoured by [World Eater]s.

  Getting back to [Haven Valley] only took twenty minutes of mad leaping. My chest felt heavy but not tried from Mylia’s weight. There weren’t many people in the town itself. Our forward walls had been much farther out, but they were gone. Most of the NPCs were absent, along with a ton of players. Those that remained looked ragged. [World Eater] corpses littered the area. Spells and other abilities tagged monsters that strayed too close.

  “Where are the others?” I asked while slowing down in front of Awesome Jr. and SweetPea. Everyone huddled near the beam of light exit. It was the only remaining building that had been unharmed. This place had become our last line of defense and soon it’d be over.

  A guard came up for Mylia. I didn’t recognize him but he cradled the worn down orphan mother. He nodded, then made straight for the beam of light. We watched them vanish. Awesome Jr. heaved a huge sigh, then watched the horizon.

  Xin sat on a chair near the beam and rubbed her temple. The pose reminded me of times outside the game. She must have a splitting headache and be really worn down. I walked over and kneaded her shoulder. Her fingers laced with mine, halting the motion.

  “Well?” I asked.

  “Sorry. I don’t even know where to start. My father and most everyone else who survived logged out already. He knows what’s happening and a few of his Trillium coworkers” Awesome Jr. rubbed the back of his head. His clothes were a mess, and parts of that ugly green cloak had been chewed through. “They… they didn’t want to get in the way.”

  “We’re staying,” SweetPea said. The young woman’s small hand was tucked into her boyfriend’s. Staring at them reminded me of how blind love made people, me especially. “Mister Carver trusted us, and we’re staying no matter what happens.”

  I looked over too. Locals continued to vanish into the stream of light. A few stubborn Travelers picked up weapons from the deceased and hurried to rebuilding fortifications. In the distance, everything we’d built up defenses slowly crumbled as more [World Eater]s fought monsters.

  There was a click in the distance. A wave of force softly brushed over buildings and walls. They crumbled even more. I took a breath and felt the difference almost right away. We weren’t in normal Continue Online anymore. This air reminded me of Yates’ islands, or the [Mistborn]’s prison. Whatever kept Continue Online separate had collapsed.

  Another wave of energy hit. The monster’s collapsed to dust. A third wave, like an ocean lapping at the shore, came by and started demolishing the smaller [World Eater]s

  “What’s going on?” Awesome Jr. asked me. SweatPea tugged his arm. Xin clutched my hand.

  “My abilities aren’t working,” someone said loudly. “Is anyone else’s working?”

  “The instability message. Something’s wrong here,” another person responded.

  “Does this mean we’re almost done?” a third asked.

  Their words were background noise until more people began panicking. Some people wore frowns while others scrunched their eyebrows together.

  These people were ready to fight an end boss as if there might be some chance of winning. But this event only stopped one way, and that was when every single player had logged out and someone with a modified coding stayed in their ARC until it shut down.

  The beam of light in [Haven Valley]’s center was working overtime. Colors shot up rapidly, each one representing data saved or moved. Each one a player cashing out, or an NPC amalgamation of memories fleeing to a new home. They were refugees escaping a sinking land. The Voices were pushing until the last moment.

  We had to get the Travelers out next. They couldn’t stay here for this. I didn’t know what would happen to me. I expected it to be bad but no one else needed to risk themselves.

  I had a way, I thought.

  “ARC,” I whispered.

  “Awaiting input,” it responded with a shaky voice. Even my own personal device was suffering.

  “Is my admin access active?”

  “Affirmative. Admin rights have been rerouted to User Legate’s ARC device due to collapse of informational structures.”

  That was it then. That was the key to getting all these people out. They didn’t need to suffer ARC feedback or risk their lives. The Carver quartet, down to two that were nearby, didn’t need to stay logged in for this.

  “ARC,” I shouted.

  “Awaiting input,” the machine said in a shaky voice.

  Before my eyes closed, I saw people looking at me funny. We were down to maybe a hundred users still online. Everyone else had died or escaped with [Save Yourself]. These last people needed to go.

  “Set their autopilots to escape, and log everyone else out. I repeat, log everyone out.” My words triggered a ding.

  People looked around at unseen boxes.

  “What?” a male hero asked. “He can’t do that, can he?”

  “What’s going on?” another person asked.

  “Hermes!” SweetPea shouted while yanking off her ragged knitted cap and stomping a foot at me.

  Awesome Jr.’s lips quivered into a frown.

  “Uncle Grant?” Beth’s confused expression vanished in a blur of light. I hadn’t even noticed her standing nearby until now.

  They all turned into pastel autopilots that marched resolutely toward the beam of light. Not one of them looked back as the line formed. Once at the beam, their autopilots collapsed into a swirl of lights that flew straight upward. The once full bodies of so many players now existed only as bits of data going to destinations unknown.

  I took stock of the few who remained. They, Xin, and I were all that existed in this digital arena. I had no idea where the others had gone or if they were safe. The waves of force grew in strength and each round brought more pressure.

  Xin had been quiet. She knew as well as I did that we approached an ending. Maybe she hoped I would let her stay with me if we didn’t talk. There’d be no chance of that.

  “You need to go.” My voice sounded amazingly calm compared to the emotional roller coaster going on internally.

  I almost felt as though this was happening to someone else. Part of me rode above the warring internal monologue to focus upon final goals. Get Xin to safety, stand my ground until the end, and hope that it was enough.

  “No.” My wife lifted her staff and tried to summon additional skeletons. The lights on her robe blazed with white, then those turned red. Whatever she’d attempt
ed had clearly failed.

  “You need to go now,” I said again.

  “And I need to make sure you log out safely.”

  “You won’t be logging out, will you, Hermes?” James asked.

  Xin and I turned and spotted him near the pillar of light. When he had appeared wasn’t clear, but he was just another person who hadn’t transferred yet. He too needed to get going toward safer harbors.

  My head shook in response to his question.

  “No, no. You have to log out. You’ve done enough,” Xin said, her voice high-pitched and her accent coming out in force.

  “Hermes has decided upon his purpose,” the black Voice said.

  “I will guard this spot,” I said.

  My wife’s face ran with tears.

  The calmness which had allowed me to speak started to crack. “Now, go. Go. Please just go and live this time.”

  She protested, but hearing her became harder. The ARC system kept cutting out. Logging out all of those players must have done something to the process. In the distance, only a slight chunk of moon endured. The rest had swirled into a black hole. It coincided with the fact that we only had a few square miles of ground left to stand on.

  Two other figures appeared. They moved in between short bursts of ARC static. Their forms were metallic creatures that reminded me of Hal Pal’s body months ago, the one they’d showed to me during the second invoking of [NPC Conspiracy].

  “You can’t do this!” she shouted. My strong wife, a woman who could make tough calls and wasn’t afraid to risk it all, was breaking down.

  “I can. I asked them to do their best to protect everyone else impacted by this. Everyone but me.”

  Two people dragged her back. The growing force made it hard for Xin to fight back. Plus, without the extra abilities granted in Continue Online’s world, she was just another person.

  “No! Dammit, Grant! We can save you too!”

  On the other side of that beam lay safety. By God, or the Voices, or Mother, she would be safe this time. I couldn’t lie and say she might find her way back.

  “I don’t need to be saved anymore, babe.” My voice broke slightly before my exercises kicked in.

  The memory of our last dance on the tower top came to mind. Feeling her hands in mine, our bodies moving in unison, holding on to those final happy times would be for the best. I didn’t want to think of Xin in the future and remember hurting her like this.

  Focusing on the positive side hurt but felt easier. Even here, at the last moment, I felt far more alive than a year ago. I was better, dammit.

  “Take her, please,” I said to the two pulling Xin back. Her form was being pulled toward the beam of light. It dawned on me that there were still words to say. “I love you, babe!”

  “Gee,” Xin screamed with one hand out, then her body evaporated into the light.

  “It will hurt,” James said. “The program will attempt to delete the portions of your mind attached to the ARC. Are you prepared for that?”

  “You should go too, James.” Without Xin, my body felt numb. Only one task on this wild ride remained.

  “That is not an answer, Hermes.”

  “You already know the answer, don’t you?”

  James smiled, then nodded. His head tilted for a moment, then he spoke again. “I am sorry, Grant, that you choose to experience pain on our behalf. You will need to hold the line for four minutes, and we will have enough time to seal our side against intruders.”

  My nod felt weak and hesitant. Four minutes or eternity, in the end, they felt almost the same.

  “Go, James. I don’t think the others would know what to do if you weren’t there pestering them with questions.”

  A squirm at my chest reminded me of a passenger. I pulled out the [Messenger’s Pet]. Dusk lifted his head weakly, then chirped. Our normal speech bubbles for communication were gone.

  “Get going, you little troublemaker,” I whispered. “Quickly, while you still can.”

  Dusk flew unevenly toward the beam, just behind James. They vanished, and the shaking started. One hand went to [Morrigu’s Gift], and my dry throat managed a swallow. It was real now.

  Behind me, the ground could be heard crumbling. Xin’s final cry echoed in my mind. I felt as if my wife had broken down in tears only a slice of digital data sideways from where I stood.

  It didn’t matter. The deletion program, or [World Eater]s, whatever it was, couldn’t be let through. The science behind it made no sense, but I needed to stand here and stay inside my ARC without letting anything past. That was simple enough even for an accountant to understand.

  There were no players left. They had all heeded the system message warning of instability or been forcefully logged out. No one else would suffer the consequences of what I’d set into motion. People might still be watching remotely, but the interface option for a viewer count had gone.

  All that remained was what I could feel. [Morrigu’s Gift] and [Morrigu’s Echo] still shifted. [Power Armor] still flickered on. Using what remained, I would stand tall against the looming system deletion. I would bear my weapons in defiance.

  I turned to survey the landscape. Flat land stretched on, and at the furthest edge of sight, the land fell away into nothing. There were no [World Eater]s remaining to fight, just pressure and nothingness.

  A pounding thud hit my chest as the remaining ground rolled. Miles away, a wall of visibly distorted air charged toward me. Inside that oncoming wave was debris from across the virtual worlds.

  “I’m sorry, babe, but I can’t follow you anymore,” I whispered. My head tilted down, and I bit my lip hard. A small amount of pain jolted through. “Here’s where our paths diverge.”

  Behind me sat the doorway into Xin’s new world, one where she and all the Voices would be safe. I only needed to hold this point until they’d completed their transfer. Part of me felt like it should be quick, but there were no guarantees. The first wave hit me, and where I stood, it broke like a beam of light being parted. My body shook, and teeth vibrated from the force.

  “I’m sorry, Beth, Liz, Mom,” I said. “I’m sorry that you had to take care of me for these last few years.”

  I reached out one hand to try to set a timer, but I noticed both reality and Continue Online were moving at the same speed. Time dilation had failed due to the erosion of all that was left. It made sense. The space around me no longer existed inside the rules of any game.

  “Come on then. Try to pass me.”

  I stood there with William Carver’s weapon and faced off against a looming span of nothing. Fighting monsters would have been easier, but none remained. Their personification by the Continue Online world had ceased once we stopped being in the game itself. Only a leading edge of crumbling earth, plus powerful waves of force, still remained. And me.

  “I can take it!” I yelled at the nothingness with false bravado.

  More waves came. My weapon crossed in front of me to barricade against the game. [Immovable Object] didn’t exist anymore, and [Barricade] as a skill was gone. Each wave that came slammed into [Morrigu’s Gift] and vibrated through me. My knuckles burned from holding the hilt’s edge. It felt like the [NPC Conspiracy] bonuses to defense did nothing.

  My mouth opened to suck in air, and another surge hit. Vibrations rattled my teeth. They clenched together to prevent detaching my tongue. Before the next wave hit, I tried to count the seconds.

  “I’m doing fine.” I coughed and ignored the liquid that came out. A hole had formed in [Morrigu’s Gift].

  The next wave crashed in, then tore open the wound on my knuckles even wider. Behind me, the light flickered. Fingers burned from a heat well beyond video game lava. The blade started to crack. Two dozen orbs of light spiraled in a circle past my head into the blade, and it swelled in mass.

  I looked back to confirm that my presence was making the waves split around me. The beam of light remained pure, though its size had shrunk considerably since I’d last turned arou
nd. The next wave tore additional cracks into [Morrigu’s Gift], and the one after that shattered my weapon down the middle.

  I looked forward. Hanging in the air was a keyhole. Realization hit me, and I fumbled for the [Altered Matrix] key with one hand while the other went for [Morrigu’s Echo] to get a new defensive weapon. I had no menus to access. Both items sat tucked into the folds of my toga.

  [Morrigu’s Echo] transformed and took on the same shape as my giant two-handed blade from William Carver’s era. The comfortable grain in my hands made me wonder briefly of Spite, and Wraith, then another wave hit and drove out those thoughts. [Power Armor] tried to protect me against the blast but fell away.

  I grasped the key and inched forward slowly toward the hole. [Power Armor] flickered on. Bobs of gray light fluttered around and went into the boots upon my feet. No conscious thought was put into my abilities; they triggered on their own. Everything happened hurriedly as the waves came quicker.

  The ground under me crumbled. I stepped past a forming crack while trying to keep the beam of light behind me. I had only seconds between each wave. Each time I attempted to lift the key, a wave pushed me backward.

  [Morrigu’s Echo] started to form holes. [Power Armor] quit working. My body screamed from an impossible pressure that felt as if my legs, arms, and chest were being put in separate vises.

  A yell erupted as [Morrigu’s Echo] shattered. A wave broke around me and left my face blistering in heat. Both burned legs struggled to leap toward the keyhole. The [Altered Matrix] key missed, and down I fell into a hole. My arms waved and struggled to reach for anything solid, but there was nothing.

  Above me, the beam of light withdrew. It looked untouched by corrosion. My arms stopped waving, and a smile slowly spread across my face. Water pooled in my eyes. My heart’s panicked thudding slowed as a sense of peace washed over me.

  That was success. Xin and the others would be safe. My stand against the darkness set upon destroying the AIs’ new home had been worthwhile.

  Down my body went past untold miles while seizures rippled through me. The layer of interference between my digital body and reality had worn down to nothing. Something heavy was in my lungs. Uncontrollable coughs clenched my stomach muscles, and wetness bubbled upon my cheeks. A jackhammer pounded behind my eyeballs with untold amounts of pressure.