Continue Online (Part 5, Together)

by Stephan Morse

  I walked toward him. The lanky young man rubbed at his arm as if fighting off a chill. He turned slightly and saw my path approaching between jutting pillars of land.

  “Dad?” the young man said and gasped in relief.

  I paused. Down here, in this fragmented landscape, altering the world took more focus. I tried anyway. We needed a place to sit and try to talk through this. After all, time was something I had too much of.

  “No.” My head shook as chairs formed. “Sorry.”

  I didn’t have a child, so the response came easily enough. Phil, however mixed up he was, would have been a good son.

  “I know you, right? Mister—” His visible eye blinked as words died. Long hair hung in a dirty clump across some of his features. Phil acted reluctant to turn in my direction.

  “You knew me as Hermes,” I said gently.

  The poor boy looked so lost. His eye was unfocused, posture hunched, and pieces of him were outright missing. They became more noticeable as he took on definition.

  “Mister Hermes, I tried to save her. Emily, she was a little. It’s our job to look after the littles. Only the monsters had gotten her,” Phil unloaded while staring off into the distance. He shivered. “There were so many. I tried to run, but they moved faster. I grabbed her hand, but then…”

  The teenager looked extremely young in that moment. His visible eye was caught in a difficult place between being a boy and an adult, one most men never fully escaped. I remembered feeling helpless and lost when Liz turned up pregnant as a teen. My sister had been confused, angry, and so scared of the future.

  “You were very brave to try to save your friend,” I said.

  “It’s what the old geezer would have done.” Phil’s forehead wrinkled, then formed into a resolute glare. Even though half of his other eye was missing and a chunk of the boy’s head had vanished, he still looked serious. “He was a hero. My dad saved people.”

  Phil turned to me, and the damage became more obvious. Nearly one-fourth of his skull was missing, shorn clean off. The borders glowed with a dull blue-and-purple light. It wasn’t like his muscles were lacking, but instead, like part of him simply didn’t exist.

  “Don’t stray from the path, you old geezer,” he said to me. His one eye crossed as he lost focus. “I’ve got to get you home before nightfall. That’s my job. You don’t know it yet, but I’m your son. Mom was a sea captain who left me at Haven Valley. She was running from some men and hoped you would be able to save her. Only when she got there, you were… you were no longer you. So she left me and ran.”

  “I’m not William Carver, Phil, not anymore.” Neither of us had sat down upon the created benches. We both stood there as Phil confessed all the secrets of his past.

  “Mom said,” Phil rambled. His face hiccupped a few times. The damage to his body became more obvious as he grew animated. “Mom said a spell took your wits and only an orneriness even the Voices couldn’t contend with kept you alive. She said that you were waiting for one last chance to be a hero and that I had to help you.”

  “I’m not William,” I repeated. “But he was a hero at the end, remember? They put up a statue, and he helped save your friends.”

  Dozens of orphans had made it through the beam of light. They’d traveled toward safety with Mylia. I remembered watching them go and thinking about the struggle to keep them safe. William Carver’s sacrifice had been one among many to make it possible.

  “Oh.” The boy looked lost. “Do you know where Dad is? He, he was a Traveler, and their kind don’t die, right?”

  Their kind. The words made me wince for a moment. I looked down and shook my head. “Even Travelers can die.”

  “Oh.” Phil looked up. “I miss him. Dad wasn’t always nice, but he cared about us orphans. Even though the geezer didn’t know he was my dad, he always paid attention to me.”

  “That he did.”

  “If you find him, can you give this back?” Phil held out a hand, and inside was a small gold-and-black piece of metal. “I think it’s Dad’s. It looks like the one that goes to his hut. I used to have to unlock the door sometimes to let you—him—inside. It always smelled musty, but I liked it. There were so many books.”

  The key was extremely familiar, and I couldn’t pay much attention to it now. The boy in front of me, his broken body, those things were more important at the moment. Xin should be okay another hour, or day, or whatever level time moved at now.

  “Why don’t you come with me, Phil? We can find him together, and maybe your mother too.”

  With all the powers of the Voices, it should be easy to give one kid a set of parents who loved him. William Carver and his sea captain fling were no longer alive, but maybe I could reconstruct something close for Phil. Maybe Maud would have an idea if we crossed paths.

  Phil nodded. “Okay, mister.”

  The young man’s hand reached out, and I took it. Upon touching his fingers, the boy’s form flashed with a bright light, then collapsed inward. I turned my hand over and found a marble in it. A frozen form of the young orphan’s body was captured inside.

  Maybe there hadn’t been much left of him. Maybe all that was left down here was a vague set of memories without the personality to hold his thoughts inside. He had kept confusing me for Carver.

  I took the key and stared at it. This was indeed the [Altered Matrix] item left behind by Yates. There was warmth to the item that made me feel comfortable but unbalanced. All that remained was getting it to the right spot and opening a doorway.

  The other pieces of data could be explored later. My mind called up the doorway. Brick curled together with a series of clanks and slowly formed the exit. I stepped through, back to real time.

  Two days had passed in the blink of an eye. The sensation of time passing had been like [Awareness Heightening] in reverse. I walked across the landscape while staring at Phil’s marble. How many other souls were sitting inside that broken space? There were likely hundreds of NPCs in pieces down there.

  Eventually a system notice came up, alerting me that a new Traveler had arrived to be tested by the Voices. The box even displayed how many scenarios remained before this new person would be sent to the world below.

  Like so many things inside the digital space, the system provided me visual cues to idle thoughts. I walked quickly, following a brand-new dotted path along the floor. My mind wondered for only a second if the other Voices saw everything this way, and it felt like the emptiness agreed. To them, and me, everything was only a thought away.

  Inside a control booth stood the slender elf. A thin layer of plastic stood between us and a testing room. Liz crouched inside with one arm reaching out toward a small bundle of fur.

  Nia had a finger up. With her other hand, she was pressing buttons at random upon the console. Doors opened in the testing area, letting out other creatures with fur, scales, and feathers.

  “Do you have any clue what you’re doing?” I asked.

  “Nope! But the little guys do.” The elf pointed at a tiny mechanical minion with one crane arm in the air. It reached over and pressed other buttons. “So far I’ve made her go swimming in a lake, then she took a test in some weird human school. She forgot her pants, though I don’t understand why she wears such very tight-fitting clothes.” Nia pressed another random button.

  “What are you doing now?”

  “She’s in a petting zoo. It does something.” Nia shrugged bare shoulders. Her long fingers reached for a floating box with letters scrawled across it in cursive. “This message here says very odd things will happen and that we need to very much pay attention.”

  My sister was currently in front of a bunch of puppies. Their long tongues rapidly licked a trail of slobber across every part she offered them. Liz laughed, and it was perhaps the most delighted sound to ever come out of her mouth. I smiled at seeing her have a moment of happiness.

  Other animals came and went, but none managed to tear her away from the canine crowd. The litter of
fur refused to go back to their short doorway. Dogs struck me as weird for a petting zoo, but maybe this was a test to see what kind of animals people liked. Maybe Liz could win a dog traveling friend, much as Dusk had accompanied me.

  There were more traditional goats in the background, but their presence amounted to nothing. Swans came and went. A falcon cried out but was ignored. Then one giant door opened and out strode a bear. The large bundle of muscle and fur growled while twisting its head.

  [Identification] showed a challenge rating and disposition. The bear was hungry and a bit frightened. It intended to kill everything nearby in what it considered self-defense. [Morrigu’s Gift] appeared almost instantly as I prepared to leap out and slice the beast in two.

  “No! As a Voice, you can’t interfere unless allowed!” Nia’s hands were out and pressing against me.

  For a moment, my mind thundered and I wondered why she’d prevented me from helping Liz.

  My sister yanked a broken fence post from one of the animal houses nearby. The gaggle of puppies circled around her. Liz stepped backward and one yipped, which sent the others into similar noises.

  “Get back!” Liz yelled while brandishing the stick.

  Her makeshift weapon did not to stop the bear. It took another step forward while roaring. Dogs yipped and barked. Their bodies tumbled over each other. Dozens of readings appeared, taking note of Liz’s stance, actions, and aggressive posture. Each one weighed character points against each other. Skills displayed as partially complete.

  “Back!” She swung the weapon, then threw it.

  The bear lifted up and waved its arms in the air. A goat came flying out of nowhere and rammed into the bear’s side. It turned and snarled as its tiny attacker bleated. Liz didn’t wait. She ran for her stick and jumped at the bear.

  There were snarls and two quick swipes of huge, meaty paws. My eyes closed. The event didn’t end well, and quickly the room full of assorted animals started to fade. Liz stood in the aftermath, reset to a default position. My sister looked all over with wide eyes and hurried breathing. One hand wrapped around her middle, which had been gutted just moments before.

  “These tests, so many of them are designed to result in failure,” Nia said.

  We watched as Liz tried to recover from the death experience. My sister didn’t look happy at all.

  “ARC!” Liz shouted. “Log me out!”

  She faded away. The sudden departure made me freeze. My own sister had been so close that we could have touched. Shivers hit me while chills rippled up and down an uneasy back. Ineffective swallowing couldn’t remove the lump in my throat.

  “How do you know?” I asked the elf.

  “I spent many days practicing with the little robot creatures.”

  Eventually, Liz came back. Her next test put her in the role of a small-town judge over a man charged with murder. She chose to sit there, shaking, while listening to the victim’s family plead for justice. Only one man stood on the murderer’s side—a small girl. My sister had to choose between a grieving pack of people and the young woman no one else would take in. Liz let the unnamed man live.

  The scenarios presented weren’t easy or simple. They reminded me of my own attempts in the room of trials. Each test was designed to poke at our buttons in some manner. Their importance made more sense from this side of the glass, but those inside, at least my sister and me, were easily overwhelmed by the situation. It was too real.

  “The next test is yours, Grant. You can pick any one you want, I think. It should be a very good one,” the elf said gently.

  We had reached the final test before I’d even noticed.

  System messages displayed, giving me a number of choices. Voices, like me, were only allowed to directly interfere under specific conditions. Each one had a trial they could perform when interested in a Traveler. I didn’t have a personal one, but the system flashed blue, telling me that having a high enough acting skill would work instead.

  I pondered the convenience of that for a moment before looking through my options. Being someone else in front of Liz felt easier than being me. Being Leeroy and tasking my sister to combat against a monster felt unreasonable. Maud had a good scenario but lacked a personal touch. There were others, but James’s test was the best. That role would be more natural than being the Jester.

  The box hovered, waiting for me to confirm the choice. I pressed Yes. and the room shifted. Now, instead of being behind a glass window watching Liz perform, we were in the same room together. Nothing else was visible except a pillar and book upon its surface.

  “There’s one last test, Miss Legate, before we let you move on,” I said. My hands pressed against my stomach in James’s mannerisms. Each word came out deliberately with an unexpected firmness.

  “Who are you?” Her hands went up in a defensive posture.

  “My name is James. We met once,” I lied while trying to restrain budding laughter. The idea that my twin was ready to punch me out felt amusing.

  James and Liz had met at my wedding, but I wasn’t the heavyset black man at all. This was me acting out a part. Extra weight pulled me forward, and the urge to sit hit hard. Breathing took an unexpected level of effort.

  “Your final test is a straightforward one. No animals in distress, nor treasure rooms to plunder or tests of coordination. Instead, we exchange questions, me, then you, and each of us must tell the truth when answering. Does that sound fair to you?”

  “Yes, my turn. How did Continue Online get on my ARC?”

  “I’ve answered two questions, Miss Legate. You have one more truth before I owe you an answer.”

  “What the hell is wrong with this game?” she cut off my upcoming line.

  A message flickered saying the question didn’t count. That made me happy and annoyed at the same time. James clearly had a system in place to help keep track of questions and answers—I could see it. His prior slipups had been deliberate.

  “Why did you step through the doorway into this world?” I moved on. Little use could be found berating a man who wasn’t even here.

  “I’m looking for something,” Liz said through a tense jaw. My sister intended to make this entire exchange difficult. Her distrust of the situation at hand was valid.

  I sighed heavily. “Be more specific.”

  “No.” Her response was answer enough for the system.

  A small pop-up box appeared, telling me the tally of our question-and-answer sessions had reached two and two.

  “Then to answer your question, a great deal is wrong with this game,” I skirted the first question but remained truthful. We were even on the question-and-answer front.

  “Is my brother in here?”

  “If you want him to be, then yes.”

  Liz started to ask another question, but I held up a hand to make her pause. She slowly closed her mouth. The problem was, I had a hard time coming up with good questions. Hopefully the system would let me act out James’s role from my point of view.

  “Do you blame your brother for what happened?” I asked.

  “How do you know about that?”

  I debated letting the counter go, but James wouldn’t. “Your question, then mine. In our world, where our rules prevail, we take turns.”

  Her eyes narrowed, and the gears started turning. My sister didn’t like being told what to do by anyone, and even less by what she considered to be a lippy machine. The ARC feedback registered all sorts of possible actions but couldn’t settle on anything specific.

  “Who are you really?” Liz deliberately stepped to one side.

  I was a man who felt happy Liz didn’t have another stick to beat me with. She hadn’t won against the bear, but I didn’t want to be hit either. My sister was the first person to make me nervous in this new digital world. Maybe the earlier lippy response had been a bad idea.

  “Who do you want me to be?” The initial question was cast aside. Apparently, this scenario found my current actions acceptable.

 
; “No, wait.” Her gaze turned hard. It shook me to see Liz’s anger directed toward me while I posed as another man. “You’re all gone. I watched you leave, you especially. I remember you now—the last man to talk to my brother before he died.”

  To hear her talking about me in such a way helped. It wasn’t perfect, since the rules for this required me to act like the [Voice of Questioning Intent]. James would keep asking. I tried hard to fulfill the requirements for this scenario.

  “What kind of game is this?”

  “Do you know your brother asked the very same question?” I tried to get her back to providing an answer. Words kept slipping out, revealing more about my own thoughts than expected. “Almost immediately he wondered what sort of world might use the memory of his dead wife as a lure.”

  “Xin’s not dead. She’s just gone.” Her acceptance of Xin’s existence made me happy. “Did you know my brother?”

  “Are you going to answer any question?”

  “I don’t want to,” she said.

  I chuckled weakly at her obstinance. “Technically that counts, so yes, I know your brother. I know him very well.” I paused as more information flashed on the screen. “It’s my function to learn about those who visit this world and question what drives them. It’s my function to get to the core of who they are and use that to channel their perceptions. It’s my function to figure out what makes your heart bleed upon the page.” I had text boxes all around that said, almost word for word, what had come out of my mouth. I found myself shaking. All of those words were true.

  “What page?”

  “What book do you think?” I countered the question with my own. Pretending to be James was actually kind of fun. Eagerness for wordplay combined with the ability to poke fun at my sister made it easy to smile.

  “You mean that book I first opened. That book,” Liz said.

  “Your book.” I nodded toward the pillar. “Travelers who enter our world as you did each get a book.”

  “Can I see Grant’s?”

  The idea made me pause for a moment. My own book was only a thought away. Inside it sat every single impression recorded by the ARC device and scores of information. It had compiled all that Mother believed me to be. Nona told me that my book specifically was one of the only ones that still existed on this side after the purge.