by R. A. Mejia
Ray looks at us in annoyance, and his momentary inattention allows Auden his chance. Auden pushes Ray who goes flying several feet back. He then strikes out, and I see that his long lanky fingers are tipped with wicked-looking claws. In a single strike, the Monster slashes the poor Sandra D. More red bubbles stream towards Auden, and his form glows again. Auden looks at the three of us in the hallway, but instead of attacking, he turns and throws himself out the window behind him. Nancy and I rush down the hallway past the groggy Ray and his now-inactive chainsaw, and as we look out the broken window, we only see poor Ash’s body on the ground below. There is no sign of the Monster.
Save 3 counselors on the Fourth Floor of Building A - rewards 100 XP
New level available
Counselor
Level 2
Health: 10/10
Physical: Very Low
Speed: High
Social: Very High
Crafting: Very Low
You may choose 1 new item or ability
Item
Whistle - Can be used to alert area of danger, as a signal to gather, or just to be annoying.
Clipboard - A list of the names of counselors and other NPCs with notes about them.
Mechanical Pencil - Close-range weapon that has a chance of giving lead poisoning.
Abilities
Sprinter - Can for short burst increase speed by two levels. Long cool down.
Nosy - Gives hints during conversations
Finders, Keepers - Increases chance to find lost or hidden items
Bruiser - Increase Physical at the cost of lowering Social by one level
I look over my character sheet and see that, while my health has doubled, it is still only 10, which I assume isn’t very much. While I’m annoyed that I can’t change attributes directly anymore, I do get to pick a new ability or item. Before I can pick something, the sound of someone getting to their feet catches my attention, and I turn around to see the man Auden called Ray stomping toward Nancy and me.
“You two just had to interfere, huh? I had that jerk Auden right where I wanted him, but you two let him get away.”
“Let him get away? We were just trying to help beat him so that we could all win.”
“All win? You think we’re all going to win here? No. The winners are ranked--which means that there is only one number-one spot. I’d planned to kill the Monster to end this game, but Auden has gotten away and is no doubt killing whatever NPCs are out there and growing more powerful now.”
“Look. I don’t know what beef you have with Auden, but you’re not the only one. We should work together to beat him. Even if we hadn’t jumped in, it wasn’t looking good for you.” I gesture to the chainsaw. “I noticed that, during the fight, your saw sounded like it was running out of gas. If the fight had gone on longer, it would have run empty, right?”
Ray glances away but drops the now obviously-defunct weapon on the ground. His bravado gone, he shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter. Those Arschlochs always seem to get their way and win.”
“No, they don’t. Not if you don’t give up.”
Ray looks over at me. “You mean your victory at the Dungeon Games? You got lucky.” There’s a familiar sad acceptance of the inevitable in the man’s tone. Has he already given up?
I recognize the feeling: when it feels like the deck is stacked against you and that you’ll always fail no matter what you do. We didn’t live in the best neighborhood, and there was a lot of pressure for a guy my age to join a gang or start dealing drugs for massive amounts of quick money. There were plenty of times I wanted to give up. Whenever I was harassed by the police for walking while brown or when my friends showed up in new clothes and with next-gen phones because they started dealing drugs, I thought it would be so easy to do the same and solve all our money problems. I know exactly what it feels like when you think there’s no hope.
But my mom never let me stray from the belief that an education was the key to a better life. She got another job so that we could move to a different area with a slightly better school and fewer negative influences. Watching her work so hard just so that I had the chance to do better always inspired me. Whenever I complained about being unlucky, that other people were born with a leg up, she always told me the same thing: ‘A man makes his own luck in life.’
“I’ve only been a User for a bit over a year now, and I had to work really hard to get to this level so quickly. Sure, I had help, but no amount of luck would have gotten me the ten levels I needed if I didn’t put the work in. I didn’t know what I’d face during the Dungeon Games, but I prepared the best I could and used everything I’d learned that year to help my team win. I’m willing to do the same today with you on our team. Are you going to help us? Or are you going to give up and let Auden win?”
He looks down for a moment, thinking. When he looks back up, his brows are furrowed in resolve. “No, I’m not going to give up. Not if you’re not willing to. What do we need to do now?”
For a moment, I’m confused. I mean, sure, I gave the speech, but that doesn’t make me the leader, does it? I look at Nancy, who has more experience leading, but she’s also looking at me expectantly. “Uh, well . . . I think we either have to chase Auden down while he’s low level or work on escaping.”
“I could barely hold my own before. I don’t like our chances if he has time to kill and level up. ”
“Well, if we can’t beat him directly, we’ll have to use another option. Anyone find any clues about a way to escape yet?”
“I have,” says a new voice behind us.
I spin around, fists clenched and ready to fight, but stop when I see a short, heavy-set man wearing gray, grease-stained coveralls at the other end of the hallway.
I recognize the outfit from the class-selection mannequins. “You’re our last player, aren’t you? The Mechanic?” I turn to Ray with a small smile on my face. “Which makes you the Cheerleader?”
Ray frowns. “It was all that was left. All the other classes were chosen.”
The new guy says, “Yeah, that’s true. I was goaded into playing by my boss, but I knew that I couldn’t fight, so I picked the mechanic. I like making stuff.”
There’s an awkward pause, so I introduce Nancy and myself. Ray reaches his hand out and introduces himself in kind.
The new guy just waves from where he is standing and says, “Nice to meet you all.” He looks at us for a moment, clearly unsure of what to do next.
I’ve met guys like this before: smart but not that great with social skills. So, I decide to prompt him. “So, new guy, what’s your name?”
“Oh, sorry.” He walks closer and holds out his grease-stained hand, and I shake it. “My name is Ethan. I work for the Augustus Corporation. My supervisor thinks that playing this will be good exposure for the company since so many big wigs are watching from the party.”
“Uh, well, I guess he’s not wrong. You mentioned that you found a clue to escaping?”
“Oh, yes. I spawned in the garage, which is in the basement of this building. There’s a school bus there, and the keys are just hanging up on the wall.”
Ray smiles. “Well, that does it then. We have our way to escape and win. Let’s get to the bus and get out of here.” Ray starts to walk away towards the stairs, and I’m ready to join him, when Ethan raises one finger and meekly adds, “But the bus is broken.”
Those four words stop all of us. We turn toward Ethan, and he seems to deflate under our stares.
“What do you mean it is broken?” I ask, seeing that he is not going to explain on his own.
“I work for my company as a crafter, specializing in nanotechnology and augments. It’s challenging and profitable work since there aren’t a lot of dungeons that spawn with futuristic themes. I reverse engineer what tech comes out of dungeons and have even programmed my own nanites and sourced carbon fiber materials from--”
“You mentioned the broken bus,” I interrupt, recognizing that he’ll ke
ep talking about his work, which he obviously enjoys, if I don’t get him back on track.
He looks up at me and blinks hard, like he’s resetting his train of thought. “Yes. I meant that, as someone who works with technology and mechanics, that once I opened up the hood of the bus, I saw that there were several missing and broken parts. I spent my preparation time replacing what I could with what was in the garage, but I’m still missing some things I need. I came up here when I heard all the noise, hoping to find other Players.”
“Well, isn’t that dandy? We have a way to get out and win, but no way to make it work,” Ray complains.
“It can’t be the end, can it? I can’t imagine that Rothfus would make a game where we couldn’t problem solve our way out. He just isn’t that kind of guy,” Nancy says.
“Oh, did I not mention the quest I got when the Monster spawn counter went to zero?” Ethan asks.
I shake my head. “No, you didn’t.”
“Well, I’ll share it with you then.” He taps a few buttons in the air, and a notification appears in front of me.
Escape Option
Instead of facing the Monster and beating him in open combat, you may choose to escape. This bus, if repaired, can take up to 20 people away from the camp to safety. But don’t think that this path is without risks. You must find the missing components or a way to make them from items around the map. While exploring, you risk direct confrontation with the Monster, who is getting stronger by the moment.
Items needed:
Jumper Cables
Wires - 3 lbs.
Duct tape - 6 rolls
20 AA batteries
Super Glue - 3 bottles
PVC pipe
Pantyhose
Bonus XP: Help students and counselors escape. The more that escape, the higher the bonus XP.
I stand there and stare at the notification for a moment. This is exactly what we need. No fighting needed. We just have to find these items and somehow hope that Ethan can repair the bus for us all to escape on and win the game.
Ray scratches his head and gestures towards his notification. “I don’t understand how all this junk will get a bus to run.”
“Oh, that’s part of my class, I think. I have crafting recipes that will turn these items into the parts that I need to repair the bus.” Ethan snorts and then continues with a smile on his face. “It kind of makes me feel like MacGyver, turning the stuff into usable parts.”
Our goal clear, I clap my hands together and say, “Well, guys. Let’s get exploring then. These items aren’t going to find themselves.”
Chapter 19
The search for the needed items is harder than we thought it would be since we have to also avoid a direct confrontation with Auden. We split up and search each room in Building A. Ethan scavenges the wires and PVC pipe from the building using a class skill, but tells us that he found two more bodies, each missing their heads.
The news that Auden is getting stronger is disturbing, but so are the regular notifications that the Fear Level is increasing. It’s up to 17% now, and I can hear the screams of his victims as we search for the missing items we need.
Then it occurs to me that I’ve not been using any of the social skills that my class was spec’d for. There are surviving counselors, and when I talk to them and ask about the items we needed in particular, I get several clues. For example, one of the counselors tells me that Carrie Anne is hoarding batteries, and when Nancy and I search her room, we find a case of twenty AA batteries in her bottom drawer next to a box labeled B.O.B. I don’t know what’s in the box, but it makes Nancy giggle and turn red. More conversations with other staff members point us toward Patrick B. for the jumper cables, and we find them in his closet along with a case of clear industrial plastic wrap.
The duct tape and pantyhose are the last two items. Searching the deceased Sandra D. and Ash’s rooms turns up black leather pants and old S-Mart and Value Shop shirts. The only other guy that I can think of who might have the last items is Norman B. When Nancy and I show up at his room in Building B, we find the door locked. The skinny counselor wakes up when we knock on the door. He initially refuses to let us search his room, but the two of us push our way in. Only I’m not sure how we’ll find anything. The room is a pigsty. There are clothes, records, and books strewn everywhere. We try to look through the stuff, but it’s a losing fight until I remember that I still haven’t used my level-up reward. I pull up the screen and look over my choices.
You may choose 1 new item or ability.
Item
Whistle - Can be used to alert area of danger, as a signal to gather, or just to be annoying.
Clipboard - A list of the names of counselors and other NPCs with notes about them.
Mechanical Pencil - Close-range weapon that has a chance of giving lead poisoning.
Abilities
Sprinter - Can for short burst increase speed by two levels. Long cool down.
Nosy - Gives hints during conversations
Finders, Keepers - Increases chance to find lost or hidden items
Bruiser - Increase Physical at the cost of lowering social stat by one level
Sure enough, there’s only one ability that seems like it will help me out right now: Finders, Keepers. I select it, and as soon as I do, two rooms light up around me. I send Nancy and Ethan off to search one of the rooms and I go towards the other.
Slowly, I creep my way to the door, unsure why the hairs on my arms are standing up. As I approach the door, I hear whispers and a scuffling noise. I turn the doorknob and open the door slightly, and in the room I see the hunched figure of a man in camp counselor outfit. I open the door fully, glad that it is another counselor, but when the door swings open the man turns and at his feet I see the mutilated body of a woman on the floor. The man’s mouth is covered in blood and I use Inspect on him.
Hannibal L. - A normally charming camp counselor, he has unusual appetites that he’s kept from the staff.
“Shit.” Is all I can say before Hannibal is rushing towards me. Knowing my own stats, I don’t bother trying to fight and instead quickly back out of the room and yell for help. I run down the hall and can hear the voice of Hannibal behind me hissing, “Come now, don’t be rude. I think you’ll taste delightful with some fava beans.”
I’m beginning to tire and hear him getting closer when Nancy appears ahead of me, Lacrosse stick already pulled back. She yells, “Duck!” and I drop to the ground. I almost feel the powerful ball she launches as it passes above my head, and I hear a thud. I turn on my back and see Hannibal sprawled out on the hallway floor a crack in his head and a Lacrosse ball rolling away from him.
Congratulations. You found the hidden killer - Reward 50 XP
While I appreciate the extra XP, my thudding heart reminds me why I hate the jump scares in horror movies.
Instead of splitting up again, three of us search the last highlighted room. Opening the door to we find Norman quietly sitting on his bed. He quietly lets us in and when we ask him to let us search, he gets very nervous but consents. Searching the room, several locations light up with a blue highlight. I recognize the feature from my time in the Paris dungeon as indicating that a hidden item is there. I point out one of the places to Nancy, and she searches for one while I look where the others are. Nancy finds the pantyhose, a blonde wig, a knife, and a dress under one of the floorboards. Norman turns red when we find his stuff, and he flees the room. We take the stuff we need but leave the knife, wig, and dress.
Find all the hidden parts - rewards 200 XP
New level available
The notification confirms that we got the last of the items we need. I see everyone tapping the air, choosing their level 3 rewards, and probably looking over their character sheets. There’s nothing new for me, just a bump in health to 15. The four of us, now regrouped, head back to Building A so that Ethan can make the parts he needs to repair the bus.
Nancy is the first to notice how quiet it is as w
e reach the third floor where the boys’ bunks are. It’s gotten to be late enough that everyone should be asleep, but this is too quiet. The four of us approach carefully with Nancy in the lead. There’s a quiet gasp and Nancy drops to the floor. I rush up from the back of the group, unsure if she’s been hurt. Instead, I find her on her knees patting the hair of a little boy in his dinosaur pajamas, who would look like he was sleeping if not for the gaping hole in his chest and his missing heart.
“His name was Joe, like my little brother. I came across him when I was searching for the boundaries of the game field. He wanted to show me the bird he found, but I was too busy to pay him any attention and just walked away.”
I pat her back and try to comfort her, but there’s an angry smoldering look in her eyes as she gets back to her feet. “I’m going to murder that Arschloch,” she says quietly, her hand balled into tight fists.
She steps over the body and opens the double doors that lead to the boy’s dorm room. Following her we see that all of the bunks from the doorway to the middle of the room are empty, and there in the center of it all, is the cloaked monster, Auden. He is leaning over a camper’s bed, and just as we enter, he quietly pierces the boy with his razor-sharp claws, killing him. Red bubbles of experience flow into Auden, and he glows slightly as he absorbs it.