Immersion World

by Max Jager

  "What's going on?" Fate asked as her, Matthew, George, and Chloe turned their attention to Brooke.

  "The portal!" Brooke pointed up at it. "It belongs to one of the Alphas we saw at the town meeting. They know we are here, and we can escape through a portal."

  Matthew looked up at it, then turned back to the group. "Spread out and make some space for them to open a portal in here."

  They took a step back to make room for a portal. One signet ring, and one small dagger fell out the portal, then tiny portal closed. A new portal never opened. The group waited for an hour before giving in to the fact that the Alpha wasn't going to help them escape.

  "He's not going to help." George spoke up. "You guys saw him at the meeting, he was the one arguing against protecting people like us. He made it clear that he believes in a survival of the fittest ideology. He gave us what he deems to be the tools we need to survive, and it's on us to either survive or die trying."

  "He gave us one knife, and one signet ring." Matthew quietly growled. "How the hell are those tools supposed to be good enough for us to escape? We didn't even get a damn key to the door."

  "I trust that if he gave us these tools, that there is a way to escape with just this. We just need to figure it out." George stated, but nobody else seemed to agree with him.

  "This guy is an asshole." Fate sighed. "I mean, yeah, thanks for the help. But it would've been less effort to just portal us out of here."

  As she spoke a black raven with bright red eyes flew into the room and perched itself high up on the rafters.

  Sophia glanced over at the raven. Those red eyes made it stand out, she remembered seeing this one before. It just sat there, looking around the room and occasionally glancing into the cell.

  "How can someone have the power to save lives, and actively choose not to." Jess complained.

  Brooke shot her a look for being a hypocrite, but nodded in agreement. "Some people are just monsters. Probably gets off on watching others struggle."

  "I'm glad we didn't stay in the village with those people." Matthew sighed.

  "Well it isn't the fault of the ones in the village." Fate spoke up. "They were clearly against that one guy's way of thinking. I'm sure if they knew we were here they would do something."

  "Wait." Sophia butted in. "Can't we just message them? On that virtual keyboard thing. What was their names?"

  Nobody said anything.

  "We don't remember their names?" Sophia sighed.

  "It was a good idea." Fate replied.

  "We will make it out of this." George replied as he picked up the knife and signet ring they had been given. He slipped the knife into the waist of his pants and hid it under his shirt, then he handed the signet ring to Fate. "Make sure you hide it well enough that nobody finds it this time."

  "I know." Fate sighed. "They were watching us before, I couldn't hide it very well when I was standing in front of them." She lifted her long black hair, grabbing a few strands from the back, underside of her hair. Then used those strands to tightly tie the ring into her hair. Once she let her hair down again, the ring was hidden.

  "Alright." George started. "So here's the plan. They are gonna have to let us out on occasion to use the restroom. I'm gonna wait and let a couple others go first so they feel safe, make them think we are too broken to try anything, then they will drop their guard at least a little. Then I'm going to go, and the second I get one of them alone I'll pull the knife and take him out. Then I'll sneak back in here, find our weapons, and let everyone out. Then we just go finish these guys off for good."

  "George." Fate sighed. "You are the least stealthy person here. You and Matthew are freakin huge, I can hear your footsteps from a mile away. You're even worse at stealth because you have bright blue hair and a red shirt."

  "Comeon." George complained. "That's an exaggeration."

  Fate rolled her eyes. "Yes, it's an exaggeration. But seriously, even when you're walking in the tall grass, your footsteps are loud. You're huge so you can't hide behind many things, and you're brightly colored hair will make you stick out like a sore thumb. There's no way you're gonna sneak back in without being noticed."

  George thought about it for a moment. "Then I'll fight my way back in."

  "You should just give the knife to one of the girls, or Carley actually, she's pretty good at Stealth." Chloe stated.

  "That would be a terrible idea." Jess spoke up. "Don't you know Carley is a pacifist? He couldn't hurt another human."

  "Didn't she nearly kill Damion on her own?" Matthew questioned.

  Carley shook his head. "No…" He murmured. "I tried, but she's half right. I had such a hard time bringing myself to attack him, it's mostly why I lost."

  "Exactly." Jess stood up and pointed to Chloe. "You people need to stop making Carley do everything for you!"

  "Jess…" Carley murmured, but was ignored.

  Jess continued. "You're putting too much on Carley's shoulders! He isn't your butler, he can't solve all of your problems. You're going to get him killed doing this crap!"

  Chloe walked over to Jess and stood right in front of her, staring down at her. While Jess and Brooke were roughly the same height, Chloe was not. Chloe was more than half a foot taller then Jess, and was more muscular. "Calm. Down." Chloe firmly stated. "I said Carley would be a good fit for the task at hand. I didn't put the knife in her hand and shove her out the damn door. If she doesn't feel like she can do it, she can just say so. We aren't going to force her to."

  Jess immediately backed down when Chloe walked over. She sat down on the floor beside Carley again. "That's the whole point…" She grumbled. "Carley is completely unable to say no. He's submissive, he can't defend himself. If you tell him you need him to do it, he'll go do it. Regardless of whether he knows he can or can't, he will feel like he has to and will try to force himself to do it. You can't put him in that position. You're going to get him killed."

  "Then, and I'm sorry but I genuinely mean no offense Carley, if she's that bad then she needs to grow up. Carley will need to get used to it and will need to learn to defend herself. You stepping in like this is only coddling her, and preventing her from growing out of it." Chloe crossed her arms. "Of course, in this one particular case it was necessary. We didn't know Carley was a pacifist. But if she's not in danger let her fend for herself. Stop enabling the self-destructive habit."

  Jess diverted her gaze and remained silent.

  "Diversion aside." George took control of the conversation again. "I do not trust anyone else here with this task. It has to be me."

  "What do you mean by that?!" Fate shot him a glare.

  George sighed. "Look, for starters, I'm not going to give this task to the children. I don't have it in me to enable a child to become a murderer. So Snipes, Inami, Brooke, and Elliott are all disqualified."

  "Hey! We aren't kids." Elliott interrupted.

  "You're both under eighteen." George stated.

  "Barely." Elliott argued. "By a few months for me, and a little over a year for her. We can kill them if need be."

  "No." George insisted. "So out of everyone left, Matthew is not going to be much better at stealth. Sophia has never been in melee combat before so we don't know if she could even use the knife effectively. And you, Fate, are a defensive fighter. You and your signet are better suited to staying with the group and defending them. That just leaves Chloe and myself. Chloe, do you want to be the one to do this?"

  Chloe sighed, and shook her head. "Not really. I will if I need to, but I honestly don't think I could. My job was to save lives, not end them."

  "Case closed." George stated. "It has to be me."

  "What has to be you?" A voice called out from the other side of the bars. One of the gunmen walked into the room.

  "There's just one guy." George whispered. "I'm gonna do it now. Carley if you don't wanna see the man die look away."

  "Not now." Carley fearfully whispered.

  "Hey!" The man called out. "Answer
me when I'm talking to you!" He walked over to the cell and banged on the bars.

  "Oh, sorry." George quickly replied as he turned to face the man. "Two of us need to use the restroom. However, we know you can probably only take us one at a time. So we were discussing who would go first."

  The man didn't seem to fully buy it, but he sighed a little and grabbed the key for the cell.

  "George, don't." Carley whispered. "It's too soon, don't jump the gun."

  George walked over to the door, and everyone else took a few steps away from it. As George approached the door Carley stood up and he also quickly moved over near the door with George. Although, Carley stayed far enough from the door that he didn't make the gunman nervous.

  The man was about to open the door when someone outside shouted into the building. "We found them, they are dead!"

  "What?" The man turned around to face the door and hear the guy outside better..

  "Jacob and Daniel!" The guy shouted back. "They were both found dead, with weird carvings in their backs. Someone else is in the area!"

  The man sighed a little "Does Pete know?"

  "Yeah!" The voice called back.

  The man shook his head and turned back to the cell. "No funny business, you hear me?" He ordered. "Try anything and I will not hesitate to just kill you, and your friends." He kept his pistol pointed at George as he opened the cell door.

  George held his hands up. "No tricks here." He said as he stepped towards the door. As soon as it opened he grabbed the man's arm and shoved him backwards. The man stumbled back, firing his pistol the moment George made a move, although due to him stumbling his shot only grazed George's shoulder.

  George quickly moved in on the man, he immediately went to grab the gunman's throat. The man quickly ducked under George's grasp and slipped behind George, attempting to shut the door. As he did that Carley slipped out of the door, and several others started rushing to try and get out.

  Carley quickly stepped back as George rushed past him in another attempt to grab the gunman before he could fire again. He grabbed both of the gunman's arms and pinned him to the wall. As he did that, Carley immediately closed and locked the cell door, preventing anyone else from getting out.

  "Carley?" Fate gave him a confused look.

  George was about to grab his knife, when Carley jumped up behind him and punched George hard in the back of the neck, knocking George unconscious on the spot. As George collapsed, the gunman looked extremely confused.

  "He has a knife." Carley quickly said. "We found it in the cell, he was trying to break everyone free. I saved you."

  "Carley! What are you doing?" Matthew called out.

  As soon as he finished speaking two other gunmen rushed into the room. Carley immediately dropped to his knees and held his hands over his head. "Don't shoot! I saved your friend!" He called out.

  The two new gunman looked at their confused friend. "Yeah, the kid saved me." He said. He crouched down to search George, he found and took the knife, then stood back up. "Also informed me of the knife."

  The two new gunmen gave Carley a strange look.

  "I am not affiliated with any of these people." Carley shakily spoke up. "I joined up with them a while back for my own survival. Then when I heard they were going to a dungeon, I decided to tag around a little longer. Figured I could use them to gather all of the dungeon loot, then I could steal it and split. I don't wanna die because one idiot thinks he can run the place."

  Everyone in the cell looked mortified.

  "Carley!" Jess called out. "How could you! I brought you into this group thinking you were a good person. How could you betray us like this?!"

  Carley gave her a look that clearly conveyed the message 'That was cringeworthy.'

  "Why didn't you just run when you escaped then?" One of the gunmen questioned. "No sense sticking around with them."

  "I don't know your defensive setup outside the cell. Plus, you guys seem to be a well managed group. I think my skill set can be of use to you guys. I'd like to join you." Carley nervously replied. "And what better way to apply to your group then to save your friend and thwart an escape attempt, right?"

  "What do we do?" The first gunman asked.

  "Bring the kid to Pete I guess?" The second replied.

  "Get this bozo back into the cell first." The first gunman stated, and with that the three of them and Carley worked together to life George and push him back into the cell with the others. They closed and locked the door again, then they lead Carley out of the room.

  "What… Just happened?" Elliott questioned.

  "Carley just saved your asses, again." Jess growled.

  "Where are you getting this again part?" Matthew questioned. "That would imply that she's done it before."

  "This idiot nearly got everyone killed!" Jess argued as she pointed down at George. "Did you see how quickly those two got in here after that gunshot? If we all rushed out of this cell we would've been right in front of them when they ran in."

  "Not all of us were going to rush out." Fate pointed out.

  "And we could have pinned the other two in the same way if we were fast enough." Matthew pointed out.

  "That's a risk I wouldn't have taken." Fate sighed.

  "So what do we do now?" Elliott spoke up, trying to change the topic.

  "It seems like Carley has some sort of plan." Fate pointed out. "That excuse she gave seemed well thought out, as if she had been thinking it through for a little while."

  "Yeah." Matthew grumbled. "Seemed like he had been planning that one longer than just a little while."

  "You know, Carley was making that up right?" Brooke pointed out. "I really doubt she'd leave her girlfriend behind if she really was planning something like that."

  "Some people will do anything to survive." Matthew stated. "Carley hasn't let us down before, but she is the cowardly type, I wouldn't put it past her."

  "That's a terrible thing to say." Brooke argued.

  "Not saying she did." Matthew corrected her. "As I said, she's never let us down before. Just saying we should consider it a possibility."

  "You guys should be figuring out a way out of this on your own." Jess stepped into the conversation.

  "We are Jess. But without the knife this has become a sticky situation." Fate replied. "My signet can only do so much. I do have teleportation cards, but the chances of drawing them are slim to none."

  "That's stupidly unreliable." Jess sighed. "Not you, the signet." She clarified.

  "I understood." Fate replied. "Let's give it some time. The Alphas might actually come for us. And Carley might be able to give us some information or tools to help us. And if both of those fall through, we can use the time to gather information that might be critical to our escape."

  "I honestly don't believe they are coming." Matthew sighed. "But we can hope."

  With no other options the group decided to give it some time. While they waited George and Chloe were frequently working out as much as they could within the small cell. They remembered what the Alphas said about how fast everyone's bodies were growing, and didn't want to miss out on a second of growth potential.

  Four days passed, nothing new happened. Tiny portals would occasionally open on the ceiling and the armored man would catch up on them. Silently. Although the man in the black armor did drop food and drinks in through the portal at night, when the gunmen were asleep. He gave them enough to keep everyone fed and healthy. The gunmen weren't going to feed them.

  On the fifth night the portal opened again, and this time the armored man spoke to them. "For the record, I killed the messenger. The people of Belle village don't know. Nobody is coming. You must get yourselves out of this."

  "Why would you kill the messenger!?" Fate shouted back at the portal.

  The armored man on the other side shrugged. "More fun that way. You ain't gonna learn anything by being saved. You can escape on your own. But I'd personally wait a few more days before trying. There's still eight
of them in the camp. Won't be for long."

  If the portal wasn't too small to reach through Fate would've tried to jump and grab onto something, anything on the other side. But the man in the spiked black armor didn't make it big enough to reach through.

  "This isn't a game! Our lives are at stake!" Matthew shouted back at him.

  "Well, I mean, technically." The man in the spiky black armor started.

  "This isn't a time for jokes." Brooke growled.

  "There's never not a time for jokes." The man replied, then the portal closed.

  "Asshole." Elliott sighed and sat back down in the corner of the room.