Desert

by Caiden Walker

  If this wasn't a game, Nika fully realized that the pig would have long since been turned into pork and bacon. But since it was a game, and a quest to boot, she had no doubt that they would find him still very much on the hoof. If pigs had hooves anyway. She wasn't sure. The animals weren't that common in the present day world. And they most certainly weren't considered pets any longer. Had that really ever been a thing?

  The other quest was the one that most interested her. In exchange for clearing out a band of particularly nasty laughing hyenas, the quest giver was willing to reward them a horse. He even let them get a decent look at the animal running loose in the pasture. The horse was obviously a stallion and seemed healthy enough. Best of all, Nika could tell he was fast. That was all that really mattered.

  As luck would have it, the stables were on their side of town, so they stopped in. Horses were still three hundred gold, even here, and yes, it just so happened that they had two horses currently for sale.

  With the quest horse, that would bring them up to three mounts. They would have to double up, but it was doable. Especially since Evan would most likely choose to run, as he was faster than a horse, and Blake wasn't set to be with them all that long.

  It would work.

  When they got back to the mayor's house, Nika burst out laughing when she saw Blake. The man blushed and turned away.

  All of their robes were white and full length, much as a desert nomad's robe would be. His was not. In fact, his robe was a bright pink with white lace trim and only reached his knees. For all the world it appeared to be a woman's bathrobe.

  Nika didn't know who in the real world had designed his wardrobe but she owed them one. Then she realized they were the ones who had them trapped in the game and changed her mind. She'd still take the garment win, but she owed them nothing for it.

  CHAPTER TWO: Louella’s Real Life

  Louella had a huge secret. She felt bad about not telling at least Nika the truth about who she was and, more importantly, what she was. But she didn't think she could face it if the team knew the truth about her.

  Then they would all be giving her that look. That same horrible pitying look that she had gotten from absolutely everyone in the outside world for her whole entire life. She was truly enjoying the freedom she had here within the game, and she loved being treated just like everyone else. Well, once Nika and the others had gotten past the fact that she had hacked her way into the beta test, that is.

  Louella had proved herself to be an asset to the party, and Nika seemed to respect that. And her. If they knew the truth that could all change in a heartbeat. Not only would the looks start, they'd all start treating her differently too. It'd be like walking on eggshells.

  No, thank you. So guilty feeling or no, she was keeping her secret for as long as she possibly could. The only problem was that if something happened to her, Nika and the others would have no idea of why or how. That did bother her. More than a little.

  She liked her new friends. They were really the first people who treated her with not just kindness but respect and friendship. And here she was endangering their mission in a small part with her dishonesty.

  There was simply no clear answer.

  Louella opened her terminal and signed on. As always, she felt a brief flash of relief when the system engaged. She believed as long as she kept the laptop out of the code and in a physical backpack that the outside world couldn't stop her from using it, but she also worried that they would find a way to take it from her, anyway.

  She hadn't lied to Nika. She had stayed behind to contact her family. It had been a battle in itself getting them to agree to let her do this. If she didn't follow up on her end of the bargain and send them regular messages, they would be more than upset. After all, her time was very limited now.

  In the outside world, she was dying. Well, to be totally honest with herself, she had never been truly alive until she entered the game. The horrible disease that she had been born with had seen to that.

  Out there, her world involved constant pain and staying in bed. The bed was necessary because she simply didn't have the strength to walk or even sit up for long periods of time. The only parts of her body that actually worked as they were supposed to were her mind and her fingers. And she was very grateful for both of them, because by using only those two things, well, eleven if you counted the fingers individually, she had access to the world without ever stepping foot onto the floor.

  Louella wasn't just smart, she was flipping Stephen Hawking smart, and computers and programming had always been her thing. She finished college at age fourteen, earning a degree in Information Technology. Thank God for online schools and courses. If colleges still required physical attendance for classes, she never would have made it.

  After college, she needed a new challenge. That's when she discovered the wonderful world of hacking. After all, she had a get out of jail free card if she did get caught. But she was really, really good at it and the chances of them even knowing they were being hacked were impossibly slim to none.

  That wasn't bragging either, she truly was that good. She smiled as she logged into her messaging account. Gaia's Rebirth had been a very tough nut to crack. The most difficult one so far in her hacking career. It had been worth it a thousand times over.

  Of course, she had only ever managed to get into the character generation programming, but luckily that had been enough. Louella would have loved to meet Nika's father. The man knew his way around a computer system's security. His intelligence had to be a close match for her own. It would have made for an interesting conversation. Security versus hacker. What a team they could have made.

  If only things had been different.

  Her messaging account now open, she frowned. That was odd. There weren't any entries from her parents. They'd been sending mail to her several times a day ever since she entered the game. Something big must have happened.

  Now with worry to add to her guilt, Nika quickly typed out a message to her mom and then another to her dad and hit the send button.

  Normally they responded immediately when she sent them mail and then they could have a brief conversation over the internet. Ten long minutes later, still no word.

  For the first time, Louella wished she could log out of the game. She didn't like the feeling that something might have happened to her family. Not that she could have stopped anything happening by being there, but still.

  Then it hit her. Her parents were probably just fine. She, on the other hand, may have taken a turn for the worse.

  She shivered, glad that while inside the game, she was totally unaware of what her outside body was going through. The direct mind connection that Gaia's Rebirth had created worked very well to keep one in the game at all times.

  No pain here. The first time she could remember not having pain in her whole life.

  Louella thought for a minute, then started typing. The very least she could do for her parents was to let them know that they had done the right thing by letting her enter the game. The message was long, but that was because she now feared it might be her last.

  Death really might be around the corner. After hitting send on the longest and more gut-wrenching message she had ever written, she opened another file. This one she labeled 'Nika please open if anything happens to me'.

  She was just finishing up when she felt the touch to her neck.

  A grand combination of guilt and surprise made her jump inches off her chair. Hastily she slammed down the lid of the laptop terminal. Luckily, she had just saved the file to the desktop. With the extra big icon, it would be hard for them to miss.

  Then she got a look at Nika's expression and realized what she must be thinking. "I'm sorry," Louella said. "You really scared me." Then she looked down. That didn't explain her sudden shutting of the laptop. But what could she say that wouldn't just make matters worse? Better to leave well enough alone, but Nika's hurt look ratcheted her guilt to a whole new level.

 
"We're ready whenever you are," Nika said. "If you need a few more minutes to save whatever it is you're working on, we can wait for you upstairs." Then she turned and left the girl alone once more.

  Sighing, Louella reopened the terminal just long enough to make sure everything had saved and was where it should be. She did have one big concern though. Even though her backpack wasn't in her inventory, what would happen to it if she vanished from the game? Would it and her equipment be left in the game for the others to use? Or would it vanish when she did?

  She knew what her vanishing would mean. The ultimate end game. At the same time, she had more than just herself to think about. The team needed this terminal. Right now, it was their only link to the outside world. She could no longer afford to be the one in charge of it.

  But how would she go about asking Nika to carry it for her? Her foot had just hit the second stair when she realized that Nika wouldn't be the logical choice to carry the terminal. Or Evan, for that matter. Logically it just wouldn't work.

  Not because they wouldn't be able to resist the temptation to click on that new, overly large icon and learn Louella's secret, although that was an issue too. No, their character classes required close hand to hand combat styles. A terminal in a backpack would get in their way when they were fighting. And they couldn't just drop it before battle. There was too much risk that a creature would take off with it or that it would take serious damage during the fight.

  The only person, other than herself, that didn't require two hands to fight with was Ash. Nodding to herself, she wondered why she hadn't seen it before. In fact, she could probably trust the girl with her secret if it absolutely came to that. For starters, she would simply ask her to carry the backpack. If she accepted without question, there wouldn't be any need for her secret to be out there at all. Since Ash rarely used the terminal, the curiosity factor was pretty much null too.

  The rest of the stairs were taken with a much lighter heart. Yes, she might die at any second, but damn it she was going to live every second she had left.

  CHAPTER THREE: Outside Players

  Mary Kincaid looked over at her twin brother Max, sure he was holding out on her. It wouldn't be the first time. Especially involving their mutual friend and former classmate Lester Brown. The two of them loved nothing more than to mess with her. The frequency of their plans had lessened since they all graduated from the local community college, but it still happened far too often for Mary to start believing the two of them had actually grown up.

  "You're absolutely sure you don't know what this is all about?" she asked.

  Her brother shook his head and then went so far as to cross his heart. "I swear it. All Les said was that he had something of the utmost urgency that he needed to talk with us about and for us to meet him at the coffee shop down the street from work an hour before we started our shifts."

  The three of them had all taken positions far beneath the status of their new degrees, but as their college hadn't been as prestigious as MIT, it was necessary to get their feet in the door. Gaia's Rebirth didn't hire just anyone. Especially as a programmer. You had to prove yourself first.

  Of course, that was kind of hard to do when the CEO and her second in charge both entered a virtual reality gamescape less than a week after you hired on. Still, a plan was a plan, and they'd still be there when the two head honchos of the company got out.

  Her job was as a cafeteria worker. At least the food wasn't the slop a lot of restaurants served. Gaia's Rebirth really knew how to take care of their employees. They wanted them to be healthy and happy and the food they served them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner proved it. Her duties included helping keep the buffet warming tables filled during mealtime and generally assisting the cooks with whatever they needed. So far, it hadn't been too bad. Which was good because she didn't know her way around a kitchen at all. A cook she was not.

  Max had hired on as a janitor. He actually liked the job, though not as much as programming. It allowed him to get know everyone in the company, and it gave him access to the entire building. Even the penthouse suite that was super exclusive.

  To round out their little group, Les had taken a job as a night security guard. She smiled just thinking about it. Of all of them, his current job suited him the most. Les wasn't a large man, standing five eight only if one was very lenient with the measuring tape, but he was fierce. He had paid his own way through college by taking part in cage fights. To Mary's knowledge, he had never lost a single round. Fighters just didn't seem to take him seriously until it was too late. You'd think they would have learned by now. But then he moved around to a lot of different fight venues to keep that knowledge his own little secret too. Les was a crafty man.

  "I guess I should ask you if you have any idea why the meeting is so urgent," Max said.

  She just stared at him. "How the heck would I know? You're the one who talked with him."

  "Yeah, but you two sure seem to spend a lot of time together. I thought maybe he'd said something to you."

  Mary shook her head. "Not a dang thing. I had to work over this morning because of a call in so I didn't see him when I got off."

  Max's hours were slightly longer than hers and Les's, so Les had made it a habit to walk her home. He didn't like her out on the streets that early in the morning. He had a point too. The further you got from Gaia's headquarters and the closer you got to the twin's tiny apartment, the worse the neighborhood got. The sun hadn't even started to try to come out when they got off work. Not that the sun really stood much of a chance anyway with all the pollution. Man had not been kind to his environment, and it had taken a major toll on the earth.

  Finally, the coffee shop was in sight, and Les's little motor scooter was pulled up on the curb out front. As usual, the chain was locked tight. No one would be stealing Les's baby anytime soon.

  They walked in, and Les immediately called them over to a small table in the far back corner. He hadn't even waited for them before ordering. Instead, the table already held two large mugs of coffee and one tall glass of iced tea. Mary wasn't much of a coffee drinker. She even trusted Les to have ordered the tea decaffeinated. He always remembered. There was also a steaming hot platter of loaded French fries, or at least what passed for it these days. They were good, and the group's favorite dish here.

  They scooted into the booth opposite Les, and Mary helped herself to a fresh, hot fry. "Thanks for ordering these," she said.

  "No problem," Les said. "I've got offers for two more fights coming up this weekend. Money isn't an issue right now. Especially with the regular paycheck coming in too."

  "You're still fighting?" For some reason that upset Mary to no end. She could understand it when he needed the money for school, but now, like he said, they all had paychecks coming in. He didn't need to fight.

  "Of course, I'm still fighting," he said. "In this business, you can't quit for more than a week or you start to lose your edge in the cage."

  "But do you still need an edge? I figured with the steady job now, you'd give up the fights," Max said. Good, he was on her side. Maybe they could talk some sense into him.

  Instead, Les just shrugged. "I like it. Maybe I'll quit someday soon. Once it stops being fun."

  Mary just shook her head at him. Seriously, getting beat to a pulp by a six-foot gorilla was fun? Yeah, so Les had always come out on top so far but eventually, he was going to run into someone bigger and better than him that had already heard and believed the rumors about the tiny fighter that could take down the Goliaths of the cage. Word spreads, and as far as Mary was concerned, his days in the cage were numbered. She'd prefer the number to be zero. She cared about the little jerk. A lot.

  They took a few minutes to stuff their faces and then Les leaned across the table and lowered his voice. "So, have you guys noticed anything odd going on at Gaia?"

  The twins looked at each other.

  "You mean like the two heads of the company entering the gamescape and leaving the corp
oration basically headless?" Mary asked.

  "Yeah, I mean that's odd, but even more?" Les asked.

  Max started to shake his head, then stopped. "Well, actually, now that you mention it. It is kind of weird that Nika's office and conference room have been taken over by that Cora Winthrop and her so-called team. I mean exactly what are they a team of? Does anyone really know? How does Blake's personal assistant rate a team of her own, anyway?"

  Les nodded enthusiastically. "That's part of what I'm talking about. I mean Nika and Evan both entering the game at the same time is strange enough. You would think one of them would stay out to—oh I don't know—run the company?"

  The waitress came by to refill their drinks and he waited until she was back out of earshot before continuing. "But then Blake and his bimbo immediately move upstairs into Nika's private offices. Kind of like they don't plan on her needing them back anytime soon." His voice lowered even more. "Or maybe ever."

  Okay, he had her full attention now. Mary stared at him. "You think they've done something to Nika?" She'd only met the woman once, but she liked her. For a corporate big wig she wasn't so very full of herself. She was nice.

  Les shrugged. "How can we tell? They shut off the monitors downstairs where we could watch the game. To hear everyone that saw them go dark, it was right after Nika and her team got slaughtered by a rabid pack of coyotes. I mean, Nika who designed the game getting beaten that early in the game play?" He shook his head. "I'm just not buying it."

  Mary chewed her lip, a nervous habit she'd never been able to break. "You have a point. They never said why they turned off the big screen either. Nika had said we were all welcome to watch on our breaks and lunch."

  Les leaned back against his seat. "Exactly. And now Blake has gone missing too."

  "Blake's missing?" Max gasped. "What the hell?"