Desert

by Caiden Walker

  As they jogged farther out, the sandy dunes started. Tiny little things at first, and then gradually growing in size. By the time they reached the side path, the dunes were about waist high. Big enough to start hiding creatures behind them.

  How did animals live out here? She knew this was a game, but it was as close to the real world of old as they could possibly make it. The creatures they would find in this area actually did, at least long ago, live in the hot sunny desert. Now that she was actually here, she just couldn't grasp how.

  Something to ponder on her next run through. For now, it was enough to know that they did. Although a little more knowledge about the habits of desert hyenas might have proved helpful.

  Luckily, Evan had her back. Whether he was going off programming memory, instinct, or just the area map, he led them straight to the pack.

  With her wings destroyed, Louella was now a ground fighter just like the rest of them. That meant that the party had lost its aerial attacks. That didn't mean she was useless. Her attacks were still plenty effective, even on the ground.

  As they rounded the last sandy dune, the largest one so far, the pack came into sight, and for a minute Nika regretted splitting up the party. There were six of them, and they were very nasty looking. Especially when you counted in the fact that they were currently slavering over their most recent kill.

  One would think that perhaps being already full from a recent meal would make them less aggressive. One would think very wrong indeed. The hyenas must have thought they were there to take their food from them because they didn't hesitate even a second before attacking.

  Neither did the party. Louella was the first one engaged as she threw her Earthquake area attack to lower all the enemies’ health bars a bit. Nika, in turn, followed that closely with her WarCry, which raised the small party’s stats in both attack and defense.

  Then, the hyenas were on them. They were fierce fighters, and the party was outnumbered two to one. That is, until Louella called up her clone.

  Nika smiled even as her Viking ax literally cut one of the beasts in two. They could do this after all.

  Another of the creatures jumped her from behind just as she'd had that happy thought and took her down to the sandy earth. The displaced sand from her fall managed to make it into her eyes, effectively blinding her. Worse, the hyena was heavy, and she was face down on the ground with it on her back.

  Using every ounce of her Amazonian strength, she managed to roll over and flip so that she was on the top instead. This was far too close for the ax, so with her free hand, she grabbed her hand blade from its belt holster and slit the beast's throat.

  But not before taking substantial damage. That was when it finally hit her. Her small group didn't have a healer. She popped a health potion and her health bar raised back up to just under half. Damn, these things had some power to them. Not creatures that you wanted to take on in close combat. She was doubly grateful for her ax as they finished the rest of the pack off.

  The trick with them seemed to be not to let them get a jump on you. Obvious now, yes, but then hindsight was always twenty-twenty. With these creatures, you had to always be the aggressor. That would be useful knowledge going forward, as Nika was quite sure this was not the last pack of hyenas they would meet in the game.

  When the last creature disappeared into glitter, the party wandered the battlefield picking up items. No legendaries, but Evan had been right about the loot drops being far better in this area. They ended up with a health potion, a mana potion, and six hyena hides.

  She figured the hides would probably be needed for one of the other quests. Probably one from Ash's group. Well, it never hurt to do the extra quests for the rewards. Especially when the items needed were given to you so freely.

  It was still fairly early in the morning judging by the sun's slow path across the sky, so they all decided to keep hunting. They could turn in the quest once they'd earned some items to trade for gold.

  Nika jumped when a wonderful rush hit her body. Then she looked at the other two. Evan was making sure they hadn't missed anything on the battlefield, but Louella gave her a small shy smile.

  "In case we hit another pack before you have a chance to heal," she said.

  "Thanks." It would have been nice for Evan to have thought of that too. But then she had tasked him with getting them out of the game as quickly as possible. He probably felt if she needed healing she could do it herself.

  For the next hour, they roamed the area, taking on every batch of red dots that appeared on their screen. There was a much smaller pack of hyenas, only three, that they took care of without any problem. After all, it was literally half the battle of the previous one and quest monsters were always more powerful to boot.

  Then they ran into a horde of very large scorpions. Nika was pretty sure these were game-enhanced when it came to size. Surely no real scorpion had ever reached a human's knees.

  In the game, the bigger they were, the easier they were to hit. And with these creatures, the danger was obvious. Don't let their wickedly long stingers hit you. Another thing about the desert area that was vastly different from the forest they had left behind them. A lot of the creatures here relied on poisonous attacks.

  Belatedly, Nika realized that they hadn't picked up any remedies at the market before heading out. That wasn't good. One lucky strike from a scorpion and even if they didn't die immediately, they would never make it back to the save point before succumbing to the poison.

  Once the battle with the scorpions was through, a wiser Nika decided it was time to head back to town. After collecting their loot, of course. As luck would have it, one of the scorpions gave them a remedy potion. Nika smiled as she realized that it was the game programmer's way of having the players' backs. Good job, actually, and one she might not have thought of.

  Other than the remedy, they only collected two mana potions. So not that good of a haul, actually. The weapon drops would come when they started fighting the desert nomads.

  Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately as they were generally much stronger adversaries, those battles came much deeper into the desert. The nomads didn't like being close to towns and people in general. Stood to reason as they had picked the heart of the desert as their home.

  "Did we do good?" Louella asked as they started back toward town.

  Nika grinned at her. "Not bad, I think," she said. "The drops could have been a bit better, but we got gold from killing the monsters, and we've added some potions to our bags." She paused when a pair of red dots appeared on the area map that she had placed in the upper right corner of her field of vision. She decided to keep going rather than engage in another battle. No reason to risk losing what they'd already gained.

  Her grin widened. "Plus, we've got a horse waiting for us back in town, too," she said.

  Louella perked up. "That's right. And you got to see it?"

  Nika nodded. "Him," she said. "The horse is most definitely a him. He looked strong and fast too. Should be a good mount for a couple of us. Now we just need to get two more and we'll be set."

  “We could get by with one more if you gals just doubled up," Evan said. "At least that would work if we could get Ash to agree to leave Tyler behind.”

  Louella giggled. “Good luck with that,” she said. “He might be visiting relatives while we explore the region, but I’m pretty sure he’ll be coming with us when we start moving forward.”

  “Wishful thinking, I know,” Evan said. “But surely you aren't planning on Blake coming with us, are you?"

  "Actually, the plan had been to get him out into the desert and then kill him one final time. When he rebooted back in town then, even if he could get his hands on a horse, he'd never be able to catch up with us," Nika explained.

  Evan thought for a minute. "The man doesn't even have a weapon. The programmer that sent him in made him a bard for gosh sakes. How is he going to earn the gold for a horse?"

  Nika shrugged. "However bards earn go
ld in the game, I guess. Since it isn't one of the originally programmed classes, I don't have a clue how that is. But we shouldn't discount it as impossible."

  "Plus, he'll have the gold he earns today by being part of Ash's party," Louella said. "As a member, he'll get a share, whether he earned it or not."

  The girl was right. Maybe they'd made an error in letting the man tag along with Ash's group. Then she shrugged it off. Even if it did give the man enough to buy a horse, their plan still worked. And once Blake was rebooted, it would make less of a load for the horses. That should speed their journey a bit too.

  "I've been thinking," Evan said. "You know we really haven't let Blake talk much about his part in all this."

  Nika gave him a look.

  "I'm not criticizing you at all, mind you," he said. "It's just that he might have some insight into what's going on back home."

  Oh yeah, he hadn't seen the letter Blake had sent her. The one telling her their marriage was a sham and that he was helping VirTech steal the code to the game she and her father had created. She knew exactly what was going on in the outside world.

  But here within the gamescape there just wasn't a damn thing she could do about it.

  CHAPTER FIVE: In game Coder Revealed

  Cora was a very busy woman. But she wasn't complaining. Especially since she no longer had to go home to that waste of a man, Blake Nolan. That in itself was rejuvenating. She had never enjoyed an empty bed more.

  They were in the crunch time now. Well, technically, it had all been crunch time, working against the clock to copy Gaia's code for VirTech before the loyal workers became suspicious and started asking too many questions. Cora's worst fear had been dealt with by VirTech. That had been Nika's lawyer. When Blake had allowed the Communication Station in Riser's Creek to be open so that he could deliver his message of betrayal to Nika, Cora had immediately known that shutting down Nika's accounts through Gaia hadn't been enough of a safeguard. The woman would be sure to contact her attorney and start a process that could ultimately ruin everything.

  As was only fitting, she had immediately alerted the company and their response had been swift and sure. Eliminate the threat. The next morning, the paper held the news of the elderly attorney's death. It was ruled natural causes. Just as Nika's father's death had been. It helped to have a few doctors in one's corporate pockets.

  Too bad they couldn’t just pull the plug on the beta testers now and be done with it. That would take a big worry off her in just a few seconds. Unfortunately, too many deaths before they were ready to cut and run would start an inquiry. She couldn’t risk that. Besides, it wouldn’t be long now anyway.

  She and her team were in their final few days. Then she would be a very rich woman living on a beach somewhere no one would ever find her. And the country of choice sure as hell wouldn't have an extradition policy with the United States even if they did find her. She wasn't taking any chances. That just wasn't her style.

  Part of the reason she was in charge was because she didn't take chances. Like now. She trusted her crew as far as that went, but she knew that a single keystroke error in the copy of the code could take months or longer to correct the problems it would cause. So now, on a bright and early Saturday morning, she was sitting in her office—well, the nameplate still said Nika Nolan, but nameplates can lie—and pulling up a comparison program.

  She had paid a pretty penny for the software, but it was worth it to ensure that the code she handed VirTech was beyond reproach. Cora shivered. While she had taken all kinds of precautions to be sure her new life would be well hidden, she had not a doubt in her mind that a vengeful VirTech would find a way to track her down. They had resources in every country in the world, and in some very high places too.

  The software itself did a very simple job; it just did it extremely well, and extremely fast. Both qualities that made it worth the price she'd paid. Not that she expected to find errors in the code. Her team was very good at what they did. Their keystroke accuracy levels were simply unbelievable. The best of the best.

  It took an hour to set everything up and then Cora leaned back in her chair while the program did its thing. According to the estimates given the sheer amount of coding to compare, the entire run-through would take roughly four hours to complete.

  Not a problem.

  Cora wasn't just a cautious person, she was a prepared one as well. To keep herself occupied, she had brought along an additional laptop terminal. She'd catch up on emails and personal business while she waited. Cora fully expected it to be a very uneventful few hours.

  She was wrong.

  The first beep happened only a few minutes in. That was the way the system worked and why it required someone to be present during the run-through. When the system found a discrepancy between the two codes, it would stall the program and beep to alert the user. The program wouldn't start back up again until the discrepancy had been dealt with or it had been told to ignore it and continue.

  Frowning, she turned back to the comparison screen. On the screen were two views showing side by side, split-screen mode. The left-hand side, that of Gaia's Rebirth's original programming was vastly different from the right-hand side showing her team's copy.

  This was far more than a simple keystroke error. This was a fairly major programming update. But how? There were no programmers or coders working on this program and hadn't been since Nika entered the game. You couldn't do a beta test on a constantly changing program. It was supposed to remain static during the time she was in there. That's what had made the timing for the code theft so blooming perfect.

  All of Gaia's programmers were hard at work on an expansion to the game. One that would only be added to the game once it was perfected to Nika's standards.

  So this was impossible. No one within the company would have done this.

  Unless. Cora's mind started whirling with the possibilities.

  She checked the date stamps of this part of the program’s last few updates. The first discrepancy had happened only one brief hour after Nika and her party had entered the game.

  Not possible. There were no programmers working at that time. Nika had given them the entire day to watch the party's progress within the game as a reward for all their hard work in making it happen.

  So who had made the changes? And exactly what had they changed? She peered at the screen and it took her a few minutes of intense concentration to determine that the first change was merely a character class addition. It added a pixie class to the game, complete with wardrobe, items, abilities, and stat points. Whoever had coded the new class had been very thorough. They had made sure to add new abilities and stat updates for each level all the way through the maximum level of twenty. In fact, the pixie's level didn't stop at twenty. It went all the way to twenty-five.

  At that point, Cora had no doubt that there was a pixie in that gamescape. Who the hell it was, she hadn't a clue. She started to pick up the phone, then stopped. Before she called in the big dogs, it would be wise to see what other changes the game might hold.

  When she looked at the next update to the character class programming, her worry ratcheted up a notch. They had placed Evan Taylor into the game as a tiger. That program class had been all Blake's idea. The theory was that not only would he be unable to communicate with the party, they would immediately believe him to be a monster and engage him in battle.

  It hadn't turned out that way, but that was the way Blake had planned it.

  Now, according to the code in front of her, the tiger class was now a man-tiger class fully capable of walking upright and communicating with other players. What the hell? Not only that, they had done a much shoddier job with their class add-on than the pixie maker had. They had not included a wardrobe—what real tiger needed clothes anyway—or changes to stats and abilities upon leveling up. He was simply put there to get rid of him.

  Now he was a man-tiger and most likely a member of Nika's party. The thought of both of them working tog
ether within the game was enough to ensure Cora nightmares. Together they were a formidable team.

  She took a deep breath, forcing herself to relax. Yes, they were a formidable team. Cora couldn't deny that. But they were a formidable team trapped within a video game. They weren't going anywhere until they won that game.

  The programming changes still had her distinctly worried. If they somehow had access within the game to the system's code, why hadn't they programmed their own exits? Something just wasn't right here.

  Cora printed off the changed code so they could determine what they needed to do to correct it on their end, or if they could safely ignore the changes. At least from the copying angle of things, these didn't count as errors. The copied code was exactly as the original program had been intended.

  Once she had those changes in hand, she pushed the ignore button and watched the screen with a tad bit of panic, waiting for another beep. It never came.

  The comparison program worked with each parcel of code separately. The character class section had been the first to run, and as luck would have it, it was the only section that was showing any discrepancies in code whatsoever.

  So, whoever inside that game was making changes, it appeared they were only interested in the characters within the game.

  Unless.

  Nika's father had been paranoid about outsiders hacking their way into the game's programming. To combat that possibility, he had compartmentalized everything. It was a hacker's worst nightmare, and why VirTech had to go to such lengths to get their hands on the code.

  But what if a hacker had gotten in? What if they had only managed to hack into one single compartmentalized area? A pixie player perhaps?

  If a champion hacker had managed to get into the beta test run of the game, and they would have to be a hacker among hackers to do so, how long before they hacked themselves out of it? And possibly brought the others with them?

  Oh no, that wouldn't do at all. Now Cora did pick up the phone and make the call. She needed help with this one.