Blackout: Book One (A Post-Apocalyptic Dystopian Thriller)

by Adam Drake

  Uh oh, I thought and whirled around.

  Up on the roof of the closest building were two archers. Another was clamoring over the sloped roof on the next building over. From their vantage point the square below would make for the perfect killing ground.

  As I took in this new threat, I regained my senses enough to invoke my Cloak of Shadow's invisibility and immediately rolled to my right.

  Perriwinkle's sword swished bare inches above me.

  Still close to engage him, I stood up and lunged with my sword causing my invisibility to negate.

  Perriwinkle's eyes widened at my reappearance but countered my attack with a parry. But I had overextended myself and pulled back before his next swing.

  An arrow zipped through the space my head had just occupied.

  I gritted my teeth with frustration. Those ranged bastards tipped the balance in the other group's favor. They could kite me from above while Perriwinkle took his time choosing were to stab me.

  It was only a matter of time before they riddled me like a pincushion.

  I pushed toward Perriwinkle and increased my tempo of swings. The other Shadow reacted in kind, stepping backwards on the defensive.

  An arrow struck my side, but did minimal damage.

  Perriwinkle laughed, parrying my strikes. “I'm gonna love spending all your bounty money, baby girl,” he leered.

  Changing tactics, I spun around and sprinted away.

  “Hey!” Perriwinkle cried. “Chicken!”

  Certain he was following me after a dozen long strides I switched to my bow, summoned another special arrow, and quickly whirled back to face Perriwinkle, then fired.

  The other Shadow, who was in hot pursuit barely had time to react. His eyes widened in surprise and raised his sword to defend himself.

  But this arrow wasn't meant to pierce armor or flesh.

  The Dazzler arrow exploded right in front of his face. A spectacular burst of colored lights momentarily brightened the entire town square, like a newly born star, then winked out.

  The effect was instant. Perriwinkle covered his eyes with one arm and swung wildly with is sword. He was blind.

  An arrow struck me in the left shoulder, and my avatar grunted with pain. There would be no time to enjoy the results of my light show.

  I made the tactical decision to go after the archers next.

  I ran at full speed toward the building they were perched on and jumped up onto a fruit stall. The seller cried out in alarm as apples spilled everywhere. Using only a fraction of my Leap ability I sprung onto the roof.

  One archer was a few feet from me, and he tried to notch another arrow while he aimed his bow. Even if he fired, he would most likely miss. The game heavily penalized ranged attacks shot from close quarters.

  With a rapid flurry of quick sword swings the archer was killed. These hired NPCs (Non-Player Characters) appeared to have low hit points. Their purpose was meant for backing up a player, and general harassment.

  Now I was doing the harassing.

  A second archer stood on the furthest edge of the roof and fired at me.

  I sprinted at him and dodged his incoming fire.

  At the last moment this archer got wise and switched to a sword. But archers are not renowned for their sword play.

  A few strokes of my sword and the archer was dead.

  An arrow struck me in the lower back, and I turned in frustration toward my attacker.

  On the roof of the opposite building the final archer grinned at me. He continued firing, and at a much rapid pace than I expected. No doubt he was the squad leader and had better abilities.

  I sprinted at him, ignoring all the little red combat warning signs telling me my avatar could become incapacitated if I took more damage. Instead, I zigzagged across the roof making it tougher for the archer to get a bead on me.

  At the edge of the roof I jumped up and through the air. I even knocked away an arrow with my sword before I landed in a roll. As I came up, I jammed my sword through the archer's stomach and up into his body.

  The archer collapsed into a heap. Wiping sweat from my eyes I looked down into the town square.

  It appeared Mudhoof was making an example of the other two warriors. The knight limped away, and pushed through the growing crowds, not wanting any more abuse. There was no more fight in him. Mudhoof parried the viking's sword thrusts with his own battle axe. They seemed to be an even match.

  And there, leaning against a broken fruit stall was Perriwinkle, a hand covering his face, still blinded. As I watched, the other Shadow stood and removed his hand. He blinked and squinted, his vision returning.

  I'd give him something to see.

  With a short run to the edge of the roof, I jumped with my sword pointed downward in both hands. I descended like a bird of prey.

  My shadow fell across Perriwinkle and seeing movement within his darkened vision turned and looked up at me. His sword arm rose.

  “Wha-?” he said.

  Then I landed on him.

  My sword pierced his chest right above his heart and passed straight through him. As I crashed into my confused foe, we both tumbled to the ground.

  I rolled away while wrenching my sword free then I stood and turned, ready for more.

  Perriwinkle did not stand up. Instead, he lay prone on the cobblestone, and let out his last breath.

  Vivian Valesh hits Perriwinkle KillUGood with a critical strike for 1,000 hit points of damage. Perriwinkle KillUGood is dead. Vivian Valesh earns double PvP battle points.

  “Yeah, Vee!” shouted Mudhoof, who was still actively engaged with the viking.

  About to run over and help him finish our last attacker, I paused and looked about. The crowd had grown much larger, forming a living arena around where we fought. Then I noticed several large groups of players push their way through the crowd, their hungry eyes staring at me.

  “Uh oh,” I said. More of these potential bounty hunters were arriving by the second. Word was out. The largest bounty was here in Ingot's Perch. Claim her if you can.

  A cry behind me made me turn in alarm. Mudhoof?!

  The viking fell backwards, his black sword clattering across the cobblestone.

  Mudhoof Hornthruster has killed Knight WhoSaidNee.

  “Piece of cake!” Mudhoof shouted in triumph.

  I ran up to him, my eyes darting over the hostile crowd. “Nice work,” I said.

  Mudhoof looked up at the roof. “You got those ranged bastards? They had it coming.” He saw my nervous expression. “What's wrong?”

  I nodded toward the large crowd and the players looking at us. Looking at me. “We're not out of the woods yet.”

  “Yikes,” Mudhoof said, taking in the situation. This wasn't a small group to deal with, this was a mob. “We got to get you to the Healer's Temple and fast. Once in there we'll come up with a plan.”

  I was about to say something when there was a commotion to our right. A new group of players had arrived and were walking toward me when another group intercepted them.

  “She's ours!” said the leader of the first group.

  “No, she is ours!” said one of the other group.

  Weapons were drawn and spells charged.

  I pulled my gaze away from them. If they wanted to fight amongst themselves then I could afford to ignore them for the moment. What concerned me was the living wall of players who now blocked our way to the Temple steps.

  “Going to have to fight our way through this,” I said. It did not look good. The odds were very much stacked against us. Two against dozens.

  Mudhoof sized things up and nodded. “Yup,” he said with a snort. “But I got a plan,” he said and hefted his battle axe.

  “Plan?” I asked. The crowd now was pushing forward. Their hesitation would not last long. Soon, someone would attack and bring the entire mob down on us.

  Mudhoof leaned close. “Do you trust me?”

  “Uh, yeah. But what does-,” I started to say when Mudhoof pr
essed something into my free hand.

  “Get to Thorm,” he said.

  I looked at what he gave me. A Teleport Token.

  Before I could ask him anything else, Mudhoof roared and raised his axe over his head. Unperturbed, the other players pressed forward.

  Mudhoof brought the axe down with a mighty downward blow. The blade shattered the cobblestone and huge cracks shot out in all directions from the point of impact. Nearly the entire crowd around us fell or was knocked back into each other. It was a tremendous show of power by Mudhoof. I knew he had been feeding all his skill points received each level into his Knock Back ability, but I hadn't seen the end result until now.

  I looked in surprise at what he had just done. But the players were only temporarily thrown off. They still blocked our way. What was the point of buying us only a few seconds of time?

  Leaving his axe buried in the ground, Mudhoof turned and sprinted a few paces back.

  “Muddie, what the heck-,” I said before Mudhoof spun around, lowered his head down and charged straight at me.

  My eyes widened in shock.

  The steel tips of his long horns scrapped the cobblestone, shooting out a shower of sparks. He was coming at me full speed.

  “Jump!” the minotaur roared as the distance between us became mere feet.

  I realized what he was about to do, but there was nothing I could do but jump as he commanded. There was no stopping this freight train.

  At the last possible moment I hopped up a few feet and braced myself as best I could. The steel tips of his horns passed beneath me, and at that exact millisecond, Mudhoof tossed his head upwards.

  The impact of his head knocked the breath out of me, and my view-screen went black for a second.

  When I could see again, I was sailing over surprised players below me. As my body spun around, I caught a glance of Mudhoof surrounded by a mass of angry players who closed in on him.

  Then I hit the top Temple step and bounced hard through the entrance, and across the threshold.

  You have entered a PvP safezone.

  I slammed against the inner foyer wall tearing down a large dove tapestry.

  For a few moments my avatar was disoriented from the impact. Once I got my bearings, I looked out into the town square below.

  Weapons were rising and falling where Mudhoof had been, but I couldn't see him through the mass of players.

  Then, someone raised a twin bladed battle axe up in the air. There was a cheer of triumph from the crowd.

  My body went numb. No, I thought. It can't be!

  I barely registered the mass of players now surging up the steps of the temple. They didn't matter now. Only one thought filled my mind.

  Mudhoof was dead.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Stunned, I could do nothing but sit and stare at the upraised battle axe.

  Mudhoof's axe.

  Then the tide of players crested the top Temple step, and the axe was lost from view.

  He had died to save me. Again.

  This was not the first time, nor did I believe it would be the last. Mudhoof was a true friend and a fellow player I could count on in a pinch. And I had just been in one heck of a pinch.

  I shook my head, trying to get my senses back.

  Players now pushed into the Temple, crowding the inner foyer where I sat slumped against the wall. They loomed over me, shouting and gesticulating wildly. The air filled with FILTERED this and FILTERED that.

  With a hand against the wall, I stood. As if expecting I would be dumb enough to leave the safety of the Temple, some of the players parted so I could exit unimpeded. But I wasn't going outside. Instead, I turned and pushed my way further into the Temple. If someone tried to block me, I simple shoved them aside, and they slid out of my way as if on ice.

  Once in a safezone a player can't be hurt in any manner nor physically blocked, unlike the rest of the gaming world. If that was the case, the griefing of players would be epidemic. I took some small solace that, although they had killed my friend, they could not stop me from where I wanted to go.

  As I entered the main chamber, the others followed close behind, a cacophony of FILTERED obscenities and gestures. With minimal effort, and avoiding direct eye-contact with my would-be tormentors, I pushed my way to the same little bed I'd vacated only a short while ago.

  As I sat down, the healer appeared.

  “Oh, by the Blessed One herself, you have returned, and so soon,” he said. He examined my wounds and the various arrows that seemed to sprout from my avatar. “Tsk-tsk,” he said. “You need to be more careful. Allow me to heal your wounds.” He seemed unaffected by the horde of people that now jammed his beautiful temple.

  “Yes,” I said over the shouts. “Please do. I would be most grateful.”

  As he attended to me, I looked up at those who crowded around, pressing up against my space. From the myriad of words and phrases thrown at me I came to the following conclusion.

  They thought I was a very bad person. Very, very bad. I needed to die. Now, and preferably quick. I was a FILTERED of a FILTERing FILTERED as well, which I thought was just plain mean to say.

  But I had enough. From an icon at the side of my view-screen I went into my game settings. Then I selected 'MUTE OTHER PLAYERS'. A prompt popped up, 'EXEMPT FRIENDS LIST AND NPCs'? I answered yes.

  To those all around me, the image of a large ear appeared above my head which in turn had a red line slashed across it. Now I didn't have to hear anyone speak, or even receive chat requests.

  The effect was immediate, and my world went blessedly quiet. Players threw themselves around and jumped up and down. This had only enraged them further, but I didn't have to hear any of it.

  Then I selected 'AWAY FROM GAME'.

  Instead of a symbol, a white translucent vector box was drawn around me. My avatar, now encased, went still and my eyes closed.

  I could still see fine. But now the others knew I would not engage them in any way. The possibility now existed I could be away from the game for a long time. What would they do then?

  While I let them ponder that amongst themselves in the civil manner I expected, I pulled up my chat menu and pinged Mudhoof. As I waited my heart was in my chest. What he had done was amazingly selfless.

  And creative, too.

  Mudhoof, for whatever reason, did not answer my chat request. I tried not to read too much into it. Maybe he was tired after the fight and was taking a break, away from the game. Or maybe he was ticked off with me because now he had to level up in the newbie zone, yet again. Something he was famous for.

  I shook my head. He would be in touch when he's ready.

  From my inventory I removed the Teleport Token.

  Get to Thorm, Mudhoof had said.

  Thorm might be the only other true friend I had, besides Mudhoof. We'd all adventured together countless times. All of it fun. Would he be interested in a suicide mission to find and kill Ogden Trite?

  A quick scan of my short (but distinguished) friends list showed Thorm was currently online. Selecting his name brought up more detailed information on what he was up too.

  Questing in Farewell Falls on planet Orkrin.

  Even on his own quest I knew Thorm would drop everything to come help me. Did I want to impose on him with something this big? Add to this that I did not want to see yet another one of my friends end up re-rolling because of me.

  But did I have a choice?

  From the safety of the Away From Game vector box I spied on the surrounding players. There were so many now they filled the chamber from wall to wall, and even out the main entrance. The town would now be packed with bounty hunters all hoping to be the one who would claim the bounty on my head.

  I wasn't going anywhere. Logging out was not an option. Such a tactic was beneath my code of gamer-ethics. I would not hide from a fight by leaving the game then returning much later to see if anyone was still around. The very thought was repugnant. Why even bother playing the game if you wou
ld stoop to such cowardly tactics?

  But, even though I wouldn't hide from a fight, didn't mean I wouldn't run from one.

  I thumbed the Token in my hand.

  Might as well just ask Thorm if he was interested. Couldn't hurt.

  I sent him a chat request.

  While I waited I noticed a group of players moving aggressively around the Temple chamber. It was obvious several groups where arguing over me, but couldn't hurt each other here. Instead, they yelled and screamed. To me it all played out like a silent movie.