He held both hands over his chest and leaned backward on the stool “Ow! Straight through the heart!” He rolled his eyes back and played dead. Shari ignored his antics, though he caught her watching out of the corner of her eye. She was smiling slightly.
A moment later she turned off the burner under the beefaroni and turned the other way down. She brought the main course over and dished some onto his plate with a wooden spoon. Then she scooped the rest onto her own plate before placing the pot in the sink. She grabbed something Mace couldn’t see and held it behind her back as she returned to the counter. Standing behind him, she said “Can’t have just plain old beefaroni. We need to flavor it up a bit, make it special. I did a little experiment with stuff I know you like.” There was a familiar sliding sound behind Mace that he couldn’t quite place. A moment later, Shari reached around him and held her fist over his plate. She squeezed, and there was a chorus of crunches. Flakes of something began to fall onto his beefaroni.
Mace looked at it for a moment… then ventured “Chips?.... Pringles! You put crushed Pringles on my dinner!”
Shari beamed at him as she rounded the counter and took her place. She upended the tube of chips, and Mace heard the familiar sliding sound as several chips fell into her hand. She crushed them over her own plate, then set the can down. “It’s a pretty good combo. G’head!”
Mace scooped a forkful from the center of the pile, being sure to get some chip fragments on there before he lifted it to his mouth. The chips gave it a nice crunch, and the sour cream and onion flavor really did compliment the pasta dish. “This is… awesome!” he said as he forked up another mouthful. “I can’t believe I didn’t try this before!”
“You’re not a genius like me. I mean, maybe you are. With like, numbers and code n stuff. But I am an all-around everyday genius!” She stuck her tongue out at him. It had some chip flakes on it.
The conversation hit a lull as they ate. Both were hungry after their busy day. And though they had eaten in-game, their real-world bodies had only had soggy pancakes twelve hours earlier.
As they finished the pasta, Shari got up and went back to the stove. She opened the oven and pulled out what looked like a small cake. Turning off the last burner, she lifted the small pan in one hand, and carried the cake in the other. Setting the cake on the counter, she took the lid off the pan and tilted it. Liquid chocolate poured over top of the cake and began to run down the sides. She used a spatula to scrape every bit of chocolate out onto the cake before setting down the pan.
Mace was amazed. “Cake? How did you? I mean… we have flour, and butter, but no eggs.” He stopped talking as she grabbed a fork and dove into the cake. She put a mouthful of the cakey goodness with still-warm chocolate in her mouth. “Mmmmm! I used the pancake mix. Another experiment. Turns out you can bake it. This cake is just one really thick pancake. With melted candy bars on top!”
Mace filled his own face with a big forkful of the cake, rolling his eyes with pleasure. When he managed to swallow it down, he said “You are the VERY best end of the world trapped in an underground bunker hottie EVER!”
Shari giggled at the ridiculous statement as he stuffed another huge forkful in his mouth. Warm chocolate smeared on his chin and both cheeks. He didn’t care.
As they sat there, eating the cake a bit more slowly now, Shari told him about the supply caravan that was coming, and how she would be coming with it. Mace was impressed with her ingenuity. When she told him about the wyvern heart auction and having several thousand gold in the bank, he was even more amazed. “You are ROCKING this game, Shari! I mean, I knew players who had been in the game for six months who hadn’t made a thousand gold total the entire time!”
Shari sat a little straighter, and puffed out her chest with pride. Which had an immediate effect on Mace. She snorted and flicked some cake crumbs at him. “Eyes up here, dork.”
They talked a little more as they cleaned up. Mace stuck his face right into the chocolate pan, trying to lick up every bit of melted goodness. Shari licked the spatula clean. They were done ten minutes later, everything cleaned and put away. They walked together back toward their quarters. Shari rubbed her stomach. “Ugh. I am SO full. There was absolutely nothing healthy about that meal. Breakfast is going to be nothing but vegetables. Canned spinach or something.”
Mace nodded. “Well we can’t have pancakes for breakfast, then dinner, then breakfast AGAIN. That’s like a violation of the rules of the universe or something.”
They reached the hall between their quarters, and Shari stretched to give him a kiss. Mace hadn’t expected it, but wasn’t going to argue. When she broke the kiss, Shari took his hand and led him toward her room. Once inside she closed and locked the door. Mace’s heart beat faster, sure he was about to get lucky. She pushed him onto the bed, then sat next to him. “Can you… stay with me tonight? Just sleep next to me? No funny business?”
Mace was tempted to push it. Parts of him were shouting at him “Don’t be that guy!” He simply nodded and slipped off his shoes. He scooted back onto the bed, then pulled her down next to him. She curled up with her head on his shoulder and one arm across his chest.
“Thank you.” was all she said before she closed her eyes.
It took Mace quite a while to fall asleep. His mind was whirling. There was a beautiful girl asleep next to him. He had to think about Peabody’s code and contaminated houseflies for a good long time before he calmed down enough to sleep.
*****
The next morning Mace woke before Shari. He entertained notions of waking her and having a little early morning fun-time. Instead he eased himself out from under her and snuck over to his quarters where he could grab a shower and change without waking her. She was waiting for him in the hall, eyes sleepy and hair all mussed. He went to kiss her, and she backed away, putting a hand over his face and pushing. “Gah. Morning breath. No smooching.”
Mace laughed. “Is this what you look like every morning before you come to the kitchen? Because I must say, this is quite the look you got going here. Hair sticking out everywhere, fuzz growing on your teeth, nose a little swollen…” he stopped talking when she took a swing at his head. He ducked enough to avoid the blow, then grabbed her by the waist. He began to tickle, and she screamed, trying to wiggle out of his grasp. “Stop! Gotta pee!” She shoved him away and retreated into his room, slamming the door behind her.
“That’s MY room!” He called out through the door, grinning. There was no response. Mace looked up “Hey Peabody? Could you tell Admin Shari that she’s in my room?”
“Certainly, Mace.” Peabody replied.
A moment later there was a surprised squeal, and some cursing. Mace contemplated hiding somewhere safe, but couldn’t resist seeing the look on her face when she emerged. He didn’t have to wait long. The door opened and she came out swinging, with a pillow in each hand.
“Dammit! Mace! I told you… to disable Peabody.. in my bathroom! That’s just creepy!” She grunted the words in between swings. Make took several blows to the head as he tried to stop laughing. “But I DID disable him in your bathroom. You were in MY bathroom!” he managed to say before turning and fleeing his homicidal hottie.
When she appeared in the kitchen fifteen minutes later she was calm and collected. She still slapped the back of his head as she passed him. Breakfast was oatmeal with apple slices. Mace said “The apples won’t be good after today. Maybe not even today.”
The realization that they were out of fresh fruit, and may never get more, sobered them both. They ate a silent meal, Shari giving him the stink-eye every once in a while. Finally Mace asked as sweetly as he could “Did you sleep well? Cuz I sure did. Eventually.”
Shari snorted. “Like a baby. Had this warm pillow. It was a little bony, but nice. Except it kept squirming around n waking me up.” her face softened and she gave him a little smile. “Funny thing, though. It was gone when I woke up. Made me sad.”
Mace stared at her for a long whi
le. He was about to tell her they could crawl right back into bed when Peabody’s voice echoed through the kitchen. “My motion detectors have picked up movement across the park, Mace.”
He looked at his watch. 7:00am. It wouldn’t be light outside yet. “Peabody, are all the lights off from the lobby level up?”
“Yes Mace. All lights are turned off everywhere, except this level. The movement continues.”
Mace bolted for the security office, Shari right behind him. He said “Peabody put it on the big monitor. Zoom in, three times magnification!” as he dashed the last few feet to the door. The screen was zooming as he slid to a halt in from of the 40” monitor. Shari bumped into him from behind, wrapped her arms around him to steady herself.
On the screen was a human zombie. It was dragging something behind it. Mace hit a button and zoomed in a bit more. The something was a person. Mace couldn’t tell if it was male or female. There wasn’t enough left. But it had definitely been a live human recently. Mace zoomed back out and looked at the zombie. Shari squeezed him from behind. “I think that’s the same one I saw kill the other two before we met. It’s a little bigger now.”
Shari nodded, whispering “It has been feeding well.”
Mace grimaced. The thing moved to the stoop of the same building it had occupied before, and sat on its haunches. Pulling the corpse toward it, it began to feed. Shari rushed out of the office toward her quarters. “We can kill it! Hurry! It won’t take it long to finish.”
Mace ran to his room and gathered his gear. He threw on his outside clothes, then his body armor. He grabbed his sword, gun belt, shotgun and helmet and began jogging toward the elevator. He strapped the gear on as he went. Shari caught up to him at the elevator, and they rode up together. She checked her rifle three times in the time it took to rise the thirty floors. Once at the lobby level they dashed across to the other elevators, not waiting to check if it was safe. If there were another creature around, it would be attacking the one they’d been watching. They leapt out of the elevator on the fourth floor and ran up the stairs. This time, Mace made Shari wait as he checked for danger. Speed was critical, but if they missed the monster, so be it. They would get another chance.
“All clear.” He said, opening the door for her. He had left his net-on-a-stick inside the stairwell, and he grabbed it on his way out. Shari moved straight to the wall that faced the building, crawling the last several feet. Mace began to watch the skies around them for any flying menace. “Do you see it?” he whispered. He realized he’d forgotten to grab his radio.
“I see it. Just give me a minute. Checking the wind.” she answered. He heard a few slight clicks as she adjusted her scope. Mace thought to himself that he wanted her to teach him how to shoot. She was damned impressive. One more click and she said “Okay ready. Don’t make a sound.”
Mace froze, only his eyes moving as he continued to scan the sky. Shari took a deep breath, then let it out and held it. There was a muffled pop, and the gun recoiled, causing Shari’s body to jump. Mace held his breath.
Shari turned her head, a very serious look on her face. Mace began to panic. Then she smiled and said “Right thru the head!” in a quiet voice.
Mace had the urge to toss her off the roof. “Dammit! You… I…!” Mace was speechless.
Shari just grinned and said “Now we’re even. For the Peabody thing.” and walked past him toward the stairwell.
Mace was extra careful on their way down. They stopped and watered the plants in the conference room before continuing down to the lobby. He checked carefully before they got off the elevators, and made Shari pause behind the reception desk halfway across the lobby. He decompressed a bit on the second elevator ride down to their level. As they exited the elevator, Shari grabbed hold of his hand. “Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
He squeezed her hand and shook his head to stop her. “No, it’s not you. I mean, yeah, that was a shitty joke.” he half-smiled at her. “But I was just thinking about whether we can survive long enough to get into the game permanently.”
Shari didn’t have an answer. She just held his hand. “If we don’t… I mean, if this is all there’s going to be for us. There’s nobody I’d rather spend this time with. Even if you are a geek. And really, really horrible at flirting. You make up for it with good pancakes.” She gave him a peck on the cheek and walked toward the security office. They stepped inside to watch the monitor. Mace was concerned others zombie creatures would show up.
The camera showed nothing. Where the thing had been sprawled on the stoop, a hole in its head, there was now only a pool of neon blue blood. Mace panned the camera, but didn’t see any drag marks or footprints in the blood. Worse, the human corpse was gone, too.
Mace nearly shouted. “Peabody! Did your motion detectors pick up additional motion in the last five minutes?” he bit his lip.
“Yes, Mace. In the same location. I did not alert you, as you were already aware of motion in that sector.” Peabody replied.
Mace nearly bit his lip in two. He tried to keep his voice calm. “Peabody, rewind that camera’s feed please. Five minutes.”
The two of them watched as time reversed on the monitor at high speed. There was the blood puddle… the blood puddle still… the blood puddle… movement. Too fast to see. Then they could see the ‘dead’ zombie laying there. Mace said “Stop, please. Now play at normal speed.”
They could see the creature gnawing on the corpse. Within a few seconds, Shari’s bullet slammed through its skull, knocking it back onto its butt, the head falling against the door. It still gripped the dead human in its claws. There was no movement for a couple of minutes, then the door opened, and a massive pair of arms grabbed hold of the zombie, yanking it inside as if it weighed nothing. The human corpse was dragged inside with it, the door closing behind it.
“Holy crap!” Shari whispered. Mace agreed wholeheartedly. He rewound the feed twenty seconds and watched it twice more, but there was too little light inside the doorway to see what it was. He looked at Shari. “Whatever’s in there is way bigger than the one you killed.”
Her throat was dry, and voice came out raspy. “Its arms were… I’ve never seen one that big. And we just fed it friggin breakfast! If it consumes the one I killed plus the other body…” She didn’t finish the sentence. They were going to need to find a way to kill that thing.
Mace tried to distract himself. “Peabody, we need to change the parameters of your notifications. We killed the thing that was reading on your motion sensors. Then another, new thing set them off again. We need to figure out a way for you to differentiate.”
Peabody responded “I understand, Mace. I can see from the footage what you mean. There were two different contacts for the sensors. I did not differentiate between contacts because they shared a location. I will correct that error.”
Shari had collapsed into one of the office chairs. “We could burn it. If we burn the building, how much risk is there to this one?” Her voice was shaking. “I thought I was safe. We were safe. In here, I mean. That thing could walk through the lobby glass…”
Mace could see she was rattled. He tried to calm her, though he wasn’t feeling calm himself. “We would be pretty safe from burning. With the road and the park between us. But that whole block would burn. And the fire might spread through the city. Could even take out the grocery store. And disturb who knows how many of those things. Maybe take out other survivors.”
He crouched down in front of her and placed his hands on her knees. “We are safe. Even something that big would have a hard time getting down here. Sure it could get into the lobby. But not without us knowing. We won’t be surprised by it. Between us we’ve got the firepower to take it down. And it would take it hours to break into the elevator and get down here. Assuming it could survive the fall. We’re good, okay?”
Shari nodded her head, not saying anything. Mace didn’t blame her. While what he said was true, it didn’t make him feel better either. He n
eeded to distract her. “Let’s go clean up breakfast. No point in worrying about the big monster upstairs if we invite little ones in by leaving food around. Then we’ll get back in the game for a few hours. We’ve both got work to do, and we could use the distraction.”
He practically lifted Shari from the chair, and she followed him to the kitchen. They quietly cleaned up their breakfast dishes. When he walked her back to her room, she said “Are you sure? The thing won’t get in here while we’re in the pods?”
“I’m sure. I know it’s hard. But I’ve done this a hundred times, when I was alone. I had faith in the strength of the steel doors between outside and here. If it’ll make you feel better, lock your door when I leave. I’ll do the same. Make sure your radio is on your desk. If we get trapped in our rooms, we’ll still be able to talk. We’ll coordinate a way to ambush that sucker.”
He kissed her on the forehead and left the room, closing the door behind him. After a moment he heard it lock. He went back to the security office to check the cameras again. “Peabody, if your motion sensors trigger again, I want you to shut off power to my pod. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Mace. I recommend you disconnect the battery backup in your pod. If your intent is to break immersion, shutting off power will not do so with the backup active.”
“Very good thinking, Peabody. Thank you. I will do that.” Mace was impressed. The AI was thinking for himself. He’d made some tweaks to make Peabody more human and intuitive. Code he’d worked on in college that the company would never have let him apply to their AI. But the company was effectively his now. So Peabody was going to get to become a real boy.
Just in case, Mace picked up the police radio. “Anybody out there? Any survivors?” He half hoped nobody would answer. After his first encounter with the survivors that ambushed him and his party, he hesitated to trust anyone. Except Shari, of course. He repeated his transmission three more times over the next five minutes. When there was no answer, he set the radio back down.
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