Mr. Johnson chuckled, his dry mocking amusement floating down upon them like ash.
"The goal of the raid is--" He paused for dramatic effect. "--for you to find out what the goal of the raid is. Good luck!"
Before any of them could even flinch, the walls burst into a blinding brilliance, and then dissolved around them, revealing a rocky desert. Gabby turned as the heavy crunch of rapid footfalls approached.
She had only moments to register the massive blade before she leapt away, avoiding an early exit. The sword impacted the ground, exploding sand and bits of soil in all directions.
Gabby rolled again, slipping under a giant boot and then back on her feet, sprinted away. She made for an outcropping of rocks as the giant lumbered after her.
She spied a hole in the boulders and dove in, scrapping up her arm and slamming her knee into a rock. Pain swam through her vision, making it blurry. Knowing she didn't have time for pain, she pushed herself further into the hole as a fist barely missed grabbing her.
Seconds later, a giant eye peered into the hole. The eye had a rough bumpy quality. Gabby could sense a grin forming on the creature's face. It was forming a plan.
Her heart sunk in her chest. Avony was probably cheering the giant to take her out as she escaped the area. Glad to be finally rid of her old enemy.
At this point, stuck in the hole with a scheming giant waiting outside to crush her bones, Gabby really wished she could start the level over.
Chapter Thirteen
Squished inside the hole, Gabby let a trailing thought remind herself that she actually wasn't here in a desert. Instead, she was probably sitting in the middle of the school gym. The eye-screens and sense-webs just made it seem real. That and the horrifying consequences of failure. Even though part of her understood the absurdity of her situation, she forced herself to focus on the Raid as if it were real.
And if what the Frags had said was true, then her life was in danger. Nevermind that she had no interest in feeling the equivalent of two giant-sized fists squeezing her guts out.
Gabby wanted to pull out her twin swords in case she needed to stab intruding fingers, but the confined space didn't allow movement.
She hated being stuck in the hole and not knowing what was going on. She needed to see, even if it meant the giant might grab her. Gabby pushed herself forward on her butt, keeping her legs cocked in case she had to lunge backwards.
At the entrance, the giant was no where to be found. Gabby unsheathed her swords and crawled from the hole.
She climbed on the rocks to get a better view, hoping she could move quick enough if the giant came back. The rocks were in the center of a depression. A dusty pond lined by reeds nestled behind the rocks.
All around her, rolling dunes were visible like waves on a tan ocean. The sky was a cloudless pale blue, stretching out in every direction.
There was no sign of the giant nor of her team.
"Great," she mumbled. "One minute into the raid and I'm already teamless."
A glint of reflected sunlight made her spin around. Unthar crested a ridge with the giant trailing behind him, sand spray kicking up at each step. Unthar would never be able to outpace the giant for long.
Before Gabby could wonder where the rest of the team was, Stephan and Mouse appeared behind the giant, chasing him. Bolts of frost flew from Stephan's staff, freezing the giant momentarily before he broke through, while Mouse was throwing daggers.
Even with the ice slowing the giant, it was still catching up. Unthar would be caught soon.
Then the nearby sand exploded as Avony burst from a hidden spot and ran right under the giant's nose, kicking it in the knee on the way past. It swung its sword, missing Avony and then hesitated as it decided which prey to pursue.
Unthar yelled a challenge and the giant decided to forget the girl in the skimpy outfit. Not wanting the rest of the team to have all the fun, Gabby leapt from the rocks and headed the giant's way.
Unthar faced the giant, blocking the huge sword swings with his own, much smaller, sword. The sounds of metal on metal rang out across the rocky sand.
Focused on Unthar, the rest of the team unloaded their most devastating attacks. Gabby lunged in and sliced the giant's thigh using the Angry Cloud maneuver. The blades seemed to slice through without doing much, but she'd been slow solving the neural shaping problem and that was probably the reason.
The giant seemed unphased by the others' attacks as well, shrugging off deep blows and Gabby knew they were more practiced at their class.
Unthar swiped impatiently between blocks, barely getting his sword up in time.
Gabby paused. Something about the giant bothered her. She remembered the bumpy profile of its eye.
"Don't just stand there," yelled Avony between flying side-kicks. "We've got to keep our damage up."
Gabby watched as Unthar's blade went through the thigh of the giant. Bits of sand blew out the side and when the blade was through, the leg repaired itself.
"It's a sand giant," Gabby yelled.
Avony dove over a side swipe from the giant. "We know that, you ninny."
"No," said Gabby. "It's made of sand. That's why our attacks aren't doing anything."
"She's right," Stephan yelled from the top of the dune. "But how do you kill a creature made of sand?"
Unthar continued to block the giant's blows, still making hurried strikes between blocks, clearly not believing Gabby or Stephan. If they couldn't figure out how to stop the giant soon, Unthar would wear down and then the giant would be loose on them.
Gabby wiped sweat from her forehead, smearing dirt across her arm. "I could so use a bath right now," she muttered. "Wait. That's it."
She ran toward the rocks, screaming obscenities at the giant. She kept yelling different sand-related insults until the giant noticed her. "Hey sand giant! Do you pound sand?"
The huge lumbering creature stopped its sword down thrust and glanced in her direction.
"I bet you pound sand every night!"
The sand giant ignored Unthar's cut through its leg and moved to intercept her.
"What are you doing?" Avony yelled.
The sand giant was quicker than Gabby thought, and she had to use a speed buff to keep ahead. She led it around the rocks, toward the pond.
"I bet you have the smallest sand--" Gabby's words caught in her throat as she rolled under a sword swipe.
As she approached the pond, she realized her mistake. Once she hit the water, she'd lose her mobility and be an easy target. Gabby prepared to leap when a blast of cold went by her and froze a narrow path across the water.
The ice wasn't thick, so it cracked under her steps, but she was able to make it a good ways across before the giant hit the water. Gabby didn't dare check behind her to see if her plan was working, instead focusing on balancing on the thin shaft of ice that threaded across the pond.
Bursting through the reeds on the other side, Gabby spun around with her swords in a crossed block above her head.
The giant waded through, slowly disintegrating as it crossed the pond. Stephan funneled his frost into the pond, freezing it around the giant.
The water wicked its way up the giant's sand body and the cold air froze it solid. The upper half of the giant slumped over, mouth agape, and icy mortis set in. Stephan kept up the frost until the pond was frozen solid around the giant.
Carefully making their way across the ice, the team examined the frozen sand giant. Its mouth was as tall as Stephan.
Mouse tentatively pushed against the giant's cheek with her dagger while Avony crossed her arms, smirking at Gabby.
"You just wanted all the points for yourself. Didn't you Gabs?" said Avony.
"We all got LPs for that kill. I don't understand?" said Gabby.
"But you got bonus points for figuring it out and making the kill," Avony remarked.
Gabby glanced at her LifeScore, it had finally turned green after days of gray and red. She'd gotten a nice bonus from th
e kill, though she was still way behind.
"Look Gabs." When Avony used that nickname it drove Gabby crazy. "We know you're way behind on points and will do anything to get ahead, including offing one of us so you have a better chance. So I'm just telling you right now, I'm watching you."
Gabby checked with the others to see if they were on Avony's side. Unthar was sharpening his massive sword with a whetstone, looking disinterested as usual. Stephan leaned on his staff and shrugged at her when they made eye contact, and Mouse stood quietly by the cave-like mouth, staring ambivalently through her hair.
"You've always done your thing," said Stephan. "I don't think you'll betray us, but I'm certainly not expecting you to be a good team mate."
Gabby clenched her fists. Her face turned red, so she stalked off the frozen pond so they wouldn't see it.
What gave them the right to judge her? Avony was a backstabbing schemer, Stephan an egocentric know-it-all, Unthar a muscled headed psychopath, and Mouse, well, she didn't even know Mouse.
She made her way to the top of the dune, keeping her back to them. Looking out across the dunes, the next one the same as the last.
Gabby wondered how Zaela was faring. She hoped her team was better. Knew it had to be better because hers couldn't be any worse. Gabby wasn't sure how they were going to get through the Raid when they didn't trust each other.
Her four teammates waited by the frozen giant. Beyond the pond and the depression, the desert seemed to be growing and the sky shrinking.
Dusty clouds were rising from the sand. Gabby spun around. The horizon disappeared in every direction, replaced by an approaching sand storm.
Gabby ran down the sand dune, shouting at the others. "Sand storm!"
They milled about frantically searching for shelter from the storm.
"Wasn't there a hole in the rocks?" Stephan asked.
"Yeah, but we wouldn't all fit. Unthar would be left out for sure," Gabby said. "We need to find something soon."
The winds rose up around them, the first edges of the storm reaching the depression. Sand stung their faces and whipped their hair around. Mouse was pushed across the ice by a sudden gust.
"There's nothing out here for us to hide in," Avony yelled.
The winds wailed and drowned out their voices. Soon they wouldn't be able to see each other.
Mouse flailed against the wind trying to get back to them. She was yelling something but they couldn't hear it. Gabby slid across the ice toward Mouse and helped her to her feet.
Mouse yelled something, but Gabby couldn't hear, so she huddled up with her.
"The giant's mouth," said Mouse.
At first Gabby didn't understand, so Mouse said, "The raid is called Asphyxia."
She understood what Mouse was saying at once.
Using their weapons, they poled across the ice. Wind gusts threatened to throw Mouse, so Gabby put away one sword and grabbed her arm. The two made it back to the others, who were huddled around the giant's mouth.
Gabby pushed Mouse into the mouth and motioned for the others. The others quickly followed to get out of the sand storm.
As Unthar ducked under the giant's teeth, the mouth snapped shut. Gabby nearly fell over as the wind stopped pushing her.
"You led us into a trap, you idiot," said Avony. "We're so debuffed now."
A faint blue nimbus appeared from the tip of Stephan's staff. "I don't think so," he said, examining the inside of the giant's mouth.
The darkness led back further into the giant's throat.
"Looks like we go that way," said Mouse.
Gabby restrained herself from giving Avony a nasty told-you-so look. It wouldn't help their team one bit if she did, even though it would make her feel good, temporarily, anyway.
Stephan took the lead, holding his staff before him like a lantern. The rest of the team followed him down the giant's throat.
Chapter Fourteen
Gabby knew Mouse had found the answer when the cave led back farther than the length of the giant's body. Plus, the air had an unnatural warmth to it rather than being frigid from being trapped in the frozen pond.
As they traveled deeper into the giant's cave, Gabby wondered where they were on the school grounds. She'd grown up with the eye-screen technology all her life and had played plenty of alternate reality games, but never before had one been so immersive.
Normally, the games painted over the objects that were already there. This one had painted over the whole world so she couldn't actually see what was there. Gabby had the sudden feeling that she was about to run into a wall and had to steel herself to take the next step.
When she didn't, she let out her breath and remembered that running into a wall was the least of her worries here.
Now she understood how they had hidden the wall in the mountains and Mr. Johnson had appeared out of thin air. If they painted a new world over her eye-screens, one mostly the same as the one she expected, then they could hide anything they wanted within the rest.
Is that what the Coders did? They changed the way people saw the world? That would explain why no one questioned the missing kids and families. They were too busy playing LifeGame to notice.
She wondered what the rest of the team would think if they knew failing here wouldn't just get them a lesser job, but result in their total disappearance. Gabby couldn't quite accept that they killed kids if they failed. They must be taking them somewhere. Probably huge automated trucks filled with the loser kids driving right next to the FunCars as people played their games.
The two bodies in the tent haunted her thoughts. They'd just been sleeping in a tent, no danger to anyone. And though the GSA was still at war with the Southlands, the two bodies in the tent had just been kids. Maybe it'd been an accident that had killed them.
She thought about Michael and his sister, Celia. She'd love to have some of her spy bugs right now. The tunnel was making her feel claustrophobic. They'd been traveling for over an hour now and no one had said a word.
When she was about to open her mouth to break the silence, she noticed a dim light farther down the tunnel. Eventually, the others noticed it too. A faint noise appeared as well. They each pulled out their weapons and moved more deliberately as they closed the distance.
The noise was human made and individual voices, shouting commands, condensed out of the clatter. Each of them was thinking the same thing and so hurried down the tunnel.
When they broke out onto a flat ledge overlooking a stacked town, Gabby was disappointed. She'd assumed the shouted commands had been another team. She had hoped it was Zaela's.
A crowded bazaar occupied the center of the town. Adobe houses stacked on top of each other like errant building blocks, belching black smoke that hung in a haze over the town.
The whole town sat in a huge chamber. A dusty caravan rolled out of a wide tunnel on the far end, led by squat four-legged creatures that resembled obese horses.
"This smoke is awful," said Stephan, holding his sleeve to his mouth.
"Probably dung fires," whispered Mouse. "No trees in the cave."
"From a sand storm to a shit storm," said Gabby, laughing at her own joke.
Avony sighed heavily, dismissing the joke with a flick of her fingers.
"Just trying to lighten the air," said Gabby, following up with another joke.
Gabby thought she caught Mouse smirking behind her curtain of hair.
"So what now?" asked Stephan.
"We don't even know what the purpose of the raid is," said Avony.
"Mr. Johnson called it the Asphyxia raid," said Gabby.
Avony squinted at Gabby. "Who's Mr. Johnson?"
"He's LGIE." Gabby quickly realized they would wonder why she knew he was LGIE. "I met him when I was late for the raid."
"And why were you late for the raid, again?" asked Avony. The others turned toward her, except Unthar, who'd been off to the side by himself.
"I was stressed from the constant grinding and took a joy r
ide in a hacked FunCar," she explained.
Gabby didn't think it would matter if she admitted the FunCar hack, since she'd already told Mr. Johnson. Only Mouse seemed to view her news favorably. For the others, it was confirmation of her normal deviant behaviors.
After a moment of concentration, Avony asked, "Do you think that Mr. Johnson designed our raid?"
Gabby thought Avony might have a point. Michael had called him retro-fantasy in the Black Gate. And Mr. Johnson had chosen to announce the start of the Raid. At the time, she'd thought it'd just been for her benefit.
"It makes sense," said Gabby. "He was decked out in some cosplay outfit with a magic sword on his back."
Unthar stood away from the group, arms crossed, staring at the town. He didn't seem interested in the conversation, which in itself, made Gabby suspicious.
"The name Asphyxia doesn't give me a warm feeling about this raid, given the max pain levels," said Stephan, interrupting her thoughts.
"I suppose it will allow us to metagame," said Gabby. "But I'm not sure how that helps us right now, except maybe to be on the lookout for the usual tropes."
Avony started heading down the hillside toward the town. "Let's see if we can learn anything in town."
Gabby was annoyed by Avony taking defacto leadership of the team, but she wasn't about to cause a scene about it. Their current level of cooperation was tenuous, at best.
They threaded through the bazaar, pushing past the townsfolk bartering for partially rotten vegetables and thread-bare fabrics. When Gabby stumbled against a woman, she barked an insult at Gabby, exposing few remaining teeth and a lazy eye.
The rest of the townsfolk weren't much better. Though her sense-web wasn't supposed to be able to transfer much smell, the thick odors of unwashed bodies and dung-smoke made her eyes water.
When they got stuck in the crowd, Unthar took the lead, barreling the townsfolk out of the way, under cries of protest. They weren't making friends already.
"Now what?" Stephan yelled over the throng.
Gabby remembered how games like this normally unfolded. "A tavern! That's usually where we find out what to do next."
Gamers - Amazon Page 9