by Jamie Davis
Hal's stomach rumbled, and he wondered what was in the bucket. He was hungry enough to eat just about anything.
Kay shot him one more look, pleading with his eyes for Hal to do something.
The guard rolled the cart up to the bars and stopped.
"Don't know why I have to feed you two," the man said. He ran a tongue across the few teeth he had remaining in his mouth to wet his lips and continued. "It don't make any sense to waste food on the condemned. They're only gonna shit and piss the food away when they die anyhow."
The guard began to ladle some sort of thin stew into two of the bowls.
Kay gave him another glance and Hal figured, what the hell. He might as well do something to liven up the time in the cell. As soon as the thought passed his mind, Hal heard the rattling slot machine in his head again. It continued rattling as he stood up.
QUEST ACCEPTED - Escape with Kay
"YOU HAVE to feed us because we have rights, you pig," Hal said.
The guard stopped ladling soup and stared at Hal.
"Did you just say something to me, dead man? I thought I heard the condemned speak."
"You heard me. We have rights. I demand to see my lawyer," Hal shouted. The rattling slot machine got louder.
"Oh, you do, do you?" the guard said. "What makes you think scum like you gets a fancy, high-class thing like a lawyer?"
"I know my rights, Jailer," Hal continued as he bent down to pick up the wooden slop bucket. "If you don't get me a lawyer, I'll throw the contents of this bucket on you."
The kid had sidled up to the bars, preparing to reach for the keys dangling from the guard's belt. He just needed to be a little bit closer. The guard ignored the boy; all his attention was focused on Hal.
"You throw that slop bucket at me, and I'll get some friends and come back here and beat you like you've never been beat before. Now sit down and shut up or I'll forget to feed you at all."
The slot machine rattling sound in Hal's head was so loud it made it hard to hear the guard's voice. The gist of what the guard said was clear as he picked up the bowls to pour them back into his metal bucket.
Hal decided to go ahead and throw the bucket at the guard. Maybe the guy would flinch towards Kay. He cocked his arm backward and threw the wooden slop bucket at the bars of the cell. The contents of the bucket kept going, even as the bucket was stopped by the bars. They missed the guard completely, instead of coating the floor in the disgusting mixture of piss and feces.
The rattling stopped, and Hal heard the same chime he’d heard earlier in the alley, but nothing happened, and Hal figured he'd lost whatever luck roll he had going. Typical.
The guard stared at him with rage, his face turning bright red. He dumped the bowls of stew back into the metal bucket and spun around in place.
That was when it happened.
If Hal hadn't been looking right at the guard, he never would have believed what happened next.
The guard's feet slid out from under him as he spun around in the puddle on the floor, sending him crashing to the flagstones. His head struck the bars on the way down, passing between two of them and lodging there while his body continued towards the ground.
Hal heard a sickening crunch, and the guard's body shook in a spasm once, then lay still, suspended partly off the floor by the head lodged in the bars. The guard's now sightless dead eyes stared at Hal. Over that image, in his field of vision, these words appeared:
100 EXPERIENCE POINTS AWARDED.
Skill learned - Taunt
KAY STARED AT HAL, too. His lips were moving as if he was trying to say something, but no words came out. Eventually, the kid found his voice.
"That was amazing. How did you know he'd slip like that?"
"You think I did that on purpose?"
"My father always said luck is..."
Hal held up his hand.
"Yeah, yeah, I heard you before. So, now what do we do?"
"Now we get out of here," Kay said.
The boy reached through the bars, stretching out his hand until he hooked a finger through the key ring on the dead guard's belt. A single yank pulled the keys free from the loop of twine holding them in place.
It took three tries with the massive iron keys until Kay found the right one for the lock on their door. One quick twist and they were free of the cell.
Hal ran down the hallway, past an alcove in the left-hand wall and started to open the door.
"Stop," Kay called after him. "What are you doing? There are dozens of guards through there?"
"What do you think I'm doing?" Hal said. "I'm getting out of here."
"If you go that way, you'll just get caught again. Come here," Kay said, standing next to the alcove off the hallway.
"What's in there?" Hal asked, coming back to stand next to Kay.
"It's the guards privy hole. I saw the guard take the slop bucket and dump it in here before you arrived to join me."
Hal looked at the hole in the stone floor. It was barely two feet across, if that. The stench wafting up from it was worse than the smell back in their cell with the spilled slop bucket. What was it with this place and the constant smell of sewage?
"You want me to jump in there?" Hal said pointing at the hole.
"It's got to go somewhere, right?" Kay said. "Otherwise the hole would fill up. My guess is it connects to the city's sewers. That means it has an exit or outlet somewhere along the way."
"Yeah, if you don't mind swimming in sewer water."
"You'd prefer to stay here?" Kay asked. "The rest of the guards are going to come and check on their friend eventually. When they do, you won't live to see the headsman. They'll find new and inventive ways to kill you here in the cell. Slowly."
"I don't know if I can even fit in there. I'm not as small as you."
Kay had already sat on the edge of the hole and dangled his feet into the opening.
"You won't know if you don't try. See you at the bottom."
Kay slid off the edge, raising his arms over his head to become as thin as possible and disappeared from sight. After a moment's pause, Hal heard a splash. He didn't know if that was encouraging or not. It could be nothing more than an underground cavern full of decades of human waste.
Hal heard noises coming from up the hallway. The door was opening. A voice called out.
"Hey, Griff," the voice said. "Did you decide to screw that kid after all?"
The slot machine started to rattle and roll in his head again.
Hal sat down on the edge of the hole sliding in until his hips wedged against the opening. He heard booted footsteps coming down the hallway, and he squirmed and wiggled for all he was worth. Just as he saw the edge of a boot pass the side of the alcove, the slot machine stopped with a chime, and he broke free. Hal dropped through the opening and fell into the darkness.
QUEST COMPLETED - Escape with Kay
200 experience points awarded.
Level Up!
8
HAL FELL through the darkness as the circle of light above dwindled into darkness. He was just about to think to look down when he splashed down into a foul soup of water and human waste.
Keeping his eyes and mouth closed, Hal swam upward until he felt himself break the surface of the disgusting pool. A voice to one side called out to him in a loud whisper.
"Swim over here, Hal. There's a ledge to climb onto," Kay whispered.
Hal swam towards the voice in the darkness as his eyes slowly adjusted to the small amount of light filtering down from above. He reached the ledge about the same time he began to be able to see some limited shapes around him.
Kay helped him climb up onto the ledge. Hal rolled onto his back and stared upward at the hole above. It had to be thirty or forty feet up. If he'd known it was that far, he wasn't sure he'd have made the leap.
"Come on, Hal," Kay urged him. "We have to keep moving. They'll figure out where we've gone soon enough. We can't stick around here and wait for them."
There was a dark opening at the far end of the ledge where it met the wall of the sewer chamber. Kay's shadowy form had already started to head that way.
Climbing to his feet, Hal put one hand on the wall and the other outstretched before him as he followed his companion into the dark opening.
Remembering his Level Up notification, Hal pulled up his character sheet while he moved along the narrow passage leading from the ledge. Even though the words glowed in his visual field, their light did nothing to help him see better in the darkness. There were, however, two new stats entries at the bottom.
NAME: Hal Dix
Class: Rogue
Level: 2
ATTRIBUTES:
Brawn: 8
Wisdom: 8
Luck: 18 -- +5
Speed: 8
Looks: 8
Health: 16/16
SKILLS: Taunt
Experience: 300/600
Attribute points: 2
Skill points: 1
IT WAS good to see his health had gone up on its own. He’d thought he might have to spend points on it to raise it higher. The new entries at the bottom intrigued him. When he focused on the Attribute and Skill points, a new notification rose into his vision.
ATTRIBUTE POINTS MAY BE DIVIDED up between attributes. Once spent they may not be changed.
Skill points may be used to learn new skills or advance existing skills based on your class or social position. Some skills may be learned by completing quests. Once spent they cannot be changed.
HE ALLOCATED the two attribute points to his speed and saw a defense bonus show up next to the new value of ten. He now had a plus one defense factor.
Looking at his skills, he had to decide if he wanted to learn a new skill or level up his taunt. Hal decided to learn a new skill. These were his choices at level one:
ROGUE SKILLS:
Pick pockets
Open locks
Find/remove traps
Hide in shadows
Move silently
Sneak attack
Dark vision
Legends and Lore
DARK VISION LOOKED PROMISING. Focusing on it opened a description.
DARK VISION IMPROVES a rogue's vision in low light conditions.
THAT LOOKED perfect for what he needed right now. He allocated the skill point to Dark vision and instantly noticed a difference. Where he couldn't see his hand in front of his face before, Hal could now make out the shadowy outline of his outstretched arm and was just able to see Kay moving ahead of him.
He took one last look at his stats and then let the transparent words fade from view on their own.
NAME: Hal Dix
Class: Rogue
Level: 2
ATTRIBUTES:
Brawn: 8
Wisdom: 8
Luck: 18 -- +5
Speed: 10 -- +1
Looks: 8
Health: 16/16
SKILLS: Taunt, Dark vision
Experience: 300/600
HE FELT MUCH MORE confident now he could see, even in a limited way, in the dark tunnel. Kay moved with confidence ahead of him, and Hal wondered if the kid had a dark vision skill, too, or was there something else helping him see in the dark.
Hal heard rushing water passing nearby as they continued walking. Eventually, the tunnel opened up to another ledge and a larger tunnel. Off to the right, Hal could see the black surface of the sewer water passing by. He assumed it flowed until it found some outlet to the sea adjacent to the city.
Walking along the ledge, the light brightened a little as they passed under a sewer grate in the ceiling above them. Kay stopped to rest in the narrow pool of light shining from above. Hal had to admit it was good to see a little daylight, even if he couldn't really see the sky itself.
"What’s next, Kay?" Hal asked. "Maybe we should find a way out of here and get ourselves cleaned up."
"I've heard there are people who live down here, inside the sewers," Kay said. "Perhaps we should seek help from them?"
"It's worth a try, I guess. It's not like we have a lot of prospects in our favor. I want to wash this filth off me. We need to find a source of clean water."
"That might be hard to do down here," Kay pointed out.
"Let's keep searching," Hal said. "Now that we have these drains from above along the ceiling of the tunnel, it will be easier to see down here. I don't think we want to head to the surface until it's either night or we can clean ourselves and change out of these outfits."
The stench of the sewers didn't seem as strong in the newer, more open tunnels. It might have been because the grates above let some fresh air in, or Hal's overwhelmed nose might be getting used to it.
Kay stopped a short time later and crouched down. He turned around to look at Hal.
"There's a person sitting on the ledge ahead," Kay whispered. "I can just make them out. What should we do?"
"Let me take the lead," Hal replied. "It's probably a homeless person hiding out down here."
Kay pressed himself up against the wall while Hal slid past on the narrow ledge. Once he was past, Hal crouched and stared into the darkness.
Sure enough, there was someone sitting in the shadows about fifty feet farther up the passage. He waited and watched for several minutes but whoever it was didn't move.
"Something strange is going on," Hal said. "Stay here. I'll be right back."
"No way. I'm coming with you."
"Suit yourself, kid."
"Stop calling me, 'kid.'" Kay said. "I got us out of the prison. I convinced you to distract the guard. I did it all. Not you. I'm every bit as grown up as you are."
One look at his companion's face showed how annoyed, and serious Kay was. Hal hadn't meant anything by what he'd called him, but it had obviously irked the boy. He'd have to be careful in the future. Hal knew he needed Kay to show him around the city until he figured out how to exit the game. Up until now, his only idea had been to submit to execution.
Hal nodded. "Sorry, Kay. It's a habit. I'll stop."
Kay seemed satisfied with that simple mea culpa because he pointed past Hal at the hidden figure.
"Let's go and see who this is."
Hal turned and started creeping forward, measuring each step, muscles tensed and ready to spring off in the opposite direction if the person proved to be a threat.
The closer Hal got, the better he felt about his sneaking skills. He walked all the way up to the person without being noticed. The figure still sat leaning with one shoulder against the wall, his back to Hal.
The person wore leather armor with a black leather skull cap helmet. Hal saw the boots stretching out away from him and what looked like a short sword in a scabbard at the person's waist.
Taking the final step forward, Hal noticed the different odor coming off the body right away. Perhaps the slight breeze flowing through the tunnel had shifted direction towards him, or maybe it was proximity. Either way, Hal knew now he was looking at a dead body. It hadn’t been a superior sneaking ability at all. Anyone could sneak up on the dead.
He placed a hand on the body's shoulder, and it fell backward to lay staring upward with vacant eye sockets at the ceiling. Hal retched and nearly vomited when a rat, disturbed by the intrusion over lunch, slid out of the hapless adventurer's gaping mouth and scampered squeaking away down the ledge in the opposite direction.
Hal's stomach roiled, and he took a moment to get control of himself.
"He's dead, isn't he," Kay said.
"Yeah, if it's a 'he' at all. I can't tell. At this point, they've been dead so long I couldn't tell who they were even if I'd known them well. It would take a medical examiner and a full forensics team to figure this one out."
"What's a for-en-sick team?"
"Never mind. Think of it as a special investigator or guardsman."
"Oh. Why didn't you just say so, then?"
"Like I said, never mind," Hal said. "Let me search him and see if I can find anything useful on the body."
Hal reached forward and started patting down the body, trying to avoid the maggots spilling off the corpse wherever he reached. He'd played a lot of games where he searched dead bodies. It was never like this. This was disgusting.
The betrayal of his stomach made him stop more than once. He'd retch several times, with nothing coming up because his stomach was empty, then he'd return to the search.
Along the way, he began to piece together what happened to this guy. It was clear to Hal whoever this was had been stabbed or slashed across the stomach. The leather armor was cut open, and there were bloated intestines protruding from the wound. He'd probably been injured up above and made his way down here to escape his attackers, dying in the process.
It was a reminder to Hal how realistic this game simulation was. He might have actually enjoyed it if he hadn't been trapped here without any explanation as to what was happening.
Soon he had a pile of useful items from the corpse. When he was finished, the only thing left was the leather armor. He'd left the leather breastplate in place. The armor was useless because of the heavy damage it had sustained. Only the helmet was usable, as were the boots.
He'd found a steel dagger. It seemed to be well maintained, too. He also found the short sword he'd spotted earlier. There was a belt pouch that clinked when he shook it. He didn't bother opening it. He didn't know the local currency and wouldn't be able to count it in the near darkness anyway.
There was a small backpack that seemed full of clothes and assorted other small items. Again, he opted to not to go through it then and there next to the rotting corpse. He and Kay could divvy it up later.
"Let me see what you found," Kay said pressing against his back.
"Hold on. There's a bunch of small stuff, and we can't see worth shit here. Let's move up the tunnel a bit farther and then we can see everything."
He thrust the leather backpack into Kay's hands.
"Here, carry this. I have the rest."
Hal walked along the ledge past the corpse until he and Kay found a pool of light filtering down through the grate overhead. There they carefully dumped out the helmet, backpack, and belt pouch and sorted their booty.
"There are two weapons, the dagger and the short sword. Which do you want, Kay?"