by Dawn Chapman
“If you close me up, we’ll get access to the robots through that device. We can stop this right now. But I think it’s staying inside me.”
“I know,” Altus moved into his field of view, “you’re your father’s son, so yes—if anyone can understand what and why that thing is there, I’d give you anything we have in this house.”
“I can’t stay. It’s not what I need. I have to complete this journey for myself, for Cale.”
“You really want to be here, to stop him from being absorbed into the war?”
“Yes, I think they’ll just hound us till there’s no life left. This system is dying,” Drayk said. “We need a better way forward.”
“The game won’t stop this, there’s no hope. You know nothing of this, do you, of New Ararat?”
A sharp pain erupted in his leg and Drayk winced. “Close me up, let this heal, I need to know everything that’s going on here.”
“Yes.” With the pass of Altus’ hand, another needle came out. Within seconds the drug coursed through Drayk’s veins.
“That’s good.” Drayk closed his eyes once more.
He felt several tugs and pulls, then Altus spoke again. “The larger part is finished, you need to heal on the inside now. I can ask Amy to come, she’s our Healer.”
“You have one here?”
“Yes, she’s mostly kept to the back of our group. She’s an amazing person. High level, but vulnerable.”
Drayk wanted to open his eyes to see what Altus was thinking, feeling. If he could. There was something here that he wasn’t sure of. But, he couldn’t do anything but fumble about. “I’m going to rest. Let me close my eyes for a while.”
Drayk’s focus blurred. Resting his head back, allowing the darkness to follow through, he did indeed drift into a semi sleep.
A dull sensation pulled Drayk from dreaming. Something floated at the edge of his vision, a strange glow. He coughed; his chest hurt.
“Don’t move too much,” a female voice whispered. “Allow me deeper inside.”
Had I dreamt these thoughts? About a Healer? Here she was, helping him. A yellow-orange glowed at the edge of his vision. “That’s different,” he spluttered. As he opened his eyes, he realized he was no longer on his back, but lay suspended a few feet from anything solid.
Panic set in, but the Healer, Amy, continued, “Stay calm, I won’t let you fall.”
Drayk sucked in a breath hoping to steady his heart, and his stat screen popped into view. He swallowed.
HEALTH—45/100
Drayk quickly read through the rest, instantly worried. His strength, health, everything was still dropping.
FOCUS—10/100
STRENGTH—2/10
“Talk to me,” the Healer said, “Tell me about Cale.”
“You want to know about my brother… now?”
“If it keeps you from dying, yes.”
Drayk swallowed. “We’re twins,” he said. “I’m older, by a few minutes. He won’t listen to me though; he thinks he’s the one who has to be in charge. He’s bigger and stronger than me, and thinks he should be the one to protect me.”
“But you feel you should be the one protecting him? Isn’t that what families are for either way?”
Drayk knew he did it for Cale. There were no parents to help, guide, or protect them, so they did it for each other. Red flashed:
HEALTH—48/100
Up a little, at least. With his chest still tingling, Drayk wanted to sit up, to move. “Not yet, just a few more minutes. Tell me about why you went to Hygon’s Guild. Your father was part of Hygon?”
Drayk thought back to the stories his father told. “Actually, I don’t know. I know the guild had trials. He told us many tales of how they worked, the kinds of effects he saw when he was in the game, but he never actually confirmed it.”
“So, you think he wasn’t? Do you think you might find out the reason for the device in your chest?”
“He wanted to protect me.” Then something clicked. “I think I… stop the healing now. Get me Altus, I need him.”
The woman fought to stop him from moving, to hold him in place with her magic, but Drayk was so wired up with this realisation he moved all hell to get out of her grasp.
When he dropped to the table, with a bump, he noticed at least he had underclothes on. He reached for his chest, not feeling any pain or seeing any blood or open wounds like before. He felt fully healed, but with a thought, he glanced to his health bar.
HEALTH—38/100
What? Crap.
He stared at the woman and stopped dead. Pink skin, pale blue eyes, a long white dress. She was also badly scarred by…what… burns? “You’re… one of them?”
HEALTH—35/100
“Human, Yes.” She stepped forward. “Please, don’t be scared.”
Drayk jumped off the table, backing up against the wall. “Get me Altus, I don’t have time for this.” This makes no sense at all. She was one of the species he’d been pitted against. The creatures who were working here, with the planet’s natives, creating altered DNA animals.
HEALTH—33/100
Altus whirled into the room. Drayk had so many questions, but not now. “Get me to a computer station, now.”
With a hand against the bed, Drayk managed to stand. Wobbling with Altus, he made his way out of the room and into the one adjacent.
“Here,” Altus said. Inside there were several large computer stations. “There’s an inline interface, if you think you can handle it. I’ll give you direct access to the game’s sliding door.”
“I can’t believe you get in here through a back door,” Drayk said, “illegally.”
“Without it, you wouldn’t be here. It works. It changes constantly, but it works. The more I work with it, the more I can do.”
Drayk moved to the largest station. “What do I do?”
“Just step inside. The systems will meld with you, allow you to see what it sees so you can access the device.”
HEALTH—28/100
This might be something different. Drayk took a weak step toward the circle on the floor, his heart pounding faster. Would this work out? He hesitated, unsure. With a breath, he moved onto the circle and immediately floated.
His stomach churned as he spun around and around. Then his momentum settled, as did his breathing. He looked to each of several screens that appeared in his view. Vastly different from the screens at home. He began to see patterns and code within code.
More screens appeared, changed languages, merged together, faster and faster. Yet, Drayk kept up with them all.
He noticed Altus moving to his side, watching everything he did with a smile. “What?”
“I’ve never seen anyone else interface with her before.”
Drayk asked, “Her?” Then he felt it, yes, the system seemed to have a female presence. He lost focus, the screen before him flashed red.
ACCESS DENIED
He input several notes, algorithms from their ancient language, tried again.
ACCESS DENIED
“Damn, I can’t get this one.” Drayk noted his stats once more.
HEALTH—20/100
“Pace yourself, there’s no rush.” Altus then did something Drayk hadn’t expected. He stepped onto the platform with him, they were both inside the system.
Drayk shuddered as the strange man moved closer, wrapped his arms around him. Altus clung to his body to support him. Skin touched skin, igniting something within Drayk he’d not felt before. He pushed it to the back of his mind and focused on the job at hand.
“Here.” Altus ran his hand down Drayk’s arm, taking his hand in his, starting to work through some of the choices. “A slightly different dialect than I think you know, this is local to the Palair region, not the Grolstat.”
Drayk breathed in. “Oh, I think I understand.” With some quick movements he input the reworded passcodes; a resounding click emanated from inside the chamber. “What was that?”
An image a
ppeared before them—his chest’s device—then a tiny red dot on its side. The dot blinked in and out. Altus worked to bring the focus on it. As the nanite increased in size, Drayk could see all its details, its one identifying mark…that of his father.
Chapter Fourteen
Pierce
There was no reason to handcuff Leenz, or even to have a gun pointed at her back. He might have taken a couple of minutes to rough her up had she been male. At least he kept telling himself that as pain spread through his body. It wasn’t just her punches and kicks that made his limbs—especially his legs—ache. That pain came from inside his bones. Pierce could ignore it by just focusing on the mission. It wasn’t as strong as it was annoying, but focusing might not work for long.
“Are you going to tell me what your next mission is?” Leenz asked, by his side as they moved down the hallway leading to Chopper’s cage.
“You’ll see in a moment,” Pierce replied. Her constant questions annoyed him. Everywhere he looked, he tried to devise a way to kill Leenz, yet escape from the explosion. Maybe I can convince her to ride Chopper, find a way of throwing her from a cliff. He wasn’t even sure if this game had cliffs. There must be but how far away? The task seemed futile.
The cages in the area were huge. Pierce caught himself asking what kind of creature they’d trapped here.
“You’d love to have had the chance to fight one of them, wouldn’t you, Pierce?” said Leenz. “Don’t know how long you’d last. I, on the other hand, eliminated all of those freaks, didn’t even cost me much ammunition. I just…”
“Shut your mouth,” Pierce spat at her.
She continued, “You are a race of horrific, manipulative children. This is what happens when your kind starts toying with nature. What’s the use of building strong cages, then creating something that can easily break out of them?”
Pierce stopped walking, grabbing her by the arm. “You think I’m stupid? I know it wasn’t just us who created this base. How else could you open and close my cell with your palm scan?”
“I reprogrammed it,” she said, staring deep into his eyes.
“Why would a lab designed only for human scientists have a palm scan that recognized a six-fingered hand?” he questioned. “The creatures you killed might have eaten the evidence, but there were a lot of scientists around here. I bet some of them were like you.”
He let her go, continuing the search for his assigned pet.
At Chopper’s cell, the big, stupid creature whined and wagged his tail when he saw them. “Good boy!” said Pierce, then turned to Leenz. “Open it.”
She placed her hand on the palm scan. The door vanished. “I’ve done my part. Now give me the details of your mission. That was the deal.”
Pierce sighed. “Are you just waiting for a chance to chop my neck? Or do you really want to come on this mission with me?”
Leenz’s facial features never gave away anything. “I swear on our moons I’m not going to double-cross you.” Cool, calculated. Pierce admired her for that.
Finally, after studying her, he said, “Seems to me, by giving you too much information, I’m losing all my leverage. So, instead, I’m going to take you with me, let you figure it out for yourself.”
She gave Pierce a smile. Not a humorous one, though. It would send a shiver down the spine of a weaker man.
“Very smart,” she quipped. “Seems like I haven’t much of a choice. Can you at least tell me where we’re going?”
“We are going to ride on old Chopper here.” Pierce rubbed the creature’s stiff skin between his ears. Chopper gave a throaty rumble.
“Can I at least have my gun?” she asked.
He thought about it for a second. The red letters from his second mission statement had told him, Conquer Mount 37, probably a laboratory base like this one on Mount 23.
There’d be a flying ferry to take him between the two labs, according to the directions he was provided. Pierce was ninety percent sure it was the same ship where he’d found Chopper’s lunch. He preferred to ride on Chopper’s back rather than taking his chances waiting for another ferry. It’d take him about eight hours, with maybe one stop to rest. Going through the woods would be dangerous. If something appeared on the way, it would be nice to count on such a skilful ally as Leenz. Still, giving her a gun wasn’t a smart move.
“You can have this,” he said, handing her his knife. “You pull it off when I tell you to. Clear?”
“Crystal,” she said. “Is there any space for me up there?”
Pierce mounted Chopped, then offered his hand to Leenz. “He’s pretty strong. I hope you’re not heavier than you look.”
She ignored his help, climbed on Chopper herself with a huff. “We are not used to riding this kind of animal, you know,” she squirmed around, trying to get comfortable within Chopper’s folds of skin. It wasn’t an ideal ride for two. “We prefer to eat them. Lots of protein in their muscle.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” said Pierce. “Hold on to something.”
To his surprise, Leenz wrapped her hands around his torso, her own sizeable chest pushing against Pierce’s back. She set her chin on his shoulder—a strange, yet sexy sensation to have an alien so close to his body.
Pierce savoured the moment a little too long. “Do you intend to leave this place today?” she asked, her breath tickling his ear.
“Let’s go!” he nudged Chopper.
Soon, riding across the Araratian jungle, Leenz’s body grew warmer than his, like she was going through a strong fever. Must be normal for her species. Pierce realized he had no idea how her body worked, and it made him feel guilty for enjoying their contact so much. Or maybe it was the outside temperature as it dipped? He wasn’t sure.
Pierce’s thoughts drifted as they lumbered in and around trees. His concentration kept returning to the contact between him and Leenz. When had been the last time he’d felt another’s warmth? He’d had his share of girls in high school, which now seemed like a million years ago. Totally different time, when the planet’s situation wasn’t important to us.
His memories from after the accident hit home. None of those girls had come to visit him. Some had sent him cards. Out of intensive, Wayne had shown up, bringing not chocolates or flowers, but snark and persistence.
“So, you want to be a Marine, huh?” Wayne quizzed while looking him over. Sitting by the side of Pierce’s hospital bed, he added with a shaking head, “I don’t think you’re gonna make it.”
Soon he forgot where he was, how badly he was hurt. They gamed for hours until the nurse ordered Wayne to go. However, he was back the next day, and the day after, and every day Pierce was at the hospital. And then, after he got out… And then… the memories faded.
“It’s getting dark,” said Leenz. They had been riding for at least three hours without saying a word to each other.
Pierce nodded.
XP + 261
MROVIAL RIDER— INTERMEDIATE
It was getting cold and dark. He shivered, wanting Leenz’s warmth around him. He ordered Chopper to stop. “What do you suggest, then?”
“We should camp for tonight.” Leenz pulled her arms from around him and slid off Chopper. “We could freeze. Night doesn’t last long, but it gets awfully cold.”
Pierce sighed. “Okay, then. But we’re back on the road as soon as possible. I don’t want to waste time.”
“Time is the only thing we can’t waste,” she said, looking around. “Lots of caverns around here, we could find some shelter. Maybe… why are you pointing that at me?”
“You don’t think I’m gonna let you choose the place we’re spending the night, do you?” A cold breeze touched his face; it made him ache. How could it get so cold so quickly? My suit’s supposed to keep me warm.
“What are you going to do?” she asked, moving in his direction. “Blow us up?”
Pierce’s finger was on the trigger of his gun. He wasn’t sure if he was aiming right, though, as it was too cold. “W
e’re riding some more,” he said, shivers reaching every part of his body now. Icicles started to form on the blades of grass by his feet. All very sudden. “Then… I’ll… choose a place for us…”
There was ice in Leenz’s hair, but she wasn’t shivering. “You won’t be able to ride for another three minutes without dropping dead. I’m more resistant than you, but even I can’t stand much more of this. You’ll have to trust me, Pierce. We’re in this together.”
The pain was so much greater in his bones, his breath puffing out in misty torrents. Even Chopper whined.
The red warning flashed:
BODY TEMPERATURE FALLING: FIND SHELTER OR DIE?
“I’ll take you to a cave.” Leenz said, hand on hip. “If you don’t, you’ll die right here.”
“Don’t you mess with me,” Pierce stuttered.
“I had the chance for that. Now drop your gun.”
“I’m… taking… you with me…” he said, feeling his legs shaking.
“You can’t even pull the trigger. Drop the gun. Now.” Pierce turned his head, saw Chopper staring at them. “Right now, you’re thinking you’ll hide behind Chopper,” Leenz warned, “But I can assure you, it won’t be enough.”
“Shut… shut… shut up!” said Pierce, turning back. He tried to pull the trigger, but his finger wouldn’t move.
“See what I mean?” Leenz was shivering now, too. “It’s not in my interest for you to die.”
Easier to drop the gun than to hold on to it. Pierce let it slip through his fingers. He fell to the ground as well and barely felt it when Leenz lifted him onto her shoulder and carried him.
Pierce woke an hour later, remembering flashes of Leenz covering the cave entrance with stones, leaving enough room for smoke to escape. Then a fire to warm them, and then—he’d edged closer to it, Chopper at his back.
Leenz added more wood. “In the Palair region, this is our winter. I’ve heard on Earth it’s merely a year’s period. For us, it’s a moon’s period, changes rapidly.”
Pierce got to his feet, stretching his muscles. Every inch of him hurt, but more so his legs. He checked his stats.
HEALTH—75/100
“Where’s my rifle?” At least his health was starting to build again.