by Dawn Chapman
“Yes, I have no choice. I need to do this before I return to save their village.” He waved a hand behind. “I don’t understand everything here as yet, but I’m learning.” Drayk tried to step away from her side, but she didn’t let him. Her hand stayed where it was, almost keeping him in place. The intoxicating fresh Jahie Belix flowers in her own perfume drifted his way.
“I want to come with you, but I can’t, I’m in here without the Guild’s knowledge.”
“How?”
“You don’t want or need to know details. You can’t know that if you are taken into enemy lines.”
“I get security measures. More than some might.” The interesting thing about Drei wasn’t just the way she looked at him. She was confident inside the game and outside. Drayk liked that.
“There’s a lot of adventures to have.”
“Yes, there is, but there’s a lot of danger too. So much so, I can’t tell you about it. I’m sorry. You’ve got to figure out stuff for yourself, or there’s no point to you being in the Game.”
“Marik said to think about what it meant to me, to them.”
“He’s a good man.”
“Why aren’t you here? If you care so much?”
“A little secret few know,” she said. “I was here. I helped Altus, and father, rebuild it after the first attack. Where Honray, the leader at the time, lost his life.”
“Marik’s your Father?
“A slip of the tongue.” Drei placed a hand on his arm, the warmth of her skin spreading through him. “Tell no one I said that.” Drei’s proximity set his heart racing.
“I’d never—I understand nothing of being in here. I only knew I needed to do it.”
“Ah, I forget you’re so new. Your body is immersed back at Altus’ underground base, the guild’s way of doing it is simple. One day in the game is half what your body goes through. Altus extended it to a quarter, so you can stay in game with him a lot longer than you might with us.”
“Does that make a difference?”
Drei paused, watching him Before she added, “Usually there’s a time limit, two real weeks in-game, so you have a possible eight weeks before you’d have to log out.”
Drayk smiled. “Gives me time. Maybe to keep Cale out of the war?”
Drei stepped away, moving to the water. “It’s poisonous, without the correct additives. I can spare you one pack.” She pulled a small package from her pocket, handed it to him before carrying on with Drayk’s question. “No, you should log out, go home, see Cale.”
Drayk swallowed. He didn’t want to think about that insinuation, that Cale might not see him again, that the war would take his brother, anyway. He’d better do something about that fact.
Drei edged closer again, teasing him back against the rock, resting her knee between his legs.
“I don’t know what I feel from you.” She ignited her hand.
Drayk choked back his sudden fear at her show of magic, but he asked. “What do you feel?”
Drei dropped the energy, but she didn’t move away despite his obvious squirming; she watched him. “I’ve never been this forward with anyone. I apologise.” She backed away just as he reached for her hand, interlocking fingers.
Drayk squeezed. “Me either. Maybe it’s being in here. Everything feels much more real.”
“You turned eighteen.” She smiled and ran a finger down his face. “I’d also say it’s due to the sudden output of your pheromones.”
“That’s it? So, it isn’t that I’m attracted?” He couldn’t do anything but let the heat rise up the back of his neck.
Does she like me? Inside the game, or out, or both? He thought for one moment about Altus, then pushed him away. There couldn’t be a future for them. Confusion spread through him all the more.
Drei settled some of his questions when her lips caressed his cheek, then met his lips with a kiss.
“Please return,” she said. “When you do, I’ll be there.” And she turned, swayed away once more. Drayk followed the curve of her hips, right down to the dual blades hanging at her sides.
He hoped she wasn’t teasing him. The smell of Drei’s perfume lingered. Her kiss ebbed with the tide of his heart. He touched the side of his cheek, watched until she faded into the distance. No doubt back to Haal and the Guild.
Chapter Eighteen
Leenz
It took them an hour to search the building for equipment and guns. They did find a small arsenal in the basement and helped themselves to ammunition, plus a couple of new rifles and handguns. Leenz also found a drive with the region’s holographic maps. “Very useful for your next mission.”
She could see the hole in Pierce’s skull; his brain still pulsated. The surgery had been weird, but not painful. She knew it hadn’t hurt him. The worst part for Pierce was losing some things he didn’t want forgotten. She now knew Pierce had done wicked things in the past, but he couldn’t remember them. And that was bad, for those memories had been quite a motivator. Pierce stood by the exit door, leaning on his rifle like it was a crutch.
“You ready to go?” she asked, better than questioning: Are you alright?
“You said something about eliminating pain. Can you really do that?”
She nodded, watching the stress cross his forehead. Humans were such easy creatures for her to read. “You in a lot of pain?”
“Always,” he said, trying to straighten. Couldn’t. “It’s getting worse. Only in my bones at first, but now everything I do aches. It’s not my body, you see? It’s what I do.”
Leenz stared, watching as a bead of sweat formed. When he wiped it away, she said, “Pain’s useful, Pierce. Tells you your limits. It’s not a bad thing. It’s dangerous not being able to feel.”
Pierce rubbed his neck. “What you did back there,” he said. “You took away some kind of pain.”
“No. I took away memories that caused that pain. Guilt, wasn’t it?” She’d already guessed it was, but hearing it from him would help eliminate this dividing gap, bring them closer together. “I took away the guilty portion. You still feel bad though, I can see it.”
“But I can’t feel the ghosts!” he growled. “Why not?”
She sighed, it wasn’t easy translating everything properly. “Ghost is just a word. This was telepathic residue, feeding off your guilt. Listen, we can talk the whole day, but….”
Pierce’s eyes narrowed, once more he pointed to his rifle. “I’m gonna kill you, Leenz. Before this is all over, you’re dead.”
Leenz blinked. “You can try.” She straightened herself to march straight past him.
They walked away from the base without another word. This had been the best idea she’d had, to study the human race up close. It proved not only to be rewarding, but extremely interesting. Pierce was such a complex character, she hoped he wouldn’t try killing her. Experiments like this would have to end soon; which meant she’d failed her mission, and Pierce had to die.
Leenz kept thinking about that pill she’d swallowed. Did he really fall for it? That it had an explosive in it? As far as she could tell, it had looked like any normal vitamin pill. The whole story was just her way to keep his hands far from her throat. One way or another, she knew he intended to keep his promise.
Chopper waited in the exact same spot they’d left him. He turned purple again when he heard Pierce calling. Leenz smiled. Pierce offered the growing monster a piece of his ration bar and rubbed his ear with affection. Some things are good in Pierce. That creature seems to be the only one bringing any of it out.
Leenz examined a holographic map while Pierce loaded Chopper with the equipment they had gotten from the lab. “We are going that way.” She pointed, toward a mountain range, southeast. “Up and down those hills are the only route. Your enemy must be on the other side.”
“Problem is,” said Pierce. “Will he still be there by the time we reach that point?”
“It’d be better if we could go by air, but I can’t fly one of those ferries
, not after what happened to those scientists.”
Pierce climbed onto Chopper’s back. “Are you sure? Don’t know if my boy here can run that fast. And, you’ve already made very clear, we need to stop every night, avoid the cold. Let me look at that map.”
Leenz handed it over. He analysed it for some time before pointing at something. “Odd. You see this?” he asked. It looked like an underground cave. “Looks man made. Bet this is some sort of an ancient crypt.”
“Yes, so?” said Leenz. “Just because there’s a way in on our side, doesn’t mean there’s a way out on the other.”
“But it’s possible,” Pierce consulted the map more and then pointed. “The map covers it up to this area, close to the point we need to get to. Rock is not that thick. Even if we can’t find our way out, we have enough explosives to bring the ceiling down, make our way out. Get to the other side in a matter of hours.”
Leenz considered for a minute. “I don’t know. It’s not that easy, blowing up caves from the inside.”
“But worth the risk.” He looked up, gauging the sky. “It’s going to save us at least a few days.”
Leenz shrugged. “Might work. If it really is a crypt, it must’ve been there for centuries, so we don’t have to be concerned about ghosts bothering Chopper. But…”
“What?”
“Araratian’s don’t bury their dead, let alone leave them for centuries without proper tending. If that crypt is on the map, it means people knew it was there. We could even find some archaeologists hanging around.”
“And what’s the problem in that?” asked Pierce handing her the map.
“It doesn’t list this as an archaeological site. Almost like people knew this place but avoided it. Not normal, is all.”
“Well, we can’t afford the long way. You coming?”
Leenz collapsed the map, jumped onto Choppers back. They rode for half an hour when she decided to ask: “Pierce, why’d you look at that kid like that?”
“What kid?”
“The green one, in the video. With the mark on his chest. It felt like he was somehow special to you. Why?”
Pierce stiffened in front of her. She held tighter but felt that made him even more uncomfortable. He didn’t answer for a while like he honestly didn’t know. To her, the Maxol kid was small, fragile. In a fight, he most certainly wouldn’t be a challenge for Pierce. There were many others there who seemed stronger, more prepared.
“I don’t think he belongs in this game. I don’t think he has the strength or courage to fight. And I find it offensive that he thinks he does. I want to teach him a lesson.”
So, I was right. Pierce grabbed Chopper’s skins so hard that the monster gave a yell and almost stopped running. Pierce caressed his back until Chopper returned to a steady pace. During those few seconds, Pierce turned his head to Leenz, who noticed his eyes were red, filling with water.
“Pierce…”
“What now?” he yelled, pulling away from her grasp.
Leenz thought, maybe I was wrong, maybe removing the guilty part wasn’t going to turn him into a more docile creature. Because now she realized, it wasn’t just the guilt that made Pierce the person he was. Something deeper was here, harder to extract. As they rode to the crypt’s entrance, she kept asking herself if she should have gone all the way, extracting a bigger portion, turning him into little more than a zombie slave. Well, it wasn’t an option now. She had to pray he’d not get them both killed.
Leenz suspected he knew the pill she took was a bit of a lie. It had been a nice touch, nobody could take that away from Leenz. But the small suicidal explosive she’d swallowed wouldn’t blow more than thirty square meters, and it was active only for a few hours.
Pretty much worthless, now. Pierce could kill her as slowly as he wanted without harming himself. And Leenz couldn’t stop thinking. If he already knew it, why is he waiting to finish me off?
“There,” said Pierce, making Chopper stop. “The entrance must be in this area. What are we looking for, Leenz? Some sort of church, or just a hole in the ground?”
“A hole in the ground is most likely. Beneath a big rock. Red, shiny. Like a crystal. Let’s split up.”
It didn’t take long for Leenz to find the rock. She called Pierce, and together they moved it. The century-old air trapped in the dark tunnel burst forth, musty, damp, putrid. “Do you think Chopper can get into this?” Pierce asked.
“He might have some trouble passing through the hole, but once inside the tunnel should be large enough for him,” Leenz examined it with her flashlight. Quite broad, but it smelled terrible. “Hold my legs, Pierce.”
He did so, and she hung upside down, examining it in both ways. “Anything wrong?”
“This seems to go both ways,” she said, pulling herself back up. “We’re going that way. Lord knows where we’d get if we went the other. Let’s get Chopper inside, shall we?”
That proved to be more difficult than she expected.
Chopper didn’t want to go into a dark, muffled place. Pierce had to get in first, and waggle two whole ration bars to bribe him.
Finally, all got in, and Leenz turned their flashlights toward the crypt walls.
The lights showed them decorated with thousands of bluish bones. Generations and generations of Araratians. Leenz watched Pierce admire the body structure, which might seem fascinating to him, but to her, it was just terrifying. More than creepy, no doubt about it. But what else can we expect, so deep in the earth? Pierce didn’t mind walking in here for a few hours if that meant reaching the enemy faster, but, Leenz and Chopper did.
Shivers spread through her body the farther she stepped into the place, not so sure this was a good idea. Leenz hesitated. The whole thought of what this place was still frightened her. So ancient, there were no ghosts left, she’d reassured Pierce, but there was something else which made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
“Are you good to go, Leenz?” Pierce finally asked while teetering from one foot to the other. “I can’t afford to lose time if you’re going to keep walking at this pace.”
“Something is not right. Look at those bones.”
“What about them?”
“So many are broken!” She examined one sticking out of the wall. “I see mangled arms, fractured skulls… Not one of these people died of natural causes. And also…”
“What?” Pierce asked. She’d stopped walking. “Are you going to stay behind, try to find how they all died?”
Leenz jumped back. “Did you feel that?”
Pierce glared. “We don’t have time for…”
But then his brow furrowed. Chopper noticed what was amiss too.
The ground shook, ever so slightly. Then the weakest ray of light, came from their exit.
The ground kept shaking.
Leenz realised it first: they’d made it through.
“What the hell’s going on?” Pierce clicked a mag into his weapon.
“Hell?” said a voice coming from the other side of the tunnel. It sounded playful and menacing at the same time. “That’s the magic word!”
A hundred voices laughed together, and the place filled with a flickering orange light.
“What’s going on, Leenz?” said Pierce. “What the hell is going on?”
“I don’t know!”
“You’re fucked!” said the annoying voice from the other side of the tunnel.
“You’re fucked, you’re fucked, you’re fucked!”
They both jumped on Chopper’s back, who didn’t need their orders to start running away from the voice that kept repeating those words and laughing. They went deeper and deeper into the crypt, as the lights turned to orange, purple, and then red again. The voice was coming after them, but the laughs were all around the crypt. The skulls on the walls laughed too.
“You’re fucked!” the squeaky voice said, and it was reaching them faster than they could run away from it.
Leenz kept her rifle in her hand and shot
back trying to reach whoever, whatever it was. But the shots disappeared into the tunnel, and never hit anything. It was like they just vanished into thin air.
“It’s getting closer!” she said. “IT’S HERE!”
“You’re fucked!” the voice yelled, just a few feet away from them.
Leenz shut her eyes not wanting to see.
Chapter Nineteen
Drayk
Drayk hadn’t slept well, but when he woke, relief for his day ahead flooded his system. He checked the time; it was still dark, the sun barely poking its head up. There wasn’t much he needed to do but leave. Yet, his heart twisted at the thought. Leaving the relative safety around him would mean so much adventure.
He slipped on the clothes he’d been given and tucked the jumper under his arm before noticing a leather backpack. There was a note on it.
I know we can’t give you much, but here’s some small starter items to get you on your way. ~ Altus
FOOD RATIONS 2 x 7
WATER x 4
HEALING POTION x 1— AN OVER-TIME HEALING AGENT
CREDITS x 30
A BLACK CARD WITH GOLD TRIM
Drayk picked out the card and read—
First Sight—to see the trained or gifted—You may see a player’s skill sets upon first sight, unless hidden by a protection spell. Use wisely. Not all players will like this trait.
There were several empty compartments in the bag, so he had room for good gear, and he grinned, placing the water purifier pack in one. Almost within a second, he heard a ping.
WATER PURIFIER STORED
Then he saw something shiny by the door. He walked over, realising what it was: two sleek Kildros daggers. This note was from Drei, and he grinned.
He picked them up, feeling the weight in each hand. They weren’t of major quality, heavier than he was used to, but his stats wouldn’t help.
YOU HAVE BEEN GIFTED— KILDROS DAGGERS
QUALITY— IN NEED OF SOME REPAIRS
LEVEL 1— BASIC
+ 2 TO STRENGTH
Drayk loved the detail, and he skimmed the double-edged steel blade over to check for damage. One chip, that was all. They weren’t in a bad a state of repair. Just needed a clean-up. His eyes drew to the hilt engraved with a family name. He just couldn’t read it. With a flick from one hand to the other, he dropped it.