Continue Online (Part 4, Crash)

by Stephan Morse

  “What?!” I yelled over the increasing noise. Hearing anything was hard. I turned to swing at one of the tiny creatures but it dodged quickly.

  “Hit them!” My niece pointed upward.

  I followed it and studied for a moment. They were moving quickly but some of the [Sonic Screecher]s paused on tree branches where they hung by absurdly long hooks. Both eyes narrowed, they were too fast and agile for my skills, especially in the dark. [Blink] went off and I found myself falling mid-air over a [Sonic Screecher] with a two-handed version of [Morrigu’s Gift] out.

  One got sliced, but the blade’s narrow edge failed to get any more monsters. I fell the fifteen feet down and thudded. Plant life nearby wiggled as something else burst through. Thick vines shot out and wrapped around me. [Morrigu’s Gift] twisted badly against some of them.

  [Ensnarement] [1]!

  Movement has been restricted. Escape mechanisms have a high chance of failure as additional layers of [Ensnarement] build up.

  Continue Online proudly explained what was going on while my eyes wildly looked around. [Awareness Heightening] was trying to kick in but kept failing. My real life worn feeling was translating to an inability to focus.

  The wrappings tightened around me squeezing instead of dragging me to some mouth. I felt thankful for not repeating the [Leviathan]’s innards dungeon crawl. Bits of plant roughly peeled exposed skin. My eyes focused on the two-handed form of [Morrigu’s Gift]. Its sharpened edge snapped another loop but more came out with a near hiss of movement.

  “Uncle Grant!” she shouted. I tried to turn my head but had mostly been bound. The vines knocked me over. My eyes scrambled for a spot to [Blink] to.

  [Ensnarement] caused [Blink] to fail!

  A box vibrated out of the corner of my eye. I growled at it and jerked my head around. My [Brawn] was over three hundred and fifty, my [Coordination] over two hundred and fifty, such a lame set of loops shouldn’t have been able to pin me!

  Beth didn’t look any better. The bats had successfully distracted us from a bigger threat. Her sword couldn’t cut against the edges.

  My health had dropped below half and the [Sonic Screecher]s were hanging around waiting for us to die. [Blink] went off with the fourth attempt, and all the bats were startled into motion.

  Something knocked again and the earth shuddered. Vines and bats that had overwhelmed us withdrew. Beth snapped her sword through the air with a frustrated yell. Bolts of light zipped off without a target, burning, freezing, and melting plant life all around.

  “What was that!?” My niece looked wide-eyed at the bushes nearby.

  “You didn’t hear that knocking?” I asked while huffing. My recent freedom had included a vague plan to save the day with vicious leaping at vines or slashing wildly.

  “No! I don’t hear the knocking!” She threw up her hands. “And monsters don’t just stop attacking!”

  The few vines we had managed to chop off or scorch were sitting on the floor. They rapidly turned brown and I stared at the bushes watching for a sign of enemies.

  “Arrrgghhhhh. And of course, there’s my alarm.” Beth stomped around looking like we wrecked her favorite doll by accident. “Argh. Sorry, Uncle Grant, I’ve got to log out. Mom will cut me off if I don’t get out of the ARC for homework and sleep.”

  She valued completing school over helping me rescue an NPC. I felt oddly proud of her ability to prioritize but wondered which one of us had more questionable ethics. Beth at least knew we were trying to get to an in-game friend for a quest, at least I remembered talking about it as we walked.

  “Are you going to catch up later?” I asked.

  “I’ll try. I’d like to see Xin in the game. To”—Her forehead wrinkled slightly and Beth chewed on her lip. Voices help my family, the nervous habit was genetic—“well, I want to talk to her. The whole thing with her is weird, and I want to see what she says.”

  “It is weird, and I understand.”

  Beth’s character pulled out a scroll then shoved one thumb at the parchment. She twisted it and purple runes flared to life. The avatar vanished in a streak of light.

  I looked around at the bushes and trees waiting for something to rustle, but nothing did. At least now I could move at my own speed, [Blink] and all. My path was forward. A few dead [Sonic Screecher]s lay to the rear. They would eventually fade away or be eaten by those constricting vines.

  My head shook. This was a world with its own rules. Monsters coming from nowhere then vanishing away didn’t have to make sense when I recalled it was a video game.

  The Temptress’ comments floated by my brain again. I wanted to be with Xin. There had to be some weird partial existence in which we could meet or cohabitate. It would great if we could hang in the ARC’s Atrium and watch a movie like old times. We could pretend to be one of those long distance couples using virtual reality to fill in the gaps. Our little home in cyberspace with whatever sized house we desired.

  I could find a neat program to outer space. We could go to virtual Mars. We could find a bed and maybe prove Mezo’s words of me being a prude wrong for a week or six. All of those would be awesome. Xin. Where was she right now?

  Another set of the stupid bats attacked. This one was easily bigger than normal. I waved at the small creature to keep it from clawing my head with those leather wings. Chirping noises filled my ears and I prepared to draw out [Morrigu’s Gift].

  A ball of fire came to in front of my face setting me backward. My brain tried to put two and two together and only came up with a fire-breathing bat.

  Large wings batted in front of me carrying a slim body. Dusk was far bigger than a bat. Nighttime forest traveling had played a trick on my ability to react.

  Dusk’s body glittered from the ball of fire in my hand. Small flakes of gold were more obvious as he hung there chirping in his weird catbird mixture.

  “Hi, Dusk,” I said slowly. My hand had [Morrigu’s Gift] at the ready. “You scared me. Is Wyl okay?”

  Dusk chirped once then turned to take three long leaps before flying away. I held onto the ball of fire with one hand lifted up and [Blink]ed alongside the [Messenger’s Pet]. There were no monsters in the darkness to keep us company.

  My black and gold buddy led us into a small cluster of trees. Wyl lay in the middle of two, vaguely sheltered between their thick trunks. The ground was stained with a deep crimson color. [Sonic Screecher] corpses were piled next to wolves.

  “Voices,” I uttered while Dusk chirped and spun nearby. His larger claws dug into the dirt. “He’s not doing well.”

  Wyl groaned then tried to sit up. “I’ve seen better days, convict.”

  “Hermes, please.” I tried to smile but Wyl looked terrible. His clothing had blood all over it. There were signs of a struggle that hadn’t been there while I drove home. Dead bat creatures littered the area along with a few brown vine ends.

  “Well you’re not Carver, that’s for sure.” He huffed while trying to sit up.

  “That I am not.” I have only a few traits in common with William Carver. Living up to his adventurous spirit had been hard to manage in the last few months.

  “Old coot.” He snorted while failing to stay upright. I put an arm under his shoulder to help lift. “I thought he was stubborn enough to live forever. He was an old man even when I was young. Figured he’d keep right on going.”

  “I’m really bad with first aid,” I told Wyl while bypassing talk of William Carver.

  “I may die, from these wounds. Like your buddy, that snake eyed fellow, he died too. Right after the quake that double soulless bastard shattered to pieces.”

  “He had two sons and a wife.” Those were the same words I had yelled at the Voices in my Atrium. They came out again with less venom than before. Wyl didn’t know, to this wounded man we were all people who had visited some sort of crime upon his world.

  “Why come to this hell if you’ve got a family?” Each word came out faintly with a drag. He looked pale from blood
loss. “Why taint our world with more problems?”

  How on earth could I tell this man that he suffered because we were playing a game? NPCs were my last real hang up about this universe, even knowing they had an afterlife like William Carver did. That river of forgetfulness where memories which plagued the living might be gradually scrubbed clean.

  I felt the scar on my neck then shook my head.

  “Wyl, I’ll figure out something, we can get you home to Dayl.” The man needed something to hang onto. “He’ll be helpless without you. Your son did nothing but repeat what you told him.”

  The man’s eyes blinked slowly. Wyl lay there against the tree and stared off into the middle distance. The former guard captain’s chest rose and fell slowly. For a moment, the movement stopped.

  “I miss my boy,” he said gently.

  Session Eighty One - Gotta Have Faith

  Tonight’s moon sat at nearly full and hung high above. The sun had gone down long ago. Continue Online’s time compression screwed me up, but the in-game clock showed slightly after midnight.

  “Just a little further, I see lights ahead.” I helped Wyl limp along. Part of me desperately hoped it was the journey and not my lack of first aid skills. His leg actually looked worse after my attempted bandaging but we had also traveled miles to the west.

  Dusk chirped once ahead of us. The [Messenger’s Pet] had single-handedly bathed three wolves and sixteen bats in flames. Wyl raised an eyebrow at the path of dead smaller beasts but otherwise said little.

  “Come on,” I said as Wyl groaned. Jostling him around might not be helpful “I didn’t drag you six miles to have you die now.”

  The exact total probably reached double that. I had carried Wyl in my arms like a four-year-old until the guard captain woke up and demanded to be let down. Emasculation wasn’t allowed, but it meant he was alive enough to care.

  I was concerned about getting help. That Voice, Balance, had told me that Mother’s plan would be based on our natures. Mine said help friends and find Xin. Wyl was Carver’s friend and had been mine for nearly four weeks.

  “Almost there.”

  The endless reassurances felt hollow. Wyl’s attitude felt indifferent toward eventual death. It was an air I knew, which made me dread getting back to [Haven Valley]. We still had thousands of miles to traverse and doing it by foot with him limping would be unmanageable.

  My [Messenger’s Pet] chirped once more. There was a blast of fire accompanied by vines rustling in retreat. The screeches of nasty little bats with hook hands faded as the critter destroying creature moved around. Dusk’s presence was enough to scare away all creatures smaller.

  There was a swath of waist high grass between us and the building. There were a few faint lights on inside the large steeple topped structure. People must be home. I huffed and tried to ping with [Sight of Mercari] and came up with a nameless dot.

  Nameless dots worried me. The blue color implied indifference which was positive. Dusk wouldn’t lead us toward a trap in most situations.

  “Come on. A few more steps. There’s gotta be something in here to help,” I said.

  The building was two stories and at least fifteen hundred square feet. There were multiple tiny shacks all about but looked like places to bed down. I could see the edge of a livestock area too. This biggest building had to be a town hall to the abandoned village.

  Wyl’s right leg hung limply as we walked the last mile. Color had left most of the guard’s body. I got to the door and bumped into it with my back. Only one person was inside and I didn’t have time to knock. The doors opened then slammed into walls.

  “I need help!” I hadn’t meant to shout. Wyl worked his legs unevenly the last few feet to a resting point.

  I made sure he would stay upright then looked around with my mouth hanging wide open. The inside was filled with church pews. Pillars held up a high ceiling. There was an overhead walkway on one side which led to a slanted window in the roof. Water leaked through the ceiling’s opening into a bucket.

  Dusk loped by like a giant bunny off toward adventure. The sound of his paws stomping around mixed in with the dripping and Wyl’s labored breathing.

  “Voices, tell me there’s something to heal with in here,” I muttered while walking up to the other church goer. “Dusk! Don’t eat anything that can help Wyl!”

  An excited noise came out from between rows of seats. He looked to be headed toward the one room in this place.

  “Excuse me, sir. Is there anything here that can help my friend?” Heavy panting made it difficult to talk. My legs felt like burning lead and there were multiple status icons explaining how worn out this avatar was.

  “Help is all around, Messenger,” the person said. His voice sounded oddly calm and drowsy.

  My eyes tried not to roll. Exhaustion and irritation made politeness difficult. I pulled through with years of experience. I managed to stagger up to his body and sit across the small aisle.

  “Please, do you have anything that can heal a body? He’s in bad shape, and I want to help him get home.”

  “In the end, death returns us all home,” the man said after another long pause. His eyes closed and hands clasped together. Forearms rested on legs with thin knees. Both shoulders tried to stay held back but were failing.

  He looked sad and tired. The clothes were oddly out of place in Continue Online. The black clothes with a white color would have been at home in a real church, not a video game one. I tried not to sigh. This man even had a hat sitting next to him that could have belonged to a bishop on television.

  “Have we met?” I squinted in confusion. [Identification] came into view and all I got was a message.

  Skill Used: [Identification]

  Name: Michelangelo

  Race: Voice

  Title: Voice of Faith and Sanctuary

  Details: [???]

  “You’re a Voice.” I backed up a step while trying to remember if this one had ever interacted with me. The name didn’t sound familiar. Any Voice with such a long name would have easily been in my brain. He didn’t look like a Michelangelo.

  “We are all Voices, Hermes,” the Voice of Faith and Sanctuary said.

  That didn’t help me at all. “What does that mean?”

  “You are born with a Voice, as was I. As were your companions though they may express themselves differently.”

  That sounded like a long series of platitudes that didn’t help me right now. I took a breath and rocked back to my feet. Eyes cast about looking for anything that might heal. Potions or bandages that weren’t dirty. Aloe or a fantasy version of it would be welcome as well. Anything to help Wyl. Maybe I could tear up part of his clothing. I could go topless myself and make a toga bandage.

  There was nothing behind me or up on the pulpit. I looked in drawers and behind tables. Most things were empty. A few books were scattered around. Flipping through revealed nothing of immediate use. The luxury to read was not mine to have this week.

  I turned back to the Voice and tilted my head briefly. “You aren’t the Voice of Healing or anything close, are you?”

  There was a pause while the man’s hands trembled a bit. He brought them together and looked up toward the ceiling then closed his eyes. I wasn’t sure who Voices prayed to.

  Thankfully Wyl was fading in and out. I couldn’t imagine the blasphemy he might consider a Voice sitting down here would bring. To me it felt like visiting a cousin I didn’t know about yet. This man hadn’t tried to throw me out into a reckless skydive while choking me, or suggested I kill a man, so we were off to a good start.

  “I am what I am, Hermes. As are you, as are we all,” he answered after a long pause.

  I turned over another pile of books along with each chair. No one had left anything. Maybe the room Dusk was in had something.

  “Dusk! Did you find anything?” I shouted to him.

  A frowning face popped up with its tail pointing toward the doorway. I took that to be a no based on the em
oticon and Dusk’s grumble of discontentment.

  “I meant something to help Wyl!” My clarification came after realizing Dusk might be searching for snacks. The [Messenger’s Pet] got distracted frequently.

  Another frowning face showed up with a double sized huff. Things were nosed out into the doorway. I went back to Wyl and checked on him. He pushed me away and kept taking slow labored breaths.

  I tried to calmly walk back to the Voice but ended up shuffling. “My friend, one of your people, could really use help. Is there anything you can do?”

  Michelangelo put his hands back down to their resting spot and kept his eyes forward. The Voice looked to be trying to connect with a higher power after every question.

  My cheek twitched in thought. Teeth wrapped around the lower lip and chewed. I couldn’t tell if there would be anything gained from him at all.

  “Where there is a will, there is a way,” he finally uttered the latest unhelpful line.

  “I want to help him, is there a way?” I opted to be direct. If people asked me questions then I answered them. Those lost in their own woes I attempted to help. Each step forward was one closer to Xin, but leaving behind Wyl to die would have been a betrayal of all I had done.

  Even if he was William Carver’s friend, and not really mine, I owed him and liked the man I had known.

  “You were right with your faith, Messenger,” he said. “There was a plan. It flowed forth right under our noses until James attracted our attention.”

  “What plan? It’s only been a few days, you guys looked lost.” I don’t think it had been more than two days of game time since my return. Time passed in weird clumps with the ARC. Both eyes drifted to the hole in this building’s roof to check for moonlight.

  “We do not see time the same, Messenger.” Michelangelo put his hands down and grabbed the hat. He smiled softly but nothing reached the man’s cheeks. “There is a plan. She moves in mysterious ways, but we’ve caught edges of the pattern from our seats upon high.”

  My eyes blinked and head shook in confusion. What in [Arcadia] was he talking about? I felt insanely out of the loop. Being trapped in that dungeon, kicked out of the game for two weeks, and restricted from any system tell messages from this stupid [Convict Brand] were limiting me.