Guardians of Camlan

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Guardians of Camlan Page 20

by A. T. Gilbert


  “Great.” He claps his hands together, looking around the hallway. “Everyone here? Let’s walk,” he says. “No, no. Don’t sit. Grab your things. Your flight is soon. There’s no time to dawdle.”

  Dawdle? If he’s so concerned with appearing young he should cut that out of his vocabulary.

  I grab the handle of my suitcase and drag it behind me. A week ago I would have killed to be walking alongside Jeffrey Talbot in the Toterra Online headquarters, but now … He walks three or more paces ahead of us, constantly looking back to check that we’re following. Theresa and the other Toterra support staff bring up the rear, following us and making sure we stay together.

  What is going on?

  He leads us through three more corridors, urging speed the whole way under the guise of wanting us to make our flights. This part of the building doesn’t look familiar, and I wonder why we’re going a different way.

  “I hope you all have a safe trip back, and again, we can’t thank you enough for your help. Your compensation should already be in your respective bank accounts and later today you’ll be rewarded with an additional bonus added.”

  He walks backwards for a few steps as he tells us all this, backing into the front door of this building and walking us out onto the pavement. I look around—there’s an awning over this cement curb and the door we just came out of is halfway hidden by some shrubs. Did he take us out a back door?

  Is Talbot hiding us from something?

  “Alright, everyone. Here we are.” He shakes each of our hands again. “The van to take you back to the airport should be here any moment. I’m sure they’re just running late. You’ll be fine. You can just wait here.”

  “Right, well, thanks—

  “Great. Thanks! Goodbye!”

  And with that, Talbot closes the door and returns to the depths of his technology compound, leaving us players to wait for our ride. To the airport, to our home towns, and then returning to the life we had left a week ago, before the Camlan Challenge, before this international powerhouse gaming company needed our help.

  Chapter 48

  Theresa waits with us for our ride. Goodbyes are awkward after the way her boss just unceremoniously threw us out. After only a minute or two, a white van pulls up to the curb.

  The six of us pile into the big twelve-passenger van, while Jack and the driver load our luggage into the back. There’s someone already sitting in the front passenger seat, maybe a bodyguard or another personnel handler of some kind. I haven’t seen her before. I climb over two rows of seats all the way to the back and settle in the corner. I am exhausted. The adrenaline of the game and talking to Talbot again has worn off and now all I want to do is sleep. I lean my head against the window. I want to be sure I can watch the Toterra Online complex as we drive away, but I’m sure I’ll doze off soon.

  Once we get to the road, the driver turns right, to go farther up the hill rather than down the mountain to where the airport is.

  “Hey, um. Is this right?” Balderdash13 asks.

  “Yeah, this isn’t right,” I confirm.

  The driver and the bodyguard ignore us, continuing the drive up the windy two-lane highway even deeper into the mountains around Phoenix. I unbuckle my seat belt, brace myself against the window and move forward in the van.

  “Hey,” I call to the driver. “You’re going the wrong way. You’re supposed to be taking us to the airport.”

  “Sit down,” the woman in the passenger seat says without looking at me.

  I’m all the way to the front now, bracing myself on the two front seats, leaning forward in between them.

  “Where are we going?” I insist again. “Where are you taking us?”

  The driver still keeps his hands at ten and two, his eyes on the road, but the woman turns to me finally. Her expression is bemused, not angry, but she doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to change her mind.

  “Asher. You’re safe. You’ll find out in just a few minutes, but you have to sit down. Please.”

  I frown at her but take a seat on the front bench next to TexBadass.

  “Seatbelt,” she says.

  “Where are you taking us?” I repeat. I don’t want to fly through the windshield if the dude decides to stop abruptly, but I’m not giving up. “We’re supposed to be going to the airport.”

  “Oh my god,” the woman says under her breath.

  “Where are we going?” TexBadass asks next to me.

  “Where are we going?” Erinocalypse asks from behind.

  “Tell us,” I say. “Where are you taking us?”

  “Look, kid,” the driver says, finally speaking. “Give me five minutes and all your questions will be answered.”

  The van rumbles up the road a little longer and I can’t even enjoy the scenery. What the heck is happening?

  “Are you guys even with Toterra?” I ask.

  Neither of them answers.

  The five minutes seems to take forever but harassing them doesn’t seem to help. Finally, up ahead I spot a black Lincoln town car pulled on to the dirt shoulder of the highway, nose pointed toward us. The driver pulls our van over to the same shoulder, parks and turns off the engine without saying anything.

  “What is going on?” Erinocalypse shouts from the middle of the van.

  The back door of the Lincoln opens and out steps a slim man in a tailored gray suit. His shock of white hair contrasts with his young face and throws me off. I have no idea what to expect from this man who seems to have kidnapped us.

  “Get out,” the woman in the front seat says.

  “Should we?” Balderdash13 says in a whisper.

  “What else can we do?” I answer. “We’re stranded here either way.”

  I go first, opening the van door and stepping out into the sunlight. I stay close to the van, close to my friends who are getting out behind me. I imagine one of these goons has a weapon trained on us, from some direction. Let’s just get this over with.

  “What is this?” I ask the white-haired man.

  “This?” he responds, amused. “This is an invitation, Asher Duncan.”

  “Yeah, right. Some invitation when we don’t have a choice.”

  The man strolls casually over to where the six of us are huddled by the van. I take a step back as he gets too close.

  “What is this?” I repeat.

  “This is a job offer,” he says. “My company, and gamers all over the world, need you.”

  Afterword

  Thank you so much for reading Guardians of Camlan!

  The adventure continues in book four, Fate of Camlan. Who is this mysterious stranger and what does he need Asher for?

  Join SirAsh3r and the party as they navigate the game outside of Toterra Online’s protective wing.

  Sign up for my newsletter for the first information of when the fourth book is available (planned for May 2018)

  Reviews and recommendations to your friends are what keeps books selling and what keeps authors able to continue writing. Just a couple sentences about what you loved about the book can make such a difference.

  Visit Amazon to leave your review for Guardians of Camlan here!

  (and if you haven’t yet, please review Quest for Camlan and Depths of Camlan)

  I’m hard at work on the next book and would love to know what you think of these.

  Guardians of Camlan: A LitRPG Adventure is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright 2018 by A.T. Gilbert

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial
uses permitted by copyright law.

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