by Dante Doom
"Right?" Sahara answered. "But we're good now. We've got the entire team back together and, pretty soon, we'll be out of this place for good!"
"Not too many left to fight," Fredlin said. "I'm reading that there are eight people left in the game."
"Seven!" Sang said.
"Haha!" Fredlin said, clapping his hands together. "Am I right in reading this? Did it just drop down to six?"
"Indeed, it did," Kylian said. "There's only one person left for us to kill."
"Wow, did we really pull this off?" Sahara asked.
Van wanted to smile, but he couldn't. While it was fortunate that there was only one person left outside of their own group, it still meant that they had to kill one more person. Hopefully, this guy would be deranged and violent.
"So how do we find him?" Sang asked. "If this guy is smart, he'll hide and pick us off one by one."
"I don't know," Van said. "Fredlin, you don't have any spells that could locate this guy, do you?"
"No," Fredlin said. "If I did, I wouldn't have been searching desperately for you guys."
"Well, we don't have all week to wait," Van said as he eyed his hunger meter – which was steadily decreasing. "If our characters starve to death, we'll die for real. And I don't know about you, but I haven't seen any food anywhere."
"That's not a problem," Fredlin said. "We'll just eat the dead."
"Whoa, that is messed up!" Sang said. "We're not eating the dead."
"I thought you were the more utilitarian of us," Fredlin said. But before everyone could get into a long, drawn out argument about virtual cannibalism, there was a rustling in the bushes.
Everyone drew their weapons and turned to face the bush. Peterson emerged, bloody and carrying an axe in his left hand. His right eye was severely bruised, and Van felt his heart sink upon realizing that this was the final player.
"Looks like you guys missed the big fight," Peterson wheezed. "We all just kind of went nuts on each other. Was quite the free-for-all." He dropped his axe onto the ground and took a knee for a minute.
"You fought well," Sang said as she drew out her dagger. "But you knew the risk coming in here."
"Come on!" Van said, turning to face Sang. "This guy could have killed me, but he didn't. There's got to be some other way!"
"Like what?" Sang snapped at him. "We have no other way. Van, I'm sorry that this guy has to die, I really am, but we don't have the luxury of saving everyone."
"She's right," Peterson wheezed. "Let's face it. I could come at you guys and fight. Maybe if I'm lucky I can get a wound in on you, but there's no winning this for me. There's no second place here, and I put it all on the line. I rolled the dice and lost. But at least I get to die an honorable man."
Van sighed. This was beyond unfair. He felt nothing but a primal rage directed at Draco for what they had done and what they were doing. They would pay for what they were inflicting on the human race, and they would pay dearly.
Van slowly opened his mouth to tell Sang to go ahead and kill the man in front of them, but he was interrupted by a sudden sharp pain in his side.
"Die!" Kylian yelled as he jabbed Van in the side of his back with a dagger.
"The hell?" Sang shouted. She was on Kylian like a blur, thrusting her sword deep into his stomach.
"Urgghh," Kylian wheezed as he fell onto his back, clutching the wound. The words Critical injury 75 damage hovered above his head.
Van grunted, but saw that the damage to his own back had been minimal. He had taken a measly 5 points of damage, but still, why had Kylian tried to stab him?
"He's bleeding out," Fredlin announced without ceremony as he pointed to Kylian's rapidly decreasing health bar. "No water to save him."
Van walked over to Kylian and looked down at the dying man. Kylian had a smile on his face, strangely enough. He chuckled a little and waved Van close to him. Van checked to make sure that Kylian didn't have a weapon, but then knelt down once he found that the dagger had slid away from him.
"Hehehehe," Kylian chuckled. "Those bastards didn't have a chance."
"What are you talking about? Why'd you try to kill me?" Van asked. The man's face was rather gleeful.
"Right before I jumped into this tube, they sent me a message," Kylian said. "They said they'd kill my nephew if I didn't serve them. Gave his real name, physical location, even sent me a photo of him."
"Why didn't you tell us about this?" Van asked.
"No time," Kylian said as he began to cough a little. "There was no time. That kid means everything to me. I'm not gonna let some game company kill him. I was desperate to figure some way out of this mess, but this… this is perfect."
"No it's not!" Van hissed. "You're dying!"
"Yeah, and for what? For that guy over there. The same guy who dragged you to safety, and walked right past me, kicked me in the side, and said 'oh you're alive.' A deal's a deal, though.'"
Van paused at that. "You're giving your life for this guy?"
"I'm killing two birds with one stone," Kylian replied. "I'm keeping Capello safe and I’m paying a guy back for keeping you alive. Van, I'm an old man. I'd rather go out this way than die of a heart attack."
Van sighed deeply. "There's got to be some other way, man. Please."
"Oh yeah, for sure," Kylian replied. "We'll just have a fairy tale ending where everyone lives and is happy. We beat the bad guys and there's no blood spilt on our own side. It doesn't work like that, Van. You're a sharp guy and a hell of a leader, but you're too naive. That Sang girl's got it figured out way more than you."
Van clenched his teeth. "But Draco won't know you're dead; they'll still think you're alive."
"They'll know," Kylian grunted. "They'll know. Goodbye, Van. Make sure you disconnect Capello before the final fight. That kid doesn’t need to be wasting his life on a stupid video game." And with that, Kylian's health bar dropped down to zero and he ceased moving entirely.
"What a bummer," Sahara said as she dropped her head. "That guy was really cool."
Van didn't feel any tears welling up in his eyes. He was surprised, because he'd always thought he wouldn't be able to handle the death of a comrade, but all he could feel at this exact moment was anger. He felt the anger well up within him and it was unbridled. There was no time for sorrow. There was no time to lament the death of a comrade. There would be time for crying and weeping after Draco was utterly obliterated.
"Well, uh, that was an odd turn of events," Peterson said nervously. "I guess we win."
"Yeah," Van muttered to himself as he clenched his fists tightly. "I guess we win."
As they all looked at one another, unsure of what to do next, a loud trumpet sounded in the distance. It was quite loud, and it continued to blare for a few minutes.
"Congratulations!" said a disembodied voice. "You five have achieved what a great many have failed to achieve! You have won the End of Ages Tournament, and in the process, you have earned a seat at the hand of Draco. You are now members of the elite – you are Draco professionals, and the world itself will tremble before your glory!"
The word Congratulations appeared high above them and a few fireworks began going off in the background. Van felt sick as he watched the sparkling word bounce happily above them.
"Each of you will be receiving a packet that details what it means to be a part of Draco. But first, we must warn you: for security reasons, we would highly suggest that all of you log out and review your packet. The feast begins tonight at 8 p.m. and will last until midnight. You will have the instructions on how to reach the feast's location in your packet. Thank you for your hard work; now, get some rest. You deserve it."
The words You can Log Out! appeared in front of Van. The ability to leave the game had been disabled for way too long, and he was relieved to see that this wasn't some kind of sick trick. They had managed to sneak past Draco's system. A pdf document was sent to his character email and he quickly opened it up to read through it. There was quite a bit of information
to be consumed, but the very first section talked about Secure Zones.
"All Draco pro's are highly encouraged to immediately find a secure zone," the document read. There was a large picture of a map of the United States with seven areas highlighted across the country. "These security zones are designated to protect your server access while we upgrade. Each secure zone is a hotel where all of your expenses, and even incidentals, are covered. Please enjoy your week-long vacation. Plane tickets will be provided to those who cannot afford them, and reimbursement will be given to those who request it. The server upgrades will begin at midnight tonight; please be in a secure zone by that point if you wish to continue your employment as a Draco professional."
"Oh crap," Van muttered as he read the document. 'Server upgrade' sounded like a euphemism for the utter destruction of the United States.
"Free hotel for a week?" Peterson said. "Now that's a good deal!"
"Yeah," Sang said as she also read the document. "You could say it's the deal of a lifetime."
Chapter Twelve
"We've got four hours!" Van said as he paced back and forth in his bedroom. "Four hours before the feast."
"Yeah," Sang said. She was sitting on his bed and reading through a print-out of the New Pro Primer they had received. "This is so fascinating. The instructions are so innocuous sounding, but if you actually know what's going on, you can totally pick up on the fact that the end of the world is about to happen."
"I'm freaking out here," Van said.
"I am, too," Sang replied as she flipped through another page.
"You are not freaking out," Van said. "You're sitting there, calm as a clam, reading! How can you read at a time like this?"
"Because reading is the only way we're going to figure out how to move Bidane's forces right over to the Feast Hall," Sang replied.
"We're on the edge here," Van said. "We're so close."
"Yup," Sang said. Her expression never changed as she continued to focus on the document. Van could not believe how composed she was at this moment.
"I don't understand how you're this calm," Van said as he sat on the bed next to her. He bounced up and down a little bit.
"It's like this," Sang said without looking up at him. "I can freak out right now and cost us the mission, or I can freak out later when it won't cause the doom of all of humanity. You can't do anything until we've deciphered this document, so you have plenty of free time to lose your freaking mind. If you were busy doing something and I had time to relax, I'd be freaking out instead of you."
"Oh," Van said, breathing in sharply. The anxiety was killing him. "Yeah, that makes sense. I guess that makes a lot of sense."
"I think I've figured out how we can get the Iron Dragons to the feast hall," Sang said, "but it's gonna take some work on my part. Do me a favor? Go find Neil and ask him what they learned from the mole."
Van nodded. "Sure thing, Sang," he said as he stood to his feet. He started to walk off, but paused. He looked back at her. "Hey, I just want to say that, back there, that… that was a really rough situation to be in. I don't know if we would have survived without you. Thanks."
"You're welcome," Sang said without looking at him. "Now go find Neil."
Van walked off, thinking hard about what the future would hold for him. They were on the edge here. All they had to do was figure out a route to get the Iron Dragons into position, and then they would be set. The fight against the Dragon Emperor would be intense, but Van was confident that he could win. The plan was a simple one, really. They wouldn't activate the lethal system until the last minute, leaving the Emperor overconfident. If he wasn't feeling any real threat, he would most likely just toy around with the Iron Dragons. Then, in the last possible second, everything would become lethal and he wouldn't have enough time to react. The death of a leader would be enough, Van thought, to throw everything into chaos. At least, Van hoped that would be the case.
Van reached one of the staff rooms and looked at the man who was standing guard. He was armed with a rifle and was waiting patiently. There were soldiers from the military all over the place, but since Sang had told him about the nutjob who'd shot himself, Van was extra cautious around them.
Van nodded at the guard and opened the door to see Neil and O'Hara sitting at a table, eating ice cream.
"There he is!" Neil said. "The man of the hour! I heard you led your team to real victory in that virtual puzzle thing!"
"It was a group effort," Van replied as he sat down across from the two. They were both scooping Neapolitan out of a large cardboard container. There were quite a few bowls in the center of the table, and Van reached for one, only to be slapped away by O'Hara.
"That's for the staff only," O'Hara said.
"I'm technically staff here," Van said. "In fact, I'm running this whole thing."
"That is true," Neil said. "This might be the painkillers talking, but we should let the guy have a bowl."
"Okay, now I definitely know those are the painkillers talking," Van said as he reached out to grab a bowl again. "But I'll take advantage of you while you're not lucid."
O'Hara reluctantly put a few scoops of ice cream into Van's bowl and threw a plastic spoon over to him. He still had no idea why these two didn't seem to like him, but he was so used to it at this point that he no longer bothered to try and figure it out.
"So what's the deal with this mole?" Van asked.
"Ah yes," Neil said. "What is the deal, indeed? Here's the problem, Van… so, it appears that Draco was somehow able to get a few people in the operations room to agree to treason so that they could secure a spot for themselves in the new world order."
"Sang told me about that," Van replied.
"Yeah, and now we're in an interesting situation because we have the power to screw with Draco's communication lines," O'Hara said. "One of the spies, Kenza, is being super-cooperative. That means we can leak information through her."
"And you think we can still trust her?"
"Treason can carry the death penalty," Neil said, "so she's got plenty of incentive to do what we want."
"Well, once we can locate where this feast is, we're going to need to convince Draco that the Iron Dragons are moving elsewhere," Van said.
"We managed to get the location of a few Designated Reality Zones," O'Hara said. "Maybe we can tell Draco that the Iron Dragons are moving into one of those areas."
"But we're going to need to actually send a few people in that direction for it to be believable," Van said. "Draco might assume we're hiding our numbers, but if they don't see anyone at all going there, they might not believe us."
"Good thinking," Neil said as he leaned forward and placed his hands on his head. "Maybe… maybe we can lie about your identities, too. Draco's been scrambling to find you guys. The tournament was organized to draw your characters in, but they panicked once they realized you were incognito."
"Still can't locate us?" Van asked. "I can't believe how well this is working."
"They got lazy," O'Hara said. "They assumed that their spies were perfectly hidden in plain sight here. Now we've got the upper hand. At least until midnight."
"Yeah," Van said.
"Do you mind excusing me and Van?" Neil abruptly asked. "We gotta have a heart-to-heart here."
O'Hara chuckled. "Sure thing."
Van sighed deeply as O'Hara got up and left the staff room. He knew there was going to be a torrent of threats and probably violence directed at him if Neil wanted to talk to him alone. Why couldn't they be nicer to him?
"So, how you feeling about the whole end of the world thing?" Neil asked as he continued to eat his ice cream.
"Oh, I'm feeling good about it; I think we can win this one," Van said. "We're going to be in—"
"Not what I was talking about," Neil replied. His head was down and he wasn't making eye contact with Van. "I meant about the end of your world."
"Oh…" Van answered. "You're talking about the game being deactivated."
"Yeah," Neil said. "I know you've been in that thing for most of your life, and Sang said you're pretty stressed out about the whole thing. I just wanted to check in and make sure you're okay."
"Neil, I don't care what kind of medication your own – I know for a fact that you don't care about me," Van said.
"Oh, I care about you alright," Neil said. "I care about you finishing the mission. I care about you to the extent that you've done a job so far and thus don't deserve to be wailed on over and over again. Cut me some slack, man. I've come a long way from where we started."
Van shrugged. That was true. "I guess you're right," Van said. "Truthfully, I’m so freaked out about the fact that I'm going to lose the only thing I've ever cared about. I'm incredibly freaked out that everything I have ever known and loved is going to vanish tonight."
"I get ya," Neil said. "It's crazy how your life can change in a single moment."
Van raised an eyebrow as he watched Neil lean back in his chair and stare upwards for a moment. "Everything changes," Neil continued, "but you're just desperate to have it all back. There's a moment in loss, Van… there's a moment where you'll realize that you would do anything to get it back. But… you usually can't." Neil lowered his head and made eye contact with Van. "But in your case, you can keep the thing you're going to lose."
"How?" Van asked.
Neil shook his head. "You know how. You can screw up the mission, betray us, sell us out and let Draco obliterate the world. Then you can stay in your game forever."
"I'd never do that," Van said. "No matter how much I want to stay in the game, I'd never sell out the human race."
Neil chuckled. "You say that now, but you aren't at the precipice yet. It's really easy to tell everyone that you're going to jump off the high diving board, and you can even tell yourself that you'll do it as you climb the ladder, but…" he paused and narrowed his eyes, "when you're looking down, it's an entirely different story. It takes strength to make the jump. Real strength."
Van shivered a little. "You don't think I’m strong enough, do you?"
Neil nodded. "I really don't think you have it in you to betray everything that you once held so dear in exchange for this." He waved his hand around to illustrate the real world. "You're really going to go from a world where you're a powerful warrior to a land where you tire out when taking the stairs?"