OtherEarth

by Jason Segel

  “Stay there, and don’t do anything until I tell you to,” I order. This time he keeps his mouth shut and obeys.

  Somewhere below us in the bowels of the cavern, a creature shrieks. The inhuman sound ricochets off the walls like it’s desperately searching for a means of escape.

  “For God’s sake, don’t damage them.” The voice is barely audible, but I have no trouble recognizing it. It belongs to Todd, one of the Company engineers who control Moloch’s avatar. “The guests go nuts for the freakish ones.”

  Whatever Moloch and his men have caught, it doesn’t seem to struggle for long. The screaming stops, and we hear footsteps heading toward us.

  “You know, these things remind me of cockroaches. Do you guys have cockroaches here? I can’t remember.” Each word grows a little louder than the last. “No? Well, they’re Earth bugs. Really nasty. Anyway, they’re hard to exterminate—just like the Children. Every time I come down here there are a few more of these things tucked away in the crevices. I never seem to get rid of them.”

  “Perhaps it is not possible,” says a second voice. “The Creator always said life finds a way.”

  “Yeah, and I’m sure you think that’s really profound,” Moloch sneers. “What you don’t know is that the idiot stole that line from Jurassic Park.”

  “What is Jurassic Park?”

  “Oh, shut the hell up, would you?” Moloch responds. “I’m so bored with you drones. I don’t even know why I bother making small talk. I bet it would be far more interesting to talk to them.”

  I stand with my back pressed against the wall while two creatures are marched out of the passage at gunpoint. It’s immediately clear that they’re neither guests nor NPCs. Though they’re both vaguely humanoid, one has four arms that end in insectlike pincers. The other is almost completely transparent. I can see its purple heart throbbing inside its chest. Right behind them is a clean-cut, handsome man in his midthirties. His khaki pants, navy blazer and crisp blue shirt would look more appropriate on someone sitting behind a desk at a bank. Only the flak jacket he’s wearing over his blazer conveys the dangerous nature of his current mission. As always, his name is printed on the front. It makes me think of his tower in Imperium, with MOLOCH written in blazing gold letters on top.

  Elvis points a finger at Moloch. He wants to know if he should take him out. I shake my head. Moloch hasn’t come here alone. There will be armed NPCs following right behind him. We need to disable them before we do anything else. I keep my back pressed against the wall, and as soon as the first soldier appears, I pull him to the side and slit his throat. Then Elvis steps into the passage and guns down two more NPCs. Moloch immediately spins around to face us, a pistol in his hand. Before he can shoot, I send my dagger flying in his direction. When it spears him in the forearm, he drops his weapon but shows no sign of pain.

  “Simon Eaton!” he exclaims as soon he gets a good look at me. “I thought you were one of the parasites. How the hell are you? How’s life on the run?” He pulls my dagger out of his arm and graciously steps forward to hand it to me.

  As I take my weapon, I see the two Children scuttle up the side of the cave and cling to the ceiling a safe distance away from us. They could make a break for it, but they’re clearly curious to see what happens.

  “Hello, Todd,” I say. Then I turn to Elvis. “This is Todd. He works for the Company. He started off as an engineer. Then he became a serial killer. Now apparently he’s moved on to genocide.”

  Todd shrugs humbly. “I guess you could say I’m always looking for new challenges,” he says. “But just so you know, I haven’t really earned the genocide charge. We’re not interested in eliminating the Children anymore. They’re a popular form of amusement for our guests these days. The most dangerous game, you might call them. We’re just here to make sure all the old troublemakers have been rounded up.”

  “You’re a monster,” Elvis snarls. He looks over at me. “What do you say we kill this guy in the most painful way possible?”

  “As much as I would love to, it won’t do anyone any good,” I tell him. “Todd isn’t wearing a disk.”

  Todd’s avatar beams at Elvis and me. “Who’s your little pal, Simon?” he asks. “Have you made friends with one of the guests? Is this a budding bromance I’m witnessing?”

  One dick comment deserves another. “Speaking of bromances, how’s your partner, Martin?”

  The avatar’s face instantly contorts into a scowl. “Dead, thanks to you. Wayne decided he was a liability.”

  So Martin’s out of the picture, but Kat’s evil stepfather is indeed alive.

  “Wayne had your buddy killed, did he?” I say. “I don’t believe I ever caught Wayne’s job title. How far up the Company food chain does someone need to be before he can start ordering murders?”

  “The people with real power don’t need titles,” Todd sneers.

  “Which means you’re not one of them. So is this what the big boss has got you doing these days? Massacring Children? Seems a little beneath you, if you don’t mind my saying so. But I guess there’s not much else for you to do now that your precious tech has been shelved.”

  Todd laughs. He sounds genuinely amused. I’m starting to get a bit worried. “You’re still a giant idiot, I see,” he says. “I’m just doing a little housekeeping before we turn Otherworld over to our two thousand guests. They’re paying a pretty hefty subscription fee to keep the servers running, so Wayne wants to leave things in good shape for them. But after this, I’m out. I’ve got a ton of work to do getting our new and improved disks ready to roll out.”

  “Roll out?” I was sure they’d given up on the disks after they closed the facility. How could they sell gear that still has a lethal flaw? “What about the beta test?”

  He’s enjoying my surprise. “It’s over, dude. We’re moving forward with minimum viable product. We’re just waiting for the new software to be finished.”

  “You mean the game that needs all the maps?” Elvis asks, and I nearly kick him.

  Todd’s mood instantly darkens. “Who the hell are you?” he demands. “What do you know about the maps?”

  “A hell of a lot more than I did until now, thanks to you,” Elvis says.

  “I wouldn’t worry about your next project,” I tell Todd. “You aren’t going to be launching any new software once people find out about the facility. No one’s going to want to buy Company games when they hear you’ve been locking patients inside capsules and experimenting on their brains.”

  Todd’s avatar tucks his hands into the pockets of his chinos and shakes his head. “Wrong again, my friend,” he says. “The facility is no longer open. We couldn’t run the risk that you or your girlfriend would tell someone what you’d seen. The whole operation was shut down immediately, and all but two of the patients were released to local hospitals. The only people we kept were Marlow Holm and your little ogre friend.”

  Gorog. He was the only disk wearer ever to survive his Otherworld avatar’s death. The Company thinks his brain holds the secret to fixing the hardware’s fatal flaw. God only knows what they’ve been doing to him—even though in the real world, Gorog is only thirteen years old.

  I feel my fingers clench into fists. The rage is bubbling up again. I’m not sure I can keep it under control. “If you hurt Gorog or Marlow, I will hand the disks and the projectors over to the authorities. Then I will come and find you and rip your fucking head off.”

  Todd laughs. “Keep threatening me, Simon, and not only will I personally dispose of both of your friends, I promise I will enjoy every second of it.”

  I can’t think of a single thing to say in response. I had an ace up my sleeve, but Todd seems to have the rest of the deck.

  “Yeah, I thought so,” says Todd. “Well, it was nice to see you again, buddy, but I’ve gotta run.”

  As his avatar starts
to walk toward the cavern’s exit, he looks up at the Children who are still watching us all from above. “I’ll be back for you soon.”

  “We’re really going to let that guy go?” Elvis complains.

  To be honest, there’s not much we can do. But I rush forward and grab the back of Todd’s flak jacket. “Not so fast,” I tell him.

  “God you’re such a dick,” Todd says. His avatar flashes and goes still. Back in the real world, Todd’s taken off his headset.

  “What should we do with his avatar?” Elvis asks.

  “Leave it here,” I say. “If we kill it, he’ll just get sent back to setup.”

  “May we have him?” says a voice from above. My skin starts to crawl. I’d almost forgotten the Children were watching.

  I scan the ceiling and spot two dark shadows crouched in a corner. “Sure,” I say. “Why not.”

  As the Children crawl closer, I start to question the wisdom of that offer. I’ve seen some creepy-ass creatures during my time in Otherworld, but these two make the others look like beauty contestants. It’s a struggle to keep the shock off my face, but Elvis doesn’t seem to be having any trouble at all.

  “Hey there!” He greets the two of them as if they were invited guests to his own private party. “Are you guys going to eat this jerk? I really think you should.”

  “We no longer eat guests,” says the one with the extra limbs. “It does us no good, since they provide no nourishment to us and cannot die. Ursus taught us a better way to deal with them.”

  “Ursus?” I ask.

  “Our leader,” she replies. At least I’m pretty sure it’s a she. “Have you forgotten? He took you and the girl to see the Creator.”

  She’s talking about the giant Child with bear DNA who guided me and Kat across the ice fields. “That’s exactly who we came to find,” I say. “I guess I didn’t catch his name the last time I was here.” To be honest, I wasn’t even aware that the Children had names.

  “He thought you would help us. Now Ursus is dead, along with most of our kind.”

  “Ursus is dead?” I don’t know why the news hits me as hard as it does. The bear dude and I were hardly friends. But the last time I saw him, I would have sworn he was invincible.

  “Ursus claimed the Creator was the source of our troubles—and he was. But the Creator was our protector as well. Once he was gone, there was nothing to stop Imperium’s soldiers. The Children cannot harm Moloch. The most we can do is inconvenience him for a while.”

  The Child sticks one of her pincers into her mouth and pulls out a glistening strand of silk. Elvis and I watch in amazement as she winds it around Moloch until the avatar is completely encased in a shimmering cocoon. Then she hoists the large package onto her back and carries it up the side of the wall, where she deposits it inside a dark crevice in the cavern’s ceiling.

  “Moloch’s men will come search for him soon,” she says, using a strand of silk to lower herself back to the floor. “Let us hope that the search does not end quickly.”

  “Now,” says a different voice. “Perhaps you will tell us why you are here.” I look around for the creature that’s speaking. Its translucent body has vanished. All I can see is the purple heart and the blood rushing through its veins.

  “We’re here to help you,” Elvis announces in what I can only imagine is his best superhero voice. Then his avatar’s head jerks back in agony.

  I’m about to rush to his side when I feel the sensation of daggers being jammed into both of my eyes.

  “Damn, that hurt! And why the hell am I soaking wet!” The first thing I hear is Elvis shouting.

  My eyes are still adjusting to the light. I’m blind as a bat and completely freaked out, but I can’t help but snicker. I made sure to relieve my bladder before I went under, so my pants are still perfectly dry. I didn’t bother to warn Elvis.

  “Hey,” Kat says. “Welcome back.”

  The most amazing girl in the world slowly appears in front of me. I lift up my head and kiss her. I wasn’t sure I’d ever see her again. “I’m sorry,” I tell her as soon I’m done. “You were right all along. We shouldn’t have gone to Otherworld wearing disks.”

  “What are you talking about?” Elvis demands angrily. “We’ve got to go back! I just told them we’d help them! We promised Volla!”

  It’s hard to be angry with someone who’s sporting a giant wet patch on the front of his jeans, but somehow I manage. “How many times did we almost get killed?” I bite back. “We can’t help anyone if we’re dead! None of us are going back until we get our hands on a headset.”

  “Okay, okay, everybody calm down,” Busara orders.

  “Just tell us what happened,” Kat says. I’d rather not go into it, but she must be able to read my expression. She knows it was bad. I never could hide anything from her.

  Busara, on the other hand, doesn’t appear to share Kat’s powers of perception. “Did you see my father?” she asks eagerly. “Do we know where his body is?”

  “We didn’t make it to the ice cave,” I confess.

  “But you were there for four full hours! What were you doing the whole time?”

  That’s it? Somehow it felt longer.

  “Simon!” Busara cries when I don’t answer immediately.

  She’s getting on my nerves now, and I don’t try to hide it. This is the same shit Busara used to pull when she was the Clay Man—criticizing my performance from the safety of the sidelines. “Oh, let’s see,” I say. “We were dodging bullets, nearly getting eaten by vines, watching the Children be hunted, having a pleasant chat with our old buddy Moloch.”

  “Wait.” Kat puts up a hand to stop me. Her face is ashen. “Back up. What was that you said about the Children?”

  I take a moment before I answer. I’m not looking forward to this. The Children are Kat’s special cause. She’ll be devastated when I tell her what’s been done to them. “Do you remember the story you told me about the time you came across Children being rounded up to be killed for sport?”

  I don’t think she’s able to speak. All she does is nod.

  “Without the Creator, there’s no one left to protect them.”

  “What about Ursus?” she croaks.

  “Dead. Moloch’s been taking all the Children to a realm called Karamojo where the new guests hunt them like wild game.” Kat gasps, and I grab her hand. “That’s not the worst part. I guess it’s gotten so popular that they’ve rewritten the code. The Company is letting new Children be created again so they have an endless supply for the hunt.”

  “Oh my God!” Kat cries, burying her face in her hands.

  “That’s why we’ve got to go back,” Elvis announces. “Right away. Our number one priority should be saving the Children.”

  “You’re being an idiot!” I tell him. “We can’t go back without headsets. It’s too dangerous!”

  “What choice do we have? I don’t have half a million dollars to buy a headset—do you?” Busara seems to be firmly on Elvis’s side now. I wonder what that means.

  “We’ll find one,” I say, though I have no idea where to start looking.

  “By the time we do, thousands of Children could be gone. And my dad might be dead,” Busara shoots back.

  “Wait.” When Kat lifts her head, there’s a determined expression on her face. “I think I have an idea.” She picks up a remote and switches on the giant television screen that’s mounted on the wall. “While you guys were in Otherworld, Busara and I caught up on current events.”

  Kat punches in the number of a cable news channel. The segment playing was filmed across the street from a humble suburban home. The lawn of the house is filled with reporters and camerapeople. There’s something about the building itself that seems oddly familiar. I’m just about to ask what we’re looking at when a chyron scrolls across the screen.


  MILO YOLKIN STILL HOUSEBOUND AFTER FIVE DAYS

  I’ve heard countless stories about the house I’m looking at. It’s part of Milo Yolkin’s legend. Everyone in America knew that one of the richest, most powerful men in the country lived in a modest home somewhere in the middle of New Jersey. But no one seemed to know exactly where it was. Now the entire world has found it.

  “You think Milo’s got extra headsets in his house?” Busara asks Kat.

  “Of course he does!” Elvis’s mood has brightened considerably. “And even if he doesn’t, there’s gotta be something worth five hundred grand in there. And who knows, Busara? Maybe that’s where he hid your dad’s body.”

  Busara snorts. “Why would Milo have my dad’s body in his house?”

  “Where else would he put it?” Elvis asks.

  “Actually, he’s got a point,” I say. “Moloch told us the Company closed the facility. And he didn’t seem to have any idea that your dad is still alive. I don’t think Milo ever told anyone what he did to your father.”

  Busara still isn’t convinced. “So you’re saying Milo Yolkin hid everything we’re looking for in a house that looks like it belongs to some little old lady?”

  Elvis laughs and gestures at the screen. “You think Milo Yolkin would be satisfied in a shithole like that? I happen to know a lot about crazy rich dudes, and I’d be willing to bet that shack is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s probably a bunker the size of Detroit underneath it.”

  “Yeah, well, whatever Milo had in there, the Company’s already got it,” Busara says. “I’m sure they cleaned out the place the first chance they got.”

  “How’d they get stuff out with everyone watching?” Elvis asks. “The building’s been surrounded by reporters for the past five days.” I should never underestimate him. The guy is a goddamned genius.

  “If the Company can’t take things out, how are we supposed to get in?” Busara counters.

  “Trust me, beautiful,” Elvis says. “Someone in the neighborhood will know how to get inside.”