Winter Harvest

by Dawn Chapman

  So much more to study and learn. I was sure I could sit here for hours poring over the numbers if I put stat points into this or that, what would then happen to my performance overall. I felt like I was okay, but that was because I was not used to anything else. That mana potion had done a lot for me. I wondered if I could get some more and witness what it did to the numbers.

  Jai moved to step before me. “You’ve a lot to take in, yeah? Even at the level you are, right?”

  I could only nod up at him, not able to assign anything. Just wanting to leave it till I felt I could put them where it mattered. Jai then sat before me, wrapping my arm back up in clean bandages.

  “Where’d you learn to do that?” I asked him.

  “When you’ve been around with a few newbies with weapons they don’t know how to use, you see a lot of injuries, and some more often than not, are just like this.”

  “Oh, did you help them train up?”

  “Some I did, yes. In fact, Naylar was one of my first students.”

  “She’s pretty cool,” I said.

  “She’s cool and she’s calculated, a pretty perfect match with Denn.”

  “I miss my real friends.”

  I saw his face drop. “Don’t get too attached. We have no idea why you’re here. I like to think maybe you’ll stick around, but we may just be a stop-gap. You’re here for something more than just to help us.”

  As I looked to each of them, I could see they thought that too. Perhaps everyone in this world would go through those stages of resignation at some point. Perhaps the easiest way to get through it and thinking right was the fact you wanted to get home, even when you learned the truth you actually couldn’t.

  I watched them as they looked on at me. They might have given up, but could I? Could I submit to staying here forever or until for some reason my death would be permanent?

  I sucked in a breath and watched them interacting for a while and resigned myself to never broach the subject with them ever again. It would still be my personal mission. My end goal because it could never be anything else. I couldn’t give up on my friends. My two besties would be going about their lives, and I worried for them and to what end they’d come to.

  The voices weren’t pleasant in my head. So many what-ifs, so many sad faces and people. Or were they?

  Ugh, this sucked.

  Rei came back over to me. “Thank you for everything you did here.”

  I shrugged. “I would have done it for anyone despite being in this setting.”

  “You’ve been nothing but a team player,” Jai said. I could see the apprehension spread across his forehead as his laugh lines wrinkled. “I’m sorry we doubted you.”

  He held a hand out for me, and I took it to shake rather awkwardly. “It’s no big deal,” I said. I pushed myself up straight and met his gaze along with Jai and Naylar’s. I replied with complete determination. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”

  “Good, then we have some work to do.”

  “Sounds good. Just keep talking me through what you can.”

  “Don’t worry, we will. Our world’s more structured around gaming now for many reasons, mostly because out here that conditioning helps you in the field. With this kind of tech, you need to fully understand how it all works.”

  That made perfect sense to me; we were all being conditioned to work better out here, to do better. It was a sad affair, though.

  “What do I need to do?”

  He slapped the side of my arm. “Gotta get you more confident, used to your body, and able to trust it will take pain.”

  “I dunno if I like the sound of that.” I let out a sigh.

  He grinned. “Only never trained someone with your skill set before. This could get interesting. First off, we need to get you fed up some. You need a lot more energy here in this cold. Your health’s suffering.”

  “Fed? I don’t see a lot around here that’s going to provide me with decent enough food.”

  “That’s because we have to go hunt it, and that will take some time, but it seems we’re here for a while. Might as well make the most of it.”

  I looked to Denn. Yeah, she was in a bad way. I was glad that she would be okay, though. “Then we start tomorrow?”

  “That’s what I like to hear! Rest up, yes. We’ll get something organised and out patrolling in the morning.”

  When he moved away, I leaned back and moved to study my character sheet some more. Eventually I pushed the screen away. I’d let tomorrow come and see what else I could learn. It would be my first outing with stats that could actually start to level fast, and I was excited.

  I closed my eyes, listening to the steady beat of Denn’s heart through the monitors across from me. Sometime later I felt a blanket or something wrap around me, and not stirring much, I pulled it tight.

  I’d slept okay, of course, with the meds and the new nanites doing things. I was physically and mentally wiped out. I would awake later when Naylar covered me up, and then I’d watched as she returned to the woman she loved. I had watched her for a while, wondering if my parents would be as attentive if it were me and wishing I’d just taken Lyndsey out and never let that stupid guy in the suit hit on her. It should have been me.

  Curling up once more, I remembered to hit my sleep timer. I missed Hiroto. I’d never had to do this before.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  “We need to go into the basement and get him some basic equipment and another hand, if he’s really going to take aggro for us.”

  I heard Naylar speaking to someone. As I woke, I could see it was both she and Rei.

  “I don’t think I should leave either of them.”

  I pushed myself up, feeling that my missing hand was at least growing back. There was a round stumpy thing now instead of a bloody mess. Though it still hurt quite a bit, it wasn’t as bad as it had been. I held it up and admired it. Then so did the others.

  “Okay, maybe not a new hand, just the basic equipment,” Naylar said.

  “No, if I need something, I want to go get it,” I said, not even really knowing what or where I’d be going.

  Rei jumped at my words, but he nodded. “I would agree with you, but it’s been a while since any of us have been down there.”

  “Do you know where I need to go?”

  “Yeah.” Naylar brought up a holographic map of the base, and I smiled. The tech was so good. I pushed up, moved the blanket, and went to stand before the map, trying my best to absorb everything it was.

  “What am I looking at?”

  “We believe this was one of their outposts. Seems some of ours were here for a while, and then it fell to the critters. Over the years, we’ve been asked to call for odd bits of equipment, sometimes things much lower ranks than we were, but now and then we were asked to head to specific rooms.” Rei pointed on the map several layers down. “This is where some of the basic training stores were. I know there was a lot of equipment there at one point, not so sure now.”

  “What’s down there?”

  “There were a lot of creatures and some larger ones back then,” Naylar said. “I have no idea now.”

  “Doesn’t the AI let you know? Or at least give you some idea of the levels needed to be in there?” I asked. I was presuming it was like a regular dungeon where you could only go in if you were high enough.

  “Yeah, my internal is saying you need to be at least a level thirty or with someone much higher than you are,” Naylar said.

  I sighed. “I’m neither.”

  “No,” she said. “But I am.”

  “Would you come in with me?”

  She smiled. “Been a while since I’ve been in a dungeon. Yes, of course, I would.”

  “I’m not much use like this, with this growing back.” I nodded to my stumpy arm.

  She tugged on her belt, and I saw the gun glint in the sun. “No, but you can still shoot, your aim might not be that good, but if you keep trying, you’ll get better. I’ll get us in, and I’ll deal
with most of what comes our way.”

  “Essentially I’ll be levelling off you then?”

  “Almost cheating, I guess, but yeah, you will be.”

  “It’s not cheating if it’s helping us,” I said.

  “Come on. Let’s get down there and see if we can find you some gear to match your skills.”

  That was music to my ears. This place was huge; there was bound to be something down there.

  Leaving the med bay and following Naylar made me wonder what trouble I faced. She was a dead straight poker-faced woman when it came to actually having to do a task. I liked to see how focussed she was and felt much safer with her here.

  In the corridors, things seemed to fade a lot. Dark wasn’t quite the word I’d have used for it. But grimy. And maybe something else.

  I breathed in, and the smell was just as rank as the way I started to feel.

  “Naylar,” I said. “I don’t like the feel of this place.”

  “You won’t.” She looked at me. “That’s the point. You’re not supposed to like it. This is a dangerous place for you, and your whole body is telling you to go back because you should.”

  I looked back to where we’d come.

  “No, I’m not listening.” I stepped forward and moved with her as she pushed on.

  I could almost hear something ahead, and she paused. “Hear that?”

  I nodded. She motioned to the other side of the wall, and I took up a defensive position, my weapon pointed forwards. I’d known how to be patient and to wait and fire when I was told to hang back, but I was so unsure here, with these new team members. Well. I was the new member, not them, but it felt so weird.

  Naylar moved around the corner, and while I could see her back, I couldn’t see what she was facing off against. All I could see was her firepower and her mana shield. This was so badass; I actually knew I was grinning like a kid. She was intense, and the shots and explosions before us both were bouncing off the walls, then something ran at me. It glowed in the dark like a round, floating blob.

  I aimed the gun and was so careful to wait until it was out of Naylar’s line before I pulled the trigger. Of course I was going to lose and not hit it, which I didn’t. I missed spectacularly, hitting the wall. The creature thing just continued towards me, so I lined up another shot. Missed again.

  “Duck!” I heard Naylar shout, and as I did I felt the sting of something shooting past me. A fiery blast, weapon—I’d no clue. I looked up. I seemed to be great at getting myself flat on the floor in the middle of battle, but this time when I fired the gun at the critter from below I hit!

  The tinge to the creature melded into another colour, and I laughed as it popped and exploded on me. Yeah, that was great. I was covered in green goo. At least it didn’t burn or do anything to me. It was just warm and sticky. Ugh. I coughed.

  “Come on,” she said. “That stuff will wash off, but it will also alert the others to a death and to where you are.”

  “Like when you kill a bee?”

  “Yeah, they have hive mentality.”

  “That sucks.”

  “It will when they all decide they want to come for us.”

  “Where we heading?”

  “Two more floors down there was a basics lab. I think it was experimental at some point, but we might still find some gear.”

  “Okay.”

  I followed her into a stairwell. I mean, a stairwell, why? Lifts? No, not down here. They could mean life and death. That would be a horrid thing.

  At the top of the stairs, she made sure there was enough light to see.

  Then she led the way, step after step. There were sounds above and below us, but she didn’t falter. As soon as something stepped out of the shadows, she’d nail it. I loved watching her react. She was so fast. I wanted those skills, and I wondered if I could learn to shoot like she did. To be able to do both, tank and damage?

  I guess I could, but if they needed me to do it while they dealt out, I wouldn’t stand in their way. I would try my best to learn from her, because if I was going to step out on my own, I’d need a little of both skill sets.

  There were so many emotions going on inside my mind. I was torn in a million places, and I didn’t know what to do for the best. I hoped I would settle on something.

  When Naylar turned to look up at me, I noticed the excitement in her eyes and her smile. She was totally adorable.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Thank you,” she said. “I think we were kind of at a stalemate in the group, but you’ve seemed to bring a lot of life back into us.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, that’s a good thing. We may have high hopes on you, but we won’t push you if we don’t think you’re capable of it.”

  I nodded. “Then thank you as well.”

  She patted the door in front of her. “This will take us two corridors away from the section. I think it’s clear, but I’m not a hundred percent sure. If it’s not, we’ll handle whatever it throws at us.”

  “Yes, we will.” I grinned. Then nodded. “Open it.”

  She did so, and the air rushing out was warm and damp. “They’re access to some rivers or springs down here?” I asked.

  She shrugged and moved inside the doorway. The light illuminating our path now was worse, but to my surprise, with the flick of her hand and a spark of mana, she brightened it up some, and we walked together down towards our goal.

  That was when the creature at the end of the corridor screeched and lunged towards her. I raised the gun and also let out a battle cry.

  She laughed at me and said, “Just keep shooting. It’s not going to take a lot to get this one.”

  I wondered how I could kill such a big critter at all, and why it was so much easier than killing other creatures.

  Naylar kept on laughing and stepping towards it, and when she stopped, it seemed to just get more and more annoyed at her.

  She turned and said to me, “Your turn.”

  “Oh. Not sure what you mean?”

  “It feeds off negativity. The more you think you can beat it by laughing, the easier and easier it will be to actually kill it.”

  Oh, that was interesting. I took a step towards it, watching its reaction. It tried to step towards me. It had nasty chomping mouths, and teeth, it kind of looked scary. When I was looking into its mouth, it seemed to be growling at me.

  Naylar said from behind me, “Start laughing, or that fear you do have in there will start growing, and it will grow with it.”

  I forced myself to think of the funniest and most stupid prank we had done back in school or even in college. It got a few chuckles out of me, and the critter started to shrink once more. Reminded me of an old film we watched as kids that had scared the crap out of me, and I wanted to run then too.

  When I got closer, it started to lay into me. Not with its mouths or anything, but with magical attacks.

  “It’s weak,” Naylar said. “Don’t worry about it hitting you. Even as a newb, you can take this now. The more you do take, though, the better it is for you, and the quicker you’ll start to learn and pick things up.”

  I liked this, so I let the assault keep on happening. It tickled, and I laughed out some more. I wanted to laugh with it till it died, but its colour started to change, and Naylar began to hit it with her magic. I knew this was small in scale, but she didn’t want to kill it without letting me get some experience. That was good. I knew I’d level with her, and hopefully, in killing it off, we’d both get some loot. Well, me more than her, but that was the joy of being with someone lower than you. You were helping them for better reasons so you could fight together and be a better team. The camaraderie was amazing in here. I loved it, and I’d not been here for more than a few days.

  She started to up her energy levels, and when she laid into the creature, a small bar appeared above its head that began to drop. This was fun. The bar glowed green at first, then started to diminish, turning orange.

  �
�Watch out when it turns red. They can try a last-ditch effect or spell to try and win.”

  As the bar turned from orange to red, it spat out a terrible-smelling liquid. I dodged out of the way quickly, and it missed me. Instead, it splattered against the wall. Naylar hit it hard, and its bar hit rock bottom. Then it keeled over and died.

  When it did die, there was a small shockwave of hot air, and a box appeared. When the body vanished, the box dropped to the floor.

  “Loot?” I asked her.

  She grinned. “Yeah, though we’re never sure what they will drop. So you go grab it. Whatever it is you can keep it. I’ve got more than enough gear.”

  I pulled out a silver-looking stick. Naylar whistled behind me.

  “That’s a Dukar Shield, it’s not quite the basic model most start out with, but it will also grow with you.”

  I giggled as it vibrated the harder I gripped it.

  DUKAR SHIELD NOT PERMANENT

  ARMOUR + 15

  STRENGTH + 3

  WHEN WIELDING THE SHIELD, YOU CAN WITHSTAND MOST ATTACKS. THE MORE ENERGY YOU FEED IT, THE STRONGER IT WILL BECOME TO A MAX OF + 35 ARMOUR AND + 10 TO STRENGTH.

  Then I noticed something else: it looked like a cloth. I picked it up, and she laughed. I mean, really laughed. It was nice to see, considering how much pain I’d witnessed on her face as she watched Denn through the night.

  I was so stupid.

  “You should put that on.” She laughed some more.

  I held up the loincloth and cocked my head at her. “You’re kidding, right?”

  Her laugh turned into a real belly chuckle. “Maybe the game’s designers wanted to see all the guys in stupid armoured costumes.”

  I looked around, hoping this was some kind of joke. But she just laughed harder.

  I turned away from her and let my trousers drop, pulling on the rather un-fetching underwear with one hand was so difficult, I wasn’t sure I’d manage at all. My stump had tiny fingers now, though even if I couldn’t feel or use them just yet.

  I hadn’t thought about how the cloth might actually react with my body. As untrained as I was, I flinched when it actually cupped my balls and seemed to then slide around and cover every inch of me. I gasped as the whole thing started to cover and then spread out, down and upwards. I then realised what it really was: a smart suit.