“Yeah, thanks.” Dale looked around. “What do you think Smith?”
“I vote left, too.” He said.
“Why?”
“Because it looks like a bigger and more used trail. So it will probably be easier to get where we’re going.”
“Okay, left it is.”
They walked in a single file line. Dale took the point.
He tripped over a vine and heard two things. The first thing was clanging metal, the vine was a trip wire, the second noise sounded like a mad guard dog protecting its yard.
“It’s getting closer,” Smith said.
“Take cover,” Dale said.
The large animal appeared. It was in a full sprint. It was like a large wolf combined with a hyena and its growling and barking sounded like a cross between a vicious howl and a sadistic laughter.
Dale held his combat knife in his left hand and a throwing knife in his right. He crouched in a defensive posture and put himself near a tree so that his back wouldn’t be exposed.
“Daniels cover my left rear, Smith my right rear. That ugly dog thing might be a decoy.”
The wolf-hyena stopped sprinting and moved into crouching advance, low to the ground. It had yellow eyes and long fangs and its barking changed into a low growl.
Dale dug his feet into the soft forest soil and repeated to himself knife fighting tips from Drill Sergeant Green’s instruction. He felt his heart rate increase and beads of sweat roll down his face.
The creature feigned a lunge towards Dale and then backed off beyond the reach of Dale’s knife. It growled and snapped its jaws. He moved in and then backed away. It didn’t appear to be ready to attack. Dale decided to make a move towards the animal. He stepped towards his left, then quickly moved towards his right, and then flung his throwing blade towards the gut of the beast. The animal leaped. The weapon flew past the creature, missing the target by inches.
Smith shouted. “Should we help you?”
“No,” Dale said. “We might get flanked. Keep a watch on the rear. I have this.”
Dale pulled out another throwing knife. He moved towards his enemy and threw his second knife. The beast jumped to dodge the blade and Dale moved towards it. He slashed using his left hand. The blade made contact, but it was a glancing blow, cutting into the shoulder of the animal, but not deeply. Its jaws snapped at Dale and nearly caught his forearm, but he evaded the attack by falling and rolling backward. He stood up with his last knife in hand and threw it in one swift motion. The knife sliced across the ribs of the wolf-hyena, drawing blood, but not doing any serious damage. The animal had shifted its mass so that the blade did not make a solid strike.
“Crap,” Dale said.
He stood and moved a step toward the animal with his combat knife outstretched in front of him. Then the beast bolted.
Dale leaped into full sprint chasing it.
“It’s going to warn others,” Dale said. “Protect my rear.”
Dale had run sprints in calibration and testing, but nothing he had done mimicked an actual exercise in the field. His body pumped adrenaline, and his heart rate raced. He could feel sweat dripping down his forehead. He was gaining on the beast when it launched into an open patch covered with leaves and surrounded by trees. Dale was running so fast that he didn’t realize he’d been lured into a trap until it was too late.
Two more beasts moved out from behind rocks and bushes. He was surrounded.
...........................
The first beast moved behind him while the other two circled in front.
“Smith, Daniels. Where are you?” Dale spoke using his comm.
“Coming.”
“Right behind you.”
One of the new animals lunged and tried to bite Dale’s leg. He jumped and kicked the animal in the head, turning in time to strike a blow with the rear end of his knife into the skull of the third beast. He turned, expecting an attack from the original attacker, towards his rear. He saw the beast leap at the same moment that Daniels and Smith burst into the forest clearing. Smith threw a knife that stuck the leaping dog in the neck. It was a devastating strike and the animal fell.
Dale moved around and lashed out against the attacker to his left.
He saw another knife fly towards the beast to his right.
Daniels had thrown a knife.
“Thanks,” Dale said.
“That was your knife. Here’s the other two.”
Daniels moved to Dale’s back and handed him two throwing knives.
Private Smith plunged his knife into the heart of the beast that was struggling on the ground, the original attacker.
“I’ll move left, you move right,” Dale said to his friend.
Dale moved to the left to finish his attack on the beast that he’d injured. The animal was hurt, but still dangerous.
As he moved, he brought up his knife, and intending to feign a move to his right; he lunged to the left. The next moment he felt a burning sensation in his right calf. The beast to his right rear had leaped up and bitten him.
“OH MY GOD!” Dale screamed in pain and fell to his knees. The canine shook its head, and Dale thought that he was going to lose his leg. The burning pain and suffering were unbelievable.
“Brian! Where are you?”
“Goddammit, he’s picking up loot from my kill. You idiot.” Private Smith leaped and plunged his blade into the beast that was attached to Dale’s leg. The third creature raced away. Dale fell, face down, into the dirt.
“Daniels, help me stop that—”
“Leave it,” Dale said. “It could be another trap.” Then he passed out.
...........................
Dale woke up. He was in the dark, and he could hear the sounds of the forest, chirping birds, and insects.
“Hello?” He whispered.
“He’s awake.” It sounded like Private Smith to him, but Dale was groggy and unsure of where he was.
“Dale?” It was Brian. Private Daniels, in the field. Private fucking-dumb-ass-greedy-bastard Brian Daniels.
“Brian, you asshole,” Dale said.
“I’m sorry, Dale. I didn’t mean to—”
“Stop. You got greedy and screwed me over. Don’t ever do that again.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. Just don’t. I don’t want to hear it. If you ever do shit like that again, I’ll transfer. Deal or no deal.”
“You feeling okay?” Private Smith asked.
“Sort of,” Dale said. “What’s the sit-rep?”
“We’ve built a small lean-to. That’s where we are now. It’s about a 100 meters from where you got bit. I think the fangs carried some kind of toxin or poison. I thought we were going to have to amputate your leg to keep the poison from migrating to your heart and killing you, but it looks like your body has recovered, and we have the swelling under control.”
“What time is it?”
“It’s 0513 of Day Two.”
“Shit.”
“We’ve had no other contact. Our orders are to continue once you’re up for it. We’ve given you two injections. You’ll be back up to 90% in an hour if my program is accurate.”
“Erin,” Dale thought.
Yes?
Health and status report, please.
...........................
Heath & Status
Health level: 78%
Status: Training quest Mount Dog running, Day Two, 0514
Orders: Continue Mission
Supplies: Water 95%, Food 92%,
Equipment: All Weapons and survival gear: 97%
Private Daniels: 100% health
Private Smith: 96% health
Objects & Treasure collected: 0
Current weather: Mild. No warnings are pending.
Known enemies in region: 0
Percentage of current quest completed: Unknown
...........................
Dale ate a power bar and drank water, which increased his he
alth, but he still felt dizzy, and there was a ringing noise in his ears.
“Wake me in one hour,” he said.
In his sleep, he dreamt of mad wolves chasing him and snapping at his heels. He fell into a hole and tried to climb out.
“Help me,” he said.
Brian appeared above the hole and looked down at him.
“Help me,” he said again.
Brian laughed and growled like a hyena.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Only people who are afraid of the water want to understand it. Other people jump in and get wet.
~ Michael Crichton
I used to think math was complicated. That was until I discovered girls.
~ Private Smith
...........................
Dale woke with his health back at 100%.
“What’s the sit-rep?”
“Nothing new to report. Proceed with our mission.” Private Smith stood and stretched. “Time to move out.”
Dale adjusted his pack, his knives, and he re-tightened his boots.
Any messages, Erin?
Nope.
“Smith, why don’t you take the point and I’ll take the rear?”
“You got it.”
Dale watched as Smith moved back towards the area they had fought against the wolf-hyenas. Brian moved out, leaving ten meters between them, and Dale followed ten meters behind his friend. He hoped that yesterday’s screw up was an anomaly.
...........................
They reached the foot of the mountain called Mount Dog about an hour later. When they were still inside the tree line and under cover, they sat and rested.
“Don’t forget to drink, Brian,” Dale said.
“I know.”
He sounded bothered, so Dale decided not to offer that kind of advice anymore.
Erin, do you have any maps of the mountain available?
I only have what has been uploaded into the system this morning by the other teams. Displaying now.
Dale looked the maps over for about two seconds. They showed a small amount of progress by each of the other teams, but nothing that would help them.
“The other teams have all entered the mountain already.” Dale stood. “Rest is over, let’s get moving.”
Daniels and Smith both stood.
Smith took out a pair of binoculars and scanned the distance.
“Hey, where’d you get those?” Private Daniels asked.
“Upgrade money.”
“Upgrade money?”
“Yeah. Don’t forget; I’ve been around a bit longer than you two. A painful death in action, for the cause and all, well, there are perks.”
“Shit.” Daniels paced. “Well? Do you see anything?”
“It appears to be clear. I see an opening, either a cave or mineshaft. An entrance, anyway. It’s about a kilometer away, to the left, just past that large rock that looks like a turtle.”
“Alright, then,” Dale said. “Let’s move out. Stay alert.”
They made it to the opening in the mountain without incident. It appeared to be a natural cavern, but there were definite signs that it was used as a path into Mount Dog.
...........................
The first hundred meters of the cavern was lit by natural light and had a smooth pathway along the floor that went straight towards the center of the mountain. The pathway was level and showed signs of use. When they came to the end of the cavern, the path stopped at a large smooth wall that had three openings. They appeared to be passageways into the dark. There were also three wooden doors with iron hinges and locks.
The natural lighting was dim, but Dale could see that there was writing on the wall. Symbols and pictures.
“Could you guys shine a light on this? Maybe there is a clue about which route to take.”
Dale saw a brief flicker of light.
“What happened?”
“The light won’t work,” Daniels said.
“Magic,” Smith said.
“Crap.” Dale couldn’t make out what, if anything, the symbols, pictures, or words meant. “Just what we needed.”
Erin, do you have access to the system?
Nope. Only your internal processor. I cannot communicate with the main program, and you cannot reach the base. You’re cut off.
“Smith,” Dale said. “Go back outside and upload what little information we’ve gathered. The map of the cave and the doorways. Put a tag on this wall as being a possible key to enter the mountain or that it’s part of a puzzle of some kind. Daniels, while he’s doing that, go see if you can gather some branches for torches and we’ll make light the old-fashioned way.”
After Smith and Brian had headed back towards the entrance of the cave, Dale looked for additional clues. His eyes had adjusted to the low light, and he could see that in addition to the symbols, pictures, and words, there were mathematical equations written in random places along the rear wall. He didn’t see any apparent pattern nor could he draw any conclusions about what they meant. He could see well enough to check the math if he got close to the wall. The equations all seemed to have accurate solutions, but he couldn’t make any sense of what they meant. Whether knowing would help on their quest or not was another open-ended question.
Daniels and Smith returned with branches. They wrapped fire-cloth around the ends and lit them on fire. The torches cast a flicking orange light which was enough to light up the end of the cave.
“Okay, start looking for clues,” Dale said. He studied the door in front of him.
Erin, can you find a translation for this?
Roughly it says: This way to the kitchen.
“This doorway goes to a kitchen, if the sign is accurate,” Dale said.
“My translation seems to indicate that this door was for authorized personnel only. The word is not completely clear, it might mean bosses or royalty, or perhaps government officials.” Private Daniels moved to the next opening in the wall.
Dale looked at Private Smith. “Anything?”
“It seems to be a common entrance,” he said. He pointed to the opening he was standing near. “The translation of most of these words is impossible to do with precision. Also, there are a lot of names, some probably places. Some of the symbols seem to be numbers that indicate distances, but there are no known conversions for them, at least, not with the system I’m running.”
“Alright. Keep looking.” Dale moved to the next opening in the cavern wall.
Erin, anything with this block of text?
It appears to be a riddle. Find the sequence that doesn’t end. Or search for the sequence that has no end. It will never be known how long it goes, is what it seems to say next. And then there are some missing pieces of wall, so the message has been destroyed in the middle, but the end of it says randomness is your friend or ally and that you must push or select the numbers in a certain order.
So it says we need to push numbers that are themselves random in a particular order?
That’s what it seems to indicate.
“I have a possible clue,” Dale said. He explained to Smith and Brian what Erin had translated.
The trio looked at the wall for answers, as if staring at it would cause it to speak.
“Here’s a grid,” Smith said. He was on his knees examining the wall.
Dale dropped next to him and studied the grid.
It was a ten by ten block with a group of symbols in each of the one hundred squares.
Erin, can you find a translation?
It’s an ancient numbering system.
Would you superimpose standard numbers onto the grid for me?
Dale looked it closer. Each square had multiple numbers except for the top left-hand square which was simply the number three. He scanned the groups of numbers which varied in length and had no recognizable pattern.
419716
93993
323
65358
46264
1415
979
And so on and so on. Each square had a unique number in it.
“What do you make of it?” Private Smith asked.
“Looks like a bunch of random meaningless numbers to me,” Daniels said. “Maybe it’s a combination lock.”
“I think you’re on to something,” Dale said.
“I was joking.”
“I know, but what if it is a coded key? We’d have to find how to make the randomness make sense.”
Erin, can you—
I could. I can. But it’d be a cheat, and you’d lose any bonus you might have gained by solving it yourself.
Okay, give me a minute…
Dale considered the question of whether seemingly random sequences of numbers could be put in order like a Fibonacci sequence or Pi.
“Maybe it’s Pi numbers,” Smith said.
“I was just thinking that,” Dale said. He asked Erin if she could display Pi for him out to a few hundred integers.
He studied the numbers.
“Okay, Smith, your guess appears to be right. Now what?”
“Well, if it’s a lock,” Daniels said, “then we enter them in sequence.”
“Maybe,” Dale said.
“It’s worth try.” Smith pushed the number three, and the grid started glowing in a light fluorescent green color.
“Okay, look for something with a one-four-one something sequence in it,” Dale said.
“One-four-one-five,” Smith said. He pushed that square and the grid changed colors slightly.
“What’s next?” Brian asked.
The trio went through the entire hundred squares.
When they got to the last button, Private Smith held up his finger in front of it.
“Are you guys ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” Dale said.
“Go for it.” Brian stood up next to Dale.
They watched as Private Smith pushed the last button.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Science Fiction: Any scientific acclaim that omits God.
~ Johnny Hart
Maybe we’re already in hell and dying allows us to enter heaven?
~ Dale Brown
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Nagant Wars: A LitRPG Novel (Nagant Wars Series Book 1) Page 9