Survivors

by Dave Willmarth

  “I’m in a communication bunker outside of Cardiff,” Griff replied.

  “Cardiff? As in… Wales?”

  “Aye, mate. I’m an engineer. One o’ the bleedin’ Royal Engineers. Was stationed at Maindy Barracks but got sent down here to work on installing some VR pods for His Majesty’s finest. Locked this place down after all the unpleasantness.”

  Shari hesitated, then asked, “Do you have others with you? Or have you heard from anyone else?”

  “No, lass, I’m afraid not. It’s just me down here. As for the radio, there was just Dannyboy lately. Was a few others in the first days, but they’ve all dropped away.”

  Tears began to form in her eyes once more. “I’m sorry. I know what it’s like to be alone. Are you at least in a safe place? Do you have food?”

  “Aye, safe enough. Lots of beasties roaming about topside, but they canno’ get in here. As for food, I have some. A month, maybe more if I’m careful. Managed to gather a good bit when I went out to try an’ find me sister. Mostly soldier’s rations. When that runs out, I’ll have to be goin’ out to look for more.”

  Mace spoke up. “We’ve had good luck with a local grocery store. The warehouse section in the back. Lots of sealed stuff that’s still safe. Are there a lot of the creatures near you?”

  There was a long silence before Griff answered. “Dunno. There were at the beginning. I could hear ‘em screechin’ and clawin’ at the door. Ain’t heard much lately, but then, I ain’t been goin up there to listen, neither.”

  “I understand,” Mace’s voice had gone quiet. “I spent a while alone in a hole in the ground, too. The good news is, the creatures kill each other pretty quickly when they get hungry. The bad news is, they get bigger as they feed. So there might be only one or two left near you. But they could be monsters by now. We just killed one that was fifteen feet… err… about five meters tall.”

  “Damn. I’ll keep that in mind.” Griff’s voice was pensive. “How’d ye kill it?”

  Shari answered this time, as she had more experience killing zombies. “For most of them, a shot to the head works. Or removing their head. This one took two shots to the head and kept moving, so Mace had to cut its head off with his sword.”

  “A sword? Well done, mate! That’s friggin’ badass!” Griff sounded impressed. “I mostly just hid and ran from them beasties when I went out.”

  Mace replied humbly, “Yeah, I don’t recommend any up close and personal killing. Got blood all over my gear. Thought I was a dead man.”

  He grimaced as Shari giggled into her hand next to him. She was probably remembering her prank with the hose. When she noticed him looking, she had the courtesy to look ever-so-slightly guilty.

  Mace decided to change the subject. “You said you were installing VR pods. Do you have one up and working?”

  “Aye, they be combat simulation trainers. Brand new tech. I had to get some training meself before I could work on ‘em. There are four o’ them here, workin’ just fine. Had plenty o’ time to make ‘em perfect.”

  Mace grinned at the radio. “How’d you like to be able to speak to us face to face? Well, sort of. Ever play a game called Elysia?”

  Griff laughed. “Nope. Heard of it, though. I play mostly first person shooters meself. Or at least, I did. The servers all went down a while back. Even if the Elysia servers are still up, I don’t have an account. An’ I don’t imagine anybody’s left in customer service.”

  Mace hesitated before sharing the information about their location. He had no way to know who was listening. “Listen, Griff. Give me your email address or a way to contact you. This radio isn’t secure. But I have a way to get you hooked up. The servers are indeed still working. I’ve been playing myself since it all happened. Makes the isolation a little easier to take.”

  A slight sniffling sound could be heard on the other end just before Griff spoke. “You’re serious? You can get me in? And you’ll… you’ll both be there?”

  Mace shook his head. “It’ll take some work. You’d obviously start on a different server than us, but we might be able to figure a way to fix that. It’s not like server traffic is particularly heavy anymore. Give me your info and we’ll work out the details.” A thought struck him. “And if there are other survivors out there who can hear this, speak up. I think we need to help each other if we can. And that starts with communication.”

  Both Mace and Griff waited a few moments for anyone else to respond. Then Griff said, “Well at least I know I ain’t the last man on earth. It’s damned good to be hearin’ your voices.”

  Shari jumped in, smiling at the radio. “Same here, Griff. I can’t wait to meet you in the game!”

  They spent a few more minutes speaking with Griff. He gave them an email address on a service that was still operational, and Mace promised to email him as soon as they got back. They talked about the time difference between their locations. Before the world ended, it was a pain for folks on US and European servers to raid together because of the five-to-eight-hour time differences. But since none of them had day jobs to deal with now, things would be much easier to coordinate.

  As they said their goodbyes, Griff said, “Thank ye, Mace. And Shari. Fer reachin’ out. If ye hadn’t… well I’m not sure how much longer I might have lasted.”

  “Hang tough, Griff. You’re not alone. Watch for the email,” Mace reassured him.

  When Griff was gone, Mace switched off the radio and checked behind it to see what kind of connections it had. There was a power cord, and a cable that ran up the wall and through the ceiling. Mace thumped the table in frustration. “Shit.”

  “What’s wrong?” Shari looked from Mace to the cable he was staring at, then back again.

  “That’s gotta be an antenna feed. A hard link. I was hoping there was a wireless connection. I wanted to take this radio back with us. But being thirty floors down, if it needs a hard-wired connection to whatever antenna is up there…”

  Shari finished for him. “That’s a lot of cable. Yeah. And how would you even run it? Up the elevator shaft?” Then her face lit up. “Hey! The radios in the security room worked! The one you heard the zombie on. The signal must be routed down there somehow, right? And there’s lots of antennas on top of the building already. Maybe you can patch into one?”

  Make nodded, his eyes widening as she spoke. “Yeah! I mean, I’m no electrician, I’m a coder. But if the other radios are hooked to something, I might be able to figure out how…” his voice drifted off as he went into what Shari now thought of as “full geek mode”. She petted Dakota patiently as she waited for him to emerge.

  After a solid minute, she lost her patience and coughed politely. When that didn’t work, she said, “Earth to Mace…” and smacked the back of his head lightly.

  “Sorry,” he said as his eyes came back into focus. “I’ll see about disconnecting this. Want to look around and see if there’s anything else we want to take?”

  Shari nodded and walked over to the nearest of the Humvees parked inside the garage, escorted by a tail-wagging Dakota.

  “Wanna help me hunt for cool guns and stuff, pup?” she asked with a smile. Dakota whuffed, wagging his tail more enthusiastically. He was clearly up for some adventure.

  It took Mace just a few minutes to unhook the radio and pack it into a box he found nearby. He also found a pen and scribbled Griff’s address on the box, just in case he forgot. By that time, Shari was on her third vehicle and had two more M16’s strapped over her shoulder. Mace said, “I’m going to check out some of the rooms, see if I can find us some better body armor.” Shari just waved in acknowledgement before sticking her head into the passenger seat to nab something.

  After exploring several more rooms, Mace located the armory’s stash of foodstuffs. The sergeant had quite the supply of MRE’s and similar rations, as well as some reasonably well-stocked shelves with industrial-sized boxes of pasta, cans of tomato sauce, peaches, pears, and such. There was even a three-gallon jar of ma
yonnaise that he grabbed just because he wanted to see Shari’s reaction when he lugged it out to the garage. As he left the room, he made sure to securely close the door. No sense allowing one of the creatures to wander in and contaminate what could be a couple months’ supply of food for the two of them. Three. They had to feed Dakota now too.

  Further down the hall, he located a room filled with packs, duffel bags, spare uniforms, body armor, boots, and sundry other supplies. He tried on a few armor pieces until he found ones that fit him properly. Then just for the hell of it he grabbed a couple uniforms too. They were made of durable material which he thought might keep contaminated blood from soaking through. He also found a pair of boots which fit him.

  Walking back to the garage, he found Shari sitting on a crate and talking quietly to Dakota. “Who’s a good boy? You’re so clever! We’re gonna take you home with us, if you promise not to poop in the house. We’ll figure out a good place for you. Maybe in the cornfield. Good fertilizer.”

  The dog, of course, paid rapt attention to every word. Tongue lolling to one side and tail occasionally thumping the floor, he stared into Shari’s eyes with the love and focus that only a dog could manage. As Mace watched, Dakota raised a paw and placed it on her knee. He expected her to flinch at the contact, but she just smiled through her open helmet visor at him.

  “Hey, you should head in and try on some gear,” he called, continuing into the room. “Past the cafeteria, third left. Lots of stuff in there. Get yourself some BDU’s and boots, too.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the hallway behind him.

  Shari stood, motioning to a pile of items on the floor next to her. “Found four more rifles and another box of your grenades. Plus some snack bars. There’s a bigger gun mounted on the back of one of the trucks, but it looks heavy, not to mention noisy, so I just left it there.”

  Mace nodded at her as she walked past him toward the exit. “We can always come back and get it if there’s a need. In fact, this place would make a good backup location if we ever lose our place.”

  Shari stopped and turned to him, smiling. “Our place?” she teased.

  “Uhhh… yeah. I mean, it’s your home now too. And… Dakota’s!” he blushed and stammered. Shari just grinned and continued out the door.

  “Smooth move, doof-boy,” he grumbled to himself. He began to search the nearby desk and tool bench for keys. He wanted to be able to lock down and preserve this place , in case they needed the food or weapons - or the building itself - at some point.

  Twenty minutes later, they had Bertha loaded up and the armory locked down, and were on their way back home. Mace was so excited about getting in contact with Griff that he completely forgot about stopping for Ho-Ho’s and Twinkies at the nearby truck.

  As soon as they were parked in the garage, he said, “Let’s leave most of this stuff for later. I want to get-”

  “I know, I know.” Shari cut him off. “Get downstairs and email Griff. Can I do anything to help?” she asked, pressing the remote button that locked Bertha’s doors. Mace was already opening the door to the lobby.

  “Yeah, actually. You could email him while I start working with Peabody. Since he has full access to the game servers and we have admin access, I should be able to create a free account for Griff to make sure he shows up on our server. It’s just going to take a little work.”

  Shari grinned at his enthusiasm. “I can do that. I think he liked me better, anyway. He’d probably rather hear from me.”

  Mace stopped in his tracks for a second when her words penetrated his thoughts. “What?”. Then he grinned. “I don’t blame him. But if he tries to steal you away from me in-game, I’m totally erasing his account!” he winked as he continued toward the elevator.

  *****

  Griff fidgeted in his chair as he waited for his email alert to ding. He’d been back and forth with Shari several times as she updated him on Mace’s progress with the game’s setup. Mace had sent some questions through her about the VR pods and their operating systems, just to make sure they were compatible. Which they had been. She’d said her next email would be his account info so he could enter the game. He’d already taken the time to download it into the pod he was planning to use. Then, just for the hell of it he downloaded it to the others as well. No harm in having backup.

  He shook his head, reflecting on his good fortune. Things in the bunker weren’t as rosy as he’d portrayed them to his new friends. There was only maybe two weeks’ worth of food left, for one. He had considered going out for more in recent days, but after losing Danny he hadn’t felt very motivated. Griff was a social animal, and the months of isolation had been hard on him. Being able to speak with Danny every day or so had given him hope, and when he knew Danny was gone… well, he’d pretty much given up hope himself.

  Now he’d be able to not only speak with Mace and Shari, but interact with them basically face to face. Sure, it would be in a virtual environment. But they’d be able to talk, not to mention do stuff together. Shari had told him that they were using the game to search for more survivors and would be able to share information on how to survive better, longer. And they would go on quests and kill monsters and travel under a blue sky. Griff missed the sky.

  *****

  Mace had practically shouted at Peabody as soon as they were secure in the elevator. “Peabody! We found another survivor. We need to get him access to the game ASAP! I need your access to the servers…”

  Shari grinned at him, and Dakota barked, sensing something exciting was happening.

  Chapter 3

  One is the Loneliest Number

  Griff opened his eyes and took in the surrounding scenery. He had to remind himself that this was a virtual world. Everything was so crisp and colorful, and he could feel a breeze on his face, tickling his beard. The sunlight even felt warm on his skin.

  “Sunlight! Sweet Mary…” he raised his face to the sun and gazed into the blue sky. A few puffy white clouds drifted overhead, pushed along at a gentle pace by the breeze.

  Griff took a deep breath. “This is… this is amazing,” he murmured to himself.

  Lowering his gaze, he examined his starting area. It appeared to be a medium-sized settlement of stone houses with a few two-story buildings, the nearest of which seemed to be an inn.

  A female dwarf who had been approaching the nearby fountain with a small casket on her shoulder stopped to stare at him. She was wearing a leather tunic and skirt, with iron-shod boots on her feet. Her red-blonde hair was pulled into a long braided ponytail that nearly reached her waist. He gave a slight wave, feeling a little self-conscious. “Er, Hiya!” he ventured.

  The female set down her burden, taking a hesitant step forward. She blinked once, then shouted, “Campbell! Get yer arse out here!” The sudden outburst nearly caused poor Griff to jump out of his own boots.

  Looking down, he examined said boots. He was wearing what would be considered typical starter gear. Cotton shirt, what felt like canvas pants, and simple leather moccasins that extended up to cover his ankles. He carried a small pouch and sheathed belt knife, both attached to a length of cord around his waist.

  Gazing at his feet, he realized that the ground was closer than he was used to. Not a tall man in real life – only about a hundred and sixty-five centimeters – he was considerably shorter now. It took him a moment to remember that he’d chosen a dwarf during character creation. His new body was only about one hundred-twenty centimeters tall. Powerfully built, dwarves in Elysia were squat and thick. Like walking barrels. He held up his hands and found two massive, hairy appendages that looked like they could each crush a golf ball. Making them into fists, he chuckled. “I could punch thru a concrete block with these.”

  As he was orienting himself in his new body, the female was joined by an angry-looking male dwarf with silver hair wearing chain mail armor.

  “What’re ye yellin’ about? Ye daft…” his voice trailed off as he followed her gaze to where Griff was sta
nding. Griff once again waved a hand briefly in greeting.

  The older dwarf took a few steps in his direction. As he walked, he asked. “Are ya… an outworlder?” His voice was quiet and hopeful.

  Griff nodded his head. “Aye. Fresh off the boat. Err… uhm, newly-arrived in yer world. Name’s Griff.” He held out a hand, which the elder dwarf took and pumped vigorously up and down. Then he clapped Griff on the back with an enthusiastic blow which would have leveled anyone less hardy than a dwarf.

  “Glad to see ye, lad! Welcome! Me name’s Campbell. We ain’t had an outworlder here in a good while. We feared none o’ ya was ever gonna return!” By this time, a small crowd of villagers had gathered and they all began to make cheerful and welcoming sounds.

  Shari had warned Griff about this. The game’s NPCs, or ‘locals,’ were feeling the loss of the millions of players who had been in the game. Economies were suffering. Monsters that would normally be culled by players were encroaching. The inhabitants of Elysia had come to depend on the outworlders to protect and support them.

  Griff took a deep breath. “I’m afraid it may just be me,” he said, as quietly as he could. “Our world has suffered a great plague. All but a very few of us have perished. And even fewer are still able to make the journey to this world. I know of only two others so far.”

  Campbell sighed deeply. “I be very sorry to hear that, lad. Ye have my condolences.” He looked around at the hopeful faces of his fellow villagers. “This’ll be hard news for them to hear. Best it come gently. We’ll have a feast tonight to celebrate your return, and ye can tell us all the whole story.”

  As Griff nodded his agreement, already feeling badly for these NPCs despite knowing that it was all just a game, Campbell put a fake smile on his face and turned to the others. “This be Griff! An outworlder! He’ll be needed somethin’ to keep him busy till this evening!”

  There was some applause and a few scattered cheers from the crowd. Several dwarves stepped forward to welcome him, and to offer him quests.