Unfortunately, this didn’t impress or scare the other rats. An ear-splitting chorus of screeches filled the air as dozens of the creatures charged out of hiding and straight for Ethan and Lily. This was all the encouragement both players needed to start blasting away. Loud bangs went off as bullets slammed into the huge rats, dropping many of them. However, more survived and closed in on their targets with startling speed. Ethan considered using a bigger weapon, but he didn’t have time to switch.
That was when one of the creatures ran right by the device Lily had thrown earlier. It let out a mechanical beep and then exploded. A rain of green goo shot out in every direction, washing over a dozen rats. The impact knocked them over, and where they hit the ground, they stuck. Other rats were only disoriented or slowed by the spray, but Ethan and Lily were able to use the moment’s respite to take out those that were still charging, and the players quickly reloaded.
Unfortunately, there were more rats. Another wave burst out of hiding and joined the remains of the first. Ethan was ready for them though. He already had a grenade in hand, which he immediately threw behind the new arrivals. The device hit the ground next to the closest table and bounced once before exploding into fire. The blast roasted four rats and stunned several more. However, most of the wounded rats kept charging, even one of the ones that was on fire.
“Why an incendiary?” Lily shouted as she kept shooting.
Ethan shrugged and shot a rat before it could jump on him. “Why not? They’re animals; they hate fire.” It made sense to him.
He should have kept his mouth shut. Ethan missed his next shot, and a rat tackled his legs, sending him falling sideways. His gun went flying as he flailed and tried to catch himself. This allowed the rat to jump on his face. He was armored, but the sudden appearance of the beast’s large buck teeth still shocked him. Ethan yelped fearfully as the huge rodent snapped at his helmet and tried to gnaw on his face. Panicking, he punched the beast with all his power. The rat went flying, but another one jumped on his leg and bit down.
“Ah, that hackin’ hurts!” Ethan screamed as he shielded his head from yet another rat that leapt at him. He wanted to reach for his sword, but the rats kept attacking, so he didn’t have time. All he could do was roll around and punch and kick them as they mobbed him. Teeth and claws bit, scratched, and tore into his armor as he struggled. Suddenly, as a rat bit his hand, the creature exploded. Blood splashed against Ethan’s visor, partially blinding him. Ugh, what now?
“Hold very still,” Lily yelled as she put her pistol away and drew her energy sword. Ethan could hear it hiss as it activated.
Ethan immediately froze, and a moment later, all the rats around him had been cut into pieces. Wiping his visor clear of blood, he got up and looked around. The fight was apparently over. Lily had finished off all the other rodents while he had been struggling. Well, so much for showing off.
“Way to cover yourself in glory. I heard those girlish screams,” Lily said as she grinned at him.
“This isn’t glory,” Ethan remarked as he shook some of the dripping rodent blood off his hand. “Anyway, I was acting as the team tank. That’s a time-honored game position.”
Lilly rolled her eyes. “Right, that was all planned, I’m sure.”
“Of course, I’m a master strategist. You should know that about me.”
“Well, you might want to patch yourself up, Mr. Master Strategist. You look like you’ve been gnawed on by giant rats.” Lily laughed.
Grimacing, Ethan took a look at his status display. Several spots on his armor readout were deep red, signifying they had been compromised. His health bar was also in the yellow now, meaning the rats had actually wounded him. He didn’t really need the health bar though, since he could feel the gashes on his legs.
“Ugh, it’s a good thing we found those med-vials,” Ethan said as he sat and took items out of his inventory. “Honestly, I’m usually much cooler than this, like super cool. You’ve caught me on an off day.”
Lily just giggled, so Ethan sighed and went to work. First, he needed to heal, so he pulled out a syringe and stuck a med-vial in it. After sticking the needle in his leg, he pressed a button to inject the med-gel into his wound.
“Ouch. This usually doesn’t hurt,” Ethan remarked as he felt the needle pierce flesh.
Lily nodded. “Ya, I noticed that too. This tower is certainly different from regular Worldshift.”
Once he was done with his leg, Ethan used the med-packs on the rest of his wounds. Ever so slowly, the wounds scabbed over, and the pain receded as the gel did its job. Ethan’s health display also moved back into the green.
“I’m so glad this is just a game, and I didn’t really get bitten by a huge mutant rat. It would probably have every disease imaginable,” Ethan remarked with a shudder of dread.
“Don’t be a wuss. The med-gel should heal you right up,” Lily replied. “What are you doing about your armor?”
Ethan pulled several balls of grey putty out of his inventory. “Thankfully, it doesn’t seem like the circuitry or internal mechanisms of my armor took any real damage. My internal mesh should self-repair, and I’ve got some patches for it here.”
At Ethan’s command, the nanomaterial inside his armor repaired itself. This hid his wounds beneath a thin black fabric. He then reached down and began smearing putty inside the holes so that the fabric was no longer visible. The putty quickly hardened and sealed his armor, although it left parts of it discolored and uneven.
“That should hold until we find somewhere to repair for real,” Ethan announced as he climbed to his feet. Many parts of WorldShift were designed to be somewhat realistic and required strenuous physical actions. It was annoying sometimes, even if it did build immersion.
“All right, let’s find us a key,” Lily told him as she began walking along the wall again.
Instead of following after her, Ethan took a moment to check out the rat corpses, but he didn’t find anything interesting, so he walked over to examine some of the nearby shelves. His investigation failed to turn up anything but a few more med-packs of dubious quality.
“Over here! I found something,” Lily yelled as she was wandering around.
Ethan hurried to see what she had discovered. When he got to her, she was standing before a lever that was sticking out of a panel on the wall. The panel had several small lights on it, although only about half were on.
Lily grinned at him playfully. “I think we’re supposed to push this.”
Ethan grinned back. “I think you’re right. Go right ahead and do the honors. I’ll keep an eye out for trouble.”
After a quick nod of agreement, Lily flipped the lever. As it clicked into place, the panel hummed for a moment, and one of the dark lights switched on. Almost immediately afterward, there was a loud whoosh as the door on the far side of the room slid open.
“It appears to have worked,” Ethan said.
“Ya, but what’s with the other lights? They must mean something,” Lily replied.
Ethan shrugged and walked toward the door. “I guess we’ll find out later if it’s relevant.”
Lily joined him and together they reached the exit without encountering any more problems. Looking through the door, Ethan saw a maintenance hallway of some sort. There were no plants or shelves in it, just long stretches of pipe, some of which were letting out puffs of white steam.
“Well, this is the only way to go, so let’s get to it,” Lily said as she stepped through the door and took the lead.
CHAPTER 9
UNEXPECTED MEETINGS
Ethan hurried after Lily. The hallway in front of them bent to the right, and as they followed it, they had to step out of the way of blasts of steam that seemed to shoot randomly out of pipes in their way. However, the passage didn’t go on forever. After several twists and turns, it abruptly ended in front of a huge metal shaft that went straight down. There was a thick metal door there as well, but its handle was rusted and broken. Ethan tried
hitting it with his shoulder, but even with his enhanced strength, it refused to budge.
Ethan then walked to the edge of the shaft and looked down. A rotating fan blocked the passage. Its huge metal blades were moving far too quickly for them to try to slip through. Ethan looked up. A twisting column of pipes disappeared into darkness, and bursts of steam shot into the air.
“We could try to blast our way through the door or past the fan,” he suggested to Lily as she peered over his shoulder.
She shook her head. “No, I’m willing to bet those are game walls. The program is obviously trying to force us to climb up into the shaft.”
That was a bit of a leap, but the tiny blonde had been right so far. Besides, this was a great opportunity to show off and redeem himself.
“Then up it is!” Ethan chuckled as he brandished his wrist-mounted grappling hook.
“Do you actually know how to use that?” Lily asked doubtfully.
“Yes, I’m a high-level master climber. Level seven. This will be easy.”
“Really? I’ve never met someone who’s gotten a specialized skill like that so high. Most players concentrate on fighting skills or useful stuff like hacking.”
Ethan shrugged. “I like climbing, and I’ve simply done it enough to get very good at it. Swinging my way through levels is fun.”
“Well, using your lifeline certainly seems easier than climbing those pipes by hand. I guess you’re going to have to carry me though,” she admitted with a sigh.
Ethan grinned. He liked the sound of that. Opening his arms, he motioned for Lily to come over. She rolled her eyes but didn’t object.
“Get on my back and wrap your arms around me,” he told her as she moved closer.
A few moments later, Ethan was standing at the edge of the shaft, and Lily was securely holding on to him from behind. The weight wasn’t too much for Ethan. Lily wasn’t a big woman, and his armor helped carry the weight.
“Just don’t get scared and strangle me,” he said as he shot his grappling hook up into the shaft. As it fell, the smart hook looped over a horizontal pipe.
“Ha, you were the one who screamed when the rats attacked!” Lily replied.
“That was a war cry, and they didn’t jump on you,” Ethan joked as he swung into the shaft. He was glad he wasn’t feeling so tongue-tied around Lily anymore. Being chewed on by giant rats had really put things in perspective.
Lily squeezed his shoulders slightly as they jumped away from solid ground. Their momentum carried them to the far wall, but Ethan activated his reel, and they were pulled up as he kicked off a pipe.
When they closed in on the end of the line and were hanging below the hooked pipe, Ethan grabbed the wire and wrapped it around his other hand a few times. Then, he detached the line from his reel. Immediately, they fell an inch or two as all their weight was shifted to his other arm.
“Hey, watch it!” Lily hissed in his ear.
Ethan just smiled. “Don’t worry. Level seven, remember?”
Carefully, he aimed and fired a new line with a new adhesive hook up the shaft. Below them, a gust of steam hissed as it sprayed out of a grate. Letting go of the old line, Ethan activated his reel again, and they were pulled farther up into the shaft.
Lily shifted her weight. “Wait, I think I saw movement up there in the shadows below that pipe!”
“Well, I’m busy climbing, so keep an eye on it but don’t fall off,” Ethan replied. He hadn’t seen anything, and the entire shaft was full of shadows and pipes.
Up ahead, there was a steel beam running through the middle of the shaft, right in their way. Ethan swung them against a wall and kicked off it so that they swung around the beam. Just as they passed it, Ethan saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Before he could turn to get a better look, there was a loud bang and a flash of light. After shielding his eyes, he looked down just in time to see a giant flailing rat fall down the shaft.
“Ugh, that was right in my ear!” he complained.
“I just saved us,” Lily replied sourly as she holstered her pistol.
“Do it quieter next time,” Ethan bantered as they continued to climb. He was sure Lily was glaring at the back of his head.
Soon, they reached an open door at the top of the shaft, and Ethan swung them toward it. As soon as he was on stable footing, Lily jumped off his back.
“Thanks for the ride,” she said as she landed.
Ethan winked at her. “Anytime.”
That chance to show off had done wonders for his confidence.
In reply, Lily rolled her eyes and gave him a suffering look. The doorway they were standing in led to a short maintenance hallway like the one they had just come from, but it quickly ended at a thick steel door.
Ethan stepped past Lily and headed to the door. A quick look revealed that the lever for opening it was undamaged. “We don’t know what is on the other side. In this tower, it could be anything. I’ll open the door, while you cover the opening.”
Lily nodded and drew her pistol again, so Ethan took hold of the lever and pulled it up with all his strength. There was a loud click from within and then Ethan pushed the door open. It resisted, but he used his legs and put his weight into it.
Lily didn’t start shooting, so Ethan peeked into the next room. It looked to be a work space of some sort. It was full of desks and computers, although the entire place was trashed now. Cautiously, the pair walked into the room, but nothing jumped out to attack them.
A quick once-over of the room revealed various electronic pieces, but nothing either player wanted. The only real things of interest they found were the exit and another switch. Like the last, it was on a panel with several lights on it.
Lily leaned closer to study the panel. “Huh, I think one of the lights that was off before is on now. I wonder what that means?”
“Could it be tracking our progress through the complex?” Ethan asked.
“Then why have switches at all?” Lily replied as she frowned in confusion.
Since neither of them could figure out the answer, they just flipped the switch and moved on. As expected, this caused another light on the panel to turn on. There were now just two that were still dark.
The next hallway was familiar looking to them both. Its sides were lined with broken glass cages, and it was overgrown by vines. However, armed with forewarning and energy blades, they were able to dash across it without any real problem. They only had to cut down a few sluggish vines.
Once past the hallway, they found themselves in a white featureless room that was only a few feet across. There were small grates on the ceiling and floor but not much else.
“I think this is supposed to be an old decontamination chamber,” Lily remarked as she inspected the next door. The lock was broken, and it swung open at her touch.
At a glance, Ethan could tell the next room was huge, so he signaled for Lily to be careful. She nodded, and they both drew their pistols before moving through the entrance.
They came out at the edge of a huge amphitheater-like room. It was hundreds of feet across and completely circular. The ceiling was a huge white dome, reinforced by countless steel support beams covered in bright white lights.
Around the edge of the room was a ring of smaller rooms, most of which had glass observation windows lining them, so Ethan could see inside. These rooms were filled with equipment and chairs, and many of their large windows were broken. Ethan and Lily stood at the beginning of a passage that led toward the center. To either side of them were doors that led into observation rooms. There were no obvious threats, which made Ethan extremely suspicious.
“Let’s go in here and keep out of sight. Something isn’t right about this place,” he whispered to Lily.
She nodded back and followed him as he carefully pulled the office door open and stepped inside the room on the other side. Three rows of computer desks covered the floor inside, except for next to the glass panel that looked inward at the huge empty center chamber,
where there was a line of simple modern chairs. Bits of glass and other debris were scattered across the floor.
Stepping around a desk, Ethan studied a tall metal cabinet. He opened one of the drawers. It was full of ammo and power packs. At the back of the drawer, he saw some rounds that would fit his pistol. He motioned to get Lily’s attention and then reached in to take some of the pistol rounds.
Lily looked over Ethan’s shoulder and into the drawer. “As much as I appreciate a chance to restock, this all seems a little too convenient to me.”
“Ya, I strongly suspect the game is going to give us a chance to use all this stuff soon. This floor looks a lot like a boss’s lair if I’ve ever seen one,” he whispered back.
“Wait, what’s that sound?” Lily suddenly looked toward the door opposite of the one they had come in.
Startled, Ethan glanced to see what she was talking about. At first, he didn’t hear or see anything, but then a soft whirring noise reached his ears. It was definitely coming from the next room, and as Ethan watched, something moved into the doorframe. It was a frisbee-sized disk that was hovering at about head height. Ethan immediately recognized it as some sort of drone. It was slowly turning toward them and was armed with an energy blaster atop of it.
“Get down!” Ethan exclaimed as he raised his pistol.
Squeezing the trigger, he shot at the drone twice. One of the bullets went wide, and the drone veered out of the way of the other as it began maneuvering. It wasn’t nearly as slow as Ethan had first assumed. Before he could get any more shots off, the drone fired an energy bolt at him. The projectile missed, but it left a scorch mark on the wall behind him. As the drone circled around to line up another shot, Lily blasted it. Her shot sent the drone flying. There was a loud boom and a shower of sparks as it hit the wall and fell to the ground.
Worldshift- Virtual Revolution Page 10