by C E Keene
Dammit. He wasn’t close enough to the mast. At this point, he had a better chance of reaching the shore, but even that seemed impossible. The game was going to penalize him soon. Exhaustion would make his muscles give out, and he wouldn’t be able to hold himself up, let alone Treyous.
Well fuck that. He wasn’t just going to give in and let it happen. If he could scrape the very bottom of his stamina meter to get Treyous to the shore, he had to try. At the very least he might get close enough that one of the sailors would be able to swim out and get their captain.
So Arheis pressed on, and the system message nagged him again, more insistent this time. His arms felt like they were made of jelly, and his chest ached from the effort. It didn’t seem to matter how he shifted the impact—his body wasn’t having any of it.
And still he didn’t give in. He let out a sound that was halfway between a growl and a roar, and swam even harder.
Something curious began to happen. That feeling of bone-deep fatigue, of having absolutely nothing in the tank slowly began to reverse. He felt himself gaining more energy, more strength, more determination. If he looked at his sheet, he was positive his stamina bar was refilling, but how?
> You have learned True Grit. Occasionally power through exhaustion and accomplish the task set before you, no matter how arduous.
Well, that explained it. Arheis didn’t like the fact that the ability seemed to be luck-based, but then he didn’t intend to get into these kinds of situations on a regular basis. What mattered was that it had activated now, and it was allowing him to swim to shore, his arm slung under Treyous, the man’s limp weight resting against him.
The ability held out until Arheis reached solid land. Without the assistance of the water, the weight of the captain’s body and both their wet clothes was too much to handle. He collapsed, completely drained, barely managing to turn Treyous over so he was face up on the beach.
“Captain!” one of the crew members yelled, scrambling over to his side.
They listened for breathing and Arheis expected one of them to start CPR at any second. But they either didn’t know how to do that, or weren’t in the right state of mind. So the moment Arheis felt enough of his stamina return, he knelt over Treyous and began compressions himself, tilting the man’s jaw to open his airway.
There were benefits to having a nurse for a mom, and to learning the very basics, despite the fact that he hadn’t been cut out for nursing as a profession. He’d kept up with his CPR certification, and performing it on Treyous was a matter of muscle memory at this point. It also seemed to be a task that didn’t eat into his stamina, which Arheis was grateful for.
The compressions and the air he was giving the man weren’t having the effect Arheis had hoped for, and he glanced down at the captain’s gut wound. His pulse was thready, but still there. Maybe it was just too late for him. Maybe—
Treyous let out a sputtering cough, forcefully expelling at least a full cup’s worth of seawater. The color started to return to his lips, and he groaned softly, obviously able to feel pain—or at least discomfort.
“Welcome back, Captain,” Arheis said, sitting back on his heels as the tide lapped at his feet.
The sailors crowded around, and the three of them carefully pulled Treyous further onto the beach. Arheis thought he heard one of them say something about getting the materials for a fire, but his attention was back on the water. He could hear splashing in the distance, well off the shoreline. He didn’t see someone flailing, thank God, but Zindar and Higrem both swimming to the beach, holding on to one another for support.
Closer, Mira, Galen, and Bren were also swimming in, with Bren leading them in an obvious bid to get to her captain as quickly as possible. Arheis could see her injury now when she all but threw herself onto the shore. There was a nasty gash in her leg, and he winced as he saw sand stick to the wound. That would need to be cleaned and dressed, though with what he had no idea.
And Treyous…
The gut wound he’d sustained was serious. It didn’t take a nursing degree to recognize that. Now that the others seemed to be safe and on their way to the beach, he looked around, trying to see where they’d washed up. There wasn’t much to take in. It was sand as far as the eye could see, with driftwood breaking up the monotony. One of the sailors was cutting into a piece with his knife, presumably trying to see if it was dry enough for a fire. But there weren’t any trees. No grass. Just a scattering of rocks and pools that led up to a sheer cliff face.
There was no way they could climb it, even if they didn’t have injured people among them.
He fell back, his ass hitting the sand, the exhaustion catching up to him. Mira was at his side as soon as she made it to the beach. She checked on him, asked him a few questions he barely remembered answering. Once it was clear he was fine beyond needing to sleep for a week, she moved on to more pressing concerns. Namely the fact that Treyous was going to bleed out, and there wasn’t a damn thing they could do about it.
“Are you okay?” he asked as Zindar made it ashore.
The Pruvari had been thrown from the beast, but he looked no worse for wear. No more than the rest of them, at least.
“I’m fine,” Zindar answered, “My foot was caught by debris underwater. Higrem freed me.”
“You’re welcome,” the man said, collapsing nearby.
Arheis didn’t spend any of his limited energy dissecting Higrem’s tone. It wasn’t worth it. He just sat there, trying to get his bearings. Not an easy feat when he had absolutely no idea where they were.
“Do either of you recognize this area?” he tried, knowing it was a long shot.
Higrem shook his head and lay back on the sand, letting out a puff of breath. But to his surprise, Zindar actually answered.
“I might.” The words were quiet, and the Pruvari looked over at Treyous as he said them. “I think this is Alvasta Cove, and there should be a cave right…”
He pivoted to look, and Arheis did the same, his gaze resting on what he’d thought had just been more darkness before. Sure enough, it was the entrance to a cave.
“Thank God,” he breathed. “There was no way we were going to get Treyous over that cliff.”
Arheis pushed himself up, his legs wobbly with over-use. He made his way further up the beach, to where the sailors had dragged Treyous. The captain was still conscious, and Arheis could hear quiet mumblings as he spoke to Bren, who knelt at his side. Mira had taken up a place on the other side, her gaze scanning the beach.
“If I can’t find something dry and clean to stop this bleeding…”
She didn’t need to say the rest of it. Everyone on that beach knew.
“Zindar knows this area,” he said. “There’s a cave nearby. Might be some remnants from a camp, or something else we can use.”
The healer looked up at him, her eyes registering obvious relief. “There could be some plants growing there that would help lessen the flow of blood. And if we can get a decent fire going, I can tear off some cloth to bind the wound.” She glanced down at Treyous, then in the direction Arheis had indicated for the cave. “We should move him.”
Treyous protested that plan weakly, but everyone else agreed it was the best bet. Arheis, Higrem, and Bren lifted the captain as carefully as possible and carried him to the mouth of the cave. The sailor who’d been scouting out the driftwood brought what he’d managed to gather, and Zindar and the others followed close behind. Despite the quiet nature of the beach, it was clear no one wanted to be on their own right now.
Luck was apparently still on their side, though not as much as Arheis would have hoped. There was an abandoned camp just inside the entrance, but the only thing there was what looked like some kind of livestock blanket, the remnants of a fire pit, and a copper can that had likely been used for cooking. They lay Treyous down on the blanket, and Arheis accompanied Mira to look for some plants they could use. Zindar helped the sailors start a fire while Higrem scouted out the main chamber.
It took
an hour, at least, to get all the pieces in order. But eventually the fire was crackling away, some extra driftwood being used to prop up one of the sailor’s shirts so it could dry faster for bandaging. Mira used the copper cup to steep some of the moss they’d found clinging to the cave walls, and Arheis crushed a small selection of white mushrooms against his palm.
After another hour, Treyous and Bren’s wounds were cleaned and bandaged, and everyone sat around the campfire, utterly drained.
> You have completed Lost At Sea!
You have gained 150 XP.
“We need to rest,” Arheis said, barely able to get the words out. “Take shifts, just in case.”
They sorted through the details, and though the watch schedule was far from sophisticated, it got the job done. Arheis took the first and one of the later watches, waking Zindar up to take the second once his time was up. He scarcely remembered laying down on the hard ground before he was out, and was only vaguely aware of someone shaking him awake later to do his second watch.
The night passed without anything eventful happening. It was something to be grateful for after everything that had happened, and when dawn broke, Treyous was still alive. That alone felt like some kind of miracle. Arheis supposed it wasn’t, though. Not really. Mira had been awake during both of his watches, and he suspected the healer had stayed awake all night just to monitor the captain’s condition.
“You should rest,” he suggested gently as the rest of their companions began to stir. “It’ll take some time to break down camp and scout the cave.”
But she just shook her head. “The time you’ll waste coming back here to get me is time better spent. Treyous is stable, but he needs better care than I can give him right now. We need to find a city, a village… something.”
“There should be one on the other end of this cave system,” Zindar said, painting a clear path ahead.
They needed to make it through these caves. They could worry about everything else once Treyous was taken care of.
“We’re fucked if we run into any beasts,” Higrem pointed out, stating the obvious. “Though I guess some of the wreckage might have washed up by now.”
Arheis wasn’t betting on it, but he went with Higrem anyway, just in case. Stepping out onto the beach, now completely visible under the light of day, was almost a surreal experience. The cliffs loomed closer, seeming all the more menacing. There was blood marking a trail from where they’d first come ashore to the cave, the sand dyed red with it. But more noteworthy than even that was the sheer amount of debris that had washed up overnight.
Parts of the Lady Katherine were strewn about the beach. Nothing substantial, but Arheis spotted the remnants of a bench he’d sat on above deck, some of the rigging, and a variety of crates and other containers that had once been housed below decks.
“I think I see something metal,” Higrem announced, breaking into a jog as he approached the shoreline.
Arheis followed, though Higrem easily reached the object first. When he pulled it from the sand, he let out a low whistle.
“You are one lucky bastard.”
There in his hands, looking barely worse for wear, was Arheis’ spear.
He took the weapon and looked it over, a note of awe in his voice. “It must’ve washed up with everything else.”
And unless he really was just insanely lucky, there was a chance other weapons and supplies had come ashore, too. If the Lady Katherine had to be brought down by a sea monster, it’d apparently done it in the best place possible.
He searched the length of the beach with Higrem, pulling various weapons and other items out of the sand, fishing some things from the surf. They found Treyous’ blunderbuss, Mira’s crossbow, one of Zindar’s blades, and—to Higrem’s clear relief—that massive greatsword Arheis was sure would have sunk to the bottom of the ocean.
“Now who’s the lucky bastard?”
“Still you,” he said with a snort, strapping the blade to his back. “Every person we’ve got armed makes the odds of us living through this a lot greater.”
“You and I will live through it no matter what,” Arheis said off-handedly.
He barely even realized the meaning behind that, but it slammed into him several moments later as he watched Higrem bend down to fish through a waterlogged pack. Paul Larson. He’d found out so much about the man’s disappearance, but he hadn’t had the chance to ask about it. They were alone now. He might not ever get the chance again.
And he had to know.
“I logged out last night,” he began casually. Higrem didn’t even look up. “Did a search on your name.”
“Good for you,” the man said without turning to him, “you learned how to use the internet.”
Arheis ignored that, just continuing with the facts. “The results were mostly articles talking about how you went missing.”
That did seem to get through. Higrem’s hands stilled and his shoulders tensed. When he returned to sifting through the supplies, tossing aside anything that was too damaged to use, it was with the obvious air of somebody who was distracted.
“Huh. Didn’t think anybody would file a report,” he said, the words barely reaching Arheis.
“Your landlord was the first to go to the police.”
Higrem snorted. “Figures.”
Arheis realized then that the man wasn’t trying to be an ass. He genuinely didn’t seem surprised by the news that he had apparently disappeared in the real world. The only thing he seemed even remotely concerned about was the fact that anyone had reported him in the first place.
“I just told you someone’s reported you as a missing person, and that’s all you have to say?” Arheis asked, stepping over some debris to get closer to the man. The last thing he needed was for their voices to carry to the cave. “They said it was like you’d just vanished. Everything was still at your place. That doesn’t seem weird to you?”
“Everything better still be at my place,” Higrem said, pushing himself to his feet with a grunt of effort, a soggy leather bag thrown over one shoulder. “I didn’t go anywhere.”
“What does that mean? You’re still… there? Somehow?”
Higrem leveled an annoyed gaze at Arheis. “Afraid my invisibility cloak’s not up to snuff. Not enough to pull that off, anyway.”
“Dude, I’m serious here. As far as everything on the internet is concerned, the only place you exist is here.”
He didn’t know when his voice had become slightly panicked. He didn’t even know why. Whatever had happened to Higrem, it was likely some minor, reversible blip. Even if it wasn’t, Arheis had no trouble logging out and back in.
“That’s because this is the only place I exist, Arheis. I thought you would’ve gotten that by now.”
Higrem brushed past him, crouching down some distance away. His hand skimmed the tide as it edged onto the beach, and he fished out a small pouch, looking inside.
“How am I supposed to get anything when you’re so fucking cryptic all the time?” he asked through gritted teeth, barely able to keep his voice down. “All you said was that you—”
“Made a choice. Yeah.” He tossed the pouch at Arheis, who reacted just fast enough to catch it.
> You have gained 12,300 GC.
> Total GC: 12,300
“I made a choice to stay here. That’s why I’m not in the real world anymore. That’s why you found a bunch of missing person bullshit, and it’s why those investigations will go cold. I made my choice, and this place is all there is for me now.”
“…What?”
He wanted to say something more intelligent, to parse out what Higrem was telling him and try to make sense of it. But there was no making sense of this.
“I’m part of Estalia now. This is who I am, this is my life. It’s why I…” His jaw clenched and he looked away before finally speaking again. “It’s why I damn near begged to go with you. This is all I have, Arheis. I need to make something of it, or it’s all just a waste.”
He still couldn’t process this. Yes, Mira and Zindar and all of the others did seem like real people, and Higrem had strongly suggested that Estalia was somehow a real place—or as close to real as could be achieved in simulated reality—but this was something else completely. It was like watching an episode of some creepy sci-fi show unfold right before his eyes.
“Okay. So you’re here. In the game.”
“In Estalia,” Higrem corrected, going back to his search. “And so are you. Only difference between us is you can leave whenever you want, and I can’t.”
“So are you… dead? In the real world?”
His heart started to hammer out an irregular beat. He’d often thought about getting lost inside a video game, but he’d never meant it literally.
“If you want to think about it that way, sure,” Higrem said, his tone just as cavalier as always. “But the reality’s probably muddier than that. It’s like stepping through a portal, I guess. And no, before you ask, I didn’t step through a portal. I made a choice.”
“You keep saying that. What the hell does that mean?” He didn’t bother to hide his frustration. His head hurt, he was hungry, and some strong part of Arheis was considering just logging out right now.
Somehow that was the thing that pushed Higrem’s buttons. He threw down the mess of mush he’d been pawing at and stalked over to Arheis. The man didn’t quite tower over him, but he was large enough to be intimidating.
“It means I stayed here for someone. I chose to be here because this was the only place they were,” he growled out.
“Your son?” Apparently Arheis was in the mood to press his luck. So long as it got him information.
“No.” He thought about it for a moment, then said, “Sort of. I guess in part. But it doesn’t matter now.”
“It doesn’t matter that you gave up your life for—”
“Don’t you fucking say it.” Higrem was right up in his face now, his arm drawn back, hand balled into a fist. “Don’t you fucking call them NPCs. I swear to God, Arheis, you should know better by now.” Before Arheis could get a word in edge wise, Higrem dropped his readied fist, stepped back, and continued talking. “And I didn’t give up anything. You saw my life. My landlord was the only person who gave a shit about me being gone, and that was only because he wanted his money.”