by Terina Adams
With the first few strokes, my saner side won, destruction subdued. I swam like it was the last act I would perform. This close to the flames, my eyes dried, blurring my vision. My skin felt ready to peel. I inhaled a deep breath and ducked below. Underneath the flames, the water boiled like hot lava. I pushed to the surface again, shielding my face. There was no going under unless I wanted to cook the flesh from my bones.
Behind me, the fighting continued. The wall of flames spiraled tighter, forcing us into a burning soup in the middle. This was the only way out.
Nothing is real. Why did I bother to tell myself those things? It never made any difference. I would have to swim like hell and forget the rest.
I took two breaths then ducked under the water again. Swimming forward was like swimming into the center of a volcano. The skin on my fingers burned first. The spear of heat shot up my arms and rushed over my face. The scream bulged my cheeks. Eyes squeezed shut, I blew hard through my nose to keep the lava out. My lips felt like they were being peeled away. The burn moved over my body, scorching my flesh. The urge to open my eyes and look at my health status bar nearly overrode sense.
The swim turned into the rest of my life, which shortened by the second. I was engulfed with the fiery agony of being burned alive, skin stripped, bones charred. But still, I swam. And that was it. I could still swim. If I could still swim, my mind had not shorted out with the overload of pain.
Jax said experienced players were able to blanket Dominus’s control over their deaths. I felt every inch of this torture, yet I was still alive, which had to mean Dominus could no longer convince me I was dying. The idea gave me the power I needed to push through the wall of lava and reach the other side.
When the temperature cooled, I swam upward and surfaced into the dull blue-white light from the ceiling of the cavern, the shore not far ahead. The flames were gone. I straightened to find my feet hit the bottom of the rocky pool. Once I reached waist height, I spun, searching for the others.
“Is everyone all right?” Jax’s yell echoed around the cavern.
With each reply, my exhale grew deeper.
I crawled up onto the bank and collapsed with my head against the smooth stone. Tension gone, I felt limp.
With the sound of the others splashing to shore, I slid farther down until the entirety of my body lay on the cold rock. The cold was the elixir I needed. I’d even enjoy lying on a slab of ice right now.
After a few more calming breaths, I raised my arm so I could see my flesh was intact. I even ran my hands over my waist, savoring the feel of smooth skin, all thanks to Dominus’s mind control; in reality I was wearing a white jumpsuit.
“How much longer do we have to go?” Nuke asked.
Jax had collapsed beside me. He continued to stay on his knees and elbows, head bent. I listened to his harsh breathing. How much more did he have left in him? Elva shuffled over and ran a soothing hand down his back. “It can’t be much farther.”
Jax gave himself the time for one more breath before he sat up, heaving himself over onto his ass like he aged a hundred years in one fight. “This is all too easy.”
“Not according to my status bars,” Patrick said from his position on his back.
“This is Level Nine, yet we’ve made it this far underground and only once faced an attack.”
“Carter and Nixon never anticipated anyone ever getting this far, so they didn’t bother creating extravagant defenses,” Nuke suggested.
“Carter never underestimates anyone,” Jax said.
And with that pronouncement, we all fell silent, except for someone’s stomach, which decided to growl in the quiet.
“Now that’s something seriously missing in this game,” Patrick said. “Don’t you guys have vending machines in your world? If you don’t, I’m in no hurry to visit.”
With the mention of food, my stomach joined in. As if the grumbles spurned him on, Jax launched to his feet. “I think that’s enough sitting on our asses.”
Elva followed, giving Nuke her hand. He groaned as he accepted her offer.
“Are you sure you’re ready to continue?” she asked once Nuke released her hand.
“I’m always ready.” Jax patted her shoulder. “We’re going to win. You know that, right?”
She reciprocated with an insipid smile. “We always do.” Her voiced sounded tired to me.
Chapter 7
Jax drove our arduous pace, now that the tunnel widened, speeding up with each scan of his forearm. I would like to think it was because he saw the end around the next bend and not because there were far too many forks left to take. I breathed deep through the stitch cramping up my left side. After feeling my skin burned from my body, I was not about to complain about something so insignificant.
We were nearing our end goal, according to Jax some turns back, which felt like hours ago. The grumble in my stomach had turned into the sort of sickly churn you get when the stomach acid has nothing to dissolve but your stomach lining. If we didn’t reach the end soon, I would likely start gnawing on someone’s arm.
On the next divide in the tunnel, Jax halted us with a raised hand. “Straight ahead and we’re there.”
“Feels like we’ve been training a lifetime for this moment. Anyone want to say something on this momentous occasion?” Patrick asked.
“My guess is entering won’t be easy. The point of Dominus was to train us to reach this goal. Don’t think the hard part was the journey here. I would say our work has just begun,” Jax said.
“Just as long as they have food in this place.” And to illustrate my sentiment, my stomach grouched loud enough for everyone to hear.
“You best stay here then. We wouldn’t want you messing up and keeping us stuck in Dominus, because you were distracted by your stomach.” As always, Elva injected enough nasty tone to leave me in little doubt she spoke down to me, not at me. I swear she blamed me for Holden’s treachery, possibly even twisting the stupid factional mess enough to make me responsible for his inability to love her.
Jax came to stand between us. “No one gets left behind.” He glanced down at me. “One more push and it will all be over.”
“One way or another,” Nuke muttered.
Jax led the way. Patrick waited for me to go in front, and Elva once again came behind. She’d proven more than capable, so chivalry wasn’t needed here; I’d say her skills in a fight outmatched Nuke’s and Patrick’s put together.
Around another bend and we came to the base of a steep stairwell, much like the one at Aris HQ.
Jax placed a hand on my shoulder and gently squeezed. “Up there is our way out.”
“At least we don’t have to retrace our steps. I say let’s mount them damn stairs and get this over with. I’m not a mole,” Patrick said.
Jax looked at the others then down at me. “Try not to destroy anything too early. We need to learn as much as we can about the place before we demolish it.” He smiled, which was encouraging, the first genuine smile I’d seen on him for a long time, the first real expression I’d been able to detect on his avatar face. The openness of his expression made me realize how much of his peace was eaten up by Carter’s demands. There was no need for pretense anymore. He was as close as he’d ever come to beating Carter—nowhere near close enough, but he was finally trying to carve his own hope for the future. Once we smashed our way through the Dome’s defenses, he would learn the secret he spent years preparing to understand, something he seemed to feel was the key to our final success and Carter’s downfall.
Jax spun, about to mount the stairs, when something fell from the ceiling on top of him, dragging him down the first step and onto his back. In the blue-white light, black engulfed him like a shroud.
Elva moved first, crashing me out the way as she sprung toward Jax on the ground. Before she reached him, another black shape dropped down from above, knocking her over before encasing her in a black cloak. The two writhed helplessly on the ground, their legs poking out the bott
om, the only parts of them we could see. Muffled cries and grunts of strain sounded from the struggles as the shapes of body parts protruded through the black coverings, which looked more like a PVC blanket contouring to the outline of their bodies than a creature. But the way they moved over Jax and Elva’s bodies, sliding and slithering, repositioning themselves whenever they slipped, there was no doubt these things were alive.
“What the hell?” Nuke yelled, as he leaped forward.
I reached for his arm but missed. “No, wait. The same will—”
Too late. Nuke was engulfed in the same blackness that entangled the others. I could see the outline of Elva’s face project through the covering, the black adhering to her nose like cling wrap. Her next inhale sucked the black into her mouth.
“It’s suffocating them,” Patrick said, surging forward.
“Be smart about this.” I stalled him. “These are night creatures.”
Patrick craned to the ceiling as I looked over my shoulder. The muffled cries of the others slowly suffocating under the tight wrap of the black creatures caused destruction to rage beneath the boundaries of my skin. The marker on my power status bar couldn’t move any higher. But there was no visible opponent.
“Do you see anything?” I asked.
“The bastards are keeping well hidden. We’ve got to get that stuff off of them.”
“You move and they’ll have you too.”
Patrick spun on me. “We have to do something.”
“You want to be a victim, then do it. There’s an invisible boundary in front. Go over that and you’ll trigger another one to drop down on top of you.”
“Then get fancy,” Patrick said.
But where were the Phonus warriors? How could I destroy them if I couldn’t even see them?
Jax had shielded his mouth with his forearm, preventing the black from suffocating him, but Elva had not reached up in time. She arched her body off the ground, flailing her arms while the black sucked up her nostrils and caved into her mouth. Nuke was on his side, so I couldn’t see how he faired.
There was no time left.
“We’re going to lose Elva if you take any more time.”
My eyes ran the length of the steps, which cut up into the ceiling, up into the darkness that lay hidden at the top. “She’s too tough to allow Dominus to rule her mind like that,” I said. Either way, I was going to waste these Phonus bastards.
There was nothing to see up there, which meant our not-so-friendly friends had to be hiding in the darkness at the top of the stairs.
I funneled destruction up the steps, flowing it out like a gushing flood of water. It tumbled forward, a waterfall running backward, gaining momentum as it coursed up toward the door at the top. The blast channeled through my ears. I ducked, shielding my face, but the only thing that poured down on top of us was a blinding ray of light.
The black creatures were gone, leaving Elva, Jax, and Nuke like newborns rolling on the rocks, blinking in the bright sunlight.
“How did you know?” Patrick asked, bending down to offer his hand to Elva.
“Lucky guess. We couldn’t see them anywhere, so I figured they had to be hiding behind the door. If we’d made it past their creatures, then they would be the first thing we encountered.”
Elva humphed as she glanced sideways at me. “Thanks.”
I tried to keep my triumphant smile to a small crease.
“The walls aren’t coming down around us, so I’d say our cautionary measures so far have been unnecessary,” Jax said, rubbing his side. “But don’t let that fool you into thinking there’ll be no more surprises.” He spared a moment to meet each of our eyes. “You did good, Sable.”
The bright light meant I could finally see his features properly, but anything special on his face was buried below his avatar expression.
“Let’s finish this,” he said.
“Seventy-two,” I said, which made everyone stop and turn to me.
“I’ve got seventy-two kills now. That means I’m out first opportunity.”
“Anyone else not at their quota?” Jax asked, glancing around.
“I’m good,” Nuke said.
Patrick gave a thumbs up. “Me too,” Patrick
Elva moved toward the stairs. “You need ask?” She smiled at Jax as she placed her foot on the first step.
Jax bounded up the stairs, the rest of us close at his heels. By the time I neared the top, I gasped for air. My fingers went to my weapons on my belt, fingering each for reassurance. The tri-blade first, my preferred weapon, then the dagger and the axe. Or maybe I would forgo all of those and let destruction have its way.
First to the top step and out into the blinding white light, Jax staggered to a halt, blocking our entrance.
“What the hell?” he said as he moved away from the entrance and into the Dome.
Given his slow exit from the tunnel and no obvious sounds of fighting, I eased my hand off my tri-blade and followed Nuke up into the light.
I stepped into the void, expecting to feel some form of delineation, a marker as to the pinnacle we reached. Nothing. I stumbled into Nuke’s back and found the other three standing just in front, turning slack-jawed at the sight surrounding us.
The Dome was a void. No warriors appeared to defend against our attack, no marble halls with expansive ceilings, no glass windows towering to the sky. There was nothing.
“This doesn’t look right.” Patrick spun in a slow arc.
Jax shielded his eyes with his hand as he ducked his head. Elva touched his shoulder as she walked past him, turning circles as she went.
“There’s nothing at the Dome. Is this what it means?” Nuke said.
“No, dumbass, it means Carter wiped the Dome from the game. That’s what he did when he returned here after the fight at the Amex,” Elva replied.
“He sure didn’t want anyone getting in,” Patrick said.
“What do you suppose he’s hiding?” I asked, glancing at Jax, his head still buried in his hand.
“If we knew that, we wouldn’t be here.” Yet another moment Elva could enjoy spearing me with her sarcasm. But she was right—dumb question on my behalf, yet surely one of them would’ve heard rumors.
“How many people work at the Dome who are not a part of the senate?”
“What’s that got to do with any of this?” Elva said.
“You’re telling me not one person has let slip why the senate keeps what’s inside the Dome a secret?”
Elva let me know what she thought of my questions by turning her back on me.
Jax dropped his hand. The next minute, he disappeared from in front of me. Elva did too. I ripped my own goggles from my eyes and blinked in the normalcy of the white room, Dominus left behind. Hopefully for good.
Jax threw his goggles on the mat and strode across the room, climbing out of the white jumpsuit as he went. I hastened after him, jumping on the spot for a moment while I slipped my own jumpsuit off each leg. No one bothered to be neat, so I left everything where I stripped and headed out of the gaming room after the others.
“Maybe there never was anything at the end of the tunnel.”
“No.” Jax shook his head. “It wouldn’t make sense.” At least he was back to talking again. “That was our end goal. Why create a game for that reason alone and not bother to detail the finish?”
“He doesn’t want us getting there first,” Elva said, slumping down into the closest seat and folding her legs over the armrest.
“Carter has lied all along. We know that for sure. Maybe he never intended for any of us to survive the initial fight,” I said.
“We’re the weapons, and weapons are easily disposed of when they reach their use-by date,” Nuke said.
Jax stared off into space, keeping himself separate from the conversation, his face the usual impenetrable wall. His hopes in our future success had ridden on our final push.
I placed my hand over my stomach as it churned then growled. Now was not the t
ime for mundane activities like eating. No one reacted to my stomach’s plea, so I ignored it and slid onto the armrest of a vacant couch.
“What’s our plan?” Patrick eased down onto the couch next to Elva.
Like he hadn’t heard the question, Jax stayed quiet, either thinking or stymied. The last time I’d seen him hopeless was when I left to blow the roof off the Amex Tower. I’d been fueled with my conviction, which had given us both a vehicle through which to act. But there was nothing left in me now to drag him out of the quagmire of his mind. Our situation looked bleak at any angle. Never accept defeat; Dad taught me that. Five against Carter’s army, odds were against us, but the smartest survive; Jax taught me that.
“Weren’t you the one who told me I had to push beyond the boundaries of my limitations and master my fears? Well, I’ve done that, and I’m still here.”
In unison, their faces turned to me, expressions telling me I’d just spoken a weird dialect.
“What are you talking about?” Elva said in the same tone she’d use to ask, Are you two?
“The four of you look defeated.”
“How ‘bout you let us suck up some inertia for a while. I think we’ve earned it,” Patrick said.
Maybe I was the only one willing to function, because my plans hadn’t involved the Dome. Finding it a void did nothing to ruin my path. I slid down onto the couch. “The Dome was Carter’s end. But it doesn’t have to be your end.”
“What’s your plan, Einstein?”
I ignored Elva and looked at Jax. His eyes were on me.
“Dad told me there were Persal waiting for his arrival in a village called Uradra. That these people knew everything about his and Carter’s plans. Maybe Carter did the same. Maybe the reach of this plan is wider than either of you anticipated. I’m counting on neither Carter nor my dad telling anyone, including each other, the truth of what they hoped the outcome would be and their plans to fulfill it.”
“Do you think there would be anyone else from the senate who knows?” Nuke asked.
“No way,” Elva and Jax chimed together.