Rebirth Online

by Michael James Ploof

  To take my mind off the pain of my slowly healing wounds, I took in the room around me. There was a single cot set against the back wall, and above it, a small slit in the stone created a meager window. In one corner was a bucket, and I was glad that the call of nature was less frequent in game. I climbed up on the bed and peered out of the window at the street beyond, but I saw no sign of Trinity or Anna.

  As my health slowly began to regenerate, I lay down on the cot and curled up in the fetal position, trying to handle the still throbbing pain. I started to drift off to sleep as I lay there, but then I heard footsteps in the hall and sat up in bed.

  A guard I hadn’t seen before and a man in long white priest robes walked toward my cell. The guard unlocked the door and motioned for the priest to enter. The hooded figure walked into my cell and peeled back his hood, and I almost shit myself with surprise.

  “Doctor Marks?” I said breathlessly. “Holy shit am I happy to see you.”

  “I imagine,” he said as he glanced around at the cell. Then he eyed the big hole in my shirt and my still raw looking wound and raised a hand. From his palm white light snaked forward and washed over my wounds, soothing me like a mother’s words. As the healing power washed over me, my health bar quickly began to climb back up to 100%, and I let out a sigh of relief.

  “Thanks,” I said, rubbing my healed chest. “Listen, the guards have it all wrong, I was just defending my friend. Can you get me out of here?”

  “Of course not,” he said and glanced at the NPC guard who stood rigidly on the other side of the glowing bars. “I am only here because you have visitors.”

  “Trinity and Anna?” I moved to the bars and peered down the hall.

  “No,” he said with a small chuckle and held out his hand. “Your parents.”

  He held a small crystal in his hand, and with a spoken word he activated it. The crystal suddenly burst with light, and two thick beams shone on the opposite side of the cell by the bed. The holograms of my parents stood about three feet tall and glanced around the room quizzically.

  “Mom, Dad?” I said as I moved toward them.

  “Oh, look, honey, he can walk,” my mother said and cupped a hand over her mouth, her eyes tearing as she looked up at me.

  “It’s not real,” my father mumbled as he glanced around. “Is this...is this a prison cell?”

  “Uh, yeah,” I stammered. “I just got in a little scuffle in town, it’s no big deal.”

  “Not a big deal?” my father yelled. He scowled up at Dr. Marks. “My son paid you fifty-thousand dollars to be a prisoner in a virtual game? What kind of bullshit is this?”

  “Oh, no, Sammy, what did you do?” my mother asked.

  “Jesus Christ, I’m fine,” I told them. “It’s just part of the game, I’ll be out soon enough.”

  “What’s his bail?” my father asked Dr. Marks. “Does it cost real world funds to get him out? What kind of scam is your company running?”

  “I do not know what his bail will be set at, that’s up to the judge. But yes, he can pay with in game gold or US dollars.”

  “This is an outrage!” my father yelled.

  “He can pay it,” said my mother. “He started the game with extra money.”

  “Buy money to spend on bail?” my father continued to rant.

  “Why don’t you just pay the bail money out of what you started with, honey,” my mother asked.

  “I... got robbed,” I admitted with a long sigh.

  “Robbed? Robbed?” said my father. He pointed a shaking finger at Dr. Marks. “That’s it, we’re done with this scam. I want him unplugged immediately!”

  “Damnit, Dad, I’m twenty-four years old! I paid for this with my own money, and I’m not going anywhere. Alright? So, chill out.”

  “You’ll regret it,” my father warned.

  “Listen, in the real world I’ve got nothing. In here I can still be somebody. In here I can earn the funds to pay for the surgery that I need. Okay, so just get off my back about it and trust that I know what I’m doing.”

  “You’ve still got us,” my mother said with a smile and wiped a tear from her eye.

  My father just shook his head.

  “I’ll talk to you both later, alright. I gotta go,” I told them and glanced at Dr. Marks.

  “We love you Sammy…” said my mother as the good doctor turned off the hologram.

  “Dude, can you warn me the next time they want to visit?” I asked.

  “Sure, sorry about that. I can see where your dad’s coming from. And a lot of rich players just buy their way out of stuff like this, but I think you’ll figure it out. You’re a smart kid.”

  He nodded at the guard, who unlocked the cell door and waited.

  “Good luck,” said Dr. Marks as he left.

  “Yeah, thanks,” I said as I plopped down on my cot.

  I lay there staring at the ceiling and feeling bad about snapping on my dad. He had good intentions, but the two of them were just too damn clingy. They had been smothering me with worry ever since the accident, and it felt like being a kid again, trapped with no money, no license, no wheels, no idea about anything...

  I needed to get the hell out of that cell, but I didn’t have any money for bail, and I didn’t think Trinity or Anna did either. As I lay there, watching the world through the thin slit in the wall that acted as a window, I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself. What must my parents be thinking? The first time that they see me in the new world that I chose to live in, they find me in jail. Little did they know that I had just had the best day of my life.

  Little did they know that for the first time, I felt like myself.

  I snoozed for a while, and when I woke up, only faint torch light shown through the slit in the wall. I nodded off again, but it seemed like only a few minutes before I was awakened by an urgent, hissing voice.

  “Psst, eat this!”

  I glanced around the cell. The constant blue glow of the magical bars lit the place up like a drug dealer’s living room. Beyond the bars no one stirred, but then I glanced at the slit in the wall above my cot, and I saw a distinctly feminine eye peering back at me. Either the woman wore heavy mascara, or her skin was very dark. Either way, she had been the one who spoke.

  “Eat what?” I whispered back.

  “This,” she said, and her eye was replaced by a small, rectangular piece of cloth that slipped through the slit easily.

  I took the tiny bundle, laid it down on the cot, glanced over my shoulder to make sure no one was coming, and unwrapped it. Inside I found a course brown powder.

  “It’s crushed up Mangarii Mushroom. Just eat it. You’ll be glad you did in about five minutes,” the mysterious woman whispered through the slit, and then she was gone.

  “Hey,” I hissed, but no answer was forthcoming.

  I sniffed at the dried mushroom, touched a bit of it to my lip, and glanced again conspiratorially toward the bars.

  “Screw it,” I said aloud, and dumped all the contents into my mouth.

  Now, I had done magic mushrooms before. I even did acid once in college. But these mushrooms had no effect whatsoever that I could detect. I waited, and I waited, and when the five minutes had passed I peered out the small slit in the wall.

  I saw nothing but the empty street beyond, and the full moon hanging low over the distant horizon.

  Maybe it would take a while for the mushrooms to kick in, just like the hallucinogenic kind. The woman had said five minutes though, and that much time had surely already passed.

  As I sat up in on my cot and pondered, a thin wisp of smoke began to trickle into the room. It rode on the air like a cartoon character’s nose, drawn forth by a delicious smelling food. I watched it with intrigue, and more smoke began to waft into the cell. Soon, the entire cell was full of the stuff.

  I heard the guards down the hall cough and choke, and a heavy thud must have been the sound of one of them hitting the floor. But I felt fine.

  You’ll be ha
ppy you did in about five minutes…

  The mysterious woman’s words returned to me, echoing in my mind.

  “Hello!” I yelled out in the heavy fog. The cell had suddenly become unnavigable, even the glowing bars had stopped giving off light.

  “Shhh!” a soft voice hissed in the gloom.

  I heard a click, and a woman’s small hand wrapped around my wrist.

  “Come with me if you want to live,” she said in her best Arnold Schwarzenegger voice.

  Chapter 9

  I let the mysterious woman lead me through the fog-filled jailhouse, and I trusted that wherever she was bringing me was better than prison. We didn’t emerge from the main door, but rather, a window. As we landed on the cobblestone between the jailhouse and the courthouse, I saw for the first time the face of my rescuer.

  And damnnn…

  Her eyes were painted dark violet, but her skin was dark as well. It was a smoky black that reminded me of a drow elf, and when I saw her long ears outlined in the tight hood covering her head, I realized my guess had been right. Her eyes were light purple and matched her lips, which were as plump as a Georgia plum. Her high cheekbones and hawkish little nose suggested daintiness, but the intensity in her eyes begged to differ.

  “This way,” she said, and hurried along the alley with the grace of a cat.

  I noticed that she wore all black, and the leather armor was super tight. Her entire body was outlined in the snug armor, and I found it hard to be worried about being spotted while I followed her athletic ass through the shadows. She turned to face me again, and I had all I could do to keep my eyes on hers.

  “You see that wagon? That is our destination. All you’ve got to do is get there, get inside, and keep your mouth shut, and we’ll be out of town before you know it. Alright?”

  “Whatever you say,” I told her with a grin.

  She offered me a curious grin, and then ushered me out of the alley.

  “Go!”

  I ran, head down toward the wagon, and leapt inside when someone within pushed the tarp up from the tailgate. Four hands dragged me inside, and by the light a small hole in the canvas that covered us, I recognized the smiling faces of Anna and Trinity.

  “Wanna level? Trinity said with a mischievous giggle.

  “Trinity, Anna!” I said and hugged them both. “I’m so glad to see you two.”

  “Did you think we would just let you rot in jail?” Anna asked.

  “Shhh!” came the hiss of the mysterious drow elf as she smacked the canvas.

  We kept quiet and huddled together under the canvas as the wagon slowly got going. While we waited for the all clear, I thought of my gear, weapons, and money back at the jailhouse, and I prayed to the gaming god that the drow had gathered them before she found me.

  “Sorry we took so long,” Anna whispered. “Ember was hard to find.”

  “Ember? Is that the drow elf?” I asked.

  “Yeah, she’s great, right? I think she would be a good inclusion into our guild,” Anna said.

  “Let’s just see if she tries to rob us once we stop, and we’ll go from there,” Trinity suggested. “She is a rogue after all.”

  The wagon rumbled along for about fifteen minutes before the drow tapped on the canvas and gave the all clear. The three of us pushed back the tarp and took in the fresh air. I glanced around, we were deeper in the mountains, and the air was getting chilly.

  “Where are we headed?” I asked the girls.

  “The Beartooth Mountains. For levels 11-15,” the drow called back from her perch on the wagon bench.

  “Thanks for getting me out of jail,” I said to the woman. “Ember is it?”

  “Yup.”

  “Well, nice to meet you.”

  “Yup.”

  “Does she always talk this much?” I asked Trinity and Anna.

  “Yup,” said Anna, and we all shared a laugh.

  When the wagon finally stopped, and Ember let down the tailgate, I helped Trinity and Anna out and hopped down to the snowy ground.

  “Damn, it’s cold up here,” I said with a shiver.

  “Here’s your crap from the jailhouse,” said Ember as she tossed me a burlap sack. “And there are heavy coats stashed under the hay.”

  “Now you tell us,” said Trinity as she began to rummage beneath the bed of hay.

  She handed Anna and me both a big fur coat, and Ember slapped the asses of the horses, sending them off.

  “Why’d you do that?” I asked. “We could use mounts.”

  “You’re already a criminal,” she said as she glanced around warily. “I doubt you want to add horse thief to your rap sheet.”

  “I was falsely prosecuted,” I said. “But thanks, Ember. Thank you for everything you’ve done.”

  She glanced at Trinity and Anna, before moving close enough to kiss me.

  “I agreed to do this because your girlfriends here promised that you could help me level instantly.” She glanced down at my crotch, looked back up at me, and cocked a brow. “And if you three are bullshitting me, I’ll send you all to the graveyard. Got it?”

  “Wow,” I said. “Given the social climate back in the real world, I think that I should be really insulted right now, but for some reason, I’m really turned on.”

  Ember shook her head, hooked a thumb over her shoulder, and said, “Follow me.”

  Trinity, Anna, and I followed Ember through the deep snow and the howling wind for five minutes. She led us along a ridge, into a small copse of pine trees, and then to the mouth of a small cave.

  I shared a look with my girls and took up the lead as I followed Ember through the small entrance. We moved silently through the dark tunnel for a few minutes, before coming out into a glowing crystal cavern.

  “This way,’ Ember told me, and continued to the first tunnel on the right.

  I followed her through the threshold into pure darkness, but then she spoke a spell word, and dozens of crystals embedded in the earthen walls lit up. Before me was a pretty pimpin subterranean apartment, and I grinned at the mysterious drow elf.

  “Not bad,” I said as I took in the room.

  It looked like Ember had been here for a few weeks at least, or else she had kicked out or killed the previous tenants. There was running water in the form of an always-dripping spigot that protruded from the north wall about twenty feet in front of me. A cooking area complete with a three-foot-wide fireplace, currently burning only embers, sat to my left. Three yellow silk screens with the outlines of beds behind them sat to my right. And a lounging area with six plush chairs centered around a big looking glass. A table sat near the cooking area, and Ember walked over to it and grabbed the bottle of wine.

  “Anybody want a drink? If there’s one thing in abundance in the game, its friggin elderberry wine,” she said as she peeled back her tight hood and shook out her long straight silver hair.

  “I’ll take one,” I said.

  Trinity and Anna both accepted a glass as well, and we all sat at the table while I told them about my parents visiting me in the jailhouse.

  “Oh my god, what a game killer,” said Ember. “How old are you anyway, that your parents are visiting you?”

  “I’m 24,” I replied. “But ever since the accident they’ve been like that. Can’t really blame them though, since I’m a paraplegic.”

  “Oh, shit, I’m sorry,” said Ember. “I didn’t know.”

  “It’s all good. That’s why I’m here. There’s a lot of money to be made in this game at high levels, and I hope to make enough to be able to pay for real world surgery. How about you? Why are you here?”

  “I’ve been making money playing games since I was 14. I figured that I might as well give this one a shot.”

  “Do you want to join our guild?” I asked. “We could really use someone with your skill set, and I think you’d be a good fit.”

  “Whoa, Loverboy,” said Trinity. “The cooldown on your special ability is 12 hours, and if we add another perso
n to the mix, then Anna and I have to wait that much longer to level.”

  “Let’s not forget my price,” said Ember. “Whether I join or not, we agreed that I get to level at least once with Sam’s...special ability.”

  “What are you two, my pimps?” I asked Trinity and Anna, half-jokingly.

  “Uh, yeah,” said Trinity with a laugh.

  “Please,” said Anna. “It’s not like you don’t love every minute of this.”

  “Maybe a little. But we can’t depend completely on my special ability. We need a strong guild if we’re going to reach high levels and start making some real money. And I for one intend on dominating this shit. Either you share my vision, or you don’t.”

  “I like this guy,” said Ember. “I’m in if you’ll have me.”

  “Why do I get the feeling this is going to be an all-woman guild, with the exception of you?” Trinity asked.

  “I don’t mind having men in the guild if they’re a good fit,” I said, and quickly added. “But I’m not helping a dude instantly level. Sorry, I just don’t swing that way.”

  “So?” said Ember, looking to Trinity and Anna. “You two want me to be a part of the team or not?”

  The women shared a glance, and Trinity shrugged.

  “Fine with me, but you’ve got to share Loverboy here,” said Trinity.

  “I think you’ll be a good fit,” said Anna.

  “Great,” said Ember. She stood up, tossed back the rest of her wine, and took my hand. “Now, for my reward.”

  Chapter 10

  Level 12 Unlocked

  The notification flashed in front of Ember’s breasts as she shuddered and recovered from the orgasm that we had just shared. Then her eyes lit up.

  “Holy crap, I leveled. I can’t believe that really worked.” She rolled off me and lay beside me panting.

  “You didn’t think it was true?” I said with a laugh.

  “I thought it was about a 50/50 chance, and I figured that if it didn’t work I would at least enjoy some good old virtual reality sex.” She propped herself up on one elbow and grabbed my manhood. “Let’s do it again.”