by Rick Scott
A new emotion seizes me, then.
Fear.
It rises up in my chest like ice and makes my legs tremble. It’s something I haven’t felt this strongly since the last time I stepped onto these sands, or perhaps when I saw those giant monsters down in the mines and on Planet Hell. Either way, it’s the same feeling: gripping anxiety that causes my heart to race in my throat. A subtle thought in the back of my mind whispers that the game is no longer playing fair, and that anything can happen.
Just like in the real world.
A message pops onto my HUD
[Host domain lost . . . ]
[Reconnecting . . . fail!]
[Your domain is no longer accessible. Certain functions and Quest lines may be unavailable.]
I don’t recall seeing a message like that before, the first time we were in the wild. Perhaps when we first arrived, we had no domain, so it didn’t matter. Entering the safe zone must have initialized something. Something it can’t detect now.
“Sentry towers,” Aiko says, pointing ahead of her. “Dogs, too.”
I look to where Aiko’s keen eyes have spotted the packs of dogs roaming around the towers. The towers remind me of lifeguard stations, for some reason; though I’ve only ever seen them in old prewar movies. Maybe they just look that way to me because of all the sand.
“We’ll have to time this carefully,” Maxis says. “The Invis will keep the towers from activating, but we’ll need to keep our distance from those dogs.”
“Who built those things, anyway?” I ask. “They don’t seem like anything from a game world.”
Maxis shrugs. “Someone with a sick sense of humor, I guess.”
“Hey, I’ve got an idea,” Gilly says. “Reece, do you still have some of these?”
She materializes a small vial in her hand, and I focus on it to see what it is.
Sneaking Potion
Makes the user undetectable by aggressive enemies. Wears off when an action is performed.
Duration: 5 minutes
It is rumored the mages of the Ivory Keep created this potion to sneak into the lairs of dragons . . .
“No way!” I say in disbelief. “You still got those?”
She laughs. “Yeah, don’t you have a few left?”
I check through my inventory and, sure enough, I have three Sneaking Potions left. I get an odd sense of nostalgia as I materialize them. Making the decision to buy these potions and head to the Silvertooth Mines was what started this whole adventure. It’s where I found the Scroll of Shadow Copy and eventually met Val Helena.
I think back to when I nearly junked the scroll to make inventory space. Man, how different my life would be right now if I’d done that. I’d still be laid up at home, a cripple, not going out with Gilly, still trying to find a way to save my mom.
Although, I suppose I’m still trying to do that last part—save my mom, that is, along with the rest of Citadel.
I guess everything has its downside.
But in retrospect, buying these potions was the best decision of my life.
“Here you go, guys,” I say as I make trade requests to hand them out.
“Nice one, mate,” Rembrandt says, completing the trade. “Initial entry will be smooth as silk with these.”
“Let’s get to it, then,” Aiko says, and then chugs down her potion.
We all follow suit, disappearing from existence before heading forward as a group toward the towers. It’s a good hundred feet or so till we get past them, and my heart rate goes up as we pass a roaming pack of dogs. Seeing them up close, they look bigger than I remember. More like lions than dogs, with strange plated-tech armor over their heads and bodies.
I focus on one to check its stats.
Lupine Sentry
Level: 100
No data available
Affinity: N/A
Right . . . now I remember. Level 100, but little more info than that. It’s just another reminder that we’re not exactly in the game world anymore. We get past the dogs and towers with relative ease thanks to the potions, and I almost wish we had more to make just as smooth a transition for the rest of the way. But the potions only last for 5 minutes, and we have hours a running to do yet.
As the potions wear off, Rembrandt takes his position in the lead and scans the dunes with his mirror shades.
“Clear path this way,” he says. “Cloak us up, and we can start running.”
“Make sure you watch each other’s footprints,” Maxis says. “Say something in party chat if you see someone going off course.”
I’m reminded of that additional complication. In the Shards and safe zones, the game uses a faint outline to make it easier to see both yourself and your teammates while invisible, but here, we’ll be just as invisible to ourselves as to our enemies.
“You cloak first,” Aiko says to me with a nod. “We’ll alternate our timers to keep Shadow Wall up permanently.”
“Got it,” I say, and cast the spell.
Just like when I first arrived, there are no cool, swirly kanji, just a buff that appears on my HUD as our bodies turn to glass.
* * *
We run in sprints for the next few hours, reminding me of the journey I just made with Aiko. It’s a grueling ordeal. Running in the sand feels like I’m constantly going uphill. My legs burn with exertion. I stay close to Gilly to make sure she’s keeping up as we move at a breakneck pace, stopping only for a minute or so every half hour to let Rembrandt take his bearings. Overhead, the sky darkens the deeper we go, with thunder clouds so thick it looks like night. Every so often, the sky illuminates with a crackle of lightning that stabs through the air, adding to the anxiety already coursing through me.
We skirt past packs of roaming sentry dogs, but each time, Rembrandt spots them and makes course corrections to avoid confrontation. We take wide arcs to avoid detection and short cuts where we can. About two hours in, we stop for a real break, and I all but collapse onto the sand to rest my aching legs. Next to me, Gilly does the same.
“Geez!” she says with a pant. “How much further, Rem? I think I’m gonna die.”
“Not too much longer,” Rembrandt says in the party chat as he scans the horizon. “We should be past the mountains by now.”
“We’re making good time,” Maxis says. “Ten minutes, and we’ll head out again.”
Not much time to recover. But considering where we are right now, I actually don’t mind the rush. I share some water with Gilly as we try to catch our breaths.
A PM lights up in my HUD.
Val Helena: Hey, you got a sec?
I look up to see Val Helena standing over me, her goddess-like face matted with sweat and sand. She plops down next to me, and I half wonder why she’s contacting me through a PM instead of just talking. I figure it must be something private she wants to talk about, so I do the same, even though we’re now sitting right next to each other with Gilly on the other side.
Me: Sure, Val, what’s up?
She looks at me and gives a little smile, but still she doesn’t speak.
Val Helena: I don’t think I ever got to tell you, but . . . thanks for what you did.
I’m not sure what she’s referring to, and furrow my brow with confusion.
Me: What I did?
Val Helena: For giving my sister back to me.
She looks away from me and toward Aiko, who’s standing with Rembrandt and Maxis as they scour the dunes. I shrug, but smile.
Me: Hey, I just happened to be the guy with the Ninja skills to pull it off. No biggie.
Val Helena: No. I don’t just mean saving her back in Stormwall. Although I’m grateful for that, too, of course. I mean getting us to heal our relationship.
Me: Huh?
Val Helena: When we made up, it was like a burden was lifted from my soul. I didn’t even realize how much resentment I was harboring against her. How stressed I was over losing my relationship with her. She really means the world to me. Both of them do.
I’m not sure what to say to that, so I just smile. She takes my hand in hers and gives it a squeeze.
Val Helena: Thank you for that, Reece. For caring about her when I couldn’t. I really owe you. You truly are a special guy.
I blush a little, but manage to squeeze her hand back.
Me: I’m not sure I did all that much, but I’m glad you guys are a family again. Soon, we’ll get Becky back, too.
Val Helena gives me a little nod and smiles, then stands again to join her sister.
“What was that about?” Gilly asks once she leaves, no doubt noticing our silent conversation.
“She wanted to thank me for saving Aiko,” I say. And then I chuckle. “I should be the one thanking her for saving me, though.”
“Who?” Gilly asks. “Aiko or Val?”
I laugh. “I meant Aiko, but honestly both, I guess.”
Gilly laughs at me with a snicker. “You and your fangirls.”
That gets me laughing even more, until Rembrandt’s voice cuts through my mirth.
“Guys, you need to see this!”
My heart skips at the alarm in his voice. Gilly and I get up, and we all crowd around where Rembrandt is peering into the semi-darkness of the rolling dunes.
“What are we looking for?” I ask, seeing nothing but gray sand and dark sky.
“There’s a structure out there.”
“Like a watchtower?” Gilly asks.
“No, much bigger.” He then points. “There. About half a mile away.”
I strain my eyes and finally see what he’s talking about. As the clouds shift, I see huge, curved spires twist into the air, like the bones of a giant rib cage. They have to be close to a hundred feet tall. Around their base, I see dogs and other humanoid-looking things t milling about. Guardians, I guess. But then I see something that causes my heart to slam against my chest. An enormous figure, nearly the same height as one of the rib bones, lumbers through the skeletal remains. It’s hard to make out the details from this distance, but its humanoid, its skin covered in metal plates, like armor. Its head looks more like a helmet than a face, and in one hand, it drags a massive sword the size of a semi-truck.
“What the heck is that thing?” I say, too awestruck to even comprehend it.
“It’s that dead Builder,” Rembrandt says. “Remember? The one Blacktop told us about. Like the skeleton of a giant snake. Made of metal.”
“No,” I say. “I mean that huge thing walking through it.” Though there’s only one thing it could be. “Is that an Omega?”
“Yeah,” Maxis says. “That’s what they look like.”
Aiko darts her violet eyes to me. “Is that the same as the giants you saw, Reece?”
My stomach lurches as my chest freezes with ice. I never told Aiko to keep it a secret! My mind races to think of what to say next, but all I come up with is a stupid, “Huh?”
“The giants you saw down in the mines,” she says. “And the ones you saw when you died. Did they look like that? Were they Omegas?”
Oh crap!
“Died?” My brother shoots me a hostile glare. “What the heck is she talking about, man?”
“Oy, and what giants?” Rembrandt says. “You saw something when you fell down that mine shaft?”
Maxis gives Rembrandt the tenth degree. “He fell down a mine shaft?!”
“Oh, bollocks . . .”
“What’s going on?” Val Helena says, looking more concerned than perplexed. “Reece?”
“Oh my . . .” Aiko says with a stupid little grin. “They didn’t know?”
Gilly: Uh oh . . . D:
Uh oh, is right. I’m in hot water now.
Maxis gets in my face, grabbing me by the scarf. “You’ve got two seconds to explain this, Ryan. What is she talking about?”
“Max, please,” Gilly jumps in. “He was just trying to do what was best for the group.”
Maxis points at Gilly. “She knows, too?”
“Yeah . . . well, kinda. Yes.”
“Damn it, man!” Maxis shouts. “What’s with you and these secrets? Tell us what happened. Tell us right now!”
My stomach goes sick when I see Val Helena, Rembrandt, and Maxis grilling me with their stares. They’re people I’ve come to trust with everything, and I suddenly feel like I’ve betrayed them completely. Gilly shrugs at me, apologetically, while Aiko merely shakes her head.
“You want me to tell them?” Aiko says.
“No,” I say quickly, before my brother blows another gasket. I’ve got to put this straight. It’s not how I wanted this to happen, but it’s too late now. “I’ll tell them. I’ll tell them everything.”
I spend the next twenty minutes recounting what I saw down in the mines, as well as what I saw when I nearly died. No one says anything as I talk, and I do so near automatically. Almost like it’s someone else talking. My heart’s racing with anxiety when I finish. I don’t know what kind of reaction to expect.
“Bloody hell,” Rembrandt says eventually. “You actually saw Amanda?”
I nod. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t do anything for her.”
“My God . . . Reece.” Val Helena reaches out to me, taking my hands in hers. “I can’t believe you went through all that and didn’t say anything.”
“He did it for a good reason,” Gilly says.
“Which I’d definitely like to know,” Maxis says, his words pure ice. Before I can answer, he explodes at me. “What the hell were you thinking, Ryan? You nearly die and don’t say anything? Geez, man! What the heck would Mom think if she knew I’d let something like that happen to you?”
His mention of Mom pains me with even more regret.
“And keeping secrets about what you saw? How could you keep something like that a secret, man?”
I flinch from his words as my soul comes undone. I knew my brother would be mad, but hearing those words from his mouth somehow hurts way more than they should. Or maybe it’s just more than they used to. Before, they would have flowed like water off a duck’s back, mutual resentment simply rearing its head. But I actually care what Mike thinks of me now.
And I just made myself a fool in his eyes.
“I wasn’t keeping it a secret like that,” I say, trying to explain. “I was just trying to keep us from getting sidetracked.”
“Sidetracked?” he shouts. “Do you realize what you found? I’ve never seen or heard of anything like that before. You know how important that might be? We need to head back there and check it out!”
“See?” I shout. “That’s exactly why I didn’t want to say anything!”
“What? Why?”
“Because of you!”
“What?”
“Because I knew you’d go back on your promise to help Val if I did.”
Maxis’s mouth opens for a second, but nothing comes out. His eyes dart toward Val Helena for a moment, and then back to me. “That’s why you kept all this a secret? Because of me?”
I don’t feel good about saying it, but it’s the truth. “Yes.”
His blue eyes blaze with hostility. “So I’m the bad guy, huh?”
He continues to glare at me, and I melt under his stare. My head lowers in shame.
Val Helena reaches out to touch his arm, but he snatches it away with a scowl. “Leave me alone. All of you.” He gives me a special glare. “Especially you, you little punk.”
My stomach falls though the floor as he turns and storms away.
“Oy, Max, where you going, mate?”
“I said piss off!”
Shame and guilt creeps up my spine as I watch him walk away. “I’m sorry, you guys. I was going to tell you all, I swear. I just didn’t want it to distract us from saving Becky.”
“Oh, Reece . . .” Val Helena pulls me into a hug, and my eyes sting with tears. “Don’t worry about it, okay? You did what you felt was best, and you did it for a good reason.”
I shake my head. “I’m not so sure anymore.”
“Want me to go kee
p an eye on him?” Aiko says, jerking her thumb toward my brother as he heads up the side of a dune.
“No, I’ll go,” Val Helena says. She looks back down to me. “Max will be fine, okay? We’ll all be fine. I’ll go talk to him.”
I look back to my brother as Val Helena trots off after him. He has his back to me still, approaching the top of the rise, his distinctive walk full of piss and vinegar. I catch a glimpse of something large and fast racing across the dune toward him and my heart stops.
“Mike!”
My call goes unheard as whatever it is slams into him, sending my brother sailing into the air. Val Helena screams. So do I when I see his Health bar all but disappear. My soul comes undone as I watch his body hit the ground and not move after.
“Mike . . . ?” I whisper my brother’s name, my skin prickling. I don’t know if he’s alive or dead. “Mike!!”
Chapter 37: Escape
My heart jumps into my throat as I see the thing that attacked my brother rise up from behind the dune. Rusted plates of armor form a roughly human figure that stands about ten feet tall. It looks similar to that Omega, except smaller in size. Beneath the armor, I catch a glimpse of raw red muscle with no skin. Its head is covered by a rusted chainmail cowl, and within is a full-faced medieval helm with a T-slot for the eyes, or however this thing saw. In place of one of its arms is the massive barrel of a five-foot-long gun.
I know what it is before I check it.
Guardian Type B
Level: 130
No data available
Affinity: N/A
At that level, I’m not sure I can even hit it, much less damage it. I check for my brother next. He hasn’t moved from where he landed, a few feet in front of the Guardian. I’ve got to get to him! I start running as the giant suit of armor lowers the barrel of its weapon toward my brother’s head.