by Arthur Stone
Cheater spoke to him in a voice low enough to keep the others from hearing. “I don’t know if you’re aware, March, but we’ve driven right into a dead end. There’s no pass through these mountains.”
March nodded. “I know. It’s all good.”
“All good? What do you mean? We’re stuck in a long gorge. At one end of it, there’s a horde chasing us. At the other, there’s a dead end. You call that ‘all good’?”
“It’s fine,” March insisted. “Hey, can I ask you for something?”
“What do you need?”
“Consume a golden pearl now, please. I know you’re saving them for someone else, but this will help everyone out.”
“Explain.”
“You’ll gain an attachment to me. No, it’s not romantic. Just a connection, a bond, that will be very useful for our goals. We will need to split up soon. We’ll leave you behind up ahead, at the end of this gorge. You’ll need to hold the beasts as long as you can. Once you die, you’ll come back in the same region I’m in. By then, we should be across the border.”
Cheater strongly disliked this proposal. He didn’t even know where to begin with his criticism of it, so he asked the first question that came to mind.
It was something to blurt out to keep the conversation going, while his mind prepared more critical items. “What makes you think I can hold the beasts back?”
“You’ve got experience.”
“What?”
“You once told me how you fought off a whole pack of ghouls in a tunnel. And you won. In fact, you made a killing on them. This is the same situation.”
“I don’t see a tunnel.”
“We’ll find you one,” March grinned, winking conspiratorially. “This is a dead end for you, yes, but for those who can see deeper, there is a good way to go on. This road leads to a train station. The railroad that runs through it leads to tunnels, both ways. You should really invest in higher quality maps, and verify them. That’s what I do. We’ll try to take the convoy along—if we fail, we’ll abandon it. It won’t help us much on the other side, after all. The border is not passable by vehicle. We’ll use the tunnel because, as you can see, the alternatives are not good. We’re no mountain climbers. The beasts will ascend more quickly than us, and catch us.”
“They’ll catch you in the tunnel, too.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” March shook his head. “The tunnel runs for ten miles, nearly directly east. One mile out of it, the black lands begin. Beasts don’t go in there—or at least most don’t. Those that do lose most of their sense abilities, so they’ll lose our trail. Meaning we’ll lose the horde. That is, of course, our main goal right now.”
“Why not leave the Janitor?” Cheater asked. “He is extremely capable, and obviously more experienced than I am.”
“The Janitor will help me cross the border. With him, our odds are good. With you, not so much.”
Cheater grinned. “Well, as least we’ve established your estimate of my value.”
“The point isn’t your value. It’s you,” March said thoughtfully, and returned to his can.
Cheater had known the man for months now, and so he guessed there was more the leader was not saying. He didn’t beat around the bush. “You know something, but you’re hesitant to say it.”
“I just don’t know how to put it. Don’t you see that if you died here, it would make everyone’s lives easier?”
“Not my life,” Cheater objected. “There are some, uh, difficulties I’d rather not mention.”
“Now is the time for mentioning,” March jabbed back.
Cheater shook his head and sighed in frustration. “Mentioning? Me? Compared to you, I’m the most open man in the world.”
“Then why are you holding something back now?”
“I am,” Cheater admitted. “But if you’re looking for frankness, stop keeping all of these secrets. Especially concerning me.”
“Fine, you’ve convinced me. Here’s what’s wrong. One of my abilities has a bonus property. It’s not very useful, even though I’ve advanced it pretty far. It has developed over time and acquired various properties, all of which help identify certain types of surveillance. Do you know about the Mark?”
“I think I’ve run into that,” Cheater said, remembering Kitty and the beast in the village barn.
“Yesterday, I started itching all over,” March continued. “That happens to me with a mark around. But when it’s on me, it feels quantitatively and qualitatively different. No, it’s not on me. But there is a mark, nearby, and of that I am certain. It’s on one of you. I don’t know when it appeared. Perhaps I didn’t notice it right away. When we interrogated that burned pleb near the bridge, that was when I felt it. He might have had a Mark ability, and might have used it on Nut. So I used my own detection ability on Nut to attempt to figure things out. It doesn’t give you a result immediately—you have to wait several hours, and the cooldown is significant. But it can usually be relied on. I was wrong. It wasn’t on Nut. That sapper may be fucking mad, but he’s clean.”
“You think the Mark is on me.”
“Who else? Which one of us has made the most evil and powerful acquaintances? Romeo hates you, and the Devils do, too. Both of them have the resources and cleverness necessary to track you down. Remember how strong that grab team in that town was?”
“I do,” Cheater said gloomily.
“It might have been the NPCs, though, too—we just don’t know,” March said. “But the Mark does not function on a global level. It doesn’t reach far. Whoever marked you was nearby. Anyone with these capabilities could be punching through the horde, on their way after us. We proved that such transversal is possible. Plus, they’re locals. They might know how to get by without dealing with the horde at all. Locals have their ways of figuring things out. They might have information which no money could buy us. Secret passages. Tunnels. Bypasses. We have two ways to get rid of the Mark: wait for it to expire, or kill the bearer. I don’t know how long we need to wait for expiration. So if you’re going to die, at least it should be on the best terms we can arrange. Even if our vehicles hold out, we’ll be abandoning all of the heavy weapons soon anyway. We have plenty of ammo, which you can convert to plenty of experience points. I could go on for an hour here, Cheat, but what would be the point? This is the best option. I’ve gone over it ten times, in detail, considering every possible angle. This plan has the most pros, and the fewest cons. I can’t get over the idea of a mighty party on our tail. After you, they would send no one but the strongest they have. This bothers you, too. I can see it. There’s no reason for me to be tricking you here, to send you to your death for some other malicious purpose. I want you to cross that border with me. However, I’m realistic. Any capable team that encountered us in the state we’re in would finish us. So, the one for the many, however it goes. It’s the only way.”
“You’re not even sure that the Mark is on me,” Cheater complained.
March sighed. “You’re so stubborn. Fine, look, if you don’t want to do it, we’ll come up with something else. We’ve got some explosives, so we could try to bring down the tunnel. I brought this sapper along, so let him do his work. That won’t clear the Mark, but it will help us escape the beasts. What comes next, we’ll see.”
“The ghouls become more anxious when trapped in pursuit,” Cheater said. They’ll be brash and stubborn enough to climb those mountains. The more advanced ones might even clear the blockage from the tunnel.”
“Perhaps. Unless Nut just made up his entire resume, he’ll be able to orchestrate a collapse that will take them days to clear. But as I said, this is not the best option. It sounds like you’re starting to persuade yourself that staying is the best move.”
“How do you figure that?”
“I just do. I know you pretty well by now. This is an excellent way to get some experience. Plus, imagine how many weapons and how much ammo you’ll have when we leave you with all of it.”
&nb
sp; Cheater opened his mouth to curse March’s plan into oblivion, but stopped short—the System intervened.
Note: Your high Perception has triggered a moment of Intuition. There is a chance that March’s proposal is better for you and your squad than even March believes.
Cheater had no idea what to make of the notification. He did remember that Intuition could inform a player about things he would be unlikely to realize otherwise.
The System liked to veil its intentions in such hints, too: There was probably something of great weight behind those words. The lack of detailed information was no justification to dismiss the message.
So far, the System had not tricked him. All of its interventions had worked out for good, in one way or another.
He would listen.
Cheater’s next statement was utterly different than its original draft. “So what if they don’t kill me? How will I find you?”
“So you’ll do it?” March perked up.
“I don’t know. First let’s see this tunnel. I haven’t seen any reason to leave anyone behind yet. Blowing it up sounds like a better way, but we won’t know until we see it. But just in case—where will I find you? If there are black clusters between us, the chat won’t work. I’ve already gone on a long, meandering search for you twice now, and I’d rather not repeat it.”
“Go due east. You and I are heading the same way. I don’t see any point in setting a meeting place at this time. I haven’t been in the next region yet, and the maps might be wrong. It doesn’t look like there is much black on the other side of this ridge, so if you need to, try communicating via chat from several different locations.”
“Got it.”
“Off to see the tunnel, then?”
“Sure. But there is one condition here. Despite my desire to consume a golden pearl, I cannot.”
“Why not? Your mouth looks to be in working order. It even opens on command when you have the need to codify your stupidity into sound waves.”
“No,” Cheater clenched his jaw.
“So stubborn,” March shook his head. “Look, you have three of these pearls, Cheat. I gave you the third pearl because I knew you needed it for your girlfriend. One is enough for her. First, you’ll bind to me—then, when you get across, you’ll bind to her. So there are enough. She won’t get as many lives from just taking one, but what she will get is far better than any normal person, who never even sees a golden pearl.”
“I can take care of her lives without that,” Cheater said firmly.
March blinked. “Interesting. How?”
“I have acquired some ways. But we can discuss that later. Right now, our chat is about the pearl. You want me to take a golden one now, and I’m telling you I can’t. You think I’m just being stubborn, but I’m not. I don’t know why you thought I wouldn’t have taken one already—and the minimum interval is 36 hours.”
“You took one already?” March’s eyes widened.
“Yes. Yesterday, as we were leaving Rainbow. Not a golden one—a red one.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean? Getting another ability is always tempting.”
“But with your ability count so far, surely the chances are low.”
“They’re still chances.”
“Fine, fine. Then our plans must change. There are some System rules you just can’t break.”
“Still, let’s get a look at this dead end,” Cheater added. “Maybe we’ll come up with something better. But what you said about the potential experience really does have me thinking.”
He didn’t mention the Intuition. March wouldn’t understand. The System was respected by players, but it was on the whole considered a hostile force. Recklessly trusting its suggestions would come across to most players as foolishness.
Cheater did not want to seem more foolish. Plus, he didn’t have the time or inclination to give a long explanation. The horde was not far, and was drawing ever closer.
* * *
March’s plan had seemed unnecessary to Cheater. He would not even have considered it if the System had not given him that message. If a legendarily powerful party was really following them, why hadn’t it shown up by now? And how had someone marked him in Rainbow, where abilities did not function? Were there exceptions to that ban?
He had no idea.
The brakes, though, had been apparently disabled by an ability. Perhaps the Mark was from the same mysterious opponent. The realization that Nut wasn’t the target of the Mark didn’t mean anything special. After all, their pursuers would find it sufficient to just follow any of the party, not necessarily their target. In addition, March might be mistaken. Abilities could be countered, and no one could be trusted.
Not even his own cognition.
So, speculations of some pursuing party aside, a clear threat remained: the infecteds. Why leave someone behind strapped to a machinegun when the party had explosives? Plus, there was a locomotive and a bunch of oil tanker cars sitting next to the station, available for the taking. They could even try to push those down the tracks into the mouth of the tunnel.
On second glance at the map, he saw there was no need. Not far from the entrance, an entire abandoned train of similar tanker cars could be seen. Neither that train nor the one at the station had an engine in sight. The digi operators must have decoupled the engines and driven them off somewhere.
Nut confidently announced that he could cause a solid cave-in in the tunnel. Not only that, he could also rig the explosion to generate a long-lasting fire, keeping any pursuers away from the rubble.
The only hitch in the plan was that three of the party’s members were in poor physical condition: Button, Goblin, and Nipple. Their Endurance and Speed were poor, and some had been long abusing substances that were harmful to their health. Even strong players could not consume piles of narcotics forever, and these three were hardly strong.
As far as deficiency for long hikes went, Gangrene and Nut were not far behind that trio.
The forced march through the tunnel and to the black clusters was unlikely to be accomplished in record time. And as impassible as the mountains seemed, high-level infecteds could clear them easily. They would simply leap and climb up one slope and back down the other.
Cheater doubted, however, that they would deduce this immediately. Even March’s talk about the infecteds using the tunnels for migration—and therefore knowing well their entry and exit points—had not convinced him they would be able to climb over and pounce down at the precisely right spot. Apparently not even all the local players knew about these tunnels, according to his maps, which he had purchased in an honest deal. What were the chances that the creatures in pursuit were the very ones who had mastered the area? And the ones smart enough to calculate their climbing route?
Most beasts were not very intelligent.
All of these thoughts wandered about Cheater’s head, but then a simpler idea struck him.
March had something planned. He was trying to milk this crossing for maximum rewards, as he had done the last. Such was his way. But did Cheater really want that? He had one main objective, and only one: to cross to the other side as quickly as possible. A crossing that was right in the middle of a mature horde? That was something else. Too much lost time for a reward he wasn’t aiming for. Kitty might move on from the coordinates she had given, too. All of his attempts to contact her had failed—apparently the girl had given up on any hope of him possessing the requisite distance communication skills. She no longer sent messages as before, and indeed did not concern herself with the leadership game. After repeatedly sending words, whole sentence, over and receiving no response, she had thrown up her hands. Now she had no idea her efforts had succeeded.
For too long, she had been calling out into the void.
Why not just die, then, and use his money and character advantages to cross on his own? He didn’t need this team. They were only holding him back. Even if he respawned far from the border, that would be of no great c
oncern. He had already traversed the region, and he could do so again quickly. Of course he had many enemies here, yes, but they had other problems now. He doubted the Devils were actively pursuing him. They couldn’t possibly have the resources. He would catch a bullet if he bumped into them, but all he had to do not to was avoid them.
That would be easier on his own than with a group.
Especially since he was independent and had an effective disguise skill.
The System had hinted that Cheater should follow March’s suggestion. For some reason that March himself did not even know.
During the time of political upheaval, Cheater would quietly cross the border using an established route for doing so. Or even brashly make a deal with a trade caravan. March’s statement that Kitty was waiting due east were not quite true—according to the map, she was east-southeast. He could use the southern caravan path. He was a strong, independent player. Yes, he would make it. It required a detour, but not a large one. As long as Kitty did not, in the interim, wander far from the place. He would still find her if she did—it would just lose more time.