by DoctorHepa
Carl: Get to the abyss. Send those who have hats through on foot. See if maybe you can find a way to station 436, which is where the named lines go.
I went on to explain the catwalk that surrounded the interior of the abyss. I warned him of the lizard mobs I’d seen there. If they could maybe find one of those small trapdoors, they could get to the station and onto a named train like the Nightmare, take it over, and steam it into the yard. That was really their only hope.
“Let’s get going,” I said to Donut. I picked up the couch and stole it. I pulled the bowl filled with cat treats off the counter and added it to my inventory for good measure.
“Have you ever noticed how shit always happens while we’re doing these shows?” I asked Donut. I told her about Bautista.
“At least we get snacks,” she said.
“Yeah. Let’s get out of here before something else happens.”
I paused before the portal. Out of habit, I pulled one more screenshot. I froze.
Our personal space, which had been empty just minutes before, was now full of people. There were at least thirty of them. All women, as far as I could tell, of various races, from humans to fairies to a four-armed lizard. I saw Hekla there in the back, peering inside the training room while Katia pointed at something.
“Motherfucker,” I said.
A note from DoctorHepa
Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope everyone is doing well. The air has finally cleared here. Halloween is coming. Woohoo!
This chapter ended on what some might consider a bit of a cliffhanger, so I apologize for that if it ruffles your feathers. In a couple of chapters we'll have a real one. I'll toss a warning at the start of the chapter for that one.
Chapter 94
Time to Level Collapse: 4 Days, 9 Hours.
Entering The Royal Palace of Princess Donut.
“Hi, Hekla! Hi, Hekla’s friends!” Donut said. She jumped to my shoulder. “Look, Carl. It’s Brynhild’s Daughters!”
“Yeah, I can see Donut.”
Thirty pairs of eyes turned toward us. I quickly looked over the group. Hekla had risen to level 33, one higher than my 32. The rest of her crew averaged around 25, which was respectable, but a little lagging. That was the problem with staying in a big group. I’d discussed this with Mordecai a while back. He firmly believed small groups were the best for that very reason. Experience was shared, but due to the nature of the earlier floors, there was only a finite amount of experience to be had. So while the bigger groups offered a certain amount of protection, it came with diminishing returns regarding experience.
But looking over the diverse group of crawlers and classes, I could see the advantage of having such a large team. The pool of spells and skills amongst them had to be impressive.
At level 24, Katia was no longer the odd one out. She’d fit right in. I sighed.
Hekla and Katia pushed through the crawlers. Hekla held out her hand. She was even taller than I realized. She was about nine inches taller than me. Her muscles bulged. She kept her automatic crossbow slung over her shoulder, and the thing was huge. I hesitantly shook her hand. It practically swallowed my own. Her hand felt as if it was made of iron. I wondered what the woman’s strength stat was.
“Carl,” she said. “Thank you. I asked you to take care of my girl, and you did. But you did more than take care of her. You helped her level and taught her how to protect herself. I am in your debt.”
“How did you find us?” I asked. “And how are you even here?” I looked at Katia. “I didn’t realize others could come into our space.”
Katia smiled sheepishly. “Since I have a personal space attached to the whole, I have the ability to allow groups in. I whitelisted all the daughters.”
Hekla nodded. “We came through the employee portal thanks to your information, Carl. Sadie cast her Glass Prison spell on the Kravyad, and we all made it through. We were at substation H. We hiked up to station 60. The station was barren. Well, mostly barren. A few NPCs had gathered, looking for their families. There’s a switch there that allows you to choose which of the 12 Homeward Bound platforms to get upon. Katia said you’d come in at trainyard E, so it was easy to find you from there.”
“Wait, really?” I said, this new information momentarily causing me to forget the potential danger of this situation. We can use Station 60 to get onto any track. I held up my hand as I sent a mass message out informing everybody of this information. And then I sent a quick, additional note to Imani and Elle, telling them what was going on with Hekla and her team.
I caught sight of a daughter with a familiar name. Eva. Katia’s friend. She stood slightly back, just behind Hekla’s right side. The green, opalescent woman was a four-armed cobra-headed creature, similar to Manasa the singer, though the coloring was different, and she did not have a naga body. Also, unlike Manasa, this woman was small, only about five-feet tall. She stood on two, regular legs, though she was covered in scales. She had two, wide sabers over her back, placed in an X formation, and she wore green, shiny leather armor that almost looked like a tracksuit. The woman glared at me, crossing both pairs of arms. I quickly examined her properties.
Crawler #9,077,240. “Eva Sigrid.”
Level 27.
Race: Half Nagini, Half-Orc
Class: Nimblefoot Enforcer.
The woman had one large skull and three smaller skulls over her head, indicating she had killed thirteen people. Katia had said she’d only killed one, which suggested those additional 12 skulls were a recent addition. Looking about, I didn’t see any other skulls over the crew, including over Hekla. This is the one who does her dirty work.
“This is a very impressive space,” Hekla said. “We combined two personal spaces, but we don’t have any of these upgrades.” She looked at Donut. “We can’t even whitelist visitors until we buy one more space. Your manager has proved to be very helpful. It’s too bad you lost him. When is he coming back?”
“Two days and 18 hours,” Donut said. “Carl, maybe we can combine safe rooms with Hekla’s team! Do we have to all be in the same party for it to work?”
Goddamnit, Donut. “Uh, I think maybe we do,” I said. “But I’m not certain.”
Carl: Donut. Don’t say stuff like that. Let’s wait to see what Hekla wants before we all jump into bed together.
Donut: OMG YOU SHOULD DATE HEKLA. THE AUDIENCE WOULD LOVE THAT. THINK OF THE VIEWS.
At that moment, I had to confront something that had been at the back of my mind since the moment Odette had cautioned me about Hekla. Why hadn’t you warned Donut about what Hekla really wants? Why hadn’t you told Mordecai?
I knew the answer, I always knew the answer, but I hadn’t admitted it to myself.
You think she would be better off with Hekla’s team. You think Mordecai would think so, too. That’s why you never told them. It had been nagging me for a while, but I’d kept pushing it to the back of my mind. Stupid. Self-destructive. It was also par for the course. I thought of what the late Frank had said to me, about being responsible for someone else.
You don’t understand what that responsibility means, what a weight that is on your shoulders. And when you fail, it’s like being crushed, constantly crushed, only you don’t die. And the pain never stops. It just keeps coming and coming.
But seeing that woman, Eva, with all the skulls over her head, any thoughts I had of Donut being better off fled. For all I knew, each and every one of those skulls was someone who had deserved it. Or maybe it had been a mercy kill like with Imani. But my instincts told me, no. No, no, no.
I could see both Hekla’s and Eva’s eyes flash, and I knew they were talking, plotting.
Carl: Don’t let Mongo out. These guys are looking a little jumpy, and I don’t want any accidents.
Donut: WE ARE IN A SAFE ROOM. AND EVERYBODY LOVES MONGO. THESE ARE OUR FRIENDS, CARL.
Carl: Just keep him locked up for now. If there’s a scuffle, we don’t yet know if he’ll freeze or teleport away, and this
is not the place to find out.
Hekla smiled. “Now is not the time for such discussions, little Donut. But we wanted to come by and pick up our lost little lamb, and we wanted to see what a wonderful job you and your Carl have done for her. But we are also in a hurry.”
Donut beamed. Katia appeared to be wavering, like she wanted to say something. If Katia left and disengaged her personal space, it would severely alter the nature of the room. Mordecai would lose access to his space. We’d lose the training room. We’d spent so much time working together, it seemed like such a waste.
“I’m afraid there is little time to chat,” Hekla said. “We have an issue, and it involves some people I believe you know.”
Here it comes, I thought. The cheese on the trap.
“Katia is but one of our lost lambs. We have a small cluster of friends who have collected with a larger group. They are gathered at station 101 on the Vermillion line. It is a significant group of people. A thousand at least. The trains are stopped on all three lines that service the station. They are stuck. Mobs are swarming all around them, and they are fighting them off. They need our help. We are going to rescue them, and I am asking the Royal Court of Princess Donut to help us do that.”
On my shoulder, Donut started to tremble with excitement. She worshipped Hekla, and I knew the thought of fighting alongside the shieldmaiden was a dream of hers.
“Tell them to hike to station 102,” I said. “Go into the robot room and ride the conveyor back.” But even as I said it, I knew that wouldn’t be feasible. Not when there were a thousand people. It had taken Imani’s crew a few hours to gather enough of the rolling cages to get her team down to the trainyard. She’d said it was difficult to extract them from the conveyor tracks without breaking them.
“They’re boxed in,” Hekla said. “There’s plenty of fighters in the group to keep the monsters back, but they keep coming. The Vermillion line is clear, for now, but they’re being inundated with mobs from the other two platforms at the station. I have the boss map from the Vermillion line, and the track is swarmed. A massive herd is making their way up the line and will be upon them soon. So the crawlers can’t just hike down the line. It’s at least 150 kilometers from 101 down to the closest stairwell at 72, and if they have to fight the whole time, they will never make it. There is a ghoul generator at stop 72, similar to the one at 12. Even Lucia could not hold the line against them. There’s also something going on at 75. And that’s all in addition to the regular mobs suffering from the DTs that are coming from the other two platforms. Any hour now we’ll be seeing whatever stage three looks like.”
What a goddamned clusterfuck. “You said it involves people we may know,” I said. “Who?”
“From what I understand, it’s a crew you met on a show. A man named Li Jun along with his group. Also, a few others you have in your current chat circle.”
For fuck’s sake, how much did Hekla know about me? Was Katia just feeding her everything I did and said? How could she know who my friends were otherwise? It made me wonder if Hekla had spies strategically placed everywhere. Jesus, was that possible? Or was I being overly paranoid? I was in over my head, and I knew it.
And even worse, I had enough wits about myself to recognize that asking me to help her was a masterful move by Hekla. How could we not help? I’d look like a cowardly idiot if I didn’t.
Plus I wanted to. A thousand people? And Li Jun and possibly his sister Li Na and friend Zhang? I’d last seen them when they’d unwittingly been dragged onto the Maestro’s show for the Death Watch segment. But they’d managed to save themselves. I didn’t really owe them anything, but if they were truly trapped, how couldn’t I help?
But what about Bautista, all the way at the end of the line?
You can’t save them all.
I couldn’t save anybody if I ended up dead.
So what should I do? I had no idea how to help Bautista. I could try going back through the portal with the Nightmare, but then what? I didn’t even know if there was more than one abyss station. No, it simply didn’t make sense.
I had to look at this logically. If Hekla’s plan was to kill or otherwise discredit me and get Donut to join up with them, so they in turn had access to Mordecai, they had to do it without Donut knowing that’s what they did. Or Mordecai. And the only way to do it would be to make it look like an accident. But how could they possibly do that when literally the entire universe was watching them at all times? It’d be easy to hide something from Donut at first, but Hekla had to know by now that people like Odette existed. Information entered the dungeon like drops through a leaky roof.
Whatever it was, it wouldn’t happen right away. Donut worshipped Hekla, and once Donut latched onto someone, it was hard to get her to unlatch. But she didn’t know any of the other newcomers. I’d made a serious mistake by not talking about this earlier. I would have to start fixing it now.
I glanced over at the cobra-headed Eva and met her eyes. A very slight smile curved her mouth. A smile that did not reach her eyes.
Carl: Donut. Be careful, okay? I am getting a bad vibe from that Eva woman. Don’t trust her.
Donut: RIGHT? SHE’S SCARY. SHE KEEPS LOOKING AT YOU LIKE YOU’RE A CAN OF FANCY FEAST.
Carl: If anything happens to me, question everything.
Donut: WHAT DO YOU MEAN?
Carl: Just watch that one, okay? And keep an eye on Hekla, too. I know you like her, and so do I, but I don’t think she likes me too much. She might let me get hurt if it will help her team.
I quickly rummaged through my inventory and rearranged some items on my hotlist. I added that invisibility potion I’d gotten from the suitcase into one of my slots. Then I added Mordecai’s Special Brew, which would give me almost-invulnerability for about thirty seconds. I had to be careful with that one since it made it so I couldn’t take another potion for ten hours afterward.
“Okay,” I said out loud. “We’ll help. Just don’t get me killed so you can have Donut all to yourself.”
Eva’s mouth tightened. Hekla laughed. And at that moment, I saw it. It was just a glimmer in the normally stoic woman’s facade, but it was there. She’s having fun. She likes this. She’s as crazy as the rest of us.
“We were just looking at the map,” Katia said, indicating the large paper on the counter. “Vermillion is a colored line, but it’s different than the others. I think it’s one of the ones that Widget the gremlin was talking about when he mentioned the Terminus Direct. It starts at station H, hits the stairwell levels plus 60 and 75, then it only stops at 101, 199, 307, 401, the Terminus station at 433, and then the Kravyad station at 435. It looks like it runs the whole line in about a day.”
“Okay,” I said. “So what are you proposing?”
Hekla crossed her arms, suddenly all business. “We’re taking a Vermillion train down to 101, picking everybody up, and we’re taking them back by going reverse, using a second engine attached to the back. We tested it, and it works well. We’ll come back to a stairwell station where we can make a stand. We’ll hold out until the stairwells open.”
“So you have a train? What about the wreckage on the track?”
“There is no wreckage on the Vermillion line. And it’s one of the few with the power still turned on. We discovered the train just sitting there, ready to go when we teleported to that building near the trainyard. The engineer was out of the train, inspecting it when we showed up. I shot him, took the route map, and we took the train. It doesn’t look like this train ever ran. It has three passenger cars, but the rest are cargo containers. They are supposed to roll the ghouls onto the train and transport them to the abyss. But it never ran. And since it never ran, it never crashed. Eva stole a second engine and backed it into the train. We drove it down to stop sixty and left it on the tracks to come here.”
I nodded appreciatively. “Is there a cowcatcher on it?”
Hekla grimaced. “That, Carl, is the problem. It’s a subway car, and it is not designed
to withstand such abuse. There are hordes of ghouls on the tracks, especially after stop 72. There is a small device at the front, but it does not work well. When we hit the few ghouls that were on the track, it was okay, but I can tell it will be a problem when we push through the heavier hordes. The track is about to get very dense, and I fear pushing through so many is going to derail it. If we go slow, we will be overwhelmed. We have to move fast, but the faster we move increases the chances of a wreck. That’s why we came here first.”
I started mentally working on the problem. I had plenty of metal in my inventory. I’d have to go up there and measure the front of the train, as each one was a little different. “So you want me to build you something to put in front of the train?”
“Well, yes, but you’ve already built what we need.” Hekla turned to Katia, who appeared as if she was going to vomit.
I felt the blood drain from my face.
* * *
Donut was the first to object.
“You want to stick Katia to the front of the train?” she said, sounding outraged. “Are you kidding? That sounds like a Carl plan.”
“Yes,” Hekla said.
Carl: Katia. You don’t have to do this. I can build a metal one.
Katia: It’s okay, Carl. This is what I’m for. You said it yourself. I need to learn to use my race properly. We don’t have time to build anything.
Donut: CARL IS RIGHT. YOU ARE GOING TO GET HURT.
It was actually a brilliant idea, and I was impressed at the sheer insanity of it. But I would never let her do it if it was up to me. It was simply too dangerous.
Carl: You’re not disposable, Katia. Hekla is treating you as if you are. I’m sorry if I didn’t make you feel welcome. You can say no. You can stay with me and Donut.
Katia: This was my idea. I’m the one who came up with it. It’s why they’re here now.
Carl: Your idea?
I was so flabbergasted I didn’t know what to say.