by David Gunter
Tommy decided not to tempt fate by further imposing dialogue on the gatekeeper and, bowing his head slightly in acknowledgment, turned and headed down the road indicated by the gate keeper’s outstretched arm and pointing bony finger.
Had he been asleep for five days? When he had looked at his stats and the way he felt, he had figured that he had been losing soul at a steady rate since he acquired his winged friend, but he hadn’t accounted for any time-per-day differences or if his rate of soul regeneration was fluctuating.
Tommy hadn’t gone too far down the road when the picture of a city at the end of a week-long festival started to become clearer everywhere he looked. Throughout the street, he saw the vestiges of hundreds of festival-goers, the footprints on the dirty cobblestone road, and what looked like bits and pieces of food items, wrappers, and empty crates of things that had once contained edible goods and drink were strewn about everywhere he looked.
Through the mist that freely flowed throughout the city, he started making out the shapes of bodies huddled in corners or simply lying in the gutters and against the walls of buildings on either side of the road. This made Tommy pause and stare in amazement as some of these bodies looked to belong to corpses long dead and yet could be clearly seen to be breathing in deep slumber. The sight was gruesome but at the same time fitting given the name of the city.
Tommy continued to walk down the road, carefully stepping around debris and over some of the sleeping citizenry, and noted that some of the sleeping dead were of a white or pale appearance while others looked more like zombies from a horror film.
A scene of horror pressed itself on Tommy from a dark forgotten corner of his mind. He remembered a few years back waking up bloody and surrounded by the bodies and body parts of his comrades after a grenade had gone off nearby. He had managed to drag himself a little way with his arms and elbows through the blood and gore but had finally been pulled out of the scene by a young woman who had suffered much from the ordeal of that war but who had found enough courage that day to look beyond his uniform’s colors and see him as a person.
As he looked at the scene of the last day of festivities in the ‘City of the Dead’, he thought of that woman and would’ve lost himself in reverie for untold hours had not one of the zombie-looking bodies in the street started to rise to its feet. This broke Tommy’s absent contemplations and put his steps back into motion towards the temple.
As he walked forward, he looked back to see that the ghastly figure was that of a woman’s, and she now stood looking in his direction. He quickly turned and walked on but not before noting that the woman had gasped and reached for her mouth as in astonishment. Tommy’s feet moved him towards his destination, but he would be lying to himself if that scene hadn’t struck him as both ghastly and curious.
Tommy took about ten steps and suddenly froze.
Those fingers, covering that mouth, were delicate and long with fingernails cleanly kept like those of a guitarist, he thought. But he had also noticed a small mark on one of the fingers. ‘Could it be?’ He wondered. He didn’t want to turn around. He could still feel the eyes of the gatekeeper from afar watching his every move, and he didn’t want to make any detours or do anything that would give away something personal. But he could feel another pair of eyes on him, and these burned into his very soul. He made a motion to turn around but stopped halfway.
Then the sound of his name spoken in the sweetest voice cut through all of his intentions and, still half-turned, his eye turned and found her eyes.
CHAPTER VII
Walking on the Green Grass
More than an hour or two passed, and David was beginning to get a bit tired and was starting to think of taking a break when he came upon a curious set of pools. To the left side of the road, the area was still lightly wooded, but on the right side, the shrubs and small trees had suddenly cleared, and instead of these, there were a series of pools. The pools were placed around a larger lake in a curve, and all of them appeared to shimmer with light from the sky above. He quickly counted them and saw that there were seven pools making it eight bodies of water in total. As he finished counting them, he noticed that they all started glowing. He rubbed his eyes as seeing so many glow at once gave him the sense that he was having visual problems, but he saw that they had all indeed lit up on second inspection. The sign to the Opal City had lit up in the same way, and he started to suspect that the reward he’d received after prancing down the mountain like a fool had come in the form of perpetual clues.
He had been walking pretty steadily and at a strenuous pace, up until then, and so he had naturally worked up a sweat and a bit of a thirst. He didn’t think long about it and simply walked over to the first of the pools nearest to him, and dipping his a cupped hand into the water brought a bit to his mouth and drank.
As he drank, though, he noticed that the third pool, from the one he now drank, was shimmering a little brighter from the others and that the one he had just drunk from had almost gone dark. This was enough to pique his curiosity and give him an idea he simply had to prove out.
Keeping his eyes on the other pools, he took another drink. Surprisingly, another entirely different pool lit up, and the one that had previously glowed no longer showed any signs that it had glowed brighter a moment before.
David stopped drinking from that pool and walked over to the pool that now glowed brighter. He took a drink from the new pool. He noticed that the pool he had just come from had the glow now, and this was enough to confirm his suspicions. There was something to be discovered here, perhaps a sort of puzzle, and he’d been given the inside scoop, and he wasn’t going to waste the gift he’d been given.
He spent the next hour taking small drinks from the pools and, with no end in sight, was about to give up when he noticed that a hum was now sounding from all the pools. He had a strong desire to empty himself from all the water he had spent the last hour drinking but held this desire at bay as he realized that the large lake was now exhibiting the brighter glow that all the pools had previously shown.
David walked over to the large lake and looked down at the water.
In wonder, he noticed that the lights on the water, which were reflecting the sky above, moved into a pattern that shown as a path from the edge of the lake all the way to the center of the lake. He looked up at the sky and saw that the odd glowing bodies in the sky had indeed rearranged to form the path clearly visible on the water. The path formed by the lights above had to mean that he was supposed to walk on water in the direction indicated, so he did.
He took a step, making sure to put his foot within the path of light, and to his surprise, his foot felt solid on the water. He took another step and confirmed that he was able to walk on the lake. At the same pace he’d kept all night, he covered the steps to the center of the lake and only slowed when he saw that at the center of the lake, the water had started to bubble as he had come closer.
There in the middle of the lake, a platform appeared. It was a platform made of a smooth and natural-looking stone formation. It was rapidly cooling, causing smoke to quickly push up to the sky and then dissipate just as quickly, leaving behind only slightly visible steam. This caused everything above the platform to look hazy. Then through the haze, a thing started to appear at its center as if coming from a place far away but growing from the snaking haze caused by the steam touching the night air. That thing unraveled into an opening and doorway to some other place.
David lifted one foot and then the other from the firm water onto the stone platform. He stared with unhinged curiosity at the doorway and walked towards it expecting to have to flee in case anything stepped through from the other side. Nothing happened, and the doorway simply stood still, surrounded the haze of the platform. As he came closer to the doorway, he saw that an entirely different place existed on the other side.
A place of ice and snow was visible there, and David saw that the doorway
led to a mountain top where the weather was quite different. The mountain had a path leading upward directly from the door and continued from there, curving to the left, but to the right, he spotted a beautiful sunset partially hidden by the mountain. It was impossible to resist the urge to step through, and so David, standing now directly before the doorway, lifted his right foot and allowed it to pass through to the other side.
David observed his foot pass through the air and land on the other side. His foot touched a cold, wet surface, and he distinctly felt the surface collapse beneath the pressure as snow would naturally do. Then he quickly pulled his foot back and observed how the quick action caused a ripple from the spot he’d penetrated the doorway. It continued to ripple about the door, and from the corner of his eye, he saw that ripples appeared in the now still waters surrounding the platform. It seemed that the substance of the doorway and lake water was connected in some way.
He prepared himself to cross once more and took a deep breath expecting that he would not only feel a cold surface beneath his feet but also a blast of cold winds and snow, which would undoubtedly come with the scene portrayed through the doorway. He didn’t know if he was really ready, but he had received a reward the last time he followed through with a challenge, though what that reward really meant he didn’t truly understand. Perhaps if he stepped through the doorway he’d receive another notification of some sort of accomplishment, he hoped. He was about to step through, and he’d thought of placing one foot through and then the next but in the last moment felt how silly that was. He refused, right then, to face this challenge afraid. It was a doorway to another place within a virtual reality world, and in real life, he was a man laying on a hospital bed recuperating from brain surgery.
David, instead, jumped through the doorway and with that quick action landed, two feet beneath him, on a cold mountainside. There it was in all its splendor before him. The red and orange sunset pulled his gaze to the right as a wide expanse presented itself with more snow-covered mountains far and wide. Beyond those mountains, there was a beautiful ocean scene, and as he continued to turn towards the right, he saw a forest far below and beyond that, a river glittering in the night sky. The doorway stood directly behind him, but he ignored the scene through the doorway he had come from and looked around the doorway and behind it. As he followed the glittering river in the distance, he saw that a large waterfall was feeding the river far in the distance. His eyes followed the waterfall up and to its source and spotted a large glittering pool of water, though tiny in the distance. He spotted several other even tinier shiny circles and realized at once that he was looking from far away at the spot he had just come from. He gasped in amazement and felt a sense of relief, knowing that he had his bearings once more.
He had gone miles away from the platform on the lake, and yet, looking back and seeing those tiny glittering lakes in the far distance flowing down to a massive waterfall, he couldn’t feel that they represented how far he had come. From a small town in North America, all the way to a peak somewhere in a virtual reality world seemed like an insurmountable distance. Yet, he hadn’t gone so far that he couldn’t see the path behind him or the individual choices that had brought him here. He lost himself for a spell with the sunset at his back and the view of the world that surrounded him. Hellen had created all of this. This was all her. The doorway, the sky above, the mountains and forests, everything was all, her.
Suddenly a sound broke the silence. It sounded like voices in the distance. It broke David out of the state of contemplation he’d entered and caused him to turn to look up the path where the sound appeared to be coming from. David turned and stumbled forward a few steps as he tried to locate the sound.
Looking about, he saw that across the ocean, he saw tall mountains coming out of the water, and these looked to be part of an island or series of possibly islands a short boat ride’s distance from the lands he was on. He could see looking from this distance, however, that the island was occupied, and he spotted several large flying creatures circling above the island. The sight of them made him forget the sound of voices that was still coming from the path ahead. A cold blast of wind mixed with snow and ice pulled him back once more to the present, however.
He suddenly felt the cold. He had to get off the edge of this mountain quickly. He was still only wearing the thin garb that reminded him of the hospital gown, and giving his feet a quick glance; he noticed that his toes were beginning to turn purple. Even if this was a virtual reality world, he was still getting all the real-world sensations and discomforts. He didn’t like the cold, of that he was sure. Then a message appeared before his eyes.
“You have entered the Kingdom of Ice and Snow. This land is inhabited by powerful creatures, and you are not prepared for the danger they present. The weather alone, however, is enough to kill you here. You will begin to lose health every second as you experience the biting cold. You must find shelter or leave these lands, or you will die. Dying while on a world quest will cause you to lose the quest.”
- System message.
If the message hadn’t been enough to wake him up, his vision started to blink red, and he instantly saw that with every blink, the color grew less and less red. This jolted him into action. He hurried forward and following the sound of the voices allowing the path ahead of him to guide him to the sounds. After following the path around the mountainside, he saw a cave opening and heard the voices coming from within. Something about the voices sounded familiar, and as he entered the cave, he started to work the voices out to understand why they sounded familiar.
As he entered the cave, the blinking slowed down, and another message appeared.
“You have found shelter, but there is little warmth in this cold cave. Your life loss will decrease, but you must find warmth in your new shelter before your life loss will end.”
- System message.
David then noticed that the blinking slowed, and he saw that it held its reddish tint longer as well. Of course, he also understood that the blinking meant he was still losing health if more slowly now. He looked around and spotted a burnt-out torch on the side of the cave entrance. It seemed to be prepared for just such an occasion, though he wasn’t sure how he would light it since everything around him was cold and wet. In case he found some way of lighting it later, he grabbed it in both hands and yanked it out of the spot where it had been embedded on the wall. He looked at it and saw that it was a crudely crafted item and was comprised of a simple wooden stick with rope wrapping around the far end. He moved it around and let the light coming from the cave entrance fall on it and noticed as he did so that the rope was covered in some kind of glittery stuff. He suddenly had an idea that he had to test. He placed the end of the stick, with the rope wrapped around it, against the wall and allowed it to rub along the wall. Suddenly sparks appeared, and the whole end of it with the glittery stuff lit on fire. It created a blueish fire that suddenly gave off more heat than he could stand all at once. After burning intently for a few seconds, it cooled slightly and gave off a more tolerable heat.
David saw that the blinking redness in his vision stopped, and another message appeared.
“You have found a source of warmth and have started regaining some of the health you had lost. The cave is still very cold, so you will need to find more warmth before your health can return to normal” - System message.
David was glad for the heat as he could also feel the effects beginning to give his body back much of its feeling. He noticed, however, that his toes had gone to full purple and were still very much cold, so he moved the flame closer to his feet and saw that they started to look a little pinker as he held the fire close.
As he allowed his feet to readjust to the cold floor once more, he stood up and listened more intently to the voices coming from within. Suddenly he recognized the sounds as those of a favorite radio station of his. The ‘Air1 KALR’ was the name of the station. He remembered liste
ning to this station on long commutes in his younger years and all the great music he’d enjoyed over the years. But as it sunk in that it was a radio station, as he heard it, the oddity of it all really started to intrigue him.
David held the torch in from of him, and he started to make his way deeper into the cave. The light of the torch bounced off the walls and gave him a view of a cave that had very high ceilings and which had a path leading down around the edges of the cave. As he looked around, he saw that the path went around and then to a lower area at the base of the cave, which had a raised platform. On the raised platform, he saw an oddly rectangular object on the platform. It was clear that the radio sounds were coming from whatever that object was. Keeping his eyes on the object, he followed the path down as it led him around the edge of the interior cave walls. His eyebrows furrowed when he finally made out the object to be a closed book. He continued down the path and then finally stood a few paces away from the raised platform.
The words of the radio DJ were echoing throughout the cave, and he felt the urge to do something to shut down the noise, but the place the noise was coming from was a book. How could he shut it down? He had the weird feeling that he was walking into some kind of trap, but he couldn’t stand the noise and felt that if he didn’t turn it off somehow soon, that music would undoubtedly begin to play. He didn’t really want to hear any music from that channel, and he realized that he had been avoiding that radio station ever since Hellen had passed away. He didn’t like the emotions that listening to it dredged up in him. That had been their radio station, he realized. It just didn’t feel right anymore. He heard the DJ wind up to the intro of the next musical piece, and he suddenly found himself leaping up to the platform and grabbing the book, removing it from the cold slab it had been resting on.