Loot and Booty Box Set

by Zeke Biddle

  The One-eyed Monster and the two women he’s just claimed disappear. The lightning bolt passes harmlessly through the space they’d been standing less than a second ago.

  The room goes dark.

  I scream in frustration as wild lightning bolts zap across the room until Eulalia calms me with a hug. “Relax, Marcus. This unchanneled anger will do you no good. We will find them, and we will rescue them.”

  Once I calm myself, I say, “I hate how much I don’t know about this game. How did he force them into his harem? I thought you women control that.”

  Gillian joins the hug circle and gives me a kiss on the cheek. “No one gave us an instruction manual. We’re all learning on the fly. As long as we stick together, we’ll figure all this out.”

  I laugh bitterly. “You really think so? Okay. I’ll believe the lie for now.” I exhale as slowly as possible before saying, “First things first. Where are we and how do we get out?”

  10

  “I don’t think there’s a way out of here,” Eulalia says, leaning against a wall and sliding down to the ground.

  “What do you mean?” I ask. “We all got in here. There has to be a way out.”

  “Just a hunch, I guess. It feels right. I can’t explain it. It’s almost like the building is communicating with me, or I’m connected to it…I don’t know. I must sound crazy, right?”

  Ynes purses her lips. “Don’t discredit that stuff. I had a cousin who thought one of the clouds in our kingdom was talking to her. The next day, the cloud evaporated or something. Just poof. Gone. Five houses fell to the ground and everyone inside died.”

  When Eulalia smiles, it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Thanks, I guess. Somehow this doesn’t feel ominous, though. Anyway, we teleported in, too. There was another portal under the queen’s bed. It’s like she collects weird artifacts or something. I chased two women who were dragging the queen and some fat guy down the stairs. I think they were friends of One-eye’s.”

  “Some friends,” Gillian says.

  “They are probably in his harem,” I suggest.

  “Whatever. They all hopped through a portal on the stairs. Before I could catch up to them, the portal disappeared. I followed the stairs down a long way until I reached the bottom. It’s dark as hell down there. There’s a big chamber, but, like, no light at all. If there were any doors or windows, I would expect some light.”

  Gillian picks her words carefully. “I don’t mean to be rude, but you don’t actually know there’s no way out of here.”

  “I think I do know, though. I think the building is telling me that, at least. I guess the building could be lying.”

  “Let’s go do some exploring and see what we find,” Ynes says. “We definitely aren’t going anywhere if we just sit around here feeling sorry for ourselves.”

  Eulalia slumps her head in frustration.

  I’m not sure if it’s from our predicament or the trouble we’re having believing her story about the talking walls.

  I sit down next to her. Taking her hand in mine, I give it a light squeeze. “We’ll figure something out. I don’t have a teleportation spell, but I can make it brighter.” With my free hand, I snap my fingers, and the flame floats up above my shoulder. “Come on. No sense sitting around pouting, right? The sooner we can get back on the trail, the better.”

  Ynes and Gillian help us to our feet.

  “So what kind of surprises are awaiting us outside this room?” I ask Eulalia.

  “It’s strange. It seems to be mostly just empty space or rooms with discarded furniture stored up like a warehouse. But despite all that, I feel something.” She taps herself between her breasts. “Something right here. I can’t explain it. It’s almost like a holy experience. Like someone bigger than all this nonsense we go through every day is watching us, waiting to see what decisions we make, and hoping we choose the right path.”

  “This is different than the building talking to you?” Ynes asks, not really hiding her skepticism this time.

  Eulalia nods. “Maybe. I don’t know.”

  “Well, as long as it isn’t a ghost trying to kill us, how bad could it be?” I say, trying to rally my troops.

  Without a warrior, Ynes takes the point with Gillian right behind her. If any large physical attack reaches us before I can cast a spell, we’ll probably be in a world of pain without our tank to hold them off.

  Eulalia and I follow close behind. With the narrow hallway and who knows what might be hiding in the shadows ahead of us, spacing ourselves any further apart seems dangerous, too.

  At the end of the hall, we reach a set of stairs that descend in a spiral. With no outside light, I have no idea if we’re a mile underground or in some castle in the clouds where Ynes’ people come from.

  It feels like we’re being swallowed by the building, but there is nowhere else to go except forward. Our footsteps echo noisily in the seemingly-empty stone building.

  After a couple of minutes of spiraling down into nothing, Eulalia says, “We must be getting close. It took about this long my first time down before I turned around to get BoomBitch, Ynes Alexandra, and discovered you and Gillian had arrived. Get ready in case someone teleported back to finish us off with a surprise attack when we make the final turn. Who knows what’ll be out there in the darkness.”

  Gillian readies her bow, Ynes cracks her knuckles, and I say a quick prayer that Eulalia is wrong and we’ll either find a door or a portal in the next room.

  We descend the final few stairs and stand on our side of the archway waiting for our eyes to adjust and scanning the space for signs of trouble.

  Eulalia catches us off guard when she steps forward almost as if in a trance, placing one foot slowly and steadily in front of the other.

  “Come back here,” I whisper-shout.

  She shows no signs she hears me.

  We creep into the fairly large room after her and start to relax when no one attacks.

  “What is this place?” Ynes asks.

  I finally really let myself check out the details of the room.

  We’re walking in an opening between sets of benches to our left and right. There are about twenty rows. Each bench would hold about ten people.

  In front of us is an altar. Behind it is a huge, white marble statue of a horse. Standing next to the horse is another gigantic white marble statue of a woman with a large staff.

  “Looks like some kind of church or temple,” I say.

  “You Grounders are strange,” Ynes says. “Who could feel at one with their gods in such a dark dismal room?”

  “How do you do it up there?” I ask.

  She looks up at the ceiling as if hoping to see the clouds she comes from. “Right out in the open, of course.”

  I would ask more questions, but the top of the statue’s staff starts to glow with a white light that chases shadows to the corners of the room.

  “Welcome,” a woman’s voice says, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. “Do you seek healing?”

  Slightly unsure whether I’m imagining the voice, I glance at the others to check for their reactions.

  Eulalia continues gliding forward and says, “No, Mistress. We are of full health. We have no needs.”

  No needs? Did she forget we’re trapped in here?

  I clear my throat. “Umm…actually, we could—”

  The voice cuts me off and addresses Eulalia as if I’m not even there. “Then welcome to my temple, child. Feel free to rest in peace and continue on your journey when you are ready. Our food stores are nearly empty, but what we have, we will share with you.”

  “I’d love some—”

  “Mistress,” Eulalia says, stomping all over me, too. “I believe your food stores have long since diminished and your followers either moved on or died. Please correct me if I speak falsely.”

  The voice sighs, and the light on the staff fades to about half its original brightness. “Though your words bring me sorrow, I cannot deny their truth
.”

  “Can you tell us how to get out of—” I start to ask as Eulalia drops to her knees in front of the statue.

  “How can we help?” my healer asks the goddess.

  “Bless you, child. But it is I who should be helping you. Unfortunately, my reach is weak since my sanctuary has been blocked from the outside world. I need followers in order to have the strength to offer blessings or miracles.”

  “How are you supposed to get your message out into the world if you are trapped in here?” I ask, tired of the time we are wasting while the One-eyed Monster has my women but happy to have completed a sentence.

  “Fair question, wizard,” the goddess says with all the scorn I’m used to when people talk about my character class.

  “If you had a follower, would you be able to create a portal to the outside world?” Eulalia asks.

  A silence settles on the sanctuary. For the first time, I feel a sense of supernatural calm and serenity that convinces me this lady might actually be a real goddess.

  “Yes, child. I believe I could. But that follower would have to stay behind with me. There would be many preparations we’d have to make to welcome a new flock of believers.”

  “No way,” I say, raising my wand, even while Ynes grabs my arms to stop me.

  She hisses into my ear. “This feels like Eulalia’s battle, not ours. Let them be.”

  “This is just—” For once, I shut myself up rather than someone else cutting me off.

  It’s not Ynes’ words that convince me, though, and it’s certainly nothing the goddess has said.

  Eulalia pins me with a look of hope and excitement I can’t comprehend. Who am I to deny her happiness just because I don’t understand it?

  I nod my agreement and turn away before I say something stupid.

  “I accept your offer, Goddess,” Eulalia says. “Help my friends get to freedom, and I will be your most devoted follower.”

  A few things happen at once.

  A portal appears off to the left.

  The statue softens and a twenty-foot tall pale woman with white hair stands before us.

  And Gillian runs toward the portal.

  “Stop!” I shout.

  She skids to a halt. “Now what’s wrong? We’ve got friends to save, so this better be good.”

  “How do we know where that goes?” I ask.

  “You don’t. Nor do I, wizard,” the Goddess says in her sickly serene voice. “It is a portal to where you are needed most. That is all I can say.”

  It feels like a trap to me, but I know we must use it no matter what.

  “Ynes goes first. It’ll block her if it’s taking us to Earth. I don’t want our party to get any more separated then we already are. If she makes it through, Gillian and I will follow.”

  I can’t bring myself to thank Eulalia for helping us because I’m still mad she isn’t coming with.

  Ynes approaches the portal and hesitantly reaches out with her hand. When it disappears into its depths, she rushes the rest of the way through.

  “I guess it’s legit. Come on, Gillian.”

  I nudge Gillian in the small of her back and we both run through the portal.

  There’s a flash as we teleport.

  Then just grass and a night sky.

  And no Ynes.

  “God damn it!” I shout.

  “Where are we?” Gillian asks.

  Before I can answer, the campus guard approaches. “You two are back? How’s the LARPing going?”

  11

  “The others caught a flu,” Gillian tells the guard at the same time I say, “We mixed up the date.”

  The guard squints at our obvious lies. “Anything I should be worried about here?”

  I force a laugh. “No sir. Some of them got sick. Others mixed up the date. It’s a real clusterfuck.”

  I’m not really sure why I hope he buys my lie. It’s not like we’ve done something wrong. He’s not about to arrest us or anything.

  Can campus cops even do that, or do they have to call for backup from the real cops?

  He blows a breath out through his pursed lips. “Listen, I’m sure you all weren’t involved. I’m a LARPer, too, you know? I know you all are good people. But a house in town got robbed earlier tonight. Since you’ve been out and about, maybe you saw something?”

  “No sir,” Gillian answers.

  “We’ve been on campus all night,” I add. “We haven’t seen anything besides college kids heading back and forth between the dorms.”

  He nods at the same time his walkie talkie squawks. He pulls it from his belt, but before answering, he tells us, “Stay safe, okay? Hopefully whoever robbed the place will stay away from campus. We’ll do our best to keep you safe, but we can’t be everywhere at once.”

  I grab Gillian by the sleeve to pull her away. “Thank you, sir. We’ll probably just head back to our dorms. Early classes tomorrow.”

  But he’s not paying attention to us anymore. He listens to a muffled voice on the walkie talkie and turns toward his car.

  “Where are we really going?” Gillian asks.

  I reach into my pocket and pull out the tablet I’d stashed away.

  How’d it make it to the game world and back? Had Kat done something to help with that? Could I take anything?

  “We really are going back to your room so we can have some privacy to see if Kat sent me a message, and rest for a few minutes while we figure out what to do next.”

  I jump into Gillian’s bed and hit the power button to wake up my tablet. The batter is down to three percent.

  “Who the fuck is this guy?” a girl I hadn’t noticed asks from the desk.

  “Don’t worry,” Gillian says. “We’re only going to be here a few seconds.”

  The girl rolls her eyes and stuffs her earbuds back into her ears and turns her attention to her laptop.

  “How does she recognize you?” I ask.

  Gillian snorts. “She doesn’t. We got lucky. She must assume that if I have a key, I must belong here. Like I said, she’s never around. I haven’t seen her more than a couple of times all semester, and she was drunk off her ass each time.” She nods at my tablet. “Anything?”

  “Yep.” I hand it to her.

  Little Pup, what the hell are you mixed up in? This looks like some seriously messed up shit. From what I can tell, Mytron Inc., some shadow company no one really knows much about, owns the game. They’ve been doing some fucked up research about maintaining life support via VR, and maybe using it to bring people back after prolonged comas?

  That’s the little bit of public info that’s out there about them.

  I hacked some servers and read some internal emails.

  They have some contracts with the military, too.

  It looks like they are researching the tech as a way to train soldiers. Of course, right? When aren’t they trying to make better killing machines?

  But check this out.

  There’s a small group within the company who is looking at using the game as a way to trap important politicians, business owners, dissidents…well, you get the point.

  It looks like this Kip guy is part of that project, and you ended up on his bad side.

  What’d you do?

  I can’t free you from the game, but I can sneak in a bit of code that might help you out. It will deploy to the server upon opening this message.

  Good luck.

  Let me know what’s happening when you can.

  Kat

  “What do you think her code does?” Gillian asks, handing the tablet back to me.

  “No idea. But we need to get back into the game before that one-eyed freak does something stupid to Alexandra or BoomBitch. And we need to figure out where Ynes ended up. And we somehow need to get Eulalia out of that church. Hopefully there will be a portal at Kip’s house again.”

  “Eulalia might not want to come. She seemed—”

  “She’ll want to come,” I snap back at her while tapping furiousl
y on the tablet.

  Going back in. I’m not sure what’s real and what’s game anymore but too many people on both sides need me. Anything you can do to help…well, please do it. Hope to see you soon.

  I plug the tablet into a charger near Gillian’s bed so it will be ready to help the next time I come back to Earth. I toss the device on the mattress, and storm out of the room without asking Gillian to follow me.

  It’s reassuring to feel her presence when she does.

  With the thought of my women being stuck in such a wide variety of unknown perils, it’s good to know there’s one still by my side, both because it means she’s safe and because she can help me with whatever challenges await.

  The flashing lights of three police cars are not the first challenge I had expected to find, though.

  “Don’t the cops have anything better to do around here than hang around one burgled house?” I ask.

  “I didn’t even know this town had that many cops.”

  “Most of them probably work part-time here and part-time at the mall over in the city. What do we do?”

  “Kill them?” Gillian asks, tapping her bow dangling from her shoulder with her open palm. “Like in the game? After all, we’re still the game characters, right? We don’t even know this is the real Earth.”

  I snort out a little laugh. “It would make things so much easier. But like you said, we don’t know where we are. It’ll probably not look good if we kill real cops.”

  “So we sneak in or look for a portal somewhere else. Maybe your sister can do something.”

  “Maybe, but I bet it would take more time than we have. If there’s a portal inside, we can get back on track in just a few minutes.”

  “Holy shit.” Gillian swipes at something I can’t see in front of her face. “Are you seeing this?”

  “What is it? A wasp?”

  “No. A map. Like an overlay a lot of games have. I can see the inside of the house, and all the cops are lit up as little red lights.”