The Monolith

by Stephen Roark

  What the Hell is this?!

  Teeth snapped beside me and I heard Fujiko shout.

  “Rand!”

  Ducking a Mortician’s Blade, I rolled through the legs of a Bloodless and slashed behind me, cutting it deeply across the stomach. Fujiko was fighting off three of them, and losing badly. Two held Bloodletters that they swung wildly, almost oblivious to the fact that they were holding swords, and the second had some kind of serrated knife that it was stabbing out with wildly. Her enormous hammer was simply too slow to keep up with their onslaught.

  I Shadowstepped forward and used my new ability, Crippling Blow, on the first one’s exposed back.

  MASSIVE!

  355

  Holy shit! My mind blown, I took the thing down with one more hit and fired my Blunderbuss into one of the remaining two, not as a riposte, but in an attempt to get its attention.

  45

  The extra Viletaint was starting to actually come in handy. The possessed player spun and flailed wildly. My axe handle met its chin with a Blunted Strike that froze it in place for 2 seconds—2 seconds was all I needed. I hacked it down as Fujiko managed to recover and heard the satisfying sound of metal on bone as she cracked the last one’s skull and pounded it into the ground.

  “Fuck!” she roared in both shock and victory as she drew back her weapon. She grinned a devilish grin of a warrior at me, and I managed to force my lips into a smile, but when I spun around to face the rest of the horde, my legs almost collapsed out from under me.

  A nightmare raced toward me. A horror I’d never even conceived of that hit me like a tranquilizer. Pain flared in my chest as the Mortician’s Scalpel found its mark, carving my flesh like it would that of a corpse, begging for my blood that spewed forth like a vomiting beast with a belly full of flesh and tissue.

  -75

  My attacker’s howl was like old metal dragged across stone, but I was frozen, as though entombed in ice as I stared at the face of the Bloodless before me. Rey’s face.

  The scalpel found my neck—

  -67

  And my shoulder—

  -66

  Somewhere, in my rational, working mind, I knew I was dying. I knew what I should have been doing—defending myself, riposting, blocking with my axe, dodging, downing Soothing Syrup—but my rational mind wasn’t in control any longer as I stared at the face of my best friend, my only true friend, as she fought frantically to kill me.

  “Rand! Snap out of it!” Fujiko cried out. As her hammer met Rey’s cheek and snapped her head to the side, a burst of rage snapped me out of my stupor.

  “No!” I shouted before I even had a chance to realize what I was saying. My lips were someone else’s; not Rand’s—Clay’s.

  “What are you talking about?!” she hollered, pummeling Rey again with her massive metal sledge.

  That’s my friend! That’s what my soul was thinking as I watched her legs collapse out from underneath her as Fujiko slammed the ground with Shatter. The shockwave caused Rey’s body to ripple as it tore a path through the swarm, sending bodies cascading into bodies, causing them to tumble over each other in a mess of flailing limbs, gnashing teeth and weapons that cut through the air.

  Fujiko screamed, and I looked up as five Bloodless leapt onto her from behind. Their anger was terrifying. They snapped like animals with a feverish bloodlust, and I watched in horror as her legs went weak and she fell to her knees. I had to do something, but with Shadowstep on cooldown, there was no way for me to reach her.

  Sweet, hot, scalding Wyvern’s Breath burned through the air, enveloping the Bloodless and Fujiko at the same time. She cried out in pain, but the Bloodless panicked, scrambling away from her like rats abandoning a sinking ship. Jacob shouted, lunging into battle as he fired a Mortal Arrow that cut down one of the crazed, insane Seekers and sent it plunging into death. Dashing forward, I swung Boucher’s axe, hacking away at the flaming, screaming bodies that couldn’t figure out whether they should run or attack, so began some combination of both.

  Back and forth. Back and forth. In and out. They swung, retreated, swung again, then ran. Finally, the flames finished all but one of them off, but my axe took care of it. The sounds of the battle were fading behind me, and with a heart full of pain, I turned back to where Rey had fallen, but she was back on her feet and charging me with a face filled by the voice, twisted on its surface with rage and unbridled hatred, but devoid of any humanity, consciousness or intent. It was as though her body had become a vessel for something else. But if that was true—where was Rey?

  The glint from the steel of her blade was unmistakable, reflecting the flames that still crackled across the ground. She was aiming it at me. There was time for a riposte, and I knew it was what I should have done. But I simply couldn’t. The sight of her had me frozen.

  “Rey…” I wanted to cry out, but my voice would not respond. My lips moved, creating a slight whisper that was taken away by the wind, barely even audible to me. All I could do was watch the tip of her scalpel as it cut through the air toward me. I had 170 health left, but her strikes were quick and damaging. Two or three more and I’d be done for.

  “Rand!” Jacob shouted as her blade found its mark. My side flared with hot pain as my guts were pierced and blood poured out onto my boots.

  -76

  94 left…

  One of my knees went weak and I fell into a kneeling position. I looked up and saw teeth—hideous teeth dripping with angry spit and, if Jacob was right, contagious too. Her bite was aimed at my neck, and I knew I had to do something. I told my arm to rise, block the attack with my Shovel Axe, fend her off like she was any other creature I’d encountered since arriving in this tortured world, but it just wouldn’t listen. The muscles tensed up but that was about it.

  Well, I guess we’ll find out if Jacob’s theory is correct, I thought as I felt myself overcome with sadness and shame.

  Rey’s jaw began to close.

  “Nooooo!” Something slammed into Rey—someone. I looked up.

  Jacob!

  Rey snarled and spat as they landed in a heap. “Help!” Jacob shouted as he fought to keep her down. “Get her!”

  It was like a splash of ice water aimed straight into my eyes. My stupor retreated, allowing me control of my body once again.

  It’s not her! That’s what I told myself as I leapt to Jacob’s aid as Rey’s ferocious teeth gnashed at him like a hungry animal. I fired my Blunderbuss, slapping her in the chin with my slugs, and felt a pain in my heart like she must have felt as the shot hit her.

  “Rand, help!” Jacob cried out. I raised my axe to swing, but it was just too late. Rey’s teeth found their mark and embedded themselves in his shoulder. Tearing through the cloth of his shirt, they pierced his flesh and Jacob cried out in pain. It was like watching myself act as I drove the axe into the face of my friend, half expecting the blow to cleave her head in half.

  Thankfully, it didn’t. Still, the result was horrifying and I felt the urge to vomit swell where my throat met my chest. Blood sprayed back against me as Rey’s screams of agony assaulted my ears. Her teeth released Jacob, who stumbled backwards and tripped over himself several times before toppling over backwards.

  Rey’s health plummeted to only a sliver, and I looked down at her, unable to get a grip on what I was feeling as I brought my axe down for the killing blow.

  It has to be done, I told myself. You have no choice!

  My body fought against me, fueled still by something deep inside me, the part of me that knew that somewhere inside this screaming vessel of madness was my friend, the best friend I had in the entire world, the one person I was sure would never betray me. But I held firm and brought my blade down.

  You have to, I told myself as the strike found its mark and Rey’s scream tore through me. I’m sorry, Rey.

  38

  Dark Wizards of the Past

  “The quest of a Seeker is a long and difficult one that requires enormous sacrifice and fierce will.
Those sacrifices are too much for many, and they fall along the side of the road, passed by others as they forge their own destiny.”

  —Rathborne of the Order of the Raven

  “The wizard is this way! Come on, or he’s going to get away!” Rey called over her shoulder, her dark blue cloak fluttering behind her as she ran.

  I’m ten years old again, and Rey and I are racing through the maze of the ground level of the Barracks, “playing pretend” together, continuing our story we’ve been living for the last two weeks. It’s our longest yet—the Barracks are our kingdom and a dark wizard (really just a 3D printer gone awry as it spat polymer in lines that would be the exterior wall of a new home) has invaded and must be dealt with. I’m a noble knight of the kingdom of Barrickean, and Rey is the most powerful archer in the land. Smiling, I grip my plastic sword and chase after her.

  It rained this morning, and we’re splashing through puddles as we go. I’m not sure we’re even going the right way, but I’m having fun just the same. Spending time with Rey like this is the most fun I have in my life. We aren’t gamers yet—not like we would be, as our parents don’t want us spending too much time away from the real world. So we play pretend.

  “You shoot him with arrows!” I call after her as we round a corner and race through the deep shadows cast by the upper levels of the shanty town. “I’ll get him with my sword’s ice attack!”

  “I know that!” Rey laughs back as we reach the malfunctioning piece of equipment. Its printer nozzle is gurgling and coughing as it vomits polymer all over the ground, creating a monstrous mess the company won’t be happy having to clean up. “On guard!” Rey shouts, raising her pretend bow, made out of a curved piece of plastic with a string tied to both ends, and begins firing at the wizard.

  “Freeze!” I shout, aiming the tip of my sword at the dark caster. I can see the spell shoot forth—a frozen copy of my sword surrounded by a swirling frost vortex that strikes the wizard in his dark black and purple robe, freezing him in place, allowing me to charge. Rey fires her arrows and I hack away at him, slapping my plastic blade against the lumps of sticky printer material that is meant to create a home for someone—or maybe just a privacy wall.

  “Die, wizard!” Rey shouts. “Die!”

  “We got him, Rey! We got him!”

  All I could think about as Rey’s angry body went limp was how things used to be when we were kids—how video games had become a way for us to remain friends after she moved away. A world without the consequences of the real world, that’s where we’d go together. I saw the view from her webcam, her parents’ frantic cries as they fought to wake her, and I felt lost and powerless as I felt her respawning behind me at the lamppost.

  Movement behind me. I turned and saw a thick group of Bloodless, white now, standing huddled around the lamppost, swaying slightly against each other like reeds in the wind. Then, suddenly, the entire pack moved with lightning speed and began to sprint away from town as though commanded by some unseen force.

  Her hair—that’s what I watched as she ran away from me. It danced through the air like those streamers you’d see at parades that seemed to defy gravity as they pranced high above the crowd. She ran with the rest of them, the zombie horde that had come and attacked and now, white and forbidden to attack for now, was retreating into the shadows of the world.

  Behind me, Jacob panted like a dog. I looked down at him, twisting in agony at my feet, clutching the wound given to him by my friend.

  “Why did you do that?” I asked him, kneeling down and bringing a Soothing Syrup to his lips. “Drink.”

  He did, and his health recovered most of the way, but that was little comfort. He’d been bitten, and if what he said about becoming infected was correct, this was bad—really bad.

  “You’re my friend,” he sputtered, pushing himself to a seated position. I took his hand to help him stand. “That’s what friends do.”

  “But—she bit you…”

  “Yeah…”

  “Damn it, Jacob…”

  “My—my heart,” he stammered, clutching his chest as Altarus and Fujiko rushed up behind me.

  “Jacob. How do you feel?” I asked him. “Are you…are you all right?”

  He shook his head adamantly. A shiver ran through him, causing a different one to slither through my limbs. I’d seen this behavior before. He was turning.

  “No,” I muttered. “No, no, no…”

  “Get away from me!” Jacob snarled, leaping to his feet and staggering away from us. I saw him open his character sheet as he began dumping everything in his inventory onto the ground. “Get away! I’m turning into one of them!”

  “No!” I shouted, racing forward and gripping him by the arms. “No, we can do something! We—we have to be able to do something! Fujiko?!”

  But Fujiko had nothing for me. She stood there watching, stone faced, able to accept the reality of what was happening in a way that I didn’t want to. I knew what was going to happen next, but I didn’t want to believe it. Jacob was my friend, and we’d come so far since our first meeting in the town square when I’d dismissed him as nothing more than an annoying, arrogant jerk that I wanted nothing to do with. And now, he’d sacrificed himself to save me.

  “Rand,” he said softly as he dropped everything he had. “Figure this out, okay? If anyone can do it, you can.”

  “I will!” I told him quickly, nodding emphatically. “But, Jacob—”

  “I can feel it, Rand…it’s cold…it’s dark.”

  “Jacob…”

  “It’s pulling at me!” he yelped, the threat of hysteria in his voice as whatever it was began to overwhelm him. “GET AWAY!”

  I felt like I was watching a horror movie as he drove both palms into my chest in a desperate attempt to get me away from him. I staggered back as his eyes began to fill with red, like blood breaking through barriers in the human body, creeping into places it was never supposed to be. Slowly, bit by bit, moment by moment, I watched his humanity begin to surrender—but to what?

  I opened my mouth to speak, but my voice failed me. Jacob stared with a look of sorrow and terror as the remaining whites in his eyes were overcome by the red, and I saw the last visage of what had been Jacob begin to fall from his face. But before the madness could completely take hold, he looked at me with a look that said “goodbye,” spun on his heels and raced away at top speed. All I could do was watch as his silhouette disappeared into the mist.

  What is the opposite of complete and utter betrayal?

  “I’m sorry, Rand,” Altarus said as he placed a hand on my shoulder. “That could not have been easy for you.”

  “We’ll figure this out,” Fujiko told me. I pulled away.

  Figure this out how?! I wanted to snap at her. So they both had loved ones trapped in the game, Bloodless and insane, but did that mean they knew anything special? They weren’t wise—they were stumbling around like me with more questions than answers.

  Behind me, I heard cries of sorrow as someone else succumbed to the mysterious curse of the Bloodless. There was a snarl and the sound of gnashing teeth, and then the fighting began.

  They can handle it, I thought angrily as I gripped my axe and strode away, leaving Jacob’s possessions on the ground. “You can have them.”

  “Where are you going?!” Fujiko shouted after me. I didn’t answer. Altarus said something to her that kept her from calling out again.

  “Fucking shit,” I cursed under my breath as I passed Alastor in his wine bath.

  “Young Seeker!” he cried out, but I completely ignored him. There was only one person I wanted to talk to right now, and it wasn’t the Blood Merchant who kept calling to me as I entered the woods, ignoring the flames of the torches casting their faint glow across the branches. The Corrupted Villagers, now 8 levels below me, ignored me, but that didn’t stop me from hacking them down as I progressed. They died in one hit, but I felt a glimmer of satisfaction as each one died. It was as though I was chipping away
at pieces of the world that had taken not one, but two of my friends from me.

  But what was the point of it all? It was not a feature of the game—that much was clear. People were stuck in this world, and some kind of plague was wreaking havoc through the population, turning them all into nothing more than beasts, corrupting and twisting them.

  Were they slaves? Was someone controlling them? Was it some kind of computer virus? And if so, how the Hell did that work? The Fount only worked one way; it transmitted your consciousness into the game world. It couldn’t transmit anything back. So theoretically, it would be impossible for this to be affecting people in the real world. But then again, people weren’t able to log out anymore, were they?

  He won’t know, I thought. He couldn’t know. But that didn’t stop me.

  As Rathborne’s tiny cottage came into view, the slightest glow of orange sun creeping through the heavy clouds to rest gently on the sloping, collapsing roof, I felt a sense of relief as though I was coming home after a long voyage. The tiny plume of smoke that coughed from the chimney seemed to greet me as I made my way to the hut’s only door and knocked.

  “Come in, Rand,” Rathborne’s voice replied from within. I grinned and opened the door.

  The old Seeker was sitting by the fire, his cane of black wood resting across his legs. Without his cape cloak, which was now mine, he looked different, more relaxed, almost happily retired. But still, he carried with him a presence that spoke of years of combat and training. He was wise, and I knew he was part of the game and as such, his knowledge would be limited, but I had no one else to turn to.