War for Maicreol

by Dawn Chapman

  I mouthed my thanks and finally let myself relax a little. Not that I had much choice. If I didn’t, I was sure going to bust out of these trousers again. Why was I still growing? Uggh.

  I really needed to get some custom-made gear again. The city would be great for that.

  The short bike ride to Foster Mansion was nice. Different down on the ground, or in fact, inside the Hog. We seemed to be able to see so much more.

  I saw Foster waiting for us, and there were others with them. Jessica and someone else. Who I wasn’t sure. I guess her other sister, maybe? Dahlia?

  Lila was the one who ran for them. I presumed then that this was the trio reunited, and I grinned. They’d been through a lot. Seeing this made me happy.

  Tibex’s voice was the one that sounded in my ear. Well done, Maddie.

  I almost expected them to vanish now that they were back together. But they didn’t. They were hugging, kissing, and crying. I suddenly felt the worst pangs of missing someone I had ever had.

  Alex kept creeping in there, and I really didn’t want to miss out on seeing him. We’d have to make our way back to each other, anyway, right?

  A quick trip through the caving system would be good. At least for me. But I stopped myself. He wouldn’t be Alex. He was now Tetsu; Riezella had said that. Inside, I cried for that. I hoped for us that there still would be an us.

  It was Foster who approached me, holding out a hand. When I took it, he then held onto me, looking for a quick way to lean in for a hug. I actually let him.

  “You brought Kamaal here. I was not expecting that kind of return from you.”

  “I didn’t ask him to the home of the Tromoal, their sacred lands. I was the one who just made sure we had a way home.”

  Candice and Steve eyed each other from the corner of each other’s eyes. I noticed it, and then suddenly wondered what was going on with them.

  Foster answered for me, but I didn’t like it. “We’ve been able to keep a better eye on you than you think. With Steve so close by, Dresel was able to tap into his feed. Candice heard a few conversations that she wasn’t meant too, and she’s actually got a few things to ask of him.”

  Then I saw that she pulled him into a hug. “You stupid man,” and she planted a kiss on his cheek.

  Steve went shy with all eyes on him, but it was Chip and Mandy who were the ones looking on. There was jealousy still in Chips face, but there was also love for Steve too. I could see that. Steve, the gaming character, or the real person. I wasn’t so sure as Steve glanced to me with some alarm on his face. Maybe a look of, ‘Please don’t say anything.’ I tried not to worry about their gender politics and looked away.

  I then noticed there were more than a few people about. So many new faces that I didn’t know who was who at all.

  I really do need to catch up on things around here.

  “We’ve a good cookout going around the back. The campers and the wagon trains brought in enough food for them all, and more, so they kind of look after themselves.”

  “Wagon train?”

  “Yeah, we’ve had Visitors from all over Maicreol. Please come with me. I think we should introduce you.”

  I followed Foster and waited for Steve, Candice, and Chip to follow, which they did.

  “Maddie, we’ve some great news and some bad news.”

  I turned to see Candice with the three girls.

  “What is it?” I didn’t know if I could take this. I stopped walking and waited for them to catch up. “They can log out.”

  I could see the three girls had been crying and laughing—and talking more than anything. I bet they had as much to catch up on as I did with my own friends and colleagues.

  “What’s the problem?” I asked. “Why don’t they find somewhere safe and warm and do it?”

  It was the older sister Jessica who stepped through toward me, her eyes fixed on mine. She was calm and seemed really confident. “Maddie, we’ve not only been waiting to be reunited with each other, but we’ve all been instructed to help you. Yes, we can log out, and we will. When the time is right.”

  What? I didn’t understand. “The time is right now. You need to go home.”

  I heard faint footsteps behind me. I turned to see whose they were. But when I did, I didn’t recognise the young part elven woman that stood before me. “Maddie,” she said. “Its good to meet you, finally.”

  I noticed her tag above her head. But I also noticed her tattoos. Who was this?

  “Akillia,” I said reading her tag, “You’re a Visitor too?”

  She smiled, but it wasn’t a happy one. She held out her hand a little further and motioned me toward the doorway behind her to a wagon. “We’ve much to discuss. Come on in. Let the girls catch up more,” Akillia said. “We need an adult meeting.”

  I think it was the way she said adult meeting that made me giggle. “Sorry,” I apologised. “I’m not really one to think on myself as an adult. And not really one that likes big meetings.”

  “Well, you’re going to get one.”

  She was quite insistent. I liked that. I motioned for her to get in the wagon before me. Then I followed her, jumping up in one easy motion. A little unusual considering my hip injuries. I wasn’t so sure I would ever get used to the power in the ring or the lack of excruciating pain.

  Once inside, there were quite a few faces. I wasn’t going to get to know these people so easily. There were far too many of them. At least they were all smiling.

  I saw a friendly face. “Abel!”

  He stood up and managed a huge goofy smile. I found my emotions getting the better of me. I went to him, and he embraced me with his large arms. “Thank you,” I finally stuttered out. “Thank you for saving my life. Is this a meeting of the war clan?” I asked.

  Akillia moved to one side. “We’ve all been waiting on you, because, yes, you started this quest, and you are going to be the one to finish it all.”

  I knew I had to be. There was no other option.

  “Pleased to meet you all,” I said.

  Akillia was the one who then made the rounds with names. I was going to struggle a bit, that was obvious, but I would do my best.

  “From the left, we have Marok and Macie,” I noted the demon and then also kind of noticed there were many other things about him I recognised. Kamaal’s relation maybe?

  “Okay.” I would probably remember these two more than the others. Macie was beautiful, a furry cat-like creature, with auburn red fur, bright eyes and no tail. I should have expected that at least, but no. Seems there was a difference in races that even I hadn’t encountered before.

  It wasn’t just the names that were confusing me, so I sat down.

  I remembered seeing his real face in Dresel’s office, and I noticed the man he was here. “Has everything been okay? I don’t know how you got back here, but...”

  Abel pushed away from me. “That was partly down to circumstances and a quest.”

  He motioned toward the elf. “Akillia brought most of us here. She also helped us with many things like keeping us together during any crisis.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” I questioned her.

  “Please sit. We’ve a long night ahead to help catch everyone up on the things going on here, but then it will be time to plan. Ferris, I think you said you had some special brew on to help us all?”

  The smaller gent moved around the wagon like it was his. Yes, it definitely was his. He was way too familiar with it for it not to be. That was great. The tech here intrigued me as I looked around. There were many things I knew of but hadn’t actually touched.

  For a moment, I thought about the Hog. I wondered where it was and in what condition. Had he been looked after if anyone else had used him? Oh gosh, I never even thought about that when Steve and I stepped through the portal. He would be lost out in the wilderness. I knew my face had changed. It seemed Abel could read my mind. “The Hog’s fine, though John did try to hack him. In the end, he managed to commun
icate through his to yours. We got him home. He’s parked out back waiting on you.”

  I almost ran from the cabin to go see, but I managed to restrain myself just a little. “Thank you, all of you. Seems while I was gone you really stepped up your game.”

  “Case of having to. We had a few run-ins with our largest adversary.”

  “There’s something connected to the portal, Maddie,” Abel said. “And it’s not a good thing.”

  Tibex had let me know some of this.

  “The creatures,” I said holding his gaze with mine. Watching his interest and his concern. “They’re not from your world.” I paused almost not going to say it. To drop this now could be life or death. These were Visitors to this world. “They’re from mine.”

  Akillia was the one to interject this time. “What do you mean your world?”

  I smiled at her. “You’re both Visitors. The three sisters outside are also Visitors, correct?” On her nod, I carried on. “So am I.”

  The others around the room seemed shocked. “How can you be a Visitor?” she asked.

  “Your game is based on digital coding. It’s built inside a huge set of servers and has grown, yes?”

  It was Abel who nodded. “Simon has a lot of storage under the island he’s on. He’s actually growing the facility further down, with each time someone does something unique.” He coughed. “I really shouldn’t tell you this, but each time there is a choice made, it gets bigger, but not in the way we think. Not like how most sandbox games can just keep expanding. It’s really growing. I mean synapse-like constructs. Connections from programming that shouldn’t be there.”

  It was fascinating, the science of it. The reality of it. It was also damned terrifying.

  “But,” Abel also said, “we need to plan this war, then we can worry about the game and the rest of the future for Puatera, right?”

  Chapter 13

  I had heard there was something going on across the town. I’d seen it built up over the years, but nothing had given it the growth spurt that having so many people around had done. I wanted to settle in and now accept the quests the game’s AI was going to give me, but I really didn’t know what that might be. As a runner or player.

  The fact was, sitting across from these different people now, and having just admitted the one thing I thought I never would to them, I waited for their response. I needed to see that I could not only trust them but that I was able to understand and fight for them because they gave their trust to me.

  I could see they were worried, that a few of them just stayed silent.

  Abel pushed me on. “You need to explain to them what and why you’re saying this. What happened to you?”

  I moved to the front of the room, my heart pounding in my chest. “A few of you know some of my story, the others don’t, so I’ll explain it all. I was given a job as a much younger runner. To cross the desert through the breeding season, not much unlike with its timing to my more recent journey. The only thing this time was that I didn’t die out there. Those few years ago, I was attacked by the young Matriarch of the Tromoal, Riezella. She killed me.”

  “How can you have been killed and then yet you’re still here?”

  It was easy for the Visitors to understand this part. “An NPC can have many lives,” someone piped up.

  “Yes, they essentially can. We’re just a few numbers to some of you guys, but we’re not. Most of the time, we have to die to be able to make the game seem real. There’s only a few who this doesn’t happen to.” I saw the confusion on their faces, so I carried on. “I might have been one of them, but I wasn’t. I had one person backing me, though, and I’d been programmed.” These words hurt me a fair bit that I had been a program, nothing but numbers and digits to someone like them, to most of them in this room. “With the killing bite that Riezella gave me and the timing, my so-called respawn took a different turn. I was given something else. I wasn’t a computer program anymore. I, or well, the energy that I was, floating around the cosmos, integrated with the systems here so that I might continue to live.”

  “You’re an alien?”

  I laughed at this. “I think Visitor, Alien or just about any term would work for me here, but because I’m technically digital code, and I’m not sure on my full integration to your real world, I’ll call myself just what I am, a glitch in the system.”

  Steve was the one who looked at me with a scowl. I tried to laugh him off, but I knew he wasn’t taking it as an answer.

  “Okay,” agreeing with him. “So, I’m not just a program. I want you to understand how much more I am and how much more is at stake here.” I watched as the faces around me realised what I really was saying.

  “You’re sentient, you mean, a robot, AI?”

  I laughed on the inside, they didn’t understand me. So I couldn’t help but just nod at this. “I really need this to sink in so that you understand it. The game world you’re playing is a game. It really is, but there’s a few of us who have started to integrate with it, we’re living creatures of a nature that you’ve never come across, and you might never again.”

  Candice was the one who asked first. “How many of you are there?”

  “Of my species, that I know of, there’s just the two of us.”

  “Your species… You’re saying there’s more than you?” Steve chocked this out.

  “Yes, I would like to think there weren’t that many of us, but I know of at least three species that are alive in this world you call Puatera.”

  “Who, where?”

  “The Tromoal,” I said with a sigh. “They’re the first species. I really need you to believe in them.”

  Candice sank back in her chair, running her fingers through her hair. “I don’t know what to believe. Like I’ve never felt this way about anything. This game never felt like a game.”

  Abel caught my eye and then he spoke up. “I work really close with Dresel, Simon… err.” He paused. “Leaton.”

  “What?” Akillia said.

  Abel looked at her. “I’m sorry, Akillia. Leaton is just Simon’s persona. He’s kept that ever since he first made money on games. No one needed to know he was the designer and owner. In fact, he much preferred it that way.”

  “But I’ve seen him in TV appearances, all kinds.”

  There was a flicker in the corner of my vision. Then there was a man I didn’t know.

  The image flickered, and there stood a smaller scale of Dresel. “I’m sorry for all the confusion. Please forgive me. All of you.” He looked around the room to each of the Visitors and the NPCs.

  “I…” Akillia sat back running a hand through her hair, as well.

  “I need you all to believe that what Maddie is saying is the truth. All of it.”

  “Dresel, those eggs, what we did there.” Candice looked to some of the others, and there were tears in her eyes. I knew what she was remembering, the time they were with me with the Tromoal. I remembered with her, the sheer pain, anguish and need to help. Because they could. The Tromoal were here for a reason, and that was this world saved their lives.

  “No,” I said to her, taking a hand of hers in mine and squeezing it. “You saw and felt more than anyone else ever could have. I’m glad you were there in the caves for me that day.”

  I watched the reactions of them all, and I knew they were feeling a lot. I sat down and laid my hands on the table. “I’m here, and I want you to feel you can ask me anything. If it’s in my power to answer, you know I will.”

  Candice laughed. “I wish I could think of a hundred questions, but you know you’ve just blown me out the water with everything you’ve said. I mean, almost the mayor’s zombified cows, come on? Who makes that shit up? Was that real?”

  I looked into her eyes, and I saw the fun that was there. She was on top of her game, she was as high a level as anyone could be within the time frame she had had here in their game.

  “Zombie cows.... indeed.”

  This was something I think her
world would have laughed at. I mean there were nasty creatures of the dark, and some were just for fun. I didn’t know how the zombie cows would affect them, of course, kill them, but were they real in the way that we thought of each other?

  “You make some very valid points. The Tromoal are real, and I want to know what else, but I also can’t wrap my head around anymore right now. I don’t think some of the Visitors would be involved if they knew what was really at stake here in this game. That’s sort of not really a game anymore.”

  “You think they wouldn’t want to be involved with things because they’re real?”

  “They wouldn’t put as much at risk, no. They think this is all for fun, that the people around them are just numbers and programming. If you start to tell people that things are real, it changes all perspectives.”

  “Why’s that?”

  She smiled at me and placed a hand on mine. “It’s pretty easy to tell you the answer to that because it’s the truth. We care, we start to care. When we see something coming for something we care about, we put our all into it. If it dies, and we think it’s part of the game world, we’re not screwed up over it. Tell us if it dies, and it dies for real, that there’s really an entity in there, one that cares for us and has feelings, then we start to get screwed up, and we can’t help it. We don’t always want to charge into battle with them.

  “But we really do want to charge into battle.” Jessica stepped into the room with her sisters. “And we can’t stop that. We can’t help defending what we love too.” She looked at each of her sisters as she said ‘love’.

  I could see that in them all—all of them around the room.

  Lila looked to her sisters then. “Maddie,” she said, “my life was at risk, and you never once questioned what you were going to do, right?” I could only nod at her. “You still went in, and you fought for me. Even knowing that you might not make it out, that you might not be able to stop what was happening. You put your faith in me by giving me your ring. Then you charged in with Steve at your side, to help and protect me.”