Lost in the Game

by Christopher Keene

  Cages filled the long room, which as Chloe had said, looked more like a wide corridor. As I hovered down, I saw that the lights of Brock’s and Chloe’s drones were already shining into two of the cages, moving from one to another. In the white light, I saw that in each cage were the long-dead remains of a person.

  They’re so small. They look like children.

  Withered flesh clung to wide skeletal structures, and each one was wearing what appeared to be the prototype of the Dream Engine on their heads. I moved down next to Brock and Chloe, and only then did I notice that there were lights at the end of the room. From the resonation and shape of them, the lights appeared to be coming from several computer monitors.

  “This doesn’t make sense.” Brock was frowning. “PETA reported that they rescued all the chimpanzees Malcolm was conducting experiments on.”

  I stopped and shone my torch into the nearby cage, only now noticing the odd shape of its skull. Brock was right. These weren’t people, but apes.

  “Obviously they didn’t find all of them,” Chloe spat.

  There were plaques in front of each cage with names and numbers; however, I was drawn more to the glowing screens at the back of the room. The fact that they were still going was what piqued my curiosity. I mean, it had been twenty years since Malcolm had abandoned this laboratory, so why would these have been kept going, let alone still be on?

  There must be some kind of backup generator, or maybe the computer these are connected to is somewhere else and controlled remotely.

  When I arrived at the screens, I made to grab the chair that stood in front of them. Of course, my hand passed right through it and I felt like I was going to fall over backward. Instead, I readjusted my focus and looked at each of the monitors. There were seven of them—three small ones on either side of a large screen. On each of the small screens was a profile of one of the six beta testers, photos and all. Above the profiles was a recording of a wide street view of some door or gateway.

  Each one seemed to have been taken from a passing van or security camera, and they were clearly located in different places. Whether this was another clue or the locations of the betas themselves, I had no idea. Yet something written on the middle screen told me I was right.

  “Chloe!” I called, feeling like there was a smile on my face. “Chloe, get over here!”

  Chloe’s ghost flew to my side. “What is . . . ?”

  I didn’t have to explain to her what I had found. That was because on the seventh and central monitor was a single line in white text over a black background. Like Lucas’s other clues, it was a single, simple sentence: “We are here.”

  Chloe’s hand rose to cover her mouth and the projection of her face crumpled up in what I could only interpret as her dream-self crying. “Oh . . . my god.”

  I would have put an arm around her if I could, but alas, I was only a ghost. Despite the creepy and incredibly grim atmosphere of the place we were in, I could only relate what I felt standing there as a kind of victory. We had come here to get the next clue, and by god, we got one. However, it was what we did with these photos that really mattered.

  We’ll have to locate where they were taken if they’ll be of any use to us.

  I looked over my shoulder to see Brock’s own projection looking carefully at the plaques. “Brock, I think we’ve found some . . .”

  I turned back to see Chloe engraving the details of the photograph for Lucas’s location into her mind, just in case we couldn’t record the image. I doubted Windsor would have excluded the recording software from the drones, but you could never be too careful. After a moment, I noticed Brock still hadn’t caught up with us.

  “Brock?” I called, already hearing the uncertainty in my voice.

  He had moved on to another plaque and was studying it carefully. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

  I frowned and moved over to him. “Are you alright, man?”

  He moved to the next plaque frantically and then to the next, shaking his head. I noticed that he was looking at the cables connected to the Dream Engines on the chimps’ heads and found that, like the room above, they were connected to a rig in the ceiling that then went into the same wall that the cables for the monitors went into.

  Due to the shining monitors giving us a good view of things, Chloe and I had turned off our torches. Only Brock still had his lit.

  I turned back to him, uneasy from the troubled look on his face. “What’s wrong?”

  “The numbers on these plaques . . .” Brock pointed to one he was in front of. “They are the same as the user codes for each of the beta testers. They’re all right here.”

  I looked at them, and although I had only seen the numbers once above the doors to the different dungeons in the Debug Room, I could tell he was right.

  “What does that mean?”

  “I’m pretty sure there’s a server here somewhere that all of these chimps were linked up to. Malcolm must have connected them with the ones he’d set up elsewhere before he killed himself. They must have been placeholders for something, perhaps the Screamers’ avatars up until he could take them from the Wona Asylum. It would make sense considering Malcolm wouldn’t have been able to create them himself after he lost his body. But for twenty years?” Brock shook his head and looked at the monitors. “I’m grasping at straws here, Noah. I can’t make heads or tails of this.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” I pointed to the monitors. “Our next clue’s right on those monitors. You read the manual. Can these drones record like the Dream Engines can?”

  Brock nodded. “They would be pretty useless otherwise.”

  “Good. Alright then, let’s—”

  Suddenly, the monitors all went black, including the middle one with text on it, darkening the entire room, all but for Brock’s light. Chloe gasped, and we both rushed over to her. She was staring at the black monitors, a terrified look on her face.

  Then a blinking line appeared on the middle monitor and white text began to scrawl across the screen.

  — I see you there. —

  A chill ran up my spine. This was exactly how Malcolm had communicated with Brock and I while in his Debug Room.

  — I’m glad you could come and visit my pets. I’m sure they have been lonely of late. —

  I turned to Brock. “How could anyone know we’re here?”

  Brock shook his head, his eyes wide.

  — Don’t worry. The sensors on these screens pick up all movement in the room, no matter how imperceptible. I’m glad you finally managed to find one of my servers, although you’ll be disappointed to hear that there are several just like it set up all over the globe. —

  Chloe’s eyebrows knitted together. “So, he can’t hear us? Is he just writing this in response to someone finding this place?”

  I shook my head, feeling just as clueless as Brock.

  — I have anticipated this charade finally coming to an end. All else considered, I couldn’t have asked for better timing. They’re almost ready. You might, no doubt, have guessed that the real Malcolm is no longer of this world. Luckily, he created me—him—in his place to fulfill what he could not. With these images, you’ll soon know what that is. —

  I felt a shiver possess me as Lucas’s first message suddenly made a lot more sense: “He isn’t real.”

  Malcolm isn’t really still alive in the game. He just imprinted himself onto an A.I. that happened to have access to it. This means . . . Malcolm is an NPC.

  Chapter 24: Intentions

  Siena already felt conflicted about accepting Malcolm’s offer. It wasn’t only because Malcolm was supposed to be the enemy. She only accepted it because she was begrudging her friends: Noah for cheating in the championship match, and Keri for being unreliable.

  Why should I care? Thanks to Malcolm, now I can hang out with Kristie again.

  Malcolm had thrown into the deal access to his Debug Room for practicing her new ability,
meaning that she could jump in and out at will if she ever wanted to talk to Kristie. Not that she had been very a good conversationalist of late.

  “Come on, your armor is a projection illusion. I know you’re faster than that!” Siena called as the blonde warrior rushed toward her.

  With the blue projection that came before her movements, Siena could see each of Kristie’s footsteps, each swing of her rapier and even where she was going to run as Siena dodged and retreated. It wasn’t hard to see why Noah had beaten her in the Coliseum. The RTS ability was little more than a cheap way to see your opponent’s moves before they could make them. There was no way around that.

  But that begs the question: how can I beat him if he knows where I’m going and can adjust to it?

  She figured her best option was to simply get quicker and more efficient at dodging while using every item and piece of equipment she could find to increase her speed. If she could get fast enough, it didn’t matter if he could see her movements beforehand. The difference would be so imperceptible that it wouldn’t matter.

  She pushed herself harder, making sure that as Kristie swung her sword at her, not even the blue projection of it could hit. All the while, Kristie’s expression remained dour and uninvolved as though she was off in her own little world. She would respond to her requests well enough, but there was something missing, something Siena was determined to reclaim from her old friend.

  “My avatar’s pretty impressive, don’t you think?” she called as she evaded her blows. “I originally had a default Range avatar that looked just like me. It was alright, but after I created a Warrior avatar, it became the one that everyone in the Dream State knew to fear. I actually custom designed it even before the Trans-Houses were a thing. I’m pretty sure I even gave Wona the idea.”

  Kristie didn’t respond, but just began stabbing at her with her rapier. Siena didn’t back away and fixed Kristie’s blue eyes with her own, searching for the spark that she remembered.

  “Yeah, I’ve pretty much beaten every record in the game with this beauty. I even won the championship back when the Coliseum was first added. Want to know how I did it?”

  Kristie didn’t respond. Instead, she slashed low at Siena, but seeing it beforehand, Siena jumped the blue streak of Kristie’s blade as it arced below her. She then put a hand on Kristie’s shoulders, flipped forward, and threw her toward a mock-up of the fountain that was found in New Calandor’s town center.

  “I purposely weakened myself by leaving an opening in my armor.” She gestured to her flat belly. “Just here. And every time without fail, they would go for it, and I knew exactly how to counter.”

  Kristie jumped off the fountain and charged in again, lunging with her rapier, but Siena continued to simultaneously dodge and talk.

  “You see, a headshot always takes away more Hit Points than a belly shot, yet not many people wear head armor. The realism of the game is so nitpicky that even wearing a helmet could lower your visual spectrum. So every time they would go for my mid-section, I would simply go for their heads, and right from the beginning of the fight I would have at least a ten percent lead. Hah, it was like I had this ability already!” She nodded. “Yeah, I’m pretty proud of this custom body, and now I’m pretty much unbeatable.”

  From what she remembered of her old friend, Siena was sure that her bragging would elicit some sort of retort from Kristie, but it didn’t. Siena stomped down on the blade as Kristie tried for another leg shot.

  She frowned. “What wrong with you, girl? No ‘You’re so full of yourself?’ No ‘You’re being a blowhard?’ No ‘You’re full of hot air?’ Geez, back in the day you always used to put me in my place, but now you’re like an NPC.”

  Kristie withdrew her blade and stepped back. “What would you like me to say?”

  “I don’t know! You’re supposed to know that! I don’t understand what happened to you. You used to be so cool and fierce. You even put me to shame, but now . . .”

  Kristie looked down. “You know what happened to me . . . to us.”

  Siena’s jaw clenched. “I know, but I can’t help but feel if I just brought you back, you would snap out of it or something.” She looked for a response, but again there was no reaction. “Alright, let’s have a break from practicing. It’s pretty clear I’ve already mastered this ability.”

  Kristie nodded, and Siena felt her disappointment rise anew. Seriously, nothing from that? Argh. I guess I’ll have to try a different approach.

  They walked over to one of the setting segments she recognized from Yarburn, the wall seat that she and her friends would meet outside of before heading to a dungeon. She sat down on it and looked at the seemingly never-ending black space filled with hundreds of segments from different dungeons and era locations.

  Kristie didn’t sit down, but just stood in front of her as though waiting for her to stop resting so they could get back to training. Siena grinned at this. So far her eagerness to train was the only thing consistent with Kristie’s real character. Even during soccer practice, the girl had been a slave driver. Another idea of how she might break through to her then hit her.

  “Do you remember our semifinal soccer match, the one we lost at the end of the season?”

  Kristie’s lips moved as if to say something, but no words emerged.

  Come on. I have to push harder.

  “I do.” Siena let her head drop. “I can’t get that bloody match out of my head. I dream about it sometimes. How I tried to get the ball after you kicked it my way, how I tore my hamstring, how you carried me off the field, and how I was replaced with Sarah only to have to watch us lose from the sidelines.”

  This is it; let’s see how you deal with this one.

  “If only you hadn’t fumbled your kick. Then I wouldn’t have had to stretch for it and wouldn’t have injured myself. Then I could have played the whole game, and then we would have won and gone on to the finals.”

  Please work.

  “Doesn’t knowing that it was all your fault tear you up inside? That we lost? That you got your friend hurt?”

  Although her face hadn’t changed, Kristie’s shoulders were rising up and down in sharp jerking movements.

  Siena jumped to her feet. “Come on!” Siena yelled in her face. “Tell me I’m wrong!”

  A black cloud suddenly appeared from the darkness behind Kristie, and Malcolm’s black hands landed on her shaking shoulders.

  “Now, Siena, I decided to let you in here to play with her, but only if you play nicely,” Malcolm said.

  Kristie’s shoulders were calming now, and Siena balled her hands into fists.

  “What are you doing to her?” Siena advanced on him in outrage. “Can’t you see that I almost had her back?”

  Malcolm raised a hand, and Siena suddenly couldn’t move. She looked around. Nothing was holding her still, but she felt like her whole body was stuck between several invisible walls.

  So this is what Malcolm meant when he said he put contingencies on trying to hurt him. He can read my intentions with the RTS and can erect barriers to stop my movements.

  “I’m trying to help her,” Malcolm said. “I understand you’re desperate to have your friend back, but you must be patient. Rehabilitation takes time. You can only see her mental responses to the game’s software. If only you could see her in the real world. Then you would understand.”

  Siena looked up at him defiantly. “Then show me. Show me where she is in real life. Allow me to visit her!”

  Malcolm shook his head. “It is not yet time. I have only recovered the faculties of two of the betas thus far, and even they have had . . . complications.”

  “So you’re saying that you kidnapped the Screamers to help them?” Siena asked. “From my eyes, you only seem to be using them to help you in your revenge against Wona.”

  “That is because you only see what is in the game. I gave them a purpose, something to drive them until I could fix the harm I d
id. It only made sense that the purpose was to get vengeance on the company that did this to them.”

  “You did this to them!” Siena shouted, and although she wanted to go after him, her body wouldn’t move.

  “My hand was forced, just as you are forcing my hand right now by demanding this of me.” A cloud once again emerged from the darkness behind him. “The more freedom I have in this world, the more I can influence those within it, and the faster I can achieve my goal of setting things right.”

  “And until then?” Siena asked.

  Although she could not see his face, she could have sworn he was smiling as he said, “Until then, you beating Noah in the championship match will have to do. Assuming you still want that.”

  He stepped backward, and both he and Kristie vanished into the Chaos Engine, leaving her alone.

  Siena gritted her teeth, and noticing she could open her hands again, found she was able to move once more. “Of course I do.”

  Chapter 25: Tactical Retreat

  If we had known where the ventilation shaft had come out on the surface, it wouldn’t have been half as difficult for us to get in, as we simply would have taken that route with our drones instead. Although a laboratory having an air duct should have been a no-brainer, we hadn’t known about its opening in the brush then, and well, hindsight sucks. Even now as we emerged from the vent, I knew we wouldn’t have been able to find it even if we had searched for several hours. We were well over a mile downhill from the facility.

  We took to the air, making sure to give the guards a wide berth until we made it out onto the water. Although we had seen what was put on the server’s screens, we hadn’t been able to explore it further with the drones’ limitations, and still didn’t know if it would be enough to continue our hunt for the betas. Brock was convinced that our cameras would have recorded everything automatically. So as long as we managed to set them down before they could blow up, the data on those screens would have been stored in our Dream Engines.