by Max Jager
"Hey, I'm sorry to interrupt." Fate stepped in, "But Jake, how are you feeling now?"
"My wounds all healed while I was paralyzed, then the paralysis wore off after a while. Brooke drank the other one, same happened to her." Jake answered. "I'm feeling great now. Physically at least. Can't say I'm not a little depressed, but I'm sure we'll be fine." He glanced back at Sarah and Charles. "Who are they?"
"Yeah, I'm getting to that." Fate sighed then stood on a chair and called for everyone's attention. Once everyone was quiet and looking at her she began explaining. "Alright, these two people are Sarah and, erm, Charles right?" She asked, and Sarah nodded. Fate continued her speech "They are from a village where we can meet up with other humans. They also confirmed our fears about our dead friends, death in this world is permanent. We found Dexter's body, he was killed and left with those same wing-shaped slashes on his back."
As she talked about Dexter the room noticeably became tense, everyone started to look around at who they were sitting near. They had been unsure if there was a killer in the group, but this pretty much confirmed it.
Fate gave them a moment to let that sink in, then continued "Anyways, that aside, they offered to escort us to the village if we help them gather some loot from a goblin infested mall. So I signed us up for that plan, however we are only sending our best fighters into the mall. Anyone disagree?"
There was a moment of silence, but nobody in the room voiced any disagreement.
"There isn't really an alternative." Elliott spoke up. "Where else would we go?"
"Alright, shall we lead the way now then? Or do you guys need to prepare?" Sarah asked
"I think we are all set and ready to go. Right?" George stood up. "But we have no weapons. A few of us have knives, but that won't do much against goblins."
"Oh, no worries I plan to arm you all. I don't have much, but we've scavenged a few things." Sarah quickly chimed in as she turned to face the front door and waved her hand, palm down, in front of herself. A see-through holographic keyboard and screen appeared in front of her. The screen had three options for her to select from. They were Player Stash, Private Messaging, and Message Boards. Sarah reached out and touched the "Player Stash" button on the screen and suddenly the front door began to glow.
"How did you do that?!" Snipes shouted out as he ran over to stare at the screen. "Is this where you log out? Where you see your quests and stats?"
Sarah sighed softly and shook her head. "It's my stash, we all have one. And no, you can't log out, we're stuck here. And this world isn't a game, there is no stats or quests here. We were just sent to another world of sorts. Or, at least, that's what the Alphas say, they are basically our leaders."
"Our leaders? Who elected them?" Jackson skeptically questioned.
"Nobody did, they just sortof took the role." Sarah shrugged. "They have been here for over two years, they are incredibly powerful and have access to some pretty crazy magic. So the people in the village feel safe with them. And it's their village in the first place, they built it for us to use, but they still built and own it. Anyways." Sarah walked through the glowing door and disappeared.
Snipes immediately tried to follow Sarah through the glowing door, but when he opened it and walked through he just ended up outside. Sarah wasn't there.
"You can't enter someone else's stash without their permission, it's their personal room." Charles stated.
"We all have one, right?" Brooke asked.
"Yes." Charles answered.
"So we could hide in there at night so we can all sleep safely, right?" Brooke asked.
"Uh, yes and no." Charles unsurely answered. "Your stash can only be opened in a door frame, and you can not have multiple portals on the same doorframe at the same time. Plus if anything breaks the door, you will be kicked out of your stash. This doesn't apply to the things you put in your stash, but you personally are the link between your stash and the world, so if you enter the stash something else must be used as the link. Hence, the door becomes the link and if it breaks you get forced out to maintain the link. Your stuff stays safely inside. Many of the monsters know to attack the glowing doors, so it isn't a safe place to hide." He explained.
As he spoke Sarah stumbled back out of the glowing door, carrying a handful of baseball bats, shovels, metal pipes, and a couple hammers. The door stopped glowing when she came out of it. She immediately began going around asking everyone what they wanted.
Fate, Damion, and Chloe all took shovels. George, Brooke, Evelynn, and Snipes all took the baseball bats. Matthew, Elliott, and Jake took the metal pipes. Brooke handed Carley their dagger back, so when offered a weapon Carley declined.
"I got one." Carley meekly held up the dagger.
"Snipes and I have knives too. But it's better to have something with a little extra reach." Elliott spoke up, but Carley insisted on not taking a weapon.
Jackson also turned the offer down. When offered a weapon he simply said "No thanks." and held up the stick he was carving with his knife. He was slowly shaping it into a cudgel, a slightly curved mace, with a small spike on the bottom beneath the handle.
"If nobody wants the hammers, I'll take them." Fate said.
"Sure." Sarah answered and handed the two hammers over to Fate. Sarah reopened her stash and went back in to put away the extra equipment. When she stepped back out the door stopped glowing again.
Charles stepped up once Sarah returned "Alright everyone. Goblin fighting 101. Goblins are superhumanly strong, one blow from them WILL be lethal. Do not let them hit you, and do NOT let them grab you, you will die. When fighting goblins, counterattack only. Wait for their attack, evade, never block, and strike them while they are open. Their incredible strength is matched only by their incredible stupidity, most of them will fall for this every time. For the few smarter ones who don't, team up against them. While they are attacking one person, have the other strike them in the back. Their anatomy is similar to a human's so any human weak spots also work well on goblins. Questions?"
"How many are in the mall?" Damion asked.
"It's a nest. We will be going during the day while most of them are out hunting, so I'd expect about twenty to be in there still." Charles answered.
"How do we get to the mall without being attacked by the ones on the streets?" Chloe asked.
"Very carefully. And we will no doubt need to fight a few of them on the way there. But we will hop from one house to another. We will wait inside the houses for goblin packs to pass by if we need to." Sarah answered. "It's how we get around."
"Where are we" Snipes asked. "The city looks familiar."
"Within the world of Immersion? I don't really know, a city in the middle of a big open field. I haven't seen much of the world yet. But this city was based off Oline city back in the real world, maybe you've been there before."
"I live there!" Snipes nearly shouted out "Is my home in the game?"
"This isn't a game, but yes your home probably exists within the city if you lived here." Sarah answered.
"Can we go to my house? I wanna see it." Snipes asked.
"No, we shouldn't take any detours when there's people in the group that can't fight. It's dangerous here, we want to get the non-fighters to the village as quickly as we can. We ready to go?" Sarah asked.
The group agreed to get moving so they all set out for the mall. Sarah and Charles lead the way, with George, Fate, Matthew, Chloe, and Damion right behind them. Jackson took the back, and Carley trailed even further behind everyone else. Elliott, Brooke, Sophia, Jake, and Snipes stuck together and traveled between the fighters and Jackson. Everyone was on edge, glancing over their shoulders to make sure everyone was here.
What should have been a two hour walk to the mall ended up taking over five hours. The group kept needing to duck into houses and hide from the goblins and giant spiders prowling the city. They were attacked by small groups of goblins twice, but managed to fight off the attackers without anyone getting hurt.
The day was nearly over by the time they reached the mall. The group hid in a house across the street and watched the mall through the window. There were goblins going in and out of it on occasion.
"We sure this is their nest?" Fate asked. "You'd think they would have guards posted."
Sarah shook her head "Goblins are of very low intelligence, they didn't think that far into it." She turned back to the group and looked everyone over. "Alright, who is coming in with us and who is staying?"
"We will make it simple," George interrupted. "If you can fight, walk over there. If not, walk over there." He instructed as he pointed to two separate sides of the room.
Fate remained beside George and the two of them watched everyone organize themselves. Jake and Evelyn walked over to the side for people who can't fight, while Matthew, Damion, Brooke, Elliott, and Sophia walked over to the side for people who can.
Snipes went to walk over to the fighter's side but Fate immediately stepped in and pulled him out. "No. You stay here." She sternly instructed. Snipes tried to argue, but she just dragged him to the other side and was not taking any of his excuses.
Carley also walked over to the fighter's side. But when George noticed Carley was walking very gingerly, he realized Carley's injuries were worse than they were letting on. He also noticed the new cut on their arm. George sighed and walked straight up to Carley.
Carley immediately shrunk back, making themself look as small as possible while taking a few steps away from George.
"Carley, you're not coming." George stated.
"I can help." Carley meekly insisted.
"No, not when you're hurt. You are staying here." George insisted.
"I'm fine, really, I've survived worse. I can help." Carley quietly argued.
"Carley!" George raised his voice "Stop making things difficult, you're staying here. You're not getting involved in combat until you recover."
Carley took a step back "I'm not a kid don't treat me like one, I'm twenty, I can make my own choices. And if you are letting the kids go into battle there's no reason I can't go to at least make sure they are safe." Carley stated and gestured to Brooke and Elliott.
"If you don't want to be treated like a kid then stop acting like one. Those two kids act more mature than you do. Find a chair, park your ass in it, and stay there until we get back like the other responsible adults here who shouldn't be fighting. You're only making things harder on everyone else by coming because people will need to protect you." George stated firmly, then pointed over at the group of people staying in the house.
"I-I don't need protection. I'm fine." Carley insisted, trying to stand up to George. But George was a huge, muscular guy who towered over Carley's small and frail form. Carley was struggling to argue with him, and was visibly having a hard time fighting the urge to just back down and hide.
"Get over there, or I'll carry you over there." George insisted.
"Carley." Brooke started "He's right, you need to take care of yourself. Get some rest, we'll be fine."
Eventually Carley caved and lowered their head submissively. Carley walked over to the other side of the room and quietly hid in the corner.
Fate turned to Chloe who hadn't chosen a side. "Something wrong?"
"I don't know if I should go or not." Chloe answered. "I'm strong, I did well in the fight against the goblin out in the field. But I have no combat experience, I don't know if I'd help or if I'd be a burden."
"You'd never be a burden Chloe, you carry your own weight. But if you're not sure of yourself then stay back, we have enough people. Right Sarah?" Fate asked.
Sarah nodded "Yep, we got enough people to do this."
Chloe smiled and nodded "Alright, good luck and be safe." She said briefly before walking over to take a seat in a nearby chair.
Fate and George both turned to the last person remaining that hadn't taken a side.
Jackson looked back at them for a moment before speaking. "What about them?" Jackson stated and pointed his cudgel at the group of non-fighters.
"They are staying behind." George stated.
"We're just going to leave all of them alone and defenseless, surrounded by goblins? Forget the killer."
"Good point.." Fate thought out loud. "Alright so who do we leave behind to protect them? We should leave a couple people to ensure they are safe."
"No need." Jackson leaned back against a wall. "I got it."
"You sure?" Fate asked. But Jackson didn't answer, he just looked back at her as if she had asked a really stupid question.
Fate was slightly offended by the look he gave, but said nothing about it. "Alright then, let's go and get this over with so we can get to that village."
"Follow my lead then." Sarah spoke up and lead the group of fighters outside and across the street to the mall.
Once they left Jackson turned to the people left behind. "Everyone, upstairs."
"Why upstairs?" Chloe asked.
"Because it's safer." Jackson pointed to the staircase.
"Seems reasonable." Chloe replied and everyone walked up to the third floor.
Once upstairs Jackson locked the door to the back stairwell, then he grabbed a cord from an old TV and made a tripwire at the top of the front stairwell. He sat down in a chair facing the front stairwell. "Stay in this room." He stated as he resumed carving his cudgel.
Jake, Chloe, and Snipes all sat down together to chat amongst themselves. Evelyn remained distant and stood in a separate corner. However Carley immediately walked into the next room, opened a window, and began looking for a way to climb down and get to the mall.
Suddenly, someone closed the window causing Carley to jump and spin around. Jackson was standing there with his hand on the window, giving Carley a disappointed look.
"I have to go help them!" Carley insisted and took a step back.
Jackson didn't reply.
"They could get hurt! I have to go help!" Carley insisted.
Jackson still didn't reply, but was noticeably starting to get irritated.
Carley was at a loss for words, how do you argue with someone who doesn't argue back? Carley didn't have the assertiveness needed to just do it, and Jackson wasn't opening the floor for discussion or argument. Carley took another step back and didn't know what to do.
"You done?" Jackson questioned.
"No, I have to go help them, you have to let me go." Carley started to argue again.
"I don't have to do jack shit. All I have to do is keep you and everyone else in this room safe. That's what I HAVE to do!"
Carley took another step back when he raised his voice. "You know what I meant. I'm not here to play word games, I need to help them."
"No, you really don't." Jackson replied.
"Yes I do. Sure, they might be fine without me, but there's a chance they won't be. There's a better chance to avoid bad things from happening if I'm out there. It's crazy for me to sit here and do nothing when I can be helping." Carley argued.
Jackson sighed. "You aren't doing nothing, you're pissing me off! You know, you might think that, and to a point, you're right. But it doesn't matter. Because whatever you or anyone else does, there's always going to be something you can't account for, something that slips by. Hell, there's a chance you helping is exactly what gets someone killed."
"But I can-" Carley started and was interrupted.
"You care too much. The more you "need to help" the more likely you are to hurt those around you. You can't protect everyone, you just need to let it go, trust me."
Carley was stunned for a moment by everything that was said. Carley was silent for a moment, but relaxed and lowered their head a little. "I'm sorry. I just, don't know what else to do. Sorry." When Carley looked back up at Jackson Carley didn't seem to be afraid of him anymore.
"Just breathe, and try not to think about it." Jackson took a step back and started walking back to the other room.
Chloe stepped into the room, she had been listening in and was going to s
tep in to help, but Jackson handled it himself. "Come on, come sit with the rest of us, you clearly need rest. Have some faith in your friends, they can handle themselves." She also quietly said "Thanks" to Jackson as he walked past.
Carley started to walked back into the living room with the others, but they were interrupted by the sound of a door being smashed open followed by footsteps rushing up the stairs.
