The Seeds of Evermore

by Andrew Haines

  They all tried their best to keep in professional, though the favorability showed through on occasion. Tuomas stood watching most of the time, staring at them while on the mats; he often gave critiques on their forms and their poor petty arguments. The days carried on and they found themselves having tests of their weapon proficiencies. The time that they had left before they were going to do their first dive was closing in.

  The glass panes were sparkling from the snowy ground from the fresh snowfall from the night before. Charlotte was doing her best not to slip along the sidewalk as she was rushing towards the building. Today was the last day for their weapons training, her final analysis was in twenty minutes, and she was running late. She was trying to remember when Scott made top marks on his analysis, he seemed to be enjoying it all, as if he was fit to do what they were training to do. It was her chance to make top marks today so she can be positive that she will be ready to enter the virtual world. Charlotte slipped right out in front of the door of Virtual Industry, her hand instinctively grabbed the door handle and caught herself before hitting the ground. She gasped as she caught herself. Standing up she swung the door open and rushed inside toward the elevator.

  She pushed the elevator call button and waited patiently for its arrival. The elevator sounded and the doors slid open to reveal an empty carriage. She entered the elevator and turned to press the button to floor 1B. The doors slid shut and the elevator headed downwards into the earth. Charlotte stood in the center of the elevator; she was trying to slow her heart, which had been racing all morning. She took one last deep breath, held it for three seconds, and let it out her nose slowly.

  The elevator sounded and the doors slid open. The room was dark, there were only a few dim lights that were on. Charlotte noticed her training sword and shield on a table right outside the elevator. She dropped her bag and quickly grabbed both, then positioned herself into a defensive stance. Her gaze shifted around the room and she noticed there was not anyone in the entire room.

  A single spot light hovered over Charlotte. Her heart was pounding, sweat formed at her hair line. Another light flickered on and highlighted another person on the other side of the room. From that distance, Charlotte could not tell who it was, all she could see is the grey cloak that traversed their body. She knew this was the same as Scott’s battle and everyone else was hiding in the dark, like she had just the other day.

  She made her choice of attack; as she raised her shield and charged the cloaked figure. Her sword was pulled back in her arm with her shield ready to block, as she prepared for a power swing, the cloaked figure did not flitch as she closed in. As she drew closer, she noticed something about whom she was attacking. However, it was too late; the cloaked figure tore off their cloak and revealed themselves. Charlotte almost stopped in her tracks but her sword was already at the peak of the swing.

  Scott was standing there waiting to receive the blow from her sword, but before her sword landed in his shoulder, he rolled out of the way and Charlotte was thrown off balance as he tried to trip her. She staggered and turned to face him. “Land one blow and you pass.” Scott said sternly.

  She gritted her teeth and charged him. Scott had drawn his two swords and reflected Charlotte’s blow with ease, “Come on.” He joked, “Hit me!”

  Charlottes frustration grew as Scott reflected each sword swing, she through at him. Think, what can I do? Wait I got it!

  Once more, their swords sang as they clashed and rang in their ears. As their swords parted once more, Scott shifted his left arm and looked down at his footing. He was not prepared for what slammed into his jaw line. Scott collapsed down onto the floor, dropping his swords then proceeded to grab his jaw. He looked up to see the tip of a blade in his face.

  Charlotte tapped is shoulder with the blade, “I win.”

  Stretching his mouth out, Scott asked, “What did you do?”

  “I wacked you with the hilt of my sword.” She said casually, holding her hand out to help him up, “You did say and I quote, ‘hit me.’”

  “I can tell you I wasn’t expecting that.” Scott responded, accepting her hand.

  Charlotte pulled her hand toward her chest and Scott stood up with the force of their arms and his legs. He rubbed his jaw again, and then heard a popping sound on the right side of his mouth.

  “Ow.”

  The lights flickered back on, Tuomas and the others were standing off to the side applauding Charlotte's win. “That’s what I call on the spot innovation.” Tuomas praised.

  She nodded in conformation and pointed at Scott and gave Tuomas a questionable glare, “He volunteered.”

  She looked at Scott, “Really, you volunteered to do this?”

  “What?” He responded sarcastically, “I know what you’re capable of so I thought, why not? And you know what, it was fun.”

  He smiled at her, then immediately grabbed his jaw again as he seared in pain. Alissa walked up with a bag of ice for him. He slowly pushed the bag against his jaw, which had started to change color.

  Charlotte felt bad for doing what she did, but she knew that he did what needed to be done. She walked over to the wall and put up her sword into the wall mount. She paused after letting go, there was something about what she had done had upset her. She could not pinpoint what it was and it started to tare her up. She felt a hand fall upon her shoulder and she turned to see Donovan holding a bottle of water, “Here, you look like you could use some water.”

  She accepted the bottle and slugged some water, it was cold, and it soothed the heat in her throat. She exhaled and handed him back the bottle, “Thanks.”

  “No problemeo.”

  Charlotte shifted her gaze over to where Scott was standing before she put up her sword. He was gone; she kept looking and found him back over picking up his swords. She made her way over to him. He stood back up and looked at her, “What’s up? You look like your about to pass out.” Scott said.

  “I’m fine, I am more worried about you, I’m sorry I wacked you so hard.”

  “Eh, we have to be ready for anything in the game, so no hard feelings.” Scott responded starting to walk back to the sword rack.

  “Hey you doing anything tonight?” Charlotte asked.

  Scott paused and turned his head to face her, “No, why?”

  “Want to play something?” She looked away.

  He smiled, “Yeah, I think I can spare the time.”

  “Awesome! Anything particular? Elvlan? Dragons Nest? Draconoff Assault?” She asked, with some excitement in her voice.

  “Um, Dragons Nest. I wouldn’t mind the ambient team puzzle world for a bit after today.” Scott answered her.

  “Awesome, that sounds good, be in the temp zone around six?” Charlotte took a few steps to her right to have Tuomas and the others in her line of sight.

  “Yeah that works for me, we can try and finish the Adamantine puzzle.”

  Scott turned back towards the sword rack. The rack creaked as he placed his two swords upon it. Scott sighed, placed his hands on his back and stretched. He groaned and there was a loud crack from his body. He groaned again, placing his hands as close to the place on his back where his spine had popped.

  “Alright, what’s next?” Scott blurted out to Tuomas, who was standing over on the other side of the room.

  Tuomas looked over at them, “We are going to give you time to look in to the world we shall be going into, except using IVR gear.”

  “Finally, you have been talking about this dive for what, two weeks now,” Donovan said as he was walking over towards Tuomas.

  “The next three hours is immersive game time in IVR so you guys get a grasp on what you’re going in too. All of your questions are going to be answered today or tomorrow.”

  “Maybe I will finally get to try out some of this first aid or survival skills they taught us,” Alissa piped up.

  Scott turned to her, “Come on Alissa, you know we need to try and not get hurt.”

  Alissa frowned
at him, “I still would be nice to try while still using IVR’s instead of when we are in it for real.”

  Charlotte understood what Alissa was saying, “Come on guys, we get to try out everything we have learned in the last two and a half months before we dive as real people not as IVR avatars,” Charlotte chimed in.

  “True.” Donovan agreed nodding his head.

  “What time and where are we reporting to?” Scott asked.

  “Well the dive starts in about an hour. On the beta floor B3, in the IVR room.” Tuomas informed them.

  “Well then, just enough time to grab some food beforehand.” Donovan said placing his hand on his stomach, “I’m hungry.”

  “Donovan, you’re always hungry.” Alissa smirked.

  “Well I am a muscular man with a high metabolism.” Donovan laughed, making his way out of the room, as Alissa and Nick followed behind him.

  Scott shook his head and headed toward the stairs. Charlotte notice his face had an unpleasant expression. She had to move quickly to catch up with him.

  “What’s wrong?” She asked as she snuck her way behind him into the stairway.

  Scott jumped, his voice shook when he talked, “What the… don’t do that, damn… You are really quiet when you walk, you know that?”

  “Sorry.” She responded, “But seriously what is on your mind, you have been shifting moods, like every thirty seconds. It is a bit unsettling.”

  Scott exhaled, “Nothing you need to worry about.”

  “I don’t think it is a good idea that you are going to dive in this mind set.”

  Scott gave her a sour look, “It has nothing to do with work. I will be fine.”

  She glared at him, “If we are going to be trusting each other here, this isn’t a good way to go about doing that.”

  Scott frowned, “Alright.” He put his hands down to his sides, “I am worried about this.”

  “What is ‘this’?” She asked giving air quotes.

  He thought for a moment, he wasn’t ready to tell her the real reason for his hesitation and why he had been worried for the last few days, he was lying win omission to her. “I lied. It is about work. The whole atomization of us into a virtual world. It has me on edge.”

  “You know you aren’t the only one, right?” She asked him, her tone softened. She looked at him, her blue eyes looking right into his thoughts.

  “I figured but I never said anything, too worried about losing the position. There is a past event in my life where I’m not one hundred percent sure I can do this, and not to be shallow about it, but I am not ready to talk about it.” He trailed off at the end, he had said too much to her already.

  She tried to shrug off what that was supposed to mean, “Truthfully, you are the one best suited to do this, and your swordsmanship is astounding. You excelled at survival training and you sure as hell a great person. And time is the greatest healer.” Charlotte said, “And whatever that past event that happened to you seems to be aiding you here, like you’ve done some of this before.”

  Scott sighed, “Yeah.” his tone confirming Charlotte’s suspicion, “You are right, time is the greatest healer, but sometimes the past just haunts you. Eh, it will be fine, we’ll do great.”

  “Alright, come on, let’s go join the others and get some food,” Charlotte said pulling on his arm, “We should make sure we are not hungry during the dive.”

  He nodded and followed her lead, heading to the cafeteria to meet up with Donovan, and the others.

  4:

  The hour passed by, Donovan and Alissa had left early to give themselves time to use the restroom beforehand. Scott and Charlotte were walking back to the elevator when they saw Nick waiting in front of it.

  “’Bout time you guys made it back. The meeting is about to start, Donovan and Alissa are already headed in to prep the room.” He called out to them.

  “Yeah, yeah, we still have time, call the elevator and let’s get going,” Scott said waving his hand in aggravation.

  Nick pushed the call button and they could hear the hum of the elevator’s gears turning behind the doors. Charlotte was standing in the middle of them and looked both ways, glancing at each Scott and Nick.

  Nick turned his head when she looked at him. His face was blank, with no expression of emotion. Scott’s face had a grin on it. The elevator sounded and the doors slid open and the three of them entered the small elevator. Scott reached for the button and pressed the one labeled B03. The doors slowly closed, and the elevator began to jolt upwards. Scott looked over at Charlotte and noticed something in her hair, “Hey, you have something in your hair.”

  “Huh?” She responded.

  Scott ran his hand over his head trying to imitate the motion of brushing his hair, “Oh!” Charlotte franticly brushed her hair to try to dislodge what was there. Scott watched as she kept missing it. He grabbed one of her arms, and she stopped, Scott reached up and brushed off what seemed to be a piece of a fry out of her hair, “There, you kept missing it.”

  Charlotte’s face turned red, “Thanks.”

  “Just trying to help.”

  Nick looked over at them, “Smooth.”

  The two of them stopped and looked at him, “Just being helpful,” Scott repeated

  “Yep, sure you are.” Nick responded

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Scott demanded, “What has gotten in to you today?”

  “Why do you two keep playing the goody two shoes group, like come on, are you that pure?”

  Scott’s face changed from a pissed stance to a shocked one, his face felt warm to him, he could tell his cheeks were starting to warm up from embarrassment.

  He looked over at Charlotte, she looked upset. “Christ Nick, we’ll do what we want to, get off your block,” She scolded at him, her tone hinting at anger.

  Nick stared with sarcastic face, “Wow, at least you two have each other, the perfect couple. When do you meet the family?”

  Charlotte’s face changed, “You ungrateful piece of shit. The only reason you are here is because you sister is a decent person. No wonder no one likes, god, get a real life, stop living in a high school mind set.”

  Scott looked at her then back over at Nick rolled his eyes.

  “You are both so unbelievable,” Nick countered, “All bark and no bite.”

  “Say that again, I dare you.” Scott taunted him with a tone that no one had heard. “You will apologize and grow the fuck up. Or we are going to have a huge problem.”

  Nick scoffed, “Screw off.”

  Scott’s right hand gripped Nick’s left shoulder, and he seized in pain “Apologize, before I have to tell your sister that I am going to be sending you to the hospital.”

  “I’m sorry.” Nick said, crumbling from the pressure of Scott’s hand.

  “Yeah you are.” Scott told him letting go of Nick’s shoulder, “You need to change your attitude if you are going to make it here any longer.”

  Scott looked over at Charlotte, “You okay?”

  She nodded, “Yeah I’ll be fine.” Her voice trembled slightly, she had never seen Scott like that before, it was like she was in the presence of a demon, someone who gave off an aura of death and destruction. But his shift back is what really caught her off guard, he changed almost instantly back to being calm.

  The elevator pinged and the doors slide opened. Nick hobbled out and made his way down the hall. Charlotte did not move, Scott sighed and placed his hand on her shoulder, and his other hand to hold the door open, “I’m sorry you saw me like that. It has been a long time since I got that angry, guess things don’t always get better without practice.”

  She shook her head, “I just never knew you had a side like that. That was a bit terrifying.”

  “Yeah… something that I was…” he paused the words he chose were important, “Forced to develop when I was a bit younger.” He gestured for her to exit the elevator, “Come on let’s go and get this IVR dive meeting over with.”

  Charlotte
agreed and walked out of the elevator and waited for Scott to follow. Walking side by side down the hallway, they let the silence fill the air, there wasn’t much more that either wanted to say. They entered the room to find Nick, Alissa and Donovan waiting, “Well it’s about damn time you guys got here, we were even patient enough to wait for you,” Donovan said sarcastically.

  “Yeah, well, here we are,” Scott responded with a similar sarcastic tone, “Now let’s get this started.”

  “Brief in game?” Charlotte asked still calming herself down from what had transpired.

  “Yep,” Alissa replied putting on one of the IVR sets.

  The four others did the same; they all sat in separate lounge chairs, and simultaneously said, “Link, start!”

  A small flash hit their eyes, and before they knew it, they were standing in a field. Scott slowly opened his eyes. He moved his hands in front of him; he looked at the back then the front. He looked down to see a set tunic with a single sword on his belt. Scott looked up to see the others standing there looking at their figures. “At least it has our faces correct,” Alissa piped out.

  “Come on, it is Virtual Industry, they have all the fun gear,” Nick responded with some slight nervousness in his voice, but keeping to himself as if nothing had happened.

  “Uh, where is Tuomas?” Donovan asked looking around the immediate area. “He said he was going to meet us here.”

  “Uh…” Charlotte looked around.

  “Welcome everyone! Sorry for the scare.” A robotic voice said from the sky of the game, “I have some business to take care of out here then I will join you later on, probably tomorrow but don’t worry about it. Just have some fun in the world and get a feel for the environment, that’ll be you home for a while. I’ll catch up with you when you finish this quest I am about to assign to Donovan. Have fun!”