The Seeds of Evermore

by Andrew Haines

He turned his head, and smiled, “Oh yeah, let’s get in there and kick some ass. I just need to do one last thing before we go.”

  The four of them headed toward the machine where the other groups were assembling, leaving Scott where they were standing. The stood shoulder to shoulder waiting for Tuomas to give a speech about what they were about to endure. They all stood in silence waiting, and then he began, “My friends, you have gone roughly three months through training in combat and survival for this day. We are going to immerse you into a world that is pure fantasy and adventure!”

  Scott noticed some cameras floating around as he walked back to where his belongings were: Press speech, well at least he is keeping it short. He sifted through his stuff one last time. There you are, I need you. Not going to risk it.

  Scott walked up to the others and stood with them as Tuomas looked at them and began to talk about the team and the effort that they had put in to prepare for this day. He signaled the others to step up to him. The five moved up and stood next to him, “We’ll all stand on the platform and we shall go in together,” He said taking a couple of steps back.

  Charlotte was the first to move up to the panel behind Tuomas, Nick followed her next and the others followed. They heard the machine humming as some scientists were typing in codes as others were scurrying around the machine checking panels. Charlotte and the others stood waiting for the machine to do what it seemed was the impossible. “Three… Two… One!” one of the scientists said.

  A flash of light overcame everyone and they felt abnormal as if they were being shifted and torn apart and moved. One final light came over their eyes and they went to black.

  You… You are different, a soldier. This is unexpected, but a pleasant surprise. I choose you. I shall make sure you live, no matter what the cost is… you may hate it, but in time you shall learn. Oh the world is such a surprising place, oh yes. Welcome to my domain, the digital realm. You will learn to trust me. I hope you are prepared.

  6:

  Scott felt warmth upon his skin and he slowly opened his eyes. He looked down at his hands and saw green grass beneath them. The smell of different types of flowers and clean air filled his senses. It was a wonderful smell, unlike the real world, full of machines and metal. He slowly looked up at the surrounding area, he saw Charlotte in her battle garb in front then too his left was Nick and his right was Donovan. Alissa was standing next to Charlotte and he saw Tuomas over on upon a hill to the right.

  The others started to notice the air was sweet smelling, they could smell the flowers and the grass at their feet. It was a refreshing surprise. It was real; they finally knew it was real. They looked around at the surrounding area seeing trees, ranging from Aspin to Douglas firs. There were lavender flowers blooming in the field to their left, with some aster and wild indigo mixed together. They recognized the area they had landed in, it was the location they came to with they entered the world for the first time using the IVR gear. The grass seemed a little longer since they had last been there, like it was supposed to do that.

  Scott stretched his arms and let out a sigh of relief, “Alright, let’s get started.”

  Charlotte looked over at him, “Right, guys let’s head toward Tuomas.”

  The others agreed and they made their way up the hill toward Tuomas’ position.

  Tuomas turned to face them, as he heard their armor banging up against itself. The others stopped about five feet away from him. “So what do we do from here Tuomas?” Nick asked trying to set a good fitting in the rocky hillside.

  “Welcome to the Isle of Evermore everyone, a plot of land about double the size of the entire United Kingdom, well while island that is.” Tuomas told them, “The weather is a bit nicer here than it is there though, not as humid. And we are at about four thousand feet above sea level. So it may take a few days to adjust to that, since we are coming from lower altitude.”

  They all looked around, the sky was a deep blue, with a yellow red star in the sky. The grass was thick and wild; the variates of plants waved in the light breeze that was sifting through them. Tuomas swiped up in front of him as if trying to open the IVR menu. “Come on.” he said, “Don’t be doing to this to me.”

  He kept waving up, with his right hand, then proceeded to try his left, “Tuomas, what are you doing?” Donovan asked him, after he had been watching Tuomas flapping his arms around.

  “Well, since this is a programed world.” He sounded like he was struggling, “That I created, I should be able to access the operator files, it was a feature that I put in for emergencies.” Tuomas said still trying to pull up an IVR menu. He grunted in disapproval, “I was afraid this would happen. Damn it!”

  “What’s the problem?” Donovan asked, crossing his arms giving a slightly worried look.

  “I can’t access the world’s admin privileges.” he paused, “Exe Stumel.”

  He paused for another moment, “Damn it all…”

  “What was that?” Alissa asked.

  “An override that should have had guaranteed access…” Scott said, “How are you locked out, does anyone else have override access?”

  Tuomas paused, “God damn it, Drake, how did you…” he paused again, “Or… damn it there could be another plausible cause too…”

  The others glared at him, “What don’t we know?” Donovan asked his tone becoming serious.

  “The only other person who had an access card was Drake, but it wasn’t for an extended time, his time had expired, there is no way he could have just done this.”

  “But if he had access at one point, couldn’t he have made a fake ID set or secondary entrance under yours?” Scott asked.

  The others looked at the two of them with faces of ‘you’ve lost the rest of us.’ “Uh care to fill us in?” Nick asked trying to connect the dots that Scott and Tuomas were placing down.

  “One sec.” Tuomas said, turning back to Scott and gesturing a finger at him, “That is plausible, and I don’t run routine checks due to only myself having access to the system. But there is another thing that I must take into account as well. The fact that this world recognizes us a non-players or something like that so since we aren’t here via technology, well in the sense that we aren’t playing a game we might be stuck here.”

  Scott looked at him in shock, “You didn’t run a routine check? That’s your first mistake, that’s one oh one stuff right there. Is there a place in the world that you could access a console or something like it to make a work around? See if your theory about access is true or that it is a hybrid of both, like Drake cut us off?”

  Tuomas squinted his eyes, “Yes there is, but I’ll need to set up somewhere that is a few hours away from here, and I have some stuff in my pack here that I can use to navigate the system. But I need some kind of interface and that is impossible without having any tech with us other than what I brought in.”

  Scott nodded, “I think I have your interface.”

  He un-slung his bracer off his left arm. He unclipped his smart watch, “Would this work?” handing Tuomas the watch.

  “How did you get this in here? You were supposed to leave all tech behind!” He growled.

  “Never mind, this may be the answer or at least by us enough time…” Tuomas’ tone changed, when he took it from Scott’s possession, “Where did you get this? This is a prototype, and it never got through to full stage production, where did you get this?” Tuomas asked again.

  “My father fronted the project to move this kind of tech forward, after inspiration from a game series from the early two thousands. But smaller and more power. He said he was saving it, but since my...” Scott paused, “Accident, he gave it to me, it is the only working prototype that still exists today, with some additional modifications that my uncle had made for me. I brought it because I need it, I am shocked you didn’t know about it yet.”

  Tuomas handed back to him, “I think it’ll work but we need to set up shop for a day or two to find our bearings before moving to the
city. Keep it hidden though, that tech does not belong in the era of time, or at least this illusion of an era.”

  “Why not go to the city straight away?” Charlotte intervened, as she began to put the pieces together in her mind.

  “Remember this world is fake, but it has extra features that can affect our progress, so there are fantasy beasts, demons and other things, we will have to fight through it all if we are going to do anything. And without my admin privileges it will be harder.” Tuomas responded, “It’s the whole reason I taught all of you to fight. We are basically in a section owned by of the lord of the land, we are adventurers. But as we fight, we quote-quote, beat the world and move on for a time. A hero complex to keep it simple. Sort of, this is only supposed to be a test.”

  “So, do we have a map to navigate the area?” Alissa asked.

  “Yep,.” Tuomas nodded and pulled out a parchment out of his satchel. The paper ruffled as he unfolded it and looked upon it, he mumbled to himself as he analyzed the page and ran his finger down it.

  “Okay here we go. If we were put where we were supposed to be put, which it looks like we were. We have a mile hike up this hill and the town will be at the end of the plateau at the top. There should be an Inn there we can hold up in for a few days to figure out how to play this.”

  “Okay then, let’s start hiking, we are burning daylight.” Charlotte said shifting on her heel and began to hike up the hill.

  The others followed close behind her. They all began to realize how much harder this was going to be in the armor and carrying everything they needed for real. They needed to take more frequent breaks to catch their breaths and drink of water.

  A couple of hours had passed before they reached the edge of the village. They walked up the dirt road tired and hungry. Sweat had stained their cloths that were underneath the armor that was covered with a light red and brown dust. Nick stopped, bent over and took a few deep breaths, “Where is this Inn, Tuomas? Need somewhere to set up shop soon.” Scott spoke up behind Nick.

  Tuomas pulled out his map. He studied it for a few moments and pointed at it talking to himself. He looked up and over toward where an Inn was located. He pointed over at the sign, which read, Sun Set Inn, “There, that is where we will set up for now.”

  The others agreed and began to sluggishly make their way over to the foot of the steps. The group could hear each other’s deep breathing as they huffed up the five wooden stairs. Donovan pulled on the circular handle and lofted the door open for everyone. The smell of a burning fire greeted them along with a lute being played to a slow tune. The level of sound was low, for only a few other patrons were in the Inn.

  Alissa slowly made her way in first. She could hear the snaps of the fire in the hearth to her left and saw tables along the walls where there were people enjoying themselves to a meal. “Welcome in, please take a seat anywhere and I will be right over,” The barmaid spoke out from behind the bar. She stood tall, in a green and brown apron. Her long hair was tied in a braid reaching down to her mid back.

  Alissa and the crew made their way to the large table in the center of the room. They all pulled out the stools, plopped down, and slouched over the large wooden table. They slid their packs off and started to look around the Inn. The Barmaid made her way over to them and stood at the end of the table they were at, “What will you have?” She asked them.

  “What do you have?” Tuomas asked her nicely through his shallowed breath.

  “Well tonight’s special is boar and ‘tatos. And we have hummingbird ale on tap. I have some fresh fruit from the farm from down the road, apples and pears.”

  “I will have the special, and an apple please. Oh and a tankard of the ale. Please.” Tuomas responded to her.

  She gave a smile to him, “Very well. Who’s next?”

  The group all looked at each other, and Charlotte spoke up, “I think we all will have that too. And maybe a variety of fruit.”

  The Barmaid looked at all of them for confirmation, and each one of them nodded in agreement.

  “Okay then, I will be back with the ale in a few moments.”

  She walked off and the group turned back toward each other, “So can we get some more info on this world or game or whatever you want to call it?” Donovan asked setting his arms down upon the oak table his question obviously pointed at Tuomas.

  “This virtual world, it’s different from every other game or platform we have ever created. It is almost like a pure Artificial Intelligence, except it only has control over this game. I called it the Seed of Evermore. Well that is the engine that runs this. Everything you see around you is being control by it. Every action, every move, even the speech coming out of the NPC’s mouths are all decided by the system, and it will be slightly different for each person, as if it were real. I designed a real world inside a virtual platform. A different dimension if it helps you wrap your head around the idea.”

  The others stared at Tuomas some in shock others in awe. Scott spoke, “Wait so everything is real?”

  “Yes.”

  “So, we can die in here for real…?” Charlotte trailed off looking off out the window.

  Tuomas paused for a moment, “Yes.”

  Everyone’s eyes widened at that word. “Wait what!” Alissa shouted out, spooking the rest of the Inn’s patrons. They were startled for a moment then went back to what they had been doing previously.

  “Yes, if you die here you die for real. There is no way around it, I never figured out how to make someone respawn if you aren’t in as an IVR character. We are technically code lines now. We were atomized in here, no head gear, no sleeper pods. Us, in the flesh, or did you forget that?”

  “But… then…” Charlotte started to stutter.

  “This is why I had us train to the limit. I know I should have had said something sooner but I knew you all except for one would’ve backed out. I just didn’t think we would be dealing with this kind of situation so I never mentioned it. There was an assumption with it too.” Tuomas responded, “There is so much more at work here that you will learn as time goes on, than I can’t cover at this moment, you just need to trust me.”

  “Wait, what does that mean then? A bigger picture kind of deal I’m guessing?” Nick asked trying to sit still, his uneasiness was showing.

  Tuomas sighed, “Yes a much bigger picture one where I need all of you with a level head, not thinking about what is going on at this very second. Though with Scott’s smart watch, I may be able to get us out or at least give us an advantage to being here.”

  “So, no real failsafe then?” Donovan piped in.

  “Well since I cannot get into my system, yes there is no real failsafe.” Tuomas responded taking a deep breath, “I just need time to look at all of our options.”

  “Is there any way to contact anyone in the real world from here?” Alissa asked, her voice shaking.

  “No, they would have to come to use via IVR or come in like us.”

  “What do we do until then?” Charlotte asked looking serious about what was going on.

  The barmaid returned with six tankards of ale, setting one down in front of each of them, “The food will be out shortly.”

  Tuomas took a swig of the ale then sighed, “You all let me think about it, we’ll need to work together, but I need to get to the city to do anything about this situation.”

  “What’s in the city?” Nick asked putting down his tankard after a drink.

  “An ally and a good place for our operations,” Tuomas responded, after a belch.

  “An ally? How so?” Donovan countered.

  “I can’t say, not yet,” Tuomas looked around, “But we need to learn to live here as soldiers, err, mercenaries, and we need to work together,” he glanced over at Nick then back over at Scott, “That means you two.”

  Nick put his hands up, “It was one time and I was not in a good spot!”

  Scott shook his head, and sighed, “We’ll be fine.”

  The night had
come and the torches of the village all lit up as the villagers lit their home’s torches and lanterns to illuminate what little they could. Scott was standing over by the window in the room he rented from the Inn. He had taken off his chest plate and bracers, but was still in his greaves and boots. Everyone had rented a separate room for the night; it had cost a total of sixty gold. They were happy to see that they started with some gold when they paid up.

  Scott was thinking of what had transpired that day: It is real time for us, time is real in here like the real world. He sighed and turned toward the bed. He studied the room he was standing in again, he was feeling paranoid, each time he thought of a way to defend off someone who barged through the door. It was almost how it was all those years ago, the time he hates, he needed to return to that prior state, but would it be wise, he continued stir his thoughts, he knew he would have to tell everyone else eventually. It may be just what he may even want to avoid at all costs, he needed to way that all in with everyone’s lives on the line. A flash of a battlefield filled Scotts mind. The fields of Cogs of War. He shivered and brought himself back to reality.

  He opened his senses; it felt so real to him. He could hear the barmaid cleaning tables down in the tavern and the other patrons opening and closing doors, and the rabble they were causing, the sounds of the others getting into their beds or those talking to themselves or others in their rooms. Scott heard footsteps approaching his room, which was conveniently at the end to the hallway. He reached for his sword, which was sitting on the table to his left. There was a soft knock, “Come in,” Scott said gripping his sword.

  The door slowly opened, and Charlotte was standing in the doorway. Scott sighed and put his sword back down on the table. “Are you okay?” She asked.

  He looked at her with a stern look that quickly faded into despair, “No.”

  She walked over to him and grabbed his hand, “Scared?”

  He nodded at her, “Me too,” She replied, tightening her grip on his hand.

  Scott looked at her, “So what’s up? It is getting late and we should try and get some sleep.”