The Seeds of Evermore

by Andrew Haines

  “I was wondering if I could stay with you tonight. I know we paid for the separate rooms but I just can’t find myself to sleep alone, well I mean I can sleep on the floor, you know, I don’t mean to seem intruding.”

  Scott chuckled and smiled at her, “Of course you can,” looked over at his bed, “We’ll make it work. It will be like an adult sleep over.”

  Charlotte looked at him like she was about to burst out laughing. Taking a moment to realize what he said, Scott started to feel embarrassed, “That sounded much better in my head, I swear.”

  Charlotte let out the laugh she had been holding back, “I know, I just wanted to tease you with it was all.”

  “That’s just mean.” Scott laughed, and playfully pulled her toward her. Charlotte smiled, she hugged him holding herself around is body.

  She pulled back and placed her hands on Scott’s face. He pulled him down and gave him a kiss on the cheek without warning. Scott felt her lips leave his cheek and he felt the affection that it left, “Uh, so do we want to talk about this?” Scott asked her as she moved back into his arms in a hug.

  “You were taking too long to take the hint, so I am doing it for you,” She responded, still holding him.

  “I never thought you wanted…” he said to her, his voice slightly cracking from shyness.

  “You never asked.” She countered, taking a step back from him. “I was hoping you would have caught on a bit sooner too, like how did you not see the hints?”

  “Uh, I’ve been out of the scene for a while.” He noticed she was already completely out of her armor and only in the clothes she was wearing when they put the armor on early that day.

  “Oh, you are still in your greaves.” Charlotte commented.

  “Yeah,” Scott replied, “I was still in the process of taking them off when you knocked.”

  “It is getting late, maybe we should get to bed.” She jumped straight to the thought of sleeping in the same bed together.

  “Your right let me get them off.”

  Scott reached over and began to loosen the straps on his right leg. He felt a pull on his left, and looked over to see Charlotte pulling on his left leg strap. She stopped, “Sorry didn’t mean to startle you.”

  “No, I just wasn’t expecting it.” Scott’s words trailed off. A different woman’s face flashed over Charlotte’s for a moment. A memory of Scott's past. He shook his head to clear the thought from his memory.

  They soon had the greaves off Scott’s legs. Scott placed them with the rest of his armor on the table by the door of the room. He stretched his arms and yawned with his back to Charlotte and the bed, “Yep time for some shut eye.”

  Charlotte took off her top and made her way over to the bed. Scott turned to see Charlotte in her bra, “Whoa!” Scott exclaimed turning back around, he could feel his face turning red and his hormones pumping.

  Charlotte turned her head, “What? You haven’t seen a girl in her bra before.”

  Scott was reluctant to answer that question. “Well?” Charlotte demanded.

  “It’s not that I haven’t before. It just has been a really long time since I had ever thought about anything like this. And that we are just starting to move a bit closer together… Like you know, didn’t think that this would happen day one.”

  “Come on, really? I don’t believe you.” She countered, “You don’t want to sleep with me.”

  Scott stuttered, “That is a loaded question and you know it.”

  Charlotte laughed, “I am kidding, I meant in the same bed,” She paused and put a grin on her face, with a set of puppy dog eyes, “This time.” A seductive smile crept on her face.

  “Uh huh, come on you know me well enough. We’ve been together as friends for a small amount of time, but uh, never like this.” Scott said waving his hands toward the room trying to show what he meant.

  She realized that the subtle sexual joke flew right over Scott’s head. Charlotte walked over to him, “Come here,” She said grabbing his hand, “If I wasn’t comfortable doing it, I wouldn’t have done it.” Looking up at him, “You are different Scott, I haven’t figured out why yet, but you are.”

  Scott gave in and turned toward her. “I am not sure how to respond to that. But I will say I take it as a compliment. But uh, are you sure about this. I mean you know, us? You are a bit older than I am.”

  She hugged him, “If I was worried about the age difference you would have known a long time ago. Five years isn’t too long since we are both in our twenties. And well since we are growing closer, and maybe I just want some more alone time with you. Maybe just playing full dive IVR games just isn’t enough anymore.” She giggled at him like a teenage girl, “Come on, you can relax. I’m not going to do anything that neither of us would be comfortable with… yet.”

  Scott could feel her body heat on through his shirt. He looked down at her, “Yeah. We are. I don’t mind, I just didn’t think about it, I have been a bit dense the last few weeks. With everything going on, and now this, and my past still pulling in the back of my mind.”

  “Well, if you need to talk about it, please tell me. If we are going to invest into each other we have to build that trust on a more intimate level.” She let go of him except his hand, and pulled him over to the bed. She pulled his shirt up and off him. She studied him; he was average but still toned. Scott turned away from the bed then sat down, he exhaled and laid back and closed his eyes. Charlotte crawled up next to him, “You think we can turn and have our bodies properly lay on this bed?”

  Scott groaned and sat back up and lifted his legs up and swung them onto the bed. Lifting up his arms, he symbolled air quotes with his fingers, “Properly.”

  He moved himself to the right side of the bed and Charlotte laid on the left. Scott laid back down and closed his eyes. Charlotte snuggled up next to him. Scott rolled to have his chest to her back, and placed his hand over her stomach, “Is this okay?” He asked, though her bra strap was buried in his chest and was uncomfortable.

  She answered softly, “Yes.”

  The dim light of the candle began to die out and the room became dark. The two of them quickly became synchronized their breathing. Scott was still awake thinking about everything, and now the relationship of him and Charlotte blooming quickly. He slowly moved his head and kissed the back of Charlotte’s head. She did not move, so Scott assumed she was asleep. His hand was still wrapped around her and he held her close.

  She smiled at him, though the darkness kept their expressions concealed. She rolled over to face him. Snuggling up close to him, she didn’t care about moving a faster, she had the chance be with someone who was appreciating her for who she was, not from what she had done in her life. No threats, no pain. But that also unsettled her, she didn’t know why he was doing it, but in that moment, she didn’t care. She meant what she had said about him being different, but Scott did not know or understand what she had meant. Charlotte wanted to know why.

  ***

  The sun rose and shined through the window of the room. Scott slowly opened his eyes and Charlotte was still in his arms. Her body was curled up against his, her right arm reaching over his chest and her head lying on Scott's chest. He shifted and rolled her onto her back so he could get out of bed.

  Scott slowly made his way over to the table where had laid his armor for the night. He motioned his arm to bring up the clock on his watch, he read the time: 7:29:34 a.m. Scott yawned and began to put on his greaves. He grabbed the one on the top and yanked it off the stack. The other one fell and hit the wooden floor.

  The loud crash jolted Charlotte awake. The force of sitting up fast enough flopped her hair in front of her eyes. She puffed out air to move it out from in front of her field of view. “My bad.” Scott said rubbing the back of his head.

  She grunted and laid back down, “What time is it?”

  “Seven thirty.”

  “Ugh, why so early. Come back to bed.”

  Scott did not answer her, and went back
to gearing up. He finished relatively quickly, unlike the people that helped him put it on yesterday at Virtual Industry. He looked back over at Charlotte and she was still lying on the bed. He walked to the door, “You aren’t even going to give me a kiss?” He heard from behind him.

  Sighing, he turned and walked back over to the side of the bed. Charlotte sat up, put her hands on his cheeks, and pulled him in closer to her. She gave him a quick light kiss on the cheek. She could feel his body warming up from embarrassment.

  Scott withdrew and walked back towards the door. He placed his hand on the knob, “I will be outside if you need me.”

  The door creaked open, and Scott walked out. The door slowly shut and Charlotte was still sitting on the bed. She started to comb her hair with her hands and let out a quiet sigh. “Oblivious.”

  Scott made his way down the stairs out into the tavern area. “Good morning.” the Barmaid said to him. The fire cracked in the hearth, and the smell of pinewood filled the dining area. A few patrons were sitting at some of the tables. Many looked like village night watch coming off of their shifts.

  He waved and continued outside keeping his thoughts on the morning and his desire to just get out of the Inn. He shut the door behind him and turned to face the sun. A slight breeze passed through the town. It tickled his unshaved face. Scott took in a deep breath and held it for a moment. He opened his senses and listened to what was going on around him. He could hear the leaves rustling and the people of the village beginning their days. He could smell the fires from the hearths inside the homes. It was burning oak and pinewood. The smoke left from the chimneys and into the sky above.

  Scott decided to walk around the town. He knew that he would need to get used to walking vigorously in this armor with all the gear they would have to lug around with them. He made his way down the Inn’s porch steps and just followed the small buildings that made up the small village. The clanking of his armor due some attention to him but he paid them no mind. Most were those standing out of their homes sweeping the porch of dust and leaves. He could hear small whispers from them as he passed; most were talking about the armor he was wearing. Whispered words that he was a bounty hunter or a renegade soldier from the royal army.

  He put his right hand on one of his sword’s hilt as he reached the edge of the town. He stood there for some time studying the trees and other shrubs that made up the outlying greenery. He saw some of the flowers he learned were used for herbal remedies and decided to pick them.

  The flower was beautiful, the red and white flowed together to form a twisting pattern up the petals. Scott removed his glove on his left hand to feel the texture of it. To him it was silk smooth, no prickly ridges or thorns. He grasped the flower like a wine glass and pulled it out of the shrub. He lifted it to his nose and could smell the intoxicating aroma of the plant. It had a honey sent to it.

  Scott stored the flower in one of his satchels attached to his waste. He heard footsteps from behind him and he quickly drew his sword and turned on his heel to meet the person. To his surprise it was a man, just standing in front of him, “Message for you sir!” the man said, pulling out a small piece of parchment from a satchel.

  The man stuck out his arm at Scott with the parchment in hand. Scott sheathed his sword and accepted it. “Thank you.” Scott said questioningly.

  “Well that’s it, have a nice day.” the man said and walked off.

  A courier, interesting, I wonder if this is from the real world.

  Scott opened the letter and quickly scanned it. Scott almost dropped the parchment to the ground as he sprinted back towards the Inn.

  7:

  Tuomas finished reading the letter Scott had brought back to them and sighed, “I never would have believed he would do this to me. I mean I knew he would, but sentimental shit and what not. This went to court, I won. Damn it all.”

  The others looked in disbelief. The letter that Scott had brought from the courier had been a letter from Drake. It explained that he had done this on purpose to lock Tuomas into the system. How he was finally going to get what he desired from all of this.

  “Care to explain?” Charlotte asked slamming her hand on the table in front of her.

  “It’s a long story, but what you need to know is that something happened between Drake and I in a way that I should have never done, what that outcome was doesn’t matter.”

  “No, no, we get to hear the whole thing start to end.” Donovan demanded.

  Tuomas shot him a look, “Fine, but it will take some time,” He looked at all of them, “Drake and I started school together when console games were coming to an end and IVR was taking over. We worked hard and knew what we wanted, we started as roommates and we had been friends ever since. But a woman came between us, you all met her, Deborah. As you could probably tell, she is a witch. When we started the company, we hired her as intern help and well, we were not ready for what came next. She snuggled up to Drake, and got him tied up into a scheme that we were helpless too. She probed into our network and leaked a whole bunch of information out that we needed to keep some of our programs safe. This is long before you guys showed up. But this problem has gone all the way up to government levels. Courts, investigations, probes and so on. But being me as I am, I played along, feeding the info that we needed to, into the hands of the correct people. But it only got worse from there.”

  The others looked at him, as he trailed off. “And?” Nick asked.

  “She told him lies about things that she claimed I did to her. I lost his trust because he fell for her, hard. She was always toxic. Controlling him, but at that point I had lost so much more. He was the name on the company when this happened. So much transpired we had good stock and we had a few games out and playable at that point. The government is still investigating, quietly, since we have a few government contracts to help those with PTSD, which is what this platform was supposed be the peak delivery for it.”

  Scott butted in, “There are so many things you could have been doing to sabotage her and Drake, why haven’t you? Did you try something? Did it fail horribly or something?”

  Tuomas looked at him, “Your analysis degree is showing you know, but I lost my fiancé to a scheme that I had planned. It was perfectly executed until she became the target of opportunity.”

  “Then why stay?” Alissa placed her hand upon his shoulder, “What drove you to stay at Virtual?”

  “The money for my research on this. And the patents are under the company, and I can’t take them with me wherever I go, I couldn’t even start up my own company without them.”

  “That’s a sound reason. Dealing with internal affairs and business can get extremely messy.” Charlotte said, “So then why here though? Why stick you in here and with the rest of us?”

  “You are all here as a fault, I was hoping they wouldn’t if I used you as a sort of shield for myself.”

  “Besides the fact you just said we were your personal shield, why?”

  “I have dirt on Deborah and the people that gave her the in to our company. They have influence in our company. And we are legally not allowed to work with these particular individuals that Drake has allowed into the company shareholding. If the government had this go public it would destroy the company and the current state of the national economy. We are much more powerful and involved than most understand. So, the government has done what they can to keep it quiet and have me feeding them the information to undermine Deborah’s other employers. In return Drake and Deborah have done this to keep me quiet and where they can monitor me in it all. But I have it with me on a flash drive so even if they wipe my computers, I can still put them up if we get out. I only just pieced the last major thing together; however, I was too late.”

  “Well besides the ‘pot calling the kettle black’ scenario here, that explains the whole left and right turning stuff in the last few months. You were trying to keep them on their toes.” Scott commented as he finally pieced together what had been going on aroun
d him, “But now that we are here, can we work with what we have here. You said this is like a game right or a way to program it that way, is there a way to beat.”

  The others looked at him, “What?” Nick asked.

  “Well there is sort of a way to do so, I can link it like such once we can get me connected to the Admin privileges, why, what are you thinking?”

  “You set it like a game, and the result is getting out. We can set a way to get out build it like an RPG with bosses and what not. Make the server go public like an IVR indie game under a false name built by an upcoming programing genius. Make it a free game that is trying something new and improved to get people to help us, without mentioning we are trapped. Use others to help get out, just by being sly enough that Drake can’t ignore the work, ‘pick up’ the designer, that forces him put this out as a game and redefine where we are and how the system works around us. You said you made the A.I. you should be able to get it to recognize you and it should let you in as the creator.”

  Everyone was silent, and Scott continued, “That is if there isn’t some sort of auto timer on getting us out in the two weeks’ time we are supposed to be in here. I know that is a risk now, and that scares the living daylights out of me. But we have to be prepared for it.”

  Tuomas looked at him, “As farfetched as it sounds that is actually not a bad idea, but that’ll take time. I need to sit and use your watch’s interface and my tools at the city, I should be able to do that, but I think the only way we will be able to pass it is if only if we beat it as the game we get out. That would be the only way to do it, and on our end, I can activate the machine from in here to let us atomize back into the real world.”

  The silence still filled the air, “Of course if the auto timer, which is in place does not let us out.”

  The others looked at Tuomas, “Well, we’ve got nothing to lose at this point.” Donovan piped in, “Let’s do it. We play it out like we had planned but prepare for the worst.”

  The others agreed with Donovan’s statement. They knew that they needed to get to the city and get to the mysterious ally that Tuomas mentioned. “What do we need to do right now to get ready to head to the city?” Alissa asked.