Gamers and Gods: AES

by Matthew Kennedy

Victor's breath was coming in ragged gasps now, as Am-heh bounded after him, enjoying the man's terror. Am-heh's animal side was in its element now; if he'd had a tail it would have been wagging.

  He would let the fool mortal seem to pull ahead by slacking off a little in his pursuit. Then, when Victor thought he might have lost his pursuer and stopped to try to catch his breath, Am-heh would rush out of the trees behind him growling, and let Victor get away by the barest of margins. Sometimes he snapped a fraction too late to close his jaws on the human; it was so worth it to see the burst of speed the terrified human rabbit could exert.

  Strangely, Victor's exhaustion seemed to be independent of how far he ran between rest stops. Am-heh had no way of knowing that this was because Victor's body, lying on a link bed somewhere in the real world, was not exercising. His heart rate and blood pressure, nonetheless, were spiking from sheer terror. If Am-heh had but known that the man was near passing out from hyperventilation, not exhaustion, he might have laughed himself silly. Only the automatic safety monitors in the bed's remote diagnostics kept Victor from having an undeserved terror-induced heart attack.

  But Am-heh was getting tired of this game; if Victor didn't reach the other humans Am-heh had smelled soon, he would simply eat him and proceed on, acquiring a new trans-Realm guide when necessary.

  Loping along easily, Am-heh saw Victor break through the edge of the haunted forest and stagger into a wide clearing. A stream cleaved the clearing on one side; it was too small to be considered a river. In the middle of the clearing were several buildings such as the Devourer had never seen before.

  The first thing he noticed was the absence of stone or mud brick as building materials. Back in Khem, stone had been the favorite building medium for temples because of its durability; mud brick was used for the comfort of the living, as stone was used for the 'houses of eternity'. Evidently there was a different set of criteria being applied in this place.

  Fast on the heels of the no-stone surprise was the use of wood for construction. Back in Khem, where the fertile farmland stopped and the sterile sand began less than a dozen miles from the Nile on each side, it was forbidden to build on farmland, and trees were much rarer because they were inedible. Even the boats that plied the Nile tended to be built from papyrus stalks bound into thick bundles like thick locks of hair; the bundles were, themselves, tied together with vines and whatnot to make the rafts and boats.

  There was no papyrus here, though, which was too bad. It was not only an excellent material for boats and rafts, it was an abundant emergency food source. In times of crop scarcity, the farmers of the Nile river banks could feed their children from the edible pith in the center of each stalk.

  The buildings had a strange purity and simple beauty, an effect the builders had achieved with red wood in beams and pillars, supporting gracefully curved and tiled roofs like tents with upturned corners. Behind the buildings in the distance waved fields of crops unfamiliar to Am-heh. Small figures moved in them; closer examples wearing simple clothing and conical straw hats moved about the buildings, dipping wooden buckets into the stream and taking the water into the buildings or pouring it over tidy gardens.

  As Victor paused, struck by the tranquil beauty of the scene, Am-heh leaped upon him and reacquired his upper right arm in a grip of iron.

  Am-heh sniffed the air of this place. Just as when he had arrived in Aokigahara, there was no trace of the scent of the two-swords woman he had seen in Khem. He was looking forward to eating her.

  They had not yet been seen. Am-heh dragged Victor back into the edge of the forest to speak with him in private.

  “What should I say, in future time, to my guide if I wish to return to this place?” he asked the trembling man. “What is this world called?”

  “I already told you,” said Victor, avoiding the eyes of Am-heh. “It's called Aokigahara, the Sea of Trees.”

  “Do not lie to me,” said Am-heh. “That was the name you gave for the forest. What is the name of the entire Realm, as Khem was the name of where I found you?”

  “Japan,” Victor blurted.

  Am-heh analyzed his vocal stress and scanned his face minutely. The answer was at least mainly true, he judged.

  “Listen carefully,” said Am-heh. “You are going to call to the nearest human for help while we remain unseen. When we are finished with him, you will call the next one, and the next.”

  Victor's eyes bulged with fear and he swallowed nervously. “What are you going to do?” he asked.

  “Eat them, of course,” grinned Am-heh. “If I just strolled out there and attacked one in plain sight, the others might vanish like popping bubbles and scatter to other Realms. Tedious. This way is more efficient.”

  Something strange happened to Victor's expression. He closed his eyes, swallowed again, and then lifted them with an odd look of defiance. “No,” he said.

  Am-heh's eyes narrowed and his dog ears lay flat on his head. “Where is your respect for the gods and the mysteries of nature?” he growled.

  Victor shook his head, and his eyes closed. He seemed unable to stop the trembling in his limbs, but his eyes were calm and defiant when he opened them to look at Am-heh again. “I said no. I won't be your bait, to lure more people into your jaws.”

  Insolent wretch! “Surely you realize,” said Am-heh, “that defiance requires punishment. If you will not cooperate, then your time here is at an end.”

  “I don't care,” said Victor stubbornly. “This is only a simulation. I can't believe I forgot that. And I won't waste time resurrecting. When I get logged out, I am going to see an attorney and sue to get your doggy ass removed from the active content. Count on it!”

  Am-heh's irritation grew at this strange declaration. He wanted those souls out there, and he would have them! “I shall not repeat myself,” he growled. He began to open his jaws. “Last chance, stupid mortal!”

  Victor took a deep breath. “Do us all a favor,” he said. “Go shove that ugly head up your own butt and keep going until you reach infinity.”

  And then, to Am-heh's astonishment, Victor raised his free arm and punched him in the nose.

  Chapter 46: Darla: history lesson