by Ben Ormstad
Through the red-green, wobbly visual layer, I saw Hiko rip something loose from the sides of each of the two outermost lockers. He then leaned on one of them and used his bodyweight to push the entire row of lockers along the wall. As the bottom edges were dragged over the floor, a loud, screeching sound made the red-green layer in my visual field wobble even more.
I peeked at the timer again:
07:25
UNTIL DEAD
The seconds decreased rapidly.
“Seven minutes left,” I said. “You’re still doing an amazing job, Hiko!”
He glanced at me when he finished pushing the lockers aside. A square hole in the wall was revealed where they’d been standing. Covered in darkness, I couldn’t make out any details inside.
“Be right back.”
“Hurry,” Frida said when he disappeared into the shadowy opening.
The red-green layer intensified more, clogging my eyes entirely with wavy, swirly curls of densely knitted colors. I blinked, but to no avail – the poison probably attacked the central nervous system. A vibrating, burning sensation rippled through my skin and it became more difficult to breathe. Sounds faded in and out. Only the timer remained visible, as if etched into my brain.
04:46
UNTIL DEAD
Frida spoke, but I couldn’t make out the words anymore. Instead, I stretched out my hand and grabbed some part of her.
“Less than five minutes,” I said, experiencing my own voice as if through a broken speaker, drowned in a fog of static. “I can’t see… Can’t… hear.”
I registered her voice increase in volume, becoming more agitated, but not the words themselves. Then a deeper voice as a shadowy figure appeared behind her. Hiko had returned. The two silhouettes mixed and mingled as they moved around and things happened. In a way, it kind of looked like I viewed the world through 3D stereograms, where all details were a mush of psychedelic colors, but the main forms still stood out like three-dimensional shapes.
The burning sensation on my skin transformed into a deep ache inside my bones. Even breathing became difficult.
01:18
UNTIL DEAD
This is it, I thought. They’re not gonna make it. What a shame. I wanted to tell Frida to make sure Ayamii got the Re-Assembler parts back to his community, and to be smart enough to accept the translation devices they produced, but it didn’t seem like I even had control over my mouth anymore – much less the ability to form words.
Even the stereogram-wannabe vision blurred now. No three-dimensional shapes stood out anymore. It was just an indistinct, red-green, swirling fucking mess, coupled with intensely uncomfortable, bone-chilling agony.
00:33
UNTIL DEAD
Somewhere something seemed to shift weight, turn around. Was it my body? A far-away sense of being handled, maybe. I didn’t know. Didn’t really care, either. I would lose all progress I’d made since being inflicted by the poison. Fuckin’ hopelessness. What a waste. I had truly hoped and believed the antidote wouldn’t be that scarce.
Gaps of blackness seeped into my consciousness. My awareness was letting go… or whatever. Thoughts twisted. Mental imagery evaporated.
The sense of self slipping, tumbling, falling.
35
I awoke gasping for air as life-giving energy flooded my system. The body spasmed like being electro shocked. Eyes wide open – vision crystal clear. I stared straight into Frida’s blue gaze. My head in her lap, her burning hot palms resting on my forehead. She smiled as I heaved for breath and slid my hands around my body, utterly amazed and in awe of being alive – here – and not having spawned somewhere unknowable.
“Hey,” she said and winked. “Guess who just revived you by using Warrior-Medic-awesomeness.”
I almost burst from joy. Sat up and gave her a bearhug. “Yes, you’re awesome!” Then, making eye contact with Hiko who stood behind her, the yellow decontamination suit shining like a freakin’ sun in my fresh vision, I said: “And so are you, dude! I’m completely overjoyed for being here. Thanks a ton, peeps.”
“You are welcome, Mr. Walsh,” Hiko said. “You saved me. Now I have saved you. We are even.”
I shrugged laughingly. “If anything, we were even as soon as we extinguished the biotech lab fire. Besides – even schmeven. I don’t care about that stuff. We’re friends, you know.”
Bowing slightly, he returned my smile. “Agreed.”
I watched all of ‘em, Ayamii as well, and neither he nor Frida had any signs of wounds, bruises or other visible damage taken. “More than that, looks like you’ve saved us all.”
Hiko nodded toward the shadowy hole in the wall by the lockers, and Frida spoke before he could:
“Indeed, he did. He had MedKits and magic vials. So while you were on the brink of death, I hurried and used a MedKit and a couple of vials, which replenished my HP and gave me enough MP to perform another poison-reset on you. Check your character state and see how much time you got.”
I did as she asked.
Character States
– Poisoned : 03:54:21 until dead
Relief spread like a cloud of calmness in my mind. I grinned broadly. “You turned the timer all the way back to four hours. That’s more than last time. Right now I have three hours and fifty-four minutes. Thank you so much for you divine skills, Ms. Awesome.”
“G-great,” Ayamii said, his changing expressions flipping through happiness, contentment and enthusiasm. “I’m positive we will reach my community in a few hours. You have a good chance of being cured by our doctor n-now.”
“Ayamii, if I had a drink now, I’d surely toast to that!”
Frida clasped her hands. “And you know what’s even better?”
“What?”
“Upon healing you this time, I was rewarded 200 XP and an extra 4% Warrior-Medic Ability points! I’m upgrading both my weapons and healing skills, which in turn will benefit us all,” she said, glowing from joyousness.
Hiko stepped toward the square wall hole. “This is all good, but there is more. Follow me.”
Frida and Ayamii joined him inside. When I strode in, he said: “Mr. Walsh, please close the gap as much as possible while we are here.”
“You got it,” I said, curled my fingers around the closest locker and dragged it back into place as far as possible without squishing my fingers. For anyone just passing by, they wouldn’t notice unless they actively searched the place.
As we followed him, the hole turned out to be a tunnel so narrow I could barely squeeze my shoulders through. After about seven meters, we entered a storage room the size of a half shipping container.
A single lightbulb dangled from a cable in the low ceiling. It cast a dim, amber light around the room, which smelled of rock and dirt. The uneven stone walls and floor seemed to have been dug out from the mountain itself. I skipped the wooden table and chairs in the center of the room and checked out the shelf by the right wall. Boxes of ammo, MedKits, MP vials, armored chest plates, backpacks, pouches and more. Turning, my eyes fell on a black chest along the left wall. It shimmered with a semitransparent, blue color – immediately signifying its importance to me.
Frida gaped at all the stuff. “How in the world have you been able to collect all these things while keeping them hidden and staying alive?”
“Ye-yes,” Ayamii continued, “and how did you find this secret room? N-not even I knew about it.”
“I did not always stay alive,” Hiko answered, then pointed at the floor. “However, the last time I died, I randomly respawned here. The shelf, table and chairs were already present, albeit devoid of things. Also, it did not seem like the room was currently in use. Hence, I gambled and utilized it as my personal storage. After that, it was merely a matter of sneaking around and finding items of importance, which eventually would aid me in getting out of here.”
“What a strange place to respawn,” Frida mused.
I nodded at the chest. “What about that?”
“What about it, Mr. Walsh?”
“Was it already here when you arrived?”
A micro-expression twitched in his tattooed face as he considered the question – or, rather, the answer. Finally, he said: “No.”
“Where’d you find it?”
Folding his arms, he moved closer to the chest. “Not far from the biotech labs.”
“Is that when the daemonorgs caught you?” I said and stepped closer as well, my sense pulling me toward the chest like a gravitational force.
“Almost, Mr. Walsh,” he said. “They got me when I returned the second time.”
I reached the chest, crouched by it and stroked a hand across the smooth, curved lid. “Where specifically did you find it?”
“I…” His eyes flickered from me to Frida and then back to me. “To be honest, I do not remember exactly.”
“Interesting,” I whispered.
“You think it is what I think it is?” Frida said.
“We’ll see,” I said, smiled and poked a finger at the padlock sealing the lid shut. The translucent, blue color shone more clearly around the lock. “Open it.”
Hiko shook his head. His long, black hair brushed against his shoulders. “I cannot.”
“Why?”
“I have not found the key.”
Ayamii pointed a purple finger at the chest. “I wasn’t sure r-right away, but I think I’ve seen it be-before, Dex. I think it might be–”
“The hidden chest I’m looking for,” I finished. “Yeah.” Locking eyes with Hiko again, I said: “I guess you found this in a ventilation system you climbed into via a locker room, right?”
Hiko shook his head. “As I said, I do not remember. Everything that happened after I came across the biotech labs is fuzzy. I think it has to do with a sedative the daemonorgs used to capture me.”
“Well, let’s find out, shall we?” I produced the key Darius gave me. It slid smoothly as I stuck it into the lock. Turning it, a satisfactory click sounded and the shackle popped up and disconnected it.
“It really is Darius’ hidden stash,” I said and snickered. “Which means you did in fact know where it was, Ayamii, but Hiko’s sticky fingers effectively removed it, ain’t that right?”
Hiko nodded. “It certainly is, Mr. Walsh. What does it contain?”
“That, my friend, is The Question to be answered right this moment!” Anticipation stirred in my stomach. Having more or less given up on ever finding the stash, warm joy now spread through me. The hinges squeaked as I swung open the heavy lid and revealed the contents.
Congrats! You located and unlocked Darius Hunter’s hidden stash. Enjoy.
The inside was separated into two compartments by a partition wall. One set of identical gear on each side. It took a second to understand I was looking at two armored bodysuits, detached into their individual parts – arms, legs, boots, gloves, upper and lower body pieces.
I took out everything and placed the pieces next to each other on the floor, like a puzzle. Staring at the black, reflective armored suit, it reminded me of a mix between one of Batman’s most advanced armors, Master Chief’s suit, plus a dash of the nanosuit known from the Crysis games.
“Now this is what I’m talkin’ about,” I said, practically drooling. My grin broadened until it felt like my entire face was just a gigantic caricatured smile.
“Indeed,” Frida said. “Pretty sweet. Buuut, unfortunately for me, those are exclusive to the Battle-Marine class.”
“How do you know?”
“Dude, come on,” she said and eyed me like I’d just asked how she knew the air was breathable. “There are no other classes wearing high-tech, science fictiony-military gear like that.”
“Guess you’re right.” Remembering the game’s introduction video, I nodded. I recalled seeing some daemonorgs wearing the occasional high-tech outfit, but nothing compared to the battle-marines regarding technological finesse. “Well, Hiko, you know what that means? No more decontamination suit-bullshit for you!”
He smiled. “I am looking forward to it.”
“Let’s get these bad boys on!”
After inspecting the armor pieces closely – and trying to put them on – I realized they weren’t meant to be used on top of other clothing. I tested an arm piece while wearing the hooded jacket, but as soon as the piece was on top, a suction mechanism tightened it around my arm and, since I had the jacket on, nearly cut off my blood flow.
Thus, Hiko and I had to remove everything except our loincloth-thingies – which by the way revealed what I’d suspected about the intricate tattoo on the right side of his face: It continued down his throat, across his chest and right arm, down his right leg and even out to the tips of his toes.
“That’s an amazing tattoo, Hiko,” Frida said. “Can I touch it?”
“Yes.”
She went over to him and stroked his lean shoulders, sliding her fingers down his tattooed right arm.
“You like it, Miss.…?” he said, once again trying to lure the surname out of her.
“Oh,” she giggled. “Erikson. But please just call me Frida. And yes, I love this. Incredibly detailed work.”
My jaw fell open. She actually shared it! What the hell was happening?
“Thank you, Ms. Erikson. This is a custom tattoo created by a good friend of mine.”
“Wow,” she said dreamily, kept sliding her fingers up and down his muscular, but lean arm. The complex, interweaved symbols and patterns were undoubtebly awesome, but I didn’t understand why she had to touch him like that. Didn’t her fucking eyes work?
“It must have cost a small fortune,” she continued.
“Not for me.” Hiko smirked and moved closer to her. “I invested in my friend so he could open a new tattoo parlor. He designed this for me as a thank you-gift for helping him expand his business.”
“That’s so nice of you.”
Ayamii and I exchanged looks. At least the purple humanoid understood how I felt.
“It is what I do, Ms. Erikson,” he said matter-of-factly.
“So, like, do you have this tattooed on your real body as well?”
“No. It would not be suitable in my position. Hence, the tattoo artist created it for my character here.” He hooked a lock of his black hair behind his ear, revealing the dangling earrings. “But I think it is more than good enough.”
“Oh, yes, absolutely. It’s indeed superb,” she said, grinning.
I almost threw up in my mouth a bit.
“I have a bunch of tattoos myself – in real life, that is. Seven, to be exact. Most of them symbolize things that mean a lot to me on a personal level. Yours looks pretty deep with all those symbols and stuff. Is there any specific meaning behind it?”
Moving even closer to her, Hiko said: “In fact, I told the designer to embed a–”
“All right, all right,” I interrupted and waved my hands in an X-motion – barely managed to stop myself from physically breaking them away from each other. “It’s all very interesting, but I’m still poisoned and we need to get the Genetic Re-Assembler parts to Ayamii’s community ASAP.”
“Dex!” Frida said. “Don’t be an asshole.”
“I am what I have to be to move this shit forward,” I said, waving her off. Looked at Hiko. “Let’s get dressed, old man.”
“Wait until you are my age, Mr. Walsh, and you will realize fifty-one is not, actually, that old,” Hiko said dryly and went to pick up his armored bodysuit.
I registered an involuntary jerk in Frida’s upper body – away from him. “You’re fifty-one?”
“Yes, Ms. Erikson. I have been around the block a few times, you could say.”
“Wow…” she said, but it was a radically different ‘wow’ from when she admired his tattoo. More like: Are you THAT old? Yuk!
I enjoyed the hell out of it.
We resumed assembling and dressing in our new suits. It turned out to be a time-consuming and somewhat claustrophobic task, since the suction fun
ction vacuum-packed the strange material to every limb like a new layer of skin.
As we stood with our helmets in our now gloved hands and measured each other, I tried to get used to breathing with the upper body piece tightly wrapped around my chest. I could breathe, I just had to use a little more force to bring the air in.
The suit itself was made of an unknown, light-weight material – yet, it felt solid. I had suspected it to be rigid and cumbersome to move around in, but taking a few trying steps back and forth, it easily stretched as I moved.
The upper body piece was created by individual armor plates structured to imitate chest and six-pack muscles. This continued all around the body. Each muscle group had either plates or clusters of fiber-like material strung together and running smoothly with the flow of the body.
“Y-you look good,” Ayamii said. “Like r-real battle-marines.”
Frida gave us a thumbs up. “Badass.”
I met Hiko’s eyes. He seemed to enjoy it as much as I did. “Time for the final piece of the puzzle?” I said, inspecting the helmet. Polished black, smooth and rounded. I wondered how I’d be able to see through the visor which was as solid as the rest of the suit. The mouthpiece protruded slightly, probably enabling the wearer to talk and breathe as if through a gas mask. Integrated tubing lined the space from the mouth, along the jawline and underneath the circular, perforated membranes where the ears would be. It all looked pretty damn high tech. And cool. Really, really cool.
“Yes, Mr. Walsh.”
For some reason, I held my breath as I slid the helmet over my head. The instant it sat correctly, the suit automatically sealed the bottom of the helmet to the throat piece, closing off all external air-supply.
While awaiting the ability to breathe again, I stared into blackness. The visor was indeed as solid and sealed as the rest of the suit. A click and the fssshh! of pressurized air sounded from the back of my head. I let out a surprised shriek as a cluster of needles penetrated the skin on my neck. Immediately, energy rushed out from the needles and spread into my skull and brain, before flowing down my spine, diverging and feeding my limbs. Simultaneously, aqua blue lights lit up across the suit; most notably in the middle of the chest area, branching out through various crevices between the armored plates and down my arms and legs – as if the connection between my body and the suit had been sealed and powered ON.
