A figure emerged from the trees ahead of them, followed by another, and then another. It was an assault, a soldier and a heavy. “I'll take the heavy,” Avery said quietly.
Zach shifted his aim over to the assault, waiting for the first shot to be fired. The soldier was probably the stronger player, but the assault would be deadly in close quarters.
“There's a fireteam coming through the trees,” Ryan said from his position on the flank. “They're wary. Looks like they know we're here somewhere, but they don't know exactly where.”
“Hold fire till Avery takes his shot,” Danny reminded him.
Zach watched the group in front of them advance slowly forward. Another soldier came out of the brush and joined them. Onward they crept, closer and closer. Zach wondered why Avery was taking so long to make the shot....
CRACK! CRACK!
The sound of Avery's paired shots broke the calm. The heavy fell like he had been hit with a hammer, shot in the head twice. Zach smiled to himself. That was what had taken him so long. Avery had waited to fire until it was impossible for him to miss.
The three survivors tried to duck for cover, but it was too late. Zach opened fire on full auto and caught the assault with a quick burst. To his right, Nora made a trio of excellent shots on semi-auto that hit the first soldier in the chest, knocking him off his feet. The second soldier almost managed to get behind a tree when she fell, punched over by a long burst from Jermaine's submachine gun.
Zach quickly scanned for more targets, but there were none in view. He could hear gunfire echoing up and down the line; the ripping sound of submachine guns that fired so fast it was hard to distinguish individual shots, the slower, steadier pace of assault rifles, the deeper roar of machine guns and the occasional loud crack of a sniper rifle. There was especially intense fire coming from the right flank.
“Danny, we're getting hit pretty hard over here,” Ryan said. “They have at least two squads coming at us.”
“Fox 4, can you go take care of that?” Danny asked.
“Will do Wolf 2,” Gwen responded.
That sounded bad, but Zach barely had time to think about it. A wall of lead suddenly came flying out of the trees. Zach had to hug the ground as tightly as possible to avoid being shot. The trees above him showered him with chunks of bark and splinters of wood. Ragnarok had a couple of heavy weapons, at least. Another set of paired shots echoed from behind him, and the fire slackened off a bit. But then there was a blast of smoke and flame in front of them, followed by an explosion behind them. Avery's marker on his radar suddenly disappeared.
“Danny, we just lost Avery. I think they shot him with an RPG,” Zach warned.
“Understood. Be aware that I can't risk the Mule unless you take him out first.”
“Yeah, I hear you Danny,” Zach said. His mind raced, thinking about what to do. He grabbed one of the grenades off of his belt and popped it into the launcher. “I'm going to try to grenade them. Give me some cover.”
Nora and Jermaine increased the rate of their shots at the enemy. Zach waited for a second, then leaned around the tree he was sheltering behind and fired off his grenade. He got back into cover just before a score of bullets passed through where he had been a half-second before. The grenade went off, and the fire from the Ragnarok side suddenly stopped.
“I think I took care of the Ragnarok heavy weapons in the center,” Zach said to Danny.
“Great. We're holding, at least.”
But then a series of explosions went off along the right flank. Several markers disappeared from the radar.”
“Danny, they've got an auto grenade launcher up here. We just lost Scott and Colin,” Ryan said. That was critical. The only other heavy in the squad was Danny, who was currently in the Mule, and Nora and Xavier were the only soldiers. They were occupied as well.
“Fox 4 is coming to help Ryan. Try to take out the gunner in the mean time.”
Gwen cut in. “Wolf 2, the back half of my squad is pinned down under enemy fire. We're short of where we need to go. I'm going to take the four that can still go and try to back up Ryan's group.”
“Copy that. Do what you can,” Danny said, sounding frustrated. Zach shared that sentiment. Ragnarok was fighting hard, and fighting well. They were using their numbers intelligently. Instead of a straight rush they were probing the line, looking for the weak and strong points. Once they found them, they went to work. Strong points were leveled with overwhelming firepower, as poor Avery, Colin and Scott had discovered. And once they found a weak point, they would be sure to smash their way through with overwhelming force.
Zach ducked behind the tree again as bullets started to fly in from the other side again. This wasn't suppressive fire. These bullets were aimed directly at him.
“Liz? How far out are you? Danny asked. “We're getting clobbered here.”
“Give us five minutes. We're moving as fast as we can,” Liz replied.
“We don't have five minutes!” Danny insisted.
“OK, we'll do our best.”
Zach's alert beeped. It was Gina. “Zach, I can't raise either Anna or Lee. Do you know what's going on with them?”
“No, I'm over on the left flank,” Zach told her. The fire from the other side slackened a bit. “I'll try to find out.” He switched his channel. “Selene, where are Anna and Lee at?”
The line was quiet. “They're both down,” Selene finally responded. The gunfire in the background was extremely intense. “I ended up in command up here.”
“What happened?” Zach asked.
“They got sniped. By someone really good.”
Zach got a sinking feeling in his stomach. “Does that mean-”
“Yup. We think it's the Wraith,” Selene responded. “He's choosing his spots and going after the leaders only. But it's working. They really have us in a pinch up here.”
“We're not going to be much help either. We're getting crushed as we speak,” Zach said. A further burst of gunfire that splintered even more of the tree only serve to accentuate his point.
“We're going to try what we can.” She stopped talking for a moment. “There goes that plan. Ethan tried to hit his position with a recoilless rifle and just got shot in the head. We might be screwed.”
“Do what you can.” He switched his channel back. “Gina, Anna and Lee got sniped. The enemy coming up the middle has the Wraith with them.”
“Understood, but we can't send you backup. We're getting pretty hammered up here as it is.”
“Alright. Wolf Lead out.” Selene was right. They were in for a world of hurt, and they had no way to retreat or call for more reinforcements because of the dangers of the forest. And even if they could get backup, it would never arrive here on time.
Zach wracked his brains, trying to come up with a way to turn the situation in their favor. He brought up his map again. Liz's group was nearing there line, but even with those reinforcements the best they could do was hold the line. And if the defense on the ridge failed they were going to be surrounded and shot to pieces. It was definitely a desperate situation...
“Danny, can you send one of Liz's squads up to the center of the line?” Zach asked. Something exploded in front of him, causing him to hug the ground even tighter. It sounded like someone had thrown a hand grenade at him.
“Yeah. You have a plan?”
“We're not getting hit from the left flank,” Zach said. “They want to flank us? Two can play that game. Send the other Redd Foxx squad around our left flank and hit them. We might be able to roll up the line if this works.”
“Our own line has to hold out,” Danny said. “This isn't going to work if we get pushed back.”
“We're going to have to make a gamble,” Zach said.
“Yeah, and I think this is probably a good one. Liz? I need you to send one of your squads to the center of the line and one of them to the left flank. The one on the left flank is going to need to launch an attack on the Ragnarok positions. Use your stea
lth skills, get in close and let 'em have it.”
“You don't ask for much, do you?” Liz commented dryly. “I'm going to be leading the flanking squad. Try not to hit us.”
“Will do. Guys on the left flank that aren't engaged, go with Redd Foxx. We need to have as many troops as possible to push through the center,” Danny ordered.
The fire from the other side was getting extremely intense. “Danny, they've got a bead on me,” Zach warned. “I'm going to start firing off my grenades before I get shot.”
“Do what you need to,” Danny said.
Zach loaded a grenade into the launcher and blind fired it toward the direction of the enemy. He quickly loaded and leaned out of cover, hoping to hit them again. But then he realized he had made a mistake. A big one.
For an instant, it felt like he had been punched in the head. Then everything around him went black. The red letters flashed up in front of him. You are KIA, they read. And then he was back at Black Wolf Headquarters, in the lower lounge area. Almost half of the company was already there.
“Great, so you died too?” Logan said. “That's not good.”
Zach looked around. Most of the others were from the new recruits. He saw Logan, Leigh, Terra, Avery, Joe, and Lyla. He knew that Scott and Colin had been shot as well, and Ethan was there from the more veteran players. And then there was him.
Two more people materialized in front of them. The first one was Jermaine. And the second one was Nora.
“Oh jeeze, that can't be good,” Zach said as he saw her.
Nora fell back info one of the chairs, laughing. “No, we're pretty well screwed. Last I heard Liz's squad ran right into an ambush and got shredded. We were starting to fall back when I ended up getting shot.”
Javy appeared in front of them, shaking his head. “Wow, that was bad,” he said.
Zach looked over at Nora. “You know what you said about how overcoming the odds makes everything more satisfying?”
She gave him an icy smile. “Yeah.”
“This isn't very satisfying.”
“Oh, you think?”
CHAPTER 22
Howling
SWISH!
“Hah! Three points,” Zach said with a fist pump. It was a lucky shot, to be sure, but at least he could contribute to his team. He was still very hit or miss, but he had improved over the course of the spring.
“Yeah, yeah, talk when you win,” Selene said. She passed the ball to Javy, who threw it up for Xavier. He slammed the ball down with authority.
It had been a week since the debacle at the Ragnarok base. Hydra had suffered heavy casualties in the attack. Almost half their force had been killed in action. Redd Foxx and Black Wolf had suffered horrendously. Barely a dozen of them had managed to make it out alive. The rest of them had been slaughtered as the rearguard.
There had been one saving grace, however. Hydra had managed to get away with all of their vehicles in working order, albeit heavily damaged. The crews at the rear line had retreated north and linked up with the main force, leaving the rest of Storm Hawk, Redd Foxx and Black Wolf to hold the line. Once they reached the main force the survivors had punched their way through Ragnarok's lines and ran for home. They had managed to salvage something out of the whole debacle. And Ragnarok's ATV force had been completely crippled. But there was no way to dress it up. Hydra had been defeated in the field, and they all knew it.
He turned his attention back to the game as his team grabbed the ball. Nora passed it over to Danny, who tossed it over to Miko. She lobbed it past Gavin's outstretched arms into Zach's hands. He dribbled, trying to figure out what he wanted to do. He started to push forward toward the basket but was blocked off by Javy. Thinking on his feet, he tossed the ball back over to Nora. She grabbed the ball, charged in and sank a jumper.
“Getting faster,” Javy commented as they sprinted back down the court.
“Everyone's getting faster,” Selene said as she grabbed the ball. She tried to make a move past Miko, but the ball was suddenly swatted away. “See?”
“Have you been practicing without us?” Xavier asked. He sprinted into position to guard Nora, breathing heavily.
“No, this just feels a lot more natural. It's like I can think quicker than I could before,” Miko said. She tossed the ball to Danny, who drove in and made a layup.
“I noticed that too,” Zach said. “It's like I'm able to react quicker.”
“Is is a side effect of the game?” Miko asked.
“Could be,” Danny said. “Being in a lot of high pressure situations in the game might be making us think a lot faster.”
Zach's watch started to beep. “Crap. It's noon already.” They had an afternoon meeting with Dr. Unger.
“Call it a tie?” Selene suggested.
“We're winning by six points!” Danny protested.
“We can keep playing,” Selene said,
“Uh, I want food,” Zach said.
“Yeah, I do too,” Nora agreed.
“What, you're all giving up on me?” Danny said.
“Call it a forfeit on account of hunger,” Zach said.
“Great. I can never get a win over Selene,” Danny said. “I just want one win, that's all. Just one!”
“If it makes you feel better, I'll buy lunch for everyone,” Selene said.
“OK, that I can get behind. Where are we going?”
“Anyone want pizza? Selene suggested.
“Chicago or New York style?” Miko asked.
“Does it really matter?” Danny asked.
“I'm originally from New York. Of course it matters,” Miko said.
“Lombardy, then? They do several different styles,” Gavin suggested.
“I'm fine with that,” Miko said. They grabbed their bags and headed out.
“I wonder how this meeting is going to go over,” Xavier said as they walked.
“Same as usual, I'm guessing,” Gavin said.
“Eh, I think we're going to get a lot of questions about our attack. Why did we do it? Why did we not bother to use diplomacy on Ragnarok? That type of thing. They're very big on having a normal, functioning society inside the game world.”
“What, in a world where everyone's a sociopath and there's no consequences for killing? That would probably explain why we're all chomping at the bit to fight,” Gavin said.
“Sure, we know that. But just watch. They're going to ask us that.”
Xavier's prediction was spot on.
“Why did you decide to attack Ragnarok without warning, and without trying to find other solutions?” Dr. Unger asked.
“Well, we decided that it was in our best interests to hit Ragnarok with a surprise attack, given the fact that we felt that war was completely inevitable. This seemed like our best bet,” Nora explained.
“So you wanted to use your advantages while you still had the ability to do so?” Dr. Unger asked.
“Basically, yes.”
“But why continue to fight when you became hopelessly outnumbered?”
“It felt like the best thing to do,” Selene shrugged from her end.
“Yeah, it just felt natural. We hold the line against all odds and somehow come out victorious,” Danny said.
“But you lost,” Dr. Unger pointed out. “So why take such a risk?”
“It's probably because, even though it was nonsensical, it was still the best thing to do,” Xavier said.
“So you felt that even though you stood to lose much, in the long run it would serve to further your greater goals?”
“I don't think it's anything so grandiose,” Zach said. “Sure we're trying to crush Ragnarok's ATV force, which would have helped us in the war. But I think we did it because it sounded like the most fun.”
“Oh?” Dr. Unger asked.
“I'd say that's right,” Xavier said. “Heck, I think we do everything because it's the most fun.”
“Yeah, that's why I'm still here,” Gavin said.
“I think that's wh
y we do reckless things. Because they're the most fun, and there's no serious consequences for failing at them,” Miko said.
“But doesn't that destroy the meaning of everything? If there's no consequences, then there's no meaning to your achievements. They're simply a matter of pressing forward until you get lucky,” Dr. Unger pointed out.
“I don't think that there's no consequences,” Nora said. “There's certainly a lot at stake when we fight. It's frustrating to lose experience points, and losing your equipment is also really bad. Plus, being shot hurts. But I think the fact we can't die takes a lot of the fear out of everything. And that's the point. We still have to deal with pain, but the fear of death is gone. And without that fear, we can really enjoy what we're doing.”
“I second that thought,” Selene said. “A lot of the reckless things we do would be stupid in real life, but we can enjoy trying them anyhow, and you know why? Because the fear of death is gone.”
“I said something about this earlier. Everyone in the world would be considered a sociopath in normal society, because we're all in it for the fun, and what we do is determined by how much fun we can have,” Gavin said.
“So you're saying that a virtual world society can't be judged by the standards of the real world?” Dr. Unger asked.
“I think it might be difficult,” Gavin said.
“And I think the society in this virtual world is going to be very different for one reason. It's not driven by the need to survive, like the real world. It's driven by the need to have fun,” Danny said. “And I think that element has to be there for the world to continue to exist. Because when it stops being fun, that's when the world dies.”
Nora smiled and nodded. “Zach and I had a similar conversation,” she said,
Dr. Unger answered with a smile of his own. “And that's why we're doing this study. To see how a virtual society will differ from a real world society, and how the two might alter one another. And I think you're exploring uncharted territory.”
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