"What?" asked Avony.
"In Final Raid, when we were running around the school grounds, we were moving in an empty building except for the teachers and Coders running the game."
"Yeah," said Avony, "what's your point?"
Mouse's voice dimmed. "Well, in this game, we're running around a city full of people, probably watching us every moment, seeing what we're doing. They could be right along side of us and we'd never know it."
Everyone started looking around them as if they thought they could see the people there. Her shoulders itched with the expectation that she was being watched.
"Creepy," said Michael.
Chapter Fourteen
After two more hours of running through a featureless concrete tunnel, it ended in a golden wall covered with silvery raised bumps. The design spiraled around four buttons, resting comfortably in the middle. It appeared the buttons could be rotated, but no one had made a move to try one. The Frags gathered around and stared at the wall.
Milton tapped on his lips with a fingernail and asked the group in his falsetto voice: "Doesn't it look like those weird fuzzy things on the Queen's awesome ceiling?"
"Yeah, Millie, it does." said Gabby. "But I can't remember what they're called."
"Mandelbrot sets," whispered Mouse. "My father loves them. When I was a kid he used to design rooms made out of those fractals. You can dive into them infinitely and keep discovering the same shapes in different areas."
"Mandelbrot!" Gabby clapped her hands. "I couldn't remember the name. But what are they for? I used fractal geometry when solving complex security problems, but Mandelbrot sets were never used."
Mouse moved her hair out of her face, eyes searching around the group. "I don't think they have a use. My father just loved the designs. Math for math's sake, I guess."
Avony walked up to the wall and ran her fingers across the bumps. "Then what's the point? Clearly it’s a puzzle with these four tumblers in the center. Press the right combo and the door opens."
"But what's the combo?" asked Gabby. "We don't even know what the puzzle is."
Silence fell upon the group as they studied the wall. Michael sat cross-legged on the concrete floor with the map spread out in front of him. He examined the map while they worked on the wall.
Moving around to different positions, Gabby found the designs appeared to move. She went back a ways from the golden wall until the design was erased by distance and the glimmering reflections of the metal. Then she took measured steps forward, carefully watching the shapes on the wall change.
The closer she got, the deeper into the Mandelbrot set she went. Gabby explained what she observed to the group and they each took turns viewing the wall in that way.
"It's just like my room wall," said Mouse, speaking above a whisper. "Except I didn't have to actually move, but looking at it always made me feel like I was falling through some weird mathematical world. A very beautiful one."
Gabby ran her hand along the bumps. "We need to figure it out. We're probably way behind the other teams now."
"We need to get moving for more reasons than just that," said Michael. When they gathered around the map, he continued explaining. "Right now, if we pass that door, we'll enter the Reliquary of Harmony. But if we can't figure it out for another, maybe ten minutes, the Reliquary will be replaced by the Ambuscade of the Stars."
"Why does that matter? Do you know what they mean?" asked Avony.
"Maybe," he said. "I think I've figured out the logic behind those two areas by taking some assumptions. And if I'm right, we'll want to be in the Reliquary and not the Ambuscade."
"What does Ambuscade even mean?" asked Milton.
"I'll get to that in a second."
The light in Michael's eyes that she'd first seen when they were gaming their way into the Black Gate had returned, bringing a smile to Gabby's lips. If she squinted a bit and only looked at his eyes, it almost appeared to be the old Michael.
"Reliquary means a container, typically a religious item, but really anything deemed holy or sacred. And harmony is another word for peace. And since a container is something that keeps things, so you could say the 'Reliquary of Harmony' is about 'keeping the peace'."
His face was lit up with excitement. He seemed to expect that the others followed his train of logic. When it was clear they hadn't, he continued.
"What do you use to 'keep the peace?'" he asked in an exaggerated voice.
"Weapons!" said Mouse.
"Exactly!" Michael broke into a brief coughing fit, but even that didn't seem to dim his enthusiasm. "The Queen said we'd get our weapons later on. I would put money on it that the Reliquary is where we get our weapons."
"Then what's in the other one?" asked Gabby.
Michael frowned. "Ambuscade is another word for trap. The stars part I don't get, but I'd swear that name reminds me of a game I played in LifeGame once. It was basically a series of puzzles you had to solve or the trap would spring. It gave good points, but the pain settings on the sense-web were set so high it wasn't worth it."
The little section with the words 'Reliquary of Harmony' had almost moved past the 'X' on the map.
"Good work, Michael. Now we just need to figure out the puzzle on the wall."
Milton played with the tumblers on the wall, rotating them through their positions. Each face had a number, letter or mathematical symbol on it.
"I was hoping I could just try some combinations or use the information to back figure what the point of the puzzle is, but there must be a hundred faces on each tumbler. I'm not going to bother with the math, but we could be here for years and never randomly pick the right combination."
Avony blew a short breath out. "I don't think anyone thought it was going to be that easy."
Milton scowled and returned to a point along the wall, leaning against it and arching his back until his chest threatened to burst from the thin stretchy material he was calling a top. The ridiculous pose he'd taken was only made more ridiculous by the fact that it seemed to be annoying Avony to no end, as she furiously glanced back to Milton between moments of studying the wall.
Gabby was about to chastise them when she recalled something Mouse had said that stuck out for her.
"Mouse, are you sure there's no use for a Mandelbrot set?" Gabby asked anxiously, while simultaneously watching the pieces move on the map.
The slight girl stood as still as her namesake, except for her eyes, which searched back and forth as if she was reading an invisible book. Then she slowly shook her head.
"Nope," came out a squeaky whisper.
"Then why was it used for this puzzle?" Gabby thought a little longer before snapping her finger at Mouse. "Oh! Do you know the equation that makes the set work?"
"No, but I know it's longer than we could put in the tumblers. I think my dad called it a complex quadratic polynominal," said Mouse with a shrug.
"What if it doesn't have anything to do with the puzzle?" said Avony, throwing her hands up in frustration. "What if it's just art on the wall to distract us?"
"That would be stupid," declared Milton. "Of course, it means something."
"Stupid like you randomly spinning those tumblers? What if there'd been a penalty for failure? Did you think about that or are all your brains in those air bags on your chest?" Avony's shouts echoed in the small tunnel, making it certain that Milton had heard her.
When Milton stepped away from the wall, Gabby moved to intercept.
"Hey! We can't start falling apart already. Let's focus on the wall. Everyone's suggestions are good ones."
Both Avony and Milton resumed their spots on either side of the tunnel, but neither were paying attention to the wall because they were too busy glaring at each other.
Michael was tapping on the map. "We'd better hurry. There might only be a minute left until it switches from the Reliquary."
After pushing the conflict out of her head, Gabby couldn’t shake the feeling that what Avony had said about th
e wall was important.
"What if it's just art on the wall to distract us?" mumbled Gabby.
She whispered it out loud a few more times before she decided it was important.
"What if it is art?"
The others looked at her with curious and concerned faces.
"What if there is no puzzle?" Gabby asked more confidently, feeling her mind rolling toward a conclusion. "We're all gamers, right? We grew up on LifeGame. What if this puzzle is made to confuse us? Play on our needs to understand or make it a game?"
"If that's right," said Avony, "then what's the passcode?"
Gabby wished more than anything else that Zaela was with them. If Gabby was right then Zaela would understand exactly what to do.
"I don't know," said Gabby.
Michael cleared his throat. "Not much time, maybe even seconds left."
Then Mouse silently moved to the wall and began rotating the tumblers. Gabby couldn't see the code Mouse was entering until the last one. The tile was blank.
Mouse pressed the four buttons with both hands and the ground shook as the wall began to move away. Everyone checked back to the map to find their 'X' had moved into the Reliquary. If Michael was right then it was the place they wanted to be.
As the wall rolled away from the tunnel, light flooded through, forcing them all to put their arms up. Gabby moved toward the opening and a hail of bullets ricocheted off the concrete wall. Gabby dove to the ground.
Chapter Fifteen
Three demonic creatures wielding over-sized guns strolled down a blasted street full of burnt wrecks. They sprayed bullets in short bursts, spitting concrete dust over the Frags.
Tall skeletal buildings with rotted walls littered the urban landscape before them. The cross street outside the tunnel went left behind a crumbled wall, but it was enough to provide protection.
"Go! Go!" Gabby sprinted behind the wall and the others followed. The demon creatures continued their leisurely pace, unloading ammunition wastefully.
"This is so debuffed. I hate these shooter tropes," exclaimed Avony over the pinging of bullets. "Demon apocalypse has been done so many times!"
"Let's try to use that to our advantage," said Gabby. "Maybe it'll give us hints on what to do next. Who played these settings a lot?"
Both Avony and Milton raised their hands. The two girls eyed each other cautiously.
"I thought you said you hated it?" asked Gabby.
"Speed runs for points with the Dolls. The Coders with the lamest imaginations made the games easiest to score points."
Milton nodded, agreeing with Avony. "We need weapons and good buffs. Quad damage if we can get it."
"Millie's right," said Avony. "Can find them in chests or just floating in the air, if the Queen's game is following the standard tropes."
"Okay, then," said Gabby, "the first priority is weapons."
The demon creatures neared their location, so the Frags headed down the side street, out pacing them. Hulks of old cars with scorch marks across their raw steel frames provided cover as they dodged through the rubble.
"Check down the side streets, the weapons are usually hiding out in the corners," said Avony.
A tortured cough from Michael pulled Gabby out of her searching. She moved back to help Michael only to find Mouse holding him up.
No time for jealousy, Gabby told herself, she had to focus on the team and making it through the Queen's game. A life at the mercy of the Delvers wouldn't be worth living at all. And how could she complain when Michael was dying? Getting him through the game as efficiently as possible would be the best way to help him.
The sounds of gunfire fell behind them. The Frags ran through the wasted streets and occasionally Avony and Milton checked the side streets for weapons or chests. Gabby sent them as a pair in case anything happened.
Avony and Milton returned from their most recent excursion shaking their heads. The pair had liberated a couple of pieces of rebar as weapons, but Gabby still didn't feel safe when they were gone.
"I thought you said we'd find them in the streets, Avs? We need weapons badly. If we run into those demonic creatures or another team we're totally fragged," said Gabby.
"Look, we're trying. The guns should be in the alleys," said Avony.
"Stop hassling her," said Milton, drawing a sharp glance from Gabby. "I would have sworn the last alley would have had a rocket launcher or something in it."
Gabby put her face in her hands. Nothing was going right and now she was getting an awful whiff of sulfur that was making her want to retch.
"Maybe it's not really like those games," said Mouse, standing on her tip toes as if that would help her be louder.
Everyone turned to look at her. She stared back, her searching gaze hiding behind the black locks of hair in her face.
"Keep going," spit out Avony.
"Oh," said Mouse, giggling behind a cupped hand. "I was waiting for someone to ask another question."
"Mouse!" yelled Avony and Gabby at the same time.
"Right. The game. Maybe it just looks like those old games. Maybe the Queen is playing a trick on us like the puzzle wall."
The stunned silence didn't last long. The scuffed noise of something moving up the other side of the rock pile they were standing next to alerted the group. Avony stepping into a ready stance probably saved her life as the demon dog scrambled up the pile and leapt onto her. It knocked her over, pinning her underneath its weight and sinking its teeth into her thigh.
The demon dog had skeletal ribs showing along one side and a foul breath that stunk of sulfur. The dog growled menacingly as it ripped into her flesh.
"Avs!" Milton swung his weapon into the demon dog, making a loud crack as it connected with its head. The dog still had a firm hold of Avony's leg and began thrashing back and forth. Milton hit it again while the others grabbed rocks and slammed them into the dog's back.
After another two swings from Milton, the demon dog open its mouth, leaving blood red gouges in Avony's leg. The hulking dog leapt past Mouse, knocking her into the pile of rocks as it escaped their repeated blows.
The demon dog ran off, checking behind it, bloody slaver on its muzzle. Gabby didn't like the way it looked back at them. If the demon dog had mates, it was certainly going to find them.
Avony rolled on the ground, holding her leg. Milton was by her side, holding her head up.
"How is she?"
Milton looked tore up. "Pretty bad. The teeth went down to the bone."
Gabby checked back the way the dog had run. The street was empty.
"I'm afraid we can't stay here. I think it went for help. We have to move her."
Milton took one look down the street and nodded. He handed her the half-bent piece of iron and moved to help Avony. Mouse grabbed the other weapon.
"Are you going to be okay?" Gabby asked Michael.
"Looks like I'm going to have to."
They ran the other way, Avony limping along side Milton. She made a pitiful grimace every time she had to put weight on her injured leg.
They were about to turn the corner when they heard gun fire from the next street over.
"Hurry," said Gabby.
They rushed down the cratered side street, while Gabby kept a lookout for a defensible position.
"We need a place to hole up while we fix her leg. Anyone see anything?"
The whole group froze when they heard the sounds of howling. There had to be at least five different animals lending their voices to the demonic symphony.
Gabby checked behind them to find that Avony had been leaving a blood trail.
"We're so debuffed," Gabby mumbled as she spun in a circle trying to decide which direction to move.
"There's a building over there that looks like a church. The walls look better than most." With an outstretched arm, Michael indicated a steeple church across the street. The stained glass windows had mostly been shot out, except for a yin-yang circle near the peak.
They hurried i
nside, knocking over pews that had been hastily stacked in front of the door. Dusty sunlight filtered through a massive hole in the roof.
Milton set Avony on the floor near the altar and Michael began tending her leg. Milton tried to stay by her side, but Gabby had him help move the broken pews in the way of the door.
"There's too many ways in, but maybe we can funnel them into one defensible area." Gabby heaved a pew across an open window, trying to get it to lodge in the space.
"And do what?" asked Milton angrily. "I barely dented that dog with that rod and now there's a whole pack of them coming?"
"We have to do something," said Gabby. "I'm not giving up yet."
Mouse raised her hand and Gabby made hurry up motions at her. "What if we could get a gun from those other things that were chasing us?"
Gabby held her scathing remarks, instead funneling her energy into slamming the pew into the gap. Once she'd done that, she slowly turned around.
"Besides the lack of time to set up a proper ambush, there aren't any even close to here." Gabby closed her eyes. "Otherwise that was a very good suggestion."
Gabby was busy grabbing another section of pew, when a chorus of howls erupted.
"They can't be more than a block away," said Milton.
"Get that other hole blocked. Maybe if we kill the first one in the doorway the others will back off," Gabby said in desperation.
Mouse was biting her lower lip with the rebar held limply in her hands. Milton had two chunks of rock in either fist. The howling grew closer.
"Hey, guys," said Michael, "I think you need to come over here. Really quick."
Gabby's first thought was Avony. That the wound was deeper than first thought or that the blood flow couldn't be stopped. But when she turned around, he wasn't tending Avony at all. Avony was lying near the dais, propped up on two elbows staring at Michael, who had moved behind the dusty altar.
"I think we found the Reliquary of Harmony."
Chapter Sixteen
A nearby growl froze her blood before she could move to the altar. Menacing red eyes glared out of the shadows in the street, moving with purpose toward the church. Gabby could see three shapes: low, hulking forms, creeping forward.
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