We remained silent, not wanting the entertainment to stop.
Treetop rocked to his left, but caught himself, becoming perfectly still. He must have feared any movement would send him falling from his seat.
With a sudden jerk, he looked behind him. His arms were outstretched to brace himself in the case of a fall.
He sat that way for over a minute before he slowly turned around. His eyes went wide when facing us. The pupils of his eyes wandered, unable to focus on anything for more than a few seconds.
Leaning to one side then the other, he shimmied back onto his crate. Reaching the edge, he threw his arms back, forcing himself to tumble. He landed on the grass behind him, his two long legs sticking up in the air.
Victoria squealed when he fell, covering her mouth to suppress the sound.
I just shook my head, unable to believe what he had just done.
“Thank you for the cider,” I said.
She shook, still holding her hand over her mouth. In a muffled whisper, she replied, “You’re very welcome.”
I got up and moved the crate that Treetop’s legs rested on. It looked funny, but he was too long for the edge to keep from cutting off his circulation.
“Are you ready to leave?” I asked.
“I’m afraid we can’t for another hour.”
“I’m going to have to give the person that came up with these rules a piece of my mind,” I teased.
She removed her hood so I could see her roll her eyes. “Another hour could be what it takes.”
I removed my hood too, the air combing through my matted hair. Reaching to the sky, my back popped in multiple places. “Go ahead and lay down if you like. I’ll keep watch.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I'm used to late nights.” Gamers are creatures of the night. Looking to Treetop, Vector and Drool, I snorted. Or not.
“Okay. Wake me ten minutes before the gate opens.”
“Sure.”
It was only an act of will for night vision to activate. With a thought, the world changed before me. I couldn’t see farther and things didn’t brighten. Instead, the contrast of blacks and grays deepened. There were more shades of black than I had ever realized. With the half-moon’s light, nothing was completely black. Movement I was especially sensitive to. Streaks of the blackest black trailed behind all motion. Only the darkest shadow could hide motion from me now.
For twenty minutes I was thoroughly entertained, trying to spot creatures at the tree line. Small things, mostly birds of prey, switched branches every few minutes. There weren’t any squirrels out, but I did see a possum nearly 200 meters out climb a tree and swing from its tail until it hung still.
Below the possum, I saw movement. A black streak moved from one tree trunk to another. More streaks moved close by, then another and many more. Not all of the streaks hid behind trees. Large heads with the flappy ears to match gathered closer and multiplied. The goblins had arrived. This time without torches.
I nudged Victoria’s boot carefully with my own. She groggily sat up. A nod toward the forest was all it took.
Before we could react, hundreds of small black streaks filled the air flying at the player camp.
“Duck!” I said, while leaping, landing hunched over her, my back to the incoming projectiles.
Thankfully nothing hit me, but one of the missiles clanged against the crate I had been sitting on before. It rattled the crate and sent it rolling. They were throwing stones? It had been about half the size of a fist.
A chorus of random screams howled up and down the camp.
Vector and Drool were getting up, making adjustments on their invisible player menus. With a few adjustments, they were armed.
Treetop wasn’t. We let him be.
The downpour of rocks had woken the majority of the camp for us. Some players were happier than others. There was no doubt the stones could break bone. Possibly kill if they hit you just right in the head.
“Can you see them?” I asked Victoria, pointing to the forest.
“No.”
“Not good.”
Another volley of stones flew our way. It was an impressive throw. There was no way a little goblin was throwing them, right? No. It was more likely they had slings. That was only slightly less frightening than if they had grown strong enough to throw this far. Slings took skill. Far more skill than even a bow to be accurate. If they were just lobbing them then we might not be in too bad of a position, but if they had marksmen…
One thing was clear. Our enemy wasn’t staying the same. How many different kinds of goblins were there? Things were getting dangerous.
“Do you see the rocks coming?” I pointed to another volley.
“No,” Victoria replied, looking back and forth between me and the night’s sky wildly.
“Get down.” With my bronze shield unleashed, I held it above us, a bronze umbrella to the stone hail. There was no need to shield the others. Drool and Vector ducked behind the cart. They grabbed Treetop and dragged him to a better position. He was still passed out. Since they had yet to reach level 10 they didn’t have any night vision either.
A single rock dinged off my shield and skipped back hitting someone behind us in the thigh. I heard the thud and yelled my apologies, but he didn’t even seem to feel the impact through his armor.
What a relief.
After the initial volley, the cries from impact nearly ceased altogether. The stones still came. I was sure the rocks were doing some damage, but against shields and even old tarnished helmets, the attack was mostly blunted. What were they playing at? And why weren’t they carrying torches?
A battle cry from players north of the barricade sounded as the first group of players charged. Nearly fifty of them sprinted toward the dark forest.
There were three possibilities. They were softening us up for an all-out attack. That seemed unlikely since all their attacks had been with far fewer numbers. Not that their stupidity hadn’t been proven time and again, but this felt different. They showed signs of having an actual strategy.
The second possibility was this was a hit and run to test our resolve, maybe kill or injure a few while they were here. It wasn’t the worst scenario, but still possible.
Third was filled with stomach churning promise. There had been assassins at today’s attack. Now slings. The worst possible scenario for us was if they decided to bring the biggest army yet, throw some stones at us, then wait in ambush for us to come to them.
“It could be a trap,” I said.
“I think you’re right,” Vector replied, still kneeling next to Drool. “This is the perfect time to draw us in.”
He hadn’t been in many fights so far since entering Freedom, but I had seen him in his element. He was methodical, with twice the experience I had and at a much higher level of player versus player competition. If he was thinking the same thing…
I gulped, leading Victoria who was hunched under my shield to the turned over cart. We knelt down in a huddle so the four of us could converse.
“They must have found a commander,” Drool said. “This isn’t like them. Or their real soldiers have only just arrived.”
She held tightly to Vector’s hand. In that moment she didn’t look like the famous, man-eating career killer. She was a very talented young competitor, who was completely out of her element. Finding someone to help you survive wasn’t foolish. Vector was in the same situation, but had also suffered a broken leg and was still out here. He could be counted on.
“They are trying to draw us out?” Victoria asked.
“I’m afraid so. And it’s working,” I replied.
Another group, then another growled as they ran into the jaws of the goblin-infested forest.
My first thought was to run up and down the player line like a crazy man screaming that it was a trap. Even if it did work there wasn’t the time to reach everyone. Like missiles fired from the wings of a village-sized mothership, more player groups, larg
e and small, shot toward the forest.
“What should we do?” Victoria asked.
With my shield raised, I stood, taking a moment to examine the field. At least a third of the players had raced into the woods. Most had stayed, either still too tired or drunk to join them. Maybe some had reasoned the same as us. At least five hundred players had left the line. Perhaps it would be enough to overwhelm any ambush.
I reported what I saw to my friends who couldn’t see in the dark.
More importantly, I hoped the players racing toward the dark canopy had night vision. There was hardly a torch or lamp among them. Their lack of experience with their pets could likely be their downfall. Ours as well.
“We wait and get ready,” I replied.
“You think they will attack?” Victoria replied.
“I think some of the players will come running back with their tails between their legs. They may need some help to get here in one piece.”
“It’s worth preparing for,” Vector said.
“Then I have an idea,” Victoria added.
“Yeah?”
“Harry. He’s here tonight with his men.”
Leaning close to her ear, I whispered. “What about him telling Peter?”
“That won’t happen. I remind him of his daughter,” she said, not bothering to whisper.
“That sounds like a good reason for him to want to keep you safe.”
“Lucius, trust me in this. You don’t have a daughter.”
It made no sense to me, but I didn’t push it.
“We will gather some of the gamers,” Vector said. “It’s time for us to make a statement.”
Drool squeezed his hand. With shields drawn and a slow nod our way, they hurried south together.
“What are they up to?” Victoria asked.
“They have something to prove.”
“They forgot Treetop.”
I looked at her with a blank expression as I processed what she said, then howled at the absurdity of it all.
Victoria smacked my leather covered chest. “That’s not funny.”
“No, you’re right. It’s hilarious!”
Chapter 15 – Finally Some Action
The position of Vector and Drool’s cart was near the front of the barricade. I couldn’t in good conscience leave Treetop there.
I didn’t blame the gamers for a second for leaving him. Every other game in existence gave nowhere near the torturous pain you experienced here as a death penalty. Their minds were elsewhere. After two days everyone had still not fully conformed to this new world’s rules.
Grabbing him from under the arms, he was surprisingly light. I dragged him toward the gate, Victoria following with her shield up to protect us.
When a rock almost crashed into her hip, I shifted into as close to a backward sprint as I could manage.
Close to the gate, a number of abandoned camps lay empty after the players had rushed off to man the defense. We left him lying behind a stack of piled up crates that made up his own personal barricade.
I tucked Victoria under my arm. She held her shield about shoulder height. My shield I overlapped with hers high to guard our heads. She was the one I was worried about since she was still running around helmless.
We found Harrison surprisingly close to where we had been hanging out with Vector. He had over 20 men in his group manning the very tip of the barricade. They were all well-armed with leather-wrapped shields.
Harrison stood in the middle of the pack, his burly arms crossed as he stared over his cart. An adorable owl the size of a pinecone sat on his shoulder snuggling up against his beard. You’d think his pet would make him look ridiculous but instead, he looked like a master with his student.
Breaking from our formation, Victoria ran to his side.
He turned to her at his name. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he dragged her down behind the safety of the cart.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
When his eyes found me, I went stiff. I managed a mechanical wave. He might forgive her, but that guaranteed me nothing.
“We are here to help,” Victoria replied. “We think this might be a trap.”
“Oh you do, do you?”
A better opportunity to divert the subject wouldn’t present itself.
“Yes,” I said, joining them behind their cover. “Worst case scenario they did this to lure us into the forest. I was hoping we could recruit you to help us form a party to relieve any players that find themselves retreating for their lives.”
“You mean you want me and my men to leave the cozy protection of our carts here to help a bunch of overhyped baboons?” He looked as stoic as a granite wall.
Victoria rolled her eyes.
His charade crumbled like frozen butter crushed by a falling bowling ball. So this is what she was getting at.
“Why didn’t you say so?! Red!” The soldier that had been standing next to him bent down.
“I know you heard that. Go tell Wilson. This is just the kind of thing he’s looking for.”
“Outside the barricade, sir?”
“You heard right. Go!”
With his helmet on I couldn’t see the guy’s hair, but I suspected his hair resembled the name. He was tall and scrappy like Treetop, without the awkwardness as he ran.
“Well. That will give us some backup. By the way, you have good instincts. You’re right about the goblins. There are five times more than I have ever seen gathered at once.”
“You can see them clearly?” I asked.
“Oh yeah. Jocelyn here might be small but she makes it possible to see better at night than I do during the day.”
With a nod, Harrison jumped up and little Jocelyn flew up into the sky about thirty feet and started circling. The large man palmed the top of the cart and leaped up in a single movement to stand there.
“Let’s go! Form up on the other side!”
The lot of them followed him over the overturned carts.
I leaped up, daring to put my back to the enemy for a moment to offer Victoria a hand.
She surprised me by grabbing my hand after taking a single step to hop up without grabbing the ledge for help. Without using her hands, she stepped off the other side, landing with a spring. I had to hurry to catch up.
Another dozen players soon joined us at the flank. A scrappy-looking man with a crew cut led them. They weren’t well geared, but their spears and shields were decent.
We joined the rear of Harrison’s group as he talked to the group’s leader.
I felt like my hands were tied with Victoria there. With Peter and Oliver, they had been the ones to do most of the worrying about her. Now the full responsibility was mine.
Harrison waved us over to introduce us but grabbed my arm as soon as Victoria shook his hand.
“Get her and run at the first sign that we may be in trouble.”
As if that wasn’t obvious enough, but the pressure mounted.
With so many players fighting in the woods, most of the stone throwing had stopped.
With Wink’s hearing activated, while keeping her invisible, the reality of the situation became clear. Why didn’t I thought of this before? Not only could I hear the dying cries of men, but with pinpoint accuracy, I knew where they were falling. If it only ended there. Screeching, thuds and snapping became vividly close. It was a sick guessing game of trying to imagine what new injury fit the ghastly sound.
I wasn’t the only person that was listening in or perhaps watching. A lot of shuffling of boots was going on among the group.
Even from here, details were hard to make out with night vision due to the light vegetation. It looked like a torrent of black flames engulfed the heart of the forest from all the movement.
Only a couple hundred players joined us closer to the forest, but they were in groups scattered about, not close enough to help us here.
A single player, hundreds of meters north, was the first to come running back from the forest.
There was no goblin after him. Halfway back, a projectile pitched from behind, black streaks tailing it, struck the man in the back. He collapsed, motionless.
Only when he fell did players rush out to help him. More stones shot out one at a time at those that came to help. Another man fell, but two players grabbed him, dragging him back while players with shields blocked the next shot.
Individuals started to sprinkle out of the forest, mostly to the north.
Another group joined us. Vector’s. He had fifteen of some of the most famous names in gaming with him. Scarecrow’s famous fro was hidden beneath a leather cap. Marabella, his sister and an expert rhythm gamer, was already small, but her large leather made her look thick in the trunk. Samison, Corkscrew, LadyHeadshot, HandshakeDeath… My heart seemed to beat twice as fast. I was looking at gaming royalty. Their followers combined would reach into the billions.
When I turned my internal fanboy off, I had to admit they were rather scrawny and under equipped. Their shields were the best items they owned. That didn’t deter them. True professionals all—dealing with nerves was one criterion for being the best.
Marabella was doing what had been named a micro dance. Her feet shifted and hips inched back and forth to an internal beat. She was known for zoning out like this before a competition. Her brother was a player versus player specialist, but music ran in the family. He nodded to his own private tune. LadyHeadshot leaned forward closely studying the forest. A rival of hers, HandshakeDeath, stood beside her stroking the stubble of his chin. All were focused, save one.
Treetop towered over them from the rear, downing bottled water. How was he even standing?
“I’ll be right back,” I said.
Victoria, finding Treetop, patted me on, her brow furrowed.
Seeing me approach, Vector met me halfway. He offered his hand.
“Lucius.”
Suddenly the eyes of many men and women I had looked up to for years settled on me.
I took Vector’s hand. He held mine with a firm grip, stealing my attention from asking about Treetop.
“Thank you,” he said.
Unsure what he was thanking me for, I moved to open my mouth, but quickly closed it finding myself mute.
Codename: Freedom: Survive Week One Page 17
