Level Zero

by Jaron Lee Knuth

  We lay perfectly still for the rest of the afternoon, watching the sun creep down into the east. The view is spectacular from where we are, with the lights of the city blinking to life in the fading sunshine. When the sun is completely gone, and the towers turn on their spotlights, Cyren and Fantom decide to make their move.

  As they stand up to leave, I grab Cyren's hand. “Be careful.”

  She shakes her head at me. “It's too dangerous down there for me to be careful.” Then she smiles and says, “But I promise I'll be precise.”

  With the combination of the falling snow and the darkness of night, Ekko and Xen can hardly see anything. I try to give them play-by-plays as the action unfolds, but most of it happens too fast for me to keep track of.

  I watch Cyren and Fantom skirt down opposite sides of the hill, sliding on the snow to make their advance as low and quick as possible. They dodge the spotlight easily, its pattern simple and obvious. Snowbanks hide their slow advancement to the wall, and when they reach the soldiers, they waste no time attacking.

  Cyren leaps from behind a mound of snow, her arms outstretched, flinging white flakes to the sides like wings. She lands on the back of one guard, bounces off him, and spin-kicks the other guard in the face. The third guard raises his gun at her, and I think that their stealth attack is going to fail before it's even started. Cyren scoops up a handful of snow, tossing it at him as a distraction, and by the time the snow has fallen away from his face, her fist is crushing his nose. She does a back flip and finishes off the first two guards, making sure they're permanently down. The whole thing looks like a well-choreographed gymnastics routine.

  I lift my gaze to the towers, but Fantom is already dispatching one of the guards. She slices his rifle in half, then cuts him in two at the waist. His body splits and drops to the floor. She leaps from the tower and uses her ring to flash across the air, landing safely on the other tower. Her wide-bladed sword arcs through the air and lops off the other rifleman's head. She does this all with one arm.

  I look back down at Cyren. She's already scaling the wall, climbing up to where Fantom is waiting for her.

  “This is where we just have to trust them,” I say.

  “No,” I hear Fantoms's voice in my ear. “You can watch, yo.”

  A screen appears in front of me, and I see a video-cast from her viewpoint.

  “How are you-”

  “It's just like Xen's audio-cast,” she says. “That's what gave me the idea, yo.”

  We all lean forward, drawn into the first-person perspective of the camera. The quality of the feed is crystal clear, and I forget I'm not actually down there with them.

  Fantom looks over the edge of the tower, down into the heart of the facility. The main courtyard is wide open, with a few buildings lining the walls. Soldiers wander from building to building, but the main area is used for vehicles. We see tanks and armored personnel carriers, but as she scans the entire base, we all see the one thing that Xen has been wanting since he first laid eyes on it. Parked in the middle of the courtyard is some kind of advanced airplane, with wings that turn upright to allow for vertical takeoff. The whole thing is loaded down with eight missiles and two huge rotary cannons.

  “The jet!” he says, almost shouting with excitement.

  He slaps his own hand over his own mouth so that I don't have to. I still give him a stern look, and he apologizes with his eyes.

  We look back at the video-cast and watch the two girls slide down the tower wall, quickly making their way across the open courtyard and hiding behind one of the parked tanks. A guard comes wandering around the corner of the vehicles, and Cyren slaps her hands on either side of his head. With a twist, his head spins, his neck cracks, and his body drops to the ground.

  Fantom points to the open courtyard, and Cyren nods at her. She takes off running, bolting from vehicle to vehicle, stopping only to make sure no one is watching before making her next move. Fantom turns her attention to the main building, which looks to be only two stories tall, but has a huge communications array on the roof. She sneaks along the wall, outside of the main lights of the facility and past a small bunker. As she's passing the bunker, she peeks into one of the windows and sees a room full of sleeping soldiers, all of them laying on bunk beds.

  “Apparently even NPCs have to sleep,” she whispers.

  She turns her attention back to the main building. She looks around the corner to watch the soldiers that are coming and going from the door. She's smart. I hear her whispering to herself as she counts the seconds between each soldier.

  After a few seconds she sighs and whispers, “I like, don't see a pattern or whatever.”

  “It looks random,” Ekko says.

  “Nothing is random in programming, yo. But it might be like, so complex that... I'm just not sure we have the time to like, figure it out.” There's a pause. “Whatever,” she says as the next soldier exits the doorway, and she leaps out from the corner.

  The soldier reaches for the pistol on his side, but Fantom swipes her sword and cuts his hand off at the wrist. He opens his mouth to scream just as her sword swings around, and his head rolls off from his body.

  “Hide the body! The other guards might come across it,” Xen shouts at the screen.

  “I don't have to,” Fantom says, looking out into the courtyard. “Cyren is taking care of them, yo.”

  Her video-cast only gives us a glimpse, but one-by-one, each guard roaming around outside gets yanked into the shadows, dispatched in the blackness by a leather-strapped fist.

  100001

  Fantom opens the door of the main building just a crack, leaning her head in to peek through the opening. A soldier is standing a few feet from her, turning a dial on the wall. She steps in the doorway, and I'm about to tell her to wait, but it's too late. Her sword stabs through his neck, preventing him from making any kind of noise, but then she turns to look to her right, toward the direction that she couldn't see through the open door. Four guards stand in the hall looking straight at her, slack-jawed. She reacts before they do, throwing the wide blade of her sword down the hall. It sinks into the chest of one of the guards. As he steps back, his eyes bulging at the sight of the sword sticking out of his body, the other three guards back away, reaching for the rifles slung over their shoulders.

  Fantom races down the hall, kicking her foot into the stabbed guard for leverage as she yanks the blade out of his body. The hallway is small, and the three guards have a hard time maneuvering around each other. Fantom uses this to her advantage, stabbing her sword low, cutting two of the guards off at the knees. They topple over, but one of them manages to squeeze the trigger of his rifle. The gun lets out a burst of loud shots that echo through the hallway. Fantom grabs a hold of the barrel and pushes it toward the third guard, filling him with bullets. Two more stabs and the legless guards stop moving.

  “We've got a problem, yo,” Fantom says as she races for the stairway at the end of the hall.

  “I heard the gunfire,” Cyren says, “and so did the rest of the base.”

  Xen, Ekko, and I are already on our feet, running as fast as we can through the deep snow, sliding most of the way down the hill toward the front gate. As we near the wall, the doors begin to open, and Cyren is standing on the other side.

  Xen's hands are already on fire, and he's tossing the green balls of flame at the guards coming out of the buildings. They look disoriented, their eyes scanning the empty courtyard for signs of the attack. Huge groups of them are engulfed in the explosion of fire that Xen's magic creates. I give him a quick glance of surprise, wondering how much he managed to Level from the hill giant's death.

  Ekko fires, covering me as I run with Cyren, trying to close the gap between us and the guards, but by the time I reach a shooting distance, the NPCs are already firing back. Bullets spray around me, and I hear some of the rounds flying past my head, inches from my ears. I spin behind an armored personnel carrier, and their rounds bounce harmlessly off the metal sh
ell.

  Cyren dives into the ground, rolling underneath a tank and out the other side. She ducks behind another vehicle to keep her attackers guessing.

  Ekko sprays another burst of fire at the growing amount of guards, then steps into the doorway of the tower. I see his feet disappear up the ladder as he moves himself into a better position.

  Xen steps out from behind a tank, a stream of fire pouring from his palms like a flamethrower, igniting a group of soldiers who are too busy firing on my position to see him flank them from the other side.

  When I hear the gunfire stop, I spin around from the corner of the vehicle and let explosive rounds fly from both pistols. I blast apart five soldiers, blowing their NPC avatars to pieces before the other soldiers return fire. A few random shells strike me in the chest, a few more in my arm, but I spin back around the vehicle.

  I glance at the window of Fantom's video-cast, which is still open in the corner of my view. Gun flares and rapid movements make it hard to see what's happening, but she seems to be in some kind of control room. Monitor screens line the walls, and the men she's cutting down aren't wearing combat uniforms. They're dressed like officers.

  I peek around the vehicle when Ekko fires from the top of the tower. The burst of automatic fire from his raised position drops a handful of soldiers and scatters the rest. I step out and fire again, hitting a few of the stragglers that aren't as quick to reach cover. I watch Cyren make her way around one of the buildings, and seconds later I see bodies fly out from behind the wall, landing on their backs, unconscious.

  I spin back around behind the vehicle and smile. I think we might actually pull this off. I think our team is well-balanced, with smart enough players, and if we stay focused, we could actually get through this mess.

  I glance down at the video-cast from Fantom, and I watch her drive her sword into the last officer. She scans around the room. The disrupted graphics on the computer displays roll over themselves, and sparks fly from damaged electronics. Bodies lay over desks and in piles on the floor. When she doesn't see any more attackers, she walks to the window and looks out over the courtyard to see how we're doing. The high-definition image affords me a strange bird's eye view, but then I see something in the glass. A reflection. Movement. Fantom doesn't notice. I use the window's controls to zoom in. I see one of the officers crawl up from the floor, his arm barely reaching a set of controls.

  I scream into the camera, “Turn around!”

  Fantom spins in time to see the dying NPC flip open a plastic box on the desk and slam his palm down on a large red button underneath it.

  I hear the sound blasting from both the video-cast window, and the courtyard. Like a horn the size of the moon, it shakes the ground, blowing an alarm that could wake a god. Everyone, including the soldiers, are stunned by the noise. Most of them stop firing their weapons and look into the skies. The sound echoes against the cliff walls, shaking rocks and snow loose from the top of the mountain. Boulders come crashing down, slamming into the vehicles and buildings, rolling across the courtyard, flattening soldiers underneath.

  When the sound stops, I look back at the window and see Fantom stabbing the officer who pushed the button. She looks down at the controls, but there are no labels or markings whatsoever.

  “What was that?” she asks, but before I can say anything in reply, the horn blasts again.

  I cover my ears, the noise causing my eardrums to swell. I peek around the armored vehicle again, and I see the NPC soldiers dropping their weapons. They fall to their knees, some of them screaming, others whimpering. Their programming stuns me. They don't care about us anymore. I notice many of them searching the sky, like they're looking for something. That's when I notice the insignia painted on the side of the vehicle for the first time.

  It's a symbol in the shape of a red dragon.

  100010

  The horn blows five times. When it stops, the silence is unsettling. The soldiers in the courtyard stay on their knees, pressing their faces into the ground with their arms outstretched like they're all in the midst of a group prayer. Ekko stays in the tower, keeping his gun trained on the soldiers, but Cyren and Xen come out from their places of hiding, walking amongst the NPCs, and holding up their hands to each other to express their confusion. I step out from my own place of hiding, and I run toward them, wanting to warn them about what I think is about to happen. Unfortunately, there's no need.

  The sound of massive wings flapping in the air overwhelms the howl of the mountain wind. It sounds like the canvas of a ship catching a gust of wind, mixed with thunder rolling through clouds from miles away. I look up into the air, waiting for the giant creature to come swooping down like an angel of death, snatching me and my life away from the game world, but I don't see anything. Only snow falls from the black sky. The sound of the wings is so great, ricocheting off the walls of the base, that it seems to be coming from every direction.

  I look over at Xen and Cyren. They are both spinning around, still unsure of what they're hearing. I open my mouth and scream with all the power in my lungs.

  “Drrraaagon!”

  As if I was announcing its arrival, the beast rises up from the cliffs below, its wingspan spreading out so far in each direction that it could envelop the entire mountain fortress. Its clawed feet grab onto the walls of the military base, cracking the concrete as if it was made of brittle sand. The beast comes to a stop, relaxing its wings behind its body. The muscles that make up its torso look like thick, scale-covered ropes, intertwined and coiling around themselves, flexing with even the slightest movement. Its long neck reels back, holding the horned head high above us, its bulbous eyes searching the area below for prey.

  The soldiers keep their faces pressed against the ground, but Cyren and Xen stand in the middle of them, looking straight up at the giant creature lording over the cliff side, too stunned to move. I see the dragon's eyes spot them, its pupils shrinking as it sees the only two people who are standing upright. I watch its head go back, and its throat inflates, growing like a round balloon. I've seen enough fantasy video-casts to know what's coming next.

  Luckily, so does Cyren. She grabs Xen's arm and runs. They weave through the cluster of praying soldiers, reaching the side of a building just as the dragon opens its mouth. Liquid fire pours from between its teeth like burning vomit. The flames disintegrate the soldiers caught in the flood, their avatars melting with the snow underneath.

  I realize when the dragon inhales, readying itself for another attack, that I'm just standing there, watching the carnage. My feet haven't moved since the dragon appeared. I haven't blinked. I haven't breathed. I suck in air and hear Ekko screaming in my ear.

  “Do I take the shot? Someone say something to me!”

  “Don't do it,” Fantom says. “Your gun won't do any damage. Not at your Level, yo.”

  “So what do you want me to do, lay back and wait to die?”

  The dragon lets loose another blast, this time puking its fire onto the building that Cyren and Xen are hiding behind. The roof and walls dissolve into the ground, revealing the interior like someone cut the building in half. Cyren and Xen run toward me, dodging behind the armored personnel carriers. Their eyes are expectant, wanting an answer when they reach me, and yet I still haven't moved. When I see Cyren's face inches away from mine, the panic in her eyes shatters my frozen shock.

  I turn away from her and scan my surroundings, soaking in the entire battlefield in one deep breath. After I push past the chaos and add up the entire equation. I see melted avatars. I see burning buildings. I see crushed armored personnel carriers. And I see tanks. I turn back to my group members, grab Xen by the shoulders, and point across the courtyard.

  “I need you to lay down cover so we can get to those tanks. I need the biggest wall of flames you can raise.”

  Xen nods his head. His hands burst with fire, and he steps out from behind the vehicle. He stretches out his arms, high in the air, and a line of flames begin to grow from the
ground. The dragon turns toward him, but it's entranced for a moment by the green fire. The flames grow quickly, and when they are nearly twenty feet high, I grab Cyren's wrist and we run.

  There's no need to drag her behind me. She runs at my side. We both push ourselves, our feet digging into the ground with every step, pushing us farther, faster. When we reach the tanks, we split with only a slight glance into each other's eyes. She leaps to the hatch on the top of her tank with one jump, but I need to climb up the side like everyone else.

  I take a look back at Xen right before I drop inside, and I see him backing away as the dragon leans its head down close to the flames. The creature takes a deep breath and inhales the entire wall of fire, extinguishing it instantly. Xen runs for the front gate, hoping to hide outside the walls of the fortress, but I don't have time to make sure he gets there before the dragon exhales.

  I fall into a seat, looking at the mess of instruments in front of me. There's plainly written directions in the middle of the panel, so that any player can easily drive the vehicle, but I ignore them. I don't need to move. There's only one thing this tank can do that I'm interested in. I spot a visor hanging from the ceiling with wires and tubes feeding off of it, but more importantly, I see a grip with a trigger. The trigger is something I know how to use.

  I push my face into the visor, and I see an electronic display of the courtyard in front of me, with a cross-hair in the middle of the screen. I spin the reticle to my right, pointing it up at the dragon that is spitting fire again, this time melting the line of armored personnel carriers. I swallow hard, assuming its flames can eat through the shell of the tank as well.

  I center the cross-hair on the dragon's chest and pull the trigger, but nothing happens. I see a warning appear on the screen, letting me know that there is no round in the chamber. I look to my right and see a line of the giant shells sitting in boxes on the floor. An open slot sits above them. I grab one of the shells that feels like the size and weight of a fat baby and set it into the open door. It fits perfectly, and with a shove, the doorway slides shut.