Otherworld

by Jason Segel

  I’m about to question her sanity when three Children materialize at the entrance to the cavern, and I almost gasp. They are unlike anything I’ve seen before. Whatever digital DNA mixed together to make them, the results are truly spectacular. Two are females who look like they’re twins. They’re taller than most human women, with matte gray skin that reminds me of unbaked potter’s clay. But something golden crackles within them, and bursts of light erupt on the surface of their skin as if fireworks were exploding beneath it. The male is enormous—at least as large as Magna—with the white hair and beard of a Nordic god. He looks more human than his companions, but there’s something else in the mix as well. He’s carrying several furry pelts over one arm. I assume they’re what will keep us from freezing to death during our trek across the ice. It’s hard to believe the guy has my safety in mind, though. He’s glaring at me and his white eyes burn with hatred.

  Kat rises to her feet. “Stay here. I’ll go talk to them. They trust me.”

  I’m not convinced. “You sure you’re going to be okay? I don’t think that dude likes guests very much. Any guests.”

  “Can you blame him?” Kat asks. “Humans brought them to life, and then we set about killing them. I wouldn’t be all that fond of us either.”

  I keep a careful eye on the negotiations, which seem cordial but tense. Kat returns quickly with the pelts in her arms and a stoic expression on her face.

  “They say it will take a few hours to reach the glacier, and we have to move fast. Moloch’s men are out in full force on the ice fields. They’re searching for us, and the Children won’t be able to hold them off forever.” She offers me a hand and helps me to my feet. “Shall we get started?” she asks.

  I would give anything for another hour alone with Kat. But that hour might cost us the rest of our lives. “Let’s go,” I tell her.

  —

  The ice fields are a completely different experience with a disk. I can feel the frigid wind whipping around us. Beneath the heavy pelt the Children provided, my skin is numb to the touch. We move carefully across the treacherous ice. There are bottomless fissures wide enough to swallow us whole, and the blinding glare from the sunlight makes them difficult to detect. We pass over frozen seas where the ice beneath our feet is so thin that you can see the hungry beasts prowling the water beneath it. And we travel through storms that pelt us with hail and rip the sky apart with lightning. I wasn’t afraid the last time I was here. I should be terrified now. But I’m not. There is nowhere I’d rather be than here with Kat.

  When we set out, a troop of warrior Children surrounded us. Now, hours into our journey, I notice that our escorts have slipped away. I turn in circles, searching for some trace of them. Though I can see for what must be miles in every direction, they’re nowhere to be found.

  “We’re alone,” I tell Kat.

  “Don’t worry, the Children are watching,” she says, taking my hand and leading me forward. “If Moloch attacks, they’ll have the element of surprise.”

  “Do you think they can hear us speaking?” I ask.

  She stops and turns back to me. “I have no idea what they can do,” she responds. “You might as well say what you want to say.”

  “Kat, I really think we may need to kill the Creator—even if he lets us go through the exit. Milo Yolkin is the one responsible for all this. He’s evil and he’s addicted to the game he invented. He’ll never make all the guests leave.”

  Kat shakes her head. “You’re wrong about the evil part,” she says. “Milo’s not evil. He’s immature. He thought he had a fun new toy to play with. He didn’t know the technology was Pandora’s box. He created Otherworld, but he couldn’t control it. Now he’s lost control of the Company, too. But he still has the power to shut both of them down, and that’s what we have to convince him to do.”

  It’s pretty clear that Milo’s lost control of Otherworld. The evidence is everywhere you look. The rest of it is news to me. “Milo’s lost control of the Company?” I ask Kat. “How do you know?”

  “My beloved stepfather,” says Kat. “Wayne works for the Company.”

  “Yeah, I heard,” I say. “He told you about Milo?” It’s hard to believe.

  “Not exactly. Remember that little hut you added to our fort?”

  I’m not sure where she’s going with this, but I’ll play along. “You really think I’d forget the fort?”

  “Well, after you left for school, I’d go out there and sit and—”

  “By yourself?”

  Her head drops to her chest as if the memory is too much to bear. “I missed you,” she said. “And Mom had just married Wayne and it was like the two people I loved had both deserted me.”

  Kat just said she loved me. Back in the real world, I think my heart just exploded.

  “I’m sorry,” I tell her. “You know I didn’t have a choice.”

  “I know,” Kat says. “And I knew that then, too. But whenever I started to forget, I’d go out to the fort to feel closer to you. Anyway, I was out there one day, and I heard Wayne talking on his phone. He always popped outside when he got work calls. He didn’t want anyone else listening in. That day it was a call from someone named Swenson. I looked him up afterward—he’s on the Company’s board of directors. He and Wayne were talking about Milo. At first the things Wayne was saying made me think Milo might be sick. Then I realized what was really going on. Milo was obsessed with the new Otherworld. He’d even had some of his engineers build a weird capsule-thing for his body so he could stay in his virtual world as long as possible. For a while I thought Wayne and this Swenson guy wanted to help him, but then I realized they were planning to take control of the Company. They were pissed because Milo was using some amazing new technology they called the disk. But he’d forbidden the Company to make any more because the devices were dangerous. Wayne and Swenson wanted Milo out of the way so they could test the disk on more people. They’d keep Milo in his capsule and pull him out for a public appearance now and then, but…” She pauses and studies my face. “What is it?” she asks.

  How do I tell her she’s part of the test? I shake my head.

  “I know I’m wearing one of the disks,” she says softly. “I heard you talking about it in my hospital room right before I ended up here. Is my body in one of the capsules? I know Wayne was planning to build more.”

  “How?”

  “I found blueprints for them in his office. When I figured out what they were, I was going to try to expose the Company. But then Marlow threw that party at the factory, and the rest is history.”

  I suddenly remember the blueprint photo I found in the Yoda sleeping bag at Elmer’s. That’s got to be what she’s talking about. I’m an idiot for not putting the pieces together earlier. “Jesus, Kat. I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me any of this.”

  “I couldn’t, don’t you see? Not without putting your life at risk. Wayne was on to me. He had the whole house rigged with cameras and surveillance equipment. One of the cameras must have filmed me going into the fort that day, and Wayne realized I’d heard something I shouldn’t have. He asked me a bunch of questions about it, and I played dumb. But after that, he tore down the fort and started monitoring everything I did. I tried to throw him off my tracks by wrecking his car and hanging around with those kids at school. I figured he wouldn’t see me as a threat if I looked like some kind of druggie delinquent. I’m pretty sure I almost had him convinced. Some nights I didn’t even go home. I slept at Elmer’s instead. Then my best friend who’d been arrested for hacking shows back up in town and starts sending me thousands of dollars’ worth of VR equipment….”

  “Which I would never have done if you’d told me what was going on,” I argue passionately.

  “True,” she admits with a satisfied smirk. She was teasing me. Then her face turns serious once more. “But I was so scared when you came back to Brockenhurst, Simon. I knew I was in trouble, and I could handle that. But if something had happened to you�
�and it was all my fault—I don’t think I could have survived.”

  There’s nothing I can say in response. I step in front of her and put my arms around her. I kiss her and she kisses me back. We’re standing all alone in a frozen wasteland, and Kat’s lips are icy cold. And yet this is the best moment of my entire life.

  “So do you see why we can’t kill Milo?” she asks when we finally part. “We need to convince him to leave Otherworld so he can shut down the beta test and turn Wayne in to the authorities.”

  “You think he’ll do it?”

  “Maybe not for us,” she says. “But he might do it for the Children. He knows how much they’ve suffered. Maybe…” She pauses. “What’s that?” she asks.

  There’s a dark blotch on the horizon and it’s growing bigger and bigger.

  “I think someone’s coming for us,” she says, pulling an arrow out of her quiver. I take out my dagger. It’s almost hilarious to think that it’s my only weapon against whatever is thundering in our direction.

  “Where are the Children?” I ask, scanning the landscape for any sign of our escorts. “Aren’t they supposed to be protecting us?”

  “They’re not human. They have their own way of doing things,” Kat says, managing to remain perfectly calm. “But in my experience, they always keep their word.”

  The dark mass in the distance is taking form. Giant white beasts race across the frozen expanse, human shapes atop their backs. On my first visit to Otherworld, I slew one such beast, a bear of prehistoric dimensions with long white hair like a yeti and teeth too large to fit in its mouth. It stalked me across the ice for miles, as if it wanted to study me before it tore me apart.

  Now six of them are bounding toward us, and the men on their backs have their swords drawn. Riding the largest beast at the front of the pack is Moloch. As soon as he’s within range, Kat pulls an arrow from her quiver and takes aim. The missile sails through the air and hits him square in the chest. But the arrow doesn’t penetrate. I watch it bounce away and fall to the ground.

  “What was the point of that?” I ask. “We both know the dude isn’t going to die.”

  Kat doesn’t bother with a second arrow. “I thought we might be able to get rid of his avatar for a little bit, but he’s wearing some kind of armor,” she says. “Our weapons are totally useless.”

  “If he gets close enough, I’ll just have to take him out with my own two hands,” I tell her.

  “Show-off,” she jokes, and though we’re probably facing imminent death, I feel the urge to kiss her again. So I do.

  The bears are almost upon us when Moloch raises a hand and the animals slow to a trot. The six of them surround Kat and me. They tower over us, their black eyes fixed on our faces, their breath enveloping us in a rancid cloud. The beasts could destroy us in a matter of seconds, and yet I don’t fear them. I’ve met plenty of creatures here that wanted to kill me. These just don’t seem all that interested.

  Moloch slides off his mount and joins us in the center of the circle. The NPC warriors he brought with him are in full battle gear, complete with helmets, but Moloch’s handsome avatar is dressed like it’s casual Friday at the investment bank. Then I detect a slight shimmer around him. It’s some kind of protective shield.

  “Hi, Todd,” I say. It has to be Todd now. Martin’s tied up in a bathroom. “Remember Kat? She’s one of the people you’ve been trying to murder.”

  “Hey there.” Kat gives him a cheerful wave.

  Todd ignores her greeting and stands nose to nose with me. “Game over, you little shit. Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

  I share a look with Kat and shrug. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”

  “Nope,” she responds.

  “Martin is missing,” he snarls.

  “Oh, really?” I ask. “Maybe the serial killer lifestyle didn’t suit him after all. Where do you suppose he went?”

  “If he left, the Company will find him,” Todd says, his voice cracking. “And then they’ll kill him.”

  I’m finding it really hard to muster the appropriate level of sympathy. “What do you care?” I demand. “It’s just another sacrifice for the advancement of mankind, right?”

  “He was my friend!” Todd shouts. “We worked together for ten years. He might have been a sap, but he was a genius, too.” Then, his teeth gritted and nostrils flared, he regains control. “Where is your body? We want the disk back.”

  I can’t help but laugh. “Yeah, I bet you do. But you’re not going to find it.”

  “Either you tell me where the disk is or bad things are going to start happening to everyone you care about. Starting with her.” He shoves a finger at Kat.

  It wasn’t a smart move. I’m up in his face in an instant. “You do anything to Kat and I will punish you in ways you can’t even begin to imagine.”

  I feel Kat tap me on the shoulder. “Can I help?” she asks.

  “Oh, absolutely,” I say.

  “You think I’m joking?” Todd snarls. “I finally have permission from Gibson to get rid of her.”

  “Awww. How is dear old Stepdad?” Kat asks.

  “Getting pretty sick of your shit,” Todd snaps.

  I really wish this asshole were wearing a disk. I’ve never wanted to make anyone suffer so much in my life. “You already came close to killing a thirteen-year-old today. You ready to murder another human being? You must have gotten used to slaughtering Children by now. I’m guessing you’ve even learned to like it. Ever wondered what Otherworld is turning you into?”

  “All I’ve done is take care of business,” says Todd. “When I have a billion dollars and a Nobel Prize, no one’s going to care what I did to get it. Least of all me.”

  “That’s why we’re going to do whatever it takes to make sure you end up in an orange jumpsuit instead,” says Kat. Then she turns to me. “What do you think his Wikipedia entry will call him? Mass murderer? Mad scientist?”

  “I’m gonna go with serial killer,” I say. “Heck, you know what? Maybe I’ll write the entry myself.”

  “Oh! Good idea,” Kat says. “Be sure to add this part.”

  “Definitely,” I reply. “It’s such a dramatic moment, isn’t it?”

  “Shut up!” Todd shouts. He stomps back to his bear and climbs into the saddle. “Kill them both,” he orders the beasts.

  I pull Kat into my arms, but the attack never comes. The six bears stay where they are. The one nearest me leans over to its neighbor and licks the side of its face.

  “Kill them!” Todd shrieks at the soldiers sitting atop the beasts. None of them moves a muscle. “Why are you sitting there? Do what I say!” Todd shouts in frustration. When it becomes clear that they aren’t planning to follow orders, he goes for his own sword. But the scabbard is empty. “What the hell is going on here?”

  The largest of the soldiers removes his helmet, revealing his white hair and beard. Back in the cavern, I didn’t know what he was. Now that I see him atop the bear, it’s clear that the two creatures share DNA.

  “Filthy vermin!” Todd snarls. “Where did you come from? How did you steal my bears?”

  “They are not your bears,” the Child says placidly. “They are wild creatures. They don’t belong to anyone.”

  “This is insane,” Todd says. “Of course they do. I know the little asshole who designed them.”

  “The Creator gave life to this world, but it is constantly changing. Nothing here is what it was originally meant to be.”

  “No shit,” Todd says. “But don’t worry, we’re going to clean things up. Starting with you.”

  “Your kind will not defeat us,” the Child says. “With our father’s help we will take control of Otherworld and drive your kind out.”

  “Your father is a pathetic addict,” Todd sneers. “I’ll get ten engineers working twenty-four seven to fix whatever he decides to screw up.”

  “And I will send thousands of Children to destroy every guest.”

  I gla
nce at Kat. I totally agree that humans don’t belong here, but setting out to destroy every guest seems a bit much. Some of them would really die.

  Todd scoffs. “Thousands?” he asks. “There can’t be more than a few hundred of you left.”

  The bears part and we can see a vast army of Children on the horizon. Looks like the Creator really got around.

  “Oh my God,” Todd gasps. Then there’s a flicker in his avatar, and Moloch dims and goes still. Wherever Todd is, the coward’s pulled off his headset.

  “Take the avatar hostage,” the Child orders the others.

  Kat steps up to the Child’s bear. “You never said you would kill all the guests.”

  “We will do whatever is necessary to take back our world,” says the Child.

  “But some of us never chose to be here,” Kat argues. “We were forced into coming, and if you kill us in Otherworld, we’ll die in the real world too.”

  Her pleas don’t appear to make much of an impression. “The real world?” asks the Child. “Why is your world the real one? How can you be so certain you humans were not created by someone else? Does your history not speak of a Creator too?”

  It’s a good question—so good that even Kat can’t find an answer.

  “This is our reality,” the Child continues. “Your kind comes here to use us for pleasure or murder us for sport. When we die here, there’s no other place we can go.”

  “But killing hundreds of innocent humans can’t be the answer,” I argue.

  “Then you must convince our father to banish the guests,” the Child tells us. “That’s why we’ve brought you here. Now do what you’re meant to do.”

  —

  When we reach the glacier, the Children leave us at the entrance. I look for the Clay Man as we enter the ice tunnel, but the spot where I first saw him is empty. I’m glad, because I’d rather there not be a witness to what I’m about to do.

  “Hold on,” I tell Kat. She stops and turns to face me. She’s so goddamn beautiful I could die. “There’s a really good chance we won’t make it out of here, and I have something to say to you first.” I pause. The words were there just a second ago, but now I can’t seem to find them.