"Everyone stop," said Avony.
"We need to talk," added Gabby.
Unthar ran on for a few strides and then when he saw the others had stopped, came back.
"No time for talking. Must keep moving," said Unthar.
The two girls shook their head at the same time. Gabby was glad that Zaela hadn't been there to see that.
"You have some insider information on our route, don't you?" Avony poked her finger at Stephan as she asked the question.
Stephan smiled, revealing a mouth full of perfect white teeth. Gabby swore she saw one sparkle.
"No way," he said. "I have a sense for these things. I'm sure we'll get out of here soon."
"Explain it or we figure out our own way through." Avony looked ready to kick his butt if he didn't agree, leaning into a ready stance.
"We're not trusting you unless you reveal your source," said Gabby.
Stephan spread his hands, shrugging incredulously and beaming a smile at them. "Source? I don't know what you're talking about."
A timid squeak came from the corner. They all looked to find Mouse with her hand raised.
"Again with the hand raising," said Stephan, forgetting to keep his blinding smile up. "Get on with it."
"I think I know which way we should go," said Mouse.
"Shut up, Stephan," said Gabby and Avony at the same time.
Zaela would really kill her if she'd heard that. Avony looked as embarrassed as Gabby felt, though the others didn't pick up on their emotional states, since Mouse was new and the boys had their own battles.
"Go on...," Gabby hesitated, not wanting to call her Mouse. "What is your name?"
"Song," she answered. "Song Ling."
"Sorry we forgot to ask. In my head I've been calling you Mouse and I forgot we hadn't learned your name," said Gabby.
"It's okay. I like Mouse, too."
"So explain how you know which way to go," demanded Avony with a touch of impatience.
Mouse pushed her hair out of her face and smiled timidly, proud though embarrassed. "I've been tracing our path and we've been through and around the same region for the last five hours."
"And how did you figure this out?" asked Gabby.
"I've been notching the splits in the tunnel to mark how many times we've gone one way or another. We've taken the last fork six times so far," said Mouse, glancing at nervously at Stephan. "I also have a good sense for direction."
The blue robed Stephan threw up his hands. "Fine, believe her. When you're bored with her act, let me know and I'll find the way again."
Pretty quickly, Gabby sensed they were in new tunnels once Mouse took the lead. Back in the other section, she'd assumed the game designers hadn't bothered to create new tunnels and had just regurgitated the same sections.
When the black rock turned gray, speckled with crystals, the two girls raised their eyebrows at Stephan.
Gabby withheld the rude comment she would have normally spit out though it pained her.
Gabby pinched herself for not realizing that before. She wasn't going to stand a chance if she didn't start paying attention.
Any rebuttal was cut short by a sudden change in the elevation. The section of floor they were strolling across broke from the walls with a dreadful snap and slid down a shaft. Their ride was brief as they landed moments later in a vast chamber full of intricate contraptions. The impact sent up a plume of dust which set them to sneezing.
As the dust cleared, multiple sets of glowing eyes peered from the darkness. The kiss of steel being pulled from sheathes echoed around the chamber.
"See," said Stephan. "I told you guys you should have followed me."
Chapter Twenty
Unthar reached for his blade with a slow, steady movement.
"Hold," Gabby whispered, knowing the creatures, whatever they were, could hear her, too. Unthar stayed his hand, though his menacing glance told her he wouldn't wait long.
Dozens of eyes blinked. They were outnumbered by a large margin, though that hadn't helped the wraiths.
The others glanced at her, waiting. She'd said the word without much thought of what she'd do next. They made impatient motions and she feared they would go for their weapons and start a fight without knowing their enemy.
"We come in peace," said Gabby, cringing after the words left her lips.
Avony wrinkled her perfect doll face and shook her head. Gabby expected a pithy mind-text to appear any moment. Even Mouse had an incredulous look from beneath her ever-present curtain of black silky hair.
Footfalls and the clattering of readied weapons trickled through the chamber in a wave. A few hurried barks, which she assumed was some kind of communication method, made the team grip their weapons tighter.
"We're enemies of the smoke-demons," said Gabby, holding her hands out passively.
As barks bounced around the room, Gabby examined the room. The natural tunnel had disappeared and they stood on a smooth platform. Rising above them, four different pulley contraptions were hooked to the platform. At first, Gabby thought they were for lowering them from the tunnel above, but the ropes were situated all wrong.
The chamber surrounding the platform was split into four sections. Hesitant fires drifted from pots, casting a reddish-orange glow over each area, revealing a multitude of upright jackal-like creatures waving nasty weapons that looked like they'd been hammered together from scraps of broken ones. Their resemblance to jackals went so far as a light coating of fur and a long muzzle sporting a mass of jagged teeth.
"I'm chopping heads," Unthar said, pulling his weapon free.
A great cheer among the jackal-creatures set them to banging their weapons together and chirping loudly in their language.
As Unthar moved to get off the platform, the whole structure lurched upward, knocking them each from their feet. Before they could stand, a translucent shield fell from the darkness above trapping them on the platform.
Gabby found herself in the center section with her four teammates in separate corners. She got on her hands and knees tried to lift the shield. From that angle, she could see the shield was not translucent between her teammates. They could see her and they could see the jackal creatures below, but they couldn't see each other.
Unthar was using his sword to bang on it, with no result. Any noise from her teammates was muffled by the glass, though the jackals chanting made it through.
The center section she stood on was connected to the other four by thin beams. Peering through the gaps between the sections, Gabby could see that the space beneath hers was a dark, and she assumed, deep pit.
Gabby didn't like the spiraling sections of pulleys and chutes above their heads, slowly coming level with them as the platform raised. They were to be tested with a game, but Gabby didn't know what it was.
Even more than the contraptions, Gabby didn't like the height. Her toes curled, a pit opened in her stomach, and beads of sweat broke out on her forehead.
For now, she was glad she was in the center section, though she assumed that feeling would change as soon as they understood the game.
When the platform lurched again, this time only enough to rock them on their feet, it had reached the top. Chee
rs from below made the pit in her stomach open a little wider.
"We've got to figure this out quick!" she yelled.
Avony and Stephan shook their heads and indicated they couldn't hear her. They yelled as well, but she couldn't make out the damped voices. Unthar kept up his steady assault on the shield, straining his arms as he slammed his sword. Mouse was circling her space, much as her namesake would, poking fingers into corners and head tilting all around.
When four chutes descended from the darkness, they stopped investigating their cages and lifted their heads to watch. There was one chute for each corner of the platform, each of her teammates.
The tip of the chute stopped above a basket between the two sides and before she could wonder what would come down, a head-sized rock tumbled into the basket between Unthar and Stephan. Soon after, another rock tumbled into the basket between Stephan and Avony.
As the lights of the cavern slowly grew in strength, the massive structure above them came into view. A giant hopper of rocks from which a spiraling chute connected to the bottom, spit out another rock which followed another to their platform.
As the chute spun in a circle, it dropped rocks into baskets between each platform. There were also baskets at each corner of the platform, though they were empty right now.
Gabby circled around watching the rocks fill up the baskets. Occasionally, one of the others would turn to her, but she shrugged in response.
After about the fifteenth rock, which dropped into the Unthar and Stephan basket, their platform tilted slightly, pulled down by the weight of the rocks. Around that time, a pair of levers raised up into the four sections, one near each wall. Each of her teammates moved to a lever, tentatively touching it, clearly deciding if to pull it. The levers appeared to have two positions, which they sat between currently. Gabby didn’t have any levers.
When Avony checked with her, Gabby shook her head. Until they understood what was going on, she didn't think using the lever was a good idea.
Unthar however didn't even check with her and slammed the lever toward Stephan, moving the chute to deposit the next rock into his corner basket.
The rock tilted his basket down, more than the others. Stephan immediately moved to the lever on Unthar's side and slammed it back. The next rock went into Unthar's corner basket.
The big Brute pushed the lever back and with the two of them pushing on each side, the chute returned to its center position, bending both platforms down.
Mouse and Avony were eyeing the levers and the tilting platforms with concern. Gabby wheeled around trying to see something that would help her understand what they were to do, though she understood what was going to happen if they didn't do anything. Eventually the baskets would fill with rocks and break the platforms, spilling them to their death below. Even if the fall didn't kill them, the jackals would.
And if all of them fell, her center platform would have no more supports and then she would tumble into her pit. The thought of falling made her head swim.
Mouse and Avony were waving at her indicating they wanted to pull the levers. She shook them off and kept circling, trying to figure out what would get them out of the trap. The rocks were falling faster now and the platforms were bent at a dangerous angle.
The game bothered her. Something about it was familiar but she couldn't quite figure it out. Gabby closed her eyes, to remove the distraction of the heights and the constant arrival of more rocks.
After a few moments of calming blackness, Gabby opened her eyes and watched Unthar and Stephan push on their levers. Unthar kept kicking the wall between them, as if that would help him win the war of the lever.
"If I convince one of them to move the lever toward them and take the rocks, then they'll fall," she said out loud, hoping hearing her own voice might help her understand the game.
"They would sacrifice themselves and save the rest of us," said Gabby. "Except that I would have to sacrifice two of them."
She glanced at Avony and Mouse. "I could keep the girls and let the boys fall?"
She shook her head, knowing that wasn't the answer. They would need the five of them to complete the raid. She couldn't pick a solution that didn't involve all of them.
Avony waved to her, pointing at the baskets, three-quarters full. Once they were full, the platforms would go tumbling down and they would lose the game. Gabby didn't relish the thought of falling or the impact, that at max pain levels, could do serious damage.
The familiarity of the game kept tickling her memories. It was right beyond her remembering, on the tip of her brain. Then it hit her, the Prisoner's Dilemma. One of the earliest of game theories they had to learn.
Except this wasn't quite set up like they had in school. The best strategy for a long term one-on-one game was cooperation with high retribution for defect. Much the same way that Avony held the Evil Dolls together. They cooperated on a regular basis, but if someone crossed the group, like Gabby had, they retaliated with maximum animosity.
Gabby understood Avony a little more. She hadn't gone after Gabby because she had left, but to keep the group together. But none of this helped her now.
She had to figure out how to win this interlocking game of Prisoner's Dilemma which seemed to have no cooperation mode. Pulling the levers toward them would only speed up one side or another. Unless she wasn't seeing something.
Gabby started waving to Mouse and Avony to get their attention. She motioned for them to pull the lever toward them. Avony, stared at her suspiciously, hand hovering over the lever. Mouse followed her directions immediately and the chute shifted to her side. Mouse looked back to her, keeping her hands on the lever as if she wanted to push it the other way.
Avony hadn't moved her lever and when the chute slid away from her, she smiled in victory. Gabby shook her head and mimed pulling the lever, trying to relay that she needed to pull her side back.
The baskets were straining the platforms, stretching them downward like a wilted flower. Groaning from the thin supports between the platforms announced their eventual breaking.
Then Gabby remembered the OOC program, and hoped it would work through the translucent glass.
The conflict on Avony's face told her she'd received the message. Her hand hovered over the lever, her face cast in doubt.
As the rocks tumbled around the spiral chute, speeding toward the baskets, Avony finally pulled the lever. Instead of pulling the chute back toward her, it split that chute in two, letting the rocks fall harmlessly away.
Gabby tried to get the boys' attention but they were locked in a war. When the last rock hit the basket, a deafening snap erupted from beneath the boy's feet, and half the platform fell away.
Stephan, who'd been clutching the lever, tipped backwards awkwardly, arms caterwauling. Unthar seemed to have anticipated the destruction and leapt away to grab at the pulley rope hanging nearby. Stephan fell out of view while Unthar slid down the rope.
With the boy's platform gone, and the girl's chutes in cooperation mode, the rocks were no longer falling into the baskets. In fact, as they tumbled past, presumably into the pit, the whole platform, or what remained, sunk downward while the translucent shield hung in the air.
The girls prepared to follow Unthar on the ropes when the gap was big enough to fit through. Mouse escaped first, ducking under the shield and leaping out to a rope. Avony was next, followed by Gabby who'd been trapped in the center.
Below them, Unthar was fighting off the horde of Jackal creatures, standing over Stephan's crumpled form. Gabby was surprised that Unthar had chosen to protect his teammate's fallen body. She'd almost expected to see him fleeing from the chamber alone.
The girls joined Unthar in defense of Stephan, who Gabby wasn't sure was alive.
As the jackals barked and flew at them with their misshapen weapons, the team cut them down. Gabby was forced to use more than Two Moon Sweep in the open
area, filling in with Cat and Cut and Angry Cloud when she could.
She dared Flying Fish once, but the problem it presented stymied her and she took a mace to the shoulder, numbing her off-hand. Given her exhaustion and struggles with neural shaping, she didn't even dare Bladestorm, though it would be the best maneuver for the situation.
Eventually, they killed enough of the jackal headed creatures to send the rest fleeing from the chamber. Avony was tending Stephan as the creatures yipped and barked climbing over the rough cavern floor.
"He's alive, but barely," said Avony. "I think that fall was from about fifty feet."
"I'm sure the rush of pain just knocked him out," said Gabby.
Avony disagreed with a nod, face beset by worry. "He's got bruises along his backside where he hit. Either they actually had us suspended in the air, or the sense-webs can do more than just transfer feeling."
The implications soured their already distressed mood. They moved around listlessly, except for Unthar who stood apart, grimly judging them as he leaned on his sword.
"We need to move to a more defensible place," Gabby announced, the tenor of her voice betraying her wavering confidence.
Unthar picked up Stephan easily, placing him on his shoulder, carrying his blade in his free hand. Gabby had thought they would make a stretcher of sorts, since he'd fallen from a great height, but Unthar had picked him up before she could say a word.
They moved through the tunnels, which kept their grayish crystal sparkled demeanor, in a somber silence. Gabby rubbed her hand against the rough walls, trying to convince herself that the walls weren't real no matter what they felt like.
Thoughts of Zaela and the Frags and even the Coder seemed distant now. Stephan's injury had illustrated the danger of the raid and Gabby was more worried about her own survival at that point.
After a few hours, in which they took few breaks, owing to Unthar's strength and stamina, they made camp and prepared to rest for a while, hoping Stephan would awake.
Mouse produced a bag of new jerky sticks liberated from the fallen jackals and a couple of pouches of water. The water from before was gone, so they sipped cautiously at the new bags, careful to leave some for Stephan in case he woke up.
Gamers - Amazon Page 13
