by Isaac Stone
While Bonnie was off with Lester and Howard, I reached into my jacket and felt for the pocket watch. I breathed easy. It was still in the pocket. I’d lost my hat somewhere around the scorpion fight. The watch was crucial, as it was my only communication to the VR crew. I wondered what would happen if the watch was lost or destroyed. Most likely, the crew would pull me out of the game if they couldn’t get a response.
With my back to the others, I popped open the watch and depressed the stem. The screen lit and, once again, Rhonda’s face filled it. She appeared to be a bit tired, probably from all the work done on my account.
“We found the goddamn scorpion,” I told her. “That was dirty.” I could see her snicker on the other end.
“Oh, come now,” she replied. “You’re in an underground labyrinth. You expect to run into little bats?” She seemed to find this funny.
“I’ll have nightmares for the rest of my life because of that thing.”
“Really? That was our intent.”
I swore under my breath and changed the subject. “I have a problem with Bonnie”
She seemed interested. “Tell me more.” I could see Rhonda making notes out of visual range.
“I think she has a crush on me.” There, I’d said it.
“Why you big stud,” she snickered. “A pretty girl is throwing herself at you! Bet you never saw that part of the game coming!” She was enjoying this too much.
“Okay, enough with the humor,” I told her. “And there is another problem, I’ve lost the logbook.”
“You do have problem. Can’t do much without it. Want us to pull you out?”
“No! I’ll work my way through this problem, but consider this a bug to work out before putting this on the market. By now, I think I know the stats on my companions well enough that I don’t have to consult that logbook every time. But what happens if they bad guys find it?”
“Not a problem. To everyone in the game but you, the book is full of scribbles that make no sense. They can’t use it.”
“Some good news at least,” I told her. “Signing off.” I began to touch the stem again.
“Remember, lover boy,” Rhonda said to me, “A little protection goes a long way. One of those caches might have prophylactics in it.” The screen went blank.
Like I needed to be given love advice by some computer hack. What right did she have to talk to me in that fashion? Oh, right, I was being paid to do this test for Sandstone Gems. Dammit, I was ready to say good-bye to the whole project and reenter the world. I’d been three days here and still no sign of the damn jewels. Lester had a busted head. The other two were stuck down here with me and a crazy woman with her pet wolf. Pet wolf? Was it even possible to make pets out of those things? I thought they didn’t domesticate so well and had a tendency to turn on their trainers. Oh, right again, I was inside a VR world and nothing held up anymore.
By the way, just where was Chamita?
I folded up my watch and returned it to my jacket pocket. I didn’t need to lose it, as that would end the game for me. I needed to get this thing done and back to the real world. Right now, that meant locating Chamita and finding the wolf too as both were gone. I looked around and couldn’t find her. Dammit, why did she vanish so quick and without sound? Was she some kind of elf that could do this without anyone knowing?
“Has anyone seen Chamita?” I asked the group as I went over to them. “We need her. We need to eat too, does anyone have provisions?” I’d lost the backpack that could regenerate food when the bootleggers captured us.
“I few bits of dried beef,” Lester said as he pulled out a pouch out of his pocket. “This should get us by for the time being. Water should be safe in the river as it’s fed by a mountain spring.” He divided up the dried beef between us and we all had a bite, saving some for Chamita whenever she returned.
I tried to avoid Bonnie’s hurt expression as I thought over some plan to get us out of this cavern. The torches continued to burn. I assumed they would burn indefinitely until the crew got around to a fix for that inconsistency. There had to be more issues with continuity in this game and I saw the ones obvious to me. Maybe a casual player would be so overwhelmed by playing the game they would never notice these little things.
I was so preoccupied in my thoughts I almost tripped over another cache. I looked down and thought what the hell? These caches were only supposed to be findable with the logbook map and yet, here it was. A cache that could help or hinder us. Or maybe it was just a random box. Not all boxes in this world were caches for the game. I wondered how detailed they would make a standard box. Perhaps it didn’t have the complexity of a cache. Or maybe this was a real cache.
“Did anyone see this when we came up here?” I asked the other three as I pointed it out. “I don’t recall seeing it here before.” There was the possibility that the crew sent it into the game to help me, but I didn’t think they would pull such magic in a game like this.
“I didn’t see it,” Bonnie snapped at me. The others shook their heads too.
“I’m going to chance it and open it up,” I informed them as they groaned. “Might not be rigged or have anything to help us, but I need to know. We can use all the information about this cavern we can find and it appears someone deliberately left this here.” I picked it up off the ground and looked at it.
It was a wooden box, not rotted or molded. Wood wasn’t something that would last around here very long, so the box could not have been placed here that long ago. I saw a simple latch on it and unsnapped it. Holding my breath, I opened the lid and closed my eyes.
No bang, no giant arachnid, we were safe, if nothing else. I looked inside the box and found it to be filled with photographs. Since I needed light to see them, I walked over to Bonnie and the rest.
“I need a light,” I said. “This looks like photographs and the fungus doesn’t provide enough light to see inside.” Bonnie sighed and held her torch close to the box.
They were pictures of a very wealthy family. Most of them were turn of the century and featured a handsome man with his wife and daughter. I passed them around to the others and we all had a good look at them. It was hard to tell who the people were, but they had money. All the pictures were made on some fancy estate. There were a few of them standing next to one of the original automobiles Henry Ford built. Other pictures had the family traveling in carriages with horses as they were waited on by servants.
“I know who these people are,” Bonnie announced. “I’ve seen them before in my research.”
“Who do you think they are?” Howard asked. “I agree; this bunch does look familiar.”
“Let me have some light,” Lester demanded. He held one of the pictures up to the torch light and looked at it with care.
“I know who they are too,” Lester announced. “It’s obvious.” He slapped himself on the side of his head uninjured.
“Don’t leave me in suspense,” I grumbled.
“The Wellington family!” both Lester and Bonnie said at the same time.
Howard held his pictures up to the light. “You’re right. I don’t know why I didn’t realize it at the beginning. We studied this bunch before we left on the expedition. I read the old newspapers about them for days.”
“How did this box get down here?” I asked. “It couldn’t have been thrown out of the airship and landed here. Someone brought it here.”
“Do you notice something else?” Lester said. “The young girl in these pictures. Does she remind you of anyone?” Everyone held the pictures close to the fire light.
It took me awhile to make the connection, as the little girl in the pictures could only be four years old. Then it dawned on me. She had the same high cheekbones, dark skin, and facial structure as someone else we all knew.”
“Holy love of Christ!” I yelled. It’s Chamita!”
10
We’d found the last heir to the Wellington estate and she’d led us down into this cavern. Chamita had saved our lives c
ountless times already. And she was the daughter of the family who’d vanished in the airship crash with a fortune in jewels.
“It explains a lot,” I said to the other two, “but it doesn’t explain how she survived and grew up on her own. I can’t believe a young girl could last out here on her own.”
“Look at the way she’s bonded with that wolf,” Howard pointed out. “From ancient times there were stories about children raised by wolves. Maybe there was some basis to it all.”
“She’s hardly Romulus or Remus,” Lester grumbled, “but this does give some precedent to nurture over nature.” He stroked his chin and thought.
“Dunno about that,” Howard responded. “Hard to tell anything with just one case study. You’d have to put a lot of children in the same situation and see what happened.” He stared off into the light of the fungus and thought about it.
“That is disgusting,” Bonnie spoke up. “Who in their right mind would willingly subject children to such barbarity?”
Oh, you would be surprised, I thought. At least this game didn’t have to worry about what horrors lay up the time stream.
“It also means the treasure is close by,” I mentioned, as I hoped to change the subject. “The only reason this box is here is because Chamita takes care of it.”
Howard looked at the box and examined it. “You would expect it to have rotted over the past twenty years,” he admitted. “I’ll bet she hides all manner of things in this cavern.”
“It would be the safest place,” I pointed out. “I don’t have my logbook with all the, um, information, but there might be more containers around here. Maybe we should look around.”
Everyone agreed this was a good idea and began to fan out with their torches. I’d lost mine in the flight, but didn’t care; there was enough background light to make it easy to see the shapes on the ground. Chamita had stored quite a bit of things up here.
Most of what I found was piles of junk. Old tools and magazines that interested her. I understood how she’d managed to learn so much out here by herself. There was all manner of reading material in this place. Did she know the basics of reading? I found an entire collection of medical texts she’d stored in a way to keep from rotting in the damp cavern air. Chamita was quite the progeny.
We were almost ready to give up on the search when Lester spotted something. He saw his torch light reflect off something metallic covered by a pile of rocks next to the wall and went to it. Lester carefully uncovered the pile and looked at what it hid. It was a metallic box with a clasp on it. There was some rust on it, but Chamita had kept it clean and the rust scrapped away.
“The last one didn’t blow-up,” Lester pointed out. “I think this one is safe too.” He picked it up, checking to make certain there was no trip cable or string attached to it. Satisfied, he opened the box.
His eyes told us all we needed to know.
With his hands shaking, Lester took the box over to where we’d sat and placed it on the ground. He let the light of the torches illuminate the contents so we could all look at it and see what was inside. All of gathered around for a good look.
It was the Wellington treasure. The box contained the jewels we searched for all this time. I looked at them and was impressed once again. The programmers managed to create a realistic box of fortune. Inside was diamonds, emeralds, rubies and other gemstones. Each was cut to a fine facet and polished to display the jewel beneath. Some of the diamonds had to be 70 carats in size. I don’t think I’d ever seen any so big. The reports my companions talked about were true. The Wellington family had traveled with a collection of gemstones worth a fortune. There was enough here to make everyone rich.
As they admired the sparkles, I turned and looked out into the dark cavern. No sign of Chamita. This would give me a chance to phone in to mission control.
“Excuse me,” I told the others, “Why don’t you count up our find? I need to find out what happened to Chamita. I’ll walk over to the river and see if I can find her.” The others were so awed by the sight they nodded. I grabbed a torch and walked away.
The moment I was safely away, I pulled out my pocket watch, opened it and depressed the stem. Once more, Rhonda was on standby.
“That was quick,” she told me. “Something happen?”
“I found the treasure,” I explained to her. “Is the game over?”
“You found it?” she said with a tone of disbelief in her voice. “How did you do that? Are you sure?” She held up a tablet computer and looked at the screen. “Well, shoot, that was really fast, but I guess you did. Wait a minute.” I saw her turn off screen and talk to someone.
I didn’t like this. It meant they were up to something back in the real world. I didn’t know these people with Sandstone Gems, they could pull any stunt they wanted to, and I’d suffer for it. My mind was in the deep freeze. Right now, so was my ass. I stood there and fumed. At least I didn’t have to worry about Chamita catching the others with her jewel stash. I didn’t think that would go over very well.
Rhonda appeared on the watch screen. She had big smile on her face, which worried me. It was the smile someone had who wanted you to do something for them.
“We have a deal for you,” she told me. Rhonda continued to smile.
“Let’s hear it.” I responded, my teeth grinding.
“Since you found the treasure early, and didn’t trip any of the traps we planned for tomorrow, we are willing to triple your bonus for completing the game. What do you think?”
“Define ‘complete’.”
“We want you to lead your companions out of the cave and into the safety of the road that will take them to the nearest town. You know, the road the bootleggers have concealed from everyone. It’s uncovered and is visible. All you have to do is seize control of one of their trucks and get everyone out of here.”
I thought for a minute. “Triple bonus?”
“That’s right.”
“What happens if I get killed trying to get them to safety. Do I have to get them all to safety?”
“If you lose any one of them, the game ends, but you will still receive the money we agreed to pay you at the beginning. You have to admit, this is a good deal.”
“Okay,” I agreed, “I’ll do it. We might have some trouble taking the treasure out as Chamita has hidden it away. I don’t think she’ll like that.”
“I’m sure you’ll find a way to make it happen,” Rhonda said to me. The screen went blank.
What had I gotten myself into again? The easy thing would’ve been to punch out and take my money. Even the triple bonus was hardly worth another VR battle with some underground monster. However, I wanted to see this thing through. Too many times in my life I’d given up on things I could have had if I’d stuck it out. I had to make an attempt to do this game and see where it ended.
I folded up the watch and returned it to my pocket. Next, I turned in the direction of my companions who discussed the value of the treasure we’d found.
When I turned around to have on final look down the underground river, I found Chamita standing next to me. She had a large rodent of some kind on the end of the spear. It lacked one leg, but I guessed Lobo needed to eat too.
“You are so quiet,” I said to her. “I can’t figure out how you get around without anyone hearing you. Or even seeing you. It’s like you have some cloak of invisibility.” She looked at me with confusion, as I doubted she had any idea what I talked about.
For someone who had quite a collection of books and magazines up in the cavern, I was surprised to hear her use such few words. I would’ve thought she would be able to communicated a little better than what she did. However, she was part of the game and I had no clue the designers’ idea behind her. She was still quite a mystery to me; one I suspected was supposed to be solved.
“You hurt, Vince,” she said and pointed to my hand. I’d scratched it early in the day the wound healed, but left an ugly mark.
“It’s nothing, Chamita
,” I told her. “Just a little cut. It should heal up in a few days.” I hoped. What kind of bugs might be down in this VR cave?
“I help,” she told me and walked over to a patch of fungus that grew on the cave wall.
It was a different kind than the ones that glowed in the dark. This patch was a dark brown and didn’t seem to grow in many places. I saw it a few times in the cavern, but not that often. The bioluminescent fungus was everywhere and was the main source of light down here.
Chamita picked through the fungus until she found a spot that interested her. She pulled it off, looked at it, and seemed satisfied. She walked back to me. Lobo lay on the cave floor and watched her.
She took my hand and examined the wound. I still had a torch so she could get a good look. While she looked my hand over, I had a better view of her. Her body as sleek, almost athletic. I assumed all the years she’d lived in the forest had something to do with it. I didn’t know who taught her to speak, but she was quite healthy. The dead rodent on the spear point let me know Chamita had no problem foraging for her own food.
She took the fungus and rubbed it on my scratch. Her action was too quick for me to avoid, I had no idea what she was about to do until the fungus left a stain on my hand. I pulled my hand back afraid of some kind of infection. I didn’t know what she’d tried to do, but I was ready to head to the river to get it washed off.
I turned in the direction of the river, and then felt a strange burning sensation on my hand. I looked down at it and saw the scratch gone. Amazed, I held my hand up to the torch light and examined it further. The scratch was healed. The burning sensation was gone too. The fungus worked to heal wounds.
“Chamita, thank you,” I told her while looking at the hand. “Does that fungus grown everywhere in the cave?”
She picked up my hand, looked at it too, and let it drop. “Special places,” she told me. “You need know where it is. I know.” She continued to hold my hand and looked up at me.
I looked up and saw Bonnie staring down at us from the rise where we were camped in the cavern. Uh-oh. I knew Bonnie had a crush on me and now here I was with the wolf girl. She frowned, but there was nothing I could say. After all, it was just a game. Why in the world did she think this was supposed to be a real life scenario? Then, if she, a program, had no other reference point, what should I expect her to think?
