War Aeternus: The Beginning

by Charles Dean

  By the third day, he was sitting at his desk, staring at the screen, unable to summon enough energy to tackle the day’s events. There has to be more to life than this, right, Ethan? Lee realized that he was talking to the golem, even though it was nowhere to be found. He knew that his rodent friend wasn’t there with him, but that didn’t stop him from communicating with it anyway. We still haven’t even hit up those casinos. He laughed to himself, drawing a few strange glances as others wondered what happened.

  On his way home that day, halfway between work and his apartment, Lee stopped and looked around. He stared at the roads and alleyways he had walked past every day for years and never taken a single step into. Not one single exploratory venture. He thought about taking one now if only to see something new and find out what was on the other side of that road, but his phone rang and reminded him he needed to get home and get ready for another raid night. The raids are always the same, Lee thought as he put away the phone and started home.

  Lee thought that was the end of things until he caught sight of a girl that looked just like Ling walking into a grocery store. He followed her in before he even realized what he was doing, but not wanting to be the creepy stalker following around a random stranger just because he thought he recognized her, he turned around to leave, only to spot a mouse sneaking through the door as he opened it.

  Lee’s brain started raising red flags and wanted to ask a million questions, but in the end, he just let every inquisitive thought break against his morose mood and ebb back into the dullness. Instead of pursuing any of those trains of thought, he went back home, did a few raids with his guild, went to bed and once more went to work the next day.

  The cycle repeats. It never felt so monotonous before he went to the other world. The raids were exciting, everything felt perfect, and his life was amazing. But now it just felt empty. He remembered that one of his guildmates who had gotten back from a deployment said that the world never tasted the same after war, that the adrenaline and the rush of combat were things he knew he shouldn’t want, but he did. Lee hadn’t been in a war though. He was just some kid who had spent a few days in a harsh environment. Yet, somehow, those few days had sullied his comfort in a way that was hard to describe.

  Does any of this even matter? Lee thought as he finished his work for the day, turned off his computer and headed home. This time, he went to the grocery store he had seen Ling enter the day before. He didn't know what he was doing, but he felt uncomfortable not buying anything like he was a teenager or a shoplifter, so he purchased a few energy drinks and some beef jerky. While he was paying, he saw one of those ‘raising money to help people rebuild homes’ penny donation boxes by the cash register. Because who needs pennies? He pulled out a ten-dollar bill from his wallet and left it there. That’s right. I promised I would do more to help victims. He hadn’t forgotten the promise he had made when he saw the condition Ramon’s slaves were in.

  The next day at work, that thought of doing something to help others hung in his mind for the full eight-hours. He couldn’t stop thinking about what he could do to help people who might have been in even worse situations. So, as he got up to go home, his ears instantly perked up when he overheard a few girls talking about a charity event at a local church.

  That sounds like a good idea, he said to himself as he walked over.

  “Hey, sorry to intrude, but I couldn’t help but overhearing you say that your church is doing a big charity event. Is anyone allowed to come? Or have sign-ups already ended?” He didn’t really know the young woman’s name, and he had only seen her around the office a few times.

  Her eyes opened wide, and she crossed her arms as she turned to look at him. He took her expression to mean that she was uncomfortable with having a stranger approach her and interrupt her conversation. He wasn’t usually one to butt into someone else’s business. In fact, he had been so introverted before going to the other world that the only time he talked to people at the office was when they Initiated the conversation—again, because they usually wanted something from him or because they wanted to rag to him about some social media meme-like thing he didn’t understand.

  “I . . .” She blinked a few times. She wasn’t the only one looking standoffish and confused. “I’m sorry, yes,” she answered, reaching back to scratch behind her neck.

  “Yes, the sign ups have already ended? Or, yes, anyone is allowed to come?” he asked for clarification. This was a pet peeve of his. He couldn’t stand it whenever someone answered an either-or question with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no,’ but he did his best not to look irritated.

  She blinked again. Clearly, talking to him was difficult.

  “Never mind. Didn’t mean to make you nervous. Sorry that I interrupted your conversation,” he said, not sure how else to deal with her shock.

  “Oh, no . . . It’s just I didn’t realize you spoke Russian,” she said. “And so fluently.”

  “Hmm?” Oh! That’s right! Some of the other tech people are immigrants from Russia. He felt like an idiot. This exact same thing had happened before with his boss. That mongrel. He couldn’t help but wish a silent curse on her. She had been strangely and uncharacteristically unobtrusive as he waded through his day to day minutia at work since he returned. “I’m sorry. I just never had a chance to use it,” he answered honestly, giving his best fake smile as he looked between the three shocked women. Oh, no. What have they been saying about me behind my back that they would behave this way?

  “Well, yes. That is, anyone can come help, but there are sign-ups. You’re welcome to come to the church tonight and put your name down on the list if you like. We were going to head there in a few minutes ourselves. You’re welcome to join us.”

  “That sounds nice,” Lee said. “I’ll just wait by the entrance for you all to get ready.”

  He wasn’t five steps away before he heard them start talking about him.

  “Is he from Russia too?”

  “Has he always been like that?”

  “There’s something different about him, right?”

  “Yeah, he’s much more . . . mmm . . . “

  “I thought he was such a shut-in dork. I had no idea.”

  “And he’s into volunteering?”

  “Dibs.”

  Wait, did she say dibs? Women call dibs too? Lee couldn’t stop smiling. He even wanted to stop before entering the elevator and continue listening, but he knew that would give away the fact that he was eavesdropping and dispel any cool points he had managed to earn.

  Twenty minutes later, Lee, the group of girls, and another friend from the office were standing in front of a large church. It was absolutely magnificent. Between the murals, the stained-glass windows and the architecture, everything was just awe-inspiring enough to take Lee’s breath away.

  “Stacey! Masha! Lyova! Olga! And a new friend!” a priest called out as soon as he saw them walk through the door.

  Lee turned toward the voice and found a jolly-looking, large man with white hair on the sides and back of his head but none on the top. Other than the priest and six other people, they were the only ones in the place. For all its magnificence in structure and aesthetics, the church wasn’t actually as large as he Lee expected.

  “Lee. His name is Lee,” a girl who was apparently named Masha said. Lee noted that she was the same one who had called dibs on him a short time ago. He was also aware of her hand on his shoulder as she introduced him. “He works with us at the office. He heard us talking about helping out some of the local communities, and he asked to volunteer.”

  The priest’s smile seemed genuine as he walked to them.

  “Ah, that’s wonderful. It’s always nice to see people willing to lend a hand and help those less fortunate.”

  “Yeah, sorry for inviting myself. I just wanted to help out.” Lee extended his hand to greet the priest. His ear-to-ear smile never left him as he took Lee’s hand.

  “Well, let me get you registered and set up,” the priest sa
id, using the handshake to pull Lee closer and throw an arm around him. “We’ve got a lot of work to do tomorrow that would just be perfect for a strong, young man like yourself. You’ll be helping out a ton of people. In fact, if you want to show up early, we could also use a hand at the soup kitchen,” the priest continued. Lee just nodded along as the priest tried to rope him into more and more activities.

  “He’s never going to keep any volunteers if he comes on that strong,” Olga said, chuckling to her friend at Lee’s predicament.

  Lee didn’t mind. He was just rather happy that the word ‘register’ had nothing at all to do with giving out his email address or having to sign up for yet another website he’d use at most three times in his life. Data mining trolls, he grumbled as he thought about it. Oh, we’re never going to use that email to do anything. They always lied. Rather, registration was just a series of forms that basically said he wouldn’t sue the church if he got injured building the house and that the church wouldn’t be responsible for any mistakes he made on his own. The fact they need these forms is just shameful, Lee thought, realizing they existed because of the number of people that have probably sued in such circumstances.

  His phone started blowing up almost as soon as he was finished signing everything and getting registered with the church’s community service outreach program. Ah, it’s Wolfe. He probably wants me to play wingman as he picks up some girls. Lee couldn't stop himself from laughing at the thought. It was the only reason Wolfe ever sent him this many ‘Bro! Where’s my uglier half at?!’ sort of text messages. He did tell me that he was planning on milking my fame to help him improve his game last time . . . and I did agree . . . Reluctantly, he made up his mind to assist his friend in typical bachelor behavior.

  He met up with Wolfe, who had put together a mixer, but it just felt pointless. The girl he was with carried on for an hour talking about an ingenious robot that she was working on with her friends for a mini tech battle game, but the only thing he could think about was the other world. Previously, he would have been enthused by not only the robot but also the fact that a girl was actually speaking to him without being on the other end of a headset and a voice comm. Yet, all he could think about was Ramon, his betrayal, and all the traps he had set up throughout his bar. He couldn’t stop worrying about whether or not they had found them all, if some of them might still be active or what would happen if someone accidentally activated one while stumbling around drunk.

  “Where are you at, man?” Wolfe asked Lee as they stepped outside.

  “What do you mean? I’m right here,” Lee responded. What a silly question.

  “I know you’re here, but you’re not here, man. What the heck happened to you that day? You came back with broken ribs and a stab wound, and you still haven’t even told anyone what happened,” Wolfe clarified.

  “I just . . .” Lee closed his eyes as he thought about the events on that day. “I just had a rough day.”

  “Rough day? Dude, what’s up with you? I mean, doing all those lowbie, nonsense quests in the game was one thing, but you have barely said three sentences since we got here. Which, might I add, is working great for you. You should stay quiet and let me do the talking more often. I’m definitely the more charming one. But seriously, what happened? What’s wrong? Why are you looking shell-shocked twenty-four seven?” Wolfe pressured.

  “I . . .” He remembered very clearly what had happened to him. He knew exactly how his rib had been broken and how he had been stabbed. But that wasn’t what bothered him. It was the stuff that came after that, the things that hadn’t left any visible marks on him, that made him want to avoid the topic. “I don’t want to talk about it.” Mainly because you wouldn’t believe me if I did.

  “Whatever, bro.” Wolfe shrugged. “Just know that as the bigger, better-looking, more-amazing person in our duo, I will do my duty and take care of the little guy. So, if you ever need something, even an ear, I’ll cover you. Although, if you need an ear for sob stuff, let me know ahead of time. I’ve got the perfect girl I like to outsource all that stuff to. She’s a great listener: a total bobblehead.”

  “Bobblehead?”

  “You know, the type of listener that just nods the entire time you’re talking to her. She’s perfect for listening to all the sob stories. I mean, I’m your bro and all, but if you get all weird and emo on me, she’s your bro then.”

  Lee couldn’t help but laugh as he imagined it. Yeah, those type of people are perfect. Then his conscience kicked in, and he felt bad for laughing at someone for just being kind and considerate. I’m such a jerk.

  ——-

  Lee was one of the first people to show up the next day for the build-a-home initiative. He had never worked construction, but some dormant part of his brain decided to turn on the second he got there, and he accomplished every task he was given as quickly and thoroughly as possible. The priest seemed to be rather fond of his work—probably since he was able to lift things and carry them around without effort.

  The strength he had gained in the other world, or ‘Power’ as the stat was listed, had definitely carried over. He went from barely being able to squat with any amount of weight to lifting two eighty-pound bags of cement with one hand as if they were filled with pudding—a feat that earned him more than a few appreciative looks from the girls at his office

  When it came time for lunch, he grabbed one of the sandwiches and a bag of chips provided by the church and started walking over to sit with the girls, but the preacher grabbed him and pulled him to the side before he got there. He wasn’t sure if it was okay to refuse a preacher who was asking for someone to eat with, so he shrugged and sat down with the old man.

  “You know, I don’t think I’ve seen many people work with such commitment and expertise as you. If I didn’t already know that you work with Olga and the others, I’d have guessed you were a construction worker.”

  “Thanks. I guess I’m just good with my hands,” Lee replied, brushing off the compliment.

  “Good hands indeed. But”—the priest looked over at him—“bad eyes.”

  “Bad eyes?”

  “Maybe ‘bad eyes’ isn’t the right words.” There weren’t any tables, so everyone was just eating on the floor, and the priest leaned back against the wall as he thought for a moment. “Empty. Empty eyes. Those are the right words, I think. It is like there isn’t anything to fill them up anymore.”

  Lee didn’t know how to respond, so he said, “I don’t know why you’d say that.”

  “Well, there are four pretty girls who seem rather interested in you, batting their eyelashes and throwing you looks, but you haven’t said more than three words to them since you got here. You work hard, as if there isn’t anything else for you to do, and if you don’t mind me saying, you’re a rather bad conversationalist. I figured that you would have at least asked me how my day was!” The priest laughed as he listed out the reasons. “But, I guess, the main reason is that your eyes just look hollow. There’s no life or love in them.”

  Lee studied the ground in front of him. The priest wasn’t wrong. Things did feel hollow. The world did feel empty, and it definitely didn’t feel like there was any life or love left in him. He wasn’t even sure there had been any to begin with. He had spent the better part of his life accomplishing less and helping fewer people than he had in just a few days in the other world.

  “Yes. No need to tell me I’m right,” the priest said around a mouth full of food. “I’m good at these things. It’s my job, after all.”

  “Your job? I thought you were supposed to enlighten people about God?”

  “Well, there’s that too. But, you know they say that half the people at Sunday services these days are atheists? The really religious ones are the newbies, the ones who come in off the street, and people don’t typically flock to the house of the Lord because their life was great. If someone who wasn’t already a member of some other church walks through that door, I can tell you that he’s broken
in one way or another even before I speak with him.

  “And your job is to show those people God?” Lee saw where the man was going, but he somehow didn’t feel like stopping his flow. Instead, he played into it if for no other reason than to see if he had advice on his own situation.

  “No, my job is to fix them. But you can’t fix a person until you know why they’re not working and how bad the damage is,” the priest said. “I’ve spent the better half of this morning trying to figure out the why since the how was clear as day yesterday.”

  “Any luck, doc?” Lee asked.

  “Not yet, but I could take a guess. I could throw out some random ideas about you hitting an existential crisis. You are roughly the right age for one, but I think I’ll pass. I’ll just tell you that the odd jobs aren’t going to help. People don’t find happiness doing one-offs. Unless their depression was caused by bills, scratching a lottery ticket and winning a million dollars won’t give them any real joy. The only thing that does work consistently is setting goals. Once your mind settles down and starts coping with whatever changed in you, take some time to figure out who you want to be and what you want to do. That’s the best prescription I can write for what ails you.”

  “Then . . . just . . . work toward that?” Lee asked. “Just find a goal and work toward it?”

  “Well, yeah.” The priest chuckled. “People make life a lot more complicated than it has to be. It’s that simple. Set a goal that will take you ten years to accomplish and focus on it as hard as you can. Don’t get caught up in the quick-click instant gratification of this world. Don’t worry about what others tell you that you need or what will only make you happy today. They’re empty calories for the soul. Just focus on whatever goal you decide. Personally, my goal is to read every fantasy book ever written, but given how many come out a year and how much I have to do every day, I see no real end in sight. It’s great.”

  “Thanks,” Lee said, finishing off his sandwich and getting up.