by Jason Segel
“Step back!” Volla bellows, clutching her baby against her chest. The ground shakes and leaves rain down from the trees.
Elvis elbows me in the side. “Come on, Simon! Tell the lady you’re sorry!”
I know I should, but I don’t. There’s something else that needs to come out first. “Is he new? Is that why he’s still here in Gimmelwald with you?”
“He is my first since your kind arrived. It is not safe for him here. They will come for him as soon as he’s grown and take him to a realm that guests are not allowed to enter.”
I suddenly have a really bad feeling about all of this. Children are being born again, and then someone is rounding them up. “Who are they?”
“Moloch’s soldiers,” says Volla. “Since the Creator abandoned us, the Elemental of Imperium has taken over the Creator’s role as the protector of the Children.”
Oh, shit. That is not good. Not good at all. The Creator died when Milo Yolkin did. And two guys who work for the Company control Moloch. He’s supposed to be the Elemental of Imperium, but he’s nothing more than an avatar whose purpose is to exterminate Otherworld’s Children. I can only imagine what Moloch has in store for the ones he’s been gathering—and the new ones the Company has been letting the game generate.
“I know Moloch. You can’t trust him,” I warn her. “Your Children are in terrible danger.”
“You are lying!” she roars, and the earth trembles once more. It takes every bit of courage I can summon to stand my ground.
“I swear to you, I’m telling the truth,” I assure her. “If you let us leave Gimmelwald without dying, I promise we will do our best to help them.”
“No,” Volla says. “I will not take the word of a human guest over one of my own kind. You may leave Gimmelwald, but you must do it without my assistance.”
“You go, Simon,” I hear Elvis insist. “You have the master disk. Use the amulet and get to the ice fields. I’ll stay here and wait for you. If I don’t die of boredom, I should be safe in the cottage until the girls pull us out. Gunter and I can play cards or something.”
“Cards?” Gunter asks, sounding quite intrigued. I think he may be desperate for company.
“No,” I tell Elvis. “We stick together. That’s how this works. There’s no safe place in Otherworld. I’m not going to leave you behind.” It feels a bit strange to be bickering in front of an NPC and a giant woman who’s recently risen out of the earth, especially since the queen of dirt seems to be hanging on my every word. I wish she’d give us a little privacy, but I’m guessing that’s probably too much to ask right now.
“So we’re both going to just sit here until the girls peel off our disks?” Elvis complains. “That doesn’t even make sense! Why don’t you just go ahead and check on the dirt lady’s kids and then pop over for a chat with Busara’s dad? I’ll be fine here, I swear.”
“You don’t know that!” I’m about to lose it. Why can’t he just take me at my word? “I already lost one friend in Otherworld. I got separated from my companions, and she died trying to save me. I’m not going to lose another person I care about. Either we go to the ice fields together or we don’t go at all.”
“You care about me?” Elvis asks. He looks genuinely touched.
“Oh, Jesus,” I groan. “Do we have to do this now? Of course I care about you! Do you want a hug, too?”
“Why do you wish to visit the ice fields?” the Elemental interrupts. I suspect she knows what’s there.
“We’re trying to reach the cave where the Creator once took shelter,” I tell her. “There’s someone trapped inside that we need to help.”
The naked dirt lady isn’t buying it. “I have never known your kind to show compassion toward one another.”
“Yeah, well, Otherworld doesn’t exactly attract the finest specimens that humanity has to offer,” I snip. I’ve given up trying to convince her that I’m not an asshole.
“What my friend is trying to say, ma’am, is that we’re not all bad,” Elvis says, displaying manners I wasn’t aware he possessed. “And Simon here happens to be one of the best. I owe him my life.”
That’s a bit of an exaggeration, I’d say. If I’m the best of humanity, we’re all in a ton of trouble. But Elvis sounds sincere. Even I’m starting to believe him—and to my surprise, the Elemental actually seems convinced.
“It is against our rules to send you where you want to go,” Volla announces. “The ice fields are a liminal space. But I will help you get there on one condition. You will visit my Children first, and if they are in danger as you say, you must help them, too.”
I have no idea what changed her mind, but I’m not going to look this gift horse in the mouth. “We’ll do what we can,” I say, and I mean it. But I’m well aware that what we can do may not be enough.
Volla holds her Child with one arm and reaches deep into her chest with the other. When her hand emerges, it’s holding a glowing red stone.
“I will send you to the realm where my Children were taken. Once you have ensured that they’re safe, this will take you where you want to go. Use it wisely. It will only work once.”
“Hey, this doesn’t look so bad,” says Elvis.
We’re standing by a watering hole in the middle of a golden savannah. A herd of deerlike beasts is drinking at one end. Mutant flamingos that appear more fuchsia than pink are mingling with the mammals. Not far away, the most fabulous tree house ever built sits atop stilts, nestled in the canopy of the alien-looking baobabs that surround it. A wide porch circles a lovely wooden structure. There’s no glass in its windows, and white curtains flutter in the wind.
“We’ll see,” I tell him. The bad feeling I had back in Gimmelwald has just grown considerably worse. We’re out in the open, and I feel exposed. An attack could be launched on us from almost any direction.
Together Elvis and I wade through the grass to the building. As we approach, a ladder is lowered from above. We climb up to the porch, where a woman in white is waiting. But before she greets us, she pulls the ladder back up. There seems to be some urgency to her movements.
“Worried the deer are going to climb up behind us?” I joke just to clear the tension. It doesn’t work.
“No, sir,” she says. Her voice may be subservient, but her expression says I’m an idiot.
Elvis catches my eye. He’s still amazed by the AI. “She thought your joke was stupid!” he whispers.
The NPC drops her head. “I’m very sorry, sir,” she says.
“No worries. It was pretty dumb,” Elvis says cheerfully. “What realm is this again?”
This time, the NPC looks confused. “This is Karamojo. Did you not request to come here?”
“I did,” I jump in. “I wanted it to be a surprise. It’s his birthday.”
That seems to be the right answer. “Oh, good,” says the NPC. “The last party left about an hour ago. The next will leave after lunch. Would you like to relax while you’re waiting? I would be happy to bring refreshments.”
“I guess so,” I say. What else is there to do? I take a seat on one of the chairs looking out over the savannah. The view is spectacular. The grasslands appear to be ringed by jungle. A herd of elephants is leisurely plucking leaves off the trees. Then there’s the sound of a single shot in the distance. Spooked, the elephants stomp into the jungle and disappear in the dense foliage.
“Do guests come here to hunt elephants?” I ask.
“Of course not.” The NPC looks perplexed. “Why would they do that?”
“Okay, I think that’s enough questions for now,” Elvis announces as he claims a seat next to mine. I shoot him a dirty look and he throws his hands up in the air. “What? I’m looking forward to sampling the refreshments that our friend promised to bring us.”
The NPC takes that as her cue to leave, and Elvis waits until she’s out
of earshot before he leans over the side of the chair. “Okay, we gotta talk. I thought Gunter was an impressive piece of AI, but the dirt goddess was on a whole different level. I think she really loved that creepy baby.”
“I’m sure she did,” I say. The subject isn’t one I’d like to linger on at the moment—not until we know where her other Children have gone.
“Holy shit,” Elvis gushes. “So she feels real emotions? She’s conscious? The Company cracked true AI? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I guess I wanted it to be a surprise. Milo Yolkin designed the Elementals to be conscious. Their Children are conscious too. But like I said earlier, the Children were never part of the plan. Something went wrong in the early days of Otherworld, and Milo was supposed to have fixed it. There shouldn’t be any new Children being made.”
“And this Moloch guy who’s been taking them—isn’t he an Elemental? Why are you so worried about what he’s done?”
“Moloch isn’t really part of the game. He’s an avatar that’s controlled by two engineers who work at the Company.”
Elvis’s brow furrows. “So first the Company undoes what Milo fixed and lets new Children get created. And then they have somebody here in Otherworld round them all up?”
“Exactly,” I say. I’m about to tell him my hunch when we hear footsteps coming our way. The NPC sets a tray down on a small table in front of us. On it are two glasses of pale green liquid and a bowl filled with something that looks a lot like jerky.
Elvis leans forward, grabs a strip and pops it in his mouth. “Wow, this is amazing,” he tells me.
“You can taste it?” the NPC asks. Her face remains blank, but there’s no doubt she’s surprised.
“Sure,” Elvis tells her. “What is this stuff?”
“I believe it’s a unique mixture of things,” the NPC says. “We don’t let anything go to waste.”
“You make all the food here?” I ask.
“In the kitchen,” she tells me.
“Mind if I take a look?” I ask her.
She meets my eyes for the first time. She’s trying to figure me out. “Of course. This is Otherworld,” the NPC says. “Your kind may do whatever you like.”
“I’ll be right back,” I tell Elvis. “Go easy on that jerky.”
While Elvis enjoys his refreshments, I rise from my seat and head inside the building. The first things I notice are the gun cabinets to my left and my right. Then my eyes land on a wall toward the back that’s covered with hunting trophies. From a distance I can see that some of the mounted heads have horns and others have fur. Many have neither. I can also see that no two heads are alike, and I have to force myself to keep breathing as I register what I’m looking at. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced horror quite like this before. I don’t want to step forward. In fact, I can’t think of anything I’d rather do less. But I know I have to.
Children stare out at me with lifeless eyes. Females and males. Large and small. Some beautiful, others hideous. There are a few that appear almost human. Most look like what they are—a unique mixture of things. I’ve never successfully vomited in Otherworld, but now I know that it’s possible. It smells every bit as awful as it does in the real world.
The NPC rushes over to clean the floor and wipe off my shoes. I barely notice her. My eyes have landed on a familiar face. It was one I was hoping I wouldn’t see again. It never occurred to me that I might encounter him in a place like this. The pupils in his amber eyes are a thick black dash, and his flat nose is missing a bridge. A sparse beard of white fur covers his chin, and the buds of two horns strain at the skin of his forehead. On my first trip to Otherworld, he tried to eat me. It’s quite possible that Elvis is now outside eating him.
“What the hell is this place?” I ask the woman, who’s still wiping the floor around my feet. I don’t really need to be told. This is what happened to the Children Moloch took from Gimmelwald and all the other realms.
“You didn’t know?” I glance down to see the NPC peering up at me.
“They’re brought here to be hunted for sport,” I say. I gesture to the wall. “Are these the only ones?”
She doesn’t need to say a word. One shake of her head tells me the trophies on the wall are just the beginning.
I leave her there and rush out to get Elvis. We have our answer. All my worst fears have been confirmed. I find him standing by the porch balcony, looking down at something below. I can tell by the way he’s gripping the wood that it’s something he’d rather not see.
There are two hunters on horses heading in our direction. They’re dragging three bodies behind them on the ground. One of them is the same color as Volla’s baby.
“Are those what I think they are?” Elvis croaks. For the first time since our reunion, there’s not a hint of humor in his voice.
“Yes. They’re Children,” I say. “This is a hunting lodge.”
He inhales deeply. “Are there guns in there?” he asks on the exhale.
I nod. Elvis bolts into the lodge and returns with a rifle. He takes aim at one of the hunters and shoots. The bullet hits its mark. The avatar flashes but doesn’t disappear, which means one of two things. Either the avatar’s lost a life—or the player controlling it has taken off his headset and left the game.
“Hey!” the guy shouts angrily. Seems he hasn’t quit. His avatar lost a life, but he could still have up to two lives to spare.
Elvis takes aim at the second. Again, there’s a flash, but nothing else happens. “What the hell is going on?” he asks, staring at his gun. “Why isn’t this thing working?”
“It is. But they’re headset players,” I tell him. “Keep shooting them and you might send one back to setup, but they’re not going to die.”
There’s a shot from below and the wooden railing next to Elvis splinters. Both guests have their guns out. We’re now the ones being hunted.
“We have to leave,” I tell Elvis.
“How can we go?” he shouts. “These assholes are massacring sentient beings!”
“And I promise you, we’ll be next to die if we stay,” I say.
“We told the dirt lady we’d help her Children!” Elvis cries.
“Which is not something we’ll be able to do if those assholes down there kill us!” I pull out the stone Volla gave us and hold it in my open palm. “Put your hand over it.”
“No!” Elvis refuses as bullets fly past. The hunters are growing closer, and their aim is getting better.
“I know where to find the leader of the Children,” I say. “I’ll take us there. Grab your coat. You’re going to need it.”
There are tears streaming out of Elvis’s eyes as he puts his palm on top of mine.
“Fire,” I order. Elvis’s torch lights up on command.
“Where the hell are we now?” My companion’s teeth are chattering as he pulls on his coat and wipes his eyes. The air around us is frigid and still. Our breath turns into icy clouds as it leaves our lungs.
I’m not entirely sure where we are. We’re standing just inside the entrance to an underground cavern. It must be the right place, but it doesn’t look like it did the last time I visited. Which means something has gone very wrong.
“We’re supposed to be under the ice fields,” I tell him as I take it all in. The cavern walls are now carpeted in a thick black mold that looks like a shag rug. I brush a finger against it. A million tiny tendrils latch on, and I’m forced to jerk my hand back. I think the stuff might be carnivorous. “This is where the Children used to hide while they waged war against Moloch. Kat and I were here not that long ago. There were thousands of Children living in the caverns.”
“Do you think they’ve all been taken to Karamojo?” Elvis almost whispers. It’s a thought so horrible that it can’t be spoken at full volume.
I really hope not, but I have
to admit that’s the most likely answer. “I don’t know,” I say. “Let’s go have a look. Find out if anyone’s still around.”
We plunge deeper into the cavern. Soon there’s no need for Elvis’s fire. The path ahead is lit by a pale blue light that comes from what appear to be strands of stars suspended from the ceiling. Like the mold, they’re living creatures. When Kat and I were here together, she told me the Children had cultivated them. Now the tiny beings are blinking madly. It’s the same pattern, over and over. I get the sense that they’re desperately trying to communicate something, though I have no way of knowing what it is.
I stop at the entrance of an enormous circular chamber. There’s a figure on the other side, standing guard in front of one of six passages that branch off in different directions. At first I’m relieved to see him, but something prevents me from getting closer. In fact, I take a quick step back.
“What are you doing?” Elvis whispers. “Isn’t that one of the Children? Let’s talk to him. We didn’t come all this way to be shy.”
“I know,” I admit. “But we need to be careful, too. I can’t tell from here if that’s a Child. And even if it is—not all of them are friendly.”
“So we’re just going to stand here?” Elvis demands.
“Will you give it a rest?” I hiss. God he’s starting to get on my nerves.
I take a step into the chamber, and the creatures on the ceiling blaze all at once. In the bright light, I can see the figure clearly. He’s wearing a black uniform and a helmet with a single word printed across it. MOLOCH. It must be an NPC soldier from Moloch’s realm, Imperium. My body takes action before my brain catches up. The dagger is out of my boot and flying across the room. It lands with a thud in the center of the NPC’s chest.
“What the—” Elvis starts. I don’t hear the rest. I’m across the chamber in an instant. I take the soldier’s gun and drag his body out of sight. Then I motion for Elvis to join me. When he does, I thrust the NPC’s gun into his hands and point to the opposite side of the door.
