Winter Harvest

by Dawn Chapman

  “Okay.” I laughed with her a little. “So what are the full levels here? What is the system, and what else do I need to know here?”

  “Moving up from where you are without any core nanites is not going to come easy.” Naylar continued on, and I listened pretending to learn more. “I think we can get you some more base nanites, but they won’t have any programming. If we can get out the crater we’re in and back to base camp, I think I can program them for you. Only other thing we could perhaps do is get you started with a blood transfusion from one of us. Maybe Jai would be best, as his nanites are going to be able to train your base ones up quickly after the initial boost you had earlier.”

  Xe and my nites had been a step above theirs, it seemed. Different models of tech and denti. I put that down to when we all originally spawned. It also showed me that they had been here as a team for a long time. They had dynamics together, and they fought for it. It had also told me that at one point, Naylar had been separated from Denn, and she’d had one hell of a time trying to get back to her.

  “I have no idea how that is possible,” I said in the end.

  “We know some of it. They are still programs, much like a computer is. They have their own sets of rules and things they can and can’t do.”

  “No one tried to break their code?” She gave me the funniest look, and I laughed. “Yeah, all this time out here and no one’s tried. I’m sure that’s why they never sent any decent coders before.”

  She nodded at me. “Nail on the head. And then out of the sky you drop.”

  My eyes locked with hers, and I knew she wanted me to be able to do just that: to break the code of their captors and free them of their imprisonment.

  “What if I can’t?” I sighed.

  “Then you’re just another number to us, and we’ll go about our lives making the best we can of it, levelling till we can’t do anymore, and learning all the time. This is just a matter of waiting now. We’ll nail them to the wall eventually.”

  It was the eventually that got me, that gave me hope.

  “How many levels are there?” I didn’t really want to know the answer, but I also did. I needed to hear it.

  “Well, I’ve been here like I said twenty-eight years, as I’ve said. I’m level fifty-four.”

  I looked around the cave system and waited to hear something else; she then ran through the other names and their levels. “Denn is sixty-two, and Rei, forty-eight.”

  “And I’m at twenty… nowhere near—”

  “No, sorry.” Naylar shook her head, and I gulped. “Not even out of basic yet. You reach trainee when you pass level twenty-five. Even though no one likes to think it here, we’re all still basic….”

  “That really is all kinds of fucked up!”

  “Yes, and us getting you across that field out there in the morning is going to be hard as sin.”

  “We can do it though, right?”

  She smiled. “We’ve done impossible before. It’s nothing new there.”

  “Then that’s all the encouragement I need.” I let out a sigh.

  I wasn’t kidding her or myself. But I’d take it. As long as there was the belief that we’d make it out there tomorrow and to a base where I could start some treatment and training, then I’d take it. I wanted to get out of here, and I would. We would.

  The small team around the cave snored all in sync, it seemed. I wondered for a brief moment, then asked. “Can we turn off, to get some better sleep of course?”

  “Go to your settings, and yes, there’s some information that will allow you to enter a good sleep mode. You need to log six hours.”

  I never even knew it was possible before. Hiroto, yeah I was sure. He managed a lot for me. I missed them. All three of them. Yes, Xe as well. When I dug, I found this was interesting. I found the right section, then hesitated. “What happens if something comes in the cave?”

  “That’s why we set traps, but we usually rotate watch. Because I’m the youngest, I usually go first. If anything comes for us in the night, it’s later on, so having the stronger guys up then is more important.”

  That made sense to me, and I opened up my interface once more to take a look. I clicked the tiny wheel in the corner and found the things I needed.

  Hiroto had done such a lot of the tiniest things for me, I was having to do it all myself now, and it felt weird. I wanted to sleep, yes. Sleep with no dreams. I wondered if that would be a setting I could find.

  No.

  There was this, though. Holy fuck, no.

  MAINS = OFF/ON

  I scooted on past it and found the sleep timer.

  SLEEP – TIME LAPSE 6 HOURS

  But my thoughts were to that mains button. I hadn’t seen that before. Had Hiroto hidden it from me? Why on Earth could I turn myself off? I mean, was it like really terminate? Fully dead?

  I hovered over the button, toying with it.

  “There’s this other button,” I said. “Does it really—”

  That was when I felt the slap at the base of my neck. “Don’t you dare do that!”

  I looked at Naylar and almost choked. “What?”

  “I forgot that the mains button was there. I saw your eyes glaze over, and I had to stop you. Apologies.”

  “It’s okay. What is it?”

  “You’re that new?” she asked, her brows furrowed. I could only nod.

  “I don’t get it. But the first time we were all downloaded, we were told the truth by our guards. There was a choice we all had that first night. We had one way out, a final way. Some pushed it. They never came back.”

  She seemed to be sad about this.

  “Why are you sad?” I had to ask.

  “Because once you realise it’s there, you never get it back. You never get the option again, and they never tell you this.”

  That seemed a terrible deal. One hit to take your own life and not be stuck in this, this hell. “How? Why on Earth was it here in the first place?”

  “I don’t know. You get that choice tonight, it seems.” Her eyes were telling me something else though. “Just click the sleep setting, pick 0430 hours, and rest. We’ve a lot of ground to cover in the morning.”

  “So I can’t get six hours now.” I tried to make her smile again, but she wasn’t having it.

  “No. Sleep.”

  I went back to my settings, thought about that mains button, and ignored it. There was no way I was taking my own life. Never.

  I found the right button to push, and I did so. My body moved back in the blankets, and I was asleep before I knew it.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  I sat upright, looking at the brightness of the day. It was as if I’d rested fully. The others were pottering about a bit already. I was sure we’d all have woken at a similar time. But that would depend on when they’d fallen asleep, I guess. Someone would have to wake first, right?

  I could hear Jai and Rei going over something in the doorway. I helped the girls pack up the bags and then move to join them at the door.

  “What’s up?”

  “Were just discussing the plan for getting out of here.”

  “That bad?”

  Jai pointed out into the greenery. “Yes, it seems there’s a concentration of enemies on both sides. We can try to get up the middle, but one of their scouts is going to see us.”

  “We have to take one lot out, right?” He seemed a little shocked that I knew what to do, so I added, “I played a lot of games with my friends.”

  “Oh, yeah. I think you mentioned something in your sleep earlier.” I was talking in my sleep. That thought mortified me.

  “Yeah, you’re not the only one. The first few nights there’s a lot going on. We just weren’t expecting you, so it’s brought back a lot of memories.”

  Jai nodded back to camp and to Naylar, who was comforting Denn again.

  I felt my forehead scrunch together. She was in obvious pain, and my being here was what had set it off.

  “I don’t
know what I can offer to help you,” I said.

  “We know. We’ll do the best we can. All any of us can ask for.”

  I would have done so much back at home with access to all my tech and gear, but out here with nothing but the hands and body I’d been given? I was sure I’d crash and break down a lot quicker than some. Or would I?

  This was a pretty big test for anyone. I wondered if it was some part of the deal to put me in the right place?

  I tried my best to shrug it all off. And I looked out to the grounds spreading before us. “Do you guys have a map?”

  “Check the files. There’s one titled map download. That should be easy to load. There’s never been any access to that one needed before.”

  I quickly brought up their file and clicked it, and it was indeed easy to get into my head. Once there, I could see a tiny blip of where we were and where we needed to go. I smiled. At least if I ever got lost from them, I would have some kind of clue.

  “We ready for this?” Denn came up behind me, and I felt her hand on my shoulder.

  Jai grinned. “Don’t think any of us are ever ready to go out there and face these things with a noob in tow.”

  Naylar reached into her backpack. “I don’t have another spare, but this should give you something to shoot at them if they get too close.”

  I took hold of the weapon, its stats flashing up.

  LIGHTNING PISTOL – LEVEL 20

  WEIGHT – 1.1LB

  QUALITY – EXCELLENT CORE ENERGY – 99%

  SHOTS – DEPENDING ON STRENGTH SETTING = 1000 MINIMUM

  It was almost identical to the one Nehi had given me. But it was set nice and low. I wondered how low. In all, it was just a much more placid weapon.

  “Why do you have such a low range weapon?”

  “Clever, aren’t you? I altered the settings first thing this morning. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had anything for you,” Naylar said. “We’ll take the lead, Denn usually takes the brunt of the forces, and Rei follows. Myself and Jai will make sure you’re in the middle and safe, okay?”

  I didn’t want to be okay with it. I wanted to fight, to do something. But I nodded, and within a second, we were out and into the greenery, rushing towards the spot on the map that was highlighted.

  Energy blasts flashed up ahead and to our right as we moved away from the cave system.

  “We’ve been spotted,” Denn shouted.

  We’d not even got halfway out of the first chunk of trees when Denn’s right side exploded with a fiery red blast.

  I stumbled and fell, but Jai grabbed hold of me and held me up. I didn’t like this, to be beholden to someone like him.

  That’s when I saw the creatures start to come out of the trees and bushes. I’d never seen anything swarm like they did. Denn was the first to start lashing out and drawing weapons from her sides, which began forming glowing rings around her. She was something else, and I watched for her technique. She seemed to dance around them with a lot of grace.

  Rei backed her up with something of a similar selection of moves. I could tell they’d been together for a while because they really managed to bounce off each other. Whirling and dancing and nothing—I mean nothing—got through to me. When one of the creatures tried to get into me, Naylar or Jai were quick to swoop in and slice it to its death.

  I wanted to kill things. It would be the only way I’d gain levels with them. I could hear things and see what was happening before me, but I couldn’t respond quickly enough. This I didn’t like. I wanted to be able to help and to do something. The smaller weapon I had seemed to just want to do its own thing. I tried to point it, but I wasn’t nearly as quick or good as the others, and no sooner had I lined it up, than the thing would be dead by some other hand. However, we were making progress, and the critters were dying fast.

  I liked how they came together for this, and for me. I felt bad, but also hopeful that together we could and would bring this new plan to fruition.

  “I see the Korarn,” Denn shouted back.

  “What’s the Korarn?” I asked, but it fell on deaf ears.

  The trees parted in front of us, and this large floating device or creature hovered into view. It was silver, large, and had bright red spots dotted around its body. The fact that it seemed to look right at me was eerie.

  “It wants Kyle!” Denn turned and caught me totally off guard as its red dots lined up on me and fired. Denn hitting me square in the chest knocked me out of its fire path, and I fell backward with a squelch, the gun going off in my hands. I screamed out of fright more than anything and saw nothing but fiery death above me as the others started their counter to the massive creature.

  “Stay down,” Denn said and was up and off me in a second.

  I noticed the blood on me, thinking I was hit, but then noticed it wasn’t me. She had been injured by the very gun I’d been given to aid them. I wanted to punch something. I’d never felt more a failure than I did now.

  But even lying here, I could see them work together to take the creature down.

  It struggled, flopped about some, and then keeled over.

  Jai was the one who offered me a hand a moment later to pick myself up. Naylar was with Denn, and Rei also helped her stop the bleeding.

  “We need to get to the base a little quicker. That wound will get infected out here fast,” Jai said to her.

  “My nites are on it.” She nodded. “I can pick up the pace, so don’t be worrying about me. Can you keep him out of trouble?”

  The harshest words, but they were true. I’d put her at risk, and she was injured because of me. Her blood soaked the clothes that they’d given me.

  “I—I dunno…”

  “Just keep behind us, keep moving, and if something turns to look at you, don’t look at it. Just put your head down and run with us, okay?”

  I nodded. The blood was seeping through the bandages they’d secured about her. “If you die, you’ll just respawn back at whatever base they wanted, right?”

  Denn shook her head. “No, we’ve been out of touch from a base for a while.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that we don’t get to reload here. We get split up and end up back at one of their main bases. Probably a ship in orbit. I don’t like dying.”

  I almost laughed. It was a stress response. “I don’t want to die either,” I said. “But I probably will.”

  “Well, we’ll get you to the base first, with some luck. I don’t honestly know where you’d come back now if you’re technically not supposed to be here.”

  I had no idea. That thought scared me. This was indeed the best opportunity I’d had so far. I would level quicker than anything around these guys. Not that I hadn’t already been levelling faster than anyone… But, I needed to stay here. Everything I’d kind of learned and not learned was stupid info and things they’d lied about anyway. It didn’t make any sense.

  “Where to, Denn?” Jai asked.

  “We need to head back towards the cliff, then to the left side of Reix Valley.”

  Even I could see the dots and the mass to where the other critters were. It also seemed to be a lot bigger than the ones we’d just killed off.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “We don’t have much of a choice, and we’d better run for it. If we stand any chance at all.”

  I swallowed, sucked in a breath, and waited for them to make the first move. It was Denn who pushed herself up, slid her weapons into her hands, and then powered on. I had to admire her. I’d no idea at all how close to death she could be. Or if she died, what it meant to be respawned here, without the others and essentially on her own. I think that was her biggest fear, not just death itself, and I glanced to Naylar, suddenly thinking and realising what was going on with them as a couple. Maybe they’d really never lost a fight like this before.

  I would be the reason they would if they did.

  The pinpoint on the map was drawing closer, and the smaller
critters started to come out of the woodwork so that we were drawn in. Denn was still quick off the mark and taking out more than Rei. I was shocked still at her prowess. But she missed one, and as I spun around in that split second to see if I could get it, I expected one of the others to, but no.

  They were all occupied.

  I really wanted to kill this thing myself, so I upped the weapon’s strength to full. Then I aimed, and pulled the trigger. The kickback off the blast whipped my hand back in a sharp movement that would probably break most people’s wrists, but although it hurt, it didn’t break.

  The critter took the hit, popping in a glorious blood splat. I yelped with excitement. That didn’t last long though, because there was another, and this time I wasn’t quick enough.

  It came straight at me, it’s sharp pincer-looking knives slicing and dicing. Where did it get those from? All of a sudden it wasn’t so much a critter but a machine. I tried to hit out at it, but the knives sliced through my skin. I cried out as it continued to reach bone. Quickly thinking, I reached for something, anything, to try and knock it out of my reach.

  I picked up a rock and hit the pincers away from me. It scrabbled, and I fell backward. Jai managed to cut it clean in half. His strength showed as he managed to cut through metal in one blow from his massive sword. Wow. I really wanted to make it up to his level and beyond. It actually got me a little excited about what was possible still, what my life could mean here. I still wanted that mech! And getting back to it and Tolsa was something I wanted to do. My issue now was that for the first time, I actually wasn’t sure I wanted to go home.

  As the next critter ran for me, I hit it square between the eyes. It popped into a thousand metal pieces.

  The excitement now coursing through my veins was enough for me to whoop out when I got the next one, and then another. Jai was by my side in a second, and he started to make sure he countered any I missed.

  The five of us were striking out with impressive skill, even if I was a crap shot. I managed to miss a few and then hit some more. I just needed to make sure I didn’t hit any of my teammates who were bouncing around.