The Electric Mile (Gamer Handle: Vector Book 1)

by Jack Crosby

  “Oh no, I’m just a guide in this. You’ll need to level up on your own.”

  Nothing was ever easy. Under my breath, “Ugh, I miss Ali.”

  “Did you say something?”

  “No, let’s hurry.” I was already more annoyed than I needed to be. “I want to get to where I need to be and get out.”

  Against my better judgement, I followed her down the cliff and towards the Binary Cove.

  Chapter 10 – Big Boss Man

  Moonlight Cave offered no enemies. From the minute we entered the cool, damp place, nothing out of the ordinary jumped out. I’d been played, I think. “That’s why you said I had to level up on my own. There’s nothing here!”

  “Oh, there’s something here. We go deeper.”

  That was cryptic. So we kept going until we entered a part of the cave where a crack in the ceiling allowed moonlight to shine through. Obviously, this is the place where the cave got its name. Unfortunately, there was nowhere else for us to go, as we’d hit a dead end. “Nice job, tour guide. We’re stuck.”

  She still wasn’t in any sort of hurry or looked panicked. “No, we’re far from stuck. You’ll see in a few moments.”

  Forcing the issues wouldn’t get me anywhere. So instead, I just huffed around, quietly throwing a temper tantrum that was quite unlike me, but felt oh so good. As I stormed around the cave in a fucking tizzy, “We’re about to have company.”

  Looking back at Zoe, I realized the moonlight was no longer shining in the center of the room. It’d been following me. “That’s not normal.”

  I stood still and the light caught me, putting me in the spotlight. As soon as it did, the walls began to shake and the ground in the middle opened up. Something was coming up from underneath the cave. I didn’t have to wait long, as a large bullfrog wearing a top hat of all things appeared. He was sitting on a pedestal and it didn’t stop moving up until he was about five feet above me.

  He smiled at Zoe. “Welcome back, anomaly. And it seems you brought a friend, ribbet.”

  I’d gone insane. This was all some LSD fueled hallucination that was warping my mind in ways I couldn’t understand. The frog addressed me the second time. “You’re not going crazy. I am the Firewall, keepers of the beyond areas of the game. If you wish to access the anomaly’s spawning point, you must break the code.”

  “How do I do that?”

  He clapped his two front legs together and more shit happened in the room. Weird protrusions of rock came out of the wall, as well as a weird looking stone slab in front of the frog with carved out pictures. The pictures made no sense, but I got the feeling I was about to be doing some platforming.

  When everything shifted into place and the rumbling stopped, “Player identification: Vector. You have twenty minutes to complete the puzzle or else you’ll be stuck in this room for the remainder of the game.”

  “Wait, what puzzle?”

  He stopped and realized he hadn’t given me the instructions yet. “Around this room are three stones that fit in the control panel in front of me. Find them and gain entry, or else, well you know the alternative already.”

  I certainly did. There was no time to bitch out Zoe for setting me up in such a diabolical manner, so if I survived this, there’d be plenty of ass chewing. I crouched down into a runner’s stance and as soon as the frog bellowed, loud ticking sounds echoed through the cave. The countdown was on.

  I quickly found the first step that was within reach. I pulled myself up and jumped to the next one. I followed the path of stones around the room as it went higher. At the last stone, I saw a small opening at the very top of the room that was wide enough for my hand to go into. I stuck it in and grabbed a hard, rough shape. When I got it free from the hidden compartment, I figured this was the first shape I needed. It took me less time to get back down to the frog and insert the shape on to the corresponding area of the board. It lit up yellow.

  The frog seemed amused. “One down and sixteen thirty-three left on the clock.”

  Nice! With the first one down, it was time to take a look for number two. I didn’t think it’d be as obvious as the first so I started sleuthing around the room, seeing if there was anything out of the ordinary. I didn’t realize how much time I’d wasted until the frog announced with excitement, “Ten minutes left!”

  Shit, I’d been wasting too much time. I needed to do something and fast. Making the bold move, I ran up to the frog’s podium for a better view of the room. He didn’t say anything as I stepped up and lo and behold, another shape was lying beside him. Without even looking at him, I grabbed it and put it on the board. A red light came on when inserted.

  Less than ten minutes and I was two-thirds of the way there. Then something strange happened, the ticking stopped. The frog cleared his throat, bringing my attention back to him. “You have done well to make it to the final stage of the breaking process. Now, the third piece is here but it must be gained in a trial of combat.”

  Combat? “Who am I facing?” And even before I got my answer, I looked at the third shape on the rock console. It was in the shape of a spear head. “Ahhh, hell.”

  “If you want to go to where I came from, you’re going to have to earn that right.”

  So many things made sense. “This was your stupid idea!” Ughhh, I hated being duped. “Why in the world would you offer to bring me here if only to end up fighting me?”

  “Let us see just how strong you are. Oh Great Firewall, begin the countdown.”

  Frogman didn’t even offer me a chance for a rebuttal. He croaked again and the ticking noise started up. Unlike in the arena, Zoe was aggressive from the start.

  Without a chance to draw either weapon, I made my way back to the stone steps I used to get the first shape. With her long spear, it was harder for her to pursue me, so I had a few steps advantage. I pulled my gun out and let loose a Bullet Burst at her feet as she landed two steps below me. She dodged it pretty well, but the narrow section of step didn’t leave much room for maneuvering. She stayed upright, but was off-balance.

  I wanted to make a statement, not just to her and the frog, but to myself, too. Knowing the risks, I jumped from my step towards her, with my foot outstretched. I connected with her chin, knocking her to the cave floor below. The spear fell out of her hand and the head broke off. I landed nicely and picked it up, placing it on the final shape. A green light joined the yellow and red ones.

  The frog jumped once and the ticking went away, this time for good I hoped. “Well done, player. You have successfully entered the proper code and have access to what is beyond this point. As a token to your play, I grant you one hundred experience points and these three prizes.”

  At the mention of prizes, three treasure chests appeared in the center of the room. They were the same colors as the lights from the console. “Thank you for that!”

  “My presence is no longer required.” The room began to shake again; everything that came with the frog was beginning to return to its dormant home. “Good luck moving forward, Vector. There are many more challenges in front of you, ones that you’ve never experienced in this life or your earthbound one.”

  He knew? Before I could grill him, the Firewall frog sank back into the ground and the room was once again an empty place with just a single beam of moonlight in the center. Once again, I was left with more questions than I had answers.

  Chapter 11 – Reconcile

  I ignored the three treasure chests at first. Nope, I was all eyes on Miss Zoe, still rubbing her back from the fall. I was mad – no wait, I was fucking livid. “Some friend you are, setting me up like that.”

  “Who said we are friends?” Her snapback caused me to take a step back. “I am trying to do what’s right for this world and you just happen to be the tool I need. If there was a chance you didn’t have what it took, then being stuck here would’ve kept you out of my way.”

  So that was her plan. I had to admit it was probably a good plan on her part, but now that was over.
“Since I don’t trust you and you doubt me, how about we just go our separate ways then?”

  “No.” She folded her arms over her chest and pouted. “We’re in this together, that’s how it must be.”

  Apparently, in the digital world, logic and reason were thrown out the window and forced demands were in season. “Just because you say it like that doesn’t mean that’s how it has to be.” In the middle of our argument, a portion of the wall on the far side of the room slid open. “I’m going to gather my loot and go get myself leveled up. When I get back, it’d be nice if you weren’t here.”

  My words pierced her like a knife. “Fine.” When a woman said fine, you knew it was never just fine. “If that’s how you want this to play out, then your death will be your reward.”

  That was it, I was done. Pretending Zoe wasn’t even in the room, I walked over to the three chests and began to anticipate what awesome shit I was about to be gifted. I started with the green one, as it represented the shape I had to work the hardest to get. Inside was a new pistol, one that was silver and sleek. Unlike my current weapon, this one had a longer barrel and a more comfortable grip.

  I immediately pulled my old gun out and transferred the scope to the new one. Engraved in the wooden handle on the new weapon was the word Reaper. This was a new one to me, but man oh man, was it a cool fucking gun.

  Next up was the red chest. Inside was a pair of leather, steel toed boots; black with red laces. Eagerly, I whipped those bad boys on and marveled in how soft they felt on the bottoms of my feet. This would make the endless walks around this world much easier to deal with.

  And the excitement continued into the final chest, the yellow one. This was straight cash homey, one thousand credits. Plus, being able to scrap my old pistol, the next time I found a marketplace, I’d be able to finally buy some shit. I did what I needed to and when I was finished getting prepared; I started to walk towards the new exit, my confidence at an all-time high.

  “You’re going to need me.”

  Oh, she was still here. “No I’m not. You can move along now.”

  If there was a rebuttal, I wasn’t sticking around to hear it. I held my new gun up high and slowly walked into the darkness. Soon, the light from the moon was no longer visible. Fortunately my goggles had a night vision mode, so I wasn’t completely in the dark, but it was still weird and eerie.

  I knew there was an enemy here called a wayward son. I had no idea what it’d look like or what kind of attacks it performed. On second thought, I probably shouldn’t have given Zoe the cold shoulder and picked her brain a bit more for her knowledge. As it was, I was in the dark hunting an enemy I knew next to nothing about. Yeah, not one of my better moves.

  A sixth sense or something told me there was someone nearby. I quickly turned around, as I thought I saw movement, but there was nothing there. Trying to keep my cool, I crept forward at a slower pace; trying to keep my eyes open at all angles. The last thing I wanted was to be ambushed.

  Then it dropped from the ceiling. Something hard and heavy landed on me and knocked the wind from me. Whatever it was jumped off of me and landed a few feet out of view. I pointed my gun in the general direction and activated the Bullet Burst skill. The bolts lit up the area, so even though I missed, I found my attacker. Hot damn, did part of me wish I hadn’t.

  This must’ve been a wayward son. It was a three eyed half zombie looking thing with a bit of the terminator mixed in. Circuitry was running down its left arm and the middle eye had a reddish glow to it. This was definitely a techno-organic foe.

  The wayward son staggered forward and came into full view. A bit taller than me, it swiped with the mechanical arm at me, but it telegraphed the punch giving me time to avoid. The fist slammed into the wall behind me, putting a decent sized hole in it. Reminder – don’t let this thing punch me.

  At such close quarters, I pulled out the dagger the Oracle gave me. As the wayward son lurched forward again, I stuck out the bladed instrument and stabbed the unprotected center eye. The attack caused it to start whirling and steaming from the ears before it fell down lifelessly. My oculus dinged, signaling my next level.

  There was clapping nearby. “Bravo.” Zoe – and it was dripping with sarcasm. “I was pretty sure you were going to get killed on the very first attack. Good thing that was only a level ten wayward son. The more dangerous ones lurk deeper.”

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” I was dead serious when I told her to hit the bricks. “I don’t want your help nor do I need it.”

  “Come now, you nearly were killed by a low level enemy. Look at your oculus and tell me we still can’t be a team.”

  If looks could kill, she’d be long gone. Still, knowing that it couldn’t hurt to look at what the oculus said, I went to the ally page and was a bit surprised. “Son of a bitch, how can we still have an eighty percent trust ranking?”

  Ignoring that, “You also need to choose your next skill it seems. Maybe pick one that’ll help in these tight spaces.”

  I slid the screen back to the skill tree. I’d been so annoyed at everything else; I forgot that at level eight I picked up my next skill. With gunslinger no longer my designation, the skill tree looked a bit different. Bullet Burst was still activated, but the next skill in that line was not what I remembered. My next two choices on the tree were Sentinel’s Wrath and Mass Explosion. Both of them sounded really cool.

  Doing my due diligence, I tapped Sentinel’s Wrath to get the breakdown. This skill was a knife skill, which when activated, gave the user (me) five seconds of total invincibility to hack and slash at an enemy. The only requirement was that the Oracle’s dagger had to be equipped at the time of use.

  For Mass Explosion, this skill was used to charge a shot before the trigger was pulled, allowing the bolt to become an explosive. Upon impact, the bolt would blow up, causing significant amounts of damage in a five foot perimeter. The best part, this skill could be used in conjunction with Bullet Burst. As always, both had their cool down times, to stop players from spamming the skills.

  Zoe was standing over me, just waiting for me to ask her for her opinion. The problem was, I didn’t want it. While Sentinel’s Wrath might’ve been useful in this situation, in the long term, I thought Mass Explosion seemed the better fit for me. With my mind made up, I clicked on the skill and completed my selection. Next skill would be available at level thirteen.

  I took it from the sighs and the ‘huhs’ coming from Zoe that she didn’t think I picked the right one. “Listen, I’m the one playing this game and I’m going to stick to what I know.”

  “As the Oracle’s chosen defender, I’d think you’d be more open to skills that tout your class in them. It only makes the most sense.” Then she closed her eyes, “However, this is your quest. So, please, do as you see fit.”

  “Was that some sort of half assed apology?”

  She shrugged her shoulders, never answering the question. “You are two levels away from being able to access the next areas of the game. If we’re lucky though, you might be able to get to level thirteen before we need to leave. Some level grinding will do you good.”

  It seemed that was about as good as I was going to get. “Okay, this is your area. Let’s do this thing and get the hell outta here.”

  She produced a short sword, which I knew she hadn’t been in possession of when I stormed off, and pointed onwards. “Let’s go hunting, shall we?”

  Chapter 12 – The Canyon Run

  Zoe and I rolled up to the road that took one to the abandoned power grid. There was a gate that I needed to go up and activate. At level fourteen with all new equipment and an additional skill, I was feeling pretty damn good about myself. The wayward son hunting in the anomaly zone was good stuff.

  The drops the wayward sons had were incredible. I was equipped with a complete new armor set (one that got me the achievement Set Completion), a shit ton of credits to my account, and that badass new skill I mentioned just a moment ago, Heart of the
Oracle. With this skill, when I activated it, all of my allies instantly get a power boost and an endurance kick.

  I walked up to the gate and placed my palm on the control panel beside it. It came to life and the arm moved out of the way. Getting back in the car, “You ready to do this?”

  “We need one more thing before we go.” Curious, I watched her turn the dial on the car radio on and a power rock anthem filled the speakers. “That’s better.”

  “Fuck yeah it is!” How could I have forgotten the tunes? With this music getting me even more in the groove, I took the car out of park and entered the deserted road. “Okay, I need you on the lookout for raid vipers. This is like prime territory for them.”

  I gave the little vehicle all the gas I could give it. Even though this thing was far from perfect (turns out the gun mounted on top didn’t work – a damn shame), I was pretty fond of it. As we churned up dust as rubber met the road, there was a cool confidence in the air. We were going to make it to the power grid and we were going to reactivate it.

  Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, but knowing the power grid from my hours and hours spent playing the game, I thought I had a pretty good advantage. Plus, having been killed by the electric scorpion that serves as the boss a time or two, I knew its tricks inside and out.

  “Raid viper, straight ahead!”

  As soon as its ugly head broke through the ground, I swerved the wheel to the right to avoid it. The car responded well and we zoomed by the first raid viper. Sure as shit, the moment we cleared that one, another one burst forth. Another quick turn of the wheel to the left and we zigzagged past him.

  The walls of the canyon that we entered were already beginning to crumble from the raid vipers shaking the earth. I had to hit the gas to avoid getting crunched by a decent sized boulder that fell down on to the road. With being inside the canyon on the narrow road, we were like sitting ducks. If the raid vipers tried anything inside here, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to avoid them.