by Jack Crosby
I didn’t realize the two of them had been so close. I figured it’d been a random meeting like the Oracle finding me. Or was it something more? Could this be an overreaction to Draxler telling her that she was the cause of the characters getting freewill? “You know, it’s not your fault that freewill has been introduced.”
“What?” she snapped. Though in the process, she’d stopped kicking the corpse and was focused on me. “That has nothing to do with it.”
Her tone betrayed the words she tried to convince me with. “Of course it does. Without freewill, Draxler doesn’t show up here and the chain of events that happened, well they don’t happen.”
There it was – the anger she’d been feeling was being replaced with sadness. “It’s as you say, if I don’t come into existence, the game goes on how it was designed, not this anarchy.”
For some reason, I felt this overwhelming need to hug her, to let her know it would be okay. So I did. At first, she half-heartedly tried to push away, but then stopped and fell against my chest. She began to sob, which was no surprise and I stroked her hair while she let it all out. Eventually, “I’m okay.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” Zoe turned away from Avrel’s body and began to walk out of the room. “Come on, Vector, we should probably go.”
There wasn’t anything left here, that was for sure. So I followed her, though as I stepped over Avrel’s body, something out of the ordinary caught my eye. “That’s fucking weird.” I picked it up, it was a pastel blue Easter Egg. “Son of a bitch…”
Zoe was eyeballing the thing in my hand. “What’s that supposed to be?”
This was going to be a story. “My previous guide, Ali, told me about Easter Eggs in the game. I just didn’t expect them to be in the literal sense.”
The next few minutes were describing what an Easter Egg was and how it translated into the gaming world. At the end of the explanation, she seemed to have some what a grasp on the concept. “So, if we find four more of these, it’ll unlock a hidden level and go deeper into the mystery?”
“That’s the idea. Ali said it would free them of the constraints the game designers shackled them with, but I wonder how the evolution of freewill affects that.”
“Let’s open the egg and see what’s inside.”
I was excited too, so I snapped it open and inside was a Taret card. This was a very interesting card because it had my face on it and labeled me Ash, not my gamer handle of Vector. My new Ash card had an even higher rating then my raid viper king card. I took out my deck and put the card in.
Zoe pulled out a deck of her own. “Had I known you played Taret, we already would’ve thrown down. And I saw your face on that card, plus the name Ash. Is that your real name?”
“Yeah, my real name is Ash Wilde, not Vector or GrimmsReapers. Those are just gamer handles.”
“Interesting.” She put her cards back and waved a finger for me to follow her. “Come on, Ash,” she emphasized the name a little too much for my liking. “We have a bastard to catch.”
As much of a hurry she was in, I wasn’t looking forward to our next stop. We were leaving the frying pan and about to head into the fire: pirate territory. The Pirate King, Abraham Helsing, made Draxler look like a boy scout. Getting through that hurtle wasn’t going to be easy. Not that Zoe cared. She’s already run off, leaving me behind.
“This is going to be a long trip.”
Chapter 15 – The Doom Train
Avrel’s ride was a pretty sweet muscle car, in the style of the late seventies and early eighties American bad boys. As soon as I fired up the engine, flames roared from the engine block. “Hot damn, that was fucking awesome, wasn’t it?”
Zoe wasn’t as enthralled with the car shooting flames as I was. “This seat’s not very comfortable. It hurts my ass.”
I shifted the car into gear and headed towards the west road. “I’ll get us there as fast as I can. Just try to stay comfortable.”
We passed through the gate that was no longer closed to the west road and entered a smoother stretch, a lot better than the way in here through the canyon. The top speed of this car far outpaced our previous one, but I still missed that little thing. The handling was much better on it, even though it’d been a bit on the older side. I pressed the accelerator down as far as it would go, really pumping up the speed.
I got kinda preoccupied with driving that I didn’t even notice Zoe until she popped down in my lap. “Oh man, that’s so much better.” Mind you, I nearly lost control of the car and killed us, but that seemed to be of little concern to her. “You’re so much more comfortable than that horrid seat was.”
The car was back under control. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” She was reclined enough to the side that I could still see where we were going. “Son of a bitch, you nearly got us killed.”
“Don’t be so melodramatic.” She wiggled her ass down on me, making herself even more at home. The other thing she was doing was turning me on. “You’re a lot more muscular than I gave you credit for,” she said as she playfully squeezed my arm.
I’d never be confused with a football player or anything, but I wasn’t out of shape and from the years helping my dad in the garage, had a little bit of muscle growth. At this time though, there was another muscle interested in Zoe and it wasn’t my biceps. “I don’t know how much longer you should be sitting here?”
She tossed some of her raven hair into my face, being an awful tease. “Oh you mean because of the growing bulge in your pants? I’ll take my chances.”
Everything I did from that moment on was to take my mind off of her being right on top of my hard cock and focused on the road. On the flip side, everything she did was to make me even more uncomfortable. From the occasional grind up against me to the very sexual sighs and groans. It was more than any guy could take!
Apparently, I hadn’t been moving fast enough. While I was still driving mind you, she reached down with her hand and began to rub me through the pants fabric. Any guy could tell you that being rubbed in such a way was an instant turn on. Zoe leaned back and bit my lower lip rather lightly, finishing the gesture with a quick lick of my lips. “You know you want it.”
I did. I wanted it so bad. I slowed the car down, not all the way to a stop mind you and unzipped my pants. She lifted herself up just enough to pull down her yoga type pants and exposed a beautiful, hairy pussy that needed me inside of it. It wasn’t quite ready, so she fell down right beside my hard-on and let it rub against the outer lips while we continued to kiss. My hand reached up under her shirt and found the warm, pillowy breasts that were waiting to be fondled.
The more I played with her nipples, the more her moaning increased. We continued to make out; to the point I had to park the car. With each pass that my cock made over her awaiting area, the more wetness I felt. Finally, without abandon, I plunged in, slowly at first, until she accepted it all. Once I was all the way in, I was done kissing, I was ready to unleash all this pent up sexual energy.
I took a hold of her hips and helped her with the pacing. Every time she came down on me, it was just another second that I was closer to losing my shit inside of her. The thought of putting more of my seed into another digital hottie was amazing. There were no inhibitions here, just raw sex and not a wink of guilt that went along with it. I pulled her shirt up, exposing her tits and started pinching her nipples.
We worked faster, her eyes closing and face tightening. When Zoe orgasmed for the first time, it was like a vice grip around me. She pushed against my chest and began a series of short, breathy groans as she shook out of control. It was so hot, to see a woman in such a position that I couldn’t help myself.
“Baby, I gotta cum.”
“Shut up and shoot it into me,” she grunted as her hips bucked against me.
I wasn’t about to say no to a direct command. I pushed myself in as deep as I could, making sure the head felt every tiny movement and that was it for me. “Ohhhh FU
CK!” Streams of cum left me and went into her cervix, squirting as high and far as I could force it to. My carnal instinct to populate her womb with my seed was taking over.
As I finished up, I looked up and saw she was already done. “Did that feel as good as it looked?”
I was all hot and sweaty, but I felt fantastic. “It sure as hell did.” Upon closer inspection, Zoe was very flushed too. “I think you enjoyed yourself as well.”
“I did.” She rested against my shoulder. “Who knew sex was the great equalizer? All that anger and aggression just melted away.”
“Was that your first time?” It hadn’t felt like her first time.
Still lying against me, “Yeah. Keep in mind, the system only created me not that long ago. You are the first man that I’ve had any sort of relations with.”
The whole mechanics behind this were quite confusing. I opened the oculus and swiped over to the trust screen. I was curious, if I tapped on her name, would it give me more details about her? Maybe stuff that she didn’t even know. So I did and a profile page appeared. Her name, ranking, and abilities were all listed on the first page. On the second, it had her age as twenty-one and her mini bio said:
A recluse from an unknown land.
Favors bladed weapons and can
reshape them into new ones.
Be careful if recruited, known for bad temper.
Well that explained a lot, but also didn’t explain enough. “Apparently you’re a recluse from an unknown land. We already knew that much.”
If she was listening to me, she didn’t make it seem that way. “What’s that noise?”
How rude of her? I was talking damnit. “That noise was the words coming out of my mou-” Then I heard it too. “Is that thunder?”
A loud whistle followed the rumbling sound that was overtaking the landscape. The two of us get dressed again and left the car. I started walking towards the sound and there was the last piece of the puzzle. “Train tracks? I don’t remember any train tracks in the game.”
Another whistle confirmed that this was indeed a train. We stood there as it came into view, the engine on it couldn’t have looked more like a ghost train if it tried. It was a rusted black metal with skulls engraved here and there. The rail guard at the bottom was covered in spikes. “I don’t think we should be here.”
It was too late now. The train slowly came to a stop, blocking the path forward. The squeal of the brakes and loud puffs of smoke from the braking caused us to cover our ears and cough up a lung. I waved the smoke out of our face, just in time to see a tall, gaunt man standing in front of me. “Tickets please.”
I jumped back and Zoe nearly flipped her wig. “Who the hell are you? Why are you so close to me?”
The man pulled out a pocket watch and spoke again. “Tickets please. You cannot board the train without your ticket.”
Thankfully I didn’t have a ticket because I didn’t feel the need to get on this choo-choo from Hell. “Sorry, but I think you made the wrong stop. No tickets here.”
“They are in your pockets.”
Man, this guy just wouldn’t give up. “Listen, there’s nothing in our fucking pockets.”
“Actually,” Zoe had a ticket in her hand. “There is.”
I’m not sure why a wave of fear overtook me as I reached into my pocket. And even more fear crawled in deeper and I pulled out a train ticket that I knew hadn’t been there. The gaunt man swiped both of them from our hands and guided us to a door two cars down. “Welcome to the Doom Train. Great treasure is yours if you survive this roving dungeon.”
There was no chance to say anything. We were on and the train began moving again, leaving Zoe and I stranded on something that just felt evil.
Chapter 16 – Slow Ride
The train car we were in was dark. “Do you have anything we can use as lights?”
“No,” she replied, a bit sad that we were in the dark. “I have a very bad feeling about this place.”
In none of my time playing, not a single one, did a Doom Train ever show up on the way to the pirates’ territory. I would’ve remembered a secret dungeon that was this creepy and messed up. “I think our first priority should be getting some light in this place. From there, we can see what we’re up against.”
It was slow moving. The train would shake and shudder every so often, throwing us to the hard floor in the car. Seats were placed at random places, making navigating this in the dark almost impossible. I wasn’t sure what we were going to do until a low, dim light came on towards the front of the car. “I found a switch,” Zoe called out.
The little bit of light really helped. At least now we could see what was in front of us. “Can you open that door down there?”
She gave a rattle on the handle but it didn’t give. “No, what about the one at that end?”
I held on and made it to my side. “Nope, this one’s locked too.”
There were mutual frustrations at both ends of the car. This was obviously a trap room with a puzzle that needed to be solved. The next issue was figuring out what conditions needed to be met to unlock one of the car doors. There wasn’t anything that really stuck out… or was there?
The placement of the chairs seemed off to me. They weren’t in lines running down the aisle. Instead, they were scattered here and there with no real rhyme or reason. Very carefully, I sat down in the closest chair to me. The light in the car went out, but immediately came back on when I stood back up. “That’s interesting.”
Zoe wanted in on this and she sat down in a seat at the opposite end. Instead of the dim light disappearing, it turned a hazy blue color. “Do you think that means something?”
It certainly meant something but what? I got out of my chair and the blue light stayed on. I sat down in three more but nothing happened. Zoe, at the far end, looked as if she may have had something to say, but bit her lip. Getting frustrated, “There has to be a rhyme or reason to this game.”
She stood up and we were cast back into darkness. When the blue light came back on, she was back in her seat. “So, I most assuredly need to stay here until we find the next clue.”
“Okay, I was curious about that.” I leaned back and propped myself up against the nearest seat cushion. The light changed from blue to green. “Hey, would you look at that?”
I stayed perfectly still while Zoe got up. The green light stayed. “So there are different triggers. I wonder if the colors mean anything as well.”
As soon as she asked that, “Blue, green, these are the colors of the Tanaka Corporation.” Realizing that might not mean anything, “They are the people who programmed this game.”
“What does that mean for us?”
“It means we just have one more color to activate – gold.”
Seeing as how the seat cushion activated one color and the seat back activated another, maybe it was time to think outside the box. “Hey, try pushing on the arm rest.”
Zoe followed the order and did so. Nothing happened. “Do you think it is associated with the seat, or is there someplace else we should be looking?”
So far, each clue had been associated with the passenger seats in the train car. Then something struck me – the button to recline the seat back. Of course! “Zoe, hit the button on the arm rest. I think that’ll get us out of here.”
She did just that and the light flickered over to gold. The moment that happened, the overhead lights returned and a door clicked. She raced to grab the one at her end, but it was still locked. When I reached out and grabbed the handle to the backside door, it slid down and opened up. “I guess we’re going backwards before we can go forward.”
I waited for her before we moved into the next car. The moment the two of us crossed the threshold, the door slammed shut and relocked. “Great, just when this fucking train ride couldn’t get any worse…”
And I had to open my mouth. The minute the words crossed my lips, what looked like portals to Hell began to open up at different points in this car.
There were no seats; it was just a long, narrow car that was beginning to fill up with undead looking enemies.
Our newfound undead friends looked exactly like a zombie should look like. They had wispy grey hair, broken teeth, and green, moldy skin. Six of them crawled out of the portals and began to lumber towards us. There was only one thing to do – start butchering the shit out of them.
Zoe pulled out her short sword and immediately went to work slicing and dicing. For me, I stuck with old trusty, my gun, and using my superior shooting skills, began taking them out with headshot after headshot. I was worried about friendly fire, so I didn’t bust out any of my gun skills, instead just relaying on my own hand-eye coordination. The problem was clear though, for each zombie we put down, another took its place.
I’m not entirely sure how long we were there putting down zombies. I do know at some point I leveled up again, though there was no break to actually see what that had gotten me. Finally, when Zoe decapitated one of the zombies, the portal he’d come out of closed. That had to mean we were getting close.
I’m not sure how he snuck up on me, but one of the crazy bastards managed it and knocked the gun from my hand. Honestly, he should’ve had me dead to rights, but he stopped for just a brief second. I don’t know why and I don’t really care. I grabbed the knife the Oracle gave me and shoved it into his gut, causing him to stagger back. I grabbed my gun and finished the job with two well placed shots.
Soon all of the portals were closed and the two of us were left to catch our breath. “Nice shooting, Vector.”
“That was a total team effort.” I checked my oculus and saw I was at level seventeen. Next level and I got a new skill. “Which way do you think the door’s going to send us this time?”
She fell to the ground. “I don’t care; I need a minute to rest up. That was more like a long sprint, not the kinda fighting I’m used to.”
I didn’t need to be told twice to rest up. I sat down beside her, a little short on air myself. “Yeah, let’s take a few minutes.”
