The Electric Mile (Gamer Handle: Vector Book 1)

by Jack Crosby

  With his five cards in hand, “Please, guests should go first.”

  It was a strategic weakness to go first in any card game, but this was his show. I went the safe route and put down one of my raid vipers. He countered with a pirate lord that had a rating of seven. Damnit.

  He immediately played another strong card, a sword card entitled Death’s Stick. With a rating of nine, there was no way to beat this, so I sacrificed my weakest card, the Fool’s Errand. As he took my card, Ramrod went down next.

  “Ah, very impressive, Vector. It would appear you know a bit more than I assumed.” He laid down a raid viper card and it was two to one. He followed up with another raid viper. “Don’t let me down.”

  I wasn’t about to. I dropped my pirate chief on him, winning the round and used my last raid viper card as well. “Comes down to one final card, huh?”

  “As it should. It would be no fun if the games of chance weren’t worth something.” His last card was a sword card named the Breakable with a rating of two. “It seems you have won the first hand. Well played,” he said with a smile that wasn’t entirely honest. “Care for a moment, or would you like to proceed directly to the next game?”

  I was feeling pretty good. “Let’s go right into it.”

  ****

  This turned out to be a mistake. The next two games didn’t go my way at all, on the card draw or in the actual game itself. Before I knew it, I was in a two games to one hole. I slammed my cards down in disgust at the end of the third game. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

  Before he could ask me to start the next game, Zoe stormed over and called a timeout. The Conductor allowed it and she dragged me back to the far end of the engine. “What happened? You played the first game so well.”

  “My last two draws have been shit. I mean, what are the chances that in both games I’d pull out five of the worst cards possible?”

  “What are the chances,” she said more to herself than me. “Wait, I know. Get back in there, this time will be different.”

  I didn’t know what to say and she pushed me towards the card table. The Conductor was sitting there, content, and stood for a brief moment when I came back. As we sat down, we began to pull five cards again. This time, for whatever reason, my luck was way better. I pulled the Ramrod (seven), Nemesis (nine), raid viper king (eight), me (ten), and a car named Lucky (six). The last card exemplified this hand.

  With his own five cards, “I believe the honors are in your court.”

  I could barely contain my happiness when I dropped the Nemesis card to start. From there, it was a whitewash that no one was expecting. I had just tied up the hands at two.

  The Ticket Collector immediately jumped up. “Foul play is at hand in this match!”

  “Yeah, your own,” Zoe snapped. “Don’t like it when someone gets on to your scheme?”

  He threw his hands up in disgust. “How dare you –”

  “It is okay, they have caught us.” The Conductor stood up and pretended as if this was all okay. “I see that there has been no harm done as we have both won two games so far. How about the fifth game just is a contest of luck and skill, as it should be?”

  Of course he’d want that. He won two games through cheating somehow, over the one game that I assume Zoe helped me with somehow. “Yeah, let’s do this the old fashioned way.” I sat back down. “Five cards, no assistance from our friends and may the best man win.”

  The Conductor sat opposite of me. “It is a deal.”

  For the fifth time, the two of us chose our five cards. My hand wasn’t spectacular, but it wasn’t total shit either. I had a raid viper (five), pirate captain (seven), Fool’s Errand (three), Nemesis (nine), and Lucky (six). Seeing as it was the Conductor’s turn to go first, I was on the edge of my seat.

  My mouth dropped when he laid down an Abraham Helsing card (nine). I wanted to hold on to Nemesis, so I went ahead and sacrificed Fool’s Errand. He took that one with pleasure. Still keeping my best card a secret, I went strong with the pirate captain. He countered with his own weak card, Breakable.

  The next two cards ended up in ties, both of us playing a raid viper in round three, and Lucky being matched by pirate sniper in round four. On the final draw, he played his final card, a raid viper king. As he sat it down, “This has been a most rousing duel. It all comes down to the last card.”

  With a straight face, I took my time turning it over, at last revealing the face of the very bat who was supposed to have defeated us in the caboose. His smirk went away, replaced by a look of disdain, and even a bit of acceptance. “I believe that is the winner.”

  He didn’t lash out in defeat, but behind him, the Ticket Collector was privately fuming. The Conductor stood up and extended his hand. “Well played, Vector. You have defeated me and as such have completed the Doom Train secret level.”

  I’m not going to lie; it felt damn good to win. “I can’t say it’s been a pleasure, but I’m glad to be finished.”

  He held out his deck. “Per the rules, your first reward is the card of your choice.” That was easy; I swooped up the Abraham Helsing card. He winced at that. “And you also get the reward.” He clapped twice and in the middle of the room, a glass case appeared. Inside were two jewels, one silver and one gold. “The silver jewel grants the user perfect vision at all times, no matter the light conditions or tricks an enemy might play. The gold provides the user increased reflexes. No one would be able to surprise you.”

  This was a tough choice. I could see the need for both as I went further in the game. As I looked on the case, there was something about the way the silver one sparkled that kept drawing me towards it. “I pick silver.”

  He lifted the glass case and took out the silver jewel. “As Conductor of the Doom Train, I grant the player Vector the Moon Fragment. It is his, with all rights and titles to it.”

  That seemed pretty formal. I took the stone in my hands and something felt very right about it. “Well with our business done, is there anything else?”

  He snapped his fingers and the train came to a stop. “You have cleared the Doom Train. Good luck as you continue your quest.”

  To our right, the door opened, showing us the way to freedom. And great news, I got another achievement – I‘d been awarded gamer points and the title of ‘The Gambling Man.’ Fucking sweet!

  Chapter 20 – Cut Loose

  After being holed up on that blasted train for what seemed like an eternity, Zoe and I were fucking like animals right next to the car. I have no idea how we ended up back at where we began, but it didn’t matter. I was balls deep in this little vixen, and that was the only thing that mattered at that point.

  Her legs were wrapped so tight around me that I barely had room to work. “You’re not going anywhere. I love the feeling of you bursting inside me.” Her eyes danced with such shamelessness that I nearly did exactly that on the spot. “You know how much you enjoyed it the first two times.”

  I did, I did so much. I ached for her the moment we got off the train, my eyes glued to her perfect ass. She knew it to and made me work for my rewards. And here it was, almost time for the big payoff. “You’re such a naughty little vixen aren’t you?”

  She abruptly jerked her hips up on me, and then she did it again. No man is going to survive that and I was proof of it. Stream after stream shot inside of her as I finished so hard. I pulled her in close, making sure each drop found its home inside her. As I was in the middle of my own orgasm, she joined me.

  If anyone ever tells you they tire of having sex or the pleasure of making a woman orgasm, they are lying to you. As we laid there on the dusty ground, I never felt so alive in my life. There was something so intoxicating about this digital girl, something that made me just want to continue to ravish her.

  And after a bit of rest, I did just that. Without warning, I mounted back on her and drove myself in. She weakly cooed and soon she was joining in the fun as we got going into round two. I lost control of my senses and once again l
et my body react in such a way that I never would’ve in the real world. I filled that sweet lady up with my seed, over and over again.

  That time was the end of my stamina. Zoe looked rather warn out too, so against probably better judgment, we fell asleep right there on the ground. I was the first to wake up, probably a few hours later, time was hard to tell around here, and I shook Zoe awake, too. She looked groggy, but had this shit eating smile on her face. Probably from what happened just before we fell asleep.

  I was never much of a morning person, though I did try. By try, I meant I grumbled a hello and helped her up. After stretching and truly becoming cognizant, “So, pirates are next? Are you ready for some more fun?”

  “I don’t know that I’d call this fun,” her eyes told a different story, “I’d be more inclined to say we have a rather big challenge in front of us.”

  Going back to my in-game knowledge, getting through the pirate’s territory of Coffin Cliffs was no easy feat. Plus, there was that optional side quest I’d never completed. Something was compelling me to do that, like it’d be worth my while. Anyway, back to the main portion of the quest. Coffin Cliffs spread around in a circle and if you took the right path through the pirate’s territory, it allowed you to sneak back into Spark City with no one being the wiser. With the way the game was unfolding, that seemed more important than ever.

  There was one big problem – Abraham Helsing. The pirate king was a mountain of a man and a confrontation with him was just unavoidable. Once I finally killed him in the game, I became the pirate king and had free reign of Coffin Cliffs. That would be useful for the side quest.

  We got back into the car and made our way towards the entrance of Coffin Cliffs. The ride there was pretty smooth, but once the cliffs came into view, it was time to ditch the car. The noise from the engine would give us away well before it was time to be seen. I was sad to let such an impressive vehicle go. It had served us well.

  The last time we were close, we were on the opposite side. My levels were a lot lower and my adaptation to the game hadn’t been where it was now. With more skills and a better understanding fueling me, I felt as ready as I’d ever be to take on Helsing. “We enter as a team and we leave as a team.”

  “What’s our first play here? I’m sure pirates are scattered throughout the cliffs looking for intruders.”

  I was also curious is Draxler had come this way and put them on my tracks. I would be almost disappointed if he did, as I saw him as an honorable rival, one who wanted to defeat me on his own skill, not deception and poor play. “In my first play through, I tried a head-on approach and that didn’t work out so well. I put myself in a much bigger hole than I needed to. You see those weird rocks over there?” I asked as I pointed to them.

  “Yeah, is there something good there?”

  “The pirates use the underground tunnels as a shortcut. It’ll save us time, but we’ll be in tight spaces.” That didn’t bode well for a sword wielding attacker. “How are you with a pistol? There’s going to be some fire fights down there.”

  She shook her head no. “I’ve never used one. Honestly, I’ve never had to, either. In the arena, my spear was good enough.”

  Hmm, we’d have to figure it out as we went. “For the time being, let me take the lead. I’m sure a solution will present itself as we go.”

  I had the feeling Zoe wanted to take the direct path, it just wasn’t an option. Out in the open with snipers from the cliffs and melee fights charging, we’d be over run and fast. With our best bet underground, we ran over to the formation and found the entrance hole. The stairs were worn and hard to keep your footing on, yet we made it to the bottom with no issues.

  There was still light in the alcove at the bottom. A few treasure chests were tucked away against the back wall. Feeling lucky, I opened both of them up and found two upgrades. For me, there was a pair of pirate grade goggles that improved targeting and for Zoe; there was an attachment for the Nemesis Sword that added the fire property to it.

  When she clicked it into the handle, a small red lining encompassed the sword. “Shit – that’s pretty sweet.”

  She swung it around a few times with a fire trail that whizzed behind it. “This is what I’m talking about!”

  Anything to make her even scarier. I turned to the tunnel, which had no light, but I could see down it fine. This must’ve been the work of the silver Moon Fragment I won off the Conductor from the Doom Train. This would make this a lot easier to handle. “I wish I had this little guy when I was playing the game before.”

  “I think the stakes are a lot higher this time, so let’s just be glad you have it now.”

  That was a very fair point. No longer was this just a game. This was life and death for me, and there was something very strange happening in the main file of the game itself. Ali hadn’t been able to give me all the answers, I just knew what I was doing was very important on a lot of fronts. Rubbing the Moon Fragment for luck, I led us into the first tunnel, hopeful all would stay quiet a bit longer.

  I wasn’t stupid and had my black Nemesis gun out as we walked down. The bat creature hadn’t spoken to either of us since explaining the change and the Easter Egg conditions. Not that I minded, I found him fucking creepy. We slowly exited the first tunnel into another annex type room. Two lanterns filled with fire were anchored into the wall, giving us some light. There were make-shift benches and empty alcohol bottles everywhere.

  “Obviously this place isn’t abandoned, judging by the odor and the junk,” Zoe offered as she expressed her disgust. “Couldn’t they clean this place up?”

  I was glad they didn’t. “This is a clue as to how many pirates are down here. If you take into account how many booze bottles are on the ground and figure the average pirate probably could drink one himself, I’d say there are probably ten to fifteen somewhere down here.”

  She seemed impressed with my deductive reasoning. “All we need to do is figure out where they’re at.”

  “That won’t be hard, missy.” Uh oh, the pirates, speak of the devils, were stalking out of the back corner tunnel, pistols and cutlasses raised. “We’d be right here.” Behind the leader, obviously a pirate captain, were at least ten to twelve snarling pirates. “Let’s get ‘em gents! First one to catch the lady gets to use her first!”

  Chapter 21 – Yo Ho, Yo Ho

  There was a lot of anger behind their feral growls as the bastards tried to run us down. Too bad the poor idiots didn’t realize being clustered up in a large group didn’t allow for them to fire on us without hitting each other. It also made it a lot easier for me to start picking them off with my own gun.

  First thing was first though. “Heart of the Oracle!” No reason not to use the skills I was given. “Oracle’s Outlaw!”

  The newfound clarity I had between the skill and the goggles I picked up at the start of this dungeon was amazing. It was like my enemies were focused in high definition, LED quality. And my trigger finger was improved. I was firing off shots like I hadn’t been able to do before. In just a few seconds, three pirates were dead on the ground with blood leaking out of bullet holes to the head.

  To my right, the flame enhanced Nemesis sword was making mincemeat out of the pirates dumb enough to come close enough to fight Zoe. Limbs and other body parts were falling to the ground in a fiery, bloody mess. It was like watching poetry in motion.

  As we thinned the crowd from a dozen or so to five, these pirates were smart enough to back away and spread out. Zoe and I took cover as their pistols began raining bolts down upon us. It was my turn to finish the job. It took a few seconds, but I was able to start noticing a pattern to the attacks. With that in mind, I made my move.

  As soon as I knew their shots were up, I popped up and put two pirates down almost simultaneously, bolts blowing their brains out from perfect shots between the eyes. I got back under cover just in time as the remaining three pirates took potshots at me.

  Zoe slapped me on the back. “You’re really
getting good at the whole ranged shooter gimmick.”

  I did really feel pretty damn comfortable in my role. Even though my job class was Sentinel, I was a gunslinger at heart. Well, the knife had saved me already, so maybe I was a little bit of a Sentinel. With a wry grin, it was time to put more pirates down and I relished the moment.

  Three more shots and the zone was clear. I blew the smoke off the barrel and put the Nemesis gun away. “Aww man, I thought I would’ve leveled up after that.”

  “Don’t get greedy, Vector. Those pirates were just the lower level variety. You’ll level up soon enough as we encounter more of them.”

  Encountering more pirates, that didn’t sound like a lot of fun. Still, I picked up the loot. There wasn’t a lot and I scrapped most of it for credits. I did a quick check and I had quite a few credits built up. I was eager to get back to a city or something so I could finally buy stuff. With this room cleared, there was only one way to go, the same way the pirates came.

  The next tunnel weaved around. Unlike the last one, this one was booby-trapped. I tripped the first one by accident, mainly because I forgot about the traps. Fortunately, Zoe saw the spikes coming from the ground before I did and yanked me forward, out of danger. I wiped the sweat off my brow. “Whoa, that was a bit close, wasn’t it?”

  “Shit, go figure these assholes would have traps ready for visitors.”

  We were a lot more careful after that. It took some remembering on my part; I eventually figured out the pattern and successfully navigated the path. When we exited into the next open area, a small cavern with pillars at different points, I sighed a bit of relief. “That was the only tunnel like that.”

  Zoe looked relieved as well. “How many more of these obscure, dark tunnels do we have to go through?”