Items popped out of the deer’s corpse and flew around the screen in a single ring before dropping into her inventory. She barely glimpsed the yellow tag of her prize before it vanished into the backpack on the bottom corner of her phone screen. Tanisha jammed her thumb against the icon, chasing it. She needed to see it in her inventory before she could celebrate.
There it was.
A legendary-quality Uber Sleipdeer antler.
“Got you!” Tanisha did a little dance, gyrating her shoulders and bobbing her head as if to some imaginary victory fanfare. “And that’s one thing off the list!” She held up a finger and scratched a little “x” in the air, marking her accomplishment on a fictional board.
It felt good. She’d been chasing her dream weapon for months now, but without the antler it was nothing more than a fevered dream. Yoichi’s Bow had a slower attack speed than other bows, but the high per-hit damage made it rival all but the best spears and swords. And it would soon be hers. Tanisha knew she didn’t have all of the common items ready and waiting to begin the craft, but she would be able to wrap that up during her morning routine tomorrow. She’d start the legendary craft job before noon. It meant she wouldn’t have the bow in her hands until tomorrow evening, but that was still a fair sight better than five more months down the line, when the holiday event came back around.
Tanisha squeezed the power button on her phone and took a screenshot of her drop. She’d upload it to the Eris chat server later.
In the meantime…
Tanisha stopped and looked around the forest. “Right,” she said to no one in particular before sweeping the dARkness app into the background so she could look at her GPS. “Where am I?”
Chapter 2
With her itch for gaming scratched—and her amazing legendary loot secured—Tanisha decided to actually get focusing on doing what she came out into the forest to do in the first place. That required her to get back onto something resembling a path, and also to open her hunting app. OnZ functioned as a GPS tool as well, so Tanisha was instantly able to see exactly how far off the beaten path she’d gotten.
She grumbled once more about finding the person who’d thrown dARkness so far off track and set about getting down out of the foothills.
It was slow going. The pine needles she’d so easily overcame on the way up were slippery on the way down. She wasn’t on foot, and so she couldn’t edge down the hill on a diagonal walk like most outdoors folks would. Instead she had to move at a snail’s pace, to avoid gaining too much momentum and tumbling head over wheel.
When she was finally back to a place she recognized, Tanisha went hunting. There were a couple of spots she still had marked from last year, and so she navigated her way towards the overgrown logging trail to find them. The first was a wild blackberry patch. Tanisha approached cautiously, keeping her eyes and ears open. There weren’t many tracks around, and most of them looked old.
“Only one explanation for this,” Tanisha said to herself. She reached out and plucked a blackberry from the nearest thorny bush, and then rubbed the fruit along her shirt before popping it in her mouth. It only took two bites before she winced. Sour. So very, very sour. “Yep. Yep, yep, yep. Not ripe yet.” She forced herself to swallow the berry, but as soon as it was down her gullet, she wondered why she hadn’t just spit it out instead. The tang across her tongue was unpleasant, and she really wished she’d brought something a little more powerful than water.
As she lamented her life choices, Tanisha moved on from the spot. It wasn’t likely that the next couple of weeks would change the state of the bushes enough to draw a crowd. At the very least, this wouldn’t be the first place she checked. Bears liked their berries to be a bit overripe, so they could easily strip them from the branches and enjoy them at their sweetest.
Tanisha chided herself for not being smarter than the average bear.
The next spot on her GPS was much more promising. There was an old logging camp, where the area had been clearcut a few years ago. The forest was well on its way to reclaim the land, thank the Creator, but it was still studded with large stumps and fallen logs. It was eerie in a way, and reminded her a lot of post-apocalyptic games where you could still see the hulking masses of machinery buried under the new growth of the forest.
But the fallen logs were an excellent spot to pick up bear trail, thanks to all the termites making nests full of “delicious” larvae. Tanisha found a few that were recently torn up, the wood covered in deep claw marks. They were so recent that the insects inside the stumps were still visibly angered.
“Ninety percent sure this is a bear, but you can’t ever be certain,” Tanisha said with a click of her tongue. She followed the disturbed brush around the torn-up termite nest. It took her a few minutes of carefully traversed the uneven ground in her chair before she found a telltale mound of droppings. “Yep. That’s a bear alright.” She chuckled to herself and navigated her way back to the open area before making a note of the location on her app. This would be a likely starting place for her hunt on opening day.
It took her just a moment to get the app to respond to her note. She felt a little bad for it. OnZ was popular with a lot of younger hunters due to the enhanced functionality of the map tools. When out range of cell towers, it retained map data, including satellite imaging. This made it very useful to still navigate outside of standard service ranges. In fact, Tanisha was pretty sure the app was designed with the expectation that no one would ever have perfect service so far from civilization.
But Tanisha’s phone was happily chugging along at five bars.
Her phone hadn’t been cheap, but besides that, she had a friend in Seattle fiddle with the inner workings. They extended the operational range in exchange for a few hours of battery life, and a voided warranty. The first part was solved with a more robust battery and mobile charging stations. For the latter, Tanisha was just really careful.
The app was visibly not used to having full service even out here on these abandoned logging trails. Tanisha had to be sure she clicked carefully, as the entire map refreshed every few minutes due to her strong cell phone signal. If she touched the screen right when it happened, the location marker would end up somewhere random depending on where the GPS determined the “top left corner” of the map should be.
When the information was logged, Tanisha decided it was time to go. It was late in the afternoon, and if she stayed out too much later, she would be still finding her way out of the woods at dusk. And she had crafting to do. Her Yoichi’s Bow wasn’t going to make itself.
She plotted a course down the mountain using OnZ’s map. The overgrown logging road would get her about halfway back to her truck before it snaked off to the north. She would need to carefully negotiate the wilderness between the logging road and the more well-travelled trail she had broken away from before she saw the indicator for the Uber Sleipdeer. After that, it was just a quick and relatively painless scoot to the ranger station where she had parked.
With her hunting spot picked out, Tanisha was able to enjoy the trip back down the logging trail. The weather was still unseasonably warm, but that meant it would still be bright and sunny well into the early evening, instead of becoming dark and gloomy. Or even rainy.
The scenery was enjoyable, too, despite the heat. Just being in the forest reminded her of her youth, and the overgrown logging trail was so reminiscent to the places her father took her when she was first learning to hunt. Those had been… she didn’t want to think of them as better times—she was happy enough with her current situation—but they had been pleasant times. Back before a 9-to-5 job crushed her spirit and sent her off into solitude.
“Yeah, that was the problem.” Tanisha laughed to herself, trying to mask the discomfort of sweat rolling down her spine. The 9-to-5 hadn’t been the issue. It was the “voluntary” unpaid overtime that had gotten to her.
And the people.
Tanisha was forced to refocus her attention when she turned off the log
ging road and went back into the wilds. Maneuvering her chair across the uneven ground required a careful pace, and her full attention on where she was going. She had to be able to respond to obstacles to keep herself from losing control on the steeper parts of her improvised path. The dryness in the back of her throat grew as the physical effort of controlling her chair made her arms burn. There was also the flair of the usual aches in her back and hips. She tried to keep her breathing even and steady, though it deepened and quickened as she struggled along.
The distance between the roads hadn’t looked that long on the GPS, but the GPS was a rotten liar. She tried to tell herself it was just a few dozen yards further, but she knew it was more than a quarter mile.
Tanisha pushed on. She didn’t get things done by focusing on the hardest part of the work, but instead by doing what needed to get done.
“Fatigue is the enemy,” she said as she carefully negotiated the flattest part of a rotted log that was wide enough to accommodate the wheels of her chair, “and I will show it no mercy.”
She was about halfway to her destination (which she said aloud, and in a mimicry of the standard GPS voice) when she felt it. Fingers danced across her spine, making her sit straight up in her chair. There was something watching her. Tanisha stopped moving forward and looked right and left, briefly exploring each bush and shrub and fallen tree.
There.
A flicker of movement in the underbrush caught her eye, and Tanisha reached for her rifle. Of course, it wasn’t there, because she hadn’t brought it with her. It wasn’t season. You didn’t shoot things out of season, and you didn’t bring a rifle unless you were going to shoot things. She cursed low under her breath and maneuvered her chair more head-on with where she’d seen the thing.
Tanisha knew too much about wildlife to be afraid of an animal actually hunting her—there wasn’t anything in the foothills in Tillamook that would actually do that—but she was concerned that she would startle whatever this creature was. And startled wildlife could cause injuries just as much as aggressive predators.
“Hey!” she shouted, loudly. The trick to avoiding animal attacks was making sure they knew you were there. If she snuck up on it, it would likely attack her in self-defense. When there was no corresponding fleeing creature, Tanisha clapped her hands, leaning forward. “Hey!”
“H-Hello?” the forest answered back, tentatively. Tanisha was so startled to hear a human voice that she almost yelped. “Is someone there?”
“Yes,” Tanisha said, shaking her head to clear it of useless fear and surprise. “I’m here! Are you okay?”
The voice didn’t respond, but the brush rustled instead, and a dark shape forced its way out through a wall of broken branches.
Chapter 3
The owner of the voice was a kid.
He had brown hair, terrified eyes, and what looked like tear-stains streaked through the dirt that covered most of his face. This, combined with his cargo shorts and thin summer tee-shirt made him look young. She thought he was somewhere between nine and twelve. Old enough that she wasn’t surprised to see the smartphone in his hand, but young enough that she wondered what he was doing out here, literally miles away from the nearest manmade structure.
“Are you okay, kid?” Tanisha asked, lowering her voice now that she could see him. “How did you get out here?”
“Um, I don’t know where I am.” He stomped noisily through the thick ferns on the ground towards her. As he got closer, she could see the redness around his eyes, confirming her suspicions about tears. Frustrated crying was the worst. It also explained his stomping around—the only target he had for his frustration was the woods itself.
“Well, it’s a good thing you found me, then,” she said, putting on her best smile. She didn’t like dealing with people, usually, but the last thing this kid needed was a clammed-up introvert. Tanisha could deal with a little discomfort. “I’m heading towards the nearest ranger station. I can lead you there.”
“Um…” The kid looked down at his phone and fiddled with it for a moment. “Ranger station? Where are we?”
“Just about the middle of nowhere.” She beckoned him closer and held up her phone, showing him the map on the hunting app. After a few seconds she zoomed out until a few landmarks became visible. “See, this is State Route 6, and it’s about three miles straight south. Do you know where that is?”
“Kinda?” He sniffled, and Tanisha winced at the threat of fresh tears. “I think that’s the way we came up to get to the campground.”
“Oh, so you're out here with your family?”
He made a noise. “We’re here on a dumb camping trip.”
Tanisha snorted. “Don’t worry, kid, I hated camping when I was little too. It gets better.” She zoomed back in on her phone, trying to find the closest campgrounds. “So, how did you end up out here?” According to the map, the kid must have been wandering the woods for hours; the nearest official campground was miles away. She’d never be able to make it there before nightfall, unless there were ADA-regulation ramps for her to navigate every hill.
“I was, um, playing a game. On my phone.” Tears started welling up in his eyes. “I must have wandered too far off.”
“What are you playing?”
“It’s an AR game called dARkness: Online” The kid turned his attention to the phone in his hands. “You’re supposed to hunt and gather stuff so you can craft things. Ever heard of it?”
Tanisha was impressed. The phone in his hands looked pretty cheap. She hadn’t expected it to have the processing power to play an AR game, nevertheless dARkness: Online itself. Granted, it likely had a blind spot in its reception that covered most of the state park, but that was more service than phone.
“Heard of it?” Tanisha laughed out loud and switched apps on her own phone before holding it up to show him the main menu screen of the game. “I’m a day one player, kid!”
“Oh, cool!” His face lit up as he saw the familiar animated title screen. “Is that why you’re out here? Looking for good stuff?”
“I mean, not intentionally.” Tanisha rubbed the back of her neck nervously. “I’m out here to scout for locations for hunting real game.” She tugged on the blaze orange vest she wore. “But I’ve spent more time running down an Uber Sleipdeer than I did looking for signs of bear, so I guess, yeah.”
“You got an uber spawn?!” The kid’s voice cracked.
“I know, right? That’s why I spent most of the day chasing it!”
“Did you kill it? What did it drop?”
Tanisha grinned, her pride swelling. “Of course. Let me show you…” She felt a little thrill as she clicked through the main menu to get to her inventory. “I haven’t posted on Eris that I got it yet, so you’re going to be the first person to see it.” She poked at the menu to highlight the gold-bordered item for him before she turned the screen back his way.
“Whoa!” He gawked at the phone for a good 30 seconds or so before frowning. “Man, and I was all excited for what I got.” He scuffed at the ground with one sneaker. “I’ve never even seen a legendary outside of the wiki.”
“What’d you get?”
“Nothing, really.” He poked at his phone. “And I can’t even show you since I’ve got no reception.”
“Well, you must have been chasing something, to get out here so far.”
“It was a white-and-black wolf-bird thing. I’ve never seen one before.”
The Bald Wolf was a creature Tanisha knew well. It was a fairly frequent topic of discussion in the community, since it was one of the most common monsters in the “boss” class. But it would always run hilariously far from where it was spawned, sometimes taking over an hour to actually catch if you were unlucky. A lot of complaints and bug reports surrounded the creature’s atypical behavior, and it made perfect sense that the kid was so far from his campground.
“Ah, okay. I’m guessing you got some of these?” Tanisha flicked through her inventory down to her more commo
n materials. She clicked on the White Feathers and showed them to him.
“Yup! Mine are purple, though.” He puffed out his chest with pride. “I don’t know what they make yet, but I’m going to make it really good.”
“Purple? Wow!” Tanisha flipped from the inventory to the crafting menus, looking for the White Feathers. “They’re used in some of the higher-end armors, and utility gear. I mostly use the white-quality ones I have to make arrows.”
“Wait,” the kid said, leaning forward to look over her shoulder. He pointed to the status bar at the top of her screen. “Is that real?”
“Yes?” she asked, confused.
“How do you have that many hit points? I’ve got almost nothing!”
“Well, I want to say healthy living,” Tanisha said with a grin, “but…” She trailed off and clicked to the character sheet, showing off her stats.
Name: Koest
Level: 282 (TNL: 07/10)
Hit Points: 2420/3020
Stability: 832/1040
Hunger: 530/1040
Stamina: 336/1110
Butchering: 85 (6686/55655)
Fishing: 78 (40443/46616)
Herbalism: 91 (62918/64072)
Logging: 91 (48281/64072)
Mining: 75 (41649/42999)
Outfitting: 80 (22888/49113)
Construction: 66 (11362/33060)
Refining: 92 (50519/65535)
Survival: 76 (13004/44188)
Toolmaking: 81 (892/50387)
Weaponmaking: 98 (1630/74679)
Axe: 10 (3/803)
Bow: 97 (28384/73112)
Dagger: 20 (28384/73112)
Hammer: 16 (1262/1940)
Pick: 10 (3/803)
Shovel: 10 (3/803)
Darkness Named Page 2
