by Rick Scott
Right…type_unknown.
Gilly’s health flashes as well.
“We’re taking damage from something, Gilly,” I say.
She seems oblivious to my words however, as she steps mesmerized towards the edge of the tank body, staring out at the dead and abandoned city. “Reece…this must be the old world like we learned about in the history feeds…” She then turns back to me with a look of awe on her face. “Maybe this is where that scout came from. Citadel could be right underneath us!”
I have to admit it’s a lot to take in. The city, or what was once a city, is both haunting and mystifying. This is our history…our true history in the real physical world, not some virtual mock-up. We could learn so much just by being here, maybe even find Citadel like Gilly says. I have an urge to jump down and search every inch. To find out what those signs say, to find our home.
But I know we have no time for that.
“Gilly, we can’t stay here,” I say, looking up at the hole we just fell through. Sand spills from the edges like a waterfall, but already the opening is getting smaller as the crystal ceiling rebuilds itself, just like it did when I fell through before. Then I spot my brother hanging off the edge of it while holding onto a rope behind him. Val Helena is tethered at the other end, holding him from atop the sand dune. I can’t hear him, but I can see him calling out for us.
I try to contact him with the party chat and PM, but we’re well out of range. We have to move before that hole closes and before my brother or even Aiko has the bright idea to jump down here after us.
The ground shakes beneath my feet and my heart stops.
I scan across the city and catch a glimpse of a huge shadow over a hundred feet tall slipping between the buildings. And then I see another as the ground shakes again.
They’re coming…
“Gilly, we need to go!” I say. “Now!”
An ear-piercing wail blasts the air and my blood goes cold. I look over my shoulder and see a giant demon as big as an Omega, poised at the end of the block. Its pitch-black eyes stare directly at me…hungrily. Its bone jaw hangs unhinged from its skull-like face as it continues its inhuman scream, its throat a raging furnace.
The sound causes me to cover my ears as it penetrates to my very soul.
Then it closes its mouth and more cries sound in the distance.
Oh no…
The ground trembles as the demon that has seen us storms in our direction, pushing aside cars and half-demolished buildings with its huge body made of smoke.
Gilly lets out a terrified scream.
I scan for the closest column and spot one near the opposite end of the tank. “Gilly! Get on my back!”
She’s about to do so, when she stops and her eyes go wide. “The tag…” She begins patting down her robes. “The name tag! I don’t have it!”
She stops searching herself and begins scouring the dust-covered floor. “No! It’s got to be here! It must have dropped somewhere close.”
I look up at the giant demon charging towards us, less than a city block away. Behind it are more of them and there are others now coming in from all sides.
“Gilly, forget it!” I cry.
“We can’t!” she shouts back. “That was our best lead for discovering the location of Citadel. We need to find it!”
I stare incomprehensibly at the half-foot of sand and detritus covering the deck of the tank. “Gilly, we fell for close to half a mile, that thing could be anywhere!”
Tears stream from her eyes. “I should have put it around my neck. Darn it! I’m so stupid!”
“Hey!” I grab her by the shoulders and shake her to make sure she’s looking at me. “Gilly, if it comes down to us finding Citadel or me losing you, I’m choosing you.”
She stares back at me, her face a desperate grimace of loss and failure.
“We stick to your plan,” I say. “You’ll find what we need in New London. Now come on!”
Gilly looks over her shoulder at the giant demon and shakes uncontrollably. Finally she turns back to me and nods. I spin about and boost her onto my back.
“Hang on!”
I pop Sprint, dashing towards the end of the tank. I move slower with Gilly on my back, but she’s relatively light and shouldn’t slow me too much, I hope. Terrifying wails pierce the air as the Others close in. Clouds of debris spew through the city streets as buildings crash and crumble to the ground, toppled over by the giants on their relentless quest to devour us alive. There must be over twenty of them now.
We need to get out of here!
Above, I see my brother still hanging onto the rope, but he’s pointing at us, perhaps seeing us as well as the Others for the first time.
Go back! I tell him. Get out of there, I’m coming!
Miraculously he does just that, Val Helena hauling both him and the rope upwards and away from the edge of the hole. Then I see something else. The towering form of the Omega comes within view. My brother and Val Helena then disappear as they run away from it. I marvel a second at how strong this crystal substance must be to support not only the Omega, but the weight of the entire game world above it. Whatever it’s made of must be incredibly strong, which means once that ceiling closes above us… there’ll be no way out.
I can’t let that happen!
I jump off the edge of the tank and Charge Strike towards the crystal pillar. I slam into it with my kunai and hang there for a half second to regain my Stamina.
“Gilly, can you cast in that position?”
“I can try,” she says. “What do you need?”
“Second Wind,” I say as I prepare to Sprint. “Lots of it.”
I withdraw my kunai from the pillar and take off with Wall Run charging vertically up the surface of the crystal column. Stowing my weapons, I grab the back of Gilly’s legs, clutching her close as she squeezes her arms about my neck, hanging on for dear life. My Stamina bar steadily depletes. While holding Gilly I won’t be able to draw my kunai again to take a break.
Our survival is up to her now.
“Wind,” I shout.
Gilly jostles against my back, her voice reverberating as she casts the spell.
A green aura surrounds me and I feel my endurance return.
Gilly casts Second Wind.
You gain +150 Stamina.
With my energy back I keep pushing, Sprinting for half a mile. Gilly casts the spell at least twice more before the edge of the hole comes within view. It’s desperately small now, perhaps only twenty feet across.
The pillar lurches underfoot and I let out a scream of shock. I throw myself forward and narrowly make contact with it again, maintaining my Wall Run.
Crap, that was close! I nearly fell off!
But how?
I glance over my shoulder, looking straight down to the ground far below. To my horror I spot one of the demons climbing the pillar like a giant cockroach. It’s smaller than the others and its limbs flail wildly as it shimmies towards us with terrifying speed.
“Don’t look back, Gilly!” I cry out and redouble my efforts.
She then screams and I know she must have done just that.
“Run!” she shouts. “Run! Run!”
I aim for the opening and push off with a Charge Strike. Calling on all of my 200-plus Agility, I twist through the air, narrowly missing the sharp edge of the reforming crystal and land on the bank of the sand dune high above it. We tumble and fall apart from one another, our backs hitting the dark gray sand.
I look up to the darkened sky high above and offer a prayer of thanks.
Never before have I been so relieved to be back in the wild again.
My lungs wheezes and ache as I try to regain my breath, my legs burning like my heart is pumping battery acid instead of blood.
A wail erupts from the hole now closing below us and through it I see the demon still clinging to the pillar. Its pitch-black eyes meet mine and then it leaps in our direction.
Oh crap!
I
shield Gilly as a massive black hand comes crashing through the hole, grasping for us. I roll to the side and it misses, but then it clings to the edge of the crystal. Fingers the size of tree limbs curl and grip the surface, as the beast hangs on to it from below. It’s seems impossible for the thin piece of material to hold so much weight, but the demon is smaller than the others I’ve seen and perhaps its body, being made of smoke, is much lighter than it appears as well. It thrashes and claws upwards with its free hand, but it does little to break the surface.
Perhaps the crystal is structured to be much stronger at keeping things in than out.
The Other stops thrashing then, perhaps realizing the futility of its actions. Its deep dark eyes find mine and it stares at me, unnervingly.
And then it points.
Right at me.
My blood runs cold and for some reason I think back to the labyrinth. Is this one different like the one I fought before? The crystal continues to close in around its clawed fingers and within a few seconds it closes off completely.
The creature cries out with a shriek as its digits are sliced off. They remain intact above the surface of the crystal for a second, burning like logs in a fire and giving off an acrid black smoke. Eventually they dissolve into nothing and the sand from the dune slowly rolls over the surface of the crystal ceiling, hiding any signs of its existence once more.
My mind remains frozen at what I just witnessed.
Did it really just point at me like that?
Threaten me?
Recognize me, even?
Gilly is suddenly shaking me. “Reece, come on, we made it. We need to help the others!”
I snap out of my terror-induced trance and look around for our friends.
They’re scattered about the dunes maybe a hundred or so feet away. In between them is the towering form of the Omega, a living suit of armor three hundred feet tall. It stomps in a slow circle, trying to get a fix on any one of the targets now pestering it.
Rembrandt peppers the Omega in the chest with his dual pistols but is literally doing 5’s and 6’s for damage. Maxis and Aiko fly in and out of range with lunging attacks, but again are doing nothing to its massive HP bar that sits unwaveringly at 100%.
“What are they doing?” I whisper in disbelief. “They can’t be trying to fight it.”
“They’re not,” Gilly says. “They lured it away from the hole so we could get out.”
I suppose that makes sense. But now that we’re out, we need to help them.
“Guys!” I shout through the party chat. “We’re here! We’re okay!”
“Thank God, man!” Maxis shouts back. “I saw those things chasing you! I saw them!”
“We’re coming to help!” I say, rising to my feet.
“We can’t kill this!” Val Helena shouts as she runs across the desert. “All of you try to get away.”
The Half-Giant flashes with a burst of abilities as she raises her massive sword to the sky.
Val Helena uses Shining Honor!
Passive Enmity Increased.
Val Helena uses Soul Sword!
Melee attacks now ignore defense and do damage based on your Mind.
Val Helena uses Mass Challenge!
Omega attacks Val Helena!
Val Helena uses War Cry!
Omega attacks Val Helena!
“Val, what are you doing?” Maxis cries.
“Buying you time!” Val Helena shouts, heading towards the giant machine. “Go!”
“Gilly, come on,” I say, taking her by the hand and running towards our friends.
In the distance more dust clouds kick up into the air, perhaps Sentries and Guardians on their way, both closing in at rapid speed. The Omega is bad enough, but once they get here…
We’re not going to survive this.
The Omega is linked to the Sentries. We could maybe outrun the Omega like we did before, but we can’t outrun Sentries. I then watch Val Helena as she faces off against the giant Omega and her actions become clear.
No…
“Val, don’t do it!” I cry. “Don’t sacrifice yourself for us!”
But the giantess is already charging at the Omega. Her massive height barely reaches its ankle as she chops at it with her blue buffed longsword.
Val Helena does 57 damage.
Val Helena does 62 damage.
The Omega pauses to regard her for a second and then, with a swiftness I don’t expect, rears its leg back and kicks at her. Val Helena raises her shield at the last second to block.
Val Helena Blocks the attack!
Omega hits Val Helena for 11866(29667) damage!
Her body becomes a bullet as she sails across the dunes and impacts a hundred feet away with a spray of sand.
“Val!” Maxis cries.
We all rush towards her, but it’s clear she’s already dead and with just one hit. I arrive with Gilly, just as Becky casts a Raise spell on the fallen giantess. She’s lying stone-still like a statue, her mouth ajar and dripping blood, her big gray eyes wide and fixed. Even though I know she’ll soon come back, seeing her like this is still heart-wrenching to endure.
Val…
I look back to the Omega. No way can we fight that thing. Its head swivels, looking for us now that the threat of Val Helena’s hate has worn off. I check the horizon and see the dust cloud still closing in on our position.
“We’re finished,” I say absently. “We’ll never get away from those Sentries in time.”
Val Helena lifts off the ground with Becky’s Raise and gasps as she returns to life.
She sees us all standing around her and grimaces. “Why didn’t you run, you idiots?”
“Like hell we’re leaving you like that!” Maxis shouts back at her. “Now come on, we’ll beat this thing. Together!”
My brother has got to be talking crazy. But no one says anything to object, perhaps all of us understanding the predicament we’re now in. I look back to the horizon and am shocked to see the dust cloud much closer than before.
How did it move so quickly? It must have covered close to a quarter mile in just a few seconds.
A strange sound fills the air—a high-pitched whine.
“Guys, look,” Aiko says pointing at the cloud.
From within the turbulent sand, a vehicle emerges: a tubular-framed contraption about the size of a truck, but shaped like a dune buggy and sat on six wheels. It plows over the dunes with the help of a massive chrome engine at its rear, spewing heat and whistling like a turbine.
It bears down on us at full speed.
I get the instinctive urge to jump out of the way, before the buggy finally lurches to the side and skids to a halt, kicking up a wall of sand. The dust clears and a single driver at the front, clad in tight-fitting, black tech armor beckons to us frantically.
“Get on if you want to live!” the driver shouts through their black, full-faced helmet in an augmented voice.
We all stare stupefied for half a second, before scrambling towards the buggy for dear life. Val Helena hops on first and helps the rest of us up. I jump on next to Gilly and wedge her between myself and the frame since there seems to be no extra seats to spare—the interior of the vehicle taken up by an assortment of crates and boxes—but considering the circumstances, I’m not complaining.
“We’re on!” Becky shouts from atop Val Helena’s back. “Go! Go!”
The engine wicks up like a turbojet and the tires spin, kicking sand high into the air. I grit my teeth as I cling to the metal frame, nearly thrown off by the sudden acceleration. I press myself against Gilly to ensure she doesn’t go flying off as the front wheels of the buggy lift into the air.
The six-wheeler propels us away from the Omega, who then turns in our direction and begins to stomp forward, giving chase. But the powerful engine has us literally flying over the dunes. We buck and jostle with each landing, letting out involuntary screams with each one. The driver works the steering wheel with movements so quick I wonder how they a
re able to stay in control at all.
But it’s working.
The Omega, as massive as it is, can’t keep up. After a few minutes, even when it launches into the sky with its quarter-mile jump, it comes crashing down a good distance behind us. Eventually it stops pursuing and begins heading off in a random direction. The driver eases back on the throttle then, bringing us down to a more tolerable speed.
Holy crap…
My arms and ribs ache like I just had the worst workout of my life. But I’m thankful we’re all alive. Relief floods over me and I give Gilly a weak smile. She smiles back and leans into me, exhausted.
I study the driver to see if I can bring up any stats, checking to see if they are a part of the game world or perhaps related to the Scout we encountered just now.
A display filters onto my HUD.
Name: Lexi
Sex: Female
Race: Human
Class: Runner
Level: 85
Guild: New London
Another player, but I don’t recognize the class.
“You guys owe me big time for this!” the driver, Lexi, says in her augmented voice, although whatever she’s speaking through eliminates any hint of her being female whatsoever. It does, however, let her New London accent through, albeit somewhat digitized. “What the blazes were you doing so far out in the wild on foot? Did you just arrive or something?”
“No, love,” Rembrandt says with a grin. “We’ve been here quite a while actually.”
Lexi jabs the brakes and I slam forward into Gilly, who lets out a squeal.
The buggy rocks to a halt and Lexi spins around in her seat.
Her helmet disappears in a cloud of nano-dust, revealing the attractive face of a girl close to my age. She’s mocha-skinned with sharp features and short platinum-blonde hair in a pixie cut. A glowing face tattoo of a Chinese dragon runs across her left cheek and continues down her neck. Her nose is pierced with a silver hoop through one nostril, as are both of her well-sculpted brows. Her ears have too many earrings to count and her eyes are lined with dark mascara which accentuates her chrome-tinted eyes.
She’s attractive, but I wouldn’t call her pretty exactly—perhaps striking and maybe a little scary even. I think I stare at her for a full five seconds before I feel an elbow jab me in the gut.
