Descend- First Steps

by David Burke

  He passed the rest of the night this way spending several hours conditioning himself. He improved not only his control of hardening and regeneration but also and perhaps more importantly how well he handled pain. More than once he wanted to call it good enough. He kept breaking bones as he pushed himself further and further but as they were small bones in his hand they would heal up fairly quickly when he focused on them.

  While he had enjoyed the early part of the evening he was dreading the fallout in the morning. Adding the stress of the dream had made him knotted up inside. Stopping wasn’t really an option, pain or not, he had to push through. He needed to become more.

  When he had crossed the threshold to level 6 he felt a change in himself. Somehow he felt less human and more at the same time. Maybe this, whatever it was, was really about changing him and the others into something different. As Jay stood there beating the crap out of both the tree and himself, he began to feel like maybe this wouldn’t be such a bad thing. If it was a choice between dying, between losing these others he was beginning to feel responsible for and transforming into something else, it was really no choice for him.

  Bathed in sweat and breathing heavily, his mind felt clearer than ever. He had thought that he was committed to this before. Now he felt the burning desire in his soul. He knew that he would do whatever he had to do. His mind felt clearer than it had been for the past few days. Maybe he was finally adapting to the chemicals they were being fed. He hoped that was it. The more he thought about it the more he hated the idea of being influenced, even with the fringe benefits it came with.

  Before he knew it the sun had come up. He was tired but not in the he needed to sleep way, more in the he needed food and a shower sort of way. Probably the thing that he missed the most from Earth was a shower. Well that and feeling safe. The electronic games and his group of friends must have meant far less to him than he had thought, because he didn’t find himself missing them at all.

  Of course he was living a video game now so maybe that accounted for not missing the games and his company was far prettier now so maybe that explained not missing his social group. The other possibility was that he just wasn’t a very good friend, but he chose to believe it was because he had finally found a purpose in life and it made him so much more fulfilled. Now, he just had to figure out exactly what that purpose was and how to succeed at it.

  Thinking of that reminded him of the words that had appeared in the first announcement.

  You have been selected for the experiment. Parameters of experiment cannot be disclosed. Identification of experiment criteria is essential for your survival.

  It was right there in bold print for him to read. As he thought about it he was actually surprised that they hadn’t really discussed what that meant. He guessed that it was probably because everyone was bouncing back and forth like a ping-pong ball between wildly terrified to overly horny. Whoever was conducting this experiment had certainly done a number on them.

  He felt like that was an ‘ah ha’ moment for him. If this was one of his games back home he would have gotten a quest update as he gained a better understanding of his purpose. It seemed here though that only notifications they got were for awakening, skill gain updates when leaving the dungeon, and quests to get credits.

  Thinking about awakening made him realize that if the sun had come up that there was only a limited amount of time until anyone who underwent an awakening usually did it. Other than one time when it had been forced, all of his awakenings had occurred approximately two hours after sunrise. He wondered if they would experience awakenings in the dungeon.

  That made him think about the girls and the fact that they would probably be upset if they found him off the platform and training. So he threw one last punch and then turned to head back to their little tree house. No sooner had he turned around than he realized that he was being watched. He sent out a pulse of life sense as he had periodically while training, but didn’t get anything back, other than small animals moving around as always.

  Still he couldn’t shake it, the premonition that he was being watched. He wracked his brain trying to remember why this sensation felt so familiar. Then it occurred to him. It had been when Amelia snuck up on him and he kicked her.

  Jay called out to the empty air as he looked around, “I know you’re out there. I can feel you watching me.”

  No response. He continued looking, trying to see if there were any footprints or other signs of disturbance but if there were they didn’t stick out to his untrained eyes. When he couldn’t detect anything else he did something he had been nervous about trying before. All of his thoughts about being more cautious from moments ago went out the window from a tenacious desire to not let Amelia sneak up on him.

  He had not yet tried ramping up his precognition. So far it had worked just fine as a spidey sense danger detector but while it had given him a general sense that someone was out there watching him it didn’t give him any more detail. So he channeled PSI into it. The effect was immediate. It wasn’t that he could see or hear better or even that he could detect the girls. It was more like he felt more in touch with everything around him.

  So far so good. His head hadn’t burst into flame and he hadn’t become some blind seer mumbling nonsensical prophecies. He pushed it further and doubled the PSI. Again his connection to the universe increased but it was only a feeling. He knew there was something out there, just beyond his reach but he couldn’t put a finger on what it was.

  Now not only did he want to find where Amelia was hiding, but he also wanted to enhance this sense of connection. Gone were the fears about potential dangers of being lost in the future. They were lost in his curiosity so he pushed again and went to 3x increase.

  As he did the world was again more alive. He found himself walking back towards the platform before he even realized he had thought about moving. Still it wasn’t enough. He pushed again to his maximum and hit 4x increase. Every movement that he made seemed to follow a predesignated path as though he was moving in the only way that would work. Each step came with the slightest after-echo of deja vu.

  Then after 8 seconds the effect ended. He felt a throbbing headache as he realized that he had drained his PSI completely. It was staggering, not just because his head hurt but because he had never had a single skill drain him that quickly. His pool of PSI was much greater than his stamina so it shocked him a bit.

  Most annoying of all he had never found Amelia. All he could do was climb back up to the platform and wait to be yelled at for how stupid of him it had been to go down in the middle of the night.

  When he reached the tree, he quickly climbed up while trying to be as quiet as possible. At the top he found all three girls still asleep but in a jumble as their arms and legs overlapped each other. Apparently they had really been knocked for a loop last night in order to still be sleeping an hour after the sun came up.

  For a moment he was distracted by their beauty as he saw bits of a leg here or a pretty face covered in disheveled hair there, but then a cold chill went down Jay’s spine. He suddenly realized that if they were all up here sleeping then it couldn’t have been Amelia spying on him.

  Jay quickly moved to the edge of the platform and looked over it. He still didn’t see anything around him. With his recharged PSI he sent out another pulse of life sense and while he detected what he thought was an owlbear down by the stream, he didn’t sense anything else.

  Could it have been the bear that he detected earlier? He didn’t think so and besides his life sense hadn’t revealed the bear before. He was nervous because he didn’t fully understand how the precognitive ability worked.

  Yet his worry was interrupted by Amelia’s foot pressed against his leg. He looked over his shoulder at her and was greeted by her bright smile. His heart skipped a beat. It surely wasn’t love, but he was definitely beginning to feel something for her. Then as Huong sat up and smoothed out her hair, he felt another twinge. Apparently he was developing feeli
ngs for the Vietnamese beauty too. He internally cursed himself for being a lecher.

  Chapter 35 - Good Morning Surprises

  Jay urged them all to wake up and said that he needed to talk to them about something. Then he went to sit on the end of the platform in order to give them some privacy to dress. If he was being completely honest with himself, it wasn’t just about being a gentleman, it was also about wanting to avoid any fallout from the night before.

  While sitting there he heard some complaints about the lack of coffee, something he had felt himself. There was also an inordinate amount of giggling going on. It got to the point that he was pretty sure they were laughing about him. Oh well, laughing was better than yelling at him.

  “You know you could have just stayed and talked to us while we were dressing,” Amelia said as she plopped down beside him.

  “I wanted to give you some privacy.”

  “Well aren’t we just the luckiest girls alive to be stuck in some alien experiment with the world’s last Boy Scout.” Amelia’s cutting tone was in full effect this morning.

  “Not sure if I qualify as a boy scout after last night.”

  Amelia made a purring sound then said, “We will definitely have to talk about that later, but you seemed worried about something, so spill.”

  Once again, Jay found himself admiring the way she could be so direct. A little teasing aside, he always knew where he stood with her. “Is it that obvious?”

  “Pretty much. You wear your emotions on your sleeve, which is just perfect for me. Tired of trying to guess where I stand with a guy. The way you look at me, and I don’t just mean when you are looking at my cleavage, it tells me that you actually care. It is also obvious though when you are worried for us.” She paused before adding, “Which is really just another way of showing how much you care about us.”

  Jay gave his classic shoulder shrug before saying, “Can I wait till they are both ready, so I don’t have to repeat myself.”

  Amelia gave him a pouty look and then broke off laughing when his face got all scrunched up in worry. “Oh don’t worry. I’m just messing with you. If it’s important the whole team should share.”

  “Thanks for understanding.”

  “After all you were so good at sharing last night.”

  The way she delivered the comment in a matter of fact offhand way only made Jay feel more embarrassed. His face got all red and he started to apologize but she leaned in and whispered in his ear in a suddenly serious voice, “Never apologize for making me feel like that. It isn’t becoming.”

  Jay breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Thanks.”

  Still leaned in close, she poked his side with her finger and said, “Just don’t forget, I get first dibs.” And there she was again, the playful Amelia who confounded him so much. The one who simultaneously kept him on his toes all the time and yet somehow always made him feel like he knew where he stood with her.

  “Whatcha two whispering about over there?” Huong said as she and Meikiyo sat down on the other side of Jay.

  Amelia answered, “I’m just whispering sweet nothings, but now Jay has something serious he wants to talk about with us.”

  Jay waited for fireworks, but apparently the girls were on better terms because Huong took the joke in stride and simply said, “Ok, tell us.”

  “I’m honestly not sure where to begin. This is gonna sound silly. I feel like I’m jumping at shadows but I can’t shake this feeling and I think I need to tell you all,” Jay spoke slowly as his uncertainty spilled out.

  “Just tell us, we have all agreed to be part of your team,” Meikiyo said and for some reason her support meant more to Jay than the others, maybe because he had no idea what she thought of him. She was just a very quiet person and compared to the talkative Huong and the assertive Amelia it was easy for her to fade into the background.

  Jay flashed her a smile which she reflected back and then he continued, “So last night I woke up a couple hours before dawn and couldn’t sleep. I had another dream. It was one of those dreams.”

  At that point he had to explain to Huong and Meikiyo about the dreams. It took quite a while but they seemed to know when to ask questions and when to just sit there and listen. Their responsiveness along with a squeeze on his arm from Amelia helped him get through it without feeling like he was crazy.

  Once they all were caught up on the most recent dream, Amelia asked, “So who was in this dream?”

  Jay’s face got red and Amelia continued, “Oh it was her.”

  He shrugged his shoulders since he had no good justification from dreaming about another woman when he was surrounded by three beauties, but he didn’t want to lie. Jay couldn’t help but notice an exchange between Huong and Amelia. The first raised an eyebrow and acted as though she was about to ask another question. Amelia responded with a slight nod of her head with pursed lips.

  Apparently that was enough to forestall further questions so Jay jumped back into talking about what had happened this morning. “Anyway, I was so restless, I needed to do something to burn off that energy and so I ended up climbing down and running over to a nearby tree.”

  Before he could say anything further, Amelia exploded, “What? Just when I was having fond thoughts about you, you go and do something stupid like that. I thought we made it clear last night that you aren’t supposed to take risks like that without talking to one of us.”

  “It wasn’t a risk. I kept using life sense to detect anything and you know I have my precognitive ability. I just really needed to work some tension off. The dream drove home the point that I need to be better. I just get this feeling that if I don’t make it work this time things are not going to go well for any of us.”

  “What do you mean this time?” Meikiyo asked.

  “Hmm, I did say that didn’t I? I uhhh… I don’t really know why I said it like that.”

  “There must have been a reason but now I want to hear the rest of this story. Oh and for future reference if you need to work off some tension you just need to find me. We are a team remember?” Amelia said.

  Huong immediately added, “Or me.”

  “Me too,” Meikiyo said although Jay wasn’t sure who was more surprised by her words, him or her.

  “Anyway, I didn’t hunt anything and no big animals came near. All I did was work on my body hardening and regeneration by beating on a tree with my hands and feet.”

  “You what?” Huong asked as she reached out and touched his hands. Her brow furrowed as she said, “You broke your fingers didn’t you?”

  “A couple maybe, I wasn’t sure.”

  “Don’t dissemble, it is just another way of lying. Huong asked you a question and when it comes to your safety, she is in charge, remember. You were the one who insisted that we need a healer and now I agree with you, but that means she is in charge of your health.”

  Jay sighed as Huong examined his hands and pushed healing energy into them. There must have been tiny micro fractures even after his regeneration because his hands felt much better as her energy flushed through him. It was a good lesson about the limits of his self-regeneration.

  “Okay, point taken, but you all needed your sleep, and I needed to work out. I know you all care, but this is on me. I have to find a way to become strong enough to protect all of you,” Jay said almost frantically.

  “No one makes our decisions for us and no one has to protect us. We will protect each other. That was what I thought this team was about, or was I mistaken. Should I leave?” Meikiyo snapped.

  “Exactly, you bonehead. Fine, so maybe you needed to train. Maybe you even had to do it in the middle of the night. And maybe you were careful and took the proper precautions. But don’t you ever say that this all depends upon you. We are a team,” Amelia added.

  Jay sat quietly and waited for them to lecture him. It seemed his fate to be corrected after everything that he said. “Anyway, after 3 or 4 hours of training, I decided I should probably come check on you all. As
I turned around though I had this sense that I was being watched. Before coming here, I would have just looked around and then shrugged it off, but my premonitions have saved me more than one time here. It didn’t feel like danger, well at least not like I was about to be attacked. The thing that it was closest to was one time when Amelia snuck up on me.”

  Amelia told the story and after she finished, Jay continued, “I just knew I was being watched. I was pretty sure that it was Amelia and I just didn’t want to let her get one over on me, so I tried something that I had been afraid to do before this. Up until then, I had only utilized the passive aspects of Precognition, but now I pushed PSI into it to try and magnify the effect.”

  Jay paused for a moment and looked around waiting to see if any of the three of them would lecture him but they were all just listening. “I immediately felt something but not sure how to explain it other than to say that I felt more connected to the universe. I was even more certain that I was being watched but I wasn’t able to tell who or where they were. So I doubled, tripled, and eventually quadrupled the effect. By that point it was a body-tingling effect. I was able to feel exactly how I was supposed to move. Even my simple footsteps seemed like they were purpose-driven. Again, I knew beyond a doubt that I was being watched, but I began to feel like it wasn’t Amelia. I felt like a bug under a microscope. The thing is the effect only lasted a few seconds before I ran out of PSI and got a brief but awful headache. The drain was incredible.”

  “Do you think you were sensing whoever is doing this to us?” Huong asked.

  Amelia made a shushing sound. “Don’t be an idiot, if we are being watched and they realize that someone can watch them back, then don’t you think they might take steps to get rid of that person. We need to be careful how we speak about this.”

  Jay nodded and said, “Honestly, I was just happy not to end up mumbling weird prophecies.”