Continue Online (Book 1, Memories) (60 page)

Both
eyes slowly blinked as I prepared myself to fight something for real
in this game. This wasn’t as easy for me as it might have been
for William Carver. I didn’t possess the leap first ask
questions later mentality.

“
Good
Lord, there’s more!”

“
Watch
your fucking fire!” HotPants yelled.

“
You
idiot, if we die in here I’m going to camp your dead corpse!”
Shadow snarled but he was still in the fray. HotPants was busy
backing up while three of the creatures grew closer.

“
I’m
going to help!” One of the female yelled.

Opening
my eyes revealed more trouble. Four of the monsters had started
creeping up behind us. Their arms looked like blurs against the hedge
maze's backdrop. Still, even with poor eyesight for normal
situations, my ARC interface was kind enough to paint a very clear
set of health bars.

I
inched closer and readied the blade like Peg had ‘retaught’
me. There was an ache in my shoulder that threatened to make me dip
the blade. I held on trying to active Carver's
[Stubborn as a
Mule]
trait. Messages flashed into being that seemed to indicate
success.

The
creatures got close enough for me to make out their writhing mass of
purple and black tentacles. I swung the blade and felt overpowered as
their health bars shattered. My head tingled pleasantly, arms already
felt warm, and a smile was plastered on my old face. What a rush! No
wonder Carver had been a warrior.

Two
more in the front were still around. HotPants and Shadow were busy
finishing off the latest wave. She swung her staff in an arc through
the last mass. The sudden collision sent it flying into the nearly
solid mass of bushes. Shadow stepped in and gave it a final slice and
the creature's arms died down.

I
huffed, feeling suddenly worn out. The blade shimmered out of
existence. Soon I stood there taking the deepest breaths I could
manage while bracing myself on the cane.

“
Did
you see that?” SweetPea asked Awesome Jr. He turned around with
a confused look and saw four dead monsters in addition to the five in
front of us.

“
You
are broken.” Awesome Jr. muttered.

“
Stupid
computer. If you were hiding that kind of ability, why even need us?”

“
I
bet it was an event attack. Look at how winded he is.” Shadow
stated. He busily inspected the corpses that lay about.

“
You
know I can hear you.” The response that came forth was
amazingly calm. Maybe it was the exhaustion of having no stamina that
was catching up.

“
Oh.
Yeah. Sorry.” At least the young assassin had apologized. I
shook my head and tried not to roll a tired set of eyes.

“
You’re
right, though. I don’t think I can do that again anytime soon.”
The stamina bar I had off to the side was down near critical. If we
did anything more strenuous than stand here I would need to be
carried.

SweetPea
was muttering to herself and seemed to be arguing with some sort of
internal monologue. I was still reeling from the exertion of a single
swing and raised an eyebrow. She shook her head at my quizzical
glance and instead pointed towards the ground under our dead
assailants.

“
There’s
that green again.”

I
gave it some thought.

“
Back
to basics,” I suggested.

“
What?”

“
It’s
something you should all keep in mind.” This deserved my best
imitation of Carver's grumpy but guiding tone. “When you get
stuck or reach a dead end, go back to the beginning.”

This
strategy worked for dancing. It worked for accounting during my prior
career. It also worked when Hal Pal actually ran into odd problems
out in the field. Start the whole process over and see what had
changed.

“
Think
so?” Shadow mused.

“
The
entrance is this way.” SweetPea had pulled out our map in her
hands and tilted it around while muttering.

“
Let’s
move. I don’t want to spend all weekend in here.”
HotPants marched down the hallways. William Carver’s body
didn’t have much energy left after our second lap around, but I
managed to keep a decent pace.

Turned
out going back to the start was a good idea.

“
Is
that new?” Awesome Jr. was pointing to the ground. There had
only been dull purplish tiles an hour before. Now a stream of green
had invaded, reaching out from our location towards the center of the
labyrinth.

“
Think
killing those creatures has something to do with this?”

“
Look
at the plants.” Awesome Jr. said. “These are nothing like
the others. Look here, and here.” The goofy male was feeling
leaves of different colors.

Green
ground transformed the landscape into something a bit more normal. It
felt like the hallway where it was had grown smaller as well. This
almost matched the first maze before the portal. Natural hedges came
out of the ground and fought back the purple and black ones.

“
That’s
weird.”

“
It’s
transforming. Like an infection, you think?” Awesome Jr.
speculated while straddling a border between normal and dungeon
bushes. His neon green cloak stood out far less among the natural
greens.

“
So
we kill more?”

“
Yeah.
Probably. But look. Here, it’s forming a path.” Awesome
Jr. pushed some of the bushes away and showed us how our current
portion of the maze connected to another path a little ways over.

“
This
stuff is way easier to walk through. I can actually see the path on
the other side.”

“
You
think we can kill a bunch more?”

“
No
more packs like that last one though.”

“
Yeah
I don’t think Carver can help us much.”

“
I
guess we should rest. Even if he’s a computer he looks worn
out.” These players were starting to piss me off, constantly
talking about me like I wasn’t here. Though HotPants had almost
sounded pleasant there.

“
Please,”
SweetPea said.

We
set up a small fire pit in the transformed portion. No one wanted to
rest near the inky maze walls. Hips ached and groaned as I lowered
this old frame to the ground. Sleepiness washed over the ARC’s
feedback in a simulation of William Carver's exhaustion.

Shadow
and Awesome Jr. fought over the food. Finally, SweetPea managed to
edge them both out of the way and make something. She was one of the
few to directly ask me about cooking in-game. The others had gone
very different paths. There was a clear difference between what they
supplied with the same materials. I didn’t want to give our
meal of
[Rat Meat]
too much thought. Newbie players meant
poorer food.

“
This
food's way better than the scraps my Master gives me.” Shadow
said while noisily chewing. SweetPea didn’t respond.

These
guys were so chatty, too. I had been subjected to a few players who
gabbed about everything under the sun, especially those new to a
virtual game like this. One middle-aged woman had loaded into
Continue with her husband. Both of them went straight for the beach
and played around in the water until their health dropped to zero.
They were confused upon resurrection at the starting point. Both
laughed themselves silly before moving on with their day. I would
have asked them to join, but they spent most of their time in
autopilot. These four players actually played the game.

“
We
ready?” HotPants asked.

“
I
guess. How many of those things have we killed?”

“
I
don’t know. Thirty or so?” Shadow responded to SweetPea.

“
Look
here.” Awesome Jr. pushed the bushes out of the way completely
and made a path between the mazes edges. “SweetPea, this spot
on your map, should be right outside the unexplored area, right?”

“
I
think so.” She nodded with a frown. Her finger trailed around
the map recounting curves and details. Then she nodded again.

“
Then
if this, I don’t know, detoxification? If it keeps going, we’ll
open up the inner portion with a few more?” He followed up and
asked a good question. The boy was fairly quick.

“
Sounds
like a plan. Let's go.”

“
How
about you stay here, and I’ll pull some of those monsters to
us.” Shadow interrupted the forming plan with both hands up in
a stop motion.

“
Only
a few at a time please.” SweetPea said while standing behind
Awesome Jr.

“
Of
course, I’m not some idiot who's going to try and light the
place on fire.” Shadow gave an unsubtle glare Awesome Jr.’s
way.

I
loved the idea of them fetching monsters from elsewhere. Shadow
seemed smart enough to navigate most of the easy turns. Moments later
and he brought another two to our doorstep. Both HotPants and Shadow
finished them off fairly quickly. Awesome Jr. had sat down with a
depressed look on his face and seemed to be concocting something.
SweetPea was staring wide-eyed at these two doing most of the actual
fighting.

Old
man deaf ears heard no real dissension. There were brief pauses when
it seemed like HotPants and Shadow were communicating silently. I
hadn’t experienced any sort of secret whisper method in this
game like others had. If the theory held true there should be a
method, however. Were they trying to oust the other two? Hopefully
not.

“
Those
explosives of yours seem useful,” I said to Awesome Jr. “Do
you have any other mixtures?”

“
I
guess. I’ve been trying to find a freeze blast of some sort.
All I’ve got is one that drops goo on the ground.”

“
It’s
gross.” SweetPea twisted up her face.

“
There
might be a use for it.” I stood peering over his shoulder. A
little closer and I would actually be able to see what he was doing
with some clarity.

“
Glad
you think so. I spent all my money on these vials at noon, spent
another six hours testing things out. Then I had to pay Miss Robuls
for her highest proof alcohol in order to have something.”

“
The
night in the cave didn’t go well?” I thought he would
have learned something magical from the game by the end.

“
Not
as well for me as it did for Melissa. I mean SweetPea. She won’t
tell me what happened, but when I try to use the skill I got, she
lights up like a beacon.”