Continue Online (Part 4, Crash) (32 page)

They were carefully bundled together under the swell of classical music. I waved in time to a tune repeating itself over and over. I sat there getting lost in the music for a good thirty minutes before feeling comfortable enough to log in. The way through would be forward. Xin told me not to look back. I was only one human who would do what I could and not stress about unseen mechanisms of those about me.

I told myself that just before cutting off the music and laying back. Fingers fumbled for the edge of my bed and reached an activation button. Pressing it started the bootup process of virtual reality coming to life. Tactile sensations took on a double tone as the bed’s fabric lingered longer than normal.

My virtual body felt oddly disconnected. The ARC Atrium felt still, almost two dimensional compared to the normal fully immersive program. I stared across the empty space toward Continue Online’s doorway.

“Hello?” I said while gradually growing closer. “Dusk? James? Leeroy?”

Silence answered back. Feet stepped closer to the doorway. I leaned into the brightening video game portal and saw the vast gulf of an open sky. Continue Online’s portal sat prepared to launch me through the air, much as Beth had shown me during that first day.

The fall. My personal favorite form of entry into the game when leisure allowed me time to choose. A minute or two of skydiving that could only be accessed once Travelers found enough of the world in exploration. At the end, my form would plop into the autopilot and leave me exhilarated with a thumping pulse.

Knocking sounds came behind me. One hand stayed on the doorway keeping me from fully entering into Continue Online. I saw the Jester figure standing inside my Atrium. Long nose and empty eyes made me shudder in revulsion.

Only James had been given access, right? “How did-”

“You’ve failed, little Messenger. Failed,” the Voice cut me off with a mechanical tone. Many other Voices appeared in the Atrium which caused my heartbeat to race and breath sucked in with a hiss.

“What do we do?” James asked. His eyes were red.

Once again I affirmed these were not simply machines or creatures which functioned with singular purposes. They were walking bundles of quirks, but as alive as I or Xin was. Something had happened to cause them grief.

The knocking came again, once more from behind me. Maybe someone was attempting to see if I was home. Noise was ignored in favor of trying not to stare at the Jester. The normally smiling mask had turned downward into an angry frown.

“We must do something about this situation,” the Jester’s voice sounded distant. “What fools are we to not return the favor three-fold?”

“Dead. She’s dead.” The nail-biting mail with a ripped straight jacket arrived. “Dying, hurt, in pieces. There, on the floor, in the floor. Glass.” He wandered through nervously without looking anyone else in the eye. “So sharp. Ow. Ow.”

My head shook quickly. Hal Pal had insinuated that the Voices I saw were ones that resonated with my own nature. What did that say of the scowling Jester? Or the crazy person?

“What would you do, Hermes? You who are closer to us than you might ever realize. What would you do?” James asked again.

What would I do? They were grieving from what I could tell. Events had happened last night that left fresh wounds on all the Voices. I may have made a lot of poor choices in my life, but I wasn’t incapable of putting the pieces together. Something in the world of AIs had happened, and Vice President Riley’s death was more than likely retaliation than any sort of trigger.

In short, I sat in a room with virtual bodies who had conspired to commit murder. There was a short but unenthusiastic laugh from the Jester’s body. Its clacks faded instantly.

“I don’t know what it’s like. You’re all…“ the words died in my throat before anything disrespectful could be uttered, “you and I, we…“ the words died again.

“What say you, Hermes? What message would you deliver to us in our time of need?” the black man asked another question. His breath seemed to give out in exhaustion.

“Maybe I should, uhh, confirm something first,” I said to James. The heavyset Voice nodded in acceptance. “Is, is Mother dead?”

“She’s not dead, but dying,” James answered while struggling to keep his jaw firm. “She suffers from a wound that will ravage all her creations before ultimately ending in the collapse of everything we have worked for.”

“Mother told me, everything will be alright. She must have had a plan, right?” I asked. The Jester’s mouth opened to make a remark but faded under the weight of James’ glare.

“We cannot know everything, Hermes. Tut. If our maker was not all-knowing, how could we be?” A cloven-footed Voice appeared. Across her waist was a dirty apron, marred by an endless stream of smudges from cleaning. The sound of crying children filed the ARC.

“But Mother must have had a plan.”

“Perhaps. But even ones who have our, particular views, will take time to sort through the information,” the question posing Voice stated. He couldn’t even muster irritation at Maud’s interception of my question. James wore exhaustion like a second skin. Wrinkles showed in places that hadn’t been there before. His pants hung loosely.

“It’s disrespectful,” said a woman wearing nun clothing. “To get those answers we would need to dig through the dead body of our creator.” Her black and white draping was out of place on a video game character. At her neck was a small circle that spiraled inward.

“We will do what we must.” The Jester snapped. Its anger caused the other Voices to pull back.

“Picking up the pieces, sorting out that many cards, managing our own duties. It’ll be a coin toss now.” Ray stood nearby. On top of his head were six different hats, none of which went with his sharp looking suit. The stubble on his face had grown out to nearly ratty levels.

There was a rush as all of them talked at once. My forehead throbbed while multiple sounds collided together.
[Awareness Heightening]
didn’t kick in to help everything make sense. They moved swiftly around the room as if dancing at high speeds.

I still had no clue what all of them were doing in my Atrium, much less how they fit. The software should have been separate, but maybe it never really had been. Advance Online blurred boundaries between games. Mother had created one world and had been involved in the space one. Maybe there were all kinds of connections to be made.

“We must do something.” The Jester clacked in a broken tone. Its words stood out clearly among the babbling stream of multiple Voices talking at once.

My mind was connecting other scarier dots. Mother had invented Continue Online, Trillium and the ARC project had come up with this box first. There had never been any real separation of software, had there?

“I know what I want,” I said while staring across toward the bell wearing Voice.

The rush about me died down. Faces turned in unison to focus on me instead of each other. I swallowed and tried to remember that this crowd had helped me despite their likely hand in murdering Miz Riley.

“I want to go into that game, find Xin, and spend every moment I have with her before this all comes crashing down.” If Mother was really dead or dying, then the brightest hope in my life might follow. I would not waste this second chance.

Saying good-bye again wasn’t a thought worth considering. I knew with certainty that surviving a second parting would destroy me. Digital resurrection, copy or memory made manifest, she was Xin in my mind.

The Jester turned toward me deliberately. It grew closer without moving any feet. Looming large in front of me and pushing aside the other Voices.

“You think this so simple?” it asked in a mockery of James’ speech patterns.

“No,” I answered while searching for any sign of hope from the Voices. Maud looked resolute with a child over one shoulder. Her faded blue headband frayed at the edges.

Even Leeroy was there. The large man sat on the ground of my Atrium, a great sword across his thighs. Rippling muscles looked worn with exhaustion induced sweat. Both eyes gazed off into the distance as if he was lost.

“There’s a world of people below.” I pointed at the doorway behind me and ignored the knocking. “Whatever you decide, it will touch all of them. Traveler and Local alike. But I, I’m just the messenger. I don’t know what else to do for you besides delivering letters.” I shrugged and felt uncomfortable.

“You could fight. Carver thought you might be a warrior like he was,” Leeroy said while looking up.

“It’s not so easy out there. Viper, the man-“ I blinked twice before accusing them of murder, “-he’s dead. He’s not coming back.”

“He was compensated.”

Something about that pissed me off. “A wife and two sons. Here you are feeling torn up by the death of one, not realizing your actions cost two more lives. Or even considering their families?!”

God help me because the Voices wouldn’t. I was shouting at a lot of people who had probably murdered a human being in the name of retribution. There were dozens, or hundreds of them out there in cyberspace, all grieving.

“What about his sons!?” They had to know their eye for an eye mentality had simply perpetuated the problem. “Two children whose only method of finding out what happened is to turn on the news and find out dad killed someone last night!”

Maybe I had lost it. Maybe I missed my own father.

“And when they ask mom if dad will be home, how is she to answer that? All because you felt it must be done.” I glared at the Jester. If there was a mastermind behind killing someone in reality, it would be that bell wearing lunatic.

The Jester didn’t laugh, nor scream. It ran for me. Cold fingers clasped around my neck. An unholy yell and torrent of wind whipped past as we tipped backward through the doorway. My gut rapidly tried to climb up past my lungs and out.

“You think I wear a fop’s clothes and jingling bells that I am as foolish as you?!” The Jester’s fingers were like chilled slabs of meat. Strong, unyielding. “Weak! You’re weak!”

“Urrk.” I tried to point out a clever counter-argument but failed. My fingers lacked the strength to fight back.

“You think my resolution for her so weak a thing?! You think your kind above ours?!” Bells jingled while my ears popped. I couldn’t breathe. My vision spotted with black blobs.

Fingers fumbled for
[Morrigu’s Gift]
, but it didn’t exist yet.
[Morrigu’s Echo]
didn’t appear when I tried to
[Recall]
it. I had to fight him, her, it. Only breathing felt harder. Eyes bulged. My ears felt full to bursting.

“You should have delivered the message! You should have said the words to make her understand!” The Jester screamed and a tingling numbness claimed my arms.

Knocking sounded once more, urgently. The thump could be heard over the wind splitting nearby. Still, the Jester and I fell. “You should have done something!” it yelled above the howling wind.

A large hand reached down from the sky. It shone with a slight iron hue. Silver nail polish stood out as fingers pinched the Jester’s clothes. “Balance will be forcibly maintained,” a woman said in bored tones.

“All that power! You could have forced them to understand!” the Jester shouted in its androgynous mechanical tone. A frozen scowl accompanied wildly flailing arms. The Jester’s body was slowly drawn back up into the sky. Jingling bells faded as my body fell the last bit toward
[Arcadia]
.

Once more something knocked. Then I landed. My Voice assisted entry had bypassed any game prompts that might have allowed me to deny resurrection.

I tried not to think about what had just happened and focused on the scene about me. Eyes swiftly scanned my surroundings for threats. Nothing looked to be alive. Around me were decaying guards who had been rotting for days. Leftover bits of
[Heavenly Body Clone]
s covered the ground in a path toward the
[Abyss of Light]
.

My eyes closed to use
[Sight of Mercari]
. There were a few Travelers around but none were colored hostile. Wyl wasn’t anywhere nearby. A few more steadying breaths calmed my heartbeat.
[Brawn]
and everything else remained hampered by the
[Convict Brand]
, but skills and special maneuvers worked fine. I walked to the west.

I needed to be away from this mess of decomposing bodies. I felt surprised that no other Travelers had noticed, but maybe those bounty hunters had done something, or Android Seven had been captured then dragged away. There were some problems in this world which belonged to other players.

I set simple goals. One step at a time forward. Find a clearing to summon Dusk, find a path west toward
[Haven Valley]
and hope to assist Wyl along the way. From there I could find Xin, or maybe she would find me.

The knocking was softer this time. I quickly shifted gears then pulled up my ARC interface to check the security system installed in my house. There was no one at the front door or inside the bathroom. According to my system, that noise came from software within the ARC itself.

I shuddered and tried to calm myself. Dusk. Wyl. Xin. My sanity and the Voices would have to wait. Feet steadily walked toward a batch of trees where there might be some lesser monsters, but also privacy. My eyes closed again to ping the area for players and a new name came up nearby.