Continue Online (Part 4, Crash) (47 page)

“I’ll bet swamps are a bitch.”

“Skeleton boat,” my fiancée responded. “I wanted to start with fire and energy spells, then somehow meld them into stones for an airplane, but the Voices wouldn’t let me have that much.”

“Huh.” Beth’s eyes looked into the distance. I had no idea what sort of concepts would go through her brain after that, but I wondered how the boat might prevent water from coming in.

There was a silence in the room only broken up by Awesome Jr. and SweetPea’s low voices. Their words were beyond me. I tried to remind myself to relax and not crush Xin’s hand. Every little memory reminded me how tenuous our time together was. The game world was crumbling, and oddly no one had asked about that yet.

Maybe they didn’t believe me. I only vaguely knew from the death of Miz Riley and Viper’s real life existence. Or they could require more than an hour to process the information. I know a lot of those revelations had taken me days to fully understand much less figure out how to react to.

“Convict,” Wyl’s voice startled me.

“He saved your life multiple times. Hermes deserves to be called by his name.” Xin snapped her fingers and a bone flew across the distance toward Wyl. The guardsman stared at the white projectile that embedded itself in the ground.

“Babe,” I said after settling my heart.

My fiancée stayed quiet and closed her eyes. I tried hard not to chuckle. Once again her actions proved there were no differences in attitude or actions. Now the woman had spells to assist in expressing her irritation. We should have played VR games a long time ago.

“Sorry, sir. We haven’t even asked what you want. Do you want to go back to Haven Valley, or were you on another quest?” SweetPea spoke to Wyl. She said a lot more than I ever remembered despite the obvious desire to hide. The last three months of playing this game must have changed her too.

“I wish to be taken to Haven Valley, but I have no idea what’s happened to it. The last word I had was that some Travelers attacked.” Wyl toed the bone Xin had cast out. It sat in the floor. I could see that it had lodged into the ground with a force comparable to a metal spike being shot. “Do any of you know more? Or can you contact friends through your ways and find out?”

“Shadow might be able to once he gets back,” Awesome Jr. said. “And the closest we can get is maybe half a day away, it’s an island off shore. We don’t have a boat though.”

“Which island?”

They talked, made plans and I dipped my head for another kiss. Xin responded but the moment of passion from before felt distant. I was okay with that, being able to show any affection to her would have been a dream months ago. It had been one, and a nightmare, and a noose that threatened to strangle me daily. Odd how that which was tied so closely with my mental hell also served as a key to liberation.

“We’re going to dance,” I told her.

Xin opened an eye then raised one thin brow. “Now?”

I looked around at the other three in the room then blushed. My jaw hurt a bit from trying not to smile. “If you want, or later. I want to dance with you.”

“We did dance once you know.”

“We did?” I tried to think of the times we had met in person. Only one time really came to mind, an all too brief moment together after the second use of
[NPC Conspiracy]
. All those other interactions were exchanging letters and two phone calls.

“That first day, in your ARC. That was me.” She used one finger to point at her chest.

“Oh,” I said and failed to keep myself under control. My stomach clenched for a moment. I remembered how messed up that one interaction had left me, and she remembered it too. “Oh.” The word escaped me again.

Awesome Jr. walked over toward one of the doorways in the distance. He shouted behind him at the other girls. “Come on, Elizabeth, maybe you and Melissa can figure out a way across. I know my swimming Rank isn't high enough to make it.”

“Let me go with you. It would do me good to be closer to home,” Wyl said.

Then we were alone for a moment. I wanted to talk to Xin about so many things but then she moved up for a kiss. Without an audience I found it far easier to regain our heat from earlier.

She had one hand on my shoulder and I wrapped an arm around her waist then lifted. Her robe got in the way a bit so she ended up half on my lap and twisted to give room to our kiss. I slid a free hand along her hair then pushed it of the way. Lips progressed from Xin’s and went down toward a sensitive spot on her neck, one that never failed to get her attention.

Xin had been the only woman I felt comfortable enough to be aggressive with. She wasn’t one to lose the lead. Smaller fingers curled in mine and dragged my hand along a leg. I took the hint and slid my hand up farther, pushing past the robe’s edge and halfway up a thigh, then higher until I confirmed she wasn’t wearing anything at all.

“Really,” I murmured into her neck.

“Really,” she responded before happily gasping.

I wanted to keep going. My experiments with sliding a toga around were minimal, but I was willing to learn how quickly. There would be player underwear and possible a few check boxes to click yes on. Xin squirmed then pulled away.

“Ah, too much. Not yet,” she said bringing my head back down to
[Arcadia]
. Xin stood and smiled as I fell forward to where she had just been with a grunt. “Come on. We should go see what they were looking at anyway.”

“But what about-“ I tried to control myself. Walking was awkward now. “Uhhh….Saturday?” Today was Thursday, or maybe Friday. I had lost track of time recently and didn’t feel the desire to pull up my ARC display.

“As much as I’d love to, something tells me there’s information worth our time over there.” Xin pointed at the table. She walked off looking none the worse for wear. The robe really was unfair.

Part of me stood at attention while Xin moved away. I took a moment to contain myself then tried to walk discreetly after her. Thank the Voices no one had walked in during that.

Oh, Voices help me. Someone had noticed, be it the system or another Voice. Hopefully, that hadn’t come from Mezo. I waved away the messages.
[Chaste]
probably meant about as much to my character as
[Faithful]
did. The only difference is someone up there had finally recognized my attentions were focused on one woman.

I shook my head and took a deep breath. Across the room, Dusk was nosing around on the table. His large tail brushed soldier figurines onto the floor. He sniffed then plopped down to stare at us.

Xin walked backward while dragging my arm. I followed, as I always did. She let go and walked a slow lap around the table, entering and exiting light. The effect made her look unintentionally cute. One hand sat in a fist under a chin with the other arm crossed under.

“Mmmhm. Do you see it?” Xin asked then planted her hands upon the table. Her eyes dimmed and her hair hung in a frame.

“I do.” I saw her. That was the only thing to cross my vision since our reuniting. My brain sat stuck on a giddy repeat. Especially after our close encounter of the sexual kind.

She looked up then smiled. “Not me, here.” A finger ran down the map. “Do you see what I see?”

I looked at the board Awesome Jr. had left behind. There were pieces all over and a groove in the map where his finger had traced repeatedly. Ink marks and crossed out portions were in clusters all down the middle. He seemed to have identified a path that cut through the continents center. Almost like a river that gathered up smaller streams.

My breath hitched for a moment. Michelangelo had mentioned a river gathering together. The mighty Mississippi cut a path through the continent. Its very existence defined a generation of pioneers and still served as a landmark and dividing line.

The path Awesome Jr. had traced repeatedly looked the same, only its trail went toward the west. Across the mountain paths of
[Tuu]
, through cities and forests alike until it arrived at the shore.

“It’s a river,” I muttered while trying to remember the full description. Thoughts of
[Instant Gratification]
faded away into the background. “A path to the ocean.”

“Not the ocean, Grant,” Xin said.

“Where? This appears to lead to Haven Valley. Where does it go from there?” I muttered. Everything came back around to that starting point, but why?

“A new home, I hope. Maybe a place we can be safe from the programs tearing apart Mother.” Xin’s face was motionless for a moment but her arm trembled. Their impending deletion from those giant monsters wouldn’t have completely bypassed Xin. She probably thought about the threat frequently.

I felt bad for shoving it to one side during our reunion. She was in danger and we needed to figure out a way through that first.

“Was this her plan?” I asked while running my eyes down the path again. “How long ago did she expect to die? This couldn’t have all been done in one week. How did these four even find out? Or get mixed up in it?”

“Maybe because they’re special, like you. The chosen of William Carver.” Xin shrugged.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know everything, Gee. I’m only guessing based on this map. But Haven Valley is where William was, and he picked people during his last moment, or at least, his autopilot did.” She shrugged like it didn’t matter which was which. “He couldn’t have been hanging around Haven Valley to retire, he didn’t seem like the type.”

Xin was right. William Carver had gone from one point to another to adventure endlessly until falling ill. The man’s journals stopped prior to killing the dragon, but he could have done a lot of other tasks. Or went into the real world and programmed something. An autopilot which copied William would have still been trying to help the people of
[Arcadia]
in some fashion. Bringing up new Travelers and sending them into the world might only be part of a grander goal.

“That makes as much sense as any of this does.” I nodded and brought up my own player map. There were a lot of vaguely filled in areas but I could see the connections between my own recorded destinations and the map. “William had played this game long before anyone else. He loved the people here. He worked with The ARC Labs. He could have, no, would have done something.” I felt sure of it.

“A way out.” Xin took a huge breath as the idea solidified.

I stared at her and smiled again. What would happen between us if she went to a new place? Her survival meant more than being together. This sort of information was exactly what I had been waiting to hear from the Voices before. Now I knew that there was a part for me to play as well.

“What do we do?” I asked.

“I don’t know. But William’s friends might have more information,” she said while pointing toward the shoreline starter town.

“Haven Valley,” I said slowly then turned to look at Wyl.

It had to be coincidental, but it was a shred of hope. William Carver’s friends from
[Haven Valley]
might know what the old man had planned. Xin saw the bigger picture, and I had a rather unique insight to the old man’s past. High Priestess Peach, Peg Hall, Wyl, and just maybe a certain young rascal named Phil. Maybe one of his stories or journals could hold the key.

One of my fingers ran along the smooth edge of
[Morrigu’s Gift]
. The weapon had been crafted by two of his friends and could change shape. Could it form up a key? Maybe there were more people involved than we even knew. Either way, we needed to get back to town and search for answers before everything fell apart.

Wyl stepped back through the door. Xin and I turned around to look at him.

“They’ve got a few ideas, but sent me back to get you and the others.”

“Wyl! Xin and I will be going with you all. William might have left behind something to help everyone.”

“From that destruction you talked about? I’m not sure I believe it, but that monster you fought...“ his words trailed off and the man shook momentarily.

“Ask the others for anything you need to prepare yourself. We’ll have to leave soon.” I waved at him.

Wyl’s lips went white from being pressed together. After a moment, he nodded. I sat down and scribble notes to the Voices while Xin stared at the map. A knocking noise filled my head which caused my hand to skip and ink to blot across the parchment. There was a hole forming in the world again.

We had a lot of things to figure out and time was against us.

Session Eighty Six - Skeleton Crew

We stood on the beach being blasted by sea spray and salt smells. I held one hand up to block the overhead sun and wished
[Wild Bill]
’s brim was a bit wider. The other players had chatted about ways to cross the water before roping Xin in. I smiled at the sight of Beth as she pulled the shorter woman over to their workspace.

“So, I told the others we should just use your skeleton boat!” Beth said while Awesome Jr. gave two thumbs up.