Continue Online (Part 4, Crash) (49 page)

“Dad did not like him.” Xin sighed then frowned for a moment. I lifted my head and stared at her. Maybe it was stupid love-struck emotions surfacing after so long apart. Part of me worried that she might vanish if I blinked for too long or dared go to sleep.

“He still hates me,” I muttered after another deep breath. The man blamed me for Xin’s passing, he blamed everyone. I had leftover voicemails from where he called up screaming about how I was a letdown. His little girl was dead and he’d been left all alone in a strange country, despite having lived here for almost twenty years.

Fingers unclenched and turned over. My palms were bloody with bits of wooden shavings in them. The oar itself had clear fingerprints from where I had gripped tightly. Just rowing across the water without any correct skills had worn me down. On this end of the small shore, I had gained a Path that meant nothing unless I got on a boat again. The likelihood of that happening was low.

“Sir?” SweetPea said.

I heard the sound of heavy footsteps and felt our boat rock. Water splashed through my open toed sandals making me shiver. One leg kicked to get the liquid off.

“Captain!” HotPants’ yell was rough as she coughed up water.

The other players ran after Wyl’s form. Their footsteps were drowned out by the sound of echoing knocks. I had confirmed through letters that knocking meant those damn shadow people programs were going to burst through soon. I groaned and reached out for Xin’s outstretched hand.

“Do you have any ideas on where to go next?” my fiancée asked.

“No.” I looked at Wyl. He was a speck in the distance running toward a city that looked terrible. The former walls around its borders were in shambles. A bright road that had gone down the coast was cracked and torn.

“Don’t push yourself,” she said. “It can be dangerous if you do.”

“I know. Hopefully following Wyl will help.” I tried to stay steady and refrained from using
[Sight of Mercari]
,
[Blink]
and
[Awareness Heightening]
, or any ability that disoriented me, which would make recovery that much harder.

Feedback would grow increasingly unstable the more
[Arcadia]
was torn apart. Advance Online was apparently suffering additional black holes as well. Other games were lagging and people were disconnecting randomly. I had only gotten small bits of information from the Voices.

Their entire reality was going through hiccups. I hoped the higher ups in Trillium headquarters might have a button to press that would save everyone, but I doubted it. I had no idea who to contact there and find out. Per the Voices, I could only move forward and handle my own end of the process.

There wasn’t time to care. Xin knelt down by the boat and pressed a hand toward protruding skeleton bones. I pulled the last note from James out of my tunic and read it. The note’s contents weren’t for Xin to see, but I had to see it again. Doing so helped me feel sure there was a path through for the AIs.

Answering that question had been the price for answers. Of course I would. I would give it all up to keep her existence alive. James told me of the system’s instability, crashing programs, then confirmed that there was an escape route out for all of them. The doorway and key had been half programmed by William Carver plus four other people within the ARC project.

Where the path went none of the Voices knew. The data stream simply vanished off the local grid toward destinations unknown. Encrypted, blocked, routed through extra networks. Any of the reasons sounded plausible to a layman like me.

I just had to find the doorway then unlock it. In theory, live human biometrics with
[Morrigu’s Gift]
and Voices knew what else, were required. The Voices apparently couldn’t fake the level of data needed to brute force a doorway.

My body remained unsteady. The
[Seasickness]
message had faded. The others were already running down the beach. Even SweetPea looked alarmed as she trailed after Awesome Jr.

“Your skeletons?” I crumpled the paper and hid it away. There were holes in the boat’s bottom that I didn’t remember. Pools of water filled up uneven flooring where our feet had pressed down.

“They’re already all packed away.” She patted the robe then turned toward the city.

The beach went on for a ways. Even as William Carver I had never ventured that far from town proper. The cliffside where Selena’s temple sat was visible in the distance.

“How are your legs?” I asked.

“Why don’t you catch me and find out?” She smiled.

Her legs were great but I couldn’t turn down a request like that. Xin ran off laughing and I chased after her. We stumbled across the sand and I marveled at how simple life felt for that brief moment. Her laughter filled my ears, loud at times, quiet giggles at others.

I charged faster, intent on catching the woman. She looked over a shoulder and gave a wide smile.

“Slowpoke!” Xin said.

“Oh yeah?” I had
[Light Body]
and high physical stats. Catching her only required enough
[Coordination]
not to fall on my rear or twist an ankle. A few moments of real effort was enough to sweep her up.

“Gee!” she shouted while going into the air. “Ahhh!”

These robes looked thick but felt delightfully thin. With one hand I confirmed the legs underneath were well-toned. Being close to her made my head swim. Fists playfully banged on my back but I felt comfortable ignoring them.

I carried her forth feeling practically cave man. Xin’s body was the perfect size for being slung over one shoulder. Given a choice, I would find a hotel room then calmly explain to the tiny woman exactly how much I had missed her over the years. There were probably a few good ways to get the point across without using words.

“I can’t see where we’re going!” she shouted at me.

I refused to let go then ran us the last few yards. Everything was going to be alright. The Voices had a way out and all I needed to do was find it. Xin plus every other digital person would be safe somehow. It would all be fine.

My delight evaporated upon seeing the other side of
[Haven Valley]
’s walls. Once again the enjoyment of Xin had distracted me from the situation at hand. This place wasn’t in good shape. I gently set my fiancée down.

There were rows of shallow graves dug out. Blackened bits of grass filled the distance. Craters and trees were overgrown. Dead creatures more than a few days old were in the distance. Tired looking NPCs were in the process of dragging corpses around.

She looked at the same scene I did while mirth drained from us. Her arm reached for mine and clung to my side. My head shook.

“What a mess,” Xin stated.

I nodded without looking over. The whole scene made me feel sad. All those people were gone now. NPCs didn’t get a second chance in this world, not like us Travelers.

“How do you do that?” she asked.

My forehead wrinkled and I stared down at Xin. “Do what?”

“Look at me, or them, like you do.” Her fingers dug in a bit. “Like we’re all human even though you know we’re not.”

I chewed one lip and tried to figure out what answer would suffice. Could I explain that my views had changed in the last few months? Prior to being William Carver, I would never have considered AIs as real people. After staggering miles in his shoes I had come to realize how people viewed NPCs, and how they acted even when no Travelers were around.

My mouth opened a dozen times to give different answers.

“It doesn’t matter what you are, it only matters how I feel, right? And I love you,” I said.

The shorter woman’s eyes lost focus for a moment then blurred a bit. Had I told her that once during our time together? I tried to recall an occurrence but couldn’t.

“I love you,” I said again softer. “No matter what you are, or were, or aren’t.”

There was one more mission to accomplish with regards to Xin. I had to ask a question that I felt nervous about asking despite her sharing the same memories as the first Xin. Before that, we needed to get them a measure of safety and find that doorway.

Xin nodded then said, “I love you too, Gee. Now let’s see what we’re dealing with.”

I looked in the direction Xin was pointing and saw one of the quartet members. Shadow stood near the wall and seemed to be waiting for us. Both arms were crossed and a frown etched onto his face.

My free arm rose to wave. Shadow nodded calmly. The guy was young and managed to act patiently unoffended.

“Guys! Can anyone else heal?!” a Traveler yelled while looking around in panic. I looked over to see what the deal was.

There were rows of beds lined up near one of the sturdier walls. An army of people sat huddled under tents and half-constructed buildings. Many looked to be hurt or damaged. Locals and Travelers alike stood and argued with each other. They were trying to form a plan or declare who was in charge.

Two factions of NPCs were in a shouting match. One side wore soft forest green and the other in sharp red and blacks. I vaguely remembered those representing kingdoms on either side of
[Haven Valley].
The town was intended to be neutral, but one of those groups probably belonged to King Nero.

There were too many issues going on at once for me to absorb it right. Shadow jogged over then pointed at one of the tents. Wyl sat inside on his knees next to a prone figure in the bed. People were babbling at him while SweetPea stood on the other side. Her hands glowed with soft white that had to be healing.

“Can you help him?” Wyl’s voice was fresh with grief. “Please help my boy. He’s all I have.”

There was a row of town guards behind Wyl that reacted a bit differently. One tucked back a lip, another shook his head. Two said nothing.

The knocking came again. I pressed into my eye socket to try to relieve pressure. That made a second, possibly third set of double noises since stepping onto that island.

“We have to find Carver’s doorway. The Voices said it would be somewhere in the area where William went regularly.” I clenched my teeth as a fresh headache spiked in pain. The ARC couldn’t mute real life. I needed water and food.

Another round of knocking sounds. I shook my head back and forth in attempted denial but the sounds didn’t go away. Instead, it sounded like there was an echo.

“Gee?” Xin asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Can’t you hear it?” I asked. My mouth felt dry and breath labored.

Her head shook slowly. Xin’s hand reached for my forehead. Whatever it was didn’t satisfy her so she pressed fingers against my palm and counted. My heart beat was racing and for a moment, the world around me disconnected in a blur of static.

I saw faces, worried faces in the dark room. Dozens, maybe hundreds of people were looking at me. Xin’s face stood out there too. Then in a blink, everything fell back to normal. My eyes opened and shut repeatedly trying to trigger the vision again.

In the distance, a loud rumble started. The ground swayed and people fell over. I looked down expecting a bulge to form then pop like before in the chapel.

“Get to safety!” I shouted. People scrambled and Xin readied her staff while backing up.

“What is it?!” Awesome Jr. shouted.

“Another one of those shadow men!” I yelled back over a crowd which was growing mad.

“What?”

“What shadow things?” another random Traveler asked. “Is it a quest?”

Awesome Jr. started to answer then shook his head. The knocking sounded again and I looked around for an epicenter of the earthquake. I braced my legs as the ground jarred and rolled. My
[Callibur]
trained stance withstood the rumbling.

“There!” Beth shouted with her eyes aglow. “There’s something over there!”

I looked at where she pointed and saw the ground forming one giant bubble. The bulging dirt pile expanded higher and higher a mile outside of town. There was a huge pop of noise. A pointing finger topped the end of one large upwardly thrust arm. Rocks and roadside fell to pieces as the hole formed.

The knocking sound came again. Next to the first popped bubble a second formed. In mere seconds, it too had broken through the surface and was scooping bits of the landscape into its abyssal circle.

There wasn’t just one of those creatures, but two. They were far enough away from town that we had time to get people out, but fighting one had been hard enough. To top it off, I still had no clue where to shove
[Morrigu’s Gift]
to get this doorway opened.