Gamers - Amazon (20 page)

"Hey, Justin," said Mouse, waving enthusiastically. "Looks like you survived that ambush pretty well."

"Hey, Song." Justin relaxed and waved, until the kid with the bow, Passel, she remembered, elbowed Justin in the ribs.

"It's only the two of them," whispered Unthar without moving his lips. His eyes glowered with an intensity that creeped Gabby out.

"They lost of the rest of their team in ambush," he said. "Stephan can throw pinning fire and I can take their focus. You girls do the rest."

Gabby was surprised by Unthar's willingness to sacrifice himself for the team. She tried to figure out how it might be an advantage for him, but couldn't.

"Why do we want to attack them?" Gabby whispered. "We shouldn't be turning on our own school mates. We'll knock them out of the game."

"Exactly," said Avony. "Less of them means a better shot at surviving the raid."

A jet of flame burst over their heads. "Quiet down over there. We didn't give you permission to talk."

Justin was waving his staff at them, bits of flame dripping from the end.

"Well, you're not saying anything," Gabby yelled. "So we're talking."

Justin opened his mouth, but appeared baffled by her response.

"I still don't think we should be attacking them," said Gabby under her breath.

"Either we knock them out directly, or we out point them," added Stephan. "Either way, it's the same thing. I say we take them."

"It just seems wrong to attack them," said Gabby. "This is a competition, but these are kids we hang out with. The system's the enemy, not them."

came the mind-text from Avony right after.

Gabby grimaced. She was so wrapped up in the raid, she'd forgotten that the Coder could be watching every second, or reviewing the transcripts later.

"Shut up over there," yelled Justin. "And we want you to surrender to us."

Avony strode to the front, putting her hands on her hips and pushing her bare leg forward. She casually tossed her hair out of her face.

"Don't be silly, Justin," she said. "We know you lost the rest of your team in that ambush. And we're one-hundred percent positive we can take you two out before you can get even one of us."

Avony spoke with such aplomb that the two boy's weapons dipped slightly.

But then a shout came from behind the rock outcropping.

"Avs! Don't shoot, don't shoot. Truce!" came a high squealing voice.

Gabby recognized the other Doll that ran into view toward Avony, arms wide, ready for an embrace. Of course, it had to be the Doll that Gabby found most annoying. Betsy had a high nasally voice like a screech owl sucking helium.

Gabby wasn't so sure that Avony wasn't going to round-house Betsy in the face when she neared, but she relaxed and opened her arms at the last second. Betsy didn't even notice Avony's hesitation, but Gabby had seen it. If Avony was willing to consider offing her own friend, even if it were only for an instant, then she shouldn't trust the leader of the Evil Dolls.

But that was going to be hard as she was enjoying hanging out with Avony. It reminded her of their younger days when LifeGame seemed just like it was--a game.

Now they were considering subjecting their fellow classmates to a near-death experience, just to get an advantage. Nevermind that the losers would disappear forever.

The two Evil Dolls were hugging and chatting while everyone else held their weapons limply, trying to figure out how their standoff had turned into a reunion.

Gabby laughed when the other team's Brute appeared from a hidden cubby. He was a boy everyone called Stick and the two-handed sword looked bigger than he did. Weighing her team against theirs, she knew they would have won easily had it come to blows.

When the fifth member appeared from the far tunnel, Gabby thought it might have been her exhaustion playing tricks on her. Her heart buffed with joy and she ran toward Zaela, who hadn't yet seen Gabby.

Gabby practically tackled Zaela, embracing her in a hug. She almost started running her mouth about everything she'd learned about the Frags and the Coder and LifeGame, but then she caught Avony staring at her, almost trying to will her to keep her mouth shut.

"Gabby!" said Zaela. "I can't believe it's you!"

Gabby held Zaela at arm's length. Her best friend looked twinked to the max in her armor, dark bronze skin and silky black hair gleaming. Gabby was happy to see her, but she could sense a general anger toward Zaela from the other members of her team.

"I'm so glad you're still in the raid," said Gabby. "I've been so worried."

Passel rang his staff against the rock. "Is this a pajama party here? You girls realize this is Final Raid, right?"

He stood tall in his crimson robes, superior in his little speech for about three milliseconds, and then the collective gaze of the four girls withered him like the hot sun.

"Okay, fine. Be that way," said Passel, who plopped to his butt in a huff, placing the staff over his legs.

With the four girls at the center, the rest of the two teams gathered around warily, the other team still shooting Zaela nasty looks.

Gabby wondered if she and Zaela could leave the rest of them and set off on their own. But the fantasy didn't last long, as she remembered how the previous challenges had required her full team.

Avony, who had moved to the center of their combined groups, spoke up. "Is there any reason our two groups can't work together for the remainder of the raid?"

Gabby nearly hit herself in the forehead for not thinking of it first. It made perfect sense. Cooperation could be a winning strategy, too.

There was a general sense of agreement around the circle with everyone except Unthar nodding. Gabby wouldn't be surprised if Unthar wouldn't prefer to kill them all and go it alone.

The red team, as Gabby thought of them since their mage was in crimson robes, had been lost in this section of the game for a few hours. They had come up from the lower tunnels, having missed about fifteen questions in the elevator.

Everyone made noises of appreciation at Gabby when they explained the question she got right. Her face flushed red and Zaela punched her in the arm.

The rest of their experiences in the raid differed. The red team had encountered other challenges involving water and bars of gold, and another with multiplying clockwork monkeys. They'd been ambushed not long after they'd entered the section after the elevator.

The other group had gone even further down. Gabby was surprised to learn that Zaela had been a member of the other group, but had refused to participate in the player killing. The ambush had taken one of them, so she filled out their fifth spot.

It explained why Zaela had been hanging back in the tunnels and not with the others, and the mean glances.

The red team explained that there was a cliff with a tunnel at the top they suspected might be the way out, but they had no one that could climb.

Mouse volunteered immediately as a Spy class. Since the red team didn't have a Spy, they'd been stuck.

The cliff wasn't but a few minutes away and Mouse shimmered up the side like a spider. Then she disappeared, setting Gabby's hands to tap nervously on her thighs. Mouse was gone for longer than Gabby thought she should be, spurring thoughts of an ambush or Mouse deciding to abandon the group.

About the time Gabby was going to volunteer to try and climb, a thick knotted rope rolled down the cliff. They climbed up easily, except for Stephan, who was still weak from his fall and not ready to dare new heights yet.

"Where'd you go when you got to the top?" asked Gabby.

Mouse gestured down the tunnel. A deep red pulsing light washed the walls in pale blood.

Mouse covered her mouth with a cupped hand, shyly answering, "I wanted to confirm our route."

"Is it bad?" asked Gabby, wondering about the source of the crimson light and Mouse shrugged with indifference.

It turned out to be lava that was making the light. A deep crevice ran through the huge cavern blocking them from continuing. But on the other side was a sign with a target on it and two large piles of rope, coiled in neat piles.

Everyone immediately looked to Passel, who pulled out his bow and took aim. The arrow fired true and nailed the center of the target, quite a shot from a hundred meters away. Gabby wondered how well they would have done if they'd tried to attack them.

When the arrow hit, the ropes snaked across the chasm, dragging with them a wooden bridge. In no time, there was a pathway across.

"Well I guess it was good we teamed up," said Justin. "We couldn't get up the cliff without a Spy and you couldn't get across this without a Hunter."

"I wonder how many other groups have figured this out?" said Avony.

They looked around nervously, Gabby could see them each considering that the rest of the teams could be ahead of them. They would never know until they finished.

A tunnel led them to a charred hallway, charred in that the walls were covered in soot. Their footsteps kicked up puffs of black smoke. Gabby's palms grew instantly damp and she thought about pulling out her blades.

Zaela seemed to have the same idea and had one hand on her shoulder, resting near the hilt. In fact, everyone seemed edgy.

The tunnel, as they crossed its length, slowly turned to a stone-hewed chamber with two rune-etched brass doors at the end.

"Those certainly look like boss doors," said Stephan, looking more normal than he had since his fall, though still hunched over on his staff.

"Could we already be at the end?" asked Passel.

Justin wandered to the door and held his hand near the runes. "I wonder what's on the other side."

Gabby and Avony both answered at the same time: "Smoke demon."

Gabby cringed afterwards as Zaela gave her the how-could-you look.

"I wonder if we'll share the points for completing or if only one group can win?" asked Stephan.

As his words filtered through everyone, they naturally segregated themselves into two groups again, shifting slightly until there was a line between them. If weapons were pulled, Gabby didn't know who, except for Zaela, would be her ally.

Judging by the slow movements, Gabby gathered that a fight was imminent. She had to defuse them.

"Let's not debuff ourselves with mistrust. Given the cliff and bridge obstacles, it might be that two groups are meant to fight the smoke demon," said Gabby. "If we attack each other, then we might be too weak to take on the boss."

She hadn't banished the idea of fighting from their minds, but they didn't appear ready to fight, right now.

"Gabby's right," said Avony, getting nasty looks from both Zaela and Betsy. "Since we don't know if we'll share points or not, it's best to assume we will. And if you assume that winning together, even if one side gets second and the other first, is better than not being able to complete it and some other team beating us."

The only problem with that, Gabby thought, was that gamer theory stated that it was best to cooperate on open ended games. But on closed games, ones with a defined ending, it was always best to cooperate, until the very end, when betrayal would gain the maximum advantage.

The question was, who would betray first? It was basic gamer theory and everyone knew it. And in a different game, Gabby would betray the other side in an instant, even with Zaela on their team (knowing she could get Zaela's lost points back later for her.)

But the stakes had changed dramatically, even if most of them only knew half the story. Gabby wasn't sure she wanted to cause them deathly levels of pain, nor did she want to banish them from their society.

As far as everyone but Gabby and Avony knew, the losers just got lesser jobs, so playing for keeps was encouraged. If they knew the losers were possibly killed, would they still want to betray? Or possibly they would be more apt to, since the stakes were higher.

The faces of the two teams, warily eyeing each other, debuffed Gabby's heart with sadness. They should be cooperating, not trying to cut each other's heads off. There had to be a better way.

In that moment, Gabby decided to help the Frags. She probably wouldn't join them, especially if she survived the raid, but she would get them the information they desired. Work from within the system to change it.

With their continued cooperation in place, they turned their attention to the stone door. To their surprise, it opened the moment Justin touched it, revealing more cut stone walls covered in soot, leading into the darkness.

"I guess it's time," said Stephan.

"Wait!" said Mouse. "We need a raid leader."

The others nodded, and before Gabby could even put her name in for consideration, Avony had been elected, which shouldn't have surprised her.

Avony decided the two groups would split up inside, in case some catastrophic attack knocked them out, then at least the other group could continue. Gabby also thought it was to remove the temptation to betray, if distance separated them, though Passel's skill the bow gave the advantage to the red team.

In the end, they all agreed, though Gabby didn't like being separated from Zaela, so soon after they were reunited. Avony had split herself from Betsy too, but Gabby gathered Avony wasn't a big fan anyway.

If all went as planned, Gabby would win the raid, ensuring she passed rank, and help Zaela in the process. Then she could try and get into the Coders and help the Frags from within.

Gabby smirked to herself, drawing stares from the others, as they crossed the threshold of the stone doors and crept, two-by-two into the glooming darkness. When did things ever work out as planned?

The stone tunnel entered a low ceiling assembly room with stubby demon statues lining the path, and hallways leading out from the room at multiple points.

Avony motioned for the two groups to split up, heading down separate corridors, and Gabby shared a smile with Zaela.

Gabby knew things weren't going to be as easy as she hoped. She'd played a life time of games, her short life time anyway, and knew that plans had to change once the game started.