Gamers - Amazon (21 page)

She thought at least the plans would last longer than the first room, as she was about to tell the other team good luck, when Justin tipped his staff forward, and belched out a wall of flame that enveloped both Mouse and Stephan.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Stephan's screams tore a hole right through her head. Game or not, with max pain settings, Gabby could practically smell his flesh burning, just from the depth of his screams.

Mouse had rolled out of the way behind one of the grotesque statues that lined the room. The heavy whispers of weapons being drawn were followed by shouts of alarm.

Grabbing Zaela, Gabby ducked into a hallway to escape the battle. As they scurried away, Gabby saw black shapes at the edge of her vision. Dripping from the ceiling like black water, wraiths were descending on the remaining combatants in the room.

As they careened through the maze of corridors, Gabby wondered if Justin had been targeting her teammates or had reacted to a wraith coming off the ceiling. It didn't matter now. The truce was ended and they would have to survive on their own.

Further away, they slowed their escape and the two girls crept through the hallways, barely disturbing the layer of black dust that coated everything. As they passed, their footprints were covered up, as if the soot was alive. Gabby wondered if they were walking around in wraith dust and the creatures were just waiting for the right moment to attack. Shivers trickled down her spine.

When Gabby felt a safe distance from the entrance room, she tugged on Zaela's arm to stop running. They shared a quick hug.

"I missed you, Gabby. I'm so glad we're teamed up again," said Zaela. "This raid so far has been awful. I'm not even sure I care about getting into University now."

Gabby wanted to tell her about the Frags and how worse it would be if she didn't, but the Coder was probably watching.

She grabbed Zaela by the shoulders. "Trust me. You do. We have to win this thing somehow."

Flickering torches lined the sooty hallway. Tiny reddish-orange flame tongues reflected in Zaela's huge liquid eyes.

"When my team ambushed the others and got killed, their screams were horrific. It sounded like they were actually being killed," said Zaela on the verge of breaking down.

"We have to treat this like we would be, Z," said Gabby, giving her another hug.

"Can't I just hide in a corner until the raid is over? I meant it when I said it before. I don't care about getting into University," said Zaela.

"Now is not the time for doubt," said Gabby. "We've got to win this raid and get those points."

Gabby cringed internally when she saw the effect of her words on Zaela. She wished she had Avony's gifts at that moment.

Zaela's lower lip began to quiver. "You and those stupid points! You're worse than my parents, always pushing me to get more points so I can go up rank. What if I don't want to be a part of this system? What I want to do is important, too!"

Gabby tried to hold Zaela's hand, but she pulled it away. "Zaela, trust me when I say that now is not the time for this discussion. I would say more, but I can't. I'll support anything you want to do when we get out of here, but for now we need to win."

Zaela threw her arms out in exasperation. "When is it ever time?"

Gabby tried to quiet her friend, but Zaela continued shouting.

"If I don't stop this now, I'll be in University and then I'll never have time for my art," said Zaela.

"I'll help you make time," said Gabby, ready to promise anything to get Zaela to quiet down. Distant shouts made her feet itch to move and the soot around their feet seemed to be swirling around on its own.

Fat tears welled up in the corners of Zaela's eyes. Gabby hugged her friend and then held her at arm's length.

"Z, I've been helping you for years to get into University," said Gabby. "I can help find time for your art."

Zaela flinched. "You've been helping me still?"

"Well, a little." As soon as she said the words, Gabby wished she could take them back. She'd promised Zaela years ago that she wouldn't exploit LifeGame for her.

Zaela pushed her away. "See! You
are
just like them. Trying to get me to conform to their system." Zaela put her hands to her face, wheeling around as if she couldn't control her body any longer.

"You're worse than them," yelled Zaela. "At least my parents only ask me to conform. And the system, too. I could leave it if I wanted to. Get kicked out and go to a lesser school where I don't have to get crucified for not playing LifeGame and then I wouldn't have my best friend holding me hostage just because she's too much a loner to let her last friend be herself!"

Gabby was drained of any response. Her arms fell limply at her side. She wanted to reach out and explain to Zaela that she had it all wrong, but she wasn't so sure herself. She had exploited the system to keep Zaela with her. She had done it against Zaela's will. She had secretly controlled her school career, not for Zaela's benefit, but for her own.

Gabby had always felt superior to Avony and her coven of Evil Dolls because she assumed her friendship rung more true. Now her own motivations had been revealed to her as hollow, and the depth of the fall multiplied since she'd buoyed herself up on that superiority.

"I'm sorry," trickled out of her lips. But when she looked up, Zaela was gone.

Gabby was about to shout, or run after her, when something soul-suckingly cold hit her in the shoulder. She spun around, to find a wraith floating in the hallway, gleaming eyes watching her, almost welcoming her to join it.

It probably saw a kindred soul in her, Gabby thought. One wraith to another. A light breeze, like the swirling of leaves around her ankles, alerted her to what was happening behind her.

Three more wraiths were nearly formed, and all along the hallway in the direction Zaela had run, more were bubbling up from the soot. She would have to fight through dozens to follow her friend.

As the first one reached out to touch her again, she spun into a Cat and Cut. The way was clear, so she took it, hoping she could lead the wraiths a different direction and come back to that tunnel later.

That thought was quickly squashed as she found herself taking random turns, occasionally battling a lone wraith or two, floating incorporeally through the gloom. At times, shouts or battle-sounds like the impact of weapons, echoed through the hallways. Gabby would spin this way and that, trying to determine the direction and then sprint off, only to find she had picked the wrong way, or the battle had moved on.

Occasionally, Gabby found a room, some empty, some filled with ancient urns or blackened statues, all of it illuminated.

She peered around the corner into another such room, this one with a stone-stacked well in the middle.

Unlike the others that were empty, a figure waited at the far exit, cautiously examining the way forward. Though her white robe was covered in black soot, Gabby recognized her instantly.

"Avony," she whispered.

The leader of the Evil Dolls spun around in a ready pose, eyes alarmed with fright.

"Holy Mario! Don't scare me like that," said Avony, and then tilting her head in confusion. "Where's Zaela? I saw you two run off a side corridor."

"We had a disagreement," Gabby said plainly.

Avony nodded as if she understood, offering a hesitant smile.

"Betsy?" said Gabby, wanting to change the subject.

"When everything got debuffed, Unthar went insane," said Avony, her eyes all glassy and far away. "Everyone was fighting each other and the wraiths were streaming in like smoke."

Avony hesitated, eyebrows hunched in effort, as if she were trying to understand the words that were about to come out her mouth. "As we were trying to escape, Betsy and I, Unthar appeared, eyes raging in battle lust, and he cut Betsy's arm off."

The blonde Doll shook her head, staring in at the floor. "I'm certain that he killed her." Avony met her gaze. "For real, not just in game. It's possible right? The way her scream died, not like Stephan's scream, which was horrible enough, being burned like that. But her scream died."

"Did you kill him?" Gabby asked hopefully.

"No," said Avony. "I ran. I wasn't even sure he was following me. But I ran."

"Well let's see if we can find any survivors," said Gabby. "I have a hunch that Mouse survived that mess. If we can find her and Zaela and maybe one other, maybe we can finish this thing."

Avony wiped her forehead, smearing soot into her blonde tresses. "Yes. Let's finish this."

The distant screams and the battle sounds no longer echoed through the corridors. Either they were hopelessly lost, or Unthar and the wraiths had eliminated all their friends. She hoped it was the first.

In a room with a squat statue covering one wall, they found a hidden passageway. They had to climb over the statue to gain entrance and it quickly led to a ragged staircase with chipped edges. They moved up with slow methodical steps, careful not to cut themselves on the corners.

A faint red glow beckoned them upward. Gabby adjusted her grip, preparing for battle, but when they reached the top they found a round chamber with an open window into a larger chamber. The girls crept to the edge of the window.

A vast chamber filled with smoldering pockets of lava, bubbling up through the floor, lay below. Stone columns blocked part of their view of the area.

In the back, some gathering darkness shifted, like a storm cloud moving in. Gabby wasn't sure what it was, until the eyes gave it away.

Like a billion dying galaxies, two glittering eyes hung in the black cloud, baleful and ancient. Using the eyes as a reference, Gabby was able to discern the shape of the creature below. It was the smoke demon, in the form of a dragon.

"Asphyxia," Gabby whispered, pointing to the eyes, so Avony could follow. Avony nodded not long after, understanding.

"I guess the old man in the tavern wasn't lying, after all. But it's so huge. How do we defeat it?" Avony asked.

Gabby shrugged.

The barest hint of movement caught both their eyes. Mouse slipped behind a rocky column. She had covered herself in the soot, even her face, making her difficult to pick out. Only from their angle and against the lava, had they been able to see her.

"I wonder what she's trying to do?" asked Gabby.

"I don't know," said Avony. "But we should try and help her."

"I wish you'd given her the OOC program too," said Gabby.

They were about to leave the upper chamber when a new figure entered the chamber. Avony gasped, and Gabby's heart constricted even before she saw them.

Unthar had Zaela by the length of her long black hair, yanking hard so Zaela grimaced in pain, leading her forward with his sword held at her neck. He made no pretense of hiding and seemed to be eagerly approaching the smoke dragon Asphyxia.

For a brief moment, Gabby wondered if Unthar was using her like a human shield, but then the dragon gathered up, growing taller, until its smoky head brushed the ceiling.

When it had attained its full height, it shook its wings, stretching out like a marauding cat, smoke dripping from its nostrils.

"Welcome, Unthar," said Asphyxia, in a voice that sounded too much like the pale Coder, Mr. Johnson. "I see you have brought me a sacrifice."

Chapter Twenty-Five

Gabby wanted to go screaming through the tunnels to have at their traitorous teammate, but Avony held her arm.

"We need to watch this, just a moment longer," said Avony, gaze never leaving the scene below.

"I bet Mr. Johnson promised him some reward for turning on us," said Gabby through gritted teeth.

The dragon, Asphyxia, breathed out a black mist that coalesced into an altar. Unthar struck Zaela in the head with the hilt of his sword. The sickening crunch could be heard echoing through chamber. Gabby nearly ripped a fingernail off gripping the stone.

Unthar lifted Zaela easily and deposited her on the altar. Asphyxia leaned its great smoking head over Zaela's lifeless body and sniffed.

"Ahh...the fresh scent of bait," said the dragon.

"That's definitely Mr. Johnson, the Coder. I can hear his nasally mocking tone," said Gabby.

"If the Coder is running the raid boss, then we're totally debuffed. He probably knows we're up here watching him right now!" Avony slid against the window and buried her face in her hands. "I'll never get into University, now."

Gabby shook Avony. "No, you can't go linkdead on me now. And if the Coder is running the dragon, then that's to our advantage, because then he's locked into the rules of the game. He can't metagame in the dragon."

Unthar's voice alerted them to watch again. "Do I get my reward?"

The dragon snickered, smoke belching out of its mouth and nose. "Of course. I will remove the block on your Special Forces application. Just make sure you don't have any more...transgressions. I won't be there to fix it for you."

"I want one more thing," said Unthar.

The dragon coughed a laugh and extended a claw toward the Brute, inching it closer to his face, daring him to flinch. Unthar held steady, staring down the claw.

"Oh, sigh," said Asphyxia. "What does it want then?"

"A chance to kill the others. Especially that Avony," said Unthar. "Self-serving bitch has always walked around the school like she owned the place."

Asphyxia snapped its head backwards in a dreadful laugh that covered the ceiling in smoke.

"Oh, I am going to so PK him," simmered Avony.

The dragon snapped its claws at Unthar and a brilliant light engulfed him. "Let's make this more interesting, shall we?"

Suddenly Unthar doubled, a clone of himself appearing nearby, and then another and another. Until a dozen Unthars milled about, practicing with their two-handed swords.

"We should get down there now," said Avony.

The two girls left the windowed room and found the tunnels shortly after that led to the smoke dragon's cave.