Chapter 33

  I stared for a long moment at Fred’s face, now grayed out in the upper left of my vision. Mixed emotions on this one. I was sad, yes . . . but also kind of relieved. Fred was a wild cannon. Like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, you never knew what you were going to get. Sure, he might one shot the boss, but he also might one shot himself. Or you. Or your mom. I also knew he was probably on a couch chilling, with a glass of whiskey in his hand and watching us from his Soul Space. Perfectly fine for the moment since he was still part of our party. I sighed. That sounds fantastic right about now. We’ll try to keep you that way, man.

  The player counter continued to tick down rapidly.

  Players Remaining: 2,129

  Two thousand one hundred and twenty-nine. The number was staggering. One million to start, all the way down to two thousand? So much death. So much pain. So many squishings. I sighed, shaking my head. I still didn’t get the point. Why were we being put through this? Who was pulling the strings? There was an infuriating lack of answers, and I was so tired.

  We were covered in dirt and gunk and gore. We had been on the road for almost ten days. My butt was bruised from my mounts, my body was sore, and if not for the system somehow enabling me to still stay sharp, I would be on the ground and curled up in a little ball.

  Night fell upon us, bringing with it an unsettling darkness. The Black Zone was still visible, being a deeper black than the night sky, but I didn’t know if that was because of my elf eyes or not. Either way, it was pretty hard to tell.

  We army crawled to the top of the slope to get the lay of our surroundings. When we reached a point where we could see out over the remaining rocky, hilly landscape, a torch flared to life in the distance, then another, until the entire area was alight with the flicking fire. Okay, that helps with the visibility problem.

  I looked first along the boundary between zones. Everywhere, ghouls were pounding at the barrier, biting and crawling up each other, trying to find some way in. Then slowly, all around the circle, the ghouls began disintegrating into nothing. Their snarls came less and less often. I looked next toward the center of the Safe Zone. The small structure I had seen on the map rested there on top of a hill that was higher than all the rest. It looked to be made of stone, and its shape reminded me of a gazebo or a raised pavilion, like what you would find in a park. Four sets of stone steps each led to entrances that opened to a flat stone interior. Eight massive pillars held up a circular roof. There were no walls, but a waist-high stone fence with vertical posts ran between the non-entrance columns.

  Something darted over the hill near the structure, a four-legged player staying low. BAM! The vast sound seemed so out of place in the settling quiet. I flinched back at the sight of the wolf player blowing to pieces. It seemed Mike or some other gnome had laid some traps. But that is probably Mike’s work. I noticed that the structure was unaffected by the explosion.

  “I can’t believe someone actually picked a wolf,” Mie whispered.

  The remaining Safe Area was about the size of a very large festival venue or state fair grounds, and it slightly boggled my mind that two thousand players remained hiding and waiting as I looked across the area. Every once in a while, we would hear a clash of players shouting, casting, and dying. The player count would tick down by two or three, and then it would fall silent again for a long time.

  We moved back down the slope, only to find our little nook about three fourths the size it used to be.

  “Shit,” Clara whispered. “Black Zone is movin’.” I realized it as she said it. It was constricting evenly on all sides, though very slowly. The pavilion structure seemed to be its new goal. We all looked at each other again, comprehending we were closing in on the true end.

  I looked into Mie’s eyes and felt her fear bubbling up to a level I hadn’t felt before. She looked away, and I felt shame in our bond as well.

  “Sam. I—I’m afraid,” she said, and I could tell it was hard for her to say.

  “I know,” I said softly.

  Tears welled up in her eyes. One pooled to the point of falling. It ran down her golden cheek and left behind a glistening trail.

  I got close and brushed it away with my thumb. The action just ended up making her whole cheek wet, and more tears fell, making me slightly regret the attempt at all. “I know it sucks, but we have to finish this.”

  “We got this, Mie. Remember our toasts? To never the end,” Clara chimed in.

  “I know—” She cut off, having to swallow. “But what if we don’t . . . got this?”

  I grabbed her shoulder, until she met my eyes. “All that matters is that right now, we have each other. Let’s worry about the future when it happens, okay?” The words felt empty as I said them, and I was sure she felt my own hesitations. Two paths unfolded in my mind: survive till the end, or die, and get squished. I couldn’t lose these two. I would not lose them. I shuddered as memories of my family shifted just below the surface. I shoved them away, anger pushing forward. I was done losing.

  By now the wall had continued to constrict till it was at the foot of the hill. We would have to find a new location soon. “We need a new plan,” I said. And with that, we set to work. We talked strategy as we continued to slowly be forced up the hill by the wall of death.

  The plan was simple. We’d continue to hug the wall as close as possible. We kept an eye out for traps, Clara and I flanking Mie on either side. The wall continued to force us forward. When we were pushed to the top of a hill, we would sprint down into the next low area, trying to find cover and gauging our new surroundings each time. When this happened, parties would emerge from the woodwork, popping out from behind rocks or bushes, and each time we moved quickly to dispatch them. Sometimes two or three parties would show and would gang up on us. But we had so many advantages: my two classes, Blackthorn’s Ring, Charles’ armor, not to mention the fact that we had a healer. Many parties did not have one, a fact that I continued to be grateful for. Thank God Mie chose so well. The number of players who had picked a healing-based class all that time ago must have been extremely low. Many of these players hadn’t even come across a Battle Hall to get a class, which would have given them an opportunity to switch things up.

  But I didn’t hold my breath that our current luck would continue to hold. And when the player count dropped below one thousand, the players we came across steadily got stronger. With discomfort, I also noticed that the circle was getting faster.

  At first, I acknowledged it and quickly disregarded its increase in speed. But after another thirty minutes when we were moving at a quick walk, just to stay in front of it, I realized our plan wouldn’t hold.

  I shifted to my Wind Rogue and blinked toward a Grassland Sylvan, which was the plant-tiger-looking humanoid I had passed up during character creation. This one had taken something called a Tiger Walker class and had been shifting from tall grass to bush in an ethereal, almost invisible movement, attempting to remain out of sight. His mouth opened in shock as I appeared in front of him. I shifted to Warden and Ass Cracked him to pin him in place as a well-placed arrow from Clara went through its furry, plantlike skull. He Knocked, having been at low health already.

  “We may need to adjust the plan!” I called out, now moving at a slow jog to stay ahead of the Black Zone, Mie and Clara close by.

  We reached the top of a hill and saw players now all sprinting in a panic, trying to get more distance from the Black Zone. Oh shit. Here we go. This is it. There was no time to think about the malice or the cruelty or the unfairness. We just had to try and survive.

  Explosions rocked the earth in front of us when explosive traps were set off as players triggered them unintentionally. Mike is here. Somewhere. I could feel it.

  The Sylvan animated behind us as the wall resurrected him into a rotting undead nightmare.

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  We started sprinting, ignoring the other players just as much as they ignored us. Realization swept through me as I watched the chaos and the fear. No one wanted to be here. No one really wanted to kill other people . . . Some were slightly more aggressive than others. Like Mike, or the group who’d tried to ambush Clara early on, or maybe Clara herself . . . but most of these people were normal everyday humans . . . running for their lives. I bashed aside a human archer who had turned to take a shot at us, and as I pushed him away a sheen of blue flickered at the corner of my vision. Right in front of Clara’s path. It was obscured by a bush.

  “CLARA! WAIT!” I bellowed, but too late. I stopped running.

  The pane of the teleportation trap cracked under her foot. She vanished.

  There was a loud BOOM! And even a hundred or so meters away from the pavilion, I felt a warm breeze pass over me from the center

  “DAMN IT!” I roared again. My heart pumped as I watched her health . . . but it didn’t move. I looked ahead toward the pavilion. A couple fires had started, surrounding the structure. Through the flames, Clara was there, like a jet engine of pitch black in the midst of the orange and red fire, like a black silhouette. Her sword danced, and she annihilated the players around her. Over the course of the last five minutes, she had dealt damage from random skirmishes and fights. She must have spammed her ult as soon as she realized she was about to get teleported.

  Sam: Clara! GET OUT OF THERE!

  Where the trap had been, the bush rustled slightly. Rage filled me as a small player did a little Sonic the Hedgehog type rush toward me. Mike. No—The green skinned player, quick as light, was behind me and hamstringing me. I activated Impact Armor, but the hamstring effect still slowed me. I tried shifting to my Rogue, but the slow was still in effect. That isn’t Mike. But he seemed so familiar. The green goblin struck out at me again with a dagger, hot anger in his eyes.

  “Liam?!” I asked. “Wait—!” But I didn’t know what I could say as he continued to stab me over and over.

  Mie Flash Healed me.

  “Just hold on!” I roared. “Where is Loc?!”

  Liam spat to the side. “In his Soul Space—” He paused attacking abruptly and stood frozen.

  His eyes looked confused. “Why would he do that?”

  “What? Why did who do what?” I asked.

  “Loc . . . he . . . left the party. Why would he do that?”

  I swallowed. I thought I knew . . . but Loc didn’t know that I didn’t plan on kicking any of my party members out. He just sacrificed himself for Liam. I realized. Right now . . . he was probably getting . . . Why, Loc?

  I glanced back to Clara’s position. Another explosion detonated within the pavilion. Clara, her one minute ult done, Knocked.

  Clara: I did my best, kids. You got this.

  “Liam. I promise we will not attack you, man. We can work together. We can figure this out.” I had no idea how we were going to figure this out, but we had to try.

  I looked up toward the pavilion once more. Clara was there slowly crawling her way down some steps . . . but it was still so far . . . then I lost sight of her as the wall reached us and hugged us with its dark embrace. Mie and I both started sprinting again. Liam was on my other side, following in stunned silence and trying to come to terms with what Loc had just done . . . but running full bore was no longer enough. The Black Zone’s speed had reached that of a short distance sprinter. We were still some hundred meters out from the stone structure. Mie tripped, and I lost sight of her.

  “SAM! Don’t leave me!” Mie shouted from behind me. She no doubt sensed the rising panic in my chest. I had to reach Clara before her immunity was up.

  “SAM, I CAN’T SEE ANYTHING, YOU FARTING SHITHEAD!” Mie screamed.

  “I’LL COME BACK!” I shouted back in her direction.

  I watched both of our health bars start to notch downward at a rate of two percent a second, but I kept sprinting. Liam followed closely and deftly behind me, like he had some sort of vision capabilities as well.

  I looked at my map. Little black dots swarmed Mie.

  A ghoul crashed into me, taking me to the ground. I knocked it back with my hammer, looking at my party interface. Mie’s health was dipping fast.

  “Liam! Stay close. I have a plan!” I yelled to him as he used some sort of health-over-time regeneration ability. Little green waves of light flowed upward from his feet to his head over and over. Looking bewildered still, he nodded.

  Mie’s health was spiking up and down, but she wasn’t moving, and there was a massive swarm of black dots coming in and out from her location. She can’t see.

  I stumbled to my feet, and I kept running toward Clara. Her immunity was ticking down and was more important. I’d have time to get back to Mie! Looking at my map as I went, I was now an equal distance from both Mie and Clara. I heard a faint screaming behind me. “SAM, NO! DON’T LEAVE ME! GAH, GET THE FUCK OFF ME, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!”

  I stopped running. Jesus Christ. We needed Mie to survive. She was our healer. Our one advantage. What am I doing?! I stood frozen. Clara’s immunity timer ticked under forty-five seconds.

  I made my decision. I started sprinting again. Liam . . . still followed like a little confused puppy, his health steady with his self-healing ability.

  Sam: Clara. I’m sorry.

  Clara: Sigh . . . it’s okay, Sammie dear.

  As I approached Mie at speed, a mob of rotten creatures was on top of her.

  Clara: Promise me you will win. That you will figure out a way to end this insanity. Fuck this reality. This game. Our children deserve better.

  Sam: I know. I'll do my best. You know that.

  Clara: Promise me, Sammie boy.

  I paused. Why is she saying all of this?

  Sam: Okay. I promise.

  Another wave of heat from a large explosion rushed over me. I looked over my shoulder. Ghouls were everywhere and tackling players, and players were fighting each other. I looked through all of that, and the black mist, and watched the end of the red and orange explosion fade away.

  I looked at my party interface . . . Clara’s face was grayed out.

  No time to think, Liam and I reached Mie’s location. We had been running the opposite direction of everyone else, and our location was more sparse of activity outside of the many, many ghouls on top of Mie. It looked like a third down and inches rushing play in a football game.

  I thought I could tell that she had activated her Holy Armor, and she was healing as fast as she could, but she was pinned by mass of snarling and gnashing ghouls.

  I threw the little whiffle ball dome shield down next to her, and when it blinked into existence, the mass of ghouls blasted away from her with tremendous force. I put my shoulder into the body of a ghoul that had been flung in my direction, crushing through it like I used to do with ocean waves as a kid. Liam and I reached the dome’s safety. Mie was lying completely still, fully healed, but . . . shaking in the dome’s center.

  “What? You thought I was going to leave you?” I said down to Mie, holding out my hand to her. “Do you trust me?”

  “You piece of shit,” Mie said, grabbing my hand. “You know you almost did. And NO. I don’t.” Her eyes were narrowed at me, but then her cheeks grew big as she puffed out a relieved sigh. I was getting so many feelings from her. Anger, relief, and now fear.

  Dark black shadows started bashing against the golden dome as the ghouls regained their feet, and more pathed near us.

  “I know. I thought I could save both you and Clara. But right now, we only have seconds left on this dome. When it pops, I am going to use my Warden ult, then we start running. Got it?”

  Liam was crouched, looking at the dead grass at his feet. His gaze looked haunted. Mie hadn't even noticed him yet.

  Mie nodded at me. She got to her feet and grabbed my shoulders. She looked at me seriously, which was a rare expression.

  “You never said thank you,” she said quickly.

  “Thank you . . . ?” I paused. “Wait, for what?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Oh, you know.”

  “I really don’t.”

  “For you know . . . never mentioning the whole cool kid skater emo phase . . . even though you, like, really sucked at it. You even had all that safety gear on as if it was cool. I never mentioned it to anyone. You’re welcome.”

  I stayed silent. I knew. It was a pretty sore subject. Those kids were so mean.

  “You’re welcome,” she said again.

  “Okay thanks, but—” I cut off as I saw a message appear.

  Greg: Even with Liam there, it’s fascinating to me that you still think you are alone. Not to mention Fred and Clara who are watching everything.

  “Cool . . . skater kid, huh? Also, that was the weirdest ass conversation I have ever heard . . .” Liam said, looking at us in confusion.

  Fuuuck me.

  Mie jumped, looking startled until she found Liam. Then she paused. “So . . . are we not just killing this guy? Or . . . ?”

  Liam looked at Mie with a ‘what the fuck?’ sort of expression.

  I started shaking my head . . . but paused. I had just read a line in my logs that sent chills to my core.

  Player Human#ReallyBigNumber has left the party.

  Clara . . . left the party? No . . . That act confirmed my suspicions. I knew why Loc had left Liam’s party. He had seen us from his Soul Space TV. He had hoped that this might happen. Maybe hoped wasn’t the right word there. But he’d realized the chance it would give Liam . . . And I now knew why Clara had said all those things. Why she had made me promise to win. She had been planning for this moment. She had been planning . . . to sacrifice herself . . . for us. I swallowed. It didn’t seem like long ago that she had killed Liam for her own gains. Now she was saving him? And at this moment . . . she was getting squished for it. I closed my eyes, exhausted, and tried unsuccessfully to not imagine it.

  All of these thoughts happened in a moment. I ran my hand through my hair in frustration and hesitation as I looked up at Liam. Then I walked over to him and held out my hand.

  He stared at it for a long moment, until finally our eyes met. He straightened, nodded, and clasped my hand with his own.

  I pulled open my options for him . . . and selected ‘Invite to Party.’

  The golden dome around us blinked out of existence.

  The darkness rushed us.