Hey there followers
Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you. I started the next chapter yesterday and will hopefully finish it by tomorrow. I’ll be out of town next week, so I want to get it done for you guys before that. If I finish with enough time, I’ll whip up some character bios for you so you won’t have to go back and look up which character is which.
Q:i've just started reading your story, and i really love it! i love how you describe things thoroughly, painting a picture for the reader. it is awesome how you describe the places, and create a whole new world. i like how you create the main character in a complex web of who is, and how your story keeps the reader on the edge, wanting to know what is going to happen next. I think it is amazing that you are writing this story, and i applaud you for your talents as a writer :)
thank you! I appreciate your feedback. One of the things I really like doing in writing is making sure the reader is seeing the same things I’m seeing. I hate it when writers don’t describe settings and characters enough and every reader winds up with a different idea of what these places and people look like.
Chapter 13
Monday – 6:48 P.M.
Dolores watched the computer screen in amazement. She had heard of spectacular exits, but this one was really something else. She almost felt for the kid, falling hundreds of feet to his death, trapped in the claw of an ugly beast. Certainly there were more glamorous ways to die. Oh well, at least that would take care of Chimaera. There was no way she could have survived that fall.
Dolores stood up and stretched. She had been sitting in front of the computer all day and needed a break. Besides, her superior would be looking for her shortly about a status update and she didn’t feel like dealing with Mr. Expensive Suit right now.
There wasn’t a whole lot to see in the dark castle, but anything beat sitting in that dull room all day. Dolores strolled down a staircase and out into what probably used to be a beautiful courtyard. The ground was all dried-up and there was a shriveled old tree in one of the corners, but a few termite-ravaged wooden benches remained and an old fountain, now empty and dry, filled up the middle of the opening. Dolores sat down on one of the benches and stared at the fountain. It was a sort of ritual of hers. When she got fed up with all the petty drama everyone else seemed to enjoy (“office politics,” she called it) and ordering Ethan and Logan around, she would come out and just relax in the ruined courtyard as sort of an escape from it all.
She gazed up at the sky, if you could even call it that. All that could be seen above was a black void, like a night sky devoid of stars. Most people only called it the sky out of habit, but they all knew what was really there, or more accurately, what wasn’t there. There was nothing there at all. No sky, only void. Dolores didn’t exactly know what that meant. Whether they were in some sort of empty parallel universe or something, she didn’t know. All she knew was what she was told, and that there was nothing except the castle where they lived. In fact, there was so much nothing that no matter how far you went in any direction; all you’d find was nothing.
Sometimes she missed it all, the sky, the wind, the people, everything about her old life. Just the feeling of being whole and alive again would be worth killing for. Still, at least here she got to order people around, and that was one of her favorite things to do. Of course, she got ordered around quite a bit herself, but it’s not like she had much choice. It was either this or nothing, after all.
One of the doors to the courtyard opened and the man with the eye patch stepped out onto the cracked stone pathway.
Speaking of being ordered around… she thought to herself.
The man gazed around nonchalantly as he strolled over to where Dolores sat. He took a seat beside her casually, looking around before speaking.
“Dolores, what a pleasure seeing you here.”
Dolores tried to contain her irritation. “Believe me, sir, the pleasure’s all mine.”
“I’ve got a job for you, dear.”
Oh boy, here we go.
The man clasped his hands together and turned to look at Dolores with his good eye. “You know what our goal is. You know what we need to do in order to succeed.”
“Yes sir.”
“Well in order to do that, something important must first be done. Dolores, I need you to find out who the GM has chosen as a Second.”
Dolores was taken aback. The task was nigh impossible. “Isn’t that a secret, though? How am I supposed to find out who the Second is?”
“That’s up to you. However, we may have a problem. That weasel that sabotaged our primary goal seems to have caught the attention of the GM. The GM suspects something’s wrong, although I don’t know if he knows exactly what yet. It’s best we keep it that way. Remember, if you hear anything at all about our little turncoat, be sure to let me know.”
“Yeah, I got it.”
The man gave a grim smile, like a mob boss who just found out who eloped with his daughter.
“Good. Now how are the players coming along?” Dolores thought back to the image of Chimaera plummeting from the roof of the office building. “They’ve taken out Chimaera, but lost one of their own. I don’t think they should be a threat.”
The man stood up slowly. “Excellent. Well that’s all I require. Looks like things should go fairly smoothly from here on out.” He walked slowly out, but said with his back to Dolores, “Don’t forget: find the Second. I need to know who he is for our plan to succeed.”
Dolores sighed. Of course. Give me the impossible job. There was no way she’d find out who the Second was. The Second’s identity was kept secret for this very reason. Hell, even the Second didn’t know they were the Second unless they actually had to perform their duties.
As she sat there on the bench, Dolores began to hear a ringing in her ears. For a second she thought it was just normal, but it got louder and louder until it was all she could hear, like a symphony of fingers on the lips of wine glasses. The GM was summoning her. She had only been summoned a few times before, the last time being when she had been appointed Scribe, so she knew what was going on.
That didn’t make it any more comfortable, however.
The ground began to spin and contort. The fountain twisted into an ungodly shape as the world around her began to fade. For a few seconds everything was black. Then she began to see lights. It was only one or two little green and red LED’s at first, but then a room faded into focus. It was a very dark room, but Dolores could vaguely make out hundreds of servers in the distance in front of her. Dolores bowed her head. She didn’t want to see what was directly in front of her. The first time had been enough for her. She didn’t want to see what floated in the glass tank in front of her. Despite that, she could still see the dim cyan light that emanated from the liquid-filled tank.
Suddenly a thought filled her head.
Greetings, Dolores
The thought was too loud to be her own. It was hard to place exactly when the thought entered her head, but she knew it was there.
Do you know why I have brought you here?
“No, I don’t.” She spoke out loud, even though she knew a simple thought would have sufficed.
I’ve got an important job for you
Dolores fought the urge to think something sarcastic and instead said, “What is it?”
I need two people to be involved with tomorrow’s Game. I thought you would be best for the job
“Who’s the other person?”
That is up to you. Pick someone you work well with. However, this is what you have to do…
Images and brief words drifted through Dolores’s head as the GM explained to her what she needed to do. A grin spread across Dolores’s face. This was more like it. She might actually have fun with this.
——
The ground was cold, covered with snow. A chilling wind blew, whispering a haunting secret through the air. As Austin swam into consciousness, he began to take in his surroundings. He was lying in a body-shaped indent in a snow bank. He struggled to sit up, but felt dizzy, so he lay back down, staring up into the night sky. He rubbed his eyes, trying to clear the rush of blood to his head. His vision quickly cleared, as did his memory. He recalled the image of the ground beneath the Reynolds building rushing up to meet him. He shivered, more from the horror of the image than the cold. It occurred to him that even though he was sitting in snow, he was neither cold nor wet. He could feel the cold of the air and snow around him, but he didn’t feel cold internally. Like he had some sort of internal heater keeping him warm.
So, did I die? He thought to himself. Is this some sort of afterlife?
A fluttering of feathers caught Austin’s attention and he managed to sit back up again. Looking around, he noticed he was back on the snowy mountaintop he had been transported to the other day. He sat upon the flat peak of a mountain, covered with snow and a small, withered tree, which extended for about thirty feet in any direction. Beyond that, the mountain sloped sharply downward for about fifty feet until it crossed the cloud layer and disappeared. In the distance, Austin could see a second mountain peak rising from the grey cloud blanket beneath him. The other mountain was much thicker and had what looked like an observatory on its peak. It was a short, round building with a long telescope aimed up at the heavens.
Austin heard the feathers rustle again and his gaze shifted over to the dead tree. Perched on one of its branches was a barn owl, its black eyes gazing intently at Austin.
“Minerva?” Austin asked the owl.
“Yes child?” Minerva said, maternally.
“Am I dead?”
Minerva the owl gave a hoot that sounded like a soft laugh. “No, Austin, you’re not dead.”
Austin breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh good. So what exactly happened with that monster? I remember falling off the building, but then I blacked out. How’d I wind up here?” For the first time, Austin noticed a long indentation in the snow in front of him, leading to where he sat. It was as if he had slid or been dragged through the snow.
“It’s quite the tale, actually. When Chimaera grabbed you, you both fell from the building. As you neared the ground, however, it became apparent that your trajectory carried you right over the fountain before the building. As you passed out, so did Chimaera. Her grip loosened on you and in the seconds before impact, the two of you drifted apart. Chimaera impacted the ground, while you, luckily, were blown by the wind right into the Marker. You were then transported here, where the snow cancelled your remaining momentum, saving your life.”
Austin was wide-eyed incredulous. “Well… that was lucky.” He managed after a few seconds. He could have died. He should have died. Yet, somehow, here he was, wherever this place was.
After a minute of reflection, Austin decided to put the question to Minerva. “Hey Minerva, what is this place? I remember being here the other day. You wouldn’t tell me what all this is. Do I get to find out now?”
Minerva gave a hooting sigh before answering. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to tell you now. You already know a little about The Game. You know that the main events take place on your island of Sombra. This is referred to as “The Field.” That’s what they call wherever the missions take place. However, after a mission has been completed, it’s not safe for players to remain on the field. Thus, when the Architect designs everything, a separate world is created for the players to inhabit between missions.”
“A separate world?” Austin asked. “You mean we’re on a different planet?”
“Yes, this is a different planet, orbiting a different star. The planet is created and destroyed with each new instance of The Game, and each instance of this planet is prototyped to suit each of the players that will inhabit it. You can think of this planet as sort of a hub world. For that reason, this world is called the Terminus. Its sole purpose is to keep the players safe between missions.”
“So are Alice and Ryan here as well? And Riley?”
“Each of your friends are on separate areas of this planet. Each area specifically created for each player to match their individual character aspects.”
Austin wasn’t entirely sure what this meant, but it didn’t seem extremely important, so he figured he’d move on to other questions.
“So what was that monster that almost killed me? You called it Chimaera?”
Minerva shifted her wings. “Ah, yes, Chimaera: mythological beast, head and body of a lion, horns of a goat and a snake for a tail. One of the Guardians.”
“Guardians?”
“Each day you will be presented with a mission, and each mission has its own Marker, like the one you hunted down today. However, finding the Marker is not as easy as it seems. Each day’s Marker is protected by one of the Guardians. Each is a fearsome beast whose only purpose is to guard that Marker. If you can make it past them, you can finish your mission.”
“Are they all as tough as Chimaera?”
“Most of them, yes. However, they each have their own weakness. Figure that out, and you should be able to take them down. For instance, Chimaera was a fire-breather, and suffered damage when exposed to water.”
Austin stared at the distant mountaintop. He was in no hurry to have to face one of those monsters again. They barely made it out of that office building. Who knew what else would be in store for them?
“Anything else you need to know?”
Austin’s thoughts drifted back to the morning. He remembered what Ethan had said about taking orders from higher up.
“Yeah, those people that brought us here? The ones in charge? Who are they?”
Minerva looked thoughtful for a second. “Well I can’t tell you much, but I’ll tell you all I can. The people that you keep seeing call themselves The Fallen. They’re all failed players who are employed by the GM, or Game Master, to help run The Game. You see, when a player is killed in The Game, they’re given the choice to either go on being dead or be brought back as a Fallen. Now, this sounds like an easy choice, but I promise you it’s not as simple as it sounds. The Fallen are different than you and your friends. They’ve lost that spark that makes them human. In fact, most of them don’t even consider themselves human anymore. They’re mere fragments of what they used to be. They don’t need to eat; they don’t need to sleep or anything like that. Most of all, most of them lack any sort of compassion whatsoever. All they think about is helping themselves.”
“They can’t be all bad,” Austin muttered, thinking of Ethan’s attempts to help them.
“Since the Fallen can’t really feel much, most of them don’t. Some, however, have memories of their life before The Game, and it’s these memories of being whole that drive them to act human. Keep in mind, though, that they only know compassion from a distant memory. They don’t actually feel it. Not to mention the Fallen are very powerful on the Field. They have powers that you could only dream of, Austin. Don’t trust one of them for a second.”
“Are you saying they’d try to kill us? What good would that be to them if they run the game?”
A gust of wind blew over the top of the mountain. Austin’s hair was getting tossed around violently in the breeze, but he was too focused on what Minerva had to say to notice.
“While it’s true that some of them run the game, not all of them do. Most of them just sit around without anything to do. Now, during the daytime, Fallen aren’t allowed on the Field without express permission from the GM, and even if they went there, they’d be powerless to stop you without, again, express permission from the GM. The most the Fallen can do is attack you indirectly by sending monsters like the Beholders and the Panthers after you.
“However, at night, everything changes. When the Players fail to complete the mission within the allotted time, being the day, the mission becomes void. The Marker disappears and the Game enters Sudden Death. The day’s mission can no longer be completed, and thus the players are stuck on the Field until morning. During this time, monsters run free across the Field, killing anything in their path. The monsters are the least of anyone’s worries, though. The real danger comes from the Fallen. During Sudden Death, the restriction on Fallen activity is lifted. Any Fallen can enter the Field and are free to attack and kill Players. The Fallen will jump on any chance they get to force a Game into Sudden Death, some will even try to indirectly interfere with the game in order to deter Players from their objective until their time runs out. The reason for this is because when a Fallen kills a Player during Sudden Death, the Fallen takes the Player’s place and thus has a second chance to finish the game. However, if any players make it to sunrise, the voided mission is omitted and they continue playing normally.”
The stakes were higher than Austin had thought. Not only did they have to avoid being killed by monsters, traps and Guardians during the day, but they also had to finish before nightfall in order to keep their place in the game.
“Don’t look so worried. There’s hardly ever a Sudden Death in a Game, despite how hard some of the Fallen may try to force one.” As if reading Austin’s anxious expression, Minerva changed the subject. “On a lighter note, each Player that completes the Game is entitled to one reward.”
Austin raised an eyebrow. “A reward? It better be good.”
“It generally is. Each player who makes it past the final challenge gets to choose between bringing back a player who was killed or using their reward to bringing themselves great fortune when they return from the Game.”
“So if one of us gets killed, we can bring them back at the end of the Game?”
“If your friends use their rewards selflessly. You never know what Players will do until they’re given the option.”
“My friends would never choose themselves over one of us!” Austin couldn’t imagine Ryan or Alice picking something selfish over having him back. He wasn’t so sure about Riley, but he was fairly confident she could do the right thing.
“I don’t mean to imply that your friends are selfish. I just know that Players in the past have chosen themselves over their friends and I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened again.”
Austin was about to argue, but Minerva unfurled her wings sharply.
“Now Austin,” she said, sounding like she was his mother. “Sleep now. You have another long day tomorrow.” She flapped her wings softly and Austin could see a fine powder emerge from them and mix with the snow falling around him. After a few seconds, Austin was feeling more tired than he had been all day. His eyes felt heavy and without meaning to he fell sideways into the snow, fast asleep.
Ok, so here’s the deal with the story.
I know I haven’t been keeping up with it as well as I should have this semester, and that’s entirely my fault. However, the school year’s almost over for me. I should be back home next Tuesday, and I’ll basically have nothing better to do with my time after that, so you can definitely expect some regular updates through the summer.
As for this next week, I’ll try to do some writing and maybe knock out another chapter for you before I leave school, but I do have exams this week and a fairly big paper that’s due Wednesday. At the latest, I’d have a chapter done on Friday.
So the plan is I’ll try to write a chapter for Friday, but at the latest, you’ll see new chapters by next week.
Thanks for being patient, guys! And as always, please please please let people know about the story. I need as many readers as possible (and tumblr followers on here)!
-Nathan
Chapter 12
Monday – 11:20 AM
Austin slowed to a stop. He was very out of breath and he could feel a stitch building in his stomach. The three behind him followed suit and Austin turned to face them. Ryan and Alice were looking cautious, but curious at the sight of the newest member of their group, a blonde girl of about the same age as they themselves were. Austin gave the girl a studied look. He had known almost at once who she was. Even though he had only briefly seen a picture of her before, he recognized Riley. She looked different in person, which was only to be expected, but he hadn’t been aware of exactly how attractive she was. That was neither here nor there, though. There were more important matters at hand. He had a million questions for her, but it seemed unlikely that she knew the answers. Besides, introductions were in order.
“You must be Riley,” he said to her, adopting what he hoped was a friendly smile. “I’m Austin. Remember me?”
She nodded, still looking a bit shaken by their run-in with the Beholders earlier. “Yeah, I remember you.”
“Ok, good.” Austin continued. “Well this is Ryan and this is Alice,” he motioned to his friends in respective order. They each gave their greetings.
“Nice job with that suit guy earlier,” Ryan remarked to Riley. “I would’ve never guessed that it was an illusion. How’d you know?”
“It’s… kind of a long story.” Riley answered.
“One I’m sure we’ll have time for later,” Alice interrupted. “What about that Marker? Have you heard about that?”
“Yeah, some guy appeared and told me about it. I don’t know where it is, though. He wouldn’t tell me.”
Austin’s interest was piqued. Maybe it was Ethan. “What’d this guy look like?”
Riley looked surprised, as if she had been expecting another question.
“Well,” she said, looking thoughtful, “He was kinda tall, had short brown hair and wore a leather jacket. Oh, yeah, and he had this wrench thing that he kept playing with.”
Hmm, Austin thought. Definitely doesn’t sound like Ethan. But then who’s this guy? Maybe Ethan has partners.
“Did you get his name?” Austin asked.
Riley shook her head. “Nope. But he knew me.”
“Yeah, we’ve met someone similar. A guy named Ethan. He told us about the Game and the Marker and whatnot. He knew who we all were, as well.”
“So what is this Game, anyway?” Riley asked. “All I know is that we have to survive the week.”
“That’s all we know as well.” Alice agreed. “We haven’t really been told much, other than that.”
Austin spoke up decisively. “Well we might as well try to find this Marker. If we find out any more about what’s going on along the way, then great. However, I think staying alive is our highest priority right now, and the most obvious way to do that is to just play along with their Game for now. Whoever they are.”
“That’s all well and good,” Ryan said, “But where is the damn thing? I know that Ethan guy said it might be somewhere in the city, but for all we know he could either be wrong or lying. Besides, even if it is in the city, we’ve got a lot of ground to search. Where do we even start?”
Austin could see that Riley was holding what looked like a piece of paper in her hand. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t noticed it before.
“Riley, what’s that?” he asked, motioning towards what she had in her hand.
She brought it up to look at it and Austin saw that it was what looked like a Polaroid photograph.
“I dunno,” Riley shrugged. “I mean, obviously it’s a picture, but I don’t know what of. I found it when I killed that robot guy.” She handed it over to Austin for his scrutiny.
Austin saw that the photo showed a large fountain in a square before an office building. Marble staircases framed the fountain, one on either side, then meeting and forming one staircase behind the fountain in a Y-shaped junction.
“What is it, Austin?” Alice asked impatiently.
Austin was genuinely surprised. “Guys, it’s a picture of the fountain in front of the Reynolds building.”
Ryan cocked an eyebrow. “I’m guessing that’s a clue?” he asked.
“Probably,” Austin said. “But for now it’s all we have to go on. Which way do you guys want to go to get there?”
A gust of wind blew down the street and Riley shivered noticeably. “I don’t know about that,” she said. “But I could really use a jacket. Do you know if there’s a clothing store around here somewhere?”
The closest store between them and their destination was a couple blocks away. Austin had never been in it before, as it was a bit preppy for his taste, but they had decent, if expensive, clothing. It had been hugely popular with the kids of their school, especially David and his gang. Since there was nobody there, they just took what they needed. It wasn’t like there was anyone to stop them. Back on the street, Riley looked much warmer in a pastel-blue jacket. They were ready to begin looking for the Marker.
The fastest route to the Reynolds building was to go straight down 15th street, which would put them right across the street from their destination. It was a decent day out, if very windy, so the four friends didn’t mind the walk. They talked for a while, getting to know each other a little better. Austin was intrigued to learn that Alice was not only an only child, but also lived exclusively with her father. He felt a certain sense of connection to her, as he was sure the others did. Riley seemed to get along well with Alice and Ryan, although she seemed a little quiet. Austin also learned that she was very interested in History and had a passion for the antique and vintage.
A few blocks from the fountain, their conversation was interrupted by a disturbance up ahead. Completely blocking the road was a pile of what appeared to be destroyed cars that towered about thirty feet above the pavement. Someone had crammed what looked like every car on the island into a single stretch of road between two buildings.
“Can we get over it?” Ryan asked.
“Maybe,” Austin said, scanning the wreckage for a possible route to the top. It was then that he noticed movement on the pile of cars. A Faceless was climbing to the top on the other side. Once he reached the top, he stood straight up and stared with his eyeless face down at the four kids. They stood staring at each other for what felt like a few minutes, then the Faceless reached into a pocket of his suit and pulled out something small and shiny. It was hard to see exactly what it was from that distance, but Austin had a suspicion as to what it was. A familiar “shink” noise confirmed his suspicions as the Faceless flipped open the lighter and lit it. The Faceless turned his blank gaze to the lighter and dropped it carelessly into the pile of twisted metal. As the flame found some tiny reserve of oil, the Faceless leaped out of sight and down to the far side of the car pile. The stack of cars suddenly erupted into flames.
“Get back!” Austin yelled, looking around frantically for an alternate route. The alleyways between the buildings were all dead ends, however the building to their left had a lobby that had doors to the street on the other side.
“In here! Quick!” Austin shouted, running into the lobby. They quickly dashed through the marble foyer, down a set of steps and out the glass doors at the far end. As soon as the glass door closed behind Riley, who was last, a series of deafening explosions reverberated through the empty streets.
The blasts subsided almost as quickly as they began.
“Are we safe?” Ryan asked, his hands clasped over his ears.
“I think so,” Alice said.
Austin, however, wasn’t so sure. He heard a low creaking sound and turned back to the building they had just run through. It seemed the force from the explosions had taken out some of the building’s supports and it was slowly tipping towards them.
“Run!” Austin shouted and again they ran for their lives. The building was wider than they thought, and after a few seconds the tipping building had enveloped them in its shadow. They were almost out of the way when the top of the falling skyscraper impacted the building across the street. The second building held, but only just, and the first building began to slide down its side, gaining speed toward the ground. Austin hadn’t stopped running, however, and the four friends were able to make it out of the way in time for the building to land with a boom. Glass shattered, concrete cracked and flew apart, papers and bits of furniture flew out of the destroyed windows. It was truly a sight to behold. Austin was just glad that they had made it out of the way in time and that there hadn’t been anyone in the building.
A creak from further away signaled the destruction of the building that had been to the right of the explosion. It fell in the same direction as the first building, blocking the original street and adding rubble to the wreckage.
“Holy shit,” Ryan breathed, gazing out over the destruction.
“Looks like they knew we were coming,” Alice said.
“So what now?” Riley asked.
Austin turned away from the destruction and gazed down the road. “Looks like our only choice is to keep going.”
Fortunately, the Reynolds building was only a few blocks away and they wasted no time in getting there. The office building was one of the taller buildings in the city. The walls were tinted blue glass all the way up the side of the buildings, which gave it a reflective quality.
The quickest way to the fountain was to head through the lobby of the building, which they did. The lobby had a high ceiling adorned with a glass chandelier. The floors and walls were made of slabs of marble, which gave the room a very bare appearance. The room was ominously quiet. The only sounds that could be heard were each of the friends’ echoing footsteps on the hard marble and the wind blowing stronger than ever outside, albeit muffled by the glass. Not wanting to hang around too long, they stepped quickly down the staircase in the center of the room and towards the long row of glass doors on the far side.
On the other side of the doors, Austin could clearly discern the square he had seen in the photograph, with a glistening green shape floating above the fountain. It was bright, so he couldn’t quite make out what the shape was, but he would have bet his spyglass that it was the Marker.
Riley sighed. “Oh good, we’re almost there.”
Austin felt reinvigorated. He was ready to have a moment alone to figure out the events of the past few days. However, when he pushed on the handle of one of the doors, he found it locked.
“Uh oh,” he said, his stomach dropping. He knew this was too good to be true.
They tried the other doors and found them all to be locked. Austin was about to suggest they backtrack and just go around the building, but something seemed to be happening. The glass in the doors was growing darker, as if it was gradually being tinted.
“Guys, I don’t like the look of this at all,” Ryan said, glancing around nervously.
Within a few seconds, all the doors and windows were completely blackened out. The only light in the room was the dim glow from the chandelier above them, casting eerie shadows around the room. It was as if the building had been plunged into a sudden night. Austin could hear the wind rushing outside and his friends’ nervous breathing, but nothing else.
A thump sounded somewhere in the room. It was hard to place exactly where it had come from, since nobody was expecting it. However, when the second one rang out over the reverberant hall, Austin could tell it was coming from behind the corner where a hallway jutted off at a tangent from the lobby.
A dark blur shot across Austin’s field of view and he heard the sound of breaking glass as the light in the room went out. There was a moment of panic before the clink of iron signaled Ryan lighting his lantern. A soft yellow glow spread for a few feet around the four friends, but was too weak to illuminate the whole room.
“What the hell just happened?” Alice asked.
Austin was looking around for any sign of what could have caused the blackout. “I don’t know, but I have the feeling we’re not alone.”
Very faintly, Austin could hear a clicking noise from somewhere in the darkness, like fingernails rapping on a hard surface, or (he shuddered), like claws on marble.
He could feel his heart pounding frantically in his chest. There was something in the room with them, and he was getting the feeling that it wasn’t a small something. He could almost feel it out there, lurking, sizing them up. Austin wanted to get away from whatever it was as quickly as possible, but the problem was he didn’t know where it was, so he ran the risk of fleeing straight towards it.
“Austin, what’s going on?” Alice whispered to him.
Austin did his best to remain still and keep his eyes searching the dark room. “Don’t panic, but I think there’s something in here with us.” He whispered back.
“What kind of something?” Riley breathed.
“I don’t-“
A jet of fire erupted from the darkness and over the heads of the four friends, engulfing the rest of Austin’s sentence. The light it gave was brief, but he could barely make out something very large at the other end of the lobby.
“Can we panic now?” Ryan said, the lantern shaking in his hand.
Another blast of fire shot straight upward from the creature, and this time Austin wasn’t too busy ducking to see what it was.
The creature appeared to be a huge lion, over ten feet tall, but with the long horns of a goat and a wicked-looking serpent tail that thrashed back and forth.
“Yes definitely panic!” Austin yelled. By the light of the lantern, he could see a hallway to their right. “This way!” he shouted, taking off towards it, motioning for them to follow. The four friends ran as fast as they could down the hallway, trying to outpace the monster that was locked in with them. It didn’t seem to be much use, however, as the monster roared loudly and gave chase.
Running didn’t seem to be doing them much good, though, as the beast seemed to be able to catch up with them at any point. Curiously enough, though, it didn’t, as if it enjoyed the thrill of the chase.
Shortly ahead, Austin could see a light emptying out into the pitch black hallway. The four friends ran into the room, which turned out to be an elevator. Thinking fast, Austin slammed his hand down on one of the buttons. Thankfully, the door began to close as the beast drew even with them. It tried to shove a monstrous paw into the closing doors, but there was too little space. The beast uttered a roar of vexation and shot a blast of fire at the doors, which closed just in time to shield Austin, Ryan, Alice and Riley from the searing heat.
As the elevator began to move upwards, Austin fell into a sitting position, the others following suit.
“So,” Ryan said between heavy breaths, “What the hell was that thing?”
In the room filled with computers, Dolores sat by her keyboard, watching information flash across the screen. Being Scribe meant constantly typing up player reports for the GM, which ordinarily was very tedious, but it gave her a decent excuse to constantly spy on the players.
As she neared the end of a paragraph, she heard the door open and someone slowly walk in. At first she thought it was Ethan or Logan, and made a motion to address them as such.
“Look, I don’t have anything else for you guys to do, so just stop-“ She turned and realized it was not either of the two people she had been expecting. The person who stood before her was a tall man with short black hair wearing an expensive-looking black suit. He wore an eye patch over one eye and a horizontal scar under the other.
Dolores gave an apologetic look, standing to attention. “Oh, sorry, I thought you were someone else.”
The man nodded. “How goes the Game?” he asked in a deep voice.
“Well, the Players have just encountered the first Guardian.”
A sadistic grin spread across the man’s face. “Ah, Chimaera. I hope she treats them well. Keep me posted on their progress.”
“Can do sir.”
The man turned to leave, but stopped at the door.
“Dolores?”
“Hm?”
“Remember that we need you for the next stage. Don’t do anything…” he paused slightly, as if carefully selecting the word. “…careless. We can only protect you to a certain extent. Also, keep a look out for that traitor that sabotaged our original plan. I don’t know who he is, but I will find him and he will be…” he paused again. “…taken care of.”
“Yes sir.”
As the door closed, Dolores sank back in her chair with an inward sigh of relief. There was just something about that guy she didn’t like, but above that distrust was a certain feeling of fear that commanded nothing less than respect and obedience. She’d hate to get on his bad side.
Glancing again at her screen, she saw a video feed of the four Players in a small elevator. She didn’t envy them one bit. She certainly didn’t want to have to go up against Chimaera.
Dolores watched as the four kids sat waiting for the elevator to reach its destination.
The elevator dinged as it reached the designated floor. In his haste, Austin hadn’t even bothered to check which button he had pressed. It seemed that he had hit the button for the top floor, since it had been the closest at hand. The doors opened onto another dark floor. The room was large and open. Ryan’s lantern revealed that this floor contained cubicles that looked as if they had been left normally the night before and nobody had bothered to return. As they crept along the rows, Austin could see personal affects tacked onto each cubicle: a picture of a family, a goofy coffee mug, a poster of a famous singer, etc.
What happened to everyone? Austin thought. He hadn’t much time to reflect on the idea until now, but a lingering thought plagued him. Is everyone dead? He sure hoped not. Not that he particularly cared for many people on the island beside the ones with him, but it would still be a horrible tragedy. However, he didn’t have any proof as to what happened to everyone. For all he knew, they could all have been transported somewhere safe. I sure hope Mom’s OK.
“Austin!” Alice yelled, snapping him out of his thoughts.
“What?”
“The monster’s coming!”
It was true. Austin could hear the beast’s paws clumping down a hallway. He wondered how it had managed to get here. There was no way it could’ve fit through the human-sized doorways. In the gloom towards the walls of the room, Austin could see the creature move out from behind a wall. It smelled the air in attempt to discover them. Its snake head flicked its tongue in and out, flitting its head this way and that.
Austin held his breath, hoping that they wouldn’t be detected. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears.
With a roar, the beast found them. It tore down the aisle between blocks of cubicles towards them, destroying office chairs and flimsy divider walls before it.
Austin jumped to his feet quickly and the four of them took off as fast as they could towards a doorway in the far wall. As they got closer, Austin could read the sign bolted to the door. It read ROOF ACCESS. Better yet, the door was ajar. If they could make it out onto the roof, they’d be able to see, which would make fighting this monster a whole lot easier.
They were maybe ten feet from the door when the monster cut across their path, blocking their advance towards the door. It threw a paw at them, which only barely missed Austin’s face as turned around to run the other way. Ryan was a little slow to stop, however, and got hit by the creature’s backhand, which sent him flying into a nearby divider wall. Luckily the walls were flimsy enough that they fell over when he impacted them; he seemed winded, but otherwise unhurt. Austin reached down and pulled Ryan to his feet as the lion head sent a jet of fire towards them. Austin felt the flames pass behind him, however it took him a second to realize that his sleeve was on fire. He hurried to shake it out, but they soon discovered that there was more than just Austin’s sleeve on fire. The destroyed cubicles were also alight, the stacks of papers and dry divider walls providing ample fuel. In almost no time, the sprinkler system kicked in, dousing the Players with a cold spray. All the fires went out, including the one on Austin’s shirt.
The unexpected rain was also having a more unexpected effect. The beast in front of them seemed to be hurt by the water. It was shaking as if poked by a thousand tiny needles. Taking advantage of its distraction, Austin ordered Ryan, Alice and Riley through the doorway behind the creature. They made it through without alerting the monster of their intentions, although Riley had to jump out of the way of one of its hind legs to avoid being trampled.
Through the doorway a short staircases lead up to the rooftop. Austin had to wait a few seconds before he could see. The midday sun was blinding compared to the darkness they had just exited. Before long, though, a roar sounded from beneath them, and the beast appeared out of thin air before them. The sprinklers had seemingly damaged it. Its skin looked blistered and burned. There were spots where the skin had been burned away completely and a sort of black mist steamed out from the creature. It staggered a bit, but still managed to stay on its feet. It didn’t seem to have much energy left, but it was still focused on taking out the four players.
Austin stepped nervously away from the beast, cautious of the ledge of the building behind him.
Gathering up whatever energy it had left, the beast made one final charge towards the players. As it leapt towards them, they all dove in different directions to evade the suicidal beast. Austin’s dive hadn’t been enough, as he was right in the middle of the group, and the beast plowed into him. It closed a paw around Austin as it skidded towards the side of the building. Austin’s sword appeared in his hand and he tried frantically to cut through the creature’s arm, but to no avail. It was like trying to cut through a tree trunk. The claw around him held fast.
With a crumbling noise the beast crashed through the short wall at the edge of the building and the two flew over the side and into midair.
“Austin!” his friends shouted, but there was nothing they could do but watch.
For Austin, the fall felt like minutes, when in actuality it only took a few seconds. He saw his friends disappear into the distance; he saw his reflection in the blue glass of the building’s windows. He turned his head around and saw the beast that had damned him. It roared in frustration. The sound would have been deafening, but to Austin it sounded underwater and far away, the wind in his ears made it hard to hear anything else. Plus, the adrenaline blurred the whole experience for him.
So this is how I die.
As they neared the ground, Austin glanced towards the ground to see the fountain of the plaza beneath him. Their trajectory would put them right on top of it.
In the final seconds, Austin saw the fountain rush up to meet him. A spark of green flashed across his vision and he knew no more.
Q:Been waiting for ages for the next chapter. are you alive? D8
Anonymous
Yeah, sorry /: I’ve been caught up with school and working on my minecraft server, but I’ve been trying to get stuff written. I’m really just stuck on one certain part, but I’ll try to knock it out today, just for you anon.
Sorry about the brief hiatus, my faithful followers.
I’ll be doing some writing tomorrow and I might have a new chapter up for you, although I can’t promise that for certain.
After the next chapter (or two, I’m not entirely sure) go(es) up, I’ll be getting some character bios up, because I know some people could use them.
Thanks for reading!
-Nathan
Chapter 11
Monday – 10:17 AM
Ethan strode purposefully down a darkened hall. There was someone he needed to talk to. As he walked, he passed the shadowy forms of other people as they went about their business. None of them so much as glanced at the red-haired man, despite the stark contrast his appearance presented. Ancient iron braziers on the walls contained torches that shone with a creepy purple flame. On the walls, between the arches of the vaulted ceiling were paned glass windows, although nothing but a black void could be seen through them. The floor underneath Ethan’s feet was covered in a dark rug, rendered colorless by the purple flames. Where the rug didn’t reach, the floor was revealed to be a hard stone, the same as the walls.
Something very strange and wrong was happening, and something inside Ethan wouldn’t let him just forget it.
At the end of the hall, he opened a dark wooden door to his left and entered a spiral staircase. The same purple torches lined the outside of the wall. Ethan took the stairs two at a time in his haste to reach his destination.
He knew that someone must have played a role in the obvious sabotage in the setup of the recent game session, and he had a fair idea of who would be a part of it.
At the top of the staircase, Ethan opened a similar wooden door and entered another hallway. This one was smaller, however, and looked very different to the long hall he had previously traversed. This hall had a lower ceiling and in place of the creepy purple torches sported florescent lights tacked onto the stone walls. The rug here looked somewhat disheveled, as if nobody really cared for how it lay on the floor, and wires ran the length of the wall. Most of the wires powered the florescent lights, but some appeared to have different purposes.
At the end of this hall, Ethan pushed through a final wooden door. The room beyond contained rows of computers running some program that Ethan didn’t understand. Behind a wall of glass to Ethan’s left stood rows of servers, humming quietly to themselves. He knew that these were just one of the many server rooms around the facility. The right side of the room opened out onto a balcony, which afforded a beautiful view of the pure blackness outside.
At one of the computers at the far side of the room sat a blonde woman, typing away at some sort of program. Standing beside her, leaning against the wall was a man about the same age as Ethan, but with short brown hair and a black leather jacket. As Ethan approached, the man looked up at Ethan and brought a lit cigarette up to his mouth.
“Dolores,” called Ethan to the woman, as he got closer. She turned slowly in her chair, revealing black-framed glasses and a sardonic expression. Her hair was up in a bun, except for two locks that fell on either side of her face. She wore a grey jacket and dark jeans.
“What do you want?” She asked, as if she found the idea of being bothered by Ethan to be absolutely incredulous.
“I just got back from doing the session intro,” Ethan began, but Dolores cut him off.
“Yeah? That’s great. Why should I care?” She glanced at her nails, obviously not amused by anything Ethan had to say. She turned back to her computer, as if he wasn’t even there.
Ethan wasn’t about to let her blow him off. He knew that was just her way of avoiding a subject. “There’s something wrong with this session, Dolores. Someone switched one of the cubes with a bomb. They tried to kill three of the players before they could enter The Game. Someone’s been sending Beholders after the players and trying to prevent them from entering The Game.”
Dolores gave him a blank look over her glasses. “What, and you think I had something to do with this?”
Ethan returned her stare, determined not to be intimidated. “It seems like the kind of sadistic thing you’d take pleasure in.”
She took a second to respond. “Look, Ethan, I’m flattered that you think I’m up to some devious master plan to sabotage The Game, but the reality is that I just don’t give a shit. Whether or not a couple of teenagers happen to make it through the petty challenges the GM sets for them really doesn’t interest me. Mark my words, though, if and when they do fail, as they probably will, you can count on me to be there to reap the spoils before either of you two have the chance.” Before Ethan could retort, though, she turned to the other man, who had just finished his cigarette. “Logan, whenever you find the time, you need to go brief the last player. She entered kinda late. You know how it is with different time zones.”
Logan nodded, flicking his cigarette butt out of the window to his left. “Yeah, I got ya.” He strolled nonchalantly past Ethan and out of the room.
Dolores clacked away at the computer for another minute before realizing that Ethan was still standing there. “Are you still here?” she said over her shoulder.
“I know you have something to do with this.”
Dolores sighed and turned her chair around to face Ethan. “I really didn’t, and frankly I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I really haven’t been paying attention to the goings-on of this session. I know you have that little sense of justice that makes you want to figure out exactly what’s happening and who may or may not be behind it, but you have to ask yourself, is this really some sort of sabotage, or is this just a strange sort of permutation of The Game?”
“Have any of the other sessions started like this?”
“Well, not that I know of, but you know just as well as I do that every session is different. Maybe the GM changed the rules this time around. I sure as hell don’t know. Do yourself a favor, though, and don’t think too much into it. You’ll only get yourself in trouble, and how will that make me look? You are my responsibility, after all. Now can you get out of here? I have something I need to work on.”
Ethan left, but he was not satisfied that Dolores was telling the truth. He was certainly not convinced that she wasn’t interested in how the current session turned out. Besides, it wasn’t unlike her to lie. He wondered, though, what she would stand to gain from sabotaging the session before it even started. Hell, what would any of them gain from that? He couldn’t dismiss the strange abundance of Beholders that hounded the players. Of all the creatures that could be sent after players, the Beholders were Dolores’s favorite.
Overall, though, Ethan had too many questions and not enough answers. He decided to track down Logan and see what he knew.
Ethan left the way he came, back down the spiral staircase and into the long hall with the purple torches. At the far end of that hall, giant wooden doors opened to a courtyard surrounded by battlemented walls of stone. The courtyard looked like it had once contained grass and trees, but now the ground was turned to dusty soil, and the shriveled remains of a few trees could be seen against the walls. The sky above, if you could call it that, was pitch black. The only light came from torches of a normal flame color that burned on all of the walls. A cobblestone pathway ran from the gate of the building that Ethan had just entered to a gate of equal size set into the far walls. Rows of doors ran parallel to the pathway. The doors stood straight up in the ground, standing free from any wall or building. All in all, they seemed pretty pointless doors. Ethan could see, though, that wires ran from the building behind him, down the stairs and into each of the doors, powering each door with a pale blue glow.
Ethan walked slowly down to one of the doors on the left side of the path and turned the handle. The door opened outward, and Ethan looked through it. One would expect to see the barren courtyard continue on the other side of the empty doorframe, but instead a soft blue light filled the void. Ethan, however, was used to this and stepped into the light and disappeared.
A few seconds later, he reappeared on the rooftop of a tall building. The brightness of the sun caused Ethan to squint his eyes while they adjusted. After a couple seconds, he could see relatively well and surveyed his surroundings. He could see the tops of other buildings around him, though few were taller than the one on which he currently stood. In front of him, standing by the edge of the building was Logan, right where he had expected to find him.
Ethan walked over to Logan and looked over the lip of the roof. The northern half of Sombra Island was spread out before him. Far below him on the empty streets, Ethan could see a lone figure making its way eastward.
“Is that her?” Ethan asked, knowing that Logan was looking at the same thing as him. There really wasn’t much else to look at on an empty street. “The fourth player?”
“Yeah, that’s her, alright.”
“What’s she like?” Ethan asked. “I met the other three, but I hadn’t heard anything about her.”
Logan laughed. “She’s got some spunk, that one.”
“But do you think she has what it takes?”
“I suppose we’ll see, won’t we?”
“Do you know what her element is?”
Logan shrugged. “Nah, Dolores wouldn’t tell me.”
Ethan was suddenly more interested. “She knows?”
“Well of course she knows. It’s kinda her job to know. GM appointed her Scribe for this session. I don’t envy her one bit. That’s quite the work-intensive job.”
“What does the Scribe do?” Ethan asked. He had heard about the job, but he wasn’t sure what it entailed.
“Shit, Ethan, don’t you know? The Scribe keeps tabs on all the players, knows just about everything about them.”
“Ah I see.” So Dolores did lie to him about not knowing anything about the session. Ethan utterly failed to register surprise. “Sounds like she’d be in a pretty good position to manipulate events to her advantage.”
“You’re right, she could. Frankly, though, I don’t peg her as the type. If someone was really gonna try to derail the game, it’d be a big-scale operation. Dolores… well she’s not really the ‘big-scale’ type of girl. Not to say that she can’t organize and carry out plans, but her plans are usually simple and to the point. She likes to mess with people and really piss them off. Not only would killing someone utterly not interest her, but if she did, she’d want them to know it was her. What I’m saying is all this cloak-and-dagger sabotage nonsense just isn’t her style, you know?”
Ethan knew Logan was absolutely right. He nodded silently. “So what do you think about what’s been going on?”
Logan was a few seconds answering. “Well, you know we’re not supposed to interfere before The Game begins, and even afterwards, there’s only certain stuff we’re allowed to do. The GM keeps a close watch on just about everything we do. If someone was trying to sabotage the game, they’d have a hell of a time hiding from the GM.”
Logan pulled out another cigarette from his back pocket and lit it up.
“Didn’t you just have one of those?” Ethan asked, trying to waft the acrid smoke away from his face.
“Uh huh. I was trying to quit. You know, before all this.” He took a drag of the cigarette before continuing. “Now, though, I figure what’s the point? It’s not like it can kill me.” He gave a wry laugh.
Ethan was silent for a while. Below him, he could see the girl Logan had briefed surrounded by Beholders. After a few minutes, though, the other three players joined her. They made quick work of the Beholders and their commanding Faceless and ran off out of sight.
“Hey, Ethan,” Logan said, snapping Ethan’s attention back to the immediate surroundings. “You ever miss how things used to be?”
Ethan thought for a second, knowing where this conversation was going. “Yeah, I do sometimes.”
“Well I do. All the time.” There was a pause, and then Logan sighed and continued. “It’s not fucking fair, you know? They get to run around down there and play their little game. They can still go back. They’re still whole.”
“We all had our chance. You know that.”
“Yeah, but they could still win.”
“Logan, nobody wins.”
“Yeah, I know. I know.”
They stood there for a minute more, before Logan stubbed his cigarette out on the small wall that bordered the edge of the building and turned to leave. He walked about ten feet away from Ethan and disappeared into thin air.
Ethan reviewed what he had learned. He was pretty convinced that Dolores had some sort of part in all this, but she wasn’t the one in charge. Whoever was in charge could’ve used her to access information about the players, then gotten someone else to switch the cube with the decoy, etc. He still had way too many questions, too many unknowns. It was too early to make any definitive judgments, but he had a feeling that his assumptions wouldn’t be too far off the mark. For now, though, he’d keep a close eye on the players for any more evidence of foul play.
So I think it’d be kinda cool to do a Q&A if anyone’s interested.
If you have any questions about the story, send them to the ask box and I’ll answer them all after I post the next chapter (which will hopefully be tomorrow).
If you’re one of the non-tumblr readers, you can still ask quesions (I think). You just have to ask anonymously.
Source: thesombragame
So I think it’d be kinda cool to do a Q&A if anyone’s interested.
If you have any questions about the story, send them to the ask box and I’ll answer them all after I post the next chapter (which will hopefully be tomorrow).
If you’re one of the non-tumblr readers, you can still ask quesions (I think). You just have to ask anonymously.
