Holy shit. Holy shit.
Yeah, there was an update, but this? This felt real. She’d actually felt the cactus prick her finger!
What the hell was going on?
Beth walked into town, wary of the enhanced sound effects. The wind whistling through the trees, the creaking of a decorative windmill in someone’s front lawn. And speaking of their front lawn, the grass. It was trimmed neatly, with small patches of taller grass, and it looked real. Every, fracking, thing, looked, real.
She’d left Maverick’s avatar—she refused to refer to it as his body—in the base. Hopefully, the zombies weren’t attracted to it when he wasn’t online, cause he was an easy target just slumped in the corner.
Beth made it to the trader’s compound and quickly entered, making sure to close the door behind her. Apparently zombies were too stupid to figure out a doorknob.
She climbed the steps and stopped when she saw a man standing in front of the trader. Or, she thought it was the trader, instead of saying Trader over his head, it said Skip McGee. The newcomer, with the name Helios above his head, turned as Beth’s foot caught on a nail sticking out of the rustic wooden floor.
Beth glanced down at it and cocked her head to the side. Again, it looked so real.
“Nyx. Good to see you.”
Her attention was drawn back to the man, and she knew immediately that it was TJ, and that he’d used the glow-up clone option. He had the same dark hair and dark eyes. His face was more angular, his jaw more chiseled. A sexy scruff coated his cheeks and chin.
“TJ, what’s going on?”
TJ pointed at the name hovering over his head. “Call me Helios. You aren’t the only fan of Greek mythology.”
Beth’s stomach churned with unease. “Helios,” she said exaggeratedly. “What is happening?”
“It’s an update.” He held out his hands as if that explained the whole damn thing.
She rolled her eyes. “But I feel. My backpack is heavy. My finger still stings. I’m sweaty!”
His grin widened. “It’s all part of the experience.”
Fan-fracking-tastic. He was gonna be no help.
“We should team up,” TJ suggested.
Beth shook her head. “I’m already on a team with Maverick.”
Something flickered in TJ’s eyes that she couldn’t decipher. Anger? Jealousy? But it was gone so quick, she wondered if she’d imagined it.
“Invite me then.”
She bit her lip and looked around, trying to figure out if there was an invite button anywhere. Not that she could see. “Um. He created the team, so I don’t know how to invite you.”
TJ’s smile looked forced. “Okay. We’ll just wait for him to log on again, I guess.”
“Yeah. Speaking of logging on, do you know what time it is? Last time I figured that 8 hours was about 24 hours of game time. Is that standard?”
TJ nodded. “Yeah. We’re at three times speed.”
Hmm. “Seems like it would get boring after a while.”
His lips pressed into a thin line and he looked at the wall when he answered. “It can be sped up or slowed down, but for this run-through it’s at three times.”
When Beth didn’t answer, he seemed to take that as her disapproval, and went on, “it also means that you miss less when you’re not online over the weekend.”
“And, the time?” She quirked a brow.
He shrugged. “Does it matter? I’m paying you to be in New York. You’re working.”
“But I didn’t agree to work 24/7. I’m in New York!” And for the first time in her life, she had some extra money to spend.
He tsked, and the sound grated on her nerves. “Don’t worry. We’ll log out soon. I just wanted to experience the update with you. Isn’t it amazing?”
That reminded her. “So, what happens if I, like, wake up in the middle of fighting zombies or whatever? Do I die or?” Or if Maverick was asleep in her base …
“No. The zombies recognize you as an NPC if you’re not online and they leave you alone.”
“But Maverick said that the zombies will kill the trader if I leave the gate open, and he’s an NPC,” she argued.
His jaw twitched. “The traders are different. It’s a different code.”
“Oh.”
She cast around for something to say or do to dispel the awkwardness. After a second, Beth walked around TJ and spoke to the trader.
“Hi Skip.”
A screen popped up in front of her.
Would you like to buy and sell?
Go on an errand?
Never mind.
“Go on an errand.”
Tier 1
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
Retrieve
.5 miles South
Tier 1
Clear
1 mile West
Tier 1
Retrieve
.35 miles East
After looking at it for a few seconds, she picked the Tier 1 retrieve a half mile south.
“So, where’s your base?” TJ asked.
Beth stared, for some reason not wanting to tell him. “Over there.” She pointed vaguely in the right direction. “Yours?”
“I found a hardware store with a pretty solid wall around it, so I’ve started reinforcing it. You should join me.” He puffed out his chest and gave her a condescending smirk.
“That’s cool.” What she really wanted to know was how close he’d come to beating the game. According to Maverick, starting from scratch was better in the long run, so obviously, that was her preference.
“Have you ever beat the game?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Not on advanced. But I beat the sixty day horde, which is a helluva feat.” He turned to the trader and picked an errand, not far from Beth’s retrieve.
“Shall we?”
Beth followed him down the stairs and back to the gate. As he opened it, a sharp violin sound cut through the air and a zombie rushed them. Beth stepped in front of TJ and bashed the zombie’s head in.
She looked back at TJ, who was staring down at the corpse. Then, she crouched beside it. “Holy crap, it looks …”
“Real,” TJ finished for her.
She nudged it with her club and wrinkled her nose. “It even smells like rot.” Bile burned her throat and she forced herself to swallow it down.
TJ stepped around it. “Let’s head South.”
The music returned to its upbeat cadence with low tones that told her that they were inside the city’s borders.
Beth located her blinking yellow arrow and as she got closer, she realized it was hovering over a wide yellow circle.
She had a gun ready in her inventory, and her club, which was down to 74% durability. She wasn’t a fan of that, the slowly deteriorating weapon. It didn’t seem fair. Maybe there was some way to fix it, if so, she’d have to figure it out. But neither of those things would help her now. Apparently, she needed to dig.
She swapped her club for her shovel, which after all the digging and mining she’d done, was even worse off than the club. She dug straight down beneath the arrow several blocks, so deep that she had to build a ladder to get out of the hole. Apparently, the arrow was just to bring her the yellow circle. She moved a couple of blocks over and dug down two layers, then did that within the entire circle. Beth moved back to the center, and began digging another two layers deep.
A shuffling outside the hole drew Beth’s attention, and she peeked over the edge. A shrieker was wandering nearby. Frack.
Beth exchanged her shovel for her gun and aimed for the zombie’s head. It hadn’t seen her yet, therefore, it hadn’t shrieked and drawn the attention of more zombies. She squeezed the trigger, and the gun’s blast nearly deafened her. The kickback wasn’t terrible, but it was enough to throw her aim off, had she needed a second shot. Fortunately, she hadn’t. The shrieker dropped to the ground, and Beth gained 1150 experience for the kill.
She went back to her hole, her ears perked for more movement as she worked. Sweat dripped down her body, trailing between her breasts. “Damn shirt,” she grumbled, wiping it away.
Pebbles tumbled down the edge of the hole, and Beth spun, her gun drawn.
“Whoa!” TJ held out his hands in a surrender gesture. “I was just enjoying the view.”
Beth looked down at her glistening cleavage and pulled her jacket tighter around herself. “You would.”
He laughed, a warm and sexy sound.
Gross.
Had she just thought TJ was sexy? Nothing was less sexy than a hot guy with a trash personality.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” TJ rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes cast toward the ground.
“No. You shouldn’t have thought that,” Beth snapped.
She turned her back to him and kept digging. “While you’re up there, keep an eye out for zombies.”
After another few minutes, she located a small chest.
“Well, looks like you’re good to go. I’m gonna go finish clearing the house.”
Beth didn’t pull her gaze from the chest. It glowed a soft gold color, and the wood felt rough under her palm. Truly, it was incredible what TJ had created with this programming.
As Beth lifted the lid, a gold light glowed from the crack, and the chest made a creaking sound. One she’d heard before.
A zombie moaned just outside the hole, and Beth quickly shoved the loot into her inventory and climbed out. Three zombies, all from different directions, slowly stumbled toward her. Opening the chest had sprung a trap, of sorts.
The eerily dramatic music began to play.
Beth opted to use her club to save her ammo. She approached the zombie and bashed its head. It fell to the ground with a squishing sound, but she didn’t get the experience notification. As she waited for it to get back up, she spun to a second zombie, who was just behind her. This one was one of the fat travelers, which she learned meant that they had more life.
She hit it twice before it went down. The first zombie had already gotten to its feet, and the third zombie was just rounding the hole as it approached.
She smashed the first zombie’s head three times before it collapsed, getting 510 experience. Then she spun toward the traveler. It was a man with a hawaiian shirt on, and a camera hanging around his neck. His eyes were droopy and bloodshot, and one arm had a gaping, bloody wound. Flies flew around the zombie, and maggots squirmed over the rotting flesh.
Beth stumbled back a step as very real terror crawled over her skin. This was too real. She thought it was bad before the update. Now, it was something else entirely. She had to tell TJ she couldn’t do this. He couldn’t put all his eggs in her basket, because there was no way she could continue to test this game. After this was over, she suspected she’d dream about it. Non-stop.
Who in their right mind went to bed in hopes of dreaming about zombies anyway? Maybe this technology could be applied to having good dreams, you know, the kind that involve rainbows and unicorns. Or better yet, rolling around in piles of money and experiencing things that you wouldn’t be able to in real life.
Hell, she’d settle for a dream where she could be on the beach, wholly fed and a drink with an umbrella in her hand. Maybe she could use the game’s glow-up feature to give herself the perfect body. That was the kind of virtual reality she could get behind. She’d tell TJ that as soon as she was finished with these creepy zombies.
Speaking of the zombies, she swung at the traveler, twice. It stumbled, but didn’t fall. The other zombie was almost close enough to grab her, which its swinging arms indicated it wanted to do.
She ducked beneath its arms and pulled out her gun, wanting to get out of this situation and back to TJ as soon as she could. She stuck the gun beneath the traveler’s chin and pulled the trigger. Its head exploded and brain matter, that was all she could think to call it, splattered all over her. She even felt the warmth of it on her tongue. Beth heaved and spit as she spun to face the next zombie, making a mental note to not be within the spray zone. Backing away, she shot the zombie, and experience flashed across the bottom of her screen.
Welcome to level 5! You’ve received 1 skill point.
She ran toward the house TJ had disappeared in and found him using his shovel to gather cement mix.
“Hey. Can we get out of here now? I’m finished.”
He looked up at her tone. Probably at the way the word finished sounded so final.
“I can’t do this anymore. I can’t be in a world with zombies. I’ll have nightmares for months—years even!”
He grinned at her, and something in it made her uneasy. “That’s the beauty of it. With Insomnia Online, you won’t have to dream; you can experience.”
“I’m telling you that I can’t do your stupid test anymore. I want to wake up.”
His jaw ticked, a motion Beth was starting to recognize for what it was: irritation that he wasn’t getting his way. “Fine. But let’s get back to your base first.”