TJ was torn between logging on to help Beth with horde night and getting on his private jet to Jack’s location in Tijuana, Mexico. He knew he shouldn’t have logged off when he did. If he’d stayed online, he could’ve killed Jack’s avatar as soon as he’d logged in. The game mechanics made it impossible to kill his avatar unless he was online. Two virtual bullets could’ve solved all TJ’s problems.

It had only taken TJ’s team a few minutes to pinpoint the pod’s GPS location as soon as it had been connected to a power source. He still hadn’t made up his mind on what to do with Beth, but now that Jack knew about her, killing her was out of the question. Or he’d have to kill them both.

“Here’s an idea,” Gary said, as if reading his mind. “What if we pay them all to log in, we merge the servers to Beth’s server, and the five of you get her through day 100, then we pay them off, figure out why she was stuck, and fix it. We don’t have to be derailed by this. It’s a learning experience. As long as we learn from it, there’s no need to spiral.”

And TJ had been spiraling. Had he actually considered murder as an alternative to taking responsibility for his actions? Yes. Yes, he had. He took a deep breath and tried to shake off the gloom. “You’re absolutely right, Gary. Thanks for bringing me back to reality.”

“What’s our first step then?” Gary asked.

Merging the servers, like Gary had suggested, seemed like the best option. “Bring them all back. The ones you can find, anyway. We’ll merge the servers so that they can help Beth finish.”

“How much do we tell them?” Gary shifted, adjusting his glasses.

That was the question, wasn’t it? Admitting fault could be looked at as noble. Wanting to do what was right, even though it hurt, especially financially. But it could also mean accepting the consequences if something happened to Beth. If, heaven forbid, they couldn’t figure out how to fix this.

“TJ?” Gary pulled his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Don’t lose yourself now, man.”

Gary’s words shook TJ out of his thoughts. “Sorry. Tell them we had a problem with the next stage of beta and we need their help to get Beth through this.”

“You got it.” Gary’s hands moved over the keyboard of his phone, and TJ took a deep breath. He’d picked the high road after wandering down the dark path.

TJ could always count on Gary to be his own personal Jiminy Cricket. “Thanks again, man.”

Gary only nodded as he continued to type on his keyboard. “I don’t think we can get any more help in time for horde night. You should probably get in there.”

TJ sighed and climbed into the micro-bot tank. Just before he fell asleep, Candace walked in with a tray of items to give Beth a feeding tube.

⇐{{

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Helios spawned in the center of his sleeping pallet. He climbed the ladder to the second floor and rummaged through the storage containers, taking back his backpack and a bunch of the items that were in it. Nyx had stolen his battle ax, but he still had a club and a stone ax. He grabbed his M16 and 5.56 ammo.

Dawning his clothes and shoes, Helios climbed down the ladder and out into the world. They’d need a truck load of ammo tonight going into horde night. Helios had the advantage of knowing the map, so he skirted the city limits until he hit the northern border.

The gun shop was just east, and he made it without running into any trouble.

He pulled out his stone ax and bashed in the wood covering the glass doors, then shattered the glass and chipped away at the chain that looped through the handles until he broke it off.

Zombies shuffled around inside the dark room, and he waited out in the daylight. He’d rather fight on his own terms. As the first zombie shambled out, Helios took all his pent up anger out on it, smashing its head until he got the experience notification, then a few more times for good measure.

Helios worked his way quickly through the gun store, then looted every single box inside. Along with the plethora of ammo he’d gotten, he also got a level 1 turret with an AR-15, two 100 round magazines, and several hundred 5.56 ammo. Those would definitely come in handy.

Day: 10 Time: 18:52

He had to get back to base and get it set up quickly if he wanted to have it in use before horde night started.

He hoped Nyx and Maverick were already back at the base, and that they’d stopped being all … cozy. It was hard for Helios to watch it. Hard for him to understand that a woman might prefer a low-class, low-income loser to him.

You were planning to kill her only a few hours ago.

Okay, there was that small, slight issue. But he knew it was wrong, and was changing. Changed, even. Better now than a few hours ago. And it was because of Nyx. She made him want to be better.

He just had to prove to her that he was better.

On his way back to the base, Helios ran into a shambling horde just outside the city. There were several walkers, a crawler, a traveler, and a prowler. Helios killed the prowler first. They typically snuck up on you, and walked almost normally, so it would ambush him from behind. Then he turned his attention to the traveler. They had more HP and hit a helluva lot harder. Helios made short work of them, and ran the rest of the way back to the base.

Maverick and Beth were inside, sitting on the storage containers on the second floor and laughing. Their laughter abruptly stopped as soon as he came into view, and Helios resisted the urge to shoot Maverick, but just barely.

“We should be building up the next floor,” he snapped, and immediately regretted his tone. If he was going to win Nyx over, he had to talk nicely.

Maverick stood and practically growled at Helios.

“Believe me, Maverick, the feeling is mutual. But if we’re gonna save Nyx, we have to work together.”

“What did you do to her?”

Helios ignored Maverick’s question and opened one of the storage containers he’d labeled “Ammo” then started filling it with the things he’d just looted.

The cold barrel of Beth’s gun pressed into Helios’s neck. A thrill shot through him, and he sucked in a breath.

“He asked you a question.” Her words were so even and deadly that Helios’s blood pumped hot.

Helios moved quickly, grasping the barrel and leveraging the gun from her hands. He twisted until her back was pressed into his chest. She fit perfectly there, felt right. He must’ve been too lost in the feel of her, because she sidestepped, and a second later, pain shot through his groin.

“Fuck!” he shouted, as he bent over and his avatar hurled.