Sometimes being himself was exhausting. There were days he just wanted to disappear into one of his games and stay there. A place he could do whatever he wanted without real consequences. Just virtual ones.

Helios rubbed his eyes and opened his map. As he took in the gray circle around the perimeter of the map, he cursed.

“What?” Nyx asked.

“I’ll be right back. Brian, wake me up.”

Seconds later, TJ was staring at Brian’s concerned face. “What do we do?”

“Can we unmerge the servers? How did we overlook that?”

Gary walked through the door, a cup of coffee in his hands. “I’m here to take over for Brian, what did I miss?”

“When we merged the servers, we merged the Nightmare server with all the others.” TJ ran a hand through his hair. “Maybe we need to just kill Nyx and see if there are any consequences. She has two lives.”

Gary shook his head. “No. Have you seen her vitals when she gets hurt? I don’t think it’s wise to just play around with her life like that.”

“What if we take her out of the tank?” TJ looked at Brian for help.

“No,” Brian said. “The tank is the only thing keeping her body temperature regulated.”

“Shit.”

TJ glanced at the screen and rolled his eyes when he saw Anna May feeling herself up. Beth had taken the Glock from Helios’s hand and was pointing it at the other woman.

“That dude is a perv. We should get rid of him just for insurance purposes.” TJ gestured to the screen. It didn’t help that jealousy was slowly crawling its way up TJ’s body like a tight, green vine.

Gary coughed to cover what TJ thought might’ve been a laugh.

“What?” TJ spun on Gary.

His eyes widened and he sipped from his mug. “Nothing.”

“No, it wasn’t nothing. Why are you laughing?”

Maybe TJ’s feelings were as apparent to Gary as they were to TJ. He liked Beth, despite not wanting to. Despite knowing all the reasons why it was a bad idea. Candace told him more than once that he was sick in the head, and he’d always told her to mind her own business. But thinking about Beth made him both want to kiss her and kill her. He just wasn’t sure which side would win.

A gunshot rang out over the speakers and TJ whipped his head toward the screen again.

Anna May lay on the ground, a bloody hole in the center of her stomach. Beth walked over and stood over Anna May’s twitching form. “If you touch me again, I’ll kill you.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Yeah, he definitely liked her. His body reacted and he lay back in the tank. “I need to get back in there. Any word from the rest of the test subjects? Looks like Warren is out.”

Brian stood and stretched, speaking while he did. “I have no contact with Jack or Joseph. I did hear back from Carrie, she said she can’t help until the end of the semester.”

“Did you offer her enough money?” TJ asked, ready to double whatever she’d been offered.

“No, you weren’t here to help with that.”

“Double it. How did Candace say Beth’s feeding tube implant went?” TJ asked, changing the subject.

Gary sat in the seat Brian vacated. “She said it went well. She’s been checking in to make sure everything is working right and switching out fluids and stuff.”

“Good. What are we going to do about the map?”

“You’ll have no choice but to work as a team and move to the center.”

TJ cursed again. In nightmare mode, they’d made it impossible to stay on the outskirts of the map for the duration of the game. The perimeter shrank daily, upping the concentration of zombies. By the final horde night, there would be a sea of zombies to kill. If they wanted Beth to survive, they needed to get to the center of the map as soon as possible and start building.

“Get Carrie to agree, I don’t care how much you have to offer her.” TJ sank deeper into the tank, getting ready to go back under.

Glancing at the screen again, TJ saw Nyx hold a bandage over Anna May’s stomach and a water bottle to her lips as she swallowed a couple of healing pills.

Maverick was staring at her with amusement and admiration in his eyes. “Did she piss you off?”

Nyx jerked her head toward the newcomer and a smile spread over her beautiful lips. She made sure Anna May had the water bottle firmly in her hands, then stood to face Maverick. “Yeah, but I doubt she’ll be any more trouble. Err … he. This is Warren. You remember him?”

Maverick nodded. “How’s it going Warren?” Without waiting for an answer, he turned his attention back to Beth. “I told Goose to meet us at the trader.”

Nyx grinned. “Awesome, let’s go.” She held a hand down to Anna May, the other woman unwrapped the bandage from her bare stomach, revealing perfectly smooth skin.

“That’s really trippy,” Anna May said, taking Nyx’s hand and getting to her feet.

As the group exited the base, TJ glanced at the time. Day: 12 Time: 11:32

“Who was responsible for merging the servers?” TJ asked Brian, who was on his way out of the room.

“I believe it was Jason.”

TJ nodded. “Fire him.”

~#!@%~

Helios climbed out of the base and headed straight to the trader. He wasn’t sure how long it took him to fall asleep after he’d ordered Jason to be fired, but they needed to get their crap together and move. Maybe hopping from building to building was the best way to get them to the center of the map, holing up each night inside one until they could move again.

Of all the things they’d talked about adding to the game, the cheery music was what grated on his nerves the most. It was the same tune over and over, and honestly, if he were Beth and stuck in the game, he would’ve already blown someone’s head off.

Then he remembered that Beth had blown his head off. “We need to do something about this music,” he said to Gary, knowing his friend and assistant would be listening. “It’s going to drive me fucking crazy.”

Ironically, it was the change in the music that alerted Helios that he wasn’t alone. Helios spun in a slow circle in the tall grass behind a row of houses, seeing nothing.

He turned his gaze to the sky and scanned for birds.

Blood splattered across his vision and he tumbled to the ground, a zombie firmly wrapped around his legs.

“Shit.”

The biohazard symbol appeared below his health bar, and he pulled out his gun, aimed it at the zombie’s head, then squeezed the trigger.

A shriek sounded behind him, and before he knew it, Helios was surrounded by zombies.