“Gehman!?” I blurted out, unable to believe what my eyes were seeing. It was definitely him, but he was different. His features were harsh and shriveled like a rotten apple. The baby face that I remembered was gone, replaced by a ghoulish visage with hollow cheeks and eyes that had all their life drained from them. They seemed to focus on everything and nothing at the same time, sweeping aimlessly across the room with no control. For a moment, they landed on us, and he took a step towards us, moving like a broken toy or someone close to death.

Like a zombie.

Sunken…

“Gehman, is that you?”

Kodiak whipped around to face me.

“You—you know this guy!?” He hissed, still keeping his voice low.

“I used to…” I replied slowly as Gehman staggered towards us. I couldn’t believe it, and quickly inspected him.

Gehman—level 24.

He still held the smith’s hammer and his wrist moved up down as though pounding an invisible anvil at his side. He opened his mouth to speak, but instead of words, a horrifying banshee-like scream rang out, causing Kodiak and me to clamp our hands over our ears.

“What is that!?” I shouted, backing up as he staggered toward us. My heel caught on a stack of metal bars on the floor and sent me toppling over. I slammed down hard on my back as Gehman cried out again, the distorted howl tearing through the room like a sound that didn’t belong in any game.

Kodiak lunged forward to strike.

“No!” I yelled, reaching up and grabbing him by the wrist. “He’s my friend!”

“Not anymore he isn’t,” Kodiak replied, yanking his arm free and preparing to strike. I leapt to my feet and scrambled in front of him.

“He’ll kill us!” He shouted. “Get out of the way!”

“No!” I roared back.

He tried to push past me again, but like Leonidas, I Sparta-kicked him straight in the chest and sent him tumbling backwards out the door of the hut.

Gehman’s distorted voice rang out again behind me and I turned around just in time to see him bring his smith’s hammer down on me.

The blow slammed straight into my forehead and sent my head spinning. A small portion of my health dropped and the blow took me off my feet, sending me crashing out the door and down to the ground beside Kodiak.

“Gehman, stop!” I shouted as he emerged from the hut, acrid smoke spilling out all around him like a plume of pure corruption.

“He’s Sunken, Jane!” Kodiak screamed, leaping to his feet. “He can’t hear you!

“Gehman!” I cried out, holding my hands out towards him. “Please! I’m your friend! It’s me, D!”

“He’s Sunken!” Kodiak repeated. “There’s nothing you can do! We have to kill him or he’ll just keep coming.”

He turned to me, a grim expression on his face. I tried to focus, understand what he was telling me. How could this be possible? Another form of game corruption caused by Wintermute’s backup? How could that be? Wintermute said death would result in death, just like in The Ripper’s Carrethen. Had he somehow been wrong about that?

“There’s no way to cure it,” Kodiak replied, taking a battle stance as Gehman advanced on us. “Only one thing to do.”

“No, stop!” I shouted, grabbing his wrist.

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“It’s the only way!”

“There has to be another option!” I cried out. “I knew him! He helped me and my party very early on and he died because of it! We have to be able to help him now!”

“There’s nothing we can do!” He shouted.

“There’s nothing you can do,” I replied, taking a step forward.

Wintermute sent you here for a reason, I thought. You are the only one who can bring them back. Do something!

It was horrible seeing him like that, staggering around like a corpse, his eyes vacant and his body completely out of control. I had no equipment, nothing to fight him with, but I had to have some sort of power from Wintermute—something to fix the Dark World and bring everyone back.

“Gehman,” I said slowly, raising my hands to him. “It’s going to be okay. I’m here to help.”

He raised his hammer again to swing, but he was slow, and I easily dodged the blow and slipped around behind him. I had no idea what I was doing, so I did the only thing I could think of and pressed my hands against him.

Use the Force…I thought, praying something would happen.

But nothing did.

Gehman howled again and whirled around with his smith’s hammer, almost taking my head off. I tried to roll out of the way, but my foot slipped in the mud and sent me toppling over. I hit hard and rolled away from him.. And that was when I heard it.

A sound like a distress beacon, pulsing somewhere behind us. I staggered to my feet and whirled around and saw a door standing all on its own. It was simple, wooden, and covered with earth as though it had risen right out of the ground.

“That wasn’t there before…” I said to myself. The sound pulsed again, as though the door itself was calling out to me. I glanced back at Gehman, then back to the door and took off running.

“Where are you going?” Kodiak shouted after me.

“This way!” I called over my shoulder as I bounded down the hill, doing my best to not topple over from all the extra momentum.

Kodiak raced after me, and within seconds we were at the door. As I approached, it opened for me, a golden and purple glow emanating from within. Without hesitation, I raced inside and took the steps down into a room with walls covered with veins of purple and gold that glowed like they contained the very power of the world.

Jack! I thought, remembering the room he’d described when he’d found the room that started the quest for the Sparkling Arlan Stone. This is another one of those rooms!

“Jane!?” Kodiak shouted from somewhere above me. “Jane, where are you!?”

“I’m down here!” I called out as a stone pillar rose up from the ground in the center of the room.

“Down where!?” He shouted.

“Down here!” I snapped as a pink holographic emerged from atop the stone, floating like some kind of interface.

“What the Hell are you talking about!?” He roared back. “Where are you!?”

“Go in the door, you idiot!”

“What door!?”

I spun around and shouted up the stairs. “Down here! Are you blind!?

“What are you talking about!?” He shouted. “You just vanished on me!”

“Jesus Christ,” I grumbled, racing back up the stairs and out the door and looked around. “Where are you!?”

I heard his footsteps from behind me and turned to see him racing around the other side of the door.

“Kodiak!” I shouted, causing him to stop and turn back to me.

“What the Hell?” He asked, dumbfounded as he stared at me. “Are you messing with me or something? Using some sort of crazy admin power?”

“The door is right here,” I said, motioning behind me. Kodiak simply stared back at me. His eyes narrowed.

“I’ve had about enough of this,” he growled. “Tell me what’s going on, or I’m leaving you here.”

“What?” I stammered, beyond confused. “You—you don’t see the door right here?”

“All right, that’s it—” He snapped, turning around.

“Wait, Kodiak!” I cried out. “Look. Watch, okay? Tell me what you see.”

Kodiak turned around, obviously pissed off, and I slowly took a step back into the door and looked out at him.

“Okay, you just vanished…” He said slowly. I took a step forward and his eyes went wide. “Okay, now you’re back.”

“Incredible…” I muttered, looking back at the door. “You literally can’t see it.”

“You’re telling me there’s actually a door?” He asked.

“Walk forward,” I told him, stepping aside.

“Why?”

“Because, I want to see what happens.”

Kodiak stared at me a moment, then with a sigh, started to walk forward. I watched as he approached the door, but instead of entering, Kodiak simply continued walking as though it wasn’t even there, passing through the door and over the steps down as though he was walking on completely level terrain.

“Only I can use it…” I said slowly. “It’s an Admin only area!”

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure,” I laughed, racing down the steps back to the strange inner room. The holographic interface had formed into a tetrahedron, spinning slowly above the stone pillar.

“Here we go,” I said, taking a breath as I reached out for the interface.