Chapter Forty: Have I Run to Far to Get Home?
November 7, 2010
Salt Lake City, UT
The awards ceremony was more of an office holiday party mood, where the prizes earned during the hunt the day before were handed out with wild enthusiasm.
On top of the announced awards, countless additional small prizes were given to practically everyone in attendance. There were headphones, backpacks, handfuls of gift cards for everything from gasoline, to restaurant chains were simply thrown out to the crowds of attendees. I.S.K. Branded T-shirts and hats were passed around like complimentary bottles of water.
The big announcements were saved for the individual awards. A stage had been set up in the banquet hall, and players were called up to receive their awards as their records were displayed on large screens around the hall.
Team Rosinante did well, with both Leeroy and Selina making the top ten in the MAGE and SHIELD categories, respectively. Both were handed new iPads on stage, but the jealousy on display the day before seemed to have greatly diminished as more players received even better prizes.
Marc had managed to take the #4 spot for FORCE players, earning him a fancy GPS device. He handed it off to Ryan to figure out, partly to lessen the sting of being the only member of the team not to rank. His assassin/ranged support build had been too fringe to excel in any of the categories, landing him in the middle of the ranks.
Everyone was discussing what to change and refocus on their characters once the server reset. Only their character names would remain, although there would be a chance to change even that. Ryan was already determined to pick something a little less “basement-dwelling keyboard warrior” than his current handle.
After the awards were done, they took a break for lunch. They went back to the hotel to offload their prizes, and then met up with Jessie. This time she didn’t need any more pictures, she and Chad had followed a number of other teams during the big hunt and had even managed to get some video of the Elder Dragon raid.
Instead, she was still pushing her collaboration plans. Ryan and Selina seemed interested, while Leeroy was ambivalent. Only Marc was resistant. Still, after finding out they had made the top three teams, and would be attending the tournament as VIPs, Jessie was determined.
Mercifully, they needed to return to the hall for the final sessions. A number of Q&A panels rounded out the event, where they could talk directly to the artists, writers, and developers who made the game. This is where Marc was focused.
While the attendees were very interested in talking with the creators of the game, Marc wasn’t paying much attention to the questions. This might be his last chance to actually see Kira. He didn’t catch a word of what the artists said, and barely even noticed when Tim, the emcee from the day before, joined the writer’s panel. His familiar face attracted more interest and a few very detailed questions from the audience.
Finally, the developer panel started, and just like that, there she was.
At first, Marc was stunned. She was really there. It was really her, in the flesh. How was that even possible? Marc looked for any signs that she was anything other than a flesh and blood human being.
Marc knew that he must find out. He had to find a way to talk with her and see if she was the real Kira inside, as much as her appearance was an exact match to the image of his companion from his perfect memory.
He knew he might only have this one chance. The panel members had all been escorted off the stage after their sessions, and it appeared unlikely that there would be any social time to speak with them one-on-one. He had to catch her as she moved off the stage.
He made an excuse to leave, just as the developer’s panel started, to use the restroom. Then, he waited outside the banquet hall until he could hear the applause. If he was right, she would leave through the same exit, along with the rest of the panel.
Of course, things went differently than his projection. The panel left through the same doors that all the others had. As the door shut, however, Marc could see that she was not with them.
In a panic, Marc ran around the hall to the other set of doors, just in time to see her disappear with a staffer into a side service door. He could see the large “NO ENTRY” sign above the door and realized that it would probably lock on closing.
Marc ran to the door and slammed into it like a linebacker before the latch could lock. As the door slammed open, he fell to the ground inside a long, windowless hallway.
He looked up and there she was. It was Kira.
He got up and started to walk towards her when a giant wall of a man wearing an I.S.K. Staffer T-shirt appeared out of nowhere. As Marc to one more step towards Kira, the man spoke a single word of warning.
“No.”
Gathering all his strength and speed, Marc dashed forward and to the side, trying to slip past the man who seemed to occupy the entire space of the hallway in front of him.
A hand grasped Marc’s shoulder firmly, and it was all over.
All the strength in his body disappeared. It was as if every cell in his body acknowledged the giant man’s superiority and ceded to his authority. He fell to his knees, unable to stand.
He screamed after her. He had to get through to her.
“Sandra! Sandra Olsen! I have to speak with you! Please! Just a few words.”
She was already out the door. She was leaving. How could he reach her? Marc thought desperately.
“Kira! It’s me! Marc!”
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Sandra left the panel discussion exhausted. She had been operating on micro-naps and Red Bull for months. He life had been nothing but endless progress and review meetings stacked like cords of firewood outside a ski lodge.
Then she had to haul herself downtown to sit in a conference room at the convention center where the AC was too low, and the lighting was dim enough to tell her brain that it was almost time to go beddy-bye. It was torture. She needed to sleep.
Finally, it was over.
The one thing that was still bothering her was that the mysterious stalker never showed up. She had been waiting for someone to jump up during the panel, but other than a few snarky questions about why the game design didn’t incorporate more traditional fantasy designs, it had been almost boring. She had gotten worked up over nothing and burned precious calories staying on the lookout for a no-show.
She was glad that Mary had arranged a car. Sandra wasn’t sure she had the energy left to drive. Of course the car service would simply drop her off back at her prison cell. The office where she would spend the next day working with the design team to stamp out last-minute bugs and check to make sure the new user load didn’t bring down the entire game five minutes after it went live.
She just wanted to lie in a soft bed for a couple of minutes.
Well, if she did that, she wasn’t sure she would ever wake up again. She so needed a vacation.
Suddenly, there was a loud noise.
Sandra shot up. What was that? A gunshot? No, just a door slamming.
The concrete floor and the flat, unadorned walls amplified the noise in the narrow hallway to the service exit.
She turned back around toward the exit. Just a few more steps. The car was supposed to be waiting at the loading dock.
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She could see Tweedle-Dee on the other side of the door.
She had nicknamed the protection staff that Mary had assigned her after the twins from Alice in Wonderland. They obviously weren’t twins, but besides their skin color, they might as well have been. Both were bald, had giant gorilla-like bodies, with arms like beer kegs sticking out of their terrifyingly strained I.K.S. T-shirts.
Tweedle-Dum, the pale one, was behind her, facing away. Then she saw the man.
Tweedle-Dum was saying something. That noise before noise must have been the man slamming the door open when he had entered the hallway. Well, there was nothing to worry about. Not even a folded piece of paper would have been able to squeeze past the bodyguard in the cramped quarters.
She saw the giant man put his hand on the intruder’s shoulder. Then there was shouting.
Mary’s warning flashed in her head.
“Just keep walking. Don’t talk to him. Don’t look at him.”
She pushed the door open, and in seconds, Tweedle-Dee swept her into the waiting car.
Sandra recalled the discussion in her office the previous night.
“There will be a man there. He’s a player. One of the betas. He will try to approach you. He’s going to be looking for you specifically,” Mary warned.
“Who is-“
“This is the favor. Do not ask who he is. Do not ask anything about him. I guarantee you will be safe. He will not get close. He will be stopped. Not harmed, but stopped.”
“But…”
Mary raised her hand to stop Sandra from speaking.
“All I can tell you is that it is absolutely critical that he does not reach you. If he… When he approaches, keep walking. Do not look at him. Do not stop. Just keep walking away. Security will deal with him.”
“Screw this. I just won’t go then.”
Mary let out a sigh.
“If it were only that easy. You need to go. He will find you. But it will all be fine. It’s all arranged. Sandra, I am serious. Deadly serious. Just keep walking. Don’t talk to him. Don’t look at him.”
“Mary…”
“I know. But this is the way it has to be.”
“What is going on? Mary, you are scaring me. I want to know what is happening. I have the right-“
“Sandra, I’m sorry. I can’t say anything yet. Soon, very soon. We just have a little further to go, and the pattern will be locked in. All our work, all your work, finally.”
Sandra rubbed her temple with her fingers, trying to circulate some blood there. Trying to calm her nerves.
“Mary… Fine. I’m tired. I don’t have the energy for this. I’ll avoid the stalker. What does he look like?”
“I’m not telling you. You don’t need to look for him. All you have to do is keep walking. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Whatever. You want me to do this, I’ll do it. You owe me, though. Not for this. But for all of this.”
Sandra waved at the room beyond the window.
“Yes, I know. Without you, none of this would have been possible. I owe you big. We all do.”
As the car pulled away from the curb, Sandra couldn’t help but look out the back window.
The man sat there on his knees. He had brown hair, brown eyes, a light, but healthy build, like a runner. He wore a leather jacket and jeans.
His eyes looked so sad. Not angry or upset. Just sad, with emotion so deep she could feel it. She recognized it.
Not him. She had never laid eyes on the man before. But that sadness. She knew it. She remembered it, but she didn’t know where it came from. She couldn’t remember ever being so sad, but the feeling was familiar, like she had felt it in a dream.
She turned away, the emotion threatening to overwhelm her. Why did it hurt, just looking at a stranger on the street? As the car pulled away from the curb, Sandra put her face in her hands.
He had yelled something. He called her name, then he said something else. She clearly heard her name, but the word he said next was blocked in her memory. What was it? All she heard was noise.
Damn it, Mary. What was going on?
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Ducking under the large protruding limb, Marc felt his left foot lose traction and start to slide. Throwing out his arm, he managed to reach the trunk of the tree, then pushed off, giving him just enough force to regain control.
Jumping over a suspicious pile of dry brush, Marc kept up his speed. The ground was leveling out, so it must be nearing the road. Sure enough, after passing another tree, Marc could see the road on the other side of a large ditch full of dead branches.
He turned and shadowed the ditch until he saw a large boulder that he could use. Picking up speed, he hit the boulder hard, stamping his foot down hard to give him enough power, and leapt, easily clearing the ditch and landing a few steps from the road.
He finally stopped, leaning forward and grabbing his knees, breathing heavily. His hot breath blew out clouds in the cold winter air.
He looked back, then up and down the road to get his bearings. He was on the main road, about three miles short of the Lobo.
Pulling his phone from the pocket on his shoulder, Marc checked the time. Just over thirty-eight minutes. He estimated the route he had run was around five miles. It was not a bad time, considering the rough terrain he had cut through.
He preferred running through the wild over following the road, or on a track. It reminded him of those years when he was just getting used to the Breen forest. It also took all his concentration, which was a welcome respite.
In the two weeks since he had returned from the event at the Salt Palace his mind would not grant him rest.
He had seen her. It was really her, not some computer simulation. But it was also not one of her golem creations. It was a real, live human. At least, that’s what it looked like to him. He had been close, but still managed to get closer than twenty feet or so.
That mountain of a bodyguard had really done a number on him. With one touch, he was on his knees. He had been helpless. Even in the other world, that monster would have been impressive. In this world, Marc had never seen someone so strong.
That sense of inadequacy, coupled with his need to unleash his frustration and get the endorphin kick helped clear his head. It was what drove his new morning workouts.
Letting the cold air chill his sweat-covered body, Marc started to walk up the road toward the cabin.
As he passed the Lobo, Marc saw a new addition to the empty lot across the street. The pit he had used to trap the goblins was originally intended to be a new house for some banker from California. It seems the pile of burning goblin flesh had spooked the buyer, who sold off the land cheaply and gave up on the region entirely.
Instead, they just paved the whole thing over and were advertising it out as a small RV park. A type that offered basic services like water, power, and a trash dump. These were growing more popular in the area as car living and off-grid lifestyles were gaining popularity.
Well, that was what Sheila had been telling him. She had invested in the RV park, and had tried to drag him in. Instead, he had asked her to look into Selina’s mother.
Indeed, the bills had been frightening. Luckily, Sheila knew a few tricks. In days, she had negotiated the charges with the hospital to less than half.
Peter, also managed to find a different hospital in Las Cruces that would take her case, getting her something similar to insurance coverage through a special NGO. The commute back and forth would be harsh, but with the additional stipend from I.S.K., Selina should be able to keep up with the costs.
Apparently, Selina’s reservations regarding her mother’s opinions of Leeroy and Peter’s relationship status had been largely unfounded. Her mother had even stayed overnight in their apartment once so that she could get an early morning check-up.
Selina, for her part, was still her sarcastic and cynical self, although she was renewed in her enthusiasm for the game and had become the taskmaster to get the team in shape for the tournament.
In the weeks since the announcement, and the resetting of their levels, they had managed to raise all of their levels to 15. That was considerably faster than their progression the first time.
The assumption was that they would need to reach the level cap of 50 to even have a chance to be competitive for the tournament, but at this rate, that should be no problem.
The real problem, was that the team was still unbalanced. Although they had modified their builds this time, the consensus was that four-person teams were simply not able to match those with five members.
Now that the game was officially launched, new players had been appearing like flies on roadkill, but so far, they had not found anyone the team could agree on.
Ryan and Leeroy had both submitted candidates, including Peter, which had been an unmitigated disaster, but so far, no one had fit in with the team dynamics. If they don’t find someone soon, however, they may have to give up and focus on building the current team as strong as possible.
Walking past, he took a closer look at the new arrival in the RV park. So far he had only seen a few cars and SUV’s stay there for a night or two. This was a full-on high end RV, with solar panels, utility pickups, and even an awning with a folding table and chairs laid out like a porch.
His curiosity getting the better of him, he walked a bit closer to see what kind of neighbor had moved in. Rigs like this could stay on the road, or camp in place for quite a while, provided they had the hookups.
Just as he approached, the door to the RV opened, and a small woman wrapped in a heavy coat backed down the fold-out stairs.
“Marc? Is that you? What the heck? It’s still the crack of dawn! And what are you wearing? You trying to catch a cold or something?”
Marc blinked at the sudden interrogation.
“Well, perfect timing. You can help me. I got in late last night, and it was too dark to get set up properly. I need to get the water and power all hooked in so that I can take a shower and make breakfast.”
Not knowing what was going on, Marc stood there with a stunned look on his face.
“Didn’t Ryan tell you guys yet? He said everything was all good. He even suggested this location. We’re really out here in the middle of nowhere. Wait. If you weren’t expecting me, what the heck are you doing here?”
That question snapped him out of his stupor.
“What do you mean? I live here.”
“Huh? Really? Well that’s convenient. So, you gonna help your new neighbor get settled in?”
“Jessie?”
The writer turned to face him with a crooked smile.
“Great observation skills. Have you already forgotten what I looked like? It’s only been like two weeks!”
“No… I mean, What are you doing here?”
“That boy really forgot to tell everyone anything? He said it was all good. I bet he kept it to himself, that coward. Well, no going back now. I’m here.”
“Jessie?”
“What?”
“What are you talking about? I thought you already published the article.”
“Of course I did. My biggest hit this year. That article brought in half the views for the entire site last week.”
“Then, what’s going on? I thought we were all good.”
She smiled at him slyly.
“Oh yeah, that’s all set.”
“Then…”
“Greetings! I’m Jessie Crenshaw! Your new long-range glass cannon, and team sponsor!”
“What?”
“Now, help me find the black water hookup, I need to poop.”