Chapter Fifty Three: Your Purple Prose Just Gives You Away
April 16, 2010
Galena, KS
“That’s BS!”
Selina’s exclamation was the loudest, though everyone at the table was protesting. Marc’s explanation of the recent rise in strange animal activity had not gone over well.
Marc had kept things as simple as possible. He did not mention anything about his own other world experience, or his suspicions about the connection to the game. He did mention the portals he had seen, and that’s where the discussion went off the rails.
“Yeah, there have been weird animal sightings. We’ve seen them, but I haven’t heard anyone talking about floating purple portals. Pretty sure someone else would have noticed that.”
Ryan did have a good point. If portals were the cause of all the beast crossovers, why had no one but Marc seen any? Marc had already seen two portals personally.
“Wait… The dire wolf over at the Cutter ranch. Trey and a few of his guys saw the portal. They were the ones who showed me where it was.”
“Huh? I know Trey. He told me all about the wolf, but he never said anything about a weird portal. If you are joking, Marc, I don’t get it.”
Looking at Ryan’s face, he saw concern rather than mockery. Marc suddenly felt tired. He didn’t want to fight over what he had seen. That wasn’t important anyway. He took a deep breath and tried to center himself.
“Look, I can’t explain everything I saw. Maybe it was a hallucination. It’s not important. What is a fact is that we have already had two run-ins with weird and dangerous animals. I think that if we continue raiding in rural areas… we need to be better prepared for more things like what just happened.”
Jess spoke while she was still pounding on her keyboard, but took a moment to remind everyone to keep on task.
“We can’t stop, and the current strategy is our only shot. Most of the other top 100 teams are following a similar strategy, except the favorites like that Indonesian team who basically has exclusive access to hundreds of square miles outside of Jakarta.”
They all had been watching the top ten teams closely, and Team Pemburu had garnered a fair amount of scrutiny and jealousy. They were practically a national team, with two of the members coming from extremely wealthy and connected families. They had police escorts everywhere, and competing teams in the area yielded any raids without complaint. Pemburu had been consistently in the top 5 teams for the entire month.
While Team Rocinante wasn’t always at the top of the rankings, they were easily one of the most visible teams. The videos and stories about the team had gone global, and they had already gathered a huge fanbase, as well as an army of detractors. This was all thanks to Jess and the production team.
Quitting was no longer an option. Nor was dramatically changing their strategy.
“We got lucky today. A King Orc is deadly, but at least there are ways to deal with it. I’m just afraid of what else might happen while we are on our own.”
“King Orc? Like from the game? Are you sure it wasn’t just a…” Selina was loss for words coming up with a reasonable comparison.
“That wasn’t a boar the size of a house. It wasn’t a bear with giant tusks. If it wasn’t a King Orc, when what would you call it?” Ryan countered.
“But… That’s from the game… it’s not real…”
“Okay, let’s not go back down that path. Whatever it was, we weren’t ready. Jess has got the interference from other teams handled, but we need to stay safe. I think we were naive in prepping to traipse around in the wilds. That’s why I want you guys to at least learn some basic self-defense.”
As that, both Selina and Ryan started to protest. Marc immediately cut them off.
“That reminds me. The guns. That’s not going to help, at least not all the time. If anything, they are much more dangerous to us than a large beast we might encounter.”
“What do you mean? I blew that goblin away, didn’t I?” Selina protested.
“You almost blew my head off too. I’m still not convinced that wasn’t just a lucky shot.”
Seeing that the young woman was about to explode, Marc reached out and put his hand on her shoulder to keep her from bolting up.
“Look, I’m not saying you didn’t handle things, but to be clear, that pistol wouldn’t have even scratched that monster was saw today. Nor would your pistol,” Marc looked over at Ryan, who was also about to say something when Marc’s comment shut him up.
“Just like the dire wolf from Cutter’s Ranch. These monsters are practically bulletproof. Bullets just can’t get through their fur. The stuff is stronger than Kevlar and covers almost their entire body. Even a hunting rifle wouldn’t work at range.”
“Then what can we do?” Leeroy spoke up for the first time. The young man looked ill.
Marc opened the bag on the table and pulled out a shiny, golden object.
“I’d like to teach you guys how to use this,” Marc said as he placed the object onto the table with a loud, heavy thunk.
“This is a heavy spear. It’s easy to use, and while it wouldn’t be enough to take down a King Orc, It might convince it to move on to easier prey. If I show you how to use one, we can carry a few of them with us when we raid in the wild.”
The spear was only about ten inches long. Fashioned entirely out of a dark metal with a golden finish, the tip was a simple elongated arrowhead design. The eight-inch tip was thin and polished on four sides, giving it a diamond profile from the front. It was one solid piece, and at the base it sported three levers.
“I don’t get it. Are we throwing darts? I don’t think I’d be good at that,” Leeroy complained.
Selina had picked it up and was looking at it admiringly with a glint in her eyes.
“What about the staff?” She asked.
Marc reached down and pulled a long wooden staff off the floor.
“This is just an ash broomstick I got at Home Depot. You only need to slip the head on top and pull down in the three levers. It will lock in place.”
Marc demonstrated attaching the head to one end of the wooden staff. Then he reached into the bag and pulled out another metal object. It had a similar connector to the spearhead, but instead of a sharp tip, it was a small metal ball.
Careful of the tip, Marc attached the ball to the other end of the spear. Then he held out the complete spear in front of him, balancing it like a baton.
“A spear is the easiest weapon to use, but it is also one of the most effective when dealing with wild animals,” Marc explained.
“Just keep the tip aimed at the face. This prevents animals from approaching you straight on. Even a monster like a King Orc has vulnerabilities in the eyes and mouth. You won’t kill it that way, but you can discourage it from charging while you back away. I can teach you the proper way to hold one quickly, and we can carry a couple with us easily, provided we remove the tip in public.”
Jess eyed the weapon skeptically, but didn’t say anything. Both Selina and Ryan seemed interested, while Leeroy looked like he was about to lose his lunch.
“These are just as deadly as a gun, but are more effective against attacking animals, and far less likely to perforate one of your team members. Ryan, Jess, and I know you guys had the right mindset when I got back to the RV, but guns wouldn’t have done any more than annoy that thing if it showed up. If it started running, you run the risk of hitting-“
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“Error of position,” Ryan said with a serious look.
“Yeah,” Marc agreed.
“What’s that?” Asked Leeroy.
“They trained us heavily on how to avoid friendly fire. It’s like the most important thing for big guns and artillery. If your targets move fast, you tend to focus on them and try to anticipate movement, but a clever enemy will use this to their advantage. They can position themselves so that your own allies, or civilians fall within your field of fire. If you miss the target, you might end up hitting someone accidentally.” Ryan explained as though he had heard it many times.
“Goblins, Wolves, Orcs, they are all fast. Most beasts are. You can always use a rifle to try to take out a beast from a distance, but if it doesn’t go down, it’s likely going to start charging straight at you. Besides, I’m not saying we should go out and hunt real mobs. We just need to be able to keep them back if we encounter some out in the wild.”
“I don’t know… I don’t know if I can do this…” Leeroy was staring at the spear with fear and worry.
“I know. I’m not going to force anyone. I just-“
“If we don’t continue raiding… Right now, then, we are out of the running. That’s guaranteed. We might as well give up now. We can maybe get one or two guards, but that will be expensive, and a big information security risk. I don’t want anyone to get hurt, but if we are going to do this… I think it’s a good idea…” Jess endorsed Marc’s plan, but she obviously had reservations. Then she looked at Marc with a serious expression.
“You knew this was going to happen, didn’t you? You prepared all these things. You have already thought this through. Right?”
After a moment, Marc nodded.
“That monster… Are the police going to find it?”
“… Probably.”
“Alive?”
Another pause, then Marc shook his head. Everyone at the table stared at Marc like he was an alien.
“Alright. Then we should vote. Or should I say, who’s in, and who’s out?” Jess addressed the table.
----------------------------------------
Selina’s cousin turned out to be exactly what the team needed to take the edge off.
By the time they rolled into the parking lot at the Kansas City International Airport, the entire team was in rough shape.
The stress and exhaustion of the last few days were further compromised by the fact that they had indeed dropped out of the top 100 teams. Quite far, in fact. Now, they barely placed in the top 250.
The interference of Chad, the detour, and the subsequent beast encounter had lost them valuable time and points. The extra training that Marc had added to the schedule only increased the fatigue they all felt.
Jess, in particular, had grown downright surly. She blamed herself for the problem with Chad, and still had to run interference with the unhappy sponsor as their uploads had stalled without a cameraman.
Luckily, Selina had managed to coax her cousin onto the plane, and twenty-four hours after they left their last cameraman on a backwater road in Missouri, they met his replacement.
Selina had tried to warn them that he was a bit “different,” but that description was woefully inadequate.
The short, thin, man wearing jeans, a white t-shirt with a red checkered plaid shirt buttoned only at the collar, completed his look with greasy, slicked back hair, dark Ray-Bans, and a very poor excuse for a mustache.
Selina groaned as the young man shuffled his way to the arrivals area.
Concerned looks passed between them while Selina looked like she wanted to turn around and run out of the airport.
“Saluda! Qué pedo, banda?”
When no one responded, he continued.
“Heeeey, inglés, is bueno, si?”
In a slouching shuffle that looked almost painful, he slid over toward Ryan and extended his hand.
“I am Jorge Martinez de la Esperanza Maria Juan Carlos Ackerman, but can call me Jorge Martinez de la Esperanza Maria Juan Carlos ’cause we are amigos, you know?”
At that, Selina had enough and walked over to the new arrival and hit him in the center of his chest so hard that the small man flew off his feet and landed on his back so hard it knocked the wind out of him.
She proceeded to shout at him in Spanish invectives that Marc had never even heard of, which was impressive considering he grew up in a southern New Mexico trailer park.
“I’m going to tell Tia!” She spat venomously as Leeroy moved to help the stricken man get up and catch his breath back.”
A cowed and changed man stood and moved toward Selina. Marc almost moved to intercept, but the change in demeanor took him by surprise.
“Selina! I’m sorry. I was just trying something out. I thought your friends would get a kick out of it. Don’t tell Mom.”
Selina took a step toward him, and he cringed and almost fell backward in his retreat.
“Sorry! I’m sorry!”
He skittered like a hamster over to Ryan, grabbing his hand.
“Sorry about that. I was practicing a bit for a film I was making. Hi, I’m Jorge, Nice to meet you.”
He gushed as he shook Ryan’s hand vigorously. Then he ran over to Leeroy and Marc in turn, grabbing their hands and introducing himself again.
“Hi, nice to meet you. I’m Jorge.”
“Who the hell is Jorge?” Selina roared. Guys, this idiot is my cousin. George Ackerman.”
“Aww, come on, Linny, just give me Jorge; I’m still developing this character.”
Selina shot him a look so powerful that everyone around cringed, even some bystanders who had been attracted by the sideshow.
“George. George is great. Call me George. Happy to be here.”
The poor boy now looked more like a computer nerd than a gang banger.
They went and picked up George’s luggage, which turned out to be two large pelican cases full of electronic and camera equipment, then moved on to their next raid site.
In the back of the Beast, George met with Jess. She grilled him on every single piece of equipment he had brought along, as well as explained the expectations, things related to his new job, as well as what had happened to his predecessor.
When he finally came forward to join the team at the meeting table in front, he looked even more shaken than he had after his cousin had beaten him down in the airport.
That changed the moment he had a chance to see the equipment van. George.
Over the next few days, George infused the team with energy. He was so happy and enthusiastic about every new discovery. He peppered Jess with questions about editing, and style, and then promptly took over everything. He diligently spent every spare moment testing and prepping the equipment or editing the footage that they had.
The production team noticed and even complained that their workload was dropping as the footage they sent was practically broadcast-ready.
Most of all, George was social, funny, and had a childish positivity that was infectious. He spent time with every member of the team, including Jon Deere, and quickly had a great rapport with everyone, except maybe Selina, who treated him like a judgmental older sister. He seemingly had no pride and was happy to be the butt of every joke.
By the time they entered the final week of the competition, they were already back in the top 100.
They had heard stories about other teams meeting up with “mysterious” barriers, impeding their progress. As other teams dropped in the rankings, Rocinante slowly crawled back up.
Jess was deeply concerned that nearly half the top teams were now directly tied to corporate sponsors. Of course, that was a bit hypocritical. Every time anyone pointed that out, however, Jess would explode.
“It’s different! I put together a group of affiliated sponsors who are just doing this for the advertising. No one sponsor is calling the shots and you guys are free to do pretty much whatever you want. Those guys… they are trying to lock out every non-corporate team. They are not focused on winning; they just want to dominate the field.”
It seemed like a pretty slim distinction to Marc, but he didn’t dare say that out loud.
Fortunately, they had pretty smooth sailing all the way to the end of the contest. If anything, it got easier as the competition for raids had declined as more and more teams gave up on making it to the top of the rankings. They didn’t have any more problems with direct interference either, although Marc suspected that it might be because Jess had the security contractors take care of everything before anyone on the team noticed.
They also had not encountered any more beast incursions, though Marc still drilled the party on the basics of fighting wild animals regularly.
Ryan soon gave up. He was unable to hold a spear due to the injury to his hand. Marc gave Ryan a large machete, which he had proudly worn on his belt until it was spotted in one of the videos they uploaded. Jess put an immediate stop to any real weapons on screen.
Jess also dropped out of the training soon after Marc finished the basics. She argued that she lacked the strength to do anything, even with a weapon, so she would just cower behind Ryan if anything happened.
“All I have to do is run faster than him, right? No problem.”
Selina and George enthusiastically embraced the training. Even Leeroy seemed to find it interesting enough to persevere. Marc was glad that they were getting some skills. As he read the news, things seemed to be getting more and more serious. Reports of animal attacks were getting more common and more dangerous.
Strange animal attacks were getting increasingly common. What was odd was that, just as his party members had noted, No one was mentioning anything about floating portals. He was also surprised at how nonchalantly people were treating the unusual attacks.
Marc had noticed that the most insignificant threats were often treated like a major epidemic. Some discovery of a contaminant found in a particular brand of potato chip was headlining stories for days, and the epidemic of electric cigarettes was destroying a generation of children, despite the impact and dangers being a fraction of what tobacco had caused over the years.
Meanwhile, random appearances of animals, never seen before by humans, killing people all over the planet, were treated as a filler news story, getting barely a mention.
Marc started to search more niche websites, looking for information. He even created a dummy account that he used to post questions and queries to some of the more pertinent threads. These websites often catered to conspiracy theorists and even some people who genuinely appeared to be in the middle of a mental crisis. It was hard to tell the serious from the outright ravings.
Marc was searching online and found a website that appeared in his search results. Rather than conspiracy theory forums, however, the sites proudly proclaimed the information he was looking for to be fiction right from the start.
He found more, websites for fan-fiction and fantasy writers to post up their own stories freely. Marc dismissed them initially, but the stories kept popping up in his searches.
He read the first few chapters of one and was shocked at how many similarities there were in the book to things that had happened to himself, as well as to what was happening now.
Travel to another world; reincarnation; magic; an interface system that allowed the main character to interact with magic and see information about the world around him. These were all things that he had actually experienced.
He expanded his search and found dozens more, and the more he searched, the more he found. All written as fiction.
Finally, one night, while the rest of the team was relaxing, Marc decided to push things and see if he could elicit a response. He opened up a web browser, created an account, and started writing.