[Player Log Start!]
[Player: Michael Kapok]
[Level: 1]
Michael ran a hand through his greasy hair. It had been a long time since he’d had a proper shower. Almost five years, if you wanted to be specific, but he’d done his best to clean up in the days after.
He didn’t know how Verity managed to stay so clean the whole time, but he didn’t get that superpower, constantly plagued by thick layers of sweat and grime. He wondered if Ben and Tench had enough water for a shower. Even better if it was hot, but he wasn’t choosy.
“Ready to go?” His best friend asked, walking up behind him as she wrapped bandages around her forearms. She wasn’t wearing her jacket for easier access to her arms, and it made her look much smaller than she did without the denim armor.
“Sure.” Michael agreed quickly. Even if he felt sick and gross, he wouldn’t put this off if he could help it.
“Good. Give me a minute, then we’ll be leaving.” She promised, biting off the end of her bandages and tucking a loose corner of the yellowed fabric into the tight bandages.
Michael nodded, picking up the Console, which he had left in a pool of sunlight nearby to charge. The screen was on and displaying the Sub-Level Compass. The needle they had followed to reach Jared’s Sub-Level had vanished, leaving behind only five other potential Sub-Levels.
The next one had his name on it. That knowledge made his chest flutter in excitement. He was going to do this. All by his own.
He didn’t get to do things on his own a lot. And this was on a scale he never thought he’d get to do.
“Okie dokie, we ready to go?” Ben asked, tossing a baseball bat from hand to hand.
Michael frowned, “Wait, you’re coming with us?”
“Well, it’s not going to be Asadullah.” Verity huffed, “He’s already gotten enough Exp Points the last time around.”
“What about Jared?” He asked, almost desperately.
“I don’t have a single step left in me.” Jared snorted; half splayed across the floor. Two hours after debriefing, he had dropped like a stone, complaining of barbed wire in his legs and joints. The declaration was immediately met with panicked checkups.
“He also doesn’t deserve to be taken along.” Verity sniffed, turning to give the boy a spiteful glare, “You fucking liar.”
“Listen, it felt like barbed wire! I was just making an observation!” Jared replied, “Are you ever going to forgive me?”
“When you stop freaking everyone out!” She replied hotly, and for good reason, too. It turned out that the barbed wire sensation had been Jared’s chronic pain and weakened bones. Obviously, it was still serious, but not quite of the bleeding-to-death variety. Verity wasn’t over the shock yet.
Michael felt uncomfortable imagining his friend in such pain and discomfort. He always seemed to be so infallible during the Epicenter scheme, he hadn’t ever considered the idea that Jared would fall.
He felt almost bereft, waiting for instructions that weren’t coming.
Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to be so reliant on him if he wanted to do this Sub-Level on his own.
“Fine.” Michael relented, “I guess you can come along.”
“Well, if you’re letting me.” Ben snorted, “Thanks for the glowing review, kid.”
He didn’t know what to think of Ben. She was condescending and put him on edge. But there was this look in her eye, as if whenever she turned towards them, she was looking right past them and seeing someone else. It put him on edge.
“You going to back out, kid?” Ben asked, challenge in her eyes, “Because we don’t need you chickening out midway through the journey.”
No. No way was he going to walk away from this. He was so close. It was unthinkable to stop now.
He clutched onto the brass knuckles he had picked up on his travels through Wayside and met Ben’s eyes with full confidence. The same glassy look stared back.
“What’re we waiting for?” He managed out, despite the dryness in his throat. Verity grinned, grabbing him around the shoulders with a rare burst of energy.
“That’s the spirit!” She cheered, as if they were all going on a road trip and the world hadn’t really ended, after all.
----------------------------------------
Conversation was sparse as they walked through the forest.
Michael found that he enjoyed this place more than Wayside. Maybe he should have been more patriotic for his own dimension but consider: he hadn’t seen a leaf in nearly half a decade. This world was miles better in comparison, with fresh air that wasn’t too humid or too dry, and a canopy thick enough to block out a lot of the sun that burned into his skin. Very soothing stuff.
For once, it felt like the world didn’t want him dead. And that was an… incredibly alien experience for him. It was also a stupid thought to have about a world that was crawling with undead cannibalistic ‘people’. This world very much wanted him dead, and he couldn’t dare forget that.
The journey was a very matter of fact one. They knew what to expect, and had all the equipment in order, too. Took a couple steps off route, too, so that they could take out a couple zombies that had been clustered around one of the trees. Verity and Ben went to town on the creatures, but Michael lingered behind. He felt uncomfortable at the idea of killing them for points. As if he was hunting them for sport.
He wouldn’t consider himself an empath, but it was too inhuman for him to feel alright with. He wasn’t going to bring up the issue with Ben or Verity or even Jared, since he could understand that it was a practical plan of his. He just needed to get over himself, otherwise he would never succeed in this wretched Game.
Yeah, he didn’t like the Game. Maybe he knew how to make the Console work, and maybe he had been singled out by the System for a special ability, and maybe he genuinely did want to save Wayside, and was willing to go along with this scheme for the cause. But he still didn’t like this.
He didn’t like a lot of things about this whole situation.
But they kept walking. The roadmap was set perfectly in front of them, and all they have to do was get to the Sub-Level Spawn Point.
[Warp Point Reached!]
[This Individual Sub-Level is Unfinished]
[Maximum Exp Points to Gain: 2,000]
[! Only 1 Volunteer is allowed to Enter !]
“Shoot, we’re here.” Ben noted, looking at the panel with a tilt of her head, “This is… pretty much what I was expecting. Were all of them like this?”
“Yes. Both the Level One Spawn Point and the last Sub-Level’s.” Michael confirmed. This one was fixed into the hollow of a tree, giving it an almost fairytale appearance.
“At least it’s not floating about without an anchor this time.” Verity offered, “The last time we were left wandering about with nothing to go off. Come on, Michael, get a move on before we miss the time limit again!”
Michael nodded, reluctantly handing over the Console to Ben, “Take care of it.” He begged her, “We need this to get through the Game.”
“Yeah, I know.” Ben told him gently, as if they were rehashing this for the third time.
“We’ll get some higher ground.” Verity told him, “But make it as fast as you can, please. I need you to tap into your inner speedrunner.”
“I’m the tank. Not the speed.” Michael reminded her, “You’re the speed.”
Verity just shoved him towards the Warp Point.
[Michael Kapok has Entered the Warp Point!]
[Preparing Teleportation to Individual Sub-Level…]
Pixels flooded his vision, and sensation vanished from his limbs. He managed to keep calm, though. Jared had described the sensation enough for him to be prepared, not to mention their jump into Level One.
He landed on his feet, knees bending to absorb the force. All around him, there was heavy, dark smoke, so thick that he couldn’t see past arm’s length. This was beginning to look uncomfortably familiar.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
[You have Entered Individual Sub-Level #2!]
[Realm: L-35 | Trackland]
[Objective: Create a Treaty]
Oh, fuck. This was the same place Jared had ended up.
They had thought they would each appear in a different dimension for the Sub-Levels, but it seemed that they all led back to one dimension. Or just these two. This limbo of uncertainty was driving him crazy.
Wait, if he was in the Tracklands, then shouldn’t he be…
A harsh cough tore through his throat, burning its way up.
[Status Effect: Air Poisoning!]
There it was. Michael covered his mouth in his elbow, trying to breathe through the sludge. Jared had severely downplayed how bad the air quality was. It was quickly choking the life out of him and he hadn’t been here for more than a few minutes. The oxygen tank Jared had brought back was stored in the Console’s inventory, and completely out of his reach. If only he could reach that, then he could solve this immediately.
But the Console clearly had some effect, even here. He just had to focus hard enough. He ground his feet into the soil and tried to level his breathing, even as the acrid air smothered him.
[Accessing Inventory!]
[Search Item: ]
There was a keyboard below that panel, a feature he’d never seen before. But that’s okay, he could work with this.
First, as an experiment, he typed in [Water].
[Item Unavailable!]
[Limited Items Available for Remote Access]
Just when he’d gotten a grain of hope, the Console kneecapped him yet again. Sometimes he doubted the device was actually on their side.
He bit his lip and typed in [Oxygen Tank]. This couldn’t fail. He needed it to live.
[Item Available!]
[Extracting Asset…]
The familiar metal cylinder fell in his arms, nearly dragging him down to the ground. A breath of relief rushed out of him. He was saved! Michael wasn’t entirely sure how to work an oxygen tank, but he figured out how the tube connected on one end of the tank had a mask on its other end.
He strapped it over his face and turned the valve by a millimeter. A slight hiss broke through the air, and clean and heavy, with a metallic taste that coated the inside of his mouth. But if this meant that he wouldn’t die, then he was willing to breathe through it.
[Item In Effect]
[Time Left: 20hrs 59min…]
Michael frowned. This was lasting longer than he thought, but he’ll take what he can get.
[Status Effect: Air Poisoning Cured!]
[Recovering Damage… (23%)]
Good, there hadn’t been enough time for permanent damage to set in. Still, he had to conserve his gas as much as possible, because he had no idea how this would play out.
All their predictions were turning out wrong. There was no Survival Totem, no new world to scan, just picking up after where Jared had left off.
And that was fine. He could deal with it. What was he supposed to do? Make a treaty. And if he was going to make a treaty, he was going to have to find civilization. The only way to do that was to pick and direction and start walking.
Michael sighed and began the journey. All around him, there was nothing but that killing smog and coarse soil. Not even a hint of the railroads that were this place’s namesake. He truly was relying only on his own sense of direction to get him out of this mess.
His sense of direction was the worst out of their trio. And he hadn’t had time to familiarize himself with the newer additions, but he was sure he was the worst then, too. Except maybe for Tench. That guy wasn’t much of a wanderer. He might have bad senses for this kind of thing.
Finally, he stumbled upon one of those tracks. Literally, too, but the relief he felt for finding them made up for the pain in his ankle where he tripped.
He grinned maniacally to himself. This was the first domino to victory. Now, he could move straight to some society or the other, show himself to be a strong and capable person they should keep around and then… and then…
This really wasn’t his forte. Jared was the guy who could play people off each other and speak with silken finesse until they were hanging off his every word. Not Michael. Michael was the…
He wasn’t entirely sure what he was.
He liked to say that he was the tank, but he wasn’t really. Verity was stronger than him. He’d always known that, even before the stats were a thing. Those had only shown how far the gap was between the two of them.
So, he wasn’t the tank. And he wasn’t the people person. He wasn’t the computer guy, either, because he’d been poring over that damn machine for hours, and he still hadn’t been able to piece together its full contents. Not like Jared or Ben had.
Michael was redundant. A mob to keep busy and provide additional support when they needed. There was nothing inherently special about him. Not like the others were.
Train track safety tip: don’t wallow on the lines. With all the thoughts he was pulling over, somehow, Michael had missed the increasingly obvious sound of a chugging steam engine. It was only the piercing whistle that sounded barely twelve feet behind him.
Fear lanced through him as he threw himself off the tracks, and the train streaked past, not even bothering to slow down as hot air and sharp steel passed inches from his nose.
“Oh god…” He whimpered, trying to calm his rabbiting heart. Had the driver seen him? Were they going to hunt him down to kill him? They hadn’t done that with Jared, but maybe this faction was more ruthless? It certainly would be Michael’s luck if that happened.
Thankfully, they didn’t seem to notice, chugging along the line.
Maybe he should follow? Surely, society was on the other end of its destination. He went off after the white trail left by the train’s chimney. Maybe the engineer hadn’t even seen anyone in front of them. That would give him the element of surprise.
It was scarcely minutes after he had had this thought when something hard and slender hooked onto the back of his jacket and hoisted him into the air. His legs kicked out, trying to touch the ground, even with the tips of his toes.
He swore under his breath as the rod hooked on his clothes turned him around to face another person with a gas mask strapped to her face. She didn’t look like a person who had been wandering this hellscape for long. She was dressed in a tank top and jeans, both that were completely clean. Well-worn and slightly frayed at the edges but washed. Her hair was clean and properly braided, and her skin, though pale and shiny with burns, didn’t have the same immovable layer of grime everyone in [Party(Main)] had from living wild for so long. Everyone except Asadullah, who had had access to clean, running water before this.
Whoever this woman was, and wherever she was situated, her situation was good.
And then he got a better look at her.
The spindly metal rod that was hooked on his shirt was connected to the chair she was sitting on, which had a lot of large, jointed legs folded underneath it. The woman hadn’t looked away from him, her solid-tinted goggles remaining unexpressive as she stared into her face. But her hands were clutched onto the controls of the chair in restrained anger.
“Ah.” He clicked her tongue, “You’re the spider lady. Lucy?”
He couldn’t see her face, but her forehead furrowed, which was never a good sign.
“Lucky Paine.” She corrected, “That is my name. And how did you know that?”
“Uh… I think you already know how.” He decided to go for the cryptic route rather than admitting he messed up. God, he was so bad at this. Why couldn’t Jared take the wheel on this?
Oh, wait, he’d been the one who left behind this mess. Look how well that had turned out.
“Are you the same kid?” Lucky asked incredulously, “I don’t believe that.”
Okay, so, she was mad at Jared, but not mad enough to kill Michael for being associated with him. He could work with this, right?
“Can we have this conversation somewhere else?” He asked, going for a plaintive tone that was much more relaxed than he really was. The way his voice cracked in the middle of the sentence said otherwise, but he powered through it, “It’s hard to hear you through the masks.”
Silence as the woman considered his point. And then the metallic legs were swinging him around, plopping him down onto the back of her chair.
“You are trying to trick me into guiding you back to my lair.” She told him bluntly, “It is not subtle.”
“Are you going to accept, anyway?” He asked, feeling a bitter feeling crawl up his throat.
“…Yes.” She replied, “But only because my tank rations are tight.”
Holy shit, he can’t believe this was working.
All his victory melted away as the chair lurched forward and began rocketing up the tracks at a truly unholy pace. The chair was fast.
Within seconds, they had somehow caught up to the train. Once they reached it, the chair didn’t even hesitate to jump onto its roof, skittering along the carriages until they slid down into the engine car.
Michael readied himself to be faced with the engineer from the car and the questions that would inevitably follow. Except there was no one there.
“What the hell?” He whispered, looking around him in case the engineer was hiding in some corner. It was a small room, though, and incredibly hot. There was no room for anyone to be hiding.
“This is my train. I thought hunting you down was more important.” She replied, going over to the control panel to unhook a crowbar from the steering wheel.
Michael felt more and more concerned with every passing second. Maybe he should have thought better than teaming up with her. Lucky was absolutely terrifying.
There was a hissing sound, and her gas mask slipped off, allowing her to breathe in something other than straight oxygen. Michael took that as his cue to take his off, too. Immediately, she moved past him to grab the cylinder.
“This is the exact cylinder I gave Jared.” She mused, looking it over, “And he handed it over to you? You must be close friends.”
“We are.” Michael told her reflexively. He was proud of his friendship with Jared and Verity, who had found him through the apocalypse. They were stronger and more capable than him. Could have easily survived the catastrophe all on their own without waiting for him.
To be fair, he thinks Verity had been ready to leave him behind. It had been Jared who stopped her, told her to be patient. For all his posturing about being above other people, Jared didn’t leave anyone behind. Out of all them, it was he who was committed the most to dragging humanity along. Even when it had felt like a mere fantasy.
He was friends with quite possibly the best people he’d ever met. And he wasn’t going to let this Game take that away from him.
“Good Lord, no need to look so stricken.” Lucky laughed, “It was just a question. What is he planning on doing without a gas cylinder, if it is the only one you have?”
“Our world… doesn’t have the air pollution problem.” Michael gave in way of answer.
“Your world?” She asked, her eyebrows raised in amazement. But she didn’t contest him on it. As if claiming that he was from another dimension wasn’t the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard.
That being said, she had just outpaced a freaking train, so maybe she was more open-minded about this.
“I’m from another dimension.” He announced, looking her in the eyes. Lucky didn’t even flinch, returning the gaze in stony silence.
Finally, her face broke as she let out a polite scoff, “You’re not pulling my leg about this?”
“Never.” He swore. Jared was his friend, but he had his misgivings too. He could work with that, at least. Fix what Jared left had behind, “Tell you what, I answer your questions, and you help me.”
Confliction warred in her eyes, until she relented and leaned forward in her chair to shake his hands, “Fine. Let us call it a deal.”
The moment the deal was made, a victorious jingle rang in her ears.
[Treaty Created!]
[You have Earned 2,000 Exp!]
[Return to Level 1?]
[{x} Yes { } No]
This was the point Jared had recounted. The escape option. He had completed the objective, and now he could leave in record time. Easy as that.
But Lucky was there, glowering intently at him, as if she could see the window hovering in front of his face.
Time was in short supply. He had to do this as fast as possible. The others were waiting for him.
He clicked [No] and gave her a beatific smile, “So, what did you want to know?”
[Game Log End!]