[Player Log Start!]
[Log Holder: Asadullah Khan]
[Level: 1]
[! Log has been Translated from Urdu !]
The Game gave them a simple step to saving every dimension out there. Go from Level to Level and follow the objectives outlined by the Console. Easy step-by-step instructions.
Level One had a single goal: find a person who can make the cure, and then distribute said cure. Once they had found Terry, the answer to all their problems, it was all supposed to click into place.
But Terry wasn’t going to leave. There was no way they were going to convince him, Asadullah could see the way he’d frozen up and panicked. It wasn’t going to happen. Their entire operation froze in its tracks.
“We need to win him around.” Jared insisted, rolling up his sleeves, “This can’t end like this.”
“Don’t.” Asadullah interrupted, getting up himself, “I’ll talk to him.”
“You’re the one who’s closest to him.” Tench agreed, “Do your best, will you?”
He wasn’t even going to try getting the boy out of the store. It wasn’t worth it. Not only that, but he could relate to the guy. Back home, people told him all the time that he needed to be the one to step up and join the army. Protect more people in exchange of leaving his village. And maybe he was a shitty person for it, but he still didn’t want to do that, even now that he was in a different dimension.
Back home, how long would Mira stand? Was Tahira okay? How many people had he lost? If he had any other choice, he would be back there, just to keep them safe.
He wandered into the storage rooms where Terry had disappeared, feeling the weight of everyone’s trust on his shoulders.
It was so dark that even with his extra-sensitive eyes, he almost missed the guy. However, a flash of teal hair caught his attention at the last second. Terry had managed to crawl into the bottom shelf of the large storage spaces.
Asadullah patted softly on the bangle set and shrunk down a little to fit easier into the shelves, “Hey.” He whispered, “How’re you doing?”
He didn’t reply, his fingers keeping a death grip on his knees.
“You can sign if you want.” He offered.
Terry shook his head.
“Okay, that’s fine.” Asadullah allowed him, “Let’s just… calm down. For a little while.”
He didn’t react, but didn’t seem to be opposed to the idea, so Asadullah simply stayed quiet.
Once Terry had finally relaxed a little, and pried his fingers off his knees, Asadullah offered some quiet consolation.
“I don’t blame you, you know.” He whispered, “It’s… it’s understandable. You shouldn’t have to leave. We just need the cure, and it’s unfair to you to try and force you out of someplace you’re more comfortable.”
Terry pulled his hands close to his chest, and somehow still managed to sign despite the cramped environment they were in.
“Please leave.” The words shone through the dark, a sickening tone of finality to it.
“Yeah, alright.” Asadullah backed away, not wanting to push it, “I’ll just… talk to the others. Figure something out between us. Try to get them to drop the issue.”
He shouldn’t promise something like that. Asadullah didn’t have nearly enough sway in the group to pull it off. Just planting false hope in his mind where he seriously didn’t need any. But Terry didn’t seem too put off by the idea, so he let it hang there.
“Just… yeah, just pop back in whenever you feel like it.” He whispered, feeling miserably out of his depth. He just didn’t know what to do in situations like these.
Back in the store, everyone was talking amongst themselves, green translation panels so plentiful that they obscured everyone’s faces. The entire room was like that, filled with so many labeled boxes and cans and posters in languages he didn’t recognize that subtitles were wallpapering everything, making it difficult to parse what was meant to be important or background details.
“What are we doing?” He decided to plainly come out and ask instead. Everyone turned around to look at him expectantly.
It was only because Ben was looking right at him as she spoke that he was able to realize she was not saying ‘Cornflakes, 10% off’ and the correct translation was a couple lines to the left, where she was asking, “Did you figure it out?”
“No.” He replied, “I… it’s futile, you know? What does it matter if he doesn’t want to leave? We can just work on the cure here.”
“And what about distributing it?” Verity asked, her voice uncharacteristically shrill. There was something about the way she said it that made Asadullah look at her in a different regard. She looked stressed, with slight eyebags and a greasiness to her skin that was never there before. It was odd to suddenly look up and notice the change almost overnight. What could have happened in that timeframe?
Stupid question, a lot had happened.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Vera, are you…” He started to ask, purely out of concern for his friend, but the stricken look in her face as she realized what he was about to ask made him click his mouth shut. It was probably fine. Could just be a bad day that she didn’t need to be scrutinized on even more.
“We’ll figure out a way to distribute it.” He offered diplomatically, “See what the production method is and try to transport it to… where exactly? We don’t even know what we’re doing. Just let the Game play out its course, alright?”
It was obvious that no one was happy with that answer, but what other solution was there?
“Right. I guess it’s back to the waiting game.” Tench relented, “Stick to the grinding and the sidequests.”
“Speaking of sidequests.” Jared added in, “I believe Michael was giving us the rundown about his experience in the Sub-levels? What we got wrong and other jazz like that?”
“Yeah! How’d that go?” Asadullah hastily switched the topic, trying not to think of the teetering tower of empty promises he’d staked himself on.
“As far as I can tell, all the sub-Levels are meant to lead to the Tracklands.” Michael explained, “You’re given a simple achievement, and when you complete it, you get the option to either go home or stay a little longer.”
The pale-haired boy recounted his entire adventure, going over the woman named Lucky Paine he’d met and gotten into the good graces of, and the situation behind the apocalypse in that world. Jared seemed somewhat miffed at the fact that he’d missed out on what was clearly his time to shine, but he took the loss with dignity.
“The way I see it, we’re going to have to go into three different directions.” He decided, once the whole story was out, “The four remaining Sub-Levels need to be done quickly, and we need to try and make our way back into Ben and Tench’s butchery hideout to grab all the medical supplies Tench is gonna need. And throughout all that, someone else needs to keep an eye on Terry and help him with his cure research. If he doesn’t manage it, we won’t have a case at all, so that’s our number one priority.”
Verity raised her hand, almost like she was in a classroom, and Asadullah wasn’t sure whether it was a joke or not, going off the fiery look in her eyes, “I’ll do the next Sub-Level.” She insisted, “This other Player you mentioned? I’ll smoke it out, no problem.”
No one contested her on this. It was simply a given, if Verity wanted something, she was going to have it. Best to simply get out of her way before she bit heads over it.
“Love the enthusiasm, but don’t set them on actual fire, please.” Jared agreed readily, “Asadullah, you up for the ride back? You can jump that moat no problem, unlike everyone else.”
“Sure, but who’s coming with me?” He asked, “Not you, surely.”
Michael hid a snort in his hand, but Verity laughed openly as Jared gave him the stink eye, “What’s that supposed to mean?” He asked sourly.
“Nothing!” He replied, putting his hands up, “I didn’t mean to sound like an asshole, it’s just… you know.” He gestured awkwardly towards Jared’s crutches. He wasn’t really athletic, even on a good day. That didn’t stop Jared from aggressively pointing the tip of one of the crutches at his face.
“I’ll have you know I’m going to be with Terry.” He explained snootily, “But keep going on about that, and I’ll go on the next travel trip just to prove a point.”
“Nope, we like you where you are!” Ben interrupted, “Please keep making good choices.”
“You’re the only one doing so.” Asadullah agreed, feeling another twang of guilt at the disaster he’d made just a few minutes ago. The people-person thing was harder than he had first assumed.
“Back on track!” Ben clapped her hands together, “Asad, I’ll come with you. The equipment we need is more recognizable to me, anyway.”
“And that means I’ll be going along with Vera to the Warp Point.” Michael concluded, “That works.”
“What about me?” Tench asked, in a voice that practically screamed betrayal.
“Stay safe in the store.” Asadullah said, in unison with everyone else. The healer deflated, taking the loss in stride.
“So, you’ll all be going in your different ways? Why did you even want me there?” The words popped up between them, yet no one had said anything. Asadullah was confused for only a few seconds, before he became aware of the silent teal-haired boy standing at his shoulder.
“Oh, astaghfirullah, where’d you come from?!” He swore, whacking Terry with his tail, “Don’t do that!” He backed away with a frown, and instead of signing, he took a deep breath and started talking in his soft voice.
“You said that you guys were talking.” He explained, “I came to listen in. Because you’d be talking behind my back and I- I don’t like that.”
Tench and Ben looked like they had had their hearts wrenched out of their chests. Terry had a tendency to gain people’s sympathy like that. And unlike Jared, Asadullah was certain that he wasn’t doing it intentionally. Not that Jared ever went for the drowned rat approach when it came to getting people to like him.
“Well, you’ve all got your own things going on.” Terry continued, eyes darting around as he spoke, “So, I don’t really get why you were so insistent on me joining up with you.”
“Ha, see, kid, according to you, you’re developing a cure for the zombie virus.” Ben repeated, looking more than a little perturbed, “And the Game may be sending us around in circles but we need that cure to fix all this. It’s the only way to save this world.”
Terry looked away, the toes of his shoe tapping on the ground, “You’re putting too much faith in me.” He whispered, voice growing more and more strained in his distress, “This was just a- a passing curiosity. Nothing was supposed to come out of this.”
“And it has.” Jared stressed, “Doesn’t that make you excited.”
Terry shook his head, and the subtitles helpfully translated it as: “No!”
“Well, I’m sure we can win you over.” Jared didn’t let the rejection cut deep, “You just need to sit back and let us handle the hard bits while you do the smart stuff. Think you can do that?”
It was strange, how he was talking. Clearly dragging an agreement out of the boy, and making promises that would clearly lead to something more. Yet, no one was speaking out against it. It was such obvious manipulation, and still they didn’t recognize what Jared was doing. Asadullah wanted to warn him, but he stayed rooted to the spot. Maybe that was why they weren’t saying anything.
Terry was responding well, at least. His eyes were wide and agreeable as he thought it over.
“Okay.” He whispered, his voice a touch raspier than ever, “Yeah, I suppose I can work with that.”
A short, quick chime, followed by the appearance of a bright green panel with an awful message inscribed on them.
[Terence Glasgow Has Accepted the Invitation to Join Party(Main)!]
He couldn’t stop the stinging feeling that he had doomed the poor guy.
Terry didn’t deserve to be dragged into this. He could stay in this grocery store for the rest of his life, calm and relaxed and far away from the endless quest to save every reality.
“You okay?” Terry asked, looking over at him, “You look scared.”
“No.” Asadullah summoned up a smile and tried not to let his grief show, “I’m good. Let’s get down to business, shall we?”
[Player Log End!]