Chapter 107: Hideaway

I conjured and shaped a proper shield, but I didn’t expect much from it. If a team waited inside to ambush us, they could strike from any direction and I couldn’t possibly deflect everything.

Nonetheless, I led the way through the cabin door. I might not be able to help Lena much in a fight, but I could tank one last hit from an ambush and buy her an extra second to strike back.

My whole body tensed as I crossed the threshold. I squeezed my eyes – not quite shut, but narrowed. I held my breath.

I didn’t feel the searing pain of Fire, or the sudden jab of Air or Earth. Nobody even punched me, which was a good thing, because as low as my HP were, a solid right hook might have finished them off.

Instead, all I felt was warmth.

I took another step forward to give Lena room to join me inside, then allowed myself to look around.

When my eyes adjusted, I found we’d entered a crude living room or den. The rough log walls reminded me of the lodge where Lena and I had spent the night in the Black Forest. Those logs had been polished and lacquered. These looked like raw, rough-cut wood; the only stain on them came from age. A stone fireplace occupied much of one wall, soot-stained but, alas, not lit at the moment.

Instead, the warmth came from an electric heater. There were, in fact, far more electrical appliances in the room than there was furniture to hold them. The heater sat on the floor. A simple wooden rocking chair and an even simpler table sat beside it.

What I’d taken for a lamp from outside was actually a lantern, an electric one with an LED bulb small enough Lena could probably have powered it. Right now, it drew its power from a USB charger plugged in to the same extension cord as the heater.

In contrast to the rustic surroundings, cords stretched haphazardly around the room, attached to a whole wall lined with lithium-ion backup batteries. A fluorescent orange tarp covered a pile of portable solar panels. Four extension cords snaked through two doorways. A fifth ran to the heater, the lantern, and a closed laptop sitting on the table.

I wanted to run to the heater, but first, I eyed the person who’d let us in out of the cold.

“Yo,” Gerry said.

My eyebrows raised.

He averted his eyes. “He got the two of you, too, huh? After you talked such a big game.”

I didn’t remember talking an especially big game, but I couldn’t exactly blame the guy for resenting me after I’d failed to save him from Mask.

“Mask didn’t ‘get’ us,” Lena said.

“Yeah?” Gerry shrugged. “Doesn’t matter now.”

“We came here to rescue you,” I said. “Are you okay, man?”

“Oh yeah, awesome.” His laughter sounded ragged, almost hysterical. “Come on, let’s get the door shut. It’s freezing out there.”

No argument from me. Lena and I shifted to let Gerry step around us. He shut the door, then hefted a wooden drawbar and let it thud into the metal brackets on either side.

Like most of the structure, the drawbar looked crude but heavy and well-made. Maybe Mask couldn’t remove it with his Key, and that was why he’d knocked? I doubted that was the case. Third Eye interpreted the idea of a Key so broadly that it included teleportation; surely it would include unbarring doors. Even if it was true, though, it just shifted the question one step. Why would Mask have left the drawbar for his captives to find in the first place?

Also, if the drawbar offered any kind of protection against Mask, why would Gerry have removed it?

Seemed I wasn’t the only one who wondered. Lena asked, “How come you’re Mask's doorman all of a sudden?”

“I’m on watch,” Gerry said. “What, you wanted me to let you freeze out there?”

“I wouldn’t exactly start crying if he froze,” Lena said.

“Yeah, well.” Abruptly, Gerry shoved past us and stomped to one of the inner doors. “Make yourselves at home.”

“Pass,” Lena said. “I hate camping.”

“Not gonna have a real good time, then,” Gerry said. “I’ll find you some coats and shit.”

He pushed the door open and stepped through.

Lena glanced up at me. “That was weird, right? It’s not just me?”

I squeezed her hand. “Not just you.”

She hugged my arm – another wonderful shot of warmth, on top of what I was getting from her wings and the heater – then released me to pace around the edge of the room.

Even though I hated to let her out of arm’s reach, for all sorts of reasons, I dropped my conjured shield and took the opposite side.

My path circled past the door Gerry had disappeared through. I could hear muffled voices on the other side. It sounded like at least three people, but I didn’t feel like getting caught eavesdropping. Not yet, anyway. I kept circling the room.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Lena paused by the solar panels and bent down to pull back the tarp. Sure enough, it had covered a whole stack of the things.

“How much do you think all these cost?” She asked.

“Between the panels and the batteries? Thousands, at least.” The panels were stacked four deep. In addition to their solar material, they had a fold-up midsection and handles for easier carrying.

If somebody gave me a five figure quote for the stack, it wouldn’t leave me reeling. If they stretched it to six I’d start to think they were trying to rip me off, but I could’ve been convinced.

Lena tapped her finger on her chin. “You think Mask paid for all this?”

“What’s the alternative?” I narrowed my eyes. “Oh shit. You don’t think Omar’s bankrolling him?”

“Wow, that would be so much worse.” Lena shuddered. “I’ll throw down with anybody, but I didn’t sign up for a boss rush.”

Despite everything, I smiled. “What did you mean, then?”

“Mask’s got the power to open doors and a willingness to commit bigger crimes than burglary.” She nudged a panel with her foot. “These things are designed to be portable, so why not teleportable?”

“You think he, what, unlocks a store after hours and then starts shoving everything interesting into his Key?”

She shrugged. “Better than him and Omar being in cahoots, isn’t it?”

“For sure,” I said. I’d panicked at the thought of Mask having a team. Him being teamed with Omar would make things far, far worse. Part of the purpose of our road trip was to prepare us to walk into the Florida castle of Third Eye’s very own “evil wizard.” We knew we weren’t ready for him, even without Mask.

I finished my sweep of the room and met up with Lena next to the lamp, laptop, and heater.

All portable. All stolen?

I supposed compared to the crimes we already knew Mask had committed, burglary didn’t rate. It did, however, remind me that we’d put ourselves in the power of an actual criminal, not just an asshole who’d taken a game too far.

My hand hovered over the laptop. If it had a satellite connection to the outside world –

Then Gerry or one of the other captives would’ve used it while Mask was out of the cabin.

I shifted my hands to the heater just as the door I’d passed opened.

Gerry emerged, his arms piled head-high with winter wear. “Might as well take your pick,” he called. “Some of these should fit you.”

I pulled a coat off the top of the pile. I hadn’t been sure until I lifted it, but it was a parka. I recognized its multilayered down lining and almost impossible lightness. Unlike mine, which I’d gotten from a thrift store, this one looked brand-new, sleek black with silver accents. Also unlike mine, it was Lena’s size.

She frowned at it.

“Where did Mask get these clothes?” I asked.

“Does it matter?” Gerry asked. “You can’t leave the cabin without them, and if you run out of HP, even the cabin’s only gonna help so much.”

“You’re cool with wearing stolen clothes?” I asked.

“Oh yeah, it’s the best.” Gerry’s scowl was just visible over the coats, gloves, hats, and snow pants still piled in his arms. “How the hell can you still be worried about crap like that?”

Lena crossed her arms. “Maybe I don’t feel like getting arrested the minute I get back to civilization.”

Gerry stared at her for a moment. Then he shook his head. “First time the temperature drops, you’ll get over it.”

“Drops?” She swallowed.

I knew the feeling. My calculations of how long I could survive with ten HP depended on the weather not getting worse than it had been tonight.

“Just gear up already.” He dumped the winter wear on the floor of the cabin and turned his back to us.

If Mask had abducted Gerry months ago, I could’ve excused the latter’s resignation, but it had only been a few days. Stockholm Syndrome took a lot longer than that to kick in. Hell. Giving up should have taken a lot longer than that.

I opened my mouth to grill him about it, but the words wouldn’t come.

I’d taken it as a given that Gerry had only been kidnapped for a week, but did I actually know that? No. We’d experienced distorted time through Third Eye before. It had moved much slower in the construction site than in the outside world, to the point it had been hard to understand the sped-up-sounding voices of people we’d been in coms with.

My operating theory had been that time contracted as space expanded. For all I knew, this cabin represented the opposite phenomena. Compressed space, expanded time?

I almost had to hope so, even though it meant our friends had been lost for subjective weeks or months. Still better than any alternative I could think of.

If Mask had done something so horrible it broke Gerry’s spirit in less than a week, I felt so, so much worse. First, for letting Gerry slip away in the first place. Second, for underestimating the threat Mask represented. Third, most of all, for encouraging Lena to dive into the Key with me.

That wasn’t why I froze, though. (Neither was the temperature; between Lena’s flames and the heater and the body heat of whoever else was staying in the cabin, it felt almost temperate.)

No, what sent chills down my spine was the thought that Mask torturing or intimidating Gerry into compliance was not the worst case scenario.

From time to time, I’d wondered if Third Eye was manipulating our minds.

At first, I’d wondered if all the weird and wonderful things we experienced weren’t just hallucinations. Turned out, no. Too many non-players had seen and even interacted with Third Eye phenomena, whether on a regular basis like Zhizhi or as a one-off like Benji and Sandy.

When I found out Third Eye phenomena had to be real, I’d dismissed the possibility of mental manipulation. It might still be possible, though. Might still be affecting us. Were we really waiting for the best time to tell the world the truth about Third Eye, or was the game guiding us away from exposing it?

I didn’t want the devs, even Albie but especially her mysterious brother, screwing with our heads.

If regular players could learn to do so, though? If Mask already had?

As worst-case scenarios went, I didn’t expect to beat that one.

While I fretted, Lena acted. “I’ll take the coat. But we’re not sticking around long enough to need it.”

Gerry had drifted back toward the door. At the sound of Lena’s voice, he hesitated and half-glanced over his shoulder. “You think you can leave?”

“Obvs,” she said.

His throat bobbed. “You still think you should?”

“Obvs...?” Lena repeated. As her voice trailed off, she looked to me for support.

I tried to offer it. Honest. My smile came out as a grimace and the hand I lay on the small of her back felt clammy to me, much less her.

Because I’d come up with a scenario that could at least compete for worst-case.

Did it beat mind control? Maybe not, not on a personal level. In scale, though, and in sheer, infuriating bullshit, it kinda did.

Mask might have honestly persuaded his captives he was right.