Chapter 59: Door Number Two

Like so many Third Eye questions, this lacked an obvious answer. Another familiar refrain: the unobvious answers I thought of all sounded somewhere between unpleasant and sinister.

First of all, could you pick a more perfect place for invasion PVP? Easy to access from a major street, but away from the eyes of passing motorists. Lots of space to play around with the various options the app gave us, but blocked sight lines from which to stage ambushes.

If it wasn’t unplanned and unwanted and terrifying, and also, in this case, illegal, even I might want to try PVP here.

Hell. If we managed to persuade the devs to restrict invasion to specific places, buying up a disputed building like this and turning it into a Third Eye battleground would be awesome.

Of course, I didn’t believe we’d be able to persuade them. Not anymore.

I’d shifted my input on the video scripts toward shaping how players approached Third Eye, not convincing the devs. I suspected Erin had done the same, although she hadn’t admitted it.

If Third Eye got canceled, it would be because somebody found out it was screwing with our heads, not because of legal complications from PVP. And if it didn’t get shut down, it wasn’t going to change its parameters because of player feedback, beta best practices be damned.

Because if Third Eye really was magic, or sufficiently advanced technology, or whatever explained the better case scenario? This place made it less of a better case.

I was starting to think the illegality was part of the point.

The game was tempting us, not just away from public spaces, but from normal society. If a PVP fight escalated to a fistfight here, and I lost – and I would – would I really call 911 and get myself arrested, too?

If I was dying, sure. But if I just got punched in the face and broke my nose? How about if I broke my ribs?

I’d already seen it in action. We hadn’t technically trespassed in the tunnel, as far as we knew, but Miguel had still wanted to get outside before we called for help.

If the game wanted us to rely on it, instead of mundane authorities, pushing us into places where we had less access to those authorities made sense. If it wanted us to rely on it, and our powers within it, in defiance of those authorities? Wasn't this a good first step in training us?

All of that shot through my head as I stared at the inspection report. My palms felt sweaty and my hands shook as the sweat evaporated in air that couldn’t be much above freezing.

“Isn’t it also possible,” Donica said, “that this is just gibberish, and the paper is here because it’s the sort of thing that would be clipped to the wall in a place like this, which Third Eye is trying to make look like it’s ready for use?”

I blinked.

That... did, in fact, sound plausible.

I hated how much I wanted to believe it.

“Let’s see what’s through door number two,” she said.

She pushed and the door swung back and forth like you’d see in a saloon in a Western. No latching mechanism and a frame that didn’t hold it in one direction. I put a hand on it to hold it open so we could look through.

Hallways. That’s what was through door number two. They stretched in both directions along the length of this side of the warehouse. For the first time, the area looked almost the same with or without Third Eye. Concrete floor, pressed board walls, visible metal girders. The only differences were that the lights overhead, hanging from bare wires, were turned on through the app and off in real life, and that in Third Eye the doors had handles.

“Not exactly promising,” I said. “We might as well have a peek, though.”

We pressed on.

Door frames decorated both sides. I say frames, because when I tried the door across the way, I realized the board of the wall hadn’t been cut out, the frame had just been nailed on top of it. Apparently this part of the construction had been further from completion when the builders abandoned it.

Since Third Eye showed the doors as complete with handles, and the real doors were just bits of the same board as the walls, I didn’t see any way to tell at a glance what was a real door and what was unfinished wall.

“I’m impressed,” Donica said. “They found a way to make this place more annoying.”

“I guess we just try each one as we come to it?” I said.

She shrugged and nodded.

The hallway stretched past the warehouse. Looked at this way, that space didn’t seem quite as huge as it had from the inside. Other halls stretched off at irregular intervals, some right next to the doors – real or fake – others a room’s width away.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Let’s stick to the left wall,” I said. “This place is a maze.”

“Half maze, half amazing?”

I eyed her. “Is that a reference I detect?”

“I don’t know, do you know what it’s to?”

“Not a clue,” I admitted.

“Then you’ll have to figure it out for yourself.” She smirked. “You’re right about the left wall, though.”

We trailed our hands along it for a while, until I felt a prick and cursed.

Donica glanced back at me. “What?”

“Thought I got a splinter.” I checked my finger and didn’t see anything, and the pain faded right away. Thinking about pain in my hand made me think about the cut I’d gotten the other day in the park. It hadn’t bothered me since. I checked my palm and saw a hint of a scar, so I hadn’t just imagined it.

Had it healed normally?

If it had healed abnormally, if it had healed from Albie’s Potion, was that proof that Third Eye was doing something more than messing with my mind?

Only if I had independent confirmation, from a nonplayer, of both the injury and the healing. Too bad I hadn’t thought to ask Zhizhi.

“Put your gloves on.” Donica held up her own hands, safe and warm in black leather Isotoners. “We don’t need to switch back and forth from the app right now.”

I pinned my phone between my neck and my chin and tugged my gloves on, trying not to feel self-conscious about the places where the stuffing was popping out of the fabric. That would get worse before it got better if I kept running my hand along the wall. Still, I couldn’t deny that said hand felt better with a layer of cloth and lining between it and the cold air.

We kept searching.

One door led back to the warehouse. Another marked what seemed like it was supposed to be a maintenance closet. I got to collect a mop – Plastic and Wood – while Donica took its bucket – Plastic and Iron.

A third revealed another exterior room, so we both scrambled to tug a glove off and turn off the lights of our phones.

It had grown too dark to see without them. How long had we been wandering around? I’d have expected to see the last rays of the evening sun peeking over the mountains. Especially since we were facing the west side of the building. No such luck.

We risked exploring the room with Third Eye only. More shelves, but only up against the walls. More chairs, as well as a sleek, stylish end table with a plastic rack full of magazines on it.

I wished I had some way of opening them up and trying to read them. Would they be all Third Eye runes? More of the gibberish from the sign we’d found? The only cover I could see was called “Live Pets!” and had a picture of puppies on it. All pretty normal. Maybe this place had been earmarked for a vet’s office?

“Hold off on collecting this for a second,” I said.

“Okay.” Donica folded her arms.

I tried tapping just the plastic holder. A flash. When it cleared, the whole stack of magazines was gone along with the plastic they’d rested in. Plastic and Wood. Ah well. Worth a shot.

We got more Wood from the table and chairs, but the shelves were physically extant, uncollectible. I was a little surprised the glass panel over the counter wasn’t; when Donica touched it, she obtained a unit of Glass.

I tried an outside window. Nope. Those were real. And so dusty that I could hardly see out of them. Maybe that explained the lack of twilight.

I went over to where Third Eye showed an exterior door, but in reality that was just another piece of board with the frame nailed around it, as yet uncut.

“It’s getting late,” Donica said. “We should head back.”

“More to find next time, yeah?” I tried to sound chipper, but the dust caught in my nose and made me sneeze. I rubbed it away, annoyed. With the state of this place, and with our failure to find anything that so much as hinted at an explanation for that state.

Donica pushed on the door to the hallway and took a half step through it.

“Hey,” I said. “Why did you hesitate when I talked about bringing the whole team?”

She paused. “It doesn’t matter. I already said you were right.”

“It matters because I’m curious. What, you don’t like Erin’s college friends?”

“Not especially,” she said. “As I said, though, I don’t like you or Lena yet, either. I’m trying to learn to. Liking people isn’t one of my strong suits.”

“See,” I said. “You and Lena have more in common than you think.”

Donica laughed. “Now you’re getting nasty.”

“If that’s not it, then why? Don’t you want to help them?”

The laugh died in her throat. “I am.”

“How?” By keeping them away from too much Third Eye shit? Should I confess my suspicions to Donica, after all?

“When I told you I was a good enough lawyer to get off if we were challenged...” Her voice trailed off. “I mean, I’d like to think so. But I’m not even a real lawyer. I have a law degree, but I’ve never passed the bar.”

I gave her a shaky thumbs up. “Good news, then. You couldn’t get disbarred if you got caught here.”

“Always look on the bright side of life, eh?” She pursed her lips like she was considering whistling along with the song that line came from. If she kept this up, I could really start to respect her. Instead, she said, “I’m not willing to risk those kids’ futures on something that probably won’t happen. Not Erin’s.”

“So that’s why this trip was supposed to be adults only,” I said.

“I guess that’s stupid.” She started to step through the doorway.

“I think it’s nice,” I said. “I’m surprised.”

“That I can be nice?”

I spread my hands. “Not unsurprising, but it’s not what I meant.”

She waited, gripping the door frame.

“Turns out,” I said, “you’re a good big sis.”

She stared at me. Her cheeks colored in ways I didn’t think had anything to do with the cold.

Then she rolled her eyes and stalked through the doorway. The door swung behind her. I heard her boots clacking against the concrete in the hall.

I chuckled to myself. Donica might hate it, but seeing her embarrassed endeared her to me more than any number of forced attempts to make friends with Lena and I.

I pushed through the door, turned, and held it until it was steady. Then I tapped on my phone to reactivate the light.

I shone it in the direction we’d come from.

I cocked my head and tried the other direction.

Same result.

The only sign of Donica was the echo of her boots on the concrete.