Chapter 90: Time Flies
The warehouse remained, at least at a glance, how we left it. Had it added or subtracted rows of shelves between the doors? I swept my phone over them and sent the data to the support team, but I didn’t ask and – since it didn’t look like the shelves had multiplied to the point we couldn’t find our way through them – didn’t much care.
Was I actually getting used to this place?
That might be the scariest development of all.
“Lots more discontinuities,” Erin said. I thought I could tell just from her voice, which sounded higher and faster, like it was being pitch shifted. You ever listen to Nightcore remixes? She sounded sort of like she was in one of those. Not like a 2X speed YouTube video, but a step in that direction.
“Why don’t you try re-counting the aisles to the corner again,” Miguel said. “I’d love to know if they’re changing over time, or if there’s some kind of consistency to the geometry.”
“It might be different this time anyway,” Erin said. “They came in through a different door.”
“True,” Matt said. “Honestly, I’d rather send them back through the first one so we could do a proper test.”
“We’re not traipsing back and forth through the lobby every time you think of a new way to science the shit out of this,” Donica said. “Let’s just go to the corner from here and see what we find. If it’s different enough, maybe we’ll test it the way you want to.”
She looked at the rest of us on-site, waiting, challenging.
None of us bit.
Once again, we found ourselves trudging past aisle after aisle of empty shelves. This time, we reached the corner after eighteen. I asked, “Does that correspond to how many we passed after the next door on our way in, or on our way out, or neither?”
After a few seconds reviewing the footage, Erin said, “In.”
Was it always longer on the way out than on the way in? An especially creepy touch, if so. Actually, I thought it almost wrapped around to silly, Halloween funhouse scary rather than actually scary.
“You’re losing a lot of frames now,” Miguel said.
“No time like the present to check your time,” Matt said. The way he emphasized the repeated word made it sound like a pun, even though it wasn’t. The only thing lower than an actual pun. It’s like in a song when somebody tries to rhyme the same word twice in a row, and it makes the rhythm work but from the first time you pay enough attention to notice, you’ll never be able to enjoy the lyrics again.
Matt might not be as much of an asshole as I’d thought, but somehow, I doubted he and I would ever end up friends.
Still, his advice seemed sound.
Donica pulled his watch from her pack. “Looks like about 8:16.”
“‘About?’ We should’ve given the watch to someone better at reading analog time,” Matt said.
She glared in the general direction of the Yukon. “I didn’t see you volunteer.”
“We have 8:21 out here,” Erin said. “That seems very clear.”
“The more discontinuities, the further our time diverges,” I said.
I folded my arms. Lena cupped her chin. Zhizhi leaned against the pressed board wall.
“Once again,” Miguel said, “I’ll ask if any of you feel unwell.”
“I’m starting to regret those s’mores,” Donica said. “But that’s nothing new. I’ll have to get back into jogging or something to work them off.”
“Maybe you can get Zhizhi to take you with her,” Lena said.
Zhizhi eyed Lena, perhaps wondering, like I did, how she would feel about being volunteered to keep Donica company. “As long as you can keep up.”
“No lightheadedness,” I said. “No nausea, no vision problems – unless you count Third Eye shit –, no muscle weakness, no irregular heartbeat or breathing. I don’t even have a headache, which is saying something considering how dusty it is back here.”
“Hey, yeah,” Lena said. “I’m surprised you’re not sneezing your head off.”
No kidding. My allergies didn’t peak in winter, but their valleys stayed miserable.
I frowned. “Even by Third Eye standards, this is going to sound weird, but do you remember me sneezing since we signed up?”
She chewed on her fingernail. “I mean, you must’ve, right? You’re basically allergic to everything.”
I was. The percentage of our income that went to Kleenex and Claritin attested to that.
Was my avatar?
“I know we didn’t pick up more tissues when we hit Walmart the other day,” I said. “Did you restock them after you lost to Matt?”
Slowly, Lena shook her head. “So we haven’t bought any for at least a couple weeks.”
“Longer than that,” I said. “No way we went on a shopping trip right at the end of the Christmas rush.”
We exchanged glances with Zhizhi and Donica.
“Let me get this straight,” Zhizhi said. “You think this game cured your allergies?”
“I don’t... I’m not sure.” I rubbed the bridge of my nose. I knew I remembered doing that in annoyance since signing up for Third Eye. Had I done it for allergies?
“It sounds gross,” Erin said, “but maybe you should check your wastebasket when you get home? If you’ve blown your nose and just forgotten about it, I’m sure you’ll find tissues there, right?”
“Makes sense,” I said. “Incidentally, I don’t think Third Eye cured my allergies.”
“Good,” Donica said, “because that seems absurd.”
“I think,” I began. I shook my head. Think was too strong a word. “I’m wondering if as long as I have HP, my allergies can’t hurt me.”
“Oh,” Matt said. “I like that.”
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I spread my hands. “It’s just a theory!”
“A game theory?” Lena whispered. Even under the circumstances, I chuckled at the reference and we flashed smiles at each other.
Matt ignored us. “It’s a compelling theory, though, isn’t it? It’s one thing to suggest that HP protect us from suffering real harm from Third Eye phenomena. What if they prevent harm entirely?”
“If you want to test it by letting me punch you in the face,” Lena said, “that’s a sacrifice I’m prepared to make.”
“I wonder,” Matt said. “If I said yes, would you really do it?”
She wiggled her eyebrows. “Wanna find out?”
“You know what?” He chuckled. “I saw your first video. Your technique was shit. I do want to find out.”
“Please don’t do that,” Erin said.
“Nope, too late,” Lena said. “I’m warming up righty and lefty as we speak.”
She swung a few awkward jabs. I thought about telling her I was pretty sure you shouldn’t swing your arm on a jab, it was supposed to be a quick, linear motion, but honestly, her awful form might be for the best.
She flashed a grin at me, and by extension, the camera I wore clipped to my vest.
To Erin, Matt, and Miguel, it probably looked like she couldn’t wait to take her shot. Probably to Donica and Zhizhi as well.
I knew it meant that Matt taking her up on her offer had freaked Lena out. For someone whose fight or flight was cranked all the way to fight, she didn’t actually want to hurt somebody.
I patted her shoulder. “Save it for tomorrow, Balrog.”
“You know he was Bison in the Japanese version, right?” she said.
“The version neither of us have played?” I asked.
“Just sayin’.”
Donica sighed. “Are you two finished? Actually, that goes for you, too, Matt.”
“I didn’t realize my asking to get punched in the face would bother you so much, Donica,” he said.
“You do have a very punchable face, I admit. But I could act on that any time, I don’t need to do it tonight when we’re stuck in this hellhole.”
“First of all,” Erin said, “I’ll reiterate that I’d really rather none of you punched my teacher.”
“Sorry,” Donica said.
Lena didn’t chip in an apology.
“Second, though,” Erin said, “all of this brings up an excellent point.”
“Which is?” Lena asked.
“Wait,” I said. “I think I get it!”
I couldn’t see Erin bobbing her head, but I was sure she would be. “Mmhm!”
“Forget stopping allergies or a punch,” I said. “Even if all our HP do is protect us against Third Eye phenomena, if this weird time shit is hurting us, we should be losing them.”
If we were – especially if we were losing a lot – we might have to bag the expedition. Not necessarily for our sakes, as long as we weren’t close to running out.
But because Zhizhi, as a non-player, didn’t have any HP.
Lena’s eyes unfocused as she checked her smart glasses. Donica and I tapped to the Third Eye app on our phones.
I had 9,043 HP. Somewhere between the rush of flames in Lena’s old apartment and now, I’d lost one. That didn’t seem especially serious, even if it was due to whatever phenomena we’d experienced here, but what did one HP equate to for a person who had none?
Donica rendered the question academic. “I’m still at full.”
“Same here,” Lena said.
“I’m down one, but it seems like it’s probably not from something that happened here,” I said.
“Allergies?” Lena suggested.
“God, I hope not.” If so, once I finally burned off all the extra I’d gotten from Albie’s Potion, I’d probably lose my paltry ten by noon during spring and fall.
“It’s probably from when you got your hand too close to the fire,” Zhizhi said.
My mind immediately went to touching the points on Lena’s back where her blazing wings emerged. Admittedly, it didn’t take a lot to make me think about that.
My expression must’ve betrayed where my mind went, because Zhizhi smirked. “When you were trying to toast the s’mores?”
“Right. That.” I coughed. “I did get my hand pretty close. From what you said, Matt, Erin, Fire rips through our HP, doesn’t it?”
“It seems to be the quickest route to doing damage,” Matt said.
“The important thing is,” Miguel said, “it doesn’t appear that any of you have lost HP simply by moving around in the construction site. I can’t say I’m entirely persuaded that means it isn’t harmful to you long-term, but at the very least, between that and the lack of symptoms, we have no evidence it is.”
“Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,” Matt said.
“It is, however, evidence that such risks as they’ve taken so far are reasonable ones.” Miguel didn’t even sound pissed, despite having an entire conversation with Matt.
It made me wonder how much patience he extended Lena and I. A humbling thought.
“I’ll be honest,” Zhizhi said. “Up to this point, except for the time thing, it hasn’t felt super risky.”
Donica lowered her eyes. “You still don’t get it.”
She wasn’t wrong. I didn’t think anybody could if they hadn’t gotten lost back here.
Even if we got lost now, as long as we made it out in the end, it wouldn’t feel the same. We weren’t going to let ourselves get separated, and we had so many more people in contact to keep us grounded.
I stepped over to Donica and extended my hand.
She glanced at it, frowned, then, with a sigh, bumped her arm against it. “You do, obviously, Cameron.”
I gave her arm a squeeze. “Yeah. It was scary as hell last time.”
“Well this time,” Zhizhi said, “the most exciting thing was the PVP outside, and I only got to see it by looking at it played back from your phone cameras.”
She gave her own camera a little shake.
“Is the lack of excitement so bad?” Donica asked.
“Not really.” Zhizhi shrugged. “I’ve had a pretty good time hanging out with you guys. I’m just saying. Loverboy out there sold me on filming a documentary that would make my career.”
“I made no promises,” Miguel said.
“I bet you say that to all the girls,” she said.
He didn’t respond. After a moment, Erin reported, “He shrugged.”
“Grandly,” Miguel said.
“I hate that I find that funny.” Zhizhi’s lips quirked up. “The point is, even though I do think some crazy shit is going on, it’s the kind that would interest scientists, not audiences. I can’t sell any of this. I don’t even know who I should take it to, much less who would listen to me.”
“What do you want us to do?” I asked.
“I want to get that elevator open,” she said.
Which made one of us.
“From everything you described, it showed up with or without the app. Whatever it was you saw that freaked you out so much, I could actually get it on –” she shot a glance at Lena. “– tape.”
Lena pumped her fist.
I frowned. “I know we talked about trying to get it open. I just... don’t know if that’s a great idea.”
“Or how to go about it,” Donica said.
“Last time,” Zhizhi said, “it opened when you pushed past this warehouse, right? You went into those hallways, and when you came back, the elevator was open.”
Donica and I exchanged glances. Hesitantly, we both nodded.
Zhizhi shrugged. “Your call. I’ve told you what I’d like.”
“You know I want to keep going,” Lena said. “I got full HP, a belly full of s’mores, and a bone to pick with whatever’s in here spooking Cam.”
“If we do find something spooky,” I said – something terrifying, I thought –, “please don’t pick a fight with it.”
“I’ll be good,” she said. It almost sounded like an agreement.
I turned to Donica.
Although I would normally have sided with Lena, in this case, I didn’t really care what she wanted, or Zhizhi, or any of the support team. None of them got it. They hadn’t been here before.
“As far as I’m concerned,” I said, “we’ve already accomplished a lot. Might not look it, but we have.”
Donica nodded along with my words.
“If you’re not comfortable going any further –”
“You know goddamn well I’m not,” she said.
I did.
“So.” I cocked my head.
She looked around the warehouse, not so much at the other team members, or even at me, just at the weird space we stood in. She opened her mouth.
Then she looked down at the watch in her hand.
Her eyes narrowed and her jaw clamped shut.
“So,” she said, “let’s get this shit over with.”