Chapter 95: On The Run

I examined the prints, trying to guess what could have made them.

Maybe I should’ve paid more attention in camp, because the best I managed was, “something big.” I glanced at Bernie through Third Eye. He was pretty large, but I didn’t think his wide splaying legs would cover this much ground. The creature that left the prints hadn’t quite cut a solid line through the dust, but each broad print was surrounded by streaks that obscured its shape and stretched most of the width of the hallway.

I’d heard of bears wandering into Boulder and Golden, up in the mountains. Did they ever wander into the Denver metro area? Maybe it had happened in the northwestern suburbs. It sure didn’t happen this deep in the middle of the city.

It did not speak well of our situation that I really wished a bear sounded plausible.

“Whatever came down here,” I said, “it looks like it came from this hallway, then went down the path we took to get in.”

“Its loss.” Donica clenched a fist.

“Don’t pick a fight,” Lena said.

I looked back at her.

She looked down at herself. She smiled crookedly. “Heh. Since when am I the one saying that?”

“Since you decided to live out your pet monster fantasies with something that might try to kill us,” Donica said.

Lena considered this. “Yeah, that’s probably it.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Zhizhi said. “Whether it’s a monster, or a pet, or a pet monster, or, hopefully, something that’s just going about its business and we don’t have to encounter it at all, there’s no way in hell I’m wandering around trying to find a different way out of here.”

“I’m with that,” I said.

Donica nodded.

“No objections here,” Lena said. “I want to see what it is, anyway.”

“As you can probably imagine,” Matt said, “I don’t like this at all. But I agree, you’ve got to take the most direct route you can find.”

We followed the tape, and our tracks, and, we were pretty sure, those of whatever else was in here with us.

Our lights lanced into the darkness. Through Third Eye, the overhead bulbs flickered. I didn’t know if it was because I was looking through my phone screen, or because they offered little illumination, or some quirk of the game, but I didn’t seem to be able to see any further down the hallway through the app than I could out of it.

We reached another taped intersection. The strips of pink curved to the right. So did the tracks. All of them.

“If we come across a monster,” Zhizhi said, “you should try feeding it your tape.”

“Hoping it likes pink things?” I asked.

“I certainly like that better than the idea of it tracking us,” she said.

If it was doing that, it could circle around behind us.

I glanced over my shoulder at where Donica brought up the rear. She’d fallen several paces behind the rest of us. Indeed, we were all strung out. She twisted when she saw me looking and shone her lights behind her.

The dust swirled, but then, we were kicking it up behind us, weren’t we?

“Donica,” Lena said, “how much HP do you have?”

“Is this really the time?”

“Yes!” Lena stomped up to her. “How much?”

Donica ran her fingers through her hair. “270.”

My eye twitched. I’d seen the number on the wiki team’s Discord, but I didn’t much care for the reminder. And she’d backed at the same Apprentice tier as me. I supposed it was good Third Eye wasn’t that directly pay-to-win, but, if not for Albie, I sure would have come out on the losing end of its random distribution.

“I’ve got a thousand,” Lena said. “Cam’s got even more right now. We need to change our party order.”

“We need,” Donica said, “to get out of here.”

“Agreed,” Lena said. “Safely. You’re the one who thinks it’s going to be a monster, not a Daimon. So.”

Donica set her jaw, but she nodded.

“Cam,” Lena said. “Zhizhi. You. Me. And – I think we should hold hands.”

“I don’t think that,” Donica said.

“It’s a good idea,” Erin said. “Your discontinuities are really high, and they aren’t quite consistent between you. It’s important you don’t allow yourselves to drift too far apart.”

“I’m sold.” Zhizhi slung her camera and grabbed my hand. She stretched her other one out.

Donica took it, and only rolled her eyes a little when Lena grabbed on to her.

So, linked together like little kids on a field trip, we followed the trail of pink tape.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Next time,” I said, “we should get some bungee cords and hook them to our safety vests.”

“If you think there’s going to be a next time, Cameron,” Donica said, “you have sorely misread the situation.”

“Sure, you say that now,” Lena said, “but I betcha someday, we’ll look back and laugh at how we freaked out.”

Donica didn’t answer. Probably weighing her poor track record with betting against her estimation of Lena’s chances.

In all honesty, I thought I’d take that bet If I wouldn’t feel too bad about collecting on it.

Did I think we were going to get out of this okay? Yes. I had to at least tell myself that, anyway. And even now, Lena’s presence, along with the voices of our support team in our ears, kept the atmosphere from growing as oppressive as it’d been on the first visit.

But look back and laugh? No. We had very good reason to worry.

I hated that I’d thought that. If I’d said it aloud, Lena would’ve accused me of tripping a death flag.

Either Third Eye wasn’t probing my thoughts, or it had a different sense of the dramatic from Lena, or it didn’t work on that kind of narrative rules. No monster burst from one of the doors we rushed past.

That would’ve been more of a relief if not for the tracks.

They stretched ahead of me, past door after door – or at least, doorframe after doorframe –, and when the pink tape told us to turn, it seemed to have told whatever else was in here, as well.

I slowed as I neared the next intersection. Sure enough, our tracks and those of whatever else it was went in the same direction, while the other hallway remained untouched.

It didn’t matter.

I forced a burst of speed into my legs and rounded the corner, phone out, ready to call up something with Third Eye.

Dust swirled in the hallway, and I shifted my arm to shield my nose. Maybe my HP protected me against my allergies, but there was no reason to put it to the test.

Especially since they might just suppress the symptoms, which would come roaring back once I finally did run out of HP.

Just dust, though. No monsters. No Daimons.

I strode forward to the last door taped in pink.

Either we were nearing another stretch where the construction site had expanded since we entered, layering on new structures in ways we didn’t understand –

Or, as actually happened when I pushed on the door, I’d found the way back to the warehouse.

Zhizhi bumped into my back. “Almost there.”

I nodded.

“Let me guess,” she said.

“The tracks go into the warehouse,” I said.

“Lena might still get her wish,” Zhizhi said.

“Hell yeah I might,” Lena called from the back of the line.

“Here goes,” I said.

I pushed through the door.

They followed.

We stood in the warehouse again, facing the endless rows of shelves, illuminated – according to Third Eye – by queasy fluorescence. Almost out of the construction site.

Best of all, the tracks finally split. Ours went left, back toward the lobby. Whatever else had been in the hallways had turned right.

Maybe it hadn’t been following our trail at all. It’d just wanted to get to the warehouse.

It was welcome to it, as far as I was concerned.

“How are we doing?” I asked.

“Your discontinuities are still rising,” Erin said. “Sorry. It’s not what I expected, and I’m sure it’s not what you wanted to hear.”

“Not your fault,” I said. “Keep us posted.”

“Mm,” she said.

I’d hoped that once we got out here, we’d start to see our time – and, presumably, the space – normalize. Not get even worse.

I turned back to the rest of the exploration team. “How do we feel about running?”

“I’m for it,” Zhizhi said.

Lena poked her elbow into Donica’s side. “You did say you needed to get some jogging in, yeah?”

“If it gets me out of here?” Donica said. “I’ll do the goddamn hundred meter dash.”

“Another victim of the metric system.” Lena shook her head.

Nobody smiled, not even her. Either she was too disappointed that the creature had gone a different direction, or the construction site had finally worn her down.

I’d have loved to go to her and hold her until she felt better. Might’ve had some positive effects on my morale, too.

But under the circumstances?

I decided I’d love even more to get out of there faster.

We nodded to each other and broke into a run.

Have you ever tried to run while holding someone’s hand? I’ll be honest, I’ve only ever seen it in sappy movies. For future reference, it’s not any kind of fun. My arm kept wanting to swing forward and getting tugged back by Zhizhi’s. It was probably even worse for her and Donica in the middle of our formation.

Nonetheless, nobody so much as suggested letting go.

I think we all felt like if we lost contact, we wouldn’t be able to get it back.

Maybe we were right. I felt certain we ran for longer than we’d walked on the way in. By the time we rounded the corner, Zhizhi’s arm felt like lead in my hand, and I could hear her ragged breaths and the pounding of her heart almost as loudly as our boots echoing with every step.

Which was insane. She was the only one of us who should’ve actually been in shape. Instead, just like last time, I felt tired, but not truly drained, not even close to my limit.

Unlike last time, I didn’t hear Donica breathing hard, either.

Because she had a Reactant now? Or because Third Eye was becoming more real?

I didn’t know, and, holding up better than I expected or not, I didn’t have the energy to waste on speculation.

We staggered to a stop at the first door on our left. Zhizhi thudded against my back, panting hard. She slung an arm over my shoulder.

“Hey,” Lena said, “hands are one thing, but if you’re going to hug Cam, you have to let me in on it, too.”

“Fine,” Zhizhi gasped. “Get your butt up here, then.”

Instead, I pushed the door open and half-tugged, half-carried her through.

I found myself in a shop we hadn’t checked. I’m sure it had new Materials. I’m also sure I didn’t give a shit.

I rounded the counter, pausing only to glance back and make sure Donica and Lena remained hot on our heels, still clinging to Zhizhi and each other – they were – and did an awkward sprint-stagger to the lobby.

I was still glancing behind me, so all four of us piled into the lobby before I looked at it.

As a result, the first people to see were the support team, who had the view through the cameras clipped to our safety vests. Or maybe it was just that so much more time was passing for them, they got the chance to process what they saw first.

Either way, my first indication something was wrong came from Erin, her voice squeaking in fast-forward. “Oh.”

I looked up.

We’d emerged on the far side of the lobby from the front door. The space between us didn’t seem to have expanded. One last sprint away. I could just make out the Yukon through the dust and grime on the front glass.

But between us and the exit, the elevator door was open.

And between us and the elevator stood a tiny figure with downcast eyes, clenched fists, and long aquamarine hair.

“I can’t,” Albie whispered, “let you go any further.”