CHAPTER 3: BÄRENWALD
WC: 1602
Bear, bear, bear, bear, BEAR!
I stumbled backwards, holding my hands out in front of me to—I don’t know—stop the animal from running me over or jumping on me. There isn’t time to think in moments like that, and I don’t know what I would have done even if I had been given a moment to think. Nothing really prepares you for a bear attack.
Strangely, the sword was still firmly gripped in my hand. I hadn’t given it a conscious thought to keep hold of it. Before I could wind back to swing it, the bear was upon me, leaping. Teeth and breath and roar came at me, colliding with my chest. There was a heavy thud as it hit the metal breastplate I wore, and its heavy, strong arms wrapped around my torso. An odor of wet dog mixed with musty leaf litter filled my nose. The bear’s momentum knocked the wind out of me and bowled me off balance. Over we went.
With a huge grizzly on top of me, I didn’t have many options. I tried to get up, but the bear pressed me into the ground with angry swipes of its claws. I didn’t feel like it hit me, but my brain was caught up in fight-or-flight mode and I couldn’t feel anything or think anything anyway. All I knew was I was still alive and screaming. And kicking my little dwarf legs, for what good it did.
When I attempted to rise something odd happened. Without warning or intent, my right arm swung the sword at the bear. The bear roared and dove upon me again, biting. Its jaws snapped shut a few inches from me, and after another scream that sounded a million times more manly than I actually was, I breathed a sigh of relief and thought for a moment how lucky I was that it missed. It was then that I noticed a red bar flash on the bottom of my field of vision. It appeared half empty. The bear clawed at my midsection and the red bar dropped again. Was that my life? But there was no blood! No pain. I hadn’t even been hit, right? And how did I swing my sword? I needed to do it again!
I squeezed my left hand, and my armored forearm came up and cuffed the bear. It didn’t seem fazed, but at least I had hit it. My health bar dropped again. It was almost gone. The edges of my field of vision had taken on a red hue.
When I squeezed my right hand, my sword came up and slashed again at the bear. I attacked once more, squeezing my hand like I was going to punch the bear, but instead of a punch, I threw the bear off me like I was getting out of bed and tossing my quilt aside. My arm came around with a huge swing and cleaved the angry grizzly. The blade just sort of sunk into fur and then pulled back. I almost thought the animal was invincible, but a red bar appeared over its head, and it shrunk rapidly to less than halfway.
Holy crap, I figured it out!
But the bear leapt at me again, claws and teeth coming at me. My field of vision went from hazy reddish border to all red, and then everything around me faded to colorless gray tones.
I fell backward and my vision darkened.
A groan escaped my lips, and I couldn’t see anything. Or move.
And then I guess I died.
💀
When I came to again, I stood in a clearing in the forest. Birds sang overhead and sunlight filtered to the forest floor in patches. Gentle harp music and an ethereal chant in the background of the setting welcomed me back to life. Just a few feet away stood a little covered well with its red roof and whitewashed stones. On the ground next to the well there was an empty bottle and two goblets lying on their sides. A blanket and basket of pastries looked tossed aside in a rush or scuffle. The heavenly music faded, and a calm ambience music returned.
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Maybe it was the change of music that spurred me to take a few steps backward. Was something coming? I’d just lost my first battle and didn’t want to meet another bear. Or something worse. Who knew what was living in the forest. It seemed better to move on rather than wait and find out why someone had dumped food and wine before leaving in a hurry.
According to my ever-present quest marker I found that I was still headed in the right direction. The dots no longer looked like they were pointing in the same direction, so I had to be close to one of them. I spun around to see which one moved fastest, and then I followed that one, guessing it was the closer one.
I walked a little slower and paid a little better attention to my surroundings than I had when I entered the forest. “Yeah, it’s all fun and games until you ignore a warning sign and get mauled by a bear.” My deep, grumbly voice seemed somehow perfectly matched to how I felt.
I neared the quest marker and a message flashed at the top of my view.
QUEST COMPLETED: FIND FRITZ
A celebratory melody played for about four beats and then its energy changed slightly, becoming more rapid than the relaxing background meditation-type music that blends away until you stop hearing it. The new music was staccato and tense.
I didn’t see anyone, but a white arrow appeared ahead of me, so I followed it. When I moved through the bushes, I found a bloodstain on the ground. It was smeared and splattered all around, like maybe someone had shot a deer and dragged it or something.
“Oh no,” I muttered to myself. What if it was the boy I was looking for? I looked around for a clue but didn’t see anything. No footprints, anyway. I guess that’s all I was really looking for. Maybe if I had watched more crime dramas I might have known what else I should pay attention to, but they didn’t teach us about blood spatter in CP Biology 2. What was I going to tell Hilda outside the lumbermill? It didn’t look good for her little brother. Maybe I should just keep walking and find something else to do in the woods…
🦄
And then I was sitting in the little booth again, with the headset playing music into my ears and the controller sitting on the arm of my dentist chair. Holy crap. I was just…back. From another place. A confusing place that scared the heck out of me, but it had been real. Or it felt real. Except for the weird hand tingles. Oh God, and the bear thing. I shuddered. The bear felt very real.
“All right, Mr. Berkshire,” the liaison with red hair said, appearing behind me. “Let’s get you up and we’ll move on to your interview.”
I tried to rise but my body felt oddly heavy.
“Oops,” she said, putting her hand out and holding my shoulder down. “Let me sit the chair up and you stay right there. Leaving the virtual reality experience can be disorienting.”
I waited until the power chair tilted upright.
“Okay,” she said. “Are you experiencing any dizziness?”
“Um, no.”
“Disorientation?”
“No.”
“Confusion?”
“No.”
She jotted down some notes on a clipboard. “To confirm, this was Profile #47.”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell me where you are?”
I blinked and paused, but then realized maybe that made me look confused. “In a little booth, at RE Games.” She scribbled, and I added, “In Milwaukee.”
Without looking up, she said, “What is your name?”
“Tyler Berkshire.”
“And what is my name?”
Nothing came out of my mouth. I thought I knew for a second, but then drew a blank. “Um…”
She looked up and smiled. “I’m just messing with you. Okay, let’s start your interview.” She pressed buttons on the pad again and the screen changed. “You’ll use the controller to select answers on a scale. 1 is Disagree Strongly, up to 5, which is Agree Strongly. If you don’t have an answer, choose to skip. When the questionnaire concludes you will make a brief recording of yourself on this camera at the top of the screen and hit save. Tell us anything pertinent about yourself and why you’d like to work for RE Games.” She handed me the controller. “You can have as many takes as you like.”
I picked up the controller. “Okay, thanks. Is that the end of the interview? I mean, do I go after I’m done with this part?”
“Yep, that’s it. We will call you if you are selected for the trial. I’m going to send you home with some paperwork to read over. It’s all the legal stuff—keep the tech secret, don’t spill the beans on the game. All pretty standard stuff. Oh!” She took another paper out of a folder. “If you are under eighteen you need to have a guardian signature for employment.”
She set the packet of papers on the table next to me and said, “Answer as honestly as you can.”
“What?”
“The questionnaire. They look for all sorts of folks to work here. Just be yourself.” Then she gave me a warm smile and left.
I pressed the START button and read the first question—I feel luckier than most people.