Morgan’s was a bar accessed by an unimpressive door and narrow staircase to the second storey. The room had bare, distressed floorboards and a low ceiling made of crisscrossed beams. The story was the owner, Morgan, had intended on removing the secondary ceiling to give his bar a loftier feeling but loved the beams that had been covered up so much he left them where they were. Bare bulbs hung everywhere the beams crossed but were low wattage, giving the bar a soft glow. There were egg chairs suspended from ceilings and three chairs at a maximum, sometimes around tables and other times just facing each other. There was a dart board and a pool table at the back while the bar was on the left in an L shape, bottles of liquor displayed more for their beautiful bottle shape rather than taste, keeping the boring looking booze beneath the high counter scattered with stools.

Ally had heard it said that Morgan’s bar was one of the city’s best kept secrets. It wasn’t dazzling or new or trying to grab attention. It was earthy, real and grounded.

As she came up the staircase she turned the corner and spotted Hannah in her favourite chair, a roundish seat with corduroy fabric over its cushion. She was wearing her usual dark lipstick and heavy eyeliner, wide legged trousers and an off the shoulder red top. She waved when she spotted Ally, a margarita in both hands.

“You’re lucky,” Hannah held the second glass out to Ally, “Able was a bit slow behind the counter or I would have drunk it already.”

“Thanks for your restraint.” Ally sipped it, feeling the warm burn down her throat. “You’re here early.”

“Necessity. I’m here early because I’ve got to leave early.”

“Oh? That’s not like you.”

“It is tonight,” Hannah licked her lips, “I’m meeting Adam’s parents.”

Ally pulled a face. “So…this is serious then?”

“Just a little.” Hannah winked. “Anyway, I’m a bundle of nerves so I thought a quick social lubricant before I go…”

“As long as you don’t turn into a gibbering mess.”

“Which is why I’m glad you showed up to drink your share.” Hannah folded her legs on her chair. “I went by your office before I left Commando and you weren’t there?”

Ally gazed at the pale green liquid in her glass. “I visited Gigi.”

“All the way out in Fielding?”

“I was given the afternoon off.”

“How was she?” Hannah didn’t need a verbal reply. Ally’s expression was enough. “I should visit…”

“Make sure you catch her when she’s not tired.”

“That’s all it takes to trigger the dementia?”

“The mini strokes that cause it…yes,” Ally shook her head, “then she thinks its ten years ago.”

“I could handle being ten years younger,” Hannah rolled her eyes, “I’m guessing it’s not as much fun as I think it is?”

“Not really. She keeps telling me not to cut my mum out of my life.”

“Oh…”

“And not to listen to my dad who has a right to be hurt but not to tell me not to talk to her…”

“Ah…” Hannah pulled a face. “And there’s nothing that can be done?”

Ally shook her head. “It’s an unusual form of dementia and she’ll only get worse.”

They heard the clack of balls on the pool table, a game played in the background as other patrons escaped work for a drink before heading home.

“What do you say to her when she’s like that?”

“I told her I’d talk to mum.” Ally sighed. “You know I don’t even know where she’s buried? Her partner made sure of that…and it’s hard enough getting out to Fielding before the afternoon, let alone Hughesville cemetery on the other side of the city.” She swirled the margarita around in the glass. “It’s not like dad can hear me.”

“Maybe it’s less about the dead hearing us than it us about us talking.” Hannah mused and Ally shrugged. “The Gigi of now would know how you’ve tried to honour your parents in the Horizon games series.”

“Is it that obvious?” Ally asked wryly.

Hannah snorted. “Please…Elisabet Sobeck? Elisabeth Sterling? Rost? Charles Sterling?”

“I’ll give you the Elisabet/Elisabeth one but Rost and Charles Sterling? How’d you make that connection?”

“Well, if Elisabet is a sort of bespoke mother to Aloy, then it makes sense that Rost is her father…and when you line up Elisabet with your mum, Rost lines up with Charles Sterling.”

Ally sipped her drink. “And both are dead in the game and in real life.”

There was a film of grim over the windows. It might have been considered unpleasant but it shaded the occupants of the bar from the last shards of sharp sunlight. They were dispersed as they hit the windows, softening to join with the muted lighting of the bulbs above their heads.

“Just give me a heads up if you decide to kill off Talanah.” Hannah said, letting Ally’s remark fade into the floorboards. “I’ll have to start watching my back if reality starts mimicking fantasy.”

“Talanah’s going to get her own game and story plot,” Ally argued, “you’ll be fine.”

Hannah signalled to Able behind the bar and jiggled her empty glass. “Another before Adam shows up. He’s always late.” She leaned back in her chair. “It’s so funny playing the game, seeing all the people pop up and going, I know him, I know her…”

“You don’t know all of them.”

“I know of them.” Hannah laughed. “Oh come on, Ally! You practically copied all of us down and put us in the game!”

“Who?”

“Karl and Varl?” Hannah gave her a withering look. “Jo and Zo? And Jo just had a baby and Zo’s pregnant in the game? Eric and Erend?”

Ally blanched. “Is it really that obvious?”

“It’s obvious to me I guess,” Hannah shrugged, “just be grateful others haven’t picked up on it.”

“Such as?” Ally asked as Able brought a second margarita over for Hannah.

“Fred Farrows and Ted Faro? Andre Simons and Sylens? Do they know they’ve been pegged as bad or unpleasant characters in the game?”

“Not yet…”

“And Ava is clearly Alva,” Hannah counted on her fingers, “who’ve I missed…oh, David Kingsbury and Avad, the Sunking?”

Ally clutched her glass. “You think you’re very clever, don’t you?”

“I would if I could work out Kotallo.” Hannah admitted. “For the life of me, I can’t figure him out.”

“There you are. Not everyone in the game is based on someone I know.”

“And then there’s you.”

“Me?”

“Come on! Ally…Aloy?” Hannah tilted her head. “Who wouldn’t be the hero or heroine in their own story? You’re totally Aloy!”

Ally shook her head. “No, I’m not Aloy. She’s braver, stronger, smarter and better than me.”

“Then…who?”

“I’m Beta.” Ally admitted then swigged from her glass. She swallowed it down, licked her lips and looked at Hannah almost timidly. “What?”

“That’s not who you are at all.” Hannah argued, her dark lips set in a firm line. “You’re not Beta, cowering, fearful, weak…” Ally snorted. “That’s not the girl I grew up with.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“People change.”

“If they’re beaten down enough.” Hannah retorted and Ally sighed. “What Commando, what Farrows and Simons did to your story…”

“Hannah…”

“I still think you should have lodged a formal complaint!”

“To who?” Ally exclaimed softly. “Farrows controls the company and Simons is the legal consultant making sure Commando’s public image is following focus group opinions.”

“Opinions, not fact.”

“Hannah, can you drop it?” Ally pleaded softly.

Hannah had already opened her mouth to continue her rant but clamped her lips tightly shut. She clenched her jaw and closed her eyes.

“I’m sorry…I’m just still so angry with what they did…”

“It’s just a story,” Ally reiterated, “and when Nemesis is released, the trilogy will come to an end and other games will be developed.”

“What will you do then?”

Ally didn’t have the first idea.

Thankfully she didn’t need to come up with an answer as Adam Hunter, Hannah’s ‘boyfriend’ according to Gigi, entered Morgan’s.

“You’re late,” Hannah accused as he leaned down for a kiss, “it’s a good thing you’re good looking.”

“And indispensable, according to my boss or I would have been out an hour ago.” Adam rolled his eyes. “Hey Ally.”

“Hi.”

“Ready to go?”

“Hang on,” Hannah skulled her margarita, “now I am.”

“How many of those have you had?”

“Enough.” Hannah winked at Ally and picked up her handbag. “I’ll let you know how the inquisition goes.”

Ally smiled as they left then looked at the glass in her hand. She didn’t feel like drinking the rest. She waited until she knew Hannah and Adam were gone then stood up, slinging her satchel over her shoulder and put the half full glass on the bar. She headed for the stairs and out into the street where the sun had finally been blocked by the skyscrapers and the temperature had dropped a few degrees. She didn’t bother with transport, walking down the street to a Y shaped intersection. It was always a little dodgy getting across the traffic especially as the darkening sky meant the lights were brighter than when they were fighting with sunlight to be seen. There were digital billboards everywhere advertising hundreds of things from perfumes to holidays, news reports, never to be repeated sales, makeup, games, books, weight loss innovations and the latest movies and music videos. At night it was an electronic disco rainbow, drowning out the stars with their endless light.

Ally paused on the island in the middle of the intersection, waited for a break in the traffic and dashed across to the other side. The apartment building she lived in was brand new, constructed a stone’s throw away from the CBD. It had its own gym, pool, limited parking, chemist and basic supermarket though most people headed across the street that angled away from the CBD to the well established and privately run bodega.

Ally used her security card to log in, passing through the wide foyer, going past the lifts to the gym. She opened her locker and pulled her running clothes out, changing in the toilet before emerging, stuffing her street clothes into her bag. She dropped it beside a running machine, tying her hair back from her face, setting her glasses on the machine’s display panel.

She stepped onto it and found Ally’s program, a set list she preferred to run to. The machine was half enclosed in a semi circle of panels. Ally set the program to run and felt the machine start to move beneath her feet. As she walked, warming up for a few minutes before she began to jog, the panels flickered, the image of a dark brown road of earth leading off into a forest of tall trees and lush, green leaves. Ally walked, hearing the ambient sounds of the forest, birds singing, the rustle of trees as an unfelt breeze blew through and even her footsteps, replicated to sound as though she was running on ground and not on a machine, joined the chorus.

By the time the machine stepped up its pace, Ally was warmed up and she began to jog, running on the spot yet travelling through the simulated forest. It changed direction, winding through the trees and the forest shifted around her, the semi circle ending at the corner of her eyes. It was as though she was there, running along a forest road with no one around her at all.

Ally jogged and jogged, her legs complaining then burning but she pushed through it until she settled into her endless running pace.

The display changed, moving through different biomes. First the forest then she was running along a beach, the surface crashing on the sand, seagulls singing above her head and now and then her feet would ‘splash’ in the waves when they reached up as high as she was running. After the beach she ran through parkland, over bridges, hearing dogs barking as they chased frisbees. Then she was running through ruins, ancient and mysterious, the sound of insects chirping as she traversed its length. Then she was running through the snow, around cracked rocks and across a frozen lake, her feet crunching through a billion fallen snowflakes.

Ally ran and ran and ran, the scenes flashing before her eyes with barely an acknowledgement of what she was seeing. She kept going through deserts, through rolling green hills and pastures and across red earth and grey bushes, hearing the sound of kangaroos thumping the ground as though they were right next to her.

When the display went back to the forest she blinked, surprised to see it. The machine slowed and she was forced to walk then let the momentum carry her backwards, stepping off it at the end. Her legs, no longer moving, turned to jelly. Ally felt her knees try to give way and slipped sideways.

“Hang on Ally,” hands grasped her shoulders and manoeuvred her to the bench next to her machine, “I’ve got you.”

Ally, breathing heavily, looked up at her rescuer who’d stopped her from collapsing. He was a broad shouldered man with pale blue eyes and a serious expression. He wasn’t slender but she suspected he was all muscle. His arms were well toned and he wore a martial arts shirt over wide leg trousers and his feet were bare.

“Thanks Joshua,” she panted, “I would have fallen if not for you.”

“You were on the machine when I arrived and you were on it when I finished both my classes.” He tilted his head, the sides cut close with the middle section so long it could be tied in a rat tail. She’d seen him wear it that way before but it was loose now. “You alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You sure?” He raised an eyebrow. “I’ve never known you to run so far or so long.”

“It wasn’t that far…” Ally stood up and, grasping the arm of the machine, looked at the readout. “Oh…no wonder my legs wanted to give up.” She shook her head. “I guess I lost track of time.”

Joshua’s expression was mildly concerned. “I guess…well, if you ever want more of a challenge, feel free to join my tai chi class. First lesson is on me.”

“I prefer to keep moving.” Ally picked up her bag. “Tai chi is a little too slow.”

“And a moving target is easier to hit.”

“Something like that. I should head up.” She retrieved her glasses and put them on, the world sharpening.

“Don’t forget to water your gem.” He urged as he moved away to help someone else in the gym. When Joshua wasn’t teaching group classes, he was a personal trainer and a safety officer. Because of his position in the gym, he had his own apartment and was Ally’s neighbour.

She entered the lift and it took her up to her level, nineteen stories above ground level. Once there she headed right, up low, wide steps to her apartment door.

It immediately recognised her and unlocked.

Her front door opened into her lounge/kitchen, a wall going from the floor to the ceiling was the backdrop to the kitchen. There was a counter top which faced the front door and a department store special lounge suite, off white with grey cushions. Everything in the kitchen was white and grey as well, from the marble of the counter to the splashbacks behind the sink. Ally opened the fridge and found one of her microwave dinners. Without reading what was in it she put it in the microwave and hit go then went around the kitchen wall and into the bathroom which was behind the wall. There was a shower, a laundry chute, a sink and a toilet as well as a walk in robe which wasn’t generous but plenty for her clothes.

She peeled her gym clothing off her body and put it in the laundry bag with her name on it. She dropped it down the chute with her day wear and got in the shower. Once she was done she pulled on some soft grey pants and an oversized top, collected her dinner and moved further into her apartment. Against the bathroom’s far wall was the bedroom facing the balcony. Ally took her tablet out and put it on the bed then sat cross legged on the grey cover.

She eyed the microwave dinner then picked up the tablet, putting her glasses on.

‘…Aloy makes the choice between activating the mines or the self destruct. This choice leads to the final decision which directly influences the storyline. Sylens destroys the hatch of the transport pod, trapping Aloy on the Odyssey and then…’

She read aloud then stopped, breathing out.

“And then…and then…” She tapped the tablet, her eyes glancing across the bare walls to the only bit of colour in the room. Her Zanzibar Gem. She took the plant to the kitchen and gave it a drink of water before putting it back on its little stand.

Then she sat on the bed and picked up the tablet again.

“And then…and then…” She swallowed. “It’s just a story…it just needs an end. I just need to finish it…”

The sky had turned black while she was at the gym and she was so close to the CBD she could see the coloured glow creating a halo around the buildings that stood between her and the lights. The apartment was perfectly sealed off from the outside world so no sound penetrated and if she wanted to, she could darken the glass and block out the lights.

She left them clear, gazing at the tablet.

“What could she possibly do after all she has done?” Ally asked softly to the empty room. “She who saved the world time and time again…what hope could she have of a normal life? If there’s nothing else for her…nothing else that can be achieved…maybe it’s for the best…” She stared out of the balcony windows, her heart heavy in her breast. “Maybe I should just give them what they want and end it…”

She got up, brushed her wet hair smooth and plaited it tightly, squeezing the excess water out of it. She dressed in jeggings, a Henley tee, boots and wound a grey scarf around her neck. She slid her tablet into her satchel, picked up her uneaten microwave dinner and dropped it into the bin with the one from the night before.

Her satchel looped over her head, resting against her hip as she left her apartment, the door locking automatically behind her. The lift took her to ground level and the tram, less crowded now that rush hour was over, took her to Commando’s building.

She zipped her card and went inside, nodding to the security guard who paid her no attention at all. She went up to her office, the lights and wall panels humming into life as she walked in. Ally took her tablet out of her satchel and dropped the bag on the ground. She sat at Karl’s drawing desk and swiped the work that was there onto the wall. With a fresh page she began to sketch and as she sketched, she wrote and as she wrote, she sketched, creativity pouring out of her with a vengeance, her arm and mind made to work together as Ally forced herself to push past the block she’d been experiencing and wrote until her wrist ached and her eyes behind her glasses were gritty.

A little past eight in the morning Karl arrived.

“Ally…you’re here early.” He said to her back as she gazed out of the windows of her office, a GD coffee in her hands because Eric didn’t start until ten. “Everything okay?”

“It’s fine.”

She heard him sit down at his desk. There was an understandable pause. “You…you’ve been writing? The ending?” She turned and looked at him as he scrolled through her pages and pages of notes. “This is…you’ve finished it?” He raised his head and stared at her. “Were you here all night?”

Ally gave a small shrug.

Karl let out a long breath. “Well…”

“Can you finish the storyboards by next week?”

“Uh…” Karl swallowed. “I can probably use some of what I’ve already done, do a little creative editing so they match the scenes…after all its just the pitch to the boss…but Ally,” he twisted in his chair, “are you sure about this? It’s…pretty…brutal.”

“It’ll end the Horizon trilogy story arc.”

“That’s an understatement.” Karl scratched his head, his dreadlocks jostling about. “I guess I’d better get to it.”

Ally walked past him. “I’ll get you some coffee.”