36 - Beirut
“Hello?” a voice called to her.“Fancy meeting you here.”
“Pops?”
***
Maya gasped. “Hello?”
“Are you okay?” a voice asked.
“Hello?”
“Can you hear me? Are you okay?”
Maya shook her head and felt a migraine beginning; not only did she have a migraine, but her entire body seemed to have been wrung out, dipped and battered, and then left for a toothless rat to chew on for a week. It took all her energy to focus on the voice in front of her. It was a woman’s voice, accented and rough. Maya rubbed at her eyes and began to see clearly once more.
A woman crouched before her. A real life human woman. Maya stared in shock. She was older than Maya, maybe early thirties. Her hair wasmatted and dirty, her face a dusky color, but smudge with soot and a small cut, and her clothing was a dirty blouse, jeans, and tennis shoes.
Maya felt an explosion of energy throughout her. The headache remained, but it was as if she’s just mainlined coffee straight into her veins, but in a good way.Maya took a deep breath and let out a relieved sigh.
“Are you okay?” the woman asked.
“How? Who are you?” Maya managed through the lifting fog.
The woman looked confused for a second and then nodded. “Are you American? A soldier? Reporter?” the woman asked.
“I was…” Maya paused, trying to remember the world from barely two months before. Had it been so long? “I was a college student,” she said lamely.
The woman looked confused again. “We need to move,” she said. “It’s not safe here.” She cast around the dimly lit room. ‘Whats this?” the woman lifted up a piece of machinery and dropped it.
The description of the item began to form in Maya’s mind, but it fizzled out a second later and her headache worsened.
“What is this place?” the woman asked, looking about suspiciously, she carried a weapon in her hands.Maya had seen her father’s collection of guns more than enough times to identify an AK from sight. This woman was not messing around. She looked like she had been through some shit.
“Ow, hold on a sec. Where am I?” Maya asked rubbing her head.
“We’re east of Beirut,” the woman said, still looking around the room.
“Beirut? You mean in Lebanon?” Maya asked.
“Where did you think you were? You a tourist?” the woman asked.“What kind of clothes are those? Are they System?” the woman said the last word with abit of disgust.
“System?” Maya shook her head again. The migraine was fading, but her thoughts were jumbled. She thought she had heard Pops’ voice. Was that a dream?
“Where have you been for the last four days, kid?” the woman looked angry for a second, but then calmed her features. “You get knocked on the head or something? You lose your memory?The System? The Integration? Monsters?”
“Four days?” Maya gripped onto that number and hauled her thoughts back to the present. Her head cleared and she felt sick to her stomach. “Jesus.”
“Are you okay?” the woman asked.
“It’s been four days since Integration?” Maya asked.
“Yes. Do you have food? Water? Weapons? What level are you?” the woman asked. She cast a look over her shoulder. Maya saw a metal door in a black metal wall. The wall shimmered with an internal light and above her, a series of small lights illuminated the box.
She was still in the cage, Maya realized. She shook her head, looking around. It had been a fifteen foot box, but now it seemed three times that width and length and the ceiling was about twenty feet above them. How had it stretched?
“Weird, this place looks bigger on the inside.”
“What did you see?” Maya asked.
The woman had a flash of concern across her face and then… pity? She set a hand upon Maya’s shoulder, causing her to flinch back. Maya felt a stab of panic and fear at the touch, she staggered back. What the hell?
The woman immediately raised her hands in a calming motion. “It’s okay,” she said. “I am not going to hurt you.”
“It… it’s fine,” Maya said. She had been more shocked by the touch than scared. The last human touch she had felt had been what? Neville’s fingers brushing her’s when he had given her change back? Her mother rubbing her shoulder and telling her to do a good job that day?
Maya felt tears pricking at her eyes, but she stopped herself.
“Four days?” Maya asked again.
“Yeah, it’s been four days since everything turned to shit,” the woman replied. “One evening I was preparing dinner for me and my daughter and then we get this message across our eyes. It tells us we’re being Integrated. I didn’t know what it meant, but then everything went to hell after that.”
“Four days,” Maya whispered. “Tell me what happened.”
The woman looked uncomfortable. “A lot of people have died. Most of Beirut is in ruins. Monsters came out of everywhere, something called Mana Renders started opening up and spewing out horrific monsters.” The woman shuddered and quickly wiped her eyes. “Dogs and cats mutated and began killing everyone, fish in the sea mutated and walked on land, shooting lasers and poisoned quills.” The woman laughed softly at that. “I’m not lying. They’re still by the shore, killing anyone that goes near them.”
“Everything is death,” the woman said, shuddering with emotion. “Anyone who can has fled the city and the military is supposed to be reforming somewhere in the east.Everything is chaos. We can’t stop the monsters from appearing, these Mana Renders keep popping up; half the time they’re not too bad, but the other times…”
“I’m sorry for what you have been suffering,” Maya said. She got to her feet and looked around. There was junk lying upon the ground of the cage. She picked up a piece and identified it as a rogue AI component.
Why was that here?
The woman continued to watch Maya.
“How did you get in here?” Maya asked.
“What is this place? A bunker?”
“No. A cage,” Maya said.
The woman looked confused but shook her head. “There was a door.” She gestured toward the large door in the wall. I hadn’t seen it before so I came to see if there was anything to scavenge in here. Then I saw you on the floor.”
“How long ago was that?” Maya asked.
“Just now, five minutes ago? I don’t know. I was being chased by some kind of pigeon. It’s the size of a small pony and tears apart its prey with claws and its beaks; it has two heads. I don’t know if they’ve passed yet, I can’t feel anything in this place. I have Dangersense,” the woman smiled at that.
“A skill?” Maya asked.
“Yes. I’m level three.”
“Impressive,’ Maya crouched down before the woman and looked into her eyes. “Make sure you gain Abilities, they’re like jobs or something. As you gain an Ability, it’ll give you a few attribute points to help in your build.”
“Build? Oh, yeah, my daughter mentioned that. It’s like a game, she says. I don’t know. She said I should be a fighter. Protect people. I don’t know how this System works. There are some people who say they got books and tools from the System, but I haven’t gotten anything. There’s a man, Ahmad, who can cast a fireball from his hands.”
“I wanted to cast fireballs,” Maya said, smiling softly. The woman looked weary and tired and stressed. Now, Maya set her hand on the woman’s shoulder. It felt odd, she thought. To touch another living person.It felt… right.“Are you okay?”
The woman laughed. “You’re the one who was passed out in this bunker,” she said, then her face twisted for a moment, holding back some emotion. “I’m fine. Better than most. Better than the dead.”
She looked at Maya for a long time, finally tears began pouring from her eyes. “I’m so scared,” she said. “I’m so scared. Everyday. I haven’t slept since that first night. I haven’t eaten in three days. I barely have enough water for my daughter and the others. Every day we lose someone.Every day the monsters take someone.We are so weak. We can barely do anything to fight back against them.” The woman sobbed and hugged her knees.“We need to get stronger, but we are all going to die if we can’t stop those Mana Renders.”
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“I think,” Maya paused, “I can help.” She stood up again and put her hands on her hips. “System!
The woman looked at her as if she were insane.
“I wish to buy an Outpost Settlement Deed.”
Maya Sullivan, Human, Tier 1
Do you wish to buy a System Authorized Outpost Settlement Deed? Y/N?
Cost: 500,000 Universal Credits. (Includes 50 Percent Price Reduction)
“Dang, that’s pretty hefty.” Maya said. And selected ‘Yes’.
A rolled up scroll appeared in the air before her. Maya snatched it from the air before it could fall. She blinked and laughed. Was that how it worked out here?
“Thank you, Tommoth.”
“What did you do?” the woman asked.
“Gimme a sec.” Maya unrolled the scroll.
Landed Gentry I
You are among the first of your species to reclaim a piece of your planet
+ 5 Fortitude
+ 5 Foundation
+ 20000 EXP
System Authorized Outpost Settlement Deed
Your Outpost Settlement Deed allows you twenty five square kilometers of land that will be free of Mana Renders and other mana related instabilities that may form in ‘unclaimed’ land.
+ SIL’s First Settlement Bundle Token
Choose: Food, shelter, defense, medical, manufacturing
+ Settlement Champion Token, low grade, Tier 1
Kalavonzee built Settlement Champion. Protect what is yours, keep what is yours. Buy Kalavonzee.
Maya handed the woman the scroll.
“Oh, wait. What’s your name?” Maya asked, embarrassed.
“Anisa Karam.”
“Maya Sullivan.” Maya extended her hand and gave the woman a firm shake.
“What is this?” Anisa looked at the scroll.
“An outpost settlement deed. With it you can lay claim of a piece of land 25 square kilometers. Just read the details. It’ll prevent Mana Renders from forming and will also reduce the monster swarms around the area.”
“How?” the woman asked.
“A lot of credits.”
“Does the System allow you to buy things? Like food, weapons?” Anisa asked, there was a hopeful look in her eye.
“No, it’s not a store. It’s more like… government, I guess. You can register stuff with it, you can buy deeds to own land from it, create a business, things like that.”
“Oh.”
Maya smiled at the woman. “Anisa, I formally grant you this Deed.”
Action Denied.
“What the balls?” Maya growled.
Maya Sullivan, Human, has been labeled as Landed Gentry. You cannot give away your deeds until you have reached Landed Gentry II or gained a nobility title. At that point the deed holder may relinquish a deed to a SIL a rank lower than they are. As you have no additional deeds, you cannot relinquish your current deed.
A deed may be given to a Chosen Representative to create an outpost for the Deed Holder. The Deed Holder must allow their Chosen Representative authorization to act upon their behalf.
“Shit,” Maya muttered. “I’m sorry, I just can’t give you ownership of the deed.”
Anisa looked at her with a blank expression. “Okay.”
“Do you want to be my Chosen Representative?” Maya asked.
“I don’t know what that means.”
“You can create a safe place somewhere out there. You can make it a place that you can defend. I will technically be the owner of the title, but you will be my Rep. You will run that place and you will be in charge.”
“I-I can’t do that,” Anisa stammered.
“Do you want to be safe? Do you want to survive?”
Anisa nodded.
“Then be the Rep. Find people; protect people. Be what your daughter needs, a fighter, a protector.”
“Who are you?” Anisa asked.
Maya smiled. “I’m just a Texas girl who got lost going to work.”
“Will this keep us safe?” Anisa asked.
“You will keep you safe,” Maya replied. “It’s not a magic bullet or anything, you’ll still have to struggle and fight. But this will give you a slightly better chance at surviving.”
“Any chance is better than none,” the woman said. “Fine I will be your Representative.”
“Awesome.”
The woman looked around. “Is that it?”
“The System is low key like that.” Maya smiled. “I wish I could do more for you, but the fucked up thing is that it's only going to get worse. This world, everything is going to be put into a grinder. I don’t know why only four days have passed, but for me it’s been almost six weeks. Might be more, I don’t know.”
“Six weeks?” Anisa asked. “Are you human?”
“Yeah, of course. I just… I don’t know. I was in a different place, I guess there might be different rules for time in that place.” Maya sat down and thought on it. Why had only four days passed on Earth while six weeks had passed in the rainbow sky hellscape.
“Come, let’s go back and meet everyone,” Anisa said, getting to her feet.
Maya watched her and looked at the door. “I have someone who needs me-“
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Maya grabbed her head and gasped.Information flooded into her brain, a torrent of knowledge that filled her head with what amounted to decades of studying and research. It felt like her head was about to explode.
She gasped for breath and as fast as the pain came, it vanished.
“Are you okay?” the woman asked, she was staring into her eyes and had her hands on her shoulders. Concerned was etched into the woman’s eyes, a mother’s concern. Maya felt herself shudder.
“I’m fine. Just some long awaited knowledge dropped.” Maya blinked her eyes clear of tears and got to her feet with the woman’s help.
“Dang, it’s only been two days and I already forgot I had an Inventory,” she said. She waved her hand and her Inventory appeared. Maya grinned. She was outside of Shen’s dimensional lock. She peered into the space. “Holy shit. When did-“
Maya turned around and rushed to the side of the cage opposite of the door Anisa had entered. There wasn’t much in the room, some trash and materials, but one thing stood out. It was a simple meter that Shen had said to watch out for.
Two massive mana cores were burning through ambient mana to generate enough power to hold open the gateway. The cage she stood in didn’t exist in the rainbow hellscape anymore, but it didn’t exist on Earth also. It was a bridge that existed between the two realities.
Maya saw that the meter was almost empty. Shen had told her it would power the cage for nearly twenty hours. Maya estimated that there was barely an hour left on the meter.
“So, that’s what happened,” Maya smiled.
“What’s wrong?” Anisa asked.
“I don’t want to sound rude, but I think you need to leave,” Maya said.
The woman looked confused.
“This cage,” Maya waved around, “will collapse in about an hour. When it does, everything inside of it will be taken back to where I came from; the rainbow sky hellscape. I can return there, easily, but you can’t. If you return with me, it’ll be like crossing via a dimensional instability. You’ll only have one in a billion chance of surviving that.”
“Then come with me,” Anisa said.
“I can’t. I have a friend who needs me,” Maya said.
They stood there for a second and the woman nodded. She didn’t seem the type to whinge and bemoan things. She acted as she needed to, that’s how she had survived when others hadn’t.
“Thank you for the deed,” she said. “I will find a place and protect my daughter.”
“Awesome,” Maya said and then she paused. “Hold up.”
She pulled out several items from her Inventory.
“This is a, Marsani Alloy Fighting Axe - low grade, Tier 1, and this is a, Caroz Dagger - mid grade, Tier 1.” She handed Anisa the weapons. “They’re sharp, they’re decent, and they can kill monsters far easier than that AK. Tender said once that monsters need more damage to their systems to die, chopping, hacking, and stabbing are far better alternatives than shooting. Unless you got a good flechette shotgun, sadly mine was damaged.”
Anisa looked at the weapons and gingerly took them. She stared at them. “I can’t take these. How will you survive?”
“Wits and luck,” Maya smiled. “Don’t worry about me.” She handed her a fist sized rune covered stone. “This is a water stone. It’s a magical stone, mid grade, Tier 1, that pulls water from the atmosphere. The amount of water depends upon how much humidity there is in the air, so could be a liter or a swimming pool.Just depress the small blue button on top, that turns it off or on.In minutes you have fresh clean water, just add flavor.”
Anisa took the stone in amazement.
“I can’t take all of this,” she said. “It’s too much.”
“I have spares,” Maya said.
“No, I can’t. You might need it.”
Maya smiled softly. “There’s someone I have to go back for, if I can’t get them then all of this doesn’t matter,” she said.
Anisa nodded. She frowned for a second and then held out a opened hand and a palm sized disc formed on it.
“Take this,” Anisa said.
“Credits?” Maya asked.
“It’s all I have. I killed some monsters and I was awarded with these universal credits. I don’t know what to use them for, but I hear they have value.”
“I can’t take your money.”
“Please.”
Maya smiled and then picked up the disc.
Monetary Transfer from Anisa Karam, Chosen Representative of Maya Sullivan, SSS
158 Universal Credits
“SSS?” Maya asked and then laughed. “Sullivan Survival Society?”
“What’s that?” Anisa asked.
“It was a joke,” Maya said and smiled.She flipped the palm sized coin in her hand. It felt the same weight of the one million credits she had been playing with in the pub, the only difference was the numerical value on it. “There isn’t a market for universal credits yet?”
“No. Everyone is just… trying to survive,” Anisa said. She had slung her rifle and held the axe hesitantly. “Some people don’t like it, but it’s… universal so everyone gets them if they kill a monster.My daughter says someone could be a merchant or trader; maybe the System will award them with something. She talks about diversifying our builds, not all of us becoming warriors or whatever.”
“Sounds like a smart kid.”
“Too smart. She would have done great things if she had grown up in a stable world.She would have made an impact.”
Maya nodded and flipped the coin in her hands. “I always wanted to make an impact too.” The coin disappeared.
Maya thought for a moment, more information cascading into her head. “You’ll find that almost no time has passed outside. It’s a byproduct of this cage and the place we’re in. If you were being tracked by those pigeons, be careful.”
“No time has passed? It’s been nearly half an hour,” the woman said.
“This,” Maya waved around, “is a dimensional bridge that’s connected to a dimensional plane were time elapses faster than it does on Earth. I believe it’s twelve times faster in the rainbow hellscape, but in this cage…” Maya processed more information burning through her mind. “Yeah. Yeah, the bridge has connected so now it’s running on Rainbow Time. You say half an hour’s passed, that probably means less than three minutes have passed outside.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Anisa said, a bit of fear returning to her eyes.
“I sound crazy, yeah. I might kind of be, actually. But…” Maya stopped and cocked her head. She swung away from Anisa and stared at the blank wall behind her.“Oh, shit. You better run, Anisa.”
“What? What’s going on?”
“Shen is coming.” Maya said.