CHAPTER 6

The plan was simple: Only grab above the nails; don’t fall. “And don’t look down,” Kopius said aloud as a reminder. With gear tied to his back, placing one foot on the first plank, he gazed up. Though he had little confidence in the integrity of the wood, he saw no other options. The cave that led him here was the only path, it was unclear or unhelpful to mull over death at the moment and now his stomach had chimed in. For better or for worse, when he put his mind to something, it got done… or undone.

There was little toe room on the two inch thick planks and Kopius couldn't slide his foot in as it was blocked by the wall. Instead, he found he would have to assume a knocked-knee position to step up, using the outside edge of his foot. Awkward though the position was, Kopius wanted to distribute his weight evenly so as to not chance breaking anything. Taking a few breaths, he set his mind to the task and started to climb.

The two broken pieces made for easy holding and Kopius was off the ground. Being as balanced as possible, he pulled himself up while moving one leg up to the next plank. Getting a firm grip on the next ledge, Kopius applied increasingly more pressure until he was mildly confident that he wouldn’t fall. Raising the leg opposite of the gripping hand, he would press up. After clearing the broken planks, Kopius found that even had he wanted to, looking down would mean certain death. His chin had to be in a slight upward angle so that he could keep his chest as close to the cave wall as possible. This made placing his feet properly a lot harder. He would catch a glimpse of his foot, and a healthy whiff of body odor, when outstretching an arm to move up.

After snailing up three more planks, Kopius was reminded of the old carnival game, the one that required a person to cross a hanging rope ladder without falling off. In order to be successful, pressure was the key. You would have to ignore the rungs in the middle and maintain equal pressure to both sides of the side ropes. Moving one arm and the opposite leg at the same time, while maintaining pressure with the other two was no simple feat. This was Kopius’s current plan of attack. Though he had never personally succeeded crossing the rope ladder it did not deter his otherwise slow pace.

CREEAaaakkkkk

Kopius froze.

He could feel the tension give slightly in the board of his right hand. He eased a bit but not enough to let go. Jiggling it as best he could, the board moved a bit in and out, making the smallest of rubbing noise. Applying increasing pressure like before, the wood still creaked a bit. The small pause in his climbing brought to the front of his mind the ever present feeling of his muscles starting to burn. It was unfamiliar, unlike the usual burn from hard exercise. This felt more like a deflating balloon.

Ah shit! They have a stamina drain! Kopius reprimanded himself for not considering that staple RPG element. If he had a free hand to slap his forehead, this would have been the moment. After reminding himself that he can't have a tea party while climbing the side of a sheer cliff, Kopius continued. The boards creaked and complained but half way up Kopius had yet to fall or be otherwise surprised. Keeping his eyes to the sky, he began to get a better view of the cave's ceiling, where it ended, and the light began.

The ceiling of the cave came up at a vertical slant until stopping, leaving a two to three foot crevasse between it and the wall he was attempting to scale. From there he couldn't tell how far it went up but he figured, if he could reach the crevasse, stabilizing himself would get much easier. He also wasn't sure when his stamina would run out and that small enclosed space could grant him a respite if wedged properly. Seeing the metaphorical and literal light at the end of the tunnel, Kopius kept climbing. He sang internally to keep his mind busy, You gotta put one foot in front of the other...don't fall down,down,down, he slowly made his way up,up,up.

The cave wall indented a little, creating a shelf of sorts. Where Kopius had hoped to find a plank he found emptiness. Like the cat on the wrong side of a locked bathroom door, he searched the area swiping for a ledge. A bit of cold sweat ran down his spine and his arms were feeling the burn of the climb. Placing his palm flat and sweeping the surface for anything until his thumb hit a protrusion in the surface. Focusing his hand in that location he fumbled around until quickly deducing he had a hold of a nail spike, the board was not there. Not wasting any time, with just his pinky and index finger wrapped around the nail he pulled himself up. He could feel the nail strain against his squeezing fingers, giving no indication of coming free, until it did.

Kopius’s other hand had a death grip keeping him from swinging out and down to the cave floor. Heart racing and with more luck than awareness, his flailing hand let go of the large spike and came down like a high five to the nails' old home. He slid his hand quickly over and whacked his finger against the other nail of the missing plank.

Now, with a more awkward hold of this second nail, his pointer and middle finger held for all their might. Praying for a different result, Kopius unlocked his death grip and found purchase in the next plank. His head had reached the beginning of the small crevasse and he got a short whiff of fresh air.

Placing his foot against the protruding nail, Koipus found he could now spider walk with outstretched arms. His fingers were starting to strain and the cockeyed way his legs were positioned made muscles he didn't even know exist burn. Only his shoulders had breasted the space between the wall and the ceiling and he pushed further, racing the growing fatigue in all of his limbs.

Putting the heave in ho, Kopius pressed on hoping two more of these planks would be enough. Then, maybe, use the two opposing walls leading to the surface as a wedge to rest.

“Just...” Kopius grunted, moving up a plank.

“...keep…” he continued, finding purchase for his next step.

“...swimming.” he groaned, pulling himself through the crease in the ceiling. To his surprise and relief, the wall opposite the ladder had a rough oval shape seat poorly carved into the stone. It resembled those extremely uncomfortable seats that are more dysfunctional egg shaped decorations than usable chairs.

Clearly expecting the promise of rest to be a trap he hesitated to lean across the abyss and have a seat. Keeping a firm grip with his fingers Kopius carefully reached one leg across and tapped the crudely curved surface of rock. He involuntarily jerked his foot away, as if to avoid triggering a trap, Kopius's other foot slipped.

Voluntarily he rammed his proding foot hard against the curved surface and squeezed the wood in his hands. The foot that slipped swung down and out but not enough to take Kopius with him. He found himself secured at an upward angle, one foot dangling in the space between the two rock walls. His heart was pounding so hard in his chest it felt like Thor was trying to get out. He would have looked down to see if it had actually pounded out of his chest but securing his second foothold was a more pressing matter.

Securing his other foot, Kopius found himself in another odd position. Much like a small child pushing a heavy shopping cart, he looked like a man trying to hold back a falling wall. Though, the precarious angle afforded his limbs to rest in turns.

Feeling comfortable that his position was secured, he would, one by one, let an arm or leg relax. Switching it around for a minute he was able to reduce the burn in his muscles. Once satisfied that he could return to climbing, he took stock of his situation.

The space between the two rock faces was roughly three feet and he had about five to six feet to go before reaching the top. Kopius very much wanted to look down at the seat he was standing in to see if it could be useful but that meant looking down. Looking down would be breaking a long standing tradition of not looking down.

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As a child he had followed his father up the side of a small mountain while camping. Cory had scaled it with the ease and grace of a playground. With no more than twenty feet to the top, he had turned to look down and froze stiff. Long story short, he did not make it to the top.

Though Kopius found himself currently at a much shorter height, he could not afford to freeze. So he looked up, he looked over to the sides and made a decision.

“Spider walk,” he murmured. Feeling his luck with the planks was at an all time low, Kopius chanced Plan C. The short distance left, his position and the brief rest meant that the boards and spikes were not his only option anymore. Giving his limbs each a shake to ‘get the lead out’, his Papa would say, Kopius got to work.

Spider walks are simple in theory. First you would need two vertical, parallel surfaces like the two cave walls before Kopius. Second, the distance between the two surfaces has to be such that one could reach both without fully outstretched arms. From there it is a matter of leverage, strength, and stamina. Let’s hope we have enough stamina, he thought reluctantly.

Placing one hand firmly against the wall opposing the planks, Kopius found the right angle to support himself. Arms secure, he removed one foot from the small alcove and found solid purchase above a wooden plank. Testing the foot’s hold for good measure one more time, he heaved his body up, releasing and then quickly slapping back his hands a bit higher than they were before.

“Holy shit that worked!” Kopius exhaled. He brought his feet up with him and secured another foothold. Not waiting to skip a beat he slid up the cave mouth again and then once more, squirming and heaving. The cave walls grew closer as he went up, making applying pressure with his hands easier. The familiar burn started first in his arms and then his legs. With three feet left to the surface he could smell fresh air and see a light blue sky. Two more heaves and Kopius’s head crested the surface; he paused.

He gazed about wanting to know if he was going from the frying pan to the fire. It looked to be a valley of sorts. Short grass to his right led off into some bushes before ending at another rock face. Dirt led off to his left, riddled with more bushes and other shrubbery. Kopius, with only his head above ground, looked about with the determination of a man destined to tell the world if Spring came early this year. Wherever the sun might be, it was past the high cliffs that looked to surround the gorge he had just climbed into.

Kopius moved his hands to secure holds against the edge of the pit and then swung both legs up and out, tumbling to the grassy side of the hole. Rolling several more times for good measure, he lay there taking in the space as though he had just been unwrapped from a straight jacket.

He took deep breaths of fresh air, realizing how much he had missed it. The grass felt coarse and stiff, pricking him at times in exposed areas. An empty window appeared in his view and he was too happy to be annoyed. He was going to lay there for a bit longer when he heard a sound. Almost familiar but still foreign, it happened once and was gone.

Ding-dang

Kopius sat up quickly not knowing where the sound had come from. He fumbled for his gear on his back as he stood, managing to free the longer of the two swords, the rest of his tattered goods fell to the ground.

There! To the left, he saw a light blur and it was gone. He shifted his body in that direction, making sure he was safe from falling back in that hole. There! Again, a blur to his left. Gone in an instant.

“Who’s there?!” Kopius shouted, gripping his sword.

“Show yourself!” Kopius demanded.

Show yourself? Come on man, you’re better than that, Kopius thought admonishingly.

“I have a weapon!” he continued to shout.

Pathetic, Kopius conceded to himself, shaking his head.

He kept turning, anticipating. After spinning a full circle a thought occurred to him. In a VR game that Cory had been heavily involved in playing, Titans of the Fall, the HUD(heads up display) displayed a lot of real time information. Like a lot, a lot. So much so that in the beginning, while battling, the notifications would be so intrusive that Cory would miss crucial hits or take damage where he could otherwise dodge or parry. The information was admittingly useful: You could see damage dealt and taken, health, stamina, mana drain, critical percentages, weak spots and more. Cory’s Papa had said that he had felt like real life Iron Man.

In later iterations of the game it allowed for the information to be minimized to the side or transparent enough to not be an obstruction. But, in the beginning, Users had two choices: On or Off. When the notifications were turned Off, players would see a soft red blinking light that would pulse off to the side of their vision when there was something new; like an upgrade or level increase.

With that last thought, but still keeping his eyes alert for a threat, Kopius willed his user interface visible. To his surprise, there was something new displayed. At the top, to the left of his name, the number ‘2’ was etched in silver.

“That's it!” Kopius seethed, closing his interface. He kept scanning the area, not one-hundred percent sure he was clear of danger. After a minute or two of no flashing blurs and not being attacked by anything, Kopius let his shoulders relax a bit. The tension he was releasing in his body made its way up to his brain. TWO!!! He screamed internally. Two what?! What happened to One!

“GRRRrrrrrr” was all Kopius could manage to get out of his mouth as he took swipes at nearby grass with his sword.

“TWO!!” he yelled, clearing a swath of knee high grass.

“WHAT!?!” he continued, slicing more grass with the backswing, his words echoing up the canyon walls. After a few more swipes and vulgarities, Kopius picked up the gear he had tossed down and looked for a place to sit to orient himself.

He wandered over to some rocks jutting from the ground next to the side of the cliff face. Finding the most comfortable spot he could on a pile of boulders, Kopius rested his back to the cliff and had a much clearer view of things. While previously spinning he had gotten a quick chance to get an idea of his surroundings. Now able to sit and rest, he could take it all in.

He found himself in a small grassy cove, deep in a ravine. The sheer cliffs raced up more than one-hundred feet and he could see that he was at a deadend of the deep gorge. A path, if you could call it that, led off to his right. Bushes, grass and half dead trees were growing randomly about the cul-de-sac in a manner of disarray that only nature, Or a computer simulating nature! Kopius thought, could do. Some brave plants were attempting to scale the rock face while a small host of flowers grew about a sickly looking pond. A pond that butted up against yet another cliff face. He could tell from where he was resting that the water was not drinkable.

The sight of liquid brought to his mind that he was slightly parched. Mimicked in most VR games as a dry smacking sound, being parched, if not corrected, led to stamina drain, dizziness or any other ailment associated with a lack of hydration. What Kopius was feeling now, again, felt life like.

There was a dryness in his mouth, like the kind he used to get before attempting to ask out the pretty barista or the moment before presenting a project in front of a crowd. Smacking his lips together to produce some saliva, Kopius again remarked how realistic the world he was stuck in was.

Continuing to scan the small alcove, Kopius did not see anything of noticeable importance. Seeing as climbing was not an option, Kopius looked down the dark ravine floor path that led off to his right. Much like the dead-end he was sitting in, the path was strewn with bushes and other odd shrubbery. The way seemed to have a slight upward slant but Kopius was not sure if he was making that up or not. With a rumble in his stomach and a half dry mouth, he gathered his meager belongings.

The sun, or whatever passed as the sun, had already been absent from the ravine floor when Kopius had climbed out of the cave. Now it was creeping its way up and out of the canyon, threatening to leave him alone in the dark.

If the fleeting sun was any indication, Kopius figured he was heading in a westernly direction. The ground, uneven and lumpy, was much like a riverbed but without the slippery rocks. Grass patches reached out of random, sandy soil while the healthier of the bushes hugged up against the rock face to his left. Few plants lined the cliff on his right. While the space was wide enough to drive a few cars side by side, Kopius could see the path narrowed just before a bend a few hundred yards from his spot. He could not tell what was past that but anything was worth exploring if it meant not climbing. Before setting off, Kopius took his jumbled mess of a sword sheath and managed to tie it about his waist in what might have been the ugliest strap-happy belt ever constructed. Yet, like Kopius, it held.