We made it back to Sage and Grandpa pretty quick. Sage was looking terrified, and as I appeared, she hurried over and gave me a big hug.

"I was so scared. We heard the screaming, and then it just stopped. Where's Delores?”

I shook my head. “She didn't make it.” Sage’s face went white. Wanting to change the subject quick, I opened up the bag and held it out to Sage. “But look.”

"Are those—?”

“Soul coins. Yeah." I reached into the bag, intending to take out a coin and hand it to Sage. Instead, as my fingers touched the first one, a wave of light rushed over me. Swelling orchestral music chimed. My whole body tensed, shook, quivered. It was like goosebumps, all over me. I stood struck dumb by what was going on. The sensation rose in pitch, then died away.

Sage touched my arm. “Are you all right?" She looked up at me, her wide dark eyes full of fear. “Was that?”

“I don't know—”

The announcer was back, but in my head, not for everyone to hear. I could tell the difference somehow. Miner Shad Williams, you are now attuned to this Reality Engine. Certain status and menu options will not be available until you have chosen a class.

I blinked away another series of achievements. The last one hung around for a minute: Miner! You have taken the first step down a long path that could lead to untold riches — or your untimely death. Achievement Step: Attuned. Next step: Class Choice. Complete next step for further progress details.

My eyes felt sharper than usual. The day around me seemed brighter than it had been a moment ago, but I was pretty sure we were still getting the same gloomy light filtering through the trees in the swamp.

I looked over at grandpa. He had a health bar too, naturally. Except instead of the green bar over me and Sage, it was yellow, and there was an icon next to it that I didn't like the look of. It looked uncomfortably like a skull and crossbones to me. [8/20] health points remained.

I dug into the pouch, reaching for another coin.

This time it didn't dissolve in my hand. It sat there, shining up at me. It was about a half dollar size, silvery, and the face looking up at me was not remotely human. It reminded me a little bit of a medusa, lots of squiggly snakes all around it. Or maybe it was some sort of odd stylized halo. There were the faintest suggestion of features, a gaping mouth, maybe too many eyes. Details really weren't clear. I wasn't sure I liked it.

I hesitated for just a minute. "Sage, I don't know what this is going to do to him."

"I know." She bit her lip, looking much older than her 11 years. "But, it can't make things any worse."

She was right about that. I took the coin, and set it on Grandpa's outstretched hand. He was unconscious again, his eyes twitching gently underneath his eyelids.

As I set the coin on his wrinkled palm, a light enveloped him. It started out pretty dim, but grew in intensity, deeper and deeper, until I had to look away. Deputy Young hadn't been nearly that bright.

Sage gasped. "You didn't look anything like that. It's like he's on fire.”

I stood back, my stomach churning. It was too late now. What was done, was done. The light grew so bright, it enveloped the whole hospital bed he was standing on.

There was a triumphal crash of symbols,

I blinked. When I opened my eyes again, the hospital bed was empty. I yelled.

“Grandpa!” Sage called, looking around

"Right here, you two."

I turned.

Just off to my left, a man stood. He couldn't have been more than 10 years older than me. His skin was a dark walnut color, his long dark hair in two braids behind his back. He was wearing a nightgown and pajamas, and his feet were in oversized bedroom slippers. His bright green healthbar was maxed out at [20/20].

"Grandpa?"

"Who else would it be, you young whippersnappers?" He grinned at us, white teeth sparkling. Grandpa had lost most of his teeth in the last couple of years, the victim of poor childhood nutrition and inferior dental care available on the reservation lands where he'd grown up.

He lifted a hand, holding it up to the light. “Well that's something. Where the hells are we?"

"I don't know, but it sure isn't Arizona." I shrugged. "One minute we were at home, the next we were here."

Sage turned back to me."My turn!” She held out a hand.

I hesitated. "I don't know if that's a good idea. We don't know what this is really doing to us."

"I don't care.” She put her hands on her hips and glared at me."All of you have done it, and I want to know what happens next. We can't progress the game until we've all got a soul coin. They were very clear about that.”

"Game? Soul coins?" Grandpa glared at us."What have you gotten us into? For a minute, I thought I must be back in Vietnam, with all the mud and green shit. Well this isn't 'Nam." He peered around us. “Trees all wrong.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"No, looks more like Louisiana to me," I agreed. "But it isn't either of those. Someone picked us all up and brought us here."

"Someone?" He cocked his head. "Who?"

"I'm not sure," I began but Sage interrupted.

"It was aliens, Grandpa. Obviously. How else would we be wherever we are?" She turned back to me. "Coin. Now." As I continued to hesitate, she rolled her eyes so hard I could practically hear them. “It’s got game System mechanics, Shad. I know games. This isn’t my first rodeo. Hand it over.”

I gave her a coin. I didn't really have a choice. She was right. We didn't know what was going on. I couldn’t risk her being left on her own.

Deputy Young wandered over. He held a hand out to Grandpa. "Mr Twofeather, I must say, I'm glad for you. You look good. Healthy."

Grandpa looked down at himself. “I feel good. Like I just had a good night's sleep for the first time in years. Don't know what it is that's happened, but I'm not in pain anymore. That's something.”

Meanwhile, Sage had taken the soul coin. Just like the rest of us, it lit her up like a Christmas tree for a minute.

The light died away, and Sage opened her eyes. “Wow. That was something. More achievements. I hope there’s some way to check what we’ve got because some of them seemed important.”

She shook herself, took a step away from the hospital bed. She jumped. I watched her with amusement.

Then she took three big steps through the muck. After that, she reached down, grabbed a rock, and hurled it as far as she could. She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"No improvement in my strength. I can't jump or walk any farther than I could before, and it doesn't feel like anything else has really happened to me yet. Darn it… I was hoping for some major stat buffs right off. I feel different, somehow, it just isn’t translating into any abilities yet.” She peered into the swamp, then took off her glasses. She blinked. “Oh. Oh wow. I can see perfectly! Shad, this is great!”

Young just stared at her. “What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Obviously, I'm trying to find out what abilities the game has given us.”

“Game?" Grandpa took a look around, and snorted. "What the hell sort of game is this?”

We were interrupted by Airport Guy again. [Congratulations! All surviving members of your party have absorbed a soul coin and been accepted by the Reality Engine.

You may now proceed to an exit. Closest exit has been marked on your minimap.]

Thinking about a map caused a square to blink in the left corner of my vision. I focused on it and it burst open across my field of view. After a couple of tries, and some quick exchanges with Sage, I learned how to focus on a particular section at will.

There was an icon in one corner that, when I focused on it, let me resize and move the map centerpoint around. After that I moved the map to one side. If I wasn’t staring at it directly, the map was a translucent outline. I could get used to that.

Off to the northwest, a point blinked red. Since it was the only mark on the map, it had to be the exit.

Sage said. "The initiation briefing said something about 10 standard hours before the next phase. I don't know how long that is. I think we need to get to the exit before then.”

That brought me back to my senses."Yeah, And we've had two life or death fights already." I turned to Grandpa. "There's stuff in these swamps that'll eat you as soon as look at you. Giant toads. Gnomes. Weird stuff. Don't take anything for granted. Delores the caseworker just found out the hard way."

“I’m not going anywhere,” Deputy Young began.

Sage was ignoring us. She had found the bag of loot I'd dropped when I got back. She opened it up and peered inside, taking out first a blue gnome hat, then a wad of something sticky-looking.

Her eyes widened. “Some of these are marked as crafting items. Oh, we've got an inventory now! Look!"

She instructed the rest of us how to open our inventories. It was pretty straightforward; I just needed to think about it. She began taking items from the sack of loot. As she held each one, it vanished into her inventory. Her eyebrows knit together as she concentrated, and one of the gnome hats appeared out of thin air into her hands. It vanished again. "All right!"

Grandpa was moving toward the door into his bedroom. He poked his head in and stared around at the mess. I looked over his shoulder. About a third of his room was still there. The rest was shaved off and presumably left behind in Arizona. Half his bed stood against one wall, and a chest of drawers at the side of the room was intact, and so were some of his wall hangings.

He went over to the chest of drawers and started rummaging through, pulling out clothes and tossing a few on the bed. The rest disappeared into his inventory. "At least I kept my hunting gear." He pulled open the bottom drawer and took out a heavy pair of camo-patterned pants and his good hunting vest, blaze orange and tan. He glared at me. "Shut the door. I want to get dressed."

I shut the door behind me, which felt foolish since the rest of the room was open to the air and turned back to where Sage was looting our trailer. She picked up items and they disappeared. “As far as I can tell, the inventory doesn't have any kind of weight or size storage limit. That's good. I always hate inventory management in games. Hmm.” She had lifted an open cardboard box full of knick-knacks that stood beside the table. It didn't disappear. “I wonder if it's because it's full of other items.” She took one item out and it vanished into her inventory, then a couple more, and then all of a sudden the basket itself disappeared. “Oh, I got it below a weight limit and then it let me pick it up. Huh.” Sage started picking up and setting down random things around the room. “It looks like my limit is about 15 pounds. Here, try this.”

She pointed at a half-packed box of books. We'd been packing up Grandpa's things in preparation to clear out the trailer after he passed, and a lot of the house was already in boxes.

I lifted the box and was given the option to add it to my inventory. I said yes, and the box disappeared. It appeared in my inventory, labeled as "box of books" and stating that it was collected in Grandpa's house.

"That's not fair," Sage said when she saw the box disappear. "Your weight limit must be higher than mine."

Grandpa emerged from his bedroom looking like he was dressed for the first day of deer season. His shirt was a little tight on him. He'd obviously gained weight and muscle mass back from when he'd bought these clothes a few years ago.

“Of course, they left my gun cabinet behind in Arizona,” he said in disgust. “But here.” He tossed me two boxes of .44 Magnum. I caught both and added them to my inventory quickly. 100 rounds. Good. I didn't know what else was out there, but at least now I'd be prepared.

I thought about it, and six rounds popped out in my hand. I loaded my gun, then loaded the speed loader. I dropped both into the pocket of my drover's coat.

Grandpa looked at Sage, who was over in the kitchen section of the main room. The fridge was gone, but some of the cabinets beside the stove were still here. She was opening the cabinets and grabbing every box, can, dish, and bottle of spice in them and tossing them all into her inventory. "What's she doing?"

I explained. Grandpa nodded. "Good thinking. We can't stay here, but I don't want to leave anything behind."

A message popped up in the corner of my vision. Party Chat: Sage: Look what we can do!

I concentrated and a blinking cursor appeared. I tried thinking the words. Nothing. I mumbled under my breath, and my reply appeared. Stop playing around, we need to get moving.

Sage: I’m looting and talking at the same time. Take everything. No weight limit = loot the world!!