In the end, it was easier to wait until the skies cleared up. If she asked Romeo for directions, they would become suspicious again and she’d already dodged that bullet. The atmosphere between the two of them in the ranger station was volatile. She wasn’t sure what they were thinking, but there were several times where it seemed she was moving wrong, and so she’d left them to dig through the cabinets and pack any items they were willing to give. For the moment she stood on the wraparound porch, not trusting the metal enough to lean up against it.
“Beautiful,” Ace said, standing near the edge of the railing. Enough of the structure was in place that she could go in each direction and watch the notes write themselves onto the map. The peaks nearby acquired a name. “The Narrow Mountains.”
“The name came about because they are a thinner than average mountain range, but the locals say the name comes from the narrow amount a time a person has to cross them in winter.” Romeo’s voice was behind her, to the left. They were still in the kitchen and had opened a window to talk. “The community made a contest of it, actually. First place were the fastest foot travelers.”
“And last place needed a morgue?” she muttered to herself, shading her eyes and looking north. Nothing stood out to her and a quick glance at her map showed the same information, aside from the name. Stepping around the rustier parts, she made her way west. Over here she could see past the endless flowers and straight into a brown rip churning up the ground. “What the hell happened over there?”
“Since when did you curse?”
She turned to give Romeo a look, then went back to focusing on the dark chasm breaking the land in half. In the light of the slackening storm she could see more of them than she really wanted to, especially since they seemed eager to rekindle their relationship with Maddy, whatever it was. Personally, even with a wide range of men and women that she considered fuckable, monsters that looked undead never did it for her. While she wasn’t a corpse-fucker, it was something allowed in the more mature games such as Beast Inside and Ever Night Romance and she knew a fair amount of people who enjoyed themselves.
“Since this whole mess started,” Ace replied. “It seemed appropriate.” She needed binoculars to see details, but without that useful tool she was stuck wondering what it was. It looked as if a chunk of the ground had been clawed out, but she wasn’t sure what could have done that. The mutations she had were mostly based on her, and from what she could tell about Romeo things had focused on his physical form as well. There might be ways to manipulate earth or water... that would be something to look out for. Being able to bury an enemy up to their neck in dirt, or simply set them on fire would make for rapid and painless victories.
“That wasn’t there before.”
“I know,” she said, staying in character. If that had been before the apocalypse then there would have been posters up in the ranger station telling people how it was a great place to hike if they stayed away from the edges.
“It happened... maybe the third day? Fourth day? Either way, I’d already changed once and gotten my wings.”
Interesting. Did mutations take time to form? How long? Was it going to be more like clockwork, a new mutation every two days, or something less calculable?
“Did they work?”
“Did what work?”
“Your wings.” Ace rolled her eyes. What else would she have been asking about?
“For a while.” The sound of something shattering came from the kitchen, but she didn’t turn to see what had broken. “I ran into a... a monster, I guess you’d call it.” Their voice petered out and they coughed.
“That’s what I called it. It was as if the wolf had mated with a tiger. There were two tails, one from each beast, and fangs jutted out in every direction from its jaws. I’d landed near a water source, and was trying to find out if it was still clean, when it pounced on me. A huge paw trapped me against the ground and the other shredded my wings beyond all repair.”
“You’re still alive, so what did you do to get away?”
She looked back in enough time to catch them shrugging.
“I don’t know. I blacked out and woke up cold, bleeding, and in pain. I got myself back to the station and stayed here to heal.”
“Why were you looking for water?”
“I was trying to help some of the survivors.” They sighed. “And then I just... left them. When they needed help the most.”
“I’m sure they survived. I mean, they’d already survived the end of the world, and that was a big hurdle.” Ace turned to survey the direction she’d been heading in the first place. Either Heaven or Hell was smiling on her; there was a trail leading straight to the closest city, and on the other end of the city she could see the ocean. Or a really large lake, but with the name “Briny” she’d place her bets on a salty sea. “Anything I should know about?”
“For what?”
“For hiking to town.” She bit her tongue. Calling them an idiot wouldn’t help and she was almost done with them. Just a few more minutes, one more direction, and she was outta here.
“It should be fine.” They paused, and then shook their head. “Yeah. Should be fine.”
Which meant a high probability of it not being fine. In fact, that lovely monster they’d described would, with her luck, be on the early part of the trail. Ace shrugged. She had her bear spray. That should either give her the time needed to run away or grab a branch and brain her attacker. One last twist around the middle ranger station and she was looking at the dismal swamp.
“What’s the story behind that?”
She smelled them before she saw a malformed shadow creep up next to her.
“Not sure. When it changed from forest to that, I didn’t see why. Or how.”
“Fair enough.” Ace wasn’t going to say that was wrong; she wouldn’t have gone to the swamp either, and she knew this was the setting in a video game. “Okay. Sun’s out, I’m out. There are miles to travel before I sleep an’ all that.”
It was possible she could have said that in a nicer way, but she was done with the NPC. Ace turned away from them, wandering around the room as if she was drinking it all in for the last time.
*One bar of strawberry soap acquired*
*One pencil acquired*
*One silver key acquired*
Finally, she went to grab the bag they’d put together. She picked it up, and hefted it in surprise. First of all, it was heavier than she thought it would be, and second of all, she didn’t get any notifications about new items. That would be something to test out later.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“I gave you all that I could,” they said, entering the station again. “There’s food here that doesn’t taste good to me now, but it’s still good for you.”
Now she was really interested in hearing about their other changes, but curiosity here wouldn’t find a bed in town at the end of the day. Ace let out a happy sigh.
“Thank you,” she said, turning to them. She looked straight at their eyes, even though she wasn’t sure how well they could see her. “And like I promised, I’ll come back.”
“...that’s all I ask Maddy.” Their voice was soft, cracking in a few places. “I need someone with me, and I want that someone to be you. Take care, and be safe.”
Ace waved goodbye and made her way down the rest of the stairs. From the same section of the railings that she’d come up she hung her cables, and hand over hand lowered herself to where she could reach the rock by swinging. From there it was a quick hop down to the Jeep’s top, and to soft ground. She caught herself before she slipped on the wet grass. The day was looking up. Her backpack was full of supplies now, she had more information about the land, and she was heading away from the creepy ex-ranger. She even had a weapon, though one that wouldn’t be usable for long, and she’d taken the soap.
The trail was easy enough to pick up; there was a wooden sign stating that Briny Breeze was a little under eight kilometers, and that at a decent clip the hike itself would take about two and a half hours. There was a second sign warning about being in bear country.
“If you see a bear, keep a safe distance. If the bear approaches, scare it away by shouting, waving warms, or throwing stones. Report all bear sightings to a Ranger.” She put the bear mace into her left hand. “Or let it approach and defeat it for the xp. I’m good with that.”
Ace squared her shoulders and stepped into the shaded area. The trees here weren’t thick ones, but together they stifled the sunlight and kept her cool. Tiny stones lined the dirt trail path, and after discovering that they were smooth she continued walking at a good pace for someone without shoes. She didn’t have a timer, but about thirty minutes and exactly zero bears later, a soft ding sounded at the back of her mind. She stopped. Nearby was a large flat rock that allowed her to settle into a comfortable position. The chime went off two more times before a haze built up around her and cut her off from the game.
“Everyone’s finally online, huh? About time.”
Everyone, thank you for agreeing to test Our Mutual Ruins!
At this time, we have a total of twenty-five testers embarking on their journeys in the game. All of you have been dropped in the same general area, but at distances kilometers away from each other. In addition to writing your review, letting us know what we can make better for other players, and finding any last-minute glitches that need to be patched, we have an individually tailored list for each of you to make your way through. Please see the end of this message for the extra conditions requiring your focus.
You’ll be able to see five goals from the start, and when one has been completed the next one on the list will take its place. There are fifty in total. Completed, one goal is worth an extra 500 credits in your bank account. If you are able to work your way through half of your given goals in the thirteen days you have, you’ll be granted an in-game weapon personalized to the character you’ve built. If you are able to complete all of them, in addition to the weapon, an in-game area will be your reward. From this point onward, you will be able to access VICA, our Virtual Intelligence Community Administrator, by speaking the name aloud. This is where you can check your goals, see how much time remains until the testing period is over, and contact the company in case of an emergency. Thank you, and enjoy our game!
Carpelatha, registration code 14446 Zimmer
Character name: Ace
Class registration: Scavenger
Goals: 5 listed, 0/50 completed
Sure Thing, Friend - convince someone to give you an item, any item!
I Can See Clearly Now - find an old object and use it in a new way
Tooling Around - using a tool, create a new item from one or more old items
Cut & Paste - acquire 10 of the same item
Best Defense is Good Offense - defend against a mental or physical shock to successfully acquire an item
The haze around her started to fizzle away, leaving her open to creatures and the elements, but she wanted to check how her experience points were stacking.
“VICA, hold.” The haze thickened slightly. “Show my experience.”
0/100 experience points obtained
“Bullshit.” Ace cracked her knuckles. “I’ve explored a gas station, a garage, a car wash, and a ranger station. After MacGyvering into the ranger station, I successfully bluffed my way into getting more information and items. All of that should net me experience points, and speaking of things already done, three of those challenges need to be replaced.”
Please wait while I look up your data. Your experiences were prior to you being informed of what the company wishes you to test. Due to that, those experiences do not count for experience points and cannot be used to clear your goals.
“Bull. Fucking. Shit. I will not be penalized because some damn scrubs were late for their job. Give me what I’ve earned.”
I can forward your complaint to our customer service department, but there is nothing I can do. It is beyond my ability to manipulate an individual’s game data.
Great. She was in the middle of a game and arguing with the AI about the rules; that had to be the definition of insanity.
“Fine. Forward my complaint. And tell them that if they want to be stingy about reflecting experience that I’ve fairly earned, I can pay them back in spades.”
Your complaint has been lodged and you will receive an answer shortly from our customer service side. Thank you for playing Our Mutual Ruins.
The program winked out and second by second the environment around her became clearer.
“Seriously?” Ace took a vindictive pleasure in watching the haze disappear. “Ugh. Most companies give bonus xp for testers that log in earlier than the scheduled time, and this one wants to punish me.”
Ace wandered to the side of the path and squatted down, putting the bear spray within easy reach on the ground. Before her lay the debris of a forest.
“First off, let’s get this out of the way.” She picked up leaves, making sure they were all primarily one color, and created a green stack of them in her left hand as she counted.
“...nine, ten.”
*Cut & Paste completed - New goal unlocked*
“VICA. Display goals.”
The haze didn’t come back this time. Instead, the words were printed in the air and filled in with contrasting colors so they were readable.
Goals: 5 listed, 1/50 completed
Sure Thing, Friend - convince someone to give you an item, any item!
I Can See Clearly Now - find an old object and use it in a new way
Tooling Around - using a tool, create a new item from one or more old items
Time to Haul Ass - Carry 25 kilos of items for more than 5 hours
Best Offense is a Good Defense - defend against a mental or physical shock to successfully acquire an item
“Like that’s not annoying.” Ace hefted her bag. “And I’ve found ‘bout half of that.”
She looked around her and began to grin, opening her bag. One by one she put rocks in until the words “25 kilos” were highlighted, then she tied it shut again and hefted it onto her shoulders.
“Five hours. From what Romeo was saying and the sign at the front, the hike to town’s not going to take that long, which means I’ll need to keep this on even when talking to people.” A thought occurred to her. “And even when bargaining. I’m sure setting this down to paw through it is gonna reset my counter.”
With that in mind, she was off on the trail again, keeping the mace in her hand. She was going to be very disappointed if she didn’t run into at least one damn bear.