They managed to reach the next hilltop by nightfall. It was not a decision easily made, for while Grumner had observed that a high vantage point would be to their tactical benefit with wolves about, Kevin had protested under the grounds that if forced to summit another hill, he would be too tired to do anything. The argument might have gone on much longer had they not been interrupted by another chorus from the wolves, which had promptly ended the debate in favor of the hilltop.
So there she was, setting up her tent while Grumner worked at his flint and tinder. The rain had not stopped all day but had now slowed again to a faint, misting drizzle. So while the dwarf had gathered the driest leaves he could find, they were damp and stubbornly determined to avoid catching fire. After several minutes of futile effort, the dwarf sat back and let out a long sigh of frustration just as Kevin sat down next to him.
“What are we accomplishing by trudging off into the wilderness like this where there’s monsters and wild animals everywhere?”
Grumner growled as he fought with his flint and tinder. Sparks flew from his fingers as he worked, but the damp leaves refused to catch fire.
Calista set the last peg in her tent and sat down. “Look, I know you don’t want to be here, but I’ve been thinking and I figure our best chances of survival are to at least complete a few quests to level up. From what I can see, it looks like this world is designed to force us into completing quests. Or at least trying to. This company, Concept, that designed this place must have known that a lot of players would prioritize survival over adventure when they got here, so I’m sure they made it that way so we had to at least try to go on an adventure to feed the entertainment of Concept’s audience. Now, because we’re stuck here and because we’re going to be forced into facing these monsters and whatnot, it’s to our advantage to at least gain a few levels before we find some safe place on the map to retire. Okay?”
“But what if I can’t gain any levels?” Kevin protested. “What if I’m just a guy?”
Calista replied, “Then either way, you’re safer with us than you are anywhere else. Alright?”
Kevin said nothing as he stared at the damp fire pit.
Grumner shrugged and went back to lighting the tinder. As the sparks from his flint and tinder continued to bounce uselessly off the damp leaves, Lefty sat down next to the dwarf as he chewed a strip of jerky. Chewing slowly, the wizard seemed to come to a realization. “Hey, you want help with that?”
Saying nothing, Grumner raised an eyebrow and sat back from the woodpile. Swallowing the last of his jerky, Lefty rolled back his sleeves and sized up his target. Then, as he began his incantation, he folded his hands together so that both index fingers were pointed at the wood. A second later, a gout of flame shot down on the base of the pile.
As the firecrackled crackled to life, Lefty apologized to the ranger, “Sorry to leave you fighting with that one.”
Grumner spat at a tree. “Don’t worry about it.”
Lefty adjusted his robes, “How far are we from this Rumadrane place?”
“About another day, maybe less,” Grumner answered and then turned to Kevin. “So, if you’re done whining about everything, how about you do something useful for a change. I figured since you’re the only one here that used to work for the company that brought us all here, why don’t you tell us everything you know about these Concept people.”
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Kevin stared at the fire for a long while before replying, “I’ve been remembering more today. I remembered that Levi and I were talking about a rumor we’d heard that Concept was working on some super secret project or something. I don’t know … it might not even have been for our government, but it was a big project that they had been working on for a long, long time and that the rumor was that they were giving it a dry run in Sable Unlimited.”
“What was the project for?” Calista asked.
“I think Levi and I were trying to find that out. It might have had something to do with artificial intelligence or something. Or maybe it was about how people interacted with artificial environments. I’m not really sure. I just remember we were talking about it over lunch in the company cafeteria with some engineers. They were talking about how there were these guys in suits who had come in to talk to them. The suits had wanted to know about ‘The Engine’ or something.” He paused, “Yeah … that’s what I remember. They called it The Engine …”
The flames were high now as the firelight shown against their faces and threw shadows against the trees. Above, the rain clouds had disappeared and the sky was a sea of stars as Wraath’s twin moons peaked down at them through the trees.
“And what else do you remember?” Calista asked.
Kevin looked forlorn, “Not much. I think we talked to the engineers and they said something about A.I that I didn’t understand. Said something about ‘historical data’ and how they had a working prototype of something. The prototype had a name and I’ve been trying to remember what they said, but for some reason I just can’t …”
“Can’t remember what?” Calista asked.
Kevin stared at the fire, “The name of the project.”
Calista decided she would try another tack. “Is there anything else you can remember? Like how long did you work for Concept?”
Kevin blinked as though he were coming out of a trance. “Uhm … three, maybe four years, I think? Not sure, but that sounds right.”
“And you were a game master. Was this your zone? Were you assigned to Sommerdale? Is there anything you can tell us about this place that we don’t know already?”
“Yeah …” Kevin seemed to think hard. “I think … I think I remember I was covering for someone here.” He shook his head. “Yeah, Sommerdale isn’t my zone. I normally work along the coast. Sea Gate, I think. I think I remember dealing with a lot of complaints about loot sharing in the Undersea dungeons.”
“That’s a long way from here,” Calista said. “Why were you covering for Sommerdale?”
“Someone was sick. Or at least that’s what they told me,” Kevin replied.
Calista continued, “What about controls? What about contacts? What about items? Is there anything you can tell us about the game and how it works that might help us?”
Kevin scratched his forehead as he thought. “There are way stations that are bio-metrically linked to our avatars. We usually scan an eye or a hand to get in.”
Grumner looked up from the fire. “What’s a way station?”
“It’s for admins,” Kevin said. “It’s a place we can go to access all of the data for the area and to communicate with the Hub.”
Grumner focused in on Kevin, “And what’s the hub?”
“It’s the central command station for everything in the game. I … I don’t know if they’d have anything like that here, but back in my old version of the game, they needed it for something I didn’t really understand. I mean, we had our own communication within the game that we could trade messages and stuff between each other as game masters, but the Hub was something entirely different. Levi and I always speculated why they had two separate things, the standard game master network and then the way stations. It didn’t make sense to us, but then again, a lot about Concept didn’t make sense. We thought it was something to do with an encrypted network within the game that other people couldn’t access or something.”
Calista leaned in, “Is there one here? Is there one in Sommerdale?”
“Yeah, of course. There should be one for every zone. If the zone is big enough there are multiple way stations.Some of them are hidden in the weirdest places because the engineer who designed them had the funniest sense of humor.” The game master laughed to himself. “The story is he got the idea from some old book he read about a boy wizard that ran through a wall at a train station or something. If you talked to him long enough, he would always bring those books up. Told us all that we had to read them. I never did though …”
“But is there one here?” Calista asked emphatically.
Kevin shrugged, “I honestly don’t even know. Like I said, this wasn’t my zone.”
The fire crackled as they all fell silent. Calista found herself looking up at the trees. They were beneath a thick enough canopy that only a few drops and drizzles were leaking down. The fire was warming, comforting. For a moment, she almost felt, well, safe. Then, far in the distance, a lone wolf howled.