“How far away is the EP?”,  Marcus asked.

“Another couple hundred meters. It should be around the corner in the middle of the square.”  Neville answered without looking up from her tablet. 

“Find us a place nearby to hide and we’ll send someone up to have a look.”, Marcus said.

“Will do.”

“There. This building looks good.”, She said

Marcus looked over at the  map on the tablet. He saw what she was indicating and nodded, keying his mic.

“Douglas. Take the third left. Two blocks. Then pull up behind the building on your right.”

“Will do.” Douglas answered.

“McKenzie. Abbott. Once we get into position, head towards the square and set up a camera. Let’s get a look at the mess around the EP.”

***

As soon as the trucks pulled up, McKenzie and Abbott bailed out and headed towards the square. Neville pulled up the camera feeds on her tablet.

The feeds jostled and steadied as the cameras were emplaced. The square seemed empty. 

A sudden bang from the roof of the truck startled everyone and had them scanning, weapons out. Costello and Andrews searched the roof lines scanning with their machine guns. From the roof of the building behind them they could see a camouflaged arm waving slowly.

“Boss.” Andrews called. 

“What do you have?” Marcus asked.

“I think you need to see this.”

Marcus eased out of the truck and slid back alongside the rear vehicle. He looked up where Andrew was pointing.

“If they wanted to shoot us they could have. I guess they want to talk.”

“Neville? Is there anyone in here who should start conversations with us?” Marcus asked.

“The only autonomous people in here should be us and your other team. NPC’s should only react, never initiate. We may have found your team.” Neville answered.

“Here goes nothing.” Marcus muttered. “Cover me.” He said to Andrews.

Marcus stooped and grabbed a rock. He lobbed it underhand onto the roof of the building. Another rock sailed back towards him and landed near the truck.

“Sully?” Marcus stage whispered harshly.

“Marcus. Is that you? What the hell happened?” A voice called back.

“Sully, it’s me. I brought back up. Who’s with you? Can you move?”

“I’ve got my team. Martins, Jones, and Josephs. I lost contact with Cockburn and Gant when you and O’Reily disappeared. Coming down.”

Marcus keyed to the unit frequency and said, “Steady folks. Cover me.”

Marcus stepped out from the truck as the back door in the building across from them opened. Four figures dressed just like them spilled out in tactical formation. One of them looked straight at him and waved tersely. He spoke to them and they moved as a unit towards Marcus.

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As they got closer Marcus recognized the rest of his crew. Sgt. Sullivan Cpl. Jones Cpl. Martins and Cpl. Josephs .

The crew established positions crouching alongside the trucks as Sgt. Sullivan moved to Marcus.

“What the hell happened? Where did you go? How long have we been in here? Who are these guys?”, questions spilled out of Sgt. Sullivan as fast as he could talk.

“Whoa, whoa. Slow down.”, Marcus said waving his hands. “I don’t know what happened. They’re still figuring it out. Something about getting hacked. When the attack went sideways I got kicked out of the Sim along with O’Reilly. We had to figure it out and get a QRF organized to get back in. You guys have been in here three days. These guys are the new QRF. Go figure we didn’t think we need one because this is just VR.” Marcus answered.

“Three days? What the hell? Can’t you pull us out?” Sullivan asked.

“O’Reilly died coming out so we didn’t want to risk anyone else until we knew what was going on. Have you guys tried the EP’s?”

“O’Reilly… What the… Are we stuck here?”

“We don’t know. That’s why we’re here. We brought in a tech specialist. She’s looking at the code from the inside. We’ll figure it out. Have you tried the EP’s?”

“We haven’t been able to. Every time we get close to them they get mobbed. It seems like there’s a group or groups in here hunting us. They usually camp out near the EP’s, but they’ve taken to pursuing us. We’ve been looping back around to this EP because it’s the closest to our original site. We figured if anyone came for us they would start here.” Sullivan answered.

“Just a second.” Marcus held up his hand. “Neville come over here.”.

When Neville joined them, Marcus introduced Sullivan and said, “Sully now tell her everything you told me.”

After Sullivan had brought Neville up to speed, Marcus turned to her. “Does this make any sense, or are we just going mad in here?”

“Sgt. Sullivan, the groups that have been hunting you? Do they behave like soldiers or gamers? When you shoot them do they disappear and reappear or do they stick around? 

“Now that you mention it, they don’t act like us. Maybe like recruits? I guess they could be gamers? Some of them seem to know what they’re doing, But only at a few things. Like they’re good at sniping but not CQB. Or they’re good at rushing but marksmanship sucks.” Sullivan answered. “The ones that are chasing us also disappear after several hits. The others fall to the ground and stay at least until we lose sight of them.”

“That’s what I was afraid of.” Neville said. “It looks like there are actual gamers in here. They probably think it’s a training Sim. I’m not sure if they recognize that there are real people in here.” 

“How is that even possible? Aren’t we supposed to be secure?”

“I don’t know the answer to that. The Sandbox is linked to Special Ops Force Multiplier through some heavy firewalls. The Sim is connected to The Sandbox so if someone hacked into The Sandbox they may have kept going. It shouldn’t be possible, but here we are. It’s likely they think they’re playing in the developer’s playground without realizing what they’re actually doing.” Neville answered.

“Once The Sim was proven tech, we were going to pit actual Spec Ops teams against each other. That way we could level the training up much higher than fighting AI opponents. If that’s what was going on we would know it.”

“All right, enough shoptalk.” Marcus interrupted. “First let’s see about getting everyone home. Then we can figure out the hows and whys.”

“Neville? Are the mobs moving towards us? Or are they following Sully’s team?”

“I can’t tell who they are following. But several large mobs are moving towards us.”

“Can we outrun them in the trucks? Can we get to the EP’s before them?” Marcus asked. The noise from the square was getting louder.

“We can certainly outrun them. But if we all head for the EP’s and they don’t work we may end up trapped in the centre of the square surrounded by mobs. I don’t know what will happen if we get shot and die in VR. After what happened to Cpl O’Riley, no one knows for sure. I think we’re better off making a run for a more remote EP and arriving well ahead of the mobs. If we can’t do that, we’re better off drawing them away and leaving a small group to test the EP’s.”

“All right. Here’s the plan.” Marcus spoke quickly, “We load up in the trucks and hightail it out of here. We find a remote EP and try it. We get Sully’s people out first. If that doesn’t work, will try to establish communication with the outside. Sullivan and Jones hop in Truck Two. Martins and Josephs can ride in Truck One. If need be we’ll keep circling the EP’s trying each one in turn. If we get separated, we will run through them in numerical order. Keep an eye peeled for Cockburn and Gant along the way. If we haven’t found them by the time we get Sully and crew out, we’ll set up a rotation and keep searching for them.”

Nods and thumbs up all around told him everyone got the message.

“Everyone mount up. Neville, give Douglas directions to the next EP.”