“Twinkies,” insisted Sharkie.

“But those aren’t even real baked goods!” Manuele responded, frustratedly grabbing at his hair. “Uh!”

“Sorry, Karen, they’ll always be my fav.”

Manuele rolled his eyes and loudly sighed.

“What?” Sharkie challenged. “You’re allowed to like your bombo-donuts—”

“They’re not donuts!”

“…and insist they’re not donuts,” she finished with a smile. “So, I can say my favorite is Twinkies.” She crossed her arms.

“Fine,” Manuele darkly agreed.

“So,” she concluded, “the bet is: most monster kills today, wins their favorite dessert.” Then after a pause, she clarified, “Ya know, whenever we get outa here.”

“Fine.” Manuele rolled his eyes.

He was getting really good at those eye rolls. So, Sharkie figured she must be having a good influence. This was their fourth day of hiking after all.

They had started out going west, that first day, but quickly realized that they needed to veer south to avoid, what she had been calling, ‘The Question Mark Marsh.’ It had these giant swamp-monstery things that were Level ???.

Manuele had wanted to call it something cooler, like ‘The Monster Muck’ or ‘The Bog of Beasts.’ Eventually, the map revealed it was called ‘The Deadly Marsh.’ Seemed accurate, since those things definitely wanted to eat them for lunch. But Sharkie still liked her name better.

It had taken them all morning to skirt that marsh. After the first—whatever that fricking thing was—chased them, they made sure to keep a healthy distance from the wetland. It did give them the idea to start running more though. And that was a whole other weird experience.

Sharkie was a runner, so she knew what it should feel like. She was in good shape, but this was different. When she ran it felt like she could run forever. And then, all of a sudden, it would stop. Her legs wouldn’t go. She’d have to wait a minute or two for them to work again.

So, Sharkie and Manuele adopted a walk-run-walk-run approach to their travel and eventually discovered a farm. They actually did discover it. They got some sort of ‘first to discover’ notification that awarded a butt-load of XP. It shot them both right up to Level 5.

The farm was pretty uneventful otherwise. There was a farmer-looking man inside who told them to come back when they’ve ‘become more powerful’—higher level, maybe. He’d said something like, “I’ll need your help then!” and “The blah blah mist is getting worse, blah blah.”

Sharkie was all, “Okay dude, see ya later. Blah blah. Peace!” At least she thought that’s how it went. Close enough. It certainly sounded right when she replayed it all in her head.

After that, Sharkie and Manuele had hopped over the stream in behind the farmhouse. Manuele liked the look of the meadow on the other side. He’d called it ‘pretty,’ and argued for a more scenic hike. Sharkie had caved, rolling her eyes.

Then she’d laughed her ass off when his ‘pretty’ meadow turned out to be full of fuzzy spider monsters, the size of dogs. Some scenic hike! It worked out in the end though; they were levels five through seven and awarded decent XP.

Fighting through that field had reminded her of shooter games, where you get in the zone. Spider, spider, spider. Spider, spider, spider. Everything else had faded away—for a time—until she spotted the Hollywood sign perched along the steeply sloping terrain to their right. It looked real. She’d just stopped and stared. After that, Sharkie gave up trying to figure out what or where this place was.

That first day they had walked ‘till they dropped—literally. That’s when they learned that there’s an opposite to the rested buff from the tent. Notifications about something called ‘weariness’ started popping up, but they didn’t really make sense. And then, all of a sudden, they were sprawled on the ground and it was the next morning.

Sharkie had tried to stand up and was greeted by an insanely sharp pain in her left arm. It might have been broken. She was hella glad for her Shadow Mend skill—and that she wasn’t in a pack of monsters, off a cliff, or at the bottom of some lake. Her free diving was good but, who knew if it even counted for anything in this place. So, after that first fun experience, they made sure to find a safe spot to end each day.

And now, after four days of all that, Sharkie felt like they’d found their groove. The ‘first to discover’ thing was really working to their benefit and, today, they were exploring south, along a sandy shoreline. It seemed like they were finally getting close to the edge of the map. Sharkie wanted to see what would happen when they reached it.

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Maybe it’ll lead to a new area, she’d guessed. Maybe Preserve number two. It was worth a shot at least.

Manuele was in storytelling mode again, as they padded along the wet sand under a gray clouded sky. Sharkie wasn’t a big fan of beaches, but she did appreciate a good tiki bar. There were none of those in sight.

“This one time, Maria made this pudding dessert,” he was saying. “We were having dinner with my nonna, and oh my gosh!” He put his hands to his cheeks. “The look on Nonna’s face when she handed it to her. Like, ‘What is this?’ but trying to be polite.” He continued hand-talking. “I had suggested to Maria, maybe not the pudding, but she said it was her specialty. And what do I know?” He laughed. “They both made it through dinner alive, but thank god for the wine!” He grinned.

Sharkie returned a smile in acknowledgment.

“Tell me about your life, Ash,” Manuele requested. “I always share mine.”

“There’s nothing really to tell.” She shrugged.

“Oh, come on!” he egged.

“What?”

“Like, do you have a boyfriend?” he asked.

She didn’t respond.

“Girlfriend?” he tried.

“No.” She rolled her eyes. “There have been some guys, but I travel a lot.”

“Oooooh,” he replied with interest. “Where have you been?”

“All over the place. It’s for work,” she explained with a shrug.

“And?”

“And what?” She really didn’t like to get personal. Nothing good came from that.

“Come on…” he encouraged.

“So, how about that desert yesterday?” Sharkie changed the subject.

“I say we call it The Robo-desert. Or The Mechanical Mojave! That’s the name of a desert, right?” He paused, looking for a reaction from Sharkie. “The Robot Sands? Come on. And don’t think I didn’t notice what you did there.”

She smirked. They had followed that edge of desert almost all of the way to the shore. It was guarded by more triple question marks but, this time, in the form of some sort of killer robots. She shrugged and kept walking down the shore.

Sharkie could taste the salt in the air and something about that felt like home. Yes, her apartment was in Seattle, and that was on the coast, but the ocean—that was home. She looked out at the water, listening to the faint sound of gulls and rolling waves. Sharkie took a deep breath and closed her eyes for just a moment.

We’ve almost found the edge.

They soon rounded a bay, and there looked to be a small white house up ahead. As they got closer, Sharkie spied cute little window boxes with orange marigolds blooming inside. Despite the flowers, the place looked austere against the gray sky.

“It could be a good place to overnight,” she said, nodding toward the building. “If we have to double back.”

She hoped they didn’t, but opened her map to note the location just in case. She started when she saw that the bay was named ‘Michael.’ “Um, keep an eye out for explosives.”

“Huh?”

A few minutes later, Sharkie rapped on the navy blue door of the house. No answer. A low-lying green fog rolled around the building and towards the water. She watched it swirl as she waited. They’d been walking through it for a while now, but its bright shade was more noticeable against the whitewashed siding. It seemed to lap against the building like waves against the shore.

“I guess we go in?” Manuele suggested. “Is it locked?”

“One way to find out!” Sharkie poked her head inside. “Hello? Anyone home?”

“I promise we’re friendly,” Manuele added.

No answer.

They stepped through the door.

It opened onto a living room, charming in a minimal kind of way. There was a cozy fire crackling across from an inviting blue couch. The floor was smooth wood, whitewashed like the exterior, and a soft brown rug covered most of the room.

“Yeah, this could work,” she said.

“If no one’s here…” Manuele asked slowly, “then who lit the fire?”

“Okay, that is strange,” she admitted.

They searched the rest of the house and found it empty. Deciding it was a good option to come back to—if needed—they headed back out to the beach. And when the way soon became blocked by cliffs, they backtracked inland and found a mountain pass.

They fought a few zombie alpacas as the terrain led them steadily uphill. Sharkie was winning their bet. It helped that she could get a shot or two in, with her bow, before they got to her. Manuele had to sprint in before he could attack with his swords.

Unfair advantage? Nope. Fair is fair. They chose their classes.

Sharkie guessed it was early afternoon when they reached the mountain meadow. It was hard to tell on such a dreary day, but they had covered a lot of ground. She wondered if it might rain. The combination of dark sky and lush green created a surreal, earthy warmth, brightened by dots of white and yellow wildflowers.

“For you!” Manuele said, presenting Sharkie with a tiny yellow flower.

It looked like a buttercup. Sharkie brought it to her nose and inhaled a grassy aroma. “Why thank you, good sir.” She gave Manuele a mock bow and presented him with a white bloom. “And for you.”

“For me?” Manuele replied, aghast, one hand on his chest.

“Of course!” She smiled.

“Well, thank you.” He smiled and then fell back on his ass.

Sharkie started laughing at him and then found herself struggling for balance too. She had banged into something hard but what? She stepped forward again and banged her knee. It smarted like she’d hit her funny bone.

“Fudge!” she yelled. Then, recovering, she turned and helped Manuele stand.

Manuele reached forward to inspect the invisible thing, then started pounding on it with his fists. “Let us in!” he yelled. “Let us in!”

Sharkie poked at whatever it was. “What the heck?” It felt cold, like a windowpane, but she couldn’t see any glass. Sharkie checked the map. This was the spot.

They followed the barrier across the entire width of the meadow. Sharkie even climbed up the rocks a little on the far side. The invisible wall was there too; it just extended up, and up. They had found the edge of the map, and it was utterly disappointing. It was just some weird artificial end.

“Where is Maria?!” Manuele yelled at the dark sky. He sounded desperate and Sharkie worried he might cry. She didn’t know how to deal with that.

“We’ll find her, man,” Sharkie promised quietly.

It started to rain.