Chapter 8: Carl - Awakening

Walking, walking, walking. He had been walking for what could have been hours, days, or years. Always forward, always-

“Gah! What the fuck?”

The landscape was black and charred, the sky as gray as his eyes, the-

“It’s okay, it’s okay… I think, anyway...”

His mind was as blank as the landscape itself. Until, at some unknown point-

“Hey! Snap out of it!”

-he walked into the clearing.

Error: Lack of Context detected. Alleviating…

The thoughts were vast in number, inscrutable in content. An entire language, building itself from-

“Oh wow, I guess he is waking up… was I really like this, just yesterday?”, said a voice. A… woman’s, voice.

“You were, I’m afraid… and I think I was too, at one point.”, said another voice. A man’s voice, this time.

And then, a third voice. His own voice.

Carl’s voice.

“Guuuh. That was… not fun. Where are we? Did I make it? Did I make it to… wherever I was walking? Wait, why WAS I walking…”

The man – the *other* man – gave a wry smile. “It’s okay, man. We were walkers too, once upon a time. I don’t quite know where ‘here’ is, but… you made it.”

Carl sighed in relief. “Oh, good… I was walking for… I-“

The woman interrupted: “You don’t even know how long?”

Carl’s eyes widened. “Y-yeah! Exactly! You too, huh? We in some kind of, I dunno, club or something? Walking Association? I mean, I understand getting our steps in, but hoo boy, I think we took it too far… ended up all the way in… Hey, where is this place, anyway?”

The man was still smiling. “Yeah, like I said, we don’t really know *where* we are… but you’re in good company.”

The woman chuckled. “For certain values of ‘good’, yeah. And the company’s about all you can say for this place, considering the total fucking lack of everything else.”

Carl chuckled, despite himself. This lady was kinda spicy. He liked her. “Alright, so we walked into the middle of nowhere. Black stone, grey skies… and little in the way of signposts. What do you guys think, how do we get out of here?”

The man shook his head. “I don’t think it’s that simple, buddy. See that mist, over there? It’s where we all walked in from. It surrounds us, 360 degrees, 24/7.”

Carl grimaced. “Yikes, hard pass on going back in there… so, what, we wait for rescue, then? Put up a big ‘HELP’ sign?”

The woman slapped her head. “I didn’t think about that! Fuck, rescue! Adam, why didn’t we do that?”

The man – Adam – shook his head. “Again, not that simple. There is someone, or something, that knows we are here already. And it doesn’t care to rescue us. At best, it might give us the tools to rescue ourselves… but we’ll need to work hard for them.”

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Carl frowned. “The heck are you talking about?”

The woman sighed. “Yeah, yeah, you’re right… there’s these fucking stupid things called Trials, alright?”

Carl waited for more of an explanation. After a little bit, the woman continued by just saying, “Ask. Ask what a Trial is.”

Carl blinked. “Uh… what’s a Trial?”

Name: Carl

Trials Taken: 0

Trials Available:

-Equipment Trial (Rank I)

-Technique Trial (Rank I)

-Refreshment Trial (Rank I)

-Rank Up Trial (Rank I => 2)

Carl blinked rapidly to try and get the words out of his eyes. They weren’t real words, though, they were just… there. In his mind. He could see them, he could hear them, he could freaking… taste them if he felt like it. Not that he did.

“Okay, yeah, that… sure is something. Definitely not something that could happen by accident. So, someone put us here? And wants us to do these… things, these Trials. Are they fun, at least?”

The woman shook her head no, while at the same time Adam nodded. Then, they looked at each other. “No, Adam, they are not ‘fun’. They are *necessary*, but ‘fun’? Come on…”

Adam smiled ruefully. “Admit it, Beth, they’re a *little* fun. When you did that Bow and Arrow trial, Dodge-ing and weaving through the enemy attacks, I bet you were having fun…”

Carl noticed that the woman – Beth, apparently - did, in fact, have a bow in one hand and a quiver full of arrows strapped to her waist.

She scowled at Adam. “Getting fucking shot at with arrows isn’t fun, man! What’s wrong with you?”

Adam shook his head. “The attacks aren’t fun, but using your skills to take the attacks? Or even avoid them entirely, like you do? I dunno, *I* think it’s fun…”

Beth sighed. “Well, new guy, that’s basically our whole fucking… dynamic, I guess. I think the Trials are dangerous, this big lug thinks they’re fun, even when a simple race around the clearing can give you a concussion…”

Adam looked like he was going to interrupt, but Beth continued.

“Buuut we *do* have to do them to get basically anything around here. Weapons, skills, other stuff too.”

Carl frowned. “Skills? What do you mean ‘skills’? Like, the Trials help you practice things?”

Beth shook her head. “They do, but that’s not what I meant. You’ll see. What kind of fighting style do you think you have?”

Carl blinked quickly. “Okay, that is definitely a weird question!”

Beth nodded. “Fair, fair. It is weird by the standards of… wherever we came from, but it’s very important around here. Trials seem to be based on combat, especially the big one that Adam did.”

Adam nodded. “Yeah, the Rank Up Trial says you need to ‘prove yourself in combat’, so even though it seemed to be personalized to me, I think everyone here needs to get at least a little good at fighting. I, for one, focus on fast-paced swordsmanship.”

Beth nodded. “He does indeed… meanwhile, since I’m not a meathead, I have a Dodgeing skill, a bow for range, and then just before you showed up, I snagged a dagger for if anything closes the distance.”

To prove her point, the woman twirled a small but sharp-looking knife in her hands. How had Carl not noticed that before?

Carl thought for a bit. “What do other people have as their fighting styles?”

Beth gave him a flat look. “’Other people’? WHAT other people?”

Carl frowned. “You mean… it’s just you two, out here? I thought you were just the, I don’t know, welcome wagon!”

Adam shook his head. “No, no one else. Though, I do have a suspicion that that will be changing pretty soon…”

Beth’s head snapped over to look back at Adam. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Adam paused for a while. “I don’t have an exact count of the hours… but between all the timers between the different Trial cooldowns… I think you walked in here approximately 24 hours after I first started doing Trials. Then, basically right around a day after *you* walked in…”

Beth’s eyes widened. “This guy shows up? Fuck, man, you think we’re gonna have a new person every day? That’s… insane! We’ll be overrun! The clearing is big, but it’s not *that* big!”

Adam shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. I do think that, at a minimum, there will be 6 people. The Group Trial says it can hold up to 5 people, and while I thought it might be a mistake, well…”

Beth held her head in her hands. “Uggg, I don’t want to have to greet new people all the time…”

Carl spoke up. “Well, I wouldn’t mind taking over that job… at least until I, you know, figure out my fighting style, or something? I don’t remember much from before getting here, but I think I would like to talk to people. My name’s Carl, by the way.”

Adam smiled. “Nice to meet you, Carl. I’m Adam, and this is Beth, but you probably already figured that out. Glad to have you on the team.”

Beth threw up her hands. “OH, so we’re a fucking *team* now… greaaat…”

Carl chuckled. He didn’t quite understand what was going on around here, but he liked knowing that he wouldn’t have to wait here alone.