Continue Online (Book 1, Memories) (57 page)

“
Our
deal's still on right? You’ll tell me about her?”

“
If
things continue as they have been, yes. Of course if you run away
tonight, then that will be a failure.”

I
saw a box appear with new quest details. Now, instead of a progress
bar, I simply had to make it to the end of this
[Maze of
Midnight]
. There was no percentage. Failure had been modified to
be all other actions.

“
That’s
easier.”

“
Thanks
for helping those kids, Mister Grant Legate.”

“
Maud?
Oh.” Right, Maud Voice of Orphans and Separated families. I
hadn’t even thought of what my actions did on that front. “Not
a problem. They’re good kids.”

Even
Phil, who constantly called me a geezer, seemed kindhearted under all
that. Maybe a little jaded by his situation, but still striving to do
a good job.

“
Are
you ready, Grant Legate?” James said as the other Voices faded
into the background.
“
Sure.
Let’s get the last act going.”

James
smiled as my dark room faded away. Moments later I woke up in the
body of William Carver. A small glowing lamp was off to one side and
a quill in my hand.

“
Mmmh.”

This
looked like Carver had already been writing notes. Writing had been
the exact plan for today’s Carver adventure at least
pre-midnight. How did the machine know what grand scheme had been in
my mind? I tilted my head to see an entire line of names. These
people were from William Carver's past. More than one had showed up
in my journals.

“
MMmh.”
I stood up and groaned a bit. Eventually, my body made it over to the
stack of journals in Carver's second room. They were not in the same
spot I had left them.

“
You
little punk.” My
[Messenger's
Pet]
had
likely been goofing around with things in Carver's house. Much the
same as it had in my ARC's Atrium.

Where
was he anyway? I hadn’t seen the little dragon for almost a
day. James had mentioned the
[Messenger's Pet]
might stop
hanging around if he got bored. Guess I was no longer entertaining.
Journal after journal went onto the table. Notes would be cross
referenced against the names. I had thumbed through them more than
once over the last few weeks of game time. Still, it wouldn’t
do for a man’s final farewells to be hacked together with no
feeling.

When
the guards showed up an hour later to see if I needed help down to
the beach they were met with a grunt and wave goodbye. When Wyl
himself showed up to both report on the two players and check on me,
I waved him off and handed him a letter. Even High Priestess Peach
wanted to have her say. I gave her a letter and made her promise on
Selena not to open it until tomorrow. Peach was concerned. Even
William Carver's nearsighted eyes could make it out.

All
of the remaining letters went to Phil. He snapped too smartly with an
imitation salute picked up from the town guards. Old Man Carver's
personality didn’t lend itself to obvious amusement so I kept
everything under wraps. The farewells were in good hands I thought.
Whatever mail system this world had would get them out, and hopefully
the Voices above would fill in the blanks.

I
wrote one final note for the man himself. Wild Willy. Mister Carver.
William, Old Man, Carver. These were in larger letters, slowly and
carefully put together. Words that had brought me some measure of
comfort when my fiancée had passed three years ago.

There
was a mirror in one room that I took nearly thirty minutes to unhook
from the wall and drag to a table. It was near nighttime now, two
hours from midnight. Phil would be outside soon to pick me up for
this final journey.

“
Carver.”
I licked dry lips and stared into the reflective surface. “I
don’t know if you’re in there. If you are, then I hope
I’ve done right by you.”

One
finger scratched at my scalp idly as the speech in my head fell
apart.

“
I’m
not a very good hero. I’ve never fought even half the things
you have.” Not in any game this immersing. Sure I had clicked
away monsters on computers decades ago. Those video game spiders
paled in comparison to Continue Online’s giant ones. I imagined
a dragon to be much worse.

“
I’m
going to do my best to give you the ending you deserve. Who knows.
Maybe when I get out of here I can ask you in our world.”

I
smiled at the sudden thought. Of course showing up out of the blue
would be a little tacky. Still, the Voices had said Carver was riding
along somewhere, and still alive. Trillium’s Second Player Helm
would be perfect for allowing him to do such a thing. It even worked
on a patient who was, as Leeroy had said, a ‘drooler’.

“
It’s
been something else. I’ve, uhh, never played a game like this.
It’s so real. And these people, even though they’re AIs,
they, really, really, and I mean really, care for you.” Even
the Jester was respectful, and that was super extra neat.

“
Anyway.
I wanted to say something myself, that it’s been an honor to be
you, uhh, and also the weirdest thing I’ve ever done. But, I
mean, I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride.”

“
Here.
This, this, uhh, helped me.” I blinked away the mopey mode my
mind was rapidly declining into. Death had never been easy for me to
be around, not since the train wreck. These words were spoken aloud
in case William Carver couldn’t focus on them.

“
As
a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well-spent brings
happy death.” I paused and let the silence settle for a moment.

“
It’s
supposedly said by Leonardo Da Vinci.” I shrugged. Whomever
Carver was in real life, he wasn’t old enough to have met
Leonardo, probably, most likely. This game had my brain all twisted
around.

“
So,
uhh, if half of your journals are true, if you’re even half
this driven in our world, I think you’ve spent your life well.”

“
So,
once more unto the breach, right Mister Carver?” I lifted the
cane in a poor salute and tried to straighten this curved spine out a
little. Finally, the myriad of emotions coursing through me got to be
too much. The cane lowered and out the door I went. Time to give this
man one last adventure.

Session
Sixteen - Maze Inspiration

Phil
was off doing who knows what while I was left to walk from Carver's
house to the hedge maze entrance. All four players were gathered in
the same spot as yesterday. Two were arguing about something that was
too difficult to hear from this far back. As I got closer it was
easier to tell who the talkers were right now.

“
That’s
what you’re bringing?” The older female said.

“
What?
I like this cloak.” Awesome Jr. was defending himself from
HotPants' aggressive opinions.

“
A
cloak. Seriously?”

“
Yeah,
I can swoosh it around and catch weapons or something. It makes me
harder to hit.” He moved the cloak around trying to give a good
example.

“
It
makes you harder to look at,” Shadow remarked.

I
said nothing and marched up to our meeting spot. We were outside a
row of bushes that lined the walkway. Yesterday’s
reconnaissance had shown it to be a basic maze for children. The kind
of thing you found at county fairs.

“
Are
we ready?” My voice came out gruffer than normal.

“
Sure
am. My stealth and speed went up by leaps last night. That guard
captain, Wyl, he’s a genius.”

“
He’s
a computer.”

“
Yeah,
how’d your near death go?” Shadow retorted HotPants.

“
Stupid
wolves. Really, they were worse than my neighbor's dogs.” Her
hands grasped tightly to the weapons at her side. both eyes narrowed
and stared into the distance.

“
Bet
it felt good hitting them.” The assassin responded.

“
You
shouldn’t hit dogs.” SweetPea was busy looking down at
her toes while muttering a defense.

“
You
tell me that kind of nonsense when they’re snarling in your
face. My heart must have skipped a few beats last night. At least in
here I don’t have to feel guilty about it.” HotPants was
a little bit less angry seeming today. Certainly she was far less
arrogant in both mannerisms and speech. The whole thing with Awesome
Jr.’s cloak was completely justified. It was an almost neon
green that made my old eyebrow twitch in annoyance.

“
You’ve
all done what you needed?” I tried to reign in my pack of
players. They had to have an attention disorder or they were
approaching this thing casually. They glanced at each other. Shadow
shrugged and nodded followed quickly by the others agreeing.

“
Good.
In the center of this maze is a gateway. That gateway goes to the
[Maze
of Midnight]
.
We have less than two hours to make it through the maze.” I,
William Carver, couldn’t afford to be casual.

“
Wait,
we have to go inside to find the door?” Shadow complained.
“Damn. I’d hope the maze door would be the actual door.”

“
It’s
not,” I said.

“
How
do you know?” Awesome Jr. asked while swooshing his bright
cloak around. My shoulders went up in a shrug. I knew because the
computer told me on a little piece of paper. All the secrets of this
town had been scribbled in location after location.

“
Oh,
it’s okay, I got this.” Shadow leapt on top of a bench
and yanked his light frame up onto the hedges. One hand sat above his
eyes to block out the streetlamp. He squinted into the distance.

“
Come
on, it’s dark, but I can guide us from here.”

“
Hey,
you’re not just a stupid wannabe ninja,” Awesome Jr. said
happily. Shadow glared but chose not to respond.

“
At
least he’s not wearing a barf cloak.” HotPants took the
lead with her staff at the ready.

“
Hey.
At least I can cook rice. Sort of.” Awesome Jr. had no problems
defending himself verbally.

“
Can
you share the recipe?” SweetPea said.

I
ignored them and followed after a bundle of washed reds. Her armor
jangled constantly. There was a guard that went up around her neck
which actually suited her, I think it was called a gorget. It was new
too, probably a reward from her patrol exercise.

“
So
a wolf nearly got you?” I was genuinely interested in how she
fared against the creatures of this world. Being attacked by one in
real life would cause me to flip out. Being attacked by an endless
amount with blood and guts everywhere had to be worse.