Raine VS The End of the World (18 page)

But reports had been sent of android and human armies gathering in neighboring countries, crossing hundreds of miles of wasteland in majestic airships. Though spies were getting harder to come by, months-old accounts detailed massive metal suits under development. Since joining the troublesome EDC, Lily had amassed a small aerial fleet and annexed a few worn-down bases in the East, but their numbers were nothing to be feared. Even so, many tons of precious war material had gone unaccounted for over the past years, evidence that androids and warships were being built off the record in distant factories.

Was Lily trying to use the Queen’s toys against her own deadly armada, not to mention an impregnable fortress where every innocent civilian could be turned into a soldier with the push of a button? These absurd ideas needed to be investigated, and one more reset would do less harm to the universe than what the so-called Sky Admiral had in mind.

Finally at ease with her convictions, Lorelei pulled up a chair beside the tub.

“Claire…” Lacie mumbled incoherently.

“Your domestic companions are fine. To them, you left just this morning. You’re better off waiting a little before you see them again. Please,” she said. “I’ve sent for your favorite physician. You look horrible; we’ll talk later.”

The sad thought that she would have to wait to see Claire was physically painful enough to fully wake Lacie.

“No, Lorrie. I must… tell you now,” she pressed. “I arrived… too late… All our Eastern detectors… jammed ‘til the end.
.
Tracking their advance will be all but impossible. It may have already begun, and we are nearly out of the fuel cells. If we are to do something…”

Lorelei leaned over to put her hands on Lacie’s shoulders.

“Calm now, sis. Calm first. You must rest a minute.”

Lacie nodded and closed her eyes.

Exactly one minute passed. At long last, Lorelei inched forward and steeled her gaze.

“What news do you bring from the future?”

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”

– Philip K. Dick

Gerrit grabbed Raine’s hand before she cleared the surface.

“There’s something I have to tell you before we go up there.”

“What is it?”

“It won’t be safe. They surely know we’re coming out this tunnel. The Devs must be aware I’m an anarchist, and if that’s why they’re after you, then you must deny that you know me. You have to let me protect you.”

“I told you, I never asked for your protection,” she pouted.

“I’m not just trying to be a gentleman here! Can’t you see? You’re being hunted. That fissure in the ground… that’s not the kind of thing that happens by accident.”

Raine considered this.

“Well, I guess that’s obvious enough. That thing chased me around the desert. So you think someone’s trying to trap me? Or kill me?”

“Yes, and if that thought doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what will, Raine. There’s powerful people after you!”

She led him out towards the spot of daylight at the end of the tunnel, arms crossed in thought.

“Well, if this is all my dream, like I think it is, then nothing can hurt me, and I won’t let anything hurt you, either. And if it’s all just a game, like you said, and we can’t die, there’s nothing to fear.”

Gerrit scratched his head at this brutal massacre of logic.

There was a time when I thought I could reason with girls,
he reflected.
No longer.

“Not exactly. There are strictly enforced rules, though most turn a blind eye. And there’s much worse they can do to you. You can be put in confinement, forced into a reboot and lose your memories, or, heavens forbid, you could be frozen.”

“Frozen?”

“It’s the worst sort of punishment. Word is they hold you in a suspended state for a certain period of time. It could be days, months, even years. You might never come back. Supposedly they only do it to real threats, like players infected with unfixable viruses. But it’s probably more common than we’d ever know.”

“That’s pretty scary,” Raine said as they left the tunnel and found themselves in a thick forest. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath of fresh air. “But it’s not going to happen to me.”

Sword drawn and spells at the ready, Gerrit was at his wits’ end. Raine ventured blindly into the darkening wood with reckless abandon.

“We really shouldn’t be here. This place is far beyond your skill level. There’s all sorts of beasties running about.”

"Live a little, Gerrit," she said as Chance ran about and flexed his wings, happy to be out in even dimmed sunshine. "You told me yourself, this world is just an illusion."

"You may think you know that as a fact, but your brain still sees it as real. I don't want you to get hurt. Here, I know a place with a teleport. Clyde’s just a hop, skip, and jump away."

“I’m not going back there,” insisted Raine, rather matter-of-factly. “My destination is Atmoya. Sector Nine.”

“That’s where you think you’ll find Super BlastBoy? At the monument?”

She nodded.

“Like I said, you can’t teleport anywhere near there. It’s a War zone.”

“Oh, there’s no rush. Not if I sleep in a bit.”

Chance flew by their side, and surprised both of them by snapping up a flying insect with an overlong tongue. He cast fiery spells to force their way through thick growths clogging the seldom-used pathways.

“I like your cat,” he opined.

“Thanks.”

“Leave the visor work to me; yours isn’t patched yet.”

Gerrit slipped on a pair of aviator goggles and took the lead, following a detailed mini-map. Raine reluctantly tailed him, eyes wandering at the strange flora and fauna. Sprites and wisps flew hither and thither, softly chiming at the duo along the path. Chance pounced on one, and it led him in circles around the forest until he tired himself out.

Along the way, they encountered a few wild zombie baboons, which Gerrit swiftly dispatched with a combination of swordplay and minor spells.

They broke their stride for a modest lunch by an idyllic lake and skipped a few stones, an act that ended when Raine realized that far across on the opposite shore, the deer were too frightened to drink. Then they sat and watched them for a bit; the animals looked incredibly real for products of a virtual dream world.

Raine had advanced to level two, earning a few skill points from her social interactions with other players.

After learning that she had no idea how to allocate her skill points, Gerrit showed Raine how to access her upgrade menus with a scrolling finger motion over her watch. These were promptly assigned to slots increasing her speed, magic, and magic defense.

She chose to assign various attack and defense shortcuts to specific bodily gestures, and found that the system helped guide her through the follow-through movements.

As she performed several attacks, Raine felt a hypnotizing pull of the power she could now beckon with mere poses, and understood how easily people grew addicted to it. Still, a part of her couldn’t help but feel uneasy that she was giving control of her body over to the system.

It was nearly dark when the pair arrived near a quaint little town, although the clearing between the redwoods was large enough to allow the place a bright golden hue at sunset. Two miles out, an absurdly large tower cast its shadow over them.

“We’ll stay here for the night,” Gerrit said, wiping sweat off his brow. “Mistral’s got a duel-based economy, but for loot hunters, there’s no questions asked. First off, we need to sort out a few things.”

A very serious look took shape on his face as he approached her, a little closer than she was comfortable with.

He pulled out a pair of clip-on earrings and offered them to Raine in the outstretched palm of his hand.

“Would it be cool if you wore these?”

Raine’s stomach knotted up.
Is he seriously giving me a present?

“Um…”

“Just say yes,” he said, his expression relaxing a bit, just enough for her to know that he meant business. “Please.”

Raine clipped the earrings on.

“You don’t look half bad in ‘em,” Gerrit mouthed, only the sound emerging from his lips was quiet and faint. A small chirp announced the presence of text in her peripheral vision.

[NinjaMageKnight99]: They can’t see this. Neat, huh? Send me a message. It’s easy. Look to the menu on the bottom right corner of your vision and wink at the smiley face. Pick me from your Friends list. Then clearly visualize the words in your mind one by one. To start again, think ‘Clear Message’. When you’re happy with the text, think ‘Send Message Now’.

While she composed her reply, Raine couldn’t help but notice that her own mouth had begun moving on its own, the words coming out of it being produced by something other than her own mind.

[rainorshine23]: Er… Testing. How does this work exactly?

[NinjaMageKnight99]: It’s a Private Channeler. Discreet communications. The Developers can eavesdrop on system-approved private chats. Your earrings connect with a small chip in my necklace. Our artifacts allow personal instant messages while preset dialogue creates the illusion that you and I are having a completely different conversation. I think this one is about the local insects.

Raine was thoroughly impressed. She listened closely to herself asking Gerrit odd facts about hornets and how she saw quite a few of them today. It was a little out of character, but hopefully not enough to draw suspicion.

Next, Gerrit reached into his pack and pulled out a strange cream-colored mask of a smiling man.

[NinjaMageKnight99]: I’m lending you my Guy Fawkes mask. It will hide your face and username and encrypt your location. It should buy us some time. Be warned that it’s going to feel weird at first.

Raine nodded her assent, legs weak and knees knocking. She took the mask and placed it on her face. She felt her facial muscles contort, her hair shrink, and her body increase slightly in size.

Gerrit studied the results carefully.

“Not bad,” he conceded.

“I want to see!” Raine drew the hand mirror from her shoulder bag and nearly dropped it upon seeing her reflection. She resembled a teenage punk rocker, with cropped pink hair and nose and lip piercings. After a few speechless seconds it became apparent that Gerrit was waiting for her to say something.

[rainorshine23]: This is weird! Who… who am I?

[NinjaMageKnight99]: You’re no one. The mask creates an anonymous identity for you. It’s easy to take off, and in order to avoid detection by the Templars’ security algorithms, its effects only last one day. Tomorrow, you’ll be someone else. Here, let me program in your temporary username. How does Aneira_042 sound? We’ll pretend your name’s Neira.

Raine nodded her assent, though she didn’t like this one bit. Would she have to live every day here pretending she was someone else? She made a mental note to try and lucid dream her way out of it, but the girl had the distinct feeling this was beyond her power to change.

“Hopefully you won’t have to do this for long,” Gerrit said, as if reading her mind.

She wasn’t sure if she believed him.

[NinjaMageKnight99]: Those Developers don’t have infinite resources. Over time, if we keep low and things quiet down, there’s a good chance they’ll stop chasing you. And if they don’t, I’ll make them.

He took her hand and walked towards the town.

Raine tried not to show it, but she felt a real weight lifting from her heart.

“Two beds, please,” Gerrit asked the innkeeper, and went off to join Raine in the tavern for some dinner.

By the warm fireplace, they had delicious salmon with some ginger beer, and listened merrily to the comedy troupe lighting up the homely stage. Most of the other patrons were hardened adventurers accustomed to seeing the same faces day in and day out, and the young couple’s presence lit up the room.

“This place is wonderful,” Raine whispered to Gerrit. Although the tavern was loud and the people boisterous, neither had trouble hearing the other.

Under the table, Chance munched on his filet, curled up against Raine’s feet.

Even Gerrit allowed himself to relax. As far as first dates go, this one wasn’t so bad. Of course, sooner or later he’d have to tell Raine why he was following her. But right now, none of that mattered. Her gentle eyes were the only two things on his mind. As they held each other’s gaze, smiling, Raine started up in shock.

Huh. A déjà vu. Or was it?
She tried to look objectively at the situation, to see if it was at all familiar. Parts of it were. The warm fire. The seafood.

And the boy in front of me… could it be? Is this the prince from my recurring memory? Curse it, why can’t I remember his face? Am I losing my mind that fast?

“Raine? Want a refill on the ginger beer?”

“Oh, sure. I’ll be right back.”

She excused herself to use the restroom. The girl washed her face and stared down her unfamiliar reflection in the mirror.

He’s Gerrit. He’s a good guy. Not your dream boy. Dream boy doesn’t exist. Say it.

Lifting her hand, she placed it against the one belonging to her doppelganger.

“Your other dream boy doesn’t exist, Raine. But let’s give this one a chance.”

“I agree,” the doppelganger replied. “He might be a hallucination and a bit of a stalker, but he’s all right.”

When the comedy troupe finished their act, a band came onstage and played a merry set. Raine laughed as the crowd turned into a bouncing blob of bodies, but Gerrit took her hand and they went and made fools of themselves on the dance floor.

The girl’s gentle green eyes were still on Gerrit’s mind as he soaked in the hot tub late that night, finished up the day’s regulated school work lest he have a scholar reprimand him, dressed into a modest sleeping outfit, and stood guard outside the door as his companion took a most refreshing shower.

Chance continued to keep Raine’s feet warm as she lay awake. Gerrit had shown her how to activate the holographic display on the domed ceiling with a wave of her arm, and she wished she could spend the whole night lying in bed, surfing through the various channels – the night sky filled with stars, a mood-lit aquarium, the view from the bridge of a spaceship, and many more.

Turning to her side, facing Gerrit’s silhouette through the fuzzied divider, she mouthed a simple “thank you.”
Raine took off the mask and prepared for a sound sleep.

This time, she begged and pleaded with fate.

If this is still just a dream, please let me stay here, at least for one more day.

On second thought, don’t take me back.

I don’t ever want to go back.

That night, she dreamt both everything, and nothing.

♥

Raine woke with a start, and lost all dream recall. The room still wasn’t Agnes’ condo. And Gerrit was gone.

Chance had nudged her awake, purring with a sense of immediacy. In his mouth was the strange mask. Raine didn’t quite understand until she heard a loud banging. She slipped it on just in time, for the door burst open and Raine, now fully disguised, sprung up in shock at two men in the midst of battle.