~‌‌ ‌‌2.12 ‌‌-‌‌ 7 Days Left to Die ~‌‌

Duskgrove Prison

4th Lightday of the Full Moon

Flea awoke to the four bells in the distance. He sprang out of bed with a start, only to fall face-first into the wooden floor of the cabin. As he groaned and slowly picked himself up, the Gnome looked around. He had heard only four bells; it had to be close to noon then.

How long have I slept? And how the hell did I get back to the surface? No way Bob carried me. Wait, where is Bob?

Looking around the cabin, he found it void of anyone else. Gathering himself, he left the cabin to find Bob or Uglar and get some answers. He would then eat Turtle Titan Pie till he threw up; he was insanely hungry. The Gnome found Uglar first. The Beastkin was sitting at the campfire writing things down on his makeshift clipboard. Uglar spotted his approach and began to speak.

“Hope you learned a valuable lesson yesterday, Gnome.”

“To bring better potions, or not to get bitten in the first place?”

Uglar stared at Flea for a few moments.

“Do you not understand what happened to you?”

“Yea, perfectly. I got poisoned, then I used a health potion. The potion wasn’t strong enough, so it battled with the centipede’s venom. I ended up passing out from the after-effects of the combination.”

“Nay, that’s not what happened. If you had used anything better than a Lesser Health Potion, you would have more than likely died on the spot.”

“What? That doesn’t make sense; explain, please.”

“You were poisoned. Using a health potion did heal you, but it also boosted the centipede’s venom as well. Health potions put your body and cells into overdrive, multiplying, and fixing any issues within the body. Almost all venom and poisons are organic in nature. The potion pushed that venom into overdrive as well, spreading further into your body. A body which waged war with itself and the venom. Adventurers are taught to use an antidote before a healing potion to avoid this issue. If it wasn’t for Bob going into town and buying an antidote, we would have had to wait for your body to slowly eat itself away.”

Flea opened his mouth to speak, then closed it. He just stood there in thought for a few moments.

“Shit,” Flea finally said.

“Aye, sums it up pretty well.”

“Who helped me back to the cabin?”

“Shin went into the cave to pick you up at Bob’s request. I helped get you into the cabin.”

“Thank you for your help. I’ll have to thank Shin later.

“Oh, don’t worry about Shin. Bob ran an errand for him, so he’ll be happy for a week at a minimum.”

“Do I want to know what kind of errand?”

“Probably not.”

“Do you know where Bob is currently?”

“Aye, inside the cave practicing with his new toy. It hadn’t gone too well for him yesterday.”

“Bow?”

“Aye.”

“Oh, here is today’s quota before I forget.”

Flea handed him the twenty iron for the day.

“I’ll probably start mining once more tonight. Thanks for all your help again, Uglar.”

Flea walked into the mine’s entrance but didn’t see his companion. The Gnome walked the fifteen minutes down to the large cavern and found Bob there. He had created a makeshift archery range out of what looked like hay and leather. White and red circles were painted on the stretched leather covering the hay bundles.

Getting closer, Flea noticed Bob was now wearing a light blue leather vest, greyish leather pants, and a large leather bracer covering his right arm. He had red boots and what looked like a red silk scarf around his neck.

“Nice armor, buddy.”

“Flea! You’re finally awake. I was so worried about you. I had no idea what to do if you were stuck sleeping much longer.”

“Well, I’m good to go now, thanks to you. How’re your skills with the bow coming?”

Bob looked at the target, then back to Flea. In one swift motion, he grabbed an arrow from his quiver, nocked it, pulled the string back to his face, turned towards the hay bundles, and released. The arrow stuck into the center of a target. The cat turned back to Flea and grinned.

“Alright, an AI that loves to show off. Color me surprised. I need to log off and join the land of the living for a bit. So going to have to interrupt your practice for a few hours.”

“I need more arrows when we come back.”

“Didn’t I buy you four hundred?”

“Affirmative, but they are starting to break after shooting them over and over.”

“How many times have you shot your bow?”

“28,562 times.”

“Have you been practicing for the past day nonstop?”

“I have. I took a break to meet up with Zan and the others yesterday, then went into town to pick up my armor. While there, I bought the hay bundles, leather, and paint. I’ve been practicing since then.”

“Not needing sleep must be nice.”

Chicago, IL

Friday, July 4th

As Kyle left his apartment, he could hear and see fireworks going off for miles around him. Walking to the transit hub, he occasionally stared up into the sky, watching the multi-colored light show surrounding him.

“Even with the advancements in technology, humans still love their fireworks.”

[I can see the appeal. The mathematical patterns and colors are pleasing to the optical input. Though I could do without the thundering noise that follows.]

Kyle entered The NeXus and made a beeline for the cafe’s food counter, where he found Shaun’s mother.

“Hello, Terica. Happy 4th of July. What do you have for us Morlocks coming to the surface today?”

“As it’s the 4th, Shaun Sr. pulled the smoker from storage out back. We have pork chops and brisket today.”

“Would love some brisket, please, and two bottles to go with it.”

“Coming up.”

Moments later, she had a large to-go box with two bottles of his favorite root beer ready for him.

“Jr. tells me you’re spending all your time in Fantasy. How’s that going for you?”

“Terrible, I’m currently in prison for a misunderstanding and will probably be in there for a while longer.”

“Oh, well, prison will toughen you up. Women love those bad boys,” Terica said with a smirk.

“Oh, don’t start. Worry about your biological son and the girl he’s seeing.”

“I do worry. They spend all their time in the pods. It’s not like I have to worry about any surprise grandkids. Shaun tested positive for the virus in high school. Our line ends with him, I’m afraid.”

“Bah, they’ll figure it out. It’s been less than ten years. By the time Shaun is responsible enough to have kids, they’ll have a cure.”

“Wow, don’t have much trust in our scientists?”

“Wait; what?”

“You said by the time he’s responsible enough.”

“Oh, yea. Ok before he’s, say thirty?”

“I could live with that. I would love some grandkids. I figured I’d just have to settle for yours.”

“Ha, as I said. Don’t start!”

Kyle, with his treasure of food and root beer in hand, started walking around the cafe. They had finished expanding into the old dry cleaner store next door, adding a fleet of new pods. All of them seemed to be currently full. He couldn’t find Shaun or Julie among the seating areas, so he assumed they were playing Fantasy.

Grabbing a spot on one of the loveseats in the main lounge area, he ate his food while briefly watching the screen. About halfway through his meal, someone behind him said to turn to another channel for an Outbreak announcement. That got Kyle’s attention.

Another person yelled into the air to change the channel to 2261. The cafe’s AI called out a vote, and everyone around the screen yelled out aye. The channel was changed three seconds later.

“Today, I have a special announcement coming from Shattered Helix that contains the release date and more details for Outbreak, their zombie survival game,” the game caster said.

The screen went black, and the original Outbreak preview was played. Kyle spotted nothing new from the last time he had seen it. As the trailer finished, Kyle could hear multiple screams, and then just as the screen faded to black, the Outbreak title popped onto the screen.. Below it, 22:00 July 11, 2087, glowed bright red before dimming to the same red color as the Outbreak logo. Moments later, the screen changed back to the game caster.

“Well, everyone. It looks like we have exactly seven days before we can start playing. We have obtained the press release from Shattered Helix, and I will now share its contents with all of you.”

“As the video illustrated, everyone can log into Outbreak at 22:00 World Time on Friday the 11th next week here in America. According to this release, the game’s servers will only be online from 22:00 in the evening to 06:00 in the morning each day. Outbreak, unlike Fantasy, will utilize the new time compression technology. The eight hours the servers will be online will equal a full twenty-four hours ingame.”

Kyle could hear the grunts and sighs of sadness from around him. The time compression technology was only for the Delve Neurolink users, and everyone here was mostly pod users.

“I know most of you must have cursed or thrown something at the screen,” the caster chuckled.

“Neurolink and Shattered Helix have already started sending out upgrading kits to everyone who has a VV Game Pass and a Gen 17 pod or higher. Those kits should be arriving early next week. If you don’t know how to upgrade your pod, or have someone who can, make sure to schedule an upgrade appointment with your service provider ASAP, as they are going to be overwhelmed with requests.”

Everyone was now cheering around Kyle. Being a place of business, he assumed they would get the upgrades anyway. More than likely, Neurolink had been working with the Pod Service Providers, or PSPs, for a while now on the upgrades for the different generations of pods.

“But that’s not all my gaming brothers and sisters!”

The caster stared into the camera, drawing out the anticipation of his viewers.

“This new upgrade will also add the smell and taste sensations to the Pods!”

Now the gamers around Kyle were going nuts. Most of the gamers here couldn’t afford the Delve implants. This Cafe was their lifeline to the gaming world.

“Back to the Outbreak news! Everyone will be spawning on Earth near where they are logging into the game. Upon death, depending on the situation, players will become zombies and be controlled by the game’s AI. Any loot or equipment on the body will remain with the zombie until it is killed and looted.

Upon death, players will be locked out of the game for the rest of that day’s session. You will be able to log into the game the following night and will spawn up to 100 miles from where you have been killed.”

We need to organize a party beforehand!

“I’ll be putting up sign-ups for the NeXus group on the cafe’s intranet!” yelled Shaun Sr. from behind Kyle.

He’s thinking the same thing I am.

Shaun’s father then patted him on the shoulder, causing Kyle to look up at him. Shaun, Sr. had a big grin on his face. Kyle could tell he was jiving to play.

“The rules for the game are as followed.” the caster said.

A board flashed onto the screen and listed the rules as the caster spoke them out loud.

“Players must be 16 years of age or older to play.”

“Each player must sleep for a minimum of four hours each day within the game. Those who avoid this will start to see penalties and debuffs. Those who sleep a full eight hours will see buffs.”

“The longer you can stay alive, the more Authority Points you gain. You may also gain AP by killing zombies and players who are threatening your territory.”

“Dying cuts your AP in half.”

“The player with the highest AP within the settlement will gain the leadership position.”

“The game will have fifty regions at launch. You can find the map of your region on Shattered Helix’s official site.”

A global map displayed on the screen. Looking at The United States, Kyle could see it was cut into four oddly shaped territories. Chicago was part of the territory which encompassed the central, northern, and northwest sections of the states.

“I thank everyone for watching today’s broadcast! That’s all the information that has been released by Shattered Helix.”

“I’ll sign up to play at release with you guys. You got a cot I can borrow in the back office?” Kyle said.

“Yea, I’ll have Jr. set one up for you. We should be able to get at least a hundred of the regulars to join us at the start.” Shaun Sr. said.

Kyle left shortly thereafter and trekked his way home to log back into Fantasy. He and Bob had to mine a bit and start hunting those creepy-crawly bastards.