Sprint Activated

Consuming 2 Energy per Second

Energy Consumed: 30

Cain panted for breath, closing the status window and leaned against a nearby tree. The group had been running for over an hour, by his estimation anyways. The ground had starting moving less under their feet, meaning they at least were getting some distance away. But that... thing was still slowly moving towards them. The keyword being slowly there, as they had had enough time to recover a tiny bit of energy and stamina before having to move again.

“How is this thing even tracking us?” Cain asked, flopping onto the ground unceremoniously. Opening his inventory, he pulled out a bottle of water and drained it, the liquid flowing back through his body and making him feel slightly more alive.

“Probably by smell. I’m sure you saw the size of it, I wouldn’t be surprised if it could smell everything in the entire area. But why is it here?” Boulder responded, sounding defeated and exhausted. Cain couldn’t blame him too much though. Being a front-line tank and warrior meant a huge trade off for speed and agility, and the path that they had been taking was not the easiest.

“What do you mean?”

“The size and aura of that thing shouldn’t be present in a Red Gate. Those kinds of monsters exist only in Yellow or higher, not here,” was the reply. Cain could feel the morale of the group decreasing as Boulder began explaining more of the difference between the Gate ranks. Larger areas, more inhospitable climates, more dangerous creatures, the list went on and on and Cain sighed.

“We should be close to the exit...” came the soft voice of Maya. Cain perked his ears up, surprised slightly that she was actually speaking up at this point in time.

“How do you know that,” Cain, asked, extremely curious. They had gone quite a distance into the forest to harvest and train, but he hadn’t been paying attention to exactly where they had gone.

“The System comes with a map function. It’s one of the first things they teach you in school...” came the response, her voice trailing off at the end slowly.

“Huh, I... don’t know why I didn’t bother check that out. A map function is common in video games,” Cain said, berating himself for not checking everything out sooner. It wasn’t like he hadn’t played a multitude of games growing up.

“Map.”

Whistling under his breath, Cain’s eyes felt like they were going to bulge out of their sockets as he stared at the screen in front of him. This place was huge, and the amount that had been explored by the group was as thin as a sewing needle. Judging from the scale on the bottom, they hadn’t even gone more than a couple of miles away from the exit. The feeling of something being wrong wouldn’t leave the back of his head though, no matter how much he studied the map.

“Boulder,” Cain called out, getting the attention of the large man mid-sentence, “was the map always this... large?” His face flushed red shortly thereafter though as the group and Boulder began laughing.

“I forgot for a second during the chase this was your first time in here. Most Red Gates are indeed around four to five square miles in size. They definitely get bigger, but once you’ve been in a higher-ranking Gate, the lower ones feel small.”

“Four to five miles? But isn’t this one twenty?” Cain asked, honest confusion covering his face. The laughter slowly dissipated as the rest of the group began opening their own maps, giving way to despair.

“The Gate color was definitely red when we entered. So how is it that we are here? This has to be at least a yellow Gate.”

“Couldn’t it just be a really large red Gate?” Cain asked, closing his map and getting up off the ground.

Boulder shook his head. “Not a chance. From what we have determined over the past ten years, a Gate’s size is set in stone by its rank. We haven’t seen one vary at all until now.”

Cain pondered this for a second before panic set in.

“So, they can see the color has changed from outside the Gate, right? My sister is going to kill me if we don’t get out soon...”

“Your sister? Who is your... Oh. Oh no. Screw you, your sister is going to kill me if I don’t bring you back soon,” Boulder replied, his face slowly turning white. As Cain thought, Ariana definitely was a lot stronger than he initially thought. She had hidden her rating from him as well, another feat that Cain hadn’t realized was possible without actually wearing equipment.

Opening his mouth to say something else, Cain quickly closed it as the ground began shaking again. Boulder noticed it as well, and his face hardened.

“Well, it’s time to move again. We should be back at the exit in at least an hour. Let’s step it up people.”

----

“What do you mean the Gate is locked?” Ariana shouted, throwing a chair across the room. The messenger, a simple servant of the government who had finally been assigned to a task other than paperwork, cowered in fear next to the doorway.

“Just that Ms. Everdale. We can’t access the Gate to get in. Something has blocked it,” he responded, stuttering his words. If he ever made it out of here alive, he would never forsake the boring life of being behind a desk ever again.

Huffing, Ariana made her way out of the observation room in a fury, causing the messenger to stumble backwards and press against the wall as if he was trying to merge into it. Once her footsteps had receded and he could tell that she had fully left the area, he fell to the ground, a pool of liquid forming beneath him as he tried to catch his breath.

----

“Almost there,” Boulder gasped, the break in trees visible in the immediate distance. The group grunted in response and pushed harder. Even Maya, who Cain wouldn’t have thought had the stamina to keep up with them given her stature, had kept up admirably. Though, if he was honest with himself, she hadn’t had an issue the entire time, which made him assume that she had put some points into vitality. Even if he had lived and trained with his sister for so long, he was having trouble keeping up the pace, and she seemed barely out of breath.

Breaking through the trees, the group sighed in relief and slowed their pace down, looking amongst themselves and chatting softly as they made their way up the hill next to where they had entered.

“This doesn’t seem right,” Maya said softly, tugging on both Cain’s and Boulder’s sleeves to catch their attention.

“What do you mean?” Boulder asked, concerned. She hadn’t talked much to anyone besides Cain the entire trip, so if she was speaking up now, it was worthwhile to pay attention.

“There’s no energy after the hill. I can’t feel the Gate.”

Slight confusion passed across Boulder’s face before realization set in. Speeding up, he passed the group and ran to the top of the hill, staring around for a second before falling to his knees and swearing. Concerned, the rest of the group picked up their pace to join him, except for Cain and Maya. Cain already knew what they would find, or rather, what they would not.

And he was right. Cresting the hill, everyone stared out at the open plains in front of them, glimmering green and red as the sun slowly began rising over the horizon. The Gate had disappeared, and they were stranded.