The big-eyed girl was standing in the middle of the street, in the middle of the night, in the middle of a circle of zombies that were closing in fast.

Sarah saw her as she walked under her Stealth protection, carrying a backpack with a bit of loot. She stopped dead in her tracks and for an instant she lost control of the Stealth, becoming visible. A living person! She reactivated the field before the undead could notice her.

The girl was about eighteen years old. She looked Indian, or maybe Irani. Her skin was dark, but not black, and her body was lean and attractive. Sarah was kind of far away but she noticed that the girl was astonishingly beautiful, with that exotic look and an air of innocence in her big black eyes.

The girl was wearing a short top, tight jeans, and long boots that looked stylish and sturdy at once. She seemed not to have any weapons on her.

She was toast.

Hey, watch out! Run! Sarah wanted to shout, but it would be useless. The girl was not blind; she saw what was happening, she saw the army of zombies surrounding her, and she didn’t seem to be able to run anywhere.

Oh, fuck.

Sarah sprinted forward. She had to help the girl, or at least try.

I’ve spent weeks in this apocalyptic world, shielding myself, piling up weapons, storing food, improving my protection. I’ve taken care not to do anything stupid. I’ve become a survivor. I’ve avoided any missteps. And now I’m throwing it all away for this person I don’t even know.

The thought crossed her mind as fast as her arms raised to take out a couple of zombies. Her knives slashed and punctured, then came back into position; she pushed them forward to stab other two undead people. The rest of the zombies didn’t seem to notice; they were still focused on the girl, getting closer and closer.

Sarah pushed aside a zombie, then another. They are too many. Her Stealth shield faltered; she was concentrating less on keeping it on and more on knocking down corpses and find her way to the big-eyed girl. Hey, you! Do something! she wanted to yell, but she refrained.

And then, when Sarah had already dispatched about fifteen zombies, the big-eyed girl did something.

She lowered her hands, brought them behind her back, and when she raised them again, she was holding a chain on each one. The chains were pretty long, about five feet each — yet a pretty ineffectual weapon in this circumstance, Sarah thought.

At least you could have brought a g—

Sarah’s thought was cut short when the big-eyed girl made a quick jerking motion with her arms, lashing out at her sides, and the chains caught fire.

Oh, that — OK.

The girl began her death dance. She brought her arms up, then down, turned to the side, letting the chains draw beautiful shapes in the air. Sarah was reminded of those rhythmic gymnasts dancing with ribbons in the Olympics, only these ribbons brought fiery death.

If zombies had been rational beings, they would have disbanded then, running in all directions. But they were zombies. So when the first in line fell, the others kept pressing on, walking forward to meet the fire chains that would sear their dead flesh, tear their heads off, and otherwise bring them down.

It was a truly mesmerizing sight. Sarah was so entranced by the girl’s movements and the shapes drawn by the fiery chains in the blackness of night that she completely forgot to keep her Stealth shield up. After a few seconds, the girl caught a glimpse of her. Her eyes became even bigger with surprise, and her dance faltered for an instant, the chains falling lifeless to the ground, before raising up again to resume their deadly work.

She’s as shocked as me, Sarah realized. She’s been alone in this world too.

Sarah reactivated her Stealth cloak and started killing zombies, but this time methodically, stabbing them unaware with clinical precision, withdrawing her blades before they got stuck, keeping her distance from the chains that mowed down everything that got close. After a while, her Stealth protection withered down, having been used for several minutes. But it didn’t matter. The battle was won. Only a few walking corpses remained; the rest lay on a circle or charred, decayed meat centered on the big-eyed girl.

“Hi,” the girl said, when Sarah was dispatching her last zombie. “Are you new here?”

“Hi,” Sarah replied after taking a moment to regain her breath. “I’ve been here for about two months. Your chains are awesome, by the way.”

“They are, right?” the girl laughed. “They were magical in the other realm. Here, they are just a trick with some special fuel. That’s the kind of magic that works in this place.”

“So you have crossphased too,” Sarah said. “Where do you come from? Were you always on your own?”

“Oh, no,” the girl said, walking to her and extending a friendly hand. “We were three in the Enchanted Forest. Then we lost one. Well, he lagged behind. We needed to run. Then a wave brought me here and I don’t know where my companion is.”

“Three? In the Enchanted Forest?” Sarah said, dumbstruck with the realization. “And one of you lagged behind? Then... then I know who you are.”

“Really?” the beautiful girl said. “Have you met my friends?”

“Your friends,” Sarah echoed. “You haven’t been a good friend to one of them.”

The girl frowned, and only then, after two months of not seeing any other players around, Sarah remembered that she could just Scrutinize her.

UNDAYA

Class: Mage

Level: 9

STRENGTH : 050

AGILITY : 100

ENDURANCE : 040

INTELLIGENCE : 020

PERCEPTION : 080

CHARISMA : 060

0710 Mana 11100 XP

Health : 100/100

Stamina : 100/100

Skills:

- Exploration

- Melee Defense

- Melee Attack

- Scrutinize

- Healing

- Hunt

- Blast Attack

- Fire Spell

- 8 others

“So you’ve seen Maggot,” Undaya said. “Is he alright?”

“He is... because I helped him.”

“Oh, thank the gods.”

“You could have stayed to help him yourself.”

“Yeah, I guess. I was level two then, though.”

Sarah didn’t press the issue. She had just met Undaya and they were probably the two only living people in this realm. It made more sense to be friends. Or maybe it was her Diplomacy ability kicking in.

“I guess we can help each other now,” she said.

Undaya’s face lit up.

“Of course,” she replied. “You can teach me how to get that invisibility thing. And I can teach you a couple of tricks too.”

“Your place or my place?”

Undaya laughed frankly.

“I don’t know. Whatever is closer. I’m seven blocks away, beside the gas station.”

“The Mana station, you mean?” Sarah chuckled.

“You wish. Mana is scarce here. Not any fuel is... Fuel, you know. But you can get some if you know how.”

“Really? I’ve been using up mine. I have a nice weapon too,” Sarah confided. “Let me show it to you. My place is nearer.”

* * *

Undaya stayed at the apartment for a full day, and then went back to hers. After a while they both decided that it made more sense to stay together so the big-eyed girl moved in.

In the following days she taught Sarah how to replenish her mana. It turned out that the red and golden spots she had seen in the partial map for the Enchanted Forest were stores of mana and ammunition; they would be crates in this realm. Undaya showed one to Sarah and told her where to locate more. For some reason there was no facility for them to inspect a full map so they were limited, again, to seeing what they had already physically explored.

The first thing Sarah noticed was that the hardware store housed three or four of those crates. Undaya said that they seemed to be put there quite often, so when she was about to run out, she knew that a trip to the store would suffice to keep going.

In turn, Sarah couldn’t really explain how to acquire the Stealth skill besides completing a task that gave it to you as a reward, but in exchange, she told Undaya about her strategy of climbing up buildings to avoid the street as much as possible. They even brought strong ropes and wires from the hardware store and began extending them across the windows of different buildings, so that they could go across whole blocks without descending, in case the streets were chock full of zombies.

The Melee Attack and Melee Defense skills improved markedly for both of them; they even gained a few points for Sneak Attack. They started to become experts in surviving in this world, and with the ability to replenish fuel, they could even allow themselves the luxury of cooking often. It really looked like they could stay in the dead city for quite a while.

And if Sarah weren’t aching for finding her boyfriend, if she had forgotten everything about her life before logging in just like Undaya and the others had, she would even have accepted the idea. But her time in the zombie realm wasn’t supposed to last.

* * *

What was it that the book said?

Jump from a great height.

Sarah had been postponing the issue, hoping to make sense of it somehow, or waiting for a new message to come — but time kept running and she was no closer to finding Mike.

She decided to say goodbye to this barren world.

So one night, when Undaya had gone our for some loot, she went up to the roof, stood on the edge, and looked down.

Well, it’s easier said than done.

She could have died in a thousand ways in the game before this, but only now the question came to her in full force: What if I die?

Dying in the game would mean waking up suddenly to a reality without time dilation. It would mean her brain would be working way too fast and would have to stop suddenly, like a car hitting a wall at full speed.

The final version of the game would obviously avoid this somehow, but if Sumiko was right, this alpha version was set up so that only by winning you could wake up safely.

The environment felt more real than ever now, with the chilly air of the night blowing into her face and waving her hair around. She was fully conscious of every inch of her own body, of the clothes she was wearing, of her own weight. And she could physically feel the void in front of her. She could almost feel herself already plummeting to the ground, feel the terrible impact against the pavement.

And if she somehow didn’t die immediately, the zombies would be biting at her brain.

Because the zombies were gathering down there, of course.

They were looking up eagerly, waiting for her to jump. Or fall.

More would come soon, and if Sarah kept waiting, they would fill the whole area.

They would be a sea of dead eyes and dead mouths, of rotten flesh and guttural nonsense.

Why am I hesitating?

I trust Sumiko.

If Sumiko wanted me dead, she would reach inside the tank and put a knife through my eye. She is helping me. And she says I need to jump.

Why am I not jumping?

It was ridiculous, really. She should have already jumped. There was no reason not to do it.

I jumped on a fucking giant. I faced an army of zombies. I can certainly jump off a building.

Why am I not jumping?

Ah, but it felt so real.

She was afraid. Simple as that.

As she was looking at the moving corpses congregated down below, a loop of fire crackled suddenly, and a couple zombies were mowed down. The rest of them reacted slowly, as if they were confused. The fiery chain took care of them, two or three at a time. A few seconds later the sidewalk was clean.

“Sajya, what the fuck are you doing?”

Undaya looked tiny from that height, but Sarah could see enough of her face to notice she was angry. She didn’t think she had seen her angry before. And if not for her face, her voice was clearly loaded with anger.

“I’m jumping,” she answered, but her voice came out less firm than she would have liked.

“Why the fuck are you jumping?”

“Because it’s the way out of here.”

“Come on, you sound like an idiot,” Undaya said. “I’m going in and we’ll talk about this.”

“No,” Sarah said. “You don’t understand. This is the way for me.” She raised her hand stupidly, as if Undaya could see the modest, nearly invisible Ring of Realms wrapped around her finger. It looked like nothing, really — a cheap prop. Am I trusting this? Maybe I am an idiot after all.

“Sajya, I know this is hard,” Undaya shouted. “I’m not very good comforting people! But I need you! Let’s go mow down some fucking zombies together and you’ll feel better!”

“No, YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!” Sarah had taken too long already for this; she didn’t want to explain what the Worldjumper was and what the book said and why she was now standing on the edge preparing to jump. “This is the way for me. Not to die! To go elsewhere!”

Undaya looked confused.

It didn’t matter.

She would jump.

I will jump.

Right now.

And yet...

She was still hesitating when the wave came and swept her off her feet. The whole world started spinning and she fell, not forward, not backwards, but she fell, and she stumbled against nothing, and she heard sounds that meant nothing, and she kept falling and falling and the ring in her hand remained mute and useless and fake, and she was thrown out to a different world by some capricious god who didn’t like to show his face.