Chapter 3
"Shit... Shit…" I cursed as I kept running until I was sure I lost the creature.
I looked down and my hands were still shaking, the faded scar on my thumb from the night I butchered chicken trying to impress Amy was there. Even the keyboard-worn calluses were still there but they didn't feel like mine.
I rubbed my palms together and hissed when the purple grass scraped against my skin—cool, damp, too real for VR. I ripped out a handful and the roots snapped with the exact resistance real grass should have.
"Okay. No. Nope. No way this is software," I muttered.
The timer kept ticking in my ears.
03:47
"Think, Alex. You're a developer, figure out a way through this shit or else..."
The alien sky swirling lavender clouds stretched above me, with two moons hanging too close. The wind carried an unfamiliar scent — sweet with something electric. I pinched my arm hard.
"Shit!"
The pain exploded bright and instant, followed by a deep purple mark.
I wasn't dreaming. I wasn't simulating. I wasn't hallucinating. This was real!
Just as I was about to move forward, I heard footsteps behind me.
I spun around so fast I almost fell. A man stumbled into view from behind a cluster of rock formations–his jeans were ripped in several places, while his button-down shirt which was once white barely covered him.
"Hey!" I yelled, stumbling toward him. "Hey...hey, man, over here!"
He looked up and as he saw me, I saw something change in his expression.
"Oh thank God," he gasped. "You're real."
He bent over, hands braced on his knees. "You're actually real. I thought...God...how long has it been? What day is it?"
"Friday night," I said. "Around ten. I just..."
"You just got here?" He staggered closer. "You just started?"
"Yeah. Five minutes ago. I'm Alex—"
"I know who you are." He grabbed my arms and his fingers dug in like claws. "Dave. Dave Morrison."
I blinked. "Dave? you mean the Dave? You've been out sick..."
"Yeah I know for two weeks," he croaked. "Two weeks out there."
He tapped his head with a trembling hand.
"But in here? Months. I tell you."
I stared at his sunken cheeks and cracked lips and something inside me folded.
"Dave," I said quietly, "what the hell is this place?"
His fingers curled in my hoodie, bunching the fabric until I could barely breathe.
"Hell," he whispered. "It's hell in a headset."
I pried his hands off. "Talk to me. What happens here?"
"What happens?" he barked a laugh so broken it hurt to hear. "YOU DIE. You die over and over and it hurts."
"How many times?" I asked and he avoided my gaze.
"Dave. How many?"
He lifted his left hand and where his pinky should've been was a healed stump.
"I stopped counting at forty-seven," he said. "On run thirty-two, a Howler ripped this off. I respawned… but it didn't come back."
"You respawn," I said because saying it made it feel more like a game. "So we can't..."
"NO." He grabbed me again. "You still don't get it do you? You respawn with everything broken still broken. Every injury stays. Every death stays."
His voice cracked open.
I forced my brain to work.
"So what's the objective of Level 1?"
"Survive until dawn."
"That's it? That's all?"
"That's all." His laugh trembled. "You just have to face a creature so ruthless, death feels like a prize and it comes at night."
"Ok?" I said "Avoid violent creature. Got it."
"You still don't get it do you? They only have one mission. To kill you and man, if you haven't noticed every creature in here likes to finish the job."
"What are you saying?"
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"They take their time."
Just then, a deep cry echoed across the field and right in front of me, the purple grass quivered while the sky vibrated. My knees almost gave out.
I could see the color drain from Dave's face.
"They're early," he said. "They're never early."
He turned on me, trembling.
"It's because of you."
"What?!"
"You're new. The system must have scaled the difficulty."
"Are you seriously blaming me right now?"
"It is you," he snapped. "I was barely managing level 1 now look at what you have done. You show up and trigger them to come early."
Another horn sounded, this time it sounded like something hungry was blowing it.
The timer showed 01:47.
I grabbed his shirt and shook him. "Dave, look at me buddy. We're not dying here. I am not sticking around to repeat your forty-seven cycles. We're getting out on attempt ONE."
He laughed in my face.
"You think there's a way out? There's no way out..."
"We just need to work together."
"What's the point? I worked with others! They died! They all died!"
"Then we'll do it differently. Come on!"
We hadn't gone far when we heard marching sounds of a thousands of legs ripping through grass.
I looked back and for the first time since I got here,I was scared. The arms on the thing I saw bent the wrong way, their jaws were too big to close, and they had this awful smell. They smelled like Death.
"What... are... those?" I stammered.
"Howlers," Dave said numbly. "And those are just the little ones."
"Come on, we have to go."
"There's nowhere..."
I yanked him by the arm. He resisted for one second, then sprinted beside me, gasping.
We dashed toward the ruins and the horn bellowed again. So close I felt my ribs shake.
We crashed into the ruins, ducking behind a three-walled corner which wasn't ideal but was far better than the open field.
Dave collapsed to his knees, choking air into his lungs.
"This is pointless," he said. "Save your strength for dying."
My hands hit his face the next second so hard, his head jerked sideways. He stared at me like I had slapped sanity back into him.
"We are not dying," I said. "Stand up."
Another howl pierced the air and I had to clap my hands over my ears.
"What do they want?" I yelled.
Dave answered without looking.
"You."
"What?"
"The game never started without a reason. You're the first new player in weeks. Something's different. They want you."
I didn't have time to argue not when the hill in front of us suddenly swarmed with dozens of Howlers.
A harsh beep cut through the air followed by the flicking UI:
LEVEL 1: ZOMBIE OUTBREAK
Objective: Survive Until Dawn
Time Until Dawn: 05:47:33
Respawn Tokens: 0
Good Luck.
"Zombies?" I muttered. "But these things look nothing like..."
The first Howler launched at me and I swung the stone I had instinctively picked up.
It smashed into its skull with a wet, cracking explosion and black blood sprayed across my face. You would think that was the end but no, the Howlers kept moving.
"What..." I shouted.
"They don't die easy!" Dave yelled.
Three more leapt over the corpse of the first.
Dave screamed when a Howler slammed into him. They rolled across the ground as Dave's slab smashed into its ribs. The monster shrieked– a sound so sharp my vision whitened.
Another Howler lunged at my side and I barely dodged, but it's claws connected with my shoulders and pain sliced down my arm.
"Ahh—!"
I stumbled backwards.
"Alex!" Dave shouted.
"I'm fine," I lied through clenched teeth.
The Howler that clawed me circled back, it's jaws opening wide enough to swallow my head.
I barely got the stone up when its teeth clamped down on the rock.
I yelled, shoved forward, and jammed the stone into its throat.
It gagged as the stone tore out the side of its neck and another round of black blood drenched me.
The Howler dropped for about two seconds, then it twitched.
Then it got back up.
"Oh come on!" I snapped.
"They never stay down!" Dave yelled.
A new sound cut through the chaos–something deeper, heavier, slower.
THUMP.
And everything froze for a split second.
"Oh shit...It's him" Dave whispered. "Alex… don't move. Don't..."
I turned. Over the ridge rose a creature twice the size of the others. Its muscles rippled beneath its too-tight skin. Its jaw hung open, revealing two rows of serrated teeth, dripping black ichor onto the grass.
Its eyes– the only Howler with eyes –locked onto me.
"Why is it looking at me like that?" I whispered.
Dave swallowed.
"Because it's not here to kill both of us."
"Then who..."
"You," Dave said. "It just wants you."
As the creature growled, the ruins shook.
Dave grabbed my arm. "Alex… if it gets you first, you won't respawn."
My heart stopped.
"What?"
"You heard me," Dave whispered. "You're the new variable. If the Alpha eats you, the game resets for everyone and it's not in a good way."
"So what do we do?" I asked.
I didn't get to finish my sentence when the sky turned pitch black and I felt something breathing down my neck.