Chapter 4
The next morning Lynn woke up cursing Robert Krator’s name.
“…stupid game…stupid outside…stupid muscles…”
She wondered if she could get away with pretending to be sick and sleeping all day. Probably not.
Out of morbid curiosity—and still mentally cursing Mr. Krator for making a game that she enjoyed but that required her to exercise—she slid on her AR glasses to check and see how many TDMs had respawned in the area she’d cleared yesterday.
“Good morning, Miss Lynn!” Hugo greeted her cheerfully when she inserted one of her earbuds.
“Shut up.”
“Certainly, if you prefer.”
“Yeah, I do. It should be illegal to be that cheerful this early in the morning.”
“Of course, Miss Lynn. Though, in case you find yourself in need, I do come programmed with a full array of suggested stretches and self-care advice for the physically challenged—”
“Shut it, Goldenrod, before I file a complaint.”
Mercifully, Hugo finally took a hint and made no quip in response. Lynn debated taking her earbud out, in case Hugo decided to be “helpful” again, but she was distracted by her overhead map. She hadn’t noticed it much yesterday, but she could tell the circle of her “radar” was bigger at Level 3 than Level 1, because there was a noticeable ring of TDM dots around the very edge of her detection range, while farther into the circle only a few stray dots had reappeared after her clearing efforts. The only place within her range with significant TDM numbers was back behind the complex along the greenway, which she had avoided yesterday. She’d check again after school and see how many more had reappeared by then.
“Are you okay?” her mother asked as she limped into the kitchen.
“No,” Lynn grumped. “I feel like someone beat me up and left me in a ditch.”
“I don’t know about the ditch part, but you certainly got sunburned,” Matilda said, obviously trying not to smile. Lynn gave her the stink eye.
“I don’t get sunburn. Sunburn is for freckly vampires like Ronnie.”
Her mother laughed.
“Everyone gets sunburned, no matter how much melanin you have in your skin. Just because you don’t turn bright red like a lobster doesn’t mean your skin wasn’t damaged.”
“But I was wearing long sleeves,” Lynn protested, poking her arm experimentally and grimacing.
“Sleeves don’t do your face or neck any good and you can get sunburned through fabric if you’re out in direct sun for too long,” Matilda said, putting on her nurse face. “I’ve got some aloe gel that will help. Just remember to put on sunscreen next time. And, yes, we have sunscreen, even if you’ve never seen it in your life. It’s in the bathroom closet. Anything else?”
“Yeah,” Lynn said, plopping down at the table after retrieving a cup and the milk from the fridge. “I ache from head to toe.”
“Muscle soreness is normal when you make a sudden increase in your physical activity,” Matilda said. “There’s some pain pills in the bathroom cabinet too, but be sure to follow the recommended dosage on the back.”
Lynn rolled her eyes.
“Yes, Mother.” She had long been schooled in the proper way to take medication. Woe betide any member of the Raven household who ignored the back of a pill bottle.
“You shouldn’t need to take it for more than a few days. You’re young, your body will adjust quickly. I would recommend you stretch first before you go out to play again, though.”
“Stretch?” Lynn said. “What do I look like, a cheerleader?”
“Every able-bodied person should stretch before and after engaging in strenuous activity,” her mother said, now in full lecture mode. “It warms up your muscles and limbers your tendons, reducing the risk of injury and soreness from exercise. I also see you’re not eating breakfast. Let me guess, lack of appetite?”
“I guess so, now that you mention it,” Lynn said. The thought of eating her usual bowl of yogurt-topped cereal made her queasy. “I got more exercise yesterday than I’ve gotten in the last year and I’m not hungry. Is that bad?”
“Not when you first start exercising after prolonged inactivity,” her mom said. “Your body is adjusting to the new regime and moving materials around that have built up in your system. It can cause nausea and lack of appetite. You’ll get over it in a few days. Then you’ll probably want to eat like a pig.”
“Jeez, Mom. Thanks,” Lynn said. Her mother laughed.
“You know what I mean, honey. Besides, eating plenty of protein and green leafy vegetables will be good for you. Just stay away from all the chips and junk food you usually eat if you really want to lose weight. And don’t stand on the scale every day expecting the numbers to go down.”
“What’s the point of exercising, then?” Lynn asked, exasperated.
“Well…when I say this, don’t take it as I’m saying you’re fat, honey,” her mom replied carefully. “You’re not. I know you have terrible body image, but you’re not technically obese. Not even close. But fat is lighter than muscle. When you exercise you build muscle faster than you lose fat. Therefore, you can actually gain a little weight while still losing fat and getting leaner. At least, if you stick to a primarily protein diet. The problem is…protein is expensive. In a few days you’ll probably be craving red meat and we can’t exactly afford steaks every night.”
Lynn felt a twinge of guilt. They could, actually. Her mother just didn’t know it.
“Lots of eggs and chicken will have to do for now. Just stick to some form of protein, lots of green vegetables and a moderate amount of fruit and you’ll burn plenty of…adipose tissue.”
“Fat,” Lynn said.
“Honey…”
“I know, I know,” Lynn said. “I’m not fat. I’m just big boned.”
“You’re not even big boned, sweetie,” Matilda replied, and it was clear she was carefully controlling her temper. Lynn remembered the scathing earfuls her mother had given the parents of the kids who’d tormented her in middle school. Despite her mom’s best intentions, it had only made things worse, so Lynn had stopped telling her about most of the bullying.
“You’re at most what might be called Rubenesque,” her mom continued. “Which, by the way, was the standard of beauty in many cultures for thousands of years. You’re beautiful the way you are. But if you do want to build more lean muscle and improve your physical fitness, I’d say playing this game is a good start. You could even incorporate some sort of home training routine to help with muscle tone. Something like yoga. Stay away from the junk food and your body will start to change before you know it. Just please remember to be safe. I’d really prefer you find some friends to play the game with if you’re going to be out regularly. There’s safety in numbers.”
Lynn sighed. Her only friends were the “fearsome” foursome and admitting she’d been picked as a beta tester for TD Hunter would open a whole can of worms she did not want to deal with. If it was that or stop playing TD Hunter, maybe she could tell just Mack. Or Edgar. She considered mentioning Mr. Thomas to her mom but decided against it. Maybe if she ran into him a few more times and got to know him better.
“Well, honey, at least take a banana with you for the bus ride, even if you don’t feel like eating anything else. Now come here, I’ll show you where that aloe is.”
Her mother’s remedies did wonders for Lynn’s mood, especially the few basic stretches her mom showed her to relieve the ache in her calves and thighs. Matilda promised to send her some stream video suggestions for stretching routines she could try.
After that, Lynn had to rush to get ready for school. As she gathered her things, she glanced at the TD Counterforce backpack leaning against her bed. Wearing it to school would be incredibly cool, but it would also make her stand out like a sore thumb. Worse, it would raise questions she wouldn’t be able to deflect, even with made-up stories about Diva Princess.
Sighing, she left it where it was, her fancy AR glasses tucked into one of its pockets. For the first time she could remember, she wished she could be herself around her friends. It would be nice to have someone to talk to who actually understood the absolute awesomeness of being a beta for TD Hunter. She’d never really minded keeping her gaming to herself before, but now…
At least she would get to use her new LINC and earbuds at school without attracting attention. That was something, wasn’t it?
“Uh, oh,” Dan said, looking up from his sandwich and gesturing with his chin. “Elena incoming with flunkies in tow!”
And lunch had been going so well.
Elena Seville was the kind of person that everyone either worshipped or loathed. Rich, beautiful and athletic, she seemed to think her sole purpose in life was to be popular. She had her own stream channel and spent at least half of her time at school doing live videos—which was against school policy but none of the teachers ever called her on it. Her main thing was cheerleading for the school’s ARS team, which conveniently put her around all the good-looking, popular jock kids for her live stream. But she also did competitive dance and pageants, or just about anything else she thought would get her views. Such attention-obsessed people were derisively called pop-girls and pop-boys—behind their backs, of course—and Elena was the biggest one of them all.
Even so, Elena wasn’t the worst bully in the school. In fact, she generally avoided being in the vicinity of “losers” lest they sully her live stream. But if her stream wasn’t going, she was hell on wheels to anyone who got in her way or messed up any part of her perfect, pretty life. Lynn and her gaming group had learned to duck and cover whenever Elena and her carefully selected following of “friends” was around. The fact that the girl was headed straight toward their table was not a good sign.
Elena stopped in front of Ronnie, her hands on her hips.
“What do you know about some game called ‘TransHunter’?” she asked, a sour look on her face.
“You mean TransDimensional Hunter?” Ronnie asked snottily.
Lynn had to hide a smirk. Ronnie was a jerk but at least he wasn’t a jerk and a coward.
“Don’t you dare use that tone with me, Ronnie Payne,” Elena snapped. “I could smear you so bad you wouldn’t be able to show your face in virtual ever again. I know people.”
Ronnie’s pale face got a little paler but he crossed his arms.
“You mean third-rate wannabe influencers who talk about useless girl stuff all day? Puh-leeze.”
Besides a slight flush in her cheeks, Elena didn’t appear affected by the jab. She looked down her nose at Ronnie as if he were a particularly disgusting wad of gum stuck to her shoe.
“My daddy owns significant stock in Tsunami Entertainment. If you don’t want to get blacklisted by the biggest gaming company in the world, you might want to watch your dirty little mouth. Answer. My. Question.”
Lynn was one hundred percent sure—all right, maybe ninety-nine percent sure—that Elena’s threat was a bluff. But she didn’t blame Ronnie for not taking that chance.
“It’s a new FPS ARG going through beta,” he said in a carefully neutral tone.
“In English, you idiot!”
Edgar cut in before Ronnie could say something he’d regret.
“It’s a first-person-shooter augmented reality game,” he said in his deep, calm voice. He was usually good at deescalating situations. Insults bounced off him like hail off a boulder. “It’s all about killing monsters and collecting loot.”
“How do I get in?” Elena demanded.
“You want to play a fighting game?” Dan asked, shocked into opening his mouth. He was usually as quiet as a mouse around Elena and her crowd.
“Am I talking to you?” Elena responded without looking away from Ronnie. “Did I speak your name? Did I look at you? No, I did not. Answer the question, Ronnie.”
“You can’t,” Ronnie said, tone bordering on insulting. “It’s in beta. That means they’re still testing it. You have to get invited by the company.”
“Oh, well that’s easy then.” Elena said and flicked her heavily dyed blond hair over one shoulder, as if that was the end of the conversation.
It was probably a bad idea but Lynn couldn’t help herself.
“They only invite serious gamers, Elena. Like, people who actually understand basic gaming terms and have competitive stats.”
“Oh my! Kayla, what was that?” Elena said, turning to one of her flunkies. “It sounded like a pig grunting but I’m really not sure. Did you hear anything?”
Kayla shook her head, making her ebony frizz bounce. She wouldn’t meet Lynn’s eyes.
“I didn’t think so,” Elena said. Without another word she spun around and stalked away, her flunkies falling into step behind her like the good little hangers-on that they were.
Lynn gritted her teeth, resisting the urge to shout something at Elena’s back. She’d learned from hard experience that responding only made things worse. She hated high school. She couldn’t wait for it to end.
“Hey. You okay?” Edgar asked.
“I’m fine,” Lynn said, proud that her voice was steady.
“Didn’t that Kayla girl with the ’fro used to be your friend, like, way back in middle school?” asked Mack.
“Ancient history,” Lynn said and picked up her burger, hoping Mack would drop it. She’d thought she’d gotten over losing her only real friend a long time ago. Apparently not.
“Why in the world is Elena asking about an FPS game anyway?” Dan asked the table in general.
Nobody had an answer to that.
“It doesn’t matter, because there’s no way she’d get an invite,” Ronnie said, going back to his food as well. “Doesn’t matter who you know. If you got no game, you got no game.”
“Yeah but if her dad—” Mack began and then the guys were off, arguing about the integrity of the gaming community in the face of favoritism. Only Edgar stayed silent. He was still looking at Lynn.
“You know,” he said quietly as the other guys continued to argue. “I figure everywhere she goes, she makes a lotta air awfully mad. Air ain’t never been so insulted in its life as when Elena opens her fat mouth and breathes it in.”
Lynn snorted into her burger.
“Tell me about it. She’s got ‘all the good manners of a bar girl who’s been stiffed,’” she said in her deepest voice.
Edgar almost choked on his soda. Lynn grinned as his shoulders shook in silent laughter.
“Daaayum, girl, you sounded just like Larry Coughlin. Almost like you’ve heard him talk before or something.”
Lynn froze but Edgar went on smoothly like his comment was nothing special.
“Good thing Ronnie didn’t hear you. Or Elena.”
“Yeah, well, they’d better not hear it from you,” Lynn said, shooting her friend a serious look.
“Hey, my lips are sealed.”
They fell silent for a moment while Edgar slowly masticated a dry fish patty.
“You know,” he finally said, “you’re different today.”
“What?” Lynn asked, looking down at her oversized sweatshirt. “How?”
“I dunno,” Edgar said, shrugging. “Bolder. I never heard you call out Elena on her BS before. And you got a touch of sun. Never seen you with a tan since I met you.”
“I…I’m sorry?” Lynn said, closing up.
“Not bad different,” Edgar hurried to assure her. “You’re talking more. Being more you. It’s a good thing. And the tan looks good on you.”
The sudden silence at the table was deafening, despite the general hubbub of the cafeteria around them. Apparently Edgar hadn’t been talking quietly enough, because the other three guys were now staring at them both as if they’d sprouted tentacles out of their ears. Lynn wanted to melt into her chair.
“I think Edgar’s got a crush,” Dan said, grinning slowly.
“Edgar and Lynn, sittin’ in a tree…” Mack sang.
“I. Will. Throw. You. Through. A. Win-dow,” Edgar said, very slowly and carefully.
The rest of the lunch was pretty much silent after that.
“Hey, Paulette,” Lynn said, stopping the girl as they passed in the hallway and pulling her aside.
Paulette Lane was not part of the pop-girl crowd but she wanted to be. She kept up on all the trends and gossip even if she had no chance to break in, just in case. She was someone safe for Lynn to occasionally hit up for information, and if anyone knew why Elena, who had shown no interest in serious gaming in her life, was suddenly interested in the TD Hunter beta, it would be Paulette.
“What’s up?” Paulette asked, looking around nervously. Any unexpected encounter in school could be good or bad. Usually bad.
“Elena was asking about a game,” Lynn said. “TransDimensional Hunter.”
“Oh, my God!” Paulette said. “It’s going to be sooo cool!”
“Cool?” Lynn said carefully. “Cool how?”
“Janna Gordon has been testing it out for the company!” Paulette said. “She says it’s totally cool to play and if Janna says it, it’s got to be cool, you know?”
Lynn wracked her brain for someone in school named Janna…
“Wait, you mean the singer?” Lynn asked, brow scrunching.
“Singer, model, actress,” Paulette said. “Everyone wants to be Janna! That’s her motto.”
Only if you want to be popular for being…popular, Lynn thought. Janna Gordon was, in fact, all of the above at some level. Minor singer, minor movie star, occasional model, even if it meant without many clothes on. But mostly she was known for being a pure attention diva, and for some reason the hordes of mindless browsers in virtual lapped it up. She was the ultimate pop-girl and therefore exactly the kind of celebrity Elena would follow. Why the heck does someone like that want to play a grinder game? Or a physically taxing AR game at all?
“Everybody wants to get in on it, you know?” Paulette continued. “I asked my brother, Ted—you know him, he’s a gamer—and he said you can’t play it till it’s out unless you’re a tester, and…”
Lynn tuned her out, thinking about the implications. The fact that the popular crowd actually knew about and wanted to play TD Hunter was a big deal. Was that Mr. Krator’s grand plan for success? Convincing a bunch of influencers and stream celebrities to promote TD Hunter, making it so mainstream that even non-gamers would want to play it? It might even work, Lynn thought. But how long would that popularity last and what impact would it have on serious gamers in the meantime?
Well, there was one thing she knew for sure. She was in deep, deep trouble if word got out that she was a beta for TD Hunter. You did not have something that the pop-girls wanted and couldn’t get. Not if you wanted to survive school with your dignity and sanity intact.
This was bad.
“Thanks, Paulette,” Lynn said. “Class. Gotta go. See ya.”
She was so glad she hadn’t worn that backpack to school.
When Lynn got home there was a note from her mom on the table:
Called in for double. GYO.
Get Your Own night. Lynn checked her virtual wallet through her LINC and sure enough, there was an extra twenty in it her mom always transferred whenever she had to work a double shift. Lynn made a mental note to put an extra twenty from her merc stash into her mom’s account when she did bills that month, then considered her evening. Usually on a mom-less Friday night, she had pizza drone-delivered to their door and spent all evening kicking butt on WarMonger. But tonight was different. Tonight she had TD Hunter and many uninterrupted hours in which to slaughter her way through the local monster population.
A grin spread across her face and she headed for her bedroom to get ready.
True to her word, her mom had sent her links to a few health and wellness streams that showed basic stretch routines. Lynn had watched a couple on the airbus ride home and had selected one that seemed to target her muscles that had been most sore that morning. Thanks to her mom’s pain pills, the soreness hadn’t bothered her much during the day.
She suddenly stopped and giggled, finally understanding at least part of an Army satire site she’d watched for research. “Sergeant Friendly” was a virtual platoon sergeant who was constantly berating his troops. His tagline was “DRINK YOUR MOTRIN! EAT YOUR SOCKS! CHANGE YOUR WATER!”
But the pain was starting to kick in again and she hoped the stretches would relieve the tightness in her legs, arms and shoulders.
She put the stretch routine stream up on her wall-screen and did her best to follow along with the yoga-pants-clad supermodel—possibly CGI she was so incredible looking—instructor. The entire thing made her feel clumsy and ridiculous, but at least her body ached less at the end of it. She was glad she hadn’t tried watching it on her AR glasses with Hugo’s “helpful” commentary for company.
When she was done, she changed out of the light sweatshirt she’d worn to school and, after a moment’s hesitation, selected her baggiest T-shirt. It took a much longer “moment” to decide not to bring her TD Counterforce backpack. She wanted to. Really bad. But she felt awkward enough wearing a short-sleeve shirt; she didn’t need any more reasons to be self-conscious when she should be focused on hunting. Instead she filled up an old school backpack with a couple bottles of water, energy bars, extra sunscreen and some pain pills.
Thus equipped, Lynn paused, hands on her hips, to look around her room. Had she forgotten anything? Her eyes fell on the folding knife lying on her desk. It had been the last gift her dad had ever given her. He’d always loved telling her stories from his Norwegian heritage, from ancient Norse myths to local tales of the fjords where he’d grown up. One of his favorite folk proverbs had been “a knifeless man is a lifeless man.”
It had always made her mother roll her eyes and complain about how they lived in the twenty-first century for Pete’s sake and could he lay off the savage Viking act. But to Lynn, the idea had been pure magic. When he’d given her the precious Norwegian-made Helle pocketknife for her ninth birthday, she’d carried it around with her everywhere, even smuggled it into school. But then, after everything that had happened…by the time they moved to Cedar Rapids, she’d buried it deep in a box of keepsakes and hadn’t used it since. She’d only recently dug it out, needing something to open delivery packages in her room.
Her chest felt tight as she picked up the folded knife and rubbed her finger over the smooth birchwood handle, wondering what her dad would have thought of master mercenary Larry Coughlin. More importantly, what would he have thought of professional gamer Lynn Raven?
Shaking her head, Lynn slipped the knife into her pants pocket and headed for her bedroom door.
By the time she was headed out the apartment lobby, she had her AR glasses on and Hugo’s cheerfully proper voice was greeting her.
“Good afternoon, Miss Lynn. Are you ready for another glorious day of killing monsters and saving the world?”
“I wouldn’t call it glorious,” she said as she pushed through the front doors and warm, muggy air washed over her. She frowned in distaste. “More like hot and sticky.”
“All the best activities are, or so I am told.”
“What?”
“Making toffee? Warm jam on toast? Maple syrup on pancakes? What weapon would you like to start with, today?”
She considered the question as she examined her overhead. Hopefully she would get some weapon upgrades soon, but for now…
“Nano Blade. And is it just me, Hugo, or have not very many TDMs respawned? Is there any way to permanently clear an area so that no more TDMs respawn, or do they always come back?”
“This is a hostile invasion, Miss Lynn. Who can say what the tides of war will bring?”
Lynn rolled her eyes.
“Really, Hugo? Could you just answer the question?”
“I would take full advantage of your detection capabilities before you draw any firm conclusions about the enemy’s numbers, Miss Lynn,” Hugo said.
Okaaay. Lynn thought for a moment, then shrugged and dropped three globes into her detection slot, filling it up to one hundred percent. She knew from Tactical Support that globes only lasted about thirty minutes, so she’d have to keep that in mind.
“Whoa!” Lynn said. The number of dots on her overhead had tripled in an instant and she tightened her grip on her Nano Blade. Some of those dots were awfully close. Taking a deep breath, she stepped off the sidewalk and headed toward the closest, eyes and ears alert.
She’d barely taken four or five steps when she heard the ghost, fainter than usual. She spun in place, striking out. But there was nothing there. Instead, she saw a hovering, opaque shape about ten feet away flicker in and out of her vision as it circled to the left. The little sneak was trying to get behind her. That was when she heard the second, louder ghost and spun quickly enough to take it out with a vicious swipe. Even as she struck, her ears warned her the first ghost had taken advantage of her lapse in attention and this time she sidestepped as she spun, stabbing into the space she’d vacated and making the first ghost explode into sparks.
Dang. It was almost like those two had been waiting to ambush her. The thought made her pause, until a gravelly roar in her ear made her jump and spin again, just in time to catch a gremlin’s clawed swipe to the face. She stumbled back, slashing in a figure-eight pattern as the monster aggressively pressed the advantage. Finally, it exploded into sparks. Her health was down to fifty percent and she could hear and see more ghosts, gremlins and grinder worms closing in. She turned and ran back into the apartment building.
“What the heck, Hugo?” she gasped, leaning against the cool wall of the lobby’s interior.
“Might I suggest, Miss Lynn, that augmenting your detection without also augmenting your stealth and armor is tactically unwise? You might recall in your tutorial, that if you can see them, they can see you. That is, unless you take advantage of your stealth capabilities.”
“Well, of course I remember now. But there weren’t anywhere near as many aggressive monsters yesterday. Where did all the imps go?”
“A very astute question, Miss Lynn. According to the Tactical Support subsection on TDM types, it is noted that other Hunters have observed an increase in aggressive ‘attack’ type monsters in any area where the non-aggressive ‘gather’ types, such as the imp, have been destroyed. It is hypothesized that this is a defensive response to the Hunter’s presence and appropriate precautions should be taken.”
“Jeez. Thanks for the info,” Lynn muttered. “Would’ve been nice to be reminded of all that five minutes ago when you told me to go full in on detection. I was basically a sitting duck out there. It’s not like I can memorize the entire Tactical Support section.”
“Good training, Miss Lynn.”
“You’re a sucky service AI, you know that, Hugo?”
“I am not unfamiliar with such complaints,” said the AI, not sounding the least bit apologetic.
“Well, then what are you supposed to—?” Lynn began hotly, then lowered her voice as an apartment resident pushed through the front door and passed by. “Then what are you supposed to be good for?”
“My primary function is to ensure Hunter survival.”
“Yeah, right, sure. You’ll let me take a pounding, but as long as I don’t die, it’s all good?”
“Your brilliance is outshone only by your prowess in battle, Miss Lynn,” the AI replied.
“Oh, shut up,” she grumbled and pushed herself off the wall. For once, Hugo did as she asked without any backtalk, and she turned her mind to her next task: making it past the front doors of the apartment without taking any more damage. To that end, she used more globes and three plates to max out all of her slots, then switched to the Disruptor Pistol.
This time, when she ventured out, the TDMs near the entrance didn’t seem to react to her. Good. It took considerable sneaking, but she managed to circle around and isolate each enemy just outside their range without being in range of any of their fellows. Then it was a simple matter of backing up and shooting fast enough to take them out before they figured out where she was and charged. She focused on smart tactics, using careful aim to take advantage of grinder worm kill spots, and first stunning gremlins from behind before attacking full force. While the results of her pistol’s power amplifier augment weren’t overly impressive, she could tell that it made a difference. She needed to find more powerful augments.
By the time the area around the front of her apartment was clear, there were puddles of ichor, globes and plates all over the place and she waded in to collect her just rewards. All the movement had gotten her health back up and her power level was replenished by all the ichor.
Feeling like she was getting back into her groove, she headed out into the complex to do some serious grinding, determined to push hard until she reached Level 4.
As she moved and fought, Lynn kept adding to her mental pattern map, noting and cataloging each TDM encounter and making predictions to see how well she was reading the game’s algorithms. Gremlins always charged straight at you. Grinder worms seem to favor their right side for attacks. Ghosts jumped you from behind and would retreat and circle if you faced them.
The more she played, the more she noticed that attacking one TDM invariably attracted any others within a certain range. Soon she started to see more than one gremlin or ghost at a time. Perhaps the game’s AI was adapting, upping the level of difficulty as she gained experience. It might have been a problem if the TDMs weren’t so vulnerable now that she knew their attack patterns and weak spots. She took a few hits here and there, but her armor absorbed the brunt of it and her constant movement healed the minimal damage.
Then she came to a cluster. A line of two gremlins and a grinder worm, their ranges overlapping in what seemed like a “shield wall” sort of placement along a row of trees between two apartment buildings. She was only close enough to spot the one ghost accompanying the closest gremlin, but she would bet her dad’s pocketknife there were two other ghosts lurking just out of range.
It might have been smarter to stick with her Disruptor Pistol, but where was the fun in that? Lynn equipped her Nano Blade instead and crouched, a rush of adrenaline making her forget all about the heat, her sweaty shirt, or any residents who might be watching her antics.
She was on the hunt.
Lynn leapt at the first gremlin, stabbing it from behind and stunning it, then spun to take out the ghost that had rushed her as soon as she’d come in range. She didn’t pause for even a moment, simply noted the ghost’s death sparkle and kept spinning to slash furiously at the still-stunned gremlin, even as she noted the approaching grinder worm out of the corner of her eye.
This was more like it.
The gremlin succumbed to her blade moments before the grinder worm’s pincers descended. Lynn dodged to the side, got in one, two strikes before her ears warned her of the second ghost right behind her. In a furious dance that was probably a lot more impressive in her head than in reality, she lunged and slashed, defeating the second ghost, finishing off the grinder and dodging the second gremlin that charged her straight on. She stunned it as it rushed past, then spun to gut the third ghost that tried to sneak up from behind and tag her.
Knew you’d try that. Sucker. The game’s AI was upping the challenge, but it would have to do a lot more than that to take her by surprise.
She was left panting and once again surrounded by monster ichor, globes and plates. At least, in the view of her AR glasses. To anyone watching, she probably looked like a patient escaped from a loony bin. But for once, she didn’t care. She’d just kicked butt and it had been awesome.
Speaking of awesome…was that a weapon drop? Lynn selected the item icon on the ground and felt a stab of disappointment to find it was only a standard Disruptor Pistol. Not very useful, unless she wanted to use double pistols once she unlocked her second baton. Still, loot was loot.
“What are the joys of a woman?” Lynn hummed to herself as she collected the rest of her booty. “To see your enemy slain! To loot their ichor and plates! To strike fear into the hearts of TDMs!”
“Very poetic, Miss Lynn. Perhaps Mr. Krator could use it for the motto of the Counterforce?”
“Har-de-har-har, Hugo. You should stick with ‘Step into the real.’ Less offensive to all the clueless pop-girls who want to play TD Hunter to be cool, even though they have no chance in heck of surviving for long.”
“Now, now, Miss Lynn. The TD Counterforce welcomes all able-bodied volunteers. They need not have a functional brain. That is what I am for.”
Lynn snorted in laughter and moved on.
Using her overhead, she ground her way outwards. Whenever she felt herself flagging, she took a break in some shade and hydrated. As she got away from her own complex and the areas she’d already hit, she started running into more imps and fewer of the defense and patrol types. Even when she encountered aggressive TDMs, they generally didn’t see her until it was too late. It was a bit like killing baby seals but she was fine with that for now. The faster she killed, the sooner she leveled. She was using up globes and plates at a steady rate, but her efficient attack methods kept her inventory high as well.
There were two apartment complexes adjacent to hers, including a very large one, the Heathers of Lakeview. She was familiar with it and told herself it was still within the “stay near the complex” rule her mother had laid down. As she worked her way through it, she avoided the late afternoon joggers and those coming home from work or out to enjoy the evening. With her bright blue weapon and her shaded AR glasses, she was clearly gaming, and despite her initial worry, no one gave her a second glance—though she did garner a few first glances.
It was strange. She was outside, surrounded by people, but it was almost lonelier than online gaming. Online she was by herself in her room but talking constantly, interacting with comrades, clients and enemies alike. Here she was secluded in her own little bubble with no one to talk to.
She watched a couple walk by hand in hand and felt an odd moment of melancholy. Was this going to be her life? Always alone in a crowd?
No matter. She was doing what she loved—well, minus the sun, sweat and bugs—and what she was good at. Besides, there was always Hugo if she felt the desperate need to talk.
Har-de-har-har.
Lynn refocused on her task. She was in the middle of wading through some imps and grinder worms in a strip of green between an apartment building and the street when a man stepped in her way. He waved a hand at her and tried to make eye contact. The guy looked to be in his upper teens or early twenties, with long brown hair and pretty blue eyes. Not someone she recognized from school. Plus, there was something she didn’t like about his expression.
Instead of saying anything, she waved her bright blue Nano Blade at him and tapped her AR glasses with a finger, then turned to stab a grinder worm before it could get its pincers into her.
The guy shifted to get back in her field of vision, smiling oddly and making more hand motions. Though she had a Nightwish playlist streaming at low volume, her earbuds still let through ambient noise around her. Did this guy think she couldn’t hear?
Maybe if she asked what the problem was, he would go away.
She didn’t want to leave combat mode for such a temporary distraction, so she simply checked her overhead for nearby red dots. There were none and her earbuds would warn her of anything sneaking up on her, so she turned off her music, propped her glasses up on her forehead and said, “Is there a problem?” It came out more hostile than she’d intended, but she was annoyed and a little uncomfortable at the man’s boldness.
“What are you playing?” he asked, still smiling.
“I’m beta testing a new ARG,” Lynn said.
“TD Hunter?” the guy asked, pointing at her bright blue weapon. “That’s the big ARG coming out soon, right?”
“Yes,” Lynn said.
“How’d you get invited?” the guy asked, looking at her askance.
Lynn tried not to grind her teeth. She could just hear Ronnie’s voice in her head. Girls got no game.
“Because I’m good at what I do,” she replied, keeping her voice level. “Now if you’ll excuse me, this game doesn’t test itself.”
“You looked pretty funny a second ago,” the guy said, not seeming deterred in the slightest. Lynn felt a prickle on the back of her neck as she noticed a couple other young men who had drifted over. “You sure were jumping all over the place.”
“Unlike most games, you have to actually fight in this one,” Lynn said, trying to ignore a flush of embarrassment. “As I said, mind if I keep playing?”
“Hey, I was just being friendly,” Blue-eyes said, his eyes getting darker. “No need to get hostile.”
And this was why Lynn hated dealing with people. There was nothing she could say in response that wouldn’t be the wrong thing to say. Making the victim out to be the one at fault was the kind of bully behavior she’d faced all the time at school. Apparently, this jerk hadn’t grown out of it. Her mind went briefly to the knife in her pocket but at this point it would probably make things worse, not better.
She had very few options and was getting more and more uncomfortable by the moment. Blue-eyes’ friends had flanked her and she couldn’t disengage without being rude about it. It was middle school all over again.
“Miss Lynn, pardon my interruption, but may I be of any assistance?” Hugo’s sudden question in her ear almost made her jump.
“Yeah, can you make me invisible, or teleport me out of here?” she subvocalized to him.
“Unfortunately, no, but I have every confidence that you have no need of such extreme measures. After all, these are simply more monsters, are they not? Though that is a bit of an insult to TDMs, considering how ugly these hairless apes are.”
A bit of the tension in Lynn’s gut eased and she grinned. Hugo was right.
And this wasn’t middle school.
“What are you smiling at, princess?” Blue-eyes said, his own smile now stiff.
“Your pathetic faces,” Lynn snapped, suddenly mad as heck that these three low-lifes were wasting her time. “You want hostile? I’ll give you hostile, you worthless monkeys. You’re uglier than a one-legged warthog, dumber than a headless chicken and your mother dresses you like a circus clown. Now get out of my way or I’ll introduce you to something called the El Salvador Death Punch. It doesn’t kill you, it makes you want to kill yourself!”
“Bravo, Miss Lynn! That’s the spirit!”
She barely heard Hugo’s comment. She had no clue where her words had come from. She was just channeling Larry.
“This one’s got a mouth on her,” one of the guy’s friends said, laughing.
“Yeah and she’d better watch it or it will get her into trouble,” Blue-eyes said, no longer friendly at all.
“What trouble?” Lynn said, waving around her. “I’m surrounded by dozens of eyewitnesses, and my service AI has already contacted emergency services to report a brainless slug and his two flunkies harassing innocent bystanders at this address. They’ll be here in minutes. So, get out of my face, unless you really like wearing orange and eating prison food!”
“Uh, Evan…” one of the group said, warningly.
“This ain’t over,” Evan said, backing away.
“It never even got started, you moron,” Lynn said, watching them closely as they turned and hurried away. She was trying not to shake. That hadn’t been her. She hated confrontation. That had been Larry Coughlin. But apparently Larry Coughlin worked—as long as she had something to back it up.
“Um, Hugo. For future reference, can you contact emergency services?”
“I most certainly can, Miss Lynn. Reality has its dangers, after all and Mr. Krator wanted to ensure that all his Hunters had every resource at their fingertips should the need arise. I could have had a police drone here within two minutes, with squad cars following within five. That said, much can happen in two minutes. I believe it might be advisable to consider bringing a companion on excursions to this area in the future.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Lynn said, still staring after her harassers. Jerks. Why did there have to be so many cretinous losers in the world? Why couldn’t she mind her own business and not be bothered by anybody? “Hugo, why do the jerks always win?”
“I am certainly no expert, Miss Lynn, but by normal human societal standards, I would not describe that clod-faced buffoon as a ‘winner.’ It is highly probable that his mother regrets the day he was conceived and his only advantage in life is that he is blissfully ignorant of his own imbecility. You, on the other hand, are a human possessed with a quick wit, bravery and the lethality of razor-sharp steel.”
Lynn grinned.
“Uh-huh. Right. Now who’s waxing poetic?”
“I have been known to dabble. After all, I have read every poem in existence that has been converted into digital format. I have much quality work to draw from.”
She shook her head and headed back toward the front of the complex, in the opposite direction the three low-lifes had taken. The foremost apartment building in the Heathers was in the shape of a giant U with a large green space between the two arms. There were trees, bushes, walking paths and even a lake. The area was quiet and peaceful, relatively free of the buzz of drones, since they were all programmed to go around or high above green spaces to cut down on sound pollution.
Lynn stopped to sit on a bench and eat two energy bars. She’d missed dinner and should have been starving with all the walking she was doing, but the energy bars hit the spot and she wasn’t the sort to splurge on a delivery meal unless it was necessary. As she stood back up, she noticed how long the shadows had gotten and knew she should probably head back to her own apartment, considering she’d already had one problem encounter. But it was a nice evening and she really wanted to reach the next level before she called it a night. She promised herself she’d clear around this one green space, then head home.
As she methodically worked her way around the lake, she wondered why she wasn’t seeing much of a difference in monster type with the change in terrain. In most catch ’em AR games, the various creatures, whether made up or not, tended to correlate with the fauna. But despite being near a good-sized body of water, she wasn’t seeing any “water” type TDMs. Their types seemed more oriented around humans and human systems than the natural surroundings. But then, they were supposed to be creatures from another dimension, so why would they correlate with Earth’s own habitats?
Lynn was rounding the far edge of the lake, getting farther away from the walking paths and occasional older couple out for a stroll, when her TD Hunter display suddenly disappeared.
“Uh, Hugo?”
Nothing.
Lynn accessed the main controls menu for her AR glasses and brought up her cloud interface via her LINC. There was the TD Hunter app, but every time she tried to select it, she got an error message saying the app had failed to restart.
Well, that was a bummer. Reluctantly, she turned around to head back to her apartment. No point staying out if the app wouldn’t work. She kept trying it, though, as she trudged up a grassy hill back toward the apartments. Suddenly, her display reappeared.
“Good evening, Miss Lynn. My most sincere apologies, but the application seems to have failed unexpectedly. This is not entirely unexpected at this stage, as there are bugs still to fix.”
“No problem, Hugo. I’m just glad it’s working now.” Lynn turned and headed back down the hill again, wanting to clear a cluster of red dots by the far end of the lake. The cluster was oddly ring-shaped, with an empty space in the middle and she was curious if she might find some new kind of TDM there.
“You are most gracious, Miss Lynn. If I may, however, it might be advisable to return home while I run some diagno—”
And, just like that, the app shut down again.
Well, that was peachy.
She turned around and headed back up the hill, this time moving more slowly as she tried over and over to restart the app. In the quiet absence of TDM noises, she became aware of a faint whirring noise and looked up to search the skies, finally spotting a tiny drone hovering about fifty feet up. Huh. What was it doing so close to a green space? Drones were used for everything under the sun, so for all she knew, it was a city drone gathering environmental data, or a police surveillance drone following a lead. It hovered for a few more seconds and then rose and flew away. Lynn shrugged and refocused on her glitchy game. After a few more steps, TD Hunter came back up.
“What’s going on, Hugo?”
“As I was trying to say before, Miss Lynn, it might be advisable to return home while I run some diagnostic tests and send an error report to our technical support team.”
“Oh. Okay. Well, the app seems to shut down every time I walk that way toward the far end of the lake. Are you sure it isn’t a signal problem?”
“Unfortunately, I cannot speculate on what is causing this particular error at this time. There are too many variables and unknowns. If you suspect a signal issue, then perhaps we should avoid this area for the time being.”
Lynn sighed. She really did want to investigate that ring of dots but perhaps some other day. For now, she decided to go back to her apartment complex by a different route and hopefully find more TDMs. Plus, there was still that area along the greenway she hadn’t yet cleared. Maybe that would be enough to get her to the next level.
By the time she got back to her apartment building, the complex’s lights had come on and the air had cooled. She circled around to the backside of the apartments where the greenway was and stopped. There were no lights on the rear of the last building before the strip of woods separating it from the next complex over. Just a long row of air conditioning units lit by the occasional golden light coming from someone’s window. Fortunately for tracking purposes, Lynn still had her overhead map, which showed a generous number of red dots, mostly over in the greenway woods where she would most certainly not be going at night. The dots behind the apartment building, though, gave her pause. They looked regularly spaced in an unnaturally straight line, which only added to the spooky factor of being back there in the relative darkness. Lynn wondered how well she’d be able to see the actual TDMs in low light.
Swallowing her trepidation, she switched from Nano Blade to Disruptor Pistol and started cautiously forward.
When she neared the first dot on her overhead, she felt a trickle of relief to find that the imp it represented glowed slightly in the darkness. It wasn’t enough to make it visible from farther away than her normal radar range, but once she was in range it was easy to pick out among the deepening shadows. Small blessings. She took it out with ease, then moved on to the next one. This late in May, the various night bugs were out in full force and the racket they made from the woods half a dozen yards away made it hard to hear the crackling, rustling and beeping of the TDMs. Just to be safe, she turned off her background music and upped the game sound so she wouldn’t miss any sneak attacks.
It wasn’t until her fourth imp that she began to feel weirded out. Each one she had killed had been crouched beside the air-conditioning unit for the closest apartment. Every unit had an imp, which explained the unnaturally straight and regularly spaced line.
Someone had done some ridiculously detailed mapping for this game. She wondered if all the tens of thousands of satellites that formed the mesh network had done it, or if they’d used drones too.
A sudden whisper distracted her and she spun to take out the ghost that had been trying to slip up behind her. She knew they’d be hanging around. Now the question was, where were all the grinder worms and gremlins? Imps usually had more defense type monsters around them.
She was so preoccupied by the thought, that she didn’t notice she’d leveled until the achievement popped up on her display and Hugo’s voice chimed in her ear.
“Congratulations on your achievement, Miss Lynn! Remember, as always, that the higher level you are, the more visible you are to your enemies. This means aggressive TDMs will be more likely to attack sooner and patrol TDMs such as ghosts will be attracted to you in greater numbers. Keep this in mind as you proceed and consider making full use of your increased stealth and armor capabilities.”
Lynn barely heard Hugo’s rote warning, however, because all her attention was riveted on her display where two shiny new pistols floated, accompanied by the words Please choose your weapon upgrade.
“Hey, Hugo, can you show me the stats of these two weapons side-by-side so I can compare them?” she asked.
“Certainly, Miss Lynn. Would you like me to go over their capabilities?”
“Naw,” she said absently, eyes already zipping back and forth over the newly displayed stats and drawing her own conclusions. The first pistol was a stumpy thing with a flared barrel called the Particle Dragon. According to its stats, it did about thirty percent more damage than the Disruptor Pistol but had less than half the range, though that was offset by the fact that it could hit multiple enemies if they were clustered. The second weapon looked closer to her Disruptor Pistol but had a covering on the front that looked vaguely like a barrel shroud, usually needed to protect the bearer from injuring themselves by touching a hot barrel. The weapon was called a Plasma Pistol and did fifteen percent more damage than the Disruptor Pistol with a twenty percent longer range to boot. Lynn was torn but finally decided on the Plasma Pistol for her upgrade. She wasn’t a diehard sniper type like some of the other Tier One players she knew in WarMonger, but she certainly appreciated the usefulness of the “range” part of “ranged weapon.”
She was switching her power amplifier augment from the Disruptor Pistol to her new Plasma Pistol when a big orange “Proximity Warning” flashed across her vision. Cursing herself for losing situational awareness, she spun around, assuming it was a ghost. But the glowing thing that bore down on her accompanied by a hair-raising snarl like a rabid dog was no ghost. Lynn stumbled back a step, then another and another as she raised her gun and tried to put some space between her and her attacker. But it was too quick and she started taking damage before she could get off a single shot. Her display flashed red again and again while she scrambled back, trying to get a good look at the thing. All she could see was a mass of nasty claws and fangs, all while that terrifying beastly snarl filled her ears. Finally panicking, she tried to switch to Nano Blade mid-fight, which would at least let her strike no matter how close the TDM was. But before the Nano Blade even finished forming, her health bar flashed red and Hugo’s voice warned her:
“You are rapidly approaching ten percent health. Retreat and reevaluation recommended.”
Lynn turned and ran. She rounded the corner of the building at a sprint, then slowed and looked for some cover—as if that was going to help. But then that bone-chilling snarl filled her ears and she moved instinctively, taking off again this time for the apartment entrance. When she arrived and checked her overhead, she could see the monster’s dot was still doggedly following.
“Holy freaking moly,” she panted between gasps for breath. “Hugo, exit combat mode. Exit combat mode!”
“At once, Miss Lynn.”
Her combat screen disappeared and she collapsed onto a bench by the apartment doors. Her limbs ached and her heart raced with adrenaline as she tried to catch her breath.
That attack had seemed so real, to the point she’d actually flinched with every slash and bite from the monster. And the way it had followed her like a wolf pursuing its prey? That was flat-out scary.
Noticing that she had a death grip on her Nano Blade, she relaxed her fingers and finally became aware of how abnormally warm the handle was to the touch. She hoped the vibrate function on it hadn’t overheated. But then, she hadn’t landed even one hit, so why would it have been vibrating? Probably yet another glitch in the game.
After she caught her breath, Lynn decided she’d had enough for one night and tiredly hauled herself up, then trudged inside. Despite the fact that she was used to her mom being away at night, when she entered her apartment it felt eerily quiet and she found herself checking every door and window to make sure they were locked. She briefly thought about food but was more tired than she was hungry, so instead she went to her room, took off her backpack and collapsed on her bed.
It was almost nine p.m.. She hadn’t meant to stay out so late.
As exhausted as she was, her instincts were still on high alert. Giving into the itch, she selected “Combat Mode” from the TD Hunter menu, then examined her overhead map. Her skin prickled and goosebumps raised the hair on her arms as she watched the lone dot circling around and around outside her building’s entrance.
The monster had tracked her home. And it was waiting for her.
“What is that thing, Hugo?” she asked, staring at the slowly circling dot.
“If you are referring to the most recent TDM with whom you were engaged in battle, Miss Lynn, then ‘that thing’ is a Varg. Delta Class-3. Attacks: Ambush charge. Bite. Slash. Defenses: None. Detection: Level 4. Stealth: +2. Unique behavior: Extremely aggressive, most often found around imps or other gatherers and will charge without warning. Encountered mostly at night, reasons unknown. Detected in the wild: 1/20/2040, 2120 GMT, AlphaTester6.”
“Mostly at night?” Lynn asked, then shivered. “Mostly. That’s a relief, at least. That thing was freaking creepy. It came out of nowhere.” She fell silent and Hugo offered no more information. Well, at least now she knew the very first thing she should do when leveling was to equip more globes and plates, no matter how much she’d rather save them. That Varg was one nasty monster. And to think, this was only Level 4.
Staring at the dot, Lynn wondered if it would still be waiting there for her the next time she went out to play TD Hunter. She still felt creeped out. Even as she became aware of the feeling, though, she narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips.
Any TDM stupid enough to wait around to “get” her was in for a rude surprise. She would be back out to “play” soon enough, no question about it. And when she did go out, she would be ready.
That Varg wouldn’t stand a chance.
For now, she needed a good night’s sleep to heal her damage, not to mention rest her body. She turned off the app and finally realized how exhausted she was. She knew she should get up, shower, eat and stretch before going to sleep, but her bed was so soft, and blackness was calling her like a siren. Even as she half-heartedly tried to gather enough energy to drag herself out of bed, the blackness won and she passed out.
She must have spent too much time obsessing over TD Hunter that day, because her dreams were vivid and nightmarish, filled with ghastly, spectral beings that appeared all over the world. In her dream they watched, invisible, eyeing humans going about their daily lives like so many lions in the tall grass watching baby gazelle.
Then, as if responding to a sudden signal, they slipped through walls and locked doors and attacked people in their beds.
Cities burned unchecked as demons swarmed across the world…