Beneath the gleaming skyscrapers and picturesque facade of the City of Redemption lies another city; a community of dark and ancient magic populated by creatures of the night. Strephon Bellman, a semi-immortal half-fae, has been charged by the Queen of the Fae with investigating Melchior Dusk, a fae noble posing as the mortal owner of a computer game company.
At a party thrown by Melchior, Strephon’s companion, reporter Cassandra True, has met a nerdish game designer named Byron Sanders, who begins to tell her terrifying secrets about Dusk. Before he gets too far, Cassandra and Byron find themselves trapped in a virtual reality game which is about to turn deadly.
Dark Redemption is an Urban Gothic Fantasy which will be running in weekly installments Wednesday evenings. Previous installments can be found linked at the Dark Redemption Index.
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Chapter 10: Nowyr 2 Run
In which Miss True finds herself taking an interview to the next level, one which does not include featherbunnies.
Nazi Orcs! She was looking at Nazi Orcs! Seven foot tall, grey-skinned goblins with pointed ears, fangs and claws carrying battle axes and wearing SS uniforms.
"Shoot 'em! Shoot 'em!" Byron shouted and opened up his rifle at their attackers. The bullets tore huge bloody holes in the orcs. Cassandra fumbled with her own rifle and fired a spray of bullets into the floor and the kneecaps of the oncoming orcs. The orcs spasmed under the impact of the fire and then began to disintegrate as if burning up from the inside.
"Okay! Run! Run!" Byron grabbed Cassandra by the hand and pulled her along as he dashed out the door and down a long hallway.
"What's happening? My God, what were those things?"
"I told you, this is a shooter game. The object is to get through the castle without being killed."
"But this is just a game, right? We can't really get killed, can we?"
"Like I told you, this game isn't quite ready for commercial release."
The end of the corridor opened up into a huge chamber, at least thirty meters across. The floor dropped off and Cassandra could not see the bottom, but several stone platforms about two meters in diameter hovered in mid-air approximately level with the floor of the corridor. "Jump!" Byron said.
"Are you crazy?"
"Jump! We don't have much time!"
Shadows moved on the chamber's high ceilings and Cassandra saw giant spiders, a good hundred and fifty centimeters long, lowering themselves on dark cables.
"Jump now! I'll cover you!" Byron fired into the air, killing the spiders as they came within range.
Cassandra screamed and jumped for the first stone platform. The platform recoiled as she hit it and for a moment she thought it was going to tip her off..
"Keep going!" Byron yelled. She jumped for the next platform. As soon as she was safely across, he followed, one jump behind.
The spiders kept descending and Byron couldn't jump and shoot at the same time. With one jump separating Cassandra from the far end of the chamber, Cassandra heard him shout a warning and spider came down on top of her. She screamed again and fired at the spider. It thrashed and rolled off the platform and plunged into the abyss below.
Cassandra scrambled to safety and Byron quickly followed her. "Okay," she gasped. "How do we win the game?"
"We have to clear all twenty-seven levels."
"And this is?"
"The first."
"Oh, hell." The relief Cassandra felt after clearing the floating platforms dissolved under a new wave of frustration and fear. She shoved the fear down and tried to look for a rational way our. "Can't you pause it? Like you did the bunny game?"
"I'll try," Byron said. "Cover me." He frantically worked at his phantom keyboard, while Cassandra watched out for the next wave of attacks.
They weren't long in coming: Skeletons with nunchaku sprang from the darkness. Instinctively Cassandra fired. She kept firing until her rifle was clicking instead of belching lead. The skeletons were dead, but her rifle was out of ammunition.
"Look for a blue box; that's where you pick up extra ammo!"
She saw one, about ten meters away on top of an ornately carved stone pillar. She slung her rifle over her back and began climbing. As she placed her hand on top, she felt a pain as something bit her fingers. A skull with robotic spider legs had chomped onto her hand. Without thinking she shook the beastie off and it smashed on the floor below. Opening up the blue box, she found several clips of ammunition. She shoved one into her rifle; at least the game made re-loading easier. "I've got the ammo!" she shouted, tossing an extra clip to Byron.
Byron caught the clip. "Good! Get down quick!" Cassandra scrambled back down to the stone floor as Byron explained. "I’m punching in a cheater code. They let you skip over the lower levels when you replay the game. This will take us to the very end."
The environment shifted again; now they stood before a large imposing gate flanked by burning braziers. "Oh, bugger."
"I wish you'd stop saying that."
"We still have to fight the big boss monster yet."
"Do we have enough firepower?"
"No, we can't kill him without the thermonuclear device from Level Twenty-Five; he's too tough."
"There are nukes in this game? Don't answer that!" Cassandra's gave another shriek. "Behind you!"
A scaly lizard-man with a centaur-like body and carrying a crossbow advanced towards them and fired. Cassandra ducked as the crossbow bolt struck Byron in the chest. Byron staggered, but fired wildly at the lizard-taur and bolted through the gate with Cassandra close behind him.
Inside the gate an intense white beam like a spotlight struck Byron. He threw up his hand before his eyes and screamed. Before Cassandra's eyes, his bones began to glow through his skin and his body disintegrated. Within instants Byron was reduced to a pair of smoking boots.
Cassandra swung around to face the source of this new threat; a huge purple beast, three times the height of a man, with moist, glistening skin, four arms and tentacles hanging down from its face. It's eyes glowed ominously.
"Cassandra!" a voice cried out. She barely heard it. She unloaded her rifle at the colossal beast to no effect and kept squeezing the trigger in a death-grip, hoping against hope that another blue box might appear or a spare weapon or anything. Otherwise, she was toast.
A blaze of light like a rip appeared in the air next to her and she saw a figure like an archangel wearing a dinner jacket lean through the rip. Her mind numb with terror, she gaped at it, unable even to feel surprise; although a part of her wondered vaguely why he was wearing a dinner jacket. The figure held out his hand to her. "Come out! Quickly!"
The Boss Monster rose from its skull-decked throne and drew a gargantuan scimitar. "Oh, bother!" the archangel muttered. Did archangels say “bother”?
He gestured and a blazing sword appeared in his own hands. Steel met steel in a crackle of lightning. The angelic figure met the beast's attack and responded with a flurry of blows that forced the Boss Monster to step back. The monster's eyes flared and beams of energy poured from them, but the archangel blocked the beams with his sword. "Hurry! Go!" he shouted.
Cassandra shook her head and scrambled for the rent in reality. She passed through the tear and darkness engulfed her.
* * * * *
She woke up to the sensation of her hand being squeezed and someone tapping the back of her wrist. “Cassandra, are you all right? Can you hear me?” She opened her eyes a crack. After the dim gloom of the dungeon in the game, the light seemed painfully bright and she needed a moment to focus. She saw the face of the angel, his expression tense and worried. No, not an angel.
“Strephon!”
He was sitting beside her, leaning over the side of his wheelchair and anxiously holding her hand. The headset she had been wearing lay on the desk next to the game console. She was back in Byron’s cubicle. She was safe. All the tension and terror rushed out of her in one long breath. “Strephon! Someone switched the game and we were in a dungeon with monsters and they were trying to kill us and you were there only you were an angel and Byron died and…”
That was as far as she got before the last of the adrenaline oozed out of her. She flung her arms around Strephon’s neck and buried her face against his shoulder. He rested his free hand on her own shoulder and for a long time, it seemed, they held each other. Then she felt his body tense, and heard him speak in a loud, clear voice:
“Ah. Detective. Just the man we needed.”
She turned and saw Detective Masey standing in the doorway.
NEXT: Questions in a Cubicle
