Otherlife Dreams: The Selfless Hero Trilogy (33 page)

“Oh my Gods, are you listening to yourself? Mark my words, this will come back to us and one of us will pay.”

“Perhaps, regardless of anything else, Runner looks to be set on this course of action. Let’s loot them and be away,” Thana added with a clap of her hands. Moving to a neutralized body she reached down to scavenge what she could from it.

“Damn you, damn you all. Your blasted goody two shoes routine will be the end of us, at the very least one of us,” Hannah stealthed and walked away towards the wagon. She was still a visible silhouette since she was in the party but this was more of a matter of indicating that she would discuss this no further.

Closing his eyes he found that he agreed with Hannah. This was that moment in every terrible holomovie where the audience screams at the Heroes to do what must be done. He couldn’t though, he couldn’t. This place wasn’t his life and he’d have to return to the military after this. It’d be one thing to have brawled with others, but to have essentially taken a life? Logs would indicate what happened to whom in the end, as records were always kept. Always. There would be no hiding from the repercussions if one were to take a another’s life.

“I agree with her. Foolish of you. I’ll stand by you though,” declared Katarina. Thumping his shoulder with a closed fist she moved on to the next body to check for any items.

“Thanks Kitten.”

1:39pm Sovereign Earth time

10/13/43

Unfortunately what loot they received from the battle didn’t constitute an upgrade for anyone. It did serve as free materials for Runner to train up his Arcane Smithing. Broken into component parts and reassembled, each item was recreated in this way. Each would be worth upwards of ten gold now. With a negligent flip the reformed sword tumbled end over end to land in the crate he’d been working out of. It’d only taken him a day since the fight to do the work when it was his turn to ride the wagon.

“Now I’m bored,” complained Runner. Standing he brushed his hands off on his pants and stretched as best as he could in the wagon.

“Oh? I’ve been toying with this set of puzzles I discovered on the forum. I forget the name and couldn’t pronounce it if I tried, but it’s a logic puzzle. Each row and column must contain the numbers one through nine but can only do so once. It’s divided into a grid of nine large blocks, each block has nine squares in it. It's entertaining and rewarding in it’s way.”

Looking up from where she sat across from him, Thana smiled at him with only her lips. Returning her attention to the space where her finger moved along rows and columns only she could see.

“Sudoku? How’d you even access that? I mean, I guess the account I created for you would actually allow you to store anything on your profile, providing you had the space. If someone uploaded the files it’d be possible to install it.”

“I confess it took me a few tries to understand the installation process. Hannah had a lot more trouble installing that card game tournament monstrosity. Now she can’t stop playing it. She takes great delight in beating your shipmates.”

“I see. Alright, ok, unexpected to the say least, but not a bad thing.”

“Whys that? Gambling fits Hannah perfectly. Nadine doesn’t want anything to do with it, she stick to the forum. Apparently there’s an entire section dedicated to trading and she’s been spending her free time there. Personally, I don’t find the markets that entertaining.”

“At least she’s expanding her knowledge. Though, it is a subject only she could find fascinating.”

“One would suppose so. I believe Katarina is attempting a similar goal in a different way. She watches war documentaries constantly.”

“War documentaries?”

“Indeed. She followed a link from a thread that ended up taking her to the entertainment library. Would you believe she goes to sleep listening to them?”

Runner could only provide a noncommittal grunt before exiting the wagon.

Katarina sat in the drivers box, a slightly vacant stare on her face. Her eyes were clearly focused on an invisible interface menu floating before her. If what Thana said was true, and he had no reason to doubt her, she was deeply engrossed in a documentary about a previous war or conflict. Pressing a hand to her pauldron as he passed, so as to not surprise her, he lightly jumped down and stepped away from the wagon.

“Your turn Nadine, hopefully at the next town we can just dump everything for a profit and empty the wagon.”

“N-n-no, that’d be a wast-t-te. I won’t buy as much th-this time.”

Unwilling to allow Runner to continue the conversation Nadine hopped up into the wagon and disappeared inside. Grunting over being shut down so casually he turned his head to see Hannah walking up to him.

“Your own damn fault, idiot. She knows you won’t say no to her, so she’ll just use it to her advantage,” Hannah explained. Falling in next to her as the rear guard he could only chuckle.

“You’re probably right. Though would any of you prefer the alternative? Would you rather I ruled you all with an iron fist? Imposed my will exactly as I saw fit and did as I would? That’s how many others would do it. It’s how many others do act.”

“I wasn’t complaining ass-hat, I was explaining. And no, I wouldn’t prefer it. I’m not a masochist.”

“No, but apparently you’re a gambler. I hear you’ve been playing cards?”

“Yeah. I win more often than I lose but there’s a few card sharks on your ship.”

“Was it uh, hard to install? Did it make sense? Did Thana help you?”

“Hard to install? At first, yes. The damn thing wanted me to tell it what to do. I asked in the thread that it was posted in and they helped me out. Well, some did. Quite a few told me to read the fucking manual. A few offered directions and that worked. After that it was a piece of cake. The only part I didn’t get was something about my profile and how much it used. No idea. Thana said her little logic games thing only took one percent each.”

“Games? Plural?”

“Yeah. That stupid number one and a game about finding fucking firebombs. It didn’t make any damned sense. Cards though? Cards make sense. You should play with me. We could double our odds if we knew what each other had. In fact, if we-”

Runner didn’t reply but nodded his head as if considering her words. In truth he was considering the situation as a whole. Naturals were utilizing programs on a ship that they were in fact installed on as part of a larger program. This was coming pretty close to how some people believed the end of the world would come about. True AI that could utilize other programs. Not for the first time Runner wondered how bad things were getting.

How much could the server handle? Why did the capacity expand? Why did it expand by so damn much? What if it all crashed? Were they currently docked at an orbital station? Were they already under the care of engineers working to free them?

The one thing he knew for certain was that the Naturals in his care were more like people now. There was nothing left of their original programming at this point. If he wasn’t so terrified for the end result, he was sure that this would be classified as a scientific miracle.

He’d been level capped before they’d even managed to get the rest of the abilities for the starting classes. Hopefully in taking the next promotions he’d finally unlock the password to the admin controls.

He’d spent every night hammering at the login screen until he locked himself out for the hour. He doubted random guessing and brute force tactics would work, but he had the time to try. Why not?

It’d be a few hours more until the current password lockout expired and he could try again.

Warning, your Campsite has been invaded.

Stumbling over his own feet he started to fall before Hannah managed to catch him by the arm. Trying to steady himself he let Hannah guide him.

“The hell is wrong with you Runner?” Hannah asked, her voice edged with annoyance and concern.

“Err, sorry. I left the Campsite up the other day. I wanted to see if someone would enter it. We camped pretty far off the road and it wasn’t something you could really see from the road. I got a message to the fact that an intruder attempted to enter the Campsite. It could be random dumb luck but I don’t really believe in coincidences.”

“Fuck. You think it’s that Tim guy? The one who’s after me?”

“Ted. Ted Henshaw, and maybe but probably not. He wouldn’t find the Campsite, he’d be trailing you directly, wouldn’t he? You’ve got a quest marker, he’d have no need to deviate from the road, he could actually follow you just by watching the map. No, no this is probably Mr. Personality or the thieves guild. Damn. I really thought we’d lost them. All that work for little more than half a day. I mean, I’m glad we got even that much but I was hoping to lose them entirely.”

“Would they know that you’re now aware? Can we set up an ambush? Can we trap or imprison them or something?”

“They would have received a warning that they were entering someone else’s campsite. One must assume they’re aware they set it off. I’m unsure if that’ll speed them up or slow them down though. They’ll be more cautious as the trail us, looking for ambushes as they go.”

“If it were me? It’d speed me up and I’d try to catch you before dawn, when everyone assumes the worst of the night is over.”

“I’d have to agree. It’d be my own approach. Which of course this means it’s not safe to camp or sleep in the open tonight. We’ll use the benefits we have then as best as we’re able. Let’s see.”

Targeting the wagon Runner used Campsite on it directly. There was a momentary pause as the server considered this request.

A few seconds passed before the wagon suddenly became a campsite. Apparently it fell within the boundaries enough that the world could accommodate for it.

“Runner? Did something happen?” called Thana’s voice from inside the wagon. Having a campsite appearing on top of you would definitely set off a message alert.

A quick two step later and he clambered up the side of the driver’s box. Sitting down next to Katarina he patted her arm to get her attention.

“I left the old campsite up just to see if anyone would stumble across it. It so happens, someone did. We were really far from the road. It might just be paranoia, but I’d say we didn’t lose them. Whoever they are. We’ll need to start sleeping in shifts and throughout the day. We won’t be able to stop for the night if we want to keep our distance from them up. When we get to town we’ll sell everything and keep it empty, sorry Nadine. We’ll get better speed and more room for everyone to rest easier. Our best bet is to reach Crivel faster than they can close the gap. With the sheer number of soldiers and troops in the area we might just be able to lose them.”

Chuckling beside him Katarina shook her head, smiling. “Never easy, always a problem with you.”

“Meh, you love it Kitten. Spice of life and all that crap. Any objections? No? At this point I’m open to any suggestions, ranging from doing nothing to going elsewhere.”

“Whatever plan we develop, we should be taking the quickest feasible route. Being able to recuperate in the wagon, is an unexpected boon that they will not have, nor expect. We simply don’t brake for anything and continue onward.”

“Run fast-t-ter t-t-than they can. It-t-t-temize the wagon and sprint, resting in between t-t-t-o recover stamina.”

“Turn around, prepare defenses, engage.”

“Set an ambush for the shits, cut them down before they can even respond. Lots of nasty things you can do at range.”

“All very valid plans ladies, I thank you for the suggestions. For now, let us do as Thana suggested and sleep. Hannah, Katarina, get in there too. I’ll drive the wagon.”

Brooking no nonsense he pressed himself against Katarina’s side, attempting to dislodge her bodily or at least give her the impression it would do no good to argue. Eventually she stood up and and stepped into the back, Hannah clambering in behind her.

“Runner-”

“I know Thana, it’s not very dignified. I’m sorry. If I can manage better in the future, I swear I will. I’m not looking, I’m not suggesting to join you, we can even close the flaps if it helps. I’d say take off any armor that takes up room, especially you Kitten, and get snuggly. You wanted an adventure Lady Death, you’ve got one.”

There was no response to that. In a few short minutes, each one of his party members had the icon of floating Z’s next to their name.

Runner kept himself looking straight forward and kept the wagon at the fastest setting. It didn’t require much thought really, agitating the horses when they started to flag was more than enough. He gave the animals another tap of the reins.

Speeding up once more the horses stayed close to their maximum speed. Runner was left with his crowded thoughts, nagging questions, and no answers.

Chapter 17 - Clash -

1:39pm Sovereign Earth time

11/01/43

They’d traveled the roads heading to Crivel for weeks. Only pausing long enough to sell their inventory they made their way northward. It was his turn at the helm as everyone else relaxed in the wagon. It looked like all four had fallen asleep swiftly. Everyone had definitely gotten used to living on the run, sprinting along that razors edge.

Judging from the forum posts he’d been reading this morning and speculations from players in the area, they’d be able to reach Crivel a day before the siege could start. Nadine wouldn’t be ready for her promotion but that wasn’t something they could wait on.