CHAPTER 13: GETTING TO KNOW YOU
Once in the lower hall,we paused to look around. It seemed empty, and everything was silent, except for the noise of our movements. I stopped as my stomach rumbled.
“When’s the last time we ate?” I asked, turning to the others.
“Several hours,” Thornhold said. “Do you really want to stop here for food?”
I glanced down the hall, which led to another set of double doors. On our end, the hall ended a few feet behind us. There seemed to be no doors between us and the other end.
“Yes, we should. We don’t want any hunger headaches, and remember—our health depends on eating regularly. I don’t see any health bars over your head, but I’m not going to bank on health and stamina not holding true here, the way they do in game. We can’t ask the Game Guides due to our watches now being one-way, but I don’t want to take any chances.”
“You’re right,” Gregg said. “When I don’t eat regularly, I feel tired and lethargic. I’ll bet you it’s due to hit points and stamina going down. I don’t know how they do it, but when they transfer us into the game, it shifts our biology as well as our races.”
“All right, get out your food and eat,” I said. “And don’t forget to hydrate.” I sat on the floor and opened my pack, pokingthrough the food. I used a tiny knife that I kept for food use only to cut off a slice of bread and a chunk of cheese, then added an apple. It wasn’t fancy, but it would give me a balance of protein, carbs, and vitamins to fuel me till the next meal.
“So, you know my story,” Geoff said. “What are your backgrounds? Where are you all from? What do you do?”
I swallowed a piece of bread and cheese. “Well, we all come from the same city and we game together. During the day, I’m a senior editor at a small publishing company—Golden Laurels. It sounds like a great job but seriously? It’s not easy. We’re struggling to stay in business, and we can’t offer our authors enough money to keep them. There are so many writers I’d love to give a chance but I don’t have the authority. We started as an alternative press and now…that’s gone. We’ve actually been discussing whether or not the press can keep going.” It occurred to me that my absence was going to impact the company if the game stayed broken beyond my vacation.
Not only that, but until now, I hadn’t verbalized how I felt about my job to anybody. Not even to myself. Apparently, I’d been repressing a lot of dissatisfaction. No wonder I’d been so tired lately and wanted a break.
“Are you married?” Geoff asked.
I shook my head. “No. I mostly hang with my peeps here. I guess I’m not very social. Every now and then, I date, but I mostly stay at home with my nose in a book, or with a movie.”
“You’re more social than I am,” Thornhold said. “For a gay man, I guard my private time. And don’t let her fool you, Geoff. Erenye is one of the best friends you could have. She’s helped me more than I can remember.” He flashed me a smile.
“I can believe it,” Geoff said, staring at me. “What about the rest of you? What do you do?”
“I own a gym,” Thornhold said. “I spent so much time there, that I decided to open a franchise. I’m a lot taller in real life butnot quite as muscled. Here, I’m a tank.” He paused, then added, “Except, I guess this is real life, now.”
“I wish it wasn’t,” Brynn said. “As for me, I’m a systems analyst in the IT department at Erenye’s publishing house and I have a boyfriend. We’ve been discussing marriage lately,” she added. “I don’t know what will happen now.”
“Keep your chin up,” Geoff said. “Maybe they’ll fix the game soon. It can’t just go on forever like this, can it?”
Nobody answered. The silence was deafening, but after a moment, Reggie spoke up.
“I’m a lawyer,” he said. “I work as a public defender. It’s not always fun, but generally, it’s a rewarding job. I always wanted to help people.”
“And I’m the principal of a prep school. I like seeing the kids succeed…but most of their parents are Karens and Chads. So, I game to take out my frustrations. And because I’m a giant nerd,” Ray said. “The five of us get together every weekend. Three months ago, we decided to take our vacations at the same time and book an adventure here. Now, I wish we’d decided to go fishing instead. Although being stuck in a cabin in the woods isn’t my idea of fun, either, but at least we could leave when we want to.”
I decided we needed to change the subject. Until we knew just how long we would be here, we needed to stop dwelling on being stuck. I finished my lunch, then stood and stretched out my aches and pains.
“Okay, we should press on. I do wish I could take home the strength, dexterity and gracefulness that being an elf has given me.” I flexed, grinning.
“Just make sure you keep that bow skill honed. You’re an excellent aim and we need it.” Thornhold wiped his hands on a greasy rag, sticking it back in his pocket. “Damn, I wish I’dpicked anything but a dwarf…this armor gives me the heebie-jeebies. I keep thinking that I must have fleas or something.”
I stuck out my tongue. “Eww. Don’t even think about it. Though, I suppose if we’re here long enough, we’re bound to pick up something. I just hope that they built medical and health stations into the game.”
“That, I’m not sure about,” Ray stood. “But at least I have some healing powers. All right, are we ready to move on?”
Everybody nodded, so we packed away our leftovers and, as a group, headed toward the stairs descending deeper into the burial chamber.
CHAPTER 14: A VERY DARK TOMB
The stairs were narrow,and once again, we had to decide how to approach them. I didn’t want to have to check every single stair for traps. It proved far more tedious than in the paper game. There, it was simply a roll of the dice. Here, it was a series of boring and thorough procedures. But we worked our way down, hoping Geoff’s trap finding skills were high enough.
When the game was working, we were supposed to receive announcements when we leveled up, or when our skills increased, but now that the game was broken, we had heard practically nothing. However, we made it to the bottom of the stairs intact, and that was good enough for me.
