Chapter 32: 32. Back in Feronia

I'm moving.

For the first few minutes moving felt worse than lying on cold wet stone—much worse, but it's beginning to get better. The physicality of my body and my reliance on my muscles takes me out of my head. It focuses my brain on something other than the inexplicable hell I have found myself in. It also helps (helps being used very loosely here) that we're being chased by about a horde of monsters, at least 50 strong and growing.

Yes, a mob of murderous creatures is very distracting.

It turns out, if you're in a dungeon and you stay in one place long enough, the game throws larger and larger waves of random monsters at you. So, things started to get dicey after it took more than a day for me to gain consciousness. And I wasn't the only one. Both Kerda and Lynesse accidentally touched those glowing orbs too.

The others managed to get us to a safe spot, an alcove at the back of the web cavern that had been used by the Orb Spider as its lair. Apparently, aside from a nasty smell and the constant drip of water, it was a good place to hold up. The spiders and other scavengers stayed clear of it. (Well, until they started to become drawn to it.)

Oh! I should mention: the others defeated the Orb Spider when it slunk out to eat the three of us, while we "hallucinated."

I really question the use of that word to describe the effect of the orbs. Hallucination makes you think of someone seeing trippy colors or talking animals. What I experienced was a full on alternate reality.

None of it makes any sense.

I lived that other life for nearly a week, but I was only out-of-it for about 36 hours. It doesn't line up. However, when I try and remember things, there are skips and jumps. Moments that just aren't there. I never questioned it while it was happening, but all the dull parts just didn't exist. In fact, the further I got from escaping the pod the less individual moments I remember. Like I was only living the highlights. It seems just like how I stopped questioning my memory loss, I stopped questioning how I got places or how the school day was only a class or two long or if I'd even eaten during the day. 

It makes sense that Katie would have had to do something like this to cram all that time in, but dwelling on it makes me feel ill again. Every second I spend examining how it wasn't real, makes by brain hurt as though it's imploding in on itself, pressing itself into a smaller and denser jumble of neurons—a fist clenched so tight the joints ache from the strain. And the smaller and denser it gets, the less I can think at all. 

Morgan pushes against my hip. "No, this way," they say, guiding me back on course before I slam headfirst into the side of the passage. 

But when I try and steer my legs, I over compensate and nearly stumble and fall, almost smack straight into Kerda, who is also teetering.

I didn't get much of her story. Nor Lynesse's either. Nobody seemed too forthcoming. But we all had visions of awaking from Feronia.

"And it seemed real?" Astra asked me.

"Yeah," I said, wanting to say, it was real! This is the thing that's not real!

"Why would Katie make you see that?"

"I don't know." But that felt like a lie. Not that I understood her motives, but what she showed me was torturous and cruel. I was so happy, and now I was back here. She did it at least in part to torture us.

I glance behind me and over Morgan's head. The faint outline of a mass of bodies clogging the tunnel is visible. Spiders, Beetles, Rats, Dread Moles, and other vermin are coming after us. The scrabbling and clicking of claws and pincers is deafening.

The sight is both terrifying and perplexing. All these hostile creatures are pressed in tight together. They should be fighting one another. But they seem to have put their differences aside to tear us apart. That was the other odd thing about it. Had there been one or ten or even twenty of them, we would have laughed and fought them. But there's so damn—I mean, dang—so dang many of them. They form a tidal wave.

I've already use Wail on them several times, but I use it again. It peels some off, but not enough to make a difference.

We just need to stay ahead of them until we reach the exit. So, of course, the dungeon makes that impossible.

The party members up in front begin entering an open chamber. I can hear water rushing and it's echo, and very quickly, Bronte screaming in frustration, "You've got to be fucking kidding!"

My steps almost slow out of fear over what I might be running into, but the snarling and scurrying keeps me moving.

When I clear the tunnel, I emerge into a vast cave. The ceiling must be a hundred feet above me. Like the Hyaena cave, it's cut in two by water. But where the other one had a stream, this one has a raging river at the bottom of a gorge. The only way across is an old tree trunk someone lugged all the way down here.

The problem is immediately clear: there's no way to cross a narrow rounded plank with any speed.

Bronte braces for attack, turning to face the tunnel. She casts the spell on her sword that causes the concussion effect. Which probably causes less damage than the electricity but effects more targets. Kerda, who's a few steps in front of me, skids to a halt beside her and turns drawing her rope-javelin.

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Astra is kneeling and facing the gorge. Which seems strange until I realize giant bats are wheeling in lazy circles over it, waiting to attack who ever tries to cross.

I stop and spin to, readying myself to begin my dance. Lynesse follows suit, getting her own spell started. The poor cat-girl is trembling.

Bronte yells to Vladimir and Morgan, "Go! Go! Astra's got you covered!" They speed past us only slowing as they reach the makeshift bridge.

The tunnel vomits out the creatures in a widening spew. They pour through filling the space in front of us and flanking us on both sides. The four of us form a semi-circle with Lynesse and me in the center and Bronte and Kerda on either end. Although no one has said anything, the obvious hope is that our efforts will protect Astra and the bridge.

As they swarm us, I try to ignore the biting and the clawing and concentrate on the dance.

My concentration wavers, however, when I think about how I'm supposed to be on a date with Gwen Holden instead of this bullshit.

They crash against me and die at my feet, forming a mound of necrotic flesh around me. None are of sufficient level or strength to withstand my spell. But that doesn't mean I don't get savaged by them before they die. My arms and legs are scored by dozens of cuts. I can feel my hair soak with my own blood. And at one point, a claw gauged my forehead, blinding me with the red flow running into my eyes.

Still, when the dust settles, I'm not the worst for wear. Kerda and Bronte did a good job of protecting everyone, but they've paid the price for it. Neither one looks like they can stand on their own, and it's hard to find an inch of skin that hadn't been rent by tooth or claw.

Vladimir and Morgan have reached the far side, and Astra now starts to pick her way across. The bats are all dead, so the only challenge is staying balanced atop the log. Her bushy tail seems to help with that, and she practically skips across the precarious thing.

During the battle I leveled up, so I check my bonuses. It lets me boost a skill of my choice. Necromancy also leveled up during the fight and is now 3. I use my bonus to push it to 4. This is my workhorse skill and the one I'm relying on the most. There might be some logic in using the advantage on one of my neglected skills, but with the double level bump, my 3 spells start to become really powerful. Higher damages, larger area ranges, and I can even raise two dead servants now.

After Astra, Kerda and Bronte cross. They need to get over there fast so Morgan can start healing them. 

Lynesse and I  watch Kerda shuffling across on her butt, hugging the log and holding on for her life. Lynesse says to me, "How are you doing? After those visions?"

"Okay. I guess."

I wonder if she sees that I'm more affected by them than she is and is concerned for me, but then as if to prove that she's just as concerned about herself, she says, "My head's still spinning. I mean, my game time only just started. The real world wasn't that long ago for me, but... But now, I find I'm not entirely sure which version of that world is real. Do you mind if I ask: what was it you were shown?"

It seems really personal, but I'm curious how her experience compares, so I give her a redacted version. "It was weird. I was a few years younger. I was a girl of eighteen. And in a different family. Living at home instead of on my own. Rich instead of—well, not poor, but struggling. Also, for some reason I was Latinex, which I'm not. I come from a pasty blend of European stock." Repeating it like this, I wonder if Katie had intended to make me think I'd awoken in a different player's body, if I ever remembered my real history.

"Is that all?" Lynesse asks, sounding disappointed. "Nothing sexual?"

 "Ummm..." I almost say no, but realize she's asking because hers had a sexual element, so I give her a more flattering version of what I was. "I was... er... popular. Very popular, if you understand what I mean. What was it like for you?"

She shakes her head and puts her hand to her brow. "Different. I mean, my life was the same. Same me. No age or racial changes. Same family. Same apartment and roommates. But... the world had changed." She fades off, looking off into space.

"Changed how?"

"It was more like Feronia. I have this shitty retail job at The Gap, and I still had it, but all the clothes they sold was messed up. Lingerie, latex bodysuits, bondage shit. And my work wear was a bra and thong and nothing else. And all kinds of things went on in the dressing rooms. And I was in a weird relationship with my roommates. I guess, like friends-with-benefits, with all of them. They'd just climb into bed with me or join me in the shower or... well, you get the picture. Also, every show that streamed was complete porn. And everyone thought it was normal. But me! Every time I freaked out, it was chalked up to me being disoriented from being taken out of the game."

"Yeah, disorientation. I got accused of that as well. Even went to a therapist." We don't say anything for a while, and when Kerda finally makes it across, I signal to Lynesse she should go. But before she get's onto the log bridge, I say, hoping to cheer her, "We'll probably forget all about it in a couple of days. Katie was just messing with us. At least, when we finally do get out of here, it will be to our old lives and there's nothing she can do about it."

She gives me a nod and says, "Yeah." Then, leaves me.

I can't help feeling she her yeah wasn't very enthusiastic, like maybe after seeing the alternate version, the prospect of returning to her original reality didn't seem that great. And honestly, I'm not sure how enthusiastic I am about returning to mine either.

 

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