Forsaken 2027 Read online

  "Over there, you used her before," and pointed behind Cain to the seated corporal, "Behind her, on that board is all the quests we offer from the control tower. There are other boards in Vegas. Well, at least one I know of, it’s at the old big tent casino complex just off the main street.”

  "Do you know of any safe places where I can bed down for a night or two? Also, why are these women still with me, including Dr Emily." Cain asked.

  "That’s easy Sonny. Your second question first, hand the quest in for us to free them, so to speak. Any of the casinos have bedrooms for hire," the Gunny replied, then grumbling under his breath, continued.

  "The big Old Tent rents rooms by the err, by the hour, so someone has informed me. The best place where visiting dignitaries stay is the Star casino, but I wouldn’t stay there, not after you killing three of their men. Any of the other dozen places will most likely fit your bill. I warn you now though, they ain’t cheap. Most will set you back three to four hundred a day and that’s for a standard room. You want something special say a penthouse then think big that will set you back over ten thousand for a twenty-four-hour booking. Because you’ve finished two quests for us, you’ll get a twenty-five percent discount on weapons and ammo, from the corporal.”

  Thanking the Gunny, Cain handed in the quest to the corporal, he heard the four troopers and Emily gasp as they received an equal share of the points for killing the Gekards. Cain received an additional fifty experience for completing the hidden quest, he stopped the pop-up as it was forming on his HUD.

  Next, he handed in all his surplus gear, the ores, weapons and explosives. He knew he could buy the dynamite cheaper from a store than what he sold it for here. Once he finished, his inventory was for all intents empty, apart from a few weapons and ammo he’d cleared his backpack out. Cain nearly forgot to hand in the Boss’ head, he handed the blood-soaked blanket over, dropping it into the tray on the corporal's desk.

  With all his trading finished, items removed and purchased, the corporal handed Cain a chit with the amount he received from the quests and the goods. The chit listed items purchased, quest funds and quest bonus. It came to over a staggering one hundred and fifty-four thousand tokens, Cain handed back the chit agreeing on the total.

  The corporal pressed a few keys on her terminal, attached to the tray Cain placed all his items in. Another pop-up tried sneaking on his HUD, it failed as Enoch had taken over the job of handling the pop-ups. Cain checked his money, he was now carrying over two hundred and fifty-three thousand casino tokens. Enough for a few nights until I find Toni at least.

  So, caught up in his transactions Cain didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to the four female troopers he had rescued. As he turned, he noticed Emily was still standing, her back against the wall waiting for him, her head bent looking at the ground.

  "OK, Emily, you can go now I handed the quest in," Cain said. Looking up through her eyelashes, Emily spoke.

  "Thank you for rescuing me, us I mean. I know I would have died in that place again if you hadn’t come. I will see if I can get this draining necklace removed, when we get to the casino," Emily said. Touching a necklace the thickness of her little finger, looped around her neck. It was the first time Cain had seen it.

  Looking closely, he noticed a malevolent darkness which surrounded the clasp. There were lines of red and blue, twisting and turning like they were alive, snapping almost. Cain assumed Emily’s life and mana were being drawn into it, powering it somehow. Without a clear plan, Cain pulled his combat knife, two Glocks appeared in the hands of the Gunny and corporal, pointing at him.

  "It‘s OK, I‘m removing Dr Emily‘s necklace. It is draining her mana, heath and stamina." Cain told them, the Glocks returned to their holsters. Cain asked Emily to sit on a chair at the side of the corporal‘s desk. Taking hold of the necklace he slipped the necklace into the line cutter, then twisted the blade, keeping it clear of Emily’s skin. Since Cain had a low level of mana, plus he had high health and endurance stats, the necklace did not affect him when he grabbed it then snapped it with his combat knife.

  Emily gasped, feeling her mana rushing back into her body. Two months they had forced her to wear the necklace although she couldn’t remember how it came to be on her neck. All she remembered was two months stuck in the cages with the others feeling helpless, with nobody to talk to.

  Even when she died, she always came back, spawning into the cage. She tried to log out of the game in the beginning, loads and loads of times but couldn’t manage it. Maybe now I’m free of the cage and the Ratoles I could find a bed for the night, a new spawning point. I must thank Joseph properly, Emily thought as she looked up at him as he spoke.

  Getting a level up

  "I’m going to the Old Tent casino that the Gunny told me about. I need to find a safe bed so I can allocate my points." Cain said to Emily. "Well, I’ll see you around," he said as he turned for the exit. Checking his local map, Cain noticed the distance to the Old Tent casino was over four miles. The route took him past two locations that had warning symbols over them. The old atomic testing museum complete with a radiation warning symbol, plus a note telling travellers to watch out for violent mutants. The other location was the sprawling conventions centre. The note over the centre warned of slavers.

  Folding his map, Cain stopped as he listened to Emily who was standing by the quest board, as she spoke. "There is a small quest here for two people, it’s taking a document that needs hand delivering to the owner of the Old Tent Casino. If we complete this, we will get fifty experience points, each, five thousand tokens and a free room for the night. Please Cain, will you come with me? You are going there anyway," Emily asked.

  "Look, I want to allocate my points and hit the sack. Then I can use player chat to search for my friend," Cain replied but noticed the trembling lip and a tear form in Emily’s eye. "OK, it couldn’t hurt for us to walk there together. Do you have any gear, better clothes or weapons?" Cain asked. Emily told Cain all she had was what she was standing in. She had died so many times while being held captive all her equipment and casino tokens either lost or stolen.

  Money is only any use when it can help people, and Emily needs the help. Can I walk away leaving her looking lost and alone, rats, no I can't how could I face Toni if she found out I didn't help her. Cain spent ten thousand exactly in equipping Emily and himself with better gear. He bought a M164A for himself so he could attach the M203 launcher to it along with more ammo for his weapons. Emily received a full combat rig, an MP5, Glock and Cain gave her a G3 with optics. Once he paid they left the control tower, Emily took the document from the corporal, it was more like an A4 document box than a letter. She placed it in her inventory.

  Cain took the lead, he’d played with his settings while getting Emily her new gear, then asked Enoch to help when he got stuck. Together they used the game code which allowed his local map to run as a transparent overlay on his HUD. Their destination was a flashing rhombus, with a distance readout beneath it. Using the game mechanics as Cain moved his head the map stayed fixed on a North-south axis.

  That meant the target rhombus moved out of his field of view. Checking the game date and time, now running in the top left of his HUD, Cain noticed it was mid-November and approaching fifteen thirty, it would soon get dark.

  This new overlay helps, especially as it overlays actual buildings, true to scale. Cain noticed from the map readout, they were nearing the atomic centre. Together they had walked for nearly forty minutes, mainly in silence as they kept to Paradise, when Emily let out a little squeak. Turning towards her position, Cain noticed Emily pointing to something over the right-hand side, in the distance.

  "What do you see?" Cain asked. Although they were standing in the shadow of a small ruined casino, Cain activated his night optics. He nearly let out a squeak too, there just over the junction, he noticed two rather large felines. Cain knew they weren’t tigers, per se, as real tigers didn’t glow green, nor were they easily eight feet long
, plus their tail and four to five feet high at the shoulder.

  "How are we going to get past them," Emily asked, then continued. "They keep looking this way, towards the junction. Have you noticed there has been hardly any foot traffic the closer we got to this point?”

  Cain pulled up his map controls, dropping two icons in orange on for the large tigers. He attached the icons to each target. If they moved, the icons would move too. Cain took out the M16 and attached the M203, loading an SR in the launcher.

  "Keep a watch on them, tell me when they look in the opposite direction?" Cain asked Emily, as he targeted the distance, a building opposite the tigers position.

  "What are you going to do to them? I can tell those are not proper tigers, but I don’t want you to kill them," Emily said. Though scared she didn't want any harm to come to them.

  "If they do as I expect, then we will have around thirty seconds to run across the junction and get inside that ramshackle compound to our left," Cain said. "But if they don’t do what I hope, and they come for us, then we’ll get two glowing tiger pelts," he added. Cain set a thirty second timer to display on his HUD, in the top left of his field of view, under the date and time.

  Waiting for Emily, Cain lifted the M16, pointing it over the ruined casino, aiming beyond the old atomic centre.

  "Now, Now" Emily whispered. Cain pulled the trigger, launching the star round. Its trajectory took the round out to a point fifty yards beyond the atomic centre and over forty yards in the air before it ignited.

  Like most felines, the floating light attracted the tigers. They jumped down off the platforms they were lounging on, lithesome they padded across the boulevard out of sight following the still burning star round. With the tigers distracted, Emily and Cain ran across the junction and found an opening in the wooden fencing surrounding what appeared to be derelict tents and stalls. Cain’s gut went into overdrive, his instincts yelled loudly in his mind.

  "Quick, equip your MP5, set the selector for a three-shot burst.," Cain told Emily, whispering in her ear. Cain could see the shaking on Emily’s arms as she equipped her gun, then fumbled with the selector. Cain equipped the Benelli M4 auto shotgun, loaded with a mix of seven pellet and solid slug rounds. Placing a calming hand on Emily’s shoulder, he steadied her arms, set her MP5 for three shot bursts.

  "Follow close keep within two steps behind me at all times. Have your weapon pointed to my right at all times, I’ll cover our left-hand side. If I tell you to swap sides move your gun pointing up in the sky and across to the other side. That way you won’t have an accident shooting me in the back. When I say swap, you swap the side your gun is pointing at. Let's try now, swap," Cain said in a quiet friendly but commanding voice.

  "I know you are frightened, but we need to get out of this area as quick as we can. Do you understand?" Cain asked, and Emily nodded. "If you need to change and you fumble, or drop a magazine call out stop, I won’t move forward. When you swap out a spent magazine, just let the empty fall to the ground. Keep within touching distance at all times. Have your Glock ready, put a round in the breach, leave the safety off. OK, let’s go," Cain said and then moved out.

  Moving as quick as they could without creating a disturbance, they made it a third of the way across the encampment, when they had their first contact. Cain noticed as gaming tags closed on their location. The tags identified them as either Star thugs or Star bandits. They were a mix of levels, two, three or four; rushing at them from around the tents and stalls. Cain opened fire, putting a seven pellet shot into the face of a level four thug, blowing his face off. Keeping his aim on his left as they continued to move, Emily joined in a few seconds later as she put two, three shot bursts into a level two thug.

  There was one section that gave Cain concern as they had to pass through a narrow ally between a few, three-story buildings. Cain had Emily grab his weapons harness, making her hold on tight as he ran down the ally one second after the three grenades he tossed down exploded. He followed them with two smoke grenades. With the grenades exploding and the smoke grenades filling the alley with clouds of smoke, they ran over body parts and dying Star players, to reach the boundary.

  Cain kicked through the wooden panelling surrounding the encampment while Emily watched his back. As the panel fell down, they exited onto a road at the side of a manmade lake, in front of a large ruined casino.

  "Five full magazines left. How about you?" Cain asked. Emily replied, saying three as they walked past the artificial lake. Cain stopped and washed his face free of the blood and gore, urging Emily to do the same. Looking at the HUD Cain noticed they were on the corner of Sands Avenue and the junction of Vegas Boulevard.

  Cutting through the encampment put them on a road which kept them clear of the slavers but had them walking in front of the Star casino. Cain thought it was to do with the darkness that the Star thugs stopped pursuing them. Not the trail of dead and dying they left behind them. Shame we didn’t have time to loot all those we killed, Cain said to Enoch.

  Clean but damp they made good time walking to the Old Tent Casino; they kept up a patrol pairing, walking with their weapons held across their bodies, safeties off. Cain checked his HUD map,

  "Only three hundred yards, and we can hand the quest in. Then you can be free of me," Cain said to Emily.

  "Why would I want to be free of you Cain? You saved me, kept me safe, walked with me and helped me complete a quest. Not only that you bought me some new equipment, and I got half of the loot from those thugs we killed and looted, sad so few. Not to mention the three hundred and twenty-five points and seven grand for killing them. Tell me, Cain, why I should want to leave?" Emily asked as they walked up the steps into the Old Tent Casino.

  "OK, well let’s talk about it once we’ve handed the quest in, eat a meal and allocated our points. Things will be clearer after a good night’s sleep," Cain said as they approached the reception. Emily handed the package over to a receptionist standing near the quest notice board. Taking the box, the man disappeared through a door, closing it behind him. Ten seconds later Cain and Emily received prompts telling them the quest was complete.

  Cain took the free room on the top floor of the casino hotel, part of the quest reward. He enjoyed the walk up the eighteen flights of stairs to floor ten. He heard the grunting of Emily as she followed him to the top. Cain laughed to himself as he opened his room ten twenty-three, dropping his backpack he sat in a chair looking out over the city. Bringing up his HUD Cain looked at messages and prompts clearing them before he could move to his points.

  Chapter 17

  Levelling at last.

  {Wow, Cain, you sure have amassed a load of points since the day started,} Enoch said.

  I know, crazy isn’t it. I’m level eight, and I have fourteen points to distribute. Any advice for me? Cain asked. Cain and Enoch spent half an hour going over the different options before Cain felt confident they had chosen correctly.

  Just as Cain brought up his build and points allocation screen, he heard the interconnecting door creak as the handle turned. Cain dived off the chair towards the bed where he deposited his equipment upon entering the room. Sliding over his equipment Cain landed on the floor between the bed and the floor to ceiling windows, his loaded MP5 pointing at the door.

  "Joseph are you awake? It’s me, Emily, thank you for all you did for me today," said Emily.

  "Go back to bed Emily. I feel special you have offered yourself to thank me," before Cain could say any more, the door burst open. Standing there in her underclothes, Emily had a look of thunder on her face, she spluttered.

  "You, what... how dare… as if ... not even last ..." Realising he made a mistake Cain held up his hands to apologise. "Why? It’s not like your assumption was wrong, but I’d like to know why?" Emily asked.

  "Why? Although you are a good-looking avatar, and we clicked, when we walked here from the control tower. It does not mean I want to go to bed with you. If I was not trying to find Natasha, who is my partn
er, not only my game partner, well once we can create a party. But I hope my partner in real life. I can not say you are not beautiful, but I care for and love Natasha, I don’t want to hurt her. Go allocate your points Emily, it is for the best." Cain replied.

  Still standing in the doorway, Emily said she understood, maybe he was right, allocating their points was for the best. Cain walked over to Emily and gave her a hug, telling her she would be OK. Cain could hear the interconnecting door being locked and the sound of gentle sobbing as he walked back to his chair beside the bed.

  Kicking himself Cain turned around, went over to and undoing the lock, opened the door. He walked over to Emily, whose back was to him. Wrapping his arms around her, Cain told her she was more than pretty, but his heart belongs to Natasha, yes he knew this was just a game.

  But I have to join up with her first. Deciding to risk the outcome Cain gives Emily some truth about him playing Forsaken. I am helping Natasha look for her brother. If we get this wrong, it will suck for everybody, including you, Natasha and me. None of us will log out we will play Forsaken forever. Wiping her nose on the tissue she kept in her bra, Emily asked,

  "What do you mean?" Then laid her head on Cain’s chest.

  "How long have you been playing the game? I know that I have been playing for two real hours but twenty game hours have passed. You must have been playing for nearly a week, but I know you think it has been much longer. Did you not think you have been playing for two months? That is one thousand four hundred and forty game hours, yet only six full days. Special Projekt Quality Red, they designed the game to make you feel this is not only real but the real reality." Cain told her while still holding her close.