Page 1 of The Glass Unicorn: Part 2
CHAPTER 7: ONE VERY LONG NIGHT
We moved quietlythrough the open fields, heading northwest from Liesel’s farm. I walked beside her, with the others behind me.
“How are you doing? I’m so sorry about your house,” I said.
“Don’t worry about that,” Liesel said. “Remember, it wasn’t reallymyhouse—only during the time I was working in the game. I have a whole life outside the game, just as you do. I’m just worried about what’s going to happen to all of us.”
That was right—she was an employee. She was only playing a part.
“What do you know about this? Has this ever happened before?” I asked.
Liesel let out a sigh. “Once, but it only lasted for a day. It was a test, to see how much strain the servers could take before breaking down. They came right back up. But the power used for the test was nothing like the attack we just suffered.”
“Who could be attacking Abarria, and why?” Reggie asked.
Sighing, Liesel stopped. “There’s a rival company who insists Abarria stole their software design. There’s no truth to it, but they’ve been out to sabotage us ever since. But we never thought they’d put our customers in danger. I guess the company’s moreruthless than we thought. The owners of Abarria Game-Guides are good people though—they’ll do whatever they can to fix this, and I’m pretty sure they’ll call in the FBI. But for the software to break this bad…I can’t imagine what it will take to fix it.” She glanced around, the moon shining down on her worried face. “Let’s hurry. There are demons that prowl the night here.”
“But they’re Syms?—”
“Yes, but the Game-Guides have no control over them now. Syms are usually programmed to stop at a certain point—contrary to what our advertising says, no one has ever been killed by a Sym during the game. Injured,yes. Killed?No. But now that the game is broken, the programming won’t hold and the Syms have free will. Those who have been programmed as enemies—adversaries—will act accordingly, on their own, without any constraints.”
I stopped, turning to her. “Abarria lied to people?”
“Well, for RPGers it wouldn’t be much of a game if they didn’t face any danger more than a broken bone here or there, would it? Even though the waiver suggests otherwise, the chances of a Sym killing you is almost nil. But as I said, with the programming off, there are no boundaries.” Liesel shrugged. “I’m not one of the owners—I didn’t create the game. I just work here.”
“How come the game didn’t just vanish, ejecting us in the process?” Thornhold asked.
“These are proprietary secrets that, if they got out, would shake up the world—” Liesel started to say.
“Hold on,” I interrupted. “Don’t try to pull that crap. We’re stuck here, and I have a bad feeling we aren’t going to be getting out of here today…or even tomorrow. Whatever you know, you need to tell us. Because the Game-Guides have apparently been lying to us, which is probably going to end up in at least ahandful of lawsuits once this is resolved. It will be a lot worse if we aren’t prepared for whatever might be coming.”
“I swear, I’m telling you the truth. The programming is kept under lock and key. None of us who are employed to be in here have a clue how it works. I couldn’t tell you the reason we’re stuck in here, even if you paid me to. And if I knew, I would,” she said. “I promise.”
I nodded. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to insinuate you were lying.”
Liesel pointed at a ramshackle building in the near distance. It looked abandoned. But it was still standing, and that was more than Liesel’s house, at this point. The place was two stories, and front door and windows were boarded up. Ivy twined up the walls, and the fenced yard had grown wild, covered with wild roses and bramble bushes—huge stands of blackberries. A huge old oak tree towered over the front yard, and while it had the look of some fantasy-medieval house, I hoped it might have a few conveniences.
“Is there anything in there, that you know of?” I asked.
Liesel shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. In fact, the woman who had my job before me used that house, until they thought it wasn’t as easy to access. So they built the one I was in and boarded this one up. I think they just forgot about it.”
“Thornhold, can you and Brynn pull those boards off so we can get inside?” I glanced around, feeling nervous. I wasn’t sure why. After all, I had already believed the Syms could kill us. Now, knowing they had nothing to stop them, it shouldn’t be any more frightening. Except for one good reason, I thought. There was no way for them to help us in case of serious injury. We couldn’t be transported out of the game. We were truly stuck.
Brynn and Thornhold began prying the boards off the house, and finally cleared the front door and several windows.Liesel brought out a flashlight, and I was grateful to see that we wouldn’t have to use anactualtorch. Open flames made me nervous. Given they were the strongest, Brynn and Thornhold stepped to the front, opened the door, and we entered the abandoned building.
It was hard to see much, given the flashlight wasn’t very bright. After we scoped out the bottom floor and made sure there was nothing more threatening than a few spiders, we divided up. Liesel, Reggie, and I stayed downstairs, while Brynn, Thornhold, and Ray checked the top floor. They returned a few minutes later.
“We’re alone,” Thornhold said.
Do you think we can make a fire in the fireplace?” I asked.
“I don’t know the last time that chimney’s been cleaned,” Liesel said. “We might want to wait till morning so we can check it out. There’s a chimney brush in the corner. Someone could climb up on top of the roof and spend a few minutes scrubbing?”
Reggie volunteered. “I’m not afraid of heights. I can give it a try.”
“Do you have your bedrolls?” she asked.
We nodded.
