William ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair and grimaced. Every nitty gritty detail of this weird and wonderful world popped to life with excruciating detail, thanks to interlocking systems that were supposed to be governed by now-defunct AI, and yet somehow they still worked well enough to make his hair greasy. Who had even thought that was a good idea? Maybe it had been an incentive to use the rest-and-bathe experience boost systems, but even then it seemed over the top. Rubbing his face instead, he was also reminded that he hadn’t shaved in days. His clothes needed a wash, too. He’d been so busy with, well, everything to really pay much attention to his outfit, if he didn’t outright sleep in it. He used to be much more concerned with his appearance, and early in the game, he had been. He’d rolled up his white shirt sleeves, wore a tie tucked into a grey waistcoat, with a little pocket-watch on a chain. He’d looked positively dapper. Now he looked like he’d run a marathon through a desert. His tie was halfway undone and hung around his neck like a noose. The irony didn’t escape him. 

“Are we sure we don’t have anyone else to spare?” he asked. The figure on the other side of the table nodded. His old, weary eyes followed William intently. 

“Aye,” was the only response William got, and the only one he knew he was going to get. The table in the middle of the busy room was fairly large, and, more importantly, had a holographic display of the Town on it. Well, it had a holographic display of whatever they needed displayed, but they’d mostly used it for displaying the town, because they were never going to leave this bloody place. He walked around the table to change his perspective, just like he’d been taught. The Town was still labeled by the holographic map as Coppermoor, something they hadn’t been able to fix. Around it were little glowing red dots that moved around very slightly. Along the perimeter of the town, William had placed empty cups. He pointed to the two closest to the front gate. 

“We’ve got Anders and Miko standing guard,” he said, thinking out loud. The old man crossed his arms and grunted in agreement. “They get off-shift in four hours to be replaced by…” he pointed at two other cups, “the twins. And then… we have nobody checking the east wall.” He rubbed his face. The east wall had a lot of the little red dots gathering near it. “This is fucked,” he mumbled. “I’m supposed to be studying for finals.”

“It’s fucked,” the old man, Dorian, said. “You going to stand around and feel sorry for yourself over it, or you going to do something about it?” William glared at him through his fingers. The ‘tough love’ education he’d received from the old detective was frustrating, and doubly so for its efficacy. He moved two cups. 

“We can spare someone from the south wall,” he said. “Kait!” In the corner, a woman as sturdy as a steel door -- and about as tall -- jumped up as if she hadn’t been dozing off for the past half hour.

“Yah!” Kait said with a goofy grin. ‘Circe’, as the game had named her, was an old friend of William’s, and she wasn’t the only one. Mag sat on the floor in the corner, reading a book. The difference between the two of them couldn’t be bigger. Where Circe was buff and imposing, Mag was skinny and unobtrusive. Circe was dressed like she was about to enter a wild-west bull-wrestling competition, plaid shirt with a black vest, Mag wore a brown suit and a small black cap. They’d all banded together at the beginning, and once William had been elected leader, they’d done what they could to help him figure his stuff out. Dorian had been a volunteer. Sort of. Kait walked over to the table and put her hands on her hips. It would take a battering ram and heavy explosives to move her with her feet planted like that. 

“I want you to take the east wall tonight and do a cleaning sweep, alright?” William asked. “I know it’s dangerous, but we have to thin that herd. Shit’s getting worse and we’re running out of people since we lost people again last week.”

“How are you out of guards?” Kait asked with an eyebrow raised. “There’s like, a couple thousand people living here.” 

“Twelve thousand four hundred and eighty-eight,” Dorian said with a voice like oiled gravel. “At last count.”

“And none of those yokels who, might I remind you, joined a game to shoot things, are willing to shoot things?” She sat on the edge of the table. It probably would have flipped if it didn’t weigh a ton and hadn’t been bolted to the floor. She was an imposing woman, but she had the tendency to act like she was a lot smaller than she actually was. William shook his head and leaned on the table.

“We can’t press-gang these people, Kait. We tried that. We lost dozens of people. They’re kids. They know this is for real and we can’t make them risk their lives. They’ll start rioting.” He sighed. “Again.” 

“Yeah, but there have to be some people able and willing, right?” Kaitlynn asked. She’d been blessed with a classical name with an awful spelling, her mother wanting her to be unique. Mother dearest had never anticipated that what would make her daughter stand out was the fact that she was built like a linebacker. William looked up at her and raised his eyebrows. “Oh, right.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not sending you out alone. Take Mag with you.” Mag perked up from their spot in the corner. It was hard enough keeping them distracted, and giving them something to work their boundless energy out on was probably not the worst idea. Probably. If only they could look in one direction long enough to stand guard. William looked at Dorian for a second, who nodded. “Dorian can provide overwatch.” 

Dorian Harper, registry number 08814, was a retired private detective, and managed to still look the part even with the more… eclectic clothing offered by the game. Sober pants, sober jacket, small bowler hat. No frills where he could avoid it -- although there was a pattern of clockwork on his vest, but it was subtle. He’d refused to work for the government after a drafted tour of duty in the military. He had worked out of a small office in Leeds for three decades, before being forcibly retired by the agency. The enthusiastic young man at the store had assured him that this newfangled gaming headset would give him all the excitement -- or rest -- he could ever want. He hadn’t been wrong. The game had designated him Leonidas and anyone who’d dared call him that ended up shriveling under a withering glance. Dorian had refused the responsibility of leadership, but he’d agreed to help William where he could. Occasionally, that meant using an elephant rifle. 

“Wally not coming?” Kait asked. 

“No, he’s looking at the ping we got from the Citadel,” William said. “He should be getting back soon, though.” He looked at the ornate gold clock on the wall, remembered that it had seven hands too many, and then looked at the much smaller one next to it. “Any time, actually.” He swallowed. His brother was capable, but he didn’t have the firepower to fight the Clockwork Dragon on his own. “He’ll be here soon,” he said, hoping he wasn’t lying. The little indicator at the corner of the map that counted the amount of active players hadn’t gone down, at least. So Wally wasn’t dead, at least. 

“People are still logging in?” Kait pushed herself off the table with a shake of her head. She’d been particularly hit by the early loss of life. It had taken her weeks to get out of her room. Nowadays, she kept herself busy protecting people. “Stupid,” she muttered.

“Apparently,” William shrugged. “But it was just the one. I hope it’s someone useful.” He rubbed his face again. “Fuck knows we need useful people.” Another approving grunt from Dorian, who had turned to leave the room. If he was going to be providing overwatch later that night, he was going to go lie down, William knew. He got tired easily. 

“Hey,” Kaitlynn said with mock indignity, “I’m plenty useful.” She put her hands on her hips again. Sure, she was plenty useful. But she hadn’t been the first few weeks, when he’d tried to wrangle an entire town full of teens with depression and hero-complexes into something of a society. 

“When you’re not sulking in your room, yeah,” he snapped. Immediately, Kait’s mood dropped, her smile gone. She looked like he’d slapped her and he immediately felt guilty. “Fuck,” he said. “I’m sorry, Kait. It’s been so fucking much.” He crossed his arms and leaned against the table, looking at the floor in shame. “I shouldn’t take it out on you.”

“You’re right,” Kait said quietly and gave him a shove. “You shouldn’t.”

“I’m sorry.” 

“Better be. That was low. Even for you.” 

“Hey!” he exclaimed, looking up at her. She had a very slight smile on her lips again. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Mister Big Hero?” she scoffed. “You have a tendency to be a little… absorbed.”

“Me? I’m trying to keep us alive, Kait. You know that. I’m doing the best I can here.”

“I know, fuckstick. But you don’t have to let it make you an asshole.” She got up and stretched. “You were such a nice and quiet kid. Try not to let all this stuff get to your head.” William smirked and grabbed his coat, as well as his weapons. When the game had launched, he’d chosen a class that he’d thought was going to be cool, and had turned out to be very dangerous when dying was a very real and permanent possibility. He slung the scabbards over his shoulder. “Just because you’re the only one who remembers…” Kait said, “just try not to be a shitweasel.”

“That’s what I have you for,” William said.

“To be a… hey, fuck y--”

“To keep me in check, you ass,” he interrupted her playfully-angry response. “And besides, that’s not my fault. And it’s not like we wouldn’t have had each other regardless. You even remembered my name! That’s more than most people can say.”

“Fair enough, Will. Still. I wish I remembered anything. What my parents looked like.” William shot her an apologetic smile. The only things she knew about her mother were things he’d remembered, and it wasn’t much. He’d picked up a Node shortly after the Crash, and the barrage of random memories had been overwhelming. But at least he remembered things. Most people weren’t that lucky. It’s why he was the… mayor? Whatever he was. 

“C’mon,” he said. “Wally should be coming back any second now on the Vulture.” Immediately, Kait’s eyes and smile turned all the way on, and she practically bounced as she happily clapped her hands together.

“Ooh, yay!” she exclaimed as they made their way outside. Mag trailed a little ways behind them, still reading their book. “I haven’t seen Alex in forever!” 

“It’s been like two days,” William said with a grin. Alex ‘Axlemax’ Mazza and Kait had immediately taken to each other as soon as they’d met several weeks ago, despite the three-foot height difference. The two of them in a room together were a menace, but a pleasant one. Walking down the steps through the center of town, which was built with the telltale too-wide streets of any online game designed for traffic, the ever-present brass shining in the afternoon sun. His hair got greasy but the brass stayed clean. Absolute bull.

They walked to the east part of town, where the Vulture’s berthing area was. It wasn’t used much these days. Alex preferred to hover the ship over the edge of town. There wasn’t as much of a need for her to drop off newbies as much anymore, and she seemed to enjoy the solitude. There were several people, mostly kids of around fifteen, a decade younger than him, already crowding around it, despite the fact that Wally’s excursion was supposed to have been a secret. He shook his head as he pushed through the small crowd.

“That it?” Kait said, pointing. Her eyesight was better than his, because it took him a moment to recognize the faint shape descending through the clouds as the ship. After a few seconds, its outline became clearer, a brown smudge against the pristine white-and-blue sky.

“Looks like it,” he said and walked to the edge of the landing area. If they were going to have a new visitor, it was only right he received them in person. And he also wanted to know what kind of person they were. 

“Uhhh,” Mag said, having finally looked up from their book. “What’s that?”

“What’s wh--” William was about to ask with a frown, until he saw. With horror, all of them looked up at the massive brass shape that appeared between the clouds, all teeth and malice and beating wings, talons outstretched as it descended on the Vulture.

Elamimax

More characters! Tension! Excitement! Let me know what you think below :)

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