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  “According to the manual--” he continued.

  “Screw the manual,” I interrupted, stepping forward.

  Inside Merlin, I walked up to the control panel.

  “Are you there?” I asked. “Do you sleep?”

  “Hello, Scout. I often ask myself whether I’m here or not. As someone who doesn’t enjoy existential questions, I think…”

  “Enough,” I said, shaking my head. “Why were you built?”

  “Again, existential questions require a tremendous amount of processing power. I’m afraid this shelter isn’t generating enough electricity yet to answer this question thoughtfully for you.”

  “Wait, what did you mean by yet? Can the shelter generate more power?”

  “Yes, Scout. As a boring machine, I’m able to tap into the earth. Geothermal heat is one of the best ways to generate power underground. If you’ll allow me, I can demonstrate.”

  “Go ahead,” I said, unsure of what to expect.

  The door slammed shut as Merlin lurched forward.

  Harrison: What’s going on? Are you okay?

  Scout: I’m fine. Merlin is showing me something.

  Harrison: Don’t go without me.

  Scout: I’ll be right back…

  I stared at the view screen and saw Merlin make quick work of the steel wall with a set of four powerful lasers. He pushed through, the giant drill on front of him spinning.

  “Hold on,” I said. “We should go back for Harrison.”

  “I’m sorry, Scout. I cannot stop at this time.”

  “How long is this going to take?”

  The machine lurched forward then melted away more rock at a slightly lower angle.

  “Only a few days,” Merlin answered.

  “What?” I exclaimed. “That won’t work!”

  I glanced around. The insides of the machine suddenly felt smaller.

  “Can’t you do anything else?” I asked.

  “We can travel to Shelter 102x,” Merlin said. “If you assume control, you’ll have the energy output from both shelters. That will give me more power to think and learn.”

  “Hold on, there’s another secret, unused shelter?”

  “Yes, Scout, and it’s close.”

  I attempted to contact Harrison via the game interface, but it wouldn’t connect.

  “Why can’t I reach Harrison?” I asked.

  “The magnetic interference of my machinery when I’m digging a tunnel blocks most forms of communication with the outside unless they’re close.”

  “Figures,” I said, sitting down on one of the swivel chairs. “How long will this take?”

  “We’re there,” he said.

  I sat up and saw another metal wall in the view screen.

  “Anyone here?” I asked.

  “The shelter is currently unoccupied,” Merlin said. “Shall we enter?”

  “Yes,” I said then walked back to the door.

  After Merlin finished cutting through the steel wall and rolled into another hangar, the door on his side slid open. I stepped out and glanced around. How many secret shelters existed?

  Welcome to shelter 102x, Scout.

  Your Leadership skill is high enough to control two shelters.

  Do you assume control of Shelter 102x? [Y/n]

  “Hell yeah,” I said, hitting the option. I smiled. With two shelters under my control, I could attract more people. And with them, I would have time to investigate the larger mystery behind this strange virtual world someone trapped me in. I crossed the room and peered through the pane of glass in another steel door. Seeing nothing, I pressed the button to open it.

  As I stepped through to the other side, I opened my eyes wider. On the opposite wall, a view screen showed a complete map of the entire world with indicators for all the other shelters. I stepped closer, noticing it also showed which ones were occupied and by how many people. With this information and a boring machine…

  My thoughts drifted as I scrutinized the map. I found Orlando’s shelter. From there, I located Shelter 101x and its sister shelter, 102x. I pulled myself away from the digital map and walked over to a nearby control panel. With a few deft choices on the game menus, I transferred the map to my other shelter’s computer system.

  “This is nuts…” I muttered to myself.

  With twelve floors to explore, I resisted the urge to go off on my own. The map had shown no signs of life mutant or otherwise, but I wanted to get back to Harrison and share the news. We could conquer Orlando and free all the people under him. In a few short months, I’d have more power than he’d ever dreamed about.

  As I walked back to Merlin, the boring machine, I smiled. Life could get better. With access to two shelters and more manpower, I could work on figuring out the bigger mysteries like getting out of the stupid simulation.

  * * * * *

  Harrison studied the map, his lips pursed together.

  “This is amazing,” he muttered, unable to take his eyes off it.

  I nodded. “Right? This changes everything.”

  John ran into the room, his brow furrowed.

  “Sorry to bother you,” he said. “There’s a problem in the cafeteria.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Missy...she’s acting strange…”

  I sighed. Again. I needed to talk to her, but I’d been so busy.

  “Okay, I’m on my way.”

  “Do you want me to take care of it?” Harrison asked.

  “No, I’ve got this. I’ll be back in a bit.”

  He nodded and focused his attention on the map. I walked over to John. Together, we left the conference room and made our way to the cafeteria one floor up.

  “What exactly is she doing?” I asked.

  “Fighting with Henry,” he said.

  Ah, her boyfriend. I figured she’d done that to get me jealous, maybe? She deserved a good man in her life after everything that had happened to her.

  “Thanks for coming to get me,” I said. “Why didn’t you use the communicator?”

  “I couldn’t reach you on it,” he said.

  That’s strange, I thought, not saying anything. When we reached the cafeteria, I saw a crowd of people around Henry and Missy. She was screaming something at him, getting worked up. He nodded dutifully, not antagonizing her at all. I pushed my way through the crowd, emerging in the inner circle next to Missy.

  “What’s going on?” I asked in a stern tone.

  She screamed and rushed toward Henry, latching onto him and biting his ear. He screamed as I grabbed and pulled her off him. She turned with fire and fury in her eyes, struggling to get out of my grasp.

  “Stop,” I said, not letting her go.

  “Leave me be!” she screamed. “You have no time for me anymore! I hate you!”

  “Don’t say things you’ll regret later,” I said, maybe too flippantly.

  “I hate you!” she repeated, wiggling free.

  She bolted into the crowd. I sighed and thought about going after her but decided against it. She needed time to calm down.

  “That’s it,” I said. “Show’s over. Everyone back to what they were doing.”

  I turned to poor Henry, blood covering the bottom of his ear.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “It’s not too bad,” he said. “I’m not sure why she’s mad at me.”

  “She’s mad at me, not you,” I said. “Give her some time.”

  He pursed his lips together and nodded his head.

  “Get to medical, and they’ll fix you up,” I said.

  He wandered away, holding a hand over his ear. As I glanced around the room, Harrison entered and walked over with a swagger in his step and a smile on his face.

  “What?” I asked.

  “That other shelter,” he whispered. “It’s stocked to the brim with food, water, weapons, and other stuff that will help us. We will win any battle we go into as long as we’re smart about it and don’t get too cocky.”

&nbs
p; I smiled, loving him even more at that moment. We got along so well together, complementing each other. I put my hand on his waist and looked into his eyes.

  “We should tell them our plans, the big news,” I said.

  He nodded, grinning. I pulled my hand away and turned.

  “Attention everyone, I have an announcement,” I said in a firm, loud voice. “We’ll post more information on the community message boards once we finalize the details, but I wanted to share this with you personally.”

  “To detract from your crazy pet!” someone in the crowd shouted.

  A few people laughed, but others stepped aside, outing him. I continued.

  “This news will change the world we know to the core.” I enjoyed slipping in a reference to the collection of virtual worlds I thought someone had trapped us in. “We’ve found another shelter.”

  The instant applause felt nice, drowning out the guy trying to be funny.

  “Over time, we’ll liberate more and more shelters until we build a new world,” I continued. “A world based on honesty, respect, and trust. Just because this world is desolate doesn’t mean we have to devolve into miserable creatures.”

  “She’s right,” Harrison added as he stood beside me.

  I saw several men in the crowd turn to him and nod in agreement. Together, we’d be able to conquer the whole damn world. Would whoever trapped us in this hell get mad when things didn’t go to their plans, and we worked together to build a better world? I hoped so because I had no clue on how to investigate them.

  “We have a lot to do,” I said. “We’ll be posting team assignments for the second shelter. There’s a ton of new equipment we need to divvy up. Are you guys ready to change the world and make it ours?”

  “Hell yeah!” the guy who had taunted me before shouted.

  I smiled as the others erupted into applause. Harrison and I left, going the way Missy had run. After checking a few of her favorite hiding spots, I couldn’t find her.

  “We can’t keep looking,” he said. “This place is huge. Maybe we should track everyone here.”

  “No,” I said, firmly shaking my head. “People need privacy. We’re creating something different.”

  He leaned in and kissed me, not needing words to tell me how he felt.

  “Let’s go get John,” I said. “We should promote him.”

  “Good idea,” Harrison said. “You were right. We’ve got a ton of work to accomplish.”

  “But it’ll be worth it in the end,” I said.

  We walked back to the conference room. On the way, I called John on the communicator. Had he lied about it not working earlier? And if so why?

  “John? We need you in the conference room. Over.”

  “Uh oh,” he replied. “Did I do something wrong?”

  “No, you’re being promoted. See you in a bit.”

  I glanced over at Harrison as we walked down the colorful halls Missy had painted. She worried me, but I had many others to worry about — possibly everyone in the world or on the server depending on how you looked at it. I found the more I thought about the real world, the stronger the memories became. Was I self-reinforcing them?

  “Hold up,” Harrison said, stopping and grabbing my arm.

  I stopped and looked up. “What?”

  He took a deep breath as if carefully weighing the words about to come out of his mouth.

  “What is it?” I asked. “John is coming.”

  “I appreciate you,” he said then resumed walking.

  Smiling, I followed him to the conference room. We had planning to do.

  Chapter 14

  I woke the next morning to the sound of the shelter alarms going off.

  What now? I wondered.

  As I sat up in bed, Harrison walked in the room.

  “We have a problem.”

  “No kidding,” I said. “Have you seen Missy?”

  “No,” he said. “We need to go. Come on.”

  I stood, grabbed my plasma rifle, then followed him toward the elevator. When the door opened on the first floor, someone tossed a stun grenade in. I reflexively dropped my rifle and grabbed my ears to protect them as the tiny device emitted an intense chirping noise. The flashing lights and smoke didn’t help matters either.

  Soldiers rushed in, grabbing Harrison and me and putting cuffs on us. When they pulled us out of the elevator, I saw a few dead bodies on the ground. None of them looked like Missy, but I was still upset. What the hell had happened? How had Orlando found us? I stared at the smug smile on his face, determined more than ever to kill him.

  “Look who we have here,” he said.

  I stepped forward, but a soldier hit me in the stomach with the butt of his rifle.

  “Watch it,” Harrison warned.

  “You two need to watch it,” Orlando said, hands resting on his pot-belly.

  I hated everything about him.

  “Where’s Missy?” I asked, knowing he’d had his eye on her for a while. “You better not hurt her.”

  “Hurt her? She’s my biggest friend now,” he said. “She’s the one who let me in here.”

  “No,” I said, unable to believe she’d betray me. “You’re lying.”

  “Believe what you must,” he said, glancing around. “Maybe I’ll let her do murals in my old shelter. This new shelter will be nice. You will give me control, or I’ll kill all of you, including Missy.”

  “Don’t do it,” Harrison said.

  “We can’t take the chance he’s bluffing,” I said then sighed.

  If he took control of this one, he would learn about the second experimental shelter. Or could I keep it from him? As Orlando rattled on, I contacted Merlin.

  Scout: Merlin, you around?

  Merlin: I’m here, Scout. How are you?

  Scout: Not good. You need to go to the other shelter, hide the hole, and erase any knowledge of shelter 102x from the system here.

  Scout: Also, I need you to transfer your ownership to the other shelter. I might lose ownership of this one, and I don’t want to lose you.

  Scout: Okay? Do you understand? You need to do it now.

  Merlin: I’ve already completed 52% of your tasks, Scout. Do you want an update?

  Scout: Not now.

  “... and that’s why I’ll always win. I’m simply better than you or anyone else,” Orlando said. “If some want to call me a god, I’m fine with it. This world of ours needs a strong, firm hand to guide it.”

  “You’re making a mistake,” I said, hoping to get him riled up.

  He stepped closer and slapped my face with his open hand. It stung bad, but I lifted my head defiantly and tilted it back to watch him.

  “Screw this” Harrison grunted, removing his hands from behind his back.

  How had he gotten the cuffs off? I wondered as he hauled back his right arm then decked Orlando. The poor guy screamed like a girl as he fell to the floor. Several of his soldiers rushed over, battering Harrison. He was taking on three of them barehanded just fine — winning even. Then one of the bastards raised his rifle and fired.

  “No!” I shouted as the bolt of energy hit him in the gut.

  He fell backward, landing on his ass. The soldiers surrounded him, kicking and punching him.

  “Stop!” I yelled.

  “That’s enough!” Orlando roared as he got back.

  Why did the weakest people always yell the loudest? The soldiers backed off. I heard Harrison groan as he held his stomach.

  “Take him to medical,” Orlando ordered. “We need him healthy for the war.”

  “I’m going with him,” I said, stepping forward.

  “No. You will give me control of this shelter. Now!”

  Do you really want to relinquish control of Shelter 101x? [Y/n]

  I reluctantly transferred official ownership to Orlando. He smiled and clapped his hands together, rubbing them together like a true villain.

  “You can go see your boyfriend after you answer a few questions,�
� he said.

  I nodded.

  “Good,” he continued. “You can be reasonable. What do you know of this place? How did you find it? What else can you tell me about it?”

  “After we left your shelter, we got attacked by mutants and found a beacon,” I said. “That led us here. We’ve spent over a month clearing all the mutants out of this place.”

  “Good, good,” he said, nodding. “That’s helpful for me. Anything else?”

  “No,” I lied, putting on my best poker face.

  “Very well,” he said, waving me away.

  I ran to catch up to the soldiers dragging Harrison down the hallway.

  “Be careful with him!” I yelled.

  Two them turned, pointing their guns at me. I raised my arms.

  “Don’t shoot. I’m one of you guys again…”

  Admitting it sounded terrible, but I wanted them to think I was okay with everything. They didn’t need to know I was planning to regain control of the shelter. I reached out to Merlin, but he was apparently out of range or not answering. And Missy. Had she really turned on me because she was jealous and didn’t feel I was spending enough time with her?

  I couldn’t believe she would do that to me, but I went by facts. As far as I knew, she had done nothing. I wanted to find her as soon as possible and figure out what the hell happened. Orlando had found us somehow. Even if I got control of the shelter back from him, I needed to ensure it didn’t happen again.

  Any of the few dozen people I’d let into the shelter could’ve told him. Maybe it was a group of them? I went over everything in my mind from different angles as I followed the soldiers to the medical facility two floors down. None of it made any sense. At least I still had Merlin. That damn boring machine might be the key to everything.

  When we reached the medical facilities, the soldiers lifted Harrison onto a metal table. A robo-doctor overhead whirled into position. I hated the things, but they kept us alive and repaired any damage if we got to them soon enough. As it checked Harrison, stripping off his clothes, I glanced over at the soldiers as they talked to each other in hushed tones.