Creator Page 5

  The man who held the spear against Ryland’s shoulder gave a slight nod to the smaller figure who was crouched rear Ryland. The smaller figure cautiously approached the phone and picked it up. The phone’s screen lit up as the figure’s fingers moved across it. There were gasps as the blue light from the phone shone up into the small figure’s face.

  “You hold it up to your ear,” said Ryland. “And you will be able to hear her and talk to her.”

  The small figure peered at Ryland suspiciously.

  “Go ahead, Proto,” said the larger figure.

  The small figure carefully held the phone up to his ear. He glanced uncertainly from the large figure to Ryland.

  “I am Proto,” said the small figure.

  There was silence as Aims spoke on the other end of the phone.

  The small figures began nodding. “Yes, Creator. Of course. We will do as you say.”

  The crowd around Ryland gasped at the mention of the Creator. There were whispers until the man with the spear barked “Quiet!”

  The small figure nodded to the large figure. “It is okay. The boy is who he says he is?”

  Ryland frowned. The boy?

  The small creature held Ryland’s phone out to him. Ryland cautiously took his phone back.

  “I apologize,” said the small figure.

  “It’s fine,” Ryland said. He carefully held up the phone to his ear, still glancing around to make sure this wasn’t a trap of some kind. “Aims?”

  “Hey, are you alright?” Aims asked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “Okay, good. They will show you the rest of the way.”

  “Great,” said Ryland, “anything else?”

  “When you get to the door,” said Aims, “to open it, you’re going to need a password. The password is Adelaide.”

  “Adelaide?” said Ryland. “What does that mean? Who’s Adelaide?”

  Aims ignored Ryland’s question. “You need to get moving. Good luck.”

  Ryland shoved his phone into his pocket and looked up at the figures around him. They still surrounded him, watching him, but their weapons had been lowered. Slowly, Ryland stood.

  “We apologize,” the large figure said.

  “It’s okay.”

  “We are the Verde,” intoned the large figure. “I am their leader. I am called Regular Three.”

  Ryland nodded. “I’m Ryland. Aims, er, the Creator, said you could show me the way to her safe room.”

  “And we will,” said Regular Three. “I and my best soldiers will accompany you.”

  “Soldiers?”

  Regular Three ignored Ryland and started issuing orders to the group around Ryland. Soon, much of the group had dispersed, faded back into the darkness from which they had appeared. The remaining figures added up to about a dozen men and women, carrying weapons, their bodies painted with the glowing blue substance from the beetles. Regular Three turned and led the way down the tunnel. The rest of the Verde soldiers formed a tight knit posse around Ryland. The smaller figure seemed to stay close to Ryland, watching him closely.

  “I am Proto,” he said to Ryland.

  “Hey.”

  Proto was thin, but looked sturdy, like wire that had been twisted into the shape of a person. His features would have looked delicate if he had not been scowling at Ryland. He wore a tunic made of some kind of dark material. As the group moved down the tunnel, Ryland was able to take in some more details about these people. They looked humanoid, but their limbs seemed elongated, stretched. Their fingers were twice the length of human fingers, their arms hanging down past their knees. Many of the figures seemed to walk with a hunch, too tall for the tunnels’ low ceilings, almost apelike. They all had intricate patterns painted on their skin with the glowing blue substance the bugs produced. There was something eerie about these figure, though they seemed friendly enough.

  “Why did the Creator not come herself?” Proto asked as they walked.

  “She couldn’t,” said Ryland. “She would have been in too much danger.”

  “Danger from what?”

  “Laran Tech is after her,” said Ryland.

  “So, the time has come?” Proto asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “The time.” Proto said this like it was extremely obvious what he was talking about. “To end Laran Tech?”

  “Wait,” said Ryland. “How do you know about that?”

  “This has been the Creator’s plan for a long time,” said Proto.

  “Really?” Ryland’s sense that Aims was more unknown to him than he realized was growing.

  “She told us all about it,” said Proto. “Well, she told me about it.” Proto seemed proud of this.

  “Why?” asked Ryland.

  “We are going to help,” said Proto.

  Ryland furrowed his brow. Aims must have been planning to put a stop to Laran Tech since before she had even met Ryland. Was that what she had been planning when she came across Ryland in the beta world the first time.

  “How were you going to help?” Ryland asked.

  “We each had different tasks,” said Proto. “But I was to go with the Creator to the center, to act as protection.”

  Ryland puzzled over this. What was Aims up to?

  “So, you live down here?” Ryland asked.

  Proto looked at Ryland and nodded, seriously. “This is our home. And we protect it.”

  “Protect it from what?” asked Ryland.

  Proto looked at Ryland as if Ryland had just asked ‘why do you breathe’.

  “We protect ourselves from the End All Be All, who would destroy us and all life if they could,” said Proto.

  “The End All Be All?”

  “You truly know nothing,” said Proto.

  “Apparently,” mumbled Ryland, annoyed at Aims for not having told him more about the underworld.

  “So, you don’t ever go up above ground?” Ryland pointed at the ceiling of the tunnel.

  Proto looked confused. “Why would we go up?”

  Ryland shrugged. Now that he was being asked, he didn’t have a good response.

  “To explore, I guess.”

  “We have not even finished exploring down here,” said Proto.

  “It’s that big down here?”

  Proto nodded. “I am not sure there is an end to it.”

  “It has to end somewhere,” said Ryland.

  Proto frowned. “Why?”

  “Because,” said Ryland. “It can’t just go on forever.”

  “Why?”

  Ryland stared at Proto. Again, he did not have a response.

  “Is it better up there than it is down here?” asked Proto.

  Ryland hesitated. Somehow, he got the feeling that saying anything other than ‘no’ was wrong.

  “It’s just different,” Ryland said.

  Proto nodded, seeming satisfied by this answer.

  “Is that why you are here?” Proto asked. “To explore?”

  “Kind of,” said Ryland. “I’m helping Aims with something, a mission.”

  “Aims?”

  Ryland rolled his eyes. “The Creator.”

  Proto smiled. “She is very powerful.”

  “Is she?” Ryland was skeptical.

  Proto nodded. “She is the Creator. She and Prometheus made the underworld.”

  “Who’s Prometheus?” asked Ryland.

  “The Creator’s partner.”

  Ryland didn’t say anything. He realized that were a lot of things about Aims he did not know. He wondered who Prometheus was. Was he a coworker of Aims’? A boyfriend? A family member?

  They took several more turns down the tunnel and then the group came to a stop. The crowd around Ryland moved back and made space for him to step forward. They had reached a wall and set into the wall was a metal door. The door looked solid, bolted into the cement. Hinges were not even visible.

  “You must have the password,” said Regular Three.

  Ryland nodded. �
��She told me.”

  Regular Three stepped aside, allowing Ryland to stand in front of the door. He placed a hand against the metal. There was a keypad set into the door. Ryland typed in the word Aims had told him: Adelaide.

  Chapter 6

  There was an electronic whirring sound, a click, then the door groaned and swung inward. Ryland wasn’t sure what he had been expecting to see behind the door, but what he saw surprised him. The room was larger than he had expected it to be. It was filled with all kinds of things. Shelves lined the walls and the shelves were covered with weapons and books and boxes and computer equipment. Further back, Ryland could see an additional room with a small bed and sink. There was a large desk, littered with pieces of computers, as well as an extensive computer system.

  Ryland stood for a moment, taking in everything in the room. He realized it wasn’t obvious where to look for the virus. Ryland pulled his phone from his pocket.

  “Aims, I’m in the room,” said Ryland. “Where is the virus?”

  “It’s in a box,” said Aims.

  Ryland looked around the room. “Aims, there are a lot of boxes. Where is it exactly?”

  “It’s going to be in a wooden box that’s about 10 inches wide.”

  Ryland moved toward one of the shelves and started looking for a wooden box like the one Aims was describing.

  “There’s a pattern carved into the top of the lid,” continued Aims. “It should be on the top shelf, on the left side, if I remember correctly.”

  Ryland moved toward the left side of the room and ran his hand along the top shelf.

  His hand touched a few things that he could tell were not a box. Then he felt the wooden corner of a box. He pulled it down. The carving on the lid looked like a Japanese carving, some mountains and trees.

  While Ryland stood there, holding the box, a loud howl came echoing down the tunnel toward the safe room. Ryland froze, turning slowly to look the direction of the howl. The tribe of the Verde soldiers were standing outside the safe room door, guarding it. At the sound of the howl, they were suddenly thrown into action. They readied weapons, spreading out, preparing for something. A murmur or nervous energy spread through the soldiers.

  “What is that?” Ryland asked.

  Regular Three glanced backward at Ryland. “The End All Be All.”

  More howls rolled down the hall toward them. Whatever it was, it was getting closer. Ryland zipped open his backpack and tossed the wooden box inside. He zipped it safely inside, pulled on the backpack and glanced around the room. Aims had an array of weapons hanging on one of the walls. Ryland had noticed it as soon as he’d walked into the room. He walked over and grabbed the weapon that had caught his attention.

  The weapon was unlike anything Ryland had seen before, truly a video game creation. The body of the weapon resembled a musket but with an abnormally large cylinder. Jutting off the front end of the gun was a massive razor-sharp blade. The weapon was lighter than Ryland had expected. He hefted it in his right hand, his left hand still holding his phone, though he had almost completely forgotten about it. The howling was loud, filling the tunnel. Regular Three was shouting orders at the Verde.

  “We have to go!” He shouted at Ryland. Ryland hurried out of the safe room and pulled the door closed behind him.

  Ryland could feel the energy filling him. He knew, without seeing them, that whatever was coming, was a horde. The ground seemed to shake. The bugs on the walls, scurried into holes and crevasses in the stone walls. The tunnel was much darker without the bugs, the only light coming from the Verde’s painted bodies. As Ryland joined the Verde, he became aware of the phone in his hand. He held the phone to his ear.

  “Something’s coming,” he said. “Some End All Be All or something.”

  “Crap,” said Aims. “Did you get the virus?”

  “Yes, I have it.”

  “You got it out of the box?”

  “No, I just put the whole box in my backpack,” said Ryland.

  “Take it out of the box,” said Aims, “then I can pull you out.”

  Ryland shoved the phone in his pocket and pulled the backpack off his back.

  “What are you doing?” asked Proto. “We need to move.”

  Ryland pulled the wooden box out of his backpack.

  “They are coming,” Regular Three’s voice was tense.

  Ryland flipped open the box. Inside was a nothing but a photograph of a girl.

  “There’s nothing here but a picture of a girl.” Ryland was practically shouting into the phone.

  “That’s it,” said Aims.

  “Really? Okay, I have it then.” The howling that had been echoing down the tunnel was suddenly deafening. The End All Be All were here.

  “Hand the phone to Proto,” said Aims.

  Ryland glanced around. “Proto?”

  Proto was poised, weapon raised. He looked over when Ryland said his name.

  “The Creator needs to talk to you,” said Ryland. “Now!”

  Proto took the phone and held it to his ear. His face was serious as he listened to whatever Aims was saying. Then he nodded. Ryland heard a loud sound, the sound of impact. In the dim light, he couldn’t tell what was happening. He could see the blue light of the painted Verde soldiers moving in the dark. Ryland lifted the musket but was realizing he couldn’t see well enough to shoot it, and even if he could see, he was fairly certain he wouldn’t be any good.

  The attack came out of nowhere. Proto struck Ryland on the back of the head. Ryland’s felt his head explode with pain. His stomach twisted like he was being dropped from the top of a roller coaster. He felt sick. There was a sensation like hitting water too hard, that punch of resistance and then the swallowing of the body. He surrendered to the feeling of sinking down into something deep and heavy. Then suddenly, Ryland’s body jerked violently upward, into a seated position. He couldn’t see anything. No blue lights, only darkness. He felt the pressure on his face.

  “Ryland.” Someone was saying his name.

  He ripped at his eyes and knocked the VR headset off his head. As soon as the headset was removed, Ryland felt blinded by the amount of light in the room. His senses felt overwhelmed. He doubled over and heaved. Someone put a hand on his back. His head was still throbbing, but the pain was quickly receding, becoming an echo of a memory of pain.

  “Here,” said the voice. Ryland moved toward the voice and someone held out a small trash can to him. Ryland heaved again and threw up into the trash can. He closed his eyes against the bright light. The hand on his back made small circles. For a moment, Ryland thought it was his mom. He felt a sense of déjà vu, remembering being sick as a kid, his mom rubbing his back as he vomited into a trash can or toilet. The memories were not pleasant, but there was something about being sick and taken care of by someone that loved you, that was comforting and nostalgic.

  “Do you want some water?” The voice was not Ryland’s mom and Ryland now realized that it was Aims rubbing his back.

  He nodded.

  Aims went downstairs to get a glass of water. Ryland struggled to open his eyes and adjust them to the bright light in his bedroom. There was a dull sense of loss in his gut and a disorienting spin to his head. Aims returned with the glass of water which she handed to Ryland. Ryland took several sips of water. His throat was dry and burning from the vomit.

  “Do you feel okay?” Aims asked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” Ryland winced. “Just feeling a little sick, and kind of disoriented.”

  “Yeah, sorry I didn’t have time to warn you about that part.”

  “Or about the fact that you were going to have Proto whack me on the head,” said Ryland.

  “I figured it was better if you didn’t know it was coming,” said Aims, “I’m sorry.”

  “There’s got to be a better way to pull someone from the beta world,” said Ryland.

  “There is,” said Aims. “I just didn’t have time.”

  “Why do I feel like that’s your ex
cuse for everything?”

  Aims rolled her eyes. “It’s true. Computer coding takes time. It’s not easy. I mean, for me it is, but it still takes time.”

  Ryland rolled his eyes and sipped more of his water. “So, did it work? Do we have the virus?”

  Aims nodded. “It’s encrypting right now.”

  Ryland didn’t know what that meant but was glad he had been successful.

  “Who was the girl?” Ryland asked, “in the picture?”

  Aims held eye contact with Ryland for a moment. “No one.”

  They both knew she was lying, but Ryland didn’t push the issue.

  “How exactly does all that work?” Ryland asked.

  “What work?”

  “Like, how can something I’ve done in the beta world translate to this world?” asked Ryland.

  “Because everything is code,” said Aims. “The things that happen in the beta world are all related to the codes in the computer. It’s all numbers.”

  Ryland nodded like he understood.

  “When you go in there and walk down a hallway and into a room, the computer is going through a complete computer algorithm that corresponds with those actions.”

  “Why couldn’t you get the virus from this world then?” asked Ryland. “Why couldn’t you activate those codes using your computer? Just type in your numbers or whatever.”

  “It would have taken weeks,” said Aims. “I had it that well-hidden, and we don’t have weeks.”

  “Of course,” Ryland rolled his eyes and grinned. “Same old excuse. Not enough time.”

  Ryland stood slowly. His nausea seemed to have passed.

  “Does Laran Tech know about the underworld?”

  Aims shrugged. “Kind of.”

  “What do you mean, ‘kind of’?”

  “It was members of Laran Tech that originally created it, my coworker,” said Aims.

  “Prometheus?”

  Aims was still and silent for a moment. Ryland could tell he had touched on something that was personal to Aims.

  “Yeah, that was a codename obviously, but yeah,” said Aims.

  “And you helped?” Ryland already knew the answer was ‘yes’.

  Aims nodded slightly. “Laran Tech found out about it, or at least part of it, but they left it.”