Page 1 of The Glass Unicorn, Part 2 (Quest Wars #2)

We moved quietly through 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 really my house—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 more ruthless 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 a handful 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 an actual torch.

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.

“They’re pretty snug, so why don’t we settle down for the rest of the night and sort things out in the morning? There’s not much else we can do right now,” Liesel said.

We arranged our sleeping bags in a circle, propped a table against the front door to keep it shut, and began to settle in for the night.

Liesel found a pillar candle and lit it, setting it in a bucket so if it melted down it wouldn’t catch anything on fire, and we huddled together.

It took me a long time to get to sleep, and I felt so far away from home that it wasn’t funny.

The early slivers of sun pierced through the dirty windows. I woke up, wincing, as I realized how stiff I was. At first, I forgot where I was, and wondered why I was so uncomfortable, but then, reality hit, and I sat up too quickly, giving myself a sore neck.

“Crap,” I muttered, looking around. The others were still asleep. I slid out from my sleeping bag and wandered to the front door, where I gently pushed the table aside and slipped outside.

The dawn was spreading across the sky, lemon chiffon light beginning to infuse the fading indigo of night.

A faint rose blush spread through the first hints of sunlight, and I headed over to the outhouse on the side.

It had been let go, unused, for quite awhile, and the scent had faded to a sour muskiness.

I made sure no spiders had spun their webs across the seat, then quickly did my business and hurried back outside, tucking the roll of toilet paper away.

I dreaded when we ran out. Maybe they’d fix the game by then.

I looked around and saw a well off to one side.

As I lowered the bucket, I was relieved to hear a splash, and I wound the handle until the bucket returned, filled with clear water.

I wasn’t sure if it was clean, but Abarria Game-Guides did try to make certain that the water supplies were safe, that much I knew, so I splashed some water on my hands, washing them, then filled my water bottle and drank deep.

As I looked around, I lifted my wrist, thinking to ask the Game-Guides how things were coming. Then I remembered that, while they could communicate with us, we couldn’t communicate with them. Sighing, I stared at the watch, hoping for some sort of an update, but it remained silent.

“You okay?” Thornhold startled me. For such a stocky dwarf, he was extremely sneaky.

“Yeah, I am. Want some water?”

“Let me make use of the…facilities…first.” He lumbered over to the outhouse.

I watched him. He was so unlike his normal form, at least in body.

In spirit, he was the same Thornhold that I knew and loved.

I crouched down, squatting on my heels, surprised to find that it was actually quite a comfortable position.

Had to be the elf form, because I couldn’t sit like this out of the game.

At least, not for more than a minute or two.

When Thornhold returned, he washed his hands, filled his water bottle, and offered me a chunk of bread.

“Shouldn’t we wait for the others to eat?” I asked.

“There’s plenty.” He hesitated, then added, “Are you scared?”

“Yeah, I guess I am. I’m trying not to regret my choice to come here, but I’m feeling bleak. We have no idea when this is going to get fixed. We’re stuck. What if it’s a freaking month or more?”

“What if we never get out?” he asked.

I stared at him. I hadn’t even let myself go there. “No…there’s no way we can be stuck in here forever. How does this even work? If their computer system is trashed, how are we still alive? How is the game still running?”

“I have no clue,” Thornhold said. “It doesn’t make sense, but we may not know everything behind it. I guess, we’ll just have to do our best to survive until the next update.”

“Let’s keep Liesel with us,” I said. “Unless she doesn’t want to stay. As one of the employees, she probably has knowledge that’s going to help us.”

“I agree. We give her whatever she wants to stay with us. Help like that, you can’t really buy.” Thornhold stretched, yawning loudly. “Do you think we should head back to the landing station? If they suddenly fix the transporter, who knows how long it will last?”

“I tend to agree, but let’s ask Liesel when she and the others wake up. Meanwhile, why not build a fire out here and cook up some of the food that we have? Hot food always makes everything better,” I said.

Thornhold agreed, so we gathered some wood and built a campfire, shaded from the early breeze, and as I began to make some coffee in a pan we had, Thornhold fashioned several skewers so we could cook up some of the ham.

He cubed the ham, speared some cherry tomatoes that he found growing to one side of the house in a garden that was equally as abandoned, and made shish kabobs.

The others finally began to meander out of the house, sniffing the air as they joined us.

Reggie, carrying a long brush, immediately climbed up on the roof. He lowered it into the chimney and then began to telescope it out, sliding it up and down to loosen the soot.

“This doesn’t look too bad,” he called down. “It shouldn’t take long to clean.”

“Thank you!” Liesel called. She watched him for a moment, then settled down beside me and pulled out the case that had the computer in it.

“So, does that thing still work?” I asked.

“Somewhat. It has satellite WIFI, so I can should be able to contact the outside world. But it’s not going to last long.

The battery life on this laptop sucks, and while I have a couple power stations, they’ll lose their charge after a year or so if they aren’t used at all.

If I use them to charge this, they’ll lose their charge after a few months, that is—if I only use the computer to contact the outside.

I sent a message to my supervisor, and I also sent a detailed message to my family.

I gave them your names so they can contact your loved ones.

I’m pretty sure that Abarria Game-Guides is going to keep this as quiet as they can,” she added.

I froze. “Won’t they ask for help?”

Liesel let out a long breath. “I hope they do, but you need to accept that they’re not going to want anything getting out about this. It makes them look weak, the shareholders will freak, and the company will go bankrupt. That’s the last thing they want.”

“I have news for them,” I said. “It’s going to hit the news one way or another. There are too many vacationers in here for it not to get out.”

I know,” she said. “I think they’re hoping to fix it within a day or so, but…honestly? It’s broken so badly that I can’t see that happening unless some miracle happens. And miracles seem in short supply, lately.”

Brynn, who was cooking a sausage on a skewer, stared at her. “You mean they may try to cover this up?”

Liesel nodded. “Unfortunately yes. I can’t predict, of course, but I’m acting on worst case scenario.

And in here, we have to act on worst case scenario, as well.

Our lives are in our own hands right now.

We have to face the facts: we might not ever get rescued.

We have to live life as though this is our only reality right now.

Because, it just might be the world we spend the rest of our lives in. ”

As we finished making breakfast and Reggie joined us, the chimney now clean, Liesel’s words echoed in my head. A nasty feeling in my gut told me she might just be right. And if that was the case, what the hell were we going to do?