The boat glided along its path, and the world changed again. The water, no longer ocean blue but tarry black. Overhead, the night sky churned with streaks of opalescent clouds that drifted just out of reach. Wails of the dying echoed off the watery depths, chilling me to the bone. I shivered, despite the warmth of Cale’s embrace.

The ferryman stopped at a stretch of rotting deck that groaned with each lapping wave. Beyond it, the skeletal remains of a great city lay in ruins. Roving bands of dogs, so thin their ribs jutted through coarse fur, sniffed at heaps of trash.

“Exit,” the ferryman hissed.

Nate didn’t have to be told twice. Before we had the chance to check the safety of the dock, he was out of the boat and halfway down its length. His already pallid face, somehow three shades lighter. With a weak smile, he waved and expressed how sturdy the ground beneath him was. “Just checking, you know. Didn’t want everyone to get wet.”

I waited to message Richard we’d made it safely to the expansion area once we’d gotten on solid ground. The thought had narrowly slipped my mind entirely before the sound of something slithering through the undergrowth reminded me.

BouchardtheWhite: All the aggressive creatures have been despawned and we created a waypoint to direct you to the coordinates from the note. You should be able to call your mount like normal to get there.

Ri0tGrrl: Thanks again, Richard.

The sounds of the slithering creature vanished, but the dogs remained. They took careful glances in our direction before returning to their quest for nourishment. Out of habit, I’d been saving scraps of meat for Bob, but with Brad gone and by proxy his pet as well, my inventory had a surplus. I tossed nearly fifty pieces of meat in their direction, hoping I wasn’t about to start a feeding frenzy. Despite a few growls and snaps at one another, the dogs settled down. Quickly realizing there was plenty to go around.

“Ready to do our thing?” Cale asked from his menus.

“Let’s go shut him down,” I said and summoned my mount. In the underworld, my stag mount had taken a new, unexpected form. Instead of the lively creature I’d grown so accustomed to, a skeletal beast with broken antlers and glowing red eyes approached. The saddle, normally a simple pad of brown leather, was now a black twisted thing set atop the jagged spine. “Wonder if there’s an available outpost in this area. The more I’m here, the more I’m liking it.”

“You would,” Cale said dryly. He summoned a mount I hadn’t seen before, a massive warhorse adorned with bright red armor, emblazoned with black sun sigils. “Level 50 paladin mount. Nice, huh?”

“Almost as good looking as the guy riding it,” I said and shrugged, putting a little extra feminine guile in my expression.

Salvo made a face like he’d stepped in a pile of steaming shit. “God, you two are disgusting. Can we get moving, please?”

“Someday you’ll find someone who appreciates you for you. Ragged pubes and all,” I said and blew him a kiss before kicking my mount into action.

The dry skeletal stag took off like a bullet, nearly knocking me on my ass and ruining a perfectly good exit. But once I regained my balance and settled into the saddle with the wind blowing through my avatar’s hair, a previously unknown joy rushed through my body. Cares drained away into nothingness as my mount’s hooves beat over the barren landscape. My banshee wails of elation drowned out the cries of the dead as we drew closer to our destination until a new emotion took root and grew, terror. Pure, unadulterated terror.

The source sat on the horizon. A crystalline tower, a twisted version of Oz as brought to you by Tim Burton, jutted into the mists, pulsing with a hazy, toxic glow. With each beat, it released another wave of dread that bore itself a little deeper into my psyche until I could barely continue. The ground stopped moving below me and I realized after the fact, it was at my own request.

With a thought, I dismissed the skeletal stag and fell to the ground from knees too numb to support my weight. My body curled into itself, sheltering me from the horrors on the outside. There was a moment of wishing for death, pleading for it before a calming darkness took hold. Tired and unwilling to continue further, I plummeted into the black depths and found peace.

My eyes flew open, and bright white lights burned into my retinas. Blindly I reached around to get a bearing on where I was, tavern or tower. Game or otherwise. Nothing made sense. “Fuck.”

“She’s awake,” Cale said a little too loud for my ears before pulling me into his arms and planting a kiss on my forehead. “You scared the shit out of me.”

The bedroom came into focus. The blinding lights had been actual sunlight streaming through the windows. Maybe it had been a little too long since the last time I’d been outside in the real world. I wiped a dribble of drool from my cheek and stared up at him. Memories of events snapped into place, the horrible tower taking front and center. “Did you feel it too? Whatever that place was giving off?”

“Yeah,” he said and frowned. “You’d gotten further ahead and took the biggest punch, but we all got hit by some kind of psychic attack. I’m glad the resort pulled the plug on us when they did.”

I moved to sit up, and an iron spike of pain shot through my head. “Shit, that hurts,” I said, and closed my eyes to wait for the pain to subside. “Why’d the resort pull the plug on us, anyway?”

“We’re getting the boot.”

“Wait, say that again. It sounded like you said we’re getting kicked out, but why the fuck would they do that? Does Mark know?” I pushed myself up to look him in the face despite the constant explosions going off in my brain.

“In a way, we have Brad to thank. Turns out some people took an interest in what he had to say in his little post. In particular, a team of feds looking to clean up Vegas Land. The possible connection to a missing persons case gave them the cause they needed for a warrant.”

“Fuck me, more cops?”

“You think it’s a bit strange too, huh?” Cale shrugged and adjusted his glasses. “Seems like we can’t take a shit lately without being watched. Either way, Mark was picked up this morning on a laundry list of charges ranging between fraud and extortion with a few things in between. Until his legal woes are settled, his assets have been frozen.”

“Meaning he can’t pay the bill for this place anymore. Great,” I closed my eyes and groaned while I thought. “Are the pods working at all?”

“Nope, they’re still disconnected. I may have tried to get around it a few times and came up empty.”

“Has anyone gotten a hold of Richard to let him know we’re okay? He’s probably freaking out right now,” I said, my mind already working out how to contact him in the real world, but it wasn’t like he’d list his personal information online.

“No, we’ve been waiting to try once we knew how you were doing.”

“Well,” I said, pushing myself off the bed, gritting my teeth against my throbbing head. Everything above the neck was a mess of fuck you levels of pain.

I was about to step out of the bedroom before I had the clarity of mind to check what I was wearing. While I was covered at least, Cale had opted to pull a pair of granny panties on over my haptic suit. I looked like I was dressed up for a comic con as the world’s worst superhero. “Interesting look,” I said, stripping off the suit for the last time and tossing it on the bed; replacing it with my comfy sweats and tank.

“There might have been some panic involved when I did that,” he said. His eyes grew a little misty before he cleared his throat. “Go on, Sleeping Beauty, I’m sure everyone is eager to know you’re okay.”

“You’re not coming with?” I asked, my hand on the doorknob.

A reddish gleam formed on his cheeks and he pointed towards his lower half. “Just need a few minutes to calm down. There was a hot chick strutting around in the buff, you know how it goes.”

If we weren’t about to get kicked out of our little paradise or my head didn’t feel like it was about to explode, I might have helped him with the situation. Instead, I snuck out, shutting the door behind me.

Salvo let out a squeal and rushed over, picking me off my feet and spinning in a circle that dimmed my vision with pain.

Over the course of the next hour, I had to repeat my story multiple times while people came in and out of the suite in between packing their things to depart. All as I tried to remain calm while on hold with every Eternia Entertainment number I could find.

Finally, I found a number for corporate and dialed, hitting the numbers it prompted before an actual person answered. A person who’s voice I recognized, even if I’d never seen their actual face.

“Richard Bouchard’s office, this is Jeff. How can I assist you today?”

“Jeff? Like goblin Jeff?” I asked, a little more excited than I should be and a little extra thoughtless regarding someone who I relied on to help me.

“Yes,” he said with a questioning tone. “And this would be, who?”

“Liz Milner… Er, Riot Girl, but it’s spelled-”

He cut me off before I could spell out my username. “You’re okay? Hold on, I’ll get Richard on the line. He’s been worried sick.”

“Liz?” Richard asked. “Oh, thank god you’re okay. We couldn’t get you out on our end so I called the resort and just had them pull you out on theirs by cutting the power to your pods. What happened in there?”

“I was wondering about that. Seemed a little too serendipitous. Thank you. What happened is a long story, but I don’t have a lot of time.” I gave him the short version, promising more at a later date. Then added the part I hoped he could help me with. A place to go that was safe and offered pods for Arcadia. We were so close to finishing this thing. Like hell was I walking away now.

We could go to Cale’s place for the night in a pinch, but a one-bedroom apartment wasn’t ideal for so many people. We even contemplated finding a motel like the one Salvo’s mom worked at and staying there. Luke checked what it would cost us to stay where we were, but none of us wanted to spend such a sizeable chunk on what we had.

Thankfully, Richard came through and told us to head to the airport. He’d get some things arranged and meet us there.

The airport was full of too many people. Children filled to the brim with sugar and pre-packaged snacks screamed to be at Disneyland now. Tourists wandered aimlessly for where they should be, standing in the middle of a crowded walkway to check their phones. White collar, self-important assholes pushed their way past us like they owned the place. If there’s one place that could be described as my own personal hell on earth, it’s the airport. Most people would say it’s the DMV, but that’s a cakewalk compared to this shit. At least the people at the DMV leave you alone.

When we got to the portion of the airport for personal aircraft, the crowds vanished, leaving only the smell of too many people in one building that drifted in the circulated air. I dropped into a seat while we waited, still not telling the group who exactly was meeting us, other than a representative of Eternia.

A few more hours passed before a sleek aircraft entered the runway with the scrolled double e’s of the Eternia logo. I gathered my luggage, an old green military knapsack I’d bought from a surplus store, and watched the faces of my friend’s light up after seeing the man who exited the plane was none other than Richard Bouchard himself. He was kinda hard to miss, seeing as how a crowd built around him wherever he went.

Instead of pushing past the group, he flashed his famous smile and posed for pictures with airport staff while we approached.

Salvo hadn’t gone unrecognized either. His was the face of the movement, and this was the moment the public knew the two sides were joining forces. The growing crowd took pictures as we all met out on the tarmac and loaded into the plane. It wouldn’t be long before someone plastered those images all over the internet. Any privacy we’d possessed before was long gone.

During the short flight to the airstrip outside Eternia Entertainment headquarters in California, we discussed everything that happened on both sides. The raid on Leland’s home, what happened to us in the underworld, everything. Even about the guy Cale sent to check up on Leland and why we’d sent him in the first place.

As I said, glaring oversight on my part before. The name we’d gotten from the contact was one of the federal agents working with Mr. Bouchard. And they had made no mention to Richard about keeping tabs on his son either.

We could all agree, they wouldn’t be watching for the same reason we had. When we started sniffing around one possibility, we’d somehow stumbled on something else. But what, we still didn’t know.

Richard gave us a personal tour of Eternia’s Headquarters, through rooms of concrete walls and bamboo flooring. Natural light spilled through windows, enhanced by diffused overhead panels of various colors, giving the place an otherworldly look of its own.

On our last stop in the working area, we entered a messy office owned by a pale man, as wide as he was tall, with messy brown hair and almond-shaped dark eyes. He greeted us with nervous eyes and greasy handshakes. A half-eaten burrito and empty energy drink cans sat beside his keyboard. It looked like he’d been there for a while that day.

He introduced himself as Larry Stein, and he was the jack of all trades in the office. But he’d been helping Richard as of late with the code behind not just the fairies but the attacks in general. Cale and Larry poured over charts that showed the packets of information hidden in various objects throughout the game. Not just the fairies, though judging by time stamps, they’d been the first.

Bored and eager to kill shit, I might have sighed a bit too loudly.

Their conversation died as all eyes fell on me.

“Sorry about that,” Cale said, tearing himself away and falling in beside me. “I’ll come back later to see more.”

“Absolutely,” Larry said and took a huge bite of his unfinished meal. As he chewed, he said, “I’m staying in the visitor’s center myself for the time being. We’ll see each other around.” Specks of bean and tortilla flew from his mouth, splattering his monitor.

The aforementioned visitor’s center, normally used by the sales and marketing team, had been converted to serve as temporary living quarters for the employees working around the clock. A wall-sized digital panel in the common room had the words, The Arcadia Defect, listed at top with news highlights scrolling by, keeping everyone up to date on current developments.

As we watched the news, the panel changed to display our avatars from the game. They waved in greeting before mirroring our actions. I shimmied my shoulders and my avatar shook her hefty elven bosom. Curious, I turned to look at the back side, craning over my shoulder to see a side of the character I hadn’t seen before. We had a great ass.

A message in the Age of Arcadia font welcomed our arrival, naming Richard as our sponsor and host. A crowd of Arcadian avatars appeared around ours and cheered for our arrival.

At first, I thought they’d all been randomly generated but recognized one face from the crowd. A certain tavern dwarf, his gleaming pate and ruddy cheeks hiding behind a bushy black beard, was unmistakable.

“Varik!” I said with pleasant surprise.

Richard smiled and nodded. “That’s my father-in-law, Vern. I’m not surprised at all that you’d know him. Great guy. Likes to hang out with his old buddies from work in the tavern. They’re long retired now, all in nursing homes out here in the real world. Now that my mother-in-law has passed, he spends all his time plugged into Arcadia. He was even one of our first beta participants. My wife hates it, but he’s happy so she doesn’t protest too much. Only says something on holidays.”

Beside me, Maddie tried to disguise a yawn with a stretch, but it didn’t escape his notice.

“I’m sure you’re tired and want to get settled. Down the hallway you’ll find the quarters, displays next to each door will show which ones are available. Find ones you like and register your thumbprints on the panel. Someone will deliver your bags while we have dinner. I’ll meet you back here in, let’s say, twenty minutes? My wife wants to join us so I should go pick her up.”

The cement walls and bamboo flooring theme continued through the individual rooms. The only difference I could see were the colors of orchids in ornamental pots. The individual apartments were basic, lacking a kitchenette area, comprised of one large room with either a king-sized bed or two full sized with fresh linens matching the orchid, two shining stainless-steel pods, and a small bathroom with a shower stall. There weren’t any actual windows in the area, only panels that displayed whatever landscape you chose.

I settled into our room, set the view to London and watched the city I’d always dreamed to visit come to life.