Storymania - Destination Starlight by Nathaniel A Miller

Destination Starlight (2)
Nathaniel A Miller

“Oh who cares, let him go, I didn’t want him to come anyway.” Chelle added, as she saw him exit into the outside hallway. When they saw him walk away from the door, Joe sidled up to the trio.

“Where’s Nathaniel off to?”

“We don’t know.”

“It looks like he wasn’t interested in staying. He took his stuff with him.” Lithium observed and Monte nodded his head in agreement. When a few of the groups had seen him leave, there was murmured words. Chelle and her group, however, had a sudden and sinking feeling between them that told them that this would be the last time they would see him alive. There was silence between the four of them for a long moment and they glanced at each other repeatedly.

A gasp echoed between them, a moment later, realizing their thought and they should stop him. Glancing at each other, the four bolted toward the door to exit into the hall, but there was no sign of their fellow member. They quickly alerted the others of the trouble and their thought.

A lot of them said they did not care and hope he died or something to that effect under a bus somewhere. Chelle, Monte, Lithium, Joe and a few others had grimaced at the revelation by his girlfriend and his friends. They rallied a few people to help and set off to find their member who departed.

Nathaniel on the other hand had returned quickly to the shop on the Sears and Roebuck™, the west side of Eastridge. As he walked alone toward the store, he was deep in thought, looking forward to the games that he would be playing in the few minutes. He was glad to be far away and across the mall from the gathering, he had been attending. He walked the walkway, high above the bottom floor, then hit to a second floor at Macy™ then to the bottom floor. He made a beeline right to the store. The young man was actually glad to have slipped away from the gathering. A place clearly where he was not welcome.

“It won’t be too long and I will be safely into the games.” He thought happily, “If you ignore me long enough, that is a clear message I have to leave. Hell, I know when to grab my hat and head for the door.”

He stood outside the Dungeon a few minutes later, quickly checking over the stuff he had brought with him. He cast a quick look about the area, shadowed by the escalator that was over the top of him. The young man opened the pack, grimacing at the contents.

“Key, watch, and card.” Nathaniel murmured, and nodded quietly, “I’m ready.”

Here he glanced at the surroundings again, a funny feeling overwhelming him, that in a few hours he felt that he would be taking a great journey into what would be more than the games themselves, and where he would be battling for his life. All he saw here was the store doors and the covered area where the escalators made their way from top to bottom. The feeling seemed to be pulling him more toward the store.

“How very weird…” He casually murmured, and shook his head to clear the feeling.

A moment later, a voice echoed across the mall’s cavernous interior.

“There he is!” A voice said, “Varden wait! Come back!”

Nathaniel turned his head and saw Joe and Michelle running toward him, above him he saw Lithium and Monte heading toward the escalator with several others.

“Oh Jeez.” Nathaniel thought, “Now, here they come.”

The first thing the young man did was enter the shop, as the many of them converged on his position from all directions. He knew that in the few minutes that they had come for him, they would not leave him alone. Even though they left him alone for two hours and ignored him at the gathering. It would be a fiasco and he would be probably forced to return with them to the Red Robin™. Here the youth shook his head.

“Hell fucking no for that.” He grumbled and turned to bolt toward the entrance to the shop.

Entering the store, he ducked down and quickly made his way to the entry to the member’s area. Many of the Syner-BBS people had seen him enter the shop and followed. By the time they split up, he had already swiped his card and entered the member area. He quickly traversed the maze, to the locker room.

Joe and the others all stood in the center of the Dungeon store.

“Did you see him leave?” A voice asked, “Where’d he go?”

“He didn’t leave, Cheshire is watching the door.” Another voice said. “He must be in the area over there.”

All of the members present had converged on the partitioned area, but the guards held their lances over the entry.

“Sorry members only.” He told them politely.

“What is in this area?” The question had been from Chelle who stood beside the small group of twenty who had gathered at this entry point.

“This is a member’s area for the Virtual reality games.” The guard politely told them, “If you don’t have a card or account, you can’t come back here. Please clear the entry.”

“Virtual Reality?” Joe gasped and it suddenly dawned on him why his friend had departed, other them their ignoring him. He had found something very cool and more fun than the party that he had been withholding from them.

“This sounds, REALLY cool” Monte said, “No wonder he left he party. He’s been holding out on us.”

Low chatter moved through the group as they stood aside letting other members pass them and they noted the members had access cards to get through here.

“Is there any way to check on a person who just entered your games?” Joe asked, and the guard shook his head.

“The front desk can.” He told them and pointed to the center desk.

“Thanks!” Joe replied, and motioned to the others. They walked toward the main area of the store and ended up before Sandy who worked at the front desk with Cathy. Joe greeted her silently with a nod.

”Can I help you?” The young woman asked, and he nodded.

“Can I get some info from you about a player if he checked into your V.R games?” Joe asked, and the young woman turned to a nearby computer.

“What is his name?”

“Nathaniel, last Initial M” Joe replied quickly.

”Why yes. He checked in five minutes ago.” The young woman replied, “Why do you need him?”

“Well yea, we need to speak with him a moment.” Joe replied as the woman checked the screen.

“Unfortunately, it shows him in games someplace.” She chirped, shaking her head. “We can’t page in the games itself. Once you enter, your experience is very realistic as possible. We have inter-game intercoms but there is no guarantee that the person will come to it.” She said helpfully.

“I’d like more information about your games, how much are they to play?” Joe asked, “I have a BBS system and I am looking for a group access.”

She pulled out a brochure.

“We have Twelve, holo-games located here, and they are of any type, place, era, historical, fantasy or whatever you wish to experience.” She explained, “The memberships are very reasonable. Twenty-five for limited daily access, fifty dollars for a monthly access, unlimited, and one hundred for a group access of twelve people or more.”

“They are done in costume, for more fun and more realism.” She said, “Group accesses must be twelve people or more minimum or it is an additional fifty dollars after twenty-four maximum.”

“You know that’s not bad for an access for twelve people minimum per year.” Joe mused, “I’ll take one of those.”

“I’ll take one too.” Lithium offered, “We can put up to almost fifty people in there to look.”

“A great idea, Mike…” Joe exclaimed sharply, and nodded in approval.

“Someone should return to the Red Robin and tell the others to come down here, the party has moved.” Mike suggested, “This looks really cool.”

“I’ll do it.” A voice said, and promptly the member left immediately after filling out his sheet and getting his card to inform the others of the move.

Meanwhile the young woman that worked the desk turned to the others who stood before her. She passed out clipboards for the group access and to each person.

“Each one of you must full out the sheet and sign for the liability waver for conditions of health which could be inflicted on the person who plays.” Cathy said, handing out clipboards. Each one filled in their names, addresses and information, then their RPG name, race, profession and handed it back.

It took them several minutes before they finished and all were anxious to find their fellow member. They had no idea that a sinister event would happen that would shake up their world and happen to their fellow member.

“Are we all set?” Joe asked the immediate group and there were nods around the group.

“Here are you costume and weapon vouchers to pick up.” Cathy told the group, “Enjoy the games.”

“Oh yes, weapons from outside are not allowed or are street clothes to the games itself.” She told them, “You cannot remove weapons to the outside. No food, drinks, cell phones, or electronic devices.”

“Good to know.” Joe replied respectfully.

“Enjoy your games.”

“We will.” Joe replied, “Thanks.”

“Let’s go.”

They ran toward the entry point and logged into it. Inside the maze, they walked to the various shops for armor, weapons and supplies. They adjourned to the locker rooms and inside they changed. Lithium’s locker was next to Nathaniel’s and he did not even realize it. Exiting the locker rooms, they stepped into the hallway as two groups, and entered the staging room.

“Jesus, there are many games.” Joe thought, “How are we going to find him?”

The others were startled by the size of this place and the number of games that are located at this shop in Eastridge Mall. They all glanced at Joe and then it struck them all that they had lost their fellow member, to the large games located in this shop.

Meanwhile Nathaniel had many minutes before, as the BBS members were at the desk, had stood outside a doorway of one of the games. Little did he know that as the door opened that a portal of energy sat over the top of the doorway and it was an arch of energy from which he would step through, unthinkably into time it self. When the young man did step forward and into the entry, an unfamiliar tingle danced along his skin. He found himself tumbling through a conduit of energy for a couple of minutes before he tumbled out of another arch into a great forest.

Disoriented, the youth felt drained, and shook his head at the effects rendered to his body, briefly dropping to one knee before staggering to his feet. As he panned a look around his surroundings, it is an open clearing beneath a canopy of tree limbs that belong to this strange forest and completely unrecognizable to the young man.

“Damn this looks real.” He thought, and shook his head, glancing at the portal that hummed and cracked on the threshold before him. As he stood there, the young man watched as it pulsated through the color spectrum.

“This isn’t right.” He kept telling himself, “Where is the arch like before?”

“Computer ARCH!” He shouted, and there was no response.

“ARCH!” He exclaimed, and shook his head in surprised silence. A real warm wind rustled the trees and struck him in the face. He turned his head as the crackle of animals echoed through the ground cover of the forest around him. At this point, he was a bit worried, and glanced at his wrist at the black watch, that strangely had a blank screen on it.

“Maybe I should step through and return to where I need to be?” He thought, but as it came, the energy crackled and sparked before him. It disappeared in a flash and a thunderclap a moment later, leaving him alone in the forest. Only the sounds of the forest rustled around him and he slowly drew the blade from the sheath, turning three-hundred and sixty degrees. There was no one but himself in the clearing and a burnt spot in the ground cover where the portal had closed only moments ago.

He strained his ears and could hear the sound of music somewhere to the northwest that alerted him that he was near civilization, unable to hear it with the portal in the same area that he stood. He still glanced at his watch and the screen was still blank.

“Alright, I hear music, maybe I am still in the games.” He thought, as he walked through the undergrowth toward the music that grew louder with his approach. Glancing at the watch-like monitor on his arm, it was still blank and did not flash or have any power to it at all. He wondered if the watch battery had malfunctioned and died.

“This is really odd.” Nathaniel thought, as he stepped into the clearing behind buildings that made up the outskirts of Hypperex, the capital city, in an unfamiliar region known as Adria located in the year thirteen hundred and fifty-two A.D. The buildings themselves were old school, and authentic to the young man, with a rustic look that looked centuries old. They mostly were made of wood timbers, and large beams supported them in the middle and top. The young man walked with semi-silent steps on the rocky dirt pathway that made up the way toward the front of the buildings. There the unfamiliar fronts of the buildings stood before him, a road that stretched between them that disappeared into the forest and the other toward to what appeared to be a large city.

“Where the hell am I?” He asked himself, repeatedly as he stood peering at the buildings before him and his eyes following the road into the forest.

“This is nothing like I saw in the games.” He thought, but he trudged wearily onward, approaching the first building, the familiar clank of a blacksmith and livery stable could be heard there. The strong scent of brimstone in the air, from a large chimney stretched high into the sky. Nathaniel continued past it, and across the road, approaching the music cautiously, to what appeared to be a tavern. He held his hand on the sheathed blade at his side, and stepped into the tavern.

Inside, it is a two level building, with doors to what appear to be bedrooms are on the second floor. The first floor is an open area with a bar sitting on the one end of the tavern. Nathaniel slipped inside the room, and at first, he is not noticed by anyone. He was wrong, as a rough looking hooligan turned from the bar.

“Lookie here, a boy with a sword…” A harsh voice said, and glancing from side to side the young man of the future saw two harsh looking hooligans join him. They are both dressed in leather, from head to toe. They had full beards, and haggard hair. The young man grimaced at the harsh words but held his ground, his hand moving to the blade at his side when another appeared at the side of the first person. He started to step backward toward the door, with his hand securely on the blade at his side.

“Don’t do it boy, I’ll slice you from your neck to groin.” He said roughly, and yet Nathaniel continued to back, his readiness showing clearly. He relied on his Aikido skill, in which when he was in the future, practiced regularly.

He did not understand them, but he held his ground, moving into a stance and motioning them to come.

“Let’s get him boys.” The man shouted, and all three drew their blades.

Nathaniel drew his blade, and he parried the first man's blade as it came toward him. He lashed out and his blade sliced the throat of the hooligan. The rough looking man clutched his throat as he staggered backwards, blood splattering from the wound from his throat. He fell with a hollow thud into the wooden floor, lying quickly in a pool of his own blood. The other two paused as the young man from the future held the blood covered sword. They were startled by the swiftness of his swordplay and were astonished by one of the motions from his training.

Go to part: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21