Chapter 5

We walked through the hallways in complete silence.

“You breathe too loud.”  Irina whispered.

Ok, so not complete silence.

Irina moved like a cat.  All grace and none of my clumsiness.  She practically slinked across the ground and never lost control of the bastard sword.  The Russian girl had found these straps of leather and bound them across her chest, creating a temporary sling to strap the bastard sword on her back.  It made no sense to me.  The sword had to be more than a couple of hundred pounds.  The thing was nearly as tall as she was.

Whatever bonuses Irina got, they were definitely in the Body department.

The Stat, not the– 

You know what I’m talking about.

I felt my thoughts spiral out on the topic of Stats.  Character Sheets.  Skills.  Floating quest screens and magic creatures that flew about; my mind hadn’t completed their understanding of them.  Following behind Irina, my legs still shook and I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about the corpse, the scraping sound of insect mandibles on the back of her eye sockets.

Was this really happening?

A man had died in front of my eyes.  Swallowed whole by a beak of all things.

Back when I was traveling with the Carnies, there was a kid who used to talk about this.  Patrick.  He always talked about these novels he was reading online.  Apocalypse Literature Roleplaying Games; he called it.  Books about how the world would end and people would gain video game powers.  He was a pretty nerdy kid and used to get picked on a lot.

I hoped he was doing alright.

“Jane,”  Irina said, startling me.

“What is it?”  I hissed after managing to stop my heart from beating right out of my mouth.

She gave me a look over her shoulder then rolled her eyes.  “Over there.”  she said simply.

The hall stretched out before me, pristine and angular.  Despite the screams and blaring sirens, the sunlight drifting through the windows were lazy.  Almost serene in a way.  But about thirty feet down, the peace stopped.  It started with the walls, where vines as thick as my wrist had grown through the marble.  Not just through it, but all around it.  The perfect surfaces marred by the rampant overgrowth of plants.

The vines only got thicker the further ahead, turning into a veritable tunnel made of plants.  The marble was nowhere to be seen, just leaves, branches and fat creeper plants all tangled together, something I’d only seen in passing on the discovery channel.  Twisting and turning, creating a single dark hole, beckoning towards us.

The creepy thing was that it was completely silent.

We as humans associate things like forests and jungles with sounds.  Bird calls, scurrying animals and wild things humping away in the undergrowth.

But not a single sound could be heard.  I heard somewhere that only happens when there’s a predator nearby –and that it was hunting.  And if you didn’t see the predator…

You were the prey.

The realization hit my like a leaking dam.  Slow at first but bursting forward in a rush of fear that was near unstoppable.  It scared me on an existential level so deep that I knew it could only be called instinct.

“Stop breathing on my neck.”  Irina’s voice brought me to the present.

“Sorry.”  I whispered, taking a deep breath.  Before, whenever I got near Irina, my dick took over.  How she smelled, how the curves of her body shifted ever so slightly with every movement.  But now…

None of that mattered.  Every single inch of my being screamed at me that I shouldn’t be anywhere else but here.

“So,”  Irina said after giving me plenty of time.  As if she’d known that I had been scared.  Like she was used to dealing with men facing certain death.  “Do you hear anything?”

“Like what?  Animals humping away in the undergrowth?”

“Ha, I watched that.  Good show.”  She replied.  “Nyet.  I am asking if you sense anything.”

“Mmmm, getting a definite sense of danger.  And death.”

Irina grimaced.  “I am talking about your Skills.  The Identify one.”

“That…”  I paused, “Is actually a good idea.  Let me see what I can do.”

But now that I was actually about to use my skill, I had no idea what to do or even how to do it.

Was I really going to do this?  Use some supernatural ability?  Things like that only happened in books or while dreaming.  Just because people believe they could use skills didn’t mean that they could use it; did it?  It was like jumping off a cliff and expecting to sprout wings and fly.  You just didn’t do things like that.  Stuff like that was for crazy people.  Not sane, normal Jane Serynak.

“Well?”  Irina said, impatience creeping into her tone.

“Give me a second.”  I snapped.

I looked at Irina, making sure that she still had that blue shimmer around her.  At first, it wasn’t there but when I concentrated it appeared again, along with the treasure chest icon above her head.  But it was different somehow.  Before it had been pure blue and filled me with a sense of hope.  But now, the edges were slightly tinged with a sickly virulent green.  The same color as the vines.  Like how paint begins to spread when dropped into clean water.

The harder I concentrated, the clearer the aura around her became.

It filled me with both dread and hope.  Why hope?

Because I wasn’t crazy.  I did have powers.  Lame they might be, they were certainly real.

Or I was bona fide insane and locked up with a straitjacket somewhere.

I honestly don’t know which I preferred.

I homed in on that feeling but this time, turned my gaze to the entrance to the jungle-tunnel.  It was like wading against the tide, trying to catch my swim tube.  There was a tickling sensation, just out of reach from the back of head.  My fingertips continue to brush against the cheap plastic, the waves pushing it just out of reach.

“You’re turning purple.”  Irina said kindly.

“Hush.”  I said but it came out more like ‘Hnnnnnggghhh’.

Thankfully, Irina didn’t comment and let me concentrace.

It took awhile but there was the sensation of breaking water out of a dam.  Like popping a pimple, the ah-ha moment when you figure out a really difficult puzzle.  And my metaphorical hand got a firm grasp on the rubbery tube and my metaphorical childish self clutched it close to my chest.

And I thought to myself, ‘Identify,’ feeling a silent nonexistent sigh of contentment breeze through the crevices of my brain.

There was static at the corner of my vision.  The kind of static you see when the water is splash on the wall socket.  The kind you see right before an appliance starts smoking.  There was a flash of color and then a sharp pain in my left temple.  It was accompanied by a small screen that popped up on the bottom of my vision, or an imagery that existed in the back of my brain.

[???]

[User level too low]

I heard myself take in a sharp breath, equal parts pain and frustration.  People were supposed to get useful skills weren’t they?

“What is it?”  Irina pressed.

“I can’t tell.”  I said truthfully.  “It said level too low.”

“Mmm.”  Irina said thoughtfully.  “I see.  Then whatever is in that thing must be strong.”

“Yeah.”

“What level are you?”

“What?”  I said incredulously.

I don’t know why I acted like that.  There’s no social convention that said what she asked was rude.  There’s no precedent for people having levels or skills, or floating character screens which outlines how strong, smart and spiritual they are.  No silent social contract to follow or a norm that everyone adheres to.  But something told me I should be offended because what she asked was in fact, incredibly rude.

She shrugged, like she knew that it had been rude but necessary.  “To guess how strong it is.  An idea.  Unless you have better one?”

I did not have a better one.

“Level two.”  I lied.

“Me too.”  Irina replied, looking thoughtfully at the overgrown vines.  “Hmm.  So definitely stronger than us.  Let me see the map.”

I took out the brochure and opened it up in front of us.  She leaned in close, her slender fingers tracing route.  “We will have to go all the way around to find my siblings.”

“Yes, and none of them have windows.”  I thought back to the Tsutsugamushi and the scuttling sounds their insectoid feet made.  The mindless way those things reacted, all hunger and mindless frenzy.

“Those beetles.  Yes.  We should avoid.”  Irina sighed.  “We have choice.  Either through that,”  She pointed at the hall which was half-jungle, “or through the beetles.”  She pointed at the other route through the museum.

I wanted to argue that there was another way.  But that would mean we had to climb the stairs and right now, I couldn’t get the image of Dr. Erste being plucked through the window.  Being higher up meant I’d be further from the ground, more likely to be seen by things with wings.  On the other hand, avoiding windows meant I’d have to face the Tsutsugamushi again.  And my stomach twisted in response.

That left one choice.

I breathed out hard.  “Ok.  Jungle it is.”  I said.

“Was thinking same thing.”  Irina unstrapped the bastard sword from her back, and I could’ve sworn the eyes of the demon-design on the hilt glowed an eerie white-blue, the same color as Irina’s own.  Lifting it up with one hand, she studied the edge.

The full reality of what we were about to do dawned on me.  We weren’t just looking for Irina’s siblings anymore.  We were risking death to do so.  Correction: we were literally walking into death’s lair and preparing to fight the thing.  Some of those vines were as thick as my wrist, and those familiar with plants should know –they’re way tougher than any human flesh or bone.

Us humans might be smarter than a lot of things.  But leave us out in the wild without our steel, fire and electricity and we’re pretty much on the bottom of the food chain.  We don’t have claws, we don’t have fangs.  People think we’re destroying Mother Nature, but if Mother Nature really wanted to; humans wouldn’t even leave a footprint on this planet.  We still don’t have good plans in place to prevent hurricanes, let along tsunamis and earthquakes.

“You are scared.”  Irina said, studying me.

I noticed that she’d been doing that a lot.  

“I am.”  I said, my voice shaky.

“Ngh.”  She replied simply.  “Smart.  Dumb to not be scared.”

“Feels pretty dumb planning to walk into that thing.”

“Smart enough to be scared.  Dumb enough to go through with it.  Still better than being dumb enough to not be scared and go through with it.”

I gave her a short laugh but it was choked with the image of those vines wrapping around my neck.  Was it just me or were they creeping up even closer to us?  My eyes must have been playing tricks on me.

“Yeah well,”  I toyed with the small dagger in my hands.  I’d almost forgotten about it.  “Hopefully not the last dumb choice I make.  The last dumb mistake I made was walking in here.”

“Mmm.”  She replied.

I steeled myself, telling myself over and over again that it would be ok.  Then to distract myself, “Hey, what were you doing in the Museum?”

Irina raised an eyebrow.

“I mean,”  I shrugged.  “You’re obviously a model.  Probably wealthy.  From Russia.  Shouldn’t you have, I don’t know, bodyguards?  What’re you doing here all alone?”

She winced at the mention of bodyguards and for just a split second, the confidence disappeared.  But it was back a moment later.  “Same reason you are here.”

“For a job interview?”

“You came here for a job?”  She motioned at the vines and at my ripped pants.  “

“This? This is just the American section.  You should check out the European Exhibits..”  I joked.

Irina chuckled, the action making her sound a lot older than she was.  

“Humor me.”  I insisted.  “We’re might die.  Might as well get to know each other.”

She looked sideways then shrugged.  “Da.  At least I know who I will watch my back.”  She flipped her hair, in that secret way that only popular girls on television know how.  “Da, I am famous model.  But I am on family vacation.  I wanted to,”  she shrugged.  “Travel.  See things.”

“Your siblings models too?”

“Nyet.”  She shook her head.  “They do family business.”

From all the clues I got, I definitely did not want to ask what the family business was.

“What about you?  Why you have girl’s name?  What you do before this?”

“It’s a boy’s name.  In Korea atleast.”  At her quizzical look, I explained, “My mom is korean.”

“Ah.”  She said simply.

“And before this… nothing really.  I did the psychic gig for awhile then got sick of it.  Been working at a fast food joint down the street.  And now…”

Now what would I do?  Would there be a job market after this?  Currency?  Government?

Would society even exist?

‘Don’t focus on that.  Focus on getting through this.’  I told myself.

“Interesting.  It sounds… fun.”  Irina said wistfully.  “So free.”

I looked at her, imagining what her life must’ve been like.  Piecing together the little bits I could garner from her body language.  How she spoke about her siblings.  The fact that she never mentioned her parents at all and skillfully dodged the topic of bodyguards.  

“Yeah,”  I said, surprising myself with how gentle it sounded.  “If nothing else, I was free atleast.”

We looked at each other and the wordless agreement of two people stalling before doing something important.  I’m not sure what prompted me to do so, but I took position in front of her this time.  She let me, and we delved into the not-so-concrete jungle together.