“What do you do in your free time?”

  Boris leaned over the table toward Althea, breathing a little heavier after his four shot of post-dinner whiskey.

  Althea slammed back her own shot and said,

  “You mean when I am not fleeing from the company that tried to murder me?”

  “Yeah.”

  The booze helped her feel less nervous and moody about the question. Back at Telepersona, she was not sure how much of this she would have been willing to admit. But here in the wastes, the pressure to remain silent came less from a place of social awkward nerdiness and more from a place of trivializing her host’s daily life. Or perhaps former life.

  “I am… a fantasy sim gamer.”

  The last four words came out quiet as a mouse.

  “Excuse me? Gamer something?”

  Boris slurred his words a bit when he asked, which finally lead Althea to blush.

  “I like fantasy sim games.”

  “I’m, wait you mean VR RPGS?”

  Althea covered her whole face with both hands this time. Her voice sounded dramatic and woeful as she said,

  “Yes.”

  Boris laughed and said,

  “I always preferred Hyp-Real games myself.”

  “Wait, you play VR?”

  “Hell yeah I do. Kuma Gun Ki was one of my favorites, a long time a go.”

  “Oh sweet void, my dad played that! It means something weird, doesn’t it?”

  Boris shrugged and said,

  “It’s one of the best HR games out there. And yeah, it means something like Bear, Gun, Spirit - the things that you have to face or overcome in the game.”

  “Spirit, so it had some kind of magic or something?”

  “No, not really. There was some light supernatural stuff at the end everyone complained about, but Spirit as an antagonist was the idea that the style and setting of the game would be out to get you. The game developers suggested that their game’s spirit hated the players and wanted them dead. I liked it because that was how they justified their oppressive atmosphere and aesthete.”

  Althea stared at Boris with her mouth hanging open, surprised to find someone who enjoyed classic gaming the way she did, even if his particular poison came from a different branch of the tree.

  “That is awesome! We should play something some time.”

  Boris nodded and said,

  “What’s your favorite aspect of Fantasy VR?”

  Althea shrugged and said,

  “I liked playing a knight. It always bothered me that people loaded up a sim game and immediately turned to the side of evil, like everyone really was a heartless jerk in secret. I preferred playing the paladin who would die happily knowing she was on the side of right because she died defending someone who could not.”

  “So you’re a fighter? Sword and Board or One Big Stick?”

  Althea covered her face at the lingo.

  “It’s cute that you know those phrases. I was SAB, unless I was trying something wild out.”

  “You only played knights?”

  “Yeah, magic feels like cheating. Kind of the way my arms and implants make me feel like I am cheating now.”

  Boris moved his head side to side and said,

  “I am not sure I would put it that way. Armor is also an “unfair” advantage. I would think by now you would not think of fighting like that.”

  Althea felt a little embarrassed and said,

  “It’s not like that. If someone is coming at me in real life, I will take any advantage I can get. In VR, it’s a game, so I like to imagine a level playing field.”

  Boris nodded and said,

  “Fair enough, another shot?”

  They continued to drink well into the evening. Althea had not had that much to drink in months, possibly years, and blacked out sometime during the seventh or eighth shot.

  When she woke up that morning, she still wore her clothes from the previous day. For her date with Boris, she had chosen a pair of blue jeans and a dark green blouse from the closet in the dojo. The outfit worked in part because the only shoes Althea could find in the compound were combat or hiking boots, and they matched next to nothing. Except jeans.

  Althea shot up from bed and looked around as she did. She lay in the same room she had met Boris in earlier that week. For a brief moment, she panicked, afraid that someone might have taken advantage of her while she was drunk and passed out.

  Pontikos appeared with that thought and said,

  “Your heart rate just spiked. Are you okay?”

  Althea nodded, checking her clothing and feeling generally wretched.

  “Did someone undress me last night or anything weird?”

  Pontikos put her finger on her lips and said,

  “Technically, Boris removed your shoes before he threw you on the bed and covered you up.”

  Althea felt relief wash through her, making her hands and knees shake with stress hormones. She said,

  “Nothing else?”

  “Correct, Mistress. This is the first time you have been ambulatory since then. And no one else has entered this chamber during that time.”

  Althea took a deep breath and nodded, feeling better almost immediately. She could not imagine how someone without an implant handled these situations. Even with Pontikos’s confirmation, Althea had to force her jaw out of a reflexive clench. Back before she received her implant, her strategy had been one of avoidance: little to no drinking.

  Her hangover arrived slowly, peaking as she opened the door to her room and the lights in the hallway tried to drill their ways through her brain. Pontikos shimmered and said,

  “I am adjusting your neurotransmitter mix, you should start to feel better soon. Just don’t drink a whole bunch tonight. Or in the next hour.”

  She rolled her eyes at Althea as she finished and blinked away while Althea held her own face in her hands and tried to ignore the blazing intrusive lights. Stumbling through the hallway, Althea clutched the wall while she waited for her eyes to adjust to the pain.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Then it vanished, like a barely legal dose of morphine cascaded over her raw nerves. Althea came closer to losing her balance from the cure than from the disease. But after a few seconds, ever the minor balance problems disappeared.

  Outside, she sucked in a lungful of harsh, dusty air and felt better still. None of the usual familiar faces from the compound greeted her this morning. According to her clock, she had another hour before she needed to meet Boris for training.

  “Ey there Glinda. Them are shiney arms you got.”

  Althea rocked back on her heels when a dirty-faced boy and his five other friends appeared at her feet. He wore an old-fashioned round military helmet with netting keeping the various cards and doodads on the top from falling out. Aside from the hat he was bare chested, except for a green bandolier over his shoulder.

  Althea grinned and said,

  “Who wants to see how far I can throw them?”

  All six children squealed and raised their hands as Althea laughed.

  “Sorry, kids. There’s no way I am doing that.”

  The chorus of “aw” that greeted her pronouncement almost had her issuing a retraction. But she had only been joking and just wanted to see if they would agree or flee.

  “How about we play hide and seek instead?”

  This time the chorus of “aw’s” came even louder as one of the kids stepped forward and said,

  “There’s too many places to hide here. The game takes for. Ever.”

  The way she said the two words made Althea grin.

  “Then is there something else yall want to do?”

  She could feel herself adopting some of the verbal ticks of the small community the longer she stayed with them. This particular group of children appeared to be fearless.

  The same little girl grabbed the bottom of Althea’s blouse and said,

  “We want to play Knights and Dragons.”

  “Really?”

  Althea could not keep the surprise or delight out of her voice.

  The older of the children, the helmeted boy who seemed to lead them said,

  “Yeah, Boris said you played. Play with us!”

  Althea laughed and said,

  “Okay, sure! Where do we get a rig?”

  All six kids sprinted away at different speeds and different directions. It reminded her of a wild shot in pool that just happened to hit six different balls at different angles. The kids spread out and Althea lost sight of most of them, except of the two who spoke to her.

  The girl, still holding the hem of Althea’s shirt said,

  “My name’s Betty. That’s Joseph over there.”

  She pointed to the boy with the helmet.

  “My name is Althea. It’s nice to meet you both.”

  The girl blushed and bit her lip as she pulled Althea along.

  They stopped before a former storefront and apartment building that had been converted and reinforced for the purposes of pure housing. Newly built porches and balconies extended from the building indicating the repurposing. Where the store had once been, now stood a small-scale fortified position. Though Althea had not learned much about such things so far, she could see the obvious concrete slabs and bits of hardened ceramics intended to protect the building from advanced small arms fire. She wondered what else had been done to reinforce the building when a slim woman with a shaved head and a nice white dress opened the door ahead of Joseph.

  “Are you two bothering Ms Thompson? Stop that now and go play with your friends!”

  Both kids froze at the shout, their gazes ping ponging between Althea and the newcomer. Althea advanced on the woman and stuck out her hand.

  “My name is Althea Thompson. It’s nice to meet you…”

  The woman folded her arms over her chest and nodded at Althea without taking her hand.

  “I know who you are. What are you doing here?”

  “I… I was attacked…”

  The woman made a chopping motion with her hand into her palm and said,

  “No. I told you, I know who you are. What are you doing here?”

  She pointed to the ground and Althea realized what she was talking about.

  “I guess Boris told them, but these two and their friends found me and…”

  The woman did not let Althea finish.

  “I knew it! I told you hooligans to stay away from the newcomer! Did I not tell you to stay away from the newcomer, Joseph?”

  The little boy nodded, with his lower lip puffed out and his eyes focused on the floor.

  Althea tried to interject,

  “Miss, I am not sure what to call you…”

  Still the woman seemed to ignore Althea and continued to rail against the pair of children,

  “I cannot believe you disobeyed me in this!” her voice rose in volume as she advanced on the kids. “I should tan your hides and…”

  Althea tried to count to five, but when the woman advanced on Betty in response to which the little girl cowered, Althea slammed her hands together in a clap. A rattling, tinkling blasted from her hands, shutting the odious matron up and snapping both kids out of their fear.

  “Hey! Since you’re too interested in tormenting children than in being polite, I am just going to call you “Bitch.” Bitch, you need to back off or I will make you back off.”

  The woman’s face instantly turned red. Althea could not tell if Betty and Joseph belonged to this woman, but something in her body language along with theirs made Althea suspect this was just the “adult on duty.”

  “Bitch” opened her mouth and rocked back on her heels as Althea pressed forward,

  “Are you either of these kids’ mother?” She looked down at the two children for confirmation, to which both of them shook their heads. Althea kept rolling, “then you need to get out of our way and let us have our fun.”

  The woman made no sign to move, so Althea closed the gap between them. In seconds, the woman shuffled to the side and Althea motioned for the two kids to go by. Both of them stared at Althea with opened mouths and unblinking eyes as they passed.

  She reviewed the interaction in her mind and felt a few doubts flicker by as she did. But both children’s continued adulation made Althea forget about it.

  Joseph expressed himself directly,

  “I can’t believe you shouted at Mrs Ellsworth like that! That was awesome!”

  The little girl tugged on Althea shirt, but said nothing and did nothing other than stare into Althea’s eyes as if a little afraid to speak.

  As she suspected, the first floor contained administration and offices. The upper floors held the living quarters, devoting multiple rooms to families. Althea noticed that when they climbed to the third floor and the two kids grabbed their VR rigs along with a spare for Althea.

  She sat down on worn pink cushions in a large, open room with boarded up windows that might have been a living room once upon a time. The girl sat down on a banana yellow pillow with a monkey face on the top and the boy took his time finding a green pillow with a lion on it. Althea’s cushion was plain, aside form the color.

  “We’re diving in here?”

  Joseph and Betty both nodded, still staring at Althea with a mixture of awe and uncertainty. When she attached the VR rig to her I/O jack, the look of doubt vanished. Four of the children awaited them on a green field.

  All six kids had fully realized avatars. Althea looked at her own and discovered she looked like a toilet, no arms, no legs, nothing but porcelain and chrome. She sighed while the others laughed and chattered at each other. Joseph and Betty related the glorious epic of Althea versus Ms Ellsworth.

  By the time she finished rejecting the default avatar and adopting one she found suitable, Althea had turned her “magic space arms on the Ells-worth beast and reduced her to star dust.”

  Six children stood on the grass looking up at Althea Eversmash with wide eyes and opened mouths. She carried a semi-tubular tower shield in her right hand and a longsword in the left. With a flick of her arms, she strapped the sword to her back and shouted,

  “Who is ready to murder some goblins with me?”

  That broke the frozen faces arrayed before her as an orc, two elves, two dwarves, and a “Shortie” screamed their approval into the digital blue sky overhead.

  Only an hour later, Althea felt a tap on her shoulder. She jumped away from the VR space to a chorus of renewed sorrow.

  “Hey, you found our resident kips did you?”

  “Kips?”

  Boris’s eyes flashed with amusement as he said,

  “They’re too close to the ground, they need to kip up, see?”

  Althea rolled her eyes and blew her hair from her face.

  “Give me a sec, okay?”

  Boris nodded as he walked over to Joseph and Betty were they lay on their sides. He tuned from them and grabbed two blankets from cubbies along the wall and covered them. Althea watched him move with a pull in her chest. Evident concern for the two kids made her want to wrap her fingers in Boris’s hair and pin him to a bed with her legs.

  And this was definitely not the place.

  After assurances she would return to play with them some more, she hugged each avatar and thanked them for inviting her. Then she pulled out of the simulation and removed her rig.

  She stood and set the VR rig next to Joseph’s hand.

  “Where did you guys get all of this stuff?”

  Boris put his finger on his lips as they walked out of the apartment. This time, a different person, a man wearing fatigues like most of the city, watched the first floor offices. Once they cleared the building, Boris said,

  “The ship supplies most of the fine construction and raw materials. But we probably have five times the number of VR rigs onboard than the kids have managed to filch.”

  “Why?”

  Boris shrugged and said,

  “Soldiers need something to do in the black. Or they go stir crazy. VR sim is a good way to cut loose that also keeps your people from injuring themselves during rec. Plus, we often trained in sim.”

  Althea said,

  “I didn’t think about the recreation angle. That’s kinda neat, really.”

  “What’s neat?”

  Boris smiled at her, walking closer today than they had before.

  “I don’t know, the fact that CoreMil had enough foresight to entertain their soldiers.”

  Boris shrugged and said,

  “I read that Alexander brought whores with him to the front lines and that had a nearly magical effect on his troops. I think smart commanders just understand people. If you bore us, we tend to go crazy.”

  Althea laughed at the thought, but considered that far more sinister things made people crazy too. And maybe soldiers needed that special attention because killing people already exacerbated any mental health issues those soldiers might face. But she did not say anything to Boris because she did not want to offend him or receive a new lecture on how wrong she was.

  Instead, she managed to stand on her own without using her implants. Stuffing all of her extraneous thoughts into an airlock and spacing them made for an effective image to Althea. Behind the ensuing mental calm, she could almost take steps like a normal person, with just the usual amount of swaying and cursing.