Fang: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 3) (5 page)

But what happened when that sense of wonder disappeared? Did the virtual world have any meaning if it carried many of the same stresses as the outside world? Nora voiced that concern out loud.

“
Well, it
is
called virtual reality for a reason,” Zach said in response. “It does mimic the real world in some form, no matter what. But I wouldn't worry about it.”

“
How come?”

“
Because it's all still a game. Even if we lose we still have our lives on the outside. And I think we can keep some of the magic of the early days with us. That expedition into the tunnels? That would be insane in the real world, to send all your officers on a mission alone. But it's plenty possible in the virtual world.”

Nora nodded, absorbing the suggestion. That was probably the key. Even though there was extensive competition within the virtual world it was still just a game. Someone had to win and someone had to lose, but the biggest part of it all was simply being included in that kind of competition. The struggle, and the ability to enjoy that kind of struggle was what made the world come alive. It was what made the world fun.

“Looking forward to the action?” Zach asked her.

“
Oh yes,” Nora smiled. The sense of wonder was still there.

CHAPTER 5

What Lies Beneath

“Just like old times, huh?” Danny commented.

Zach nodded and adjusted his gear. He and the others were going to have to carry a lot of it, and he wanted it to be easily accessible in the heat of a fight.

The original Black Wolf members were assembled at the base in Indianapolis, gathering equipment from the armory and preparing for their journey into the darkness. Tunnel fighting was one of the most difficult missions in World at War, and they were going to be prepared.

Zach, Danny, Gavin, Selene and Javy were already gathered in the main assembly area of the base, making last minute adjustments to their kits. Having dealt with underground fighting in the past they knew what did and didn't work. Less experienced troops might not think of the things they were preparing, but to them it was second nature.

Everyone was carrying extra ammunition for their own guns. In addition, everyone besides Zach and Danny had extra ammo for either the flamethrower or the machine gun. Pouches and belts were filled with hand grenades; they would be invaluable in the tight spaces and turns of the tunnels. Everyone had lights on their guns, which would provide the only illumination in the crushing darkness below.

“
OK, we should be ready,” Xavier said as he walked into the assembly area from the direction of the armory. Nora and Miko were right behind them.

Zach motioned them up and formed his squad into a circle. “Alright, let's head for the station. Our unit is going to be operating under the callsign Fang. Everyone's going to have a number. I'm 1. Selene, 2. Danny, 3. Nora, 4. Gavin, 5. Xavier, 6. Javy, 7. Miko, 8. Your callsign is Fang plus your number, so for example I'd be Fang 1. Got it?”

“Let's get moving,” Danny said eagerly.

They filed out of Black Wolf Headquarters and started to head for the subway.

“This is going to be an odd mission,” Selene said.

“
I hear you there,” Miko agreed, fiddling with her gun.

Based on past experience several of the squad weren't carrying their normal weapons. Danny had his machine gun, Javy had his carbine and Gavin had his submachine gun, but the others had chosen to take different loadouts from what they usually carried.

Selene and Xavier normally had full-sized assault rifles, but they had switched them in favor of carbines, which were much easier to wield in tight spaces. The tradeoff in range that they suffered meant very little in the close quarters they would be fighting in.

Nora had taken to using a burst fire assault rifle, but she too had switched it out for a carbine. The accuracy of a burst fire gun was not worth trading the ability to lay down automatic fire in a tight situation.

Miko had a specialist weapon, custom designed for her by Paige of Hephaestus Company. She normally carried a bolt-action rifle for sniping, but that was going to be a liability in the tunnels, where it had neither range or rate of fire to its credit. Instead, she had a cut down semi-auto sniper rifle. It lacked the range to be effective in a field battle, but in the tunnels it was perfect, able to fire accurately and quickly.

Zach had traded out his normal carbine and grenade launcher for a flamethrower, since that was one of the few things that could hurt a chilus. He also had a pistol with extra ammunition as a backup weapon. He hoped that he wouldn't need to use it. The weapon was effective enough against smaller creatures like ryches, mutated roaches and feral dogs, but pistol bullets were as much use against body armor or chilus chitin as pebbles.

“How do you want to organize the patrol file?” Xavier asked.

“
Danny and I are going to be up front,” Zach said. “Gavin as well. I'll take you too, since Selene will be second in command. Nora should be in the rear team too, since she's going to be our mapper.”

“
How are we going to work rendezvous points?” Selene asked, referring to the spots they would regroup at if they were forced to fall back.

“
We'll set them as we go,” Zach said.

“
Not that we have much of a choice, since we've explored ten feet of the place,” Javy said.

“
Miko, how much armor-piercing ammo do you have?” Zach asked her.

“
Five magazines,” she replied.

“
That's ten bullets in each, right?”

“
Yup.”

“
Load one up and keep an eye on the ceilings,” he ordered. “We don't want anything surprising us from above.

It was something that many players forgot, even the more experienced ones. In an open air battle you could usually forget about what was above you. When you were underground everything about that changed. Creatures could lurk inside vents or skylights, waiting to strike an unsuspecting victim. Some of them didn't even require that. Chilus were capable of climbing almost any surface, which also meant they could launch an ambush from anywhere.

There was no mistaking it; some of them were probably going to get killed. The environment they were going to be exploring was far too dangerous for any other alternative. That was why Danny and Selene had been so insistent on traveling in large groups when the whole company went on missions. On the other hand, the danger in front of them was where much of the thrill came from.

They were up to the challenge as well. With all due respect to the prowess of the rest of the company, Fang Squad comprised Black Wolf Company's best and most experienced troops. All of them could fight and fight well, on the level of anyone in Hydra. Zach wasn't concerned about being killed; any one of the others was perfectly capable of leading the squad.

That was there their name came from. They were the wolf's best weapons: the teeth, the fangs. Few others in the region would be able to match their skill.

They were going to need every bit of it, Zach thought to himself as they approached the station entrance. The abyss had its own jaws. And they were walking straight into them.

The station was completely deserted, just like the last time they had been here. It was also dead quiet, save for the rustle of gear and the clop of boots on the concrete. None of them were trying to be stealthy, but even Redd Foxx would have problems in this kind of silence.

“So this is it?” Selene asked as they reach the tunnel heading east.

“
Yeah. We ran into a chilus the size of a bus not far in, so stay alert,” Danny warned. He not-so subtly cocked the bolt of his machine gun.

“
If we run into it I don't think I can kill it fast enough with just the flamethrower,” Zach warned. “Hit the flames till it dies.”

Chilus armor was tough, but its one weakness was fire. Flames amplified the damage that bullets caused, meaning that normally useless attacks could cause serious hurt. They had managed to kill a gigantic chilus that way in the early days of Black Wolf Company. Zach hoped they would be able to do the same if the other one showed up.

“Do we want to limit the number of lights we're using?” Gavin asked.

Zach shook his head. “Don't worry about them.”

“It's not like we have many other options,” Miko brought up.

That was certainly true. The tunnels were pitch black, so the only way to aim was to use the lights. They gave away their position, but it wasn't going to be much of a problem since they were facing monsters and not NPC troops. At least, he hoped that was the case.

“We might be in trouble if it doesn't act predictably,” Gavin mused as they started down the tunnel.

“
Define predictably,” Danny said.

“
Like last time. If it waits to attack we might be in for a world of hurt.”

“
It's too big to fit into any of the vents,” Xavier said. “That should limit the number of options it can use for a sneak attack.”

“
That's also assuming it doesn't bring any friends along with it,” Gavin added.

“
You're not being very comforting,” Danny said.

“
Well, this place isn't very comforting, so blame that,” Gavin replied.

They continued to advance down the subway tunnel. Just as Gavin had feared, the chilus didn't show up. There was no scratching, no hissing noises. Once again the only thing they could hear was their boots against the floor of the tunnel. It was completely unnerving, not knowing what might be out their beyond their thin beams of light. Something could be lurking in the shadows just out of sight, waiting for them.

“Bend up ahead,” Danny said in front of them.

Sure enough the subway tunnel curved at a 90° angle toward the north. They made their way around the corner.

Something moved in the darkness ahead of them. Danny shifted his aim toward the spot. There was nothing, but then a loud hiss came out of the darkness. Xavier's beam of light moved toward the source of the noise.

“
Contact!” Xavier shouted, just before he opened fire. Gavin and Danny joined in.

The entire tunnel lit up as Zach pulled the trigger of his flamethrower. The chilus in front of them was engulfed by the spear of flame. It shrieked, thrashed about and then lay still, most definitely dead. The flames continued to burn.

“That's not the one we ran into before,” Danny said. “It's smaller.”

Sure enough, it was. The chilus was large, but it was still within the normal size range. The one they had encountered before had been massive.

Selene's team moved up to join them.

“
This it?” Selene asked them. “Must be the world's smallest bus,” she snarked at Danny.

“
No, this isn't it,” Danny replied.

“
Huh, count me surprised.”

“
It's still pretty big,” Javy said, kneeling down beside it for a look. “That might not be a very good sign.”

“
It could just be a big one,” Miko said.

Javy shook his head. “Or it could be a normal sized one for down here, which means that there's more of them.”

“We have enough fuel to deal with them,” Zach said.

“
You mean, you hope you have enough fuel to deal with them,” Gavin said. “There could be a lot of them in a place this size.”

“
Jeeze, what's with all the pessimism?” Selene asked. “We'll be fine. And if we get killed, so what? We'll come back with more troops and take care of the problem.”

Zach agreed with her sentiment. There was no real risk for them, so why was everyone so on edge? It might have to do with the environment, he thought to himself. The darkness was oppressive, almost suffocating. All manner of danger could be lurking out there, and they would have no way of knowing that until they stumbled upon it. There was a heightened sense of danger in the air, and everyone was tense. No one wanted to be chomped in half by a chilus, despite the fact that they would respawn if that happened.

Virtual reality might explain the problem. Zach had often observed that new players were much more hesitant when fighting in World at War than they would be in a normal video game. They perceived the bullets flying around them as a threat to themselves, even when it would only hurt their in game avatar. To them the virtual world was their reality.

Experienced players overcame that problem, but there still might be subtle influences that wouldn't disappear so easily. Maybe the reason that Fang Squad was so on edge was because they felt threatened in this kind of environment. Virtual warfare and overcoming the fear associated with it was one thing, but overcoming primal fears that were encoded in your DNA was quite another.

That might explain everything. These tunnels were a nightmare for phobias; inside they had claustrophobia, fear of darkness, the fear of being eaten, and probably more that he couldn't think of at the moment. Even though it was all make believe it was still triggering their primal fears, and that was making the all uneasy.

Still, they could push ahead, and if it ever became too much they could simply pull the plug. There was a certain thrill to it all, as well. It was why people enjoyed horror movies and games. Confronting the things that scared you the most in a safe environment gave a rush like no other.

“Let's keep moving,” Zach suggested. “I think that we should map the main tunnel until we figure out where it's going, at least.”

“
Does that mean leaving the maintenance and side tunnels for later?” Gavin asked.

“
Yeah, I'm not comfortable taking on them until we have a bigger team,” Zach said. “The most important thing for us is to figure out how we're going to get into another district.”

Nora was looking over the map in her menu. “Speaking of which, I think this tunnel goes to the northwest district of Indianapolis, and not the east like we originally thought. That's probably good.”

“Are you sure that it doesn't curve again?” Miko asked.

“
I mean, it could, but what would the point of that be?” Nora said. “You would think that they would just keep the track straight if it were headed east.”