Michael knew his friends could see the anxiety on his face. “All the more reason to find Kaine.”
They grew silent and picked up their pace, jogging down the long, icy tunnel. The gear was heavy and started to wear on Michael—he could tell he was slowing. Then the tunnel began to slope upward, making it even harder.
“How long is this stupid thing?” Bryson asked.
No one answered. No one could.
3
They finally reached the end: a metal door held closed with a heavy bar anchored by two enormous iron rails. Wooden benches lined the walls, and there was a huge open locker full of machine guns and ammo. Michael took a moment to catch his breath.
“I assume that when you die out there,” Sarah said, “you end up right back here.”
“Probably so.” Bryson started rummaging through the locker. “But I’ve got news for you. I don’t plan on dying out there.”
“Me neither,” Michael said. “Let’s get going.”
He and Sarah followed Bryson’s lead, and soon they each had a heavy gun and several spare clips of ammo. Michael loaded his and checked the weight and settings—he’d used similar weapons plenty of times. Maybe they wouldn’t need to risk trying to hack into their other games after all.
“I’m just as worried about the cold,” Sarah said. “Maybe that’s one of the reasons this game is A.O. Most kids would run out there and think killing people was all that mattered. We need to make sure we stop and warm up now and then so we don’t get frostbite.”
Bryson was shaking his head. “That can’t be it. There’s gotta be something worse out there. A lot worse. It’s hard to get rated A.O.”
Michael agreed completely. They’d all seen plenty of games that weren’t A.O., and many of those included some truly mentally scarring experiences. “At least we studied up. Nothing to do but get started. Find that gateway to the Path.”
“Prepare to freeze your heinies off,” Bryson said as he walked over and hefted the bar off its rails. He tossed it on the ground, where it clanged, then rolled to a stop at Sarah’s feet.
“You were born to be a soldier,” she said.
Bryson winked at her, then yanked open the heavy door. A burst of arctic wind and swirling ice crystals tore through the tunnel. It was the coldest thing Michael had ever felt in his life.
Bryson yelled something unintelligible, then stepped into the world of Greenland. Michael and Sarah followed.
4
The sky above was a brilliant blue, and Michael realized it wasn’t actually snowing—the frost in the air was just snow and ice carved off the ground by a fierce wind. At least they didn’t have a blizzard to contend with, too.
The wind ripped at Michael. It was so strong it felt like it could pull his clothes free. When he left the tunnel, he stumbled and fell onto hard-packed snow. His hands—which he’d used to break his fall—burned, then went numb with cold, and he knew he wouldn’t last ten minutes without gloves. What a stupid detail to forget. There didn’t seem to be anyone nearby, so Michael and the others took a moment to manipulate the code and create warm hats and gloves. Once those were on, Michael felt better, but not much. He thought the programming had seemed a little tougher to crack than normal—especially for such a simple thing—and wondered if the tougher effects of Kaine’s firewall were already evident.
Michael adjusted the backpack on his shoulders and readied his gun to defend himself. It was harder to get a finger on the trigger with the gloves, but it was manageable enough. Looking around, he saw that fields of white stretched in every direction and there was no one in sight. But far in the distance, smoke floated skyward, marking it with a long black streak.
Sarah leaned in and spoke loudly. “Makes sense that the action would be in that direction.” She pointed at the pillar of smoke. “The maps showed we should walk due north from the starting point in a direct line. Based on the sun …”
“Yeah!” Michael yelled back. “Let’s get moving.”
Bryson stood several feet away, watching them as if he already knew what they needed to do. Michael pointed where Sarah had indicated, and Bryson nodded. They headed off toward battle.
5
Michael thought trudging through the wind and snow had to be far worse than any fighting could possibly be. Every step was an effort, mainly because he was walking into the wind and his boots sank into the icy ground an inch or two with every step. He gripped his gun tighter as he pressed on, eager to get close and learn what was happening on the fronts. Careful what you wish for, he thought glumly.
When they finally topped a rise, a scene of horror opened up below them. As soon as it came into view, the three friends dropped to the ground. Michael pushed the muzzle of his gun forward and propped himself up on his elbows to get a better look through the sight on his weapon.
A huge valley stretched for miles in every direction and was covered with seemingly random trenches dug into the snow and ice. A rough path yawned down the middle of it all. Each trench looked like it had been lined with something, a dark material, probably to keep the moisture at bay. He couldn’t see too deeply inside the wide ditches, but every now and then a head would appear and a soldier would lean out. On the other side of the valley, at the end of that long corridor between the trenches, tents had been set up, but it was impossible to make out what they were for.
It was the blood that upset Michael the most. Everywhere he looked, it dotted the otherwise white landscape. It was concentrated along that middle corridor. There, countless fights were going on, mostly hand-to-hand and brutal. He caught sight of a man stabbing another in the chest and then jumping on him to twist the knife in deeper. A few dozen feet from that, a woman slashed the throat of a soldier from behind. Other groups were punching and wrestling each other. A horror show, through and through.
No one seemed to have noticed the newcomers at the top of the hill.
Michael put his gun down and looked at Bryson to his left, then Sarah to his right. “What is this place? We haven’t fought wars like this for at least a hundred years. They look like a bunch of Neanderthals fighting over who gets what cave. I know our research said it was chaotic, but this is nuts.”
“And the position of the trenches doesn’t make sense,” Bryson said. “Or the uniforms—I see at least four different kinds, and some of them are fighting people wearing the same thing. And why do you have tents and trenches in the same area?”