Condition Evolution 2: A LitRPG / Gamelit Adventure by Sinclair, Kevin (black female authors txt) 📗

and Mick were already there. Gus was hovering over a terminal, while Mick lounged on the desk alongside him.

“Hey guys,” I said. “How’s it going? Sleep alright?”

“Fine thanks, Shaun. And you guys?” Mick answered.

“Like a baby, all things considered. It’s all damn intense.”

“It is for all of us, and we’ve been out of the Chamber a bit longer than you. We never expected anything like this to happen.”

“Good to hear I’m not the only one freaking the fuck out, Mick.”

Ember stepped in front of me impatiently, “Is there anything we can do?”

“At the minute, we’re just going through the terminal. Gus here’s looking for the location of communication devices,” Mick replied.

“We all need to be able to communicate with each other,” Cassia added. “It was a huge shortcoming that all of our people didn’t have comms. We could also do with some more guns and weapons, just in case of a drawn out fight. Though, food and water shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Fair enough,” Ember said. “Should we look for a good place to make a stand if the Fystr come back before Ogun?”

Cassia replied, “Yes. We should Ember. Good call. If we end up here for a while, we should probably train together as well. We need to be able to work together as a team, find out what each other’s strengths and weaknesses are.”

“As long as we respect each other’s dignity and privacy,” Ember snapped, causing Mick to look over. Gus was still too engrossed in the screen to notice any tension.

“I think we can all manage to do that,” Cassia said, not rising to the bait.

“And I should let you all know, me and Shaun can access the Mindscape. It might come in handy.”

Cassia and Mick started speaking over each other at once.

“You as well?” Cassia almost shouted.

“You’re both transcended? How?” Mick also shouted. “Wonder if it’s because you both reached level forty in Anatoli. You're famous for that. Makes me wish I’d tried harder.”

“We’re guilty on both counts,” I said. “What about you guys? Any skills we need to know about?”

“We’re all well trained with our mental defenses. I think we all hoped to transcend in the next couple of years.”

“Can you block people from entering your minds?” Ember asked, curiously.

“Yes, we can,” Cassia said. “I’m perhaps the strongest with defense, but Mick and Gus are both strong.”

Ember grinned, “Can I try and enter? I’m just really curious to how you’d achieve it, especially since you haven’t transcended.”

Cassia looked at her uncomfortably for a few seconds, before Mick happily offered his services. “Here. Try me.”

Ember closed her eyes for a few moments, then opened them in surprise. “That’s kinda cool, Shaun. I can enter Mick’s corridor, but I can’t open any of the doors, or do anything really.”

“Sounds weird. Should be useful if we get attacked...” But before I could speak anymore, Gus jumped in.

“Right, guys. I’ve got a location for the communicators. Number S-14, D, 92. Judging by the information I’ve found on this map, I think it means room fourteen, Aisle D, location ninety-two. If, I don’t miss my guess.”

We all went over to look at the maps up on the screen. He pointed out our location and where room fourteen was.

“So, who’s going?” he asked.

“We’ll go,” Ember said, while signaling to me.

“I think we should all go,” Cassia said. “I’m not trying to be difficult. I just really don’t want to split us up, at least until we have those communicators. We could be here for six months bored shitless, or the Fystr could be about to land now. We only have a chance to survive if we’re together.”

I agreed with Cassia, though I really didn’t want to contradict Ember, so I just kept my mouth shut. Thankfully, Ember spoke up. “I can’t fault your logic Cassia. We should all go. It’ll help us to work together as a team as well.”

Fuck me! I just couldn’t get a read on Ember sometimes. One minute she’d like to slit Cassia’s throat as soon as look at her, the next she’s being super nice. I supposed we were all dealing with a lot, so resolved to think no more about it.

“Okay, everyone,” Cassia said. “Let’s go get those communicators. Weapons at the ready, just in case.”

We headed off deeper into the supply depot, stalking the corridors like we were in a first-person horror shooter. It was ridiculous on reflection as we clearly knew from the main sensors in the control center that there were no signs of life, and Gus had set the alert system to warn us of incoming ships.

Over the following days, we all spent our time preparing the base searching for anything we thought would make our lives more bearable and give us a better chance of surviving. This included setting up a defensible position in one of the least used storage overflow rooms. It was right at the back of the whole compound, and it was our hope that we’d be overlooked if we hid there. But if they found us, we had weapons and a barricade ready for them.

We trained together as much as possible. Cassia, it turned out, was actually a reasonable leader. Once she got over herself. She’d quickly learned that her shit wasn’t going to fly with Ember, and to be honest, I wasn’t going to give her an easy ride. If she wanted to lead, she needed to prove she deserved that right. It turned out that she was fair and never overstepped the mark again.

Mick, was just Mick. Prior to the game, he’d never left his house and smoked weed all day, every day. He was capable, friendly and really easy going. Gus, before his Anatoli therapy, had a surprising amount of military knowledge. He had Asperger’s and he was addicted to some drug he’d been prescribed. He spent most of his time playing war games and obsessively researching ways to win, which came in handy when he set up all our defenses. A few days