The grassland transitioned to jungle. Ethan couldn’t help but feel amazed by the beauty of the area. Whoever had designed the map in the first place put a lot of detail into the jungle to make it seem authentic. Little ants crawled along the moss-covered tree trunks while snakes hissed form branches above them.
All the way, Gauge seemed to know where he was going. Ethan kept expecting him to stop and second guess his turns, but he never did.
There were ruins that Ethan started to spot between the palm trees and the thick ferns. They looked like something from the Aztec empire; pictographs covered all the weathered and worn stone faces. The ruins might have been a temple at one time, or at least, they were designed to look as such. There were several toppled pillars, but a few walls still stood. Ethan half expected Indiana Jones to sprint on by with his bullwhip in hand.
Gauge beckoned Ethan on farther with his hand. “This way,” he said.
Just as Ethan was about to follow the strange man through one of the ancient archways, a pair of gunshots popped from right behind them. The shots were so close that the sound made Ethan’s ears throb. He was so startled that he leapt forward, nearly tumbling to the jungle floor. Gauge jumped, too, and turned to spot their attacker.
“Get behind cover!” he shouted at Ethan. He reached out and pulled the teenager up against the walls of the arch.
Ethan breathed hard. For the last hour or so, he had nearly forgotten that he was fighting in a kill-or-be-killed competition. The fortune of points up for grabs to the contest’s winner had slipped his mind. He was now far more concerned about his brain.
“Stop shooting!” he shouted from behind the ruined wall. “I don’t want to fight!”
“Then you should have picked a different game!” the shooter shouted.
Ethan didn’t recognize the voice. If it was Sharpe, he might have listened.
Or he wouldn’t have missed, he thought.
“We can’t get killed here or the plan’s ruined,” Gauge said. The fear in his voice was obvious.
For the first time in all his experience with the simulation, Ethan was afraid for his life. He wished more than anything that he chose something lighthearted for his birthday celebration, like a concert or a feast. Instead, he was going to die and it was his own fault.
“Cease fire!” he yelled some more. “Come on!”
He tried to peek around the stone to see their attacker and managed to spot the guy taking a couple of steps in their direction. Then, with a loud pop, the shooter vanished in a hail of blood. A wooden crate sat where he was.
Ethan’s mouth fell open in shock, and when he looked over at Gauge, he saw the strange man’s doing the same. They both timidly emerged from their cover and looked at the spot where the attacker had been standing mere seconds ago.
“What the hell just happened?” Ethan asked.
Gauge bent down a little, poking at something with a stick. Looking over his shoulder, Ethan could see it was a jagged piece of metal.
“Landmine,” Gauge replied. “Looks like we got lucky. Come on, no time to waste.”
Ethan stared at the shrapnel for a moment longer before following the redheaded man further into the jungle ruins.
In the middle of the area, a small stone building still stood. Unlike the rest of the ruins, it was an intact structure, with all four walls and a ceiling. To Ethan, it looked like a tomb or a small mausoleum of some sort. Gauge disappeared into the tiny building’s entrance, and Ethan followed him in.
It was dark and hard to see Gauge. The redheaded man gave a simple nod, then stepped into the far wall of the tomb and vanished.
Ethan blinked. He looked around, assuming for a moment that he had just seen things wrong. He started to think it was some sort of software bug before realizing that this must be the escape hatch.
“Walk through the wall,” he heard Gauge’s disembodied voice say.
He did as he was told. He squeezed his eyes shut at the last second, expecting to collide with the cold stone. When he opened them, however, he found himself inside the wall. Turning around, he realized he could see all over the Last Stand environment, straight through all the walls and hillsides. It was as if none of the containers of the world existed, just their contents.
Gauge appeared beside him.
“Where are we?” he asked.
“Outside the map,” the man replied. “This is where I hid our emergency exit. This way.”
When they moved through this bizarre terrain-less world, they sort of floated like they were on motorized roller blades. It was strange to behold, but rather easy to control. Ethan didn’t need much practice before he was able to follow Gauge with ease.
Then he saw what appeared to be a simple door, hovering in the nothingness that existed outside the map’s boundaries. The redheaded man floated up to it and pulled on the handle. Inside was pure darkness.
“I should warn you,” Gauge started just before he lead the charge through the door, “you’re in for quite a shock. Brace yourself. You’ll need to be on your feet and moving as soon as possible.”
“We’re leaving?” Ethan asked. “Where are we going?”
“The real world,” Gauge replied. Then, before he stepped through the door, he added, “See you on the other side.”
Ethan hesitated for a moment once the strange man vanished into the abyss. There was a tiny voice deep in his brain that told him not to go. To stay here and forget everything Gauge told him. That it was all just some elaborate adventure the simulation was tricking him into playing.
He told
