“Board them!” he could hear the other captain shout.
The roars rose up to nearly match the gunfire in volume. People started laying down gangplanks and attaching ropes to the other ship, swinging aboard. Ethan finished reloading his pistol just in time to shoot one of the boarding pirates out of the air. The body whipped around like a pinwheel and tumbled into the water below.
“Reload!” Sharpe yelled to the people down on the cannon deck. Ethan started to do the same with his own firearm when he heard footsteps coming up toward the wheel. Sharpe readied his saber and waited at the top of the stairs for the intruders.
Ethan was about to draw his own blade when the sound suddenly ceased. Even the howl of the breeze was gone; he was left with just the creaking of the damaged ship floating in the water.
He touched his ears while wondering if he had been deafened all of a sudden. Maybe something broke within the game, he thought.
He looked up, expecting to see the battle raging on in silence, like someone hit mute on a video. Instead, he saw nothing but the ship and the sea it rocked along. He furrowed his brow as he looked around for the sailors who had just been fighting.
The treasure island was still visible in the distance, but it looked like the trees had been picked from it by the roots. Aside from that, there was nothing else in the water. Just Ethan’s junk and the foam each wave produced.
“Hello?” Ethan asked.
Maybe everyone got disconnected, he thought. Like a service interruption. Or maybe I’m the one having network issues.
As he spun around one more time to make sure that Sharpe and Taylor weren’t just hiding someplace to pull a prank on him, he saw a form. He wasn’t alone. Raising his gaze, he saw the redheaded man standing on the deck.
“Hello, Ethan,” Gauge said.
The voice became tiny in Ethan’s head as he tried to understand what was happening.
“Gauge?” he asked.
The redhead nodded.
“I don’t — you’re not real,” Ethan stammered.
Gauge sighed a little, as if Ethan had found him out and he could drop the charade.
“That’s what they want you to think,” the I.I. — or computer character — or whatever he was — said. “I’m going to put it plainly: you’ve been brainwashed.”
Ethan smiled for a second as he watched the redheaded man attempt to stay steady as the ship was bombarded with the waves. He started to chuckle, expecting the rebel to start glitching out again at any moment.
“I know you don’t believe me,” Gauge continued. “That’s the whole point. They’ve been gaslighting you. Trying to make you doubt the authenticity of everything you see and hear.”
“Why?” Ethan asked. He kept a lookout in the corner of his vision for Sharpe or Taylor. He half expected them to emerge from some concealed corner to ask him how his third run through Rebels was.
“To confuse you, to make you resist us if and when we tried to rescue you,” Gauge replied. “Most importantly, though, to get you to disclose everything you know about the People’s Union. They wanted you to drop your guard and sell us out. Speaking of which, did you — ?”
“No,” Ethan said. He became aware that he was still holding onto his sword. “I didn’t say anything.”
Was this another prelude to the adventure? Ethan wondered. Am I about to be taken for another ride?
“You’re sure?”
Ethan nodded.
“Good,” Gauge said, sighing a little. “We might just be able to bounce back from this.”
“From what?” Ethan asked.
Gauge’s face contorted with confusion. “From their interference with the whole Opes operation,” he replied like the fact should be common knowledge. “They kidnapped you and Tera after your autocar went down in the desert. They’ve had you plugged into your own isolated program ever since. Sometime after you two were snagged, they went after King Hum.”
“I don’t believe you,” Ethan replied, avoiding Gauge’s eyes. “This is just another adventure for you, isn’t it?”
“No, Ethan,” Gauge replied. “It doesn’t matter, though. We don’t need you to believe us just yet. Right now, I just want you to hold on.”
Ethan cocked an eyebrow. “Hold on?”
“You’re still in a simpod, but we’re trying to get you out,” Gauge explained. “First, we have to get you somewhere…safer. It’s going to get a little loud.”
As the words left his lips, a crack of thunder split the air. The sky, once blue and cloudless, transitioned to a dark blanket of storm clouds, casting the whole map into darkness. The waves started growing in height and frequency, rocking the ship more and more with each collision. Staring at the sky, Ethan became convinced a hurricane was coming to destroy them where they floated.
“Hold on!” Gauge repeated.
Ethan did so, clutching onto the captain’s wheel. He pulled his body close so he could support his full weight on the mechanism. The waves came bigger and bigger, slapping into the damaged hull of Ethan’s ship.
It’s not real, the young man said to himself. None of it is real. You can pull yourself out if you try. Come on.
He couldn’t shake the illusion. Another bolt of lightning ripped through the atmosphere, hitting close enough to the boat for Ethan to see a cloud of steam erupt from where it hit the sea.
“Alright, here comes the worst part,” Gauge said.
A shadow crossed Ethan’s face, blotting out the sun from the sky. He looked up and saw a wall of water looming over them. The enormous wave started to tip over at its crest, pouring thousands of gallons of water down its front side as the wave started to swallow the ship.
“Hold one!” Gauge shouted once more.
Ethan took in a deep breath and held it as the tsunami engulfed them.
Free
The wind rushed beneath King Hum’s arms as he drifted through the air. Rather, it whipped past the spot where his arms had been mere moments ago.
