Page 101 of A Light in the Dark
“How are you so certain?”
She smiled, held her hands to her lips, and glanced in Joel’s direction. “You’ll see.”
THIRTY-ONE
I would like to shoot cannons with explosive rounds. That sounds like fun.
It took several hours,but the hospital agreed to discharge us. Most of the time was lost enduring a lecture on what Joel could and couldn’t do and when we needed to return for a checkup. Once we escaped, Coraline drove us to her father-in-law’s home.
We dumped Joel with the older man, who ordered us to go away and have a good time out on the town. Joel squeaked his protests over being held hostage in the plastic cage. Laughing every step of the way, I climbed back into the SUV, waving at Moonriver’s leader, who held my neighbor captive.
“He’s going to get payback for that,” Coraline warned me while I climbed inside and buckled my seat belt before closing the door.
“I’m sure he’s going to try, but he’s stuck in a plastic box and forced to endure pampering at the hands of your husband and father-in-law.”
“We have pet bunnies, and Calden will absolutely force Joel to become friends with them while a human. It’ll spare Joel’s pride if he has trouble with his shift, too. Calden and his father are experts at helping injured and exhausted shifters, so Joel is in good hands.”
At least I wouldn’t have to worry about the luna moth while I was enjoying some freedom. “How are you sure we’re going to beat them?”
“All the newbies are rigging the game, that’s how. We’ve kind of been eliminated by the big, manly gamer men and women running the show. We’re handicaps—or so they think. However, we’re all pissed off we’ve been slated to be handicaps rather than showcasing us with a gamer teaching us the ropes in advance. So, we’ve decided that we are going to sabotage the gamers, form an alliance, and destroy them. You will be our pirate queen, as it has been decided you’ve had the most bullshit thrown at you lately.” Coraline snickered. “They deserve it. They let their egos inflate to the point that we’re precious little jewels they have to protect rather than partners.”
Uh oh. I foresaw a glorious disaster, one I got to participate in, probably with glee. “How are we going to pull this off?”
“Nothing in the rules states we can’t educate ourselves about the game before we play. We just can’tplaythe game. So, we’ve been studying tactics, general gameplay, and gathering every tip and trick in the book from online forums to beef up our side. It’s my job to get you brought up to speed, explain our strategy, and how we’re going to systematically eliminate key players. We’re saving Calden, Allasandro, and Joel for last. Joel’s perfectly capable of eliminating both ofthem without any help from you, and we’re going to be focusing on general survival so we can ambush and take Joel out. We’re going to separate into hit teams to make sure we obstruct and lead these ‘good’ players to their doom.”
I foresaw a great deal of chaos. “How many on our team are women?”
“Most of us are women. There are six women on the other side, and the guys all decided to bring spouses, girlfriends, and so on. There are a few exceptions, and they’re teen sons and daughters of the players who hadn’t started gaming yet. Gaming isn’t their thing, and they’re mad they’re having to game but glad their dads wanted to play with them rather than with their moms.” Coraline wrinkled her nose. “The gamers haven’t even clued in they have made a mistake.”
“Joel just seemed really excited to play and wants me to play with him.”
“That’s why we’re working to make sure Joel is the last gamer standing. He’s a gentleman, especially to those of us who don’t game. He just wants you to spend time with him, and we all know it. The rest of those bastards are treating us as a handicap.”
“I mean, Joel knew I’d be a handicap, but he’s confident he can keep me out of trouble.”
“He’s really good at this game, and he’d put you in charge of the resources, so you’d be given an important team job where you’ll shine. The rest of the men are not that bright. And the women might be that bright, but they’re so focused on trying to kill the men that they’ll get eliminated quickly.” Coraline shook her head and headed deeper into Moonriver. “The gamers are going to assume we won’t be using the tradenetwork in the game. We’re going to be doing resource sharing and making sure we’re well supplied. When they’re starting to have to reserve ammunition because their resources are drying up, we’ll have a healthy mine network, supply lines, and basically unlimited upper end ammunition perfect for eliminating our partners. We’re also going to hunt in packs. You’re going to organize us and be in one of our best fortifications, but it won’t look like an excellent fortification. Once we have thinned the gamers some, you’ll come out and help us eliminate the rest. You’ll serve as bait for some of the tougher targets in the fort, too.”
“So, I get to pretend I’m a queen, lure men to their deaths like some siren, and rule the game world?”
“Basically.”
Nice. “You have my attention, Coraline. This sounds like fun.”
“It will be a great deal of fun for us, and I’m confident we can pull it off. They’re expecting us to get underfoot, do our best to have as much fun as we can while clueless, and to keep to ourselves and hide in the holes they plan for us. Joel might give us some trouble because he’ll want to involve you, but we’ll figure out how to cross that bridge when we get there. Mostly, if you play skittish about getting killed off in the game, he’ll settle in to murder any gamers stupid enough to get near you, and he’ll do most of our work for us.”
I laughed at the thought of playing the damsel so he’d murder off his fellow gamers in a tournament, just so I could turn the tables on him with the other inexperienced gamers to steal victory. “Are you all really just going to let me win once we’ve eliminated the other gamers?”
“That’s the idea. As your partner isn’t in the doghouseover being a jerk, it’s only fair he gets the win through you. And this way, we all feel good about how it turns out. We all hate to lose, but we can all accept losing to you.”
“Do we have fancy cannon balls that explode in this game?”
“They can be made, yes.”
“Can I just arm myself with those and fling them into where you’re battling it out?”
Coraline giggled. “Yes, that’s a valid strategy.”
“I would like to shoot cannons with explosive rounds. That sounds like fun.”
