V2Ch50-Cold Comfort

Members of the team rushed back to the white circle in staggered groups of two.

First, Jose and Paulo returned. Probably because they were the closest, and they were young and athletic. They were barely breathing heavily despite sprinting into the circle.

Neither knew exactly what had happened. They’d just decided to retreat because they saw the population counter had dropped. They were only able to tell one other team the secret of pixie persuasion.

Then Adelaide and Derek jogged over, appearing from behind a couple of trees.

Is that blood on the hem of her pants? Mina questioned. Ever since Cara had killed two people almost before her eyes, Mina was looking at all her teammates with new suspicion. Partially because she now thought anyone could be the murderer she and DaSilva had been trying to identify. And partially because she didn’t want it to be Cara.

But it wouldn’t be any better if it was Adelaide, would it? The woman had helped her deliver her baby, after Cara helped her take those last laborious steps out of the maze.

She owed each of them a great debt, and Mina recognized that it was starting to affect her reasoning.

Take emotion out of this, she told herself. See them as if they were strangers.

Jean and Cara scrambled in as she was thinking that, breathless and sweaty. They’d both been running, and Cara even had her sword out, so it was obvious there was some physical threat somewhere. But Mina was relieved to see the blade didn’t have any blood on it. Cara hadn’t killed again.

The only time she’s ever hurt someone that you know of was in your defense, commented a reproachful voice in her head.

Which means that I know she’s capable of violence, she retorted. She didn’t hurt anybody. Those two are very dead. And only one of them did anything wrong.

Mina shook her head. She was just retracing arguments she’d had with herself in bed over the last couple of days, whenever her mind and body weren’t occupied with something else.

“What’s going on out there?” she asked, looking at Cara and Jean.

Cara caught her breath first. “Fighting broke out,” she said. “People are getting desperate. One group had pixies, and their neighbors didn’t. It’s a good thing we went and told our neighbors the secret. They’re busy chasing down little blue people to try and give them clothes.” She grinned as if they’d played a great trick on the other groups.

Not sure I would like her outside of this place, even though she’s been very kind to me personally, Mina couldn’t help but think. There’s something very cold in her.

“We managed to avoid the fighting, but it was getting worse when we started heading back here,” Jean said. “The Davidsons—”

But he stopped mid-sentence. As he was referring to them, the Davidsons sprinted into view. Mrs. Davidson was slightly more breathless than her husband, Mina noted. Although they were both Mages and relatively frail-looking old folks, it was notable that he seemed to be handling the physical strain of this situation better.

“Don’t worry, fellas,” Mr. Davidson said, his voice breezy. “We made it out of that in one piece.”

Made it out of what, I wonder? She suddenly found herself very suspicious of Mr. Davidson. If he’d really been in the midst of a fight in which other people had died, it was strange that he didn’t seem to have a scratch on him.

Acting on impulse, Mina used Investigate on both Davidsons again. Her eyes widened slightly, but otherwise, she managed to contain her reaction.

This time, Mr. Davidson’s Status included the same Talents and Skills she’d reported to DaSilva about: Anthropophagy, Cannibalism, Heart of Ice, Limitless Hunger, Pillage, Wendigo Contagion, and Wendigo Transformation.

I need to tell the Detective this right away! Wait. Why the heck is it different?! I just checked them a few days ago! Either Davidson had a Skill to hide things in his Status, and he just isn’t using it today, or—is it possible that he was infected with this Wendigo thing in the last couple of days?

Mina swallowed. If Wendigo Contagion was spreading like an actual disease, catching people and moving from one to the next so quickly that it would infest every team sooner or later, what would that mean? Were they hunting for one killer, or many?

How does it spread? Unless she’s concealing it somehow, his wife doesn’t even have it. So someone spread it to him but not her? Are some people immune? Is she just lucky? Or was he exposed to something or someone that she wasn’t?

“The timer’s running down,” Mrs. Davidson said, breaking Mina’s chain of thought. “We need to make sure we’re ready for the end.”

“Right you are,” Mr. Davidson said.

“I don’t think there was anything else we needed to do,” Detective DaSilva said, voice slightly uneasy. “We’re undoubtedly ahead of everyone else.”

“Agreed,” Jean said. His face was stony as he spoke, and he seemed to be deliberately looking away from the Davidsons.

What happened out there? Mina desperately wanted more information, but there was no time, and it seemed obvious that there would be some risk in openly asking the question. Otherwise, Jean would have finished whatever he was saying.

“Great job, Yulia,” Cara said, smiling down at Yulia with apparent sincerity. “You and your sister are real leadership material, you know?”

“Thanks,” Yulia said, smiling back up at her.

Mina responded with a nod and a smile that probably read as much more uneasy than she’d intended. She was getting more and more nervous about her team. It felt as if there was no one she could really trust here but Yulia and DaSilva. She pictured the rest of the team suddenly turning on the three of them with weapons and magic. It wouldn’t be much of a fight. The little teenage Healer, the recently postpartum Mage, and the somewhat overweight middle-aged Heavy Warrior against everyone else.

She restrained a shudder. Need to figure out what Wendigo Contagion is right away. She checked the timer. [00:03:43]. That demarcated how much more time she had to survive in this group’s company before she’d get a break.

There was chatter as Mina’s situational analysis turned into a paranoia spiral, but she mostly ignored it until Mr. Davidson chimed in.

“I just wanted to thank you all for having Karen and me. I know it can’t have been easy to decide on taking a couple of, uh, older folks on board. Somehow the eleven of us have made a go of it, though, yeah?”

There were murmurs of approval from all sides of the circle.

“We were really worried back then about whether we’d survive this place, honestly,” Mrs. Davidson said with a sniffle.

Mina looked at the old woman and was surprised to see tears in her eyes. Then the Davidsons pulled their neighbors into an embrace. Their neighbors, Cara and Paulo, pulled in the next people. And in a few seconds, the team was in a group hug.

Mina wasn’t thrilled about hugging these people, most of whom were still near strangers, and at least one of whom was afflicted with Wendigo Contagion, but she didn’t voice any objection. She didn’t want to raise any suspicions by behaving coldly toward anyone.

Finally, the oddly poignant moment was broken by a little voice from several feet below them.

“Ah hem. I hate to interrupt your ritual bonding, but my siblings and I are still wondering about our reward, guys,” Seissylt said.

“Right,” Mina said, glad for an excuse to pull out of the huddle. She stepped back and looked at her sister. Yulia took the cue and likewise broke from the group hug. She took her scrunchies out again.

“I was trying to wait until the last minute,” Yulia said, “but we’re close enough, and I trust you guys.”

“We pixies don’t break our word,” Seissylt said in a high and mighty tone.

Yulia dropped the collection of scrunchies in the midst of the little blue figures, and a scramble ensued for the best colors. Pixies apparently loved bright colors, because the golden yellow, bright green, and blood red scrunchies were the most popular.

This kept the pixies occupied until the last ten seconds. In the meantime, the group hug had broken up.

Mina only noticed what happened next, because she happened to turn away from the pixies at just the right moment. As the challenge entered the last ten seconds of its countdown, she saw Mr. Davidson reach into his Small Bag of Deceptive Dimensions.

He pulled out three visibly injured pixies and simply held them in his hand, low at his side where they were unlikely to draw anyone’s eyes.

She quickly averted her gaze so he wouldn’t catch her looking, but her pulse amped up.

What in the world did he do? The pixies’ wings looked torn, and Davidson’s hands were coated with a deep blue substance that Mina guessed was pixie blood. That violence was completely unnecessary. And where did he get those two pixies? Was he carrying them around through most of the challenge, or did he acquire them during the fighting earlier? Was Jean about to say something about the Davidsons starting a fight over pixies when they showed back up? It would explain why he clammed up as soon as he saw them.

[The challenge is over!]

The proctor gave her usual explanation, but Mina heard almost none of it. Her eyes were fixed on the ground. We have a monster on the team. More than one monster, for all I know. Probably more than one. Dear God, I don’t know what to do…

Mina turned to where her sister stood at her side, and she clasped Yulia’s hand. Yulia looked slightly confused but happy, as if she thought the gesture was meant to connect with the results of the challenge. And that was a good enough understanding for now, Mina thought. She would have to share more of her concerns with Yulia, as well as DaSilva, once this was over. For now, let Yulia enjoy some peace.

At least she doesn’t seem to be worried. Mina tried to vicariously enjoy her sister’s innocent pleasure in this happy moment. But it gave her only cold comfort. Soon she would have to shatter her sister’s ability to trust the team.

Notifications popped up.

We got two more levels, yay. Mina dismissed the notifications dully. They had finished in first again. It was almost something she took for granted. They gained levels every time they passed a challenge.

And then another of her slightly impulsive ideas struck her. She turned to Cara and used Investigate again. Then she turned to Jean and did the same. Adelaide. Derek. Jose. Paulo. Mrs. Davidson. Even DaSilva.

She couldn’t resist a small, victorious smile at the results. Well, I don’t know how to stop you yet. But I know who the killers on our team are.

She blinked, and she was back with Yulia in their room at the inn.

“Yulia, I have some things to tell you,” Mina began.

She was interrupted by a knock at the door.

It was the proctor again.

[Here’s your baby.]

She almost shoved baby James into Mina’s arms.

“Um, thank you,” Mina said. “I hope everything went well—”

[Oh, yes. Such a bundle of joy. A pity that we System staff do not reproduce.]

Mina could swear that this supernatural entity, who wielded god-like power, sounded exhausted. As if the duration of this challenge had been the longest ninety minutes of her life.

What, is he that much trouble? He barely cries at all! She smiled down at her son and started to push the door shut with her foot. My little angel.

“Wait a minute,” Mina said, thinking aloud. She had almost closed the door, and she opened it back up.

[Did you have further questions?]

Mina looked back and forth indecisively between her baby and the proctor. Finally, she let out a long, pained sigh.

“Is that other option still open? You taking my baby for the remainder of Orientation?”

The proctor’s face was hidden, as always, behind the Judy mask that she wore. But Mina could see genuine surprise in her body language.

[Yes. He would be in suspended animation until the Orientation is completed.]

“That means he wouldn’t age a second, right? And your process for doing that is perfect? It never screws up any children?” Mina had to control her voice, which had risen almost to a tortured moan.

[It is perfect.]

The proctor’s voice rang with a cold haughtiness. Of course our methods are perfect, she seemed to be saying. But Mina wished she had some way of knowing beyond taking this masked woman’s word for it.

“Could you also make sure that if something happens to my sister and me, you give him to my husband?” Mina asked. Her words came out in a choked whisper, her throat thick with bile.

[If that is what you want. Your husband is the human named James Robard, correct?]

Mina nodded, then vocalized. “Yes.”

[We will have no trouble finding him.]

“Then please take him,” she said, her voice shaking. The proctor reached out for baby James. Mina gave him a soft kiss on the forehead, and then she let him go.

She heard the sound of Yulia rising and rushing toward the door behind her, and Mina put a hand up to stop her.

“Let her take him,” Mina said quietly, almost whimpering. Tears pooled in the corners of her eyes as she stared at her baby, and the woman taking him away. Hopefully only for a matter of weeks. God willing, this wouldn’t be the last she saw of baby James. It only felt like it.

The proctor turned away and disappeared into thin air, as if she’d walked through a door into a room they couldn’t see.

“Why?” Yulia asked simply. Mina turned to her, and she looked almost as distraught as Mina felt.

“This place is about to become much more dangerous than it has been,” Mina said. She closed the door, sat down with Yulia, and explained everything she knew about the murders at length.

“Oh, my God,” Yulia said. She covered her mouth. Then she spoke again. “The murderer is on our team, then. More than one murderer. Oh my God. I didn’t want to believe it, despite what happened to Detective DaSilva.”

“I’d rather not believe it myself,” Mina said. “They’re hard truths. Awful things. But I think that if we don’t face them, we’ll wake up and find our throats cut some night. I just—I couldn’t have little James here for that. If they come for me, they’ll come for you too. And if they kill both of us—”

Her voice broke off. The possibilities were too awful to contemplate.

Yulia squeezed her hand.

“You did the right thing,” she said. “The only thing you could do. What do we do next?”

Mina smiled through fresh tears.

“I have a plan.”