Page 47 of Code Bound
CHAPTER16
VESPER
The soft sound of fabric moving against fabric wakes me up.
“The fuck are you doing, Locke?” I grumble, my eyes still closed.
He doesn’t answer, but the sound of fabric against fabric echoes around the clearing again. Frowning, I crack my eyes open, expecting to see firelight around us. Instead, the only light I see is from the stars and the moon, now in a different position in the sky.
“Locke?” I grumble again, still groggy as I try to sit up. It’s so dark, it’s hard to see. Without the fire, it takes me a minute to adjust to the darkness. “Locke,” I hiss, now more awake, trying to pinpoint where he is.
He’s not where he was when I went to sleep. In fact, he’s not in the clearing at all.
I hit my implant and pop open my inventory, dragging my Sunlight Medallion out. The moment I touch it, pale light shines around me in a three-meter radius, just large enough to light up the entire clearing.
The fire is still smoldering just the barest amount, telling me it hasn’t been out for long. There’s a nice imprint in the grass where Locke had definitely been lying. When I touch my hand to it, the grass is still warm.
“Fuck,” I whisper, whirling around. “Where the fuck are you?”
The sound of fabric moving against fabric echoes around me again and I whirl, searching for the source. It’s coming from the trees, whatever it is.
“Cipher?” I say shakily.
“Yes, Vespera?”
“Can you tell me . . .anything?”
He hesitates. “As long as you are within the light, you will be okay.”
“And Locke?”
Another long pause. “It is likely already too late for player number three million, six hundred and seventy-three thousand, five hundred, and seventeen.”
My heart stops. “What?” I choke out, moving closer to the clearing edge.
“Stay in the clearing,” Cipher orders.
“Locke!” I whisper-yell, afraid to be too loud. Whatever is stalking me is close, close enough that Cipher is worried. “Locke!”
The fabric sound again, slow and quiet, and then something else. A muffled gasp.
I follow the sound, stepping out of the clearing, using my Sunlight Medallion to light the way.
“Vespera!” Cipher growls. “Get back in the clearing. Now.”
“I have to find Locke,” I whisper. “I heard something.”
“He is not worth the risk!” Cipher argues, anger in his tone more than I’ve ever heard. “You are going to die if you do not turn around.”
I don’t listen to him. Cipher does not care about Locke. I know that. But I care about him. And I’m not leaving him to whatever this creature is if I can avoid it. Still, I keep close to the clearing edge, making sure not to trail too far away as I chase the muffled sound that echoes again.
“Locke!” I whisper again. “Make more noise.”
The muffled sound comes again, and I trail around to the other side of the clearing, barely a meter deep into the trees. At first, I see nothing and I start to think I might be losing my mind. It isn’t until I turn back toward the clearing, thinking maybe I should listen to Cipher after all, that I see it.
I gasp and take a step back, my eyes wide as I get a good look at the tree before me. The tree that isn’t just a tree. There, in the front of the tree, is a person. Or . . .was a person. It’s morphing with the tree, joining into the trunk of it, his mouth open in a permanent scream. He’s rotting, clearing here for a while, but somehow, the smell isn’t overwhelming, as if the tree itself is drinking the rot in. The light from my medallion catches on his arm where its raised up, the hand now one with the tree. An implant. This was a player.
I turn toward the other trees, realizing that each of them has a player being absorbed into their trunk. Some of them have multiple in various states of decay.
