Chapter 16:

(Posted: March 15)

Kat and Rich cautiously approached a small group of men loading up a caravan of dromedaries. They had watched the group for some time after spotting them at the other end of town. Left with relatively few options, the two decided it might be worth speaking to these men.

“Hello,” Rich greeted them with a wave. Only one man looked up from his task.

“Greetings,” the man responded to him. “My name is Mahon, how can I serve you today?”

“Wow VERSA's giving everyone names now?” Kat commented quietly into Rich's ear.

“Hello Mahon,” replied Rich to the man. “I am Richard and this is my friend Katherine.”

“Pleased to meet you both,” Mahon said with a smile. His head was mostly covered with a keffiyeh like Rich's, and he looked like he'd lived in the desert for a long time. He turned to speak to Kat. “Is this man your...?”

Kat interrupted him quickly. “Oh no no, no.... nothing like that. We just know each other.”

“I see,” Mahon responded, raising an eyebrow. He was still confused, but he let it pass.

“Where is your caravan heading?” Kat asked, quickly changing the subject.

Mahon smiled “We are heading to the great oasis! Once there we will sell our wares and collect food to bring back to our village.”

“Need help?” Rich immediately offered.

“What kind of food do they have there?” Kat asked almost simultaneously. Mahon seemed overwhelmed.

“Woah woah! I can answer your questions, just give me air to breathe,” he said jovially, putting up his hands in defense. He looked at Rich. “Perhaps we could work out a deal if you seek passage to the oasis. It is about a day's journey. I will need compensation to stock extra food and water for the two of you.”

“Done,” Kat quickly consented. “What is the oasis like?” Once again, Mahon made a face at her impatience.

Confidently, he spoke in a reverent tone: “The oasis is a gathering point and sanctuary for the people of this land. Beautiful trees surround a glittering lake that will still even the most hardened traveler's heart. It is a place of relaxation, with plenty of water to drink and unlimited fruit to eat that grows from the plentiful trees. We have a collection of lamps we are bringing to market there.”

Kat and Rich didn't even need to make eye-contact to both know it was exactly where they needed to go. They talked to Mahon a bit longer and eventually swapped Kat's sapphire necklace for a ride to the fabled oasis.

Mahon insisted Kat and Rich ride on two of the extra animals they had; he and his three other men mounted others. Two dromedaries in the back of the train walked riderless but laden with the lamps Mahon and his men intended to sell. Just before the caravan departed toward the setting sun, Kat watched Mahon slip a rifle into a holster on the side of his saddle.

“What's that for?” she asked, catching his eye and pointing to the gun. “Bandits?”

“No,” replied Mahon uneasily. He paused to consider his next sentence. “If we end up needing this, it's probably already too late.” Mahon stared at her ominously for another moment, then mounted his dromedary. The caravan departed silently into the desert expanse.

As dusk turned to night, the heat radiating from the sand dissipated and the chilling desert darkness gripped the travelers. In addition to the cold, Kat found the experience of riding a camel a bit awkward. It moved similarly to a horse, but between the hump on its back and the sandy ground beneath its feet it made for an unstable ride. With a glance over her shoulder, she could see Rich struggling to maintain his balance too, his body practically hugged his animal's back trying not to fall off. Mahon and the other men didn't seem to notice.

As the sky faded from crimson and gold into darker shades of black, an awesome ocean of stars tumbled out onto the tapestry above them, as if gods had spilled a bucket of jewels across the heavens. Kat couldn't remember ever seeing so many stars in her lifetime; to Rich it reminded him of his days in Kuwait and Iraq long ago. Even without a moon, the light from the sky shone so brightly that the dunes around them seemed to glow in eerie luminescence.

After a couple hours with no talking, Mahon signaled it was time for a short break. They gathered the dromedaries together and dismounted, stretching their legs and finding something quick to eat from their bags. Rich realized he hadn't eaten since munching on appetizers at the party, so he greedily devoured some bread that Mahon gave to him. Kat felt hungry too but didn't have much of an appetite, so she ate some dried olives. Two of the men conversed together as they walked down the dune a bit to urinate away from the caravan.

When the journey resumed, Kat felt herself fighting off sleep. They'd done so much recently in VERSA without taking a break, so the fatigue quickly caught up with her. Though she nodded off a few times, she concluded that despite her body's best efforts the uncomfortable camel ride would keep her awake. Behind her, Rich's bleary eyes betrayed his drowsiness too.

As Rich struggled to simultaneously stay on the camel and stay awake, he marveled at the barren landscape around him. To him, each rise and fall looked the same. The dune before them was the same dune they'd just passed. He wondered how Mahon knew where to go. Remembering that he wasn't in a real desert and that Mahon was a computer program, he decided the most likely answer was that their route must have been scripted by VERSA into Mahon or the dromedaries' lines of code. As incredible as the desert was, it was even more incredible what SunCorp had created here. If VERSA hadn't already tried killing him so many times, he would be writing a revelatory review to the Secretary of Defense.

But with nothing else to do except think about their situation, the more Rich pondered their current circumstances the more concerned he became. Feeling the need to talk it over with with Kat, Rich called out to her, gaining her attention. After letting her know he wanted to talk, it took Kat a minute to figure out how to hold up her camel until Rich could draw close. Mahon in the front and the three nameless men behind them didn't seem to care that Rich and Kat began exchanging heated whispers in the cold night.

“Kat, I've got a bad feeling about this,” Rich told her bluntly.

“Well, we're still in VERSA, so it goes with the territory,” Kat brushed him off.

“No but really, I've been thinking about all of this, it doesn't seem right. It's too railroaded.”

“What do you mean?”

Rich sighed. He'd been keeping his voice low so their companions wouldn't overhear, but it wasn't as if him and Kat were sitting next to each other. Their dromedaries kept refusing to walk perfectly next to each other, so to be heard he whispered in the loudest way possible.

“I think this is a set-up,” he told her. “We find a door that shouldn't exist that we couldn't say no to. Then we found a remote town with only one way out. Some computer program promises out-keys galore at the end of the rainbow as long as we follow it. It seems like every step of the way we've taken through VERSA, every world we've gone through, it's all been a specific path we're following. We haven't been exploring, we're being led.”

Kat considered his theory. He made some good points. Though she'd known exactly how to get from their entry room to the Dos Palos world, they certainly never deviated along the way. And then in their moment of choice, as the house crumbled around them, a miraculous door appeared like a clarion call in the darkness. As she thought about it, it seemed more and more likely that that gray door they'd traveled through had been created for them.

“So if you're right, what does it mean?” she asked him.

“I don't know,” admitted Rich. “But if I had to guess worst-case scenario? It's her.”

Kat knew he was speaking of the woman in black. But it didn't make sense.

“Ok, so let's say she's set us up to follow some caravan in the desert,” Kat postulated. “Why? What's she doing?” She was skeptical. “If she was trying to trap us, she could do that at any point! She could just appear and shrink us again and game over.”

Rich sat in silence as his dromedary huffed through the dark desert. “I don't know,” he finally replied. “I just have this feeling we're not going to make it to the oasis. It's too easy.”

“You think she's playing with us?” Kat conjectured.

“Can a computer even be driven by a desire to play?”

“Well she hasn't flat-out killed us yet, but theoretically could have at any point. Maybe she's using us for something, or watching how we react to things. Yeah I don't know, it's strange.”

“I mean, the alternative,” Rich acknowledged, “is that this isn't some set up and that you and I are going to be eating apples by nightfall tomorrow.” He didn't sound very confident.

Kat's mind considered all the motivations and machinations that might be compelling the behavior of this aberrant computer program. The coder inside of her marveled at the woman in black's existence; when she finally de-simmed, Kat couldn't wait to go through the servers to see if she could find her there. But for now this new intelligence, spawned by VERSA, remained incredibly mysterious.

The only thing comforting Kat was that she was still alive. If the woman in black had wanted them dead she reasonably could have murdered them a long time ago. It made her think of Kevin, and Kat wondered if the woman in black somehow caused his death upon de-sim. That would actually explain a lot. Could this artificial intelligence have overridden or corrupted all the programming they'd written to keep pilots safe upon virtual death?

But regardless, if she wasn't killing them now, then she either viewed them apathetically or wanted them around for a reason. And the woman in black had already proven that she took great interest in their journey. So what the hell did she want from them?

Harrison had said the woman in black wanted them to leave VERSA when she'd strangely kidnapped him. Since then, Kat reckoned, he'd been acting moody and nervous. Reasoning these observations, Kat started seriously wondering if Harrison had told them the truth. If he was holding something back about the woman in black, then her and Rich were probably in serious trouble.

“Shhhhh!!” Mahon suddenly hissed. Kat snapped out of her thoughts and Rich looked up from his dromedary. Mahon gestured with his arm for the caravan to stop.

“What's going on?” Kat asked him, quietly but concerned.

“Be silent!” Mahon scolded her. Through the darkness Kat could make out an expression of worry painted across his face. Behind her, the three other party members slowly brought their dromedaries up.

Straining to listen for anything in the quiet desert, Kat might have heard some kind of low rumbling in the distance, but it was faint and she couldn't be sure. Mahon didn't seem to doubt his own ears though.

“We need to get out of here, now!” he warned the caravan. “The rocks, over there! Let's go!”

He kicked the side of his camel, which caused it to break into a quick trot. Kat and Rich looked to him as they saw him ride down the side of a sand dune. In the distance, a jagged silhouette against the sky indicated a rocky protrusion jutted from the nearby sandy landscape.

“Fuck,” Rich said, trying to jump-start his dromedary. “What the hell is going on?”

As Kat finally got her beast to start moving, she realized the sound of the rumbling had increased. And it wasn't just a dull sound anymore, it was rhythmic, like the slow beating of a large drum. It could have been coming from any direction in the dark desert.

Eight camels and their six riders started hoofing it across the desert, but unfortunately for the caravan, dromedaries cannot gallop close to the speed of a horse, especially over sand. The cluster of large boulders slowly drew closer, but the booming sound seemed to follow them even faster. Though it was hard to tell from the bouncing motion that came from riding the camel, it seemed to Kat that the ground around her was shaking too.

Casting a quick glance behind them, Kat saw an enormous human figure walking along the horizon-- directly towards them. It was still at a distance, but Kat could already tell it was huge, and likely a woman from the curvy outline of its body. So Rich had been right; this who thing had been a trap, presumably set by the woman in black.

“Rich, look!” she shouted to him. Hearing her, Rich turned his head around to catch a glimpse of the giantess plodding towards them.

“Oh shit!” he remarked. “She's coming this way!”

In an instant both Kat and Rich knew that fleeing would be futile. The rocks where they might hide were barely closer, and even with her casual steps the giant woman would easily catch them before they could reach safety and hide. She must have been hundreds of feet tall, and the only thing that might save them from her attention now would be the darkness.

“We're not going to make it!” Kat yelled to Rich. Rich knew she was right but had trouble thinking of a way to save themselves as the woman closed in on them. The ground was now trembling with every one of her footfalls as the dromedaries started having trouble keeping balance.

“Let's ditch the camels!” Rich suggested to Kat. “Hide in the sand!” Before she could acknowledge him, he bailed off the side of his dromedary and landed painfully on the desert floor. His terrified dromedary continued rambling onward.

Kat quickly lost Rich in the darkness as she rode forward, and instantly realized his plan might work. Trying to carefully dismount her dromedary, she ended up twisting herself in the reins and dragging alongside the animal for a few moments before successfully breaking free. Upon hitting the cool sand, she caught her breath and looked around to see if she could spot Rich.

Despite the night, the sheer enormity of the giantess was apparent as her towering body blocking out a significant portion of the starry sky. Against the twinkling lights above, her silhouette created a menacing black void. Her feet, as large as buses, took steps close by, jarring and rattling the ground beneath Kat. Though Mahon and the other three men from the caravan continued to flee, they stood no chance.

Kat watched the looming woman bend down and gracefully pluck one of the riders from his camel. When she spoke she boomed over the silent desert.

“Mmmmm you look good!” the giantess remarked. Kat immediately recognized the voice from her past, and the starlight reflecting off the colossal tan legs of the huntress only confirmed that she knew who this person was. She hadn't talked to her college roommate Ariana for some years now, but Kat couldn't help but notice that'd she'd grown a bit in VERSA.

Ariana slowly lifted the screaming man into the air, and as she straightened her back Kat gasped when she realized the large woman stood naked in the darkness. The bright starry sky perfectly emphasized her prominent breasts and pointy nipples as she dangled the hapless man in front of her face.

“I've always enjoyed playing with my food,” she said to the little man in a sultry voice. Ariana was everything Kat hadn't been in college: tall, sexy, popular, and outgoing. But she hadn't been unkind to Kat, just mostly aloof and brazenly confident when she'd been around. She'd certainly monopolized their dorm room a few too many times, luring whatever boyfriend she had back to her lair for a quick fuck. During those episodes, Kat spent much of her time alone on her computer in the campus library. They'd remained acquaintances throughout the rest of her undergrad, but hardly friends.

Without warning, Ariana tilted her head back and opened her mouth, dangling the terrified man above her impressive maw. Kat's eyes bulged in horror as she realized what was about to happen. Her body frozen to the ground in fear and shock, she watched in stupefied awe as Ariana casually dropped the screaming and kicking man into her mouth. With a dramatized gulp, she easily swallowed his little body whole, seductively running her fingers down her neck as her throat pulled the man to his doom. She was deliberately putting on a show for her other victims.

Invigorated by her game and standing confidently nude above the desert below, Araina turned her gaze back towards the ground. Through the darkness, Kat could barely make out the finer features of her body, but she realized that despite Ariana's nakedness, she wore some sort of a leather belt around her bare torso and a few anklettes that jingled above her feet when she stepped. And though the dark night shrouded her face, Kat could clearly see the outline of Ariana's grinning mouth. She was hungry for more.

With steps that seemed massive at Kat's tiny scale, Ariana continued her stroll forward as she hunted down the rest of the caravan. Though she approached the sand near Kat, she remained distracted by the running dromedaries. It occurred to Kat that from her height, Ariana probably couldn't tell that two of the camels were riderless now.

With another step, Ariana's left foot impacted the earth about thirty feet away from Kat, causing the small woman's body to shake. Ariana couldn't see her yet through the darkness, and as she bent her impossibly tall body forward to snatch another man up, Kat stumbled up to her feet to run between Ariana's legs in the opposite direction. Knowing the giantess wouldn't be able to hear her tiny voice down below, Kat started bellowing Rich's name in hope of finding him in the darkness.

As Kat searched the broken, churned-up desert floor cratered by Ariana's powerful feet, behind her she heard Ariana teasing her next victim.

“Your friend tasted so delicious!” Ariana chirped as another man screamed and a dromedary moaned in terror. Her massive arm moved quickly and silently through the night as she grabbed another victim. Kat remembered how Ariana had always been trying new ludicrous diets in college to maintain her enviable figure, but eating people was certainly a new step, even for her. It only made her appreciate and fear VERSA's bizarre abilities even more.

The pillars of Ariana's legs stood firm and powerful on either side of Kat as she scrambled through the craters of her footprints. In a matter of moments she came across Rich, who had spotted her once she'd started calling his name.

“Let's get the fuck out of here!” Rich hastily greeted her.

“We can't outrun her!” Kat argued. “We should try hiding instead!”

“And get stepped on?” scoffed Rich. “Are you nuts?!” Another boom resonated through the ground as Ariana took a half-step, shifting her weight. Snaps of gunshots erupted as Mahon finally decided to use his rifle, but the sound was pathetically weak compared to Ariana's goddess-like power. Kat and Rich heard her giggle playfully as tiny screams reached their little ears from far above them. With a loud gulp and a satisfied moan, Ariana devoured another member of the caravan.

“Fuck fine!” relented Kat. “Just go!!”

The two tiny travelers began running the best they could through the sand, heading out into the endless expanse of the desert night. Kat caught Rich glancing behind them, well, really above them, to see if the giantess had noticed them yet. His gaze lingered as he ogled her perfect ass and bronze skin, faintly illuminated by the stars.

“Rich c'mon!” Kat urged him.

“Sorry!” Rich hastily apologized.

“That's my fucking college roommate,” Kat said through her teeth. Rich looked at her in surprise.

“Oh, I see VERSA's been peeling back your brain now too,” Rich commented. He glanced back up at Ariana's sexy body as he tried running forward. “She's pretty hot,” he finally stated.

“Yeah, I know,” Kat said, rolling her eyes. She'd acknowledged it many times before.

Completely exhausted from the lack of sleep, the two did their best to escape the giantess. Ariana now cradled another victim, and Kat began wondering how much time they really had to escape. What would she do when she ran out of morsels?

“Oooh, I like when they struggle,” Ariana's terrifying voice gleefully boomed from above. As she clutched her minuscule captive, she devilishly licked her lips and gently ran a hand over one of her enormous naked breasts, making sure to brush her protruding nipple.

Rich kept stealing back glances to watch the scene high above and hoped like hell he wouldn't be next. He could barely perceive the man in her hand, but he knew he was there. With her gracefully long fingers, Ariana dangled him over her mouth before unceremoniously dropping him in. She didn't even chew; he was so small that she simply let her throat swallow him whole.

As the man disappeared inside the giantess, Ariana savored his demise for a moment before finally coming back to the present. She put her hands on her waist and surveyed the scene around her. It was then Rich and Kat realized she'd just eaten the fourth member of their caravan. She began talking to herself out loud.

“Huh, six saddled camels but only four little men.... I bet the other two are around here somewhere!”

Fuck, Kat thought. Now she was going to start looking for them. They hadn't gotten far from her, only the distance of a couple of Ariana's steps.

“Rich, stop!” she yelled to him. “Get down!” Kat dove into the sand, and Rich, in a change of heart, dropped down nearby. “She's looking for us now...” Kat hissed. A running target, even in the darkness, would be much easier to spot than a tiny, motionless speck in the sand.

Though Kat wasn't facing her, she could hear Ariana's giant feet shift as the giantess began surveying the desert floor around her. She took a step here and there, peering through the darkness to see if she could spot two more little people hiding from her in plain sight. Kat realized that although hiding might be their best option, one unaware footstep by Ariana would make it all for naught.

“Why won't you come out and play?” the giantess called out longingly from high above them. She certainly had the whole cat-and-mouse thing down. Kat's brain screamed in fear inside her skull, furiously pumping her body full of adrenaline. Or, at least, digital adrenaline into her digital body. If the woman in black wanted to finally kill them, Kat reckoned, she sure had picked a cruel way to do it.

Ariana took an earth-shattering step forward as Kat tried to stay still. She wanted to swivel her head around to see where the giantess might step next, but she worried even a small movement might give her away. But Rich had no such fear, apparently, as he squirmed his body around to face Kat and Ariana. If it had been any lighter outside, he would have noticed Kat's fury at his carelessness.

“Cut it the fuck out!” she whispered at him aggressively.

Before he could respond, the sweet booming voice above them said, “Is that a little man I see?”

Too afraid to even freeze, Rich looked up at Ariana, and to his dread, made eye contact with her enormous smiling eyes. Without thinking, he scrambled upright and bolted away from her towering figure, but this only caused her to giggle in amusement. Shifting her weight again on her two pretty feet, Ariana gingerly bent over to grab Rich from off the ground. The shock waves from her steps caused him to stumble, but even if he'd been able to break into a sprint, she still would have caught him easily. Kat watched in horror as Ariana's giant fingers swooped down in front of her and snatched Rich up in a careful pinch. His kicking legs immediately rose high out of view, his mouth shouting obscenities at his captress.

“Hey little guy,” Ariana greeted Rich as she brought him up to her face. “You didn't think you were gonna get away, did ya?”

“Fuck you bitch!” Rich spat at her. “Let me go!”

Ariana frowned at his petulance. “You're a feisty little one,” she commented. She cocked her head to give him another look. “Where's the other one?” she asked him bluntly.

“I don't know what you're talking about,” Rich said angrily. He wasn't going to give up Kat. About 300 feet below him, Kat had decided to scramble away from Ariana while Rich distracted her. Though one of Araina's feet rested perilously close to her, she quickly tried crawling past it so she'd be behind Ariana and out of sight.

“You don't have to kid me,” Ariana told Rich kindly. “I know there are two of you, and I need you both. Where is she?”

“Up your ass!” Rich yelled at her. Ariana acted shocked by his remark. Then she smiled.

“Up my ass, little man?” she clarified with a smile. “I hadn't thought of doing that with a tiny yet, but maybe I'll make an exception for you.”

“If you do, I'll crawl up to your throat and strangle you from inside, you bitch!” Rich threatened her. He really hated this giant woman, pinching him helplessly in front of her beautiful face. But her amusement started to fade. She stared at him, her mouth puckering in annoyance and her eyes beholding him with a peeved stare.

“Well fine, if you won't be helpful, I'll look myself,” she casually told him. She started lowering him down her body. “In the meantime, stay put.”

As Rich accelerated downward, he watched her other hand move toward the belt around her waist. He hadn't noticed it before, but a small leather pouch dangled from the belt and rested against her hip. She flipped open the top of it and dropped him in. Rich fell to the bottom of the pouch, twisting his ankle upon landing. His world went dark when she covered the leather sack back up. At his size, he wouldn't be able to climb out. He was trapped, but alive.

“Your friend could use some manners,” Ariana called out to Kat, somewhere on the desert floor. Kat had just gained her feet and started running when she dove back into the sand to hide. She only felt slightly relieved that this monstrous woman hadn't eaten Rich. As Ariana turned in place to scan the ground, Kat clenched her eyes shut, wishing and praying she wouldn't be spotted. The ground shook tremendously all around her.

“Whereeeee areeeeee youuuuuu?” the digital copy of her old roommate called out. What a nightmarish program VERSA had evolved into. It crossed Kat's mind that for all these years she might have been working on a project that would literally kill her one day. It infuriated her that the whims of a couple lines of code would have a say in whether she lived or died. She never wanted to see another one or zero again in her entire life.

Kat lay perfectly still, listening to Ariana hunt her from above. The giantess must have known she was close. About a minute passed and Kat started to wonder what Ariana was doing, but she hardly dared to look. It crossed her mind that hiding in the sand might actually work.

And just as she had the optimistic thought, an immense pressure gripped her, expelling the air from her lungs and rocketing her upwards from the ground. Kat screamed as the ground dwindled below her, just to be quickly replaced with the giant smirking face of her college roommate.

“Hey Kat,” Ariana greeted her. She seemed pleased with herself, but it didn't stop her from acting friendly. “It seems you've shrunk a little since the last time I saw you,” she joked seriously.

“You're not real!” Kat shouted at her. “You're not Ariana!”

The giantess looked confused. Of course she wouldn't know she was a program. Only the woman in black seemed to have a modicum of true self-awareness.

“I... I'm not sure what you mean,” Ariana admitted, clearly caught off guard. But she wasn't fazed. “We'll have some time to catch up later Kat, let's talk more then.” She lowered Kat down to the pouch around her waist. “I gotta run, so wait for me in here,” Ariana told her.

As if I have a choice, Kat thought as she tumbled into the dark pouch. With a thud and a groan, she landed on top Rich.

“Fuck,” Rich grunted. Kat moved around on top of him, trying to find a way to occupy the small space without crushing him.

“Sorry Rich,” she hastily apologized, kneeing him in the gut.

“It's her fucking fault anyways,” he reminded her, referencing the giantess. “So you know her, right?”

Kat shifted off of Rich's body and lay most of her weight next to him. It was more comfortable for her, but as Ariana started walking the pouch bounced against her hip, jumbling them around more. When they found a compromise in the pouch, Kat replied.

“Her name's Ariana. Lived with her in college.”

“Damn she's pretty tall... was she on the volleyball team or something?”

Even in the pitch black darkness, Kat knew Rich was smiling. They were so hopelessly screwed, but as usual, Rich couldn't pass up the opportunity to crack a joke.

Kat changed the subject. “What do you think is going on? Where are we going?”

“Who knows,” Rich admitted. “But twenty bucks says she's taking us the woman in black, just like Harrison's girlfriend did.”

“Well, she didn't kill him then,” Kat remarked. “Maybe she won't kill us now?”

“Yeah but if she's not going to de-sim us... what the hell is she going to do?”

Kat couldn't even begin to guess. A moment of silence pervaded their leather prison before Rich spoke again.

“Hey Kat?”

“Yeah?”

“Going back into VERSA was a terrible idea,” he said bluntly.

Kat sighed. “Yeah, it really was,” she finally admitted.

The two tiny avatars stewed in pessimism as Ariana confidently strutted across the dark desert plain. Rising miles above the mountains before her, a lavish palace loomed in the distance like an ominous mirage.