Characters: Natalie, Mundo, Isaac, Grandpa, Quentin
Location: Natalie's Room
Time: Day 4 - 4:15 PM
“What the hell kind of porn is this?”
Natalie found herself staring at the open e-mail. It was blank, a white vacuum of empty space, except for four moving men on the screen. They were only about a few inches tall, but their features were well defined—almost too real to be computer-generated. She stared at them—a man dressed in feathers and rags, another with a flute in his hands, an African-American with a bloody sword, and an old man in a bathrobe.
“Whatever it is,” Natalie said aloud, “I don’t think it’s legal. There’s gotta be some kind of law against this.”
“Think she can see us?” Quentin asked his companions, inside the computer screen.
Mundo shrugged. “I don’t know…”
They could see her, though. She was huge. Her face was bigger than all of them stacked on each other’s shoulders, but she was a bit blurry through the fuzzy computer screen. Still, they stared at her, studying her, as she did the same with them. Then she shook her head and they saw all her movements, every strand of whipping hair.
“I can’t believe I even looked,” she said at last, reaching for the mouse. “You guys are so getting deleted. Freaks.”
“Wait!” Mundo said, pressing his hands against the screen. “You don’t want to delete us. We’re real people.”
His voice hardly seemed to faze Natalie. In fact, she seemed amused and smirked a little, folding her arms across the table and leaning forward. “Talking porn? Fantastic. This is something new.”
“No, we’re not porn!”
“Relax, little man. If you were porn, you would be at least somewhat good-looking, so just keep your clothes on. …Please.”
“Wait… You believe us?”
“Oh, sure. I believe you.” But a roll of her eyes told otherwise.
“Come on, I’m telling the truth. We’re trapped in a virtual reality game.”
“Uh-huh…”
“It’s called Neverquest.”
“Never heard of it.”
“You should have. Adam plays it.”
Hearing her boyfriend’s name mentioned, Natalie seemed to take it a little more seriously. “Adam? Did he put you up to this?”
“What?”
“This practical joke. He knows I hate them.”
“This isn’t a joke!” Mundo nearly screamed, pounding the screen. “We’re trapped here. All of us!”
“Oh, really?” Natalie cocked an eyebrow, scanning the address bar to figure out who sent the e-mail. But it was blank. That was strange. “And how did that happen?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I have all day.”
“We don’t! You need to get us help—now!”
“Look…” she said slowly. “I don’t know who you are or how you’re doing this, but it’s not funny. I’m not in a good mood.”
Tired of the slow conversation, Isaac stepped up behind Mundo and pushed him out of the way. “Do we look like we’re jumping off the fuckin’ walls either!? Girl, I don’t really care if you believe us or not, but if you ever want to see your little boyfriend again, you better help us find a way out of here.”
Natalie’s eyes narrowed and she dragged the mouse cursor towards the delete button. “I can show you one way out, you eight-bit worm.”
Diving across the e-mail, Quentin grabbed the tail end of the cursor and dug his heels into the ground. But Natalie’s grip was too much for him. He was carried with it, screaming, flying towards the delete button, and slammed into the side of the e-mail box like Tarzan into a tree.
Natalie held the cursor over the button, drumming her finger along the mouse button. “…Tell me. Is Adam behind this? Did he tell you guys to do this? Did he think it would cheer me up?”
“Adam’s trapped here with us,” Mundo said. “He’s been trying to contact you.”
“That’s funny. I’ve been trying to contact him too. Thirty-six messages on voice mail and not a single return call. I thought he had forgotten about me.” She eyed the four men in front of her, pondering. “…He hasn’t been in school either. I figured he was just avoiding me.”
“He cares about you. He wanted us to contact you instead of the Neverquest GMs. He knew you could help us.”
“Maybe I don’t want to help you. Maybe I’m still mad at him for what he’s done.” Her upper lip was firm and she was scowling—not at any of them, but at the world in general. “Look at me… I’m a wreck. And it’s because of him. It’s because I put my heart into somebody who would rather play a stupid video game than come see me. What do you have to say about that? You think I’m sorry if he got what was coming to him? Or any of you. You were with him, weren’t you? All of you, down in some damp basement, playing games, wasting your lives away, letting hearts on the surface suffer. That’s all you’re about, isn’t it?”
Mundo didn’t know how to respond to that, but old Grandpa did. And he did it with a familiar twinkle in his eye.
“…Anger is a killer drug,” he said. “It’s poison, my child. One that will swallow you whole with a single drop.” Nodding, he raised a wrinkled finger into the air and pointed at her. “You speak from your heart because it hurts, but rage only opens the wound. Do not let the poison turn your blood cold. Alvin loves you. I am sure of it.”
“His name is Adam…”
“He loves you, Naomi. These old eyes have seen the strength of many hearts.”
“Yeah… I’m sure he loves me. I’m sure I’m more than a second-place trophy on his shelf.” She paused for a moment that made them all feel uneasy. “…But you know what? That’s what I feel like. Like second place. And nobody ever remembers second place.”
“The one who comes in second will remember. And that’s all that matters.”
But Natalie shook her head again, this time with a hopeless smile that could have made a dog whimper. “There’s so much more, old-timer. Maybe you’ve just forgotten.”
“What the hell are you all talking about!?” Isaac snapped, looking from each of his companions to Natalie. “All we want is to go home! Is that so hard to understand? Am I the only one who gets it? Damn it, people! Damn it.”
“I don’t expect any of you to understand me. You’re men. Young or old, your hearts don’t change.”
“Natalie, please…” Mundo said. “We can sort this out later. Right now, we need you to go to the Central Neverquest Network—that’s CNN—and find out who is in charge. Ask for their help. Tell them everything you know. But if you don’t trust the people there, then go the police. Tell them there is a virus in the Neverquest servers and it’s preventing anyone playing from logging out. Tell them to find Gena. She’s the one who put the virus into the game.”
“Gena from school?”
“Yes.”
“She doesn’t know anything about computers. How could she make a virus?”
“She didn’t. One of my old buddies…uh, a guy named Narsis…he made the virus. But that’s not important right now! What is—”
“What happens if the virus isn’t stopped?”
“Well…uh, then we all become a permanent part of the game.”
“And Adam?”
“The same thing… Why?”
Natalie shrugged and put her hands under her chin. “What if I told you I would rather keep Adam in there?”
“I’d think you’re insane. There are innocent people in—”
“Nobody is innocent!” she cried, slamming her fists against the keyboard. “You bastards—all of you! So obsessed with your games that you forget what is real. Maybe that’s where you belong. I don’t see why you’re complaining.”
“We have families, Natalie. We have friends and lives and—”
“You have nothing anymore,” she said and clicked deleted. Before the men could do anything, before their screams could be heard, the e-mail vanished into the darkness of cyberspace and disintegrated. Numbers and code filled their minds. With a hardened smile, Natalie stood up and walked away.
Giantess World
