Author Quill

Willa marched through the knee deep snow. The frozen crystals bit into her bare skin like shards of glass. Her toes had already gone numb. The chill crept up her calves and threatened to freeze her joints solid. She kept her eyes focused on the endless white horizon. She needed to put distance between herself and the arrogant veteran.

A violent tremor shook the ground beneath her feet. The snow erupted ten yards away and sprayed chunks of ice into the air. A massive creature ripped its way out of the frozen earth.

It looked like an armored centipede the size of a city bus. Thick white scales covered its back. Hundreds of hooked legs dug into the permafrost. The beast had no eyes on its pale face. It only had a gaping maw filled with jagged teeth. Two more of the creatures burst from the ground near the center of the scattered newbies.

Screams pierced the howling wind. The panicked survivors scattered in every direction. A woman in a ripped hospital gown tripped over a buried rock and fell flat on her stomach. One of the creatures snapped its jaws and lunged toward her.

Carl stepped in front of the beast. He held a thick metal pipe he must have salvaged from the bus wreckage. He swung the pipe with brutal force and smashed the creature across its jaw. The armor cracked loudly. The beast reeled backward. Carl drove the jagged end of the pipe directly into its throat.

Black blood sprayed across the snow. The first monster collapsed. Carl pulled his weapon free and spun around to intercept the second beast. He dodged a snapping bite and crushed its skull with two heavy blows.

Willa backed away slowly. She did not have a metal pipe or combat training. She pressed her spine against a massive wall of jagged ice. The third creature crawled out of a crater and turned its blind face directly toward her. It clicked its mandibles and tasted the air.

Carl stood thirty feet away with his pipe resting on his shoulder. He watched the third beast corner Willa against the ice wall. He did not move to intercept it. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited. He wanted her to beg for his help. He wanted her to admit she was wrong.

Two women rushed to Carl and hid behind his broad shoulders. One wore a soaked cocktail dress and the other wore a torn business suit. They clung to his heavy winter jacket like parasites.

"Thank you so much," the woman in the dress said. "You saved us."

"Stay behind me," Carl said. He kept his eyes locked on Willa.

The woman in the suit peeked around Carl and pointed at Willa. "Look at that stupid girl. She is going to die because she wants to act tough."

"Just apologize to him," the woman in the dress yelled across the snow. "Tell him you need him. He is a soldier and he can save you."

Willa stared at the women hanging onto Carl. They batted their eyelashes and pressed their chests against his arms. They traded their dignity for a few minutes of safety. They looked exactly like Chloe simping over Ethan in the apartment. The pathetic display made Willa sick to her stomach. She refused to lower herself to their level.

"I would rather freeze," Willa shouted back.

Carl frowned and shifted his grip on the metal pipe. "Pride will get you eaten. Just ask for my help and I will kill it."

"Keep your pipe," Willa said.

"Stop being stubborn," Carl said. "You have no weapons and no shoes. You are going to die right there if you do not ask for my protection."

"I am not one of your groupies," Willa said. "I do not need your protection."

The blind creature hissed and stepped closer to Willa. It ignored Carl and the two women. It focused on Willa standing against the frozen rock.

Willa pressed her hands against the ice. Her mind raced through the mechanics of the ambush. She was a writer who designed monsters for her novels. Every predator had a logic to its hunting pattern. This creature had no eyes and no ears. It ignored the loud screams of the other newbies running away. It only turned toward Willa when she let out a warm breath into the freezing air.

It hunted by thermal tracking. It wanted her body heat.

Willa looked down at her feet. A deep fissure split the ice just two yards to her left. The dark crevice dropped down into a black abyss. Jagged spikes lined the bottom of the pit.

She needed a heat source. She lifted her hand to her mouth and bit down hard on the pad of her thumb. Blood tasted sharp on her tongue as warm blood welled from the wound. Willa unbuttoned the top of her soaked work blouse and tore a strip of fabric from the hem. She wrapped the cloth around a loose stone she kicked free from the ice wall. She smeared her warm blood all over the fabric bundle.

The creature opened its jaws and prepared to lunge.

Willa took a deep breath and threw the bloody stone directly over the open fissure. The beast snapped its head toward the sudden trajectory of heat. It launched its massive body off the ground to catch the falling rock in midair.

The monster sailed right over the edge of the pit. It realized its mistake too late. The heavy armor dragged it straight down into the darkness. A wet crunch echoed from the bottom of the ravine as the beast impaled itself on the ice spikes.

Silence fell over the tundra.

Willa walked to the edge of the pit and looked down. The monster twitched once and died. She wiped the remaining blood from her thumb onto her jeans and turned to face Carl.

Carl stared at her with his mouth slightly open. The metal pipe slipped an inch in his grip. He had expected her to panic. He had expected her to cry and beg for a man to save her. He had not expected her to outsmart an alien predator in thirty seconds.

"Did she just trick it?" the woman in the dress asked. Her voice trembled.

"She did not even use a weapon," the woman in the suit whispered. She stepped away from Carl and looked at Willa with wide eyes.

"She fed it a rock," Carl said. He lowered his pipe to the ground.

Willa did not say a word to them. She simply turned her back and continued walking into the blizzard. Her bare feet screamed in pain but she refused to limp while they watched.

A thunderous chime echoed from the grey clouds. The sound vibrated through the snow and forced everyone to look up. The mechanical voice from the bus boomed across the sky.

[Participant Willa has eliminated a Grade One threat independently.]

Carl narrowed his eyes and took a step toward her. The system had never announced his kills. He had smashed two monsters to pieces but the voice in the sky remained silent for him. He wondered what she had done differently.

[First Trial cleared without party assistance. Calculating special reward.]

A pillar of blue light shot down from the clouds and engulfed Willa. The warmth of the light felt like a summer afternoon. It thawed the ice in her hair and brought feeling back to her frozen toes. She closed her eyes and let the system scan her body.

[Scanning participant mortal lifetime. Profession detected. Fiction Author. Reward customized.]

A sleek black pen materialized in the air in front of her. The object looked like a fountain pen carved from obsidian. Silver runes glowed along the barrel. Willa reached out and grabbed it. The pen felt perfectly balanced in her grip. It pulsed with a faint heartbeat.

[Awarding Unique Artifact. The Author Quill.]

[The Author Quill allows the user to write non living objects into existence. The user must provide a logical description. The system requires an energy exchange to materialize the object. The user must sacrifice core body heat to pay the creation cost. Complex items require more heat.]

Willa smiled and rolled the pen between her fingers. This was her golden finger. The system gave Carl physical strength and military tactics. It gave the other players random weapons or thick coats. The game gave Willa the power of creation. She could build tools or traps or shelter if she could endure the cold cost.

She looked down at her bleeding thumb. She squeezed a single drop of blood onto the snow. She pressed the nib of the pen against the red stain and wrote a single word in the air.

Boots.

[Creation: Thermal Boots]

[Creation Cost: 1.2°C]

[Core Temperature: 36.8°C → 35.6°C]

A sharp pain stabbed her chest. The temperature of her blood dropped instantly. Her breath plumed in a thick white cloud as the system drained her body heat. The snow at her feet swirled and hardened into thick leather. A pair of heavy thermal boots materialized perfectly around her freezing feet.

The leather was lined with thick wool. They trapped her remaining body heat and shielded her toes from the ice. The creation cost left her shivering violently but the trade was worth it. She was no longer a barefoot victim waiting to die. She possessed a tool that rewarded her intellect instead of brute force.

Carl walked up to the edge of the blue light. He stared down at her new boots. He knew she had not been wearing them a minute ago. He looked at the black pen in her hand.

"What did you just find?" Carl asked. His voice dropped to a low whisper.

"Nothing that concerns you," Willa said. She slipped the pen into the pocket of her jeans.

"The system gave you a reward for killing that bug," Carl said. "We need to share information if we are going to survive."

"You wanted me to beg for help," Willa said. "You stood there and watched a monster corner me. Do not talk to me about sharing."

"I was teaching you a lesson about the real world," Carl said. "I needed to see if you had survival instincts or if you were just throwing a tantrum."

"I already learned my lesson about men," Willa said. "I am going to win this game without you."

"You cannot survive the Tundra alone," Carl said. "I have combat experience. You have a secret weapon. We can form an alliance."

"I do not make alliances," Willa said.

"You will freeze out here," Carl said.

"I prefer the cold," Willa said.

The massive cathedral bell chimed a second time. The blue light around Willa faded into the storm.

[Congratulations Participant Willa.]

[You have discovered a hidden survival resource. Your performance has attracted the attention of the audience.]

Willa looked up at the sky. The voice sounded louder this time. It felt personal.

[Audience members have begun placing bets on your survival. The odds are shifting.]