Episode 6.0 - Life in the new World - Pre-Part

Episode 6 - Is This The New World Then?

“HALT, YOU WILL HALT!”’

I’m getting real tired of that voice. For days now, its shrieking is all I hear. I don’t know what we - Epona and I, that is - did to deserve its ire, but it hasn’t stopped following us.

I recognise it, of course I do. It's from WarLands, the game I was a goddamn pro at. I won my ticket for Escape’s beta in a WarLands contest; it was one of the studio’s other big hits. But I never imagined it would appear here, of all places. One minute I was out riding, searching for leads on the missing players, the next, everything just… It all ended… 

The walls of the world fell away, and before long, armies flooded through. In the space of a single sleepless night, I watched the three (at least three is my best guess) worlds go to war. Escape is a game world, so of course it's not on a real-life scale, but it can still take a couple of weeks to ride from top to bottom - I never even imagined it could be destroyed in a single night…

I rode south as fast as I could. I was lucky in a way; I heeded that girl Eshu’s warning, not returning up north to my home in the capital. I thought to make for that fortress and those guys, perhaps to some sort of safety, but instead ploughed straight into one of the invading armies and had to take detour after detour. But that was only half of it, for missiles streaked across the stars, eldritch abominations rose from the earth, and then, when I thought it couldn’t possibly get any more insane, I watched nuclear warheads end the world.

Yet, despite it all, I’m still here, with my horse. Trying rather desperately to get further south, if not to the fortress, then at least further away from where winds might blow radioactive particles at me. 

    However, we have had the misfortune of encountering this army of robots, more specifically, ‘Killer-Drones’.

To describe them would be quite the exercise indeed, but I’ve had some close looks after all. Rounded, like a traffic bollard almost, a little tower of metal, about six feet tall, the top section being slightly detached from the lower. Right in the middle is this large laser emplacement, a moving turret of sorts, and two caterpillar tracks mounted to either side provide them with versatile movement.
    In WarLands, they were the highest class of drone warfare you could upgrade to, clearly inspired - if not borderline ripped off - from a certain British IP Escape's censor settings won't let me say aloud. That game, in general, was known for a few lawsuits that nearly got it shut down, haha…

The class of unit chasing me was known for its efficiency and strength. Facing them here, in a world where I’m not playing a super soldier character, but rather, myself, is truly an unimaginable nightmare.

The only saving grace has been our speed; my dear Epona has whisked me to and fro across the land to avoid our foes. But even she tires on occasion. It is during those periods of rest that our enemy always catches up again.

I wonder why they pursue us so doggedly. Is it merely that in this nuclear-addled world, they have no other targets to chase? Video game programming pushing them to forever hunt and kill, with I as their sole remaining prey? Do no others yet live? What a chilling thought.

The most recognisable of the enemy force is its leader, for while the others are all silver from head to toe, it alone has a black coloured ‘head’ and ‘speaks’ in a deeper tone of voice.

    “HALT OR YOU WILL BE ELIMINATED,” it grates the same old tired stock lines.

“Ride Epona, ride!” I call, leaning down in the stirrups as we clatter along the sodden ground.

    Even here, away from the main damage and destruction further north, is a wasteland. Armies have tossed up the ground below, mud and metal, corpses of creatures from other worlds I don’t recognise, the remnants of NPC villages I used to frequent on my travels, lined with mangled corpses. The land we rush across is in a state - even the air is filled with smoke and stale air - it is a dead land.

TSRRRR TSRRRR

Our pursuers have grown impatient, unleashing pale blasts from those massive laser cannons of theirs. Epona zigzags without my even instructing it now. Bolts of lightning pass us by on either side; those that hit the earth explode plumes of dirt and grime high into the air as we charge onwards right past, coated in the sickly material but paying it no heed as we run for our lives.

“YOU WILL NOT DEFY US,” the leader drone yells for the hundredth time, and then he fires the faithful shot. I suppose I’d known it was but a matter of time. Epona skids to an awkward stop, long horse legs buckling, and I barely hang on.

“Epona, no!” I look back to find her rear leg ablaze, fur smouldering, the flesh beneath seared a fleshy raw pink. A glancing blow, really, but one that dealt such devastation. So then, this is where it ends?

   'What happens if you die in Escape exactly?' I wonder to myself numbly. But then, with a mournful neigh, my long-time friend and companion shakily stands back up.

“What are you? Don’t be mad, dear girl, you can’t possibly – Epona!!” and suddenly we’re on the run once more. 

What terrible pain must my poor steed be in as she runs so brazenly onwards, as our tormentors scream angrily behind us? I can hope only that wherever this brave creature is carrying me, there is still other life in this world for us to reach, to make her pained courage worthwhile.