Chapter 2

The plane ride was getting to be a familiar thing, I even started to recognize other guys who weren’t in my crew, but caught some of the same flights. 6-week cycles were the norm, with a paid-for flight in between. Most guys worked extra hours, and their days off. Drug use was rampant, guys just numbing themselves. Everyone had the same plan- just work a few years, just earn a bit and send it back, just suffer for a while then I’ll get back to my sweetheart, wife, kids. Often the drugs, drinking, and hookers ate the “extra” money these guys were earning and sometimes more. Often those left “Down-Home” stopped expecting paychecks and visits home and just moved on with their lives.
All this was still unknown by me, I saw burnouts and alcoholics, hell, I worked with a bunch. I was still treading water, but a combination of the changing weather, and missing my girls (as I now thought of them) had me homesick, and homesickness is a drug-dealers best friend out here in the oil fields.
First it was just a second joint after work, then a few beers, and then I was getting in deeper.
I realized I’d spent a lot of what I was supposed to send, and a kind of desperation gripped me. I grabbed every extra minute of work, cashed in the meal vouchers and ate scraps or nothing for two weeks but still, the cheque home was light ... too light.

“Look, it’s cold back there, it’s cold out here. Let’s say I work this two week break, then the next six, then I come back for good ... deal?” I was frantic, and I hoped it wouldn’t carry across the phone, but I forgot who I was trying to lie to.

“We can deal with it, whatever it is, just come home please” came back the voice on the line.

“Darlin”, I played for time. “One more set, it’s worth another 10k, and that’ll make about 1/4 of the cost of the house paid off.” (I was off by about a factor of 10)
“Is something wrong?” Came back the quiet voice “Is there something or someone else?”

I was angry now. “I don’t have time for somebody else. All I do is work out here” she was making this harder than it had to be.
8 weeks, that’s all I needed to get clean and get home ... hopefully. “I’ll call you later” I fumed and said goodbye.

As anyone with an addiction will tell you, you quickly learn that it’s a beast you fight every day, it’s always with you just waiting for a weak moment. There were many weak moments in those two months, but at least I didn’t slide further into the hole, in fact, until the plane ride home I had been mostly just into beer and weed.

Now I was in an old freight/passenger plane with all my tools, my MP3 player, and my work gear. I was even wearing my cleanest Carhartt’s, heavy boots and stuffed my pockets with gloves and a big Spud wrench just so my bag would make the weight.

It was that flight home when I saw the rift, that black and red maelstrom that changed the course of my life for the next couple decades. As I said before, I don’t remember seeing anything in the swirling chaos, assuming there was anything to see, but was only there for maybe a few minutes before it seemed to fizzle out, and rain down like little sparkly snowflakes.
I “came down” feeling weird. The buzz was gone, but so were the twitchy feeling I’d had for the last few months, my mind was oddly clear too. Most of the time, it was muddled and fuzzy after I came down. Maybe those were good pills after all ... but something felt ... different. Changed.

I had an itching feeling in the back of my head and kept noticing odd things. That guy in the ball cap ahead of me had a limp, and he kept checking his left pocket. When we got off the plane the stairs down to the tarmac didn’t make it all the way, and I adjusted my step to compensate hearing guys after me stumble and curse, wondering why they hadn’t seen it.

We’d landed at 4:30 AM local time, I was wiped but I thought better of calling my Mom or Ellen, I’d never taken a taxi home, but I fished out the key that Ellen gave me, and after the driver and I wrestled my bags into his trunk, I read him the address of our house, sat back and watched the city go by. It was strange to have all sorts of memories pop up as I saw places I knew. The corner by the pizza joint where I stole that kids wallet, that pool hall where I watched Tom get beat by a guy so bad that he went to hospital. The vacant lot where I used to scrounge empties as a kid. There wasn’t one corner or building that brought forward a memory that I could share with Ellen I thought ... was this just from coming home?

The house was dark, and I realized that I had no idea if she was living here or not, it would probably have been easier to live with her parents, than to live out here without a car ... hunh?! Why hadn’t I thought of that before?

Recalling that the laundry machine was in the garage, I fiddled with the keys that would open the side door to the garage. With a last wave to the driver (who had left his lights pointed at me for a bit so I could get in, nice of him eh?) I opened the side door and shouldered my bag and squashed my way in.

At the time I’m writing this, everyone knows about the Portals, and most people have seen one by now. The one I stumbled into was one of the very first. True to form, it was about a foot off the ground, 4 feet high, vaguely oval, and glowed. This one was pink (I know now that they have specific colour codes assigned now, but to my eyes it was pink). As I staggered into the garage, my bag snagged on a loose screw or nail, causing me to look back rather than forward. A sharp tug freed the bag as I took the last step down the raised steps. The portal must have “gone live” at just that moment (along with, along with thousands of others across the globe). I didn’t even have a chance of stopping myself from touching it.

At first, I didn’t realize I wasn’t in the garage. The room was still dark so it was difficult to see, but my first clue was that the walls were now stone and not plywood. The next clue were the torches that came to life by themselves, casting a flickering orange light into the room.
It wasn’t a large space, about the same size as the garage, maybe 20’ square or so but as I spun around the room what was most concerning was the distinct lack of opening. I didn’t know how I got in here, but there didn’t seem to be a way back. The last clue that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore (or maybe not even Earth) was a large floating screen that popped into view in front of me, hovering off the ground without any visible support. The bright green type across it looked like an old computer screen that the school secretary had. It stated:
“Congratulations, you are the very first visitor to ‘The Glades’, Reward: Two status point in any of your Attributes.”
As I mumbled my way through the text and read the word “Attributes” out loud (yeah, yeah, I was nervous and tired and talking out loud when I read, so sue me) the screen changed.

“System recognizes valid user.
Name: UNKNOWN,
Talent: UNKNOWN

I paused as I read this out loud, I said “Umm, Grant Reader, and the guys call me Brute” I said, trying to be friendly.
“Recorded” read the screen, then it displayed the following:
Name: Grant Reader
Talent: Brute
Experience: 0/1000
Level: 0
Items: 0
Silver: 0
Titles: “First Visitor”
Attribute points: +2
Skills: None
Bonus: Pack Mule (Extra dimensional storage is unlocked)
Restrictions: Access only to level 1

Strength: 7
Speed: 6
Endurance: 7
Agility: 6
Intelligence: 2
Mana:0
Health: 16/16

Weapon: NONE (Brute is classified as Weaponless)
Shield: None
Weapon level: None

Select Attribute(s) to assign points:

Now this was strange, kinda looked like some sort of game, but it also seemed so real. Waving at the screen in front of me, my hand just passed straight through like it wasn’t there.
“What is this ... Who are you” I called out
The only thing that happened was a flashing of the words:
“Select Attribute(s) to assign points:”

To this day I cannot tell you what possessed me to select “Intelligence” for both those points, but it changed my life. It might have been that I just didn’t like the fact that it wasn’t balanced with my other Stats, but I may just as easily have been that I’d always known that I didn’t understand what was going on around me, people seemed to speak a secret second language that I never understood, and that may have been one of the reasons I felt I never fit in and sometimes lashed out at those around me.

The Healing that those given Weapons by the system was often drastic. We have all heard of the blind being granted sight, paraplegics walking again and so forth.
My healing must have been subtle, but I believe that there were brain injuries sustained in my far youth and maybe on the football field that were repaired that day. Physically I was in excellent shape already and young enough not to have many worn-down components or any real permanent injuries.

After adding those points, I can tell you that I felt ... bigger. Not in a physical sense, but it felt like my mind had gone from a crowded, overgrown forest you couldn’t see through to a manicured orchard. There were still lots of trees all around, but it was a whole lot less cluttered. Like many things about these portals, it’s difficult to explain.

The screen changed again, stating “Attribute Selection Confirmed. You may now enter ‘The Glades’.”
Looking about, I took in my surroundings again, and quickly realized that there was now a long staircase that ended in a shimmering portal where one of the walls that hadn’t been there previously. Not having any other options, I shouldered my bag and walked down the many stone steps to the portal. This one was dark grey and realizing that I had no idea what was on the other side of this portal, I dropped my bag and started rummaging through it for gear. I remembered the System had called me a Brute, and I luckily had a good kit for that on hand. The work boots and overalls were a good idea to keep. I found some really heavy-duty gloves that were more like gauntlets I grabbed from the electrician when he figured they were too worn for electrical work. Kneepad-shinguards that were built for kneeling on metal and frozen ground were probably my best purchase out there. Dave had forced me to spend a lot on these; I never noticed how banged up they were, and that would’ve been my shins if he hadn’t made me buy them. I threw a wool neck tube and my grey hard hat on too. At the last second, I fastened on the elastic chinstrap that I’d never used it before.
Lastly, I picked up my spud wrench, which has an adjustable wrench head at one end, and the handle is a long tapered shaft ending in a spike. It’s used to align components, or pry at things. Mine was about 20 inches long.

Picking up my (much less full) bag again I walked through the grey portal and immediately found myself at the edge of a very unusual forest. The portal behind me was gone, and I realized that this was a do-or-die job.
The trees were spaced out a fair bit, you could easily spread a big tarp between the coconut palm-like trunks. A movement caught my eye from the side, and I saw something the size of a medium sized dog digging in the earth.

It was an insect? Maybe? Only about a foot and a half high, about 3 feet long and two feet wide. Its back was a series of armoured ribs that slid over each other as it bent and moved. There were two large, hooked claws at the front, each about the size of my hand. They could turn to dig, or shovel things into a mouth that was covered and facing mostly down. There were many legs on the side that I could see, it kinda looked like a large Horseshoe crab.

I just watched it for a while, looking around to see if there were more. I thought I might have seen one moving past a tree, about 50 feet away, but couldn’t be sure. As I moved around for a better look it must have noticed me since it stopped digging and turned on the spot like a tank. One set of legs in reverse, the other moving forward. It paused for just a second, then launched itself forward towards me, scuttling over roots and the odd rock like they were barely there. It was pretty fast, but I could out-run it fortunately, because I did run.

Mr Big Brute ran from this crab thing like I’d never run before, dropping my bag, but luckily not my wrench.

I left the forest pretty quickly, but the crab followed. I had my spud wrench in one hand but looked around for anything else that I could use to defend myself from this thing. The only useful things I could spot were some loose rocks on one side, and an old branch on another. I scooped up the rock, turned and threw at the advancing crab. It bounced in front of it and hit it in the mouth. The thing paused and I picked up another rock, throwing it again. I think I hit an eye. There was a “thunk” as it bounced off the shell anyway. The crab immediately came at me, and I had just enough time to grab the near branch (for all the good it did me).
I poked hard at the center of the creature as it rushed me. The branch broke, but not before the crab lifted a bit, some of its front legs waving in the air before it came crashing back down. It gave me an idea. I ran again, this time back towards the forest, looking for another branch. I found a straight-ish one and swung my Spud at it a few times, and it didn’t break. Good enough.

I whipped around and ran off to the right, planning on tackling this beast from the side.
It didn’t work, as the crab simply spun on the spot as I jogged up to it, but with the branch in my left hand and the spud in my right I faced off against it.
I’d like to say I triumphed magnificently against this beast, but really I took a good slash against the shin (mostly the guard) as I flipped it over then smashed and poked it with the stick and the pointy-end of the spud until it stopped moving. I was breathing hard, but had the sense to look about me for more threats. I didn’t see any so I poked the crab a few more times and sat for a rest.

It was dead. Blue/green blood leaked from a dozen or so wounds and pooled on the ground around it. after ten minutes or so I lifted it, and it must have weighed about 20 lbs. I thought about keeping it and the damn thing suddenly disappeared. I stumbled since the weight vanished immediately, but not quite. Somehow, I felt it, some of it at least spread out over me like in a backpack.

Feeling foolish, I put out my arms and “wished” for it back. The dead thing just appeared, just as it was, and I damn near dropped it. Experimenting, I tried to store the rock. It stored. I tried the stick, it stored too.

I ended up storing all three before deciding on creeping back to the forest. It took a while, but I eventually found the bag I dropped and another crab. It was digging like the other one. This time I saw it snatch up something small that squealed as it was shoved towards the mouth by the beasts hook/claws.
I came it this one from the side as it was crunching up its meal. Going with what worked (kinda), I threw the stones in at its legs on the side facing me. Two solid hits on the legs, but there were so many of them, that it really didn’t affect the crab much. Like the last one, it rotated in place, found me, and scuttled forward. I hadn’t planned this out too well because the trees and roots between two of us controlled how we could approach each other. The method of poke, flip and jab worked really well again, and this time I knew that spearing it with the pointy end of my Spud while stopping it from flipping itself back over with the stick was the better course of action. A dozen or more jabs later, and another crab was bleeding its blueish blood on the forest floor.

I kept at it, slowly meandering my way through the forest, hunting crabs until I’d killed a dozen or so. I left their bodies where they fell, not knowing if they were useful or not, but knowing that the extra weight wasn’t helping me at all.
On two occasions, I was charged by one crab as I was fighting another. Their legs knocked together as they went fast though, so I heard them coming and managed not to get surrounded. These things were dead quiet when moving slowly though, and it was a slow moving one that nearly ended me.

I was resting after the latest fight, when one literally fell on me. I’d had my back against one of these big trees and was just breathing heavily with my eyes closed. (I know, stupid right!)

When 40lbs of armoured crab falls on your head/chest/lap it’ll stun you. The beast got a few food swipes in before I managed to throw it off. It was bigger and heavier than the others, with a longer body. The hooks at the front were larger too and pointed more than the others had been.
I thought I was probably bleeding under the clothes, and my helmet had been knocked off. Thank god for the knee pads, most of the animals weight fell on those. This crab was fast to flip itself back over when turned, and actually batted the branch away a few times as I tried to lever it under. I took a few swipes at my feet, but the steel toed boots were only mildly slashed up. The big girl (I never ever verified that it was actually a female) stopped attacking the toe area and lunged for the shins and calf. With some fancy footwork, I avoided all but one of the slashes and managed to step on it, then jump off of it. There was a satisfying crunch at this, I found out later that I broke a lot of its legs doing what I called later “The crab step”
After that, with limited maneuvering available, I flipped and stabbed until she stopped twitching.
I got outta there quickly and kept moving, wary of falling objects I searched the forest, and even dug in the holes that the crabs had been digging in, finding nothing at first. I did eventually find two caves, basically side by side but one of them was blocked up with stones that looked like the walls of the entrance room I started in.
I returned to the forest and gathered. 10 of the dead crabs, ones that were in the “best” shape as well as the Big Girl. They went into my invisible backpack along with a few of my favourite throwing stones, and one pretty blue one that was at the bottom of a dry gully by the caves and two of the sticks.
I filled my bag with other stuff around me, thinking I’d like proof I was here if the invisible backpack thing didn’t work out.
Hoisting my bag, I stepped through the mouth of the cave and was instantly back in the stone starting room (or one that looked just like it). At one end was another portal, the same colour as I saw when the whole thing started. Off to my right was another “screen” upon which was written:
“Congratulations, you are the first to complete ‘The Glades - Level 1’.
Bonus: 50 Silver and 1 Status point”

I looked around, but didn’t see any silver. I looked in my bag, and to my surprise everything I put in there from the Fields was gone, even most of the green blood was gone, but there were two small silvery chunks rolling around at the bottom of the bag. I looked back at the screen.
It read the same as before, but now there was a number under Experience (50) and Silver (50) as well as a Health of 13/16 and 19 items. I picked up the two silver nuggets in my bag and “Wished?” Them into my invisible backpack. They disappeared and my silver count went to 52. I pulled out all my silver, watching the counter drop, then put it away to see it rise again. I did the same with a stick, a rock, and even a dead crab, watching my Inventory number move around.
Looming over at the status side of the screen, I pointed my finger at the “Intelligence” line, and watched it increase to 5. The same feeling of space opening up in my head washed over me, and I had a good idea of what was going on.
For those of you playing at home, yes, I had more than doubled my initial Intelligence score in a matter of a few hours and no, it had not made me some sort of genius. I did not go from Forest Gump to Einstein but it definitely felt like a number of paths that had previously been blocked off were now open.
A lot is still unknown about the Status points work, but it’s not a linear progression as you might guess. I’ve met a few people that started with very high Stats that weren’t like power lifters, Olympic gymnasts or marathon runners. Some of the leading theories are that it marks some sort of maximum potential of an individual. Or it could all be some sort of bullshit.

Grabbing my bag, I had one last look around and walked through the portal.

I was alone in the garage, and it was still fairly dark out. I don’t exactly know how long I’d been in the portal. It definitely felt like enough time for it to be daylight by now but not so much time for it to be night again. I’d smashed my watch a couple of months back and hadn’t bothered to replace it so I couldn’t say for sure.

The first thing I did was try to get my silver back. It popped into my hand, and returned when I willed it. I tried to put my Spud into the Inventory, but it just wouldn’t go. Same for every other thing tried that wasn’t from that world.

Back to the present, most of the crab blood may have disappeared but there was still plenty of grime and Grant soaked into my clothes so I decided to finish off the task that first brought me here. I took off the gear I was wearing, careful not to touch the portal, and tossed the clothes into the big washer. I’d never used these by myself before, but how hard can it be? The coveralls, underclothes and neck tube all went in the machine. I read the instructions on the washer (they were written in Ellen’s handwriting, and quite clear on how to use it and the penalties for damaging it?)

I managed to get the wash on and was starting to wander back to the main house, looking for the house key when I saw Ellen walked up to the house, without April.
“Hey Ellen!” I spoke in a friendly manner, aware of just how scary a voice from the dark could be to a small woman.

She jumped anyways, dropping a bucket of cleaning supplies and a roll of garbage bags she had tucked under her arm. “Grant!” She shrieked! “Asshole, you scared the shit outta me” I was standing there in my PJ pants and shower sandals and said “Can we go in, I need a shower real bad.”
Ellen turned and picked up her stuff then unlocked the door “When the fuck did you get in? Why did you come here? Why are you undressed? Have you been fighting? All of it came out in a rush, and as she paused to inhale, I replied “I landed about 5:00, we own this house, I put my clothes in the washing machine, and yes, kinda”

She stared... “You’re bleeding ... clean up in the downstairs shower then we will look at you” I walked across the wood floors and slipped into the shower. It took some time to warm, but I rinsed my hands in the slowly warming water, finding cheap soap in the shower already. After 15 min of wonderful hot water, I tried to exit only to find Ellen standing there with paper towels and a frown. “Nope, stand in the tub, if you bleed on this floor again, so help me god I will slap you”.