I know dying in Sim isn’t that big of a deal, but it feels like one when it happens, you know?

I’m not sure if it’s just that even though we’re some kind of hybridized AI, at our base, we still think in terms of the meat world or if it’s the Sim making us feel that way to create a more realistic experience for the Client. Whichever it is, when Tom got killed by the giant spider (God I hate those freaking things) it hurt.

I ran over to see if there was anything I could do as team medic, but that venom is very potent and it’s fast acting. He was gone before I got there. Ani looked more than a little shell-shocked by the whole thing and Jason and Yoshi were sort of milling around when Paul stepped up.

“Jason, Yoshi, do me a favor and check the bodies, make sure they’re dead. Be sure, I don’t want them surprising us,” he said with quiet authority. “Meg, any chance for Tom?”

I shook my head and closed Tom’s eyes.

Paul sighed and said, “OK, tag the location.”

A few gunshots confirmed that Jason and Yoshi were making sure the spiders really were dead.

“Top up your ammo, take a drink and let’s push on, we’re close,” he said.

I swapped out my partially used pistol magazine for a full one and reholstered. I checked on Ani.

“I never even fired a shot,” she said, dazed. “It was all so fast.”

I gave her face a quick once-over. She was dazed but not in shock. “Take a drink, even if you’re not thirsty.” I told her. “This is your party, do you want to keep going?”

“Uh, yes,” she replied, nodding, looking stronger as she focused. “Yes I’m OK, let’s keep on.”

Paul nodded and told Yoshi to resume as point and assigned Jason to drag, putting himself in the leader’s position in the center of the column. We started back up the hill, keeping a very close watch for signs of motion or anything else that might be a lethal surprise. OK, so maybe I watched his ass move in his jeans too. God he’s a beautiful man. I’m still getting used to his being here and seeing him at his physical peak (we got together later in life) was more than a little distracting. Yup, just watched giant spiders kill a friend and here’s ole’ Meg, horny again. In my defense, the more sex I have, the more I want and I had a ton of it the night before.

We got up the trail to a small, solitary tower. Yoshi held up a fist, the hand sign to stop. We observed the tower for a bit, there didn’t seem to be anything moving around it so Paul nodded to Yoshi and he cautiously approached it while Jason and Paul covered him.

Yoshi gave the signal for all clear and the rest of us went down. A thick wooden door faced the pathway. Jason covered the door with Yoshi ready to rush in. Paul leaned over and pulled it open. Nothing came out so Yoshi went in.

“Clear,” came out a moment later.

The inside of the tower was taken up mostly by a staircase leading down. Yoshi took point again and we cautiously descended. The lower landing was enclosed with an arch leading to the left. In the center of the room beyond was a raised dais with some sort of idol on it, a very conventional looking treasure chest and what appeared to be 2 bodies.

“Meg, check out the bodies. Be careful,” Paul said and, while the guys covered me, I went up the stairs to check on them. They were both female and still warm but were covered in spider-silk. My stomach lurched. I knew what this was.

“They’re implanted,” I said.

“Anything you can do?” Paul asked, coming up to the dais and kneeling next to me.

“Kill them, put them out of their misery,” I shook my head.

The giant spiders captured human females and implanted them with their larvae. Yes, they do it exactly how you think they would. The process puts the woman into a coma. They cover her with spider-silk and the growing larvae eats the host from the inside out, incorporating her genetic material along the way and hatching out as a sort of hybrid spider/human monster.

Ani came up and was examining the lock on the chest.

“I’m pretty sure I can get this open,” she said.

“Action right!” Jason yelled.

A pair of giant spiders burst into the room. Jason dispatched one of them, but the other lunged at Yoshi before he could bring his gun to bear on it. It grabbed him and he danced away from it’s lunging stinger.

Paul’s weapon let out a deafening bellow as he emptied his 20 round magazine into it, shredding it’s midsection.

“Meg, look out!” Ani screamed.

She may have hesitated out on the trail, but she sure as hell didn’t this time. She had her gun out, emptying it into a fully grown human/spider. I got mine and put a few rounds into it too for good measure.

Have I said I hate spiders?

“Report!” Paul yelled.

“Jason, clear!”

“Yoshi, clear. I’m OK!”

“Meg and Ani, Clear!” I said. “We had a hybrid here but it’s dead. I’m going to terminate the hosts so we don’t get hatchlings.”

“Ani, this is gross, don’t watch,” I recommended.

I reloaded my pistol and put a round in each of the host’s heads to put it out of it’s misery and then several into the abdomens to kill the larvae. One of the little bastards started squealing and tried to get out of the host’s body, but I got it.

Pretty anti-climatic after that. Ani got the chest open, it was the treasure and we hauled it back to the camp site. No more issues with creatures and we bid Ani good-bye.

OK, maybe that’s downplaying things a little.

“This has been amazing,” she sobbed into my shoulder, holding me tight enough I thought I was going to pull something. “I’ll never forget you. Don’t forget what I told you.”

“I won’t,” I assured her. “You can message me through the app anytime you want.”

“I will,” she promised.

I got a good-bye kiss that curled my toes. She kissed the boys too.

“You’re a lucky guy,” she told Paul.

“I know it,” he smiled.

She blinked out of the Sim.

“Pleasure working with you,” Yoshi said to Paul, putting his hand out. “You saved my ass back there. Nice work. Hope we do this again.”

“Damn right,” Jason added, clapping him on the shoulder.

“It was…fun, which seems like a weird thing to say,” Paul said.

“Damned right it’s fun,” Jason laughed. “And if you screw up, you just wake up in your bed at home.”

“A little poorer and less likely to get good bookings, but better than dead,” Yoshi added.

“Great as aways little sister,” Jason said to me, giving me a hug. “Treat your man right.”

“Always,” I promised.

We blinked out and woke up in my bed in the captain’s cabin.

“How about some coffee on deck?” I offered.

“Coffee and?” my love asked me.

“You better believe it,” I smiled.