Exodus: Guns And Gore 28 Road Trip

Quinn frowned disapprovingly, "what are you doing Tal?"

She made a face at her husband, "I shouldn't go in there, but I can't help myself. Have you seen this?"

Quinn sipped his coffee, "secret p.o.r.n stash?"

"What? Of course not, QJ doesn't have something like that."

Quinn sighed heavily, "I feel like I've failed him as a father."

"Very funny," Tal scooted closer to him and opened the notebook. It was hand drawn plans of a building. "Do you know what it is?"

Quinn leaned closer, "looks like an apartment building. Lots of amenities, including pool, exercise area, and rec room. It even has a cafeteria."

Tal shook her head in amazement, "it's designed to exist in both worlds at the same time. Every door, every appliance can be operated in VR and in the real world." Tal whistled softly, "real-time neural overlays. I have to show Naomi these designs."

"So families that include virtual people could actually live together." Quinn turned the page and started reading the notes, "all real groceries would exist virtually, so when you cook something, the virtual equivalent would also be prepared."

Tal pushed the notebook toward him. "I could spend more time with my daughters, more time with Leah and Mojo. Talk to your son Quinn."

"Huh? What for?" Quinn continued to page through the notebook.

"I want you to have it built, get QJ onboard." Tal s.n.a.t.c.hed the notebook back and headed out toward the front door. "I'm going to talk to Naomi real quick before I put this back."

Quinn raised an eyebrow causing her to pause. "Might be overstepping a bit hun."

Tal looked down at the notebook, her pretty face turning red. "I... of course Quinn. Talk to QJ first, I shouldn't have snooped."

"No worries, I'll keep it secret. I'm good at that." Quinn smiled to himself, he had noticed a certain person had logged into the house for several hours the night before. He made sure to delete the log record before his morning run.

********

"Isn't it early to start munching?" QJ grinned at his co-pilot, she had opened the bag the moment they pulled out of the driveway.

"No such thing." Lotte noisily chomped on her chips, occasionally offering QJ one. "I skipped breakfast you know."

"Why would you do that?" QJ had picked her up at 0800, after stowing her wheelchair in the bed of the truck he helped get her situated. She had brought several bags worth of junk-food.

She smiled at him, "I was too excited." She wore white capris with a light blue b.u.t.toned shirt. A blue ribbon in her hair completed the look. "Think Breeze is crazy in real life?"

QJ laughed and nodded, "without a doubt." He glanced at the dash hud, he could program the truck to auto drive, but he liked the feel of doing it himself. "We'll stop in Henderson and pick up Sato, then turn South towards Flagstaff."

An hour later they pulled into Henderson, QJ tried not to laugh. There was literally nothing in the town. It had two gas stations and a grocery store. "Didn't I tell you?"

"Oh... well, I'm sure it's a nice place to live." Lotte had the window rolled down while she scanned the area for their cla.s.smate. "There!" She pointed toward one of the gas stations.

A carrot top teenager with a big smile waved at them, he hugged an older woman and then ran towards the truck.

"Nice truck!" Sato threw his bag on the floor and jumped in the back seat. "Wow, it's great to see you both in real life!" He shook hands with QJ and high fived Lotte.

He was covered in freckles, his bright hair was nearly orange. He had recently been out in the sun, evidenced by his red face and nose that was peeling.

Lotte turned in her seat so she could see him better. "I hear the servers will be back up in the morning."

"I can't wait. I didn't get a chance to explore the keep before we had to log off." Sato reached in his bag and pulled out a small cooler. "Drinks?"

"Yep." Lotte accepted a c.o.ke and then handed one to QJ. "Chips?" She offered Sato her half-eaten bag, which he gladly accepted.

"There's a lot of extra stuff that comes with the Keep. Quests, Instances and all sort of gear." QJ gave them a mysterious wink.

"You're a Baron! Have you seen your property yet?" Sato was a second generation gamer like QJ, both his parents played GnG on the Legends server.

"Nope, not yet. It's called Briar Rose, kinda excited to see it."

"My dad says that you really have changed events on the server. The first t.i.tle usually takes at more than a year."

QJ shrugged and grabbed some licorice that Lotte handed him. "We just got lucky really. Everyone in the guild scored some major faction points with the Keep Raid, it won't be long until more t.i.tles are given out. Try and do some faction quests."

Sato nodded, "that's my plan. I guess Briar Rose is supposed to be really awesome. According to lore, it's a bit rundown, but you can fix it up.

Lotte looked surprised, "does anyone own Briar Rose on the Legends Server?"

Sato brought up his hud and showed them images of the property. "This property remained empty in the other servers, it eventually burns down and is never rebuilt."

"Wonder why it was never awarded." QJ sent Anna a quick note asking her to look into everything involving Briar Rose.

"Lore says it was the property of the King's Uncle. He died of natural causes and the place remained empty ever since."

Three hours later they arrived in Flagstaff, their prearranged meeting place was the GnG Planet Cafe.

They pulled up and QJ unloaded Lotte's chair and helped her in. Sato held the doors for them as they walked into the airconditioned restaurant.

QJ couldn't help but smile when he saw Breeze. She was standing near a table and waving with both hands. "I guess that's our table."

"Breeze!" Lotte grinned and accepted a hug from her favorite Chero.

Breeze squeezed her tight before letting her go. She then hugged both Sato and QJ. "Wow... I didn't realize how orange your hair was." She ruffled the redhead's hair with both hands.

QJ Removed a chair from the table and let Lotte park herself. Breeze in person was a very attractive girl. Long black hair and dark skin, she had mentioned she was half Navajo on her mother's side. Her dark brown eyes always seemed to shine with humor.

"Nina's not here yet?" QJ looked around the restaurant, it had a Guns and Gore theme. There was even a poster of Chained Lightning on the wall. He smirked, "hey look, it's the second fastest gunslinger of all time."

Lotte pinched his side when he sat down next to her, he knew she had the same poster in her room.

"Technically the fastest, since Q is not actually a Slinger."

QJ laughed at his cla.s.smates who were all nodding in agreement. "Oh come on, that's lame. Dad being a TAP player shouldn't matter."

"I agree." A pretty Asian girl with short black hair smiled at QJ. "I'd say it was definitely a fair match."

QJ picked up his menu glanced through it. "Just a Bacon Cheeseburger for me please, c.o.ke to drink."

"QJ." Breeze whispered his name causing him to look up. The rest of his cla.s.smates were all staring at him.

"Hmm? You guys not ordering?" QJ glanced back at the woman, who surprisingly took the chair next to him. "Wait... you aren't Nina, right?" He'd only seen her Avatar, so he really had no idea what she looked like irl. (In real life)

"Definitely not Nina." She pulled out a pencil and wrote his order down, "how about you guys?"

The rest of the table stared at her, their eyes wide. None of them said a word. The woman's dark eyes didn't leave QJ.

"Are you fast like Q?" She leaned toward him, one perfectly manicured hand playing with her hair.

"Me?" QJ shook his head, "nowhere near as fast. Perhaps .28 on a good day, but honestly speaking I'm way more accurate."

"That's a serious claim." She laughed lightly, "can you back it up?"

"Um... for a free meal I'll back it up." QJ grinned at her, nothing like a wager to liven things up.

"Gutsy. How about a game of Squares?" She stood up without saying anything and motioned for QJ to follow her.

Square was a mid-range handgun game. Bizzaro had huge tournaments every year. There were 36 small squares set into a large square. These squares had two sides, one blue and the other red. When you shot a square it would flip colors. To start there were 18 blue squares and 18 red ones. The object was to claim the most squares inside of one minute.

"Wow, this is a really nice setup." There were two generic Navy Colts locked to the game, no reloading required. He noticed that his opponent took the blue side, so QJ stepped into the red area. "I'm QJ by the way."

She smiled pleasantly, "Chainy."

"...." QJ.

"Let's wager, anything you like if you win." Chainy grabbed the holster and belted it on.

"Sweet Mother..." QJ looked back at his friends who hadn't left the table. A purple-haired girl had joined them, apparently, they were filling her in. "That's a big statement, what happens if I lose?"

"Q's your dad right? I want a rematch." She crossed her arms in front of her, she could definitely see the resemblance between QJ and her nemesis.

"Er... that's not my call." QJ brought up his hud and waited patiently until his dad's face popped up.

"Hey QJ, what's up?" Quinn was obviously in Ravenwood, his twenty-year-old avatar hadn't changed.

"Kinda stepped in it a bit," QJ explained the wager and how he had thought Chainy was their waitress. His dad burst out laughing halfway through the story.

"Heya Chainy, how're things?" Quinn grinned from his son's hud.

Chainy leaned closer so that he could see her. "Hey Q, been a while."

"You have my permission to wager QJ, however, I'm going to need a favor." Quinn grinned at his son, he loved it when things fell in his lap.

QJ sighed. "What favor?"

"I happened to see your notebook with the VR/RL building plans. I want to push ahead and have it built. Our family needs to spend more time together."

"Just happened to see it?" QJ frowned at his dad, "it's not even finished yet."

Quinn shrugged, "that's fine. Yes or no?"

QJ nodded, "Yes."

Chainy grinned at Q, "be seeing you soon."

Quinn laughed, "yeah... dream on." He signed off without another word.

QJ strapped on the holster and looked at his opponent. "Anything I want is too vague."

Chainy shrugged, "name it then."

"If you lose, you start a new character on the Phoenix Server and join our guild." All of QJ's advice came from either Anna looking it up or his dad. Chainy was a legitimate GnG player who had played high-end content on the Legend Server.

"You want me to play on the new server and join your guild?" Chainy threw her head back and laughed loudly, "I didn't expect that."

QJ held out his hand. "You in?"

Chainy nodded, "let's do this."

*********

"No way." Nina stared at her cla.s.smates. "Holy s.h.i.t... did QJ challenge Chained Lightning?"

Breeze shook her head, "nope. It was actually Chainy that challenged him."

"A bit of a sneaky way to get a rematch with Q." Sato had never been a huge Chainy fan, his parents knew her fairly well. "I'm gonna stream this." He brought up his hud and started streaming it to Ringo.

Lotte clapped her hands, "Let's go QJ!! This is so awesome!" Her loyalties weren't torn at all. QJ had become someone important in her life. She would root for him even against her childhood idol.

GnG Planet Cafe System Message: Squares will begin in 10 seconds and last for one minute. 10...9...

QJ took aim at the first blue square, there were many different strategies. You could play defensively and reflip your own squares after your opponent flipped them. You could try and flip a few squares and then play defense. He preferred his own strategy, complete blitz.

He took a deep breath and waited patiently with this finger on the trigger. The squares lit up and QJ tapped the trigger three times, all three squares in the top blue row flipped to red. He continued shooting and making his way down, he wasn't paying attention to his opponent yet. When he reached the bottom of Chainy's rows, he saw that he was two full rows ahead of his opponent. He immediately started on the last square she shot and moved upward, quickly flipping them back to red.

Chainy finished the row and started chasing him upward. He never missed, his finger pulling the trigger and flipping the squares methodically. By the time the buzzer went off, he had extended his lead.

GnG Planet Cafe System Message: Red Side Wins 24 to 12

Chainy stared at the Squares then down at the gun in her hand. She flung it at the game and then stomped off without saying a word. QJ watched her storm away, he felt a bit embarra.s.sed when his cla.s.smates started clapping, the rest of the cafe quickly joined in.

Nina stood up when he came back to the table, she hugged him. "Holy c.r.a.p, you really p.i.s.sed Chainy off."

"Hey, Nina!" QJ grinned at his purple-haired companion. She was one of the few GnG players who didn't insist on being called by her character name.

A waitress had come by during the Squares game and took everyone's order, she had also notified them that lunch was on the house.

The group ate lunch together, talking and laughing. Nina felt a bit awkward at first, her juniors often teased her in school. Everyone at the table ended up challenging QJ to a game of Squares, it was a ridiculous beat-down.

"d.a.m.n QJ, I didn't realize how fast you could shoot." Sato shook his head and glanced back at the table. "So... three months on an island, Nina or Lotte?"

QJ laughed, "this again?"

"Answer QJ!"

"Lotte."

After the restaurant, the group found a Go-Kart track and spent a few hours racing around the track. Lotte won half of the races, the rest of her friends only winning once. Afterward, they found a nice park and relaxed under a pavilion.

Nina opened up the cooler she had brought and pa.s.sed everyone a beer. "Thanks for having me, I like meeting up in real life."

"I see QJ every day, we are neighbors." Lotte clinked her bottle against his.

Breeze sighed heavily, "that's so lucky. I want to see you guys every day."

Lotte snuck a glance at her neighbor, "QJ has a house. An empty one."

"Huh?" Breeze.

"Pardon?" Nina.

"For real?" Sato.

QJ smiled, "it has six bedrooms. Way too big for just me."

"I'll room with you QJ!" Sato also lived with his parents, they would probably cheer if he moved out.

Nina stared awkwardly at her feet. "Are you inviting us QJ?"

Breeze and Lotte grinned at each other and then smiled at him.

"Um... sure okay. Let me look into it and we'll talk about it in a few days." QJ wasn't in a rush, he enjoyed having his parents and Anna close.

They visited late into the evening before finally saying their goodbyes. QJ put the truck on Auto Drive and joined his two cla.s.smates as they slept all the way back to Henderson.

It was after midnight when he QJ pulled back into his garage. He escorted Lotte back to her front door. "Thanks for coming today!"

Lotte smiled and opened her door. "I had a lot of fun QJ, servers open in the morning. Don't be late!"

"Finally. Remember 0800 at the Keep Hall." QJ waited until she went inside and then walked back to his home.