Free Web Novel"Matt! They're coming from the left!"
"I see them."
Matt moved his thumbs over the handheld console.
His character turned to the left and fired three shots at the zombies crawling toward the wooden fence.
Two dropped.
The third kept moving with half its body destroyed, dragging itself across the game's grass with a determination that made no sense for something already dead.
Matt fired a fourth time.
The zombie's head exploded on the screen, and the body stopped moving.
"Good," Matt said, without looking away from his console. "How are the crops coming?"
Noxx did not answer right away.
She had the console gripped with both hands. Her thumbs moved with a clumsiness that had not completely disappeared, but it was much less noticeable than at the beginning.
Her character was kneeling in front of a row of corn, holding a harvesting tool, with an options menu open in the corner of the screen.
"I'm working on it."
"How much do you have left?"
"I don't know. The corn doesn't grow faster just because I stare at it..."
"I'm not asking you to stare at it. I'm asking you to harvest it."
"That's what I'm doing!"
Matt looked at his own screen. His character's health bar was yellow.
Not red yet, but close.
He needed healing.
The food Noxx could cook with the corn was the only way to recover health in this game, and that meant he needed that corn before the next wave arrived.
And the next wave was going to arrive soon.
"Noxx."
"What?"
"I need you to hurry."
"I am hurrying!"
Matt turned his character to the right.
More zombies.
Five this time.
They came from the edge of the map, walking between the dead trees with that slow, repetitive animation the game gave them.
But they were not slow.
Not anymore on day eleven.
On day eleven, the zombies walked faster. They had more health. They dealt more damage. And they came in bigger groups.
Matt fired.
One fell.
He fired again.
Another fell.
Matt reloaded, and the three remaining ones kept advancing.
"Noxx, seriously. I need help."
"Hold on a little longer! I'm almost done harvesting the corn!"
"How much is 'almost'?"
"I don't know! The menu has too many options and I can't find the quick harvest button!"
Matt pressed his lips together and fired two more times.
One zombie fell, and the other two reached the fence.
Their hands slammed against the wood. The sound the game made was a dry, repetitive crack that played every time a zombie attacked a structure. The fence's health bar began to drop.
"Noxx."
"Almost there! I only have one row left!"
Matt switched weapons, from the rifle to the shotgun. He fired point-blank at the first zombie, but the recoil pushed his character back.
The zombie lost an arm but kept hitting the fence.
He fired again.
The zombie fell.
The other one kept hitting.
The fence was in the red.
"Noxx!"
"I'm harvesting! I'm harvesting! I have the corn now! Now I need to go to the cooking menu to prepare the food and—!"
The fence broke.
The last zombie went through the gap. And behind it, five more that Matt had not seen.
They came from behind, from the blind spot the game's camera did not cover.
The five zombies poured through the broken fence.
Three went straight for Noxx's character.
"Matt!"
"Shoot them!"
"I can't! I have the cooking menu open! It won't let me switch to my weapon!"
"Close the menu!"
"Which button closes the menu?!"
"The back one! The back button!"
Noxx pressed a button.
The menu did not close.
She pressed another.
The menu opened an advanced recipes subcategory.
"Not that one!"
The zombies reached Noxx's character. They surrounded her. All three began hitting her. The health bar dropped from green to yellow, from yellow to red, and from red to nothing.
Noxx's screen went dark.
[PLAYER 2 HAS DIED] appeared in white letters over a black background.
Noxx stared at the screen.
Matt tried to react. He turned his character toward the zombies that had killed Noxx.
He fired.
Two fell.
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But the three remaining ones, plus the others still coming from outside the broken fence, were too many.
They surrounded him.
They hit him.
His health bar, which was already yellow, dropped to red in two seconds.
Matt's screen went dark.
[PLAYER 1 HAS DIED] appeared in white letters.
Then, below that:
[DAY 11 — GAME OVER]
Silence.
Matt and Noxx lowered their consoles and looked at each other.
"I'm sorry," Noxx said. Her voice came out low. Her eyes were on the floor. "If I had harvested faster, you would have had the food in time and—"
"You did better."
Noxx lifted her head.
"What?"
"You did better. This time we lasted eleven days."
Noxx looked at him, not understanding.
"Before, we couldn't get past five."
It was true.
The first games had been disasters.
The first time, Noxx had not known how to move her character, and a zombie killed her on day one.
The second time, she planted the seeds in the wrong place, and the game destroyed them for being outside the farming area.
The third time, she managed to harvest something, but she could not find the cooking menu and ended up standing there with her hands full of wheat, unable to do anything while the zombies destroyed everything.
Each game had been a little better than the last.
And this one had been the best.
Eleven days.
"But I still suck at this," Noxx said, worried. "I miss every shot when I try to shoot. The controls are too complicated. And that menu has so many options that every time I open it, I get lost and take twice as long to do anything..."
Matt looked at her.
"And that frustrates you."
"Yes."
"But you had fun."
Noxx frowned.
"No."
"No?"
"No. Playing this game is very frustrating." Noxx squeezed the console between her hands. Her knuckles turned white. "Even more than fighting the beasts in the cave!"
Matt laughed.
"That's an exaggeration."
"It is not an exaggeration! At least when I fought the beasts in the cave, I knew what to do! Aim and shoot! Here I have to aim, shoot, harvest, cook, build, repair, and do everything at the same time with buttons I don't understand!"
"You're so dramatic."
"I am not!"
"Yes, you are." Matt narrowed his eyes at her. "Besides, you were clearly laughing every time you mastered something in the game."
Noxx froze.
"What?"
"Every time you managed to do something. When you harvested your first corn. When you built the first fence without help. When you shot that zombie in the head for the first time and the game gave you that 'critical hit' effect. You laughed."
Noxx opened her mouth.
"I did not—"
"Yes, you did."
"I didn't laugh."
"Yes, you laughed."
"No. I don't do that. I don't—"
Matt imitated her. He put on an expression of restrained surprise. Eyes wide, but trying not to open them too much. Lips pressed together, but curving upward at the corners. Head tilted slightly downward, trying to hide the smile behind his bangs.
It was an exaggerated, crude, and ridiculous imitation.
But it was recognizable.
Noxx looked at him.
"I didn't... I didn't make that face."
"Yes, you did."
"No."
"That exact face. Every time something went well for you."
Noxx opened her mouth to deny it again. But the certainty in Matt's voice stopped her.
He was not joking.
He was not making fun of her.
He was saying what he had seen.
'Did I really make that expression?'
Noxx did not know. She did not pay attention to her own face when she played. She was too focused on the screen, on the buttons, on not missing, on not dying, on not making a fool of herself in front of Matt.
But if Matt said it...
Noxx lowered her head, and heat rose to her cheeks.
"...I didn't notice..."
"There's nothing wrong with it."
"..."
"Noxx."
Noxx did not lift her head.
"Don't be embarrassed. I like seeing you improve."
Noxx heard those words.
She heard them, processed them, and understood them.
Improve.
The word stayed floating in her head.
Improve.
More than making her happy, that word hurt.
Because improving was what she had promised to do.
Improving was what she had told Matt she would do when he was still in the cave.
Improve to be useful.
Improve to be strong.
Improve to help him.
And the biggest promise she had made him.
Help him escape.
Noxx remembered that moment.
She remembered the confidence with which she had said it.
The conviction in her voice.
The certainty that she could do it.
That she would be able to deceive the queen.
That she would find a way to get him out of that place.
She had said it with so much confidence.
With so much pride...
With how much ego had she said it?
How much arrogance had been in those words?
Because now, after everything that had happened, after seeing what the queen was capable of doing, after being unable to do anything while Matt slept, after being unable to take control of the body when he fainted, after needing a loud blonde girl to do what she could not...
Could she really improve enough?
Noxx's hands slowly lowered.
The console rested on her lap. Her fingers loosened from the edges. Her palms opened and fell to the sides of her body, lifeless, without strength.
Something hot appeared in her eyes. A slow buildup of heat behind her eyelids that kept growing until she could no longer hold it back.
The first tear fell.
Silence.
Matt saw her. His expression changed. The relaxed smile he had vanished. His eyes opened slightly, and his body leaned forward.
Matt had not expected that.
'Did she get that emotional over the game?' Matt thought.
Matt did not understand why Noxx was crying, but his mind connected the most obvious thing.
They had been playing, but they had lost. Noxx had gotten frustrated with the controls and with her performance.
Maybe the accumulated frustration from so many failed games had hit her all at once.
"Hey."
Noxx did not lift her head. The tears kept falling, silently. No sobbing. No noise. Just water running down her cheeks and dripping onto the console on her lap.
"You don't have to cry just because we lost."
Noxx did not answer.
"We can keep playing. Next time we'll make it to day fifteen. Or day twenty. It's just a matter of practice."
Noxx shook her head.
"It's not that..." Her voice came out broken.
Matt went still.
"It's not the game, Matt."
Matt's expression turned serious. His eyes narrowed a little, and he shifted in front of her.
"What's wrong?"
Noxx wiped her tears with the back of her hand.
Her hand trembled, and the tears kept coming.
"I'm useless."
Matt frowned.
"What?"
"I'm useless, Matt."
"Noxx—"
"In every important moment we've had, I've been completely useless."
The words came out of her mouth with a clarity that contrasted with her tears.
She was not speaking from emotion.
She was speaking from something she had been thinking about for a long time.
Something she had analyzed, reviewed, and confirmed in her head again and again during the entire time Matt had been asleep.
"You invested time in teaching me how to fight. A lot of time. In the cave. You taught me how to shoot. You taught me how to move. You taught me how to control the body. And despite all that, I was barely any help against the cave boss."
Matt opened his mouth, but Noxx continued.
"And when you left the cave. When you ascended and reached the outside world. When you fainted in the queen's arms. I was there, Matt. I was conscious. I knew you were fainting. I knew I had to do something. I had to take control of the body. I had to react."
The tears came faster.
"And I couldn't."
Noxx wiped her face again.
It did not help.
The tears kept coming.
"I couldn't take control. I couldn't move. I couldn't do absolutely anything while the queen grabbed you and carried you to her room and locked you inside..."
Noxx lowered her hands and let them fall onto the console. Her fingers curled around the edges, squeezing it as if it were the only solid thing in the world.
"And then, when you were asleep. When your consciousness was trapped. The girl found you. That girl, who has existed for less time than I have, who doesn't know how to put on clothes, who doesn't understand what it means to read the room, she was able to reach you and bring you back."
Noxx lifted her head.
Her red eyes were full of tears, and her face was wet, her lips trembling.
"I couldn't do anything. No matter how much I try, Matt. No matter how hard I work to improve, to do something right..."
Her voice broke.
"Am I really useful?"
"If you hadn't taken control the first time we fought the cave boss, I would be dead."
Matt's voice was dry and direct.
Noxx looked at him, surprised.
"Dead, Noxx. Not injured. Not unconscious. Dead."
Noxx said nothing. The surprise dried her tears for a moment. Not because she stopped feeling what she felt, but because the seriousness in Matt's voice threw her off.
Matt almost never spoke like this.
Matt used sarcasm.
He used his shitty sense of humor.
But for him to speak to her like this now...
"And if I had died," Matt continued, "the bow-lance never would have awakened, so she wouldn't have been able to do what she did either. None of what happened afterward would have happened."
Noxx processed those words.
Matt looked straight into her eyes. Without looking away. Without blinking.
"But I only ran," Noxx said. Her voice came out small. Weak. "When I took control against the boss, the only thing I did was run. I led it away. I evaded it. But I didn't face it. I just ran."
"And by running, you saved my life."
"But running isn't the answer to facing the queen. If one day we have to—"
"You are not useless."
Matt interrupted her.
The words cut Noxx off completely.
Noxx closed her mouth.
"When we faced the cave boss for the second time," Matt said, "I separated from you. I used the division. And something went wrong. My wings didn't appear. I started falling."
Noxx remembered that moment.
She remembered it perfectly.
Every second.
Every detail.
"You had the boss in front of you. It was exposed. If you had attacked at that moment, you could have damaged it. You could have used the opening."
Matt paused.
"But you didn't. You came for me. You reacted quickly. You saved me before I fell into the void. You had to choose between attacking the boss and saving me, and you chose me."
Noxx looked at him.
"That is not what someone useless does, Noxx."
Tears appeared in Noxx's eyes again. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
But these were different.
"That is not what a coward does."
Matt lowered his voice. Not much. Just a little.
"You are my savior."
Noxx looked at him. Her eyes widened. The tears stopped for a moment, suspended on her lashes, without falling.
Heat rushed to her face.
"What... what did you say?"
Matt looked away.
Noxx saw that his ears were a little red.
Only a little.
"I said I'm grateful that you saved my life."
Matt was not looking at her. His eyes were fixed on the wall in front of him, his jaw tense and his shoulders stiff.
"And you've proven many times that you're more obedient than Iris."
Noxx blinked.
"So... I see you as my partner."
Noxx did not move.
The words entered her head.
Partner.
Noxx repeated the word in her mind.
'Partner.'
She repeated it again.
'Partner...'
One more time.
'I'm his partner...'
The tears returned with more force than before.
Noxx felt all the pressure she had been carrying for weeks, for months, for all the time she had existed inside Matt's head, burst out all at once.
