by Isaac Stone
Another brown uniform barked an order and retreated further into the warehouse. Kurt made certain he could see the direction he took while setting up the iron sites on the rifle at the machine gun. He knew they were protecting something back there. If the machine gun was eliminated, the rest of the gamers could move into the warehouse and find out what it might be. Right now, Kurt wanted to find out what was really happening in this tournament. He’d ceased to care about the outcome, assured it was rigged from the beginning. However, the truth, that was something he wanted to find out before everything ended.
The machine gun was assembled when Kurt had a brilliant idea. He reached inside his backpack and found what he wanted. It wasn’t easy to reach it from his position, but he was able to keep his eyes on the machine gunner while he found the object he sought. Kurt picked it up and looked at it.
It was a thing of death and beauty: the Nergal-7 grenade, also known as the N7 Waltzing Matilda. He snapped it on the grenade launcher attached below the barrel of his assault rifle and leaned out the door.
Jim saw what Kurt was about to do and pushed the other gamers back to the rear of the room where they’d taken a position. He had each of them dive behind whatever barricade they could find. In seconds, they were all down on the floor.
The machine gun crew was in position when Kurt fired the grenade at them. It landed on the floor between the belt feeder and the gunner, but the third member of the crew, busy with the level on the gun, was there as well.
When the grenade hit the floor, it shot straight up in the air. Kurt watched it happen. This was far different from seeing something take place as a rendering on a computer screen. He saw the grenade pop up, start to fall, and then smoke. As he knew what was about to happen, Kurt threw himself on the ground.
Kurt saw a flash of light overhead and then heard a loud bang. Even though it all happened while he was inside the VR chamber, it was real to him. He might be in a skinsuit with a helmet giving him all the information, but it was a reality he expensed.
Once the loud explosion quit ringing in his ears, Kurt looked up.
The machine gun was in pieces. The grenade had detonated right next to it and the shock wave combined with the shrapnel tore it apart. Part of Kurt was sad to see an old antique destroyed, or was until he noticed it was a reproduction manufactured in Asia. It had fooled him.
The rest of the gamer assault force was in the process of getting to their feet. They appeared to be a bit nervous, close to the explosion as they were, it wasn’t a surprise. Some of them wobbled a little, which showed Kurt he wasn’t the only one fooled by reality.
“Thanks,” Jim said, as he looked at the remains of the machine gun crew on the floor. The Ares AI was busy and worked hard to make sure they didn’t see the real form of the machine gunners. By now, Kurt realized the true form of the faceless ones wasn’t robotic mechanicals. However, he no longer cared. It was a fight to the finish.
“Kurt!” a voice called to him from the rear and he turned around.
Bob worked his way through the mess inside the warehouse. Kurt yelled at one of the gamers to hold their fire as he game. The man was seconds away from shooting Bob.
“This one’s friendly!” Kurt yelled out. “He’s helping me.”
“Huh?” Jim spoke and Kurt didn’t bother to explain. There would be time for it later.
“What the hell are you doing here, Bob?” Kurt called out to him as the creature, who’d found an old MR-47 Russian rifle, joined him.
Bob told him. “My family.” He seemed determined.
“Yeah you mentioned them once or twice,” Kurt told him. “But we’ll see this thing through. All right, show us where the Supreme Command can be found. We need to get in there and bring it to an end.”
Bob moved forward and Kurt followed him. He seemed to know where they should go and, by now, Kurt had no reason to doubt his sincerity. Soon, the other gamers were behind them.
“Thought I was supposed to be in charge of this,” Jim grumbled as he moved along.
Chapter 18
Kurt caught up with Bob a few seconds later. Bob was in some kind of office and held the gun on one of the faceless creatures in brown uniforms. This one had to be an important member of the command structure or whatever it was that allowed them to function. There were no more of the things in the warehouse and Bob had the drop on the leader, or so it seemed.
As Kurt stood in amazement, he heard the rapid pattern of gunfire outside the room. He swung around with his assault rifle at shoulder level, only to confront Jim and a few other gamers who were coming up from behind. They too stopped the moment Bob and his gun came into view.
“What were those gunshots about?” Kurt demanded from Jim. “Did you get the last ones?”
“I think so,” Jim responded. “A few of them tried to ambush us as we came in here, but I think that was all there was in this place.” He turned to the game player who stood next to him. “What about your group?”
“We found a room full of those creepy dwarf things,” he said. “They tried to run, but we got all of them. Left a big mess.”
“What did they look like?” Kurt demanded from him. He had a very bad sensation in his mind for some reason.
“None of them were over four foot,” the man described. “Weird, I don’t think a single one carried a gun either, just gnashing teeth, zombie style. We sprayed the room down and they went down hard.” He shook his head.
There was a beeping sound at Jim’s belt and picked up a large, vintage WWII walkie-talkie. “South here,” he spoke into the radio. “Yes, we have it, it’s down on the ground…case is inside…one or two left…when we able to go after the grand prize…I see…no I can’t help you there, you’ll have to deal with it when this is over.” All Kurt could hear was the sound of the radio squawking in the distance.
“Was that Command?” Kurt asked him. “I got the impression they weren’t too happy I was down here causing them no end of trouble.”
Bob still had his gun trained on the leader of the faceless minions. Right now, he appeared to be the only one of the faceless ones left. Kurt realized that Bob and the leader of the faceless were the only two members of the opposition force still in the game.
“It was Command and they want us to follow some scripted scenes,” Jim informed him. “They are ready to shut this whole thing down because of what’s happened, finish it like a movie. I think you really pissed off Rashid. He’s supposed to call personally. That is whom I’m waiting to speak with."
“So what happened down in the staging area?” Kurt asked Jim as they waited for the next call from Rashid. “My team never made it that far. We were all wiped out, save me, before we could reach it.”
“Most of us cut our way through the desert around the town and reached it the second day,” Jim told him as he rested his rifle on the ground, "I didn’t see a lot of action when my team of six ported inside. I had four guys and two women in my team.”
“Lost both girls before we reached our first save point,” he continued. “Got what we needed from it and continued down the road to the town. By then we had a decent map that told us where we were supposed to go. Like you, a wandering battle all the way here.”
“When did you meet the really stiff opposition?” Kurt asked him. He knew the call would take him out of the game, but he wanted as much information as he could before then.
“As soon as we entered the town. It wasn’t much as a town went. I think that damn AI made the place appear more elaborate than it really was. We ran into hordes of those hellish creatures and had to plug every one. It was insane for a while. You couldn’t walk two blocks without running into them. I went through the bulk of my ammunition the first day I was inside there. I heard the same kind of story from every other gamer who made it to the staging area. I think this game arena might actually be a whole region. Not sure where in New Mexico they could find this much land."
Kurt was silent, and Jim continued.
&n
bsp; “The staging area was the real bloodbath. All those things in their black uniforms with death skull insignia attacked us and we hit back. I lost count after I took out 20. One of the guys in my units claims he shot 40. By the end of it, most of us were out of the tournament, just the group I showed up with. The NZ’s had trouble with their guns, but there were so many we were overwhelmed. I’m still surprised they turned and retreated. Do you think they’re programmed to leave after a certain number of damage points? I thought zombies just charged till victory or death.”
"That's what you'd expect." Kurt agreed.
“And furthermore,” Jim finished. “Why is your friend Bob helping us?” Bob still had the gun trained on the leader of the faceless.
“I don’t know,” Kurt responded. “I think they had his family hostage or something. Only reason I can come up with. We managed to rescue them before you guys showed up. It has to be a side quest or story line that they scrapped and didn't intend to activate.”
“That is crazy.”
“Hey,” a voice shouted from beyond the door. It was one of the gamers from the final contingent. He walked into the office where everyone was situated. “Look what we found.”
In with him walked Bob’s family. The woman creature and three smaller versions, whom Kurt assumed to be children. It was a good thing so many of the gamers were already in the room with guns as Bob the hellspawn dropped his gun down and ran to his family. He clutched them close and kept them away from anyone else.
“Guess they all belong together,” the man who brought them in remarked. “Are we running a shooter or a soap opera here?” He shook his head.
The group continued to wait for the final call, while Kurt tried to understand what Rashid planned to gain through this tournament. He’d made statements that the tournament was the first of many. As popular as the Deathmatch game system was, Kurt didn’t expect he’d have a hard time finding contestants. Most of the game players in this one, expected to get corporate sponsorships out of it. This was one of the reasons they expected it to run on schedule and end with a bang the audience, who were supposed to be watching it on screens all over the world, expected.
This led to the next question.
“Was anyone able to find out how the audience is reacting to this thing?” Kurt asked the other gamers in the room.
“I haven’t heard anything,” Jim announced to him. “I thought there’d be interviews when we reached the critical points, but I haven’t seen one reporter in this place.”
“Crazy when you know how easy it would be to bring them into the game,” one of the other gamers mentioned. “All they need to do is project someone into a save point, I thought that was part of what they were for anyway. Hell, if that Ares thing can turn robots into crazed Nazi killers in appearance, it could turn another one into a sportscaster. Don’t know why they haven’t talked to us yet. I couldn’t get any news on the screens at the last save point either.”
Kurt surmised that Rashid wasn’t in the mood to spread much information about the game results, seeing as to how it ran off the rails of what he intended. On the other hand, plenty of people paid money to watch it. The live game feeds were supposed to be a big drawl. Kurt knew plenty of enthusiasts were eager to see the hellspawn bested by the game players in an all-out war. After all, it was bots with images wrapped around fighting each other. What harm could come from it?”
Kurt wasn’t so certain about the innocence of the game. Too many unexplained things happened already. It wasn’t simply the way Bob tried to protect his family, something no robot would do. There were plenty of other things in this tournament that made him suspicious too.
“I don’t think this game will end the way we expect,” Kurt finally spoke. “It was one of the reasons I took control of that drone. Too many things that don’t make sense. Who the hell delivers a case of adamantium as a stage prop? Something very strange is going on in this place.”
“Adamantium?” one of the other men said. “Did you say adamantium?” Not every one of them knew.
“I tangled with the guy who brought it here in the drone,” Kurt explained. “It’s still locked up inside the drone. I think the guy Bob knocked flat was carrying it for some kind of bribe, as per Command, but that doesn't pass logic.”
“Kurt,” Bob called to him. Kurt turned and saw Bob beckoned to him with what passed for an arm.
Seeing no harm in it, Kurt walked over to Bob. After all, Kurt still had his assault rifle and plenty of ammo. What could Bob do to hurt him?
“Not real,” Bob tried to tell him. Kurt noted his voice was harder to hear at this point and guessed Ares worked hard to suppress anything not in keeping with the game.
“I know that,” Kurt told him. “You are supposed to appear to me as the worst thing imaginable so I will have a motive to shoot. People won’t generally shoot at creatures made to look like basset hound puppies. I think I must look mighty scary to you.”
“Wants all dead,” Bob tried to explain.
“I know, can’t win the game unless all the Nazi Zombies are cleared out of the town. It’s in the codex we were handed on arrival.” He tried to make light of it all, which was a mistake.
“Rashid want us dead,” Bob continued. “All of us.”
“It won’t make sense to invite gamers to a worldwide tournament with media coverage and kill them all. There's an angle we just don't see yet.”
“Not you, Kurt. Me. Us.” Bob hugged his family.
“But why? That makes no sense either.”
“Bad things happen here. Long time ago. Until now. Rashid remembers. He never forgets.”
Kurt was about to ask for a further explanation when four men entered the room. This was a new bunch that included Simon the bagman. None of these men appeared to be gamers. What the hell were they doing here if they weren’t part of the game?
“And that is about it, gentlemen,” Simon announced to the room. “Rashid sent me here to clean this mess up before it gets any worse.” He held up some official employment badge assigned to him that appeared to be authentic. Simon had a bandage over his head.
“Every game player to this side of the room,” he ordered, "I need to get this last bit finished so we can finish the tournament."
Kurt really didn’t like where this was headed.
Kurt picked up his rifle and walked over to Simon. He blocked him and the other men from entering the room. “What do you think you’re doing?” Kurt asked Simon. He was inches away from Simon’s face.
“I’m going to get this game back on track,” he told Kurt. “You have messed it up so bad, we’re thinking about porting you out this very minute. We've got commercials buying us some time with a cover story about lagging issues with the feed. Get out of my way or you won’t be paid the least bit for your efforts.”
“I thought there was only one winner in the game.”
“Change of plans. Winner gets the most out of the game prize; the rest is to be divided up among everyone. As I said, you pushed him to make some alterations. And don’t complain because everyone signed a contract that permits him to do it.”
“Right, such as change the rules. Or deliver a case of adamantium to a warehouse filled with fake monsters. Who were you trying to bribe?”
Simon glared at Kurt. “You want to go look at that case now?” he asked. “You’ll find it full of paperwork for the next game. It was delivered here to take notes on how the tournament went down. The one you’ve messed up. Ares had to make some visual changes to keep you interested; we didn’t want that case tossed out of the drone. Adamantium, oh please.”
Simon stepped back and made sure the remainder of the Top Hundred gamers could hear him when he spoke. “Did anyone hear that? I’ll speak it plain in case you didn’t. The game is currently on pause pending some revisions. We need to get a few things eliminated and taken care of before it goes on. There will still be a grand prize, but everyone here gets a special bonus since you made it this far. Rashid dec
ided the game was needlessly complicated and a lot of unnecessary actions took place since it began.” He starred back at Kurt on the final one.
“So do you want to get paid?” Simon asked Kurt one final time. “Out of the way if you do.”
“I think you should do as he says,” Kurt heard a voice from behind him. He turned around to see Jim with a rifle in his hands. The end of the barrel was two inches from Kurt’s head. “We all want to see this thing finished. I think Simon’s offer is good. Now why don’t you get out of his way so we can get back to doing what we like to do?”
Kurt stared down into the barrel. Jim was serious and the other game players in the room had their weapons trained on Kurt as well.
Kurt decided to move. It wasn’t as if he could do a thing to affect the outcome anyway.
Simon and the new men he was with, walked into the middle of the office and escorted the faceless thing to one corner of the room. One of the men stayed with him while the others went to the side of the room where Bob and his monstrous family stood. It was obvious what they planned to do.
Bob turned and looked at Kurt.
In the hellspawn eyes, Kurt saw something else. The image over Bob flickered as Simon began fiddling with a laptop that he'd produced from one of his escort's packs. Ares glitched for a split second. It allowed Kurt to see Bob and his family in a completely new light. They shimmered and faded in and out to something else.
Before him, Kurt saw a man in a burnoose that defended his family. A man who was human and not some Nazi Zombie, as Ares wanted him to see, and not a Deathmatch bot either.
“Gentlemen,” Simon said to the men he arrived with, “do me the honors of taking care of this little problem.” Simon stepped back and out of the way.