“How are you feeling?” Alyson asked.
“I’m fine,” I replied. “I can breathe again.”
Before I could add anything else, Alyson suddenly rushed forward toward me. She bumped against me, wrapping her arms around my body. Though we both were wearing space battle suits, her hug felt good.
Alyson hugged me for a few seconds, then stepped backward.
“I’m glad you’re alive and well,” she said, with tangible relief in her voice.
“What happened, guys?” I asked as I looked around. We were in the main room of the dropship.
“You don’t remember?” Nate asked.
“Well, I remember floating toward what I assumed was the asteroid before I passed out,” I said.
“That’s right,” Nate replied. “You were moving toward the asteroid when we picked you up.”
“You picked me up?” I asked. I then remembered the small dot that seemed to detach itself from the bigger one to begin to move toward me. So it had been the dropship that had started to move away from the asteroid.
“Yep,” Nate replied. “At some point, we suddenly could see you on the Map again when you got closer to our position. We were hovering above the asteroid’s surface. As soon as we spotted you on the Map, we told Echo to fly the dropship toward you. However, the bloody AI refused to do so because you were still outside the playable zone. Echo said he couldn’t risk our lives even though there was actually no risk involved at all. We could’ve picked you up and gotten back inside the playable zone within thirty seconds. Anyways, we had to wait until you got within the playable zone. Then Echo finally flew the dropship toward you and we picked you up.”
“Thanks, guys,” I said.
“There’s one more thing,” Nate said. “You weren’t breathing when we got you here. And your heart wasn’t beating.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Nate replied. “At first, we thought we were too late to do anything to save you. Then Alyson gave your mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.”
I looked at Alyson and asked, “You did?”
Her face quickly turning completely red, the girl lowered her eyes and said quietly, “Yes.”
“And it seems to have done the trick,” Nate finished, grinning. You’re alive and well. Alyson’s revived you.”
I put a hand on the girl’s shoulder and looked at Nate.
“Thank you, guys,” I said. “You saved my life. I would be dead were it not for you.”
“Don’t mention it,” Nate said. “You would do the same for us.”
“Yeah,” I said as I looked around once more. Vlad was nowhere in sight, but I noticed that one of the four pods was closed.
Only then did I remember what had happened back on the asteroid, and anger rose in me.
“Is the bastard in the pod?” I asked.
“Yes,” Nate replied. “When Alyson and I got back to the dropship, he was already here.”
I was not sure if Vlad wanted to ditch us all. However, even if he wanted, he would not have been able to do so because Echo would not leave the asteroid without the other members of our team if they were alive. So he had had no choice but to wait in the dropship for the rest of us to return.
“We disarmed him and forced him to get in his pod,” Nate finished.
“Guess he didn’t like it,” I said.
“He did not,” Nate replied. “He hates those things. But we didn’t give him much of a choice.”
“What about the asteroid and the mining colony?” I asked. “Were there any survivors?”
“As far as we know, there were not,” Nate replied. “Echo didn’t detect any ships leaving the asteroid. The mining colony is completely destroyed. The asteroid itself, surprisingly, didn’t break apart, though.”
“It was my fault,” I said. “I failed to stop Vlad.”
Nate put a hand on my shoulder. “No, David, it wasn’t your fault. You did all you could.”
Suddenly, anger rose in me and it took me a few seconds to stifle it. When I calmed down a bit, I asked, “So what do we do with that bastard?”
“First of all, we need to get out of here,” Nate said. “Our mission is complete. There’s nothing else for us to do here. We need to return to the space station because the playable zone is shrinking.”
I quickly checked the Map and realized that Nate was right. In a couple of minutes, the playable zone would cease to exist. We had to leave this place.
I also checked my Character Menu. I received experience points for the mission but not enough to level up to 31 yet.
“When we get back to the space station, we have to ask Echo some questions,” Nate said. “This mission was clearly a mistake. We have to find out what’s going on.” Nate shot an angry look at the closed pod with Vlad inside and added, “But before that, I’m going to beat the crap out of that arsehole for what he’s done here.”
We then climbed into our pods and were put to sleep.
When I woke up, I just stared at the closed lid above me. Even though I was still inside the pod, I knew that the dropship had returned to our space station.
After a little while, the lid slid open. I sat up and instantly heard some noise behind me. I glanced back over my shoulder and saw Vlad jump out of his pod and race out of the main room of the dropship.
I quickly climbed out of my pod and made to run after Vlad, but Nate stopped me.
“We don’t know what he’s up to,” he said. “So we had better stay together.”
“He’s unarmed,” I said.
“Yes,” Nate replied. “But he can get weapons in the Preparation Room and the Training Room.”
He was right. Vlad had defeated me back on the asteroid. It was really hard for me to take him down on my own. If the Russian was planning to attack us, we had better stay together.
Nate, Alyson, and I left the dropship and looked around the hangar of the space station. Vlad was nowhere in sight. When we entered the Preparation Room, we found it empty as well.
“Where the hell is he?” I muttered.
“Echo, do you know where Vlad is?” Nate asked.
The AI’s voice emanated from everywhere. “Yes, I do. He is in the Control Room.”
Nate and I looked at each other.
“What is he doing there?” Nate asked.
“He is standing in front of the window and looking in the direction of the elevator,” came the reply from Echo.
“This is strange,” I said.
I had expected Vlad to either get weapons in the Preparation Room and ambush us or run away and hide somewhere. Instead, he had trapped himself in the Control Room with nowhere to run and was clearly waiting for us to get there.
“Looks like we don’t have to hurry then,” I said.
“Yeah.”
We put off our space battle suits and donned our casual clothes. We then put our weapons in the vac-tube.
“Let’s go,” Nate said and began to walk down the corridor toward the elevator. Alyson and I followed him.
Half a minute later, the elevator room stopped its descent and the door slid open. We stepped into the Control Room.
As Echo had told us, Vlad was standing next to the window, staring at us. He knew that we were angry with him for what he had done. Glaring at us with unblinking eyes, he snarled, “What do you want from me? I completed the mission. I did what we were supposed to do. It’s not my fault you don’t have balls for that.”
Nate started walking toward the Russian.
“You killed thousands of people,” Nate said, his voice trembling with anger. “They were not pirates or bandits. They were just workers.”
“I did what needed to be done,” Vlad said. “Our mission was to destroy the place. And I did it.”
“This mission was a mistake,” Nate said.
“I don’t think so,” Vlad said. “Not that I care.”
“Oh, I will make you care,�
�� Nate said with menace in his voice as he continued to walk toward the Russian.
“Don’t you fucking move,” Vlad snarled.
Nate ignored him.
I suddenly realized that Vlad kept his right hand behind his back. He was obviously hiding something.
“Nate, wait,” I said.
The British guy did not react to my words. He continued to stride toward the Russian. Alyson suddenly rushed after Nate as if sensing that something was going to happen.
Vlad suddenly pulled his hand from behind his back. I saw that he was holding a pistol in it. He pointed the weapon at Nate.
The British guy stopped when he saw the pistol in Vlad’s hand. Alyson, who was running after him, bumped against his back.
“Is this a gun?” Nate said with doubt in his voice.
“Yes, it is, Captain Obvious,” Vlad said.
“Where the hell did you get it?” I asked.
“I think what you wanted to ask is how the hell I managed to bring a weapon to the Control Room,” Vlad said.
I did not reply, waiting for him to continue. I never received an answer to my question, though.
“I don’t think you really expect me to spill the beans, don’t you, Dave?” Vlad said, with a smug grin on his face.
“When have you brought the gun here?” I asked.
Vlad replied, “Dunno. A couple of months ago, I think.”
I suddenly remembered something. A few months ago, Vlad had returned to the Control Room, doing his best to look casual. However, it had been obvious that he had been in a lifted mood, hiding a smile.
And now I finally found out why. He must have been able to find a way to bring a gun to the Control Room.
Before that event, Vlad had kept to himself and hardly ever showed up in the Control Room. I had believed that he had been up to something but had never caught him doing anything suspicious. Yet as it had just turned out, he had been doing something suspicious. He had somehow managed to find a way to bring a gun to the Control Room.
And after that event, he had been spending lots of time with us in the Control Room because he had had the pistol on him and did not have to avoid us any longer.
“Where did you keep it all this time?” I asked.
Vlad pointed at his pod.
“Between that coffin and the wall,” he replied.
When I looked in that direction, I suddenly realized there was a narrow space between each teleportation chamber and the wall next to it. I had never really been aware of that, because I had never had a reason to look behind my pod or any of the other ones.
“I think it’s a fake gun,” Nate suddenly said.
Vlad raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
Ignoring the Russian’s sarcasm, Nate asked, “Echo, how have Vlad managed to bring a gun here?”
Usually, when asked a question, the AI replied immediately. This time, however, we had to wait a few seconds before we finally got an answer.
“The Control Room is the Safe Zone,” Echo said. “No weapon can be brought to the Control Room.”
“See?” Nate said. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
Vlad sighed, then shifted his aim slightly away from the British guy and pulled the trigger. The pistol in his hand barked once, spitting out a bullet. It zipped through the air, barely missing Nate, and punched the rear wall, exploding on impact. Alyson cried out in surprise and pressed her body against Nate’s as if seeking protection.
So we now knew two things for sure. First, the pistol in Vlad’s hand was real. And second, while we could not use our Active and Ultimate Abilities in the Control Room, our Passive Abilities were still active in here. On our first mission, Vlad had learned a skill that infused his bullets with dark energy, turning them into mini-grenades. That was why the slug he had just fired exploded when it impacted the wall.
“Echo, how the bloody hell this arsehole managed to get this effing pistol in this room?” Nate asked.
Echo did not say anything for a little while. Then he replied, “There is no weapon in the Control Room.”
A smug grin slowly spread across the Russian’s face.
“He’s holding a gun, Echo,” Nate said, raising his voice.
This time, Echo was silent for almost a full minute before he finally said a single word, “Error.”
Vlad let out a short laugh.
“He may have hacked the AI,” Alyson said quietly.
“I don’t think so,” Nate said. “He’s too stupid for that.”
However, Vlad had been smart enough to lure us into that trap. He had known that fighting against the three of us would be hard. So he had done something else instead. He had gotten in the Control Room, well aware that we would not be able to bring any weapons. While we had been changing into our casual clothes and putting our weapons in the vac-tube, he had retrieved his pistol from behind his pod.
And now we were trapped. While the three of us were unarmed, Vlad had a pistol.
And he was also smart enough to have found a way to bring a weapon to the Control Room. So he was not as dumb as we had thought.
“So calm your panties, ladies,” the Russian said. “Don’t get yourselves all worked up over nothing.”
Nate had already gotten over his initial surprise, and anger was rising in him again. He began walking toward the Russian again.
“Over nothing?” Nate said. “Killing hundreds of innocent people is nothing for you?”
No longer smiling, Vlad whipped up his pistol and pointed it at Nate again.
“Don’t fucking move,” he barked.
Vlad was scared. He seemed to be unwilling to kill any of us probably because he did not know what consequences would follow the murder of a teammate. But at the same time, he was not eager to let Nate get to him, because he was well aware that the British guy was strong enough to beat him to a pulp.
“I don’t think you’ll shoot me,” Nate said.
“I will,” Vlad almost yelled. “So stop, goddammit.”
Nate continued to walk toward him. He was beside himself with anger. Alyson was clinging to his arm, trying to stop him, but to no avail.
I realized Vlad was going to shoot him. He squinted slightly, taking aim, and the knuckle of his index finger whitened as he began to put pressure on the trigger.
“Nate, wait,” I yelled.
At the last moment, Nate stopped moving, having finally realized Vlad was about to fire at him.
However, it was too late.
Alyson jumped in front of the British guy. I was not sure what she wanted to do, push Nate in the chest in an attempt to stop him from moving or try to reason with Vlad.
We never found out.
“No,” she screamed. “Don’t—”
She did not finish her sentence.
The pistol in Vlad’s hand barked. The slug that was supposed to go into Nate’s chest, drilled into Alyson’s head instead because the girl was in front of Nate. The dark-energy-infused round lanced into her skull and exploded inside, half her head exploding in a fountain of bone and brain matter. Gory pieces of flesh splattered Nate’s clothes.
The body of the girl bumped against Nate, then collapsed to the floor. It thrashed a few times in death throes, blood pouring from the nasty wound in her head, then went still.
Alyson’s Passive Ability was Regeneration, so the nanotrites in her body began to restore her badly wounded head. However, the girl was dead and beyond revival, so the nanotrites gave up after a few seconds, either having gotten deactivated now that their host was dead or having simply stopped working, seeing no point in trying to revive a corpse.
Nobody said anything for a few seconds.
“The Safe Zone ain’t so safe after all,” Vlad said, a lopsided grin on his face.
“You— you killed her,” Nate said and went silent.
I was too shocked to say or do something. Ten seconds ago, Alyson had been alive, trying to stop N
ate whom she had loved, and now she was dead, half her head missing, blood still pumping out of the wound.
There was some noise behind me. In my peripheral vision, I saw the elevator door slide open and three small robots roll out. They rolled across the room toward Alyson’s body. One of them shot what looked like a beam of light at the body.
“What’s it doing?” Vlad asked, his voice full of nothing else than curiosity.
Alyson’s body seemed to either melt or fall apart as the robot continued to shine a beam of light—or whatever it was—at it. In just a few seconds, the body was reduced to a small pile of dust. Another robot sucked it in while the third one cleaned the floor with a wet mop.
In less than a minute, the robots were done and rolled back to the elevator and left the Control Room. There was no sign whatsoever that Alyson’s boy had been lying on the floor only a minute ago as if she had never even really existed.
Echo’s voice emanated from somewhere, “Warriors, let me inform you that one of your teammates has just passed away.”
“Yeah, no shit, Sherlock,” Vlad said.
Ignoring Vlad’s sarcasm, Echo continued, “Do you want me to initiate the process of searching for another person to join your team?”
Neither Nate nor me said anything.
Vlad said, “Yes, Echo, do it. We need another person on our team. We can’t fight without a healer, can’t we?”
Suddenly, I realized I was going to throw up. Wheeling around, I rushed to the elevator and burst inside. Unfortunately, the Restroom was on another level of the space station. I could not hold it in anymore, so I vomited in the elevator.
When the door opened, there were already the three cleaning robots waiting outside. They instantly rolled in and began to clean my mess.
I staggered out of the elevator and took a few steps down the corridor. My legs were weak and trembling, so I sat on the floor, leaning up against the wall.
I could not believe that Alyson was dead. I just could not.
I remembered all the dangerous missions we had lived through together. I remembered all the times when she had saved my life by patching me up with her magic-like healing abilities. I remembered our very first mission when we had had to deal with a horde of overgrown arachnids and she had told us that she was afraid of spiders. I remembered our last mission when she had hugged me after she and Nate saved my life. I remembered all the times Alyson, Nate, and I had spent together on the space station, joking and laughing, and telling one another stories from our lives on Earth.
The Weaponized: The Complete LitRPG Series Page 30