Table of Contents:
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One - Shrapnel
Chapter Two - Risk
Chapter Three - Climb
Chapter Four - Russian
Chapter Five - Cliff
Chapter Six - Summit
Chapter Seven - Toxin
Chapter Eight - Leeches
Chapter Nine - Waterfall
Chapter Ten - Volcano
Chapter Eleven - Kneecap
Chapter Twelve - Lava
Chapter Thirteen - Desert
Chapter Fourteen - Hacked
Chapter Fifteen - Sandstorm
Chapter Sixteen - Urban
Chapter Seventeen - Parkour
Chapter Eighteen - Jump
Chapter Nineteen - Sprint
Episode 3
Review
About the Author
Nano Contestant
Episode 2:
Ultimate Endurance
A Sci-Fi Technothriller
Copyright © 2014 Leif Sterling
All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited. This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold.
Thank you for reading.
For more information and release schedule, please visit:
www.LeifSterling.com
Dedication:
To my Dad, who always makes time.
CHAPTER ONE:
SHRAPNEL
THE CRACK OF the starter gun echoed across the starting line. Adrenaline surged through every contestant.
Roland launched himself from his starting position. The turf churned under his foot as he left. A dirt clod flew up from behind him.
Duke was already two strides ahead of him, and the gap was widening.
The Jamaican woman was barely one step ahead of Duke. Her stride wasted no effort.
Roland thought the command HUD to enable his HUD overlay. Instantly his speed showed in a light green font in the bottom right of his vision: 13 mph. His heart rate showed above his speed. O2 plugin, he thought. His oxygen plugin initiated, and then a small O2 showed up on his HUD in the bottom left of his peripheral view.
He began inhaling. He could feel his lungs hit capacity, and then the plugin began compressing the air in his lungs. He continued inhalation. Despite having practiced a lot over the last few weeks, it was a strange feeling that never really felt natural.
A huge explosion erupted on Roland’s left about 30 feet away. He heard it and then felt its shockwave pulse through his body. Flames leapt high into the sky. He could feel heat from the fire on his back. He turned briefly to look back. He jumped to the side just as the charred remains of an android leg landed right where he had been. Smaller metallic parts continued to rain down around him. A piece of metal singed his arm and bounced off. “Ah!” Roland yelled in surprise and brushed his arm where the piece had hit. The stench from the burnt human hair on his arm stung his nose.
Coach cleared his voice and adjusted his headset tighter. “That would be ‘runner shrapnel’. Get some distance between you and it.”
Roland gave a nod. He and Coach had practiced a number of communication signals that he could do while running that wouldn’t waste energy or oxygen.
Coach watched Roland’s vision feed dip downwards as Roland nodded in acknowledgement. “Organic material is lighter and takes longer to come down. You don’t want to be around when it does.”
Skylar stopped typing for a second and looked at Coach. She scrunched up her nose at the idea and then went back to typing.
Duke also looked over at the explosion and then began laughing. He looked back, directly at Roland. “Hey, Leprechaun! I’m sure that was a nanotech runner.” He pointed at Roland. “And I bet you’re next!” Duke went back to running. “You’re going to die today, Leprechaun!”
Roland saw smoke coming from the grass a few feet ahead. The air smelled like barbecue that had been left on the grill too long. He looked down as he came up on it. It was the smoldering remains of a human foot.
Skylar looked away from Roland’s feed.
Roland gave the thought command for the Fast Twitch plugin. He could feel his muscles pulling tighter like a rubber band being stretched taut. His HUD speed jumped to 19 mph.
Coach watched Skylar pull up the real-time race data provided by Pinnacle. “Roland, we just got access to Pinnacle’s race data and the course map. They create new terrains and routes for each of the Tech Games. It’s always different, and no one has foreknowledge of the course. We are putting together our plans now.”
Skylar watched the live streaming race data. It showed a three dimensional map with little red dots for each contestant’s position. “Roland, you need to adjust your course about ten degrees to your left in order to hit your checkpoint.”
Roland gave the thought command to bring up the compass on his HUD. The compass had been one of his ideas, but Skylar hadn’t been able to get it to work right. Frustrated, she had finally sent it off to her friend Angela, who had built the software infrastructure between his body and the nano cells. Three days later, Angela had sent it back. Now, it was a thing of beauty. A circle appeared in the top left of his HUD with an arrow indicating his present heading. He turned just slightly to make the ten degree course correction from Sky. Then a light green line overlaid the grass in front of him, indicating his route.
Coach was also watching the race data. “Roland, slow it down just a hair. You’ve got three racers coming in on your right. Give them space.”
Roland slowed slightly and looked right. One contestant was out in front, and the two others were trying very hard to catch him. Bright orange flames billowed from both of their robotic arms, and their faces seemed bent on revenge. The one in the lead went right in front of Duke.
Duke hauled off and kicked the racer in the left ankle while bellowing, “Oops!” Then he laughed loudly.
The racer in the lead went flying and then tumbled to the ground. His ankle looked like it was bent much farther around than it should have been. The other two racers caught up to the downed contestant and began beating him with their flaming arms and kicking him savagely. Then a white cloud began coming from their arms and the fire stopped.
Coach shook his head while he watched the grisly site. “Roland, go around them and speed up. You don’t want any part of this.”
Roland sped up and altered his course to avoid them.
“Before the two on fire arrived, your sensors picked up traces of electrocide on the guy who went down.”
Roland leaned his head to the right to indicate that he wanted more information.
“He likely sprayed the electrocide on those two as he went by to short out their circuits. Instead, their tech caught fire so they were trying to catch him. That cloud you saw at the end was halon gas. Their tech guys must have finally got control back and initiated their fire suppression halon system.”
Roland nodded. “Acrid taste?”
“Yeah, the electrocide leaves an acrid metallic taste in the air when it burns.”
Roland nodded again.
“Those two will be pretty badly burned. I doubt they’ll finish the race, and it didn’t look good for the othe
r guy.”
Roland looked back once more at the fire burned contestants. They were still racing. Four emergency responders on hovers had arrived and were attending to the guy on the ground who wasn’t moving.
Roland heard two more explosions, this time further down on his right. He kept running. He increased his pace a little. Duke continued to pull ahead. The Jamaican woman was still a little ahead of Duke.
Roland watched the other runners around him. Their faces were focused and serious. Their running techniques looked well practiced and confident. This is for real, Roland. I must make it. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and slung it into the grass.
Coach kept watching Duke. Then he saw it. Duke changed his posture. He hunkered down a little more. “That’s it, Roland. I’ve been watching Duke. He’s about to do his EMP blast.”
Roland strained to get a better glimpse of Duke.
“He has to brace himself before the blast, or it will throw him off balance. He just hunkered his back and shoulders down from his normal run. He’s about to do it.”
Roland could see, even from seventy-five feet away, that Duke was bent over a little. Roland began angling to the side as he ran.
Duke gave a sudden burst of speed and caught up to the Jamaican woman. Then he reached over with his right hand and pushed a button on his left forearm.
Roland watched as a blue blast of electrical energy, emanating from Duke’s arm, shot out around him in every direction.
The Jamaican woman, who was the closest, was instantly thrown into the air ten feet and then skidded to the ground.
Two other contestants, who were about twenty-five feet away from Duke, were also knocked to the ground.
The Jamaican woman looked up dazed and saw Duke running by her with a hideous grin on his face. She pointed at him. “You!”
Duke threw his head back and laughed loudly at her. “Am I interferrin’ now?” he said mimicking her accent. Then he laughed again and left her there.
Roland made a beeline for the Jamaican woman.
Coach shook his head. “You shouldn’t have to worry about his EMP any more. It uses too much energy to use more than once per race.”
Skylar scanned through Pinnacle’s race data to find the Jamaican woman.
Roland watched as the Jamaican woman tried to stand. He was almost to where she had gone down and was now struggling to get back up. He leaned his head right.
Skylar double checked her screen. “She’s still on Pinnacle’s contestant list, so she must still be in the race.”
Coach looked intently at the Jamaican woman. “Roland, help her up, but then you have to keep moving.”
Roland nodded. Then he came up behind the Jamaican woman. Her hair had a faint fragrance of cocoa butter. “Can you keep going?”
She reached out to him. “Yeah, mon! My NAV is doing a reboot on my legs.”
Roland took her arm and put it around his shoulder and then helped her to her feet.
She managed a short hop forward. “Just help me take two steps, and I’ll be ok.”
Roland helped her take the two steps forward. All around them they could hear explosions and yelling. Then he took her arm off his shoulder but was still steadying her.
She lifted each knee. “I’m good!” They both started running again.
Then she turned on the speed and quickly pulled away from Roland. She turned her head back. “I’m going to catch the ugly one and beat him!”
Roland gave a half smile. Then he gave the thought command to bring up his time on his HUD.
Skylar also checked his official race time. “You are coming up on your first mile, and you are just over six minutes.”
Coach adjusted his headset. “Helping her cost you some time, Roland. You’ll have to make it up later.”
Roland nodded and settled back into his stride. He thought about his father and Pinnacle’s conspiracy that had his dad condemned to death. Now he needed to get close to Pinnacle in order to expose them. Only the top forty-eight contestants, out of the one thousand entrants, would be allowed to move on to the actual Tech Games. Those contestants would be allowed to stay at Pinnacle’s headquarters for the duration of the Tech Games, which would allow him the opportunity to find the evidence to clear his dad’s name. I’m my dad’s only chance. I’ve got to be one of those forty-eight to cross that finish line today.
Coach took a sip of his water. “Now, you are coming up on your first check point in about a quarter mile. That will be the 1.2 mile marker. Enjoy this flat land while you’ve got it. Next, you’ve got ten miles in the mountains.”
Roland took a deep breath of compressed air and ran hard to make up time.
CHAPTER TWO:
RISK
PINNACLE’S RED TRACKER light in Roland’s arm lit up when he was within fifty feet of the checkpoint. The checkpoint consisted of two thick metal poles about fifteen feet apart with a banner stretched between them. The banner read, “Welcome to Checkpoint 1: Mountains.” He checked his race time, 7:15 for the first 1.2 miles. He leaned his head right.
Skylar looked over at the race data. “Roland, you are in position 657 out of a thousand.”
Roland nodded. I’ve got to pass over six hundred people to stay in this race.
Forty other racers were going through the checkpoint at the same time he was. They were crowded together as they went through, brushing shoulders and stepping on some toes. Roland could smell the combined sweat of the forty contestants around him. As soon as he passed under the banner, the light in his arm changed from red to green and then went out. Pinnacle employees were lined up after the checkpoint handing out small paper cups of water. Roland grabbed one in each hand and quickly downed them both. The slate grey mountain loomed in front of him about a quarter mile off. Its peak was obscured by clouds.
Skylar and Coach examined a three dimensional, holographic map of the course.
Coach adjusted his headset. “Roland, they have a wall built around the mountain. You can stay on flat land the whole time, but it will add an additional fifteen miles to this segment. The top of the mountain is a plateau. You have a more direct route if you take the switchback road up the mountain and run across the top of the plateau. I say climb it.”
Roland gave a nod and a thumbs up.
“Up the mountain it is then. Elevation is about fourteen thousand feet. Air will be thin and cold up there.”
Skylar plotted out Roland’s course for the summit. “Roland, you need to adjust about four degrees to your left.”
Roland adjusted left until the compass in his HUD showed the right heading. He looked once more at his alternate route. It was very flat and level. He recognized the Jamaican woman taking off that way. She was moving really fast.
Coach watched her run. “Wow, she must have some incredible speed if she thinks she can make it that way.”
Roland turned back towards the mountain. The terrain around him had started to change. The grass was becoming more sparse, and small rocks dotted the sides of the trail. The rest of the contestants were headed towards the mountain.
Two contestants were running on Roland’s left. The male, a hybrid with an android arm and leg, began gaining a lead on the female. Then the woman, an athletic looking digital, took an extra long stride and tripped the man. Roland watched in near slow motion as the man pitched forward. His head was lined up perfectly with a big rock on the ground. He tried to brace himself but was too surprised. The right side of his face ground against the rock as he impacted it, his momentum propelling him unwillingly forward. The woman took the opportunity to quickly pass the downed racer. The man staggered to his feet. Roland could see the side of the man’s face. His cheek now looked like a freshly tenderized steak. Bits of his jawbone gleamed in the sunlight where the rock’s rough surface had torn through the skin. Bright red blood dripped from the openings. He picked up a rock the size of his fist and threw it at the woman. With unusual accuracy, the rock struck the woman squarely in the back of the he
ad and lodged there. The woman collapsed like a dropped sack of flour. She convulsed once and then did not move again. The man took a few more steps and then he also collapsed.
Skylar had completely stopped typing as she watched the scene unfold. “Watch your back, Roland. What’s the chances that guy would land on the rock face first?”
Roland nodded. The air smelled of iron from the fresh blood flow as he passed them.
Coach sighed. “None of that was accidental. Both of them were using trajectory prediction apps. The woman carefully selected that exact spot to trip him. She had planned for him to do a face plant into that rock. I don’t think she counted on him getting back up though.” Coach kept watching Roland’s screen. “His trajectory app made sure he hit her right in the back of the head. Now they are both out of the games.”
Roland looked back over his shoulder just in time to see medics arrive next to both of them. He shook his head. He had turned off his Fast Twitch plugin at the checkpoint, because it was so congested. Now he wanted to get out of here. He gave the thought command Fast Twitch plugin. He could feel the muscles in his legs being pulled taut. His HUD showed that the plugin was enabled. Next, he gave the thought command Proximity Sensor. This plugin gave him better distance ranging on objects and people in front of him. He figured it would probably get more crowded as he neared the summit, and the visibility was worsened by the low hanging clouds. He passed several runners, weaving in between them as went.
The ground began to incline, and some of the runners were slowing. Roland continued to pass them. The rocks changed to boulders, and the grass changed to pine trees. His breathing was becoming more labored as the incline increased and required more energy to keep going. The dense trees opened up and gave full view to the switchback road that was cut into the side of the mountain. Roland eyed the road. Its snakelike curves winding almost the full width and breadth of the mountain. Then a metallic glint on the side of the mountain caught his eye. Roland tried to see it but couldn’t make it out. He pointed at it and continued running.
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