by Dawn Chapman
Her eyes didn’t falter, and she gently squeezed my hand. “Rytin hasn’t trusted anyone from outside in a long time. The fact he let you in and is doing all of this—” She waved over my gear, “—means he’s seen a lot more than we have.”
She pulled me in closer to her, and I could feel her breath on my ear. I shivered from head to toes and she knew it. The scent of her perfume filled my nose.
“Kyle, don’t let him down, please.”
I noticed the look her brother was giving me, and I tried to pull back. “I don’t want to let anyone down, least of all you. Nehi, whatever it takes. I will do it. Understood?”
Even while I watched her brother’s reaction, she kissed the side of my cheek, and I loved it. The feel of her soft lips against me was very real.
Then I felt something else. There was something moving against my skin. An alert flashed up.
NANITE WARNING
THERE IS AN INVASION FORCE ATTACKING YOUR OUTER SYSTEM.
MAY WE RETALIATE?
Y/N
What? I didn’t know what the hell was going on here.
I looked to her, and her eyes fell, face flushed. She couldn’t look at me. Reece was talking to Derk now, and Rytin looked to have his eyes closed. All I could see was Nehi and her posture, defeated. It didn’t look like her at all. At least the girl I’d come to know, the one I wanted to know.
I wanted to know more. I needed to. Had I been duped? Was Nehi some kind of spy for the opposition? No, she couldn’t be, but she could have been set up. But this, no…
Anger at what was going on outside my skin pulled me away from her.
She sat back. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Scared as I yanked off the belt and moved to the back of the shuttle, I struggled to wipe my face. It burned, itched like crazy.
I turned to face her, betrayal, shock. I didn’t know all the emotions that filled my veins.
“What did you just do?” I shouted at her.
She paled before us all. “I didn’t do anything. I don’t know what you mean.”
She tried to backtrack to get away from us, from me. I rushed at her, and Derk just managed to get his belt off and stop me before I did something I would regret. I had my hands around her throat in no time, and she didn’t even attempt to stop me.
Yes, I shouted into my mind. Retaliate, fight back! Get me out of this!
My vision altered, and the world around me faded as the nanites in my system went out to strike at those who were trying to get inside me to do gawd-only-knew what damage.
Reece took his own belts off, and I saw him move to her as he raised a fist he said harshly, “You fucking traitorous bitch.”
I hadn’t expected their family unit to start to fall apart. “Wait, she may have been set up. Give me—I need more time.”
NANITE ENGINEER RANK 7 ACHIEVED, AND BOY, DO YOU NEED IT NOW!
YOUR RANK GIVES YOUR NANITES A 20% BETTER CHANCE OF OVERCOMING THE ENEMY
BETTER TAKE NOTES—THESE LITTLE WARRIORS ARE GOING HEAD TO HEAD ON YOUR BEHALF!
Through a separate screen now I could see the two lines of nanites going to war. The codes in mine were not matching Nehi’s at all. I knew they didn’t belong to her.
The more I thought about it, the more I knew there was no way Nehi hadn’t known. I stared her down.
“You knew?” Reece asked her. “What did you do?” I could see the fury in his eyes, and the red that flashed up the side of his neck.
“Slow down,” I said. I needed to try and stay calm. I needed to stop him. There was murder there.
It happened in a flash, she crumpled, and then Reece was at her side, trying to support her as she went down.
I was then with the two of them. I could cope. My nanites were on the case. Xe was up, and she wasn’t letting anything get the better of me. I could see the battle that was starting to take place on my skin. I watched as though it were a TV show going on. Like my screen was split, and I could see the real world and their world.
I moved in to kneel beside Nehi. I placed my hand on hers and squeezed this time. “It’s okay. Don’t worry. Be honest. What happened?”
“She promised me. She said she wouldn’t do anything to hurt any of us, if I did this, if I gave her you.”
“Who? Who the fuck?” She had no idea who Rytin was, how strong— and she’d sold me out.
I had only one clue as to what Team Twenty-Four wanted this for: revenge. To show the whole base that they were the top, the elite? And there was only one her that would have done this. Saskia.
Nehi babbled on, a mess. I couldn’t believe it, after everything I’d just said to her.
Red flashes started going off all over my internal systems.
“Sit. We need to get you sorted.” Rytin was up and at my side instead, leaving her to collapse in tears once more. “Transport. Reece, you need to get us to Alek. Now.”
“Who’s Alek?” I asked as I sat back down.
My vision blurred. Red explosions. Notifications going everywhere, I couldn’t even catch them.
Rytin stared at me, and I knew he was assessing the damage. “He’s probably the only one who can save you now, and only if we get you to him fast.”
Save me? It was that serious? What the hell did she inject me with? I could hear her sobs, something that I would never forget.
“I’m sorry, Reece, Derk.” But she was left alone. I could see Reece and Derk trying their best to convince the shuttle pilots to make a change. They couldn’t get through the barrier at the moment, and it was not looking good for me. I panicked as my health started to fall. My chest started constricting, and I struggled to breathe.
Rytin placed his hand on my chest, counting my breaths. “Get that fucking copilot door open now!”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“What are you sorry for?” he asked me. Pain ripped through me then, and my eyes glazed over. “You didn’t ask for this, right?”
I couldn’t listen to Nehi’s cries anymore. I wanted to tell her everything I said was out, that even if I’d actually wanted her, I would never look at her like that ever again. I could never trust her again, but I think she knew that. It was written on her tear-stained face.
Derk managed to force the panel at the side of the cockpit open, and within seconds both pilots were under their control. Reece was in the pilot’s seat, and they were strapped in across from me, looking rather forlorn at Nehi.
Rytin stayed with me, and as my breathing reached an all-time high he took my face in both hands. “Look at me,” he ordered.
I focussed in on him and tried not to let anything else get the attention that it was all screaming for.
But my health bar was turning orange, then red. Flashing. The pain higher than anything I’d ever experienced. I wondered if it were a full-on setting. One hundred percent seemed extreme; I was sure it wasn’t that high. Maybe seventy percent? Whatever it was, this right now was worse than being mauled by a dweller and ripping my own arm off.
PARTY ESCORT TO BASE SEVEN
YOU ARE DEVIATING FROM YOUR FLIGHT PLAN. GET BACK
ON TRACK OR YOU WILL FORFEIT YOUR MISSION AND RIGHTS TO ANY OTHERS OF THIS CALIBER FOR 2 MONTHS!
CONSEQUENCES WILL BE SEVERE!
“The mission,” I croaked out.
“Don’t worry about anything else going on, focus on me. Tell me what your system’s telling you? Word for word, I need to know what’s going on. Exactly.”
I needed to focus, but as my health fell even more, I couldn’t.
“Derk, ETA to Alek?”
“Five minutes. We’re way out even in this transport.”
“Shit,” I heard him say.
I felt myself being hefted into the air and then laid down somewhere else. It was as if all my internal stuff was failing, and with all the notifications going off, I knew they really were.
“Kyle, I’m gonna need you to focus on me, right now. Tell me you can hear me. Tell me you can understand what�
��s going on and what I want?”
I struggled to form words in my mind and force them up and out through my vocal cords. I could understand him, but I didn’t know how to act.
The shuttle dipped and vibrated with the turbulence as we made headway against some terrible winds. Or was it? No, it seemed to be incoming fire.
“Nehi. Get the med pack now. Healing injections. Anything. Get it into him!”
“Where—we—going?” I managed to spit out.
“Fuck, you’re not even out of basic and we’re screwed.” He stared at me, and I saw emotion there, real deep pain for what was going on.
I watched my red bar drop more and wondered why this death would mean more to Rytin than any other. It just seemed like it was going to be a huge inconvenience. Something was weird here, and I wanted to ask.
“Who. Is. Alek?”
I felt needles in the side of my neck, but I focussed still on Rytin, his face so calm, yet his eyes filled with panic.
“Alek is someone I would sooner you hadn’t needed to meet just yet.” He took the injection devices from Nehi and gave me more. “But he will sort you out. It will, however, break my cover, so I’m out. I can’t stay at Delta anymore. I’m done.”
He looked to Nehi and she couldn’t look him in the eyes. “What have I done? I’m sorry!” She still wailed.
“The injections will work. Just give them some more time.”
“Just shoot me!” I said. “I’ll respawn.”
“No. Too many penalties now.” He shook his head. “Something feels different too.”
I didn’t understand.
“Give me your knife it’s sharper than mine,” Rytin said to Nehi. Nehi shook her head. “You can’t?”
I spat out, “Can’t what?”
She still handed him her knife though. As soon as I saw the glint of silver I knew what he was going to do.
“I’m sorry, but I gotta get rid of it.” He came at me. “Nehi, you’ll have to hold him steady.”
“I don’t want her anywhere fucking near me.” I spat.
“If you trust anyone here, Kyle, trust me. She wants to redeem herself. It was a mistake, the biggest mistake of her fucking life, but she has to do this.” Then to Nehi, “If I miss, I’ll cut his friggin’ eye out, and I don’t want to have to be replacing that. Bad enough he’s going to need a major overhaul.”
Fuck, he’s gonna cut your face off, I heard from somewhere on the inside. Then I saw my nanites start a mass retreat, trying their best to hold off the attackers from a distance. I was going to lose a ton of them.
Xe? I asked.
I am safe. But we will lose so many.
I almost felt her sadness. Could a nanite be sad?
Then Nehi was behind me, holding my head through the turbulence.
My breathing was hard, heart rate far too fast.
“Fuck,” I said as the knife drew closer. “Fuck.”
When the cold metal reached my skin, I tried not to flinch as it started to slice. It cut through easy, and the pain was minimal.
I bit down on something, and as the taste of stuff filled my mouth, realised what it was. My tongue. I’d bitten my tongue. At least I could feel something other than my face being sliced away.
However, as my skin started to pull and separate, I also saw the notifications start to die off. Like someone else was dealing with them, I mean I knew I wasn’t. But they were being dismissed. The red went to yellow and then faded once more. Would I get a new face? Would that be enough to throw the Jackals?
NANITE LOSSES = MINUS 4,982 TOTAL 7,147
“Talk to me,” Rytin said. “What’s going on?”
“I’m out of danger,” I managed to sputter out.
PARTY ESCORT TO BASE SEVEN ABORTED
YOU HAVE FAILED YOUR ASSIGNED MISSION
CONSEQUENCES LOGGED
ON YOUR RETURN TO BASE YOU WILL BE SEVERELY REPRIMANDED NO HIGH-LEVEL JOBS FOR TWO MONTHS! AND DEMOTED FROM ELITE!
YOU’RE TOTALLY SCREWED! IF THEY LET YOU STAY AT ALL!
Oh shit, those consequences. This was beyond awful!
“ETA two minutes. We’re coming in hot, though,” Derk said. “There’s drones and frexul around.”
“Fuck me, we’re in for some shit,” Rytin said. He glanced to Nehi. “Get your gear on, you’re out first.”
She didn’t argue with him. She just pushed herself up and got ready.
Chapter Eleven
“I’d like to help,” a voice said. When I looked over, it was the co-pilot who had spoken. “We may be out of our area, and you’ve taken us where you shouldn’t and where we shouldn’t be. But we’d rather help than respawn and lose something. Can we fight?”
I saw Rytin look to the pilot too. “Who are you?”
“Mora. And Ven. Just simple level thirteens.” The pilot—Mora— tried to smile at me but couldn’t meet my eyes. “Masters of ships and networks, nothing more. But we both know how to handle a gun and the frexul. If you’ll have us with you, not just sitting here.”
Rytin looked to the door, then back at them. “Sure, we’ll probably need you. I don’t need to tell you the risks here or the truths to what’s going on, right?”
Mora looked to Ven. “If we can help you return to base, nothing happened. We’ll swear it. We took you to your original destination. That’s it. Seems you guys can get off grid by yourselves, right?”
Rytin turned away.
Reece called out to us. “Alek is waiting.”
The shuttle started to vibrate all the more as it came into land.
The air on my skin stung. I felt every tiny draft that was blowing around the shuttle, and each bump seemed to make it all worse.
I looked to Nehi, and she met my gaze for a moment, nothing longer.
HEALTH – 58%
INJURIES – MODERATE = YOUR NANITES STOPPED YOU BLEEDING OUT AND ARE WINNING ONCE MORE! YOU OWE THESE TOY SOLDIERS A FEW BEERS, SON!
My health had stopped falling and I picked myself up off the bench with Rytin’s help.
“Do you think you can fight if you have to?” he asked.
I just nodded, not really sure if I could. If we were heading into some hostile environment, I wanted to help. I needed to. I wasn’t just going to be the bane of their existence.
“Good. We’ll need you.” He patted my shoulder, and we took a stance with Nehi.
“I can’t forgive that. Ever,” I said to her, my heart destroyed.
She nodded at me. “I’ll do everything in my power to help. To prove to you it wasn’t really me.”
I wasn’t really ready for anything that was going to come our way.
But I’d try. I wasn’t feeling sick anymore, just numb.
Nehi glanced back at me, but she didn’t say anything. I knew she was feeling like shit. I could see it in the slump of her back, the way she held her gun. She was full of remorse. I just hoped it would be something she could use to defend us.
As the door started to open, I saw them. What were the frexul? Monsters. Not like the M-Wolf, and not like anything I’d fought before. They looked almost human, bipedal with weapons, armour. I actually wanted to take a step. I didn’t want to be here. Whatever this side of the planet was, I needed to just get away from it. My worst nightmare. I wasn’t sure if I could hurt something that looked like us.
The moment they fired on me that was it. I was not going to let them get in any shots if it would take out Rytin or the others. Mora and Ven pushed past me, making sure that they were taking good positions, and I let them. My face was killing me. I felt the air on it all the more; its every sinew and muscle was exposed.
HEALTH – 46%
RAGING INFECTION SETTING IN. THIS IS THE FIGHT OF YOUR LIFE! YOU CAN’T HOLD OUT AGAINST ALL THE GERMS. THEY HAVE A FULL-ON WAY TO GET INSIDE!
My system was telling me that infection was setting in from something in the atmosphere, something I hadn’t been exposed to before. I wondered what kind of healing stuff—or anything—this guy
had that we were going to see. How could a mission that we were going to nail just suddenly turn so wrong? I sucked in a breath as a laser whizzed past my ears.
I scowled at Nehi as she looked at me. “If we all die here today, this is your fault.”
She lowered her face and fired everything she had.
Then I noticed something ahead of me. There was something else behind them all; it stood there firing a real weapon. I noticed the large mechanics of it, the stature. It was big. Much bigger than us. As the others started to move out of the shuttle, the frexul retreated a little but stayed hanging around. I guess they realised they didn’t have a chance against a real team of players. They would be destroyed, and we’d get our way anyway. So it was probably better that they all didn’t die.
Nehi was first out, followed by Mora and Ven. She covered most of the view with her weapons, and I saw her cast out a large shimmering shield.
“What the fuck! Why didn’t you use that against the forest dwellers?” I asked her. Rytin looked to me to move.
“I was under orders to hide our biggest skill sets. You wouldn’t have levelled up as quickly with us all full throttle!” she said.
Rytin urged me on again, and I obliged, following them as close as I could without tripping over my own feet. Everything looked odd. Blurry. The colours were distorted. Was it the area or my lack of face?
SIGHT FAILING = 75% VISUAL ACUITY
I stumbled, and Derk caught me with Reece by his side. “We got you.”
I couldn’t really do much but let them guide me. I wanted to help, but the more I tried, the worse it was.
I could see movement up ahead and focussed on trying to make sure I kept moving. I had to trust that Derk and Reece weren’t going to let me fall over anything as we continued to follow Rytin.
SIGHT FAILING = 40% VISUAL ACUITY