Thao was helpless as he was punched and kicked, unable to put up even the token defence he’d been hoping to give. He was going to die, Thao thought with detachment. First, they would kill or incapacitate him and then Layla, lying unconscious in the other room.
Footsteps thudded through the doorway, sounding titanically slow and heavy compared to the lightning-fast and skittering movements of Jackrabbit Slim. Kohler filled the broken entrance. The bulky tanks and jetpack rode high on the man’s shoulder, his armour scorched but completely intact. The room filled with a stench like gasoline to announce his arrival. Thao started to get up as if to make a run for it but Jackrabbit stomped him back down. Kohler plodded over with feet like iron weights, the pilot lights for his twin flamethrowers flickering at his wrists and bleeding tiny drops of liquid fire onto the floor.
“Please! You don’t-, you don’t have to do this! I’m not even who they said I am, Thao isn’t my real name! I’m-, they’re lying! They just want us to kill each other like animals!” Thao said.
Thao’s voice was pleading. Kohler and Jackrabbit just stared, silent as statues. Even with their expressionless masks, Thao could tell he was having no impact on the two merciless killers so he changed tact.
“Don’t you want a fair fight?” Thao said, “The whole world is watching, killing me while I’m helpless that’s-, nothing! My partner is the real badass, you’re just going to kill her in her sleep like a couple of cowards?”
Slowly and sadistically, Kohler brought one of his flamethrowers around and aimed at Thao from point-blank range. His partner, Jackrabbit Slim, stepped away so he wouldn’t be caught in the splash zone. Thao felt like he was smirking under his bunny-eared mask. A two-second blast would be enough to melt Thao’s flesh to the bone, burn his face right off his skull and make sure he spent the last few milliseconds of his life in agonising pain. Kohler spoke for the first time. His voice was flat and mechanical through whatever apparatus in his helmet allowed him to speak.
“Burn.” Kohler said.
Thao had only one shot as his hand snapped to the side of his leg. He pulled the shock baton out of its holster and unfolded it in one brisk movement. After the suit had withstood a blast from Drago’s M32 grenade launcher, Thao didn’t know if a jolt from the baton would even penetrate Kohler’s armour. Forked tip crackling, Thao jammed the weapon into the crook of Kohler’s elbow. Thao was surprised and gratified as Kohler’s left arm jolted outward and jerked on the flamethrower mounted to his wrist.
A jet of pure fire roared out of the muzzle. The heat was incredible and Thao automatically shielded his face. Instead of hitting Thao, the inferno engulfed Jackrabbit Slim. Jackrabbit staggered back as he was hosed in flame and let a high-pitched scream from behind his mask. His Desert Eagle fell from his hand and hit the carpet with a loud thump, landing almost within reach for Thao.
Wreathed in an orange blaze that quickly climbed across his body, Jackrabbit shot across the room and slammed into the wall. His face couldn’t be seen behind his mask but Thao could hear him screaming and screaming as the gluey flames ate through his armour and clothing into his flesh. Even Kohler seemed stunned as Jackrabbit bounced off the walls like a pinball, thrashing and burning.
Thao stood up and hit Kohler again with the shock baton. The armour over Kohler’s chest was too thick, however. The baton had no effect. Thao needed something more direct than the M32 grenade launcher Layla had used. Thao ducked and rolled, and grabbed the Desert Eagle handgun that Jackrabbit had dropped. The Desert Eagle was unnecessarily massive and barely fit in Thao’s hand. Kohler was wheeling around, much slower than Jackrabbit or Thao, with his feet thumping. Thao shakily raised the Desert Eagle to the slit in Kohler’s mask.
Kohler turned his flamethrowers on Thao, fires building, but Thao pulled back on the trigger first, over and over. The pistol’s recoil hammered up Thao’s arms and twisted both of his wrists painfully. A couple of bullets ricocheted off the featureless mask but one round drilled through the left side of the mask’s slit and gouged into Kohler’s head. One of Kohler’s thick, gloved hands shot to the eyehole. The scarred man inside the suit didn’t die right away but he stumbled back and collapsed heavily. His armour refused to fold in on itself so he just slumped to the ground.
Kohler’s kill switch started to sing, connected to Jackrabbit Slim’s bracelet. Jackrabbit didn’t even seem to notice, he was still throwing himself against the walls and the floor trying to put out the flames that were clinging to him like tar. Thao could see raw, red flesh under the parts of Jackrabbit’s armour that had burnt away. Clasping the Desert Eagle in both hands, Thao emptied the weapon into Jackrabbit while he was still burning. Jackrabbit was slammed against the wall repeatedly. The soldier’s head whiplashed sideways with one .50 calibre bullet coring through his skull and he flopped to the ground.
Arms falling to his sides, Thao looked from one body to the other in disbelief. He wondered about the eyes watching him that moment, the cameras and the audiences worldwide. He’d hesitated before but when pushed to the very, very edge, Thao hadn’t even thought about what he was doing. Nor could be believe in the seconds it took to act that it had actually worked out for him, no matter how much he’d been underestimated. Thao felt sick and he dropped the heavy pistol, staggering back across the room.
Once he had recovered his senses, Thao went to check on Layla. She was still unconscious with the medical droid working on her. It had cut away the armour around Layla’s wounded shoulder. Thao wondered if she’d genuinely believed she was going to wake up again after the droid drugged her.
Thao returned to the waiting room to recover the guns Jackrabbit had taken from him. He stuffed the pistol back in his belt and carried Layla’s P90 as he paced around the clinic. Outside it got dark but Thao was surprised as he saw some of the streetlamps flickering on. Standing at crooked angles along the ruined streets the lights were still hooked into some kind of grid and illuminated with a soft glow, just like the lights in the rundown clinic itself. The central building where the heart of the Slayerz operation was located was lit up like beacon.
Thao was pacing the clinic when he heard a noise outside. He was doing his best to ignore the gasoline stench and sorry state of Kohler and Jackrabbit’s bodies. With Layla’s P90 raised, Thao whipped around on the doorway. It took him several seconds to realise the shape in the broken door was a man with a gun already pointed in his direction. For some reason the other man hadn’t already cut him down.
“Don’t do it, don’t move.” Church Harper, the ex-champion, said, “We’re not here to hurt you.”
Chapter Nineteen.
“Escape your pathetic human frailties. Upload your consciousness into THE CUBE. Replace your weak human flesh with metal. There will be no struggle in THE CUBE. No pain. No fear. No love. You will outlast your family. Your friends. The Earth. The Sun. All will be uploaded into THE CUBE or be consumed by the endless march of entropy.”
“This message brought to you by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
“Well, Rick, so much for our teams of ringers because it seems like they’re all rung out!” One of the Slayerz commentators said, “The Tanner triplets, Cindy Crusher and Maryanne Mauler, and now even our veterans Donny Kohler and Jackrabbit Slim are out of the race with only one of the original teams taken out!”
“That’s right, Fred, I guess experience counts! Thao Seong showed us an old Korean recipe for roasted rabbit. Flamethrowers are just not the most team-friendly of weapons.” The second commentator said, “Now what exactly is Church Harper up to, Fred? Only four teams remaining, or four and a half if you like, and we see three of them teaming up? We’ve seen team-ups of two pairs before, but three? How do they expect that to work?”
“Fortunately, I think the showrunners still have at least one big surprise up their sleeve now that the ringers are down, Rick.” The first man said.
Baxter Webley / Reaper
Billy Blight / Wing Chun
Church Harper / Jeannie St Sunshine
Donna Pardee / Raptor Rawlins
Drago Vorobyov / Wolf Hutchins
Drake Mooney / Billy-Bob Boomer
Francois Connard / Neena Twist
Jacob Schmidt / Pedro de la Mar
Layla Jackson / Thao Seong
Q. Chrissie / Maurice Lester
Santa Muerte / Priest
T-Bone West / Runner
Titama / Anaconda
Ursula Paxton / Dogboy
Yoyo Yokatomi / Mark Rizzio
RINGERS
Cassidy Crusher / Maryanne Mauler
Donny Kohler / Jackrabbit Slim
Luke Tanner / Lonny Tanner / Lorelai Tanner
“Put the gun down.” Church Harper said.
“No, you lower your gun first.” Thao said.
Thao felt overconfident since taking out Jackrabbit and Kohler on his own. He gripped Layla’s P90 even harder. Stepping inside, Church looked around as if for traps and slowly lowered the bulky auto-shotgun. After a few moments he turned and shouted back through the broken doorway.
“It’s alright, come on in.” Church turned to Thao again, “Where’s your partner?”
“She’s-, she’s in the other room.” Thao said.
Thao stiffened as three other contestants filed into the clinic. There was Church’s partner, Jeannie St. Sunshine, as well as Titama and Anaconda. Titama, tall and muscular like Layla, was supporting her also heavily muscled partner. Her hair was pulled back in a tight braid and half her face was covered in a tribal tattoo. Anaconda was clasping at his stomach and blood ran from the wound, dripping down both legs and onto the floor. His face was drawn and pale but staring at Thao with open hostility. The others all seemed suspicious but they were following Church’s lead.
With a jolt, Thao realised for the first time that he actually had a winning advantage. His weapon was raised and only Titama, holding her sledgehammer slightly drawn back in her free hand, seemed at all ready for him. With a long enough burst he could potentially wipe out all four of the other contestants and bring the game almost to a finish. But it was only a thought and Thao knew he couldn’t possibly gun down a group that was coming to him, seemingly in peace. He was still reeling from getting the drop on Kohler and Jackrabbit and killing them in self-defence. He didn’t want to believe it had actually changed him into a murderer.
“If we’d wanted to kill you, we could have taken out the whole building from the outside.” Church said.
Church pulled a brick of plastic explosive out of his coat and showed it to Thao. They were still carrying the bricks and detonators he had stolen from Connard and Neena Twist.
“Could have tossed one straight through the front door.” Church said, “Hit the switch before you even knew you were dead.”
“Okay, so what do you want?” Thao said.
“What do you remember from before the game started? Nothing, right? Neither does Jeannie or him.” Church gestured towards Anaconda, “Blank slates, we saw you on the highlight reel after taking out Drago and Hutchins. I’m guessing you were in the police station looking for answers?”
“Yeah, my name isn’t even Thao Seong! It’s Thomas Nguyen, I’ve got a degree in engineering, I work as a journalist, I’m married and I’m innocent! There was a DNA scanner in there that told me everything, but I don’t know what I’m doing in here.” Thao said, “I just want to find out.”
Thao lowered the P90. They found a seat for Anaconda to settle in and some of the tension went out of the room. Church stayed by the door with his gun still ready. As far as they knew, they were still being tracked by Santa Muerte and Priest.
“I signed on to kill criminals, it’s what I do.” Church said, “I don’t apologise for it, murderers, drug pushers, rapists, cannibals, psychos, this show is as good a place to do it as any, but no innocents, no civilians. Now I’m thinking the people that run this show thought they could turn me into their attack dog, to kill whoever they wanted.”
“Okay, I don’t know about that.” Thao said, “But what’s our next move here? If I’m innocent, and we assume Jeannie and Anaconda were put here wrongly as well, then what do we do?”
“You know, just because I knocked off a few people, I don’t know about this argument that I deserve to be here.” Titama said.
“That’s not what I meant! I just-, I don’t think Layla deserves to be here either, no one does. But if they’re only allowed to take life sentence and death row prisoners then how come we’re here?” Thao said, “Why now? Do you remember anything about before? Any flashes of memory?”
Jeannie shook her head but Anaconda looked up, letting out a pained groan.
“Maybe, nothing special, just flashes of stuff.” Anaconda said, “Driving in a car with people, friends I guess, and I remembered working at this big house before, like in the garden.”
“Did you still have the tattoo in your memories?” Thao asked.
Anaconda looked down at his bloodstained hands in uncertainty. He studied the head of the tattooed snake that started on his right hand and wound its way up his arm, over his shoulders, and down his left side as well.
“No, I don’t think so.” Anaconda said, “I don’t really remember.”
“They changed us into whoever they wanted us to be. My face on the DNA scanner was different, and one of the women they said I murdered, I think she was my wife.” Thao said, “But Layla thought they could be blocking out or editing everything we say in real time, so even with the whole world watching we can’t tell anyone!”
“That’s some bullshit and all, but right now Anaconda needs medical stuff, that’s part of why we came here.” Titama said, “I assume that’s where your partner is?”
“Yeah, I mean, she’s in the other room getting treated.” Thao said, “The droid knocked her out with something before it went to work.”
“You two check it out, see if there are any supplies we can use apart from the medical droid.” Church said, “The thing will probably self-destruct after it’s done being used on just one contestant.”
Thao and Titama moved back to the surgery where the droid, on the end of its mechanical arm, was hovering over Layla. The soldier was still unconscious as the droid worked on her shoulder. It had cut away part of her damaged armour, her muscular and bloodied arm spread across the table. The other arm, her light grey prosthesis, was deactivated at her other side. The droid siphoned and cleansed blood from the raw flesh as it worked. It didn’t look up from its work.
“Oi, Mr Robot, where are the medical supplies at?” Titama said.
“That’s Dr Robot, thank you, I didn’t spend four minutes and thirty-nine-point-seven seconds being uploaded with the sum total of all human medical knowledge to be called mister.” The droid replied, “Sorry, that was my levity subroutine, I’m afraid I’m not authorised to help more than one patient at this time.”
“Forget it, come on.” Titama said.
The cabinets looked like they had been cleared out recently but there were still a couple of first aid kits left behind, stocked with bandages and other basic supplies. Titama was careful not to completely turn her back on Thao. She carried her sledgehammer around near the head, ready to lash out at a moment’s notice if she needed to. They took what they could find and returned to the waiting room.
“There are pressure bandages, they should stop the bleeding at least.” Thao said.
“We need to get the bullet out.” Titama said.
“The bullet can stay where it is for now, you’d do more damage trying to dig around to get at it.” Church said.
Church was still standing by the doorway but he’d dragged the heavy body of Donny Kohler over to his position. He was going over the corpse for anything they could use. The flamethrowers and jetpack all seemed to be integral to Kohler’s life support suit and couldn’t be removed.
Anaconda rolled up his shirt and stripped it off, soaked in blood. Jeannie helped bind up his midsection and wiped off some
of the blood. Anaconda groaned but the bandages seemed to hold him together once they were done. After a while the maps on their wrists updated and showed the three teams clustered around the medical clinic. Santa Muerte and Priest were still some distance away. Maybe they weren’t crazy enough to think they could take on three or even two teams at once.
“I’ve-, I’ve got to check on Layla.” Thao said.
“Let me join you.” Church said.
When they returned to the surgery the droid was almost finished. It had repaired the damage to Layla’s shoulder from the Desert Eagle, stitching bone back together and repairing the flesh before sealing it closed. One of the droid’s arms ended in a spray device that hosed a pale mist onto Layla’s shoulder. A pink coating formed across the bloody scarring of the bullet wound. Church seemed oddly fascinated.
“What is that?” Church asked.
“Synth skin, much tougher than natural human skin but biodegradable.” Dr Robot said, “Eventually the body breaks it down and replaces it with its own cells but in the meantime it forms a hard, almost plastic coating over the injury.”
“The wonders of modern medicine.” Church said.
Church studied the other attachments on the droid’s multiple arms, which all together made it look like an oversized Swiss Army Knife. A laser scalpel was still smoking, drawn back to the droid’s side. Church tapped Thao on the shoulder and led him out of the room. Thao followed him down the hallway and into one of the clinic’s empty storage closets.
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