Oozing gore and dark fluids, the creature jerked around in place, tentacles swarming. It could taste the signal from Baxter’s artificial arm on the air. Before the Abomination could narrow it down, Baxter appeared from behind the rubble.
“W-wait! Wait!” Baxter said, “Don’t kill me, I’m like you!”
Baxter held his mechanical right hand outstretched in its clear casing. The game had only started that morning but it felt like a lifetime ago. He was different, Baxter told himself, the day had changed him. It was that same power that had filled him back in the days he and his associates went hunting the homeless from armoured limos. Baxter was a different man, a different animal. He had been fused into something new like the Abomination. Spotting him, the Abomination loomed and patches of watery eyeballs studied Baxter. Impressions of human faces, contorted in agony, were moulded up and down the giant’s sides. The teeth in one protruding jaw looked like ribs that had been turned into long, sharp spears.
“Yes, you understand, don’t you? You and I, we’re not so different.” Baxter said, “We’re the same, angels of death, we can help each other! We can make a deal!”
The Abomination’s tentacles thrashed, still studying Baxter as what passed for its head tilted to one side. Suddenly, it vomited a stream of greenish liquid from one mouth that splattered down Baxter’s side. The liquid, a concentrated form of stomach acid, ate through Baxter’s suit in seconds and the man screamed as it melted through his skin. The right side of his face sagged and started to run off his skull, his right arm smoking and shrivelling above its robotic half. Before the acid could finish him off the Abomination lunged, main jaws unhinged, and swallowed Baxter whole.
Chapter Twenty-Two.
A handsome, middle-aged man sits between two beds, reading a bedtime story to twin girls. Forming one hand into a claw, he pulls a face to make the two girls laugh.
While he’s washing dishes in the kitchen, a blonde woman comes up behind the man. Grabbing him around the waist, the woman scoops a handful of bubbles out of the sink and splatters them across his nose. Laughing, the two wrap each other in their arms and kiss.
The man leans over his elderly mother and helps her up. Moving her to the bed, he lets her down. They smile beatifically.
“You always want to be there for your family but in an uncertain world, that’s not always possible. You can’t plan for everything but if you die who will be a husband to your wife? A father to your children?”
“Here at Respawn, we know there’s no one who could ever replace you, except you.”
The man meets with a man and a woman in white lab coats, shaking hands. He glances over at a large cylinder off to one side of the room. Inside, an identical copy of the man is lying in peaceful hibernation.
“Respawn will create a clone of you, genetically exact to the final detail and only to be activated in the event of your death. Monthly brain uploads will ensure your Respawn clone comes complete with your memories and personality.”
Note: Must disclose all history of mental illness, unacted upon dark desires and possible homicidal tendencies on application.
“Respawn, the ultimate in second chances.”
“We got lucky, I think it got distracted by something!” Thao said, “The mounted gun is down this way, on the other side of those buildings!”
Thao studied his screen as he kept running alongside the others. Layla was still dragging Kohler’s heavy corpse, her left leg stiff and making a muffled whirring noise with every step as sweat ran down her face. Church had attached several of the bricks of explosive to Kohler’s armour complete with blinking detonators. The armour itself was hefty enough on its own, it was easy to forget that there was a human body still bouncing around inside it. It wouldn’t matter much hopefully. Kohler would just be a chewy centre for the snack they were planning on feeding to the Abomination. The bracelet with its kill switch and screen was still visible on Kohler’s right arm. It had gone quiet after both he and Jackrabbit Slim were dead but part of the plan counted on Thao getting it screaming again.
“Where is it?” Church said.
The street they were moving down was still torn up by massive fractures. It was covered in abandoned vehicles and heaps of rubble, lost to the world until Slayerz took it all over for their arena. Old office buildings rose to either side of them. The drones bobbed along in the air as they filmed the three remaining teams.
“It’s not going to cut us off but it’s-,” Thao started to say.
Thao was cut off by an eruption of shattering glass and a wet roar. The façade of a stumpy building of metal and bluish glass exploded outward. The Abomination, tunnelling through the structure, emerged in a storm of swirling glass shards that smashed against the surrounding buildings. The vast mutant bulk of the Abomination, Pinhead, filled the street. The burnt girders that had been fused with its body bristled down its back.
“Shit-, no.” Layla said.
“Keep moving!” Church said.
Layla dropped Kohler’s body and shrank back. Church raised his gun, but it was woefully inadequate for the challenge. Bigger than a two-story house, the Abomination casually grabbed an abandoned car and flipped it into the air.
“I can’t-, keep going.” Anaconda said.
Anaconda was pale with blood loss. Still being supported by Titama, he tried to get his feet moving with some actual strength underneath him but couldn’t. Holding him by the shoulder with one hand and gripping her sledgehammer in the other, Titama steeled herself.
“Go.” Titama said, “Go, I’ll-, we’ll distract it.”
“That’s suicide!” Thao said.
“Go, we were never all going to make it!” Titama said.
“It’s-, okay.” Anaconda said.
“Jackson, grab that body again! We need it, move!” Church snapped back into action.
After a few moments of hesitation, Layla grabbed Kohler’s body by the collar of his suit and kept pulling him along with them. Thao, Church and Jeannie all followed Layla’s lead. Jeannie’s eyes were wide and frightened as she kept glancing back, carrying her pulse cannon. Titama and Anaconda went the other way, Anaconda limping while Titama acted as a crutch, toward the beast. The Abomination sought out another camera node, burrowing into a building and ripping it loose, destroying it. Dust swirled through the street in a cloying cloud. Glass was still tinkling to the ground from the gaping maw of the glass building the Abomination had tunnelled through.
Titama carried Anaconda to the nearest street corner. His feet were dragging through the rubble and trash as Titama struggled to keep him upright. He left smears of blood behind on the pavement. Spotting an abandoned ambulance, its back doors hanging open, Titama carted Anaconda toward the vehicle.
“Over here.” Titama said.
She shoved Anaconda into the ambulance. Pieces of medical equipment, bandages, syringes, and other bits and pieces were strewn across the back of the vehicle along with an overturned gurney. Straightening, Titama pushed Anaconda’s machine gun back into his hands.
“Won’t you need it?” Anaconda said.
“Like it’s going to make a bloody difference, right?” Titama said.
Leaving Anaconda propped in the ambulance, Titama jogged back to the main street. The Abomination moved like a second earthquake across the battered city. It ripped through the street and rows of abandoned vehicles. Relatively tiny, the four other contestants led by Church Harper fled toward one of the office buildings and the Abomination started after them. Muscles bunching, Titama squeezed the handle of her sledgehammer like she was choking it. She had volunteered to draw the creature away and felt in her gut she needed to go through with it, to make up for some of the things she’d done. Still thinking of how to distract it, the words came rumbling out of Titama’s throat almost unbidden.
“Ka mate, ka mate! Ka ora' Ka ora'! Ka mate, ka mate! Ka ora' Ka ora'!” Titama said.
She roared the words in both call and response. Crouching, Titama moved stiffl
y with the rhythm. Titama hadn’t performed the dance or the words since she had played Rugby as a kid but they seemed to come back to her as naturally as breathing.
“Ka tū te ihiihi, ka tū te wanawana!” Titama yelled.
The Abomination turned, taloned feet punching at the ground. It gathered up its rear tentacles and lunged after Titama, moving far too fast for something so big. The woman stayed where she was with her feet evenly placed, stomping the ground with her chin thrust forward. Dust and wreckage swirled around both of them.
“Ki runga ki te rangi, E tū iho nei, tū iho nei, hī! Whiti te ra! Hī!” Titama said.
Titama placed her thumb against her neck. She drew it down and across her throat as if slitting it open. The Abomination towered over her with its slathering jaws as Titama raised her hammer to the sky.
The roads and alleyways were blocked with rubble as Thao, Layla and the others ran. Layla’s machinery was letting out a strained whine but her arm hadn’t shut down the way it had before, during the fight with Kohler and Jackrabbit Slim. A broken slope of rubble led to the first-floor windows of a battered office building. As Titama and Anaconda distracted the massive creature behind them, Layla dragged Kohler’s body into the building. Shattered glass littered the floor inside, and the furniture and flimsy cubicle walls that had filled that level of the building had been scattered. The camera drones that had been following the group stayed outside for the moment. The wreckage of the low-ceilinged office building was too tight for them to move inside.
“Can they see us in here?” Thao said.
“I’m not sure, over this way.” Church said.
Church gestured the others over to a heap of desks and broken cubicle walls. They found a small alcove that would be hidden from the drones and hopefully the other cameras as well. Church picked up another cubicle wall and propped it over a workspace for them while Jeannie, still terrified, kept watch. Thao started to empty his pockets of the devices he’d taken from the medical droid. Church lowered his voice and spoke directly into Thao’s ear.
“Follow the plan.” Church said, “Don’t talk about it or say-, anything, they could still have mics on us.”
Down the street, the Abomination picked up the ambulance Anaconda had been hidden inside. The gurney and medical equipment spilled out of the back, clattering on the ground below. It crushed the back end of the vehicle between two massive limbs. Tossing it aside, the Abomination turned back on the main avenue. It tracked the remaining four contestants to the damaged office building via the signals from their bracelets.
“It’s right outside!” Thao said.
The drones outside scattered as the Abomination threw its tremendous bulk against the building. The creature’s tentacles tore into the structure, peeling away pieces the size of cars and spraying them into the surrounding ruins. The Abomination’s blows and noises from its multiples mouths reverberated through the building. Thao knocked aside the light cubicle wall that Church had propped up. Quickly, he tried to gather up the tools they’d been using as Layla straightened, flexing both her fists.
“We need to give it a reason to swallow Kohler, get his kill switch squealing again!” Church said.
A taloned foot reached inside, ripping up a section of the carpet and gouging the flooring underneath. The Abomination’s rebar-impaled head slammed against the window frames with dozens of eyeballs peering inside, filled with hate and menace. Thao dropped to the ground beside Kohler’s body. He went to work on Kohler’s bracelet with the laser scalpel he’d removed from the medical droid. The bracelet was inert, screen dead, since Kohler and Jackrabbit had died. Still, the scalpel scraped against the bracelet without leaving a mark.
“It won’t work, it won’t let me cut it!” Thao said.
“Cut into the white globe instead! The actual kill switch!” Church said.
One of the Abomination’s tentacles swept from side to side, smashing the already busted office furniture in its path to pieces. Ringed with bone, the tentacle shot toward Church. Once it got close enough, Church could see parts of the knotted and blackened flesh were still human. A human hand sprouted from one tentacle like a sucker, grasping at the air. A deformed face, frozen in a scream, was stretched over another section of the limb. Church fired and retreated across the room, his blasts tearing only miniscule ribbons out of the tentacle. He shouted to Jeannie and broke her out of her paralysis for a moment, causing her to fire as well. Her arm cannon blew a large, round chunk out of the Abomination’s flesh further down the limb. Shrieking, the monster backed off but only for a moment.
Trying to shut out all the noise, and the terror, Thao cut into the white globe on Kohler’s forearm. Even built into Kohler’s life-support suit it matched the sleeve on Thao’s forearm exactly. The laser scalpel hissed as it bit into the white globe. Thao carved it open and revealed an orderly mess of circuitry.
“Okay, I’ve got this.” Thao said.
“To hell with it.” Layla said.
Straightening, Layla aimed her P90 at the front of the building and opened fire. The gun let out a high-pitched howl and bullets pecked away at the giant creature filling the windows. Layla, Church and Jeannie combined fire but only seemed to piss the Abomination off.
Ripping the pin out of her last thermite grenade, Layla jabbed her thumb into the button on top of the weapon. She lobbed the grenade toward the front of the building. The device sailed into one of the Abomination’s many mouths, its sides starting to glow. The molten metal hit the Abomination’s flesh with a sickening sizzle inside its mouth and then exploded. Reeling back, the Abomination screamed with flame and smoke belching out of the mouth Layla had aimed for, as well as out of a couple of other nearby mouths. The Abomination hit the opening again with renewed force. The upper floors of the building above the group began to collapse, the ceiling sagging downward suddenly. A fanged tentacle whipped through the building, nearly catching Layla. She wheeled back and fired her P90 into the tentacle.
“Oh, no you don’t, motherfucker!” Layla yelled, “You already got one bite out of me, you’re not getting another taste!”
Thao jabbed the tip of his scalpel into the space between two circuits. The kill switch on Kohler’s sleeve started to scream again although Kohler’s body was long dead. It wailed like a flatlining heart monitor while trying to send a signal to Jackrabbit Slim’s bracelet.
“I’ve got it!” Thao said.
“Let’s go, out the back! Leave the body there for this thing.” Church said.
Thao got to his feet and started running. Church backed away, taking Jeannie with him. Layla bellowed and spraying her P90 wildly at the Abomination then ran for it as the creature forced its way inside. It was like an enormous octopus squeezing itself into a tight gap but considerably more destructive. Its eyes blazed in the low light, jaws gnashing.
Passing a bank of elevators, the four contestants raced to the back of the building and reached a jammed fire exit. Layla slammed into the door with her mechanical fist. The door popped off its hinges, cracking, and flew out of the doorframe while tumbling end over end. The walls of the stairwell had collapsed and crumbled down the back of the building into another broken slope, leaving it exposed to the air.
Inside the building, the noise from Kohler’s kill switch was muffled and disappeared as the Abomination grabbed and swallowed him. It did it almost as an afterthought while tunnelling after the other four. Kohler, with his fuel tank and the bricks of explosive attached to his suit, was inside the creature. Thao, Layla and the others slid down the slope of rubble. Before them, the lake reflected the glow of the force field ceiling over the arena. Off to the left was the section of shoreline where the mounted anti-Abomination gun had appeared, not far from where Thao and Layla had first surfaced at the start of the game. The gun was painted with small spotlights, making it stand out in the dim, blue half-glow.
“What are you doing? Set off the bombs!” Thao said.
“Get to the gun, we got to make sure to
finish this thing!” Church said.
The four of them sprinted to the mounted weapon, Jeannie stumbling for a moment at the bottom of the slope and Church helping her upright again. The gun was an enormous piece of weaponry almost as long as Thao was tall. It had three slotted muzzles stacked in a triangular pattern, the barrels silvery and sleek but the body bulky and attached to a chunky battery pack. Layla reached it first and grappled with the curved trigger and hilt. The swivelling mount the gun had been placed on, however, jammed. Layla tried to turn the weapon back on the building they’d just left but the mount wouldn’t cooperate.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Layla said.
After a few moments of struggle, Layla wrapped her mechanical arm around the weapon. The metal screeched as she tore the huge laser weapon off its mount. Cupping the gun in her left hand, Layla awkwardly brought it around to bear on the building.
The walls ruptured and exploded outwards, raining through the air. Pinhead, the Abomination, squeezed itself out of the ruins. Its jaws gnashed like organic woodchippers, smoke still pouring out of several of them following the blast from Layla’s grenade. Part of the building collapsed but the Abomination ignored it, swatting away large chunks of falling rubble with its monstrous, spiderlike limbs and tentacles. Swarms of eyeballs fixated on the group, standing around the spotlights of the mounted weapon platform.
With a yell, Layla opened up with the massive laser weapon. Sizzling lances of energy boiled from all three barrels, spearing into the Abomination and blowing smoking holes through its body. The Abomination was irritated after dragging itself through the building but not driven back. The huge, burnt girders that were fused with its body down its back bristled like spines.
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