Kill Switch_Serial Escalation

by Sean E. Britten

“Do it, for God’s sake! Do it!” Thao said to Church.

  Church had his auto-shotgun dangling from one hand, holding one of the remote detonators in the other. He held it aloft, pausing for a moment as Layla continued to fire, and then hit the trigger. There was a deep rumble into the Abomination’s guts and the impossible creature looked almost surprised.

  Bowing backward, the Abomination’s midsection swelled and erupted. An orange fireball exploded out of the Abomination’s middle, spewing gore into the air as it was ripped in half. Smouldering bone and gristle rained across the ruins, covering them in steaming fluids. The remaining fuel for Kohler’s jetpack and flamethrowers, combined with the bricks of explosive, had blasted the Abomination open from the inside. The remaining pieces of the Abomination tumbled across the shoreline, their meaty centres burning. What was left of the Abomination, however, still attached to thick piles of tentacles, continued to thrash and push their way toward the group.

  “The Abominations, their brains are spread through their whole bodies. The brains of all the people that got fused together when they were created, all interconnected but spread out. That’s why they’re so hard to kill.” Layla said, “It’s still alive.”

  The torn, tentacled remains of the Abomination folded over themselves, writhing. Fountains of gore and sickly fluids were still spraying out of the fatally wounded monstrosity. Layla opened up again, pouring lasers into the nearest fleshy sack. Jeannie joined in as well with her arm cannon, sending big, thundering blasts of light searing into the largest leftover pieces of the Abomination. One octopod creature, nothing but a mouth attached to a chunk of brain matter and a thorny set of tentacles, scrabbled over one of the nearest piles of rocks. Church shouldered his SPAS-12 and fired, blowing pieces of it away. After a minute of sustained fire, the Abomination’s tentacles went still and the whole broken, warped mess sunk into the earth.

  Chapter Twenty-Three.

  “Have you ever wanted to be a Slayer on Slayerz? Taking part in all the blood, brutality and mayhem? It could happen!”

  From the last season of Slayerz, an elderly contestant, Dr Mengele, opens fire with a cutting laser attached to his walking chair. Streaks of red light tear through another man’s body like tissue paper, one arm already severed at the shoulder. Pieces of his clothing are blown off his body in burning tatters. The one-armed man takes a step back and falls apart into a steaming jigsaw puzzle of cauterised pieces.

  “The producers of Slayerz are looking for a few lucky volunteers to play a very special role in the next season of America’s favourite bloodsport! It could be you! Travel to an exotic and hidden locale somewhere around the world, meet new and exciting people, and kill them!”

  From a much earlier season, a man and a woman stalk through a sweating jungle. Both are holding assault rifles and the man, taking up the rear, is carrying a sheathed machete under his left arm. A couple of bulky earlier model camera drones navigate their way through the trees and vines behind them. Silently, Church Harper unfolds himself from a thick branch as the man passes beneath.

  Hanging upside-down Church grips the man around the neck and jaw, stifling his short cry of surprise. Church wrenches the other contestant’s head to one side. The brutal shattering sound is muffled by the meat. The man’s partner continues, eyes forward, until the kill switch on her wrist alerts her. Church drops from the tree, slipping the man’s machete from its sheath. Spinning, the woman screams in rage before Church closes the distance and cleaves the machete into her throat.

  “To be in the running, collect the tops from ten boxes of Nutrition-Os cereal and send them in with your most recent brain scan, physical work-up, and name of your next-of-kin, and it could be you!”

  From earlier in the game, Layla Jackson closes the distance on Raptor Rawlins. Her mechanical left fist lands in the centre of his chest like a cannonball. High-definition microphones pick up the gruesome crackle and squelch of bones and soft organs giving way to unyielding machine.

  “Brought to you by Nutrition-Os Xtra Xtreme: Now with colours, but we took out the flavour again.”

  After taking down the Abomination, the four took a minute to catch their breath. Layla placed the enormous mounted weapon she’d been using on the ground and slumped with her hands on her knees, looking physically and emotionally exhausted. The force field crackled overhead. It hadn’t gone down yet, still providing a source of light across the arena. There were no fireworks and they were too far away to hear any audiences cheering for their victory. The drones kept circling overhead, still capturing their reactions for whoever was watching. Thao walked over and stood beside Layla, putting one hand on her shoulder.

  “Hey, I just wanted to say-, whatever comes next, thank you for everything you’ve done for me.” Thao said, “I wouldn’t have lasted five minutes in here without you doing literally all the work. I know part of that was-, because we’re attached and you didn’t have a choice, but you didn’t have to believe me. You didn’t have to go out of the way to help me figure this out. And even if we were attached, well, you’re still the one who actually did it all, so thank you.”

  Stiffly, Layla straightened with an unreadable expression. Grabbing Thao by the shoulder, she hauled him in for an unexpected hug. Even using only her right arm, Layla almost crushed him. Thao didn’t fight it but eventually wrapped his arms around her as well in return. The two of them stood there awkwardly for a few moments with Layla breathing hard. Eventually she broke away and wiped at her face.

  “Come on, let’s get out of here.” Layla said.

  “Don’t forget-, the plan.” Thao said.

  The thought was interrupted by a squawking update from their wrist-mounted screens. The voice of one of the commentators shouted at them.

  “Some incredible teamwork from our remaining contestants, Rick, taking out that Abomination in another amazing Slayerz first!” The first commentator said.

  “Incredible stuff, Fred.” The second agreed, “Titama Thompson and Anaconda with the sacrifice play, you just don’t see that kind of dedication in the face of such overwhelming odds!”

  “Hell of a thing, Rick.” The first said, “The others fighting smart and hard, annihilating that Abomination with an after-death assist from Donny Kohler. They’re going to be mopping up pieces of that thing from all over the arena for weeks.”

  “What now for the remaining contestants, Fred? We’ve seen a lot of firsts on this season but we’ve never had more than one team go the full distance!” The second man said, “The rules are pretty clear on this, fifteen teams enter, or eighteen this season, but only one ever leaves.”

  “That’s right, Rick, these teams have been through a lot together but only one pair can be our champions.” The first announcer said, “So now the question is, who is going to pull the trigger first? Our former champ, Church Harper and his partner? Or plucky newcomers, Southpaw Jackson and Thao Seong?”

  The list appeared on their screens. All the names were scratched off except for the four of them, standing among the ruins of the Abomination’s steaming corpse. Layla turned on one of the hovering camera drones.

  “Oh, yeah? What are you going to do about it?” Layla yelled, “What more can you throw at us? We’ll kick its ass too!”

  The drones watched impassively. Moments later, however, the force field that was creating an enormous roof over their heads crackled. Massive holographic letters appeared in blue across the sky, scrambling for a moment before forming a coherent message.

  “Only one team can leave.” Thao said, reading the message aloud.

  “No innocents, no innocents.” Church said.

  “We took down everything you had!” Layla said, “There’s only four of us left, give it up! Let us all live, or none of us!”

  ‘No negotiations. Only one team can leave.’ The sky said, in holographic letters that were dozens of metres high.

  “Or what?” Layla said.

  Suddenly, a countdown replaced the words in the sky and started
to tick down. After a few moments, the same countdown appeared on the screens of their bracelets as well. It started at sixty and ticked backward toward zero, exactly like the countdown Thao had seen at the beginning of the game when he and Layla had been temporarily separated. The message was clear, either one team killed the other or they were all dead.

  “Maybe they’re bluffing!” Jeannie said.

  “I don’t think so.” Thao said.

  The four of them were still standing there, bathed in the light of the ticking countdown, when Layla moved closer to Thao. Looming over her partner, she grabbed him around the neck. Her mechanical arm whirred softly as she lifted him off his feet. Thao let out a strangled cry but he was powerless to fight back.

  “I’m not killing some poor kid who doesn’t even remember who she is.” Layla said.

  Thao’s cries died instantly as Layla jerked Thao’s neck to one side. Behind them, Jeannie squealed at the sudden violence while Church only looked sadly resigned. Turning, Layla tossed Thao down the nearest slope of rubble, the man tumbling end over end in his flapping black coat. They waited several moments under the watchful gaze of the drones and cameras hidden in the ruins surrounding them. Finally, Thao’s kill switch sounded like a wail from a hospital monitor in a dying patient’s room, blaring up the broken slope.

  “That’s it then.” Layla said.

  Her kill switch ringing, Layla glared at Church and Jeannie. She staggered off toward the shadow of one of the nearest buildings as if to die alone and unseen. Church and Jeannie only watch her go. Jeannie seemed to be in awe of the sacrifice that Layla had just made.

  The force field crackled out of the sky and the numbers disappeared. After a few moments, fireworks filled the dark and smoggy sky instead, exploding and bathing the wreckage of the arena in colour. Spotlights blazed to life from the sides of the central building in the middle of the arena’s sinkhole lake.

  “Congratulations to our winners, returning champion Church Harper and his partner, Jeannie St. Sunshine!” The voice of the blonde Slayerz host came through their wrist screens, “The team that slays together, stays together! Head toward the central building to complete the game!”

  A bridge rose in sections from out of the giant saltwater moat surrounding the central building. Water poured in thick curtains off its sides. Together, the sections formed a single line from the shoreline not too far from Church and Jeannie to a huge doorway inset in the building. The doors peeled open, beckoning Church and Jeannie toward them. Fireworks continued to flash across the sky in a multitude of colours as the final pair staggered toward the bridge. They circled around the main bulk of the Abomination corpse and along the rubble-strewn shoreline.

  The surface of the bridge was slick but Church and Jeannie stayed in the middle and walked carefully toward the centre. As they approached the doorway, they were painted with powerful spotlights.

  “Please drop your weapons, leave them behind before stepping inside.” A voice said.

  Church dropped his SPAS-12 to one side of the bridge and then tossed his last brick of explosive and leftover remote detonators beside it. Jeannie set her arm cannon down carefully on the other side. The spotlights ushered them inside. Church and Jeannie entered a massive space, arched like a cathedral, as lights popped on across the ceiling. Cameras studied them from every conceivable angle.

  Raising his right hand, Church watched as his kill switch bracelet peeled open and dropped off his forearm as Jeannie’s sleeve did the same. They rang dully on the ground as Church and Jeannie reached the rough centre of the open space. A blaring noise like a cheap party horn made Jeannie jump. Directly overhead, a few dozen balloons and brightly coloured coils of streamers dropped from the rooftop and fell over the pair. A banner reading ‘Congratulations Winners!’ unfurled from the ceiling and flapped amongst the balloons.

  Another doorway opened at the far end of the large space. Six heavily armoured guards, covered in black outfits and helmets with thick, opaque masks, poured into the room. All of them were holding stubby submachine guns. The blonde woman, the Slayerz host, followed after them with a broad and beaming smile. The six guards fanned out in a semicircle around Church and Jeannie, keeping at a safe distance with their guns trained on the pair. Face stoic, Church brushed a bright yellow streamer off the shoulder of his black coat. Jeannie looked frightened as she took in the surrounding cadre of guards.

  “Congratulations, a two-time champion and this year’s winner! We never doubted you for a moment!” The blonde woman said.

  “It’s all over then?” Church said.

  “You should know, you’re the only person who’s ever made it back to this spot twice!” The woman said, “What do you want to say to the people of the New United States of America, and the rest of the world, who are watching right now?”

  “Get down.” Church said.

  “What?” The blonde woman said.

  “Get down!”

  Church shoved Jeannie by the shoulder. The girl threw herself to the floor at one guard’s feet. Landing amongst the balloons and streamers, she covered her face as she went scrabbling toward the wall. Lunging at the nearest black-suited guard, Church shoved the man’s gun aside. Church seized the guard’s wrist and twisted, driving his other hand into the guard’s elbow and breaking it. The man behind the mask screamed and Church pulled the gun out of his hand. Church swapped the SMG around in his grip easily and fired a short burst into the guard’s head, blowing his mask to pieces.

  The blonde woman screamed, surprised along with the guards that Church would want to keep fighting now that they’d won. Church threw himself at another couple of guards. He closed the gap so they couldn’t shoot without hitting each other. Wedging the barrel of his gun into the gap in another guard’s armour, under their armpit, Church pulled the trigger and sent several rounds drilling through the man’s rib cage.

  Another two guards opened up, realising Church was going to kill the others anyway if they didn’t do something. Church ducked and made his head less of a target. Several bullets bit into the armour on his back, under the coat, and one sliced through his right upper arm. Church turned and flung his still half-loaded submachine gun at one of the guards who was firing at him. It hit them in the facemask, sending them reeling back. Grabbing the next closest guard, Church pulled him in tight and then wheeled around to use the man as a human shield.

  Of the four remaining guards, two unloaded on Church as he hid behind his human shield. Rounds pounded the guard’s armoured uniform without penetrating it. The man yelled as the impacts rattled through his chest. Church snaked down the man’s arm and grabbed him by the hand, yanking on his submachine gun. Sweeping the gun around, Church blasted two of the remaining men’s helmets and their opaque facemasks imploded.

  Jeannie was still scrambling low across the ground toward the wall, screaming. In the midst of all the chaos the blonde host was shot, going down with a bullet buried in her midsection. Gasping, she tried to cover the wound as blood poured through her shirt.

  Church twisted one arm around his hostage’s throat and wrenched it sideways. The man’s vertebrae snapped and he died almost instantly, gagging and going limp. Church pulled the SMG from the man’s dying grip. He stepped over the body and around the other corpses toward the final guard. Brightly coloured balloons and streamers were still scattered across the ground between the guards where they had fallen.

  The last man was stumbling back, apparently badly dazed after Church had hit him in the facemask with the thrown weapon a few moments ago. The guard pulled off his helmet to reveal the face of a young, sandy-haired man with a bloody nose. Church fired a short burst into the younger man’s chest. It didn’t penetrate the armour but the blows knocked the guard off his feet, onto the floor. The guard reached out with one empty hand.

  “P-please, no, m-man!” The guard said, “I’m not even a real security guard! They just p-paid me to put on the mask and look scary!”

  “No innocents.” Ch
urch said.

  Church raised the submachine gun in one hand and fired just once. The shot drilled through the middle of the young man’s forehead and his skull whipped backward.

  “What the fuck was that?” Roland said.

  On the main screen back in the control room, Roland and the other had watched Church execute the final guard. It had all happened so fast no one in the room had had time to react.

  “What are you doing, you stupid asshole?” Roland turned on the technicians, “Someone send the droids! Send the backup security systems! Cut the feed!”

  A couple of sentry guns with X-shaped muzzles dropped from the ceiling in the enormous entryway. At the back of the room, two more doorways opened. A pair of hulking security droids wheeled out of the exits. Mounted on a tripod of three stubby legs with ball-shaped wheels, the droids were heavily armoured and armed. Each of them had a spinning minigun on one arm and a multi-barrelled missile launcher on the other.

  Church dove to the floor and used the guards’ bodies for cover as the droids opened fire, miniguns screaming across the room and cutting up the floor surrounding him. Church fired back and managed to hit one of the robots but his SMG did nothing against its thick armour. A missile streaked overhead. It shattered against the wall with a concussive boom that echoed down the length of the hall. The shockwave stirred up the balloons and streamers again, causing them to swirl through the air above Church like he was in the middle of a party.

  On the ceiling, the first sentry gun opened up as well. It fired a set of electrified bolas, four blue, glowing balls connected by a couple of X-shaped cords that went whipping through the air. Church rolled sideways to avoid the first bolas and they sparked and ricocheted off the ground harmlessly, wrapping back in on themselves. The sentry guns kept firing and Jeannie was caught by another set. She shrieked as the glowing cords and balls wrapped around her and sent a powerful shock rocketing through her body.

  Church couldn’t fight the droids and the bolas guns simultaneously. As the droids rolled closer and closer, guns blazing, another set of electrified bolas hit Church around the shoulders. He felt like he’d been crash-tackled by a thousand volts of electricity. The cords wrapped him up, pinning his arms to his sides, and he was thrown to the ground by the shock. His jaws clamped shut as jolts continued to run through his body and paralyse him.