About a hundred yards ahead, fencing lined the road at an angle, causing it to narrow. Funneling the racers into closer quarters would cause extra conflict, conflict that the hover cams were hungry for.
Roland reached around to the back of his belt to make sure his carbon alloy weapon, Charlotte, was still set in place. Satisfied, he continued stretching to keep his body loose until the race began.
A few racers to Roland’s left, a blue mohawk turned around. A hover cam flew over to record, hoping for drama. Duke scowled down at Roland. Then Duke took his thumb and drew it across his neck.
Roland smirked and gave a half nod in Duke’s direction and then returned to his stretching.
A referee in a zebra uniform stepped to the side of the racers with the starter gun.
Roland gave the thought command for his HUD to turn on, and then he enabled the Fast Twitch and O2 plugins. He got into his starting stance. He could feel his muscles being pulled taut as Fast Twitch readied itself. He pulled in a deep, long breath of air. It smelled fresh, as it wafted in from the nearby forest. He needed to pass at least three people over the course of Game One in order to stay in the Tech Games. He had to get closer to Pinnacle to find the evidence he needed to exonerate his father.
The first beep of the starter sound yanked him out of his thoughts. He focused as he heard the second beep. Then the starter gun went off. Bang!
Roland leaped forward into a sprint. Within a few steps, his speedometer read 20 mph. He struggled to keep up with the blistering, ever increasing pace.
Skylar watched Roland’s progress through his video feed. “The first obstacle is in a quarter mile. Remember, I only get obstacle data and rules once you get close to an obstacle.”
Coach nodded as he watched over Roland’s vitals to make sure that everything was functioning normally. “All your systems look good, Roland.”
Roland gave a nod and edged up his speed to 24 mph to hold his place in the middle of the pack.
Ahead, he saw Spectra gliding effortlessly at the front. Bianca quickly followed her but was unable to match her speed.
Coach watched Roland’s video stream as the contestants began to pack together. “Back it down a little. You don’t want to be too close to that gaggle once punches start getting thrown.”
Roland nodded and slowed his pace just slightly. Two other racers charged past him. Ahead, the frenzy began when someone threw a quick elbow to a nearby nose. It was followed by a foot tripping in retaliation.
Duke plowed right through the middle of the growing grudge match, like a bowling ball against bowling pins. “Move, you worms!” He whipped his mechanical arms straight out, clotheslining the racers closest to him. A blonde, digital female was thrown against the chainlink fence, which cut into her modelesque cheek bones.
Another clotheslined contestant had been swung into a horizontal position in the air, as though he was a pendulum, and Duke’s arm was the fulcrum. Then he slammed flat onto the asphalt, coughing and wheezing. He leapt back up, shaking his head to clear it.
As Roland passed the wheezing racer, he could see a small patch of hair missing from his scalp where he had impacted the asphalt. Bright red blood oozed from the wound. Roland grabbed the man’s arm to steady him while he lurched forward.
The man quickly found his footing and rhythm again. He gave Roland a nod of gratitude. Then he took off after the hulking, blue metallic figure in front of him.
Skylar saw an alert on her system. “Ok. We just got the information on the first obstacle. It is called the Commando Crawl. You’ll be crawling through the mud under barbed wire for half a mile.”
Roland leaned his head right. “Bootcamp.”
Skylar nodded. “Yep. It says that it is designed to fatigue your upper body and build up lactic acid in your muscles.”
Coach smirked. “You did this in the Marines, right?”
Roland nodded and edged his speed up a little more to 26 mph.
Coach folded his arms. “This will be different though. In the Marines, I doubt you ever did it further than a hundred yards or so. This will be half a mile long, so nearly nine hundred yards. You’ll have to move fast, but pace yourself.”
Roland could see the entrance to his lane for the Commando Crawl. He looked over his shoulder and could see that he was ahead of two other contestants. He dove forward into a somersault to absorb his momentum and came up on his belly just at the start of the Crawl.
He dug forward with his forearms, raking the sticky muck backwards. Then he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder as one of the barbs gouged a chunk out of his skin. “Ahh!”
Coach covered his mic and leaned towards Skylar. “Scan for tetanus where he got stuck. Keep that scan running while he is on this obstacle.” Coach uncovered his mic. “Get lower, Roland.”
Roland hunkered even lower into the mud. The mud reeked of stagnant, rotting waste. The further he got into it, the more it stuck to him. Each time he pressed down on it, it gurgled and oozed. It seemed to suck at his knees. His progress was slowing. “Sky, help me with this mud.” He spit out a chunk of the mud. It tasted even worse than it smelled.
Skylar swiped through two terminal screens to find her list of plugins, and then she began typing furiously on her holographic keyboard. “I’m on it, Roland.”
Coach watched Roland’s video stream as he took a few more strokes. He covered his mic and leaned toward Skylar. “He’s really burning a lot of energy and not making much progress. We need a new plugin to change the way he’s moving.”
Roland paused briefly and looked across the lanes to see another racer that was pulling ahead of him. He was a huge hybrid. Both his arms and legs were droid tech. Every other place on his body bulged with thick muscles. His droid arms and legs were a dark camouflaged pattern that slowly shifted and changed to match his surroundings. His uniform was a bright, hunting orange. His unkempt blonde hair closely resembled a haystack. His brawny, mechanical arms were powering through the muck nearly effortlessly.
Skylar checked over her code. Then she hit the upload button. “Ok, Roland. I just uploaded a new plugin called Slow Twitch. You need to disable Fast Twitch first, then enable Slow Twitch.”
Roland nodded and gave the thought commands to swap out the plugins. He felt the tension go out of his muscles.
Skylar watched Roland’s video stream. “Fast Twitch burns a lot of energy and is good for faster bursts. Slow Twitch is good for slower, sustained efforts. It burns less energy and will provide better torque overall.”
Coach adjusted his headset. “Try shorter pulls with your forearms, too.”
The mud was still difficult for Roland to move through, but now, it wasn’t so taxing. Roland found that once he replaced the oxygen that had been lost on his previous efforts, he was able to keep up a pretty decent pace. The camo hybrid was still ahead of him, but the gap between them wasn’t widening any more.
Coach crossed his arms as he analyzed Roland’s movements. “That’s better, but I don’t think the shorter pulls are working. Try longer reaches. See if that gives you better leverage.”
Roland reached out further this time. He tried to spread his body weight out across his arms so that he wouldn’t sink so deep. This time he hardly sank. He took another long reach. Then he got into his rhythm. After another minute of sustained effort, he looked over at the camo hybrid’s lane. “I’ve passed that big camo racer!”
After another few minutes, he actually caught up to the struggling digital that he shared his lane with. She looked exhausted. Her once blonde hair was now completely covered in the horrible smelling mud. Not wanting to be passed, she surged forward with everything she had. The effort sprayed Roland in the face with mud.
Roland didn’t even flinch as his face was plastered with the brown, oozing muck. He kept his pace and exhaled forcefully to clear his mouth.
Coach half smiled at the digital’s flailing effort. “She’s trying to go fast, but you can’t go fast in this mud. Remember, fast is sl
ow. Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. Keep it up, Roland. Pass her.”
Roland nodded and held his pace. He caught back up to her.
Angry, the digital lashed out at him with her foot.
Roland grabbed her foot just before it connected with his face.
Her anger turned to surprise, and then her eyes widened with fear, knowing she clearly was in the disadvantaged position. Racers were known to be violent. What would this man do in response?
Roland slammed her foot down into the mud. The whites of his eyes, a stark contrast to the rest of his muddy face, stared back at her with a deep intensity. “You’ve got two choices: the easy way or the hard way. The easy way is that you let me pass. The hard way is that we start fighting under the barbed wire, and we both get cut up. What’s it going to be?”
The muddied digital continued glaring at him, but she gestured for him to pass.
Roland nodded. He wasted no time moving forward. He kept his pace steady.
Skylar watched his location on the map as he began to get closer to the end of the Commando Crawl. “Roland, you only have about fifty more yards.”
Roland nodded and slogged forward.
Coach was watching the other racers’ positions on the map. “Hey, Roland. You are catching Duke. He’s almost at the end.”
Roland stuck his head up and could see Duke’s blue mohawk brushing against the barbed wire. He was two lanes over and only about twenty yards ahead. “Got an idea. I’m going to get Duke.” He reached behind him for Charlotte.
Skylar stopped typing and stared at the video stream. “What? How?”
Coach understood instantly and grinned. “Do it.”
Skylar looked over at Coach. “How can he do anything? He’s not close enough to Duke, and there is no blue light authorizing weapons.”
Coach nodded to Skylar. “Precisely.”
Roland yelled loudly for Duke to hear. “Hey you, Rust Bucket!”
Duke’s reaction was instinctive. He jerked his head up in a leering snarl to yell back at Roland. His shoulders were pressed hard against the barbed wire.
Roland was waiting for this exact reaction. He whipped Charlotte out of her case. The red light on his arm flashed three times indicating that he was in violation of the use of weapons. Punishment was imminent. Roland gripped the carbon-alloy weapon hard against the barbed wire. The light in his arm went out, and blue electric waves shot out of his arm.
The electricity instantly traveled across the barbed wire, shocking everything it touched.
Duke’s shoulders quivered as the shock ran through them. He gritted his teeth as his face shook, and then he collapsed face first into the stinking, oozing muck.
Roland’s body also shook from the shock. He reached over with his free hand and hit the back of his gripping hand as hard as he could. This reflex caused him to release both the barbed wire and Charlotte. He picked up the carbon alloy weapon and stowed her back into her case on his belt before the light on his arm could get to the second red blink. He shook his head once to clear it and then got back into his rhythm. After a few pulls, he was ahead of Duke.
Hover cams circled over the Commando Crawl capturing everything.
Duke whipped his head out of the mud and surged forward, fueled by rage.
Roland burst out of the Commando Crawl at a sprint. He switched out Slow Twitch for Fast Twitch. He instantly felt his muscles being pulled taut. Mud flew off his body in every direction. His HUD showed that he had moved from position 47 up to 42. He looked over his shoulder and saw Duke in a dead sprint, with murder in his eyes.
The light in Roland’s arm flashed to blue - weapons were authorized for the next two minutes.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
ROPES
ROLAND INHALED A deep breath of air to feed his oxygen starved muscles. His HUD speed was now showing 31 mph. He leaned his head right.
Coach was watching both Roland’s video stream and the official Tech Games broadcast, so he could see Duke. “He’s still gaining on you. Keep moving!”
Skylar was watching Pinnacle’s race data feed. “The next obstacle is just a quarter mile away. It’s a twenty story rope climb called Rival Ropes.”
Coach looked over at Skylar’s screen. “We need a timer on the weapons light. How much time is left?”
Skylar swiped left through two screens and then typed in a few commands. “Thirty seconds down. Minute and a half to go.” Then she pulled up a new holographic terminal, pasted in the code she had been working on and hit upload. A small blue light showed up in the bottom right of Roland’s HUD with a blue countdown timer synced to Pinnacle’s weapons light. “Roland, I just added a weapons countdown to your HUD.”
Roland nodded slightly as he edged his speed up to 32 mph. He could hear the pounding of Duke’s heavy footsteps behind him. Sweat beaded up and began to make little rivers through the mud on his body. He looked behind him.
Duke drew a cylindrical pole, about two feet long, from a sheath on his back. He squeezed the handle and two thin, half-circular blades slid out from the top. Duke held a razor sharp battle ax.
Coach squinted at the Pinnacle race feed. “Roland, you must have zapped another racer. That camo racer is coming up behind Duke yelling.”
Roland didn’t even nod. He focused all his energies on putting as much space as possible between him and Duke. He could see the rope climb ahead. The weapons timer showed only fifty-nine seconds left.
Coach shook his head. “Roland, there’s not enough time to make it to the ropes before he catches up to you. Take a defensive stance.”
Roland changed his course and began heading for a large rock on his left. Higher ground would help, and he needed all the help he could get. The rock was a large, white limestone about five feet high and about eight feet long. He gave the thought command to enable Leapfrog. Roland used his speed to take two steps up the rock and then to jump to the top. He whipped around to face Duke and pulled Charlotte from her case on his belt, all in one motion.
Duke showed no signs of slowing as he reached the rock.
Roland needed a weapon with reach to keep Duke as far away from him as possible. He held Charlotte parallel to the ground and gave the thought command to extend. The carbon alloy weapon telescoped outwards, growing from six inches to five feet instantly.
Coach had a holographic terminal pulled up to monitor Charlotte. It showed a green wireframe, three dimensional model of the weapon’s current shape. On the sides of the terminal, it showed all of the weapon’s stats and strength levels. “You need more than reach, add a blade on the end.”
Roland nodded and envisioned a double-edged blade about six inches long, extending from the end of his staff. Then he squeezed the handle. A double-edged blade extended from the end of his weapon.
Duke let out a thunderous yell and leapt to the top of the rock. Then he swung his battle ax over his head with his downward momentum as he landed, intending to cleave Roland in half where he stood.
In the span of half a second, Roland leapt backwards and changed his weapon from a spear to a shield. The shield extended to cover his forearm. He braced his whole body against it.
Duke’s battle ax clanged loudly against Roland’s carbon alloy shield and produced a shower of sparks.
Roland’s shield held firm, but the massive force of the blow knocked him to his knees. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the blonde digital that he had passed on the Commando Crawl speed past him and go on to the ropes.
Roland jumped up and stepped back. He gave the thought command for Charlotte to change back to the spear that he had had before.
Duke advanced and came at Roland with a side swipe.
Roland swung the spear hard towards Duke’s head.
Duke’s slice cut through the front of Roland’s uniform, but missed his skin by a hair’s breadth.
Roland’s spear connected with the side of Duke’s head. The skin split open from the blow. Blue metal showed through. Duke’s skull is made of
metal too!
The blow to Duke’s head only made him angrier.
The weapons’ countdown timer on Roland’s HUD showed just ten more seconds.
The camo racer caught up to Roland and Duke. He jumped to the top of the limestone rock with ease. He was brandishing a machete in one hand and a deer skinning knife in the other. “Duke! You shocked me, and you’re going to pay!
Duke whirled around to face this new threat. The camo hybrid was almost as tall as him and actually a little broader.
The camo racer launched into a flurry of cuts, thrusts and parries that were deceptively quick for his size.
Duke was put on the defensive as he gripped his ax with both hands to ward off the camo racer’s lightning attacks.
Skylar’s eyes widened. “He thinks Duke zapped him!”
Coach was a step ahead. “Roland, use the distraction to go!”
Roland was already in mid-air. He hopped off the limestone and hit the ground running towards the Rival Ropes. The blue light went out in his arm. Roland squeezed the middle of his weapon, and it collapsed to a six inch size. He quickly stowed it as he sprinted. A few seconds later, he heard two surprised cries of pain. He looked over his shoulder and both of the hulking hybrids had fallen off of the limestone and were being shocked. Roland half-smiled. “Good job on the countdown timer, Sky.”
Skylar nodded. “Nice work. Ok. On the Rival Ropes, the only rule is that you have to stay on your rope, which is your lane for this obstacle.
Roland stepped up to the rope. It was a nylon material about two inches thick.
Coach stopped him. “Wait, there is a chalk bag on the ground. Make sure you chalk up before you start.”
Roland grabbed a small handful of the chalk and quickly rubbed it over his hands. Then he jumped up the rope as far as he could reach. He began pulling himself up, hand over hand. He looked up. He couldn’t even see the top of the rope. The rope smelled of old seaweed and salt. It reminded him of his time in the Marines, when he had used the huge, hemp hawser lines to tie the ship to the dock.
Nano Contestant - Episode 3: Combat Obstacles: The Technothriller Futuristic Science Fiction Adventure of a Cyberpunk Marine (Nano Contestant Series) Page 5