Skylar sat up straight in her chair as she read about the bonus obstacle. “You have six minutes to complete the whole obstacle. First, you’ll go through the meat locker, which will coat you in animal blood. Then you’ll go into the darkened room. In the room is an Olympic sized swimming pool. There is a one inch thick cable suspended just above the water that you’ll need to walk across.”
Roland stretched his arm muscles across his body. “So I get dipped in blood and then I have to tightrope walk across a pool?”
Skylar frowned. “I’m not finished. The pool is filled with black piranha.”
Roland stopped his stretching. “Oh. So I’m bait?” It’s worth risking my life for a chance to save my dad’s.
Coach nodded. “Yep. You will have six minutes to complete the obstacle. It also says that there will be no weapons authorized during the obstacle. The electricity voltage has been doubled for this obstacle to promote compliance.”
Roland scoffed. He enabled Slo Mo and Fast Twitch. “Sky. Got anything to help with balance?”
Skylar thought for a second. “Balance would be controlled by the cerebellum.” She swiped over to her code and began typing. “I’ll replicate your cerebellum’s natural balance controls and then copy them to the your nano cells. So instead of one balance control, you now have thousands. She uploaded the plugin. Ok. Just enable Balance.” Then she flipped back to her code.
Roland enabled Balance. His whole body felt tingly for a few seconds. Then he lifted one foot. He didn’t wobble as he usually did. He could feel his muscles making tiny corrections as he stood there.
Skylar’s fingers rushed across her holographic keyboard. “I have one more for you too. This is Stabilizer. I just took Leap Frog and applied it to all of your stabilizing muscles. It won’t help you move fast, but it should help you maintain your balance.
Roland gave the thought command for Stabilizer, and it showed up as enabled on his HUD right away. He could feel his joints and core muscles being pulled tight. He took a step forward. It felt like he was wearing knee and elbow braces. “Thanks. This is different, but I think it will work. I need a timer too.”
Skylar flipped through her terminal screens and hit the button to enable a timer.
Coach nodded. “Focus. Take one step at a time. You can do this.”
Roland opened the door to the warehouse and stepped in. The door shut behind him, and his timer started. It read 5:59. It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the near darkness of the warehouse. The warehouse reeked of rotting meat. The smell was almost enough to make Roland gag. He switched to night vision. His field of view changed to the familiar shades of green.
Skylar had the map with Roland’s location pulled up. “Just go straight.”
As Roland jogged forward, the stench of the meat increased with every step. Then he came to the part of the room that narrowed into a hallway. Long strings hung from the ceiling, like a gypsy curtain. But it wasn’t gypsy string beads. It was strings of raw beef. Blood dripped from the ends. Roland took a step forward into the meat locker.
Skylar looked away briefly to try and avoid dry heaving.
Coach pulled up four copies of Roland’s video stream. He enabled different filters on each one: infrared, night vision, sonar and normal vision.
Slo Mo exponentially enhanced the sensory perception of Roland’s body. He could feel each of the individual strands of raw meat hitting his chest and shoulders as he walked forward. He could feel them as they slid up his body as he passed by, leaving a bloody trail on his tattered uniform.
Roland saw small nozzles extend about half of an inch from the walls and floor. They each began to spray a red mist into the air, animal blood. The mineral taste and smell of iron saturated his mouth and nose. Within a few seconds, he was soaked. The excess moisture ran down his hands and dripped onto the floor. He held his breath and sprinted forwards to get clear of the meat locker.
Skylar held her head over the trash can, retching.
Roland burst out of the meat locker into a large, dimly lit room. The ominous space housed an Olympic pool. His HUD timer read 5:18. He stopped just short of the pool. The room’s features were bathed in a green glow. He saw the cable that stretched across the pool and headed towards it. He switched to infrared vision. Looking down into the water, he could see that it was filled with thousands of fish. The heat from their bodies glowed bright red, even under the water.
One of the piranha suddenly jumped up. As it fell back, it was immediately surged upon by all of the members of its school. The water exploded as the unlucky jumper was devoured in seconds. The water continued to boil with the movement of the piranha.
Coach repositioned his mic. “Pinnacle has starved them so they will eat anything that moves. They are turning cannibalistic.”
Roland stopped next to the cable. His heart rate climbed. He could feel the hair on his neck and arms beginning to stand on end. Roland exhaled slowly and tried to rein in his thoughts.
A small puddle of blood had run off of Roland and begun to form around his shoes. It flowed into the pool. Each tiny droplet sending off the faintest scent of blood. The water began to boil next to the edge of the pool as the horde of flesh devouring fish began their desperate search for food.
The countdown timer on Roland’s HUD read 4:57. He narrowed his eyes. He clenched his jaw tight. Nothing was going to get in the way of him saving his dad. Not these fish. Not this pool. Roland watched the frenzied swarm for another second. The cable was only suspended one foot above the tenebrous water. The piranha were easily clearing that height as they became more agitated. “I’ve got an idea.”
Skylar bit her lower lip and barely breathed as she watched.
Roland pulled off his smelly, blood soaked shirt. He gripped the two shoulder areas and ripped it in half down the middle. He held one of the halves in each hand. He stretched his arms out away from his body. “If I can’t stop them, maybe I can at least control them.”
Coach lifted an eyebrow. “Excellent idea.”
Roland stepped onto the cable with one foot. He carefully tested his balance as he stood up on it. He could feel Stabilizer in full force. His small supporting muscles were all tightening and loosening as he moved to help maintain his balance. Then he carefully placed his other foot onto the cable. His arms were still outstretched. The torn shirts dripped blood into the pool on both sides. As expected, the piranha came to a boil right under them.
Roland took a step forward. Slo Mo gave him a multitude of time to correct his balance as he moved. He could feel himself beginning to list to his left side. He pulled back and righted himself to the middle.
The piranha continued their crazed movement, but they were staying right under the shirt pieces. Small drops of blood were falling into the water, continuing to keep them stirred up. The hysterical fish were chomping their razor sharp teeth open and closed, trying to find anything that they could eat. More of their number fell victim to the accidental biting. Their carcasses were picked clean in the time it took for Roland to take another step. Their bones sank to the bottom.
Roland continued moving forward. He switched to his 3D Sonar vision. He could still make out the important things, but the blackness and wireframe view seemed to help him focus. It seemed less real and therefore less dangerous. His timer now read 4:03. He was only ten percent across the cable.
He tried to speed up, but found it difficult to keep his balance. He slowed back down. Roland watched the boiling mass of fish that followed under his dripping shirts, just two feet on both sides of him. When he reached the halfway point, his HUD timer read 3:10. I’m not going to finish in time.
Coach watched Roland’s movements carefully. “Roland. You need to move faster. Crouch down so that you are closer to the cable.”
Roland began to lower himself down. It was an awkward position, somewhere between sitting and jogging. The shirt pieces began to drag in the water.
The ravenous piranha began devouring the shir
t tails which had dared to disturb the surface of their pool.
Coach waved his arms up. “Get your arms up! Get those shirts out of the water!”
Roland jerked his arms up. One piranha was still attached to the shirt tail on his left. When Roland jerked his arms upwards, the fish also went flying upwards. It had the misfortune to land right on the cable, breaking its back. Roland watched as it slipped off the cable in slow motion, just two feet in front of him.
As the piranha splashed into the water, both of the boiling masses, which had been on either side of Roland, converged on the splash.
Thousands of hungry predators, biting and slicing with serrated teeth began mounding up in front of Roland. The fish created their own wave that completely covered the cable.
Roland balled up the shirts. Then he disabled Stabilizer and turned on Leap Frog instead. He could feel himself beginning to fall almost right away. He leapt forward. The second he was airborne, he disabled Leap Frog and reenabled Stabilizer for his landing. Roland looked down as he cleared the seething, chomping, flopping multitude of piranha. He landed about a foot past them. He bent his knees deep to absorb his landing and stabilize himself as quickly as possible. He felt Stabilizer squeezing all of his smaller muscles to keep him upright. Then he lowered himself back into his awkward position and began jogging forward, arms outstretched to his sides. His HUD timer read 2:40. The end was only thirty feet away.
He let the torn shirts dangle from the ends of his arms again to control the piranhas’ position. Once more, they began to boil the water with motion. He carefully breathed out as he moved forward. The edge was now only ten feet away. His HUD timer read 1:59. He paused to adjust his footing. He pressed his right foot down hard to anchor his position.
As Roland pressed his foot down against the cable, extra blood that had run down his body and collected in his shoe was squeezed out. Three fat, round blood drops fell into the pool, sending off their scent into the thousands of starved black piranha.
The school of piranha turned as one body, converging on the blood droplets with their saw blade teeth chomping at maximum capacity. The water below Roland turned instantly into a raging, foaming explosion of fangs and fins. His HUD read 1:47.
The piranha smelled Roland’s bloody footsteps and followed him. A group of ten jumped out of the water at the same time near Roland’s exposed calf. Their flailed jumping knocked Roland off balance.
Roland felt himself pitching hard to the right. He pulled every muscle he had to try and right himself. He was too far over. He couldn’t pull back. Then he fell past the point of no return.
Skylar jumped out of her seat and screamed. “NO! Roland! NOOO!”
Coach’s jaw dropped open, his hands on top of his head. “Roland? Pull back! Pull back!” He knew it was too late. What had happened?
Roland knew that his end was nearing fast. Slo Mo seemed to be making it worse. He could feel the nightmarish falling feeling as he plummeted the few feet from safety to certain and horrible death. He could feel the breeze created from his fall. He smelled the pungent fish odor and the dirty water as he neared it.
Hover cams swept in to capture the carnage. Extra aqua cams were dispatched to acquire those critical ratings boosting death sequences.
I’m sorry, Dad! Roland felt a strange calm and clarity as he faced death square in the face. He enabled Grip and then reached behind him and grabbed Charlotte from her case. He gave the thought command for a spear.
True to their warning, Pinnacle’s compliance policy enabled itself at double its normal capacity. Electricity surged out from Roland’s arm.
Grip’s power jumped exponentially as the electricity poured from the red light on Roland’s arm. The reflex muscles in his hand went into full lock down.
Roland held his spear out in front of him as he entered the water. He yelled as he entered the putrid liquid.
The high amperage of the electricity disabled Roland’s connection back to Skylar.
Skylar screamed again as her screens all went blank. “Roland! No!” She began sobbing.
Coach flipped his terminals over to the official Tech Games broadcast. He saw Roland splashing into the black water, the home of thousands of hungry, deranged piranha. The hover cams very thematically captured the fall from nearly every angle.
The electricity coming from Roland’s arm as he entered the water created an electrical field all around his body. The piranha all stopped their advance on him. None would get within half a foot of him. They could feel the electricity and backed away.
Roland felt the electricity surging through his body. He was being electrocuted from the inside out. He couldn’t figure out why the piranha weren’t biting him. He couldn’t figure out why he was still alive. He flailed as he tried to stand. He was in the shallow end of the pool. It was only four feet deep. He got to his feet and clawed his way to the edge of the pool.
The school of piranha parted to let the huge, strange electrocuting thing through their midst.
Roland pulled himself up on the edge of the pool and rolled himself out of the water. Electricity still coursing through him. How do I stop this?
Coach grabbed Skylar and yanked her over in front of the terminal, pointing. “He’s alive! He’s alive!”
Skylar stopped crying and looked up. The deep sadness on her face changed to excitement. “What? How? How is that even possible?” She jerked away from Coach and went back to her system, trying to reset everything and contact Roland.
Coach looked at the weapon in Roland’s hand. He could see Roland shaking. “It’s the electricity! The high amperage scared away the fish!” Then his face changed to concern. “But it will kill him!” He could see steam rising from Roland’s body as it heated up.
Roland disabled Grip, but he still couldn’t let go of Charlotte. He couldn’t flex his fingers at all. The electricity kept the muscles in his hand contracted tightly around his weapon. He raised his other hand into a fist and then smashed it down on his hand that was holding the weapon. He heard the bones crack in his hand before he felt it.
Charlotte dropped out his hand. He lay there, gasping for a second. Then he saw the countdown timer on his HUD. It read 0:14. The exit door was right in front of him. He grabbed Charlotte with just two fingers on his good hand and stowed her in his belt before the electricity could go off again and sprinted for the door.
He grabbed the door and flung it open. He dove into grass. His feet crossed the threshold right as the timer read 0:00. The light on his arm turned green. He had completed the obstacle and gained one hundred points.
CHAPTER NINETEEN:
ALIVE
SKYLAR REBOOTED THE system. “Roland? Can you hear me?”
Roland stood up from the grassy area outside the warehouse. He was breathing hard. “Sky! It’s good to hear your voice.”
Coach smiled. “I can’t believe you’re alive.”
“Me either.”
“Let me be the first to tell you. You made it! You are officially in position 42 with a score of 675.”
Roland let out a whoop. “Alright! Now where do I go?” He saw a hover medic heading towards him.
Coach kept smiling. “Flag down that medic. He’ll take a look at your hand, and then he will take you into the contestants’ finish area.”
Roland climbed on board the small hovercraft. One medic drove it towards a large building, while another wrapped up Roland’s hand. Roland disabled all his plugins. His hand hurt, but he couldn’t even feel the pain over his elation at having completed Game One. He walked into the building where the contestants’ finishing party was being held.
He was greeted with an applause from a group of contestants as he entered. He could see the huge holographic replay of his finishing the piranha obstacle in the center of the room.
Bianca ran over and hugged him. “I can’t believe you are alive, mon! I thought you were fish food for sure!”
Enrique was grinning ear to ear. He pumped Roland’s hand excite
dly. “Great work back there! I was really hoping you’d make it.”
Several other racers came by to shake Roland’s hand and congratulate him on making it through such a harrowing obstacle. Those who didn’t shake his hand, looked at him differently. He didn’t recognize the look at first. Then it came to him: respect. Those silent nods and looks were recognition that he was a real player in this game. Roland felt good.
CHAPTER TWENTY:
TROPHY
THE PATRONS OF the Trophy grumbled loudly as they watched the proprietor count out hundred dollar bills, bills which had formerly belonged to them.
Ivan held out one hand to collect the bills as they were counted out. He drank a set of Alzheimer's vodka with his other hand. “See? Just like Ivan tell you, da? Ivan say that Roland will make it through the fishies. But you say, no!”
The grumbling turned to yelling and beating of their fists on the worn bar counters as the rest of the patrons expressed their displeasure at having lost their money on a surefire win.
The proprietor finished his counting and handed Ivan another round of Alzheimer’s, on the house.
Ivan turned and held the thick wad of bills in the air. “Ivan never wrong. Roland look weak, but he tough. Tough like Russian!” Then he downed his last shot of Alzheimer’s. “Now Ivan going to buy Alzheimer’s for everyone! Da?”
The grumbling turned to cheers and the fists pounding on the table intensified at the prospect of free vodka.
The proprietor smiled as he began filling shot glasses with the braincell killing liquid and began thinking about making his money back on the payout he had just handed Ivan.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:
SECURITY
ROLAND WALKED BY a hologram that listed every contestant’s standing in the games. Roland saw his name at the bottom of the list. I may be on the bottom, but at least I’m on the list! He walked over to a food table and grabbed a few of the luxury items and began devouring them.
Nano Contestant - Episode 3: Combat Obstacles: The Technothriller Futuristic Science Fiction Adventure of a Cyberpunk Marine (Nano Contestant Series) Page 10