Having also taken a deep breath of air, Layla braced her powerful legs against the back of the elevator. She grabbed Thao and pulled him forward as she pushed out of the elevator’s doorway. They found themselves drifting over an enormous chasm filled with wreckage. Spars of concrete, steel and rebar jutted up from the floor of the crater. The ground dropped away, pulverised buildings and the rusted wrecks of hundreds of cars lining the bottom. A strange glow filled the water so Thao could see much further than he would have been able to in normal circumstances.
Swimming away from the debris and wreckage, Thao and Layla headed for the surface. Something came powering through the water to Thao’s right. He jerked in surprise and saw a round and shiny camera lens looking back at him, so close he could see his own unfamiliar face reflected in it. It was some kind of camera drone, spherical and with several whirling rotors that were kicking up a passage of bubble in its wake. Thao turned away and kept paddling toward the surface. The drone captured his struggles as he dealt with the unexpected swim, somewhat relieved he even knew what he was doing. His lungs were already burning, and his body armour and dark clothes were weighing him down. The quality of the strange light made it difficult to tell just how far away the surface was and Thao could only hope he’d reach it before his lungs gave out.
Layla’s head broke the surface first, her long hair pasted down to her scalp. She exhaled carefully and took a deep breath while paddling hard to stay afloat. Her mechanical arm and the associated reinforcements it took to keep the arm from ripping clean off her shoulder weighed her down in the water. Thao reached the surface a few seconds later, gasping for air. Everything was covered in a weird, hazy twilight, it was clearly daytime but the sky was thick with pollution and grey clouds. Behind them were the sheer concrete walls of the game’s central hub. The two of them found themselves in the drowned ruins of an old city, shambolic, crumbling skyscrapers dotting the arena. The broken remains of other buildings formed the shoreline.
With twin, foamy bursts the two camera drones that had met with them underwater erupted through the surface. They hovered in mid-air and circled the pair as water dribbled off their sides. Thao struggled to recover his breath.
“What the hell is going on?” Thao said.
“Different sort of Gauntlet this year, nearly drowned us instead of making us walk through it. Guess that’s one of the surprises the host was talking about.” Layla said, “Swim for the shoreline but watch there’s no traps in the water, or anything else.”
xXx
The arena for that year’s Slayerz was marked by an enormous, round wall circling the battered city ruins. The lake-filled crater formed the centre of the arena with other rivers branching through low-lying areas of the city. Glittering steel walkways were slung between the buildings in some of the half-drowned areas. Throughout the rest of the arena were earthquake-rattled buildings and upheaval as well as streets covered in car wrecks and rubble. Thousands and thousands of cameras and hundreds of traps were hidden in the ruins. Dotted throughout the main lake the elevators opened, pushing the contestants out to sink or swim in the cold, filthy water.
Jacob Schmidt and Pedro de lar Mar felt their elevator grind to a stop. They were physically mismatched, Schmidt was tall and lean with fair hair. Pedro was a short, swarthy man and heavily muscled, holding a large submachine gun between his knees.
“What business did they say you were in again?” Schmidt said.
“The people business, I give people new opportunities, new lives, put them in touch with businesses who had a workforce with high turnover. Restaurants, clothing production, gentlemen’s entertainment.” Pedro said, “I only took a little bit of money for the passage I supplied, little bit off the top of their wages, and what do I get for gratitude? Pah! Wasn’t my fault that shipping container full of girls went over the side of the boat and they all drowned, one time! However you want to cut it, people make lousy product.”
“That’s a sad story, friend.” Schmidt said, “Ain’t that just like a bunch of bitches? Useless bits of skin, fucking things up for an honest man.”
The elevator doors made a grinding sound as they attempted to open. They only came about half a foot apart before they stopped. Jacob Schmidt reached through, confused at only finding a smooth wall on the other side. The doors made another grinding noise, shuddering, but didn’t budge. After a few moments, the secondary door began to lower. A firehose spray of water started to stream through the top of the gap. With the other doors blocking it the process took longer but the elevator immediately started to fill. Before Schmidt and Pedro knew what was happening the cold water was swimming around their shins and the outer door was still coming down.
“Hey! What the hell?” Schmidt said.
Schmidt stuck his hands through the gap and gripped the inner doors, trying to pry them apart. They juddered but wouldn’t open wide enough for either of the two men to squeeze through. The gap got lower and spray hit Schmidt in the face, driving him back. In desperation he turned to one of the tiny lenses in the corner of the elevator, waving his arms.
“Hey! Hey, stop the water!” Schmidt yelled, “Something’s gone wrong with the doors here! Cut it out!”
Pedro de la Mar threw himself at the doors, pulling at one side. His muscles strained but the door wouldn’t move. Water continued to flood inside the tiny room until it was filled to the roof. The two gasped for the last of the air then continued to fight against the doors. Trapped in the enclosed space the two of them fought until the breath exploded from their bodies and the pair died, choking, without ever entering the arena.
Their deaths were captured by the live video feed broadcasting to the world beyond the arena. Already, at that moment, Slayerz had billions of viewers all around the planet.
“We’re off to one heck of a start here, Rick! First floor, men’s fashion, homewares, and a watery grave for two of our contestants!” One of the commentators said, “Looks like mechanical failure costing Schmidt and De la Mar before the first round could begin!”
“Somehow, I feel the engineer in charge of that particular elevator could end up testing some of the traps in next season’s arena a bit more intimately, Fred.” The second man said, “The rest of the teams are away now but they could find a few more surprises waiting for them in The Gauntlet.”
“Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, Rick!” The first man said.
xXx
Meanwhile, the duo of Q. Chrissie and Maurice Lester fought their way to the surface. Their two camera drones followed, erupting out of the water in frothy spouts and orbiting the two men. Lester floundered, sputtering and spitting.
“Jesus Christ, I lost my gun on the way up!” Lester said.
“Great, just when I thought you couldn’t be any more useless to me.” Chrissie said, “Just swim for the shore and watch for the other teams!”
Chrissie’s dark hair was soaked to his forehead. His shotgun was still tucked under his armpit although he worried whether the water might have already ruined his ammunition. He swam confidently toward the shoreline but his partner, Lester, struggled behind him.
An ex-military man, Chrissie had found work as a hitman when he returned home and wasted all his back pay on gambling and hookers. He’d abided by a simple code, no women and no children, and liked to think of himself as a professional even if sometimes he’d admitted to taking a little too much pleasure in his work. Maurice Lester was a completely different story. When the screen had revealed Maurice’s crimes, Chrissie had almost threatened to kill him on the spot. A remorseless paedophile, Lester had been behind the disappearance of almost a dozen children between the ages of four to eight-years-old when he was finally caught and confessed in a wave of self-pity, blaming the children for what he’d done. Fat and out-of-shape, he had a face like a wax statue left too close to a fire and a moustache that looked like it had been swept off the floor of a barbershop.
There were no other teams in their immediate s
urroundings. All the others had been released at separate points through the huge lake. Although they were still wary, both men failed to spot a large, grey fin that cut through the water towards them. Getting closer it submerged, diving.
“Wait a second, what is that?” Lester said.
Out of breath, Lester paddled awkwardly in place only halfway to the shore. A strange light filtered through the water beneath them. Their two camera drones circled overhead, still recording every moment.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Chrissie said, “I swear to God, if you don’t hurry up what I’m going to do to you-, it will make what you did to those children look like a fucking weekend spa retreat.”
Suddenly, something grabbed Chrissie and dragged him under the water. Arms windmilling, Chrissie broke the surface for a couple of seconds but then was pulled under again. A monster great white shark had swum up from below, sinking rows and rows of jagged teeth into one of Chrissie’s legs. The shark dragged him down, jaws tearing through the flesh like a bear trap.
The great white was fifteen feet long with beady black eyes and a powerful, sweeping tail. Mounted to the back of the shark’s head was a boxy camera looking straight over its nose, stapled to its rough, grey skin. There was a small spotlight next to the camera lens that illuminated the bite on Chrissie’s leg. Blood clouded the water as the shark bit deeper, knifelike teeth shredding through his flesh. The force of the bite caused the bone to crack and shatter, and suddenly Chrissie’s lower leg was sheared away from below his knee. His boot jutted from the corner of the shark’s mouth as the creature chomped down.
“Chrissie! Chrissie!” Lester yelled.
Bloody foam frothed to the surface. Lester didn’t see any sign of his partner except for the ripples and blood bubbling to the surface. He pawed at the metal sleeve on his forearm. The kill switch hadn’t triggered yet, which meant Chrissie’s heart was still beating.
Drawn by the blood in the water, a second shark came shooting up under Lester like a torpedo. The paedophile didn’t see anything until the shark was between his legs. Another headlamp and camera was mounted to the creature’s head. Dozens of pointed teeth shredded upward through Lester’s groin and bit through his body armour like tissue paper, dragging him under the water. Lester could only let out a short squeal before his head disappeared beneath the surface.
The cloned great whites had been engineered for maximum hunger and ferocity. Dragging Lester deeper into the water, the shark shook its head from side to side like a dog. Its jaws tore through Lester’s stomach, and blood and entrails filled the water.
Lester screamed then inhaled, filling his lungs with water. Just as he was about to black out, however, the kill switch on his arm triggered as somewhere, within the lake, Chrissie was finished off. Eyes snapping back open, Lester couldn’t help but fight the shark now biting him in half. A long streamer of intestine followed them into the depths as the shark chewed through the still-living man’s middle, ignoring his futile attempts to gouge his fingers into its eyes and pry at its jaws. Locked together, they disappeared into the massive crater.
xXx
Across the lake, Thao and Layla were still swimming for the shoreline. Thao ducked his head under the water, looking for mines or traps since Layla had warned him about the possibility. He saw a hazy spotlight heading toward them under the surface instead. Stopping, Thao focused until the shadow attached to the headlamp took shape. It was clearly predatory, all sharp angles and at least fifteen feet long.
Thao shot upright, “Shark! There’s a shark in the water!” He yelled.
“Of course there is, this was much too easy.” Layla stopped and kicked hard to stay afloat, “Okay, stay close to me and keep heading for the shore!”
The two of them kept swimming toward the crooked lampposts and steel beams that dotted the shoreline. Thao swam closer to the big soldier. Layla could only move slowly with her mechanical arm weighing her down. The shark closed the distance easily and cut in front of them, its top fin suddenly slicing through the water in the direction they were headed. It circled around, ravenous. The two drones were also orbiting the pair, tracing the ripples of the shark’s passage, and the cameras fixed on Thao and Layla’s desperate faces. The shark dived lower and only the hazy glow of its head-mounted spotlight gave it away.
“You keep moving, I’ll draw it off.” Layla said, “Go!”
Thao turned and powered through the water as quietly as he could. He cut across the path of the shark, panting for air as he looked for the animal. Behind him, Layla stayed where she was. She slapped at the water repeatedly to draw the shark’s attention.
The light from the shark snaked through the water towards Layla, only just visible through the grey twilight that was glimmering off the water’s surface. Without knowing what had happened to the team of Chrissie and Lester, Layla still kept her eyes open in case a second shark appeared. The shark’s circle got tighter, diving low in the water, and then the creature came straight for her legs. Layla reached for her H&K G36C but then chided herself. The bullets wouldn’t travel far underwater. Tucking her legs together, Layla let herself sink as she took one final breath of air. She blinked her eyes rapidly to clear her vision.
The shark loomed toward Layla, jaws opening wide. Row after row of jagged, white points surrounded a deep, sucking hole into nothingness. It shot through the water like a missile but Layla waited until she could see its beady black eyes and her own face reflected back at her in the camera lens mounted to its head. Layla shoved her left arm into the shark’s mouth as it lunged toward her chest.
Shooting through the water with the shark’s momentum, Layla was forced to hold on tight. Its fangs clattered against the thick, super-hardened plates of armour covering her prosthetic arm. Reaching past the teeth, Layla jammed her mechanical hand into the soft palate on the roof of the shark’s mouth. The cloned shark thrashed and blood poured out of its mouth. Layla’s fingers dug into its skull until she had her hand around a spongy mass of flesh she assumed was the shark’s brain. She made a fist.
Spasming, the great white turned belly-up and started to sink. Life immediately left its black and doll-like eyes. The giant fish started to drag Layla down with it, its body almost two and a half times as long as she was tall. She withdrew her fist, streaming with gore, and pulled it out of the shark’s clamped jaws. Her heart was pounding but she kept her movements calm and controlled as she made her way back to the surface.
Thao staggered along the shore, across thick slabs of cracked concrete and around the rusted hulks of vehicles that had been tossed there like toys. He couldn’t see anything except the surface of the lake. Suddenly, the bracelet on Thao’s right forearm started to beep. Still shaking, Thao’s head snapped to the screen. There were no needles sliding into his flesh, however. The kill switch hadn’t been activated it was just a proximity alert, he and Layla had strayed too far apart and now a one-minute timer had started counting down.
“Oh, shit, no!” Thao said.
Twisting around, Thao still couldn’t see any sign of his partner. He needed to move but if he started running in the wrong direction it could make things even worse. Once the counter reached zero, the kill switch would be activated. Thao waded back into the water until it was up to his waist, hunting for Layla.
Fortunately, the proximity alert cut out. Thao spotted his partner emerging from the water further down the lip of the flooded crater. She stumbled toward Thao and gestured for him to head for the cover of a nearby, partially intact building. He was hit by a wave of relief and the adrenaline seemed to drain out of his system, letting the chill of the water back in. After a few moments though, he remembered great white sharks weren’t the only predators in their immediate surroundings. The other contestants would be reaching the shoreline as well. He hurried to meet Layla near the building. Her mechanical arm was still dripping.
“Are you alright, what happened?” Thao said.
“Some parts of me are less edible than o
thers.” Layla said.
Chapter Four.
Grey rings of cereal float in greyish milk, in a grey bowl. They become soggy, heavy and losing shape, blending with the milk and slowing sinking into the surface. A grey spoon to one side of the bowl slips slowly into the cereal. Time is only a construct. Words scroll from the bottom of the screen to the top.
Nutrition-Os are a reasonable facsimile of a nutritious breakfast. Containing:
1550 kJ Energy / Per Serving Size
28.8 g Total Dietary Fibre / Per Serving Size
13.3 g Protein / Per Serving Size
0.3 g Sugars / Per Serving Size
44 g Sodium / Per Serving Size
0.4 g Saturated Fat / Per Serving Size
0.55 mg Thiamin / Per Serving Size
0.42 mg Riboflavin / Per Serving Size
2.5 mg Niacin / Per Serving Size
0.4 Vitamin B6 / Per Serving Size
12.5 Vitamin C / Per Serving Size
50 µg Folate / Per Serving Size
85 mg Calcium / Per Serving Size
3.5 mg Iron / Per Serving Size
This should be acceptable.
Nutrition-Os. They are edible.
Clear of the water, the screens on Thao and Layla’s wrists updated. They showed a map of the arena, an enormous circle filled with ruined city blocks and with the massive lake in the middle. Layla poked at it with one of her mechanical fingers but got frustrated.
Serial Escalation Page 4