“You’d better grab a weapon, I don’t know what’s about to happen next.” Thao said.
Thao was still dizzy as he moved back to help Layla. Her arm was in her lap. She pulled the P90 off her shoulder and held it in her right hand.
“Any ideas?” Layla said.
“That thing on your wrist when we first met-, the big shackle they had to take off, it worked by keeping your battery cut off until it was removed, right? The charge still exists inside the battery even if it can’t be used.” Thao said, “Whereabouts is your arm’s internal battery located?”
“Here, I think.” Layla said.
Layla unfolded her left arm manually and pointed to an armour plate on her forearm, just under the crook of her elbow. ‘DO NOT REMOVE’ and a small radioactive symbol were stencilled onto the plate like a tattoo, surrounded by cords of black, artificial muscle. Unhesitatingly, Thao felt around the edges of the armour plate and pried it off. Doing so revealed the inner workings of Layla’s mechanical arm. A sickly green glow radiated from a small cylinder near Layla’s elbow. Thao studied it for a moment and pointed to a thick ring wrapped around one of the cords leading away from the cylinder.
“That’s the battery, and I don’t think this thing is part of the original design.” Thao said, “They probably installed it after knocking you out, when they transported you from prison. I think it’s cutting off the power supply to your arm so it can be switched on and off without damaging it. It can’t be removed but-, maybe if we overloaded it?”
Suddenly, one of the doors at the back of the hall that had closed over before slid open again. They were interrupted by the stomping of booted feet. Church automatically raised an SMG he’d looted off one of the bodies but he was met by two dozen other gun muzzles already trained in his direction. Around thirty fresh men in black armoured suits and masks stormed into the room in orderly rows. Both Church and Jeannie had taken submachine guns from the dead guards but they were far outgunned. A single shot could trigger a wall of bullets from the multitude of security troopers that there would be no escaping. Thao also froze, hovering over Layla.
The rows parted, still trained on the four contestants, and Roland Smith came strolling through the gap. He stood out amongst the ranks of identical men in identical black armour. The long, black handgun he was carrying seemed like an afterthought. Seeing Roland, Layla started to pull her P90 into position. Roland stumbled back a few steps before regaining his composure.
“Ah-ah, now, hold on for just a minute!” Roland said, “We’re all very impressed how far you’ve come but just hold on!”
Roland held up his right forearm to show off the smooth, grey bracelet he was wearing with its kill switch attached. Layla looked from her own sleeve to Thao, Church and Jeannie who were all waiting uncertainly.
“So, what?” Layla said, “Just who or what are you hooked up to?”
Smiling smugly, Roland gestured back at one of the doorways. A mechanical chair scuttled forward, moving on four long and spindly, robotic legs. There was a woman strapped into the chair so that she couldn’t move, arms and legs attached to the arm and footrests. The woman looked terrified and utterly confused. Her eyes were wide behind the haze of her light brown hair thrown eschew.
“S-Stephanie?” Thao said.
The name came back to Thao without a thought attached, without warning. He had seen the name earlier that day on the screen of the DNA scanner but it had taken until then to attach it to the reality. The woman in the chair, Caucasian with light brown hair, beautiful, was the same one from his memories. He’d seen her before, kneeling to propose, and just minutes ago in his memories of waking up in a sunlit bedroom. She stared back at him, still confused. There was another kill switch on her right forearm, her wrist attached to the armrest. She focused on Thao from across the large and churchlike hall.
“Tommy?” She said.
“The way it works, I’m hooked up to your wife here, Tommy.” Roland said, “Or are you still preferring Thao? You know how those memory wipes are, temperamental things. The brain always reasserts itself sooner or later. Point is, if I die then she dies. And even if you still want to make a move, well, I think we’ve got enough guns over here to take you out.”
Church suddenly lunged, ducking low. He grabbed the blonde woman who’d been bleeding out on the floor. She screamed in pain and surprise as Church pulled her upright. Using her as a human shield, Church propped his stolen submachine gun across her shoulder.
“Okay, you’ve got a hostage, we’ve got a hostage.” Church said.
“Oh, no, if you kill her wherever else will I find an attractive and ambitious young woman who is willing to do morally questionable things to get her face on TV? You know, when I go back home to San Angeles?” Roland said.
Straightening his gun out in front of him, Roland fired. The shot drilled through the blonde woman’s head. Her skull imploded and blood sprayed across Church’s face. The bullet exited the back of her head and was caught by Church’s body armour as it hammered him in the chest, causing him to stumble back. Losing his grip, he let the blonde woman’s bloody body drop to the ground with her hands falling away from her stomach.
“Holy shit.” Thao said, “What-, what’s going on here? Why don’t I know who I am? Why did you mindwipe me?”
“You’re a reporter, you work for a feedsite too small for us to own but it turns out you were a smart one.” Roland said, “Looked like it was coming to you when you figured out the trick with the DNA scanner-, we were making our own contestants. Plenty of assholes still waiting on life sentences but it was easier that way. We caught you paying off a tech on another show, Real Gladiators, for some teeth that would’ve proved we were using non-prisoners as contestants. Some of them were homeless, or volunteers, and some were mindwiped just like you. You had the ammunition to cause us quite a lot of trouble so we thought we’d let you see it from the other side.”
“You sick-, what about the others? What about Jeannie, and Anaconda?” Thao said.
“Jeannie-, well, Tabitha there, you might say she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Roland said, “Anaconda? He was a gardener who got caught schtupping one of the higher-ups’ wives. Someone thought the tattoo and the name would be funny because of his-, well, you know. We wiped your memories, next time we were thinking of implanting whole new personalities and seeing how that works out, that way we’d never run out of colourful contestants.”
“You’re insane.” Thao said, “It wasn’t enough for you to feed prisoners into this meat grinder you’ve got up and running? You’ve got to start on-, any regular person who pisses you off?”
“The show must go on.” Roland’s eyes flitted around the room, “Don’t worry, even though the cameras are still running, even in here, all of our feeds are down. It’s just us, you and I, and all my hired guns.”
“Okay, so what? What’s next?” Thao said.
“Well, I can’t let you leave now, can I? Knowing what you know?” Roland smirked.
Roland levelled his gun from across the room at Thao’s chest. The kill switch on his wrist, linked to Stephanie, meant there were nothing Thao could do.
“We thought it would be poetic if you died out there in the arena but this works too.” Roland said.
Roland squeezed the trigger, the bullet ripping into the left side of Thao’s chest. It flattened against the armour Thao was still wearing under his coat but the impact sent him stumbling back. Thao grabbed at his waist but he went for the stun baton instead of his gun. The masked guards opened fire, shots raking across the massive hall. Church grabbed Jeannie and they scrambled sideways toward one wall. Layla fell back, dragging her useless arm, and Thao followed her. The side of his chest ached along with his head and most of his body as he hit the ground and started crawling. The two of them took cover behind a support beam.
“Got your answers, now what?” Layla yelled over the hail of gunfire.
“If we can get your arm moving again, do you think we might h
ave a shot?” Thao said.
“Worth a try!” Layla said.
Thao unsnapped the shock baton he’d been carrying since the start of the game, and the fork at the end of the baton let off a crackle of electricity. The section of Layla’s prosthetic arm was still open and letting off a green glow. Thao looked down at the ring that seemed to be sealing off one of the cables inside the arm.
“If we can overload the device cutting off your arm’s power supply, it might start working again.” Thao said, “But-, if I’m wrong, or if I overload the battery instead, it could fry the arm and all the machinery inside you instead, and stop your heart. Or it could cause a small nuclear explosion just concentrated enough to disintegrate both of us along with most of this room.”
“I think we’re out of options here.” Layla gripped Thao around the back of the head with her right hand, “Until Valhalla, brother.”
Thao jammed the stun baton into the open panel of Layla’s artificial arm. The fork hit the device near the arm’s battery and electricity crackled out of the gap. The green cylinder glowed hotter and hotter, and then suddenly there was a snap. Whirring, Layla’s arm jerked to life again. She studied it for a moment before balling the porcelain plates that covered her hand into a fist. Gunfire was chewing at the edges of the riblike support beam they were using for cover. Across the room, Church and Jeannie were taking cover as well.
“Tommy? Tommy!” Stephanie yelled.
“Let’s do this.” Layla said.
“Be-, be careful, okay? Don’t hit my wife, don’t hurt her.” Thao said.
“Don’t worry, she’ll be safe.” Layla said.
With her left hand, Layla produced the last brick of plastic explosive that she had recovered from the bridge, where Church had dropped it, before entering the building. The guards in their dark helmets and opaque facemasks were advancing on the contestants’ positions with their guns raised. Without breaking from cover, Layla hurled the brick towards them. Only a couple looked up to see the brick wafting through the air, the others were too focused on their field of fire. Even then there was nothing they could do about it.
Layla triggered the brick of explosive while it was still in mid-air. The explosion ripped through half a dozen of the forward guards. Heads and limbs were blown clean from torsos, an expanding, red mist coating the other men following the front row and the walls around them. The other guards were knocked off their feet and scattered by the blast. Few of them seemed to have actual training to fall back on once they’d been stunned. Before they could react, Layla waded around the corner of the support beam, spraying wildly with her P90.
Roland stumbled back with his oversized handgun still gripped in his fist. The kill switch glinted on his right forearm. Church, meanwhile, emerged from behind cover with Jeannie trailing behind him, laying down a stream of suppressing fire as well. Thao followed behind Layla with his pistol drawn, firing without aiming. Bullets punched the guards’ armour without penetrating but caused them to drop or stagger back. They were split apart or left in total disarray. Only a few managed to fire back and their shots went wild, rattling off the walls and ceiling. All the confusion gave Layla more than enough time to get back to the enormous tri-barrelled laser weapon she had dropped in the centre of the room.
Scooping the laser gun up to her shoulder, Layla let out a bitter laugh. The black-suited guards were wrapped up in total chaos even as Roland yelled at them to get organised again. Blazing, Layla let loose with the anti-Abomination gun. Lasers seared across the hall, blinding and shrieking, hosing from side to side. Lances of light pierced the guards like they were paper dolls. The lasers might have looked like a pretty light show but they left fist-sized holes of cauterised flesh through every guard they hit, spraying them across the walls and the back of the room. After about twenty seconds of sustained fire the gun started to smoke and whine. Its battery was dying and the gun ran dry. Layla tossed it aside, the weapon hitting the ground with a crash, and picked up her P90 again.
Roland stumbled toward the doorway, drawing Stephanie’s four-legged chair with him. Raising his heavy handgun, Roland fired wildly at the contestants. Smoke filled the hall as most of the guards collapsed, cut apart by lasers. Layla and Church charged, hitting the remaining guards with everything they had. Out of the original thirty only four or five remained in a sea of black-clad bodies. Layla had been almost surgical with how she’d destroyed the guards, leaving Roland and Stephanie untouched. Roland was panting as he slipped in a slick of blood.
“What the-, fuck?” Roland said, “This isn’t-, I’m in charge, here! You can’t do this!”
“Tommy, help me!” Stephanie said.
The four of them closed in around Roland, weapons ready. Roland dumped the empty clip from out of his pistol and loaded in a fresh one. Stephanie was tottering from side to side in her mechanical chair. Roland turned back on Stephanie and aimed the pistol at her head.
“This kill switch doesn’t go both ways!” Roland said, “If you kill me, she dies, but I can shoot her and it won’t mean I’ll die too!”
“Want to bet?” Layla said.
“Oh, shit.” Roland said.
Roland drew the handgun away from the woman’s head as he realised he’d been outplayed. All around him were piles of the dead and dying, men in faceless helmets blown to pieces by the remaining contestants. Tossing his gun aside, Roland raised his hands in surrender.
“Still, you-, you can’t kill me, or it’ll kill her as well.” Roland said.
“Trust me, you’ll be amazed what you can live through.” Layla said.
xXx
“Alright, alright!” Roland yelled.
Layla twisted Roland’s shattered arm around behind his back. He struggled to turn to the nearest camera so he could speak directly to the control room.
“Release the chair, get her out of it! Do it now!” Roland said.
“It’s going to be alright, you’re safe now.” Thao said.
Thao was leaning over the woman in the chair, his wife Stephanie. He brushed the hair back from her face. She studied him back in confusion and fear.
“Tommy, is that really you? They’ve changed your face.” Stephanie said.
“That bad, huh?” Thao said.
“So, it is you, under there?” Stephanie said.
She struggled to return his smile and after a moment the shackles on the arm and footrests of her chair popped open. Stephanie reached up and touched his cheek. Thao took her gently by the wrist.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know they had you this entire time.” Thao said, “To be honest, I still don’t really know anything. My memories are just starting to come back, but I knew you.”
“Let’s not make this all for nothing, they’ll have backup coming. I’m guessing the network has some private military boys under contract and the pull to keep law enforcement away until they give the all-clear.” Layla said, “You said the cameras were still rolling during your little speech, even while we were off-air, so where does it all go?”
“Oh, no, not a chance!” Roland said, and then screamed as Layla pulled his arm higher, “You still can’t kill me! Me and her, we’re still linked!”
“And we’re the only people who have beaten that system once already, so maybe you should just do what she says.” Thao said.
Thao turned on Roland and pulled the laser-edged scalpel out of his coat. Oily hair fell across Roland’s forehead.
“Okay, okay!” Roland said.
Leaving the stink of death behind, Layla allowed Roland to lead them out of the room and away from the ruined bodies and droids. They knew the technicians would still be watching from the control room but everything seemed to be silent. Retinal scans from Roland got them through every door in their path. When it seemed like Roland was trying to slow them down Layla twisted his arm harder, broken bone grinding on bone. He led them to a brightly lit chamber deep in the building. It was filled with smartglass servers. Flicking images covered the surfaces of the
thick, glass pillars.
“There’s an access port over here.” Thao said, “We just need to find the footage from upstairs and get something to store it on.”
“Empty your pockets.” Church said to Roland.
“What’ll we do after we get it? We’ll still be fugitives until they clear us.” Jeannie said.
“We’re getting the hell out of here, once we’ve got this shit on them it’s not going to be a problem.” Layla said, “Hey, I’m Layla, by the way, Thao-, uh, Tommy’s partner.”
“P-pleasure.” Stephanie looked the soldier with her hulking, cybernetic arm up and down with uncertainty, “Thanks for getting him back to me in one piece.”
Epilogue.
Amber lights flashed across the central building as two troop carrier-sized hovercraft descended over the arena. The bridge was back up across the central lake and the doors to the entry hall were still open. One of the craft landed in the ruins near the foot of the bridge. Mercenaries from a private security firm poured out of the rear of the craft as soon as it touched down. More orderly than the Slayerz security, and with actual situational training, they advanced toward the central building. The other hovercraft circled outward to sweep the arena. Huge spotlights painted the ground directly below the craft and swung from side to side as it flew.
Roland met the mercenaries in the entry hall, hugging his shattered arm against his chest. His face was pale and bloodless as he drew himself up, trying to maintain a shred of dignity.
“Took you long enough!” Roland said, “They forced us to remove their sleeves and shut down the rest of the cameras, so we can’t track them. But they’re still out there and they’ve got something-, something they can’t be allowed to leave the arena with, find them! Shoot them on sight!”
The mercenaries fanned out from the bridge in smaller search teams as the hovercraft scanned the ruined streets from overhead. Brought back online, a fleet of camera drones spewed out of the building to form search grids as well. However, they were all already too late.
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