by Arthur Stone
“Ungrateful son of a...”
“Don’t insult the dogs, Rocky. He... he said that he would give his life for mine. He said that often. Even all of his lives. He was a great talker, unlike you. An enchanting talker, even. And he was beautiful. So handsome. Didn’t look like you at all. His face was so honest, so open. Yours is, to be honest, difficult to trust. I wanted to trust him. I really did. And it got me killed.”
“Maybe my face doesn’t back this up, but I’m not like that bastard. Haven’t you realized that yet?”
“You don’t even know yourself yet. You haven’t remembered your life. What I do know is that your chances aren’t even close to his. You know what I mean.”
“I understand. The beautiful, courteous knight. What does a moron like me with my ugly mug have to compete with him? Not a chance.”
“This isn’t a movie, Rocky. You can drop all the drama. It’s not that you’re ‘not my type,’ it’s just how things are inside my head. I doubt our relationship could have ever become serious. But with you... Not a chance.”
“You’re not my type, to be honest. Not at all. But I accept that.”
“Time changes things, I guess.”
“It’ll change things for you, too.”
“Not in this case. We are saying goodbye in the morning. Now, let’s be quiet for a moment. Let me finish my tea.”
As he stared into the darkness of the world outside, drinking the last of his lukewarm beverage, Rocky tried to figure out something else to say to Kitty. Knowing the effort was futile. She was unbearably stubborn, and she was pushing him away.
And she had admitted liking nice boys who would turn on her for thirty silvers. The rough Rocky wasn’t like that. He had no chance.
He broke the silence, changing the subject. “You said you were scared of respawning, because you aren’t a newcomer. I’m not sure I know why.”
“How many lives do you have left?” she asked, without turning. Oh.
“Ninety-some. You know that.”
“I have less than ten. Once my last life goes, I’ll just disappear. No one knows what happens them. Like most people, I think that’s the end. Real death, Rocky. Final death. I don’t have much time left.”
* * *
You have been kicked from the party.
Rocky looked at Kitty in astonishment. The red text had appeared so suddenly, so brightly in the night. She got up from her chair, leaning against her silly improvised crutches hastily assembled from a bunch of sticks, and tried to hide the notes of sadness in her voice. “This is it, Rocky. Now we are each on our own. If an atom bomb hit this place right now, we would likely go to different respawns clusters.”
“Good foresight,” he said with a joyless grin. “Can I help you downstairs? I’ll have you down there in a flash. We morons are good at manual labor.”
“Thanks, Rocky, but I’ll manage on my own. I have to get used to moving around without you.”
It seemed like she was extending the remainder of the time they had together by hobbling instead of letting him carry her. Why else would she have volunteered to accompany him to the door? He knew perfectly well where it was. No, I’m just being stupid. She wasn’t trying to drag their parting out. It was just empty courtesy, or some yet-unknown oddity of her character.
Rocky slung his rifle over his shoulder and donned a rock-hard expression, leaning over his backpack, which rested on the table.
He did not stand back up. He fell to the floor, pushing himself down into the metal.
The reaction was perfectly natural. The nearest window had shattered for no visible reason, and he heard something buzzing overhead. Something that sounded very dangerous. Still on the floor, Rocky looked up. He was right. In the wall near the table, at about the height of his neck, a fresh bullet had been lodged. It definitely had not been there before.
“Kitty! Get down!” he croaked, simultaneously realizing that his command was unnecessary.
The girl had dropped to the floor next to him, her crutches knocked to either side. Right. She had better Dexterity and Reaction. Rocky collected himself and prepared to speak, but then stopped short. Outside, he heard a voice that he recognized.
“Hey, you in the tower! Good morning! How’s your day going? Did you miss us?”
Rocky grimaced. “It’s Globes.”
Kitty spoke like she was dead already. “He’s not alone.”
Chapter 27
Life Five: The Worst of Times
Rocky sat up and glanced out the window, then ducked just as quickly, showered in glass shards from the resulting hail of fire. One bullet struck the opposite wall noisily, then others hammered into the outside of the wall by Rocky’s head, deafening as a sledgehammer. He rolled away, knocking the table down as a barrier.
“Kitty, get behind something. They’re shooting at us!”
The girl answered with an inexplicable calm. “Don’t worry. They won’t shoot me. But you’d better keep your head down. That’s a silenced weapon, with subsonic ammo. Those bullets usually have low penetration power, and the walls are decent. They won’t let the rounds through. If they decide to use more powerful guns, that table won’t help you, so just keep your head down.”
Rocky, as usual, voiced an obvious conclusion. “So they need you alive, and they don’t care how many ghouls they draw?”
“There you go with the dumb questions again.”
“How did they find us?”
“What does it matter now?”
“You think there are lots of them out there?”
“What do you think?”
“If we get out of that door and break left, there’s a way down into the dam. From there, we can get outside. As long as we find a rope—otherwise, we’ll have to scale the naked concrete, and a fall would mean the end. The water just isn’t deep enough, and it’s high up. And I know where a rope is. We can cut a piece of it off and use it to descend.”
“Globes didn’t just come to say good morning, Rocky. There’s no chance in hell they’re going to let us escape.”
As if eavesdropping, the voice chimed in again. “So, Kitty, it looks like your personal life has improved! We’ve introduced you to a close friend, I guess. Has he modified his ridiculous opinion about your external appearance?”
The girl collected her crutches and shouted back. “Yup. I like him. But I’ve heard rumors that you like him more.”
“Same old Kitty. How about we just end this round our way, eh? I’m tired of playing games with you. Why don’t you come out? Aren’t you tired of running away? You know we’ll win in the end. No one has ever escaped us forever! So why delay? I’ve never seen such a stubborn girl before. You should get a spanking!”
“Why not just leave me alone?”
“I’m a simple man, Kitty. When I start something, I finish it! People asked me to deal with you, and deal with you I will! Romeo’s five minutes out. When he shows up, it’ll be time for a whole new conversation. Let’s solve this problem right now, on our own, before he shows up. I’ll vouch for you with Romeo, you’ll see. He’ll thank you for helping out! You know how evil this world is, Kitty. I never forget a good deed!”
“Yeah, evil is right. Mostly because of ugly freaks like you.”
“Never have I met someone with so little understanding of true handsomeness.” Some of his minions chuckled. It was like a hopeless clown performing for sad degenerates who had never seen anything funnier than a pie in the face.
Kitty turned to Rocky, but didn’t look at him. She whispered. “You can try to slip away. Maybe you’ll enjoy some beginner’s luck. Don’t look for a rope—just jump. Crawl away, swim with your arms, something. Your chances are close to zero, but...”
“We’ll escape together,” Rocky said confidently.
“There is no ‘together.’ I don’t have a way out. Save yourself.”
“We have that stuff in the syringe. You said it worked wonders. Let you run even if you didn’t have legs and so on.”
<
br /> “Well, you need legs, and it doesn’t work for long, but yes.”
“So you take the shot, and we go. I’ll go first and try to draw their fire.”
“Ugh. Another knight in shining armor.”
“I’m not like him. I’ll do whatever I can to save you.”
“Whatever you can, sure. Rocky, we already agreed to split up. Your time is up. Go now. They only need me. I doubt they’ll even come after you. Worst case scenario, you die fast. You have lots of lives left, so that’s not so bad.”
“What about you? Are you going to shoot yourself in the head with your last bullet again?”
“No, Rocky, this isn’t going to be a shootout. This is the Continent, and these are powerful people, with all kinds of tricks. Globes made a mistake. For some reason, he thought I noticed him, so he gave his presence away before he had too. That was a mistake, and we would be fools not to take advantage of it. I’ll give you time to get away, if you can slip out. Otherwise they’ll catch you. They’re good at that.”
“How did they catch you the last time?”
“They found someone with the right ability. Paralyzed me. It was from far away, so I didn’t even know what was happening. Just temporary paralysis, of course. A few seconds. But that was enough. Then I woke without weapons, with my hands and legs tied, unable to do anything, with all those beasts shivering in malicious joy around me. They can catch anyone like that. They have it down to a science. Well, almost anyone. Catching me was easy. I’m a wimp, with nothing special about me. No challenge at all. These bastards know how to get what they want.”
“Good reason to blow your brains out, I guess.”
“Yes. For some reason, I know I really won’t enjoy my meeting with Romeo.”
“Actually, this is your chance.”
“What do you mean?”
“He needs you alive. So bargain with your life. It’s worth a try.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s simple. You’ll give Romeo what he wants, without any tricks like a bullet to the brain, and in exchange, you demand he leaves you alone afterwards. Then you don’t touch each other again after that. Is it worth a try? Could a deal like that work?”
“Are you being serious right now?” She was clearly disgusted.
“What’s wrong with the plan?”
“I thought you had certain feelings for me, so it’s odd to hear you recommend that I offer my virgin body to such a pervert.”
“After you just told me off so strongly, you expect me to be possessive—especially when your own future chances are at stake?” Rocky sighed and shifted the subject. “Are they being so quiet to avoid attracting any ghouls?”
“Yes. The city is close by. Every city is dangerous. Manmincers everywhere, and even elites if you’re unlucky.”
“We have a grenade and some ammo. How about we make some noise?”
“So you want to make life hard for these bastards.”
“Surely you wouldn’t mind.”
“Are you kidding? I’m just admiring your sense of mischief.”
The girl clicked her safety off. Rocky hurried to stop her. “No, don’t do that.”
“What? I don’t get it. You just suggested we make noise.”
“But firing bullets into the sky doesn’t make sense. It sounds like Globes is down just past the parking lot. A hundred yards away, if that. Or have you forgotten that I can shoot?”
“No, but shooting is quite difficult when you have a hole in your head.”
“The walls will hold. I just have to peek out for a second. They won’t have time to get me. You aim at the stairs, while I try to get to Globe or his minions.”
“However this goes, farewell, Rocky. I doubt someone with ideas as harebrained as yours can live long in this world.”
“This isn’t where I go out, Kitty.”
Holding the rifle in his relaxed arms, Rocky squatted up near the window, raised his head sharply, glanced quickly at the parking lot, and sat down an instant before a bullet punched through the glass. He estimated the time he would need for his maneuver and the location of the targets, then grinned ominously. They had only one shooter at the ready. He had his backpack set up as a prop under his rifle. Four others were with him, some sitting, some standing. Unfortunately, Globes wasn’t with them. He was probably hiding behind one of the cars. A difficult shot.
But there were other targets. He didn’t have to hit Globes first.
Still crouched by the wall, Rocky waited a few seconds, collected his focus, then jumped up, pushing the barrel through the broken glass, pulled the trigger, and crouched, letting the recoil help push him back and down from the window.
Before he was even down, he knew that the skill the System had given him had worked, despite the difficulty of the shot. Even Kitty knew that, as no bullet had come back through the window in response. His ears, deafened as they were by the shot, still heard a heart-warming cry.
“Sniper down.” Rocky grinned happily, chambered another round, and popped up a few feet to the left, repeating the same procedure. This time, he aimed at the submachine gunner, who was down on one knee to the right of a van. He was ready to fire, and so the primary target.
They were responding, now. Several guns thundered out. They were loud, even from a hundred yards away and with the walls and windows between them. One weapon was different from all the rest. It sounded more powerful, probably not even a handheld weapon. Large-caliber bullets started to fly into the room, punching through everything in their way.
But the unseen shooter was aiming too high, for some reason. His weapon shredded the walls like paper. Why wouldn’t he just lower his aim and clear the whole floor out?
And the rest of the building.
“Kitt, that sounds like a serious machine gun.”
“Yeah.”
“They’re scared of hitting you. They won’t shoot lower. They’re protecting you. Listen—they’re calming down now. I’ll shoot another one, to keep them making noise.”
“Don’t try it. All of them have their weapons pointed this way now. Look out that window, instead, the one that peers over the river. What’s going on out that way?
Rocky crawled across the floor, stood quickly beside the window, shielding himself from most potential observers. He repeated the maneuver on the other side, then crouched back down. “The dam is clear, but there are a couple of them between us and the parking lot. Remember that fire shield? Well, they’re taking up positions there, in the corner. Guarding the exit, the bastards.”
“No one else visible from that side?”
“Not that I saw. There probably are, though. Plenty of hiding places, and I had to be quick about it. I’ve counted nine so far, two of which I’ve taken out, but I feel like there are more—since I haven’t seen Globes yet.”
“We can keep them from approaching any closer. That’ll gain us some time. Not sure how we’ll use it, but it’s better than nothing.”
“We’ll let them settle down, and then I’ll take another one out.”
“No, Rocky, we shouldn’t stall. Help me out.”
“What are you doing?” he whispered intensely, as Kitty stood up to full height, hobbling along against the window-filled wall. “Get down! You’re mad. They’ll shoot you!”
“You really don’t think straight. You yourself said that they need me alive.”
Kitty was right. The firing ceased, as if she had pressed some magical button, locking all of the triggers in the whole region. The reason was obvious. Globes’s people were watching all the windows closely, most of them now glass-free. They saw the girl stand. He had to admit, they had self-control. Their trigger fingers only activated after they identified the target, not before.
They needed the girl alive—although he could see a hundred potential chains of events that ended up with her dead. A bullet can change is trajectory unpredictably when it collides with a solid object. Innumerable victims of shootings were actually hit by
ricochets.
So even though they didn’t want to just outright shoot her, they had been willing to risk her life considerably. Was that from lack of discipline? Or just from stupidity?
It could be either.
Kitty walked to the window Rocky had peeked out of for his last show. She made a strange request, then. “Get down behind me and hold me. Hold me, close.” He complied, stunned. Then she raised her voice. “Shit! What are you doing, asshole? Arms at your waist, or I’ll break them both!”
Rocky had no time to form even tentative conclusions about her plan, but he made no move to justify himself. This wasn’t the right time, whatever was happening. So he submitted to her instructions. Kitty leaned one crutch up against the wall, pulled the ring from the grenade, and tossed it out the window as she continued the ruse. “Where are you taking me? I’m going to kill you!”
The loud explosion made him pause, then he replied as calmly as he could. “Enough antics, Kitt. They might open fire after something like that.”
“Let them! Then this’ll be over.”
“We’re still alive, though. We’ll keep trying.”
“Stop fucking grabbing me! I’ll kill you!”
“Have you gone mad?” Rocky was unable to keep silent this time. “I know where you’re going with this whole obsession, but it’s a foolish move, Kitt! I mean, I know I’m captivating, but this is going to end badly.”
“Oh, I’m the obsessed one here?”
“Well, you’re the one screaming. Honestly, you’re acting like an idiot. They’ll see right through that. Just tell me what you saw when you were up there.”
She calmed down. “There are ten of them on this side. And a pickup with a machine gun, on that hill near the parking lot.”
“I didn’t see that.”
“Then you should look around every once in a while. They’re in the bushes. Minor camouflage, the kind that morons often miss.”
“That must have been what destroyed the wall,” Rocky offered, pointing. The bullets were large in caliber.