Glitch Boxset

by Victor Deckard

  Whirling around, I raced for the vehicle. Leaping in the car behind the steering wheel, I checked the computer, bringing up the car’s stats. Among them was the name of the car, Death Wish.

  I stepped out and strode back to the quest terminal as Melissa and Flynn watched me puzzledly.

  “Forgot what I named my car,” I explained my actions to them.

  “Yeah,” Melissa said deadpan. “Could happen to anyone.”

  I glanced sideways at her. There was a mocking smile on her lips. The girl was no fool. Her facial expression clearly divulged what she was thinking. “You stole this car from someone, didn’t you? And before now, you had no reason for checking the car’s name, hadn’t you?”

  I keyed the car’s name in. Immediately afterward, a message emerged on the screen.

  > All done! You have just signed up for the Death Race! Check the computer in your car to learn where it starts.

  I got behind the wheel and checked the computer to learn that I had to head for the outskirts where the city bordered the next location, the desert. I offered to give Melissa and Flynn a lift to the garage since it was on the way.

  As we drove through the city, Flynn said, “I initially wanted to create three automatic turret guns to mount on the bus. But with Melissa having joined us, I think it’s a good idea to create one ordinary turret gun so that Melissa can man it.”

  “Go ahead.”

  I dropped Melissa and Flynn at the garage and gunned the engine. There were ten minutes remaining until the race began. I wanted to check the mailbox to see if there was an answer from Christine. If she sent me a reply, then I would have to refrain from participation in the Death Race and return her car to her.

  Yet once I walked up to the mailbox, a message popped up on the screen, “You have got no unread messages!”

  Seemed like she didn’t learn about me being eager to return her car to her yet.

  As I drove through the city toward the outskirts, I examined the computer to learn what gizmos Christine’s car had. Aside from the turret gun mounted on the roof, the car could employ level 4 mines. A scanner, whose level was lesser than four, couldn’t detect them. These mines could be used to get rid of the enemies on my tail.

  If the car got damaged, I could deploy a few small robots that could patch the car up on the run. The vehicle also had a nitrous oxide engine installed. Moreover, there was a scanner to detect enemies’ mines and missiles. The vehicle had a few decoy flares to confuse enemies’ missiles so that to avoid being hit by it.

  I reached the destination at the last minute. The cars of fourteen players were aligned along the starting line, facing the city I had just come from.

  I pulled up next to a vehicle, which was twice as big as mine. It looked more like a tank. The armor-plating covered its bodywork. The vehicle was pretty heavy and cumbersome. I doubt the car could gain high speed. On the other hand, the vehicle had a big, dangerous-looking turret gun mounted on its roof. The gun could easily rip a car covered with thin armor to shreds in no time.

  Guess I would have to get as far from this vehicle as possible once the race started. Doing so was surely going to be the difference between winning and losing, much less living and dying.

  The windows of the big vehicle were tinted, so I couldn’t make out the driver. But there was the name of the car hovering above its roof.

  > Name: Brute

  As for the other racers, I couldn’t see them, for the Brute blocked out my view of them.

  The line of the vehicles was on the very border between the two locations. Up ahead of us was the city and behind us was the desert.

  It was less than a minute before the Death Race began. The display of the computer showed a mini-map with fourteen blips representing my opponents and a circle, which showed the whereabouts of the first checkpoint to drive through. It was somewhere in the bowels of the city. Perhaps I could detect it visually as well once I got close enough to it.

  Finally, a message popped up.

  > Attention! The Death Race will begin in 10 seconds!

  The countdown kicked in.

  Nine––

  Eight––

  Seven––

  Only then did I realize something. Before now, I had been calm because all I could think of was to get here in time. But now that I was here, I had a bad case of the jitters. What if I failed to achieve first place? Or worse, what if I got killed and had Christine’s car totaled during the race? Perhaps signing up for the Death Race hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

  Six––

  Five––

  Four––

  All the engines were switched on. The tremendous roar filled the air. Yet no vehicle drove forward yet. I watched the countdown intently.

  Three––

  Two––

  One!

  All the cars lurched forward, shooting up dust and dirt. I hit the gas pedal, flooring it, and headed for the city.

  The Death Race had just started.

  Chapter five

  It wasn’t just a race––I thought not for the first time––it was a deadly freaking demolition derby.

  All the drivers set about slamming into one another, struggling for a good position. Some of the cars were turned into something like a dented can in a matter of seconds. To avoid suffering the same fate I eased up a little on the accelerator, ending up behind the racers.

  Yet a few other players were lagging behind as well. The Brute was one of them. The player plowed into me, slamming me sideways off the road. My car started to spin around, out of control, kicking up a huge cloud of dust.

  Luckily, no player could use their turret guns yet because weapons were temporarily off. It was a good thing because otherwise someone would’ve demolished my car while I was desperately spinning the steering wheel, struggling to get the car under control.

  Finally, I was able to correct my path and as soon as I was back on the road, I floored the acceleration again. Twelve cars were ahead now.

  Oddly enough, two vehicles were behind me. They seemed to take their time. The two vehicles lagging behind looked like they could pick up great speed in no time flat, yet they preferred to stay behind all the others for some reason.

  One of the two cars was named the Goblin, the other one the Punisher. The two players were friends since they didn’t try to shove each other off the road. Instead, they drove along the road side by side.

  I was pushing Christine’s car to its limits. The engine roared and belched the puffs of gray smoke out the exhaust. The twelve players ahead of me were out of sight yet, but according to the mini-map on the display of the computer, I wasn’t too far away from them.

  Soon a wall of white light appeared up ahead. It was the first checkpoint. Once I barreled through it, another one popped up on the mini-map. I drove for it through the city.

  Out of the blue, all hell broke loose. There was some sound inside the cab, and then a message popped up, saying that my turret gun had just been activated. Immediately afterward, the rattle of machine guns came from behind above the roar of the engine. It was the Goblin and the Punisher who were firing at me.

  My turret gun swiveled around and opened fire in reply.

  The heavy slugs slammed against the bodywork of my car. I cast glances at the display of the computer from time to time. The armor plating covering my car was gradually getting worn out as the bullets hit. Once it got obliterated, I would be totally vulnerable.

  Although my turret gun inflicted good damage on the two cars, each bullet punching a hole in their armor-plating, it was obvious that the two players would whack me well before my turret destroyed their cars.

  Had to do something real quick!

  Then a thought struck me. The mines! How could I forget about them!

  I instantly punched a button on the steering wheel, deploying a mine.

  I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw the two cars drove around the mine
though. Their sensors must have been well upgraded, what with their succeeding in detecting the mine.

  Then I activated the nitro. But to no avail. The two cars activated their nitro engines as well so that still could be on my tail.

  There was an intersection up ahead. To reach the next checkpoint I had to drive through the intersection without turning. Yet I had no choice but to take a right. If I had continued driving in a straight line, the twosome would’ve ripped my car to shreds sooner or later.

  The two cars didn’t follow me. They continued through the intersection and soon disappeared from view. It was a good thing.

  On the other hand, now it would take me somewhat longer to reach the next checkpoint.

  I wondered why the Goblin and the Punisher preferred to lag behind all the other racers. They could’ve easily gotten in the lead. But they didn’t do it. Why? Yet I had no time to reflect on the matter. I had the gaining on the other racers to do.

  I kept the gas pedal pressed all the way to the floor almost constantly, gunning the engine and cutting off every turn. I felt my car slide sideways once as I rounded another curve in the road. As soon as I regained traction and overcorrected, I had to spin the wheel, swerving back and forth to get the car going straight again.

  I also activated the repairing robots to patch the car up. The small robots crawled across the bodywork, fixing the holes in the armor-plating.

  After some time, as I checked the mini-map another time, I noticed the racers ahead of me slowed down somewhat. As I was gradually catching up to them, I wondered what had made them reduce speed.

  Then a message popped up on the display.

  > Attention! You’re approaching the first obstacle course, the minefield.

  It became clear that the racers driving through this part of the city had slowed down because they were taking care to detect the mines in time to skirt them.

  Yet my sensor didn’t detect any mines in my path. Instead, I spied black craters here and there and charred parts of destroyed vehicles scattered across the blacktop. Several players had been blown apart here.

  I checked the log to learn how many racers were still alive.

  > 9/15

  Six gamers had died during The Death Race already.

  Since the racers had set off most of the mines, I didn’t run a risk of hitting a mine. So I had gotten a chance to make good time, driving through the first obstacle course.

  I switched on the nitro. My car triggered a few nearby mines, yet it didn’t take much damage. Some of the repairing robots got destroyed though. The remaining ones ran over to the newly created breaches in the armor-plating and set about fixing them.

  I soon navigated the minefield. Then it occurred to me that the reason for the Goblin and the Punisher’s lagging behind the others was that they might have wanted the racers to bear the brunt of the minefield and whatever else traps were awaiting ahead so that they two had a better chance of staying alive.

  I finally was able to catch up with another racer. It was the Brute. The car was sure very slow. The vehicle’s armor was breached and crumpled. The car was driving so slowly due to either having taken a lot of damage or just being too heavy and clumsy. I decided that the latter was most likely the case.

  I drew even with the vehicle and started getting past it. The Brute opened up on me. My turret began firing in reply. Yet it seemed to inflict little damage on the armored vehicle. On the contrary, the Brute’s turret ripped chunks of armor out of the bodywork of my car.

  However, it didn’t bother me. My car was putting more and more distance between the Brute and me by a second. Their turret guns had a low Accuracy attribute, so the heavy slugs no longer hit my car.

  Then something unexpected happened. The player of the Brute had a gun attached to each side of its vehicle. As I looked in the rear-view mirror, both guns simultaneously fired something like a spear attached to a chain.

  They embedded themselves into the rear of my car. The Brute had just harpooned me! My car instantly got slowed down since it was now tugging the extremely heavy vehicle.

  To make matters worse, the chains began retracting, making the heavy vehicle to draw nearer. And all the time, the Brute’s turret guns was unleashing the two streams of devastating gunfire. Fired from a distance of fewer than three yards, most of the bullets hit my car, gradually destroying the armor-plating.

  Doing my best to keep my cool, I deployed another mine. Being so close to my car, the Brute couldn’t avoid it in time. The big vehicle jolted as the mine detonated. Yet it didn’t seem to have taken much damage.

  I deployed all the remaining mines, one after another. The resultant explosions rocked the Brute, the thundering blasts sending fragments of metal everywhere, denting and scratching the huge armored vehicle. Some of the fragments tore through the armor-plating of my car as well, damaging it.

  One of the last blasts tore one chain apart, sending the ripped links flying every which way. Although the second chain was still intact, in the rear-view mirror, I made out the links of it to see that they had been weakened by the explosions, worn out somewhat. If the chain took any more damage, it wouldn’t withstand for long now.

  However, I didn’t have any more mines. As for my turret, it was aiming for the Brute’s bodywork, sending a ceaseless stream of slugs into the armor and totally ignoring the chain.

  The turret gun could be operated manually though. So I took control of it. The display of the computer showed the feed from the miniature camera mounted on the turret. While I maintained a firm grip on the steering wheel with my left hand, I took hold of a joystick with my right. As I moved it, the turret gun swiveled to sight on the chain.

  I had to steer the car, keeping my eyes on the road and to control the turret gun, casting glances at the display from time to time. It wasn’t all that easy, all right.

  I tried to train the turret gun on the chain until I realized it couldn’t be done. From its position, the turret gun just couldn’t get the right angle at the chain. So I aimed for the harpoon gun on the left side of the vehicle instead.

  Unfortunately, most of the rounds missed the target because it was extremely hard to control the turret gun and steer the car simultaneously. From the amount of damage my car was taking, it was painfully obvious that the Brute would rip my armor and riddle my car well before I destroyed the harpoon car.

  And I could do absolutely nothing to prevent that.

  Another car appeared up ahead. It was named the Lighting. The 2-door sports car was pretty small. The armor covering the car didn’t strike me as too thick. On the contrary, it was pretty sheer.

  The car had a few dents, deep scratches, and breaches in its armor-plating. Several small flying robots hovered above the car, repairing it.

  I conjectured that the vehicle had been damaged so the driver had decided to fall behind to repair their car. His or her car should be very fast, what with the driver being confident that they would easily catch up with the others.

  When I drew level with the Lighting, its robots had already patched the car up. The small vehicle looked brand-new now.

  Then something unexpected happened. Instead of gunning the engine, the driver opened up on the chain with the turret gun. The player had decided to help me out for some unknown reason.

  After a few hits, the chain got severed. The heavy vehicle no longer tugged at me so my speed boosted. Glancing in the rear-view mirror, I saw the Lighting not follow suit. Instead of accelerating, the small car slowed down so that to draw up alongside of the Brute, firing burst after burst at the big car. Each slug exploded on impact, dealing extra damage to the big vehicle.

  The driver opened up in reply, the bodywork of the Lighting pocketing, the rounds punched holes in its armor here and there.

  I wasn’t sure why the driver of the Lighting had helped me out. Perhaps they had done it for the same reason that I had helped Flynn out when he had been mugged in an alleyway by the two PKs
, Croc and Frozen. Or the player just had a score to settle with the driver of the Brute.

  Anyway, I couldn’t just race away after the Lighting had come to my assistance. Moreover, the Lighting didn’t strike me as powerful enough to take the Brute on its own. So I pulled abreast of the huge vehicle. With the Lighting driving on the left side of the Brute and me rolling on the right side of it, the big car was sandwiched between us.

  The driver of the Lighting aimed their turret gun at the gun mounted on the Brute’s roof and opened fire. It didn’t last long. Once it was destroyed, the Brute became harmless since it didn’t have other weapons. The driver activated the nitro, trying to give us the slip but to no avail. Both the Lighting and my car were far faster than the Brute was.

  We soon obliterated the huge vehicle, turning it into something like a crushed tin can. After that, we picked up speed, racing side by side toward the next checkpoint.

  As we reached another intersection, the Lighting slowed down before taking a left. After that, the driver flicked their rear headlights on and off once. He or she clearly suggested I follow their lead.

  The next checkpoint was somewhere up ahead. Perhaps the player knew a shorter way to get there. So I spun the wheel to drive after the Lighting.

  As things turned out, the driver knew the city like the back of their hand. We quickly reached and drove through several checkpoints, traversing alleyways, navigating concealed subway tunnels, and even getting through buildings sometimes.

  And all the while, I wondered why the driver of the Lighting was assisting me. Perhaps it was an old acquaintance of mine, say, Stan or Guard. But the windows of the small car were tinted so I couldn’t make out the driver.

  Or the player figured we would boost our chances of success in winning the Death Race if we teamed up. On the one hand, it was real good thinking on their part. On the other hand, something nagged at my mind.