Glitch Boxset

by Victor Deckard

  I had to bluff my way out of it.

  “We were to enter the game in an hour,” I lied. “An hour’s up so I’m here. What’s the problem?”

  The girl glared at me. “You’re wrong. We were to get back in two or three hours. But we entered the game almost simultaneously. How come?”

  “You don’t say! I thought we were to get back in an hour so I waited an hour and began to try to connect to the game. I did it on the fourth or fifth try as you apparently was entering the game as well, so we appeared almost at once.”

  She looked me in the eye suspiciously. Then she shrugged her shoulders, averted her eyes, and stepped up to the control panel. When she punched the button to start the game.

  As the level had been already created, the elevator had its doors slide open immediately, instead of pretending to be descending as usual. However, this escaped the girl’s attention. Without saying anything, she left the elevator. I followed her.

  The mobs started to spawn. Although I didn’t see them yet, I heard them utter high-pitched screams. They charged at us as soon as we entered the small chamber.

  Christine brought her shotgun to bear, blasted at the nearest mutants, reducing them to gory shreds, and darted to the doorway to her right. But she was running in the wrong direction. The four traps were at the opposite end of the level. That was the way the cookie crumbled. Had to think up a plan real quick!

  I ran in the opposite direction and entered the hallway leading to the big room. But Christine didn’t follow me. She continued her advance toward another corridor. Soon I began suffocating. Since the girl didn’t deploy her medical drone yet, my HP started to shrink.

  Dangit!

  With no drone healing me, I had no choice but to retrace my steps, otherwise I would suffocate.

  But when I turned around to face the direction I had just come from, I saw several mobs bearing down on me. I had gotten so used to play without Christine that I employed the Surge psi-power on the mobs. Sure enough, nothing happened. With the girl online, the slave collar was active again, suppressing my skills.

  Dammit!

  I drew my pistol and checked the digital readout. The magazine was full. I trained the gun on the approaching mutants and placed my finger on the trigger. Yet I didn’t fire. The sound of gunshots would surely attract even more mobs to me. There was no way I could protect myself with this peashooter.

  I was about to shout to Christine to get her help. However, she beat me to it.

  “Where are you at?” I heard her yell. “Come over here fast!”

  “Can’t do,” I shouted at the tops of my lungs to be heard above the mobs’ screams. “I’m surrounded!”

  A few moments later, the choking ceased and I heard the pounding of booted feet on the floor. Then Christine came running. The girl burst into the hallway, blasting away with her shotgun as she ran.

  The girl disposed of the mobs in front of me in nothing flat. However, she didn’t turn around to get back to where she had come from. Instead, she continued racing along the corridor. I heard her yell to me, “Run, you idiot!”

  Then I picked up on of the cause of her fleeing. Thirty or so mutants dashed through the doorway and barreled down the corridor in our direction. I whirled around and took off running.

  We burst out of the hallway and entered the big room. Now that we were here, I only needed to somehow lure Christine into the corridor where the four traps were. So I whirled and dashed across the room toward the corridor. However, the girl didn’t follow me.

  She caught my eyes and shouted to me, “No! Get back! We’re gonna stay in here for a while.”

  Figured. This chamber was big enough for us to maneuver. No wonder the girl wanted to make our stand here.

  How to lure her into that corridor? I had no idea.

  I ran over to the girl and stood by her side. She glared at me and snapped, “What are you doing? Get ‘em!”

  She gestured toward the wall to her right. I looked in that direction and saw a few traps over there. Yeah right. I had already forgotten about my chores, so to speak. Gnashing my teeth in frustration, I dashed across the chamber toward the traps.

  As I covered the distance to the traps, I slowed down. In my periphery, I saw a few mutants bear down on me. One of them got within striking range and swung at me, raking its claws along my left arm, from shoulder to elbow, its long curved nails gouging inch-deep furrows in my flesh, which instantly began to bleed.

  However, my HP started to recover. Only now did I notice the medical drone hovering above my head. Christine must have deployed the robot and ordered it to follow and heal me.

  Another mutant took a swing, its claws tearing my fabric T-shirt and scratching my skin.

  Bearing the pain and gritting my teeth in determination, I continued racing toward the traps and soon reached within the range of one of them. The light the trap was emitting got a trifle lighter. I instantly leaped backward. The next moment the trap exploded. I had managed to get out of its range in time so my character took no damage whatsoever.

  There were a few more traps. Although the Agility attribute of my character was average, my movement speed was very high due to my not carrying anything except for the light pistol.

  A few mobs appeared in front of me. Not slowing down a bit, I crashed through them, shoving the mobs out of the way. Although some of them clawed at me, the medical drone was constantly healing me so I wasn’t running a risk of being slain.

  Finally, I was clear of the mobs. Directly ahead was a fire trap. It would place a very painful and dangerous fire debuff on my character if I wasn’t able to get out of its range in time. Yet I shook off this thought and resolved to do my best.

  And I managed to trigger the trap without getting hurt. The same went for the other traps. I had set them all off and hadn’t taken damage at all. My having been practicing for many hours yielded extremely well.

  I looked around and noticed a few more traps next to the wall at the other end of the room. I dashed over there. Christine must have seen my dealing with the traps without getting hurt because when I raced past the girl, I heard her ask amazingly, “How did you learn to do that?”

  Her face reflected a mixture of amazement, incomprehension, and even a bit of admiration.

  I didn’t bother to slacken my pace to answer the girl, of course.

  Before I could reach the traps, a tremendous roar filled the chamber. It was the giant that had spawned somewhere nearby. I looked to the left and the right and saw the huge monster emerge from one hallway. The monster turned toward the nearest player. Me.

  Christine was in the process of mowing down the weaker mobs. I was willing to take this chance. Bringing my pistol up, I got a bead on the giant. Yet before I could squeeze off a shot, Christine yelled to me, “Don’t aggro him yet! Just let him follow you until I kill the remaining mobs.”

  However, I wasn’t going to obey the girl this time. The pistol cracked as my finger tightened on the trigger.

  “What are you doing, moron?” Christine yelled at me. “It’s too early to aggro him!”

  Ignoring the girl, I kept on firing at the huge mutant. When the giant took a dozen slugs in its chest, it roared and burst into a run after me.

  “What have you done, you idiot?”

  Whipping around, I dashed forward toward the girl. The pounding of huge feet on the floor grew louder and louder as the giant gained on me. Forced to run away, the girl dashed across the room. When she drew level with me, Christine asked, “Why have you aggro’d him? Didn’t you hear me saying not to do it?”

  Being in the process of racking my brains, I said nothing to the girl. How to lure her into the corridor where the four traps were? I still didn’t come up with a plan of action.

  “Do what I say,” The girl hissed. “Or else!”

  She took off in the opposite direction. Cussing under my breath, I followed her.

  I easily caught up to the g
irl and overtook her. I put a quite considerable distance between myself and the giant and soon the huge mutant forgot about me and started to pursue Christine who was much closer to it.

  I turned to the left and dashed toward the mouth of the corridor. On reaching it, I stopped and shouted to the girl, gesturing toward the corridor behind me, “Get over here! It’s all clear!”

  Christine looked around, glanced at the corridor, and replied, “No! We stay here! Get back!”

  Dangit.

  I had to obey the girl lest she electrocute me for disobedience. Moving away from the corridor, I ran after the giant on the girl’s heels.

  “Aggro him,” Christine directed.

  I obeyed. The giant turned toward me and burst into a race after me.

  And so it went.

  Christine dogged the huge mutant, blasting away at it with her shotgun. Soon the giant turned to turn on the girl. I started to fire at the mutant again, to distract it from the girl. This done, I ran away from the mutant again as the girl fired at it with her shotgun.

  Eventually, the huge monster was dealt with. When its enormous body hit the floor, a roar came to my rear. Another giant spawned nearby.

  “Don’t aggro this once yet,” Christine said.

  I nodded, turning my head to glance at the girl. What I saw stunned me for a moment. Christine was about to dive into the same corridor I had been trying to lure her into all the while! And the girl didn’t seem to notice the four traps farther down the corridor.

  She brought up her shotgun and commenced discharging it at the five weak mobs bearing down on her. The girl began slowly retreating down the corridor. Yet it was obvious that she would dispose of the five mobs well before she reached the range of the four traps behind her. Therefore, I raced toward the mouth of the corridor.

  The pounding of feet came from behind, which meant that the giant was heading my way. I initially wanted to aggro it so that to sic it on the girl but dismissed the idea immediately. With two fire traps at one end of the corridor and the pissed giant at the other, I would have run a risk of getting myself killed.

  So the giant was slowly dogging me without attacking. I would need to carry my plan out real fast. If the giant got into the corridor before I got out of it, I would be trapped.

  By the time I entered the hallway, Christine had already whacked most of the weak mutants. Torn limbs and flesh littered the floor. Blood coated the walls.

  The girl was standing a couple of feet from the four traps to her rear, shoving shells into the loading port. The mutant with severed at knees legs were crawling toward the girl, leaving a long trail of blood along the floor.

  When the mutant was within a couple of feet of the girl, its left hand extended to grab the girl by her leg, Christine racked the slide and fired her shotgun, the buckshot blasting the legless mutant apart, the gory pieces sprayed over the floor.

  I ran down the corridor as fast as I could manage. If I missed this opportunity, I might never get another one. My stamina was draining fast.

  Christine looked up and said, “Get back. We ain’t gonna to go this way.”

  Yet I continued to run down the corridor toward the girl. She shoved one more shell into her shotgun and glared at me again. “What are you doing? There’re four traps behind me so we can’t go this way.”

  So she had noticed the traps after all. Not that it mattered now.

  “So get back––”

  I interrupted her, “I can’t! The giant’s after me!”

  Christine’s facial expression hardened. “What? Did you aggro him again? How come?”

  “Accidentally,” I replied as I continued to run directly toward the girl.

  Christine’s facial expression changed. She seemed to be starting suspect that something was wrong. She stepped to the side to let me pass. But I wasn’t going to skirt her. On the contrary, I was going to bump into her.

  The girl finally realized that the collision was inevitable. She tried to get out of my way, but she was too late. I crashed into her, staggering the girl and causing her to take a few steps backward. The impact didn’t do any damage to her, of course, but she reached the range of all the four traps, causing them to set off.

  The girl lost her balance and tumbled onto her back, getting into the range of the two fire traps, triggering them.

  Two long flame tongues shot from the fire traps toward Christine, setting the girl on fire. The girl slowly rose and tried to get out of the reach of the flames, but she couldn’t do it as the freezing debuff placed on her character slowed her movement speed down to a crawl.

  I wondered if Christine was aware that we wouldn’t be able to continue playing in the Arena if she died first. I figured that she didn’t know about that; she would already have activated the slave collar otherwise. Moreover, it seemed to me that she hadn’t even realized that I bumped into her on purpose.

  Or she might have been stunned by the unexpected turn of events and temporary even forgotten about me.

  Either way, she didn’t take any appropriate measures against me yet. At the moment, all she could think of was getting away from the range of the fire traps. The girl was engulfed by the blaze and I could barely see her.

  I just stood there, watching her slowly walking up the corridor. The giant didn’t show up yet so the way out was clear. I could’ve gotten out of the corridor while I still could do it. But I didn’t do it because it didn’t matter if I got whacked by the giant. To get rid of the slave collar, I had to see that Christine died first.

  Which was why I just stood a couple of yards in front of the girl, watching her slowly walking my way.

  The girl was completely enveloped by the flames. I barely could see her and wondered if she herself could see me.

  Christine took a few more steps up the corridor and then waved her medical robot over to her. She must be seriously wounded. If the drone started to heal her, then the girl could get a chance to survive this.

  Should’ve destroyed the robot long ago.

  I brought my pistol up as the medical robot hurried to the girl. I put my finger on the trigger and squeezed it. The bullets punched holes in the robot and soon it exploded.

  When the robot got destroyed, Christine stopped for a moment. Due to the fire enveloping her, I couldn’t quite make out what she was doing. Then an abrupt bark rent the air as Christine fired her shotgun.

  I felt as if a sledgehammer hit me on the chest. The impact hurled me backward onto my back. A glance at my HUD told me that my HP had shrunk by more than fifty percent. Moreover, my HP was gradually reducing, for a Bleeding debuff had been placed on my character.

  Now I could die before Christine did and my entire plan would fail. Dangit! Had to do something real quick!

  The girl’s shotgun barked almost ceaselessly, yet no buckshot hit me anymore. Christine must be firing blindly. She didn’t seem to have gotten aware who or what had destroyed her medical robot.

  As if in confirmation to my thought, she yelled, “Where are you? I need help! Get over here!”

  The girl kept firing her shotgun. I was well aware that I would surely die if the Bleeding debuff didn’t wear off soon. But I was afraid to get up lest the buckshot hit me. On the other hand, I couldn’t just lie on the floor as Christine was slowly but surely approaching me. When she got to within a couple of feet of me, some stray buckshot might hit me.

  So I lifted my butt off the ground and started crab crawling back toward the mouth of the corridor. I moved as fast as I could.

  Then shrill screams came from behind. Looking over my shoulder, I saw a few weak mutants framed in the doorway. On seeing us, they darted down the corridor with their arms extended in front of them and their claws ready to maul flesh. It would surely be me who would become their first prey since I was closer to them than Christine was.

  Dangit!

  I stopped, sat up, and reached for my pistol. Then took careful aim. Not at the mobs but at C
hristine.

  As my finger tightened on the trigger, high-pitched screams sounded right behind me. I glanced back to see the mobs come to within a mere yard of me, leading with their hands, their curved pointed claws about to sink into me.

  I swung my pistol around to take aim at the imminent threat. Yet before I could squeeze off a shot, the girl’s shotgun barked again. I couldn’t tell if she actually saw the mutants. Perhaps, she was firing blindly.

  Either way, the buckshot tore into the mutants, their bodies exploding, flesh and blood splattering the walls and pouring over the floor.

  There were no other mutants nearby so I brought my pistol up to point it at the girl once again. Due to the blaze completely enveloping the girl, I couldn’t quite make out the girl so I aimed my gun at where her head should be and opened fire.

  After I fired a few shots, the girl yelled angrily, “Where are you, dumbass? I need your help! Get over here fast!”

  Most of the weak mutants were armed only with sharp tapered teeth and curved pointed claws. However, some of them bore bludgeons and wielded firearms. Christine must have guessed that it was the mobs who had been firing at her.

  However, the girl would soon find out the truth as the mobs more often than not missed what they aimed at even from short range.

  I kept on firing at her, wondering how many bullets hit true.

  And then the inevitable happened; Christine activated the salve collar. Either she had gotten extremely pissed for my not helping her out or she realized that it was me who had been firing at her. Either way, my body was thrashing as the electric power surged through me. My ears were ringing as pain racked my entire body. Even my vision blurred due to the pain.

  That was it. Given the little amount of HP I had, the electric power would get me killed in a few moments. My plan to whack Christine had proven to be a failure.

  The torture ended way sooner than I had expected it to. When the pain ceased, I found myself lying in the same corridor. A quick glance at my HUD revealed that I had about five percent of HP left.