Kill the Power Gamer

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Kill the Power Gamer Page 28

by Eric Vall


  If it was up to her, she would have just put a bullet in his head and called it an afternoon, but then Scott’s little skism in my son’s organized Resistance would have had a martyr, and that never helped anyone.

  “So, you gonna just send me back up there?” Scott continued. “Or you gonna find some new way to torture me?”

  “No,” I said. “I have a mission for you.”

  “A mission?” Scott said as his eyes flickered.

  He did not expect this.

  “Yes, a mission,” I replied as I held up my hand, and Renee stepped forward to slide a folder into my fingers.

  Scott jumped a bit when Renee moved next to him. To my kids, she was known as “Auntie Renee,” but everyone else in the resistance called her “The Pitbull,” and they knew she preferred to deal with problems by either beating the shit out of them until they died, or putting bullets into them until they died. She was quite a different woman than when she worked as my manager in the retail shop.

  And she was one of the few humans who had ever brought down a Behemoth single handedly.

  “Take a look,” I said as I slid the folder across the table.

  Scott opened the folder and then pulled out the picture. It was a beautiful woman with slightly tan skin, big blue eyes, and long blonde hair with the bottom half of the locks dyed blue. She was wearing a shirt with Level Up! written on the front over her breasts, and it was tied off in the middle to show off her perfect abs.

  “This looks like your wife,” Scott said as he glanced back up to me. “Why are you--”

  “For the last ten or so years,” I interrupted, “I’ve been working on a time machine. Unfortunately, so has The Hive. They sent this bio-android back in time to impersonate my wife when we first started dating. You are going to go back in time and stop her.”

  Scott set the picture down and then stared at me for a few moments. I met his eyes easily, and then he finally let out his breath and stared back at the picture.

  “Why me? It’s no secret that I hate you and your family. World would have been better off without you.”

  “Without me and my family, The Hive would have won twenty-five years ago,” I said, and my eyes drifted over to Renee, who really looked like she was about to lose it and put a bullet in poor Scott’s head.

  “Maybe that would have been better,” Scott sighed. “We suffer so much, it’s just hell--”

  “Look at the next pages in the file,” I interrupted.

  Scott nodded and then flipped through the rest of the documents. Confusion blossomed on his face, and then he finally looked back at me.

  “What are these?”

  “Every sports game outcome and stock fluctuation from 2019 to 2029.”

  “Why do I need these?” Scott asked as his eyes narrowed.

  “Because it’s a one way trip,” I replied. “Go back, kill this android, get a job, and then you know where to gamble whatever money you make. You’ll be filthy rich in no time and be able to live the life of luxury you’ve always wanted.”

  “Hmmm,” Scott said as he leaned back in his chair, but I could see his eyes were glittering as he considered my offer.

  If only his followers knew what really motivated him. He wasn’t looking out for the human race. He was just looking out for himself.

  “What if I go back in time and just decide not to do anything about this pretty little robot that tries to kill you?”

  “Well, you could do that,” I said, “but the thing about time travel is there are no paradoxes. If she kills me, then I’d never be here to send you back. So, you most definitely went back in time and saved me, and then became rich beyond your wildest dreams.”

  “Is there any record of that, though?” Scott asked.

  “Of you being rich?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow.

  “Yeah,” he cleared his throat and then glanced back at Renee. “If I was rich, wouldn’t that be in the old internet records?”

  “Scott, you are a smart guy,” I started. “Why would you leave a record for The Hive to know about? No, I’m sure you kept yourself hidden so no one could trace you.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “That’s probably what I would have done.”

  “So?” I asked with a cocked eyebrow.

  Scott looked down at all the paperwork, and then he glanced once more at Hannah’s picture. Finally, he looked at me and gave a small nod.

  “I knew you would,” I said as I gestured to the door.

  Four Resistance guards walked in, and Scott stood from the chair. The men carefully grabbed him by the arms, and then they led him out of the small interrogation room.

  “You should have just let me kill him,” Renee grunted as soon as the door was closed.

  “He’ll serve his purpose,” I said as I stood. “We’ll video capture him jumping into the time machine. He’ll say how he’s going back to save my life, and any of his followers will lose their momentum.”

  “And then Hannah will deal with him in 2019?” Renee asked.

  “Yep,” I snickered. “The final loose end is tied up.”

  “Well, we have a few more loose ends.” Renee grinned at me. She had aged well in the last thirty-five years. Her hair was gray now, and she had a few scars on her neck and face from various fights against The Hive, but her eyes were still as sharp as the first day I’d met her, and she still had a great sense of humor.

  “Sure,” I replied, “but today is the end of The Hive. As soon as Scott leaves, we’ll begin the final sequence.”

  “I’m looking forward to it,” Renee said as she followed me out into the hallway. “It’s been a hell of a long time since that last day at Carmichael’s.”

  “You were my first recruit,” I laughed as we walked to our next destination. Our base was almost a kilometer underground, but it was teaming with humans rushing to and fro on their various assignments.

  Still, everyone we passed paused to give Renee and me salutes.

  “Hey honey bunny,” a familiar voice said from behind us, and Renee and I turned around to see Kevin strolling up. He wore the same military fatigues Renee and I did, but he also carried a large computer tablet in his hand.

  “Hey sweetie,” Renee greeted him, and they shared a quick kiss.

  “I figured you both were going to head this way,” he said as he shot me a wink. “Scott Parker passed by me in the hall, so that means it’s almost go time?”

  “Yeah,” I replied as I smiled at my old friend. “They are waiting for us.”

  “Right-o then,” Kevin said with a fake British accent. “Let’s kick these robot assholes in their dicks. Shall we?”

  I nodded, and then we resumed our walk down the hallway. Our destination was another kilometer, but the three of us didn’t engage in any small talk. We’d spent most of our lives together preparing to, and then fighting against The Hive, and now it was all about to end.

  I made a left toward the large bunker doors, and the four heavily armed guards saluted us before they entered the key codes that opened the doors. Renee, Kevin, and I moved inside as soon as we could, and then the doors closed behind us as we moved into the command center of the Human Resistance.

  Now, this was actually a hive.

  The white metal walls were covered with computer screens, terminals, and hundreds of human workers who used the systems to monitor The Hive’s movements across our planet. Hannah and I had spent the first ten years of Alexander’s life retrofitting the Earth’s existing internet with additional cables and security protocols we could use to keep it off The Hive’s radar. All of that work had been funded by the various investments Hannah knew would be successful, since her internal database tracked the stock market up until the point when The Hive had launched its first attack.

  Scott thought I’d given him the golden ticket, but it was just a fraction of what Hannah knew about making money.

  Kevin, Renee, and I walked up a flight of stairs that led toward the center of the command center, and then a voic
e called out “Amin on deck!” and everyone spun around so they could salute me.

  I just waved my hands so they all got back to work. We had pressing business today, and I only wanted to pay attention to four people: Hannah, Alexander, Stephanie, and Emma.

  Fortunately, all four members of my family were waiting for me at the top of the stairs.

  “Hey, Dad,” Alexander greeted me as he extended his hand.

  “Hello, son,” I whispered back as I grasped his fingers. They were tough and calloused, and I let my eyes trace his face and body.

  He looked a lot like me when I was his age, except he had his mother’s blue eyes and an extra ten kilograms of muscle on his athletic frame. He could shoot as well as his mother, plan just as good as me, and was ‘the face’ of our resistance on the surface. He did a great job showing The Hive everything we wanted it to see, and our computer opponent had no idea Alexander’s work had been a diversion the entire time.

  Stephanie and Emma hugged me next, and I gave each of them careful kisses on their cheeks. They both looked almost exactly like their mother, except Emma had my dark hair and a small lump on her belly where her child was growing. Her husband was one of Alexander’s best officers, and Hannah and I were delighted we would soon be welcoming our first grandchild into this world.

  And soon, it would be our world, not The Hive’s.

  Hannah was standing behind my daughters, so I parted from them and let my eyes focus on the love of my life. I held my hand out to her, and she came to me with a coy smile on her lips. She’d aged since I first met her, and her hair was highlighted by more silver streaks than blonde, but she still looked as beautiful as she did the first day I saw her, and I couldn’t help but fall into her eyes whenever she looked at me.

  “I just got word that Scott Parker has left,” she said after we’d kissed for a few long breaths.

  “Is everything prepared then?” I asked as I turned to Emma and Stephanie.

  “Yes, Father,” Stephanie said. “The E-Shock Behemoths are on-line and ready for their first sortie against The Hive.”

  “These are the ones that deliver the amp shocks?” Kevin asked.

  “Yes, that is correct, Uncle Kevin,” Stephanie said as she nodded at my friend. “I showed you the prototype last year. It was the one that easily eliminated NHDs in our hypothetical tests, and it should fair well against The Hive’s standard infantry units.”

  “Exciting,” Kevin said as he lightly clapped his hands together.

  “What about the nukes?” I asked Emma.

  “We have targeted The Hive’s three main factories on each of the continents,” my dark-haired daughter updated. “We expect The Hive’s defenses to deal with half of our initial strike, but mom’s security algorithm should help jam their targeting methods.”

  “Good,” I said and turned to Alexander. “Your troops are ready?”

  “Yes,” he said as he shot me a smirk. “I really want to be up there with them.”

  “I know,” I said. “You are a great leader, but I’m glad you are here with us. This has been a long time coming.”

  “Tell me about it,” Alex laughed. “Most kids grow up playing soccer. I was cleaning assault rifles, hacking computers, and learning how to hunt and survive in the wilderness.”

  “And you turned out fine,” Hannah said as she scrunched up her nose at him. “Except for the whole ‘finding a nice young lady to settle down--’”

  “Hey now,” Alex chuckled as he raised his thickly muscled arms and waved his palms at his mother. “There will be plenty of time for that after we do what we were all born to do.”

  “Yes,” Hannah said as she smiled at our first born. “We were all born for this.”

  Then she held out her hand to me, and I took it.

  Alex took his mother’s other hand, Stephanie took mine, and Emma took hers. Then Renee and Kevin each grasped hands at the end, so that our family was forming one long line.

  This was it.

  “It’s time to take back our world,” I said, loudly enough for everyone in the command center to hear. “Launch the nukes and send in our own robot units. Today, The Hive dies.”

  I felt Hannah squeeze my fingers, and I looked over at her as our missiles took flight.

  “I love you,” she silently mouthed the words.

  “I love you, too,” I whispered.

  Then we turned back to the screen and watched the destruction of our enemy.

  THE END.

  End Notes

  Thank you for reading Kill the Power Gamer. This is an unusual book for me because it’s not going to be part of a series. It’s just a fun one off. If you’d like me to do more of these “stand alone” style of books, please let me know in your reviews. Reviews will help get more readers interested and allow me to keep writing more fun stories for you. So please leave a review right here. Thank you!

  Amazon doesn’t update readers when an author comes out with a new book unless you follow that author on the store. Make sure you click this link and then click on the follow button. Then Amazon will update you a few weeks after my next book comes out.

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by Eric Vall

 

 

 


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