And if I fail, the entire world goes down with me.
No pressure at all. I close my eyes, trying to drain all the panicked emotions from within me, but no matter how loud I scream at myself that everything will be okay, I still feel a suffocating knot in my chest.
“What’s wrong?” Anika asks, noticing the disgusted look on my face.
“This just makes me sick. Knowing what we are up against. Knowing that at every corner the Syndicate is there to make my life ten times harder. Just think about what happened when we tried to meet up! The Syndicate found me first and you had to save me from them before I nearly died.”
“They got there only a few minutes before I could. Those bastards have been tracking your every movement, there wasn’t much anyone could do to prevent that.” She pauses and steps closer to me, dangerously close.
I can feel the allure of her body pulling me into her grasp, a beauty to her dark skin and fiery eyes that briefly causes all the worry to escape from me. But when the thought of Jake’s dead body drowning in a pool of blood crosses my mind, the only thing I feel is sadness.
He sacrificed himself for me. He did this so I can win. But I don’t know if that’s possible.
“We are together now.” The words roll off her lips in the way that a gentle wave crashes against the moonlit shore. “And once we combine our powers, the world won’t ever be able to stop us. The Syndicate, the United States government, even all eight billion people on this planet put together are no match for us.”
She smiles, her purple, lizard-like tongue pulsating in her mouth. The robotic fingers on her hands seem to have a gravity of their own, a gravity that compels me to reach out and hold her hand without her even commanding me to do so.
For a moment, being together feels nice. To feel the electricity rushing through her, my own body feeding off the energy of her mechanical parts, is something I have craved.
After being alone for so long, the only thing I need is to know that someone else is in this right with me. Out of all the billions of people in the world that are after me, Anika and Justin may be the only people who have my back. That may seem like a puny little squad to take on the world’s most powerful institutions, but with the fire burning in Anika’s eyes, I have hope that we can make it happen.
I open my mouth to tell her how thankful I am for her. How I’m sorry for being such a dick and for thinking that she was about to kill me.
But her metallic fingers shoot off her body before I can speak. At first, I am mesmerized by the way that they effortlessly glide throughout the air as if they are a horde of miniature hummingbirds.
My amazement turns to fear in an instant.
Those fingers aren’t headed to grab an item off one of the shelves or to gently stroke my face.
They are choking the life out of me.
Chapter 23
I was fucking right.
Next time I do some stupid shit like this, please warn me or something. All you will have to do is remind me of this moment where ignoring the knot in my gut got me where I am today.
With the privilege of being choked by ten robotic fingers, each of them digging into a new area of my neck to attempt and squeeze the oxygen out of me as fast as possible.
The Syndicate has me in their grip again.
And this time they aren’t going to let go.
The force of the fingers alone throws me into the window behind me. A number of items, including rations and glass vases, fall off the shelves on either side of the window as my head is slammed against the wall.
I grunt, a wave of blackness overcoming my vision as I fight to maintain consciousness. The fingers continue to jam my head against the window, a large bruise undoubtedly forming on the back of my neck. With every deafening pound of my head against the firm sheet of glass, I am one second closer to blacking out for good.
The Syndicate wants to kill me the same way I tried to kill myself. And as always, there is only one way I can get out of this: the cube. But holding on to it is hard enough; saying a command to it will be impossible with the stranglehold that the fingers have on my neck.
“Stop it!” Anika screams, her tone more desperate than angry. She is headed right for me.
“Force field,” I utter the command to the Chimera Cube, doing the only thing I’m capable of to try and prevent her bionic self from unleashing a new round of pain upon me. Despite my vocal chords straining from how hard I try and push the air out of me, no sound squeaks out of my mouth. My airways are completely closed off, the grip of the fingers on my neck only growing more restricting by the second.
Anika comes barreling at me. Her arms remain at her sides, but her torso has opened up to reveal the opening of a high-powered laser. One hit of that and I will be out for the count. Now I know why she said that if we combine our powers, we will be unstoppable. Despite her being only one cyborg, it feels like an entire blue-haired army is charging at me.
“This isn’t me!” Anika’s voice echoes in my ears as I dive out of the way of her laser. All the meanwhile, the fingers that are still wrapped around my neck snap my head violently backward.
I still have the cube in my possession even after colliding with the floor, but it won’t matter if I have the cube wrapped in my arms when I’m dead. I take one hand off the cube, making it a fool’s task for someone to rip the cube away from me, and use my free hand to try and pry a few of the bionic fingers off my neck.
To my surprise, the fingers fly off my neck without a problem. My ego is briefly inflated as I give myself all the credit for freeing up a bit of space in my throat to let oxygen pass through. It only takes a second for Anika to completely decimate whatever is left of my ego.
The metal fingers digging into the flesh of my neck and choking the life out of me become the least of my worries as Anika’s cyborg body throws itself on top of me. In any normal situation, being body slammed by a large metallic object hurts. But Anika’s cyborg abilities enable her to deal an entirely new kind of pain upon me.
An intense surge of electricity hijacks all of my nerves.
Her body is equipped with the same ability that the humanoids of Li always liked to unleash upon me. Her torso is covered in electrical barbs that shoot off her body and burrow their way into my skin. The only way to end the mind-numbing pain is to rip them out of me. But with the endless rushes of electricity tearing apart my sensory neurons, my body has descended into a series of convulsions.
A round of hot, sticky vomit spews out of my throat, my abdominals tearing as I try and open up my airways enough to let the chunky liquid flood out of me. I was hoping that it would land on Anika, but instead, the gooey vomit collects in a giant pool on my chest.
“Get off me!” I scream as I realize that all the fingers I ripped off my neck took advantage of my convulsing body and ripped the cube right from me. Anika is still on top of me, her heavy, electrified body pinning my shaking limbs to the ground.
Of course this is how it ends.
I cough, my lungs full of blood and excess fluid as my body enters full-on panic mode. Without the cube, I have no easy way out. I can’t just put my hand on top of it and command its nanobots to magically heal me.
I’m all on my own.
And this time, I know I can’t get out.
Instead of resisting her, I give in to the waves of electric shocks. I could try and move my arm to throw her off me or rip the metallic fingers off my neck, but I know that in the end it will be a losing battle.
The only thing I can do is block out the pain and take in the beauty of this world one last time.
Except there is no beauty around me. The exterior of the Chimera Cube glows as it dances within arm’s reach above my head, the fingers twirling it around in the air just to tease me. The rest of my vision is covered in Anika’s cyborg body. Her skinny metal legs manage to wrap around my feet while her upper body lies on top of me, the strength of her arms easily preventing any of my attempts to run away.
The grip of the fingers around my neck reaches a new deadly tightness. I can’t breathe. The lack of oxygen is starting to make me delirious. The fluorescent lighting lining the top of the ship appears as if it is a bunch of rainbows. Then the edges of my vision turn black as the lack of blood flow to my eyes squeezes their capability to function.
“This isn’t me! This isn’t me!” Anika continues screaming, tears streaming down her face. To put it lightly, this is a fucking confusing way to die.
I have a cyborg who told me a moment ago that we could save the world together on top of me, while I have a lethal pair of mechanical fingers choking me. And that’s not to mention the barbs which continue to sink deeper into my flesh, causing muscles in every part of my body to tear apart as they madly spasm.
As I close my eyes, preparing to let the life escape from me, Anika erupts into a round of deafening screams. Snot drips down her face, adding a nice touch to the pile of vomit on my chest, as her eyes twitch multiple times per second.
I’ve never seen anything like it.
If I didn’t know any better, I would think that a demon hacked the interface that controls her cyborg self and is turning her into a murderous psychopath. Instead, this is all just another phase of the Syndicate’s grand plan to turn my life into a dumpster fire straight from hell.
I can’t help but think that they have been largely successful.
The pain crests within me to a new unbearable level. The fingers continue slamming my head against the marble floor, a bump the size of a mountain already forming. Part of me wants to keep going, part of me wants to keep fighting.
But when I think about it for more than a split second, I just feel like an idiot.
Thousands of hours of work. Years of pain. And months of endless anxiety, and this is where I end up. I can’t help but feel like in the end, I fought for nothing. The monster of the Syndicate was destined to win from the very beginning.
They programmed this game that they forced me to play in and knew that in the end it would end up with them being the rulers of the world and my body six feet under.
I try and pound my fist against the ground, one last act of defiance to let out the anger inside me. But all feeling has been lost in my body. The sensation of the electricity, even the feeling of being alive itself, fades from my consciousness as the blackness overtakes me.
I didn’t want it to end like this.
With me on the ground, the cube and the world in the hands of the Syndicate as the council dances on the grave of my father’s legacy.
But I have no choice.
The pain is finally too much,
The war is over.
And right when my consciousness is about to disappear into nothingness, I feel the grip of the fingers on my neck loosen up. At first, I wonder if this is all just part of a hellish simulation in which the Syndicate dangles the possibility of living and saving the world above me and then crushes me with a host of terrifying ways until my mind is broken.
If that’s their mission, they are doing a damn good job, because my mind, body, and soul are shattered into a million pieces and I have next to no clue how to put them back together.
My eyes flutter open, more out of instinct rather than a desire to continue living. No longer is the crushing weight of Anika’s body pinning me to the ground, and the fingers that were once wrapped around my neck are lying on the floor next to me. The electric barbs tied to the exterior of Anika’s body are no longer making my heart and muscles feel like they are about to explode. Instead, they leave a trail of bloody flesh and burnt skin behind them as my mind tries to process what is happening.
The cube is no longer floating in the air above me. The flying fingers have dropped it right next to me, a stream of liquid from the vomit on my chest spilling onto it as I sit up.
I’m almost one hundred percent sure that I am trapped in nothing more than a hyperrealistic simulation. As I reach my hand forward for the cube, I expect the aircraft to explode and the world to turn into a scene of fire. That’s exactly how this is supposed to work.
I’m supposed to die.
But the world is eerily silent the moment my hand touches the cube. I glance at Anika, who is sprawled out on the ground, her body appearing to be lifeless as sparks dance from the bionic parts of her body.
I feel like I’m in the matrix.
Or like I’m high on acid and this entire experience has been one wild trip.
“Anika!” I yell, my voice echoing off the walls. The aircraft has stopped moving, the engine turning off as a loud thud announces us landing on the ground.
Before I try and save her, I command the cube to heal me. Right after double-tapping it, the army of nanobots descend upon the exterior of my body, the sensation surreal as billions upon billions of tiny robots stab my skin and temporarily numb my senses.
The invisible healing blanket of the nanobots stops my bleeding and heals all the wounds from the electric shocks. Then I use the interior-wound repair command and shoot the syringe into my left forearm to relieve the stinging pain in my head, and heal any damage evoked upon my airways.
Within seconds I am sitting up, my heart still palpitating rapidly in my chest and sweat dripping down my face. I have spent years of my life in virtual worlds. I know the feeling when something is designed to feel real and then when something is real.
When I look out the window at the tall pine trees in the distance, I know that there is no computer that can display the needles swaying in the world so perfectly.
This is not a simulation.
And when a deafening explosive connects with the exterior of the force field that the Chimera Cube has formed around the aircraft, I know exactly where we are.
This is Moosehorn.
And I have no idea whether Anika was hacked or if she was lying about trying to help me in the first place. But all I know is that we are surrounded, and the one person in this world that can help me take down the most powerful military force in history is on the ground, knocked out.
I have to do this alone.
This is my last chance.
And if I perish, the world does too.
It’s time to shut down Maga X and destroy the Syndicate of Truth for good.
Chapter 24
“Fuck.” Anika sits up, gasping for air.
“Holy shit.” I flinch as she stands up, the act of seeing her cyborg self be brought back to life up there with the scariest things I have ever seen. I have my hand on top of the cube, my original intention to command it to create an explosion that could kill the dozens of soldiers and drones that have surrounded our aircraft.
Only a few seconds have passed since the first explosion, and there will undoubtedly be thousands more until the force field that the Chimera Cube has created is finally destroyed for good.
The last thing I expected was Anika to come roaring back to life, the fire in her red, glowing eyes striking fear into me. The sparks that were flying off her torso a few moments ago are gone, and her lethal fingers are attached to the end of her cyborg hands.
Before I can utter a command to the Chimera Cube that will kill her, she smiles, her gold-plated teeth shining in the glare of the fluorescent lights. I can kill her so easily. All it would take is me commanding the cube to create an electromagnetic pulse and a handful of attack drones that can disintegrate her body to ash within seconds.
But something holds me back.
The same horrified expression she had when suffocating me is still on her face. There are tears coating her eyes despite her glowing smile. For a moment, we both stand a few feet apart from one another in a weird standoff where we both could decide to deal a lethal amount of pain upon each other in the same instant.
Then I finally lose it on her.
I don’t know what the Syndicate thinks they are going to do to me, but I will kill them all.
“Electromagnetic—”
“Hey! Hey!” Anika yells, her fingers zipping through the air at lightning
speed and grabbing the cube from me before I can even utter a single command.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I slam my fists against the wall behind me. I am smart enough to know that trying to combat Anika would be one of the dumbest decisions of my life. With the cube and her cyborg abilities combined, she makes the power of gods look futile.
“It’s not what you think.” She holds the cube back out to me as her fingers return to their spot on her metal hands. “They hacked me.”
“Fuck them.” I sigh with relief as I grab the cube back from her, but it only takes a split second of thinking about it for my mind to fall into an even a deeper panic.
The fact that the Syndicate found a way to hack into the computer systems that communicate with Anika’s brain is no surprise to me. But that means that they can do it again. And for as long as she is around me, the Syndicate has a deadly cyborg weapon that they can unleash upon me at a moment’s notice.
“What are you doing?” Anika shifts nervously as she notices me staring out the window with my hand hovering over the Chimera Cube. The shots continue to be fired outside, but the military forces are a long way from breaking into the force field. From the looks of it, we are on the roof of Moosehorn. That should excite me.
But when I connect with the sheer size of the army positioned against us, I almost shit my pants. The cracked cement lining the exterior of the compound is covered in dozens of humanoids soldiers that are relentlessly trying to break into the force field.
They knew we were coming.
This is all one huge trap.
And I’m standing next to a ticking time bomb that can turn into one of the world’s most lethal assassins at the touch of a button by the council.
“Get out,” I hiss, gripping the cube and narrowing my eyes at her as if I have a gun pointed to her head.
“Sam, slow down” Anika pleads, both her hands up in defense. I know that she can rip that cube away from me just as easily as I can shut down the internal components of her cyborg self.
I’m going to kill her first.
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