Chapter 9:
The Calm before....
After the interruption from his MFPD, Sorg took a chance to check it. The radar was clear of all others apart from the three he was with. It was at last time to take a rest, and to breathe easy.
The radar was not fully accurate however, as there was another still alive, though just barely. It was Simon the Guide. He knew the effects of fibroblasts, and knew he was too badly hurt for the drug to be able to regenerate his cells before he bled out. He had mere seconds to live, and only one thing he could do before he died.
He pulled his MFPD towards him, and with his dying breath, broadcast to all the surviving participants:
"There are some explosives hidden in the North. Find them, use them to blow up Cat's control centre, do this and you will get out of here alive." Simon tried to gasp another sentence, but had already exerted himself too much, and the sentence was his last.
However, it changed everything...
"What the hell was that?" Cat spoke to Oleg in a tone of voice that suggest she almost blamed him.
"Hey! I was the one who told you that something was up. You were the one who said not to worry about it, and that we were in control."
"Yes, you're right. I'm sorry Oleg. Do you think we should move on this though? Maybe we should send Jamira out to look for them?"
"Honestly Cat? I think that would be a bad idea."
"Why?"
"I have my reasons."
Jamira heard over the broadcast that Simon was dead. Now it was all down to her. There were only fifteen people left that she could save, but she wasn't sure about the best way of doing it. The people out there were killing each other. Who was to say they wouldn't kill her too as soon as she left the safety of her position? If she exposed herself, then surely Cat would send Oleg after her, and with him, along with the others out there who had clearly decided this was a battle of the fittest, would she survive even long enough to tell them what she knew?
She decided to stay put for just now, and to work out what she would do later. It depended mainly on the characteristics of the fifteen remaining survivors.
Upon hearing Simon's last broadcast, Sass lowered her gun.
"I'm going to be totally honest with you here, Sorg. I'm not sure I trust you, but I'd rather be with you than against you, so lets stay together, the four of us. Perhaps we should check out the north and see if there is any truth to what Simon just said?"
Sorg agreed.
"OK, but first, let's all head out to the east and find some cover for a while. I'm sure that we all need a little time for the fibroblasts to work their magic."
"Did you hear that Da?" asked Skam as she lowered her MFPD. "Some explosives in the north....it might be worth a shot...."
Da shook his head.
"No, the others can all go looking for those. We're safer here. Let's face it, anyone that believed that broadcast will make their way up there, and those people will meet. Better we stay here and save our ammo, and our defence. Let the others out there kill each other looking for it when they encounter each other up there."
"Dammit, you know what's going to happen now, Kold?" asked Xena.
"They're going to have a reason to come up to our area...."
"Yes, exactly. Our little safe haven will not be safe for much longer. They are going to come here looking for those explosives."
"Do you think we should look for them, I mean other than Wizzss hiding over there we are the only ones in the area after all."
"Hell no, I'm not blowing up Cat. It's because of her we've lived this long."
"Then we need to move."
"Not necessarily. We still have the advantage of the open space in front of us, and the only cover is right here where we are. Besides, if they come here looking for it, then they will most likely meet each other before they meet us. Thirteen other people are out there, and I'd rather they thinned there numbers out themselves than us having to do it."
"Did you hear that team?" asked Chaos. "Explosives in the north that can end this! Should we go for it?"
Ozi thought for a while before answering.
"Yes, let's go for it, but not for the explosives. Let's go there because the rest of them will go there, and we can see exactly who is left, and pick them off if need be. With only eleven others out there, I'm sure it won't be difficult. We should be cautious though, we'll take it slowly, at least until we see how many others are up there.”
Wizzss heard the announcement, and knew that his area that had been so secure for so long would not be secure much longer. Nevertheless, for the weapon he had, it was still the best position available to him, and he was not moving from it.
Gluepot ignored the broadcast. She had just one plan of what to do next, and it didn't involve going North. She was making her way over to the south-west, towards Da's position. She didn't want to go this alone, and at least Da was from the same society as her fallen companion, Ah. She made her way there in the hope that she could find refuge with them.
“Well, “ said Oleg as he tracked the movements of the remaining contestants, “the three in the north seem to be staying stationary – they certainly don't appear to have any intentions of searching the area for these fabled explosives, if indeed they exist at all. So that should be a small comfort at least.”
“Anyone heading up that way?”
“Yes, I've got Ozi's team coming up on the west, and Sorg's coming up on the east. Neither of the teams appear to be in any great rush though.”
“I still say we should send Jamira up there to keep a closer eye on them.”
“Oh, I wouldn't do that. Not just yet anyway.”
“We've got incoming again.”
Gluepot reached the bottom of the collapsed overpass, took a deep breath, and plucked a flower from the ground, a survivor of the destruction all around. She ignored the imagery and made her way up the ramp, fully aware that all above had their eyes fixed on her. Holding a flower had, over the years, almost replaced the old Earth tradition of the white flag. She wasn't there to fight, and the three on the bridge above her identified this immediately as she made her way up the ramp, although it didn't stop them from training their weapons on her. With so few left alive, gaining new allies was not likely.
They were still prepared to listen to what she had to say.
Once Gluepot was within range she immediately addressed Da.
“Da, I came here to you because I failed to protect Ah. But I did everything I could with what I had.”
Da lowered his weapon a little. Although Jakst3r was in the Coat Killer's child society, Ah was the only one that shared his own. He had appointed his own goal of protecting Skam and no-one else long before this day, but couldn't help but feel the loss of Ah. This, coupled with the fact that Gluepot had contacted him before the day itself looking for an alliance (which at the time he had ignored) led him into thinking what if things had worked out differently?
Of course he didn't want to see Ah die, it was simply that he had tried to shut everything out. He couldn't save everyone and he knew it. Skam was the one that he had chosen to protect, and there simply was no room to extend that protection any further. Ah herself had not even contacted him about any sort of alliance, for whatever reason she had, and yes, though they had taken Ido on with them, it was mainly a safety in numbers move at the time. Now there were a lot less people left, and as such, a much less reason to increase the size of such an alliance. The one thing that made this difficult was that he knew Gluepot was telling the truth about her attempt to protect his society-mate Ah.
“Keep your distance, Gluepot!”
Ido drew his pistol for the first time. He didn't want to use it, but he could see the situation was edgy. Gluepot was encased in Shogun armour – the most powerful available, and this made her dangerous despite the fact that the only weapon she held towards them was that flower. She was the only one still alive that even had armour.
“What weapons do you have?”
The flower had served it's purpose. She dropped it and brought up her TT knuckles before her.
“And what about the bag, Gluepot? What's in that?” asked Skam.
“That's something I want to keep to myself.”
“Oh no, you're not coming here trying to ally with us without telling us what you have to offer, and certainly not so late in the game.”
Skam looked to Da for confirmation, and she got it.
“What's in the bag, Gluepot?”
“Whatever is in this bag, I will use when it's needed. But please know, I will NOT use what is in here against my allies. I came here to offer my help, and if needed, my weapons. I am not here to attack you, if that were the case, I would have done so already. Da, I came to you because of the death of Ah, I had hoped you would be the one person still here who would want to avenge her death, and believe me, I am here when that moment arrives.”
Da called Ido and Skam close while they focused on Gluepot.
“She's lying.” said Skam. “Me with my dagger? It's not going to damage her at all while she's in full Shogun in a one-on-one fight. The one comfort I take from what she's wearing is that if she was lucky enough to draw such a good set of armour, then I seriously doubt she would have drawn a good weapon as well. Chances are against her.”
“Then why won't she tell us what it is?” exclaimed Ido. “If she believes her weapon will be of use to us, her prospective allies, then she should just tell us what she has, and then we can judge for ourselves. She's not telling us, and that makes her dangerous. We should kill her now, all three of us.”
Da felt torn, he knew that what Skam and Ido said made perfect sense, but the loss of Ah had happened, and he knew for a fact that Gluepot was genuine in her argument that she had tried to protect her.
“Guys, maybe it's too early to make a choice here. Let's wait and see what happens with the rest of them up north. If Gluepot is going to be an ally, then she will prove it at the time. If not, well there are three of us and one of her, regardless of her Shogun. She knows enough about us to know that her armour can't stop all three of us. We are on the winning side here, I know it. And if we can get Gluepot, whether as an ally or as a decoy in that armour, then we can make it work for us.
Gluepot took a step forward while asking: “So, am I in?”
Ido re-targeted his pistol.
“Not yet Gluepot. Keep your distance, we need to talk about this a bit more.”
Sorg's team had rested a few times on their way up towards the north, the fibroblasts had more or less finished up the healing process, and now all four of them were ready for action again. They came towards the north plains and quickly saw that there were not many places that explosives could be “hidden” in this area. Moving in from the north-eastern area a few dots sprang up on their MFPDs.
Sorg paused the others as he examined their situation. There were two dots far to the north, across the other side of the plains, and one dot on its own south of that area, whom appeared to be taking cover in the last of the northern ruins.
Jinx checked out her own radar when she saw Sorg doing the same. She felt that after losing two team members in the previous riot, as now things had calmed down a lot, it may be time to look for people to replenish the ranks a little. Seeing this one lone green dot was somewhat unexpected at this stage of the game, but it was still the best chance of gaining a new companion that they had open to them. So, she decided it was time for an additional member.
“Sorg? That lone dot to the south of the plains there? Can you see who it is?”
Sorg peered over and managed to catch a glimpse of the man watching their movements.
“I think that's Wizzss over there.”
“Do you think we should get him? God knows it would help our situation.”
“Yeah, you're right. Let's see what we can do.”
Jinx watched Sorg as he made his way towards Wizzss with heavily unexpected enthusiasm. Considering Sorg had recently killed her only remaining friend in the game, Jinx was pleased to see that Sorg was so eager to earn them another recruit.
Slasha and Sass followed suit. Jinx didn't see the need to run to him, so just walked in the general direction. Had they forgotten that they could just use the MFPDs to signal another contestant? What was with the enthusiastic charge? It was only when they got close and Sorg pulled out his sword that Jinx realised that her choice of words were far from the most ideal she could have used.
Wizzss, seeing his position stormed by three people, and with nothing more than his TT knife in defence, knew it was game over. He made the best of a hopeless situation and drew his knife against Sorg's sword, he wasn't prepared to go down without a fight. But with what he had, and his lack of allies, he knew even before he slashed at Sorg for all he was worth, that this was the end. Sass made sure of it, and Wizzss's inevitable fate ensued.
“Keep it up!” shouted Sorg to Slasha and Sass as he lead them up towards the other dots on his radar, across the plains. They ran past the speechless Jinx in their persuit of the victory of this war.
As they made there way towards Xena and Kold, they heard there MFPDs confirm the kill.
“Boys #24: Nicholas wizzszz Wolf – dead. Fourteen people remain.”
“They are coming for us, Xena.”
“I see it, I see it!”
Xena felt her Isis HL8 by her side. Was there even any point in using it? She glanced again over the bunker to the plains to see what they were up against.
“Three of them, and two with ranged weapons. Only one of them is hurt, I think it's Sorg, and his injuries look minor.”
“So, this is it? Our hiding comes to an end. Time to fight.”
Xena felt her spirit leave her.
“What's the point? We hid ourselves the entire game, these people have been out there fighting and killing. They wouldn't still be alive at this point if they weren't the most dangerous out there.”
“What are you talking about? We can't surrender, they'll just kill us.”
“I know that. And here we are, our safe-haven violated. I'll not give it up so easily.”
Xena left the bunker with her sword armed.
“Use the Isis! Use the Isis!” shouted out Kold as he followed her across the ridge, but Xena had already accepted her fate, and although she would fight for it, she had resigned herself to keeping the Isis out of sight by her hip. She didn't want to go down without fighting, but after all the time she had spent in the bunker since the start of the game, she also didn't want the death of another person on the deathbed of her conscience. Xena half-heartedly attacked Sorg, it was more a show of defence than a show of attack, she knew she wasn't going to come out of this alive. Kold attempted to back up her attack, but with Xena and Sorg in close combat he didn't want to end up accidentally shooting her, so instead opened fire upon Slasha. Unfortunately, Slasha's carbine was a lot more powerful than Kold's pistol.
Xena fell seconds before Kold.
Again, Cat moved away from the microphone when witnessing the deaths, and Oleg moved in to make the announcement:
“Girls #6: Jade Xena Ho – dead, Boys #31: Kold Kaamos Vind – dead. 12 people left.”
Oleg let go of the button and turned back towards Cat.
“Cat, I'm sorry, but God knows you must have known this was going to come sooner or later.”
“Xena was who I cared about the most.”
“Yeah and I lost ReadBird out there too! You told me yourself that this whole thing came down to being a psychological experiment – let's not let ourselves become part of that experiment. You told me yourself yesterday that you didn't really know if Xena had it in herself to kill anyone. And from what I've recorded here she didn't. She chose not to use her primary weapon, but at least she chose to try and fight. She had five shots on that Isis – she could have easily killed one of them if she chose to do so, and yet she didn't. This is what becomes of letting pacifists and semi-pacifists join such a game. You said yourself when we were compiling all these people that a strong variation of characters were needed to bring diversity into the event.”
Cat pulled her hair back, clawing it behind her head.
“I told Xena she would be safe up there! If it wasn't for that god-damned unexpected guest Simon then Sorg's team would never have ended up in her area in the first place, and she would have probably been safe to the very end.”
“Well, in all honesty, Cat, I think that she lived a lot longer than she might have had you not said that. And as for Sorg's team? Well, as I told you before, Ozi's team is now closing in on the same area, so it's certainly not safe any more.”
Sass was heading back towards where Wizzss had fallen, she felt that if explosives were indeed hidden in this area, then they would surely be hidden amongst the buildings, and not anywhere in the open plains. Sorg and Slasha examined the area that Xena and Kold had fallen in somewhat more thoroughly first. Jinx, still a bit shaken by what was going on, stayed in between them.
“It's a good spot those two found here.” said Slasha as he stood atop the bunker that Xena and Kold had been hiding in. “Odd that they chose to leave the cover this place offered them to counter our attack.”
“Good defensive position, yes. But certainly not any area round here that would provide a good hiding place for the explosives.”
“You are still looking for those?”
“Well sure, it's the reason we came up this way after all.”
Ozi's team had a different agenda, as they came close to the area and the MFPD started to light up with green dots in front of them, they soon realised that their numbers were matched, four against four.
They slowed their advance for a second as they grouped together.
“There are four of them,” said Cail. “And they've lived this long. They must be a strong team.”
Cail checked his MFPD. “We know that Da, Skam and Ido couldn't have made it here before us. It's most likely Sorg is amongst that lot, and he's top of the most dangerous list. According to the MFPD, he's killed six people, and two of us only have melee weapons.”
“Well then, “ smiled Ozi. “I guess it's time I put my primary weapon to use.”
Ozi pulled out his Meckel & Loch ML-35, he felt it was about time to put it to good use.
The team continued to advance with renewed confidence.
Sass, having moved down towards Wizzss's fallen body was the first to see them come.
“More people coming our way...” Her broadcast was cut short when the blast of an ML-35 cut through her, catching her completely off-gaurd.
“Big weapon! Big weapon!” she managed to broadcast again before being struck a second time. There was no way she could stand and fight against this kind of firepower. She ran south, hoping the rubble would provide her enough defence to escape the attack.
Sorg and Slasha saw the incoming party, and ran across the plains to counter-attack. Jinx joined them mid-way, she was running purely on instinct now.
“I knew it!” shouted Cail as they closed in on the opponents position. “Sorg is there!”
“I got him tagged.”
Ozi shot again, this time at Sorg. A direct hit, but Sorg was not an easy prey. His lead of the charge faltered, but it wasn't until Ozi's second hit upon him that his charge slowed to a mere staggering run.
Ozi, seeing his team-mates biggest threat faltering, decided to reassert himself upon his primary target, Sass, but continued to fire upon the rest of Sorg's team in the meantime. The rubble in which Sass was running through ended up being more a defence for her team rather than herself though, and not a single remaining shot of Ozi's ML35 landed a hit. The gun emptied, he dropped it and focussed his full attention on chasing Sass, with only his TT pistol at hand.
Sorg, badly hurt, still braved the clash with the rest of Ozi's team head on, Slasha providing covering fire from behind. Slasha, sensing this was the most difficult fight they had encountered yet, let his covering fire spread wide, to intimidate the ones that were rushing them. He knew he was one of the few that had unlimited firepower and intended to use that to his advantage. It was during this covering spray that a misalignment resulted in the unintentional killing of the already heavily wounded Sorg.
Slasha gasped at his own mistake. Of the six of them that had teamed up at the start, every single member of the team had been killed by another, and Sorg was no exception. At this stage Slasha almost felt like killing the rest of his team and then himself, purely for the 'tradition' that taken place in the last hour. With Sass taking flight, it was only Jinx who stood between him and the rest of Ozi's team.
Jinx, seeing Sorg fall and having already drawn too close in an attempt to use her TT knuckles to the effect that she had done against LS earlier, realised too late that there was no way out. With Chaos shooting towards her, and Gamble cutting off her escape, it was Cail that cut through her as if she wasn't there. All three turned towards the one that remained.
It was too close, Gamble and Cail clearly had strong melee swords, and had Chaos covering them. Slasha continued to open fire, but knew that he would not live through the next few seconds. Gamble proved him right.
“Boys #26: Sorg Sorg Sorg, Girls #11: Selena Jinx Reinhart, Boys #13: kenneth slasha shopanowa – all three dead. Nine of you are left.”
kills
kills
kills
kills
kills
kills
