Authors: George Ivanoff
Gamers' Challenge (14 page)
‘Give me that!’ Gal snatched the weapon from Tark. ‘If we can’t stop it, you make sure to warn Tee.’ He tossed his communicator to Tark.
Without waiting for a response, Gal strode forward and opened fire on the expanding pool of static. The bolts dissolved into its grey depths.
The creature behind the force-field shrank intonothingness as its substance escaped through the hole. The static on the ground undulated and surged forward, gurgling over Gal’s booted feet.
Gal screamed. He saw his boots and leggings dispersing as the static rose to cover them. He forced himself to lift his eyes and continued firing.
‘Stay back!’ he called. Tark hesitated.
One of the Outers, a young woman with short blonde hair, ignored Gal’s order and dashed forward to help. Pulling off her cloak, she wrapped it around her hands and tried to wipe the static off Gal. The cloak stuck to it and moments later the woman’s arms were covered in spreading greyness.
‘Help!’ she cried, struggling in vain. ‘My arms! Ican’t feel my arms!’
‘Run!’ Gal yelled over his shoulder. The rapid-fire crossbow lost its solidity moments before the static rippled over it. ‘Run!’ The static rushed into Gal’s mouth, drowning his words. Seconds later he and the woman were gone - consumed.
Tark retreated to the Forest, fumbling with the communicator, trying desperately to recover from what he had just seen.
‘Comes on,’ Tark called to the remaining Outers, who were still gaping at the roiling static. ‘Gets back!’ His voice snapped them out of their shocked inaction.
The Outers turned to run, but it was too late. Awave swelled across the expanding surface of the static and rushed at them. They wailed like panicked children as the wave crashed down. It engulfed them, wiping them away with frightening ease, and rolled on towards Tark.
Haunted faces seemed to loom up out of the rushing swell, dead eyes fixed on Tark, their mouths wordlessly calling for him.
Tark ran. He stumbled over a tree root and crashed to the ground, the communicator flying off into the undergrowth. He picked himself up and struggled on for several minutes before allowing himself to glance back over his shoulder. What he saw made him stop and gape.
The creature was huge, and still growing. An amorphous blob of grey, a black maw in its centre. Images rippled across its surface. Faces, bodies, creatures - deformed and distorted. They extended from the conglomeration as if trying to escape, then snapped back to be swallowed into the swirling mass.
The static heaved across the landscape, consuming everything in its path. Animal life and vegetation disappeared into the expanding darkness at its centre. The only good thing about the feasting was that it slowed it down.
‘Devour!’ The word boomed through the Forest. Tark ran. He did not look back. But the hauntingsound of destruction followed him.
‘Stop!’ yelled Hope. ‘Leave her alone.’
Hope grappled with the Fat Man, trying desperately to get him into a headlock. He knocked her aside as if he were swatting a fly.
‘Bobby, no,’ gasped Zyra, as she thrashed about, trying to escape his grip.
‘It would be so easy to snap your pretty little neck,’ wheezed the Fat Man, lifting her off the ground.
‘Bobby, please.’ Zyra’s voice was now little more than a hoarse whisper. ‘You’re not him. You’re Bobby. You’re the Ultimate Gamer.’
‘Talk about cheating,’ screamed Hope, as shestumbled to her feet. ‘You’re not even playing now. You’re just killing her.’
The Fat Man froze. His grip loosened a little and he looked into Zyra’s green eyes, the whites spiked through with bloodshot rivulets.
‘I’ve used so many different avatars that I sometimes forget who I really am.’ He let go and Zyra dropped to the floor.
‘I’m sorry.’ Bobby stared down at Zyra, no trace of the Fat Man persona remaining. ‘Each avatar has its own personality traits. Some are stronger than others, and the Fat Man is very strong.’ His voice became almost a whisper. ‘He doesn’t like to lose, either.’
‘Doesn’t that bother you?’ said Hope, helping
Zyra to her feet.
‘Nah,’ said Bobby, all smiles again. ‘Makes it more exciting.’
‘You little snot-rag,’ said Zyra, glaring at him and rubbing at her bruised throat. ‘You’re sick if you think this is exciting. We’re not playing now and you could have killed me.’
‘Everything’s a game,’ said Bobby. ‘You guys trying to find me. Me tracking you down. You trying to get out of the environments and into the real world. Games. They’re all games within games.Just without the Designers in control.’
‘You think that trying to get out is a game?’ asked
Hope.
‘Yeah. You want to get out, but you can’t. I can get out, but I don’t want to. I could let you out ...’ Bobby paused, looking at the eager expressions on their faces. ‘But where’s the fun in that? The only way I’ll ever let you out, is if you play against me and win.’ His eyes widened and he yelled, ‘Without cheating!’ His voice calmed instantly. ‘Others have played against me, trying to win their way out. None of them succeeded.’
Bobby saw the look of surprise in Hope’s eyes.
‘No, you’re not the first. It’s not as if you’re special or anything. There are non-garners in other environments, you know. Hundreds of them. And they all want out. Sometimes a bunch of them will find a cheat code that mentions me. They come looking for me. I challenge them. We play. I win. They die.’
‘Why, you little-’ began Zyra.
‘Don’t.’ Hope put a hand on her shoulder. ‘He’s trying to get you riled up. He wants you to do something stupid, like attack him or something. That would be a game to him.’
Bobby clasped his hands behind his back andfeigned an innocent expression.
‘You wouldn’t be so smug if it was you in danger,’ said Zyra.
‘I’m always in danger,’ said Bobby, suddenlyserious. ‘Being the Ultimate Gamer isn’t about safety. I’m not part of the Designers’ plan. I’m not wanted.’
‘So, what have you got to be worried about?’ asked
Hope. ‘What could possibly be a danger to you?’
As if on cue, two balls of static appeared over the top level of the pinball game.
The Outers’ base was in a state of panic as Tark ran in. People were bustling about, shouting at each other and carrying equipment. Tee stood in the centre of it all, calling out instructions and answering frantic questions from passers-by.
‘Yes,’ he said to Chuck. ‘Break out all the weapons.
Arm as many people as you can.’
Tark weaved his way through the throng, making his way towards Tee as quickly as he could.
‘What happened?’ asked Tee.
‘It gots out,’ answered Tark.
‘Where are the others? Where’s Gal?’
Tark shook his head. ‘It gots ‘em. It’s huge. It’s ... eatin’ up everythin’. I thinks it’s coming this way. We is done for.’
‘Dear, dear, dear,’ said the professor, scurrying up behind them. ‘Are you sure it’s going to attack us? I mean, it may have other plans, other intentions, other priorities. It may, it may.’
‘I has gots no idea,’ said Tark. ‘But it ain’t friendly.’
The professor nodded. ‘Yes, yes, I see, yes.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Well, now, I have some other experimental weapons that we might be able to use.’
‘What about the force-field?’ asked Tee. ‘It held it in the cave for a while. Can we somehow redirect the force-field from around our base and use it to hold the creature? Then maybe we could attack it with everything at once.’
‘Hmm.’ The professor scratched his head. ‘Maybe, maybe, yes, maybe. I need to go have a sit down and think about it.’
‘Sits down?’ sputtered Tark. ‘Ya betta makes it quick!’
Tee’s communicator beeped and he lifted it to his ear.
‘Rylan here,’ came a voice, broken up by hissing and crackling. ‘I’ve reached the top of the cliff I can see ...’ His words were swallowed up by interference.
‘I’m losing you,’ called Tee.
‘It’s massive.’ Rylan’s voice was back. ‘It’s tearing through the Forest. Swallowing it up!’ And then it was gone agam.
‘Rylan!’ shouted Tee. ‘Can you hear me? Is itheaded for the base?’
Rylan’s muffled voice was barely audible, now. ‘We don’t stand a chance.’ The connection went dead.
Then it sprang back to life with a new voice,rumbling like oncoming thunder. ‘Devour!’
Tee’s expression was grave as he snapped the communicator shut and looked at the professor. ‘We need everything you’ve got and we need it fast.’
The professor shuddered. ‘Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Why is it coming here? It shouldn’t be coming here. That’s not good. Not at all. At all.’
‘Listen up, everyone.’ Tee climbed up onto a coupleof storage crates as the Outers gathered around him.
‘We’re in for a hell of a fight.’ He paused. ‘And, in all honesty, I don’t know that we can win it.’ He paused again, choosing his words carefully. ‘But we have to try. Not just for ourselves, but for all future Outers. Because if there is one certainty in this contrived, artificial, imposed world - it is that there will always be more of us. There will be other characters, other versions of ourselves -’ he looked directly at Tark ‘- who will stand up and say
No.
So for the sake of all these future Outers, as well as for ourselves, we now come to the point where we must again say
No.
We will not lie down and die. We will fight for our existence. We will fight for our freedom.’
A cheer went up from the Outers.
‘Win or lose,’ continued Tee, his eyes moving about the common room, meeting gaze after gaze.
‘Whatever the outcome, we will achieve it withoutthe Designers. Win or lose, we are free!’
As another cheer made its way through the crowd, Professor Palimpsest clasped his hands together.
‘Free,’ he whispered. ‘Are we really?’
‘Time to play,’ announced Bobby, whirling around and transforming into the Pinball Wizard. ‘This time, you two can come with me and watch.’
He waved his wand above him and a dome of glass enclosed the entire game. Waving it again, he rose into the air, Zyra and Hope rising with him.
The VIs charged them.
‘Watch out!’ called Hope as the three of them sped towards the glass. Upon reaching it, they simply passed through, finally coming to a stop high above the pinball game. The VIs streaked towards them, but they collided with the glass, writhing angrily, trapped in the game.
‘Sudden Death Aerial Pinball,’ the Pinball Wizardcalled out at the top of his voice. He waved his wand yet again.
Five silver balls spat from the mouth of the plasticclown and careened around the bottom level of the game. As the first ball bumped into a rubber ring, it bounced off and up into the air - straight for the closest VI. It collided and exploded in a shower of sparks, destroying its target.
‘Yes!’ The Pinball Wizard punched the air abovehim. The propeller on his tall hat spun excitedly. The other four balls were launched at the second VI, which zoomed off to the back of the game.
The VI was trapped, four silver balls converging on it from different directions. They hit simultaneously. The explosion was huge, bursting apart the over sized pinball machine in a blinding flash, shattering the glass casing. Zyra and Hope raised their arms to shield their faces.