Chapter 12

A Killer Rainbow

But not flames. My last ditch effort to save myself by jerking the drill to the side had paid off. The guy after me had only sliced through the side of it, missing all the important innards of the machine that would make it explode and destroy me with it. I had survived. Just barely and I wasn’t left with much.

The drill was in bad shape. The boost reserves were completely depleted, there was a hole near my head with rocks and dirt leaking in, knocking against my dome. I tried to steer it but that was busted too. I could go up, that was it, and not very quickly at that.

But for the moment I was out of danger. The guy after me was going so fast there was no hope of him turning around anytime soon. And I had almost breached the surface. In fact, a countdown to it started.

[5]

I searched for Stephen.

[4]

There he was, his drill already out on the surface.

[3]

The guy after me breached, uncomfortably close to where Stephen’s drill marker was.

[2]

I clenched my butt cheeks, preparing for the fight of my life.

[1]

The drill burst from the earth and light shined in from the hole in the drill. Much preferred to the deluge of rocks, but bad in its own way, I had to put my hand up to block the light. The drill kept going up, soaring above the ground and the screen blinked off, suddenly the whole inside of the drill was a window to the outside world. I squealed in pain as the light assaulted my eyes. I didn’t even think it was a particularly bright day or anything, just my eyes had gotten so accustomed to the dark of the underground.

A shadow blocked out the sun, granting me a moment of relief. That was until I saw what had blocked out the light: the enemy drill, turned completely around, heading back down for me, drill first.

Another alarm went off, filling the cockpit with more lights. In the corner of what used to be the screen a lifesaving message flashed:

[ Deploy Ejection Seat? Yes/No ]

I slammed my finger into that Yes button. The seat lurched back and I was ejected up and out, the bottom of my feet narrowly avoided getting drilled to pieces as I whizzed up as my enemy came down on my drill, destroying what he started.

My ascent halted and my stomach lurched into my throat as I began to plummet. I’ll be honest with you, I screamed bloody murder. I had kept my cool through most of that but I was at my limit, man. So, yeah, I screamed. So loud I almost didn’t hear Stephen in my ear.

“Darcy! Holy shit—how did you survive that?”

“Thanks for the confidence, Stephen!” I yelled. “Could I have some assistance in not becoming a pancake please!?”

“Right! Just press the bottom left side of the seat.”

I searched blindly for the button but, sure enough, it was there. I pressed it and a parachute blossomed out of the back of the chair. And suddenly I wasn’t plummeting to my death any longer.

A large crash interrupted my moment of peace. The enemy drill slammed into the ground, burying the few pieces of my drill that hadn’t exploded underneath it. The machine lodged into the ground, drill side digging into the Earth.

“Come on Darcy, we need weapons!” I could finally see Stephen below me, not far off, gesturing to a bunch of boxes on the ground.

I angled myself toward it, waited until I was in a semi safe looking distance, and then unbuckled myself and slid out of the seat. I landed on my feet, barely, and joined Stephen by the boxes. He was hunched over, looking at one.

He swore.

“What is it?”

“All of these have locks on them. It takes like fifteen seconds to unlock them.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.” I bent over one of the boxes and touched it, the fifteen second countdown starting in my vision.

“We don’t have fifteen seconds.”

Right on cue, the bottom of the drill burst open and a hand emerged from within. A hand unlike what I was expecting. No giant hand with an arm bustling with muscles—it was thin and tiny. A girl’s hand.

My almost murderer leapt from the drill, doing a flip and landing perfectly on the ground. She held her hands up, as if putting on a show for an audience. She looked to be about twelve, barely five feet tall, crazy long pigtails went down half her body length. And she was decked out in all kinds of pastel colors, looking like a living bowl of sherbet ice cream.

“Uh, Stephen.” The box he was working on was facing away from the drill wreckage so he completely missed the big reveal of the bloodthirsty psychopath that was after me.

“Ten more seconds, Darce.”

The girl locked eyes with me. She pointed at me… and then drew a line across her throat. The age old gesture for “I want you dead, I’m gonna slice your throat open.” The only hopeful part was that she didn’t currently have any weapons to do that with. But her nails looked awfully long.

She gave a wild roar and charged at me.

I abandoned the chest, mine had like twelve seconds longer on it and I knew there was no hope of that opening in time. And Stephen wouldn’t get his open unless I acted. I dashed straight for the girl. She ran almost like an animal, her hands pulling her forward on the ground every few feet, her tongue out. Who the hell was this girl?

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I took a swing at her. She went under my fist with ease and catapulted herself with her arms straight into me. She nailed me in the stomach with her feet. The air was knocked out of me and I fell back into the pile of chests. I could only watch as she kicked off my body and landed on Stephen’s head just as the chest popped open.

She reached in and pulled something out before twisting over and slamming it back shut.

“What the fu—“ Stephen’s surprise was cut short by a long butcher’s knife that the girl now held up to his throat.

I flipped around and jumped to my feet. She held up her free hand, clicking her tongue.

“Stay there, or your boyfriend dies.”

I halted my advance.

She giggled. “I didn’t think I was hunting someone so cute. This guy isn’t too bad either. But a little plain for you, dearie.”

“Who are you? Why are you after me?”

“This is all part of the game, babe. It’s kill… or be killed.” She moved down to Stephen’s chest and sliced him with her blade. He winced in pain.

His HP dropped by ten points.

“Don’t do that! I know that’s what the game is but, I mean, why did you single me out and only come after me?”

“Why do you think? You didn’t die when I first came for you. Once I got my sights on someone… I don’t stop until they're dead.”

“We are both just complete noobs at this, man,” Stephen said. “You should find someone more experienced if you want a good fight.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I don’t discriminate. I will kill anyone.” She grinned, wide and crazy.

This was bad. No weapons, a knife to Stephen’s throat—she had all the advantages. My beginner’s luck was enough to get me up to the surface but it looked like that would be as far as it brought me.

She sighed. “You’ve already given up. I can see it in your eyes. I’m disappointed. You gave me such a good chase until now.”

“Let me open a chest and I’ll give you a fight.”

The girl nodded excitedly. “That’s a good idea. Tell you what, I’ll give you the fifteen seconds to open one. Plus three extra. After that, I’ll attack this boy toy. Sound fair?”

“No!” Stephen exclaimed. “Not fair at all!”

“Shush! The women are speaking.” She knocked his head on the chest, taking five more points from his health.

I caught sight of something over her shoulder. Multiple somethings.

“You’re on.” I bent down beside the nearest chest.

“Now that’s the spirit!” She clapped her free hand on Stephen’s head. He lost one more health point. That would be the last. I mean, you know, I hoped. I honestly wasn’t that confident.

Stephen looked just as unsure as I did. But they both couldn’t see what I saw over her shoulder. The many somethings were coming closer, their weapons drawn and trained on the lunatic girl’s back. Would fifteen seconds be enough time?

“Wait, what if—“ I tried to keep her talking, buy some time, but she shut me down.

“No more talking. My countdown is starting… now!”

I swore and pressed the button. The timer started. I tried to make it look like I was focused on the chest but every third second I looked up, also trying to make it look like I was preparing to take my shot or making sure Stephen was okay. But in actuality I was watching as the four attackers made their advance.

Two stayed as the girls back and two others on either side came a bit closer, preparing to surround her on all sides. Except from the front, which I had covered. But until I got a weapon my side didn’t look nearly as threatening.

As the chest counted down the last three seconds, I wondered how she hadn’t noticed them yet. A stray stick crunched under one of their boots and she whirled around. The chest popped open. I thrust my hand in and felt around for anything that felt like a good weapon.

“Stay right there.” A commanding voice said as he placed a shotgun inches from the crazed girl’s face.

The rest of the men spread out and the one on my right trained his weapon on me. “No crazy ideas,” he said. Yet somehow he didn’t command me to close the chest. I continued my search for the most helpful seeming weapon.

The new guys were decked out in full black combat clothes. The only part of them that had any interesting qualities were the masks they wore. Grinning skulls. The lackeys all had bright blue skulls and light and lean builds. The commander, on the other hand, was a hulking mass of a man and his mask was blood red.

Not a group you would want to see normally but right now they were the best chance we had of making it out of this situation alive. Just needed to play our cards right.

“What’s going on here?” The leader asked. “A lover’s quarrel?”

The lackeys got a good chuckle out of that.

“More like a bloodbath in the making. Thanks for adding to my body count,” the girl snarled.

All of the men died laughing.

“What a spunky girl we’ve got here, men! Almost a shame that we have to say goodbye to you so soon.” He snapped his fingers and everyone—including the guy who was aiming at me—turned their weapons on the girl. “Release your boyfriend there and put your hands up.”

Poor Stephen, he was everyone’s boyfriend today.

She actually did what he said and Stephen dropped to the ground and backed up beside me.

“What do you got in there?” he whispered.

She held her hands up but did not drop the butcher knife.

“It feels like a pistol, and maybe a sword? And… clothes?” I whispered back.

“Ditch the clothes, obviously. When shit hits the fan, toss me the sword.”

I nodded and put both hands inside the chest, taking one weapon in each. If anyone was watching me there would be no way they would allow me to do it. But all our enemies were distracted by prepping to kill each other.

“Come on girl, drop the blade.” His already commanding voice got even more commanding. *I* almost dropped my weapons from how persuasive he was. No clue how the girl kept the butcher knife. But her entire body radiated with defiance.

“This old thing? But I haven’t gotten to use it yet.”

“Maybe next match.” He put the gun even closer and pulled the trigger.

The shotgun blast flashed as she arced the blade down, taking much of the brunt of the attack. She screamed, the sound of a complete maniac, as she jumped onto the man’s masked face.

“Get her the fuck off me!” The leader yelled.

His men tried to get a shot on her, getting closer with their guns.

“Not with your fucking guns, you idiots! Use your brain! Just get her the fuck off me.”

The two closest put their weapons away and reached for the girl. She remained locked onto the leader’s head but craned her head over to bite one of their arms. She kicked the other guy in the head. Making the perfect chaotic distraction for us.

As slow as I could while still being quick about it, I removed the sword and passed it to Stephen. No one noticed. I pulled out the gun, still invisible to our foes.

We backed away, as quickly as we dared. The men had a mess on their hands. The girl still had her mouth on one but the other had managed to grab both her feet and hold her steady. That didn't stop her from shaking like mad and wiggling free. She swung her legs around and into the guy she was biting, knocking him into the remaining dude that was near us.

And she didn't stop there. She completed a spin and then sliced at the guy who had been holding her feet. Two of his fingers were cut clean off and he yelped in pain, much to the delight of the girl who giggled like mad.

"Enough!!" The leader roared.

He abandoned trying to swat at the girl and instead used his massive hands to grab her around the waist and hold her steady. Her back was to me but I just knew she had a wild grin on her face—no way she was intimidated.

"I'm going to tear you to pieces!" It sounded like spit went everywhere when he screamed it, I would have hated to see the inside of that mask.

He squeezed, attempting to tear her in half, I guess. The girl stopped laughing but otherwise appeared unphased. She brought the butcher knife around and sliced one of his arms. To my horror, his hand fell to the ground and blood exploded from the limb.

He screamed in pain and let go with his only remaining hand—the worst mistake of his life. Now set free, the girl grabbed his head and swung herself up and above. She hung in the air for a second, now facing me. Her eyes met mine, locked right on, seeming to say, "watch, you're next." The butcher knife shined in the light. The man didn't even see her coming. She dropped down with her full weight pressed on the blade.

She tore through his neck in one clean swipe. His head tumbled to the ground, a fountain of blood burst from his body, pouring over all of us.

The girl didn't take her eyes off me once. She licked the blood off the knife, reenacting her threat to me from earlier.

But now armed and bloody.