The entire room gasped. Klein, Asuna, Leafa, Silica, Yui, and Lisbeth were in terror as they saw Kirito’s model go limp in midair and fall.
The camera that was once connected to Zenith had quickly snapped back with his head to look at Kirito’s dying playermodel. Every face that could go pale, did, except for one.
“Oh my,” Chrysheight muttered. “That’s a surprise... I guess Thomas needs to hold the reigns from here on out…”
From what the entire group had learned just a few minutes prior, Thomas and Kazuto–or more accurately Zenith and Kirito–had been asked to take on an assignment related to two deaths that coincided with player log-outs in Gun Gale Online. They both knew approximately the same amount of detail before the current day and now with the rest of the group informed on the real coincidence of Death Gun…
No goddamn way. I don’t know if that was a lucky shot or an outside program that did that, but Kirito just got eliminated. Not killed; I knew that much to suspect behind Death Gun’s methods. I still couldn’t put a pin on it though.
My body continued dropping, and once I landed on the ground I sprinted forward, firing a few rounds from my rifle before tossing it aside. I ran into the smoke, searching for the girl.
“You’ll fail, Zenith!” A low voice yelled out. “You’ll fail like every time you did before!”
I could feel my heart rate doubling in speed just from those words. They recognized me, but I felt like I knew it was coming.
As soon as I could, I raced around in the smoke to try and find the girl with blue hair. My eyes probed the ground and then I saw it. Teal-blue hair, eyes of the same color with tears welling in them, and a green and silver outfit.
My hands raced to Sinon, picking her up under her legs and torso and making a mad dash out of the smoke. I had no time to readjust her into a comfortable grip. I just had to go.
The haze immediately cleared itself once I took a few leaping steps out of it and my eyes began to search for a mode of transportation.
“Zenith..?” I heard under me, I glanced down for just a second but kept searching.
“I’m getting us the hell out of here, don’t worry!”
“Over there… there’s a bike.. Can you use it..?”
Her voice sounded like all life was drained from it. Something clearly happened to her, something greatly affecting her thought processes.
My brain processed her words and I looked around and spotted the bike in question. Well, bikes. There were two that were shot to bits and pieces and just one that seemed like it would work.
I sprinted as fast as I could with the girl in my arms, who had her own hands clutching the barrel of her rifle. I felt her eyes look up at me, pleading for me to get her out of this hell. I will, at any cost.
I bounced off the pavement and planted a foot onto one of the side pegs, setting Sinon in a seat behind the driver's seat in a swift motion. In another motion, my left leg went up and over the seat, planting itself on the other side. With my left toe set under the shift lever, I hit the panel in the center with my palm, and 1,000 credits were drained from my account.
The engine roared to life, almost pissed that it was awoken. The panel that was once a "Press here to operate!" Became a vast panel of instruments relative to the bike. In the bottom center was the letter, "N." It informed me that I was in neutral so I wrapped my toe over the lever and pushed down. It turned from "N" to "R" and the bike began to pull backward slightly. It seemed to be a no-manual clutch system, just a shifter, and the rider's wits.
"Z-Zenith..!"
"I'm working on it!"
I twisted the throttle and turned the front wheel, causing the bike to pull out and spin in the direction of the free desert. As soon as the bike stopped, I shoved down on the shift lever twice and hit the throttle. The bike yanked forward and I shifted again just before the ride-line, continuing to provide.
"Hit that horse, Sinon!" I shouted as I looked back at the girl with blue hair. Her eyes snapped onto me as if searching for a bigger meaning in me. "You have to hit it!"
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
She looked behind herself and towards the robotic chromed-out horse and shuttered. Then, she set herself up for a shot, leaning against the back of the seat. I slowed down to give her a better chance at hitting, but…
"I can't..!"
"Can't what?!"
"I can't pull the trigger..!"
My heart dropped. Was she refusing to take the shot? Was she simply unable to?
"My finger.. it won't go any farther..!"
"Then I'll shoot at it!"
I reached over my shoulder with my right hand to discover… Yeah, remember when I tossed my gun to the side? That was coming back to bite me in the ass real quick. In desperation to at least do something to it, I pulled my G18 from my hip, aimed, and unloaded a magazine into the horse.
About half the bullets landed, which was unreasonably low considering I had made longer shots with it before. This was bad, not to mention the… glowing red eyes that just scaled the horse, connected to a long black ghillie suit.
I cursed loudly and immediately hit the throttle. Sinon pressed herself into the seat and shrieked as the speed picked up. Again as I hit the shift lever and went into the next gear, her pleas of a savior remained in the air.
"Get me out of here, please!" Her throat croaked, whaling like a pitiful child.
The road got thinner every 100 meters. Pitiful pistol fire rang from behind, slowly getting closer as the bike weaving in and out of cars left behind by the previous civilization. Everything seemed to be leaning towards dense failure, but my brain plotted a special idea. Every time I weaved to the left, I could spot an offramp growing slowly as the distance closed. The ramp that once connected to an intercontinental highway was shattered just then meters up but could kick the bike into a spiral and likely land perfectly well. I didn't know that I could land it, but I had to try.
"Sinon! I've got an idea, but I need your strength to achieve it!"
I could feel her eyes pierce the back of my head.
"I-I don't know if I can..!"
"Then we'll fire the rifle together!" My head whipped back to give her a confident stare. When I turned, I saw tears on her face that quickly dried with the wind, or a restructuring of her confidence. Either way, I knew just by this alone that the plan had to work, there wasn't any other option!
The distance quickly closed as I turned my head back towards the road. A bullet whizzed past my head. My response was to start turning back and forth to throw off our pursuer's aim.
"Ok, it's coming, get ready!"
I checked my mirror, I saw the black cloak on chrome horseback. The red eyes glowing on its face stared in the glass. Then, the mirror had a hole in it. He shot it!
"Shit!"
I hit the throttle onto max, practically straining the fly-by-wire system attached to the bike. In a matter of seconds, the bike would be on the ramp, and we would kick off into the air!
As the front tire hit the on-ramp, I lined up the bike and locked the position of the bars and throttle. Then in a swift motion, I turned around and helped Sinon line up the shot…
"Get ready, I hope you've got a godly stability stat!"
Immediately our bodies pressed onto the back seat of the bike with an intense force. At the same time, the world began to rotate counterclockwise. With my hands placed on top of Sinon's, we gently moved the barrel. Once we lined it up, Sinon's finger pulled the trigger slightly, and once my finger added the slightest bit of pressure…
The world was lit into flame. The air in front of our faces quickly burned, then faded. At the same time, Sinon's body was shoved into mine by the sheer force of the explosion. I could feel the carbon-kevlar plating that covered her body begin to imprint into my virtual skin. But these feelings paled in comparison to what I saw beyond the flames. The bullet traveled through the air, forcing the bullet line that once was there out of existence, and once it made contact with its target… It missed the man. But instead… hit a truck directly next to him.
It was a tanker trunk, abandoned like the rest of the vehicles on this highway. It seemed ironic that the bullet would stray off its supposedly correct course and hit a tanker, but… A flame licked out the side and with another tremendous blast.
A second explosion caused pressure waves with tremendous sound. They were loud enough that the Amusphere had to step in and quickly limit the output, causing the sound to be dulled, in comparison to something like a NerveGear. It was wild, but I had no more time to think of that.
Just as we were ninety degrees off-axis from the horizon and approaching the road with our entirety, I whipped myself around to grab the handlebars with immense force. The world kept turning, then shook abruptly like a brick hitting the ground. The bike was quickly stabilized and everything was back in order. Now? It was just time to ride to the northernmost point on the map and get away from all this mess. We were going to the north city to lie low.
Chrysheight’s eyes stared at the screen with a mix of amazement and fear. Amazement, because of what was just executed by Zenith–or Thomas Trey Trenor–and fear because of the possibility of what could happen next.
“Oh my… that’s impressive. And all within the span of just a few seconds? He has so much more potential than I assumed just bringing him in on a whim…”
Not that long ago, Chrysheight was essentially schooled by an AI–Yui–on what was happening regarding Zenith’s and Kirito’s appearances within Gun Gale Online’s highest-ranking tournament, the Bullet of Bullets. Through extremely rapid analysis, Yui was able to determine that the “Death Gun” figure that they saw that killed a player named “Pale Rider” also took out two other players in events prior. All of this was a shock to Chrys's system, as he assumed that no person could line up the details in such a manner.
Roast aside, Chrys kept observing the TV-like screen with patient eyes and saw the three-wheeled motorcycle speed down the road before taking another offramp and heading north.