Chapter 13: One Percent Til Death

I don’t know if we ever really thought we’d get away with it. I don’t think thought really ever came into the equation. I don’t know how, with all their surveillance tech, the UE could have fucked it all up so badly. They had to know where we really were. They had to know that it was her daughter in the car, not us. So why had they done it?

—

The Gosporian Titan took one step, and beneath my feet the whole world rocked. Ariel and I fell to the ground. She was jabbering in French, and I had to drag her to her feet.

I stared as the glowing titan bent down and swiped an arm through the jungle, sending a spray of trees into the sky. The music of my perk alternated between themes, unsure of what it wanted me to do.

“You and me both.” I grunted.

There was another sound there too, a humming, and I realised that the Showrunner was still present.

“Well isn’t this good timing! Alert! All survivors: Less than 55% of the starting population remain. The conclusion of Stage One is imminent!”

Even when she wasn’t speaking, I could hear her heavy breathing. She sounded grotesquely excited, almost sexual.

“We would normally have this announcement on day ten, but there is no way we’re getting that far. So, I’ll have to tell you all now.”

Numbers appeared in the top left of my HUD.

73/5

“We don’t like freeloaders here on WARGAMES! Oh no. In fact, we won’t stand for it! Any survivor with less than 5 kills will automatically be erased at the conclusion of stage one! How’s that for a twist?”

She let out one of those high, baby giggles.

I looked at that number. I’d taken 73 lives. I was a monster. I grinned, but the expression fell from my face as I looked to the kid.

Ariel looked horrified; I dreaded the question I had to ask.

“How many?”

“Three.” She whispered. “I’ve killed three of five.”

“WOW!” The Showrunner exclaimed, making me jump. “Four percent to go! That announcement really accelerated things!”

I thought of the barren jungle that had led to Gabe’s pyramid. Had he known?

A light flickered through the trees. The drone that I had captured and used as bait. It still strained against the glowing vine as it tried to rise into the sky and join its brethren.

I pointed and pushed Ariel ahead of me. “Go kid! Kill it!”

The opened clamshell carcass of Gabe was barely a few feet away from the drone, and the chemical reek of it took my breath away. Ariel retched, but staggered closer to the drone with a look of determination on her face.

I turned in a circle, wary of ambush.

Ariel drove an improvised dagger into the drone and its light winked out. One more to go.

I gripped my axe. This would be the moment. The moment the monkey form of Gabe would make its move.

But the jungle remained still.

“Three percent to go!” Shrieked the Showrunner.

I looked at the kid and she looked back with Elena’s eyes, with her daughter’s eyes. I knew what I had to do.

The guitar suddenly blasted, my body flooding with hormones. My vision turned red. It knew what I wanted to say, and didn’t want it to happen.

Fuck them. They didn’t control me.

I dropped to my knees before Ariel. Stared into those blue eyes. “Do it.”

Ariel stared at the dagger in her hand. It dripped with yellow Gosporian gore.

I closed my eyes.

This was the right thing to do. I didn’t want to be a predator, this taker of lives. All I ever wanted was to have kids and watch them grow. The UE had killed that dream. The Aliens had put the nails in the coffin.

This was my choice.

I wish I could say that a sense of peace stole over me in those moments. But it didn’t. The perk raged and I absolutely shook with it.

I took a last, tremulous breath.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Waiting for the end.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

I opened my eyes to see Ariel staring at me like I’d sprouted an extra nostril.

“Dude, I don’t know who you are, or why you think you should sacrifice yourself for me. But you don’t know me.”

“I...” I stammered.

“You look at me like I’m your daughter. I’m not.”

She didn’t get it. Didn’t know what had happened to Elena’s daughter because of me.

“Now get up and help me find something to kill.” She turned away.

I rose and staggered after her. “It’s my choice, kid. You don’t know what I’ve done!”

“Not my problem.” She continued walking and wouldn’t even look at me. “I’m not killing you.”

I reached out and grabbed her by the shoulder.

She spun and hit me right in the nose. “Don’t touch me!” There were tears in her eyes. She scrubbed at her face with a sleeve and looked away.

“Twoooooo percent to go!” Squealed the Showrunner in our minds”

Gently, I took her hand in mine. Raising her dagger until its point was against my chest.

“One of us has to die, kid. This place has fucked me up, and I’m only getting worse. They’re in my head.”

“Ne me force pas à faire ça.” She whispered. Was she speaking to me?

Ariel stiffened, staring at something over my shoulder. I turned, and in a tree a hundred yards as away, four glowing points of light broke the darkness. Four daggers.

Gabe.

The Tourist who had killed thousands, and whom I suspected was here by choice.

I withdrew Ebonrage, nodded to Ariel and we ran for him.

As we raced through the jungle, I tried to make a plan. It would have to be quick. Kill or be killed. “I’ll injure him, just stay out of the way until you can deliver the final blow. OK?”

Ariel started to respond, her voice furious, but the jungle lit up as the Gosporian Titan stepped overhead. I swore and snatched the kid by the collar, trying to hide us behind a tree. I was too slow. Gabe saw us. He leaped down and roared in challenge. Mouth opening like a flower, similar to the snake suit he had worn, while a lurid, red membranous crest snapped open on his skull. He’d have to try harder if he wanted to intimidate me.

“ONE PERCENT!”

I roared. Louder than the Showrunner, louder than the predator’s guitar and dove headlong at the Tourist, raising my axe high and bringing it down with all my strength.

I saw a flicker of something in his dark alien eyes that I hoped was fear.

He caught my axe-blow with all four daggers. He should have been crushed beneath the force of the strike, but it felt like I’d struck a boulder. He flexed, and I was thrown staggering back and then he was on me. A dagger came straight for my heart but I turned to take it on my armoured arm. It sank through chitin like it was cake, severing my bicep and bone. I twisted away and the dagger tore free of the Tourists grasp, but he had three more and my black arm hung limp and dead.

What had I been thinking? I was an electrician. I didn’t know how to fight.

Gabe barked something like a laugh as I swung my axe one-handed in wide, clumsy loops. He danced back a few steps, spinning the daggers in his hands. “I can’t believe a zoo species made me ditch my suit on the first floor. One of the punters will have made big money on that one!” His voice was like grinding gears.

I didn’t have time to parse his words as he lunged again, closing the distance in the blink of an eye. His daggers flashed like lightning, one slicing through the air so fast it whistled. I barely managed to deflect the strike with my axe, and the force sent me stumbling. Blood poured from my useless, blackened arm, and my grip on the axe faltered. The bastard was playing with me.

"Stay back!" I bellowed at Ariel, trying to keep myself between her and the nightmare Tourist.

But the kid didn’t listen. She darted to my side, her pale face determined, holding her twin improvised daggers like they were enough to take down this monster. What the hell was she thinking?

Gabe's flower-like mouth opened wider, revealing rows of jagged, alien teeth. "Is this really all you've got?" He grated, his voice dripping with disdain. "I was hoping to make the highlight reel.”

I swung the axe again, slow and sloppy. He ducked, his movements almost lazy, and drove the hilt of one dagger into my ribs. Pain exploded. I hit the ground, my axe spinning from my grip.

"Allan!" Ariel screamed.

Gabe turned to her, his crest flaring. "Stay still, little girl. This won’t hurt much."

"No!" I tried to shout, but couldn’t find the breath. I tried to rise, but my body wouldn’t listen. The perk screamed in my head, guitar riff surging to a blistering crescendo, demanding I keep fighting. But I couldn’t.

Gabe watched Ariel rush towards him and let out a chuckle. He tucked his arms behind his back. “Go on then kid. Give me your best shot, the first one’s free.”

Ariel moved fast. Her small frame darting in almost before he had stopped speaking. She drove one of her daggers into his gut, but the blade just barely penetrated his flesh. A trickle of phosphorescent blood dribbled and dripped to the dirt. Gabe snarled, then laughed, and swatted the kid away like an insect. She hit the ground hard, rolling to a stop at the base of a tree.

"Ariel!" I gasped and tried to crawl toward her, but Gabe was already in front of me. His foot came down on my chest, thick black nails pressing into my skin and pinning me in place. The weight was unbearable, like a truck pressing me into the dirt. He leaned down, his black eyes mere inches from mine.

"You should’ve stayed in your cage.” He growled, and his breath was ice cold, sharp and astringent.

I braced myself for the killing blow, but then, over his shoulder I saw her.

Ariel had staggered back to her feet, holding one of the glowing blue vines she’d been using to trap Gosporians. She looked at me, her blue eyes blazing with defiance, and I knew what she was about to do.

I withdrew the mass of sticky fruit from my inventory. They plopped out and glued Gabe’s head to my chest. He squawked and tried to pull free, shaking me like a rag-doll.

Ariel lunged forward, wrapping the glowing vine around Gabe’s arms, binding him like she had the drones. He clawed at the vine getting all four limbs stuck.

With a strength I didn’t know I had left, I twisted and rolled to the side, pinning Gabe beneath me.

"Get him!" She shouted.

“No.” I hissed.

Gabe’s dagger was still rammed to the hilt in my black arm, but that allowed me to draw it into my inventory. I withdrew it a heartbeat later, and threw it to the kid.

The Tourist bucked beneath me, ripping the wound in my chest open further. But he wasn’t going anywhere. I was fading, blood loss and grievous injury getting the better of me. My HP bar was down to a sliver. My vision narrowed to a tunnel. He began to knee me, shaving off one HP with every strike. Right in the fucking balls I thought.

5HP

THUD

4HP

THUD

3HP

At the end of the tunnel I could see their eyes; Elena’s. Ariel’s. Identical.

They were full of hatred.

As they should be.

Exactly how she had looked at me for the last time.

Ariel rammed the glowing dagger into Gabe’s neck, burying it to the hilt. His body convulsed, crest flaring full open one last time before drooping bonelessly.

The Showrunner squealed in delight, but she sounded a million miles away.

Numbers and text poured down my HUD.

I was fading.

Faded.

Gone.

And time stopped.