Chapter 8: The Drop
From the deck of the riverboat, her gaze caught mine. She stumbled and nearly tumbled overboard. I cursed, pulled my cap lower and jammed my truck into reverse, but the damage was done. I'd never meant for her to see me, to know that even after all this time I still loved her. I found out later that she’d looked for me too, that they’d told her I died. I wonder what else they lied about.
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I awoke just before sunrise to the sound of thousands of Gosporians flying up into the sky. They hung there, hundreds of feet above the canopy for what felt like an eternity as I held my breath and waited to see what they would do. The sun peeked above the horizon and began its climb, lighting them in lurid tones. But still, they didn’t react and it was beautiful, so peaceful.
I nearly shat myself as a voice spoke in my head.
“Good morning survivors! And welcome to day two. You’ve all done deliciously well to make it through the first day! Now, I promised you all some more information if you made it this far, and I will! But first I have some stats for you!”
A few empty boxes appeared in my HUD, populating with numbers as she spoke.
“Of the 79 billion, 880 thousand, 291 contestants in this iteration of WARGAMES!-” At the mention of the name, the damn jingle started playing again. I’d almost forgotten how it did that. “Almost 20 billion of you have already died. Goodness gracious that is a staggeringly impressive number! And includes the eradication of an entire civilisation - The Whyppits. It turns out that due to a quirk of their morphology, by converting them to respire oxygen we also caused their vents to ignite, and them to spontaneously combust! Oopsie! That one’s on us folks!”
The casual nature with which she spoke of the eradication of an entire civilisation rocked me. Their deaths here meant the harvesting of their entire planet. I remembered spotting a few plumes of smoke rising from the forest canopy the previous day and wondered if that had been these poor bastards dying.
“Now! With that out of the way here’s some more information on this stage of WARGAMES!” The jingle played and she hummed along for a moment.
“Sticks and Stones has been designed to simulate the primitive era of your Civilisation. Before cities, towns and all of your modern conveniences. Back when you lived in tribes and weren’t the only variant of your species walking the world!”
I remembered learning about our human ancestors in school. Of Homo Erectus and Heidelbergensis. The hobbit-like Florensis and the hulking Neanderthals. We co-existed with them for a time and then eradicated them all as we rose to rule our planet.
“And just like in that time, you will form small tribes and fight each other for scarce resources. Though what is considered a tribal group will depend on your species. See your HUD menu for details.”
“Technology on this stage will also be limited to what you could cobble together from the natural world. Think about the kind of tools your civilisation might have used during its Stone Age. In other words, enjoy ripping each other apart with your bare hands or if you’re feeling adventurous, try bashing someone’s brains out with a rock! Wow just saying that gives me the chills, so visceral! How fantastic!”
I eyed my improvised dagger and armour. The skin beneath the chitinous plates I’d glued to my arm tingled and twitched, as though the fungal sap I’d used as adhesive was growing. My hand and fingers had bulging black veins running beneath the skin, which was freaky, but at least my skin no longer felt raw and ready to split. In fact, now that I really looked at myself I realised that all my injuries seemed to have healed, and when I checked the red bar in my HUD, it was full.
“Now I mentioned before that we had gamified your health. Some of you have already figured out what that means, but for those slow-pokes and level-1-pacifists, here is a quick summary.” The text appeared in my HUD.
1. Your HP is represented visually and numerically via a HP bar, that’s the red one on your interface. Once it’s gone, that’s it, you’re dead!
2. You’re here to fight for your lives, not to spend weeks recovering from a broken bone, cracked shell or dying from an infected scratch, so you will heal from most injuries over the course of a day or two. We have also included a number of accelerated methods of healing, but you’ll have to figure those out for yourself!
“Sounds exciting, right?! Like you can wade into glorious battle and not worry about the consequences? Well watch out you bloodthirsty little go-getter you! Serious injuries, or injuries that we designate as being iconic will not be recovered from naturally, or in some cases, at all!”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
I eyed the bulging black veins running through my hand again and tried to pry one of the plates free, but hard as I tried, the adhesive had fused it to my skin. It made me think. If the show runners had screwed up the Whyppits integration badly enough that they exploded or whatever, could they have done the same with my human biology and the native fungus?
“One last thing from me! As a reward for surviving the first day, and to encourage the progression of the game, loot caches will now be unlocked. What are those? I hear you ask. Thanks for asking! Loot caches are hidden areas that contain a random selection of technological era appropriate tools and weapons! Finding one will significantly improve your odds of survival- and will be SO much fun too!”
I was bathed in golden light as a beacon blasted down from the sky a mere few hundred yards away. I scrabbled for cover, slamming on my Predator perk so I could see about me with infra-vision. When had I turned it off? It must have been during the night as I healed.
The guitar started.
“Look out for beacons! Different colours mean different types of loot, and the cache will be located within the radius of its light. So long as even one item remains in the cache, the light will remain on.”
From my vantage point on the side of the mountain, I looked out towards the sea. I wondered what the chances were of a cache being located so close to me. There were less than two dozen in the entire valley. Reds, Greens, Blues but no other Gold. Good luck, or something else? It didn’t matter. I could still remember the sensation of my arm being eaten and would do anything to avoid that again. I rose to my feet and stretched, neck popping and set off at a run towards the beacon. I eyed the flaming skull icon and considered turning it off, but didn’t, it was time for action.
“That’s all from me, survivors! Welcome to day 2 of WARGAMES!”
The electric guitar changed to a heavy metal version of the theme-song as I ran down the mountain, making superhuman leaps in the reduced gravity. My eyes darted about, seeking enemies. Thousands of drones remained suspended in the sky and I wondered what the hell their deal was. I thought they might be letting out a rhythmic thrumming, but couldn’t be sure. So long as they remained up there, there was fuck all I could do about it, so I put them from my mind.
I entered range of the golden beacon, raising a hand to shade my eyes from the torrent of light. It encompassed an area of broken low mountain and sparse forest about the same size as an AFL football oval. Several huge rocks rose in a ring from the mountainside and I aimed for them, no way that was natural. Two small figures tumbled from the tree-line to my right, they were stabbing a third with their tails. Another figure, much larger than any other came from the left, slithering through the boulders that dotted the slopes. I hesitated for a second, made my decision and put on a greater burst of speed. I'd reach the standing stones while they were still hundreds of yards away. If they caught me, I’d have the superior weaponry.
In the centre of the ring of standing stones was what looked like a jade sarcophagus made for a giant. Faintly translucent, its greenstone lid glowed and was carved in runic designs. As I stepped within the the ring, the guitar riff changed, becoming something reminiscent of the latin-americas. I darted a look about, but couldn’t see any silhouettes through the stones, which, if I remembered my predator perk’s description correctly meant the aliens had to still be more than 500 feet away.
The sarcophagus had handles on either side of the lid, so I grabbed one and pushed. It slid slowly, grinding an inch at a time no matter how hard I tried. I sweated, my neck itched, I felt so damn vulnerable. As soon as there was space enough, I stuck an arm in to loot whatever I could.
Error: Unlock Cache Fully to Access Loot.
Fuck fuck fuck, I grabbed the handle and started pushing again. Neck craning to spot silhouettes through the stone. Still nothing.
Inch by bloody inch the lid slid until with a crash and plume of dust it toppled off the far side. I leaned in and started grabbing, storing whatever I touched into my inventory as the presenter lady started yapping again.
A flicker of movement and something was flying at me. I realised my mistake in the instant the description appeared.
Benny: Uzbeki. Level: 2
Civilisation: Uzbeki
My infra-vision only highlighted Level 1 enemies.
The creature flew at me like a witch riding a broom, except that instead of a broom this thing rode its long bone tipped tail clasped between six legs, pointed at me like a spear. I let myself fall fully into the sarcophagus and the thing missed overhead by inches to strike one of the standing stones. It whooped like a fucking maniac, as though it was having the time of its life. Stone chipped free from where its tail impacted and the fuzzy critter scuttled high up the rock face to reposition for another dive. Its face was bizarrely cute, almost like the little Quokkas that were native to my homeland.
I remembered that there had been two of the little bastards at the tree line and turned just in time to avoid being impaled by its fellow. The hairy little thing crashed into the bed of the sarcophagus with a WOOOOOO and spun to face me. I booted it right in the fucking skull. Its adorable little head snapping back, electric blue teeth flying free as it crumpled. I ducked on instinct, feeling wind in my hair as the one behind missed me, once again cheering like a madman.
I readied my dagger. These things weren’t so tough, I could take it.
It glided towards another standing stone, obviously planing another dive at me, but was impaled mid-air by a bone spur protruding from the tip of a tentacle. I watched, horrified as a creature straight from nightmare slithered between two stones. I’d seen a lot of wild shit in these past two days, but seeing that thing open its mouth like a flower and slurp down the furred Uzbeki rated pretty damn high on my what-the-fuck-o-meter.
I looked at the dagger in my hand, and zapped it away into my inventory. It would be no help in this fight. The nightmare’s throat bulged and worked a few times, forcing its meal down while emitting a chittering moan. I took the chance to inspect what else was in the sarcophagus. I’d barely scraped the surface.
The presenter was still yapping, and she sounded pissed, as though she knew I wasn’t paying attention.
A long hafted axe that looked as though it was made from a single piece of obsidian lay a few feet away and I snatched it up, strength surging through me as I hefted it in two hands and turned to face my enemy. The nightmare alien forced down the last of the Uzbeki and let out a high peeping screech that almost blew out my damn eardrums.
Gabe: ???. Level: ?
Tourist
I stored the axe and fucking ran.