by Barry Solway
Bodysuit ran forward with a snarl on her pixie-like face. Mel rolled backwards, kicking up at the same time and catching Bodysuit in the chest, sending her sprawling backwards. As she did, the edge of her rapier slid across Mel’s shin, drawing blood.
Mel ignored it and completed her roll, coming up to one knee. She fired with her other pistol, knowing she only had two shots left. The first missed, but the second grazed Bodysuit’s left shoulder. The Chota hissed at Mel, then dove sideways and headed down the stairway.
Mel barely had time to catch a breath before another shot rang out from across the hall. Soryda. She cursed and ran behind the nearest tree-column. Looking over the railing, she saw Ashumat and Gem rolling along the ground, both trying to wrap their tentacle-like arms around the other. Mel wondered if you could armbar a tentacle.
Suddenly, she heard Beats roar, and Kapha’s body flew across the room, slamming into one of the columns. She swore she could hear bones break from her perch on the second floor. Kapha slid to the ground and didn’t move. Mel decided she wasn’t doing much good up here. She couldn’t get a shot on Soryda, anyway. Crouching down, she ran to the stairway, then slowly made her way down.
Mel was out of ammo, so she holstered her pistols. When she got to the first floor, it was complete chaos. She hid at the turn of the stairs, unsure how to intervene. Ashumat was on top of Gem, pummeling her from above. Beats had jumped in, grabbing Ashumat from behind, but Mel thought the huge Ghor was bigger than Beats and Gem combined.
Mel heard a scuffle behind her and turned to see Simon racing down the stairs, followed by Thing 4.
“Simon!” Mel yelled. She kicked out as Thing 4 raced by, but the Chaturee easily dove over her leg and landed on Simon from behind. The two creatures rolled to the ground in a maelstrom of fur and screeching. Mel suspected most of the screeching was Simon, who was clearly outclassed by the other Chaturee.
Mel moved forward to help Simon, and it saved her from being stabbed from behind by Bodysuit. She felt the prick of the rapier against her back, but her forward momentum carried her clear. Mel staggered and turned to face Bodysuit, although she had no weapons to fight with.
Evan! Simon needs your help. By the stairs, Mel said, pushing the thought frantically out while she tried to evade Bodysuit’s blows. Mel at least had a reach advantage over the tiny Chota, but she knew it wouldn’t help for long.
Mel scoured the ground for anything to use as a weapon or shield. She scolded herself for not carrying the sticks she had spent so much time practicing with. While she hated close combat, that had been a poor choice.
Mel saw Thing 4 had climbed on top of Simon, clawing at his face. The blows weren’t hard, but Simon wasn’t very big, and he looked completely overwhelmed. Evan rushed in, kicking the Chaturee from the side, sending him flying into the wall. Thing 4 slid to the ground and moaned weakly, an arm clutching his midsection. Mel guessed that Evan had broken a few ribs.
Thing 4 staggered to his feet, then growled at Evan, but immediately staggered towards the stairway. Evan yelled to Mel. When she looked up, she saw a magazine for her pistols flying through the air. Twisting, she caught it in her left hand, then finished her spin to reface Bodysuit.
She fumbled to draw her pistol and reload, but dropped it as Bodysuit’s rapier raked her left hand. Flicking her eyes up, she saw Wicked heading toward the goal.
“Evan! The goal! Stop Wicked,” she yelled. Changing tactics, she pressed forward, hoping to overwhelm Bodysuit with her weight. But the Chota sidestepped, easily avoiding Mel’s blows. Bodysuit moved faster and faster, sending Mel backpedaling. From the corner of her eye, she saw Evan grab his rifle and head for Wicked. Remarkably, Simon followed him.
Mel was getting tired. She knew if she didn’t do something that Bodysuit would do some real damage with her sword. She kicked out with her cyborg leg, and when Bodysuit flicked her rapier down to slice against Mel’s thigh, she used the opportunity to throw the extra magazine at the Chota’s face. The unexpected trick worked, and the magazine caught Bodysuit in the left eye, sending her reeling backwards.
She was obviously dazed, but as Mel pounced, the Chota still had the presence of mind to bring her rapier around to stab at Mel. Catching the rapier in her robotic hand, Mel snapped the blade in half. Letting go, she brought her fist down against the alien’s head. The Chota slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Mel looked up to see Wicked and Evan fighting. Wicked had the upper hand in skill, swinging her swords as Evan blocked with his rifle. But Wicked had lost track of Simon and as she pressed forward toward Evan, Simon jumped behind her and snatched the goal from the pedestal.
“Simon! Over here,” Mel yelled.
As Simon ran toward her, Mel saw a familiar robe on the balcony above. The Chota they had run into in the forest. She looked up, perplexed at what he was doing. He must have heard all the gunfire; he should realize this wasn’t a safe place to be. The Chota caught her eye, and even from this distance and him being an alien, she could see the slightly crazed look in his eyes.
The man held up an arm, waving something in his hand. A tablet, Mel thought. He touched it, and a moment later several small forms joined him on the balcony. They looked like rats, but were hairless and oddly thin. While too far away to make out clearly, they seemed to wear armor. Spikes and metal plates were haphazardly attached to the little bodies. As Simon ran toward her, dozens of the small forms jumped from the balcony, landing on the floor and swarming toward the gladiators.
Chapter 29
Simon jumped on Gem’s shoulder. He handed her the sphere as she smashed two rats that nipped at her feet. They swarmed Gem’s legs, and she swung the thick tentacles of her arms left and right, sending them scattering. But more replaced them, as wave after wave jumped from the balcony. Ashumat rose to his feet as the rats converged on him, with dozens running up his body, almost completely enveloping him. His armor offered him protection, but blood dripped from his arms. She couldn’t understand how the rats were doing so much damage to the giant Ghor. Ashumat screamed, then lumbered out of the room, trying to escape.
It had only been seconds since the rat horde was unleashed, but now everyone ran. Beats grabbed several, throwing them against the wall. Scratches and welts appeared on his arms. Hundreds of the rats filled the room, with more pouring in every second.
“Get out!” Mel yelled. “Beats, Gem, this way! Get out of there!”
Frantically searching the ground around her, she found her pistol and the extra magazine. She had lost track of Wicked and couldn’t even remember who else on the other team they had to worry about. Beats, Evan, and Gem ran from the main temple room and joined her in the outer hallway. As Mel turned to follow them out of the temple, she spotted Bodysuit, still lying unconscious on the ground. Mel yelled at Beats, pointing to her.
Beats took a step sideways and scooped the Chota up with one hand. The minor distraction was enough for four of the rats to jump on Beats’s back. Yelling in fury, he tried to reach behind to pull them off, but Mel urged him to keep going. They were running all-out now. Mel’s cybernetic leg threw off her timing and stride, and she struggled to keep up with the others.
Mel reloaded on the run. As she took aim at the rats on Beats’s back, she realized how they caused so much damage. They weren’t wearing armor. Instead, metal parts twisted in and around their bodies. Legs and tails had been replaced by cybernetic spikes and serrated circular blades. Some had metal jaws or spider-like legs growing from their backs or heads. They used the blades and spikes to stab and cut, tearing chunks of fur and flesh from Beats as he tried to pull them off.
Angling left as they ran up the street, she fired two shots. Two of the rats squealed, pinwheeling through the air. Simon turned on Gem’s shoulder, then tapped her and pointed to Beats. Gem slowed down enough to get behind Beats, then reached up and swatted away the rest of the rats without breaking stride.
They were able to stay ahead of the rats. Gem could run faster than a
human. Her legs were stumpy, but her arms were long like an orangutan’s. She reached them out, then swung her entire body forward, landing on both feet to launch herself forward again.
Perhaps due to all the modifications, the rats weren’t too fast, and even Mel was able to outrun them. Yet, even running full out, she was falling behind the others, and she would have to slow down soon. Evan noticed and called to Beats and Gem to let Mel catch up.
“I can’t run like this for long,” she panted. “Gem, get to the endpoint with the sphere. You two should go with her. Make sure she isn’t ambushed by the other team. There’s no way I can outrun these things, I’ll have to find someplace to hide or lose them in the trees.”
“You won’t lose them in the trees,” Evan snapped. “They’ll swarm you.”
“Maybe they’ll follow you,” Mel said. “I don’t have any other ideas.”
“Keep going,” Evan said. “We should stick together. And we need to find Jon. Get everyone to the endpoint.”
By then, they’d left the clearing around the temple and were back in the forest. Thousands of rats followed them, relentlessly pouring into the woods.
There was no time to plan anything. All they could do was run. The forest slowed them down, even Gem couldn’t go full speed through the trees. Beats staggered through the forest, tripping on dead branches and roots, while Mel’s lungs burned. Only fear of being caught by the rats kept her moving.
“Evan, call Jon. We need him to meet us at the endpoint,” Mel gasped.
Evan nodded, and she could see him muttering under his breath. Mel would have done it, but it was too much mental effort to try and keep up with the others as it was. Beats pointed to a large tree that had a narrow winding staircase around it. About twenty feet off the ground, a skybridge connected it to the next tree over.
“Climb the staircase, then go to the other tree,” Beats said. “We can knock down the bridge.” Evan veered toward the stairway and started climbing, Beats right behind him. At the top, Beats paused and let Mel pass him. She followed Evan across the bridge. It was about three feet wide, with only an eighteen-inch railing. More than high enough for a Chota, but the twenty-foot drop caused her anxiety. The bridge seemed solid enough, but it was so narrow that she couldn’t imagine Beats making it.
There was no stairway on the second tree, but she saw a small door. Mel guessed there was an elevator inside, but didn’t go in to check. She looked back to see Beats carefully making his way across the skybridge. Gem was still at the bottom of the stairs. The rats swarmed her, but she knocked them to the side, trying to give Beats more time by keeping them from climbing the stairs. The metal bridge sagged, but Beats finally made it across, then began kicking the bridge where it connected to the platform.
“We need to wait for Gem!” Mel yelled, watching Gem climb the stairs.
“She can jump,” Beats said. With a final kick, the metal bridge twisted and detached from the platform.
“Gem!” Evan shouted.
Gem rolled forward, crushing a number of the rats. It didn’t seem to matter; more replaced them. Sprinting forward, she leaped, reaching with both arms.
She wasn’t as good a jumper as she was a runner, but her arms were long enough that Beats just grabbed her hand. He swung her up and onto the platform. She was covered in rats, and Evan and Beats quickly scraped them off and threw them back down.
The rats milled around the first tree, emerging on the far side of the broken bridge. They hadn’t figured out to climb the second tree yet, but Mel thought it wouldn’t take long.
“How are we doing?” she said.
Gem had shallow cuts all over her body. The Akshay body was made of a tough carbon-fiber material; even with all the cuts, Gem didn’t look like she was really bleeding, although a thick white fluid seeped out of some of the deeper wounds.
Beats looked much worse. His arms and back were scarred and bleeding, and chunks of hair had been ripped out. His back looked like he’d been whipped repeatedly. Evan managed to avoid most of the cyborg rats, but his robotic arm had taken some damage, the metal-and-plastic exterior chewed up and exposed wires hanging from his forearm. Only Simon and Mel had avoided the rats completely.
“Those things are nasty,” Evan said. “They have metal teeth or something. It’s like fighting with power tools.”
“I’ve never experienced anything like it,” Gem agreed. “We can’t fight them off, not in these numbers. Most unfortunate. I would not have chosen to die here with you.”
“Apologies for ruining your death experience,” Mel muttered.
“We should call the dropship,” Evan said. “These rats weren’t in the plan. I can’t even believe the architects knew about them. And I don’t see how we get off this tree, let alone get to the endpoint.”
“We’ll forfeit the game,” Mel said.
“Better than dying,” Beats pointed out.
Mel wasn’t willing to abandon the game just yet. “Give me the sphere. Simon and I can climb the tree, use the elevator, or whatever. We can get to the endpoint and end the game. Did you reach Jon?”
“Yes,” Evan said. “He’s trying to get to us. He said he saw half the other team running the other way. Rats were chasing them, too. He doesn’t know if they got away or not.”
“We should move. You guys will be trapped here. Be prepared to call in the ship, but give Simon and me as much time as you can,” Mel said. She took the sphere from Gem, then motioned for Simon to follow her into the tree. As she expected, there was an elevator. She pressed the button, and a moment later the elevator creaked open.
She crawled in, jealous that Simon was able to stand. Mel struggled to fold her cybernetic leg under her; it wasn’t as flexible as she was used to. Simon pressed a button and the elevator jerked upwards.
They came out on another floor. Doors led from a main circular space to other rooms, and a large arch opened outside to another platform. Walking out to the platform, Mel looked over the edge. They were over a hundred feet in the air, and Mel had to fight off a wave of vertigo. She looked at the skybridge, but there was no other choice and time was running out. The rats below looked like one giant pulsating blob. Between knowing what that blob was and the long drop, she thought she might be sick.
“Stupid person,” Simon said. “Don’t look down.”
“Thanks,” Mel said, licking her lips and trying to get some moisture back in her mouth. “Let’s go.”
They managed to get across the bridge, although Mel was sure she’d have a heart attack if they stayed up there much longer. It seemed like the skybridge swayed a lot more at a hundred feet than it had at twenty. Finally, they reached the other tree.
“The endpoint is that way,” Mel said, pointing to a clearing they could just make out, less than a quarter mile away. Simon pointed to another skybridge that headed in that direction.
“We’ll have to go down and hop from tree to tree,” he said.
Mel nodded, and they made their way across. The elevator rides were terrifying, as they felt like they would either stall or drop them to their deaths. Walking across the bridges wasn’t any better, and Mel really wanted to reach the endpoint and finish this.
Mel? Evan said. Can you hear me?
Yes, I’ve got you, Mel responded.
You need to hurry. Some of the rats are starting to climb our tree and we’re having to fight them off. When the rest figure it out, we’re going to be in trouble.
Where’s Jon?
He just got to the top of our tree and he’s taking the elevator down. Jon and I can probably get out on the elevator, but Beats and Gem can’t. You need to hurry.
We’re almost there, Mel said. She concentrated on crossing the bridge to a final tree that would take them to the ground. She could see the endpoint, a statue sitting on a platform in the middle of the clearing.
They got to the tree and Mel stuffed herself in the elevator. She screamed as the elevator lurched, dropping ten feet. When they got to the
bottom, she crawled out and kissed the floor before standing up and sighing with relief.
“Come on, Simon, let’s finish this thing.”
Hours of training kept her from running through the door. She stopped and scanned the area outside, then drew herself back in with a hiss. Putting a hand out, she stopped Simon as they both heard the sound of the ship.
Their door faced the field and she could see the endpoint. The ship appeared over the tree line, turned in midair, and landed on the other side of the statue. At first, she thought it belonged to the other team, which meant they had forfeited the game. But she realized that was wrong when she saw the insignia of the Order on the back wing.
“The Order is here,” she said. She radioed Evan and updated him.
We have to leave, Evan said. I’m calling in our ship. Forget the goal, get back here.
Evan, wait. We’re right here. This is worth one hundred thousand dollars. Or credits. Whatever. Give me another five minutes to figure something out. Please.
We don’t have that long. You have three minutes, tops. Then I’m calling it in.
Mel tried to figure out how to get to the endpoint when she heard the screeching. Risking a look out, she saw a small mass of rats pouring down a nearby tree.
Mel closed her eyes. The Order and dozens of killer cyborg rats stood between her and winning the gauntlet. She should give up, but they had sacrificed too much to get into this game. They couldn’t afford to lose.
“Any ideas, Simon?”
“Run?”
“Yeah, I thought of that.” She looked at the ship. Twenty Chota soldiers carrying thin rifles milled around the field on the far side of the endpoint. But there was an Asadharan too. It was hard to tell from this distance, but she thought it was the same one from the Latanua space station.
