by David Beers
The gigante cocked his head to the side, and Alistair realized his mistake. The creature had no sense of self-identity, let alone a name.
"Why did you save us?" Alistair asked instead.
The gigante's head was still cocked to the side, and that wonder was still on his face. "I heard how you spoke to the servants."
Alistair looked at Caesar. "What's he talking about?"
"He is an outcast," Caesar answered. "Breeding went wrong. He'll never fit in on the outside because he will not follow like the rest of us. He probably could not follow his clan leader, and that is why he is here, hiding."
"Why's he so much bigger than you?" Thoreaux asked.
"Newer model," Caesar said without emotion.
Alistair still hadn't taken his eyes off the new gigante. "So, during this game you all play, he'll die in it?"
"Yes, he's probably being hunted right now. You get stripes for killing enemies and outcasts. Someone will want a stripe for him."
Alistair knew what Caesar meant by stripes. He'd seen the scars on the giant's biceps, horizontal lines that nearly filled both arms. Caesar had earned a lot of stripes during his institute.
The newcomer had a few stripes but nothing like Caesar’s, despite his massive size.
"Will he follow me like you did in the beginning?" Alistair knew the wonder on the creature's face was because he moved even faster right now due to the new armor.
"Where are you going?" the gigante asked.
Alistair smiled about the giant taking him literally. "We want to kill your clan leader. Can you get us near him?"
The gigante's huge eyebrows rose. He was obviously unable to believe what he was hearing. He turned to Caesar and uttered something in the strange language. The HUD tried to decipher it but was unable to. Caesar responded, and without looking at Alistair, told him and Thoreaux, "He doesn't believe us. He thinks we're some kind of plant."
Thoreaux chuckled inside his helmet, drawing a glare from the new giant.
"Can you convince him we're telling the truth?" Alistair asked.
Caesar said something in the strange language and pointed at the flames above. He gestured at the Whip in Alistair's hand, saying something else.
The giant's eyes followed the gesture and didn't move from the laser weapon.
Caesar grew quiet, and the three of them waited. The giant was fearful. He'd saved them but reverted to a primitive fear that they'd been planted here to kill him even though he'd saved them. This world had no mercy for those it birthed. The owners were every bit as cruel as the Commonwealth. Perhaps even more so.
Alistair retracted his Whip and unhooked his helmet from the neckline, then squatted and placed the helmet between his knees. He heard the fire rushing overhead, the sound different now. The quadcopters hadn't stopped. They were going to burn everything in the forest until nothing but skeletons remained.
"I'm not here to kill you," Alistair said. "I'm here to free you. As awful as it sounds, I will have to kill a lot of your kind for that to happen, including your clan leader. In the end, though, your makers are going to die, and no one else will have to go through what you did." He looked up from the helmet. "Will you show me how to get to your leader?"
The giant squatted in front of Alistair. He pointed at him. "You'll kill the leader?"
Alistair nodded.
"And more?" the giant asked.
"As many as it takes."
The giant, at least a third larger than the one on Alistair's left, began laughing. He laughed so hard he fell on his back and placed his hands on his stomach. They rose and fell with his laughter, and Alistair looked at Caesar.
His friend shrugged as he stared at the laughing giant. "He may be mad. I cannot tell yet."
The giant pointed at Alistair without looking up. "I will take you, yes. We will kill them all. Every last one." His laughter, which sounded quite insane, echoed up the hole and was lost in the fire above.
The game had changed since Caesar played it. Not the rules, but the evolution of the players. The “newer models,” as Caesar called them, were bigger, stronger, and faster than Caesar's cohort had been. The newcomer was young, barely sixteen years old, and still had more growing to do. The concept of a name was so new to him that he couldn't grasp it. Alistair gave him one just so the other two could keep up.
"Nero?" Alistair asked the other two.
Caesar, of course, had no reference for the name, though Thoreaux did. The mad emperor who'd been accused of burning down part of Rome to make way for a new aesthetic. Not to mention killing his ex-wife after banishing her.
"Could fit," Thoreaux had said with a shrug as the fire above slowly burned to a halt.
Thus, the newcomer became Nero.
They stayed in the hole, unsure if scans would show the corporation it existed but knowing it was possible. One missile on this little spot would end all their worries for good, but there wasn't anything they could do just yet. The fire was dying, but it would take time for it to cool enough for them to walk above.
They spent the night in the hole, slowly learning about the new gameplay from Nero.
"Did you dig this hole?" Alistair asked. He was lying on the ground, his head propped up on his helmet.
"No," the giant answered. "Found it."
"Who did?"
Nero shrugged. Alistair looked at Caesar, who was lying on the other side of the hole. "The makers probably built it, as they did everything on this planet."
"Then won't they know it's here?" Alistair asked.
"Do you remember every fort you made as a kid?" Caesar responded. "No. They forget what they build over the years. This may have been here for decades. If the makers knew it was here, we would be dead already. Rest easy on that point, Prometheus."
The game, according to Nero, was every bit as ruthless as Alistair had pictured. Nero had been chased out of his clan a few days before and had stumbled upon the hole in a mad rush to avoid death. Alistair thought he'd been lucky not to break anything on the fall, but after looking at the gigante again, he’d realized luck had nothing to do with it. These brutes were built not to break from something as simple as a fall.
Alistair listened as Nero spoke. He wasn't able to communicate as well as Caesar, and the Titan didn't know if that was because of his age, his breeding, or a cultural change. The laughter from earlier was gone. It was much more like speaking to a droid than anything alive.
Nero's clan leader was planning an assault on the rival clan on this part of the planet. According to Nero, it was supposed to take place two days from now and would involve a bit of trickery on the part of his clan. Alistair let the words land on him without interrupting or saying anything. Nero went through the entire plan as he understood it, and Alistair knew it might not all be accurate given what had happened to Nero days after the plan was concocted. He wasn't exactly a beloved member of the clan.
"This is going to be tough," Thoreaux said when Nero had finished.
The sun was starting to peak, this planet having a faster rotation than Earth’s.
"That does seem to be the case," Caesar answered him.
"I need a few hours of sleep," Alistair responded. His HUD said the ground above would take another twenty-four hours of cooling off to be ready for them to attempt an escape. He needed time to think. He had nothing to give those who followed him at that moment. Communication with the dreadnought was still being silenced.
They were on their own.
"I'll take first watch," Thoreaux said, though Alistair knew he also needed sleep. Hopefully, they would all get some sleep before they had to climb out of this hole.
Alistair turned over on his side. It took him a while to sleep, and when he did, he saw the future.
Chapter Fourteen
Alistair knew he was in the dreams of the modified. He didn't know where, but he figured out when because he'd never seen any of this before. Thoreaux and Caesar were with him.
Or rather, they were in front of
him.
Thoreaux was in his Fire Starter armor, as was Alistair. Caesar was bloody and beaten, on his knees, and staring up at a gigante almost twice his size. Thoreaux had a laser blade in his right hand, and his armor was broken and shredded in places. He looked at a human who stood behind a desk with a strange weapon in his hand. It looked like a MechPulse but wasn't one.
Alistair stood behind them both, a shattered window at his back. Wind whipped past him. As he peered over his shoulder, he realized they were in a skyscraper. He didn't know how they'd gotten here. That hadn't been revealed to him. He turned his head back to the scene in front of him. One of the two was going to die. Alistair couldn't save them both; the distance was too great.
Caesar had somehow been beaten by the monster standing above him, and the human wearing the suit was too far away for Thoreaux to harm.
One would die, and Alistair had to choose which one.
He heard a copter rising from behind, knowing what the sound meant as surely as he knew what the scene in front of him meant. One would die, and if he didn't pick soon, the copter would ensure they all died.
Alistair didn't know who to choose. He didn't know what the final result would be, whether saving one or the other would result in something more or less catastrophic.
There was time. The copter's wind picked up its intensity. Weapons would begin firing soon, chopping them all to pieces.
Alistair knew he was in a dream, but he understood this choice would come to him sooner or later.
He looked down at the floor, seeing shards of glass shaking as the copter's blades grew closer. He couldn't choose between Caesar and Thoreaux. Even if he knew the end result, it was an impossible decision.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
He felt the wind of the copter's blades against him, and he suddenly heard the sound of their massive shells firing into the room. One exploded against the wall in front of him, another at his feet, sending him flying into the air.
He hit a table, knocking it over, and still shells fired through the open window. He struggled to his feet and watched in horror as a laser blade took off Caesar's head. At nearly the same time, a massive shell caught Thoreaux in the spine, splitting him almost in half.
Alistair stared at the carnage, unable to do anything or stop the death coming for his friends. He had led them here to this strange world, and now they were dead.
He saw the shell coming for him and then—
Chapter Fifteen
Alistair awoke with a jolt. His right hand had gone to his holstered Whip. He was lying on his side, and his eyes were wide open. He looked at Thoreaux, who was sleeping on his back, his head tilted toward the top of the hole.
What did I just see? he asked himself, feeling real fear. That hadn’t been a shared dream, and it wasn't a look into a current state. He'd been shown a glimpse of the future, something that would come.
Alistair didn't understand it, just as he didn't understand much in this modified form. He was a stranger in his own mind and body.
He rolled onto his back. Caesar was asleep on the other side of him, and he saw Nero sitting on the other side of the hole. He sat with his legs crossed beneath him and was staring directly at Alistair.
Alistair knew that if the creature had made any movement toward the three of them, all three would have been ready for war before he could hurt them, so he felt no anger at the other two for sleeping.
Nero motioned for Alistair to join him on the other side. He stood, and Caesar's eyes opened as he did, narrow and looking for danger.
"It's okay," Alistair said.
Caesar watched him walk across the small space and sit down next to the gigante. He stared for some time, but Alistair turned his attention to Nero.
"What did you see?" the giant asked.
"How do you know I saw anything?"
Nero smirked, then pointed two fingers first at his eyes, then at Alistair. The message was simple: I watched you.
"What did you see?" he asked again.
"A building," Alistair answered, unsure of why he was answering the giant's question and how the giant knew he'd seen anything. Perhaps it just felt good to tell someone. He wouldn't tell this newcomer everything, but anything was better than nothing. Because Alistair knew the truth. What he'd seen would become reality. They wouldn't die here in this jungle, but at least one of them would meet their end atop some building.
"What did the building look like?" The smirk had disappeared from the giant's face.
Alistair didn't know how to explain it to him. He didn't know what Nero would and wouldn't understand. "It's not like here. There are no jungles, no plants."
"Something the makers made, yes?"
Alistair's eyes widened. The giant understood. "Yes. Exactly."
"Tall?"
Alistair nodded. "Yeah, it was tall."
Nero smiled, and when he did, he looked insane. "You see far, don't you?"
"How do you know that?"
The giant's smiled widened. "I know. We will get there. Do you think you will die when you get there?"
Alistair didn't understand how the giant could know these things. He looked over his shoulder at his friends. Their chests were rising and dropping steadily. He turned back to Nero. "I don't know. Are you able to see far, too?"
"I see enough. I see something is different about you. Now you answer me. Will you die when you get to that building?"
"Why does it matter?" Alistair asked.
Nero cocked his head as if Alistair were insane. "Because I want to live. If you die, I die." He was still smiling. It was as if a split personality lived inside this creature's skull, one that was mad and one that was robotic.
"I don't know," Alistair answered him. "Get some sleep, Nero. I'll keep watch."
The giant nimbly hopped to his feet, the smile fading from his face. "I will get you to the tower. You stay alive," he said as he passed.
They pulled themselves out of the pit, and Alistair gazed at the destruction. Life forms of all kinds had been destroyed, burnt to ash to kill him. There were no plants, no animals, nothing but black ash everywhere.
In the distance, Alistair could see evidence of life, plants on the edges of all this death. Smoke rose all around them from smoldering ashes, but it wasn't hot enough to injure the suits or the armor the gigantes wore.
"We need to get out of this area, then find food," Alistair said. They had another twenty-four hours until the gigante assault happened, and that wasn't much time to do anything. He looked at the sky, hoping to see the dreadnought. He saw only the sky. The corporation must have done their scans, found no lifeforms after two days, and left the area.
"Come," Nero said.
The world's star was sinking below the horizon. That would give them some cover. Alistair didn't know where they would get food, only that they'd need it soon if they were to have the strength they required for tomorrow.
They fled the blackened ash, running as fast as they could. None of Alistair's group could keep up with Nero. The giant was too powerful and not weak from lack of sustenance. Caesar wasn't lying with his “new model” comment. As they ran, Alistair wondered how he would fare in the coming fight. Were these creatures too powerful for him to come out on top? Were they all as kooky as the one now leading them, the continued breeding creating burnt fuses inside their heads?
None of the questions could be answered until he saw more of them. Even Alistair's superior body was slowing down as they reached the edge of the burned land.
Nero led them into the wildly colored foliage, stopping about a half-mile in. He turned to look at the three of them and saw that they were all spent. "Wait here," he told them, then bounded into the jungle.
Alistair watched him go, shocked by how easily someone of his size simply disappeared. Even the noises of his passage faded to nothing in a short time.
Thoreaux stepped up next to Alistair. "You think he's going to get more of them to kill us? Maybe buy his way back into the cla
n?"
Caesar sat down hard onto the ground. "No. That won't happen. His type is different, even new models. They might create them to teach the rest of us what happens when we refuse to follow those who are stronger than us. He'll never bow to anyone. The only reason he is helping us now is that you didn't try to force him, and he sees it as his only way out." Caesar stretched out on the jungle floor, the neon-yellow and red plants stretching out of his way to avoid danger. "In the end, we will have to kill him. He'll never follow us, not by command or his own volition. His type only does what they want to."
Alistair had never heard Caesar talk in such a way. The giant closed his eyes and placed his hands behind his head. "He won't trade us because he has no one to trade us to. When we've won, I will have to kill him. To set something like him loose in the universe would only create havoc."
Thoreaux turned to Alistair, who shrugged. He didn't understand the strange culture that existed in this even stranger jungle.
He sat down to wait for the giant to return.
Thoreaux leaned against a far tree and let his faceplate retract into the helmet. "So, are you going to tell us what the Hades you two were talking about with that building?"
"I'm wondering the same," Caesar said.
Gods, Alistair thought as he fell back into the foliage. They had been awake and listening. He wasn't going to be able to keep secrets from them as the AllMother had from her followers. "You two don't want to rest and wait for Nero?"
"We can rest while you talk," the giant responded.
Thoreaux laughed and slowly slid down the tree until he was sitting. "Agreed. We rest. You talk."
Alistair sighed. There wasn't any point in lying to them. Holding it back wouldn't help and might hurt in the long run. "You've both heard of the dreams of the modified, right?"
Thoreaux nodded.
"The AllMother told me," Caesar said.
Alistair hadn't seen that coming. "The AllMother did?"
Caesar nodded without opening his eyes. "She said I would need to know in order to help you one day."
