“The only way you win one of these games is if you survive.”
A cold sliver of horror slid down Iska’s spine. “How do you get into this game?”
“Not a clue.” Kiske grinned at him. “Gaming is more your sort of thing.”
Iska snarled and took a step toward Kiske.
Kiske’s eyes flashed, and his fur bristled. “Take it down a notch. I’d tell you all about it if I could. All I’ve got is drunken whispers and rumors. The Vincole have this locked down. You don’t get in without their say so. I don’t run in their twisted circles, and I’m glad of it. Human baiting is not a sport I enjoy.”
Iska forced his rage into check. He turned and raced out of the fight club, ignoring Kiske shouting at him to come back.
That was where Avril was. She was fighting for survival somewhere. She was alone. He had to get to her.
Chapter 11
The puncture wound on Avril’s leg had finally stopped bleeding.
She could hear the pyro dragon stamping around the clearing. It’s hot, fiery breath occasionally shot fire into the trees, trying to provoke a reaction from her and make her break cover.
Avril shook her head and tightened her grip on the thick branch of the tree she was wrapped around. There was no way she was going to do that. She’d wedged herself halfway up a tree and was concealed by a thick coverage of leaves. It wasn’t ideal, but she couldn’t see her attacker, so she figured the pyro dragon couldn’t see her.
From the way it raged, it was out of control angry about that fact.
Something was hideously wrong. Whatever had happened, Avril was no longer playing in virtual reality. This was the real thing. Somehow, she’d moved from the holo suite into a real environment where you could get hurt. She winced as she touched the swelling on her leg. Scratch that; you could get killed.
Avril rested her forehead against the tree and forced her panicked brain to focus. It must have been that last level she’d stepped through. That was the key to this. She should have trusted her instinct and not taken the offer to move up a level. She’d known it had been too easy but was so eager to progress in the game that she hadn’t stopped to think about why.
Could this really be the way you won the virtual reality championship? You had to fight for real, a fight for survival?
Avril felt her eyes sting with tears. She wasn’t up to the challenge. She was fine when no one could get hurt and happy to test her fighting skills on anyone she met. Fighting for real when somebody died? It wasn’t going to happen. She couldn’t hurt another person just to win a game.
She froze as she heard the rustle of leaves below. Avril peered down to the ground. A tall, blonde woman dressed in a tight black cat suit stood at the bottom of the tree. She was looking around as if searching for something.
Could this be another test of the game, or could this be an ally?
Avril desperately needed help from someone. Her leg throbbed, and she had no weapons that worked. Maybe this woman could give her the assistance she needed.
She watched the woman bend and press her fingers to the ground. It was only when she lifted them that Avril saw they were stained red. It was her blood that had been steadily dripping to the floor for the last hour.
Tamping down on her panic, Avril broke a small stick from the tree and threw it to the ground.
The woman jumped as the stick hit her. Her gaze lifted, and her eyes locked with Avril’s.
She looked about the same age as Avril, but dark purple streaks sat under the woman’s eyes, and lines furrowed her brow.
The woman disappeared from view.
“Wait.” Avril gritted her teeth as she slid down the branches. She suppressed a scream when she hit the ground and her leg protested.
Before she had a chance to catch her breath, Avril was shoved to the ground. Fists pummeled her back, but there was no power to the blows.
“Stop,” Avril hissed, all too aware the pyro dragon was not far away. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
“I have to kill you,” the woman panted out.
“You don’t.” Avril twisted around and grabbed hold of the woman’s arms.
The woman sagged against her, and Avril saw tears in her eyes.
“I promise I don’t want to hurt you.”
The woman’s breath shook out of her. “I couldn’t kill a fly. I know that’s what we’re supposed to do, kill to survive, but I don’t have it in me.”
Avril swallowed. So that was what this new game was all about. “Who are you?”
“Rachel.”
“I’m Avril. This is new to me. I don’t know the rules. How long have you been in here?” She gently dropped her hold on Rachel’s arms and was relieved when she didn’t start pummeling her again.
Rachel shuffled back on her butt. “I’ve lost count of the days. Time moves differently in here. One moment you can be walking in brilliant sunshine, and the next thing, it’s night. It must be at least a week. Maybe longer.”
“You’ve survived in here on your own for a week?”
Rachel nodded. “It’s not easy. They don’t exactly look after you.”
Avril pressed a hand to her calf, which had started bleeding again. “I figured that out not long after coming in here and meeting that pyro dragon.”
“He’s a right nasty bastard,” Rachel said as she blew her greasy bangs off her forehead.
“I can’t disagree with that.”
“How did you get away from him?”
“He let go when he was tossing me around. I hit that tree I was up and held on tight.”
Rachel ran a hand through her hair and grimaced as her fingers stuck in the tangles. Her gaze went to Avril’s damaged leg. “You need to keep that clean. I’ve stumbled across people who look like they died from infected wounds.”
Avril grimaced. “Thanks for the tip. I don’t suppose you have a medi-patch I can stick on?”
Rachel snorted a laugh. “As if.”
Avril looked around the forest. The pyro dragon was quiet. She hoped he’d gone off to try to eat someone else. “How does this place work?”
“What’s the last thing you remember?” Rachel asked.
“I was on a space station playing a holo suite virtual reality game. It was only when I tried to pause the game because I needed a break that I realized something was off. The game wouldn’t work. Then this new level opened, and I decided to take it.”
“That’s when the problems began?”
“Everything felt different as soon as I stepped through into this level.”
“It will do. The same thing happened to me. I soon learned that this game is not virtual reality. It’s actual reality.”
Avril’s brows shot up. “How can this be real? It’s supposed to be a game.”
“Those injuries you’ve got don’t look like a game.” Rachel pointed to Avril’s bloody leg. “And that pyro dragon is definitely real. He always appears when a new opponent enters the game.”
Avril felt her body shaking in shock. She took a steadying breath. There had to be a solution. Every game had a back way out if things went wrong and data corrupted. “Who’s running this game?”
“I’ve no idea,” Rachel said. “I think there are lots of us in here. It’s an enormous place, so you don’t often meet others.”
“How do we get out?”
Rachel looked away. “By scoring points. To do that, we kill everyone else.”
Avril’s mouth opened, but no words came out.
“I know. I didn’t believe it at first either. Then I saw it happen. Two guys fought each other. Only one walked away and straight into another level. That’s what you do if you need to move on. You have to kill somebody.”
“I’m not doing that. Whoever designed this game can’t force us to hurt somebody else.”
“It’s fight or die. You either play the game, or they find a way to get rid of you.”
“Have you hurt anyone?” Avril stared at Rachel, suddenly feeling vu
lnerable.
“It’s why I attacked you. You need to look like you’re playing the game. At least, it’s worked for me so far. I’ve never done anyone real harm. I don’t think I could. But if I don’t, then I’m stuck here. I don’t know how much longer I can survive this.”
Avril reached out a hand to try to reassure Rachel and saw it was covered in her own blood, so tucked it under her knee. “We’ll figure this out. There has to be a way out of here that doesn’t involve killing anyone. Maybe we can work together.”
A glimmer of hope shone in Rachel’s dark eyes. “I’d like that. This place scares the hell out of me.”
“You’re not the only one. I came to the game to distract myself, not get killed.”
“If you want a distraction, then you’ve got it.” Rachel’s smile wavered. “How long have you been gaming?”
“Most of my life,” Avril said. “I used to play on Earth. As soon as I realized how incredible the technology was on the space station I live on, I dived right in.”
“Which station are you based on?”
“Prodigy. Do you know it?”
“Sure, I’ve heard of it. I was on Starland. I’ve been there a couple of weeks but was planning to move on. It’s a bit rowdy for my liking.”
“You should try Prodigy. It’s not so bad there.”
“If we can get ourselves out of this, I just might.”
Some of the gut shaking terror Avril felt faded now she had an ally. Together, they could figure out how this game worked and get out without having to harm anybody.
“Have you tried getting the computer to follow any instructions?” Avril looked around again. “Is there even a computer to ask?”
“I’ve tried hundreds of commands,” Rachel said. “Nothing works. The computer is not listening to the players.”
“We were transported into this game?”
“It must be how it works. Maybe we were drugged and moved or teleported.”
Avril rubbed the sore spot behind her ear. “Have you got a pain on the side of your head?”
Rachel nodded. “I did when I first got here. It’s gone now.”
“When I got to this level, I touched the sore bit and all my stats flashed in front of me. It only lasted for a second. Maybe whoever is running this place has us tagged so they can see what we’re doing.”
Rachel’s expression grew concerned, and she rubbed behind her ear. “I hope not. They’ll know how lame I’m being if they’re keeping tabs.”
Avril tried to piece together what happened as she’d started this new level. “Did you feel weird when you stepped through into this place? I sort of froze for a few seconds.”
“Yes! That’s what happened to me.”
Avril nodded. “It sounds like a teleporter was used to bring us here. We have them on Prodigy, but I rarely use them.”
“However we were moved, we got sent here, where our weapons don’t work and the monsters eat you.”
Avril glanced over her shoulder. “What kind of monsters are we talking about? Is the pyro dragon as bad as it gets?”
“I’d put him in the top five percent. He’s a mean bastard. There are smaller creatures that will give you a nasty bite if you don’t watch out for them. On a couple of occasions, I’ve seen these kind of warrior knights. They come dressed all in black and hunt down gamers who won’t perform properly. They carry long wooden sticks.”
Avril pursed her lips. “Are the sticks sort of curved and shiny?”
“You’ve seen one?”
“No, but the weapons sound like those used by the Vincole.” The Vincole weren’t friends of humans. They’d recently been busted for running an auction that traded in stolen human women.
“Whoever they are, they’re ruthless.”
“You mean they kill people?”
Rachel grimaced. “If someone refuses to play the game, they’re taken out. There was this one guy who came in; he did nothing. For two days, he sat in the same spot with his legs crossed and his eyes closed. I figured he was meditating, either that or frozen with fear. He lasted forty-eight hours until the warrior knights came in and killed him.”
Avril shuddered. “Did you try to help?”
“And be beaten too? Not a chance. I knew then they weren’t messing around. That was why I jumped you when you came down from the tree. So far, my ruse has worked. If you look like you’re playing the game, then they leave you alone. They just think I’m a terrible fighter.”
“Is it only humans who are the targets in this place?”
“I’ve only seen human players in the game.”
Avril pulled out her plasma blade. It didn’t activate. She looked up and noticed Rachel had moved back.
“It doesn’t work. It’s the weapon I used when I was gaming.”
Rachel’s gaze ran over Avril’s outfit. “Who are you in the games?”
Avril smiled. “Warrior Princess. I made this outfit myself. How about you?” Rachel’s cat suit was skin tight and smudged with dirt.
“Cat Woman. Not all that original, but I love slipping into this outfit. It makes me feel powerful.”
Avril nodded. That’s exactly how she felt when she donned her red dress. Not that it was doing her much good at the moment. “What’s wrong with my blade?”
“None of the virtual reality stuff works. I have my own plasma blade and a few fancy weapons I enjoy using. They’re basically rubbish in here. They like us to fight with our fists.”
“I’m not fighting you or anybody.” Avril wiggled her fingers at Rachel. “Give me a hand up. We need to get away from that pyro dragon and then work out our next move.”
Rachel extended a hand and helped Avril to her feet. “We’ll need to be careful. They hate seeing us working together. It might provoke a visit from the evil bastard knights.”
“Then we’ll have to work fast,” Avril said, “because I’m not killing you.”
A dark shadow swept over them, and they both ducked.
“Crap, the pyro dragon is in the air again.” Rachel stumbled backwards as she stared up through the trees.
“Stay still. He won’t see us through the tree cover,” Avril said.
“He will. We have to get out of here, now.” Rachel turned and raced away through the trees.
“Wait! Don’t move, or he’ll see you.” Avril hobbled after Rachel. She grabbed hold of a tree for support as her leg protested.
A fireball slammed into the ground in front of Rachel. She screamed and jumped backwards, crashing to the floor.
Avril took a step forward but froze as the pyro dragon dove through the trees. He grabbed hold of Rachel and tossed her into his mouth like a piece of popcorn.
Avril stuffed a fist into her mouth to stop from screaming. She slid around the tree trunk, keeping her back to it until she was out of sight of the pyro dragon. Her heart raced, and her vision blurred with tears.
There was no way out of this. Avril couldn’t kill to save herself. She couldn’t be a warrior princess in here. Who was she kidding? She was no warrior. She’d failed at gaming just like everything else.
She’d be found a few weeks from now, nothing more than a pile of bones after the pyro dragon had eaten her or some other nightmare hiding in the shadows had gotten her.
Avril choked back a sob. She had failed at the one thing she longed for, to win the games and change her life, to get people’s acceptance and love.
The only thing she could affect now was how soon it was until she became luncheon meat for an angry pyro dragon.
How had she ever thought gaming would make her life better?
Chapter 12
Iska slammed his fist into the face of the seven-foot zombie soldier. “I’ll ask you one more time. When was the last time you gamed with Warrior Princess?”
“Man, you’re crazy. I haven’t hung out with that chick for ages. She’s more into fantasy games. I like the zombie stuff or the alien attack games.”
Iska glowered up at him. “You mus
t know where she is.”
“Not a clue. What the hell are you even doing in here? This isn’t your game.”
Iska shoved him away and grimaced before leaving, hacking the access code for the next game and jumping into it.
He’d been searching through the holo games all night, questioning anyone he could find about Avril and when they’d last seen her.
She was well-known and respected in the gaming community, but he’d only drawn blanks so far. No one he questioned knew a damn thing about this hidden fight club.
Iska was running out of games and had been going into the virtual reality zombie games as a last resort. He’d never heard his warrior princess talk about those kinds of games, but maybe someone knew something.
Dingbat stood by his side in the holo suite booth. He didn’t join the games but relayed information about new games Iska could join.
“An alien kill game is operating from booth forty-five,” Dingbat said.
“That’s a new one. We’ll try that.” Iska hacked into the game, ignoring the computer’s warning that his illegal activity would be reported to security. He cared nothing about security, just about figuring out what the hell had happened to Avril.
After the revelation from Kiske that there was some real-life game arena and Avril could be in it, he was all the more determined to get her out.
The new game opened in front of him. It was your typical dystopian nightmare, with burned-out buildings and destroyed cars littered around. In the night sky, several alien ships could be seen.
He turned as he heard footsteps pounding toward him. Iska ducked behind a car and waited until the other players got close. He stepped out in front of three soldiers dressed in black and carrying P70 armor piercing weapons.
They pulled up short, surprise on all their faces.
“You don’t look like one of the aliens.” The guy who spoke had a crimson devil painted on the side of his helmet.
“I’m not here to play. I want answers.”
The three gamers, who looked like every woman’s wet dream when it came to battle-scarred soldiers, exchanged curious glances.
“Go on,” crimson devil mask said.
Iska Page 8
