Half of Orion’s head was gone, skin hanging in ragged flaps around visible white bone. His brains were a scrambled mess of gray matter, spilling out of the side of his cranium. What was left of his face hung loose on his skull, drooping like a bad Halloween mask. Despite all the damage, the wounds did not bleed. All the blood in his body had already congealed - like Orion had been dead for a very long time.
“Oh God,” Lucas said. “It’s so effing gross.”
“This is my world!” Orion growled. Then he spun and kicked, his huge foot slamming into Lucas’ face, sending him flying backwards, off the top of the tower.
“Shit!” Boothe yelled running to the edge of the arena while readying his grappling hook. “I’m coming!”
Lucas screamed as he fell. Boothe dove and reached over the edge, mere feet away from Orion. He aimed his hand down at Lucas, already a hundred feet below. He shot the grappling hook and it flew until it ran out of line and retracted back into his glove. He was too late. Lucas was out of range.
“I’m sorry!” Boothe yelled.
“It’s okay,” Lucas said through the headset. “Thanks for letting me play with you guys. It was…”
Then he hit the ground with crunch and his voice went silent.
“Boothe watch out!” Scarlett yelled.
He turned just in time to see Orion’s blade stabbing down towards him. He rolled to the side and the blade slammed into the floor, sending out a web of cracks through the cement. He jumped up, scrambled out of melee range, then spun and fired his carbine at the half-head that remained on top of Orion’s shoulders.
The bullets tore away chunks of flesh and bone until nothing remained of Orion’s skull or neck. He was now a headless corpse inside tattered metal armor, but he still moved, and the fight was not over.
“I’m empty,” Boothe said. “That was the last of the AP rounds.”
Scarlett rose to her feet, her shoulder bandaged up, and her axe gripped in her remaining arm.
“It’s no use anyways,” she said. “He’s got no head and he’s still fighting! How are we supposed to kill this guy? What the hell is he?”
Even with no eyes, Orion was still able to see them. He raised his arm and fired a volley of laser blasts towards them. Boothe ran one way and Scarlett ran the other, trying to get on opposite sides of him. With her superior speed, Scarlett avoided the attacks, but one of the blue lasers cut through Boothe’s leg.
Boothe takes 3 DAMAGE!
Boothe HP - 2/6
Boothe tossed his empty rifle to the side and pulled out his pistol. He hadn’t used it in a long time, but it was still loaded with the flame rounds he had bought from Wulfa back at the Palisades.
He aimed and fired a single shot at one of the spots where the metal armor had been ripped open. The bullet hit flesh and a burst of flame shot out from the hole it made in Orion’s chest. Despite not having a throat or a mouth, Orion squealed in pain.
Scarlett ran up and swung her axe as hard as she could with her single arm at Orion’s back, but the attack bounced harmlessly off his plating. Then she jumped back to dodge Orion’s counterattack as he swung the blade towards her head.
Frustrated, he spun and raised his laser-gun arm again.
Boothe noticed what was about to happen just before the puff of smoke around Orion’s wrist confirmed it.
“Rockets!” he warned Scarlett.
The small rockets, the same weapons that had killed Cthulwho and the rest of Orange Horizon, shot out of Orion’s wrist and arced through the air towards them, seeking their targets. Boothe, predicting the attack, jumped to the side. A rocket flew past him and blew up a chunk of the floor near the edge of the arena.
The previous times he had seen Orion launch this attack, there had only been one rocket fired per person. So Boothe did not expect the second, or third rocket that flew at him. The first hit him in the shoulder, puncturing through and sticking into his flesh. The second hit him directly in the stomach, ripping through his armor and into his body.
He looked over at Scarlett who had dodged one rocket then swiped a second away with her axe. She looked back at him in horror.
“Oh no,” she said.
Both of the rockets exploded, ripping Boothe’s body apart, sending pieces of him flying in every direction.
Boothe takes 10 DAMAGE!
Boothe HP 0/6
Boothe DIES!
Interlude 14
Weakness
I slammed my fist against the keyboard and fell back into the couch cushions. The screen was now completely black, with the words GAME OVER in the middle in green letters.
“Oh shit Bran,” Scarlett said, frantically moving her mouse to get away from Orion. “I can’t kill this guy on my own. We screwed this up so bad.”
Foster put a hand on my shoulder, attempting to be comforting, but I moved away from him and scooted over to Scarlett.
“Here,” I said. “I saw something just before I died. Look at this.”
I used the keyboard shortcuts to move the camera around on her screen and zoom in on Orion’s back. There, through a crack in his armor, was some sort of black pulsating blob attached to his spine.
“Does that look like a weak spot to you?” I asked.
“Hell yes, it does,” she said.
Orion charged towards her on the screen and slashed at her with his armblade. She knocked my hand out of the way and took control, dodging each attack or blocking with her axe. The lack of her right arm was slowing her down significantly, but Orion was also not at top speed. She could defend herself, but just barely.
“I can’t beat him in melee like this,” she said.
“I have a pistol if you can get to it. Over there,” I pointed to the ground across the arena where part of Boothe’s body had landed. “It’s still loaded with flame rounds.”
I looked her in the eyes and put my hand on her shoulder.
“You can do this,” I said.
“I’ll try.” Scarlett said, giving me a smile.
Then Orion kicked her in the chest, sending her flying backwards towards the edge of the tower.
4
Scarlett slammed against the window, sending a spiderweb of cracks through the glass. She muttered a “Thank you,” under her breath that the glass was even there. All around her were empty window frames. If she had been kicked in any of those directions, she would have flown off the tower completely.
Before she could get away, Orion glided towards her and jabbed his sword arm forward like a spear. She dodged to the side and the blade hit the window, shattering it. Shards of glass showered outward and for a moment Scarlett looked over the edge and felt sick at the dizzying height.
She should just let Orion kill her with the sword - at least then she wouldn’t have to fall.
But when Orion spun and swung his blade at her again, she held her axe up to block it. She wasn’t going to give up. Couldn’t let all her friends die for nothing. Had to kill this bastard!
She sidestepped around him, trying to maneuver into a position where she could make a run for Boothe’s pistol. Orion’s attacks came swiftly, but she felt as if the whole world were moving in slow motion, allowing her to predict his attacks and dodge them. Each motion, so precise and fluid, happening in the span of less than five seconds.
He swiped horizontally at her head. She ducked.
He spun and jabbed towards her chest. She stepped to the right and twisted away.
He sliced upwards diagonally. She jumped back, out of range.
He pressed forward and brought the blade down towards her neck. She blocked with the axe, absorbing the impact by leaping backwards. In midair, she activated her cloak, turning her practically invisible, as she dashed towards Boothe’s pistol.
She didn’t know why she expected the invisibility to be any benefit at all - Orion didn’t even have a head, and yet he could still see her. He chased her and fired with his arm-mounted laser gun.
One shot, two, both went wide. Then
the third tore through her shoulder, sending bolts of pain through her already injured body.
Scarlett takes 4 DAMAGE!
Scarlett HP 2/8.
She tossed her axe aside and dove for the pistol, which lay in a puddle of Boothe’s blood. With the weapon in her grip, she slid along the ground and twisted to fire at Orion’s leg, trying to slow him down enough that she could get behind him.
The shot went through a rip in the plating and into the flesh at Orion’s knee. Flame burst out from the wound and she heard a squeal of pain - not a physical sound, but a noise that seemed to echo inside her mind.
She got to her feet and ran straight towards Orion, shooting again and again.
“How many rounds, Bran?” she asked.
Only five yards away now, Orion brought up his laser gun arm towards her.
Before he could get the shot off, she fired again. The bullet hit directly in his left shoulder. Fire burst from the opening and his arm fell limp, his laser blast shooting uselessly into the floor.
She leapt through the air, her boots helping to launch her higher than she would have been capable of on her own. As she vaulted over Orion, she aimed down and fired.
The bullet went directly into the gaping hole between his shoulders where his neck used to be. Flames burst upwards, smoke poured out of the many gaps in his armor, and the scream in her head grew louder.
She landed behind Orion and slid to a stop. Quickly, she spun and aimed at Orion’s back. That black pulsating blob, wet and shiny like oil on the highway, was clearly visible through a crack in his plating. Looking at it, she knew that was where the screaming in her head was coming from. For a moment, the screams changed to pleading. It begged her to let it live.
She didn’t listen. Didn’t care. Her hands were covered with Boothe’s blood.
“Burn in hell,” she said and pulled the trigger.
The black slime on Orion’s back burst in a fountain of bile. Fire quickly spread, consuming Orion’s body, burning inside the remains of his metal armor, turning the steel red, as flames sprouted from every hole. The screams in Scarlett’s mind grew louder and louder until she thought her head would explode. She dropped the pistol and held her remaining hand up to her left ear. She squeezed her eyes shut and fell to her knees in pain.
Then, finally, the screams stopped. Orion’s body lay still, smoldering in the cool night air.
Scarlett fell onto her back with her legs outstretched and looked up at the stars. The cool night breeze blew across her face, drying the blood that covered her. A cheer rose up from somewhere far below. They all knew that the battle was over. Orion was dead, and despite all that they had lost, Atomic Massacre and the Eagles had won.
For a moment, all was calm, and though she was surrounded by death, Scarlett smiled.
Then a ball of fire flew across the sky above her. She stood and watched - a ship of some kind, burning and plummeting to Earth. It hit the ground far in the distance, sending up a cloud of dirt.
All around her, streaks of yellow and purple cut across the starry blackness above - laser blasts raining down around the city. Where they hit, they exploded with a deep boom, devastating everything in the area.
More ships flew past, adding to the chaos. Some were crashing, wreathed in flames, while others zoomed, moving in strange patterns, firing their weapons at everything in sight. The cheers at her victory soon turned to screams as those on the ground far below ran for their lives.
Then one of the ship’s lasers exploded against the tower. The floor she stood on shook and Scarlett screamed as the whole world began to tilt. She heard the screeching of metal and the crumbling of cement, then the tower began to fall to the side. She gripped a crack in the cement floor tight, as the bodies of Orion, Mariko, Marty and Boothe all slid past her and off the edge. Then, just when she didn’t think she could hold on any longer, the entire world went black.
***
“What the hell?” Scarlett said, sitting in front of the computer, her left hand gripped tightly around mine.
Foster leaned over her shoulder, and we all three watched as the monitor went black. Then text appeared in the center of the screen.
Thank you for playing Apocalypse 2020!
GAME OVER… for now...
Apocalypse 2020’s first expansion: Look to the Skies
COMING SOON!
Until then, remember - This is not your world.
Acknowledgements
This story was original published online at Royal Road Legends as an interactive serial. The readers made decisions along the way that helped form Boothe’s character.
So firstly, I’d like to thank everyone that supported me on that site. Thank you for participating and helping in Boothe’s development. Your encouragement and enthusiasm uplifted me and made writing this story extremely enjoyable.
And of course, special thanks to Sandra, who puts up with me when I’m grumpy or stressed, and is always the first person to read my stories, give me feedback, and keep me motivated.
What follows at the end of this book is a manual I wrote for the Apocalypse 2020 video game. This contains all the rules and powers for the characters you saw in the story, and plenty that have not yet made an appearance as well. Feel free to peruse it, if that interests you.
This is the first of what will be a series of books. Apocalypse 2020: Look to the Skies will be coming soon. To keep track of this series, along with everything else that I am writing, be sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter.
Thank you again for your support!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jamestwriter
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jamestwriter
Apocalypse 2020 Game Manual
Installing the Game
System Requirements
OS: Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0
Controls: Keyboard and 100% Microsoft compatible Mouse
Drives: Hard-drive and double-speed CD-Rom
Processor: Pentium 60MHz
Memory: 16MB
Video: SVGA-compatible graphics card
Modem: Apocalypse 2020 requires a constant online connection.
Installation Instructions
Place the Apocalypse 2020 installation CD into your CD-Rom. If your computer is AutoPlay capable, an Apocalypse 2020 menu will automatically appear on the screen. Otherwise, open the “My Computer” icon on your Desktop and select the drive letter that represents your CD-Rom drive. Then double-click the “Setup” icon.
Select “Install Game” from the list of options on the menu and follow the on-screen instructions. After the game is successfully installed, you will have the option of adding an Apocalypse 2020 shortcut to your Start Menu.
Getting Started
Starting the Game
Insert the Apocalypse 2020 Game Disk into your computer. If your computer is AutoPlay capable a menu will appear on your screen. Select “Play Game”. Otherwise, open the “My Computer” icon on your Desktop and select the drive letter that represents your CD-Rom drive. Then double-click the Apocalypse 2020 icon.
Connecting to the Apocalypse 2020 Servers
Be sure that you are connected to the internet, then click Connect when the Apocalypse 2020 main menu appears. After a few moments, your computer will download data from the servers and you will be connected and ready to play online with others.
Creating a Character
When you begin the game, you will have to create a new character. To do so, you must have a Metaticket - a specific code that allows you to create a character and play the game. When prompted, type the sixteen-digit number on your Metaticket into the space on the screen and choose a name for your Character.
You will be assigned a species based on the current demographics on the server. Then you will get the option to change the appearance of your character, using the many different sliders and adjustments provided.
Once you finalize your character, you will load into the game and begin a tutorial mission.
&nb
sp; Interface
The interface of Apocalypse 2020 is divided into two main sections: The Play area and the Interface bar. The Play area displays the environment around your character, along with the other characters, monsters, vehicles, and items that you will find along your journey.
The Interface bar provides you with quick access to information about your character, buttons to activate skills, and a text box that displays descriptions of the various events that will happen throughout your journey.
Overview of Gameplay
Movement
Movement outside of combat in Apocalypse 2020 is accomplished by pointing your mouse where you wish to go and clicking the ground. Your character will automatically move towards that location, but remember that walls, doors, or any other obstacles could prevent your movement.
In combat, Movement is more restricted. You can learn more about movement in combat in the Combat section of this manual.
Interacting with Objects and Characters
Mousing over an interactable object or character will cause some information about the target to pop up in a tool tip box. Clicking on the object will allow you to do anything from talking to a character, picking up an object, unlocking a door, or attacking an enemy.
When talking with a non-player character, sometimes a dialogue window will appear, allowing you to choose how you wish to respond, with a given list of dialogue options. Higher ranks in some skills and abilities will sometimes unlock new dialogue options and new ways to interact with the world.
Apocalypse 2020: A Wasteland LitRPG Page 37
