“People are predictable,” Sweeney said. “Maybe that’s why I’m so damn good at ending them. You found an elevated spot on the ground, so you could see farther. It’s close to a large tree so you could take cover if necessary, and yet open enough for you to be able to see in all directions. I figured this is where you’d start hunting for me.”
“Wow,” Pierce said. “Nice. I have to say I’m kind of glad I’m not getting into a real fight with you.”
“Oh, you’re mistaken about that,” Sweeney said. “It must be a real fight, or it won’t be believed.”
“Wait, what? I would never agree to that. You’re a death machine. I won’t last one minute with you.”
“You’d better, or you’re fucking screwed.” Sweeney chortled as he brushed past Pierce and began leading him to their battlefield. “By the way,” he added, as they trudged along, “I know the location of the secret underground bunker where Ulric runs his illegal trafficking operation. I’ve hidden the coordinates in a secure place that will only be revealed to you if you’re successful in ending my life. Call it a little extra incentive to get the job done.”
Sweeney put a hand on Pierce’s shoulder before they exited the forest into the clearing. “We need to be seen exiting at different points,” he said.
“Ok, that makes sense,” Pierce said and started to slink along the tree line.
“Another thing,” Sweeney said. “Don’t use the shield. People can’t know you have it, or they’ll suspect you made a deal and betrayed Letha.”
Pierce stopped and stared at the other man. How did he know about the shield? A moment later, he found an opening fifty yards away and emerged into the clearing. He slipped his Bunker Buster off his shoulder and readied it for Sweeney, but he didn’t see him anywhere.
Then, out of nowhere, Sweeney shot up from the ground right behind Pierce. He’d been hiding under the dirt right where he knew Pierce would emerge.
“Fuck!” Pierce yelped and fell back on his ass.
Sweeney threw two blades in quick succession. They both landed less than an inch from Pierce’s head, making him question if he’d made a good decision by agreeing to this battle.
Pierce shot two short bursts, but Sweeney had already leaped out of the way. Then he scrambled to his feet and scanned in all directions, unable to find Sweeney. The fucker had disappeared again.
“This was a terrible decision,” Pierce said to himself.
In the distance, a bush rustled, but it was too small to hold someone of Sweeney’s size. Pierce kept turning around, desperate to find him. The ground didn’t appear to have been disturbed anywhere. The trees were quiet. There weren’t any rocks to hide behind. That was when Pierce froze. What an idiot I’ve been, he thought to himself. He slowly began to raise his Bunker Blaster, while forcing himself not to even tilt his chin up. Once the weapon was above level, Pierce whipped it up and shot blindly into the sky.
He rammed Sweeney with force from below and knocked him loose from a hovering platform. It was four feet wide and was camouflaged with a reflection of the sky above it. As the device clattered to the ground, Pierce was tempted to glance at it. The platform was a marvel. It had cameras on the top that channeled the feed to a screen on the bottom, making it practically invisible.
“Brilliant,” Pierce said, but he pulled his mind away from the enthralling tech. He saw Sweeney getting up from the ground twenty yards away. Sweeney wasn’t injured in the slightest. The platform had protected him. To Pierce, he looked happy, but he imagined the viewers thought that his scowl, bloody wounds, and kicks at the dirt meant he was furious. Now Pierce understood something special about Planet Kill. The fighters did have a power that he hadn’t thought of before. The image they portrayed was everything. They could use it to manipulate the situation to their favor. It was the perfect setting for a covert plan that no one could see coming. It might have been Sun Tzu’s paradise.
The only problem was that Pierce hadn’t known it before now. He could plan anything for this battle that would turn the tables at the last second. To be completely honest, despite having been given explicit directions by his opponent to kill him, he didn’t think he was going to win.
He had to try. “Think, dammit,” he muttered. How did Sweeney set it up so that he could have an advantage? In the course of the fighting, something was meant to reveal a way to win, but Sweeney had kept it from him, so his face wouldn’t betray that he’d been expecting it. It needed to be a surprise to Pierce. He had to figure it out in time—before Sweeney turned him into dust.
There wasn’t time to plan out a strategy or take a step back and put it all together. Sweeney was already charging at him again, in a straight line, which made no sense at all. He was too clever and too skilled and too proud to go out by being blasted with a direct hit while on a direct collision course for his opponent. No way was he doing that, Pierce thought. Not a chance. “Hey, Sweeney!” Pierce blurted out. “I’ve got you, motherfucker!”
Pierce raised his Bunker Buster to eye level and aimed it directly at Sweeney, feigning that he was falling for the direct route attack. Without waiting for Sweeney to telegraph his next move, Pierce guessed and jerked his weapon to the right, firing full blast without hesitation.
To an observer, it might have seemed like Pierce was wasting firepower on thin air. A few seconds later, Sweeney’s massive bulk of a body dropped to the ground, hunched over with an arm missing and a smoking, gaping hole in his side.
“Stop admiring the view,” Sweeney gasped. “and get over here fast. I’ve thirty seconds at most.”
Pierce slung his weapon over his shoulder and sprinted toward the dying man. When he got close, he slid the rest of the way, almost bumping into him.
“Ready for your reward?” Sweeney asked.
“You sure you don’t want to say some last words or something?” Pierce said like an amateur.
“No, you fucking idiot.” Sweeney coughed up blood. “Just lean in closer.”
Pierce did as instructed and tilted his head to the side so he could hear better.
“You’ll find the coordinates to Ulric’s hideout where you recovered. Drink the last of the medicine,” Sweeney said. “They’re written at the bottom of the cup. No one in their right mind would drink that stuff unless it was life or death. Good spot to hide a secret.”
“Right,” Pierce said.
“Shut up,” Sweeney said. He stared deeply into Pierce’s eyes, his façade dropping in his last moments. Pierce saw years of pain and guilt etched into the man’s face. “Idiot. I just want to say...”
Sweeney’s eyes grew still, and his head slumped over. He was gone before he had a chance to say any more.
Pierce closed Sweeney’s eyes and sat back. “Clever bastard. Would have liked getting to know you more. I could have learned a lot.”
A viewer screen appeared in front of him. By the looks of it, Pierce had gained quite a few fans with his reckless, dangerous style of fighting. The tips poured in, as well as a massive level-up. Taking out someone on Sweeney’s level put him above ten, right at level eleven point five. “Wait, what?” he said, annoyed. “How are there half levels? Must be a new thing.”
Under different circumstances, Pierce would have been thrilled with his upgrade and level. Somehow, this felt different from what victory should feel like. He hated taking the life of someone he would have allied with. At least Sweeney had gone out the way he wanted, and with grace and glory in battle like he deserved. It was time to move on.
The cave where Sweeney had hidden the coordinates wasn’t hard to find. Pierce simply traced his path backward. He was smart about it this time. He checked the perimeter for lurkers. He went into the cave with his weapon raised. The planet was changing him, and Pierce wasn’t sure how he felt about it.
Inside, the cup was brimming full, just as Sweeney had said it would be. The thought occurred to him that it could have been poison. He doubted Sweeney would let the person who defeated him go out in suc
h a cowardly way, so Pierce downed it in one gulp while holding his nose. The coordinates had been etched in at the bottom. They were latitude and longitude lines, and they weren’t far from his current location.
Pierce grabbed a quick bite of cold, greasy, leftover fark meat and saddled up. He was ready to take the fight to Ulric.
As Pierce trudged through the dense forest in an attempt to find Letha and enlist her help, a buzzing sound emanated from his wristband. It was a notification, but not a direct message. The message subject line read, “Planet-Wide Alert.”
He opened it but wished he hadn’t. “Pierce Foster has broken Planet Kill rules by smuggling an unauthorized weapon onto the planet. Bounty offered for his death is set at ten thousand credits.”
“Wow,” Pierce muttered. “I’m so fucking dead.”
Pierce tried to casually look around to see if anyone nearby had seen the message. So far, there was no movement. They were waiting for him to get closer to ambush, or he was alone. Either way, he couldn’t just take the direct route to Letha’s camp now. He needed to find a different way to get to her, if she were even willing to still help him. His best hope was her need for revenge against the Warden. Perhaps she cared more about her end goal than a shitload of credits. Yet, the credits would be enough to get her off the planet and begin her universal death march against those who’d wronged her. Maybe it was better if he forgot her altogether and headed straight for Ulric’s hideout.
Pierce climbed a tree and pulled a heavily leafed branch over his body to hide so he could gather his thoughts. From that height, he could see farther. As he stared off into the distance, he noticed a troubling development.
On the horizon, three scout ships hovered over the forest. They were scanning the ground with something like tractor beams. He worried their presence alone was going to encourage every single person on the planet to act on the alert and go for his head. The only thing that calmed him was that Ulric was likely hiding out for fear of the helping hand that Pierce had gotten from Dregg.
His mind turned back to why he was here. All that work to get credits, and now he couldn’t even upgrade anymore. His heart sunk. At least he’d upgraded to the Bunker Buster in time to take Sweeney’s life. He still had the shield he’d purchased for Grinder, but she was going to want it from him. She was probably on the hunt for him to get a return on her investment. Then again, she was just as likely to take him out for the bounty on his head. What weighed heaviest on his mind, however, wasn’t the thought of his impending doom. What really made him feel defeated was that all the progress he’d made to find Mara wasn’t likely to come to fruition now. He’d jumped the gun and made himself known too soon. He should have been focusing on getting her to safety, but this place had a way of drawing him into conflicts and alliances.
Suddenly, he heard a rustling in the trees. Someone was close. He knew it was Grinder. Not because she’d given herself away, but because she’d already demonstrated her savviness. Grinder could have easily planted a tracking device on him or her credits to make sure she got her money’s worth.
Pierce steeled his nerves for battle. He wasn’t going to get any rest between fights this time.
A lullaby sung in a woman’s voice, a hardened voice, swept across the forest and reached Pierce’s ear. “Hush Little Piercey, don’t say a thing. Grinder’s gonna put you in a sling. And if that fight doesn’t do you in, Grinder’s gonna cut under your chin. And if you don’t bleed fast enough, Grinder’s gonna start getting real rough. And when your neck finally does break, Grinder’s gonna feed your corpse to Drake.”
“Nice little rhyme,” Pierce said. “Care to keep going?”
Grinder chortled. “You didn’t think I wouldn’t keep track of you, did you?”
“Of course not. I just thought maybe we’ve still got a deal.”
“Sure,” Grinder said as she guffawed. “Feel free to toss the shield my way anytime you want. I’ll take the Bunker Blaster as well.”
“The thing is,” Pierce said, “I still need the Blaster. And, well, you don’t exactly come off as trustworthy. I think you’re going to attempt to stab me to death the second you have your shield.”
“I’m going to kill you either way. Why not fulfill your end of the deal first, so you can go out with a little dignity?”
“Uh-huh,” Pierce said. “Why would I make it even a little easier for you? Despite what you may think, I have no death wish.”
“Shut the fuck up,” she said, sneering. “I’m just playing with my prey. My poor little heartbroken prey.”
Pierce knew he didn’t have long. She’d found his general area. Yet, he was high enough up that she couldn’t pinpoint which tree he was in. Not that it mattered. She could just start attacking, but that would give her position away. Then Pierce would have a chance to take at least one shot. He needed to draw this out and find a way to make sure his shot mattered.
“Ulric is behind the forced volunteers,” Pierce said. “I’m fighting for innocent people. The planet-wide alert is a trick.”
“Don’t care,” Grinder called out. “Credits are credits. Who am I to judge?”
“Let me ask you something first,” Pierce said. “Who were you before you came here?”
“Nobody.”
“Really? Just nobody?”
“Yep,” Grinder said from her hiding spot below. “But here on Planet Kill, I’m somebody. People fear me. And that feels really good.”
“So you’re going to break our deal?” Pierce asked. “Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
Grinder started humming her lullaby again, which was creepy and disturbing on its own without the taunting threats of death. With her expressed intent to feed him to her pet, it was downright frightening. Despite everything he’d seen, witnessed, and done, Pierce was still holding onto his humanity and desire to live.
It was time to act. He needed to get a shot before she did. Even if it was random, it had a chance of hitting its mark. He swung the Bunker Blaster off his shoulder, unwrapped himself from the leafy branch, and aimed at the ground.
His blast did not hit its mark. The explosion rocketed up debris and smoke and left a small hole in the ground in its wake, but Grinder was not dead on the ground where it had done its damage. He had to move, and fast.
Pierce shimmied down the tree, ready to fire again. Grinder was still out of sight, though, and here he was, out in the open.
Another few seconds of series silence passed, and then there was a blast right at his feet. She’d missed, possibly on purpose. She didn’t want to damage her shield or his weapon. She was aiming to injure, not kill, so she could get her loot. He could use that.
Armed with this realization, Pierce launched into a sprint deeper into the forest. He hoped he could find a spot that gave him an advantage before she caught up to him. Another blast rocked the ground beside him, but he kept up his pace, breathing heavily and not looking back. He didn’t need to. He just needed to keep from being injured long enough to lose her.
Up ahead was a wall of vines. Pierce had no idea what kinds of creatures were inside. Dregg had warned him about snake-like reptiles that could devour his body whole, lizards like Drake that would destroy at even the slightest sign of motion, and all types of insects whose bites were as lethal those of any spider but were even more gruesome. He had no choice. He lunged into the vines.
Once behind his new cover, he scurried several feet to the left, away from his entry point. Now he had a slight advantage. He could get off another shot, if only she would show herself. It was only going to be one shot again. She’d spot his location and be able to fling blades in his direction. This one was going to have to count.
He waited. He held his breath. Then he got his break.
Drake’s growl in anticipation of the blood and death and meat was all it took. He leveled his Bunker Blaster at the area where he’d heart the noise and unleashed three blasts.
The forest burned, and fire crept
up a lone tree standing in the middle of a blown-out gap in the woods. Drake yelped: he’d been hit. No sound came from Grinder. He’d hit her pet and missed her. He heard the beast whimpering in pain and realized he was a dead man. Several small blades penetrated the vine wall right where Pierce had shot from. One blade landed in his left shoulder, sending a searing pain down his arm. Another scraped his face and soared past.
He pushed through the pain and hurried to another hiding place. This time, he crouched lower and decided to wait longer before taking another shot.
But Grinder had other plans. A stream of small blades slammed into the ivy wall at random, shredding the plants. One hit him in his thigh, leaving a gash behind. He bit his tongue to refrain from screaming in pain. If she did that again, the next blade could hit anywhere. All Grinder needed was for one to hit him in a vital organ. This strategy explained why she was taking her time. All it was going to take was one hit.
This was a battle he had no chance of winning, and he knew it. “Fuck,” he whispered.
A blast went off just outside the vine wall. When he peeked between a couple of the vines, he could see Grinder rushing out of her hiding spot between two large boulders. She’d been camouflaged as a rock the whole time, right out in the open. Pierce cursed himself for not realizing she could use the same technique as Sweeney.
He would have jumped out and thanked whoever had just saved his life, but he realized quickly that it was likely another hunter who only wanted to get rid of Grinder, someone who would then take Pierce’s head and reap the bounty. Pierce decided to stay hidden and tried to see who had arrived.
“Get the fuck out here,” a stern voice said.
“I don’t think I will,” Pierce replied.
“You will. And you’ll do it fast or I’ll obliterate the whole area.”
“Okay,” Pierce quickly agreed, realizing he was facing someone who had no incentive to merely injure him as Grinder had wanted. “Coming out now.”
He held his weapon above his head and slipped out from between the vines. In the clearing, he lowered his weapon to the ground. “The bounty’s all yours, I guess,” Pierce said. “Do you think I could at least send a message to someone before you end me?”
Planet Kill Page 24
