Gamer (Gamer Trilogy)

by Christopher Skliros

  Die.

  7

  XANDER My heart rate soared. My palms were sweaty. My breathing became shallow. And Grace slapped me six times before I could even blink.

  There would be no way to win this fight. Grace was going to kill me, and that was that.

  Grace sneered as she looked up at me.

  As if to prove her obvious advantage, she ran rings around me – literally - darting here and there, as if to emphasise that I had no way of escape. She touched each tree around the clearing and even punched me a few times. I began to back away from nothing in particular, but there was nothing I could do.

  I had no powers or weapons, no friends to help me out, not even a fair chance – in the time it would take me to even contemplate striking, Grace could easily disembowel me or gouge my eyes, or both.

  And yet even in the face of death – a fate which could mean something as trivial from ejection out of Simulator, to actual, clinical, irreversible death – I seemed calm. If it was my time, it was my time. Simulator didn’t give me an escape and so I probably wasn’t meant to escape.

  Meditating on these thoughts as Grace pranced around, I took a deep breath in, and tried to calm myself. Dying with dignity and acceptance would be the best way for me, and so I clenched my fists in futility, and prepared to put up a weak fight, in order to save what I could.

  But even then, I started to feel the fear. As my heart began to race again, the icy flow of adrenaline and fear – fight or flight – was imminent. My heart started thumping audibly and each time the displaced wind from her run blew over me, my heart beat just a little faster.

  Finally she seemed done taunting me.

  “For what it counts,” she sneered, “I thought you could’ve had potential…”

  I was momentarily confused – had she complimented me?

  And with that, her hands were clutching my throat.

  She choked me while I was exhaling and so in a matter of seconds, I was already out of breath.

  I started to see black spots dance across my vision – I almost gave in to my inevitable fate… but then I fought back.

  I realised that just because she was faster than me, it didn’t necessarily mean she was stronger. I pried her hands off my neck and was granted a small victory.

  But before I could do anything else, all too quickly she just wrapped herself around me again and the air was knocked out of me.

  As the struggle continued, she began to mix in her choking with lightning fast volleys of punches into my gut – further winding me. She was so fast I barely had time to blink inbetween the cycles.

  And then the black spots started to become red spots, and my vision began to blur. No matter how hard I fought back though, I could never win. For the second time, I began to accept that this was the end. I was going to lose to Grace, and I’d probably be kicked out of Elitus for it. Maybe even die. This would just affirm how average a student I was, and then the school would decide they didn’t need me… No memorial, no regret – my dying moments would prove that I was a liability.

  But then I thought of Stefanie, and how she was now alone, injured and in the hands of Victor – who was plotting with Grace to probably kill her too. A tingling feeling of guilt and regret that I was giving in so easily began to set in – without me, Stefanie wouldn’t stand a chance.

  And then the feeling became stronger – dignity my ass, I wanted to fight back – to prove I was better than what everyone thought. How could I even contemplate giving in?

  And just as my lungs began to seemingly shrivel – the fight inside me reignited.

  I did have a reason to live – in fact, I had several reasons to live, and I was not in any world, about to give up.

  I tried to push back, but between the punches and the lack of air, I didn’t have enough strength - just like before.

  My body started to shut down – the feeling in my fingers and toes was gone as my brain tried to conserve oxygen.

  I was desperate. Frustrated. Tired. Weak. Angry.

  This was not fair.

  “GET OFF ME YOU BITCH!”

  My thoughts were barbaric, simple, one-word thoughts. Me live, she die.

  To my surprise, she actually did fly backwards through the air and thudded into one of the bigger glass trees, slumping to the ground. I had made her airborne and the smear of blood on the glass tree’s stump was evidence of a hard hit.

  What had I just done?

  A look of surprise flitted across her face – just as, if not more stunned about what I’d just done, than myself. Was this my power? Another wish?

  I didn’t have time to contemplate it and neither did she. I launched into a second attack, readying myself for her to come closer, channelling the thoughts of loss and death to drive me forward.

  Somehow I’d just pushed her away, and if I wanted to live to see Stefanie again, to prove myself to her as well as everyone else, I was going to have to master whatever this was and fast.

  I tried to do it again, focusing on my sudden desire to live. I kind of felt the space between Grace and myself, the atmosphere that separated us, and I focused on trying to build a mental wall.

  But it was almost as if the power was on the edge of my consciousness, like I was going about trying to use it the wrong way.

  And then I thought of Stefanie again. Adding to my motivation to protect her, to protect me, to live was the image of Stefanie lying unconscious in Victor’s arms with a bloody scalp. It spurred me on. I almost felt the power as I used it. Grace launched herself at me… and she was stopped. She looked as if she’d run into a thick piece of glass. There was an audible crack, and blood seeped from her nose.

  A wave of elation and relief added to my adrenaline. I had done it, actually used my power, actually stopped Grace. But it wasn’t over yet.

  She looked in front of her with both awe and hatred. She was furious and yet still trying to be arrogant at the same time.

  “Tell me,” she said, “How are you doing it little Xander? Discovered your power, have you?” She reached out to feel the wall and as her fingers made a connection, she quickly pulled them back – she’d been zapped.

  “Well,” she made sure to sound as arrogant and all-knowing as possible, “you can only hide behind your shield for so long…”

  And with that, she rested against a tree as she smugly waited for me run out of energy.

  She was right – it was slowly draining me. Not even the thought of Stefanie could keep me up for much longer.

  And yet I had done it. I had a power and now I was going to make Grace pay.

  Closing my eyes, I let my mind reach out to the space the shield was occupying – confident in my newfound ability. I could feel my wall, solid and sturdy.

  I felt Grace approach it, and lay her hand on it to check it was still there. The satisfying crackle made me smirk.

  Even though never once in my life had I ever thought of violence as an answer to my problems, Grace had pushed me too far. Knowing it would work, I manipulated the shield to form a tendril-like beam of energy and with as much mental power as possible, I jabbed at Grace.

  Her resounding yelp added to my grin. I knew she was just getting angrier, and even as I was building up to my ultimate revenge, I had to admit, this was a pretty cool power.

  Maybe if I… “ARGH!” Grace yelled out again.

  I made more tentacles of energy push out of the wall and I began to lock in directly on Grace, intending on wrapping her in a web of my energy.

  I found that the longer I had to reach to hit her and the more powerful the tendril, the more energy it required, I knew I only had so much left in me but the satisfaction in her pain, for now, was enough to keep me going.

  More yelps. Then something went numb inside of me.

  One bead of sweat too many and I felt my power considerably weaken. I didn’t have much time left to either incapacitate her or, well, die.

  I had to think quickly.

  Contemplating the extent of
my abilities, I dared to think that maybe, just maybe, that as well as being able to manipulate the matter between us, I might just be able to manipulate her. I wondered if what I had was full-blown telekinesis… Every second I spent wondering, however, was a second of effort wasted and so I decided to test my hypothesis out.

  I imagined myself picking Grace up out of the air, with an invisible claw-like grip. I wanted to throw her with my mental power, get her away from me once and for all and yet… I couldn’t.

  I could still feel my wall and also feel my zapping tendrils and even feel her occupying the mental space around me, yet I couldn’t actually move her.

  My power was new, though, and between supporting the wall as well as zapping her, I couldn’t summon the strength…

  Tossing up my options, I contemplated. I could continue to keep her away until I eventually collapsed from fatigue, or I could run the risk of her attacking me while letting the wall down to see if I could actually dosomething with my power…

  I decided quickly, letting the wall down for just a second… and instantly pinned Grace to the spot.

  I could feel my mind constricting her, no longer needing to upkeep the wall, or jab her with energy – all my mental capacity was focussed on cementing her in place – and it was working.

  But all it took was half a minute, and a wave of weakness passed over me again as I lost the connection. With practice, the ability would be unstoppable, but right now, the odds weren’t looking too great about me even getting that far.

  I found myself defenceless, my limbs were like dead weight, and I struggled to keep my eyes in focus. Judging from the exceedingly more cruel expression on Grace’s face – she was preparing to take advantage of my lapse.

  “Oh you poor thing,” Grace said with fake sympathy. I saw her entire body tense up, preparing to leap, and out of my last effort to stay alive, I stumbled into the orange rope, and attempted to run.

  Weakly, somehow, I managed to fray the rope, both using my physical and mental strength. I pushed through it and out into the forest, attempting to run.

  Trying desperately to resummon my power to help me, I reached out to it and attempted to jumpstart it or something.

  It felt like a muscle – a muscle that had been overworked, and so for the moment, it was numb. As numb as the rest of my body.

  As I turned to see if she had caught up, I knew my efforts were futile.

  She effortlessly grabbed me from behind and pushed me up against one of the trees. With one hand, she haphazardly held me down – relying on my energy loss to keep me in place, while with the other, she reached to the ground for something - I could hardly breathe.

  “What are you doing?” I mumbled deliriously.

  In her hand there was now a jagged rock …

  She then snarled at me, looked me in the eyes and said, “No more messing around.”

  There was a sudden pain in my forearm and for the first time, I began to bleed. She was actually using a rock to try and kill me – this was insane!

  And then my adrenaline increased one hundred fold.

  Out of panic I tried to push away, but couldn’t. And yet, in my dimmed state of consciousness, I acknowledged my body’s basal need to survive. Like an automaton, I began to try and fight back.

  In that instant, I broke the barrier of my power.

  My body was no longer thinking of the long-term effects of a

  strong-burst of power, it was using all the resources at its

  disposal… now.

  Looking down at my arm, the gash looked deep, and as she

  raised the rock up into the air, to go for another slice, I called

  on my power - to push her away from me.

  “No.”

  The only word I managed to utter as I called upon the

  effort. It was quiet yet powerful. A wave of energy was roiling

  away from me, leaving a faint crackle in the air.

  It passed throughher and she stumbled, falling sideways

  and looking momentarily incapacitated – the wave was much

  stronger than I thought it would be. In fact, as she lay on the

  ground, her eyes seemed to glaze over – her brain was

  temporarily fried. I had felt the energy force its way in one

  side of her and out the other. Hopefully she was dead.

  But I knew as soon as the surge left me, it would drain me –

  and it did. I stumbled myself, deliriously trying to walk away,

  but blocked by thick tufts of golden undergrowth.

  Feebly I attempted to cut at a particularly stubborn patch,

  managing only to rustle a couple of the blades and so I was

  forced into the slow progress of wading through the grass,

  without a clear path.

  More glass trees, a golden grass meadow, one of the many

  streams of the river and then – oh. I felt a small bit of energy

  pass through me and perking up a little bit, I examined the

  land before me.

  A huge fissure lay between me and where I wanted to go – it

  was big enough to look like an earthquake of some sort had caused it. It was directly in the way, and going around it would take time I didn’t have. I was stuck.

  The soil was still moist and the site looked freshly ravaged. I wondered what could’ve caused it…

  There hadn’t been any major shakes or quakes since we’d been here and scanning around for some way to maybe get around it, I saw something else on the other side of the clearing – a series of fragmented glass tree-stumps.

  Whatever had caused the fissure had smashed the trees as well, I concluded.

  I got down onto my knees to both examine the crack, as well as rest a little.

  I prayed that I was in the clear, that Grace was still laying on the floor of that clearing and that even if she was up, that she had lost my trail. I couldn’t afford for her to find me before I was ready to fight again.

  Looking at the ground, a thought flitted across my mind, Grace could run extremely fast, and I had telekinesis and Victor could teleport – what if it was someone’s power was to be able to do this? I mean, it seemed too unreal to be natural but that meant somebody could…

  Preparing myself to maybe search for some more clues, I felt the ground shake beneath me and walls of rock began to rise up around me, giving me zero time to react.

  As suddenly as it had begun, it stopped. The rock walls completely surrounded me and I was shrouded in complete darkness. Looking up the walls seemed to be infinitely high – there would be no way to climb out. I felt like I was in a solitary confinement cell, with sheaths of rock replacing the padding.

  But what was this?!

  In answer to my question, I heard a congested, almost nasally, pre-pubescent voice begin to speak… B3ast.

  “Xander, Xander, Xander – by far not you best move,” he said. I couldn’t even locate in which direction the sound of his voice was roughly coming from. “In case you haven’t seen it, yet,” his tone became condescending, “I made that fissure myself - with my power.”

  And then, as if he was trying to make a point, something began to wind its way up my legs. “EUGH!” I couldn’t help but yell out, sending an echoing sound travelling straight up. Tentacle things began to coil around my legs and with speed, they managed to completely bind both my legs and hands. They were vines – and B3ast had controlled them.

  And then I heard B3ast stomp his feet and a thousand, tiny rock-spikes emerged from the ground beneath me. It was now painful to stand – but impossible not to – this was torture.

  It was very effective and yet a testament to his twisted mind that he even managed to think of something like this.

  “You just wait here,” B3ast said, the sound of his voice was fading. I contemplated attempting to spit at him over the walls – this was the first time I’d ever actually felt hate for someone. Unlike Grace who had been attempting to kill me outrig
ht, B3ast was sadistic. He was torturing me. I felt a burning rise up in my chest, stronger than when I first connected with my power.

  Whoa – the intensity of that emotion was extreme – how had I gone from Xander, best friends with Jacob Clarke, to Xander, guy who wants to kill people?

  Oh yeah, Jacob. This whole time I hadn’t thought of him once – not since leaving my dorm… I wondered what he was doing now…

  B3ast’s voice snapped me out of my daze - “I’ll just go, er, get Stefanie,” he said, “I’m sure that would brighten up your day…” It was almost as if I could hear him smiling, he was going to bring her here, to do what…? Kill her while I listened?

  “Don’t you touch her!” I yelled out. He just laughed.

  Utter hatred is what I felt. And I wasn’t one to ever hate.

  “Oh, and just before I go…” he sneered.

  A shadow passed over the tiny opening that was the roof of my prison. It was now completely dark and after a few seconds, I began to feel water dripping… raindrops; he had formed a cloud directly above me.

  The air seemed to rumble and the sound of B3ast’s footsteps faded away.

  I then heard hundreds of low-lying clouds whoosh into the clearing. It began to bucket down.

  Right from escaping Grace to being trapped by B3ast. It was terrible and now, tied up as I was, I couldn’t do anything. There was no way I would be able to shatter the rock-walls around me – I could just sense that they were meters thick. And, of course, my power was fried right now… This sucked.

  Maybe if I just kept a clear head…

  And then my heart skipped a beat; somehow the water was pooling at my feet aching feet – and steadily rising. Over my toes, up to my ankles, my calve muscles, the backs of my knees.

  The rain that was pouring into my prison had no way out, and so it just began to build up.

  It didn’t take me long to realise that eventually I would drown. I was going to die. Again.

  The vines were tying me to the ground, stopping me from even moving and tugging against them was impossible.

  Speaking of the vines, I began to itch where they touched my skin… reaching down as far as I could – I felt welts. The vines were also giving me a rash. Then I realised that amongst the rain, I was sweating a lot and finally, I could feel my face begin to swell. It was like an allergic reaction – and there was only one thing I was allergic too.