They exchanged a look of surprise.
“Pull the plug,” I said emotionlessly.
They immediately knew that I meant business and that I therefore intended on destroying any record of any of the kids ever setting foot in Simulator.
1 and 2 ran off, eager as ever to please me, and I set my chair to deep massage.
It was a waiting game now. The Testees had until Simulator ran out of reserve power - to either kill each other or find the exit. Neither seemed probable and I resigned myself to the fact that they were all just going to die. ‘ Too
bad,’I thought.
A pop-up window announced the turning off of the power source and as if to ensure that I knew what was going on, a small timer began to count down in the upper-right hand corner of the screen.
Exactly 24 hours they had – 1 week in Simulator time. 7 days.
No one was going to stand in my way. Not this stupid machine or these stupid kids. I would be rich and famous and whoever stood in my way would be trampled over.
I relished my sudden sense of anger. The pretence of my friendliness and tolerance was gone.
Sadly, these kids were just obstacles. After they died, I would invite their parents in and have them… dealt with.
I planned to make new modifications to the code, work on making the system stronger and run more tests.
This test had failed. Even if the Testees did come out alive, we’d have to dispose of them.
I was going to be a billionaire and if six kids had to die, then so be it.
I cursed under my breath.
Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies even closer.
9
VICTOR I watched as Stefanie stirred. She was lying in a heap in the middle of a clearing I’d teleported to. I was in a section of the forest where the trees were solid silver, instead of transparent.
It made me uncomfortable to see her hurt, but it had to be done. Stefanie was going far in life and I was just using her. I was a bad person, but not bad enough to drag Stefanie down with me, if I could help it.
My plan was to push her away, slowly at first and then do something to make her hate me. It wouldn’t affect me, I didn’t love her, I hardly even liked her but I’d become used to her and it was something that I couldn’t change. Regardless, our relationship – if you could call it that – was over, there were heaps of other hot chicks at our school and Stefanie wasn’t even the best looking.
She opened her eyes, rubbed her throat and then looked around. An alarmed expression lit up her features. She attempted to stand, but couldn’t support herself and fell over.
I plastered a lovesick expression on my face and regretted not killing her when I had the chance – I hadn’t been able to bring myself to do it, but in hindsight it was a poor choice.
I briefly thought about my mean-looking battle-axe – I’d left it at the cave – and contemplated abandoning her…
“V-victor?” She called softly, her voice cracking from disuse.
I couldn’t be cold to her, not while she was like this. I extended a hand forward and helped her to her feet.
Her face went pale and she leaned against me. I noticed that the scab above her temple was oozing a clear liquid; it looked infected almost.
“Water,” she rasped.
I nodded and gently placed her on the ground. She looked confused but didn’t protest, it was a scary sight to see somebody on their deathbed – maybe I wouldn’t have to kill her after all.
I focussed on moving myself through space, pushing every fibre of my being to the cave where Xander’s water jerkin lay abandoned and opening my eyes, I saw myself standing exactly where I had wanted to go.
I bent over and picked up the tub, still full from where Grace had knocked it out of Xander’s hands and I teleported back to Stefanie.
Upon my appearance she seemed to struggle again but realising it was me her body softened.
I handed her the container and waited as she drank.
I was better than this, I thought. I was standing in the middle of a bullcrap forest, at risk of dying and yet I didn’t even need the Omega. I’d been pushed by my father to do this and when I refused, he had me placed on the list anyway.
One day I would inherit his property empire: hotels, casinos, skyscrapers and prime-view apartments were all awaiting me the day I turned eighteen. Along with that, nice cars, hot girls and a limitless supply of alcohol were the things I looked forward to most. I wouldn’t get a thing, however, if I didn’t win the Omega.
Stefanie coughed a little and it sickened me to think that maybe it was her who was holding me back – I didn’t want a girlfriend, that wasn’t how I rolled. I could have any girl I wanted if I was single – but something stopped me from dumping her. Maybe it was the sex, or maybe it was something more…
I lifted her roughly off the ground, not meaning to harm her but venting my frustration.
She stood on her own now and if not for the gash on her face, she looked perfectly fine. Her eyes were bright, she had colour in her cheeks and her chest was looking as perky as ever…
And then I thought about Grace. I was just using her too but cheating was almost a thrill. We hadn’t done anything – she herself was so young, it seemed borderline kidnapping – but I was using her affection for me to my advantage. In this scenario, I’d asked her to help me take out Stefanie, both because I couldn’t do it myself and because her and Xander had been getting a little too friendly for my liking.
Xander. I was going to kill him myself – not because I wanted to win, but because I wanted him to lose. He was the all round nice guy, but he was a goose and it would be fun to watch him squirm – unless Grace had already killed him…
“I don’t think we can get hungry in Simulator,” Stefanie said, breaking the silence. “Only thirsty.”
I nodded, the soft flowing tone of her voice washing over me… What was happening to me? Soft flowing tones – I wasn’t a chick.
“What happened?” Stefanie asked, feeling her wound.
This was the tricky part of my plan. I needed to destroy any chance Xander had with her. When I got her to dump me, he was the last person I wanted her to hook up with and I needed to make sure she wholeheartedly believed that he was a threat. If she killed him herself, he’d feel betrayed enough to never want to talk to her again – simple.
“This might be a little hard for you to hear,” I began, feigning sadness.
Stefanie gave me a questioning look.
“Xander attacked us.” I said.
Stefanie’s body went rigid and I began speaking quickly.
“When I sent him off to get the water he must’ve doubled back to the camp. When we went into the cave, he attacked you from behind, hitting you with the butt of your own gun.” She looked down as if to confirm her weapon was missing.
“You fell to the ground and so I teleported you away.” I watched her reactions closely, she looked upset and even betrayed – but she wasn’t disbelieving.
“I don’t know why,” I said, “but it was probably to get at me. I think he wanted to be alone with you…”
For a moment I thought I’d pushed it too far, Stefanie gave me an odd look in reaction to what I had suggested, but then she nodded and seemed satisfied with my explanation.
“And where’s Grace?” She asked.
I made my expression even more grim and said, “she went after him, on your behalf, but she hasn’t come back…”
Stefanie understood what I had implied and she sobbed. Getting a grip on herself, she stared into the distance for a long moment.
Manipulating her was so easy, almost too easy. She was so ready to believe anything I said and I admired her loyalty. I wanted to console her, genuinely, but then I remembered why I was deciding to break it off – I needed to be a free man. I’m sure she’d understand…
She pulled herself upright and stood with what seemed to be a renewed sense of direction. “Why didn’t he shoot me?” she asked.
“Sorry?” I responded.
“Well you said he attacked me with my own gun, why hit me with it when he could’ve just vaporised me?”
I ignored the question, having no way to respond, instead I said, “Stefanie, you can’t keep dwelling on the past. The main thing is you’re safe now and we now know that Xander is a danger.” It seemed to work and as an after-thought, I pleaded gently, “Be grateful?”
She looked at me and smiled, moving in for a kiss.
I hesitated; she sensed it straight away, taking a step back.
“What’s wrong?” She asked me, searching my eyes with hers.
“It’s nothing,” I answered. “I’m just tense from everything that’s happened.”
She didn’t seem too satisfied with that answer and she shook her head, “No, it’s something more – something you’re not telling me. What’s wrong?” Her voice was soothing, calming, coaxing.
“I-“
Footsteps.
We both tensed, alert for any sign of danger. At the edge of the clearing, a silver bush rustled.
Before I could even exchange so much as a look with Stefanie, we found ourselves surrounded by a sea of men.
Silently, they had materialized out of nowhere and I could feel Stefanie begin to panic as she stepped into my arms.
There was something odd about the people however. Aside from being completely silent, they seemed almost unreal. Attempting to focus on any one individual proved impossible. Every time I looked at one face, it would seem to just meld into the crowd. The fact that they were wearing all black made it even harder to individually set them apart.
The mass rippled, the first sign of movement since its arrival and out from the ranks squeezed Grace.
Ah great.
I wasn’t exactly sure what this meant for me but I could tell that Grace wasn’t just going to let Stefanie and I skip happily out of this situation. She probably thought she’d be doing us a favour by taking Stefanie out of the picture - what had I done?
I watched as Stefanie beamed at her, obviously elated that Grace was still alive and that she’d managed to rally help. Grace removed the hood from the cloak she was wearing and glared back at her. The shift in Stefanie’s stance alerted me to the fact she knew something was wrong.
Stefanie looked up at me and I could tell what she wanted me to do. Hoping Grace would understand, I held Stefanie close to me and felt as the world began to shift. We were floating momentarily and just as we were about to be gone, it stopped.
Opening my eyes, I was surprised to find we hadn’t moved an inch. A wicked smile was plastered across Grace’s face.
She laughed sourly; evidently satisfied we’d failed to teleport. I looked at her, attempting to seem love-struck – I received a playful wink in return. She had no intentions of harming me, I realised, but for some reason, that didn’t entirely appease me.
“Today,” Grace’s voice pierced the silence, “only one person can teleport out of here at a time. Too bad you need him to teleport,” she said to Stefanie.
Stefanie was still tense as she realised what Grace was suggesting.
Grace had played us all, appearing sweet and innocent but scheming to win all along. I realised that my alliance with her would only get me out of so much.
Without warning, the men circled around us and began to close ranks.
Stefanie clutched me tightly and I realised that it was now I had to make a decision.
On the one hand, girlfriends were not my thing. Having her around was stopping me from doing what I wanted. But even now, just the fact that I had hesitated to abandon her, showed me that I did have real feelings for her – however not cool that was.
I squeezed her in return and then weighed up my options.
The men were getting closer.
I tried to teleport us again but just like the first time, it didn’t work.
The men were still getting closer.
I looked around for a way to escape, refusing to let Stefanie go.
A few seconds and the men would be on top of us.
As I saw one of the soldiers draw a grisly looking, mace-like weapon, my heart raced.
I was in danger. I panicked.
Looking down into Stefanie’s eyes, I made myself cold, indifferent and unfeeling.
It was either stay here and inevitably be killed or drop Stefanie and survive.
I pushed her away from me and I watched emotionlessly as her eyes filled up with tears.
We were pulled further apart.
Our fingertips were barely touching.
I looked into her eyes.
She stared back.
I let go.
10
XANDER I lay barely conscious in a shallow pool of water. Around me lay chunks of rock big enough to be small mountains. Along with that, shards of glass, silver and gold littered the clearing. I barely registered that it was still raining and slowly picked myself up off the floor, a changed person.
I forced myself to remember how I escaped B3ast’s prison, to anger myself enough to fuel my movements.
I remembered the water, nearly covering my whole body. The vines that stopped me from moving away. The unintelligibly thick and talk outcrops of rock that became my prison. And I remembered passing out.
But then when the water washed over my head, I awoke, unfeeling of my pain, resisting the urge to breathe.
In that moment, I felt a rush of power swell inside of me. Somehow I was being flooded with energy – energy that wasn’t mine but energy that I realised I could use. It felt like
107 a throbbing. A throbbing that increasingly intensified. Soon enough I felt like I was vibrating with energy like a crackling spark plug and I felt invincible.
The rush had come so fast and yet I had no idea what it was. I knew, however, that I needed this energy and so I was more than prepared to use it.
Having abandoned concern with the danger to myself, I channelled my frustration at my situation, my anger at Grace, at Victor, at B3ast, at Stefanie and I channelled my newfound desire to win that Omega if it was the last thing I did – and blasted apart my chamber.
The rush as I pushed against the walls and then through them, tensing my power throughout them to disintegrate their support, was unexplainable. The roar of sound as the walls were torn apart, forced outwards, explosively propelled by my own power, made me writhe, almost, with satisfaction. In this moment, I was a god. And now I was free.
Thinking these thoughts over, I gave myself a moment to recover. I realised that my best chance of survival was my power. I needed to train it, shape it, perfect it and extend my maximum endurance to hold as much power as I just had.
As quickly as the rush came, it was gone... odd.
I swore an oath that B3ast was going to die at my hands. And then Grace and Victor would join him. I would allow Stefanie to choose which side she was on but apart from that, she was dead to me for as long as she chose not to reciprocate my feelings. She knew Victor was rotten to the core, but she chose to be with him for the status it gave her – fine, but she was also choosing to die with him then.
The world seemed harshly defined. Reality seemed crystal clear to me. There was no black and white anymore. Either I killed everyone or reached the exit portal, or both, or died trying. I was no longer just playing a game. I was protecting my life.
I remembered as the dust had settled, I saw a figure, darting off into the forest. I reached out with my mind, trying to immobilise the threat, but as our minds crossed, he or she slipped through my fingers, so to speak.
It almost felt like I had interacted with a ghost, somebody half there but half not there. This person had definitely been the source of my power – I could feel their mind still crackling with energy – but why would they help me and then run away?
It wasn’t B3ast or Victor – and by the feel of his mind, I could just tell it wasn’t a girl – so then who was it?
I resigned myself to accepting that it wa
s somebody Simulator had conjured and decided that if it wasn’t a threat to me, then I didn’t need to worry. I just needed to be cautious that some people out there were a lot stronger than I was.
As I focussed on the scene around me, I realised the extent of the damage, and I was grimly satisfied.
For twenty or so meters in any direction, the forest had been utterly wrecked. Trees lay shattered, silvery soil lay upturned, giant shards of rock pierced the ground – it looked as if a fierce hurricane had passed through. I was that hurricane.
I realised now that I needed a game plan. The terrain of this arena could be endless and without a map or some way to find the others, I couldn't be sure that walking in any one direction would be useful.
I sat thinking for a moment and came up with an idea.
Summoning my power, I propelled myself into the sky. The energy required to do so noticeably drained me, but remembering my power surge from before, I knew I could cope with a hell of a lot more.
When I was above the highest branches of the forest, I surveyed the landscape.
It was surprisingly easy to see to the forest floor. It was mostly due to the fact that the trees were spaced quite widely apart and most of them were transparent but I now realised the advantage of having this ability.
Not wanting to sap my strength unnecessarily by suspending myself for too much longer, I decided to head towards the river I could see snaking its way between the trees ahead and then use it as a guideline to travel across the landscape. Just as I was about to begin lowering myself, I saw something moving between the trees a short distance away.
At first I thought it might’ve been that strange half-person from before, or some kind of animal – but as the figure came closer, I realised it was B3ast.
Excellent.
I changed my plan, moving myself into the branches of a tree just on the edge of the damage zone. B3ast was expecting to come and confirm I was dead – instead it was he who would be dead. Irony.
Perching myself in the perfect position, I decided I was showing no mercy. B3ast had enclosed me with the intention of drowning me. He would pay.
I lay in wait to cause the first death in Simulator.
Gamer (Gamer Trilogy) Page 8
