METAVERSE GAMES: OMNIBUS

by William Kurth

  “Make it fast. Already at 75% ammo availability!”

  Andy snagged the CAR-50 urban rifle from its mount on the driver’s side door, looping the three-point sling over his head and vest as he jumped out of the truck. Donning his combat helmet and dropping the face mask, Andy took in the scene while the HUD in his visor came to life. The little battle app synced with both his rifle and handgun, as well as provided a wealth of other tactical information, most of which he ignored.

  Andy bounded to the rear of the G550 and pounded on the hatch. Andy dared not go to the side doors where he could slip and slide deep into the collapsed sewer line.

  The hatch, weighing three times what it normally would from the armor built into it, swung open and locked against the back-right side. Keith grinned back over a pile of large black duffle bags.

  “Man, am I glad to see you!”

  “Yeah, well don’t get too excited; this is far from over. We’re in too deep and too late. Honestly, if we can’t make the Radio Building we’re screwed!”

  “I have faith. We’re on a roll, after all. Take a look.” Keith unzipped one of the duffel bags.

  Andy’s jaw dropped as the gold bars glinted in the last rays of the day. There were only six of them inside the first bag.

  Each weighing at least 25 pounds.

  Before Andy could say anything, a loud swoosh interrupted him. In the JLTV, Logan locked and loaded another UV flare. Unlike flares of old, these battery-powered smart systems could “burn” for half an hour and were held in place at pre-set elevations by a small hydrogen blimp that expanded out under pressure from a canister. Mini fan thrusters held the blimp in position even in a stiff breeze.

  While the vanilla humans below didn’t see anything, the DEVO’s rushing in cringed at the miniature sun erupting fifty meters from the trucks. Shrieking and pounding their hairless skulls, the DEVO’s retreated, pushed back into the darkness from the light that tormented them.

  “Four bags, it was all we could carry. Each is around 150 pounds. Gotta be worth at least 20 million bucks, even at black market bulk discounts! We’re talking early retirement, boys!” Keith beamed.

  Andy, ran his trembling hands over the trophies. He made a command decision right there and then.

  “I’m going to turn the JLTV around, and we’re loading the bags in the back then getting the hell out of here. This unit is done, the left rear tire is melted down to nothing.”

  “Your call, since it’s your rig that I borrowed to do this INFIL. Sorry, bro.”

  Andy glanced at the pricey vehicle. “Don’t worry; you can replace it from your share.” Andy slapped him on the back and dashed back to the JLTV.

  In seconds, the two men wedged the first oversized duffel into the JLTV. It was going to be a tight fit with all the ammo drums and other supplies, but no one complained.

  Andy leaned inside the Mercedes as he tugged on the last duffel bag. “Hey, David, come on down. This thing’s getting a little wobbly back here,” Andy yelled up to the turret where David kept manning the gun and covering the open sewer main below. He sat on the bumper, a poor substitute counterweight for 450 pounds of missing gold.

  “We’re officially at S-12. I’m going to double up the flares.” Logan announced over the comms. A flash shot out from the JLTV as he added a white-light flare to the UV deterrent.

  S-12 meant that it was officially sundown. Twelve hours to go until the sun and relative safety returned.

  “Relax, guys. We don’t have to hold up all night in the Radio Building. Let’s just get there and we’ll invest a little of this haul to get ourselves a VTAL extraction.”

  Keith hopped on the fender next to Andy and heaved on the last bag. “David, what’s taking so damn long? This thing’s like a seesaw without the gold.”

  David answered with a thumping burst from his .50 Cal deep into the dark pit below.

  “Contact front, in the sewer!”

  It only took Andy an instant to process what David failed to consider.

  “No!” Andy reached over and snatched his boot, but it was too late. Enclosed in the sewer, the little explosive rounds were far too destructive. Mud and water gushed out, with chunks of concrete and then asphalt a moment later. With a deafening roar, fault lines lanced out in 360 degrees around the G550. The SUV tilted another 10 degrees and began sliding.

  Andy plopped his leg on the ground, a much farther stretch every second, and stuck his hands out to haul David up. A sudden lurch flipped Keith against the backseat.

  David scrambled over and slapped his shoulders, but Keith focused on dislodging the last black duffel bag, jammed fast between ammo cans.

  “Leave it, you damn fool!” Andy snatched Keith by his vest and yanked him backwards.

  Just as the pavement he stood on buckled.

  The SUV tilted to the left and rolled over, the open rear hatch knocking Andy to the ground and Keith out of his arms. Andy caught a final glimpse of someone’s hand clutching the rear bumper as the Mercedes straightened out to a full 90 degrees and disappeared down the ever-widening pit.

  “God damnit!” Andy skipped over to the JLTV and snagged the winch built into the large steel bumper. He unspooled the cable while running back to the hole and hollering into his throat mike.

  “Riggy, be prepared to winch at maximum speed.” Riggy was Andy’s code word for the virtual assistant that could operate everything on the JLTV, from making coffee to driving it.

  “Copy. Standing by.” The surreal, pleasant female voice chirped calming reassurance.

  Andy fastened the hook to a rear carabiner built into the back of his tactical vest. Andy thought briefly about hooking to the G550, but if it slipped away before he got it locked on, he had no plan B. If anything, Andy never did anything without a plan B.

  Trailing the steel winch cable behind him, Andy slid over the ledge and dropped as gingerly as he could on the back of the G550. The SUV was momentarily hooked on some debris just two meters in the hole, and only a couple more from the open sewer with its dark interior and the shadows lurking there.

  The twisted rear hatch was jammed tight, so Andy scurried down to the open turret hatch.

  “You guys done playing around?”

  Keith jerked his head around at Andy’s grinning, upside down face peering over the gun. He just grunted and kept tugging on David’s boots. The young guy panicked as his vest hooked on something under the driver’s dashboard. He yanked furiously on the quick release strap, but his bundled-up gear wouldn’t budge. He kicked around some more, catching Keith in the helmet with a boot as he tried to help

  “Stay still and I’ll get you—”

  The truck lurched again, whatever ledge they were on crumbling away. Andy snapped his extra rappelling carabiner, tied off with some 550 cord, from the front of his tac vest to the hand grip on the back of Keith’s Kevlar.

  “Out of time. Riggy, now!”

  “No, I got him!” Keith yelled and hugged David’s flopping boot.

  The cable jerked Andy outside with Keith in tow. Keith roared and chucked David’s empty boot back into the turret hatch.

  Both Andy and Keith watched in horror as they were reeled up the mud, sand, and spraying water with David left inside as the G550 crashed to a stop below a broken portion of the sewer.

  With all the debris shielding the hole from the UV flare, a shrieking wave of DEVO’s charged out of the broken sewer. One leapt far enough to grasp onto Keith. The hideous creature now was being reeled up the sinkhole with them. Andy desperately tried to bring his rifle up out of the mud, muck, and sand that it dragged through.

  No matter how many times Andy had seen DEVO’s up close and personal, he was always repelled by the vicious, animalistic nature they exhibited. That they had once been human was even more unsettling. Most had thinning hair or were bald. All were lean and gaunt. Their fingers were more like claws than parts of a human hand; their lifeless black eyes stared at you in the only way they recognized you, as something
to bite into.

  Most disturbing was the relentless clacking of their teeth as their jaws opened wide and rapidly clamped down whenever they came near a healthy human. Andy snatched the handgun in his vest and had it half out of the holster when Keith blasted the thing at point blank range.

  The .50 caliber round passed through the thing’s head, drilling a wide wound channel before traveling another nearly three meters and detonating midair. The explosive rounds were designed to destroy more by pressure wave within the target than fragmentation, but nonetheless had to travel a minimum distance before arming to protect the shooter.

  Andy growled as dozens of the creatures jumped down onto the G550, now wedged under the broken sewer line and sheltered from the intensity of the UV flare illuminating the whole street.

  Andy and Keith didn’t take another breath until they crested the top of the pavement.

  “Riggy, halt winch!”

  Andy, soaked and covered in mud, brought his rifle up to engage the DEVO’s, but mud and sand splattered across his face mask obscured his vision. Without wasting another second, he tore his helmet from his head and worked frantically to clean the muck from his rifle. Keith did the same. The barrel itself was caked with mud as he made furtive glances down at the G550. Gunshots rang out from the interior. David fought back with what sounded like his handgun rather than the more powerful rifle. Despite several mutants losing heads and limbs from the smaller but still destructive rounds, more rushed into the vehicle. After eight shots, David paused to reload. The short lull was all they needed.

  Andy’s heart sank as DEVO’s dragged David, kicking and fighting, from the SUV. David struggled with a half dozen or more mutants piled on him, who now dug their claw-like fingers into his clothing and equipment. Andy’s stomach churned as David’s helmet flew off his head, then the tac vest. The feeding frenzy began as one after another of the things bit into his neck, face, and head, tearing pieces of his flesh off with each mouthful. Others shredded his uniform to get at the exposed flesh they lusted after. Andy tore off his glove and scooped out the muck from his underslung M420 grenade launcher.

  With it mostly clean, he shoved a thermobaric-tipped 40mm round from a pouch on his vest, into the tube and slammed the breach shut. He’d have to eyeball the target since the optics were still not useable and he had removed his helmet. A multitude of de-evolved humans dragged David into the dark sewer opening, his upper body now fully exposed; his t-shirt torn from him while the things had half of his suit off. The DEVO’s fought one another for a chance to bite into any spot of exposed skin not already claimed by another mouth. If the ghoulish things had not been so greedy with eating him, they could have already disappeared down the pipe with their feast.

  “There’s only one choice now. I hope you’d do the same for me.”

  Keith watched helplessly as David suffered bite upon bite all over his body. David’s screams and worse his pleas for help were louder than the DEVO’s shrieks, or maybe Keith just heard those clearer as they bounced off the nearby buildings echoing down the deserted street.

  Andy watched as the 40mm round hit the open sewer just as David’s feet disappeared inside erupting in a shower of mud, water, and concrete. Andy jerked open the M420. As the spent casing popped out and clattered to the road, he slammed another round into it. Taking aim, he fired and the G550 disappeared in a geyser of muddy water and concrete. Secondary explosions going off from inside the rig pushed the sewer up in the sinkhole before the pressure wave disintegrated it and dozens of more shrieking DEVO’s in the sewer or nearby. In a matter of moments, the rig, David and the DEVO’s feasting on him, became buried in mud and broken concrete as water rushed into the hole from a broken water line.

  “I never, uh, have ever been on an INFIL where a team member got taken.” Keith looked pale as he reached for the passenger door of the JLTV.

  “Get used to it if you want to go in this far, rookie.” Andy seethed, glad that he at least kept David from turning into a DEVO, but pissed that, despite all the gold in back they lost him.

  The remaining team members had no time to mourn. They were deep in the nest of the beings who ruled the Dead Zone for at least the next twelve hours. Those creatures were only the start of forces that now emerged into the darkness with a single focus:

  To hunt.

  Chapter Four

  The JLTV still had all its forward lights, which Andy was grateful for, and he managed to replace a few Torch Light bulbs. Most of the lights on the right side and a portion of the rear ones were out, damaged either by the debris dumped on them by the DEVO’s or from burning fuel, or from running through concrete walls. The forward light array, a double light bar tucked in just below the turret was a God-send. It blanketed a full 500 meters in intense strobe lighting, and not just a fading ambient glow. The Torch Light system was like the UV flare but with a smaller footprint. Anything that it touched for the first half-click was illuminated brightly and visibly. The strong UV setting also scattered the DEVO’s, which were continually trying to push obstacles in front of the JLTV. The UV light scattering the things who ran away in madness meant that the Vulcan ammo and other weapons on the rig could be saved until it was absolutely needed.

  Additional one-kilometer spotlights were mounted on the turret. Logan had aimed one of those to the right of the rig to cover the light bar portions out of commission, setting them to flood which worked well. The idea was to keep any DEVO’s from rushing their vehicle with flaming implements or sharpened steel rods hoping to get lucky and puncture a tire or the body. Or if possible, the grill taking a critical engine part out somehow. None of those techniques were likely to succeed against Andy’s JLTV. The armored body, undercarriage and the steel grating over the transparent armor windows were impenetrable to anything the DEVO’s were likely to use. The steel reinforced run-flat tires with the Kevlar liners were nearly indestructible. The twelve-ton vehicle was about as well equipped as money, space and technology would allow.

  Despite all those things, Andy Crawley and his team were nervous. Sooner or later they would get blocked in somewhere and not be able to move, no one on an INFIL mission had ever survived the night this far in. The DEVO’s would eventually trap you in a roadblock then cook you out. Street after street had barricades or what looked like traps, Andy had no intention to try the alley move again, too narrow and confined. Then there were the endless sinkholes, big and small sometimes appearing out of nowhere. With the sun down, the creatures were everywhere and growing in numbers.

  Getting out wasn’t possible, the question remained if they could make it deeper in.

  The Radio Building was against the harbor, just past the railyard and port. The problem was that they needed to go through the rest of downtown. Ninety city blocks, or a little less than nine miles, if they could go in a straight line. Andy had to constantly turn around, back up or on occasion drive through a building to get to another cross street or race through part of an alley, putting him and everyone on edge.

  Every time he rounded a corner they would see hundreds, sometimes thousands, of the walking corpses. All of whom went mad with rage as the UV beams hit, scattering them back into the dark interiors of the buildings, or hiding behind rubble. But then they would regroup, following the JLTV rig at a distance. Logan debated repeatedly whether to engage them with the Vulcans but decided it was better to save his ammo in case they became stuck or trapped.

  As the JLTV rolled along an avenue, dozens of the creatures emerged at the next cross street pulling a large semi-truck with cables from the front while dozens more pushed from the back and sides all trying to stay on the other side of the truck out of the JLTV’s lights. Andy pounded the steering wheel at the sight of the latest obstruction and slowed the rig.

  The constant roadblocks and the slow progress a continual frustration. The longer they stayed exposed, the greater the odds that the DEVO’s would corner them. They already tried the cable trick again but Keith spotted it with the infrared sca
nner, the cable that had been exposed to the heat of the day in the street was considerably warmer than the surrounding night air, unlike the one they hit earlier, shaded by the alley. Andy was glad for the extra set of eyes and trigger fingers with Keith riding shotgun, inexperienced as he was, but bummed about David who like Keith was new to their group.

  Both were college kids trying to make some extra bucks. Andy had only recently given Keith the green light to probe the outer areas of the huge metropolis that made up the Dead Zone, staying close to the border in the smaller residential areas and light commercial and retail zones.

  The DEVO’s were scarcer in those areas as there were fewer places to hide. The buildings and structures tended to be smaller and not as labyrinth as what was encountered in the city’s business center where thousands of buildings towered over hundreds of streets, alleys and commons areas. It was the same in the large industrial sections with the massive factories, manufacturing facilities, and warehouses, numbering thousands of more buildings with large darkened interiors even in the daylight that were infested with the DEVO’s—and plenty of trophies. At the other end of the spectrum where Keith and David were only supposed to go were hundreds of residential neighborhoods that team members could probe with a lightly armed vehicle and take down a single residence dwelling, searching for valuables with little to no DEVO’s or Outfit encounters. Creatures confronted there were smaller in numbers and unlikely to group together as they did downtown and in other areas. The DEVO’s relegated to the outer areas seemed more devolved and mostly leaderless; unlike the mass of former humanity now closing in.

  The JLTV slowed a half block from the semi-truck blocking the next intersection. The things would not come out into the open as long as the intense UV torch-light system was activated, but they came close enough. Hiding behind concrete columns, barricades, or the cement and steel of the tall skyscrapers lining both sides of the street that formed a maze of sorts with canyon-like walls.