Nano Contestant - Episode 4: Arctic Survival: The Technothriller Futuristic Science Fiction Adventure of a Cyberpunk Marine (Nano Contestant Series)

by Leif Sterling

  Skylar looked at the three-dimensional holographic map. “The Arctic forest you are in is a plateau. Continue west through it for ten miles. Then, you will reach the final slope of the mountain you are on. From there, it is twenty miles of downward terrain. Then there will be a second mountain to climb.”

  Roland nodded and adjusted his heading west. He started off at a jog to get his body warmed up. The sunlight was just beginning to peek over the horizon.

  Ivan made a small mess as he fixed his coffee, which was equal parts coffee, milk, sugar, and vodka. He set his coffee cup down quickly, slashing part of it over onto the desk. He pointed excitedly to Roland’s right. “Look! Bush! It have berries. Good source of vitamin C!” Ivan wiped up the spilled coffee with his shirttail.

  Roland pulled Charlotte from her carrier and gave the thought command again for a machete. He grabbed a branch of the bush as he jogged by and hacked it off. He stowed the weapon as he continued running. The bush’s sharp leaves defended its berries valiantly. He picked out the berries and threw them into his mouth as he jogged. The berries were about the size and shape of blueberries, but they were bright red. Their flavor was tart but had a sweet finish. With fingertips stained red from the berries’ juice, Roland pulled off two handfuls before the branch was emptied.

  Roland enabled the Fast Twitch, O2 and High Altitude plugins. He felt his muscles being pulled taut and the familiar compression in his lungs.

  The snow was thick and soft from the previous night’s snowstorm. The snow blanketed everything and came halfway up to Roland’s shins with every step. The speed on his HUD showed 15 mph. He pulled in some nice deep breaths as the O2 plugin compressed the air to double and then quadruple capacity in his lungs. Roland was finishing up his second mile of the morning. “This deep snow is worse than any sandy beach I’ve been on. It’s going to be hard to keep up this pace.”

  Ivan set his coffee down on desk, harder than necessary. It spilled over the side once more, despite being only half full. He threw his hands up in the air. “Of course! City Boy need snowshoes! You sinking, because you have no snowshoes.” Ivan grinned heartily. “You need to make snowshoes.”

  Coach crossed his arms. “What about Charlotte? She could be divided in half, one for each foot. Then they would be extremely strong and light.”

  Roland’s pace slowed a little as the snow deepened. “Sky. Send me a snowshoe design.” As Skylar searched for designs and showed them to Ivan, Roland continued trudging through the snow. He tried out each of the plugins in his inventory to see if they helped with the deep snow. With Leapfrog, he made more distance, but he sank deeper into the snow each time he landed.

  He tried Fast Twitch but just burned energy and made little progress. “Anything on the snowshoes yet? This snow is deep I’m not making a lot of distance here.” Each time he exhaled, a large cloud of condensation formed in the air.

  Skylar uploaded the snowshoe design to Roland. “I am sending you the latest in snowshoe design.”

  Roland saw the three dimensional design appear on his HUD. He gave Charlotte the thought command for the design and then stepped into them. “This is good. I’m only sinking a couple of inches instead of a foot or more.”

  Ivan grinned and pounded Coach on the back. “See? Ivan’s snowshoe idea is good idea!”

  Skylar watched Roland’s movement on the holographic map. “You are definitely moving more quickly than you were.”

  Coach rubbed his back briefly to try and ease the stinging from the good-natured pat he had received. “How do they feel, Roland? Are they tight enough?”

  Roland nodded. “Yeah. They are tight, but I’ve still got circulation in my feet.” He lengthened his stride. “Taking longer strides now. Feels strange, like a waddling penguin or a duck.”

  Coach half smiled. “I don’t care how you look when you’re running. You are moving fifty percent faster, and you are using way less energy.”

  Roland settled into his new rhythm. He was taking long, bounding strides. He tried to gain as much distance as he could from each of his strides. Roland worked his way down the mountain for the better part of the afternoon.

  Skylar followed Roland’s position on the holographic map. She leaned towards Coach. “He is making good progress. If he can keep this pace up, he will have no problem hitting the sixty-nine miles that he needs today, but it looks like the racer behind him has started gaining on his position.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN:

  HUNTER

  COACH NODDED IN acknowledgement. “Find out which contestant it is and alert Roland.”

  Skylar’s fingers leapt into action. She typed in a number of commands and then swiped through her terminal screens to find the other scanning options. She sent out a sonar ping in the direction of the rapidly gaining contestant to measure speed and closing distance. Then she also turned on the heat sensors to read the contestant’s unique body heat signature. “Roland. Hunter is behind you, a hundred yards back and gaining quickly.”

  A small flock of hover cams dipped down into the area. Two of them flew out in front of Roland. Two more captured the racer approaching behind him. A trio grabbed the aerial view from different angles, extending their optics with high definition telephoto lenses.

  Roland poured on the speed, kicking out white plumes of snow from behind his snowshoes.

  Coach’s eyes narrowed as he watched both Roland’s feed and the race feed from the hover cams. “He’s still closing on you. Roland. Prepare for defensive measures on my mark.”

  Roland gave the thought command for Slow Mo. Defensive measures was a mental queue from Coach. He could hear Coach’s mantra in his head. The best defense is a good offense. He set his jaw in determination as he watched the familiar slow down effect of Slow Mo. The bright sunlight glinted off of the powdery snowflakes. Each snowflake displayed the refracted brilliance of thousand diamonds. He felt a few snowflakes that chanced to land on his cheeks. Their intense cold instantly melting into water and then evaporating due to the high dryness of the air, a near sublimation effect.

  Ivan’s eyes widened as he watched the ease with which Hunter narrowed the gap. “How can him defend against that?” He pointed at the screen. “Him much bigger and faster and.”

  Skylar interrupted him. She hit the upload button on her terminal and smiled. “He’ll be the perfect test subject for Roland’s new plugin: Adrenaline Dump.” She adjusted her mic to be a little closer to her mouth. “Roland. I have a little surprise for you.”

  Roland cleared a small holly bush and leaned his head right. His HUD speed showed 25 mph, his fastest speed in the snow so far.

  “Adrenaline Dump is something I started working on after Duke and his cronies set out to claim the bounty on you. It does a complete adrenaline dump on you, everything you’ve got. By using it all once, it will give you a super fight or flight response. You’ll get a good three minutes of acute stress responsiveness.”

  Coach gave an approving nod. “Fight hard and then run fast. I like it.”

  Roland gave the thought command for Adrenaline Dump. A small, blue timer showed up in the lower left of his HUD.

  Skylar swiped right two screens to Adrenaline Dump’s control panel. “Ready for the adrenaline?”

  Roland took in a deep breath. “Go.”

  Skylar tapped the button.

  Coach enlarged his main display, which showed Roland’s vitals. He swiped over to the hormone section. He watched as the bar graph for the adrenaline reserves plummeted downwards, flooding into Roland’s body. As soon as it was depleted, the bar next to it labeled Noradrenaline also began dropping at the same rate. “Is this other one, ‘Nor-something’ supposed to go down too?”

  Skylar nodded. “Yes. They are naturally connected. My script runs noradrenaline right after adrenaline. The noradrenaline is used by the cells as a transmitter. It is supposed to help the body use less adrenaline. By using both, we will supersaturate Roland’s body with the adrenaline.” She turned her attention b
ack to her terminals. “The adrenaline countdown has commenced.”

  Coach nodded. “Roland. Make your take down in sixty seconds or less. Use the rest of your time to put distance between you. Go.”

  Ivan crossed his arms, raised an eyebrow and pointed at Hunter. “But him so big.”

  Roland’s eyes dilated nearly completely. His heart rate skyrocketed, and his blood pressure followed. Roland’s air passageways expanded, greedily claiming every molecule of oxygen. He leapt into the air and spun around to the rear, planting his right foot in a fighting stance. Between the adrenaline and Slow Mo, he could feel every heartbeat as it created waves of hyper-oxygenated blood that disseminated centrally from his vascular system out to his extremities. He gave the thought command for Charlotte to change into a short pair of skis. The carbon alloy weapon narrowed and then lengthened.

  Roland launched himself forward, sliding on one ski and then the other, directly towards Hunter. He could hear the carbon alloy sliding across the top of the snow.

  Hunter stampeded towards Roland. His breath steamed from his mouth. His robotic limbs shimmered white as they shifted camouflage colors to match the varying shades of his surroundings.

  Roland raced forward on his skis. The adrenaline countdown timer showed 2:43 left.

  Hunter reached behind him and withdrew his weapons, a machete in his left hand and very large deer-skinning knife in his right hand. The deer-skinning knife looked to be better suited for large African game instead of forest creatures. The weapons were made of a matching metallic camouflage. Only fifty feet separated him from a lifetime of free upgrades.

  The hover cams danced out of range like synchronized swimmers, circling and dipping to catch those fantastic rating-boosting shots of the contestants putting it all on the line.

  Hunter went airborne, leading with an enormous downward cut towards Roland.

  Roland dove into a somersault, at the same time giving Charlotte the thought command to change into a long spear. The carbon alloy weapon released from his boots and snapped together, creating a pile of disturbed snow before taking on a pointed cylindrical shape. Roland grabbed the weapon as he rolled forward, coming up in a fighting stance.

  Hunter landed, his weight exploding the snow around him. He lashed out with his machete spinning around to follow it up with his razor sharp skinning knife.

  Roland countered each move with his spear, but each counter was costing him ground.

  Hunter’s machete clanged loudly off of Roland’s spear, followed again by the skinning knife. Each blow was so hard that it jarred Roland’s clenched teeth.

  Skylar winced as Roland deflected again. “This guy is built like a tank.”

  “He probably made out of one.” Ivan shook his head in disbelief.

  CHAPTER TWENTY:

  LEVERAGE

  COACH WATCHED HUNTER’S every move intently. “He favors his right leg and always leads with it. Go for the left one.”

  Roland ducked and swung his spear in a sidearm motion, connecting with the side of Hunter’s left hydraulic knee. The pristine Arctic forest echoed with a piercing, metallic twang.

  Hunter’s left knee buckled from the spear’s impact. He caught his balance and instantly reacted to protect his injured knee. His weakness now revealed, Roland’s destruction became a matter of pride. He flipped the machete around so that instead of the blade extending from his hand, it pointed downwards covering the edge of his forearm with the blade. On a smaller man, the machete would have been unwieldy at best. On Hunter, it fit him like a glove.

  Coach pointed at the change on the terminal. “Roland. Shield! A barrage is coming.”

  Roland gave the thought command to Charlotte to change into a rectangular shield with two handles. The weapon responded instantly, flattening, widening and then sprouting handles.

  Hunter launched his attack, a veritable tsunami of power wrapped in blades. First, a right-handed machete slice followed by a left-handed uppercut with the skinning knife. He made a series of downwards stabs, alternating between the machete and the skinning knife advancing with each deadly stab.

  Without Slow Mo, Hunter’s attack would have been devastating. Roland watched each movement and countered with the shield, but each counter was costing him ground.

  Slow Mo revealed Hunter’s tell. The cyborg arms were telegraphing their next movements. Tiny pressure relief valves at Hunter’s shoulder joints made a light hissing sound and forced a small flap to open, providing escape for the hydraulic pressure, whenever Hunter made his large cutting movement.

  Roland listened for the tiny hiss to come from Hunter’s left shoulder. Roland gave the thought command to Charlotte to change back into a spear.

  Skylar’s eyes widened. She muted her headset. “What’s he doing? Doesn’t he need the shield?”

  Coach held up one finger. “Wait for it. I think he’s just found another target. Hunter’s really guarding that left knee now.”

  Roland double fisted his spear near its base to give him a long reach and maximum power. He enabled the Grip plugin, anticipating the impact. He watched for Hunter’s large downward machete slice, the move with the most opportunity but also the most deadly if Hunter connected.

  A tiny hiss escaped from Hunter’s left shoulder as he wound up for his next machete attack.

  Roland enabled Leap Frog and side stepped to his left. He thrust his spear hard, aiming for Hunter’s powerful machete hand. The carbon alloy tip bore through Hunter’s hand and into the machete handle.

  In the eternity provided by Slow Mo, Roland watched as Hunter’s eyes widened, changing from determined ferocity to sudden shock. Roland observed as Hunter’s left hand opened and his machete fell into the snow. It bounced once and then was dragged down by its weight to the permafrost below the deep snow.

  Roland ripped Charlotte from Hunter’s fist and leapt towards Hunter, this time aiming for the left knee. His aim was true. He drove his spear with the full weight of his body sideways into the critical, metallic joint. Six inches of the spear tip protruded from the other side of Hunter’s knee. Roland now wielded control of a simple, yet powerful machine: a lever. Roland pushed down on his spear handle with all of his weight, using Hunter’s metallic tibia structure as his fulcrum. Shattered metal framework bounced off of frigid timber. Severed wires sparked wildly, like desperate tentacles. Hydraulic fluid spewed uncontrollably onto the unpolluted snow.

  The hover cams flew in closer to get a better shot. Their lenses telescoped outwards, like the hideous head of a carrion bird.

  Hunter dropped his skinning knife as he tried to balance himself. Unable to regain control, he fell towards Roland, his enormous upper body being separated from the stability of his lower leg. He bellowed in anger. In a last ditch effort, Hunter pressed an unseen, fingernail sized device into Roland’s coat before he hit the ground.

  Ivan’s eyes were as wide as dinner plates, and he grinned from ear to ear. “City Boy was awesome!” He clapped his hands until his eyes fell upon his empty shot glass. “Ivan need drink to celebrate!”

  Coach gave an approving nod. “Nicely done. Leave him and get moving. You’ve got just under two minutes before all that adrenaline wears off.”

  Roland’s chest heaved from the exertion. The warm water vapor in his breath condensed to form large clouds that floated upwards before dispersing. “Which way?” He felt disoriented after his encounter with Hunter.

  Skylar checked the map. “Turn about fifteen degrees to your left and head down the mountain towards the river.”

  Roland started off at a slow jog. He saw movement in the trees. He inclined his head towards it. “See that?”

  Skylar sent out a ping on the radar and infrared sensors. “It’s not another contestant.”

  Then Roland heard a sound that made the hair stand up on the back of his neck. A bone-chilling howl rang out through the forest. Roland picked up his pace. The first howl was answered by three more.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:

&nb
sp; ALPHA

  THE SMILE LEFT Ivan’s face. He set his shot glass down. “That not good. First howl was louder and longer. That one alpha. Him is leader. Each one that answered is another small group of wolves. Alpha calling them all together, da?”

  Coach focused on Ivan. “How many are in a small group?”

  Ivan shook his head. “Don’t know. Three or four?”

  Skylar face blanched as she nodded. “Roland. I count at least a dozen heading right for you.” She swiped right two screens to check the signals in the area again. She muted her mic. “Coach. Come look at this.” She pointed at her screen, which displayed Roland’s position and a dozen orange dots converging on him from the North. “It’s almost like there’s a magnet or something.”

  Coach watched the orange dots getting closer. “Roland. You’re going to have contact in about another ten seconds.”

  Roland gave the thought command to switch over to infrared. He looked over his shoulder. The wolves’ body heat glowed bright orange on his vision. He switched back to his normal vision. “Any ideas?”

  Ivan crossed his arms. “Kill the alpha, da? That only chance. Maybe the rest back off without leader.”

  Skylar’s fingers flew over her holographic keyboard. “The way they are drawn to you isn’t natural. Something isn’t right. Maybe Hunter did something.” Skylar glared at her terminal, her eyebrows furrowed. Then her mouth opened a little, and her eyes widened. “I found another signal! It’s coming from Roland!” She pointed at the holographic terminal in front of her. “It looks like a beacon or something.”

  Coach looked over at the massive amount of signal data flowing down the terminal, most of it unintelligible to him. “What do you mean it’s coming from him? Can you turn it off?” He covered his mic and leaned down towards Skylar. “Run a security scan. Maybe we got hacked.”