Roland grunted and strained as he finally got the tire up to its tipping point. He gave it one more push and watched as it splatted again back into the mud. His chest heaved from the exertion.
The rain had soaked Roland to the bone. The storm was turning into a deluge.
Coach snapped his fingers as he looked away from the replay. “Got it! This whole thing is about leverage. Skylar. You need to change the way that Leapfrog functions. Right now, Roland is using Leapfrog in his legs. He needs to be using about seventy percent of it in his hips and core area and the other thirty percent of it in his shoulders.”
Skylar nodded and immediately turned and began typing.
Coach reached into the slow motion replay of Hunter and drew on the video. He circled Hunter’s hip and shoulder motions. His markings showed in red as an overlay on the video. He swiped the video towards Skylar. “Send him this. It will help.”
Skylar grabbed Coach’s video and pinched the video to reduce its size and then uploaded it to Roland’s HUD. “Close your eyes, and you’ll see the video.”
Roland closed his eyes and watched as the video began to play. It was a strange sensation. It was not at all like watching a hologram video. It was more like remembering a dream, with no sound. He could feel his eyelids flutter briefly while the video played.
Skylar finished the changes that Coach had asked for and hit the upload button on her terminal. “Ok. Disable Leapfrog and then enable Leverage.” She watched on Roland’s HUD as Leapfrog disappeared and Leverage came on.
Roland could feel his muscles changing and becoming more rigid around his hips and core area. As he bent down in front of the tire, he drew in a deep breath. He could feel the compression begin in his lungs as he packed more and more air in. He gripped the tire again.
Coach crossed his arms. “Now just keep your back straight and stand up with it. Exhale hard on your way up. Let the momentum do the work.”
Roland snapped his hips forward. The Leverage plugin held his core straight and did the rest. The tire came up almost all the way to the tipping point. Roland gave a hard shove with his shoulders to get it the rest of the way. The tire splashed into the watery muck. “Much better.”
Coach nodded. “That was good. This time add the shoulder movement when you stand up, so it is all one motion.”
The rain began to let up. The sun could be seen peeking out at the far end of the field.
Roland grabbed the tire again and repeated his efforts. This time he added his shoulders into it. The tire flipped right over. The force of its landing doused Roland from head to toe in dirty water. Roland spit and then smiled. “Nice job, guys.” He stepped forward confidently and flipped the tire again. It didn’t take long after that to settle into a rhythm. He was never able to get the tire airborne, like Hunter had, but he was moving quickly and efficiently.
The rain quit completely, and the sun came out in full force. It seemed that even the elements were competing with each other today. The sun’s rays quickly turned the standing rainwater on the mud pit into a sauna. Steam began rising from Roland’s body as he moved.
Roland flipped his tire over the finish line marker at the top of the hill. The light in his arm turned green to show he had completed the obstacle. His HUD position showed a depressing 44. All this work, and I’m still below the position 42 cutoff. Roland’s anger and frustration fueled his depleted energy reserves. He disabled Leverage and launched into a sprint towards the next obstacle.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
MAGMA
SKYLAR SLUMPED IN her chair as she looked at Roland’s score and position on the screen. She covered her mic and leaned towards Coach. “He’s so close. He can’t lose now.”
Coach covered his mic and looked directly at her. “Hey. He’s still in this.”
Skylar took in a deep breath and nodded. Her terminal beeped with a new obstacle alert. She pulled it up and began reading it.
Coach let go of his mic and looked back at Roland’s video stream. “Great work back there. You received another 100 points. You are at 475 now. You have to have at least 600 points and be in position 42 to move on.”
Roland’s HUD speed showed 28 mph. “Gotta move up at least two more.”
Coach took a sip from his water bottle. “You’ll get another 100 points for this obstacle and that will put you at 575.”
Roland scowled and edged up to 30 mph. “Still short by 25 points.”
Coach nodded. “You will need to do the bonus obstacle. It will get you the extra points that you still need.”
A mountain loomed ahead of Roland. His arm lit up green to let him know that he was close to the next obstacle. He could see two square openings around its base. A reddish orange light shone from each. Roland leaned his head right.
Skylar grabbed the three dimensional holographic course map from her terminal and slid it towards Coach.
Coach promptly enlarged the map. “Roland. The mountain in front of you is a five hundred foot volcano. The inside has been hollowed out, and stairways have been cut into its crust. The walls and steps are superheated rock designed to test your focus and speed. The enclosed walls of the volcano capture its toxic gases, making the air unbreathable.”
Roland steeled himself at the news.
“Follow the concentric stairways to the top.” Coach zoomed in on the map. “Enable O2 and High Altitude now. Start saturating your cells with oxygen.”
Roland enabled them both and began quickly breathing deep. Then he also enabled Leapfrog and Slo Mo. He watched as his world seemed to slow to a grinding halt as Slow Mo kicked in, yet his HUD speed now read 31 mph. He saw the individual blades of grass being blown by the wind. The stench of the volcano’s sulfuric dioxide impacted him like a left hook. Its odiousness repulsed every cell in his body, but there was no turning back. Run faster.
He began to pull in the breath that had to last him his entire run through the volcano. When he reached his lungs’ normal capacity, Roland continued to draw in his breath, compressing the air in his lungs. He knew that he would need every last oxygen molecule.
As Roland reached the right entryway, he saw another racer entering on the left. He was a hybrid with droid legs. Roland could see the red light, from the inside of the volcano, reflecting on the hybrid’s metallic legs. Roland tilted his head right for more information.
Skylar zoomed in on the racer and then matched him up to the database. “That’s Franz, the brother of the racer that you hit a home run on earlier.”
Coach shook his head. “Be on your guard. Revenge is as high on his priority list as winning is. Last year, he killed another contestant who had tripped him early on in the games.”
Roland nodded and ducked slightly as he entered the doorway. Slo Mo registered every difference in the shades of light as his eyes adjusted from the bright sunlight to the dark interior of the volcano. He ran down a tunnel for thirty feet. Then the tunnel opened up into a cavernous room. Three feet in front of him, a lake of red lava bubbled ravenously. The lava filled the entire floor of the volcano, except for the narrow stairs that lay around the edge.
Roland looked up and saw a set of steep stairs that were carved into the wall of the room. The stairs spiraled in opposing directions to the top of the volcano, intersecting five times at one hundred foot intervals. Roland leapt towards the stairs on his right and began his spiraling ascent.
At full speed, Franz was climbing the stairs on the left.
The blue weapons light lit up on Roland’s arm. Weapons were authorized for the next two minutes.
A hover cam flew right in front of Franz, carefully capturing his facial expressions: narrowed eyes, jaw muscles clamped shut and fists clenched tight.
Roland enabled Fast Twitch as he rapidly climbed the stairs. The steps were double the height of regular steps. As he bounded up the stairs, Leapfrog propelled him, and Slow Mo gave him ample time to judge his take offs and landings.
The hover cam flew too close to Franz. He whippe
d out his weapon, which was also a carbon alloy. He instantly changed it into a cricket bat. The hover cam was no match for such a devastating blow. The hover cam exploded into a hundred tiny bits, most of which hit the lava and produced a brief but bright orange flame before joining the molten mass.
The hover cam’s lens mechanism, however, was a sturdier build and was sent sailing right at Roland.
Slo Mo registered the incoming lens. Roland paused, steadying himself against the wall. He watched the lens shatter right where his head would have been and then rain down its debris into the lava. When Roland pulled away from the wall, he smelled burnt hair. He looked down at his arm. Heat blisters were beginning to form where his skin had not been protected by clothing. They stung and burned as his sweat poured over them. There was no time to do anything but move forward.
The intersection of the staircases was only fifty feet ahead. Franz charged onward. He changed his cricket bat to a medieval sword.
Coach looked at Franz’s contestant information. “Roland. He’s in position 43.”
Slow Mo created an extreme focus. He pulled Charlotte from her case and gave the thought command for a spear.
True to Coach’s warning, Franz’s desire for revenge for his brother blinded him from everything but Roland. Franz swung his sword through the air as he neared him.
Roland relied on his training. He stopped just short of the intersecting stairways.
Franz glared down at him. He leapt towards Roland and swung his sword in a powerful, downward slice. The blade whistled with the speed of his effort.
Roland gave the thought command for Grip and held tight to Charlotte’s spear form. The two weapons met with a loud clang as Roland parried Franz’s sword away.
Franz followed with a slicing uppercut motion. The motion caught Roland off guard. Franz slammed Roland’s spear against the wall and advanced two steps towards Roland. His sword was now within reach of Roland. Sweat poured down Franz’s face in a river. He thrust his sword towards Roland’s heart.
Roland changed Charlotte from a spear into a round shield. Franz’s killing blow was deflected, and Franz’s right side was suddenly vulnerable.
Roland changed Charlotte yet again into two smaller shields that just covered his fists. With his left hand, he drove a hard left hook into the back of Franz’s sword hand, causing a reflex to make Franz open his hand and drop his sword. In the split second that it took for Franz’s hand to open and the sword to drop, Roland brought in a hard right hook. Roland heard the bones in Franz’s hand crack, unable to withstand the sheer raw power produced by Grip.
Franz’s weapon clattered to the ground.
Roland snaked his foot out and kicked the weapon over the edge of the stairs. It sailed downwards, blade first, into the lava. The lava gurgled as it melted the carbon alloy and pulled it under.
Franz cried out in surprise and pain. His lungs instantly began to burn as he pulled in half a breath of the toxic, volcanic gases before he caught himself and clamped his mouth closed.
Roland rammed his left shoulder into Franz to clear a way and continued his charge up the stairs.
The impact slammed Franz into the superheated wall of the volcano. Dazed, Franz lurched up the stairs. Half of his air was gone, replaced by toxic gases. Combined with the severe pain in his hand, his struggle was no longer to gain a position but merely to survive.
Roland’s HUD position showed 43. He looked up as he ran, hopeful that he might see another racer that was close enough to pass. He could see two more racers nearing the opening at the top. He poured on as much speed as he could muster.
Skylar was carefully watching Roland’s progress on the map. “You just passed the halfway point!”
Coach was glued to Roland’s video stream. “Move it. You’ve got to catch one more person.”
Roland heard a metallic clang above him. He looked up and saw the two runners ahead of him in a violent maelstrom of activity. Even from two hundred feet away, there was no mistaking the blue mohawk and the battle ax.
Duke’s hybrid opponent was a thin, willowy man with long blonde hair who wielded two short swords. His droid arms were built to be longer than a normal human’s arms of his size. They also had two additional joints, one at the bicep and another at the forearm. His movements were unnatural and looked more like an octopus than a human as he waved his arms around.
Duke dodged another odd series of movements from the strange man. Then the octopus man lashed out with his sword and caught Duke on the ribcage.
Duke howled in rage. The sound was warbled and electronic.
Roland looked up at him again. He could see that Duke’s face looked different. He was wearing a respirator over his mouth. Slo Mo picked up on Duke’s chest, as it heaved.
Duke saw red. He grabbed his opponent’s wrist and sword. Duke’s hydraulics hissed as they amped up the crushing power of his strength. He wrenched the man’s droid hand off of his arm. The metallic hand still clutched the sword. Duke ran the man through with his own sword and hand, burying it deep enough that it pinned the man to the stone wall.
Duke took a step back and turned his ax sideways. His hydraulics hissed once more as they reset. Then he blasted the man with the broadside of his ax. The pulverizing blow dislodged the man from the wall and sent him flying into the bubbling lava below.
The lava eagerly gorged itself on the willowy man’s organic material. His droid arms, however, were a succulent delicacy for it to enjoy more slowly. Ten million dollars worth of molten specialized metals collected in a silvery pool on top of the lava, no longer in their pristine engineered form. A few seconds later, the metal melted completely, adding its mass to the boiling lava rock.
Duke didn’t even look down to see the fate of his opponent. He fell back into a sprint and cleared the volcano.
Skylar tore herself away from the horrifying events on Pinnacle’s video stream and checked the map again. “Roland. You passed the three-fourths mark a little while ago. You’re almost there!”
Roland could barely hear her. He zeroed in only on the light ahead of him, desperate for oxygen.
Coach watched Roland’s vitals carefully, knowing Roland wouldn’t have much time left before he passed out from the exertion and lack of oxygen. “Keep moving! Keep moving!”
Roland barely leapt from one step to the next for the last one hundred feet. Then he burst into the sunlight. He moved his hand to shield his eyes from the glaring light.
Coach saw from Roland’s air sensors that the air around Roland was safe to breathe. “Breathe!”
Roland collapsed to his knees and drew in a deep rasping breath and then another and then another. He lay on his back, chest heaving. His eyes began to focus again. Finally, he recognized the voice in his head. Coach was telling him to get up and run. He got to his feet and took a few stumbling steps. Then he found his footing and began racing down the mountainside. He looked down on his arm and saw that the light had turned green.
Coach checked the race positions. “Roland. You’re in position 42 now! Duke killed that other contestant, so you moved up.”
Skylar had Roland’s points pulled up. “You also have 575 out of the 600 needed points.”
Coach exhaled and crossed his arms. “Now. Move onto the bonus obstacle.”
Roland nodded as he sprinted.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
PIRANHA
ROLAND RAN DOWN the mountain. As he neared the base, he could see a large warehouse ahead. It stuck out like a sore thumb against the pristine nature surrounding it. The light in his arm turned green as he approached it.
Skylar got a message, but it wasn’t the obstacle alert. It was an official Tech Games notice.
Coach leaned over her shoulder as she opened it.
Skylar used both hands and enlarged the message. “Roland. The Tech Games officials have notified us that you are in position 42, but you the lack sufficient points to continue in the Tech Games if you opt to cross the finish line now. They sa
y that completing the bonus obstacle for 100 points would give you the sufficient points needed to stay in the Tech Games. Then they ask if you would like to complete the bonus obstacle.”
Coach wrinkled his brow as he reread the notice. “That’s stupid. Why are they even asking us this?”
Skylar pointed to the bottom of the notice. “Oh. That’s why. The chance of death or deathlike symptoms is ninety-five percent.”
Coach’s eyes widened. “It says here that nine out of ten contestants that have attempted it in previous years have died. And in the interest of full disclosure, Pinnacle has graciously allowed us to know that five of their employees have died servicing the obstacle.”
Roland continued running towards the warehouse. “And those are only the ones they are telling us about.”
Coach looked curiously at the warehouse as Roland approached it. “No one else has attempted it during this Tech Games.”
Roland turned around and noticed that there were seven hover cams following him. “Look. The buzzards have already arrived.”
Skylar scrolled to the bottom. “This is getting ridiculous. They want me to put a recording of your voice stating that you will not hold Pinnacle liable and that no medics will be able to help you until you make it out of the other side of the obstacle.”
Roland laughed out loud. “Well. I sure wouldn’t want any of them to get hurt on my account.”
Skylar put the words up on Roland’s HUD that he had to say. “Read these aloud.”
Roland slowed down a little and read the statement.
Skylar captured the audio, then uploaded the small file to Pinnacle’s agreement page and pressed the Ok button. The obstacle alert messaged beeped immediately afterwards.
Roland stopped running as he approached the warehouse door. “Ok. What am I up against?”
Nano Contestant - Episode 3: Combat Obstacles: The Technothriller Futuristic Science Fiction Adventure of a Cyberpunk Marine (Nano Contestant Series) Page 9
