Gladiator (Gauntlet Prime Book 1)

by Barry Solway

  “Who are they?” Jon said.

  Jeff grabbed Jon and pulled him further into the shade at the side of the building. Their tan clothing blended well with the city and sand and the three aliens didn’t act like they had seen them.

  “That can’t be the other team,” Jeff said.

  “Maybe they figured out how to get a vehicle running?” Mel suggested. “But I don’t know who they would be. Not the Whale or Thing 1 or 2. Maybe the other three?”

  Jeff shook his head. “Can’t be. Why would they come here, two miles on the wrong side of the goal? And they aren’t looking for anything or trying to hide, either. They’re just standing in the middle of the street talking.”

  “Maybe the city isn’t as deserted as the architects think. They could be, like, scavengers or something. People trying to find stuff to steal and sell,” Mel said.

  “We know what scavengers are,” Jon replied caustically. “That’s just great. It’s bad enough to be hunted by another team… now we have to deal with this.”

  “Keep your voice down,” Jeff said. “We have no idea who these people are or whether they’d ignore us or kill us. Let’s back up and go west a few blocks. We’ll have to walk close to the buildings and keep an eye out for more of these guys.”

  Mel didn’t like it. Going off course was bad enough, although she knew that random things would happen that they’d have to work around. But having to stay in cover and keep an eye out for other scavengers would slow them down. And she had to admit, to herself at least, that this had just become terrifyingly real. There was no one to call for help and no way to know what these other aliens might do.

  “Should we go back and warn Nick and Beats?” she asked.

  “They’re at least a mile away by now,” Jeff pointed out. “We’d never meet up with Mirage if we did that, even assuming we could find them. They’ll figure it out. Let’s stick to the plan as much as we can.”

  “I’m really not impressed by Kathor’s AI,” Jon said. “Getting one of these vehicles working would have saved us a lot of time.”

  “Too late now,” Mel replied. “Anyway, none of the vehicles we’ve passed look they’ve worked in a hundred years. Maybe these guys imported their truck.”

  “Let’s go,” Jeff said curtly.

  The three of them crouched down and they made their way back to the last intersection they had crossed. They headed west, which forced them to cross the street. After they took cover behind a building, Jeff peeked around the corner.

  “No sign of the three aliens, but the truck is still there. Let’s get out of here.”

  They jogged three blocks west before Jeff turned south again to get them heading back in the right direction. While they could move quickly within a block, they stopped every time they came to an intersection to scan for scavengers. They had gone a few blocks before Mel realized someone could easily drive up behind them. After that, she made a habit of looking back every half-block.

  Twenty minutes later, they had gone at least a dozen blocks past where they had seen the truck and Jeff wondered out loud about heading east again to get back on their original route. They all decided against it fairly quickly, though. The city was laid out in a very straightforward grid pattern, so it wouldn’t be too hard to reroute once they were much closer to the rendezvous point with Mirage. They didn’t see any further signs of other aliens.

  Another hour passed before they judged they were near the rendezvous point and started to cut east. Mel was caught somewhere between being jittery and exhausted and had already drunk a third of her water. She would have to start conserving it, as the day was getting hotter with every passing minute. Jon and Jeff didn’t look too bad, except that Jon seemed annoyed by everything.

  Mel checked her watch. They were almost thirty minutes later than they should have been. She wondered if Mirage had run into problems and if she would wait for them. Jeff had them move even slower as they approached the main road that the scavengers had been on previously. They carefully peered around buildings but there was no sign of other inhabitants or moving vehicles. Mel strained to see back the way they had come, but the truck they had seen would be almost two miles away.

  Heading south now, they stuck to the east side of the street even though the sun had risen high enough overhead that the shade was quickly fading. Mel really wanted to get a drink, but forced herself to ignore her thirst. Checking her map again, they were just a block away from the meeting point. It was a flat expanse of packed dirt that may have been a park once. Or maybe a parking lot. Mel hadn’t seen any vegetation on this planet yet. Either there had been a war that had destroyed every living thing in the city or they were in a desert.

  The flat, empty area was about half a block wide on each side. There were mounds of crumbled stone that could have been old statues or a wall. They were supposed to meet in the northwest corner of the lot, near the corner of a building. They scanned the area, but there was no sign of Mirage.

  Chapter 17

  “We probably won’t see her,” Mel said. “She can change color or shape to completely blend in. She’s going to have to find us. Let’s head across and wait by the stone pile there.” Jeff ignored her and continued to examine the area, biting his lip. “Jeff? What do you think?”

  Jeff drew his attention back to her. “Sure, I guess. I don’t like being exposed like this, though. I hope she didn’t leave the rendezvous point.”

  They checked that the streets were clear, then headed across. Jeff and Jon knelt with their backs against the stone on the west side, trying to grab as much shade as possible. They pulled out their water and additional snacks and drank eagerly. Mel tried to avoid drinking too much, but realized belatedly that she had gone through half her water. Horribly, she was even thirstier than before. She was sweating so much that she could see salt stains around the tan fabric of her shirt. If this thing really went on for twelve hours, she was going to be in serious trouble.

  “Water’s going to be a problem,” Jeff said casually. “I don’t think we should wait too long. It’s likely that Mirage got tired of waiting for us.”

  “Probably thought we were already dead,” Jon muttered.

  “This is dumb,” Mel said. “How are we supposed to coordinate if there’s no way to talk to each other? You think they could have given us radios or something.”

  “Maybe they don’t because it makes the matches harder,” Jeff said. “Did you see the drone back there?”

  Mel looked startled. “What? No, when did you see a drone?”

  “A few blocks back. I saw it hovering near a window, then it was gone. I think it had a camera.”

  Mel sighed. Of course there would be cameras, that’s how they had footage from the other games. Impressive that they could keep them so hidden, but then, she had been distracted by other things. She began to obsesses over Mirage. There had to be some way to figure out where she was. Clearly, they couldn’t just sit there all day.

  “We need to start thinking like a team,” she said. “If Mirage came here and left, she should have left us a clue or something, right? That’s what I would do. Try to leave a message.”

  “She’s a freaking alien, Mel. She doesn’t speak English,” Jon said.

  “Yeah, and we don’t speak alien either, so what’s your point?” Mel fired back. “I would still do something. Draw a picture that only we would recognize, something like that. But then what would you do next if you were Mirage?”

  “I’d assume all the lame-ass humans were dead,” Jon said.

  Jeff thought a minute. “She was supposed to scout out the area while we hiked here. If she found the goal, she was supposed to grab it, then meet us here. If she couldn’t find it, then we’d go searching together. My guess is she either found it, or gave up waiting and went looking for it again. She’s got great camouflage, right? If she could find it, she could grab it and get out without the other team even knowing.”

  “Right,” Mel said. “Then what? She could eith
er come back to meet us or head east to meet Beats and Nick. I hate to agree with Jon, because he’s mostly a moron, but I think he’s kind of right. There’s no real benefit for her to look for the three of us.”

  “It would make more sense if she didn’t,” Jeff said. “We would just slow her down and make a more obvious target for the other team to look for. Honestly, she’d be better on her own.”

  “That’s been my point the entire time!” Jon said, almost shouting. “We should have just hidden from the start. Or gone the opposite direction. We’re less than useless; we actively get in the way.”

  “Keep your voice down,” Mel hissed. “Maybe we’ll end up being useful as a distraction. If we’re still in this area, then the other team might think the goal hasn’t been found yet.”

  Jon glowered at Mel but didn’t say anything. Jeff was deep in concentration for a moment before responding. “I think we should try to find the goal.”

  Mel blinked, caught off guard. “What?”

  “For all we know, Mirage is dead or injured. Maybe the other team found her. Or maybe she’s looking for it but hasn’t found it yet. Or she found it and is heading back to Beats and Nick. If that’s the case, then they’ll get to the red zone and we’ll win, no problem. Look, the plan was to meet Beats and Nick in about three hours anyway, assuming we don’t find the goal first, right? Our job is just to stay alive until Mirage finds it. But if Mirage is out of the game, then it’s up to us. Hiding isn’t really an option. It will just piss Kathor off and might get us killed once we’re back at the ship. Even if we fail, as long as we’re trying we should be okay.”

  Mel didn’t like it but couldn’t argue with the logic. They didn’t have to put that much effort into it, after all. Just enough to make it look like they were trying. And hiding had other problems. Unless they trekked miles away to hide, there was always the chance the other team would find them while looking for the goal.

  “So we’re going to go out and try to find the other team?” Jon said. “With the killer eels and ugly-ass alien chick? Did you see that thing’s mouth? This is seriously the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  Jeff smiled. “You afraid?”

  “No, I’m just not an idiot. I guess you’re trying to impress your girlfriend here or something, but don’t get me killed in the process.”

  “I’m not his girlfriend,” Mel said, before catching an arched eyebrow from Jeff. “Well, I mean, it’s complicated. But… look, that’s not the point. What else are we going to do? And Jeff’s right about Kathor, we have to at least look like we’re doing something.”

  Jeff stood up. “That’s enough arguing. I’m not hiding out and waiting for someone to hunt us down. If we have to do these games, then I intend to win. Or at least try to.”

  Jon stood and shrugged into his backpack. “Fine.”

  “Where do we start?” Mel asked, pulling out her map.

  “The goal is supposed to be in this six square block area,” Jeff said, pointing to the blue highlighted section on the map. “That starts about three blocks from where we are, just south of here.”

  Mel didn’t like the plan, but couldn’t think of anything else to do. They would have to be careful, but hopefully with three sets of eyes they could detect the other team and stay out of harm’s way. They headed south to the first building that was in the blue zone. It was at least ten stories high, light tan and plain on the outside. The windows on each floor were about four feet high each, narrow and spaced fairly far apart. There were no windows on the first floor, but about fifteen feet up, they could see broken glass hanging from the sides of the window frames.

  “I wonder what happened to destroy this place,” Jeff said.

  “It’s not really destroyed,” Mel replied. “Some of the cities in the videos looked like they had been bombed, but I haven’t noticed any of that here. I’m guessing it was just abandoned.”

  “Great, an alien Detroit,” Jon said. “In case you guys haven’t done the math, checking every one of these buildings will take days. This one has at least ten floors and it’s not even the tallest. There’s like eight buildings this size just on this block alone.”

  “Strategy,” Mel said.

  “What that hell does that mean?” Jon replied.

  “Hey, be nice to my girlfriend,” Jeff said. “Mel, what the hell does that mean?”

  That almost made Mel laugh and she appreciated Jeff for making light of a potentially tense moment. “We can split up to cover more ground, which leaves us open to being attacked, or we stay together, which risks us not finding the goal before the other team.”

  Jeff nodded. “Right. We should definitely stay together.”

  “Um… I was thinking we could send Jon out to search by himself,” Mel said, only half-joking.

  Jon swore and turned his back on Mel.

  “Don’t worry, Jon, we’re not separating,” Jeff said. “I wouldn’t get much searching done if you left me alone with Mel for long.”

  Mel’s heart skipped a beat. This really wasn’t the time to be flirting, and she was getting a sinking feeling this thing with Jeff might be more serious for him than she cared for. She would have to deal with that later.

  “C’mon, let’s get started,” Mel said. “I just had an idea that might speed things up. There’s a ton of dust and sand on the sidewalks, right? Look at our footprints. If they put a goal in one of the buildings, wouldn’t the dust get disturbed? They could erase footprints, but I still think you could tell. It’s not very windy.”

  Jeff nodded in approval. “We can look for footprints from the other team too.”

  With the new plan, they decided to start by heading west and searching the six blocks of the blue zone in that direction before heading south one block. Still, it would take an hour or two to crisscross the entire blue zone. Gritting her teeth as they took off, Mel pushed the thought of water out of her mind. Just talking in this heat made her thirsty.

  They’d covered the first two blocks without incident when they encountered an obvious disturbance halfway down the third block. The dust in the road swirled in a large circle, as if someone had directed a giant fan at it. There were no footprints per se, but a line of unnatural-looking sand led into one of the buildings. Either something had been dragged there or someone had attempted to sweep the dust and dirt to erase the signs of passage.

  They stared at the door to the building. Jon finally muttered under his breath and moved forward to go inside, but Jeff grabbed him and pulled him back.

  “It could be a trap. Let’s find another way in,” Jeff said.

  Jon didn’t argue and they walked farther down the street, but didn’t find any other doors. Each of the buildings seemed to have one door in the middle of the building that was slightly raised off the street by one or two steps. There were no alleys between buildings and Mel hadn’t seen any way to get into the buildings from behind. Almost all the buildings they had seen were built touching each other.

  They finally returned to the door where the dust and dirt had been disturbed. “Shoot. Now anyone on the other team will know we’re here,” Jeff said.

  “We should get off the street,” Jon replied nervously.

  “I really don’t want to just walk through that door without knowing what’s on the other side,” Jeff responded.

  “Let’s try an adjacent building and see if they connect from the inside,” Mel suggested.

  They agreed and walked to the building next door. Jeff took a deep breath and pushed the door open. It was a bit anticlimactic. After their eyes adjusted to the dimness, the inside looked like it could have been a lobby for a business or hotel. Columns supported the ceiling two stories overhead. A large sunken area may have once been a pool or a separate gathering area. Along one wall ran a counter, a bit higher than waist high to Mel. Boxes of equipment and dusty electronics were strewn against one wall. It looked like someone had been packing, but then just left without taking anything with them.

  Me
l walked over and rummaged through the boxes. Cables, cups, decayed paper, and strange mechanical devices she had no idea the use of. A flat plastic board with strange indentations that could have been a computer keyboard. She grabbed a coil of the cable, some kind of soft clear material with a metal plug at each end, and stuffed it in her backpack.

  Glancing at Jeff, she shrugged. “It might come in handy.”

  Reaching into another crate, she found a long rod attached to a round base with a wire coming out of it at the bottom. Metal prongs stuck out from the top of the rod. It seemed a bit like a lamp, although she couldn’t picture how a light bulb would attach to the metal prongs. The rod was about a foot and a half long, a bit shorter than what they the sticks they had trained with, but better than nothing. Smacking the base of the lamp against the counter, she finally knocked it off, then pulled the wire out.

  She turned and gave the improvised weapon to Jeff, then motioned for them to look for additional rods. Soon, they were each armed with at least some semblance of a weapon and Mel was feeling more confident. Almost as important as having the weapon was knowing that she had the ability to improvise in the moment. If anyone attacked them, her first impulse would be to run.

  Jeff pointed east, the direction of the other building. They walked down a deserted corridor, with several doors on either side. Literally all Mel could hear was the rapid beating of her heart and the short breaths of the two boys. Relief at getting out of the sun didn’t quite make up for the stale and stifling air. The hall ended in a T intersection and the light grew dimmer as they moved away from the main lobby. All three took out their flashlights, shining them down the hall. More doors lined the west side of the hallway, but not on the east. The building they wanted was likely on the other side of the east wall, but there was no entryway that they could see.

  “Maybe a basement entry?” Jeff said. “Let’s look for stairs.”

  They headed right, opening doors as they went. Most went into office-like rooms, with desks and oddly-shaped stools. Mel wondered what kind of alien butt would fit in something like that. The third door opened to a ramp that led both up and down.