Chapter 19: How to Lose Friends and Terrify People

  The first of the Recycled popped its head from its hole and screamed like Gazpacho when you clipped his nails. For a moment I was yanked out of the mad scramble for survival—I just missed my fucking dog.

  Wuu-Tang

  Level 2

  Priorita started yapping about the thing, how they had lobotomised the whole species to make them suitable for this stage. I didn't know why she always had to talk when I was fighting for my life, but tried to grunt a response anyway. I hadn't forgotten her threat.

  It burst from its den, all churning legs and snapping jaws. About eight feet long, it looked like a centipede had screwed a chihuahua and then mainlined steroids. My heart thundered in my chest and I waited until the last moment to leap aside, swinging Ebonrage.

  I whiffed the strike.

  One head reared back, and I dove and rolled to avoid the second. A billow of fetid breath told me it had only just missed. I rolled to my feet and for a second my eyes flickered to the burning skull of my predator perk.

  I could turn it on for a second, surely that wouldn’t be so bad? But no, I couldn’t trust myself to turn it off.

  I looked up in time to see the Wuu-Tang arching its back. It made a Hyuurk sound that reminded me of Gazpacho when he ate carrots and inevitably barfed on the carpet.

  A concussive blast of air shot from its left head. I was too slow to dodge and the air bullet hit my chest like a cannonball. Pain flared across my ribs as I crashed into the dirt. I tasted blood. I tumbled in an undignified sprawl of limbs, rolling hard enough to blur my vision.

  I heard Ariel curse in French.

  Paddy barked a laugh.

  The Wuu-Tang lunged. I scrambled to stand, heart hammering. It was almost on me—shit, it was going to get me.

  The skull flashed and I thought I heard faint guitar chords.

  But the creature hesitated, eying the party at my back. It turned and scurried back to its burrow. The thick mat of alien plants and vines snapping shut like a trapdoor.

  I rubbed at my chest where the air bullet had hit and retreated to the rest of my party.

  “Well, you right fucked that one up, eh lad? Thought I was about to learn a thing or two.”

  He crouched beneath the wide fronds of a fungal palm, grinning at me.

  We had broken into parties of five—the limit that Priorita’s system would allow. The other teams—at least four other groups of five—watched from where they hunted other recycled. Silent. Waiting.

  The weight of their stares made my skin itch.

  “How the hell was I supposed to know the damn things could do that?” I snapped.

  “Oh, I dunno, lad. Did ya try watching what the others were doing?” Paddy waggled his eyebrows. “The UI gives you more details as you observe them too. Didn’t ya use that on the last stage?”

  I hadn’t. How did everyone know all this stuff?

  I scowled and squinted at the trapdoor, where two sets of eyes peered out. The Wuu-Tang’s info tab popped up and there was a + beside its name I hadn’t bothered with before. I clicked it. A second window appeared. History, biology, strengths, weaknesses. Too much text. I was no good at this nerd shit.

  “We’re here to learn how to fight as a team,” I grumbled. “That’s what Longwei said.”

  “Sure, lad, but we need to know what each of us can do."

  I clenched my fists, remembering the Wuu-Tang’s teeth. I’d lost my arm once, had it eaten from fingertips to shoulder and sure as shit didn’t want it to happen again.

  “How would you kill the bloody thing, then?” I gestured to the trapdoor, where two pairs of red eyes peeked from the darkness. “It’s got two heads. If I axe one, the other gets me. If I dodge, it spits bloody air bullets.”

  Paddy’s gaze flicked up. He wasn’t looking at me—he was checking my kill count as though he didn’t believe it.

  I didn’t like that. I wasn’t the monster, the predator, but at 73, mine was still, by far, the highest we’d seen.

  The skull icon pulsed again, harder this time. A distant bass drum thumped in my ears, matching my heartbeat.

  Before I could snap at him, the Wallace siblings approached.

  They were sandy-haired, sharp-jawed, and had the kind of southern drawl you could taste.

  Tammy-Lee Wallace

  Level 2 Human

  Class: Grease-Monkey (Rare)

  Role: Adventurer

  Kills: 13

  Tyler Wallace

  Level 2 Human

  Class: Gator-Wrangler (Rare)

  Role: Adventurer

  Kills: 11

  At 13 and 11 kills, they had stood out from the crowd and each had a rare class too. I hadn’t been sure about letting them into the party, but after our confrontation with Longwei, the rest of the adventurer class humans had avoided us.

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  Tammy cracked open a tinny of cheap beer. Apparently, she and her brother had been arriving at a cook-up when they were zapped away, and each had a slab of Pabst Blue Ribbon in their inventory.

  She chugged it and tossed the empty can over her shoulder.

  “Hold my beer.”

  Tyler caught it, laughing, before zapping it into his inventory.

  “Get at it, sis.”

  Tammy went wide, circling the trapdoor. She moved silent and smooth, like I imagined a hunter would. She stepped into its blind spot, waited half a breath, then tossed the furred corpse of a small alien over the hole.

  The Wuu-Tang burst out.

  Its long body made it halfway before Tammy-Lee rammed a spear through its back.

  My chest clenched—the thing screamed just like my dog.

  It thrashed, twisted and snapped at her, but she danced to the side and it missed by millimetres. She withdrew a second spear and pinned the horror to the dirt.

  A final whimper and it died. Purple, forked tongues lolled from both mouths.

  She wiped her hands on her jeans, summoned a fresh beer, and popped the tab.

  “Ain’t no big thing.”

  I stared.

  A few of the other teams cheered, and Tammy waved.

  “Christ, lad. I reckon I’m in love.” Paddy’s voice boomed through the clearing.

  Tyler’s grin vanished. He scowled at Paddy, fingers twitching.

  Tammy winked at the Irishman. “What can I say, Red? I know how to handle a spear.”

  Paddy roared with laughter. He slung an arm over her shoulder.

  Tammy slapped it away and returned to Tyler’s side.

  I had no fucking idea how they could all be so nonchalant about all of this. My heart still thrashed in my chest. When the thing had turned and lunged, I was sure it was going to get her. I could still feel its screech in my bones.

  I cleared my throat. And they all turned to me. I didn’t want the title of party leader, but since I’d sent the invites, the system had assigned it to me. I hadn’t expected anyone to care about it.

  But they did.

  And they were waiting.

  “Look, guys, I know what Longwei said.” I rubbed my temple. “But one mistake, and it’s lights out. You understand? Tammy, that was bloody close, and you know it.”

  She scowled.

  “Allan is right.” Ariel’s voice cut through the group. “We must use our strengths to compensate for our weaknesses. You, Tammy-Lee—” She waved at the sandy haired woman who had already finished her beer, and was starting on another.

  She was drinking quickly, which made me wonder if it was a coping mechanism for the stress of this place.

  “You move fast. You are observant. But if you faced something stronger, head-on, you would have struggled. No?”

  After a long pause, she nodded.

  Ariel turned to Paddy.

  "You’ve got quick hands, a sharp tongue—but your arm’s weak."

  “Oi! I’m strong, alright? Wiry strength! Not all bunched up like you two meatheads."

  Ariel stared.

  “You have a bow, don’t you?”

  He froze.

  “How d’ya know that, kid?” He asked, narrowing his eyes.

  I fought to keep my expression neutral, but was reminded of the dodgy shit she had pulled on the last stage. Of how she always seemed to know things she shouldn’t.

  She rolled her eyes.

  “You’re left-handed. You wear an armguard on your right arm to protect from the string. Doesn’t take a Phénomène to figure it out.”

  She turned to Tyler.

  “You are strong and tough, yes? But you are not a dodger. Not a planner. You need direction.”

  Tyler looked to his sister, before nodding. “She’s older than me by seventeen minutes.” He summoned a shield and a heavy war gauntlet with a grunt. “Reckon that means she tells me what to do.”

  The man seemed slow, but I was pretty sure it was an act.

  Ariel studied him. Then, she nodded.

  She spent the better part of a half hour directing us to work as a team. Her voice was sharp. Confident. It was bizarre. Almost like she had done it before. But everything she said made sense so we listened.

  The colours of the underground land morphed as I listened. The greens and blues that had dominated the phosphorescent sky when we had left the castle town were now infected with veins of deep red.

  Before I knew it, we were arrayed in position, ready to face another Wuu-Tang. This time as a team.

  I could feel my Perk Icon pulsing in my HUD. The flaming skull. Waiting. Watching.

  Ariel gave the signal. “Tyler, go.”

  Tyler leaped forward, shield raised and the creature burst from its lair and scurried at him. He deflected the strike of its left head with his shield and gave it an almighty right hook that made the thing yelp.

  An arrow hissed over my shoulder and ricochet off the things carapace.

  Tammy-Lee circled and dashed in.

  "Allan, now!” Ariel’s voice cut through the chaos.

  I lunged, axe raised. The second head’s glowing red eyes locked onto me. Mouth open in a snarl, dripping with saliva.

  The skull icon pulsed in my HUD. Hatchling Predator: Activate?

  I hesitated.

  A heartbeat too long.

  Tyler screamed.

  The creature’s fangs sank into his thigh, shredding flesh. Blood sprayed. Everybody broke formation.

  Paddy shot another arrow which tore a jagged hole through one of the pointed chihuahua ears.

  Tammy-Lee shrieked in complete panic and ran in. She drove a spear into the monster’s side, but was at the wrong angle to get its spine.

  Ariel came at it headlong, some sort of a cane in her hand. She was blasted back and sent end over end by an air bullet.

  The Wuu-Tang shook Tyler like a chew toy.

  Blood sprayed.

  I gaped.

  What had I done?

  I slammed the button.

  Guitar SCREAMED.

  My feet left the ground in a superhuman leap.

  The axe struck deep, shearing through its body. Green ichor spraying like a fountain, painting me from head to toe. The axe had cleaved all the way through the recycled’s body and lodged deep into the dirt beneath.

  I left it there.

  Though fatally injured, the thing was still alive and thrashing. I made a superhuman leap in the low gravity, crushing one skull under my boots heels as I landed. I grabbed the jaws of the other where they still gripped Tylers thigh and wrenched snapping the open like a mousetrap.

  Ariel scrambled in and pulled Tyler away as he collapsed, clutching his leg.

  I was on the thing, striking blow after blow after blow until its head was pulp. Every blow landing to the beat of the predators drums. I tore it to pieces, its flesh sizzling like chinese food beneath my superheated fingertips. I didnt remember activating soldertouch.

  My axe was still buried in flesh, but I didn’t need it. My hands were free, still sizzling and smoking.

  My vision pulsed infrared.

  The next kill was near.

  I grinned so wide I could have sprained something.

  And I ran for the next victim.

  A faint sound penetrated the screaming guitar and thundering drums.

  “Allan.”

  “ALLAN!”

  I flicked a glance back and saw my party. The blood. The terror in their eyes. The slumped form of Tyler.

  I skidded to a halt in the soggy ground.

  And I hammered on that damn flaming skull icon, until the music stopped.

  ***

  We limped back to town. Tyler leaning on Tammy-Lee. Nobody spoke.

  Paddy watched me from the corner of his eye, like he was worried I would attack. He flinched when I moved. A small thing, just a twitch of his fingers—but I saw it. Tammy didn’t look at me at all, her hands busy propping up her brother. As we crossed the castle gates, a voice stopped us cold.

  "Well, well. That looks nasty. Looks like Allan isn’t all he’s cracked up to be."

  The purple-haired woman with the dark eyes from the throne room. She leaned against a stone pillar, her thick-necked friend silent beside her.

  "You're not one of them, Allan. You know that, don’t you?" She hissed. "How many more of them have to bleed before you see it?"

  Her words hit me in the gut. She was right.

  Tammy-Lee set her jaw. "Not the time, lady." She continued to help her brother across the courtyard. I could hardly pull my eyes from the bright red that spattered with every footstep.

  "Oh, but it is." She pushed off the pillar, strolling forward. "You’re dangerous. A danger to those around you.”

  Paddy flicked a glance at me and flexed his fingers. He nodded, and stepped towards her. “Eh, piss off, lass.”

  She smirked. "Or what?”

  She had released her grip on the thick necked man belt, and he approached slowly. A casual, almost bored gait. I kept one eye on him, but remained focused on the lady.

  He didn’t feel like a threat.

  Linh Phan: Level 3 Human.

  Class: Socialite

  Role: Researcher

  Kills: 15

  “You know he doesn’t belong, Patrick.”

  What the hell? I turned my head a fraction of an inch to look at Paddy.

  There was a flicker of movement and the thick necked man was right in front of me. When had he gotten so close?

  “Regards from Jaq Du Bouchard!” He hissed.

  I caught the dagger on the armour plating of my Gosporian arm, just barely deflecting it. He followed with an underhanded stab with a second dagger in his off hand, which stopped, quivering an inch from my heart.

  "Enough." Victor’s voice rang out.

  He had come out of nowhere and caught the mans wrist, saving my life.

  The man strained and tried another strike, but Victor spun him and propelled the man back towards Linh.

  Her smirk faded. "I—"

  “I said that’s enough!” Victor’s tone was smooth as silk, but his eyes were sharp.

  Linh hesitated. Then, with a frustrated click of her tongue, she slipped a hand through the man’s belt, turned and stalked off.

  Victor looked at me, his expression unreadable.

  "Allan. We need to talk.”