Explorer X Alpha (11 page)

 

 

Damien spied his service pack just a bit up ahead. It was buried in a boulder with a metal stake sticking out and a flag at the top. He got closer, punched in the sequence on the side of his helmet for cutting through rock, and precisely cut around the flag. He reached over and pulled out the stake with a grunt from exertion. Damien wasted no time as he reached his fingers into the opening that was made on either side of the hole that the stake left. He grunted as he pulled the outer circular cut of the rock out. Then, he reached in and pulled out a gray sack that had straps for his back. Quickly, he grabbed it and put it on. He glanced down at his locator device and ran at top speed toward Raiko and Scott, who where less than a quarter mile from him.

Raiko and Scott were on their way to the supply pack near the Communication Center and figured that the others would pick up the packs closest to their locations first. They moved at a slow jog to save up some energy for a fight they were sure was to come.

“Are you ready for a fight? You know it will come to that with Damien's team and Aadi's.” Scott said.

“Oh, I am ready, and I see on the locator that Carter and Dakota are out. So we just have the two most difficult teams to deal with. Oh, great! You see that! Is that Damien?” asked Raiko while she spied Damien as he ran toward them.

“Yeah, that's him. Where is Tacitus? Um, I don't like this setup. I'll take him and his pack. You look out for Tacitus and back me up if I need it. Damien can be a dirty fighter, especially when we simulate, because he knows he can't get in trouble for his tactics. Don't come help me unless you see him about to land a fatal blow, because if he gets to you and that pack, the simulation is as good as over for us,” Scott said out loud as he wondered.

Scott determinedly ran to meet Damien. Damien would have to go through him to get to Raiko and the supply pack that she had on her back. He figured now was his time to fight to the death, because he didn't want out of the simulation yet. Damien stopped a few yards from Scott and crouched down in fighting position. He gritted his teeth, as he knew getting rid of Scott would put him one step closer to getting rid of Aadi and Eirena. He was so ready to have a good reason to kick someone's butt that he could taste it. While assessing Scott, he knew that Scott would prove to be a worthy opponent that he could sink his teeth into.

“I can't wait to kick your butt, because that Raiko is not going to give me a good fight. She'll probably take off running and leave your sorry butt!” Damien called out to Scott.

Scott spent a lot less time chitchatting about what he was going to do than just doing it. He didn't say a word as he charged toward Damien to tackle him. Scott's breath quickened as he prepared himself to knock Damien down. Damien waited on Scott's charge and then landed a punch to Scott's face before Scott realized that Damien moved forward. Scott stumbled a bit but held his ground and licked his lip as he accepted the pain of that first blow. Scott crouched, ready to attack again. Damien ran forward as Scott elbowed him and he fell to the ground. His head jerked from the blow. Damien accepted that his lip would bleed and got seething angry thinking of how he would inflict pain on Scott next. Damien shot up, held his stance, and waited for Scott to strike next. Scott didn't want to hesitate too long, as he knew Damien would take that as a weakness, so he pivoted, aiming at Damien's nose. Damien ducked the intended blow and grabbed Scott's arm. He pulled Scott's arm forward and then pushed Scott against the back of the head, causing Scott to fall forward into the sandy, hard-packed ground.

Scott squirmed. He was determined to get out from under Damien. Damien wanted to see the look on Scott's face as he gave him his final blow. He took his arm, wrapped it around Scott's neck, and turned him over onto his back. Damien crawled on top of Scott and placed both his knees on Scott's upper arms, preventing Scott from punching out. A smile of victory formed on his face, and Damien pulled his arm back to land fatal punch to Scott's head that would cause him to be kicked out of the simulation.

Raiko started to head toward Scott when she realized that he was in a bit a trouble. She started to run toward him and then felt a sharp push as the wind was knocked out of her. She fell forward on the ground with her face in the dirt. She leaned up on her arms and shook dirt off her helmet. Raiko put her hands out to push up and stand. Before she had a chance to wonder what or who it was that knocked her down, she was lifted up by her collar and turned around to look directly into Tacitus's eyes.

Tacitus put his forefinger up to his mouth outside of his form-fitting helmet and said, “Shh,” then he bawled up his fist and pulled back to land a punch.
I need to get him down to my level… and fast,
Raiko thought,
in order to overpower him.

Before his punch could land, Raiko lifted her legs and wrapped them around his neck. She snapped out of his hands, balanced her hands on the ground, and forced Tacitus to the left and then down to his knees using her dead weight (as much of it as she could muster) for leverage.

She backhand flipped away from him and mentally built up her adrenaline with concentration and focus. Then, she stood in a fighting stance and kicked him with all her might on the side of the head.

However, Tacitus didn't budge, and her foot hurt badly. She shook her head in frustration and anger at her fatal kick that was not doing the trick. Then she leaned low, placed her hands on the ground for balance, and added strength to side-kick him in the front of his face. Tacitus still didn't budge. He just sat on his knees, extremely still, with a menacing and cold look on his face.

“What the heck are you made of, Tacitus? Why won't you fall, dang it? Fall!” she said, then she twisted into a squatted stance and tried to land a punch to the side of his helmet. That would normally take anyone out of the simulation, but his hand came up like lightening until he held her fist in his hand.

He forced her to her knees in front of him. Tacitus looked directly at her and grinned as he raised his other hand up and said, “Goodbye, you lose,” quietly as he pulled back and punched Raiko out.

Raiko saw stars, then blackness. She was gently patted on her left check and heard a voice, “Raiko, wake up, wake up.”

“Is that you, Carter? But you are out of the simulation,” she whispered. “You are out of the simulation! Dang!” Raiko said as she shot up and opened her eyes to see Carter smiling at her.

“Yep, and now so are you,” Carter said as he picked her up to take her across the room and out of the simulation area.

“Put me down, you oaf! I gotta go and help Scott!” Raiko said. She jumped down from Carter's arms to run toward the simulation area. Carter had long legs on his side and pulled her back.

“Raiko, you cannot go back or Scott will automatically forfeit, and Mr. Faulkner will pull him out. Do you think that's fair to Scott? You know he's a guy that likes to finish his own fights,” Carter said.

“Fine. Fine,” Raiko said as she turned around and followed Carter to look at the screen. She glanced behind her at Scott. Scott continued to fight Damien, who was in the simulation area at the end of the line of simulation chambers.

 

 

Damien had his knee in Scott's chest and was getting ready to throw his next punch. Scott grunted, and with every bit of strength he had in him, he pushed Damien off of him, which caused Damien to fall back into the sitting position. Damien wasn't angered at the lengthened fight, and he appeared to be happy to fight a bit longer. With a shake of his head, Damien started to get up. Scott scrambled to get on top of Damien before he could fully regain his balance. However, Damien kicked him in the face as he came toward him, throwing Scott over and causing his lip and nose to bleed. Scott looked at Damien and got up quickly, ready to fight. He squatted and prepared for Damien's next attack. Damien walked and then ran toward him. Scott ducked his punch just in time to land on Damien's stomach. Damien hammered his fist down onto the top of Scott's head and ignored the sharp pain in his gut. The blow Damien made to the back of Scott's head made Scott slip and fall onto his chest. Scott quickly got on his knees, sat down on his leg, and punched up and onto Damien's right leg as it bent and Damien slipped off balance a bit. Damien quickly reacted and kicked Scott in the face with his left leg, and Scott knew if this was in real life, Damien would have broken his nose. It sure felt like he did. Scott fell back with the impact of the kick to see Damien as he charged him.

“Man, this is fun!” Damien yelled to Scott, as he ran forward, jumped on Scott, and then planted his left knee brutally into Scott's chest. Scott tried to push him off, but Damien's leg felt like a lead ball on his chest. He tried to wiggle Damien off and still could not budge. Damien smiled down at Scott with a look of triumph on his face, and he pulled back his fist and punched Scott in the face with such force that Scott simply blacked out.

Scott woke up as someone shook him, but he was trying to go back in and fight Damien.

“Scott, Scott? You okay? You okay?” he heard Raiko's voice exclaim.

“Raiko, are you okay? You okay?” he said, with eyes closed and his head moving from side to side.

“Yes, I guess. I lost our supply pack. I am out of the simulation, and so are you,” Raiko said as she stopped shaking Scott. Scott opened his dark brown eyes and stared into her almond-shaped ones.

“What? Tacitus attacked you, didn't he? I knew he would sneak up on us. If he wasn't there, we both could've taken Damien!” Scott said, then hit his fist against the floor. He stood with Raiko beside him. “Well, hopefully Aadi and Eirena stand a chance. I never wanted Damien's butt beat so bad!” Scott said. He walked over to the screen to watch the rest of the teams in the simulation.

“I don't know about that. I think it is Tacitus they need to watch out for. In the simulation, he is sort of invincible,” said Raiko and followed.

“I doubt that. Tacitus is weird and slow to start. Maybe you are just saying that because he overpowered you. You know, you are pretty petite and easy for a stronger guy to bring down. I can't deny you have grit and skill, but unless you have the power to back it up, you will not win against us guys. I don't know… maybe he took Aadi's advice a little too seriously. Heck, we all took this seriously. I really wanted to win this and would have done so by any means necessary. Damien definitely seemed to be out for vengeance and had such malice in his attacks in these simulations lately. I can only guess how he is holding back when he is with us from day to day. It looks like Damien and Tacitus will clinch this thing if Aadi and Eirena don't pull through. I am still betting on Aadi and Eirena, though,” Scott replied.

“I have seen Aadi's and Eirena's skills in the past simulations, and they are great. It's just that today, something has changed about them. We don't feel the need to stay within our boundaries. Today, it is all or nothing,” Raiko said.

 

 

Eirena got to the flag first. Aadi came up beside her at the edge of a puddle of water. Their supply pack was buried in the first puddle of water they had seen since they landed on the simulated world. The stake shot straight out of about six inches of water from what Aadi could tell, and the puddle was rather wide.

“Eirena, you stay here, and I will go get the pack. That way, if there are any surprise dips, you won't sink too low into the ground. You look around, because I have a feeling that we will be having company sooner or later,” Aadi said as he started to walk into the shallow side of the puddle. The water was clear. The sand was so hard-packed that Aadi noticed that there was no mud or sand that floated up to the top while he walked slowly forward and looked at the ground below the water. He had only a couple of feet to go, and he didn't have the luxury to go slowly. Taking a deep breath, he glanced down at the water for danger spots as he ran toward the stake. Finally, he came up to the stake with the orange flag. He realized the only option would be to pull it out since the laser beam didn't work in water. Sometimes it couldn't keep its direction and would cut in the wrong route when cutting in water. Aadi wrapped his hands around the stake, planted his feet on each side, and while digging his feet in the ground, he pulled hard. He tried to get the stake to jerk out. Aadi stumbled back from the force of the pull and saw a silver chain handle floating in the water.

He looked behind him to check on Eirena and yelled, “All clear?”

“All is clear so far, but I see something in the distance, so hurry up!” she yelled back. Aadi quickly looped his hand in the chain and pulled it out with all his strength.

Tacitus walked over to Damien, gave him the pack he retrieved from Carter, and said, “Here you go. What now?”

Damien and Tacitus took a moment to look at their locator devices and to survey the land. They looked out at the sinking yellowish moon and the red, dry terrain, with mountains and a warm, dry wind.

“Well, let's head over to where Aadi and Eirena are. I don't want to fight too close to the Communication Center. We can get them out of the simulation and win this in record time to beat the other Cadets playing on the other teams. If we win this, we lead the pack in the first trip to Mars and bring Aadi and Eirena down in the process. I am no longer in the mood to play nice, and I hope you aren't either,” Damien said as he adjusted the new supply pack on his back. He squinted his eyes and pressed his lips together in thought.

“Who is it you want me to take out?” Tacitus asked while he intently watched Damien make all the adjustments for the pack. He casually crossed his arms as he looked toward the direction they had to travel to get to Aadi and Eirena.

“I really want to get Aadi, but I have a score to settle with Eirena. I never forgave her for that move after the basketball game. I want to teach her that if she wants to hit like a boy, she has to finish the fight like a boy. The only reason I didn't settle this with her before was because I didn't want to get kicked out of camp. The thought of going home sickens me. I won't risk that, even to give her the beat-down she deserves. After you finish with Aadi, you go get the last pack and meet me at the Communication Center. Then, we will win this challenge and take Aadi down to second in command, where he belongs,” Damien said with a frown on his face as he tightened the straps on the supply pack he got from Tacitus.