Heavy Metal Thunder (48 page)

Time slows in your mind. You fire your gun into the
mouth of the
beast,
there is a flash of light
reflected off dozens of rows of teeth, then the beast lurches backward a moment
after the back of its head explodes. The tentacles gripping you relax and you
jet away from them.

As the rush of panic chemicals fade from your body,
you watch as, down below, the head of the beast hangs still, mouth agape, blood
freezing in long icicles around its shattered skull. The tentacles grow still,
then
curl in upon themselves, limp.

You gain
2 XP
for killing and surviving. Be
sure to erase any ammunition that you used.

However, you see that scattered around the bulk of the
massive beast are more heads, more seas of tentacles. They are alarmed at the
death of their brother, but cannot reach you. You laugh wickedly, hungry to
finish off the entire thing. Wise to the monster’s tricks, you look for weak
points that you can investigate.

If you want to look at the hole you see in the
distance, turn to section
384
.

If you want to follow one of the blue channels that
runs
throughout the beast’s skin, turn to section
373
.

You stalk down the hallway. Your jetpack is an
incredible hindrance now, and you consider casting it aside. But the thought is
squashed immediately, as if some ingrained programming has enslaved you to the
device. When you stop to rest, you can almost hear the grinding of the
malicious deconstructors.

You consider the beating of your heart, the strength
in your veins.
Blood
is life. In the game that is your life, Blood is an
abstract score that represents vitality and health. (If you have ever played any
sort of RPG, then Blood can be thought of as “hit points”.)

When you are wounded,
your
Blood
score will drop. When you rest or take healing medicines,
your
Blood score will rise. You begin this game of survival with a
Blood score of
10.
This is your
maximum
Blood
; your Blood cannot rise above
this amount. For example, if your Blood has dropped to 6, and you heal 7 Blood,
then your Blood increases to 10. However, as you rise in levels, your maximum
Blood score will increase.

If your Blood ever reaches zero, then you have died,
and the game of survival is lost. If this happens, put the book down, walk
away, think about your life and the weaknesses that betrayed you, and try the
game again when you’re ready.

Moreover, as you interact with the world and gain a
greater understanding of it, you will grow as a person. That is, as you fight
your way through this situation you will earn
Experience
Points
,
which are abstract representations of your actual experience. When you gain
enough Experience Points (or
XP
), you will gain additional character
Levels and receive additional Stat Points, Blood, and Skills.

You start out this game of survival at
Level 1.
Due to the loss of your memory, you have
0 XP.
Be sure to record this.
When you have at least
15 XP
and
make it out of the ghost station
alive,
then you will gain one character level and the rewards that come
with it.

You come to a doorway at the end of the hall. You
brace yourself,
then
open it. What you see looks like
the doom of the world.

Turn to section
442
.

You run towards the far coil. You hear more vents
come to life far behind you. The pink mist seems to growl,
then
rolls forward faster.

You pick up speed. The coil hisses.
And damned if it isn’t moving faster than the other one.

If you have a
Dexterity
score of at least 3,
turn to section
490
.

If you have a
Strength
score of at least 2,
turn to section
270
.

If neither of these Stats are that high, turn to section
567
.

You gather up the steel fuel canisters, then attach
a line from your jetpack to one of the things and refuel yourself. You push the
fuel canisters through the air and slowly kick them against a wall near a door
that leads to the ruined dock. Then you return to the command station and
gather up as many of the giant oxygen tanks as you can.

Next, you float down the darkened hallway toward the
lounge, wary of the stalking manager all the while. Long minutes pass before
you reach the lounge. The boxes drift near the floor; you tear open one and, to
your delight, find tons of rations, snacks, even complete meals.

You check a side room and find it full of jugs of
water. You make a mental note to find some way to keep the stuff from freezing
so that you can drink it in space. You spend perhaps half an hour or more
stacking the items in the hallway, then carefully push the entire mass before
you. The trip down the long hallway is a small nightmare of organizing and reorganizing,
but you are thankful that the entire length of the hall is a straight stretch
with no narrow or closed doorways.

You stop near the entrance to the docks and spend
another half hour reorganizing your goods in a space nearby. Near exhaustion,
your heart races with the hope of escaping this ghost station.

Then, you hear a radio sputter in the darkness.

Turn to section
180
.

You fire and watch in fascination as one Invader’s neck
tears open in a spray of wild goo. As he drops the others fire at you. You
swing back around the corner as two of the Invaders take cover in the other
hall where your comrades are waiting. You hear Marcus holler a crazed
battlecry
, which is drowned out by the thunder of gunfire.
You lean back around the corner in time to see two alien bodies torn asunder by
your comrades. Blood and bullets slam into the far wall and you aim your gun at
the last alien as he turns and flees. Your shot catches him in the side,
spinning him about. He stumbles, tries to fire at you,
then
decides to crash into the ground instead.

You gain
2 XP
for successfully ambushing the
Invaders. Be sure to erase the amount of ammunition that you used.

The others come stomping down the hall and you rush
to rejoin them.

Turn to section
416
.

The doctor leads you to a small medical station. You
brush past him as you stalk ahead, eyeing the medicine cabinets. While he
gently protests you dump out the following useful supplies so that you can
rummage through them.

First Aid Kit (bulk 3)
(Heals
3 Blood
, enough for
1 use.
)

Rest-A-Spell (bulk 1
)
(A powerful sleeping aid that can induce several days of restful
unconsciousness.
Enough for
1 dose.
)

Furthermore, if you are trained in
First
Aid
then you are able to identify the following drugs that you may also take with
you:

Clopadropin
(bulk 1)
(This prescription painkiller heals
1 Blood
when taken, and there is enough for
2 doses.
)

Flexadrone
(bulk 1
) (Whenever you temporarily lose
Strength
points due to injury, this drug will heal 1 Strength point, and there is enough
for
1 dose.
)

You plop down on the examination table and the
doctor tends to your wounds. He gasps and sighs as he rubs a cooling gel into
your muscles. You heal
2 Blood.

If you have a
Mystery
Syringe
, turn to
section
257
.

If you do not have this item, turn to section
80
.

Vision shaking from the motion of the powerful
deconstructor, you manage to destroy the panel on its flank,
then
you rip open some inner protective cover. You see something like a row of
circuit boards. Barely managing to keep your grip, you reach inside and pull
the array loose from its moorings. You look up just in time to see the north
hallway wall looming before you; you do not have time to react, much less
destroy the circuit board, before you crash into the wall. You roll backwards,
sliding along the flank of the beast. The world spins.

Your shoulder crashes into a wall and you barely
manage to hold on to some part of the ruined wall as the deconstructor slides
past you. The dark hallway looms behind you and air rushes past you violently
as the void strains to suck you in. Just then the deconstructor grinds its own
loose circuit boards against the same northern wall that knocked you back,
smashing them to pieces, and the machine grinds to a halt. You grasp the
grappling mechanism and turn it on; the line groans and pulls you away from the
darkness of the outer hall. You flail about in midair.

You hear a series of explosions in the distance, for
the guard must have thrown or dropped his grenades into the other
deconstructor. There is a terrible crash as it slams into the other, which
buckles outward toward you. The ruined hulks slide into the hole from which
they emerged, spouting steam and sparks and, as the hole is nearly sealed, the
raging wind becomes still and you drop to the ground. You rise slowly,
disconnect your line from the wall, and stumble over the dead machines. You see
the guard rising also, unarmed,
shaking
his head
wearily. The two of you stumble to another hallway and collapse, exhausted.

You lose
3 Blood
from the battle, but you
gain
3 XP
for successfully destroying the deconstructors. If you used
any bullets in your attack, be sure to erase them from your inventory.
Furthermore, while you struggled against the void, you
lost one of your
items
(your pick, but the item must be of at least 1 bulk, so losing 1
bullet won’t suffice).

Turn to section
126
.

With a manic
battlecry
you
fly at the thing. Its tentacles arc past you, too slow to avoid you, and your
knife slams into its faceplate, cutting into its metallic skull. The thing
shudders and shrieks as you push it into a
wall,
then
jerk your knife free so that you can stab it again. A thick line of drool falls
from your mouth and sizzles on its exposed innards as it dies under you.

You have survived your first fight. Turn to section
298
.

“The void always repays its debts, asshole,” you say
aloud, blasting your jets to life. “You’ll only feel the cold for a second,
because after that you’re going to
burn in Hell!
” As you fly toward the man,
you see him flail helplessly. You bring your arm back for a killing stroke as
he hovers near, then as you streak by you swing, hard, and smash his faceplate
open. You swing around quickly and see the man spinning in space, then grab him
and hold him still.

His face is contorting horribly before you, red with
massive blue veins, his eyes bulging,
mouth
working to
draw in air that no longer exists. His face turns purple, a network of bruises
blossom along his neck, forehead, cheeks,
his
tongue
swells horribly - then his eyeballs explode and without pause you wipe the goo
from your helm visor so that you can watch your murderer die the death of the
weak.

Amazing
,
you think. While your heart rages and floods you with panic, you ride the wave
of nausea until it brings you to a place forbidden to all normal human beings:
The feeling of a revenge sated fills you with dark satisfaction.
Now the man
who set me on my terrible journey is dead. Why he tried to kill me, I do not
know and I may never know. But the human species has one less craven dog to
worry about
.

You set your boots on the dead man’s chest, bend
your knees,
then
kick him away as you fly back toward
the battle. The corpse floats away, one more ghost damned to float forever in
the vast nothingness.

Make a note that
you have killed John Christian
,
as this will affect the rest of your life.

Turn to section
222
.

You must now compute an abstract number that will
determine the outcome of the battle. This number is your
Ground Combat (or 1
G Combat)
added to your
Strength
stat. If you have the
Weapon
Proficiency: Hand-to-Hand
skill with a
Mace
, add 2 to this number.

If this number is 6 or less, turn to section
204
.

If this number is 7 or more, turn to section
398
.