Multiplayer (38 page)

Bodies lay strewn all about the entrance to the tunnel, both Reavers and the defenders from a dozen different clans. Hector wracked his brain to come up with a way to help them when something red flashed across Shah’s screen and an attacking Reaver fell to the ground, cloven in two. “What the heck was that?” Hector cried, and Shah twisted his controller. When his merc turned, everyone in the room gasped. It was Rada in her voluminous red mane and chrome bikini. In her hands, she grasped a huge battle axe dripping with blood.

“You didn’t think I was just going to log off did you?” came Tyra’s voice, and a bolt of pure energy surged through Hector. “I know it won’t make any difference, but it’s the closest Chaz is ever going to come to getting some payback.” Enveloped in the bloodlust aura, she strode into a mass of charging Reavers, shrugging them off with ease, hewing them asunder.

Hector turned his attention back to the Stryker, thinking for the first time that they might just be able to win this. He turned around and saw they were no longer being followed. “You lost them!” he shouted, but even as the words left his lips the TV suddenly died and the entire world plunged into blackness.

Ch. 34

“Shut up!” Shah yelled over everyone’s screaming. “
Shut! Up!
”

Everyone fell silent. In the dark, they could hear rain pelting the windows and a distant rumble of thunder. Hector could hear his heart pounding in his ears. He peered outside. There were flashes of lightning.

“Power’s out,” someone finally said.

“No,” said Shah. “No one else’s power is out.”

Shah was right. The windows of other homes glowed with soft golden light. And the streetlights were still on.

“No signal?” said Helen, her face glowing in the light of a touchpad. She jogged Hector’s phone. “Huh?”

“It’s fully charged,” said Hector. “Let me see it.” He grabbed it out of his sister’s hands.

“I know it’s charged, dork. There’s just no signal. I was calling Sabrah again and it dropped from four bars to none.”

Deion pulled out his phone. And Sanjar and Shah, theirs. And Helen, too. The room glowed with a ghostly light. All the phones had power, but no one had a signal. And there were three different carriers.

Hector’s gut went cold. “They’re here.”

“Who’s here?” said Shah.

“The terrorists.”

“Why would they be here?”

“They know who we are. They just cut the power. And they’re jamming the phones.” We could be dead in minutes, he thought. “We’ve got to get out of here!”

Shah started to protest when a shadow passed by the window. Lightning flashed and they saw the silhouette of a man against the curtains.

“The Hummer,” whispered Shah. “Through the kitchen. Go!” He led them through the darkened house, using their cell phones as flashlights.

Hector followed, his heart racing. His father had died in a Humvee. He didn’t want to get in the Hummer. But behind them, he heard the sound of glass breaking. Then, more breaking glass from another part of the house. Heavy footsteps and guttural speech. They quickly filed through the kitchen and into the garage. Shah had only had his license for a few weeks and wasn’t allowed to drive without asking.

“Get in,” Shah hissed, and the lights inside the Hummer blinked on. Within seconds, they’d occupied the seats, Shah and Helen up front, Hector, Deion, and Sanjar in the back seat. He stabbed the button on the garage door opener but nothing happened. Then stabbed it again.

“What are you waiting for?” Helen’s voice creaked with strain.

“Garage door opener’s not –”

“Power’s out,” said Sanjar.

“Someone’s going to have to get out and open the garage door by hand,” said Shah.

Silence.

“I’ll do it,” said Hector, and crept out. “Keep it open for me so I can get back in.”

“Pull the cord hanging down over the hood,” whispered Shah. “Then you can lift it. I’ll start the engine as soon as it comes up.”

“Be careful Hector,” Helen squeaked.

Hector groped his way onto the hood. Shah turned on the inside light and pointed him to the cord hanging just over his head. A hard tug on the plastic fob released the automatic opener with a loud pop. He jumped down and ran to the garage door and heaved it upwards. Shah started the engine and just as it came alive, the door to the kitchen opened. A flashlight beam stabbed out and fell on the Hummer. Shah jammed it into reverse and hit the gas.

Hector watched as the Hummer barreled past him, blinding him with its headlights. “Wait!” Hector cried, chasing after it into the driving rain. “Wait!” Momentarily sightless, he slammed into something and went down hard. Groaning in pain, he rolled onto the concrete driveway.

In an instant, he felt hands grabbing him and terror seized his heart. Remembering the words of Pappous,
you are Spartan
, a hot surge of adrenaline coursed through his veins and he thrashed with all his might, kicking, swinging, snarling, swearing, and even snapping with his teeth. He felt his foot go into something soft and there was a hissing groan. The hands grasping him loosened and Hector twisted from their clutches and rolled away. He sprang to his feet and sprinted through the cold, slashing rain as his vision slowly returned.

The Hummer was in the street and backing up now. One of the back doors flew open, spilling light onto the dark, wet asphalt. “Come on, Hector!” he heard everyone crying. “Run!”

Dark shadows were just behind him, but when Hector dove through the door of the Hummer, they broke off and raced for their own vehicle.

“Hector,” sobbed Helen as they pulled him in. “I thought you were dead!” She had twisted around and now lay across the console with her arms wrapped around Hector’s neck.

“I – I – “ Hector gagged, unable to breath.

“What have they done to you!” screamed Helen, squeezing harder.

“You’re choking me!” Hector finally gurgled through her bear hug, twisted out of her grasp.

Shah had never driven in a storm and slid through corners tossing them all about inside. Another SUV came up from behind and slammed into them, sending them off the street and through someone’s yard. He was barely able to regain control and get back onto the road, just before the school. Everyone screamed as Shah roared from the subdivision and across the street without checking for traffic. He skidded to a stop at his parent’s store. Through the large, plate windows they could see Mr. Zahedi and Pappous seated inside, playing checkers.

“Dad!” cried Sanjar, and started to open the door. “Dad!” he cried again, just as the other SUV roared up behind them. Shah hit the gas, laying on the horn.

“Are you crazy?!” exclaimed Deion, and pulled him back. “You want that choad to run over you?”

Sanjar pressed his face into the glass. Tear streaks ran down his cheeks. “Did Dad see us? Did he see us?”

“I think so,” said Helen, looking behind them at the fading lights of the Gas-N-Go. “I saw Pappous look up.”

“What are they going to do?” snarled Hector.

“My dad has a gun,” gasped Sanjar, wiping his cheeks. “In his trunk. I’ve shot it!” Hector was suddenly glad that Mr. Zahedi was armed, but wasn’t sure what good it would do them now.

“Pull up the system!” Shah blurted from the driver’s seat, racing forward as fast as he dared. “Get us online. Try to find out what has happened!”

“But the cell phones aren’t working!” said Sanjar.

“It’s back up,” said Hector, and handed Sanjar his phone. “They must not be able to jam us from here!”

“Sanjar,” called Shah from the front seat. His voice had a surprising note of confidence. “Dad can find us with our cell phones. Make sure your GPS is on! Someone else call the cops! Tell them where we are!”

Sanjar verified his was working, then dialed a number and stuck Hector’s cell phone into the slot of his onboard game console. It took forever to come up. First the MegaSoft splash screen, then the credits, then the menu and the bumper music. Then, they had trouble finding the cordless headsets, as Shah sped the Hummer around corners with the terrorist’s SUV in hot pursuit.

“Come on!” Sanjar hollered, and hit the screen, snapping the mounts.

“Jesus Christ!” hollered Deion. “You busted it! Calm down man!”

Sanjar lurched forward and grabbed the flopping screen, holding it steady in his hands. “Sorry, sorry,” he mumbled.

In the front seat Helen called 911. She started yelling into the phone what was going on, but cut off, stunned, when she was put on hold.

Izaak and Darxhan were finally back in the game, still in the belly of the Stryker. L3r0y was driving and BayernFC was shooting at something with the main gun. It was like waking up from being unconscious except the screen was tiny, especially divided in two. Hector’s section was only a few inches tall and his crosshairs were the size of pinhead.

“What happened to you guys?” blurted L3r0y. “One minute you’re playing, the next minute you’re zombies! Leave us here to fight off these Reavers all by ourselves.”

“Hello!” cried Helen into her phone. “Yes! It’s an emergency!” She went on to try to tell the police where they were but was having trouble figuring out exactly where that was. It was even more difficult trying to hear and be heard with all the shouting.

“The terrorists!” blurted Izaak. “They attacked Sanjar’s house!”

“Who’s Sanjar?” asked BayernFC.

“You mean his base?” asked L3r0y, an instant later. “What?”

“Never mind! What’s going on?” Izaak snapped, his brain in sensory overload.

“That armored car’s behind us again!”

Izaak saw a muzzle flash from behind them. A cannon shell streaked by and hit a building in front of them, blowing a huge hole in the wall.

“It’s Mal-X!” Hector cried. “Stay ahead of them.” He pulled up the list of names then remembered he’d forgotten the paper list back at the house. Helen had left hers too. A frantic search in the Hummer produced only a red pen and a pencil with a broken lead. But it didn’t matter; the list was so tiny on the screen and the Hummer jostling around so much, with Sanjar holding it, they couldn’t read it anyway.

“Guys,” said Sanjar, staring wide-eyed out the back of the Hummer as he held the screen over his head. “I know you’re not going to believe this, but I think they’re playing
Omega Wars
!” Hector glanced back and sure enough, their faces were glowing from the light of a video screen. “I think the guys in the car chasing us are the same guys who are chasing us in
Omega
!”

Shah careened around anothercorner and the Hummer went up on two wheels. Everybody screamed and it flopped back down with a lurch that nearly sent them all through the side windows. “Where is a cop when you need one?” blurted Shah and sliced across three lanes of traffic and up an exit.

“Where are you going?” cried Helen.

“Regal Drive goes to the police station!” he said.

“But this isn’t Regal!” The Hummer spiraled around the exit and suddenly they were moving away from heavily lighted streets on a main road out of town.

Sanjar was staring out the back and trying to hold the screen steady. “Where’s Dad? I don’t see him!” Then he looked up at the screen. “Shoot the mines, Hector! Shoot the mines!”

“What do you mean?” said Hector.

“We dropped mines on the way in. Look for the flashers. Use your IR headset.” They roared past one, but Hector saw it too late. He was determined not to miss the next one. “Another is coming!” said Sanjar. “I think… now!”

Sure enough, they sped past another tiny, flashing light. Hector put not-Vera’s sights on it and waited until their pursuers were right beside it. For a split second, he realized this was exactly how his father had been killed. Then he pulled the trigger. A massive explosion that blew the armored car clean off the road.

“Got him!” yelled Darxhan.

“Go back!” Hector demanded.

“Go back where?” Shah asked.

“Not you, Shah! L3r0y, turn around.”

“What’s going on over there?” asked L3r0y.

“We’re about to get killed!” Hector spat back.

“But we just killed them!”

“Just turn around! Not you, Shah!”

In an instant, the Stryker plowed though a building and came out on the far side.

When they pulled up, two figures were struggling to get out of the ruined vehicle. One of them was the guy dressed head to toe in black. The other wore a turban with sunglasses and a partial veil covering his face. Mal-X. Across his back was slung a long, wicked, sniper rifle. Two other characters lay in the wreckage, dead. The mercs ran up and aimed at their heads with heavy weapons.

“You’re dog meat, butt head,” said Darxhan. He lifted his auto-cannon and aimed at the black-suited figure’s head. “Dog meat!”

The character snarled back something in Arabic.

“No!” cried Izaak, just as Darxhan’s shells ripped the character to pieces. Izaak stared in horror. It had become too real.

“What’s the deal?” asked Darxhan, and targeted Mal-X who’d stopped struggling and lay still. “They tried to kill us. For real. They’re still trying to kill us.”

Everyone hung on as Shah careened around a darkened corner and Helen tried to make herself heard.