Prisoner 3-57: Nuke Town (3 page)

I
had a thigh holster on each leg.

Two
bolt revolvers were ready to be drawn at any moment. The bolt
revolver was my personal weapon of choice due to its destructive
power. It had been banned from use because of how deadly the gun was.
One round was capable of cutting through an entire crowd of people.
It was a brutal weapon that ripped bodies apart. I had extra ammo on
my belt, but I also had five grenades, a box of flares, a combat
knife and a computer tablet, which allowed me to control a tactical
nuclear weapon that was currently in orbit. Slung over my shoulder
were a fully automatic bolt action rifle and an acid shot gun, which
would put down even the most violent of aliens.

I
unclipped the bolt rifle from the back holster.

A
torch on top of the gun illuminated the corridor in front of me.

I
glanced at my x-com.

It
said, “Evacuation in five minutes.”

A
clock was counting down.

On
the x-com screen numerous yellow dots were spread across the map.
They were escape pods. I had to get off this ship. The little map on
the x-com was like a blueprint. It showed a bird’s eye view of
the spaceship I had been dropped into. The map was so detailed that
not a single aspect of the space craft was left out. I could zoom in
and see a cup of coffee on the end of some clerk’s desk. It
showed me every single inch of this ship. Currently, the map was
covered in hundreds of red dots, which symbolised enemy contacts.
Blue dots were my team mates, but with every second that went by
another blue dot disappeared off the map.

Suddenly,
a man appeared around the end of the corridor.

‘
Help
me,’ he screamed.

His
hand clutched at a bite mark on his upper left arm.

‘
It
burns.’ He fell down onto his knees. ‘It bit me. Help. It
fucking hurts!’ What I saw next would haunt my dreams for the
rest of my life. The man threw back his head and screamed, as his
skin was ripped clean from his body. It was like someone had just
pulled down a zip from the top of his skull all the way down to his
feet. His clothes instantly caught fire and began to fall away. The
man thrashed about. He was the shape of the human, but a walking mass
of blood, muscles and tendons. His eyes popped out of his head and
hung down from the sockets. His jaw snapped out, as long sharp teeth
stabbed through his original teeth. His hair went up in flames, as he
vomited out his internal organs. I felt like puking up myself. The
man released a deep frightening howl. It sounded like something that
should had lived in the darkest depths of hell.

The
man flipped onto all fours and came at me.

I
opened fire.

It
felt like the right thing to do.

The
bolt rifle kicked back into my shoulder, as destructive bolts flew
down the corridor. The creature of blood leapt on all fours onto the
wall and then onto the ceiling. Claws stabbed out of its toes, as it
ran upside down, but upright, towards me. It was like gravity didn’t
apply to this thing. Finally, I struck the thing in the shoulder. The
bolt spiralled through its flesh like a knife through butter. Its
entire right hand section of its shoulder and chest were shredded
entirely. The bolt flew off down the corridor and began to drill
through the wall at the far end. The creature cried in pain, as its
right arm and shoulder were severed from its body. It was an instant
kill technique. Its lung would be destroyed too, or it would have
been had it not just puked it up. What happened next required a
change of underpants. The creature continued to come forward, but
that wasn’t the worst part. The severed arm was slivering
across the floor towards me. It was coming straight for me.

What
was I supposed to do?

How
did you kill this thing?

I
made up my mind.

I
did what any sane person would do.

I
ran.

Chapter Six: A Bad
Day

My
heart was in my mouth. These things didn’t die. You could shoot
off limbs or the head and still they kept coming. The ship was
swarming with them. It was like stepping inside of someone’s
nightmare. My boots thundered off the stairs, as I charged down the
stairwell with everything I have. Horrible howls echoed off the
walls. Those things were right behind me. An open hatchway led out
onto yet another corridor. I glanced at my x-com. There were several
escape pods on this level. The problem was that every single time I
got close to the escape pod someone activated it and got the hell off
this ship. One by one they were disappearing off my x-com map. If I
didn’t hurry there would be no way off this ship at all.

I
turned right and ran for it.

A
loud thud crashed into the air behind me.

I
glanced back.

Two
of the blood creatures had rammed into the wall.

One
had cracked its own head in two, but it simply flipped over and
continued after me. I ran down the corridors, scanning left and
right, as I passed corridor crossroads and turned at junctions. The
creatures were everywhere. I branched off to the left and caught
sight of several other players running into a room.

‘
Wait!’
I yelled.

A
big guy with long black hair was stood at the hatch. I could see from
the look of horror on his face that those things must have been right
behind me. He was contemplating closing the door on me, thankfully he
didn’t. I leapt through the hatch and into what looked like an
office. The hatch was slammed shut and locked from the inside.

‘
Thanks,’
I told them, as I tried to catch my breath.

There
were six people in the room. I turned to the group. They were all
wearing the same type of skin tight black full body armour. The hour
glass figures and protruding chests showed that four of the group
were women. One of the women pressed a button on their helmet and it
opens like the mouth of a crocodile to reveal their face.

‘
Jane?’
I asked.

Her
beauty never ceased to amaze me.

The
woman that I had fallen in love with was stood before me.

She
was really here.

A
look of confusion was painted upon her face.

I
pressed the release button of my helmet and it dropped back like the
hood of a coat. Jane’s expression went from confusion, to
surprise, to dread and then settled on anger. The last thing I saw
was the butt of her machine gun slamming into the ridge of my nose.
The edges of my world turned black, as everything seemed to spin. My
legs must have given way as I was aware that I was falling. Darkness
awaited me.

Chapter Seven:
Interrogation

A
spark of pain ignited across the side of my face. Blood dripped down
from my cut nose and ran into my mouth. One of my eyes was barely
open. The big guy slammed his fist against my face for the umpteenth
time. He stepped back shaking his hand. My hard head was bruising his
knuckles. I tried to move, but they had tied my hands to the back of
the chair. I was stuck here. I was at their mercy.

‘
Stop...’
I spat out blood.

‘
Why
the fuck should we!’ Alisha pushed the barrel of a gun into my
face. The beautiful mahogany skinned woman had the face of a demon. I
could see pure hatred through the windows of her soul. ‘You
killed my fucking brother.’

‘
It
wasn’t me,’ I replied.

She
slapped me, hard.

‘
Jane,
please.’

‘
Please,
what?’ she snapped. ‘Let you go. Are you planning to kill
more of us?’

‘
I
never did that. The game did that.’

‘
Lies,’
growled Alisha.

‘
I
say we kill him,’ added Iaso. I hardly recognised the blue
skinned alien. She normally walked around in very revealing rags, but
now she was wearing a full body combat suit. The twin swords sheathed
on her hips should have been a clue to her real identity. I had never
heard her speak in English before. Iaso had always talked in her
mother tongue, but most of her conversations had been with Kevin. He
had died at my hands.

‘
I
say kill him now,’ agreed Lena.

Jane’s
daughter approached me, drawing a knife from her belt.

‘
Hold
it,’ Jane told her.

I
looked at the woman I loved. I could see the conflict within her. Did
a small part of her still love me?

‘
Do
you want me to do it?’ asked the big guy.

‘
No,’
replied Jane, ‘I will do it.’

She
raised her sub-machine gun to my head.

‘
You’re
going to kill me?’ I looked her dead in the eye.

‘
I
have to before you kill us.’

‘
I
didn’t kill you before.’

‘
You
are sick, 3-57.’

‘
No.
I never was. It was the game. They designed it so I would go mad. I
didn’t know what was real. I thought this world was real. I
thought you were all my friends. I thought you loved me, but this is
all some kind of game to all of you. You are pissed about your
brother, Alisha, but he is still alive in the real world. You kill me
now and I am dead.’

Lena
punched me.

The
pain was incredible.

My
eyes were watering.

She
had caught me right on the tip of the nose.

‘
This
world might not be real, but you allowed Skull to rape me. The pain I
felt when he cut on my flesh was real. The memories are real. I can
still feel his breath when he forced himself onto me. The things he
did to me. THEY ARE FUCKING REAL!’

‘
I’m
sorry...’

Loud
thuds vibrated through the hatch. Long claws were starting to carve
through the metal door. Horrifying howls poured into the room, as
more and more of the creatures fought to get into the office. The
group looked at one another.

‘
Leave
him,’ said Alisha.

‘
We
can’t do that,’ said Arthur. The old man was standing
back from it all.

‘
Let
him turn,’ replied Iaso, ‘It is more than what he
deserves.’

A
blood covered arm reached in through a hole in the hatch.

‘
We
have to go,’ said the big guy.

‘
Saul’s
right,’ replied Lena, ‘let’s just go.’

‘
Baby,
we got to go.’ Saul said this last part to Jane.

She
looked at me for a long time. ‘Okay. Let’s move out.’
The group started to move towards the hatch of an escape pod. They
disappeared out of my line of sight one by one, leaving Jane alone
with me. She knelt down in front of me. I could see the pain in her
heart. I didn’t blame her for what she was doing. I had killed
all our friends. If I was in her position I wouldn’t trust me
either. She plucked a grenade from my belt, reached around and put it
in my hand, which was still tied to the chair. She pulled the pin, as
I held down the spring. No words left her mouth. What was there to
say? She pressed a button on my chest and my helmet snapped back into
place over my head.

‘
Goodbye,
3-57.’

And
with that she headed for the escape pod.

Chapter Eight: Worst
Case Scenario

‘
Shit.
Shit. Shit. Shit,’ I chanted the word over and over.

A
deformed head was being squeezed through the hole in the hatch. The
metal shards were tearing away lumps of bloody flesh straight from
the creatures face, but it didn’t seem to stop it from coming.
Its teeth snapped together, as it bit at the air. I fought against my
bindings, but there was no way I was undoing these knots without a
little helping hand. I held the grenade Jane had left me within my
hand. Was that my only option? Would that even kill me in this suit?
Actually, that was a good question. Would the grenade be able to hurt
me? This wasn’t standard Earth Force battle armour. This was
armour designed for the Special Forces. I glanced over my shoulder at
the wall behind me. The escape pod had already departed. My old team
mates had left me to die. A row of portholes looked out into space. I
could see a little purple planet below. I had a plan, but it was
risky.