Gamer (Gamer Trilogy) (14 page)

“B3ast, get rid of these glass trees, I want a clear field
ahead. Remember those rock walls you trapped me in?” I
grimaced at the memory, “Do something like that to stop
them. You’re in charge of shaping the terrain for our
defence, do us proud.”

B3ast, for the first time ever, felt like he fit in. I would deal
with him later.
“Lily,” I said, looking over to her, “you’re invaluable insofar
as you can heal us. Stay safe and protected. When one of us
needs you, evaluate the risk of helping us. I can’t speak for
everyone but if I get hurt and you saving me, means dying
yourself – don’t do it. You’re no use to anybody if you’re
dead.”
Lily nodded, gaze steely and she flew up into the air,
perching herself in a tree branch. From that vantage point
she could also see the advancing front and intermittently,
she sent me mental images of how far away they were. She’d
be safe until she was needed.
“How much time do we have?” Stefanie called out to the
treetops.
“Three minutes – tops!” Lily called down.
Three minutes. “Stefanie, you know that we’re going to be
out there fighting. I just hope you-“
Out of nowhere, Stefanie’s nose touched mine and in what
would’ve been the perfect moment for a kiss, B3ast
shattered the glass tree that was closest to us. We both
jumped, knocking our heads against one another.
Awkward.
I just coughed, looking around to see if anybody saw. 3
appeared in front of a particularly large tree and attempted
to hide a smile. B3ast called out an apology and Lily burst
out into laughter.
“Stefanie, I-“
Again she shushed me and said, “Just promise me you
won’t die.”
I shook my head and said, “I need to do the best I can to
protect everybody here.” But then I added, “I promise.”
She seemed satisfied.
We both turned to see how B3ast was progressing; so far,
he’d shattered the majority of the trees between us and the
advancing front. It was a plain field, now, blanketed in
shards of glass.
“B3ast, make a trench,” I called out, “a really big trench.”
“I’m already two steps ahead,” he called back.
Suddenly, a giant platform of rock, as tall as any skyscraper
and as wide as I could see, rose out of the ground. I
watched as behind the new wall, a trench seemingly
scooped itself out of the ground, deep enough for me to
stand in and I was reminded of the first fissure that B3ast
had created.
Clearly enjoying himself, I heard a slurping sound in the
distance and watched as B3ast redirected a branch of the
river, into the trench.
To get to us, the army would have to break through the
wall and then swim through the river. But B3ast still wasn’t
done.
Ripping more glass trees out of the ground, he began to
stack them up in small piles behind the moat.
“What is that?” I called out.
“Watch!” he grinned. As I focussed my eyes on one of the
piles – it exploded outwards, flinging lethal shards of glass
in every direction.
“Good job!” I called out.
I wondered how useful he’d be in battle though – would he
be able to kill?
And then the rumbling, which had become background
noise for us, stopped. Grace had reached the rock wall and
there was no more preparation to be done.
Silence.
Two holographic-like figures appeared on top of the wall.
From this distance, they looked exactly like 3. Translucent there but not quite there.
3 swore and at the same time Lily called out “ELIZA!
ELIZA!”
Lily abandoned her perch in the tree to get a closer look
and 3 called out “NO!”
Like a firework, a spontaneous flash of fire singed down
Lily’s torso. The translucent figure laughed. Lily began to
fall, limp and unmoving. She hit the ground with a
menacing crack - and didn’t get up.
A bird crowed somewhere in the distance.
And suddenly, the giant, earthen wall began to crack.
Huge lines - fissures of earthquake proportions - began to
spread across the entire structure. And the wall fell, just like
that.
For a brief second we had a view of Grace’s army and I
realised then that there was no way we were going to win –
B3ast also seemed to realise that, because he attempted to
escape.
With a jet of air that I could feel, he forced himself up into
the air and then attempted to fly over the now broken wall.
He never stood a chance.
Beams of light, fireballs, shards of glass and chunks of rock
converged on him – the powers that he had assigned to the
soldiers were now being used against him.
Unlike Lily, there was zero chance of survival for him and
the remaining bits of dust that were left over after the
attacking ceased, drifted away in the breeze.
B3ast was gone. Dead.
Just as we expected to be attacked with the same powers,
the chunks of rock that had been a part of the wall came
flying at us. Several things occurred to me at once.
The first was that Lily’s body would be crushed if it wasn’t
moved out of the way. As if on cue, the giant wolf that was
Victor, leapt out of the trees and carried Lily’s body out of
the line of fire. I stiffened, unsure whose side he was on but I
realised I had to trust him.
I also realised that there was not enough time for us to hide
– and looking to a helpless Stefanie, I realised that the
burden was on me to stop the worst of the boulders.
I needed to focus.
The body-sized rocks continued to come closer.
Taking in a deep breath, I reached out my mind to the
power source that was 3. I realised that there was no
holding back anymore, that the barriers between the energy
and myself had to be erased and that in a matter of second, I
could very well die.
Harnessing the power, I opened my eyes and with
milliseconds to spare, I managed to levitate the three closest
boulders.
Stefanie had gone white with fear. Her head was literally
centimetres from one of the rocks. I smiled at her nervously.
She glared back.
With a sudden surge of confidence, I pushed the boulders
back to where they were thrown from.
Watching them arc through the air, the two figures that
Lily had called out to, vanished.
We were met with a satisfying sight as entire segments of
Grace’s army were crushed.
Grace… where was she?
And suddenly I wished I hadn’t asked.
From behind us there was a sudden screeching and the
entire army ahead of us disappeared. I clutched my head in
my hands – they had just been an illusion.
Turning around, we were met with the actual hoard of
fighters – Grace being carried in a throne, in the middle of
the pack.
“Did you miss me?” she called out mockingly.
There was nowhere for us to run to, there was no time to
hide. The space between us and her army was minimal.
Grace raised her wand to Stefanie and said, “Well I’ve
missed you.”
With that, the army closed the gap and without any other
choice, we began to fight.
Searching out pieces of glass with my mind, I flung them
forward at the mass of attackers. I collapsed trees, threw
weapons, crushed people’s insides and constricted people’s
airways - all with my powers.
To my left, Stefanie was literally blazing as she cut down
fighter after fighter with her hands alone.
To my right, Victor was mauling at whoever got too close
and soon enough, we realised that their powers were
minimal and that their strength was only in numbers.
Twice the three of us narrowly avoided losing our ground,
the first time when Grace attempted to bring to life the
illusion of cages around us – which I managed to stop and
the second time when a squadron of men from Grace’s army
banded together and shot these blinding lights out of their
hands.
However, the men weren’t very clever and after a short
time it became apparent that they were relying on brute
strength as opposed to tactics.
If we managed to keep up our current efforts, we’d
eventually get them all.
A well-built man, donned in a green cloak and with the
typical leather hides of a bowman jumped forward, a thirdeye tattoo etched into his forehead. Reaching out with my
mind I could feel this man building up power and before the
eye began to glow anymore, I snapped his spinal cord with
surprising ease. He exploded, just like all the others, into a
scattering of pixels that eventually faded away.
“HELP!” Stefanie yelled out.
She had turned invisible and infiltrated the main body of
soldiers, probably with the intention of getting to Grace.
But it was no use. Now she was entirely surrounded and
couldn't find her way out.
Grace looked to me and realising that I was about to
intervene, she raised her wand and disappeared into a
pinkish glow of light.
Suddenly she appeared next to Stefanie and in this
moment, my entire life changed.
Raising her wand again, Grace laughed at what sounded
like a magnified volume and as if in slow motion, her and
Stefanie disappeared in another pink light.
She was gone.
There were a few more screams and then a growl, followed
by a whine. Looking to my right I watched as Victor was
impaled by several spears, collapsing to the ground, blood
quickly spreading around him. He turned back into a
human, still impaled and evermore vulnerable.
At this point, the entire army just vanished and I was left
standing there, alone.
B3ast was dead, Lily was dead, Victor was dying, Stefanie
had been taken and Grace had escaped.
Lily. I needed Lily to wake up. I needed Lily to fix all of
this, to bring everybody back to life - including herself - and
I needed Lily to help me like she’d helped me in the very first
minutes of Simulator.
I looked around for 3 and saw that he was nowhere to be
seen. The sky dimmed temporarily, almost as if in a power
surge.
I rushed over to Lily, hoping that somehow she had
survived. Victor had placed her lying face up on the floor. I
looked down at her. Her lips were blue.
Calling on my power, I did the only thing that I thought
would help – I began to transfer my energy into her.
Whether or not it was working, I couldn’t tell but I found
myself wanting this to all be over. I wanted to go back to the
Academy, back to Jacob, back, even, to Stefanie not
knowing I existed, if it meant that none of us had to die.
But that’s what it came down to. We did have to die,
unless we found the portal. The way out in which more than
one of us could survive. It was our only hope of making it
out of here alive.
“DAMMIT LILY, WAKE UP!” I yelled into the sky - at
which point I could’ve sworn her eyelids fluttered…