Kill Switch_Serial Escalation Read online

  Across the room were a man and a woman, linked together, who were already arguing. Tears were streaming down the woman’s face as she stabbed his hands at her partner, clearly aware of who he was. Several others were talking in more subdued voices or checking out the competition as well. No one seemed to be paying Thao any particular kind of attention so it didn’t seem like he had a personal relationship to any of them.

  “Billy Blight, the punk rocker, he kicked off a murderous riot that killed almost thirty people at one of his shows, took a few of those lives himself.” Layla said, “Santa Muerte, she was the leader behind that splinter group of Los Muertes, more of a cult really. She believed she was the earthly reincarnation of the saint of death herself, or some shit. And-, holy shit, that’s Church Harper.”

  Billy Blight was a short and wirily muscular man with an arrogant look. His scalp had been threaded with hologram-projecting fibres that gave off the illusion his hair had been replaced by brightly coloured flames. The holographic fire glowed an emerald green, constantly flickering and shifting.

  Santa Muerte was a tall and impressive woman with long, dark hair. Her face had been painted or tattooed, Thao couldn’t tell which, to look like a brightly decorated sugar skull. Her robes were long and loose-fitting, hiding whatever armour she was wearing underneath, looking like religious garments. Her partner was almost as outlandish. He was a stocky man in a priest’s outfit complete with white collar, his head shaven and his face ritualistically scarred.

  The third contestant that Layla had pointed out, Church Harper, looked familiar to Thao but he couldn’t have said from where with his memory still damaged. Harper was tall and broad-shouldered, heavily muscled under a long overcoat and body armour. He had a head like a gravestone and craggy features with an emotionless expression, unworried and indifferent to the room around him although many other contestants were also looking him up and down.

  “Who is he?” Thao said.

  “Harper? He’s a former winner, I mean they were talking about having a former champion back on the game but I just never thought-,” Layla trailed off, “He won in the second or third season, finished off most of the other teams himself. He must have killed-, dozens of people on the outside. He thinks of himself as some kind of vigilante, I guess, took apart a few gangs and got locked up for it. Got chosen for Slayerz, won, and when he was released he went right back to killing more criminals.”

  Church Harper had been paired with a young woman who looked at the vigilante with open fear. Her thick, frizzy hair was pulled back in twin bunches. Thao was sure she looked too young to have earned herself a place in the game with the rest of these contestants.

  All the other teams seemed to be in place. Even Baxter Webley had stayed where the guards had dragged him, snivelling though he was. The fifteen teams gathered in front of their crates around the massive dome. There was activity near the stage and a tall, striking woman walked into view. Slender and icily pale, the woman had flinty blue eyes and perfectly straight blonde hair. Her skirt and suit jacket were cinched around her narrow curves.

  “Hello, and welcome to this year’s season of Slayerz, America’s favourite bloodsport.” The blonde woman said, “Most of you are already familiar with the rules but for those of you just tuning in, they’re pretty simple to pick up. Fifteen teams enter the arena but only one will leave. The devices on your arms are called kill switches, they are linked to your partner’s device. If their bracelet detects a lack of life signs it will send a signal to your kill switch to inject you with a potent mix of chemicals and adrenaline. The mix will kill you in roughly one minute but it might just give you the edge you need to take revenge on whomever it was that killed your partner.”

  “Bitch, I’ve taken so many drugs in me life I bet whatever’s in your little cocktail here will make me just a wee bit drowsy, and maybe give me a nice, fat, fookin’ hard-on!” Billy Blight said.

  The punk rocker’s stage voice carried across the room. Blight held his bracelet in the air, extending from the sleeve of a leather jacket that was covered in spikes and chains. The holographic fibres threaded in his scalp changed colours so they were burning a fiery purple. Blight’s partner was a stout and muscular Chinese man. The singer slapped him in the chest companionably but the man only stared back at him mutely.

  “Actually, this year you might find the doses have been slightly modified, to make the game just a little bit more unpredictable.” The blonde woman smiled, “And it’s not the only surprise we have for you this season. Every year the arena changes so no two games are alike, and every year there are different traps, obstacles and mini-games to be overcome, sometimes for rewards and supplies, sometimes just for survival. But this year, things might prove just a little bit more difficult. Of course, I don’t want to say too much and ruin any of the surprises. For now, why don’t we just meet your fellow contestants?”

  The blonde woman walked off to the side of the stage. The massive board at the back of the stage lit up, first flashing the Slayerz logo. Speakers above the board exploded with a booming voice.

  “This year, on Slayerz! Team one, Baxter Webley and his partner, Reaper!” The board said, “On Wall Street, Baxter Webley was known as a ruthless predator in the boardroom but it was in the heavily wooded private forests of upstate New York where he liked to do his real hunting! Armed with high-powered rifles and submachine guns, from inside their armoured limousines Baxter and his associates hunted the dregs of society which had been rounded up and released in the woods!”

  It went on to introduce Webley’s partner, Reaper. He was a more conventional contract killer who looked down at his snivelling partner with disgust. The screen moved to Billy Blight and his partner, Wing Chun. Ironically, the man who had been partnered with the flamboyant singer was a deaf and mute enforcer for the Chinese Triad.

  The bios of the contestants were accompanied by pictures, mugshots, and short videos. When they reached Church Harper the screen had plenty of clips from the earlier season of Slayerz which he had won. As Layla had told Thao, Church had taken out half the teams personally. Thao swallowed as he watched Church shoot, stab and strangle his way through the other contestants and then he glanced over at the man himself. The former champion watched himself on the screen impassively, his face showing no emotion. Thao and Layla were more than halfway down the list of names. Since his memory hadn’t returned, Thao waited nervously to find out what he was supposed to have done.

  “Sergeant Layla Jackson, also known as Southpaw, lost her left arm and the rest of her unit to an Abomination attack in North Africa, lured to their position by local insurgents!”

  The screen blinded them with images from the aftermath of the attack. Abominations were products of the African Bio-Wars, accidental creations of biological weapons that never should have been invented or used in the first place. Images were shown of bodies and vehicles lying in dust, all shredded to pieces.

  “Jackson had her arm replaced by a top-of-the-line military prosthesis but no one counted on the mental scars that had been left by the Abomination attack!” The screen said, “Her first mission after being cleared again for active duty, Jackson mutinied and killed her commanding officer and several of her fellow soldiers during a psychotic breakdown.”

  Layla’s jaw tightened and there was a soft whirr as her mechanical left hand bunched into a fist. Other than anger, Thao couldn’t really tell what she was thinking. He didn’t have long to try and read her, however, as the screen started to talk about him.

  “Thao Seong was a loner, described by his work colleagues and neighbours as a quiet and polite man. But Thao had a dark side that no one knew about.” The screen lingered on a mugshot of Thao’s face that looked recent, “When Sherri Lakewood’s car broke down on the way home from work, she called a tow truck for help but unfortunately for her, Thao arrived first. Kidnapping her, Thao took her back to his home and tortured her in unspeakable ways for days on end, and was only caught when trying to dispose of th
e body. Since then he had been named as a person of interest in the disappearance of six other woman from the same area. Thao refused to confess to any of his crimes and give the families closure, but the horrific condition that Sherri Lakewood’s body was found in was enough to ensure him a life sentence, to be carried out on Slayerz!”

  The photo of Sherri Lakewood, a pretty, young, white woman with light brown hair, stayed on the screen for most of the spiel. Thao was horrified but he didn’t recognise her. It was only when they mentioned his alleged other victims, and six other faces flashed across the screen, that he felt a glimmer of familiarity. One of the women, she was only on the screen for a millisecond, but Thao was sure he knew her. She was a similar type to Sherri Lakewood, they had all been, but Thao felt an immediate connection to her face that he didn’t feel for any of the others.

  “Now you know.” Layla said, “Now you know who-, what, you really are.”

  Thao realised his partner was glaring at him with disgust. Her left hand was still bunched in a fist that looked as big as a house brick. Thao spluttered.

  “No, no, that’s not-, that can’t be me.” Thao said, “I only recognised-, I knew one of them-, but that’s not what-, I couldn’t be like that!”

  “Shut up, if we’re going to get through this I’m going to need to hear some fucking silence out of you.” Layla said.

  The screen went through the rest of the introductions but Thao could hardly hear them. His mind was swimming with questions. Thao could hardly believe he could ever be held responsible for something so horrible. He wondered if there could be some kind of mistake, but if they were telling the truth then he’d been caught red-handed with that woman’s body. Could the drug’s effects wipe out his personality as well as memory? And what would happen in that case when they wore off? Thao wasn’t convinced. Deep down he felt sure something else was going on.

  When the introductions were finished, a full list appeared on the screen. Thao and Layla’s bracelets bleeped and a copy appeared on their sleeves as well.

  Baxter Webley / Reaper

  Billy Blight / Wing Chun

  Church Harper / Jeannie St Sunshine

  Donna Pardee / Raptor Rawlins

  Drago Vorobyov / Wolf Hutchins

  Drake Mooney / Billy-Bob Boomer

  Francois Connard / Neena Twist

  Jacob Schmidt / Pedro de la Mar

  Layla Jackson / Thao Seong

  Q. Chrissie / Maurice Lester

  Santa Muerte / Priest

  T-Bone West / Runner

  Titama / Anaconda

  Ursula Paxton / Dogboy

  Yoyo Yokatomi / Mark Rizzio

  The blonde woman strolled to the front of the stage again.

  “Now, the crates in front of you will open and you can collect your weapons.” She said, “Do not attempt to use your weapons before you enter the arena or your kill switch will be remotely triggered. Any complaints about the weapons you receive can be taken up with the guards on the walkways overhead.”

  The guards tensed as the weapon crates hissed and cracked open. Layla stepped forward quickly to reach inside her crate. She withdrew a Heckler & Koch G36C assault rifle, black, compact and stocky, along with several magazines of ammunition. She loaded one mag and stuffed the rest into the combat webbing on her body armour. All around them, the other contestants removed a litany of killing devices from their crates. They ranged from futuristic assault rifles and submachine guns to primitive and blunt weapons that looked comparably outdated.

  “What the heck is this? This isn’t fair!” Baxter said.

  The former Wall St banker held out a pair of foot-long vibroblade swords shaped like katanas. His partner, Reaper, lifted a hulking assault rifle to his shoulder.

  Billy Blight, the punk rocker, was armed with a large and spiny battle-axe. The cult leader, Santa Muerte, had a pair of ornately decorated Colt .45 handguns. Her brightly coloured face split into a smile, puckering the black stitches at the corners of her mouth. Former champion Church Harper was slipping red tubes of ammunition into the underside of a black SPAS-12 shotgun while his short and frizzy-haired partner had several grenades attached to a short belt.

  Thao finally moved the lid and reached into his own crate. He had to hunt around to find his weapon, a thick, black cylinder that came with a small holster for his belt. After a moment, Thao jolted his arm out straight and the cylinder extended into a long baton. A small arc of electricity sparked between the points of the baton’s forked tip. It was some kind of cattle prod or stun baton, similar to the one the guard had used on him back in his room, painful but nonlethal. Thao wondered why they would have given him something so ineffectual when so many scarier looking contestants around him were better armed.

  “Use something like that on your girls?” Layla said, sneering.

  “I told you, I don’t remember anything.” Thao said, “Whoever did those things it said-, it wasn’t me.”

  “Return to your doorways, the elevators will take you to the start of the Gauntlet where the game will begin. From there it will be kill or be killed, only one pair will leave the arena.” The blonde woman said, “Best of luck, and remember, the team that slays together, stays together.”

  Thao folded the baton back up and slipped it and its holster onto his belt as Layla checked her G36C was loaded correctly. Moving slowly, the two of them headed back towards their doorway. Layla was still scowling and the black cables in her mechanical arm bunched powerfully. Regardless of their link, Thao wondered if he would have to watch his back around the cyborg. If her backstory was accurate, she had already snapped once and killed some of her fellow soldiers even though it meant being imprisoned and branded a traitor. It couldn’t be much of a stretch to imagine she might snap and kill him too, whether it would be suicidal or not.

  “Hey, metal mama! Soldier bitch!” A thickly accented voice said.

  The voice belonged to one of the other contestants, a hulking Russian named Drago Vorobyov. Drago looked like some kind of science experiment gone wrong, covered in bulging muscles, tattoos and scars. His grin was crooked like his jaw had been put on wrong and a thick scar ran across his forehead. His partner was smaller but didn’t look any less dangerous, wirily muscular with a neat beard and hard, dark eyes. Drago rested a huge, drum-loaded M32 grenade launcher across his shoulder.

  “You got that Kung Fu Grip, I like that! I like big girls like you. Out there, I’m going to come for you!” Drago said.

  “Good, that’ll save me the trouble of hunting your ass down myself!” Layla said.

  All fifteen teams filed back through their doorways to the elevators. There were no guards with them that time, Thao and Layla were all alone as they entered the metal box. As the doors closed and the elevator moved downwards Thao felt like he was in a daze. After being locked in that room without answers it was all happening so fast. They were going to be thrown into a battle to the death and he still didn’t know who he was. He didn’t know what kind of life he was going to be fighting for.

  “The game starts with the Gauntlet, usually it’s some kind of maze filled with booby traps so all the contestants are split up before they enter the arena.” Layla said, “But be ready for anything once those doors open.”

  Chapter Three.

  “Slayerz is brought to you by the following sponsors!”

  “The world is coming apart! All that separates you and your family from life or death is one pull of the trigger!”

  A long, tan weapon with rounded sides turns slowly against a dark grey background. More than half a dozen barrels bristle from the end of the gun. A cherry red button is placed on the side of the gun, near the trigger.

  “As seen on Slayerz, the class six OV-KL Arsenal is twenty weapons in one! Good for lefties and righties, the OV-KL Arsenal holds forty rounds of magnetically propelled caseless ammunition, as well as a flamethrower, nitrogen blaster, M37A2 shotgun system for close encounters, Sonic Stun blaster, cutting laser, electric bolas, heat-see
king rocket, grappling gun, weaponised anthrax dispenser and your choice of VibroBlade bayonet or chainsaw attachment.”

  A hulking weapon, with a bulky, black body and barrel composed of two huge prongs appears on the screen. Potential energy crackles down the prongs. Storm clouds gather in the backdrop behind the gun.

  “Command the power of Zeus with the Mark Seven Gigawatt ‘Lightning Gun’. This class nine weapon fires streams of ultra-powerful electricity, making it perfectly flexible for defence or hunting. At lower levels, the Mark Seven Gigawatt will reduce deer to convenient, bite-sized chunks of precooked jerky. At higher settings, the lightning can take out whole herds, gangs of tightly grouped combatants or even Abominations. Abominations may not have reached the shores of the New United States yet but when they do you need to be prepared!”

  “For the ultimate in home defence, our range of suitcase-sized nuclear devices measure between zero-point-five to four kilotons and can be buried in the foundations of your home as a deterrent for would-be invaders. These nuclear devices can even be linked to a heartbeat monitor or your home’s security system. It’s Mutually Assured Destruction at MAD prices!”

  “When trouble comes knocking, be prepared to knock back.”

  “The whole world is going to be watching our every move from here on out.” Layla said, “So if you get me killed at least try to make it a good showing, you rapist piece of shit.”

  Their elevator came to a stop. Layla nodded at the tiny cameras which were buried in all four corners of the elevator’s ceiling. Thao gritted his teeth, filled with growing conviction that something had to be wrong about the profile they had given him.

  “I’m not a rapist.” Thao said, “And I guess we’ll just see what we’re up against.”

  Thao got ready to run if he needed to, alongside the taller and heavier soldier. When the doors peeled back, however, they opened on what looked like a blank wall.

  “What the fuck?” Layla said.