FSE

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The light faded and Dylan found himself in a seat. He blinked, shook his head, and glanced around. He and the females appeared to be in the back of an oversized van or passenger carrier. The interior had just enough room for two rows of seats and a locker at one end.

Ayastal thumped her head on the ceiling, winced, and hunched over.

"So," Cora muttered, "what sort of game are they forcing us to play, this time?"

The information appeared in Dylan's mind. "Great. It's another 'steal the MacGuffin' thing." He heaved himself out of his seat, stared out the window, and pointed at the skyscraper across the street.

"There's something we must find on one of the upper floors," Syala said. She shuddered and rubbed her palms over her face. "I'll never get used to having knowledge simply appear in my head like that."

Grishnag patted her shoulder and opened the locker, revealing an assortment of rifles, pistols, grenades, and other gear. She sighed and began loading up.

"I wonder if we'll ever be allowed to rest." Zilaka drew in a few deep breaths to calm herself.

"I hope so." Dylan grabbed a rifle, two pistols, and several grenades. He slid the door open, stepped out, and took a look around. "At least there's not many people around. Fewer innocent bystanders to worry about."

"It appears to be early morning." Grishnag joined him and grasped his hand for a moment. "Or late evening. Whatever this facility is, most of those working here have probably left, or haven't arrived yet."

"I just wish I knew why this was happening." Nishara armed herself and slithered over to Dylan and Grishnag.

"As I speculated a while ago, it may simply be for the entertainment of whoever is watching us. Or we're being tested for some reason. Or perhaps some sort of training for a purpose that hasn't been revealed yet."

The other females emptied out the weapons locker and joined them on the pavement. Everyone exchanged a glance and crossed the street. They passed through the front door and found the lobby empty. Dylan shrugged and headed for the elevator.

"Okay, now's probably the best time to fill you in on what I think I've figured out," Cora said after they entered the elevator and it began taking them to the ninety-fifth floor. "Near the end of the last fight, I took out one of the vehicles chasing us, and noticed something odd. When it exploded, for an instant it broke into voxels. So did the air surrounding it, when the shockwave passed through it."

"Voxels?" Dylan stared at her. "You mean, like pixels, except three-dimensional?"

"Right."

The other females exchanged confused glances--except Grishnag. Her lips parted and her eyes widened slightly.

"We're in a simulation?" Dylan slumped against the wall.

"That's what I'm guessing."

"I don't even understand what that means," Syala muttered.

"It's like a shared dream," Grishnag said. "Or a hallucination. If Cora's right about this, none of this is really happening."

"It_felt_ real enough." Nishara rubbed a hand over one of the places she'd been shot a few minutes ago.

"I guess that'd explain how we can keep waking up after being killed. We're just respawning." Dylan shook his head. "If our brains are plugged into a computer, how the hell are we gonna get out?"

"I'll be scanning our surroundings from now on." Cora smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. "What I saw could simply be a graphics glitch, but there's a chance it could be something I can exploit. If explosions and other violent events actually destabilize the simulation, I may be able to slip past its security measures and access its code."

"And maybe you can manipulate it? Rewrite the simulation?"

"That's my plan. Obviously, the simulation's code will be in an alien language, but if I can get into it, I can figure it out. Hacking is one of my specialties."

Dylan smiled. "Well, at least now we have hope."

The elevator stopped and the doors parted. Grishnag and Cora immediately snapped their rifles up, but the corridor ahead was empty. They led the others to the double doors at the far end. Cora stared at the panel beside it.

"Never seen anything like this before, yet I know how it works. Give me a minute." She slung her rifle over her shoulder and began tapping buttons on the panel.

Grishnag turned to keep an eye on the corridor behind them. Dylan tried to do the same while still watching Cora.

The doors slid aside and Dylan turned to face the huge storage room beyond. Tables and benches occupied the center, each holding an assortment of boxes and alien artifacts. Shelves lined the walls, holding more of the same, and in an open space at the far end, near the large windows running the width of the room, sat a row of crates.

"I've detected a silent alarm," Cora said, hurrying into the room. "We don't have much time."

Dylan weaved between the tables and benches, stopped in front of one of the metal crates, and glanced around at the females. "This is what we're here to grab."

"Yes." Nishara stared at the crate and rubbed her upper-left hand over her brow. "But how do they expect us to move it? We have to get it down to a cargo truck on the street."

"I might be strong enough to lift it, or at least push it around." Cora shook her head. "We can probably get it through the door, but it's too big for the elevator."

"How the hell did they get it in here in the first place, then?" Grishnag glanced around, then tilted her head upward. "I don't see any places where the ceiling might open up. Maybe a big enough section of the window opens for stuff to be unloaded."

Nishara slid over to the window, then from one end to the other. "I don't see any place where it could open."

"We'll have to break it out, then." Grishnag walked over beside Nishara and placed her hand against the window. "And hope there's a crane or a scaffold that can reach the ground from here."

"Let's take a look around." Dylan headed for the wall to his right, frowning at each table's contents as he passed. "Maybe there's something we can use."

Cora turned to face the open door. "I'm picking up movement outside. Guards approaching, most likely."

"Wonderful." Grishnag sighed. "Looks like the party's about to start."

---

Everyone spread out across the room to avoid becoming one huge target. Grishnag crouched behind the crate they'd come here to steal, and noticed Dylan taking a position beside her. He glanced at her, shrugged, and grinned. She chuckled.

Ayastal pressed herself against the far wall, beside the door, and took a few deep breaths. The others took cover behind tables and benches all over the room.

"Let's wait to see how hostile they are," Grishnag said softly. "If they're not willing to shoot first, let's not force them to."

Dylan nodded, gripped his rifle in both hands, and trembled slightly.

The doors slid open.

Off to the left, Cora peeked under the bench she'd hidden behind. She frowned, glanced over at Grishnag, and nodded in the direction of the approaching footsteps.

Grishnag risked a quick peek around the crate. An all-human squad wearing armor had just entered. Something was off, though. The faces visible through their visors ranged from slack-jawed to wide-eyed, but all of them had one thing in common--there appeared to be very little going on behind their eyes.

One of them was drooling.

They've gone insane. Grishnag shivered and ducked back beside Dylan.

Footsteps spread out across the room. A gasp from the right caught her attention and she leaned out to see what had happened.

One of the guards had found Zilaka hiding behind another crate. Her eyes widened and she held her hands up.

Without hesitation, the man shot her in the forehead.

Grishnag's heart slammed and she lurched back under cover. After taking a moment to get herself back under control, she snarled and lunged out from behind the crate. Dylan joined her, and both of them opened fire on the man who'd killed Zilaka.

The other women appeared from behind cover and hosed the rest of the guards down. The guards returned fire without even trying to find something to hide behind. When the shooting stopped a few seconds later, all the guards were dead, as were Syala and Nishara.

Grishnag turned slowly, swept her eyes over the bodies, and leaned against the crate with a weary sigh.

Cora kneeled beside Syala's body, closed its eyes, and leaned over to kiss it on the forehead. She stood, walked over to Nishara, and repeated the process.

Dylan trudged up beside Grishnag, stared at the females' bodies, and shook his head. "I've had just about enough of this shit."

"So have I." Ayastal picked up one of the dead guards and carried it with one hand across the room. "I have an idea. Stand clear."

They moved out of her way and she strode over to the window, wound up, and hurled the body overhand at the reinforced glass. The window cracked under the impact, but held up. Ayastal picked up the body, released a rumbling growl, and launched it again.

This time the window shattered and the body tumbled out of sight. Ayastal nodded.

"Now we have a way to get the crate out of here."

"Nice." Grishnag managed a shaky smile and walked over to the window. She braced her hand on the frame, leaned out, and glanced down at the street. "Hmm." She gave the side of the building a quick look-over, then turned to look up at the floors above. The entire side of the building was smooth--nothing but glass and metal frames that held it in. "No crane or scaffold or anything else."

She turned to face the others.

"You know what? Let's just shove the thing out the goddamned window." She snarled. "Because fuck our captors!"

Dylan laughed and shrugged. "Sounds good to me."

"Same here." Cora smirked.

"Yes." Ayastal nodded and matched Grishnag's snarl. "Fuck them!"

She and Cora walked around the crate, pushed it up to the edge of the floor, and waited for Grishnag and Dylan to join them.

"Ready?" Grishnag waited for the others to nod. "Okay. And...push!"

They gave the crate one last shove and watched it plummet to the street. It crumpled against the pavement and bounced across to the opposite side of the street. When it came to rest against the side of another building, it was a twisted, mangled mess.

Grishnag nodded, put her arm around Dylan's shoulders, and grinned.

"Now,that felt good!"

---

Nishara started violently as Dylan, Grishnag, and Ayastal awoke with screams of agony. Poor Syala, already weeping in Nishara's arms, released a terrified scream of her own. Nishara put all four arms back around Syala and rubbed her back until she calmed down. She leaned down to Zilaka, who'd spent her entire time since reviving on the floor, leaning against the wall with her knees pulled up to her chest, sobbing quietly. Nishara took her hand and helped her get back on her hooves.

The three females hurried over to the others, arriving just in time to catch Dylan and Grishnag as they rolled off their tables.

Ayastal sat up slowly, her movements stiff and trembly, and sat still for another moment before she could suck in a breath.

Cora remained silent, but her twisted expression told Nishara how much pain the mechanical woman was in.

"What happened?" Nishara whispered.

The others took a few more breaths before they were able to answer.

"We decided to destroy the objective and end the game on our own terms," Grishnag finally mumbled. "We threw it out the fucking window."

"It was one of the most satisfying things I've ever done," Dylan added, then shuddered. "For a few seconds, nothing happened--then we were...punished, I guess."

Syala shivered and cupped Dylan's face in her hands. "Punished?"

"I've never felt such agony," Ayastal whispered.

"It was like every nerve in my body had been set on fire." Grishnag crossed her arms tightly over her chest. "Shit, even _that_description doesn't even come close to what it felt like."

"I'm so sorry." Nishara slithered over to her and embraced her.

"And then we woke up here." Cora stood and leaned against her table. "Bloody hell. I don't ever want to go through that kind of sensor-scrambling ever again."

Nishara remembered the "punishment" Grishnag had received at the hands of the faceless guards she'd defied earlier. It must have been like that, but much worse. She hugged Grishnag again and rubbed her back slowly.

"Are you girls okay?" Dylan glanced from Syala Nishara to Zilaka.

"We're...surviving." Syala sighed, wiped tears from her eyes, and met Dylan's gaze. She kissed him, brushed her fingers through his hair, and managed a slight smile.

"I surrendered," Zilaka muttered. "And that man killed me anyway. I made no move toward him, but he shot me."

"I wonder if they had a choice," Ayastal said. "I saw their faces. Maybe something was controlling them."

"I think they simply lost their minds." Grishnag shivered again. "It was like they were running on autopilot. Maybe they were trapped here for so long, their minds just...snapped."

"Is that our fate?" Syala's glowing eyes widened, her mouth twisted, and she burst into tears again. "To die again and again, until we go mad?"

"No." Dylan shook his head and cupped her face in his hands. "We'll figure something out. We'll find a way out of this."

"How?"

Cora reached out to touch Syala's shoulder. "If I can--"

The door opened and everyone spun around to face it. Three more of the tall, helmeted beings stomped into the room. One of them pointed at the open doorway. Zilaka sobbed.

"Oh, no! Not another one! Not again!"

"Calm yourself," Nishara whispered. She put her left arms around Zilaka. "We must keep going, if only to give ourselves time to figure out how to escape. We can't think of anything if we're screaming in pain."

Zilaka nodded, but couldn't stop crying. Nishara kept her arms around Zilaka and began moving toward the doorway. The others followed, some of them reaching out to touch Zilaka's shoulder.

"We're all here with you," Ayastal said softly.

They made their way through the door and down the same damned corridor to the same damned door at the end. It opened and they entered the chamber beyond. The familiar white light washed over them and when it faded, they found themselves on another street lined with tall buildings. This time, though, the buildings were some sort of stone instead of metal, with metal pipes running along some of them.

The buildings, she noticed as a few more seconds passed, had begun to crumble, and many of the pipes were rusty.

"Now what?" Syala crossed her arms tightly over her chest and turned slowly to scowl at their surroundings. "What sort of sick game do they want us to play, this time?"

"I'm not detecting anyone else around us," Cora said.

"Shit." Dylan turned to face her with wide, frightened eyes. "The info just came into my head. It's a deathmatch."

"We're still being punished." The knowledge entered Nishara's mind and she covered her mouth with both upper hands. "We...we have to kill each other."