Major Karnage (16 page)

“I think she just set a new record,” Miki looked at his clipboard,
“for the shortest-lived contestant, lasting for a grand total of five
point six seconds.”

“I thought for sure she’d last longer than that,” Paco said.

“As I think everybody did. But, as always, The Worm has the
Final Word.”

“Mama-oo-pow-pow, Miki. Mama-oo-pow-pow.” Paco turned to
the camera. “We’ll be back after this.”

The screen changed to a shot of Melvern staring into the
distance, as his voice-over extolled the virtues of a life dedicated
to Spragmos. The young man finally looked away from the screen.
He stood and faced Karnage. A Worm-shaped nametag stuck to his
shirt proclaimed him to be Ajay. He looked Karnage up and down.
“So, you think you’re Worthy, do you?”

“I’m the Lightbringer,” Karnage said.

“Yes,” Ajay nodded at the screen. “I saw your little performance.”

Karnage nodded at the body near Ajay’s feet. “What happened to
your friend there?”

Ajay barely glanced at the corpse. “He dared to question The
Word. And Spragmos judged him accordingly.”

“Spragmos killed him?”

“No,” Ajay said. “I did.”

“Does that make you Spragmos?”

Ajay smiled. “You mock me.”

“I do,” Karnage said.

Ajay shook his head. “I pity you. Your Worm lies in a deep slumber.
I can sense it. One wonders if it will ever waken.”

“And your Worm’s awake, is it?”

“It is. Thanks to Andy.” Ajay looked down at the corpse and
smiled. “Spragmos had a role for him to play. He was sent here to
test my faith. To try and fill my head with lies and doubt. But I
have passed this test. Walked through the fire as Spragmos decreed
and emerged reborn. My Worm is truly awake now. And Spragmos
will judge me Worthy.” He puffed out his chest. “For I am the real
Lightbringer.”

“No you’re not,” Karnage said.

“I am,” Ajay said.

“I’m the Lightbringer,” Karnage said.

“No! I am the Lightbringer!”

“Just cuz you say it’s so don’t make it true,” Karnage said.

Ajay bared his teeth. He looked as if he were about to attack
Karnage. Karnage hoped he would.

The door to the Green Room opened behind them. Homski stuck
his head into the room. “Ajay? It is your time.”

Ajay closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. He opened his eyes
and smiled at Karnage. “You are not Worthy. Spragmos calls for me
now. I go to become one with The Worm. And once He has judged me
Worthy, it will be your turn to meet your fate.”

Ajay turned and left. The door slammed shut behind him.

Karnage had barely sat down before the door opened again and
Tristan sashayed into the room.

“Oh good, you’re still here,” she said.

Karnage sprang to his feet. “How the hell did you get in here?”

“Keep your voice down,” Tristan hissed. “If I’m caught in here, it’s
the end for us both.”

“As opposed to just me?”

“What ever are you talking about?”

“Do I look like a Messiah to you? Your plan didn’t work. Melvern
saw right through it!”

“On the contrary,” Tristan said. “He played right into it.”

Karnage scowled. “What do you mean he played right into it?”

Tristan looked at him and blinked. “You mean you didn’t think I
knew this would happen?”

“Of course I didn’t think that! What the hell was I supposed to
think?!”

“Admittedly, that was exactly what you were supposed to think.
But once things didn’t go as planned, I thought for sure you would
have assumed that I was playing a deeper, more Machiavellian game
here. Frankly, my good Major, I’m a little disappointed in you.”

“Disappointed in me?! Goddammit, I thought you were bein’
straight with me!”

“I was straight with you. I said that so long as you do as I tell you,
you will make it out of this alive. You’re still alive, aren’t you? Have
some faith, Major.”

“Faith?! You set me up!”

“I did nothing of the sort.”

“You could have warned me this was gonna happen.”

“And risk compromising your performance? I think not.”

“My performance?!”

“The camera doesn’t lie, Major. I needed to ensure you were
authentic. And what better way to ensure an authentic performance
than if you are simply
being
authentic. That Melvern is a snake. If I
had told you the entire plan, he would have sensed something was
up right from the start, and you would have ended up as worm food.”

“It sounds like they’re gonna make worm food outta me anyway!”

“Ah, but the difference is context, my good Major. Before,
you were just worm food. Now, you are worm food with upward
mobility! You have now been declared Worthy. That makes you a
serious contender for Melvern’s job. All you have to do is defeat The
Worm, and Melvern will have no choice but to accept you as the
Lightbringer.”

“And how the hell do I defeat The Worm?”

Tristan smiled. “My dear Major, have you never wondered why
Melvern has not fed me to The Worm? He’s afraid that I’ve discovered
his secret. That I know how to defeat The Worm.”

“And do you?”

“Of course I do. We wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. Honestly, Major,
I had you pegged for a better strategist than this. Do try to keep up,
please.”

“Fine. How do I defeat The Worm?”

“Ah,” Tristan smiled. “Killing The Worm is both simple and
complex. You must break off its horn.”

“That’s it? That’s all it takes?”

“Trust me. It’s enough.”

“What’s the catch?”

“The Worm is big.”

“Okay.”

“I mean big.”

“Okay.”

“Really, really big.”

“I get the picture.”

“No,” Tristan said. “You don’t.”

The screen above them changed to show Miki and Paco back in
the arena. “Welcome back to Arbiter’s Day, folks. We’re coming to
the end of the Finale, and have we ever saved the best for last.”

“We just got word that Andy Rudyk passed peacefully while
waiting in the Green Room.”

“Apparently the mighty Spragmos was keen to ensure our Top
Ten stayed a Top Ten, Paco.”

“Papa-oo-mow-mow, Miki. Papa-oo-mow-mow.”

The shot changed to show the arena. The doors opened, and Ajay
emerged from the darkness.

“And now here’s audience favourite, Ajay Joseph entering the
ring.”

The doors slammed shut behind him. He didn’t even flinch.

“No one has ever scored as highly as Ajay did in the preliminaries,
Miki.”

He turned to the crowd and threw his fists into the air.

“Listen to those fans. The crowd really loves him.”

A shadow loomed up over him. A squiggly screech pierced the
monitor’s speakers, and shook the arena right down to the Green
Room. The monitor screeched out, and when it came back again,
Ajay was gone: nothing but a greasy smear left to mark where he had
been. The crowd let out a gasp, then a cheer.

The shot changed to Paco and Miki again. They were smiling
gleefully.

“Looks like Spragmos begged to differ. What was the final time
on that, Miki?”

“Three point seven seconds. That’s a record all right, but not
quite the record any of us expected.”

“The Worm has had the Final Say, and that Final Say is nay.”

“Mama-oo-pow-pow, Paco. Mama-oo-pow-pow.”

“Looks like Ajay’s now one with The Worm,” Karnage said.

“No he isn’t,” Tristan said. “He’s just dead. Try not to follow his
lead.”

“I’ll do my best,” Karnage said.

Homski and a pair of sentries led Karnage from the Green Room
into a giant antechamber. A pair of massive metal doors stood
before them. Karnage could feel a slight breeze coming through
the crack. There was a toxic smell to the air reminiscent of creeper
and pinkstink. Karnage wondered if it was the plants or The Worm.
Guess I’ll find out soon enough.
He cracked his knuckles.

Homski studied Karnage from the corner of his eye. “Is it true
you are the Lightbringer?”

“I am,” Karnage said.

“The High Prophet thinks you are a fraud,” Homski said.

“And what do you think?”

Homski furrowed his brow a moment, then shook his head. “It
matters not what I think. Spragmos will show the way. The Worm
is The Word.”

“Mama-oo-pow-pow,” Karnage said.

Homski shot him a look. A voice crackled over Homski’s headset.
Homski nodded and turned to Karnage. “You will enter the arena.
There is a spot marked with an X. You will stand on it, and wait for
the High Prophet to finish his speech. Only then will you be allowed
to face the Arbiter.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then once Spragmos is done with you, you will have to face the
technical director.”

Homski pulled a switch. The doors swung open. The orange
light of the rising sun blinded Karnage. Once his eyes adjusted, he
stepped through. The door slammed shut behind him.

A vast wasteland of pockmarked earth opened before him. The
ground bore the scars of a thousand and one weapons tests: blast
craters and blackened earth stretched out in all directions. Bits of
old military hardware were strewn everywhere. Massive trails of
freshly churned earth crisscrossed in all directions.

Mile-high concrete walls fenced him in on all sides. Lines of
observation decks wound around the walls of the canyon like a giant
corkscrew. Thousands of faces pressed against the glass. Tens of
thousands of D-shaped lenses flashed and flickered in the morning
sunshine.

A crude X had been scratched on the dirt in front of him. Karnage
stood on it. The High Prophet’s voice echoed out from every wall as
it was broadcast from every D-pad in the compound.

“There are those who say the end of the world is upon us. That
our time upon this scorched earth is fast coming to an end. And they
are right. This world is dying. Listen closely, and you can hear it gasp
its last shallow breaths.

“But all is not lost! For as the Scriptures say, this is not The End
Time. This is the Time For A New Beginning!”

The crowd cheered. The High Prophet waited for the cheering
to die down, then continued. “Spragmos has shown us The Way.
Spragmos has given us The Word. And The Word . . . is The Worm!”

The crowd chanted: “Mama-oo-pow-pow! Mama-oo-pow-pow!”

“And The Worm will show us the way. And one day, we will all
awaken The Worm within. But the question remains: is that day
upon us? The Scripture speaks of the Lightbringer. He who will
show us the Light and illuminate the True Path. And now, there is
one among us who claims to be this bringer of Light. But is he indeed
the one of which the Scripture speaks? I have heard you ask, ‘Is this
the Light Spragmos speaks of?’

“And I say to you: I am but a man. It is not my place—nor any
mortal’s—to interpret the meaning of the Scriptures. But there is
also no need. For in the end, there is only The Word. And The Word
. . . is The Worm!”

“Mama-oo-pow-pow! Mama-oo-pow-pow!”

“Now, let us pray.”

There was a mass shuffling as thousands of heads bowed.
Melvern’s voice echoed across the canyon. “Mighty Spragmos, we
ask you to help guide us through these troubled times. Send us Your
Messenger and show us The Way. Mama-oo-pow-pow.”

“Mama-oo-pow-pow,” the crowd replied.

“Mama-oo-pow-pow!”

“Mama-oo-pow-pow!”

“Mama-oo-pow-pow!”

“Mama-oo-pow-pow!”

A blood-curdling screech tore across the arena—a thick, jagged
line of sound that ripped through the canyon. It slammed Karnage
in the chest so hard he stumbled back. The noise ricocheted off the
walls and echoed back across the arena, slowly fading into silence.
The air itself grew still. The entire world was gripped by a sudden,
terrible fear. Karnage wanted to scream into the void to break its
spell.

That’s when he felt it.

It started as a slight tremor at his feet, like the dull vibration of
an approaching train. The tremor grew stronger and became a deep
rumble. The ground shook. The earth beneath his feet churned and
boiled. Karnage leaped off the fast-rising earth. He tumbled over
the teeming mass until he found firmer ground. He turned just in
time to see the expanding mass explode. A skyscraper shot out of the
ground with lightning speed, sloughing mammoth chunks of earth
in all directions. A dark shadow overtook Karnage, travelled the
length of the arena, and shot up the full length of the wall behind
him. Karnage found himself enveloped in cold, merciless darkness,
as if the thing had risen up and swallowed the sun. Karnage craned
his neck up, squinting into the sky.

The Worm towered over Karnage like a freight train balanced on
one end. Hair covered a body that gyrated and pulsed like a sea of
quivering tentacles. Its face was nothing but a giant mouth framed
with row upon row of shard-like teeth spiralling deep into its gullet.

And jutting from the tip of its head, just barely visible against
the orange-tinted sky, was a single, stubby horn.

“Well, shit,” Karnage said.

A ripple ran down The Worm’s body, and it toppled towards Karnage.
As it fell, its hairy tentacled worm carcass became a crumbling mass
of steel and concrete, and a voice called out from behind him.

“Tower’s comin’ down!”
It was Cookie.

“Run!” Velasquez shouted.

Karnage’s men started running in all directions. Panic hit him hard.

This was where it all went to shit. Where they lost everything. Not this
time. He wouldn’t let it happen again.

“No! This way! Follow my lead!” Karnage turned and ran away from
the surging tower at a forty five degree angle. Blood pounded in his ears,
drowning out the raging roil of concrete and metal as it hurtled closer and
closer. His soldiers followed closely behind. He could feel their urge to turn
and look, to see if they would make it.