Prisoner 3-57: Nuke Town (2 page)

The
doors opened with a ping.

Ian
Owen was stood there, waiting.

His
eyes widened with fear, as he looked down the barrel of my gun.

‘
Get
in.’

It
wasn’t a request.

Chapter Three:
Prison Break

‘
Where
do you think we are going?’ asked Ian.

I
spat onto the corridor floor. I still had the taste of blood in my
mouth.

‘
I
am getting out of here,’ I replied.

‘
And
where do you think you will go?’ Ian seemed oddly smug, which
was surprising considering the situation. I pressed the barrel of the
gun into his back and marched him around the corner of the corridor.
Nobody was about. We hadn’t seen anyone for nearly a minute.
This corridor was devoid of life too. I began to march him forward
when suddenly a metal barrier dropped down from the ceiling and cut
off our path. Instantly, I turned one hundred and eighty degrees to
go back, but a second barricade dropped down with a heavy thud. It
didn’t matter if I had a rocket launcher. There was no way I
was getting through the barricade. We were trapped.

‘
Prisoner
3-57, you have to listen to me,’ said Ian.

I
pointed the gun at his head.

‘
The
only words I want to hear are how I can get off this ship.’

Ian
stood still for a moment. His hands were raised in the air. He
gestured with his index finger to the wall button for the sun blinds.
‘May I?’ I nodded my head. Ian moved with caution. He
stepped towards the wall and activated the sun blinds, which would
automatically shut when travelling by anything that could harm the
people on board. The metal blind slowly rose to reveal the mysteries
outside of the ship. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The blind
opened to deep space, but the infinite blackness was filled with
hundreds of thousands of space cruisers, space liners, frigates,
troop carriers, deep space ferries, space stations being towed by
haulers and a thousand other different type of ship variation. They
were all flying in the same direction.

‘
What
is this?’ I asked.

‘
This
is all that is left of humanity,’ replied Ian.

‘
What?’

‘
You
don’t know because you were in the game. Humanity is a dying
breed. Earth is gone. It was destroyed when our sun exploded.
Everything is gone. We are all that remain.’

That
was a lot of information to digest in one go.

‘
What
happened?’

‘
We
were attacked,’ replied Ian, in a matter of fact way.

‘
Who
attacked us?’

He
replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

‘
We
don’t know.’

‘
Bullshit,’
I snapped, ‘this is just another trick of yours.’

‘
I
wish it were,’ said Ian. ‘Five years ago a ship appeared
out of nowhere. It was the size of a two door hover car. It was a
silver orb. It moved so fast that it could evade all our attempts to
catch it. The thing seemed to move from colony to colony and would
just sit there, as if it was watching us. It spent two weeks orbiting
Earth. And then one day it just shot off towards the sun. It fired
something into the centre of the sun and that was it. The sun began
to die. Earth government was already working on a form of deep space
travel. It is a sort of sling shot through the universe, but it skips
you further ahead in time. It is kind of confusing. They used this
technology to propel this enormous fleet away from danger. Fifteen
million people are all that is left of humanity.’

I
didn’t know if I could or should believe him or not.

It
didn’t seem real.

‘
It’s
kind of hard to swallow, right?’

‘
That’s
because it isn’t true.’

‘
Keep
telling yourself that. It is true.’

‘
If
it is, where are you flying towards?’

‘
We
are in search of a new home, if such a place exists.’

‘
You’re
lying,’ I told him.

‘
I
promise you. This is the god’s honest truth. I have no reason
to lie to you, 3-57. I am being so deadly honest because I need your
help. You see life isn’t great out here. We still have society
and governments. The economy is shit. There is limited jobs available
to people. The civilians live off a horrible gruel and in cramped
living conditions. The prisoner program is the only source of relief
we have.’

‘
What
is the prisoner program?’

‘
The
prisoner program was my design. I was working for the government. I
was trying to create the ultimate punishment, which would help create
rehabilitated prisoners that would lead to a better society. You were
in this program when the sun began to die. We realised that this
virtual world might be a way to save humanity. You see in this game
the things you feel, touch, taste are all real. It means people will
feel like they are eating actual food, sleeping in real beds, or
doing something good with their lives. Not all the games are brutally
violent. The game is a good way for people to learn trades and skills
they can take back with them into the real world. It is a form of
escapism. We currently have four million players in the game. That is
nearly one third of the population living in the game. It costs money
to enter the game, but our lives are so bad that people would rather
live in the hostile game environment than take their chances in the
real world.’

‘
This
is entertainment to them?’

‘
Yes.
The games are broadcast live too. The prisoners are the most popular
characters. You are famous, 3-57. Your story was so full of conflict,
danger, love and passion that people were drawn to you.’

‘
Are
you fucking kidding me? That was a living hell.’

‘
I
know, but it was a hell created by your own subconscious mind.’

‘
And
you want me to go back in there?’

‘
We
need you too. Prisoner X is going to kill over one third of the
population. Humanity cannot take another hit like that. And you need
to go back into the game. Your friends need you.’

‘
My
friends...?’ I asked.

‘
Jane,
Lena, Alisha, Arthur and Iaso are still alive. You may have killed
the others, but they survived. Right now they need you. The five of
them are trapped on a ship being overrun by these evil little things
that Prisoner X created. It is only a matter of time before they die,
but the game has changed. Normally, people die in the game, wake up
and return to their ordinary lives, but if they die in the game they
die in reality too. You have to save them and you have to save Rose.’

‘
Rose?’

‘
She
is alive.’

‘
That
isn’t true. She is in my head.’

‘
No.
That was a punishment you created for yourself. Your sister is
alive.’

‘
You’re
lying.’

‘
No.
You’re sister is alive. You have a chance to save her, but your
running out of time.’

This
couldn’t be true, could it? Earth was gone. Humanity was flying
around space in tin cans. The reality I have just lived is all a lie
and is some kind of role playing game for these people. It just seems
too unreal. What about Rose? Is she real? Is my sister actually real?
I was so convinced that she was something I made up in my head. I
believe it so much that I had killed myself... but if I had killed
myself I should be dead. Is this heaven? Is this hell? What options
do I have? I am trapped in deep space. I have nowhere to go. I have
nowhere to run. I will either be killed, or sent back into the game.

‘
Fine,’
I said, ‘I will kill this Prisoner X, but on one condition.’

‘
Name
it.’

‘
I
want a full pardon. I want my life back.’

‘
That
is a deal.’

Chapter Four:
Information Officer

It
was like standing in a sea of white clouds. The entire room was
white. The ceiling was white, the walls were white and the floor was
white. It messed with my depth perception. The wall could have been
inches from my face or miles away. I really couldn’t tell.

‘
Welcome
to the meditation room,’ said a familiar voice.

I
turned the face the man in white.

He
was a tall man in a smart white suit, white tie and white shoes. His
skin tone was milky, his hair was as white as angel wings, and even
the pupils of his eyes were white. I had met this man on the day of
the invasion. He worked for the aliens that forced me to fight in the
interplanetary war game, but that must mean that he isn’t real.

‘
You’re,
IO,’ I said.

‘
Bingo.
I am the Information Office for the game, but IO is just my game
name. I am Ian Owen. I used my initials to create the character.’

‘
Ian?’

‘
That’s
right.’

‘
B-but...’
I paused for a moment. ‘Why don’t you take out this
Prisoner X guy? I have seen you get shot and take no damage.’

‘
Yes.
I am not in the game like you. This place,’ he waved a hand at
the white world. ‘This place is a world between the real world
and the game. I am god here. I am an indestructible character, as
this world is created for game designers. If I entered the game then
I would be playing in a world created by Prisoner X and I would be
just an ordinary character in his story. This world is here to
protect the creators of the game.’

‘
Why
am I here?’

‘
You
are being uploaded into the game.’

‘
How
long will that take?’

‘
We
will move when we are ready.’

‘
What
are we waiting for then?’ I asked.

‘
Well,
you are getting a game bonus. Your previous experience was a world
created to punish you, but this time it is different. You are going
into a hostile war zone to save four million lives of the alliance.
We are going to give you a helping hand.’

‘
And
how do you plan to do that?’

‘
Check
it out,’ he pointed a finger at my left arm.

I
glanced down at the x-com that had appeared out of the blue. The
x-com was a small flat screen computer device that the aliens from
the last game had built into my forearm. It was worth its weight in
gold. By completing missions I gained experience points and game
credits. The more experience you gained the more things you unlocked,
which was numerous, as every single weapon ever created was on the
list from pistols, swords, rifles, aircraft’s, tactical nukes,
alien weapons, and technological advances to increase human ability.
There were cures to all known illnesses and you could learn any
skill, or trade, in less than a heartbeat for the right price. You
paid for all these things with game credits. It had taken a while,
but our group had started to turn into a real fighting unit, as the
longer we survived the better equipped we became. That was until I
went on a rampage and killed most of them.

‘
Your
credits and experience have been saved from the last game. They will
continue on into this game, but I have given you one hundred thousand
game credits. You can buy anything and everything, which your
experience points and current game level will allow. This should give
you a chance to survive.’

A
smile split my lips.

One
hundred thousand credits?

I
will be a one man army by the time I am finished.

‘
Buy
what you need and tell me when you are ready,’ said IO.

Chapter Five:
Zombies?

Gunfire
echoed throughout the corridors, as the agonising death rattles of
dying men and women reached my ears. Blood stains smeared the walls,
as red lights swirled within the darkness of the power cut. I looked
down at my body. A smile split my lips. IO was as good as his word. I
was in the full body combat space suit. It was an advanced version of
Earth Force Special Space Service armour. It was black armour capable
of resisting pretty much everything. It was lightweight and designed
for agility. The face mask covered my entire skull. I could see out
of two slits, which protected my eyes with reinforced glass.
Information appeared on the screen within the helmet. It highlighted
targets and showed a three dimension map that was overlaid across the
real world. I could see doors, hatches, security doors and hidden
secrets. It was designed to locate improvised explosive devices and
other such booby traps. A map highlighted the layout of the ship.