Pirate Assassin

Page 36

"Attention all combatants, attention all combatants. Prepare to be released." Zack shouldered his parachute. "Ready guys?"

"I suppose, what the heck."

"R-r-ready."

"Ready." Elyss replied confidenly but she was a bit uneasy as she flashed Zack a thought, "You sure this is gonna work?"

"Well, depends on your acting skills, Elyss." She mind-grunted, but didn't reply.

"Please gather on the middle aisle of your transport. The time now is 1100 hours and the match will end at 1600 hours. Good luck to you all."

"Remember guys," Zack said hurriedly, "open your chutes at the very last mo-" but he never got to finish it as the floorboards opened and made them fall about 3000 metres above the battlefield. As he fell, he could already spot the flashes of electrical discharges but he tucked his arms to his side and shot through the air. When he was roughly halfway down he spread his arms out and a few minutes later pulled on the parachute cord. He landed without a hitch. He unslung his rifle and spoke to his wrist, which on normal days would have meant that he was losing it, but now, the light of his ACT blinked on the arm-guard, attached to a gauntlet made of the same material. "Did everyone make it in okay?"

"Yup!" came Elyss' cheerful reply.

"Carvin had a bit of a panic attack, but I saw him down safely." Zack let out a breath. "Okay. Stick to the plan and good luck everyone. We meet at the rendezvous point in two hours." He shut of his ACT and ran to find his position.

Fletcher Druk groaned as he sat up and rubbed his aching head. He had been shocked for at least the 5th time and the last one was a particularly hard blow; five of his team of 14 had betrayed them and run off with the suits they had gathered. The less, they thought, the better. He wondered what he was going to do. Maybe he should have done what the majority of his team had decided to do upon disbanding. Just find his own suit and protect it at all cost. It was easier too. If he lost it, it would be quite easy to shock a person and get one. He was deep in thought that he only just noticed other bodies around him. He started, but then realised they were all comatose and lowered his gun.

"Getting shocked is such a drag, eh?" a voice said behind him. He whirled around and fired but the boy ducked in time. "Whoa, whoa! Don't shoot!" he exclaimed as he raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. Fletcher didn't lower his gun. He evaluated the figure. He was quite skinny but well toned. His unruly black hair was plastered with sweat, but all in all, he didn't look like a threat, though his sharp eyes bore a certain anger in them. "What's your name?" the boy asked. "Fletcher Druk. Yours?" The boy smiled. "Zack. Zack Ying."

"As you can see," Zack said portraying the amiable war comrade, which was quite easy. "I don't want to shoot you. You don't even have an electrosuit. Anyway, I don't care anymore, I've given up." Fletcher's eyebrows rose and he lowered his gun. "Given up?" Zack nodded, "Yup. Getting shocked over and over again sucks, you know?" A thought formed in his head as he said that.

"Liar."

"Elyss, I love you with all my heart but please shut up."

"Whatever, lord brother," she chuckled but Fletcher was nodding his head ruefully. "Tell me about it."

"Why don't you just sit here and relax? No one's gonna care.... We don't have any electrosuits with us."

"Yeah, I guess.." but Fletcher sat down next to Zack, leaning on the tree trunk. "Some guys might zap us for their own sadistic amusement though. Happened to me." Zack smiled at him but Fletcher felt a chill down his spine when he saw the cold look in his eye. "If they do, there will be hell to pay." A body stirred and another person sat up and Zack went through the same process. He ducked, held his hands up, persuaded and now, there was a third person leaning on the tree. Soon, all the nine people on the ground were sitting and chatting and relaxing. They were joined by a few others who had also grown tired of being zapped every ten steps or so. They were also held at gunpoint a few times, but their assailants had walked away disappointed; none of them had any electrosuits.

Two hours later, a good hundred plus people had gathered at the clearing. Zack had found out that there were three main groups fighting for monopoly of the electrosuits: a group run by a girl named Shyla consisting of around 230 people, who was using a myriad of strategies, another by a boy named Shaw consisting of around 160 people, using mainly raid tactics and finally to Zack's distaste, Bradsfort, who had the biggest group so far of 380 peopleand was using his high numbers to the fullest. There were around 1200 combatants released and the rest were either in small groups or alone. Zack was saddened to hear that most of the Outsiders and orphans were being discriminated against. He looked at his ACT which also served as a digital watch and stood up. All eyes were riveted on him. "I'm gonna go meet a friend. Anyone else wanna follow me?" Zack was aware of how controversible that statement was. Who goes around hanging out with friends on a battleground but Zack shrugged. "Come on guys. You don't even have any electrosuits! I wouldn't trap you for nuts!" Still some hesitated. "What if you're taking us to be shot at for fun?" one asked and was replied by Zack's eyes that hardened considerably. There were no more questions and they all got up and followed him.

"Hey! Zack!" shouted Corby. He did the guy handshake and the one armed hug. Behind him were a slightly frightened group of people. "Got shot?" Zack winked.

"Yeah. I think at least 7."

"Some ass shot me twice. Idiot."

"For real?" It was a literal question and Corby's eyes blazed.

"For. Real. One of Bradsfort's punks. But introduce me to your new friends!" The introductions began and the ice was well thawed when Carvin walked into the wide clearing with around 50 people who he said he spotted eyeing the gathering suspisciously. They were talking and laughing and relaxing when: "Zack! There's some-" and a spasm of pain. Zack realised Elyss had been shocked and made a pretense of using his ACT to desperately contact her. "Elyss? Elyss!" but all that responded was static. Carvin looked worriedly at him. "Should we go look for her?" Zack paused. " I'LL go. The rest of you stay here. If I'm not back within an hour, start the plan without me." Corby nodded and Carvin said, "Good luck!"

Zack found some scouts willing to follow him to look and Fletcher volunteered as well. "I always wanted to talk to Elyss Masters," he said when Zack asked him why. Now they were searching the northwestern part of the battlefield. The battlefield was a 10km by 10km heavily forested area, dotted with clearings. It was also quite hilly with numerous rocky outcrops and small caves even. This made searching for Elyss even harder, though they did find a good deal more stragglers. After a few minutes before an hour, Zack gave up. He told his group to return to the camp. "Why?" Fletcher asked, confused. "We're gonna be disqualified anyway." The others also paused, awaiting his reply. Zack grinned. "Because I have a plan. I'll tell everyone about it at camp. But I will tell you right now. We CAN win this round. Trust me." They looked at each other and soon they were nodding in agreement. "Alright, you've been honest to us so far, and many of them know about you. So why not?" Zack smiled, a genuine smile. "Thank you. I'll tell you all about it as we go. C'mon!" and he jogged back to the camp.