Prisoner 3-57: Nuke Town (10 page)

I
was dropped down onto the floor.

I
groaned in agony.

Everything
hurt.

‘
Prisoner
3-57,’ said a familiar voice.

I
glared up at the man sitting behind the desk.

‘
Warden,’
I growled out the word.

The
Warden was a tall man, standing at the grand height of six foot five
inches tall. He liked to keep himself in shape and was known for
being a bit of a brawler. This sadistic fuck liked to fight the
prisoners in a one on one street fight. Of course, he would only
fight them after his guards beat the shit out of them. The man liked
an audience. He would make the other prisoners watch. I had taken a
few public beatings in my time. He had a military style crew cut and
wore a smart black suit.

‘
I
have good news and bad news,’ said The Warden.

I
said nothing in reply.

What
twisted plan did he have for me today?

‘
The
good news is that I have granted you an audience with your Father.’
I think the shocked expression on my face said it all. ‘He has
travelled all the way from Earth just to see you. Would you like to
hear the bad news?’ His sickening smile was so wide that for a
moment I thought it might consume his eyes and ears. ‘Your
father has decided to sell you to me.’ The Warden and his two
guards laughed. ‘He is getting a nice big fat pay-off and you
are being entered into an exciting new experiment. It is called the
prisoner program.’ The Warden leaned forward and looked over
the table at me. ‘It is going to be a living hell.’

I
woke with a start.

It
took a moment for my brain to return to reality.

Where
was I?

I
looked around at my surrounding. I looked at the beautiful woman
cuddled into my arm. Fiona was like a masterpiece. She was gorgeous.
At this moment in time she was sleeping as peacefully as a baby. My
brain finally woke up. I was no longer in prison. I was on the hunt
for Prisoner X. I had been sent back into this interactive war game
to eliminate Prisoner X. He has taken control over this virtual
world. The prisoner program was originally designed to punish
prisoners by allowing their own subconscious to create a living hell.
Since the destruction of earth the prisoner program is now an online
multi-player computer game where players live in the game. It is the
only form of entertainment for these people. Four million lives of
the alliance are currently in jeopardy. The safety protocols for the
game have gone. If you die in the game, you die in reality. I had
been dropped into carnage and chaos from the start. I managed to
escape the infestation of the supposed safe house, but the casualties
were high and the distance I have travelled is short. This planet is
swarming with demonic zombie like aliens created by the sadistic mind
of Prisoner X. They can only be killed with fire, but even that takes
some doing. I had managed to leave one nightmare behind me. It
wouldn’t be long until I faced my next one. I was currently on
a train heading for Central City. It was the centrepiece of this
game. Prisoner X was at Central City. The man that was god of this
world was there. I hate to think what horrors were waiting for us.

Chapter Two: My time
with Rose

I
slipped my arm from beneath Fiona’s sleeping body. If possible
I didn’t want to wake her. This might be the last bit of peace
any of us will see for a while. Unconsciously, I glanced out through
the window at the landscape of this new planet. It was breathtaking.
Two suns were climbing over the rolling hills in the distance. The
natural colour of the grass, trees, bushes and vegetation was a
beautiful violet. Something in the ground shimmered and reflected the
orange glow of the rising suns. It looked like that beautiful
sparkling light that danced upon the surface of oceans. A herd of
creatures lumbered slowly through a field. They were bigger than a
two story house. They had thick, mighty legs like that of an
elephant, strong bodies, skin that looked thick and tough, and a half
dozen horns protruding from their dominate skulls. They looked
peaceful, but capable of doing damage. I had seen one of these
creatures turned into a demonic blood zombie. It was sickening.

I
turned and walked through the carriage.

People
were sleeping everywhere.

I
glanced at my x-com. The x-com was a small black computer built into
my left forearm. All the players in these war games had to wear one.
It was our link to the game. By completing missions we gained
experience points and credits. The more experience points you gained
the higher your level, which allowed you to learn new skills, upgrade
weapons, buy new armour, purchase better vehicles, rent somewhere
safe to sleep, buy food, water, medical supplies and a trillion other
things that were on the never ending list. You paid for these things
with the credits you earned. The x-com also acted as a map and showed
you a detailed bird’s eye blueprint of buildings and towns. It
was so detailed you could zoom in and read the writing on the page of
an open book. Red dots on the x-com symbolised enemy contacts, whilst
the blue dots were other players.

There
were thirty-six blue dots on the six carriage train.

We
were on route to Central City.

It
would take about twenty minutes to get there.

What
worried me was the cluster of red dots that surrounded the city.
There were not just twenty or thirty red dots. Thousands of those
hellish creatures were waiting for us. The train would have to pass
straight through them. Would we even reach Central City? If we did
then Prisoner X, the man that constructed this entire nightmare, was
waiting for us.

I
walked through the carriages.

I
was looking for my sister.

I
found Rose in carriage two. She was nursing Clay. Her boyfriend had
suffered a horrific wound to his face. He was alive, but now blind.
In my books that made him a liability, as he made us slow, but I
wasn’t going to say that to Rose.

‘
Can’t
sleep?’ I asked her.

Rose
had been lost in her thoughts, as she watched the world beyond the
train.

‘
No.
Have you seen what is waiting for us?’

I
nodded a reply.

‘
You
think we will make it?’

‘
Just
stay close to me,’ I told her.

Rose
smiled a sweet soft smile. It was a smile I missed.

‘
You
always did take care of me, Brother.’

‘
That
is what a big brother is for.’

‘
No,’
replied Rose, ‘you gave up everything for me. It must have been
hard for you. I know I wasn’t normal. I had schizophrenia. I
was sick. I did horrible things. I forced mother away. I made fathers
life a living hell. I killed that doctor...’

‘
He
was touching you.’

‘
I
still killed him,’ she said, looking sad.

‘
What
happened to you?’ I had to know the truth.

‘
You
mean after I was raped by that mob?’

The
very memory of it sickened me.

I
had managed to kill six of the men, but one escaped with terrible
wounds.

‘
You
were sentenced to life in prison on the moon colony,’ continued
Rose. ‘I was shipped back to Earth. Father took care of me.’

‘
What
about the psychiatrist that you killed?’

‘
You
mean, why aren’t I in jail?’

I
replied with a second nod.

‘
Dad
took the blame for it.

‘
What?’

‘
He
went to jail to protect me, but...’

‘
What
is it?’ I asked.

‘
You
have to remember he loved you, Christopher.’ Rose took a long
deep breath and paused momentarily. ‘Before he admitted to
killing the doctor he came to see you.’

‘
I
don’t remember that. I haven’t seen dad since we left
Earth.’

‘
That
is a shame. He did love you.’

Why
did she keep saying that?

‘
Dad
was offered a deal by The Warden of the prison. He paid for my
treatment in exchange for you going into the Prisoner Program.’

I
recalled the dream I had earlier.

Was
that dream real? I don’t remember something like that
happening.

‘
In
the last five years technology has moved forward in leaps and bounds.
You would be amazed at some of the things that we could do. They
found cures to all illnesses, they built spaceships that could travel
faster than ever before, and we had low energy and fuel that actually
helped the environment. They found a cure to my illness.’

‘
Say
no more,’ I told her.

‘
But...’

‘
Dad
did what he had to do. I would have done the same thing in his shoes.
I was already going down for life. By putting me into the prisoner
program he saved your life. He gave you a second chance. That is all
I need to know. I am happy he did it.’

Rose
smiled that smile.

‘
Thank
you, Brother.’

We
sat in silence for a long moment.

I
felt a certain sense of serenity to talk to Rose again.

For
six years I lived without hearing her voice.

‘
So,
are you married? Do you have kids?’

Rose
giggled.

‘
We
have no children, but I am married.’ She slipped her palm into
Clay’s hand.

‘
Good,’
I smiled. ‘That is good. Tell me everything.’

Chapter Three:
Lily’s Memory

It
was time to get ready.

In
five minutes we would be meeting the alien horde. I didn’t want
to say anything to the others, but I didn’t rate our chances of
coming out of this one alive. I had fired off three quarters of my
ammo already and so far I haven’t even killed a single one of
those demonic bastards. They were just too hard to take down. It
didn’t matter if we had all the ammo in the world. If we
somehow survived we still had to deal with Prisoner X when we arrived
at Central City.

‘
Hey,’
said Arthur, as I walked through carriage number three.

I
stopped in mid-stride and looked at the old man.

He
looked like he had aged twenty years since I last saw him.

His
eyes looked dead.

I
had met Arthur the day I had escaped the prison on the moon colony. I
had saved him and a group of survivors from a hospital roof. We
hadn’t got very far before the aliens caught us, but I have
been through my fair share of conflicts with this old man. I was
starting to consider him my friend, until I went mental and killed
everyone.

‘
Hey,’
I replied.

I
wasn’t sure what else to say.

‘
I
don’t blame you, you know?’ said Arthur.

‘
You
don’t?’ I raised an eyebrow.

‘
No,’
he replied with a shake of the head.

‘
I
killed Stephanie,’ I told him, flatly. ‘She was like
family to you.’

‘
Yes,’
he sighed deeply, ‘she was a good girl.’

‘
You
are not angry?’

‘
I
am a bit gutted, but I hold no grudge.’

‘
Why?’
I had to know.

‘
She
wasn’t real,’ replied Arthur.

I
think the look of confusion upon my face said it all.

‘
Stephanie
was just a memory,’ he continued. ‘She was an artificial
intelligence that was created for me.’

‘
I
don’t understand.’