Chapter 12: Valuable
1241 Words
Two options were presented to Zamora at that point: she could move to District 9 or look for her friends through the tunnels underneath the city. The doors to the Undercity closed gradually as frightened survivors tried to get through the doors before they fully closed. Behind her, drones searched in the darkness while continuous shooting echoed throughout Elysium.
SURVIVE UNTIL MORNING.
The message remained burned across every screen, and her pulse pounded wildly inside her chest.
"KATE!" she shouted once more, but there was no answer. All she heard was the wail of sirens mixed with the cries of people trying to find safety amidst the crumbling Elysium. Suddenly, her phone started vibrating again.
DISTRICT 9 ACCESS: 00:00:41 REMAINING.
A glowing path suddenly appeared across her screen, leading deeper into the city through narrow alleyways and flooded lower roads. The system was guiding her, and somehow that terrified her more than the enforcers. Behind her, the tunnel doors screeched louder.
WARNING: UNDERCITY ACCESS CLOSING.
Several survivors desperately threw themselves through the narrowing entrance while others pounded against the metal trying to force it back open.
"WAIT!"
"DON'T LEAVE US OUT HERE!"
BOOM.
A drone shot exploded through a survivor's chest nearby, and panic erupted harder throughout the street.
PLAYER GUEST12 HAS BEEN TERMINATED. LEVEL ONE REASSIGNMENT INITIATED.
She looked back one final time, searching through the chaos for Kate or the stranger, but the crowd had swallowed them completely; they were gone. Then suddenly—
SCREEEEEEEEEECH.
And the sound echoed across the skyline.
Every hologram in the district went haywire, and for an agonizing second, the fracture above Elysium flared brighter through the clouds. People screamed, cars fell from the higher traffic lanes, and far away, something huge moved among the clouds before vanishing.
WARNING: VOID STORM DESCENT ACCELERATING.
Her phone vibrated harder this time.
MOVE.
The message appeared alone across the screen. There was no system logo, no alert sound, just the words:
MOVE.
PLAYER ZAMORA HAS RECEIVED 5,000 CREDITS
"Oh s**t, how?" She whispered to herself
PRIVATE SYSTEM ALERT:
DO YOU WISH TO BANK YOUR CREDITS?
YES OR NO?
She then pressed 'YES,' and it was transferred to the bank instantly.
PRIVATE SYSTEM UPDATE:
CREDITS SAFELY STORED IN PLAYER BANK, NO UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS IS ALLOWED
Chills instantly ran down her spine. Then out of nowhere, the footsteps of the enforcers could be heard nearby. She immediately ran off into the rain as red lights scanned the streets behind her.
"UNREGISTERED SURVIVOR DETECTED."
BOOM.
She watched as the ground erupted beside her. She ran faster through the alleyways as the neon lights flashed above her head and the city descended into madness around her. Some took refuge in empty shops, while others went out to loot their next victims on the street. One man was carried off screaming down an alleyway, but no one came to help him.
PLAYER MASON HAS BEEN ROBBED OF 22,000 CREDITS.
PLAYER VERA HAS PURCHASED TEMPORARY ENFORCER PROTECTION.
The flashing lights above her surrounded her as she continued to follow the illuminated trail on her smartphone deep inside Lower Elysium. And then, she suddenly halted. There were several civilians armed with weapons who blocked her path in the narrow alleyway that was lit up with neon lights.
One of them slowly looked up at her. "New player?" he asked casually.
Another glanced toward her glowing phone screen and then smiled. "She's got District 9 access."
The air changed abruptly, and despite the rain, she felt it. They now knew their intentions, and one moved closer to her. "You should've stayed hidden."
She slowly backed away. "What is District 9?"
Nobody answered immediately, and then the tallest man laughed quietly. "The part of Elysium the system pretends doesn't exist."
Before she could respond, every phone throughout the alley vibrated simultaneously.
MULTIPLE LOWER DISTRICT BARRIERS OFFLINE.
UNKNOWN ENTITIES DETECTED OUTSIDE CONTAINMENT ZONES.
The armed civilians immediately stopped smiling, and one slowly looked upward toward the fractured sky. "That's… not supposed to happen."
All of a sudden, everything became dark, and there was no light left in the alley. But now, it seemed like the whole city had become distant. Then—
SCREEEEEEEEEECH.
Again, the noise resounded somewhere above Elysium, and the armed civilians were actually beginning to show signs of fear. One quickly examined his smartphone, while the other backed away from the alley entrance.
"That's impossible…"
"What is?" She demanded, but nobody answered.
Then, suddenly, every phone throughout the alley flickered wildly.
WARNING:
LOWER DISTRICT CONTAINMENT FAILURE DETECTED.
UNKNOWN ENTITIES ACTIVE.
SURVIVAL ODDS UPDATED.
The percentage beside the warning glitched repeatedly before finally stabilizing.
17%.
One of the armed civilians immediately cursed. "We need to close the routes NOW."
Another grabbed her roughly by the arm. "You're coming with us."
"What?!" She screamed
"You have District 9 access." He said coldly
"That doesn't mean anything to me!" She continued to scream
"It means you're valuable."
Valuable struck home in that moment as no other word had ever done before.
PLAYER ZAMORA'S CHARACTER LEVEL HAS INCREASED TO LEVEL THREE.
Screams then suddenly rang out from the other end of the road, and everybody immediately stopped to look. Survivors were running down flooded roads to an alley, pursued by drones shooting red lasers into the night sky.
"MOVE!"
"THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!"
One survivor suddenly fell to his knees in the floodwaters when something below the street suddenly latched onto his leg, and he cried out. The alley was absolutely still. For one terrible moment, the man fought for his life as dark waters churned angrily around him. But then—
CRACK.
He disappeared immediately under the floodwaters, and the screaming came to an abrupt end. But no one moved or even breathed out of sheer fear.
PLAYER RORY HAS BEEN TERMINATED.
LEVEL ONE REASSIGNMENT INITIATED.
"What the hell was that…?" Zamora whispered.
One of the armed civilians slowly backed away from the water. "The lower sectors…" His voice sounded shaken now.
"They escaped containment."
Then, suddenly, every screen in the district flashed red at once.
EMERGENCY SYSTEM ALERT.
ALL LOWER DISTRICT CITIZENS EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY.
DO NOT ENGAGE UNKNOWN ENTITIES.
DO NOT ENTER FLOODED ZONES.
DO NOT TRAVEL ALONE.
This particular warning stuck in her mind longer than any other, as Zamora's stomach immediately turned, since she had just found herself alone. Then her smartphone vibrated once more.
DISTRICT 9 ACCESS UPDATED.
SAFE ROUTE AVAILABLE.
A new path appeared across her screen, leading deeper into the city through underground transit corridors and abandoned service routes.
The armed civilians noticed immediately. "You got updated access?"
One stepped closer quickly. "Show me."
She backed away instantly. "No."
The atmosphere changed again, and weapons slowly lowered toward her. "She doesn't understand what she has."
Another looked nervously toward the dark streets. "We don't have time for this."
PLAYER ASHTON GOT SWALLOWED BY A SINKHOLE ON LEVEL 10. RESPAWN INITIATED.
PROCEED WITH CAUTION
Then suddenly—
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM.
The whole district was trembling wildly as buildings shuddered and windows shattered, and vehicles toppled onto the roads. In the skies above the city, the huge fracture was widening further, and black lightning was now spreading through the clouds of Elysium.
VOID STORM DESCENT PHASE TWO INITIATED.
Then the system paused, as if it had started glitching, and another message slowly appeared beneath it.
PRIORITY TARGET RELEASE CONFIRMED.
Every armed civilian in the alley went completely silent, and one whispered:
"Oh no…"
GLOBAL ALER—-
- Writer
