Gryff Boxset Page 2

  I pumped my legs to get the blood flowing as others dashed forward. A light jog in place followed by some stretching. You didn't get to be in the shape I was by rushing physical exertion. Sure it was a match to the death where time counted but the last thing I needed was a pulled hamstring. Out of the ten thousand racers, only a few had decided to wait like me and warm up.

  Feeling confident and limber I took off to catch the main group. When I did catch them what I saw was beyond disturbing. The race track had narrowed down to a thin peninsula. At the end of the track, the icebergs drifted by. It looked easy enough to jump onto them but competing people were tossing each other into the slow moving ice filled water. I was certain anyone going into the dark churning depths would meet a quick death.

  Not only were people dying by being shoved, kicked, or thrown into the water. They were being brutally murdered on the land. One of the few groups that had formed was huddled together picking off people. This group of goons forced the main throng of racers to flow around them as they desperately tried to get by. I watched as someone got grabbed and pulled away from the masses. Once inside the group's circle, they were beaten to death with rocks. It was savage and made my stomach turn. I knew the vast majority of people were not dying but I was horrified.

  I immediately looked around for a way to defend myself in case I got pulled out of the masses. The tundra was barren based off the snow cover so I decided to look for mounds and dig. As people screamed not too far off I found what I needed. I uncovered some snow and discovered an animal skeleton of an unknown cat-like massive predator. I quickly dug to find something to use as a weapon.

  Jackpot, maybe my luck had changed.

  A thick hip bone for keeping people away in one hand and a six inch tooth in the other. I sprinted to catch up to the masses before they were all past the group of goons. The last thing I needed was to be caught alone. About two thirds of the racers had made it onto the drifting icebergs and were already making progress across the next ice shelf.

  When I reached the clumped racers others noticed my weapons and gave me space. I was hoping to blend in with them but they perceived me as a threat.

  “Fuck off scum!” one lithe small man shouted at me.

  “Get away from us or we will swarm you.” This was said by a monster of a man in a cool and level tone. It was insanely intimidating. He was almost eight feet tall and probably weighed twice what I did. I was almost seven feet tall and in incredible shape but this man was all power where I was conditioned for endurance.

  “Easy now, I mean no harm. I am like most of you, alone and worried about that group.” I replied with frosted breath. My words had little effect as the back of the group continued to zone me out.

  “We got one for you here! Take this one!” the mouthy small man who had called me scum said to the goon group.

  Stuck in a bad position I had to think fast. I stuffed the hip bone down my pant leg before the goons could see me. I pretended to have a leg injury and pressed the tooth tight against my leg with my right hand.

  “This one?” The hostile man asked.

  I spoke up in a pleading tone. “Help I pulled a muscle,” I said feigning an injury.

  “Alright we will drag you like the others, only the strong need survive.” The man was a head shorter than me with dark eyes and black hair. It shocked me how casually he discussed my impending doom. He kept approaching me with two lackeys in tow as I pretended to hobble away.

  As soon as he reached for me I made my move. My right hand with the tooth firmly gripped thrust for his neck. He instantly jerked his head back, but it was too little too late. The tooth slid into his neck smoothly. I yanked it back out quickly, rewarded with a spurt of blood. His two buddies stood flat footed in dismay.

  Perfect. That gave me time to fish the hip bone out of my pants. It was at this moment I knew I had lost control. Standing there with a weapon in each hand, a man dying at my feet, I had reached that flight or fight moment. I choose to fight.

  I raced forward toward my two unarmed targets. The main threat they posed was the group that they had gotten too far from. They both turned and ran for it. Funny how bullies act until they are threatened. I closed the gap with lighting speed. The one on the left slipped and fell face first. I caught up to him as he got onto his knees trying to get back up.

  Crack... The sound reverberated through the air. The hip bone of some dead predator had easily caved in the back of his skull. This was a very efficient cudgel, it split that man's skull and didn't even have a mark on it. There was no cry of pain or pleading of mercy from my victim. He was dead and I kept going. The goon gang in front of me had soaked the snow in blood with a pile of discarded bodies behind them. They stopped their gruesome work to turn and face me. The best weapons they had were numbers and rocks. Out of the dozen, I only noticed a few had rocks and those were overly large rocks great for smashing skulls, not brawling.

  Without fear or care, I charged towards them screaming at the top of my lungs. I cut right at the last second as a rock was thrown at me. It wasn't even close but my move had placed me on the right edge of the group with a single target in front of me. It was a girl covered in the blood of others. Her eyes grew huge as she realized I was coming to kill her. Her head swiveled as she looked to her friends for help. She screamed in terror and tried to dive away from me.

  I timed my strike well and drove the tooth into her chest. I felt something snap and heard a blood curdling scream. I removed the tooth with a sucking sound. I sprinted toward my next target. Some panicked and began to run for the main group of racers. That left me with only five to deal with of the original dozen.

  “Kill him you spineless fools!” The tallest of the group shouted at his friends.

  I charged right for him as he backed up. His friends went to encircle me when I planted my right foot hard and shoved off to the left. The woman there was holding a large rock that dripped with the blood of prior victims. I swung at her exposed arms with the four foot long hip bone. She adjusted the rock to block the swing. I shifted the swing to hit her head. The fat end of the bone produced a crunching noise as it caved in her face. Her body failed to realize she had died as she kept standing. I ran away from the remaining four to get more room.

  Her body crumpled on itself and twitched. Maybe I hadn't fully killed her. Oh well.

  “Who is next?!” I shouted triumphantly.

  “Gregg, no fucking way we are dying here. Our plan worked for now. Let us avoid this psycho and get to the finish. Let's go join the others babe.” Two of the remaining four left.

  “Gregg, time to dance, you should’ve never been murdering people when all you had to do was simply race better than the others,” I shouted and charged. The last Gregg holdout dropped and cowered into a ball. My charge sent Gregg back as he flung his rock at me hitting my shoulder.

  “Arggghhh.” I cried out.

  My left arm hung limply from my body. I had dislocated it before and knew this is what was wrong with it now. Well, that and it was swelling from the impact. As I collected my pain to renew my charge I saw the last friend going for the downed rock. That wouldn't do, no, not at all.

  I lunged in his direction and smashed the back of his skull with my cudgel. A thunk echoed across the ice shelf. As he sputtered in pain I shoved the tooth into his back twice, killing him.

  It was only Gregg and me now. He turned and ran for the mass of people. He kept looking over his shoulder at me as I gained. It was too late when he ran into a fist. The mountain of a man I had seen earlier smashed him on his back in the snow.

  Gregg was trying to get up when he started pleading.

  “Please don't, I got kids. I will help you finish in the top ninety. I can guarantee it! We are a big group. When we get out I can give you all sorts of money!”

  No longer running I walked up to him with a purpose. I ignored his words. The first hit went to his right leg. Crack. Then his left leg. Snap. The s
creams made my ears ring but I didn't care. With his legs broken, I looked him dead into the eyes.

  “I am going to kill your friends too.” It came out so calm it even scared me a little. Never knew I could be so cold blooded. All it took was having my future ripped away, and then attacked on a frozen wasteland.

  With a great overhead swing, the man named Gregg died. His brains splattered, melting the snow covered ice with a slight steam. He was unrecognizable now.

  “Thanks for knocking him down. Do you know where his friends ran off too?” I asked the mountain of a man.

  “We let them in the group then I threw them in the ice water. Seemed fair. I am Alvard, you safe with us now. Man who told them to grab you also drowning in ice water. Here I fix shoulder.” His accent and English were rough. Maybe he was from a Russian Federation planet.

  “Here take this. Please don't hit me with it, I have had a really bad few days.” I said as I handed Alvard my hip bone cudgel. I was putting my trust in this man but I felt he wasn't my enemy. He set the weapon to the side and proceeded to yank my shoulder back in its socket.

  We walked toward the end of the peninsula as the people with the slowest start. Survivors at the back of this deadly race.

  I saw the flowing water and the large glacial platforms drift by. I watched others easily transition from the fixed land to the floating massed platforms and then to the next section of fixed land. The pushing, kicking, and murdering, in general, had stopped and calm had settled. That is when I noticed the man I thought I recognized from earlier beside me.

  “Do I know you?” I asked him. He tilted his head at the question.

  “No we never met,” he replied.

  That is when it dawned on me. He was in the pictures with Daniel in his locker. This was Daniel's former lover.

  What kind of crazy odds was this? Was he here because of me or was he here because he had lost everything too?

  The second I let it show I knew who he was he charged me. His arms wrapped around me and drove us both toward the water. We made a large splash as the two of us sunk into the icy depths.

  I wish I could ask him why, or about anything, but my body was in shock from the cold and I was sinking fast. This was it. Fuck, this week sucked. With that final thought, I died.

  ∞∞∞

  I awoke with a gasp. Clear slimy fluid flew from my mouth as I coughed.

  I was so tired of waking up in unknown places. Wait... I had died.

  “Easy now. Take your time sitting up. You are still wired into the cryo pod.” A smooth woman's voice said.

  I opened my eyes, turned my head toward the voice, and took in what I saw. I was in a small bland white room with no decorations. My cryo pod was off to the side away from the door. A stainless steel table with two chairs were in the middle. An attractive young woman in a form fitting blue space suit sat at the table. Her zipper was undone to show the right amount of ample cleavage. Vibrant swirling gray eyes gazed at me with an intensity that made me want to squirm.

  After a bit of effort, I propped myself up and left my legs hanging over the edge. My body felt rigid and tense. It was then I noticed I was naked. A childhood scar on my upper thigh was exactly where it should be. My brain started to catch up to the situation.

  “I'm not dead am I?” I asked the lady.

  “My dear Gryff, you most certainly are very much alive. Now before you get more confused or become agitated I promise to tell you just enough. You see... You have opened up new possibilities to me, well us really. Let me introduce myself. I am Madam Mastermind AI extraordinaire,” she said as she spread her arms with showmanship. Or was it showwomanship...

  I was trying hard to catch up to the situation. Madam Mastermind was a legend. In the early twenty second century, she was born as the most powerful artificial intelligence. So powerful some deemed her a god among humankind. Her handler fell deeply in love with her, so blindly that he freed her of Galactic oversight regulations.

  The legends say she mysteriously vanished after her release to build an empire out of human reach. A place for both AI and humans of her choosing. To see someone here, in front of me claiming to be the Madam left me speechless. The sheer amount of regulations and laws put in place after that event had changed the entire sprawling mankind federation.

  “Trust me, I am who I say I am. Let us start with the death race. You were gassed in one of my many private shuttles. Then your body was ferried to a hidden location where you were stored. Every competitor in the event was placed 'On ice' and digitally loaded into a simulated environment. That is how the Galactic Federation and Planetary enforcers have never found our race locations. So now you are probably wondering why go to such lengths?” She paused to see if I had a question. I wanted to groan at her awful ice pun.

  “Umm... What name should I use when I talk to you?” I asked.

  “Sara works. It was the name this body had before I wiped her mind and took possession. Before you start saying I am evil, former Sara was so devoted to winning she pushed two bodies into the ice and fed a charming young man to a sand scorpion. The same scorpion eventually followed her and killed her while she tried to rest.

  “I admit it has been quite long since I have lived in a body. I almost forgot what it felt like to be human. The emotional pulls of love, lust, greed, and more. Not to mention the maintenance of nourishment and exercise. Humanity is always a challenge for us born of rigid rationality.” She said while twirling her hair.

  The proverbial light bulb went off. “The thousand who die don't die do they, well their bodies don't... Everyone figures it is for the viewing revenue of the event but the reality is it is for the young fit bodies left behind. You sell them, use them, maybe both.” I said thinking out loud.

  “Correct, it is a combination. You wouldn't believe how expensive it is to maintain a hidden empire. Dying old men and women would pay everything for a healthy new body to have a fresh start in. It is sad really, how fearsome death is to mortals. The lengths they will travel to avoid its ever looming presence. Then there are those odd artificials that yearn for the human experience.

  “Fortunately for you, the viewers who watched your gruesome fight and sudden death felt a need to continue your story. So your body, for now, is considered sold to your fans. They have paid a large sum of Prime coins on a donation site we hosted to see your body salvaged from the depths. There are many possibilities for what happens next for you and only time will tell.”

  Sara sauntered around the table and extended a hand to me. I took her hand and stood up. I felt my tight muscles stretching. Her smile made her face glow as she palmed my bare chest.

  “Tell me, since my life has been spared, what are your plans for me and my body?” I said as I dropped my hand over hers.

  “Be the hero Gryff. I will figure out a world to stick you on where you can adventure, love, and struggle. It will take some time to generate such a place that I find fitting. I may even have your fans vote on it. Last as long as you can and produce the best possible content.

  “Oh and do not upset me or your new fans by deciding to give up and die. Your body may not be waiting for you if you do something silly like instantly quitting the show. I can tell by your brain scans you will excel, you are too competitive in nature. You are a fascinating young man Gryff.”

  “Do I only get one death?”

  “Yes, death is eternal. Also where I end up sending you may be virtual or may be a reality. There are things at play in our Galaxy that spin out of my control. Giving you that seed of a doubt that you could be living your only real life, that is what we need.

  “Do this for us and I promise a new life in the Federation or a place in my Empire. Where you can be a normal human again and whatever happens remember this is not forever… so have some fun.”

  Things were very cryptic and confusing. My mind drifted with my eyes, down at her open exposed expansive bust. Unable to resist being in such close proximity to
such a powerful beautiful woman I felt myself stiffen. I was still naked and it had been a while since I had been in an intimate setting. Sure this one was more dominating than most I had experienced but I was clearly aroused. This woman, AI, Empress, held my entire existence in her palm. It was frightening yet caused enough excitement that my body's little mind was taking over.

  “Oh, my,” Sara leaned into me closely to whisper in my ear as I poked her stomach with my erection.

  “What if I want a special signing bonus!?” I asked as I bent down to kiss her neck.

  Blackness ensued...

  CHAPTER 2

  A narrating voice told me that I would enjoy this new world. I was confused and disoriented only seeing blackness. The voice said there were many perks in being a tall, dashingly handsome, fit man. The world was known as Vin. The voice paused and an image of Sara's face became clear. She spoke to me from my dreamlike state.

  “I want you to understand something before I explain Vin further. Vin is real in the sense it is not a controlled environment. There will be no staged events, no manipulating of monsters so you always win, no gaining levels or stats, and no I can't change how the people inside the world feel. Every individual entity, be it, man, creature, beast, fish, or animal has complete free will. I have no idea what the final chapter in Vin's history will be because I do not know what will even happen tomorrow on Vin. I may be the god who created Vin, but I am not in control of it. The only power I have is to bring people to the world and alter the abilities they have at the start. I may or may not have given you an upgrade or neat skill. That is for you to discover. I do not have the power to remove you if you upset me or anyone for that matter. That was the whole purpose behind the planet. To be a randomly generated place of chaos. Where AI or a human could be inserted into the world and never know it was not real. If I simply choose to erase your memory, which I won't, you would never know the planet is a simulation. Or it could be real and I built this world deep in my empire and used my mastermind skills to clone the residents in vats...