The Last Game

Part 4

"Thanks for saving our carcasses. Here, take this," Lifeline said, handing her a shotgun and some shells off Gibraltar's body. "You're going to need more than that pistol out here."

Lifeline also deployed a small hovering drone and attached a nozzle to herself and to Mirage. It radiated with a blue light and Rye watched as their bullet holes slowly closed up.

"Keep an eye out, that last guy's probably still ar-," Mirage started to said. The three of them instinctively went silent as a pair of footsteps thumped against the dirt, getting closer. Rye loaded her shotgun and they waited. The figure who rounded one of the metal cargo boxes got blasted from three different guns and dropped to the ground. A small ping from comms indicated that it was the final member of that squad, Bangalore.

The three collected all they could in the area and booked it to the next location within the shrinking orange dome that surrounded the island. They thoroughly looted everything they came across. After a couple hours of seeing squad numbers drop but not seeing anyone, they were in the final three. The circle was closing in on a place referred to as "bunker".

They crouched down and slowly peeked at the open metal gate entrance. Pops of gunfire and explosions of grenades echoed out and then went silent. Mirage sent out a holographic decoy towards the noise and there was a ping on the comms as it was shot up.

"Get bamboozled motherfuckers," Mirage said. "Let's go to the other side."

Lifeline nodded in agreement and they sprinted through some tunnels that brought them to the back entrance of bunker. The ring's barrier just nearly scraped them and started to close in quickly.

"Let's get a move on!" Lifeline said. The three of them raced for the bunker door with the orange barrier right at their backs. As they stepped inside, it stopped right outside the door. For how loud the other side was, this side was near silent. They cautiously proceeded with weapons out and ready to fire around every corner.

Mirage was taking the lead and as he opened a door and stepped inside, suddenly everything was shrouded in a vile and viscous green gas. The gas completely blinded Rye, but she heard the gunshots and a small yell from Mirage and then a thud. From next to her within the gas, she heard more shots and Lifeline struggling. Rye tried to feel her way over to Lifeline when she felt metal to the back of her head.

"Game over," said a dark voice behind her. There was a deafening boom, ringing in her ears, and a split second of darkness and silence. She jolted conscious, finding herself in a small pod. A large wave of nausea washed over her and she dropped to her hands and knees. She craned her head over a bucket in the pod and threw up.

Rye slowly sat back against the walls of this pod. From the slight swaying motion and the audible rumble of flight jets, she guessed she was back on a dropship. The hatch to her pod opened and there was Mirage, who looked her over.

"First time resurrected, am I right?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said.

"It doesn't get any better but you get used to it."

"Very encouraging," she said dryly, trying to hold back another round of vomit. There was the sound of a hatch opening to Rye's left.

"Hey, that's me, mister encouragement. Speaking of which, hey there Ajay."

"Those bastards!" Lifeline said, exiting a pod. "If it hadn't been for that gas we woulda had this."

Lifeline shoved Mirage away from the exit of Rye's pod. Lifeline reached into her pocket, pulled out a digital syringe, and pressed it against Rye's chest. Almost instantly, she felt completely better.