Hour three
Diego continued sprinting through the park, away from whatever dangers followed him. The group had been running non-stop for some time now. One of the benefits of a virtual world was the ability to not be slowed down by fatigue.
"It's starting to get dark," he noticed, looking up at the yellow sky. "I don't remember the last time I stayed in Cytro this late.
"Probably at least two years," Priya said. "Back in the days when it was actually fun."
Diego smiled. Those times felt so long ago now. The once-thriving realm eventually became stale and hollow, and then somehow managed to become a war zone in less than a week.
Lauren looked behind them. "I think we're safe for now. I can see some of those protesters over there." The police helicopters were still in the area, but not directly above them. "I suggest we keep moving though."
"We're almost out of the common," Priya said. "Let's find that car and get out of here."
A beeping sound caught their attention. A message appeared on their comms.
"Oh," Priya said, slowing her pace to a walk. "It's time already. That went quickly."
Diego moaned. "Great."
The trio stared at each other for a second before glancing down at their wrists and reading the message Hunter had preprogrammed earlier:
Now the fun begins! Welcome to virus mode. It's fairly self-explanatory. I've set it to 50% to begin with. Try not to die.
Lauren frowned. "Virus mode? What's that?"
"We don't know," Priya admitted. "He's mentioned it to us before. Whatever it is though, it sounds bad."
Diego almost jumped out of his skin. He heard something frightening, disturbing, a screaming unlike anything he knew. And it was ringing out all around them.
Lauren's eyes widened. She placed hands over her ears to block out the harrowing noise. "What's happening?"
Priya was frozen to the spot, too horrified to move. "I ... I don't know. I think it came from up ahead."
The gravity of the situation began to weigh over them. "I don't like this," Diego murmured.
Priya shook off her fear. "Come on. Let's check it out."
Cautiously, they pressed onwards, heading for the walled perimeter of the common up ahead. The screaming intensified.
"I don't think I even want to know," Diego complained.
They arrived at the gate and peered into the world outside the common. The scene before them was confusing, to say the least. There were dozens of people scattered along the length of the road, most of them bots, most of them standing and gawking.
Some, however, lay on the road, writhing in pain, their wails deafening.
The surrounding bots stopped their looting or fighting, instead choosing to watch on.
"What's wrong with them?" Lauren gasped. "Why are they on the ground?"
"Oh my god," Diego choked. "He's killing them. Virus mode must be an attack on the bots."
At long last, the screaming began to subside. Those unlucky enough to be lying on the ground stopped twitching as their programmed lives left their bodies.
Lauren placed a hand over her mouth. "That's horrible."
Priya's expression remained blank. "But ... that makes no sense. Why would Hunter suddenly want to kill off bots?"
Diego turned to his right and saw a woman lying on the ground a few metres away. "Should we try to help?"
"I think we're too late."
Nevertheless, he marched forward, determined to take action. He crouched over the woman's body and inspected her. "Whoa!" he cried. "Her skin. It's ..."
Priya and Lauren stepped over to him and saw it straight away.
"That's disgusting," Lauren whispered.
Priya could hardly believe her eyes. "It's like her skin is rotten."
"I know," Diego nodded. "Look, you can see her jawbone sticking out." The sight was nothing short of gruesome, the decaying odour unbearable. A wave of nausea hit his stomach.
The woman's eyelids shot open. She stared up at the three students, her eyes completely black. An intense shriek escaped her mouth.
Diego screamed and stumbled backwards, falling onto the road.
The woman's body cracked as she picked herself up unnaturally, her limbs dangling from broken joints.
Lauren began shaking uncontrollably. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.
Priya struggled to breathe. The sight was ... indescribable.
"What ..." Diego whimpered. "What is this?"
The woman glared at the trio, her eyes full of pure hatred.
Priya began inching backwards, as though an ancient instinct warned her to run. "We ... we need to go."
The woman lurched forward, hungrily stepping toward the group.
Diego screamed again and leapt to his feet. "What's happening!"
"Time to go. Now!" Priya ordered.
They didn't waste another second. They turned and started running as fast as they could.
Lauren's jaw dropped as she saw another infected woman charge at a man, tackling him to the ground, her teeth tearing into his skin.
More screaming erupted from all around them.
"No way," Priya panicked. "This can't be happening."
"Shit, shit, shit," Diego sobbed. "Are they what I think they are?"
Priya exchanged a frightened look with him. She didn't even need to say the word.
"Okay," Lauren said, taking a quick breath, "we need a plan, fast."
"Look out!" Priya shouted, just as a walking corpse stumbled in front of them, blocking their path. They skilfully avoided the man and continued running.
"Car," Diego said. "We need that car."
"I don't think we have time now. If we stop running, we're dead."
More of the disgusting creatures stepped out of the shadows, some eyeing off the students, others attacking nearby bots. More blood-curdling cries rang out as people fell to the ground.
Lauren gasped. "Look. Right there." She pointed up ahead. "Do you see that?"
Diego frowned. "What? Where? What am I looking at?"
A corpse picked himself up from a bot he'd just bitten into. The victim's skin immediately began to turn dark as he became covered in lesions.
"Oh ... shit," Priya whispered. "They can infect others."
Diego clenched his fists, terror filling his body. "I guess that must be the virus."
"This ... this is too much. I thought it was crazy beforehand, but this ..."
He looked at his friend. "I know. This is a nightmare."
Lauren took a backwards glance. "We're being followed. They're not very fast, but they're following."
Priya turned and saw it for herself. "Okay, new plan: we're going to the learning centre."
Diego made an annoyed sound. "Are you sure that's a good idea? We'll be trapped in there."
"Yes. We need to ride this thing out somewhere safe. If we stay on the streets, we're done for." Her tone carried with it an edge of frustration; she regretted leaving the centre in the first place.
Diego didn't bother protesting. In this moment, there was no time to argue. Their chances of survival had suddenly plummeted. They needed to get to safety. Immediately.
Lauren looked at her wrist. "Whoa. The user count is dropping."
Priya closed her eyes for a second. "Hopefully students are just logging off because it's too scary," she said, hope in her voice. The last thing she'd want is for anyone to be attacked by these horrid beasts and exit the tournament in such a gruesome manner.
And if Hunter thought this was even remotely fun, he was more twisted than she could even possibly comprehend.
-----
Thanks for reading! I hope you've enjoyed it so far!
I'd love it if you could rate my story on Swoon Reads. They're a standard publisher, and if my book gets picked up, it'll give me the opportunity to keep writing and creating and building worlds.
So please feel free to check it out and rate it here! https://www.swoonreads.com/m/cytronica/