My second story!

(Please do not scroll to the end as it might give away some of the plot of the story. Thank You.)

"The target's name is Gilbert Galloway. He is from a place called Gorton. His childhood had been a hard one, with his father abandoning the family for another woman and his mother committing suicide. Though, he was raised by his maternal uncle he never developed a bond with him.

Gill was always a bright student. He went to some of the most illustrious colleges and after joining the Military, made a name for himself in the field of weapons’ technology and development. But Gill is notorious for being careless. His carelessness cost him his job when he was met with an accident during his experiment. It was later discovered that the accident was actually beneficial, giving him superhuman strength and agility.

The Military can’t get him back on team. He is now considered a liability and we need him disposed off. More details can be had from the files. The consignment contains items that could terminate the target. If those can’t, nothing else will. We are hopeful of your success.”

The Palm-screen went blank. The man went through the target’s files, sent through the secure line, again. If the target turned out to be even half of what he was described as, he would be up against his most dangerous prey yet.

The year was 2073. The protagonist was making his way through the streets of Twilight square, en route to Rosario’s. It was his favorite hang-out in his youthful days. But that day was different. He was on an agenda. It’s because of an accident. It had a heavy toll on him.

Ever since the accident, he always felt disoriented. He remembered some of the events that took place in his life, yet couldn't recall doing them. It is a strange feeling to remember things that you did before, yet feel very much detached from them. For the most part of what he remembered, he was at a loss to explain. It was as if he was a stranger to himself.

The accident, though bestowing him with great strength and agility, left him a memory less freak. He wanted to fill in the gaps and relive it all. He had already visited his ruined ancestral home in Gorton where he used to live till his mother's death. He was retracing his life, living it all again. That led him now to Deacon City.

Rosario’s’ bartender Stephanie was a close friend from his college days. He might be able to know a great deal from her. He knew that they would be looking for him. A direct entry would not be so prudent. He quickly climbed to the roof of the opposite building and looked for any suspicious characters lurking on the road. Suddenly, something whizzed past him as he tried to dodge it. After tearing up his sleeve, the small object exploded in mid-air, spraying liquid all over. They have finally located him. “Damn!”

Gill was in no position to retrospect on what has happened. The shot was probably made by a sniper from one of the buildings few blocks away. His best chance of survival is to run. There might be more snipers. By a quick movement, he got the shotgun in his jacket loaded. He fired an aimless shot in the direction of the assassin. He escaped the roof, jumping into the dark alley below. Taking a cab, he immediately got out of that place. The bar was totally out of bounds for him after that.

The bullet the sniper used seemed custom-made for him. It must have had a chamber that would release some kind of fatal liquid, like acid or venom, into the surroundings on impact. Though his body was invulnerable, his skin was not tough. They wanted to capitalize on that by introducing some kind of poison into his system. It seemed to be his only Achilles Heel, as bullets couldn’t hurt him much. Due to his superhuman agility, intuition and luck, the bullet just grazed off his right sleeve and exploded in mid air.

He got down in the downtown area of Deacon City. Once this used to be a great trade centre and thrived on wealthy people’s patronization. Then came the day when Deacon Industries announced the project for a pre-planned mega city. All the rich relocated to the new City leaving the old locality to serve as the downtown. Deacon Industries controlled most of the Deacon City’s public services, including the police, while leaving the old place to become a wasted ground of crime.

Gill intended to go to Stephanie’s place and wait for her over there. As he made his way to her place, his palm-screen beeped. Before he could check it out, he heard the sobs of a woman from one of the dark alleys. “Oh no! It’s Stephanie!” As soon as he entered the alley he comprehended the situation at hand. Even though the alley was dark he could make out that the woman was being assaulted by a man in his 30s. "Get off the lady" Gill ordered. Showing his middle finger to Gill, the man continued his work. Gill didn't like being ignored or disobeyed. The anger in him spurred his left hand to hit the side-wall, making a clear hole in the 6-inch thick wall. Gill frowned through the hole at the bewildered couch potato as he advanced towards them. The man got the point and ran off into the streets adjusting his pants. As Gill neared the woman, he realized that she wasn't Stephanie. As he tended to his blood-trickling fist, he tried to console the lady. She continued sobbing as though still in pain. Remembering the beep from his Palm-Screen he opened his palm wide for the screen to be displayed on his hand. It’s a voice message, from Stephanie! “I have seen you running in front of the bar. I also know what happened to you recently. I will be waiting for you at the City Community Centre. Meet me there in an hour. Take Care”, blared through the ear phones. He immediately dashed off to the CCC.

The community centre was hosting a Gaming Convention at that moment. The place was filled with Game aficionados trying their hand at the latest games. There was no sign of Stephanie. The main arena was dedicated to the launch of Deacon Industries’ latest game “Kill Me If You Can”. The game had been creating waves for its high resolution 3-D CGI and Self-Thinking AI Opponents. Talk about irony! There he was, just escaping from an attempt on his life and he ran into a game called “Kill Me If You Can”! “I’ll probably text this to my ex-employers”. As he reached the main arena for a closer look, he felt something slice through his skin over the stomach. He looked behind just in time to see someone sulk into the crowd. It was the assassin!

It was all a trap. The message from Stephanie was a fake. They had duped him into going there. It hit him hard. Feeling dizzy already, he staggered onto a wall and shot the fire alarm with his shotgun. The hall was immediately filled with water sprays and all around people’s frantic cries echoed. Once the water spray got him to his senses, he exited the centre through the nearest door. The poison used seemed to be a neurotoxin paralyzing his muscles. And he had a good idea of what it was. He needed an antitoxin and fast.

Spotting a pharmaceutical facility, he limped to the counter. The shotgun was enough to scare off the guy in the sweatshirt from the counter. He searched for Botulinum antitoxin on the help screen and had it delivered over to the counter. Botulinum is in fact the most toxic substance produced by a naturally occurring bacterium. He administered the antitoxin into the skin near the slash. The wound suggested that the weapon was a poisoned titanium knife. Till then he thought he was being followed by the whole military. But apparently the military didn’t want to get its hands dirty and hired an assassin. Being well aware that he was no match for Gill in an open fight, the assassin tried to kill him from the shadows. It was time for Gill to show him who the boss was.

Feeling better, he dashed to the back-door, thinking of a way to lure the assassin into his arms. Passing the mirror he stopped in his tracks and went back. He was startled by what he saw in the mirror. There was a red bar nearly half-filled floating over his head showing a reading of 45. It moved with his head like a halo over an angel. His hand passed right through it.

Before he could make out anything out of the red bar, he heard the words, “Say Goodbye”. Many things happened in quick succession. The assassin’s finger pressed the trigger. Many short clicks sounded from the pistol in his hand. Gill’s face got riddled with bullets that exploded right in his face. He fell over the mirror and collapsed to the ground. The assassin continued his shooting spree till he was convinced that the dose was enough.

As Gill lost his consciousness the last thing he remembered was seeing the red bar slowly decrease to nothing. He understood everything now.

The year was 2073, the year when the game “Kill Me If You Can” was released.

Moments after Gill was killed, a ‘3-D’eo was uploaded onto YouTube. The title was “I finally killed the Invulnerable Gill”. Comments started poring in and the 3-Deo became the most watched in a few days.

“The End”

After Read-

* The whole story takes place in the game “Kill Me If You Can”. The human player dons the role of the assassin in the game. Gill is a highly powerful AI opponent and killing him is an assignment, much like a boss fight in ordinary games. Gill genuinely thinks he is a human being, while he was just computer code all along. The end ‘He understood everything now’ signifies the final comprehension of Gill of his existence.

* The assassin gets all the info about Gill and from that he finds out that Gill visited Gorton recently. He traces him to Rosario’s where he takes his first shot. He then dupes Gill into visiting the CCC where he makes his first successful move. He finally finishes Gill as he is already weak. The bar over Gill signifies his health.

* 3-Deo means a 3-D video.

* Palm-Screen is a futuristic communication device serving the purpose of both PC and mobile phone. It is like a thin band around the wrist that projects a holographic image onto the person’s palm when his hand is stretched.

Kill Me If You Can

By

Vamsi Krishna Bethapudy

Dedicated to my co-interns at Reliance Industries, Jamnagar during summer ’09 where I started writing this story.

My heart-felt thanks to Vipin Kumar, Raviraja, Subhash, Abhilash, Vamshi and Sarat for their valuable feedback without which this story would not have been half as great as it is now.