“Run!” Truffle squealed, ushering The Captain and the children out of the broken Hungry Jack’s door.

  The miasma surrounding the Boss was growing thicker and thicker. A maniacal laughter reverberated inside his throat, bouncing around the walls of the burning building with fiendish fervour. Whatever this thing wasn’t, it wasn’t John anymore.

  Sprinting from the building, Truffle led the procession of children towards the crumbling ruins of the gas station. A few corpses littered the path next to it and from the corner of his eye he saw Field Marshall bend down to steal what few cards they had as he stomped along behind them, bringing up the rear.

  Truffle knew that they needed a hefty number of cards if they were going to get all the kids through the gate, but there wasn’t much time. Any moment-

  BOOM!

  Hungry Jack’s exploded behind them with such force that it blasted Truffle off his feet, throwing him forwards.

  “He’s coming!” The pig squealed, “we need to get to the gate now!”

  A huge purple shimmer lit up not far from them. More explosions, screaming, and gunfire came from that direction. They were trapped between a rock and a hard place and Truffle knew it. He would not allow Boss to feel the regret of murdering children and his friends, even if it was not him sat in the driver’s seat.

  Picking himself up he continued to run, encouraging the kids to follow closely behind. At the rear, Field Marhsall pulled his newly acquired AA-12 from his card. He only had one free arm, the other held the unconscious form of Granny Ass Kicker, who was draped over his shoulder like a rug. Truffle wasn’t sure if the man was just strong or if it was an effect of the juggernaut armour. Man he wished he could have gotten that power for himself. He could have turned into a bulldozer with it.

  “Keep going!” Field Marhsall shouted, “I’m right behind you.”

  Turning around for a quick glance, Truffle saw the Boss strolling out of the destroyed building, smoke trailing behind him. The miasma was thick now, it almost shrouded him. He looked like a super villain. Maniacal laughter escaped his mouth, but his face looked pained. His lips and eyes twitched. He was fighting back against the thing that had possessed him.

  That’s my Boss.

  “You can’t run far enough to escape my wrath,” John said, his voice sounded hoarse and throaty. It wasn’t his voice at all, it had to be the demon inside him.

  Truffle didn’t know for certain that the Boss had been possessed, but he made an educated guess. He’d been talking to himself and doing things that were very un-boss-like. Not to mention that the pig knew about his card. Was this the curse?

  Lifting his revolver, Boss fired off another dragon’s breath shell. It melted the ground in front of him but thankfully fizzled out before it reached Field Marshall.

  Truffle and the orphans continued to run.

  They ran past broken buildings, past contestants fighting a slew of monsters. Goblins, koalas, kangaroos, weird anthropomorphic hyena creatures and a bunch of other mobs which Truffle didn’t recognise. It was carnage.

  No matter how fast they ran Boss seemed to be right on their heels. Just out of range, but still close enough to keep following them They couldn’t lose him. It had to be his Adamantite-lite card, it made him faster, more agile.

  As he followed he fired off a barrage of dragon’s breath shells, completely eviscerating the mobs and contestants alike. He was inexorable in his pursuit and nothing could harm him. There didn’t seem to be a cooldown. Truffle had no idea what was going on. Boss was always good in a fight, but this power was beyond even him.

  At one point they ran past of militia group of contestants in mismatched armour. They all had guns, a few had rocket launchers. They stopped firing up at the huge shrimp which was harassing them when they saw Boss. He marched towards them cackling.

  They’re Batman’s group, Truffle thought, wondering if they were related to the Russian’s who had chased them into the burger place.

  With fearful eyes, the entire group turned towards John unleashing a barrage of small arms fire and rockets. They bounced off his skin. His Adamantite-lite card was in full swing and it seemed like nothing could harm him. He was completely impervious. Truffle felt a swell of pride, he knew it was wrong to be rooting for Boss in this situation, but it was awesome to see how powerful he was, even if it was due to being possessed.

  Bullets bounced off his skin as Boss continued to waltz arrogantly towards the contestants. He fired off a slew of shells which exploded on impact. These weren’t the dragon’s breath; they were explosive rounds. Truffle wondered how he’d gotten access to those as body parts exploded outwards, showering him and the kids continued to run towards the gate.

  They had entered a town square of sorts and there was no cover from the onslaught. Not that it would have made any difference against Boss right now. Without even looking, he fired a round off over his shoulder and the giant shrimp exploded like a blood-filled water balloon.

  Most people would have found that gross, but Truffle thought it was great. The only downside was that it seemed to cook the shrimp and everyone knew that food was best enjoyed raw.

  They reached the gate and Truffle stopped, skidding and turning towards the others. The children and Field Marhsall caught up.

  “What do we do?” He said, gasping for breath. “The kids can’t get through; they don’t meet the requirements.”

  “Aren’t there enough cards from all the people Boss just killed?”

  “Yeah, but I can’t go around looting when he’s hot on our heels. He’s going to kill us!”

  Setting his jaw, Truffle marched past Field Marshall. “I’ll buy you some time, I can’t leave him behind anyway. Start looting and get ready to send the kids through.”

  With a large gulp, he walked towards John whose face was still a constant contortion of mixed emotions, two people fighting over one body.

  “Boss, if you can hear me, I need you to come back to us now!” Truffle shouted, “you’ve killed them all. All the monsters, all the other contestants. There are no threats left. You can do this. You can beat that thing and come back to us.”

  “I…” Boss spoke in his own voice, though it was strained. “I won’t let you kill them! Get out of my head you bastard.” He dropped his revolvers and grabbed at his face, tearing his own skin with bloodied, dirty nails.

  Truffle smiled; he knew his Boss wouldn’t be beaten so easily.

  “Resistance is futile,” the hoarse voice said, wrestling back control. “I gave you the chance to join me, now I must punish you for denying me. You will be all alone in this world. Only then will you be complete. Only then will you be ready to enact my wrath.”

  Boss resummoned his revolvers, pointing them towards Truffle and the pig let out a pig squeal, knocking one of them from his hand. The attack didn’t move the Boss one inch. It barely even ruffled his hair, and a second later the gun reappeared in his hand. His skin was entirely gun metal grey, he’d reactivated his Adamantite-lite card, or at least the thing possessing him had.

  He squeezed the trigger.

  At the last possible second the hand flew to the side and the bullet went wide, blowing up a group of already messy mob corpses and showering them all with even more blood and gore. Boss was completely drenched. The ground beneath them looked like a scarlet lake. Organs, viscera and more blood than Truffle had ever seen, washed over the ground.

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  “Boss you can do it!” Truffle yelled, “come back to us.”

  The kids began to join in, even the ones who had previously seemed catatonic. A chorus of cheers yelled out from behind Truffle and he added his voice to the mix. “Come back to us Boss!” They all shouted in unison.

  “Petty, foolish humans,” John said in that same throaty voice. “You’ll never- get out of my fucking head!” John’s own voice overtook the imposter and he clutched his head as his eyes began to bleed and his legs shook. He fell to the ground with a dramatic thump, laying on his back.

  “You won’t… take… my… humanity,” he said as his eyes rolled back into his head and he went still. The quiet din of post-battle smothering them all, broken only by the crackling sound of burning corpses.

  Is it over? Truffle wondered.

  11:21:32 remaining

  ***

  12:00:00 remaining

  Go, go, go, oh and before I forget, CULL THE MASSES!

  A.J’s voice rang out and Joanna unfroze next to her two new companions. They hadn’t even spent a full day together and she wasn’t yet sure what to think of them. Barnabus had gotten them all an interface upgrade and made them form a party. If he hadn’t, then she probably wouldn’t have even known their names.

  The woman, Selina Kyle, had barely spoken a word. She just glared at everything, like the entire world pissed her off. It was annoying. Joanna loved unhinged people, but a big part of their appeal was the psychosis. Selina showed none of that. She had no talent for entertainment, that was for sure, she simply stared angrily. It was boring.

  Her companion, Horati-OH – a tremendously stupid name – was more like a golem than a person. He was big and strong but he was also enthralled. It made Joanna uneasy; the man was a liability. If Selina lost her grip on him or the spell was broken he’d likely turn against them. Joanna was confident she could end him if necessary, but she felt uneasy merely being in his presence.

  Barnabus: Alright, as we discussed, your target should be on the other side of that building to your right. My benefactor has assured me that he will end up inside the building pretty soon. He’s already put something in place to make sure he ends up in there. As promised, the girl with the false limb card will be in there too so Selina can be made whole again. Everything has been put in place. Good luck.

  Joanna didn’t reply, but she did nod to herself. She was all but certain that the dinosaur was watching her anyway. He was a sly one, he had his ways. Looking to her right she saw the back of a tilted building; it looked like a fast-food restaurant.

  With a sigh, she walked up to the back wall and activated one of her new cards: Inferno. It was the perfect addition to her collection. The card enhanced her flames, making them burn hotter than was usually possible from fire itself.

  As she touched the wall, her hand burst into scorching hot flames. With some effort, she melted away the bricks and began creating a makeshift entryway into the back of the building. Thankfully, the card also made her immune to her own fire and resistant to other’s. It was quite a powerful combination and, though he hadn’t said anything, she was certain that Barnabus had chosen it on purpose when he gave her the managerial chip.

  Crafty little lizard, she thought with a harsh smile.

  “Flame on,” Selina said in an emotionless voice, her dead, angry eyes staring a hole into the back of Joanna’s head. They were the first words she’d said since they’d met.

  “So you do speak?” Joanna replied, “you like comic books?”

  Selina didn’t reply and Joanna sighed loudly, continuing her work until there was enough room to comfortably enter the back of the fast-food restaurant. She was pretty sure the woman and her enthralled companion were only doing this to get that limb card. Barnabus had explained that she’d lost a leg because of John Doe. Joanna couldn’t help but see the amusement in that, though it was obviously lost on Selina.

  On the other side of the building some kind of firefight was taking place. Joanna could hear shouting and gunfire, followed by an explosion and more gunfire. In comparison, it was peaceful on her side of the building. Though there was evidence of fighting going on behind them too, more screaming, crashes, explosions. The eye of the storm in the middle of a war zone. It had somehow become her happy place. She was a completely different person from the scared, vengeful mother who had entered the first torii gate.

  Now, she thought. I’m strong. Strong enough to finally end this. She shuddered, what she was planning to do went against her very nature, but what choice did she have?

  The group stepped through the hole Joanna had created and found themselves in a public restroom. With the exception of a few broken tiles and a creaky stall door, it was perfectly intact.

  Joanna wondered how the showrunners had managed to collect and then move the building without destroying it. How had they done it to so many? The entire area was flooded with random buildings from all over Australia. It was weird.

  Opening the door a crack, she peaked through just in time to see John Doe jam one of his revolvers into the helmet of a dude in juggernaut armour. Was this what Barnabus had meant when he’d said his benefactor had put something in place to ensure that John was inside the building?

  It had to be and that meant that Joanna’s party weren’t the only ones working for this mysterious benefactor. She’d been correct. She was collateral. The person orchestrating all of this wanted her to come in from the back and trap them in a pincer movement. After that, if he was who she thought he was, then she would probably be killed by that juggernaut man.

  There was no way a man like that could let her live, not after she’d burned his son’s avatar alive. Powerful people always had such fragile egos. It was pathetic… and it meant that this was a suicide mission, just as she’d thought.

  “Fucking squid”, she swore under her breath.

  There was no way she was going to play into his hands. No. She’d strike when it suited her purpose. If she was going to die here it wouldn’t be as a puppet on a string. She would go out in her own way, in the pursuit of her own goals. That meant waiting for the juggernaut to either do the job for her or get himself killed. Her revenge would be enacted even if she wasn’t the one to pull the trigger.

  I am salvation.

  She didn’t have to wait long.

  To her surprise and amusement, as John pulled the trigger a fiery explosion was unleashed from his revolver and the juggernaut dropped in a gooey heap on top of him. That would have been the perfect time to strike, whilst he was trapped and the rest of the group were in chaotic frenzy.

  But she’d been told specifically to make it a spectacle. This was an intergalactic reality show after all. She needed to make it entertaining. She needed to completely crush his spirit. Push him to the brink. Bring out the anarchist inside of him that she knew was there. She’d seen it right from the start. He would become her vessel, the one to enact her revenge. She’d already run out of time. After Barnabus had kept her alive with a cheat with the help of his benefactor, she knew that her life was in the palm of his hands. The hands of a man who hated her. There was no way he’d let her live even if she did what she was told.

  The end of the line, but I won’t go out without a fight. I won’t give up on my goals.

  Once John was pushed to the breaking point, only then could she mould him into the weapon she knew he could be. If she could do that, he was all but guaranteed a top tier sponsor when he got to the next round. Sponsorship, Barnabus had said, was the only surefire way to protect oneself from the showrunners. Though it would do nothing to save her, not now. Her life became forfeit the moment Barnabus cheated to save it. The moment he allied himself with the benefactor.

  Even with a good sponsor you could still die, obviously. But if an alien mega corporation was shelling out serious space dollars to back you then you could bet your ass that they were going to do everything in their power to keep you alive for as long as possible.

  So she waited.

  She watched the redneck with the torn shirt help pull the corpse off John. She watched him desperately try to save the old disabled woman by making some sort of denim torniquet. She watched the little girl, the one with the card Selina needed, hug him and thank him over and over. Then she watched his pig trot over and start making some weird comments about eating the corpse. He was weak. He had too much left to lose. She needed him to be strong, just like she was. She needed to break him. To take from him.

  It’s time, she thought, her heart pounding with the anticipation. She liked John in her own way, but personal feelings wouldn’t get in the way of him becoming the catalyst with which she would meet her goals. Even in death, her fury would be absolute. She was ready.

  Killing his spirit in the most devastating way possible was the best way to further her agenda. The best way to help her reach her true goal. Originally she’d planned on winning this death game and then taking her wrath to the stars. Those aliens had been responsible for killing her son, even if it was indirectly, and hell hath no fury like a mother scorned. Soon the entire galaxy was going to learn what it meant to fuck with Earth. What it meant to fuck with Joanna99.

  And John was going to be the one to teach them for her. He just didn’t know it yet.

  Opening the door casually, she stepped towards the child.

  “Who are you?” She asked, staring up at Joanna with all the childish wonder and optimism that she’d once loved about her own son.

  This is a mercy, she told herself. The world is no place for children. Not anymore. I’m saving her. I am salvation.

  Then she reached into the child’s chest, yanking out her card. The girl fell to the floor, her steel limbs had disappeared. This was her moment, if she was correct about who this benefactor was she wanted John to know exactly who had made all this happen. She needed someone else to hate the aliens as much as she did and John was an armed nuclear weapon at this point. Hell, the man had just killed a juggernaut like it was nothing. He was so close to being perfect, all he needed was a little push. All she had to do was point him at the right target.

  “Nice to see you again John Doe,” she said. “Jo Ren sends his regards.”