"Oh, look what we have here." Cora had just opened one of the metal crates in a corner behind a shuttle and grinned at what she'd found. "Grenades, sticky bombs, and rocket launchers."

"I don't know what those are," Zilaka muttered, "but if they keep us alive, I'll be happy we have them."

"They should definitely give us a chance." Cora passed the grenades and sticky bombs to the others, grabbed two rocket launchers, and handed one to Grishnag. "You seem to know how to use stuff like this more than the others. I think we'll have a better chance of holding the goons off while everyone else escapes."

Dylan whipped his head around to stare at her and Grishnag.

"Don't worry." Cora strode toward the space between the door frame and Grishnag's car. "I'm planning on both of us catching up with you. Now get moving."

Dylan sighed, nodded, and started his engine. Syala, Zilaka, and Nishara returned to their vehicles.

Cora peeked around the corner, found the two enemy vehicles still fifty meters away but approaching rapidly, and nodded at Grishnag. Cora lined up a shot on the nearer van and fired. A fist-size rocket streaked toward her target. The second van veered off and accelerated, while three occupants bailed out of the first. Cora's rocket struck the front of the van, ripped it apart in a split-second, and the shrapnel shredded the three who'd tried to escape.

Grishnag stepped around Cora and took her own shot while Cora reloaded. The van swerved but couldn't avoid the rocket. Shrapnel and body parts scattered in every direction. Grishnag smirked, turned toward her car, and stopped suddenly.

"Cora told you to take off."

Cora turned and found the others waiting with their engines running. "Yeah. What she said."

"We're not leaving you here." Syala aimed a stern stare at her, couldn't hold it, and faced forward again. "We finish this together."

Cora almost rolled her optics, canceled the action, and ran to her vehicle. "Fine. Let's all get the hell out of here before anyone else starts shooting at us."

"Dylan," Grishnag said as she climbed into her car, "we'll surround you and escort you to the next waypoint. Stay in the center."

"I'll do my best." He gripped the controls and waited.

"I'll take point. Cora, bring up the rear." Grishnag moved her car into position.

Four red, car-shaped icons appeared on Cora's mini-map, approaching rapidly from the rear. She leaned out the window, glanced around, and zoomed in on a distant motion.

"Guys, we've got more …"

"I see them on my map," Syala said, almost whimpering. "Let's go!"

Cora grabbed her rocket launcher, climbed through her window, and perched her ass on the lower edge. She lined up a shot and squeezed the trigger. The rocket streaked away and she zoomed in to watch the impact.

One of the four vans exploded and the shockwave knocked two others off course.

What the hell was that? Cora pulled the last few seconds from her optics' buffer and replayed it in slow motion. Parts of the van flickered and broke into tiny cube shapes for a split second as it exploded, as did the air around the shockwave. She scowled and lined up another shot.

Voxels. Damn, I was right.

"Cora!"

"Dylan, what?" Her proximity sensors picked up a sudden movement to her left before he could respond. She snapped her head around in time to catch a glimpse of a rocket before it drilled into the side of her car.

The roar of the explosion overwhelmed her auditory sensors and the flash overloaded her optics for a few seconds. When her sight returned, the entire world was spinning around her -- until the pavement slammed into her back. Searing agony tore through the nano-sensors embedded in her surfaces and throughout her body, registering the most damage around her waist and detecting nothing below it. She glanced around, found parts of her legs and other debris scattered all around her, and her internal sensors detected various lubricants and other fluids spraying out of what was left of her torso.

Oh, fuck!

"Cora!" Dylan shrieked again.

"Keep going! I'll do what I can from here." She found her rifle several meters away and dragged herself toward it while running a diagnostic. Primary systems failing, main power cell breached and heading for a critical overload. Whatever I do, I have to do it soon.

"But --"

"Go!" She clamped onto the rifle and tried to line up a shot on the approaching vans, but her targeting system was offline. "I'll see you all on the next go-around."

"Shit," Dylan moaned before accelerating away.

The others hesitated another few seconds but finally followed him.

The remaining three vans reached Cora.

Fuck it. She rolled onto her back, jammed her rifle's barrel against her exposed power cell, and pulled the trigger. Fortunately, the detonation tore her body apart too quickly for her sensors to detect any damage.

The blast was enormous -- far bigger and louder than anything Nishara had ever experienced. It deafened her and shook her vehicle. Both hearts pounded as she glanced over her shoulder and found parts of Cora's body and two of the vans raining down. The remaining van swerved around the debris and continued its pursuit.

"No," Dylan groaned.

"Take it easy," Grishnag said, clearly straining to remain calm, herself. "She'll be okay. She's probably in that same room we woke up in before, with Ayastal."

"I hope so." Dylan took a deep breath. "Alright. Let's get this over with." He accelerated.

Six more blips appeared on Nishara's mini-map, directly ahead. "No …"

"Where are they coming from?" Zilaka whimpered

"Stay focused," Grishnag said.

A beam from one of the van's occupants drilled Nishara's rear window, the passenger-side headrest, and the windshield. She flinched and her hearts beat even faster.

Must try something. Must do something before we're all killed again. She took several deep breaths. "I … I have an idea."

She twisted her tail into position, gripped her weapon, and slid through her window. She kept her lower-left hand on the controls, kept the accelerator pressed down with the tip of her tail, and held on to the roof with her upper-left hand. With her two right hands, she raised the gun awkwardly and tried to aim it at the approaching van.

A male that appeared to be Zilaka's species leaned out one of the van's windows with his own rifle.

Nishara clamped her mouth shut to prevent a horrified whimper from escaping and fired her weapon. Half of her shots struck the ground or pierced empty air, but the rest punched into the front of the van.

The male fired and a familiar searing pain lanced through Nishara's upper-right shoulder. The gun almost slipped from her hands, but she managed to keep her grip on it and continue shooting.

Finally, one of her beams drilled through the van's windshield and vaporized part of the driver's head. He flopped over and the van swerved off to the right and crashed into a stack of red metal barrels. Nishara shifted her aim to the barrels without understanding how she knew what was about to happen, and continued firing. Whatever was in the barrels ignited violently and engulfed the van in flames.

Nishara sighed, faced forward, and grimaced at the pain spreading out from her wounded shoulder.

Grishnag veered off to a curving ramp leading to an overpass that wove among dozens of gleaming metal skyscrapers. The rest followed her. Wincing and trying not to cry out, Nishara steered her vehicle in the same direction.

Three more enemy vans appeared directly ahead, swerving through the oncoming traffic.

"Damn it," Grishnag snarled. "Too many innocent people are in the way."

"There's nothing we can do about that," Dylan said with a sigh. "We'll just have to do the best we can to avoid hitting any of them."

A human leaned out of the lead van and began firing. Nishara groaned, shifted her grip on her weapon, and returned fire.

A beam pierced her upper-left arm and another hit her chest, just below her lower heart. She screamed and dropped her gun.

"Nishara!" Syala shrieked. "Oh, no!"

Another shot burned through Nishara's abdomen, and yet another drilled her upper heart. She flailed, screamed again, and her car began to turn sideways and skid.

"Shit!" Dylan bellowed.

Nishara caught a glimpse of a hail of enemy shots slamming through his windshield and multiple bursts of red blood filling the inside of his car, and suddenly she turned cold inside.

"No …" She coughed as everything around her began to fade away. "Dyl … Dylan …"

Her car struck the divider between lanes and rolled. The last thing Nishara saw was the road rushing up toward her, and the last things she felt were her body twisting and the car crushing her beneath it.

Dylan woke with a sudden, coughing gasp. He bolted upright and several pairs of hands reached out to prevent him from falling off the table. He blinked, shook his head, and took a few more breaths until his heartbeat returned to normal. Once he'd regained control of himself, he found Nishara, Cora, and Ayastal in front of him, and the bodies of Grishnag, Syala, and Zilaka resting on tables to either side. Eyes closed, bodies dormant. Still in the game, he figured.

Same room as before. At least we were right about that.

Nishara sobbed and tears ran down her cheeks. Ayastal and Cora put their hands on her shoulders and back. Dylan scooted off the table, took a moment to regain his balance, and reached out to touch one of her arms.

"Hey …"

She slithered forward, embraced him, and wept with sobs that shook both of them.

"You will be alright now," Ayastal said softly. "It's over, for now."

Dylan rubbed Nishara's back slowly. "She's right. You're okay now."

"It …" Nishara took several more sobbing breaths before she could continue. "It hurt!"

"I know. I'm sorry. I wish I could stop this." He cupped her cheek in his left hand and tried to smile. "As long as we're alive, there's a chance we can figure this out and find a way to escape."

"It has to happen soon. I don't know how much longer I can do this." She burst into tears again.

Dylan held her and just waited for her to let it all out. The others kept their hands on her shoulders, trying to offer what little comfort they could.

Finally, her weeping subsided. She clung to Dylan for a few more minutes, and he kept his arms around her until she pulled back a few inches and gazed into his eyes. She managed a shaky smile and stroked his cheek.

"Thank you." She kissed him. His heart revved up again and he let it continue as long as she wanted. When they finally parted, he blushed and grinned. She smiled and her face turned a slightly darker shade of brown. She patted the other women' hands and gave each of them a brief kiss. "Thank you."

"Any time." Cora smiled and gave her shoulder one more gentle squeeze. Then she leaned forward and spoke in a soft tone, almost a whisper. "I think I've worked out at least part of what's going on here. I want to wait until the other three are back with us before I say anything more, just in case."

Grishnag's body jerked, her eyes snapped open, and she gasped. She glanced around, propped herself up on one arm, grunted and rubbed her chest.

"Fucking hell," she finally growled as the others rushed over to her.

"You okay?" Dylan reached out to touch her shoulder. She nodded while taking a few more deep breaths.

"Now, yes." She gazed into his eyes for a moment, and then leaned forward and kissed him.

He raised an eyebrow but didn't try to pull back. Before he realized what he was doing, he raised his hands to her cheeks and leaned in slightly. When they parted, both of them were out of breath. Grishnag's face turned a darker green and she looked away.

"Uh … sorry."

"About what? I've got no complaints." He managed to chuckle and Grishnag's blush darkened even more.

Nishara slid forward and gave her a hug. "I hope your death wasn't slow or painful."

"That part happened pretty quickly." Grishnag held Nishara's lower-right hand. "The moments leading up to it, however …"

"What happened out there?"

"Well, I found the … whatever the hell that thing was … in the wreckage of Dylan's car. Grabbed it, jumped back into mine, and hauled ass." Grishnag glanced at Dylan. "Made it to the drop-off and placed the … thing … in a glowing receptacle. I don't know how I knew where to put it. I just … did." She shrugged. "Anyway …"

Syala and Zilaka began breathing, but this time there was no spasming or screaming. Both of them opened their eyes, glanced around, and pushed themselves upright.

"Are you okay?" Cora said as everyone walked over to them.

"Fine, I think." Syala let out a relieved sigh. "Grishnag delivered the glowing crystal thing, and then a light washed over us, the same as when we entered that … place. Then we woke up here."

"So," Dylan muttered, "if one of us completes the objective, the survivors are all sent back here without having to die first."

"Looks that way." Grishnag winced again. "Would've been nice if I'd gotten here the same way. But I'd been shot nine or ten times after I got out of my car. I made it to the receptacle, barely. I died only a second or two after I delivered the 'package.'"

"So severely wounded, yet still able to complete our task." Syala smiled at Grishnag. "You were amazing."

Grishnag shrugged and blushed again. "Well, by that point, I was just pissed-off."

"Badass." Dylan grinned. "I'm sorry I missed it."

"Heh. Me, too." She caressed his cheek.

"I may have some good news," Cora whispered after giving them another moment. She glanced at the others and they leaned in closer. "I think I've figured out a piece of the puzzle."

The door at the end of the room slid open and a half-dozen of the nine-foot, armored and helmeted goons marched in. Cora glanced at them, sneered, and shook her head.

"Shit!" She glanced around at the others before whispering, "Not in front of the assholes. I'll explain it when we're away from them."

Everyone nodded, stood, and faced the aliens.

One of them pointed at the open door.

"Not again," Syala moaned.

"Not already," Zilaka added. "We just finished the last one."

"Well … we know what'll happen if we don't." Dylan sighed and trudged toward the door. He noted the absence of the crate of weapons they'd been given before the last fight. "Huh. They're not arming us this time."

"Not surprising, after what you did to one of them with the very weapon they gave you." Grishnag smirked as she stood beside him. "Which was badass, by the way."

He blushed but grinned. "Well, by that point, I was just pissed-off."

She laughed, clapped a hand to his shoulder, faced forward, and sighed.

"Alright, let's find out what kind of hell they're going to put us through this time."

"Now what?" Nishara muttered as the light faded, revealing a long, cylindrical chamber with a row of seats along each side. Windows above the seats showed glimpses of blue sky and clouds. The muted roar of engines filled the chamber.

"We're in the sky again." Zilaka leaned forward to stare out the window across from her.

"Sounds like an airplane," Dylan said, glancing around. "Looks like a cargo plane with these seats added on."

"What are these things?" Nishara motioned with her upper-left hand at the large pack strapped to her back, and Grishnag realized she had one as well. A quick glance at the others confirmed that each of them wore one.

"Parachutes," Syala mumbled. She shivered and rubbed her hands over her arms. "I didn't know that a second ago, and now I do. And I suddenly know how to use it."

"How is that happening?" Zilaka slumped forward, braced her elbows on her knees, and covered her face with her hands.

"I think I've figured part of it out," Cora said, keeping her voice low. "Now's probably the best time to fill you in, before the shit hits the fan again."

Dylan nodded. "Let 'er rip."

"Near the end of the last fight, I took out one of the vans chasing us and noticed something odd. When it exploded, for an instant it broke into voxels. So did the surrounding air when the shockwave passed through it."

"Voxels?" Dylan stared at her. "You mean, like pixels, except three-dimensional?"

"Right."

The others exchanged confused glances -- except Grishnag. Her lips parted and her eyes widened slightly.

"We're in a simulation?”

"That's what I'm guessing."

"Oh, hell." Dylan slumped back in his seat.

"I don't even understand what that means," Syala muttered.

"It's like a shared dream," Grishnag said. "Or a hallucination. If Cora's right about this, none of this is really happening."

"It felt real enough." Nishara rubbed a hand over one of the places she'd been shot a few minutes ago.

"I guess that'd explain how we keep waking up after being killed. We're just respawning." Dylan shook his head. "If our brains are plugged into a computer, how the hell are we gonna get out?"

"I'll be scanning our surroundings from now on." Cora smiled and put a hand on Dylan's shoulder. "What I saw could just be a graphics glitch, but there's a chance it could be a symptom of a larger problem and something I can exploit. If explosions and other violent events destabilize the simulation, I may be able to slip past its security measures and access its code."

"And maybe you can manipulate it? Rewrite the simulation?"

"That's my plan. Obviously, the simulation's code will be in an alien language, but if I can access it, I can figure it out. Hacking is one of my specialties."

"Well," Dylan said, "I guess the 'simulation' thing would also explain how information keeps appearing in our heads. It's like software being installed."

"Kind of, yeah." Cora smiled. "It might also give me more ways to slip into the system."

Nishara grimaced suddenly, shivered, and took a slow breath. "We have to jump out and parachute down to the ground. And I don't think I'll ever get used to suddenly just knowing things I haven't learned."

"Other groups are in airplanes all around us." Zilaka closed her eyes and rubbed a spot between her horns as if a headache were developing. "Each group will be trying to kill the others."

"Kind of a 'last team standing' sort of thing, " Dylan muttered.

"Yeah." Cora cocked her head. "The basic setup reminds me of a few video games I played when I was much younger. The game type was called 'Battle Royale.' Players landed without weapons and had to gather what they needed from items left scattered all over an island."

"Must've been published after I was abducted," Dylan said. "Sounds like something I would've played if I knew it existed."

"Probably. I found them in an archive not long after I became sapient."

A map appeared on the wall to Grishnag's left. Blips representing the airplanes zipped from one side of a desert settlement to the other. She sighed and walked to the sloping end of the chamber opposite the map. A mechanism clunked and whirred, and a hatch swung down and turned into a ramp.

"Guess we should take the plunge before we fly out of the playing area. Who knows what kind of punishment we'll get if we don't play along."

Everyone got out of their seats and joined her.

"A lot of people put skydiving on their bucket list," Dylan shouted over the roar of the wind and engines. "Not me. One little thing goes wrong and it's all over. No thanks."

"Well, if our chutes don't open, at least we'll survive." Grishnag patted his shoulder and stepped up to the ramp.

"The rest of the combatants are already jumping." Cora pointed at several planes that were visible beyond the ramp, then pointed at a group of buildings on the ground. "Looks like nobody's heading that way, so let's drop there and hope we can find some weapons and armor."

Everyone nodded and approached the ramp hesitantly. Grishnag trudged down the ramp and stepped off.

"Geronimo, I guess."

"This even looks like one of the maps I played in the game." Cora took a slow look around as Zilaka, the last to touch down, dropped to her knees and pressed her palms against the ground.

"I don't ever want to do that again," she whispered.

Syala crouched beside her and gave her a hug.

"Could whoever's doing this to us access your memories of the game and use them to construct a battlezone?" Dylan rested his hand on Zilaka's shoulder and glanced over at Cora.

"We'd have to be plugged into a computer network for all of us to appear in the same battlezone, so I don't see why not." Cora grimaced. "If this is based on the game I'm thinking of, the 'gameplay' area will be restricted periodically. A wall of electricity will start at the edge of the map and close in on all the players, so we'll have to keep ahead of it or we'll be fried."

"That'll force everyone here to converge on one spot, then." Syala squeezed her eyes shut and contorted her face as she tried not to burst into tears. "We won't be able to hide somewhere and wait for everyone else to finish each other off."

"I hope our abductors didn't pick that particular detail from my memories, but if they did, we'll try our best to avoid everyone else as we approach the center. If we're lucky, there'll only be a few other 'players' left by then."

"The downside of that," Grishnag grumbled, "is that the few still alive at the end will be better fighters than everyone else."

"Not necessarily," Nishara said. "I can see how blind luck might play a part in this."

"Then may fortune smile upon us." Syala stood, gave Zilaka and Dylan a kiss, and held their hands as everyone walked toward a small house with a rusted-out truck with missing wheels beside it.

"Approach the house carefully," Cora said, "in case someone else got to it first." She pointed at a cliff in the distance. "If we can find what we need here, we'll see if we can make our way up to the top of that cliff. We'll be able to see others approaching and get out of their line of fire by just backing away from the edge."

"Sounds good." Grishnag crept past a clothesline with laundry swaying in the hot breeze.

Cora scanned the house and the one beside it for heat signatures and found none. But then, when they'd first arrived here, she hadn't detected the copper-armored goons in time to prevent everyone's first deaths. She turned her head back and forth, trying to keep her optics on both houses and the cliff in case someone else had already claimed the high ground.

Grishnag reached the front door, cocked her right fist back, and pushed it open. She darted out of the doorway, waited a moment, and then leaned through to give the front room a quick visual sweep. She turned back to the others and whispered, "Looks clear. Well, the living room does, at least."

A sharp pop came from the right, near the cliffs, and the left side of Grishnag's head burst and splattered the door. Everyone stared in shock as her body slumped against the door frame and toppled over, coming to rest on the porch. Cora recovered first, ran to Syala, Zilaka, and Dylan, and shoved them toward the door.

"Everyone inside! Now!"

Cora grasped one of Nishara's wrists and flung her after the other three. She turned back to Ayastal and found her bolting for the door.

More gunfire burst from the clifftop. Cora caught one of the muzzle flashes and noted its position. At least now I'll know where to shoot if there are any guns in the house.

Ayastal grunted and blood sprayed from her neck just as she passed through the doorway. She sprawled on the floor, clamped a hand over her throat, tried to draw in a breath, and choked. Cora dive-rolled over her, dragged her into the house, and slammed the door. She turned back and found Syala holding one of Ayastal's trembling hands as the life drained from the giant dinosaur-woman's body. Everyone else stared at them, still unable to process what had just happened. Finally, Dylan leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor. Tears streamed down his cheeks.

Syala released Ayastal's limp hand, braced both palms on her chest, and glanced over to the door, where Grishnag lay outside. She drew in a long breath and screamed. The scream turned into violent sobs and everyone gathered around her.

Bastards. Cora glanced out one of the windows, toward the area where the muzzle flash had appeared. The two who'd just died were probably back in the "waiting room," but that didn't lessen the brutality of what had been done to them. Fucking evil bastards!

"I'm going to kill them all," Zilaka whispered. "Every single one who crosses my path. Until one of them finally kills me."

"Our anger should be aimed at whoever abducted us and set this simulation up, but since we can't get to them right now, the ones who killed our friends are the next best target." Cora made eye contact with each of the survivors. "Search the house. Find some weapons. And get ready to fight back."