The Game (Teaser)
In this world there are many bad things. Among them is pitting a handful of civilians in a proxy city and letting them survive on their own. However, this is not all, there are furs out there that hunt these furs for fun. They are known as Hunters, while the others are called Runners. These just make up the pawns for something known as The Game.
I stood at the edge of the building listening to the running coming from the stairs. My body tensed up as the door to the roof busted open. Here I was, standing on the edge of a twenty-five floor building, waiting for my end. I turned around to face the roof and saw the short pig walking up to me.
"Cornered at last, eh Anubis." I flinched at the swine's words. Anubis, a name given to me by the Board, partly for me being an Ibizan Hound. The Board was what we called the furs that pulled the strings behind this sick game. The swine lifted his double-barrel up and aimed it at my chest. "I hate goodbyes, but oh well, I'm sure I'll find a new playmate soon enough." He let out a twisted laugh. While he was distracted by his own humor I leaned backwards and fell off the edge of the roof. "What? No!" A shotgun blast rocketed past the edge of the roof harmlessly. I landed on the fire escape about three floors down, my back aching from the impact. The swine looked over the edge and saw me smiling up at him. "Damn you! Stay right there, don't move." It took me about ten seconds to stand up and stop shaking. Once steady again I took off down the fire escape four more flights then through a window. This had been planned for about a day now, I had gone through the building's layout from a floor plan I had found in a stash.
The stashes as we called them were strewn about the city in obvious and not so obvious places. They held maps, tools, and other useful items. This one wasn't too hard to find, it was in the lobby of the building in a nook behind a painting. I didn't have time to go over the plan now. It was set in motion and I had to succeed. Through the hallway and to my left. Into a room with a hole in the floor. I hadn't had enough time to go through this area of the building but the map was burnt into my mind. After dropping down the hole I found myself staring a panther right in the face.
"Who the hell?" With no time to respond to his question, I found myself being kicked into a wall behind me. There was the panther and next to him, another one, but female. Both of them were holding pistols, both pointed at me. It took all I had to not try and run, knowing that that would be my undoing. "Another Runner. Looks like we're not alone sis. Which means there's at least one Hunter nearby. Tie him up and let's get out of here." The female panther nodded as she walked towards me. As if on cue a shotgun blast ripped through the wall. Both panthers had turned towards the wall and opened fire. I didn't take care to think of what to do, I just moved. The female was first, a swift tackle and she was on the ground. Her gun slid a couple of feet away, I was quick on my feet to run and get it. There was a squeal and a thud, I knew the swine had been killed. That left only the panthers and me.
"I don't want trouble." My voice was shaky, I wasn't sure what to do. The female looked up at me with an angry stare, the male's gun was pointed at me. It felt as if five eyes were staring me down, the two sets from the panthers and the gun. I pointed my gun at the male. "I'll walk out of here and move on as if nothing happened, just let me leave. I will shoot if need be." I was bluffing, these two panthers were the Runners known as the Twins. Top of the bounty board, the most valuable Runners since Osiris. Their names instilled fear in all, Runner and Hunter alike. Apollo and Artemis.
"Then you shouldn't have come here." The female spat angrily. "This is dangerous territory in the first place." I looked at her confused. "What, you didn't know. This area is called Runner's End. All the skyscrapers here make it hard for a fur to navigate, if they don't find a stash." I smiled and pulled the map out of my back pocket.
"Well, I happen to have a map of this building, wasn't too hard to find." They both had a look of surprise on their faces. "Oh, come now. All you gotta do is look around for a stash. I figured that the Twins would know this more than any other fur." An idea came to mind that was quickly put into motion. "Look, I'll make a deal with you two. I keep the gun and walk out alive in exchange for giving ya'll this map."
"Deal." Apollo, the male, said quickly. Artemis looked up with surprise. She looked like she was going to protest before he quickly shut her up. "This isn't debatable, Artemis. We need that map to find the entrance to the tunnels." I smiled to myself, the tunnels were supposedly a complex maze that led out of this city and to freedom. It was debatable as to if this was true, but it gave hope to those that believed.
"How do we know that it's actually the map to this building?" I quickly chimed in.
"I'll stay while you two go over the map to compare it to this building's layout. That way if I'm lying ya'll will be able to shoot me otherwise." They both nodded and Apollo motioned for Artemis to get the map. She stood up and walked over to me, stopping farther than I'd be able to reach. I extended my arm holding out the map. She took the map and walked back to Apollo who had been keeping his gun trained on me the entire time. They unfolded it and began to study it. After a minute Artemis looked up with a glare.
"You're free to go." I nodded and began to walk to the door. Right as I reached I saw a red light out of the corner of my eye. Turning quickly I saw a dot moving across the wall and towards the map. Once again, I acted before I could think. Diving towards them I tackled Apollo who in turn fell onto Artemis.