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"No!" Dylan shook his head and backed away from them. "I won't do it!"

"None of us want to." Grishnag sighed. "But if we don't--"

"Fuck this. They can torture me for the rest of my life, I still won't do it." He glanced around, threw his hands up, and sat on the curb. "I won't hurt any of you."

Syala clopped over to him and sat. "I wish I knew what else we could do."

"Maybe we won't have to." Cora crouched in front of them and waved the others over. When everyone had gathered around, she leaned forward and spoke in a low voice. "I have an idea. There are weapons scattered all over. I say we grab the biggest ones--rocket launchers, bombs, that kind of thing--and pretend to shoot at each other. Miss each shot deliberately."

Dylan let out a slow breath. "Huh. Okay, I like that. If we can put on a good enough show for whoever is watching us, maybe we can play it out for a while. That way, we can have a break from _real_fighting and dying."

"Not only that, but we can use it as an excuse to blow some shit up." Cora smiled grimly. "Remember what I said about that explosion and the voxels? Maybe if we can set off a few big ones, it'll destabilize the simulation."

"Yeah." A surge of relief washed over him. "It's worth a try."

"One thing, though." Grishnag sat on Dylan's other side and met everyone's gaze for a moment each. "We won't be able to keep it up long. The watchers, whoever they are, will figure out what we're up to pretty quickly if we miss too many shots."

Zilaka slumped forward and buried her face in her hands. "I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up."

"Well...okay, we'll just have to make it as convincing as we can, then. Every now and then, one of us will have to..." Dylan took a deep breath and tried to slow his suddenly-pounding heart. "Look, if any of you think we're about to stretch it out too far...hit me with a direct shot. Kill me."

"What?" Ayastal stared at him with her muzzle open in shock.

"I'm serious. Take me out first." He forced himself to smile. "I won't hold it against any of you, I promise."

"Oh, kid..." Grishnag put her arm around his shoulder and sighed. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Well, if anyone has a better idea, I await suggestions." He managed to chuckle. "This way, we'll be able to make this last a lot longer."

"Just...every so often, one of us will have to die to maintain the illusion."

"Yeah." He looked around at everyone. "Me first. Hell, I'm not that much of a fighter, anyway, so I'll be amazed if I don't accidentally blow_myself_ up."

"That's not true." Grishnag stroked his cheek and smiled. "I saw how you handled yourself in our last couple of battles. You show great promise."

"Well...thanks. But--"

"Okay, if this is how we're going to play it, we all have to be fair game."

"You're right." Syala wrung her trembling hands.

Everyone else nodded.

"Except Cora," Dylan said.

"What?" Cora scooted closer and put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm not playing favorites."

"No, you have to survive. You're the only one of us who has a shot at getting us all out of here."

Cora stared at him. "Dylan..."

"You know I'm right." He leaned forward and kissed her. "For luck."

"Dylan..." She closed her optics, sighed, and kissed him back.

"We should get started." Grishnag heaved herself up. "If we delay much longer, they'll start torturing us."

Everyone else stood. Grishnag put her hands on Dylan's shoulders and smiled.

"When we first met a few hours ago, I thought you were just a kid, but I was wrong. Now, I understand you're a man."

He smiled, put his arms around her, and kissed her. "For luck," he whispered.

Everyone exchanged a round of "good luck" kisses.

"Alright." Cora reached out to stroke Dylan's hair. "Let's rock."

---

_What am I doing?_Syala crouched behind the waist-high barrier surrounding the roof and tried to keep her breathing even. Her hands shook as she held the rocket launcher and tried again to figure out how she even knew what it was, much less how to use it. The most advanced weapons her people had were crossbows--something like _this_would never have even occurred to her if the knowledge hadn't already been placed in her mind through some kind of sorcery.

Finally, once she'd caught her breath, she peeked over the edge of the roof and took a quick look around. Everyone had scattered for cover and begun taking half-hearted shots at each other with whatever weapons they could find. Dylan had dived behind a rusted-out vehicle some distance away, flinching at each shot that struck in his general direction. Grishnag had entered a crumbling building across the street and was peering out a window. Nishara had wrapped herself around a lamppost in order to climb it and reach the roof of a smaller building. The others, Syala couldn't find at the moment.

She ducked back under cover and took a few more deep breaths. I'm not in good enough shape for any of this. Even though her diet had been no different from anyone else's, back home, she had somehow become fat. Few of her tribe had given her any attention unless they were teasing her about her thick body.

But these new companions with whom she'd suddenly found herself...they had simply accepted her without comment. Perhaps a small bit of good can be found in any situation. Even one as dismal as this.

She managed to smile ever so slightly, then sighed and focused on their current battle. She didn't understand any of the plan, but the "deliberately missing each shot" part certainly appealed to her. Cora, Grishnag, and Dylan seemed to know what they were talking about, so Syala decided to just trust them and hope their plan worked.

She peeked over the edge again. In the empty yard far past Dylan, she found several stacks of wooden crates, red metal barrels, and cylindrical things that the foreign information in her mind labeled "tanks." Without understanding how she knew what to expect, she lifted her rocket launcher and aimed at them.

She squeezed the trigger and winced as the rocket roared out of the end of her weapon. It streaked through the air and struck one of the tanks. The explosion blew all of them up, and Syala flinched again--but she forced herself to continue watching.

For just a heartbeat, everything around the explosion appeared to break into tiny cubes.

Those must be the "voxel" things Cora was talking about._Syala dropped back behind the barrier, leaned against it, and sighed._I hope that was useful to her.

---

Blow things up, eh? Nishara slithered through another doorway, cradling a grenade launcher in her upper arms, and found a large rifle propped up against the wall of the next room. She grabbed it with her lower hands and zipped over to the nearest window. I would be happy to do just that.

She'd never been a very aggressive person, but the horror of their situation had faded enough to let her anger build up, and she'd now reached the point where releasing her pent-up rage was crucial to remaining sane.

She peeked out and took a quick look at the street. She caught a glimpse of Zilaka darting behind a rusty, wheeled vehicle as gunfire erupted from somewhere to the right. Bullets knocked chips out of the middle of the street, not even coming close to Zilaka. Still, she curled up, squeezed her eyes closed, and cringed until the shooting stopped. She didn't appear to be armed--but then Nishara spotted a small cylinder in her left hand.

_Grenade._Nishara tried not to be too unsettled by the alien knowledge in her head. It was simply one of far too many things she hadn't even had time to think about, much less adjust to, since awakening on that cold, metal floor. And now was not the time to let her thoughts wander. She could ponder the strangeness if there was ever a lull longer than a few moments between battles.

Zilaka fumbled with a tab on the end of the cylinder, yanked it out, and tossed the grenade off to her right. A deafening _whump_accompanied a burst of dirt, pavement, and shrapnel flying through the air. Zilaka screamed and clamped her hands over her ears.

Nishara winced.

Then Zilaka slumped over, clutching at her side and moaning.

Nishara froze and held her breath as she squinted at her new friend--then gasped when she spotted a jagged piece of metal sticking out of Zilaka's side and blood pouring from the wound.

"No!" Nishara let the grenade launcher dangle from her right hand and covered her mouth with her left hand.

Zilaka turned her head slowly, looked up, met Nishara's gaze, and wept. "Please..."

She wants me to... Nishara drew in a slow breath and shook her head. I can't...

Zilaka tried to pull the metal out, and screamed again. She stared up at Nishara and whispered, "Please!"

Tears spilled down Nishara's cheeks as she lifted the rifle and aimed it at Zilaka's head. Zilaka nodded.

"Yes..." Her face twisted up and she cried out in pain again.

"I--I'm sorry!" Nishara pulled the trigger and Zilaka's last scream cut off abruptly. Nishara pushed away from the window, stretched out on the floor, put her weapons down, and crossed her arms tightly over her chest. "Fucking monsters!"

She lay there until she'd regained control of herself. She wiped the tears from her eyes, picked up her weapons, and returned to the window. She picked a spot well away from everyone else, raised her grenade launcher, and growled.

"You_bastards_! If I ever lay my hands on you, I swear the last thing you ever feel will be my venom burning through your veins!"

---

Grishnag arched a brow at the rapid-fire explosions somewhere behind her. One of us has gotten enthusiastic, all of a sudden. Well, good. If Cora's right, the more damage we do, the faster she'll be able to get us out of this.

She ducked into an open doorway, crouched, and gave her surroundings a quick visual sweep. Sunlight glinted off Cora's metal skin as she darted from one building to another. Syala popped up on a rooftop off to the left and blasted another rocket at a random vehicle. Dylan caught Grishnag's eye at the opposite end of the street, flicking something under a large truck and then bolting.

A shockwave ripped the truck apart and launched huge chunks of it into the air.

_Nice!_She grinned as Dylan picked himself up and sprinted out of the dust cloud the explosion had stirred up.

"Guys?" Cora's voice, seemingly coming out of nowhere. Grishnag twitched, glanced around, and shook her head.

"Uh..."

"I think it's working. I've been able to access some of the code. I've managed to rewrite a bit of it so we can communicate."

"Already?"

"Well, I'm an AI. I can process information a lot faster than an organic being."

"Sexy," Dylan said. "Any chance of getting us out of here?"

"I'm still deciphering the code. I'm trying a few small things first, to avoid attracting attention. Once I've found my way around, I'll try something bigger. In the meantime, keep blowing shit up. The more we destabilize the simulation, the sooner I'll be able to gain control of it." There was an audible grin in Cora's voice. "And the simulation is pretty glitchy, already. I'm not certain yet, but it's starting to look like the software hasn't been updated in a long time. I'll keep poking around and let you know what I find."

"Thanks. We'll keep at it." Grishnag took a deep breath and let out a relieved sigh, allowing herself a sliver of hope.

She stepped out of the doorway. "Dylan, Syala, can you hear me?"

"Yes."

"Yeah. What's up?"

"You two appear to be closest to my location. Feel free to take a few shots at me." She chuckled. "But be sure to warn me if you're about to explode something near me."

"Will do," Dylan said.

"I'm afraid I have nothing except this rocket launcher. I'll keep that well away from you."

"Ah, much appreciated." Grishnag smiled grimly as she strolled down the street, checking out the nearby vehicles. Many appeared to be damaged from previous battles, or just rusting away, but a few here and there looked intact. "Hmm. I'm getting some ideas on ways to play this out a bit longer. If any of these cars or trucks are still functional, we can pretend to chase each other around."

"Sounds promising. I'll try starting a few up and see what happens." A few second passed before he spoke again. "Brace yourself, Grish, I'm gonna be landing a few bullets nearby. I'll try to keep 'em a few yards away, but I don't know if any of 'em will ricochet or not, so find some cover."

Heh. Grish. I like that. "Thanks for the warning." She crouched beside a car and gave it a quick look-over while waiting for Dylan to fire a few shots. It appeared to be in relatively good condition--only a few rust spots and dents.

The rapid popping of machine-gun fire came from up ahead and a little to the left, and the sidewalk in front of the building she'd just left was peppered with bullet holes. Grishnag smiled.

"Good aim. No ricochets at all."

"That's a relief."

She stood and tugged on the vehicle's door handle. It slid back and she leaned in for a glance at the dashboard.

"How's everyone else doing?" Dylan said.

"I've found a large building filled with tanks and red barrels," Syala replied. "If Cora wants big explosions, I think this will do nicely."

"I like it. But be sure you're a good distance away before you set it off."

"I have no idea what a safe distance would be, but I'll try."

"Okay. Good luck. Nishara, Zilaka, you okay so far?"

"Zilaka's dead again." Nishara sobbed. "She injured herself severely with a grenade. I...I had to end her suffering."

Grishnag leaned on the side of the car and sighed. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah," Dylan added, "I'm sorry, too, Nish. You did the right thing, though. She's back in that room, waiting for the rest of us."

"I'm not." Zilaka's already soft voice was barely a whisper. "I'm still here. I reappeared where we all arrived when this started."

Grishnag turned in the direction of their entrance point and frowned. "You weren't sent back to the...waiting area, or whatever it's called? You came straight back to the deathmatch?"

"Yes. I'm trying to remember what Dylan called it. Re...respawning?"

"Yeah." Dylan's voice quivered. "Shit. Looks like it's not enough for us to kill each other. Those motherfuckers want us to do it over and over."

"Oh, no," Nishara whispered. "Zilaka...I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault. But...I can't bear much more of this."

"We'll have to make sure we find a way out as soon as possible, then," Cora said. "Syala's about to set off a huge explosion. If we're lucky, it'll destabilize the simulation in a much more severe way than we've been doing so far. Might be enough for me to tip the odds in our favor."

"I don't understand how."

"I'm guessing it's like trying to run a really graphics-intensive game on an old GPU that can't handle the load," Dylan said. "Which...probably doesn't really tell you anything. Sorry."

"You're right, I don't understand." Zilaka sighed.

"Well," Grishnag said, "I think he means the game might crash. Freeze up, or malfunction in some other way, I mean."

"Right," Cora said. "If it causes a big enough glitch...well, I'll see what I can do with it. Any time you're ready, Syala."

"Alright. I think I'm far enough away. I have one rocket left, so...well, you can probably guess. I'm getting ready to fire."

The_whoosh_ of the rocket came from somewhere behind Grishnag. She turned around a split-second before a quick series of sharp _bangs_set off a ground-shaking blast. The shockwave sent dust and debris flying and slammed Grishnag into the car. Flaming chunks of metal and other shrapnel rocketed into the air, soared overhead, and rained down all around her. She lunged into the car to put something between her and the hail of hot, sharp metal.

"Fuck me!" Dylan bellowed. He continued shouting, but the roar of explosions and a building collapsing drowned him out.

When silence finally washed over the battlefield, Grishnag realized her ears were ringing. She looked up and found the car's windshield coated with dust.

"Syala, are you alright?"

There was no answer.

"Syala?" Grishnag extracted herself from the now severely dented car and coughed on a throatful of dust and dirt. "Syala!"

"I'm scanning the wreckage," Cora said softly. "Shit. I found her body. Well...what's left of it, anyway."

"She's probably back where we started," Ayastal said. "Or will be in a moment."

"I hope so." Grishnag got back into the car and waited for the dust to settle.

"I'm here," Syala called out a few seconds later. She groaned. "Oh...that hurt!"

"I know," Zilaka muttered. "I haven't felt up to moving around yet. But I'm here for you."

"Thank you. I think we should just sit here for a moment." Syala tried to take a breath and coughed. "Cora, I hope that gave you something you can use."

"Oh, it did. Thank you. That caused a massive disruption. I'm sifting through the code now, trying to decipher it. Give me a moment."

"I'm heading back to join them," Ayastal said. "If Cora finds a way to escape, we should all be together."

"Agreed." Grishnag smiled and jogged back to the point they'd first appeared in this place. She arrived at the same time as Nishara, and found Syala and Zilaka on the ground, leaning against the remains of a large shed, staring into the distance. She turned in the same direction and found a smoldering ruin engulfed in billowing black smoke and flames.

And something else--the whole area appeared to waver and flicker, and every few seconds it broke into thousands of tiny cubes before coalescing again.

Nishara pointed suddenly. "Look--the fire froze for a few seconds."

Footsteps approached from behind Grishnag. She turned and found Dylan running up to them. He stared at the flickering, stuttering fire and raised an eyebrow.

"It's like the frame rate on a video dropping." He glanced over at Cora as she appeared from behind a hill. "Like, dropping from the standard one hundred-twenty frames per second to around five."

"Something like that. The simulation is definitely overloaded, at least in that localized area."

Dylan nodded and walked over to Zilaka and Syala. "Are you two okay?"

Zilaka said nothing, but put her arms around him and just held him. Syala wiped tears from her cheeks with her cloak, smiled shakily, and kissed him. The others surrounded them and shared a brief embrace.

"Well," Syala finally said, "what now? Continue pretending to fight each other?"

"I suppose so." Ayastal sighed. "If we can continue...overloading this...whatever this is..."

Grishnag turned to Cora and raised a brow. "Learn anything else yet?"

Cora cocked her head and frowned. "Actually, yes. The code is alien, alright, but I'm recognizing certain patterns in it. Glitches, corrupted software. It definitely hasn't been updated in a long time. I can tell when software is in desperate need of a patch."

"So, it was already malfunctioning before we started screwing with it?" Dylan turned to watch the ruined building, but kept holding Syala's and Zilaka's hands.

"Yes. I'm starting to think the simulation's been breaking down over a long time. That's why I was able to notice the voxels and other glitching." Cora crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the column of smoke. "I'll need a bit longer to figure out exactly what's going on, but I'm starting to suspect that nobody's actually running the show."

Dylan turned to stare at her. "You mean, we're plugged into a system that's running on automatic, and now it's breaking down?"

"That's my hypothesis."

"What does that mean, exactly?" Nishara flicked her wide eyes back and forth between Dylan and Cora. "What if it breaks down completely while we're...'plugged in'?"

"I'm not sure." Cora shook her head slowly. "I won't lie to you, though. It could be bad."

Grishnag shivered. At least in battle, there was a chance of determining one's own fate. But to be completely helpless while the environment their minds were trapped in simply...fell apart...

"Fucking hell," Dylan muttered. "It never fucking ends."

"Don't give up yet." Cora tilted her head to a different angle. "I think I'm about to get root access. I'll see if I can insert us as NPCs into another simulation."

"What does that mean?" Ayastal gaped at her.

Dylan managed to smile ever so slightly. "That means we'd just be bystanders while someone else fights it out."

Cora nodded. "If I can pull it off, it'll buy us some time to rest, pull ourselves together, and figure out what our next move should be. And more time for me to keep poking around the simulation's inner workings."

Dylan grinned and hugged her, as did Syala.

"Rest," Zilaka whispered, following it with a weary sigh.

Grishnag clapped Cora gently on the shoulder. "I like the sound of that."

Cora smiled. "Okay. Here we go."