circle. Then, like a yoyo, the wires pulled the hooks back into the merc punk’s wrist.
“Holy fuck…” the camera operator says, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
Wayne smiles. “I’m glad these merc punks volunteered for the show. They have proved themselves to be most interesting contestants.”
At the age of 20, merc punks are fitted with mechanical implants. Much of the flesh on their arms are removed to install metal weaponry. These weapons become a part of their body, so that they can always defend themselves, even after they run out of bullets.
“What did you get?” Xiu asked Vine as he came out of the sick bay.
“The wires,” he said, showing her the hooks dangling from his bandaged arms. “You?”
Xiu raised her arms at Vine and two foot-long blades burst out of her fists. “Swords.” Then she padded her new metal knee-caps. “And jumpers.”
They smiled at each other, excitedly. They had been waiting for their implants for a long time. The implants are what define a merc punk. They are sacred. The type of weapon a merc punk gets is a reflection of their soul. Because these weapons are so revered and personal, they are only to be used when absolutely necessary.
Zippo stood silently behind them. When Xiu and vine looked over at him, he blushed.
“Zippo?” Xiu asked. “What about you?”
Zippo lowered his eyes. “I don’t like it.”
“Tell me.”
He sighed. Then he raised his arms, which were now mostly metal. When he clenched his fists and turned them sideways, gigantic razor-sharp sheers emerged from his arms.
“Scissors?” Xiu asked, giggling. “You got the scissors?”
Zippo nodded.
“That is the worst one you could have gotten,” she said. “Did they even give you extra leg implants, like my jumpers?”
Zippo sighed again. He raised one leg to them. Another pair of sheers emerged from his ankle.
“More scissors!” Xiu laughed.
Because Xiu thought it was funny, Vine and Zippo thought the scissors were funny, too. But deep down, Zippo felt bad. It was as if they were laughing at his soul.
“Don’t tease him,” Carlos said, as he came out of the operating room.
The trio quieted down.
Carlos put his hand on Zippo’s shoulder. “The shears are a good weapon. If you train hard, they will serve you well.”
Then a pair of shears sprang out of Carlos’ arm. He scratched his chin with it and smiled, then moved on.
After the wires are back in Vine’s wrists, Xiu and Zippo stand up. Zombies trample over the halved corpses toward them.
“Zippo,” Xiu says to her Left Arm. “Now.”
The scissors spring out of Zippo’s wrists and cut at the undead, snipping like crab claws. The razor-sharp scissor blades cut arms and sever legs. Then a pair of shears pop out of Zippo’s ankle, as he jump-kicks a zombie. The sheers cut through its neck, decapitating it.
Xiu turns to her opponents and crosses her arms. The blades spring out of her fists. With the speed of a samurai, she slashes down the zombies as they run at her.
Zippo stumbles back as the ground quakes below him.
“This place is coming down,” Xiu says. “Let’s get out of here.”
Zippo nods, and wraps his arms around Xiu’s waist. With her Left Arm on her back, Xiu bends her knees, then clicks the lever on her metal kneecaps. Her mechanical knees snap up, launching them high into the air. Like a human cricket, she leaps over the street, to the roof of the building next door. When she lands, the suspension in her kneecaps cushion the fall.
Vine’s wires slice the heads off the zombies left and right. He cuts down the last one as the floor caves in beneath his feet. He falls through the roof and looks down to see six stories of open space. A horde of zombies staring up at him from below.
Without needing to look up, Vine shoots one of his wires up over the rooftop to the building next door. The hooked end catches a ledge, and Vine reverses directions. He launches up into the air as the wire reels itself back into Vine’s wrist, pulling him with it. As he emerges from the building, the structure collapses to the street in an avalanche. When he’s completely reeled in, he drops onto the next building’s roof beside Zippo and Xiu.
Xiu stares at him.
“Ready?” she asks.
Vine nods.
“Then let’s move.”
As they turn around, the three merc punks come face-to-face with something they have never encountered before: a pack of mechjaws. There are five of them, on the rooftop, as if they were waiting for them the whole time.
When the dogs growl at them, Xiu freezes. She notices the armaments on the zombie dogs’ backs. She sees the look of hunger in their eyes, but she isn’t quite sure what to do. They weren’t trained to fight mechjaws.
Xiu decides to play it safe.
“Run,” she says.
Then she grabs Zippo and leaps into the air, over the dogs, to the roof of another warehouse. Vine shoots a wire at the same building and launches into the air behind them.
The mechjaws open fire. A storm of bullets comes at the merc punks before they make it to the next building, whizzing past Vine’s face. As he is pulled through the air, Vine uses his free hand to shoot the other wire at the undead mutts. The hook slices through their storm of bullets and catches one of the mechjaws by the throat.
The dog snarls and thrashes as the hook digs deep into its neck. Once Vine makes it to the next warehouse, the wire from his wrist reels itself in, pulling the mechjaw off of its feet. The mechjaw flies through the air toward them, as Vine’s wire reels it in like a fishing line.
Bullets erupt from the dog’s minigun as it soars, but while in midair it cannot take proper aim. When the mutt reaches them, Xiu’s sword cuts its head off. The dog’s body falls to the ground, the head rolling across the roof. Xiu’s unit watches the dog’s twitching legs, as if it’s trying to run while lying on its side.
“What is it?” Zippo asks.
“A hellhound,” Xiu says.
Her two Arms nod in agreement.
The mechjaws on the rooftop across the street stand at ledge, their rocket launchers opening up. The merc punks don’t see the rockets flying through the air toward them as they stare at twitching dog by their feet. All four rockets hit their target, and the warehouse explodes into a cloud of flames.
of all of the remaining contestants spread throughout the Red Zone.
Rainbow Cat sees the explosion from an office window, as she sharpens her new machete against the sole of her leather shoe. Ever since she killed Bosco, her face has grown colder. She is determined to win this game, no matter what she has to do. She will kill even Junko if she has to. Nothing and no one is more important to her than getting back to Neo New York so that she can get her dead husband’s masterpiece published.
Haroon looks up at the explosion from a homemade raft. He drifts down a canal, hoping that it leads to a river, hoping that his raft doesn’t fall apart along the way. He built it by tying together a collection of boards and driftwood. As he floats, he prays that he finds
