Countdown

'You still think we would have died if we stayed in there?'

He nodded gravely. 'The grinding noise? That was the ceiling clamping down on the floor. Twenty thousand pounds of pressure. I'm just guessing that might have killed us on contact.'

I just stared at him for a moment blankly.

'How the hell do you-'

Before I could finish asking him how he'd know something like that, I was interrupted.

'Congratulations, Rogan and Kira, on successfully completing Level One of The Countdown.'

It was a disembodied voice coming through unseen loudspeakers, just as the countdown had. I couldn't pinpoint the exact direction, but the sound of it physically hurt, and I cringed against the words.

Unlike the countdown itself, which had a metallic sound that betrayed it as a computer-generated voice, this one sounded very human. Very male. And very smug.

'You son of a bitch,' Rogan growled. 'Let us out of here!'

'Level One,' the voice continued, as if it couldn't hear Rogan's comment or was choosing to ignore it, 'is to test your abilities of reason and compatibility. You have won the chance to continue on to Level Two, and due to your performance thus far we have teamed you as partners.'

'What the hell is going on here?' I demanded. 'I don't even know what you're talking about. I didn't sign up for anything like-'

Suddenly what felt like a bolt of lightning ripped through my brain. I screamed and clamped my hands on either side of my head and fell to the ground as white-hot pain tore through me.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rogan do the same.

The pain vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and I stared around at the room, numb and in shock.

'Wh-what…?' I managed. My throat hurt.

The voice went on as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. 'Your implants have been activated and tuned to each other's frequency. Kindly keep in mind that you are playing as a team, and to separate more than ninety feet from your partner will lead to immediate disqualification.'

Implants? Frequency? Disqualification?

I scrambled unsteadily to my feet. I felt dizzy and disoriented and I stumbled, finally bracing myself against a cold metal wall.

'I want to know what the hell is happening here,' I demanded hoarsely. 'I want to be let out of here immediately or I'm calling the police!'

It was an empty threat. The police wouldn't give a crap what happened to somebody like me. I didn't even have any ID. They'd probably end up throwing me in jail for causing a disturbance.

I was on my own.

Rogan looked over at me. He hadn't bothered getting up from the floor. Maybe he was a lot smarter than I was.

'Give up,' he said.

'Like hell I will.' I moved toward the door and kicked it again, knowing it wouldn't do anything helpful, but feeling the desperate need to lash out. 'Come on! Come on, you bastards. Let me the hell out of here!'

I saw a flash of light out of the corner of my eye and turned around slowly. The lights in the room dimmed, and a holoscreen appeared out of nowhere, showing an overhead view of the city.

'What the hell?'

The only time I'd ever seen anything like it was from sneaking in to see an old sci-fi movie at the only theater in the city that was still open. Shit like this didn't exist in real life. Did it?

Well, obviously it did, because I was looking right at it.

I walked around the screen, trying to see where it was projected from, but there was nothing. I touched it and the image flickered and morphed as if I'd just dipped my finger into a shallow pool of water. It was partially transparent, and I could see Rogan on the other side. He looked at me and shook his head.

'It begins,' he said.

'What begins? What the hell is happening?' I felt a tear of frustration slip down my right cheek.

On the map a round white glow appeared at an intersection that was otherwise unmarked.

'Level One has been completed successfully,' the voice returned. It sounded enthusiastic, and there was an odd singsong quality to the words. 'There are six levels to The Countdown. Complete all without suffering disqualification or elimination and you will be considered the winner. Your next level is to reach the marker you see on the map by the time the clock runs out. If you are not successful you will be eliminated from The Countdown. Do not delay. You have fifteen minutes to complete this level. Your time starts now.'

The map faded into the image of a ticking clock, and then that also disappeared, leaving me staring directly at Rogan. The lights came up and I felt a draft of cool air touch my bare arms.

I turned to see that the door I'd been kicking had opened up. Beyond it was the outdoors. The city. Familiar territory.

'Kira!' Rogan called after me.

But I barely heard him. I was too busy running.

LEVEL TWO

CHAPTER THREE

The beeping started when I'd gone nearly a block away. Soft at first, but growing steadily in volume and speed with every step I took.

I decided to ignore it.

I'd escaped. Holy hell, I'd escaped. I didn't know where I'd just spent who knew how much time, but I was glad I was out of there. And the more distance I could put between me and whatever the hell that had been was distance well traveled.

I looked around at the gray street and the gray buildings that reached high into the sky. Not another person to be seen.

Yeah. Welcome to my city.

Twenty-five years ago it had been a thriving and successful place of business. In fact, the whole world had been on an upswing then. Technology was increasing. The economy was thriving. A new world had even been discovered that had the same life-sustaining properties as Earth. And just when everybody was feeling all positive about the future, the Great Plague swept across the world, and in a matter of weeks 40 percent of human life was wiped out. Dead and gone.

Those who survived continued on-I mean, what choice did they have? The world kept turning. They rebuilt, they had children, but the world was sure as hell not the way it used to be. The city, once prosperous and filled with life, was now a sad and empty shell of what it used to be. It was depressing, sure. But it was all I'd ever known since I was born almost three years after the plague was over with.

I actually couldn't imagine living here when it was crammed with people. It was still busy over on Paragon Avenue-as if everyone who remained here congregated there in a sort of minicity. But the rest of the streets and neighborhoods were close to deserted, like this one apparently was.

As far as that new world that was discovered, over the past twenty-five years it had grown a lot. People referred to the new colony as 'Offworld,' and it was this shiny, beautiful paradise where everyone aspired to go and start a new life.

Apparently there's some kind of a shuttle that will take you there. But you need to know the right people,