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  Kurtis climbed back down the rock and dropped to the ground. He was at 10 Health Points but didn’t have any weapons aside from his pistol. A box blinked and Kurtis saw that there was a loot crate somewhere in the middle of the cairn.

  “You seeing that?” he asked Tae.

  She nodded. “Has to be around here somewhere.”

  “We’re out of time!” Gabriel shouted.

  The dead participants had arrived, so Kurtis led Tae and Gabriel into battle. The close-quarters combat was incredibly intense as Kurtis leaped into a snarling turn, swinging his pole arm in a cutting arc.

  He lopped off the heads of two resurrected participants, then severed the legs of two more. The attackers moved forward in jerking fits and starts, swinging clubs, bones plucked from the bodies of dead monsters, whatever they could find.

  Tae absorbed several glancing blows as she vaulted forward, slashing her sickle, cutting down the participants who fell in heaps, which allowed Gabriel to finish them off with strikes from his war hammer.

  Kurtis watched Tae harness some inner reserve of energy and strength he hadn’t witnessed before. She was an army of one, hacking and slashing and beating back the attackers. In seconds, the first wave of resurrected participants had been beaten back. But more were on the way, and this time they were accompanied by monsters.

  “The cairn!” Gabriel said. “We need to find the loot!”

  Kurtis and Tae left Gabriel and headed back to the cairn. They circled the rock, hands out, searching it and the HUD for any hint of information on where the loot crate might be. Kurtis’s hand depressed a section of polished rock and a red light swept over his palm, as if there were a machine hidden inside the cairn that was scanning his fingerprints.

  A latch popped open and Kurtis spotted a hidden space, no larger than a closet. He grabbed the edges of the rock and pulled a section loose to reveal a white metal locker the size of a casket hidden inside. He shouted to Tae and she joined him. They pulled the locker out and threw it open to reveal several blocks of what looked like gray Silly Putty wrapped in clear plastic.

  Kurtis and Tae dragged the locker back over to Gabriel. The trio stared out at the approaching army of the risen dead.

  “We’re going to keep fighting,” Kurtis said.

  “We can get more Ragetags,” Tae said. “Each one of us can buy one.”

  Gabriel shook his head. “You’re going to take shelter.”

  “And what the hell are you going to do?”

  Gabriel sighed and opened his jacket to reveal a collection of wires and explosives tethered to his chest by a crosshatching of nylon cords and duct tape. All of this was connected via a red cable to a small device, no larger than a garage door opener, with a black button fixed on top. A suicide vest.

  “I made myself into the ultimate weapon,” Gabriel said.

  Kurtis snorted. “You got a goddamn martyr complex, kid?”

  “Nope, I just want to take as many of the bastards out as I can.”

  “That’s incredibly fucking stupid. You can do more good by coming with us.”

  Gabriel shook his head and Kurtis watched a clear, viscous liquid dribble out of his left ear. He’d seen the same thing countless times with the retinue of pillheads he once ran with, especially when they’d overdosed or were near death.

  “You and Tae are still way behind the other players in XP,” Gabriel said. “You’ll need to conserve all of your points. No sense in using them all up when I can take care of this.”

  “Nope,” Kurtis replied. “No way in hell I’m going to let you—”

  “This is my decision,” Gabriel said firmly. “I want to see my mom and dad again. Besides, you don’t have the right to take this from me.”

  Kurtis nodded. Gabriel was right. He was an adult, albeit a young one, a fighter, and the decision on how to check out was his and his alone to make. Nadine’s words echoed: Sacrifices will need to be made if you hope to make it eventually to Level 2.

  “You’re just like your old man,” Kurtis said, squeezing the kid’s wrist. “An honorable person and a fighter.”

  “Remember,” Tae offered. “There is no death, only a change of worlds.”

  Gabriel mustered a faint smile. Then he looked down at the locker Kurtis and Tae had dragged over. He grabbed the blocks of what looked like gray Silly Putty wrapped in clear plastic and held those tight to his chest. The blocks were filled with wires and multi-colored caps. Then he turned and stood to his full height, making sure the suicide vest was secure. He started walked across the plain to meet the approaching horde of newly risen participants and monsters.

  “Back,” Kurtis said to Tae. “We need to get back and take cover.”

  They retreated to the hidden spot inside the cairn, the one where they discovered the loot, the metal locker. Like contortionists, they torqued their bodies, finally squeezing into the space. Kurtis pulled a section of rock in to cover the entrance. Turning, Kurtis spotted a hairline crack in the rock, a fissure that allowed him to catch a faint glimpse of Gabriel as he rode the jetski-like machine into the attackers. The participants and monsters began screaming, tackling Gabriel, savaging his body when—

  CRACK-BOOM!

  A retina-searing explosion vaporized everything. Kurtis was momentarily blinded, covering his eyes as a massive backblast rolled over the cairn, pressing so hard on Kurtis’s chest he was worried his ribs were going to snap.

  The pair sat there, feeling the heat from the detonation, breathing the dust from the shockwave. Neither one said anything and then Kurtis pushed away the stone that had been covering the entrance into the nook.

  Choking on the smoke and the pumice that clouded the air, he stumbled outside to see…nothing. The bodies of the participants and monsters had been largely turned to dust, aside from scraps of clothing and fragments of bone that lay scattered about.

  “It’s over,” Kurtis said to Tae. “It’s all over.”

  Kurtis’s head dropped and even though he wasn’t generally a praying man, he said a prayer for Gabriel, and Jimmy Mulvey, and his mom. If it wasn’t for them, Kurtis would’ve been dead. Everything he did moving forward had to be done in their memory.

  “He did the one thing that the game does not like,” Kurtis said.

  “He gave his life for another,” Tae said, finishing his thought.

  “You were wrong, Kurtis.”

  “’Bout what?”

  “Before you said ‘fear and luck are the root causes of everything that happens to people.’ Sometimes that’s not the case. Sometimes people do things for other reasons.”

  Kurtis nodded, reconsidering his words. His HUD began blinking. A section of the horizon was literally opening up. A wall of light splashed them and Kurtis saw a platform made of a clear material, almost like an energy field out of a science-fiction movie. The platform extended from the ground through the opening in the horizon. He and Tae moved up over the platform. They’d taken twenty paces when Kurtis saw it in the distance.

  Level 2.

  “Congratulations,” Nadine said, “you have opened the portal and reached Level 2. You have acquired 2000 experience points.”

  Tae whistled. “You get that prompt, Kurtis?”

  “I saw it.”

  “2000 XP, baby. What you gonna buy with it?”

  “Whatever the hell I want.”

  “I heard that,” she said, throwing him an amused, comradely look. Kurtis saw a pair of ultra-hip, black wraparound shades appear on Tae’s head along with a slim, futuristic jetpack and a blaster-type weapon with green coils that resembled something out of an old Flash Gordon movie. She was already acquiring weapons for the next level.

  “You like my new toys?” she asked.

  “Love ‘em.”

  Kurtis appreciated the new gizmos, but planned to take things slowly. He would amass points until it was the right time to make a purchase. He didn’t know what to expect in Level 2, but he saw something in the distance, a kind of skyline composed
of a series of structures of varying sizes and shapes. Some of the structures were made of age-stained wood, others had been constructed from metal and still more were glass or some other clear, alien substance. Most of the buildings sprouted from the ground like weeds, but a few hovered in the air. Everything was connected by catwalks, pathways, ladders, and the like that stretched as far as the eye could see.

  Strange lights glowed inside the structure and the unsettling sound of shrieks and explosions could be heard. There were other energy pathways off in the distance, with participants marching across them, everyone headed toward the skyline.

  “Is that the way in, Nadine?”

  “Yes,” Nadine answered. “The structures you see are what some call the Agora. There are six Agora in your country, and one hundred and seventeen throughout your world. All are different, but each shares the same Level 2 complexities. The Reckoning makes no distinctions between the participants and none will find favor in the eyes of the Noctem.”

  “Where is Level 2 located?” Kurtis asked.

  “There are many ways into Level 2, but the portal you will enter eventually deposits you into an undisclosed location somewhere over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean,” Nadine replied.

  “What’s there?”

  “Other participants and various things chosen by the Noctem.”

  “What happens once we get there?”

  “The focus of the Melee has not changed, Kurtis. You will have 18 days to reach the Great Pyramid of Giza, the center of the Earth, using any means necessary.”

  Kurtis looked back at Tae, who was hovering in the air, her jetpack keeping her aloft. “Ready to level up?”

  She nodded. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

  Kurtis signaled to advance and began walking forward, Tae flying slightly above him, the two proceeding over the pathway, a prompt on Kurtis’s HUD flashing:

  Status: Level 2 – The Reckoning

  Objective: Proceed through the Agora and Defeat all Enemies to Reach the Hall Of Mirrors

  Reward: 4000 XP

  Time limit: 5:00:00

  Penalty for failing to reach the Hall of Mirrors: you will reach your journey’s end

  Would you like to level up? Y/N

  Would I like to level up? Kurtis thought. Hell yes, I would. He mentally selected yes.

  “You need to select a user name for Level 2,” Nadine said.

  “Oathkeeper,” Kurtis replied. “I’m Oathkeeper and she’s Enigma.”

  “Noted,” Nadine replied, Kurtis’s user name reflecting on the HUD.

  “You scared, Kurtis?” Tae asked.

  Kurtis powered the HUD down and shook his head. “Fear not death, right? Way I see it, all the bad things have already happened to us.”

  “We’re gonna be gold, Oathkeeper.”

  He smiled. “We’re gonna be platinum, Enigma.”

  They moved slowly forward, Tae zipping side to side, testing out her jetpack. “I been thinking—”

  “I get scared when you do that,” he said, cutting her off.

  “And it came to me. ’Bout the only thing our species is really good at is killing shit.”

  “And?”

  “And maybe these aliens have gone and fucked with the wrong planet.”

  Kurtis considered this, the sound of war drums echoing in his head. His mouth creased into a dark smile. Maybe they did, he thought. Maybe they did.

  THE END

  Afterword

  Author Comments

  Hope you enjoyed Melee: Chicago and the adventures of Kurtis and Tae inside one of the black spires. The goal in creating the book was to focus on a different city and a different, thrilling quest within the overall Melee game.

  Back in another life I worked in the criminal justice system and interacted with a guy who was the inspiration for the Kurtis character. He wasn’t a bad guy, but he made some poor decisions, and hoped that once he got out of prison, he’d be able to turn his life around. But, like many ex-cons, he was paranoid about getting out and falling into old habits, of repeating the same mistakes over and over. I thought a character like that, like Kurtis in the book, would be interesting to follow because he had the skills physically to thrive in the Melee, but psychologically he would be a participant who could be easily corrupted by the aliens. That’s one of the themes in the Melee of course, the idea that the aliens are on the lookout for certain kinds of players and that some humans end up “finding themselves” in the game, meaning they discover a darker side they might not have known about.

  As for Tae, I needed someone who would be intriguing to watch play well off of Kurtis, in terms of culture, race, and age, as well as a woman who could mix it up with him physically and orally. Essentially, I wanted an odd couple who begin as enemies, nearly killing each other, and find some common ground, coming together to fight as a team by the end of the book.

  The ultimate goal is to unite ALL of the characters from the various books, the good, the bad, and the ugly, in the longer, second Melee book. So please keep reading the side-quest books and check back for the second Melee book! Thanks again for reading and please, please leave a review if you enjoyed the book. All authors live and die by reviews.

  Thank you, Readers! Thank you for coming along on this adventure with me. If you’ve enjoyed the story and characters as much as I have, please check out the links below and come join us on Facebook where you can find updates and see what’s new in the Melee world.

  Extra appreciation to those of you who take the time to leave reviews and share your experience. It’s undeniably helpful to have your support and encouragement. Your involvement makes future stories possible.

  A special thanks goes out to authors and reading groups who have helped me along the way and shared my stories with your fans and readers.

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  My best wishes,

  Wyatt Savage

  Melee Mexico Sneak Peek

  By Wyatt Savage

  Jackie Leon has it all. A supportive family, a loving boyfriend, and a fabulous medical career. What she doesn’t have is a way home. While saving lives in a large urban hospital in Mexico City, she’s trapped when the border is sealed on the eve of what’s alleged to be an alien battle royale, a global game called the Melee. Her boyfriend Will comes up with a way out, however, two tickets on a private jet that’s guaranteed to get them back to the United States. Sounds great, right? The only catch is they have to snag a taxi and make it out of Mexico City before the violence of the Melee overwhelms everything. But getting out of the city proves to be the least of Jackie’s worries as she becomes a player in the Melee, teaming up with Will and Jorge, their taxi driver, to infiltrate a mysterious dungeon, battle an army of the galaxy’s worst monsters, villains, and other players to gain experience points, horde loot, and find a way to survive and level up.

  It Begins

  Melee Mexico Chapter One

  There was truth in blood. Jackie Leon knew that better than most, both in life and in practice. Take doctors for instance. She knew that physicians might claim to have adhered to the standard of care, but those little crimson rivulets, the ones that dribble out after a dose of Pitocin and the failure of a child to properly descend the birth canal, told an entirely different story. Sometimes they hinted at a reality that was darker, more troubling, an inability to act, a failure to undertake a cesarean section at the right time, for example. She knew that just as surely as she knew the splotches of red on the woman’s thighs in front of her whispered that something was very, very wrong.

  “We’ve got a late deceleration,” she warned the others in the operating room, adjusting her surgical gown and mask, staring down over the shoulders of a young nurse and physician, the ones who were readying to deliver a baby.

  The doctor hesitated. He opened his mouth to respond but couldn’t speak. He was choking on
the biggest stage of his life.

  “You need to get moving,” Jackie said, pushing for action. “You’ve wasted time and every additional second means possible oxygen deprivation.”

  “I’m doing my best,” the doctor replied.

  “Do better.”

  Jackie saw the quiver in the doctor’s eyelids, the tremor in his hands. He was green. He should’ve taken affirmative steps to deliver the baby once the tracing showed a repetitive pattern of late decelerations. Instead, he’d been dicking around for more than eighteen minutes and it was become clear that he didn’t have it yet—fire in the belly—and maybe never would.

  With a massive jolt, the patient convulsed, a timer sounded, and out came a female baby. The poor thing was limp, cyanotic, and failed to demonstrate any respiratory effort.

  Jackie glared at the nurse and tapped her wrist. “What are her APGAR scores?”

  The doctor examined the baby, the nurse watching, taking notes. “Two at one minute,” the doctor said. “Five at five minutes, and nine at ten minutes.”

  Totally, completely fucking unacceptable, Jackie thought.

  “Blood gases?”

  “A pH of 8.0, a pCO2 of 79, a pO2 of 8, with a base excess of -13.1,” the nurse replied.

  “What does that tell you?”

  The doctor looked up. “Significant stress.”

  “Distress,” Jackie said, correcting him. “That little girl has suffered oxygen deprivation and hypoxic ischemia because you didn’t move fast enough.”

  The doctor set the baby down. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t tell me, tell her,” Jackie said, pointing to the baby. “She’s the one whose brain was damaged. She’s the one who’s going to have hospital, surgical, pharmaceutical, physiotherapeutic, and nursing bills for the next eighty years. You tell her you’re sorry that you lost focus and destroyed her life.”