The Immortality Game

The goon to Tavik’s right grasped Ilya at the neck and shoved him forward. Georgy looked over just in time to see the other thug step up and put the .45 to the back of Ilya’s head.

Ilya screamed, “No—”

Georgy’s right ear rang from the blast of the gunshot. Blood sprayed out across the carpet in front of the couch. He saw gray bits of brain in the mess and had to choke back his vomit. Tears and sweat stung his eyes. “Dammit! Bastards! He only did what I told him.”

He knew no one had heard the shot, not out here in a deserted dormitory in Yugo-Zapadnaya. Despite his wish to protect his sister, an irrational compulsion to tell everything to Tavik consumed his mind.

Tavik chuckled softly. “Who cares about the kid?” Tavik sauntered around the end of the couch and crouched in front of Georgy. He pulled one of the new Glock shard pistols from behind his back, thumbed the safety, and jammed the nose into Georgy’s crotch. “I’m so disappointed in you, my friend.”

Georgy burst into tears. Dying quickly was fine with him, but the thought of Tavik eviscerating his balls was too much. How is it I always thought I was strong? Now he wanted to die. “I can get it,” he blubbered. “I swear! I’ll get it for you. I swear on my mother. Please!”

“You’re going nowhere, Georg!” Tavik shouted. “Tell me where it is right now or I swear…”

“My sister!” At that moment, Georgy loathed himself more than he had ever hated anything. “Don’t hurt her, please!”

“Zoya has them?”

Georgy tried not to nod, but found himself doing so anyway. He wept.

Tavik stood. “Okay.”

Georgy rocked himself back and forth, hearing one goon approaching round the end of the couch, but not caring. He just wanted it all to stop. Rough hands jerked him upright and propelled him forward and out the balcony door. Through his tears Georgy saw crumbling concrete, a blur of gray sky.

There was a flash of movement in the corner of Zoya’s left eye, and she heard a hoarse scream. Her nerves jangled; she turned her head just in time to see a body hit the concrete near the building across the street. Her brother’s building. The body twitched several times, and even from this distance she saw a dark puddle begin to spread on the pavement like an oil slick.

Clasping a hand to her mouth to stifle a scream, she looked up to see where the man might have jumped from, but every balcony looked the same. She forced her feet to move again. She didn’t believe anyone could truly help the dead or dying man, but she felt compelled to try. Then she saw the figure’s shirt…

Georgy!

A whimper escaped her throat. She halted and again glanced up at the deserted balconies. He wouldn’t have jumped. Not Georgy. There was no sign of movement. She rushed to Georgy’s side and knelt, carefully avoiding the pooling blood already dotted with poplar seeds.

Georgy’s body was broken every place she looked. With one hand Zoya swiped at her tearing eyes, while with the other she reached out to touch the purple silk of his shirt.

She yelped when a ragged whisper came from his bloody mouth. “Run…‌little Sis.”

She looked into his ruined face, but his eyes were squeezed shut. She didn’t recognize the croak of her own voice: “Georgy!”

Soft but emphatic his whisper came again: “Run!”

I can’t just abandon him here, can I? She looked up at the dormitory, expecting to see gangsters run through the black doorway with guns in their hands. She steeled herself and looked down at Georgy again.

“Georgy. Activate your distress call. They’ll come get you. You’ll be okay, I promise.” She silently cursed her pride for refusing Georgy’s repeated offers to upgrade her slot to wireless; she could have called the ambulance herself.

A sound from the building—a door banging open?—startled her, but she still saw no one coming. She looked once more at her brother. “I’m sorry, Georgy.” She kissed her fingertips and touched them to Georgy’s lips.

Then she ran.

Moscow

Sunday, June 8, 2138

10:27 a.m. MSK

The wizard Xax peeked out from behind the boulder at the cave entrance. The dark hole was at the back of a small rock-strewn ravine in a wall of crumbling limestone. He glanced over at his three hirelings.

“You’re sure that’s it?” he whispered.

The slender red-haired woman with all the knives nodded and leaned close to him. “It’s as they said it would be. It must be it.”

Xax stared back at the cave mouth. “Doesn’t look so bad.”

There was an odd stench here, something Xax couldn’t place. Little grew other than some patches of brown grass.

No one in the nearby hamlets could say exactly what sort of creature made this its lair. Some said a dragon, which was absurd given how small the entrance was. Others said it was a huge snake, or perhaps some large spiders. The only thing they all agreed on was that no one who had entered the hole had ever returned.