Prisoner 3-57: Nuke Town Read online

  Prisoner 3-57: Nuke Town

  By Simon Smith-Wilson

  Copyright © 2014

  Prisoner 3-57: Nuke Town

  Simon Smith-Wilson

  Books by Simon Smith-Wilson

  ***

  Five Days Notice (City of Sin1)

  The Legend of the Hermit Master

  Curse of Meredith Holmes

  Hand of God (City of Sin 2)

  Last Tomorrow (City of Sin 3)

  The mind altering prisoner programme is in jeopardy. The alliance has lost control of the Prisoner X experiment. The safety protocols have been removed, if you die in the game you die in reality. Prisoner X has control of the game. Players, clients and prisoners are being ruthlessly killed by hordes of blood thirsty demonic aliens. Prisoner X must be stopped before it’s too late. The council had decided. To stop a cold hearted killer they must use the most dangerous man at their disposal. A full pardon is on the table. Prisoner 3-57 and a band of survivors set out on a hellish journey to locate and kill Prisoner X, but first they must fight their way through a horde of indestructible zombies. The planet runs red with the blood of our heroes. Friends will be lost, courage will be tested and fears will be faced. Prisoner 3-57 will learn the shocking truth they never told him. Untold secrets will change all that he thought he knew about who he really was. Prisoner 3-57: Nuke Town puts you into the centre of a fast paced, action packed psychological epic.

  Mission One: Reincarnation

  Chapter One: Back to Reality

  I woke to the sound of voices. A groan escaped my lips, as I tried to open tired eyes. My head was groggy, my body weak. It felt like I had the hangover from hell. Someone was having a conversation, but my brain didn’t have to strength to multi-task at this moment in time. I have to wake up first. I feel exhausted. Where am I? What happened last night? Suddenly, a rush of memories poured into my brain. It was like watching a movie within my mind’s eye, but at ten thousand times the normal speed. It wasn’t just one movie. It was the same movie, over and over again.

  Oh my god.

  I had killed them.

  I had killed my friends.

  I had killed them all.

  Rose had made me do it, but...

  I died.

  I defeated her and I died.

  That giant beast of a machine had cut us down.

  How am I still alive?

  ‘The man of the hour is awake,’ said a voice from the far end of the room.

  My eyes creaked open. I was sitting in a boardroom. A long wooden table sat in the centre of the room. At least two dozen men and women, wearing expensive looking suits, were facing me. At the far end of the room was a man. He had to be in his mid-thirties. This man was different. He wore a t-shirt with a dragon, drawn in the Japanese anime style, and had on casual looking jeans. He looked as out of place as me. I tried to move, but metal pinched my wrists. Unconsciously, I glanced down at the handcuffs that locked me to the arms of my chair. What the hell was happening here?

  ‘Mr Owen,’ said a middle aged woman.

  ‘Call me Ian,’ said the man with the dragon.

  ‘Mr Owen,’ repeated the woman, ‘You cannot be serious about this.’

  ‘I am deadly serious,’ he countered. ‘General Riggs, do you care to step in?’

  A man appeared from the side of the room. I hadn’t even noticed he was there, but he was a hard man to miss. The guy looked as mean as they come. He wore combat trousers, and a black short sleeved t-shirt, and had a pistol on his hip. He had a scar down one side of his face and sported a military style crew cut. If I had to guess I would say he was in his early fifties, as his hair was starting to grey.

  ‘The Prisoner X experiment is a failure,’ said Riggs. ‘Prisoner X is out of control. He has taken over the game. Mr Owen and the game designers were working on a new tactical level. They were expanding the idea of using the prisoners own subconscious fears to help create the perfect punishment, which would make each game unique for the players, but it would also aid in the development of the new Ranger training program.’

  ‘What went wrong?’ asked one of the board members.

  ‘Prisoner X took control,’ replied Ian. ‘The Prisoner X program was based upon the Prisoner 3-57 program. It was the perfect punishment. We created a world for Prisoner 3-57 and he created his own living nightmare. We gave Prisoner X the power to construct the reality in which the players played in, but we gave him too much power. He has somehow managed to remove the safety protocols.’

  ‘What does that mean?’ asked another.

  ‘It means if you die in the game, you die in the real world,’ said Riggs.

  The room was in uproar.

  I surveyed their faces. Panic was the general consensus.

  ‘You have to shut it down.’

  ‘That is impossible. We have four million players in the game. We shut it down and the players would all die from the shock. The game is their reality. The only way to escape the game is to die, but that option is no longer available now. If they die, they die. Prisoner X has convinced the virtual world that it is reality.’

  ‘Is there any way to stop him?’

  ‘Yes,’ replied Riggs, ‘Prisoner 3-57.’

  All eyes turned back towards me.

  ‘What good is he?’

  ‘Ha,’ Ian laughed, ‘Prisoner 3-57 is a one of a kind stone cold killer. He created the ultimate punishment for himself. His game was unlike anything we have seen before. His popularity from the players and viewers is sky high. Prisoner 3-57 is a machine. If you want to catch a cold hearted killer, you send a cold hearted killer.’

  ‘You are putting your hopes on him?’

  ‘No,’ replied General Riggs, ‘I have a team on standby, but the game isn’t something you can train your men for. They are going to be sent into a hostile environment unlike anything we can imagine. The new world is constructed by Prisoner X. They will be sent into a world built by the most disturbed, dark and disgusting thoughts of a serial killer. Prisoner 3-57 has just spent the last year of his life living the same gruelling nightmare over and over. He will be our secret weapon. Prisoner X has so far turned his attention onto the players and has been ignoring the Prisoner’s in the game. Of the six hundred prisoners in the Prisoner Program only two-hundred and seventy-one are still alive. We have lost communication and control of all of them. Prisoner 3-57 is the only prisoner not currently in a game.’

  ‘We were constructing a new multi-player level for him,’ said Ian.

  ‘What are you getting at?’ asked a young man.

  ‘Prisoner X is going after civilian players. He is not going after prisoners. Prisoner 3-57 will be able to get close enough to Prisoner X to take him out. We kill Prisoner X then we can save the four million players currently trapped in the game. Once he is dead the game controls will return to us. We will instantly halt the corrupted game in progress.’

  ‘And if he fails,’ added Ian, ‘we will send the troops in.’

  ‘Will he do it?’

  ‘Oh, he will do it,’ chuckled Ian.

  I glared down the table at him.

  ‘And how are you so sure?’

  ‘Because I am going to offer him a full pardon and tell him the truth about his sister...’

  His words hung in the air for the moment. He was going to tell me the truth about my sister? I already knew the truth. Rose wasn’t real. I am a paranoid schizophrenic. She took control of my body and killed my friends. All the bad things I thought she did in her life, I did them.

  ‘Prisoner 3-57 believes his sister was a figment of his imagination, but this was the punishment he created for himself. His biggest fear was losing the one he loved, but he already lost her when
he was sent to prison. Prisoner 3-57 created a fake reality and convinced himself that she wasn’t real, but he isn’t sick. He never was sick. Rose is real.’

  ‘What...?’ It took all my strength to talk.

  ‘You’re sister is alive and well,’ replied Ian.

  ‘Lies...’

  ‘You’re sister is real. She is alive. And you can have her back.’

  This couldn’t be true.

  It couldn’t be.

  ‘All you have to do is kill Prisoner X,’ explained Riggs.

  Chapter Two: Where is Rose?

  A strong hand was shoved into my upper back, nearly forcing me to stumble over. I still felt somewhat groggy, but my senses were finally starting to return. Two armed guards were marching me through a network of corridors. From the constant hum that seemed to vibrate out of the floors and walls I knew I was on a star ship. People passing me by wore the classic deep space military uniform of tanned shirt, black tie and black trousers. They all gave me a wide birth. At the end of the corridor were two elevators. I was roughly pushed into the one on the left. One guard turned his attention to the selection of buttons by the door, whilst the other stood to my left hand side.

  This was their first mistake.

  It was the last one they were going to make.

  I wasn’t going back into some virtual reality prison sentence.

  I was getting out of here.

  When I moved, I moved fast. I turned to the left and head butted the guard straight on his right temporal lobe. A bone crunching snap echoed into the air, as he bounced off the wall. I instantly turned for the other guard. He was in mid-turn when I hit him. My shoulder was rammed into his side, as I body slammed him into the wall. We both fell down onto the ground. I fell on top of him. This put me at a disadvantage as my hands were bound behind my back. I did what came naturally. I sank my teeth into his throat. The man’s agonising screams filled the air, as I ripped through his flesh. The sickening taste of his blood filled my mouth. The man thrashed about for a moment, but I had already forgotten about him. I was turning my attention to the unconscious guard. He had a set of keys on his belt. It took some manoeuvring, but I started to test each key with the lock of my handcuffs, as I knelt down on the floor beside him. The whole time my eyes looked at the screen that showed what floor we were on.

  The handcuffs opened with a click.

  I snatched the handgun from the holster of the soldier bleeding out.

  The doors opened with a ping.

  Ian Owen was stood there, waiting.

  His eyes widened with fear, as he looked down the barrel of my gun.

  ‘Get in.’

  It wasn’t a request.

  Chapter Three: Prison Break

  ‘Where do you think we are going?’ asked Ian.

  I spat onto the corridor floor. I still had the taste of blood in my mouth.

  ‘I am getting out of here,’ I replied.

  ‘And where do you think you will go?’ Ian seemed oddly smug, which was surprising considering the situation. I pressed the barrel of the gun into his back and marched him around the corner of the corridor. Nobody was about. We hadn’t seen anyone for nearly a minute. This corridor was devoid of life too. I began to march him forward when suddenly a metal barrier dropped down from the ceiling and cut off our path. Instantly, I turned one hundred and eighty degrees to go back, but a second barricade dropped down with a heavy thud. It didn’t matter if I had a rocket launcher. There was no way I was getting through the barricade. We were trapped.

  ‘Prisoner 3-57, you have to listen to me,’ said Ian.

  I pointed the gun at his head.

  ‘The only words I want to hear are how I can get off this ship.’

  Ian stood still for a moment. His hands were raised in the air. He gestured with his index finger to the wall button for the sun blinds. ‘May I?’ I nodded my head. Ian moved with caution. He stepped towards the wall and activated the sun blinds, which would automatically shut when travelling by anything that could harm the people on board. The metal blind slowly rose to reveal the mysteries outside of the ship. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The blind opened to deep space, but the infinite blackness was filled with hundreds of thousands of space cruisers, space liners, frigates, troop carriers, deep space ferries, space stations being towed by haulers and a thousand other different type of ship variation. They were all flying in the same direction.

  ‘What is this?’ I asked.

  ‘This is all that is left of humanity,’ replied Ian.

  ‘What?’

  ‘You don’t know because you were in the game. Humanity is a dying breed. Earth is gone. It was destroyed when our sun exploded. Everything is gone. We are all that remain.’

  That was a lot of information to digest in one go.

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘We were attacked,’ replied Ian, in a matter of fact way.

  ‘Who attacked us?’

  He replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

  ‘We don’t know.’

  ‘Bullshit,’ I snapped, ‘this is just another trick of yours.’

  ‘I wish it were,’ said Ian. ‘Five years ago a ship appeared out of nowhere. It was the size of a two door hover car. It was a silver orb. It moved so fast that it could evade all our attempts to catch it. The thing seemed to move from colony to colony and would just sit there, as if it was watching us. It spent two weeks orbiting Earth. And then one day it just shot off towards the sun. It fired something into the centre of the sun and that was it. The sun began to die. Earth government was already working on a form of deep space travel. It is a sort of sling shot through the universe, but it skips you further ahead in time. It is kind of confusing. They used this technology to propel this enormous fleet away from danger. Fifteen million people are all that is left of humanity.’

  I didn’t know if I could or should believe him or not.

  It didn’t seem real.

  ‘It’s kind of hard to swallow, right?’

  ‘That’s because it isn’t true.’

  ‘Keep telling yourself that. It is true.’

  ‘If it is, where are you flying towards?’

  ‘We are in search of a new home, if such a place exists.’

  ‘You’re lying,’ I told him.

  ‘I promise you. This is the god’s honest truth. I have no reason to lie to you, 3-57. I am being so deadly honest because I need your help. You see life isn’t great out here. We still have society and governments. The economy is shit. There is limited jobs available to people. The civilians live off a horrible gruel and in cramped living conditions. The prisoner program is the only source of relief we have.’

  ‘What is the prisoner program?’

  ‘The prisoner program was my design. I was working for the government. I was trying to create the ultimate punishment, which would help create rehabilitated prisoners that would lead to a better society. You were in this program when the sun began to die. We realised that this virtual world might be a way to save humanity. You see in this game the things you feel, touch, taste are all real. It means people will feel like they are eating actual food, sleeping in real beds, or doing something good with their lives. Not all the games are brutally violent. The game is a good way for people to learn trades and skills they can take back with them into the real world. It is a form of escapism. We currently have four million players in the game. That is nearly one third of the population living in the game. It costs money to enter the game, but our lives are so bad that people would rather live in the hostile game environment than take their chances in the real world.’

  ‘This is entertainment to them?’

  ‘Yes. The games are broadcast live too. The prisoners are the most popular characters. You are famous, 3-57. Your story was so full of conflict, danger, love and passion that people were drawn to you.’

  ‘Are you fucking kidding me? That was a living hell.’

  ‘I know, but it was a hell created by your own subconscious m
ind.’

  ‘And you want me to go back in there?’

  ‘We need you too. Prisoner X is going to kill over one third of the population. Humanity cannot take another hit like that. And you need to go back into the game. Your friends need you.’

  ‘My friends...?’ I asked.

  ‘Jane, Lena, Alisha, Arthur and Iaso are still alive. You may have killed the others, but they survived. Right now they need you. The five of them are trapped on a ship being overrun by these evil little things that Prisoner X created. It is only a matter of time before they die, but the game has changed. Normally, people die in the game, wake up and return to their ordinary lives, but if they die in the game they die in reality too. You have to save them and you have to save Rose.’

  ‘Rose?’

  ‘She is alive.’

  ‘That isn’t true. She is in my head.’

  ‘No. That was a punishment you created for yourself. Your sister is alive.’

  ‘You’re lying.’

  ‘No. You’re sister is alive. You have a chance to save her, but your running out of time.’

  This couldn’t be true, could it? Earth was gone. Humanity was flying around space in tin cans. The reality I have just lived is all a lie and is some kind of role playing game for these people. It just seems too unreal. What about Rose? Is she real? Is my sister actually real? I was so convinced that she was something I made up in my head. I believe it so much that I had killed myself... but if I had killed myself I should be dead. Is this heaven? Is this hell? What options do I have? I am trapped in deep space. I have nowhere to go. I have nowhere to run. I will either be killed, or sent back into the game.

  ‘Fine,’ I said, ‘I will kill this Prisoner X, but on one condition.’

  ‘Name it.’

  ‘I want a full pardon. I want my life back.’

  ‘That is a deal.’

  Chapter Four: Information Officer