Cull notifications continued to fill her retinal monitors as they made their way through the sewers. Checking the scoreboard she watched as it constantly updated, hundreds of cullers being removed at a time. It was bewildering. It was terrifying. And it was a constant reminder of their mortality.

“Dammit, none of the kills are close,” Johnny groaned. He’d been moaning about the fact that the action seemed to be mostly occurring in the actual city, as opposed to the industrial districts and the sewers. “You’d think we’d be able to find some action!”

“Hey, don't sweat it. I’m just pleased that they’re out there killing each other and not us,” Mai said, cocking an ear as she thought she heard something. “The quicker they kill each other, the easier it will be for us to be in the top one hundred.”

“But we won’t have earned it,” he sneered, his tone withering. “Kill score is everything.”

“No, it’s not, really it’s not,” she felt both hurt and surprised by his tone and attitude. “I'd love it if we managed to make it all the way into the top one hundred without ever having to kill anyone. And I guarantee there are thousands of people planning to do just that. Hiding out, moving around the edges, spotting where the kills are and avoiding those areas.”

“Huh, hadn’t thought of it,” Johnny placed a hand on his chin, pausing to think. “Which means that we might well be closer to other cullers than I thought. Good thinking Mai!” He grinned and gave her the thumbs up.

“That … that really wasn’t what I meant, but I guess it makes some sort of perverted sense,” she couldn’t fathom him out.

Why the Hells is he so keen on getting kills? She couldn’t quite bring herself to ask him, but the question continued to burn in the back of her mind as they continued along the sewer. For her, the Culling was all about surviving, of getting into the top one hundred, becoming one of the Celestial Court and saving her sister. There’s that sound again.

She stopped, holding up a hand to pre-emptively silence Johnny’s question. “Quiet.”

Despite pursing his lips, he didn’t protest, merely narrowed his eyes.

Activating STREET SMARTS and SEWER COMBAT she tried to see what her SITUATIONAL AWARENESS was telling her. And there it was, a small tube sticking out of the river roughly twenty paces from them, not flowing but remaining exactly where it was.

“We’ve got company,” she mouthed, forming a shield and SMG with laser optic combination, painting the tube with her laser. A notification that it had cost her BIO-MASS popped up, but she barely paid it attention as she scanned the sewer for whatever it was that was bothering her so much. Eyes wide, he formed his own weapons, a shotgun and pistol.

“Emmdeepee Posse!” The war cry filled the sewer they were in as forms rose out of the muck and mire in an ironic echo of their previous ambush. Their attackers came in a rush, nightmarish figures coated in excrement branding a dizzying array of hand weapons.

Mai set her feet, crouching low behind her ballistic shield, laying the SMG’s laser on the nearest target, activating USE SMGs, and adjusting her aim accordingly as the CRITICAL HIT boxes appeared. She couldn’t tell if what she was aiming at was human, let alone what gender it was.

It didn’t matter, bullets were bullets. They didn’t care what they were fired at. And hers struck true. A three-round burst, one to the throat and two to the head as the recoil caused the weapon to rise. Johnny’s weapons added to the thunder of her SMG, tracers bursting into life as they raced into the darkness, the strobes of their muzzle flashes illuminating their enemies a split second at a time, stars jumping before her eyes.

HEADSHOT!

INSTAKILL!

CULLER 4986059 ELIMINATED!

DAMAGE!

SOAK 5%

She grunted as enemy bullets smacked into her shield, wincing at the sound of death being stopped a mere finger’s width from her face.

Tracking another target, she fired again.

HIT! 15% DAMAGE

BLEEDING @5%

Whoever she had shot splashed face down into the muck, their scream cutting off with a choked gobble, the blood drop glyph marking where they had landed. Another target presented itself before she could finish the other off. She snapped off the shot, missing.

DAMAGE!

SOAK 10%

Her shield was down by fifteen per cent soak already and yet still more of the Emmdeepee Posse were charging towards them. Giving up all pretence at aim, she switched the selector from three-round burst to full auto and raked the weapon back and forth.

HIT! 15% DAMAGE

BLEED @ 3% PER SECOND

INTIMIDATED!

HIT! 5% DAMAGE

BLEED @0.5%

HIT! 23% DAMAGE

BLEED @4%

PANICKED

HIT! 12% DAMAGE

BLEED @4.5%

STUNNED!

CRITICAL HIT!

HEART SHOT!

INSTAKILL!

CULLER 329502 ELIMINATED!

CRITICAL HIT! 40% DAMAGE

BLEED @6%

CRIPPLED!

ASSIST!

CULLER 300659 ELIMINATED!

ASSIST!

CULLER 002745 ELIMINATED!

Notifications and glyphs filled the air far too quickly for her to begin to comprehend. Health bars went from being full of green to the black of death in the blink of an eye. And then it was over. Either the Emmdeepee Posse were all dead, or the survivors had managed to escape in the chaos. She didn’t care. Her mind just couldn’t cope with any more killing, and she was happy to take any respite she could.

Hobbling away, barely able to walk, they were so exhausted, she and Johnny left the bodies of their enemies to float slowly away.