The cell they were in was small. It would have been cramped with just two of them in it, but with her, Dakota, Ma, Wu, Jock, and three other knights, Mai thought she was going to suffocate.

“Isn’t this intimate?” joked Ma as her elbow dug into Mai’s stomach for the third time. Cramps had started to affect all of them, and they shuffled around like a flock of penguins as they tried to get the blood flowing into their legs again.

Pain racked their bodies from the beatings they’d been given before they were shoved into the box room. Mai sucked at where she had lost a tooth and tried to squint through two black eyes. Her nose had also been broken, meaning that it sounded like she was farting every time she tried to breathe through it. It had been funny to start with, raising her friend’s morale and taking their minds off their own pain for a while, but now, in the airless room, she was forced to breathe through her mouth.

The enemy had timed the beatings well. The first had been particularly brutal, even now Mai winced at the thought of the way her fingers had broken under the boot of one of their captors. Left to lie where they were, they’d HEALED themselves.

Another beating had followed, which again they’d tried to HEAL, and then another, and another until finally they didn’t have enough bio-mass boost to HEAL.

“This is bloody torture!” groaned Wu as he tried to bounce on the balls of his feet

“Hey, don’t even go there,” growled Jock. “You don’t know what they have planned for us. If they were going to kill us, they’d have done so when they had the chance.”

“That or they want to make it a paying event,” pointed out Dakota.

Mai closed her eyes for a second. Certain elements of society, especially on the one-miler, had taken to filming executions of their rivals. Pirate communication channels were rife in the city and were often able to charge for watching. As much as she hated to admit it, the executions had proven to be quite popular, with gangs earning more in one viewing than they might in a whole month.

It had meant that there had been a rash of executions, flooding the channels, to the extent that the novelty wore off and the trend thankfully died out. However, now, and again, a particularly prominent rival’s death would still be broadcast. The more gruesome the better.

“Well, at least we’re still alive,” snapped Jock. His eyes were still red from crying, he’d taken Hind’s death badly.

There was a sudden lessening of pressure as the cell door opened, one of the knights with them falling out of the opening with a cry of surprise. Twisting her neck, Mai swore as she watched the gangers beat the knight mercilessly as they lay curled up on the floor.

“Don’t bother with that one, she’s not special,” ordered a voice. A large man appeared in the door, practically filling it, dimming the room as his bulk blocked the light from outside. “Take that one.”

Mai didn’t have a chance to work out what ‘that one’ meant before Dakota was ripped from the room and bundled away. Her shouts and curses faded as the cell door closed with a clang.

“What did they mean that I’m not special and Dakota is?” gasped the knight. She could barely stand and was hunched over as blood dribbled from her mouth and nose.

“Just that we're in command and you’re not,” suggested Jock. Mai bit her lip, the gangers had been players, not locals. Silently she prayed to any gods listening that she’d be able to keep her secret.

The others seemed to accept that. With Dakota gone, there was room to move slightly, and having had the door open had refreshed the stale air in the cell.

With a hiss, the door opened again, and Dakota was shoved unceremoniously back into the cell, the others protesting as her semi-conscious body crashed into them.

“Help her stand, don’t let her fall, she’ll suffocate!” ordered Mai as the door closed once again. She was too far away to help her friend, so could only watch as the others tried to keep Dakota on her feet.

“You’d think that the bastards would give us some HEALING at least,” muttered Jock.

“We killed gods know how many of their friends today, including their leader. I don’t think that they’re ready to forgive us yet,” Mai tried to smile, but her broken mouth forced it into some kind of swollen lipped grimace with a dash of blood on the side.

“What did they want Dakota?” asked Ma. She was closest to the ex-ganger and had placed Dakota’s arm around her shoulders in an attempt to keep her standing.

“Talk … plans. Special … players … revenge,” mumbled her friend.

“What the hells does that mean?” asked Wu as she leaned over to hear Dakota better. There was a chorus of protests from the others as his weight caused them to shift.

“Nothing, it’s nonsense,” Mai snapped, afraid not only that the secret would get out, but also for her friend’s health, she’d not seen Dakota in such a state before.

“What do you reckon she told them?” Jock whispered.

“Nothing, she’s tough,” Mai whispered back.

“She is,” Jock nodded. “She’s the toughest I’ve ever met, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t break her. You know that everyone breaks under torture at some point.”

“Doesn’t mean she didn’t lie to them though,” Mai tried to keep her voice under control. She was starting to feel claustrophobic, and her head throbbed from the beating she’d been given. One of the players had taken particular delight in stamping on her face. After that they fell back into sullen silence, broken only by hisses of pain and inventive cursing.

Mai opened her eyes as the cell door opened once again. She realised that she’d actually managed to fall asleep standing. Not that she felt refreshed, just muzzy headed, and there was a feeling of nausea which was growing.

Probably got a concussion, she wished she had enough bio-mass to take the edge off things but wishing got you nowhere in the real world.

“Out, time to die!” ordered the huge man, yanking Wu and one of the knights out of the room. The sudden release of pressure saw them tumbling, their tortured legs too weak to support them.

Their captors laughed, prodding them with batons and cursing at them as they tried to stand. Mai snarled, but that was all she could do to resist them.

“You think you’re so fucking special, Mai Xiao. You really think that a minion like you could have a real life?” taunted the giant. “You run around like you’ve got free will, killing our friends, and acting as though there aren’t consequences. There bloody well are!”

With no warning a pistol formed on his hand, he placed the muzzle against one of her knights’ heads and blew her brains out. Ignoring their screams of horror, he shot the last knight through the face.

“They really had no choice. They weren’t players, and they weren’t mega minions, they were sheep. So low level that I don’t even get to improve my SASS stats.” He booted the dead body.

“What the fuck is he talking about boss?” groaned Jock as he cradled the body of the first knight.

“What, she hasn’t told you?” the giant placed his huge hands over his mouth in mock surprise. “This is a fucking game. We’re players, whereas you’re just part of the entertainment. Only this one, Mai Xiao, is special. She was supposed to make the Culling more challenging. She was given a modicum of AI to help her. But they cocked something up, added too much or too little code and she got a will of her own. Started to think she could lead a real life.”

“Stop, please, stop,” sobbed Mai as she looked at the stunned faces of her friends. “They don’t need to know.”

“Oh but they do. I want them to realise just how fucking insignificant their pretend lives are. Just how little they mean in the scheme of things. And how you’ve been manipulating them as if you’re a player,” he sneered, leaning in so that his hot, garlicky breath washed over her face.

“Boss, I don’t understand,” Jock gasped, tears flowing down his cheeks, as he stared wide-eyed at her. “He’s lying. Our lives are real.”

“No, they’re fucking not!” roared the giant. “You’re nothing but lines of code. Everything you think you remember is the result of programming.”

Jock wept then. Wailing, rocking back and forth as he shook his head in an attempt to deny what he was hearing.

“Get them up, take them to the execution room, I’m done,” the giant ordered his fellow players, turning his back on the huddled prisoners and walking away.

“Didn’t … expect … to … go … out … this … way,” gasped Dakota as they were pushed into a larger room. One end was pockmarked, the paint stained with old blood.

“At least it’s going to be quick,” Mai replied as she hugged her friend tight. “I bloody love you, you know that right?”

“I love you too,” Dakota squeezed her gently, both groaning as their bruised bodies protested, neither wanting to let go.

“Yeah, yeah, all very touching,” one of the players mocked as weapons formed on their arms. Mai closed her eyes, not wanting to look at the gloating looks on the player’s faces any longer. “We’re going down in history as the players who killed two mega minions.”

Mai jumped as there was a burst of fire, screams, and the sound of bodies hitting the floor.

“What the fuck?” that was Ma’s voice. Mai opened her eyes, face screwed up in confusion as she realised that all of her people were still alive.

“Biyu sent me,” a small, waiflike woman sporting two twin-barrelled SMGs said. “Pleased to meet you. How about we get out of here?”