Rider King ✓

35

VENUS

The light eats my very existence, and it pulls me to its belly where acid burns my skin. I'm so hot that I'm screaming, but I don't know if my voice can be heard on Xelor anymore.

I've been robbed by the unknown.

I throw my arms and legs out, but I hit nothing. I'm blind and falling. Seconds ago, I fell from the peak of my orgasm and into bliss. This is nothing like that.

I land in water with a violent splash. No, this isn't water. It's a thick, suffocating, burning slush. It's melting me alive. I struggle to swim to the top, and grab a vine to pull myself up.

I gasp when I break the surface and blink hard to clear my vision. I look to my left, and then I realize that what I had taken wasn't a vine, but an arm. A dead woman floats next to me. No, dozens do. Adults, children, elderly in various stages of decomposition. I'm swimming in their coffin.

I scream, and then I realize other women are screaming with me. It's the slush. It's melting us.

I scramble over the bodies, grabbing bones and flesh. Few women squirm as well, but their upper body strength is not as good as mine.

Above me, there are floating plates connected to white portals. They are pools containing more women. I seemed to have landed in the bottom pool. This place is not natural. There's metal everywhere, and the only organic substances are the slush and bodies.

I climb out of the pool and slip onto the floor. It's a pitch-black metal that I've never seen on Xelor.

As I get back on my feet, I realize a figure is approaching me. It's enormous, thin, faceless, bright, and its only features are two humanistic arms and legs.

"You son of a bitch!" I swing and hit what feels like glass.

The figure extends an arm and generates a long, sharp stick that crackles with electricity at the end. Already seeing that he wants to prod me back into the pool, I kick the base of the stick and drill it to his chin. He shudders noiselessly, and I use that chance to grab the stick and kick him into the pool.

Two more figures appear, and I make a run for it. I use the stick as a cane to support myself. I can't think straight. The screaming is so loud that I don't understand how these things don't shatter.

Why are they doing this?

What are they?

There's no ladder here, but I need to reach the portal on the plate above us. The one behind me is too far away. I must climb.

I turn, and I toss the shock stick with all my upper body strength. The precision is spot-on and rams into one of them. Instead of impaling them, it pushes them down. These things are hard to kill. That throw should have sent the shock stick right through them.

I reach the wall, but it's so smooth that there's nothing to cling to. Desperate, I look at the pool and gag when I see all the bones. I force myself to pick up a femur and throw it up at the wires connected to the pool above me. My heart shrinks as I throw a skull, and one wire gives out.

I begin to climb. My legs are useless, but my adrenaline and upper body strength keep me going. I don't look down as I climb twenty feet and swing onto the platform.

There's more squirming and screaming in this level. Knowing that time is running out, I blindly kneel and reach my hands to capture two hands. I drag the women out with a groan. There are dozens of more women here, but I don't have the time to save them all.

A ship dispatches from the wall. It's a small pod containing one of those evil figures. They're coming for me.

"Run!"