Mai knew she needed to proceed with caution. The sniper would know that she wasn’t dead. Whether they knew she was hunting them was another matter.

Are they going to stay in wait and keep sniping, slip away, or hunt me?

It didn’t matter. She knew that if she was the sniper she would probably have left. Hit and run. But the number of bodies littering the play park indicated that the sniper was after kills.

Are they trying to level up, or just kill as many as they can before they die?

Looking around at the shop she was in, she saw it was a downmarket clothing shop. Dummies stood around modelling the clothes on offer. None of them appealed.

Taking a dummy, she quickly crafted a few pieces of rope for a pittance of BIO-MASS, ignoring the health and BIO-MASS warnings she got for it.

Once she’d wiped the tears from her eyes, she strapped the dummy to her back and made her way through the back.

All shops had both a front and back entrance, dealing business on both sides, a pedway at the back bordering on other shops.

Checking her retinal monitor, she traced a quick line to the nearest set of stairs. Barely fifty paces. Moving quickly, shotgun braced for any surprises, she covered the distance quickly.

Mounting the steps she paused as another shot rang out. A kill marker appeared, marking the sniper’s latest victim.

Well, at least I know they’re still here, I need to move quickly, it’ll draw more cullers, as will the supply drop.

She finished climbing the steps, clearing the corner with her weapon raised.

I thought that the bodies were fresh, but there were no kill markers when I arrived. Just how long has this bastard been dug in?

Pressing on, she passed through a corridor bordered by apartments. Many were quiet, but in others she could hear life continuing as normal. It was surreal. She and others were fighting for their lives, whilst inside apartments children played and their adults possibly watched the action on their holo units.

***

More cull notifications had filled her mini map as she made her way carefully through the apartment block levels. From what she could tell, they were all at ground level.

Up ahead a door opened. Quicker than she could think, Mai took a knee, her shotgun aimed at the door.

A little girl’s head poked out. She couldn’t have been older than seven. Eyes wide she stared at Mai, who could do nothing more than stare back.

“Are you going to shoot me?” whispered the girl.

“No,” Mai whispered once she’d got control of her voice back. She’d been a hair’s breadth away from killing a child. It was a horrific thought.

“My mummy and daddy say they think you’re going to win,” the girl smiled, eyes lighting up. “I hope you do. You’re special.”

“Thank you,” Mai rose to her feet and slowly approached the little girl. “How about you close the door? Keep safe inside.”

“Don’t you want to know about the bad man?” The girl moved slightly behind the door until only her head showed.

Mai paused mid-stride, actually tripping slightly.

“What bad man?”

“There’s a bad man, around the corner,” the girl poked her finger out of the door towards where Mai had been walking.

“What?” Mai didn’t dare risk looking at the girl as she asked the question.

“Bad. Man. Around the corner. He was rude. You going to kill him?”

Okay, this is getting fucking creepy, thought Mai as what had been a sweet child turned into some sort of blood thirsty Culling fan.

Activating SNEAK and USE SHOTGUN, she raised her barrel and slowly made her way down the corridor, pushing the little girl by her face back into the apartment. And not gently.

Psycho little shit.

As she approached the corner of the corridor, she activated her SPOT HIDDEN and STREET SMARTS.

Might as well use everything.

She wasn’t sure which of the skills helped her, but all of a sudden she could smell the rank sweat of her opponent and hear their breathing.

Just wish I could tell which way the fucker’s facing.

Crouching lower and lower as she approached the corner, Mai tried to slow her breathing down, something she found far harder to actually do than to think about.

Within a few hand’s widths she stopped. Ears straining, she listened to her would-be-ambusher’s breathing. She could smell garlic.

Gut’s telling me that they’re facing towards me, she thought with a smile. Her STREET SMARTS were clearly working, for which she offered thanks to the Gods before.

Shit, what if they’re actually facing the other way? What if my gut’s wrong?

If she could, she’d have cursed out loud. As it was, she swallowed her anger, telling her self-doubt to go fuck itself using her inner voice.

In one smooth step she thrust her shotgun around the corner and fired.

HEADSHOT!

INSTAKILL!

CULLER 230497 ELIMINATED

CULLER LEVEL UP – LEVEL 4!

Letting out a deep breath, she puffed her cheeks out in relief. Clearing the corner she looked at her victim. It was a woman, a normal person in her mid-fifties. Nothing special about her.

Shit, she didn’t even have a proper weapon, Mai stared in horror at what was left of her would-be-ambusher. Her shot had taken her full in the face, opening it up in ways nature never intended.

Both hands were normal. Beside her a culler’s knife lay in a pool of the woman’s ever-expanding blood.

It was shocking as to how much blood there was in a human body. It just kept flowing from the remains of the woman’s head. Yellow shards of skull contrasted directly with the pinkish grey of their brains and the right red of their blood.

Dammit, the sniper knows someone else is around. There’s no way they haven’t seen that cull notification and the kill marker.

Turning around, she marched smartly back to the little girl’s apartment and knocked gently on the door.

There was a pause of a few seconds before the girl answered the door again.

“Did you get them?” she asked.

“I think you know I did,” Mai managed to smile. “Do you know where the sniper is?”

A pause. The little girl’s eyes were wide, as if they were drinking Mai in.

“Across the way, fourth level. They’re boring. Just camping. Mummy and daddy say they expected more real action around the supply drop.”

Mai gave her a nod, then quickly moved up the corridor and around into the next branch of apartments. Needing to put as much distance as possible between her and the kill marker, she snaked through the corridors.

Coming up to a set of stairs, she took them two at a time, only pausing when she was so out of breath she couldn’t continue. Looking at a glyph she saw she was on the third floor.

Taking a breather, she opened up her retinal monitor to map her path. Whilst she’d been climbing the sniper had added another kill to their total.

This bastard really fucking needs to die, they’re not even using the damned supplies!

Moving on, she climbed to the fourth floor and turned to the left as the guideline dictated. She kept moving quickly, not particularly worried about meeting any cullers at this level. STREET SMARTS passive bonus must be working, she thought, deciding to trust that the skill was correct.

Entering another corridor, she saw that she had another two hundred paces until she reached the corridor that would branch into her objective. Gonna push it, I’ve got six shells left, that should be more than enough if my luck holds.

***

Despite her bravado, it still took her longer than she thought it would, jumping at every slight noise. It seemed that the closer she got to her prey the tenser she got.

Finally, she lay on the floor and peeked around the corner of the intersection. To the right of the corridor were apartments, to the left were the shops which overlooked the supply drop.

And beyond them, outside, is that damned sniper.

CRACK! Mai’s heart felt as though it had tried to leave her chest. It destroyed the silence to which she’d become accustomed.

No kill marker, they missed, which meant they’d be focussed on trying to kill their target and not necessarily – to be taken with a pinch of salt – their surroundings.

What would I do? It was a simple question. Mines behind her and to her flanks. Far enough back that if they went off she’d have a clear warning and either face the threat or relocate, putting one of the remaining mines between herself and her ambusher.

STREETSMARTS, SNEAK, LARCENY, STEALTH, SPOT HIDDEN activate them and I should have a good chance of spotting any traps, catching them unawares and maybe even getting out of this alive.

Another shot, still no notification. This was her time. From the sound the location of the sniper was roughly twenty paces along the corridor in what looked like a holoprojector shop.

Crouching by the door, she lay on the floor and tried to see underneath. It was too well sealed, so next she moved to the window, trying to get an angle on the inside of the door.

“And there you are,” she whispered. A mine was facing the door, ready to blast anyone who entered. “Can’t be that simple.”

Moving about so that she could check the angles she tried to spot any other traps. Nothing.

Looking at the door, she spotted a small window directly above it. Another quick look through the window and she had a plan.

Stepping back to the other side of the corridor, just a few paces, Mai activated FREERUNNING then sprinted forward. Leaping through the air she crashed through the top window, clearing the mine and landing hands first before tucking into a roll and rising smoothly to her feet.

Shotgun raised, she made her way through the rest of the shop. It was larger than she had previously thought.

Let’s just hope my psycho prey didn’t hear me. Hopefully, the shop was large enough that the sniper wouldn’t have heard the glass. Mai was already twenty paces into the shop and still had another ten or so before reaching the other shop front.

Another shot rang out and she dropped to her knees, heart racing, fearing she’d been discovered, tucking into cover behind a shelf, gun held low.

Only she hadn’t, as the kill marker on her map showed her. It was in the direction of the shot she’d heard. Gun raised, she continued moving towards the other shop front. Or shop rear. Irrelevant.

Moving slower the closer she got to the shop front she started scanning the shop, looking for any traps. If it had been her and she’d had the spare BIO-MASS she’d have put another mine on the other side of the door.

A shadow passed slowly across the store window, obscured by the holopads cast across it.

This side must have been the busy side before we came along, Mai thought as she watched the shadow move to where it was opposite the door.

No explosion, no mine. I fucking hope.

The sniper’s rifle cracked again, another kill marker coming up on the map.

Pretty much where I went the first time.

Keeping low, she moved back to the store front, peering through the holo-ads.

There you are, the sniper was lightly-built, androgynous, with a dark hooded top pulled over their head, dark trousers. The rifle they were using was the biggest Mai had ever seen.

The sniper’s head moved, slowly looking to the right. Towards her.

Hells! Mai froze, not even daring to breathe. If any of the sniper’s skills were active they were sure to spot her.

Shifting, the sniper lifted their rifle clear of the pedway’s wall before slowly duck-walking back towards Mai.

Just as slowly, Mai lifted her shotgun, activating USE SHOTGUN. Critical hit boxes appeared over her prey.

Too fucking easy, she thought, firing.

HEADSHOT!

INSTAKILL!

CULLER 838473 ELIMINATED

No time to lose, Mai crashed through the door, slipping slightly in the blood and brains of her victim. Activating FREERUNNING, she vaulted over the balcony to the one below.

Landing cat-like, she took hold of the next balcony’s edge and vaulted down. Her shoulder screamed each time she did it. As did she.

In less than a minute she was back in the play park.

Sprinting to the supply drop, she slapped her hand down onto the nearest crate, gasping in relief as bottles of BIO-BOOST tumbled out of it.

Taking a risk, she absorbed the shotgun.

Snatching one up, she started to chug the liquid down, activating her HEAL as she did so. Quickly forming a backpack, she snatched up more bottles, doing it all one-handed as she continued to suck on the bottle.

BIO-MASS 100%

Opening up another bottle, she dropped the pack and started crafting mines, throwing them out as quickly as possible, sucking on the bottle as she did so. Keeping her BIO-MASS high.

“Culler!” Bullets stitched into the crates she was standing near. Diving to one side she crawled on hands and knees around the supply drop. More shots rang out.

Dropping her empty BIO-BOOST bottle, she reached round for her backpack.

“What? Where the ..?” Then she remembered. It was on the other side of the drop where she’d laid it. Forming a shotgun, she ignored the pain, and the BIO-MASS message which popped up, before sticking it around the corner of the drop and loosing off a barrage of shots.

Taking a quick look she tried to spot the pack.

Buddha’s balls! She cursed as she looked at the pack. It was utterly shredded, as were the bottles in it. Just my fucking luck!

Bullets continued to strike the supply drop, so many she couldn’t tell one from another.

Back to the supply drop, she levelled her shotgun at the windows of the shop in front of her. Three quick shots and it was shattered.

Still on hands and knees, she used the supply drop to keep out of her attacker’s line of sight.

DAMAGE 1%

BLEED @0.5% PER SECOND

Shattered glass from the window was cutting into her hands and knees. Ignoring it, she pressed on, ignoring the bullets cracking over her head.

Three paces away from the window she took her chance, sprinting headlong through the window before throwing herself to the floor once more.

Well-polished, gleaming even, the floor was ice-slick. She was surprised at how well she slid along before coming to a gentle stop at the back wall.

She couldn’t tell what sort of shop it was. Didn’t care too much but was curious to see if there was anything she might be able to use.

The display’s erupted as the attacking cullers rounded the supply drop, raking their weapons back and forth in an attempt to finish her off.

Rolling on the shop floor, arms covering her head as she was showered with ruined shop displays and their wares. She risked a quick glance around her from this vantage and spotted a door.

Bullets chasing her heels, she ran forward, blasting it with her shotgun before shouldering through it into the corridor beyond.