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187. The Back Stabbers
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2021-09-13 17:13:36Related chapters
How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 188. Can’t Make an Omelette
I skidded and bounced, and then my feet hit something and I pitched forward. My hands instinctively shot out and grabbed something hard and smooth. When the shaking stopped, I made a light and looked around. It was sweltering hot, and steam made it hard to see very far.I was in a cave, quite a big one as far as I could tell, and the object I’d grabbed onto was a greenish ball that came up to my waist. No, it was more egg-shaped, probably because it was an egg. All around me there were more eggs. I didn’t want to be here when they hatched. And I definitely didn’t want to bump into the mother.There was a rumbling moan followed by a hiss. A massive silhouette rose in the mist and let out a piercing shriek so loud it actually blurred my vision. I grabbed onto the sides of my head so my brains wouldn’t leak out of my ears.When I opened my eyes again, the silhouette was gone, although I didn’t think the creature had stormed off like some stressed-out housewife. You ca
Last Updated : 2021-09-13How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 189. Together Again for the First Time
Now that I had a dragon and two trolls on my team, I was feeling quite positive about the future. Which immediately set alarm bells ringing.“We need to get out of here,” I said. “Where’s the exit?”“We can go back the way we came,” said Raviva, casually waving a granite hand towards the magma-falls. “Now that you’ve got it flowing freely, it’s just a quick climb back to the labyrinth.”“We’d burn to death,” I said, in case he didn’t realise. Which he didn’t.“Really? It’s just a bit of lava.”Having trolls on my side was better than having them against me, but only just.I looked up at Flossie sitting on the dragon. “Can he fly us up there?”Vikchutni had brought a tree into the cave from somewhere, which meant he knew the way out; unless there was an underground forest down here. Which wasn’t impossible. But the area we were in was narrow, and there was no light coming in from above. It might be a long way up, and riding a near-vertica
Last Updated : 2021-09-13How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 190. Newkie State of Mind
As the sun rose on another beautiful day in Flatland, I wondered, as I did most days, if this would be my last.It’s not easy to climb onto a moving dragon. The take off was a series of violent lurches into the air, followed by slow, forceful beats of the giant wings to send us soaring upwards. I grabbed onto Vikchutni’s ear with both hands and held on tightly, my main goal being not to fall to my death — I don’t have many ambitions, but those I do, I pursue vigorously.My body swung around wildly and I tried to use the momentum to get my foot onto the dragon’s neck, but kept coming up short. That’d teach me for skipping leg day.Flossie tried to catch hold of me, but every time my foot came near her, she ducked out of the way in case I kicked her off. It was like playing catch with somebody who kept saying, “Throw me the ball, throw me the ball,” and when you did, they immediately ran away screaming. Which was exactly how Flossie played catch.“Go higher,”
Last Updated : 2021-09-13How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 191. Working Girl
The men in the tavern looked up, curious as to why the door was being barred and the windows shuttered. I felt it was being a bit excessive, myself. It wasn’t like we’d been spotted coming in. Or at least, I didn’t think we had.“Is this necessary?” I asked Enwye. “You’ll attract more attention by acting out of the ordinary.”“They’ve been expecting you,” said Enwye. “Soldiers have been told to be on the lookout. There’s a reward. A big one.”I glanced around the room at the men peering through the gloom at me. They all looked the types who wouldn’t mind a few extra coins in their pockets.“Don’t worry,” said Enwye. “If it wasn’t for you, most of these layabouts would be up the front, fighting for their lives, and five minutes after that, feeding the worms.”“We won’t forget what you did for us, lad,” said a man with a bushy beard. He turned to the other tables. “You ‘member what this boy done for us, don’t you?”There was a lot of nodding and
Last Updated : 2021-09-13How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 192. Head Start
“I didn’t do anything,” said Claire crossly. “Jenny, tell him.”Jenny shrugged apologetically. Claire looked at her, confused, and then to me.“She’s lost her memories, has no idea who we are, can’t believe I’m her boyfriend.”“Oh. Well, I can see it would be hard to believe that. It would be hard for anyone to believe it.”Didn’t take her long to get back in the swing of things.“Can you give us a quick recap?” I said. “We’re on a bit of a clock. Gullen’s soldiers will be goose-stepping in here any minute.”Claire wiped the tears from her eyes. “We landed in a forest near here, the three of us.”“Yo’ haven’t seen Dudley?” asked Flossie.“No. He isn’t with you?”“Speed it up, we don’t have time,” I said, which got me dark looks. I ignored them and spun my finger. Being strung up by Gullen was vastly superior to listening to all this chit-chat.“We landed hard. The trees broke our fall, but Maurice got hurt really bad
Last Updated : 2021-09-13How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 193. The Easy Way Out
Having Biadet in the meeting with us helped in a number of ways. She knew the plan was to wait for the dragon to come pick us up and the bright lights would tell her where. To be fair, a big flash of light would have attracted her and Gullen’s men anyway, so letting her know that wasn’t revealing anything vital, but this way she knew exactly what to look for.Which was good.It meant she wouldn’t bother looking anywhere else.The idea of sending Flossie off on her own, even with Keezy to watch out for her, didn’t fill me with enthusiasm. Not that she wasn’t capable of doing the job, it was just that she was also capable of making a giant cock up of it.Even if she managed to get to the dragon, get back here, spot the signal and make it down to collect us, by that time the Dargot army would be aware of our location, and a dragon is a nice big target for arrows.Fortunately, there were other ways out of Dargot. The way we got in, for a start. The tunnel
Last Updated : 2021-09-13How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 194. When Two Girls Go to War
“No,” said Flossie. She stepped out in front of me, hands on hips, determination on her face. “We’ve got to find Dudley. We don’t have time to play with the likes of yo’.” She was cross and didn’t seem to care in the least about what Gullen might do to her.“Ah, I see,” said Gullen, a little taken aback by the pint-sized hurricane blowing his way. “He’s the tall boy, is he? I was wondering where he’d got to. Perhaps I can help you locate him. I do have extensive information gathering services at my disposal.”It sounded like a reasonable offer. We had literally no idea where Dudley was or where to even start looking. Gullen could be very useful, if he had a mind to be.“Your services aren’t good enough,” said Flossie very flatly.“I assure you—”“It were your brilliant idea to send us to Monsterland in the first place. Then yo’ made us take that mad bint who nearly got us all killed. That’s how good your services are. Not very.”The mad bint sh
Last Updated : 2021-09-13How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 195. The Naked Ape
Laney crouched and started moving clockwise around Biadet, who stood still, tracking Laney with her eyes.As Laney edged her way around, she crouched lower and lower until it seemed like she would soon be crawling like a crab. Biadet stood straight, the humongous axe resting on her shoulder, her face betraying zero emotion.“Take a good look, Gabor,” said Laney in a playful voice. “Tell me what you think. What are my odds?”The two men who had been fighting alongside Laney when we arrived were watching with what looked like amusement. The taller one, who was called Roland, had donated his weapon to Biadet, so he obviously had nothing against girls fighting to the death. Very egalitarian.The shorter, stockier one was apparently called Gabor. He scratched his chin with a gloved hand and said, “It does not look good, I’m afraid, little lady. You might win this fight, maybe, one in a hundred.”This assessment produced a very slight twitch in Biadet’s lef
Last Updated : 2021-09-13
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How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 244. Don’t Forget to Breathe
Claire stabbed me. She didn’t know I was in here, but would that have made a difference?The moment the blade entered my chest, I felt a rush of cold go through me like smoke through a keyhole. Everything began shaking. I was falling apart.“What are yo’ doing?” screamed Flossie.“It’s not him,” said Maurice. “Colin’s safe. This is just his body. We have to stop them now, or we’ll never get another chance.”It had never been a great body, but ‘just his body’ seemed a little harsh.Was this part of some big plan? Maurice had always been good at seeing patterns and drawing conclusions. He wasn’t always right, but he was starting to have faith in himself. They all were. Dangerous times.If you joined up the dots and they formed a picture, it would make sense to assume that’s the picture you were meant to find. Maurice had decided this was the picture he had seen. Kill Peter, kill Wesley. Leave no one powerful enough to threaten the rest of us.
How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 243. The Older Woman
By this point, I considered darkness to be an old friend. Considering how my friends had been treating me of late, my buddy darkness was probably hiding monsters that would eat my face.The voice I’d heard had sounded feminine, although I wasn’t about to assume gender. These days, that sort of thinking can get you in all sorts of trouble. If it was a woman, my track record with females in dark places wasn’t good, but I wasn’t about to generalise about that either.Yes, women had treated me poorly, often trying to kill me, torture me and nag me to death. I didn’t hold a grudge. Women aren’t all the same. I never think, Oh, yes, she’s just like all the others. They’re all individuals. They each have their own preferred method for ruining your life. Some of them even do it by ignoring you. They’re my favourite.I listened for any follow-up threats. There were always follow-up threats. Everyone had too much fun arranging my demise to not announce their plans.No
How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 242. Further Beyond
It wasn’t like Claire suddenly transforming was a bad thing. When the Fire Nation attacks, you want someone to change into their Avatar state. She was more Korra than Aang, but who knew what she was capable of now?I suddenly felt a sense of loss at not having Maurice around to swap pop culture analogies with. It’s all very well having people standing beside you in times of trouble, but it leaves an unsatisfactory feeling when they don’t understand your references.We had a giant Elf with a handful of twats coming at us, so Claire going blue-eyes white dragon was a good thing, even if she had no idea what a blue-eyes white dragon was. Whatever had been behind the wall in the crypt, it had presumably exited via Claire and taken up residence.Normally, that would be a cause for concern. How often has the thing bricked up inside a church been a chill dude who got trapped by accident? No, it was always some abused child whose vengeful spirit was now going to wreak havo
How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 241. Sister of No Mercy
“But why?” asked Claire, her hands shaking by her side.Maurice had a ferocious grin on his face, the kind only severe embarrassment can produce. Despite any reasons and justifications he might have, when you get caught doing something you know you shouldn’t do — because all the Pixar movies you’ve ever seen have clearly identified it for you — there’s no way to stop your body from producing all the ‘oh fuck’ hormones it contains, and sending them to your face.“You went inside my mind and took my memories from me.” This was what Claire was really upset about. Not that Maurice had betrayed us and aligned himself with the enemy, but that he had crossed her personal boundaries.“It wasn’t like that,” whispered Maurice. He was keeping his words quiet as though they would hurt less that way, but they filled the silent crypt we were standing in. “I did what I thought was best.”“Best?! You thought lying to me was best?” The surprise of it was wearing off now, and
How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 240. Cockblocula
It might have seemed a bit risky to call out Joshaya. He was the person I’d been trying to avoid, after all. If him catching up with me unravelled Maurice’s power, meeting him could kill me. But that was also why it was safe to do so.If this version of Arthur was really Joshaya, then I’d already been in his presence, even told him I was dead, and was still alive.If I was wrong, it wouldn’t change anything, and if I was right, I should already be dead. Unless there was more to this whole being dead business than first appeared.I didn’t need to understand exactly how all this mumbo jumbo worked to realise whoever was holding death over my head as a threat, was also making sure I didn’t die.Not to blow my own horn (every boy’s dream), but I was important enough to keep alive. They needed me. Which gave me some leverage. Until I became so irritating that they gave up on their plans and killed me anyway.Joshaya rose to a vertical position like some un
How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 239. Planning for the Future
We headed out of the temple with two of our members in wheelbarrows. Normally this would require some explaining. People don’t just push around unconscious bodies in gardening equipment, unless it’s a stag do that’s going very well.In this case, however, we were aided by the presence of druids, the local religious weirdos who everyone did their best to ignore.Coupled with the fact we were coming out of the temple everyone believed could do no wrong (never fails to amaze me how ready the faithful are to confuse turn the other cheek with turn a blind eye) and they assumed we must have had a good reason to use this particular form of public transportation.The crowds in the square simply parted for us as they went about their business. My own thoughts were preoccupied with the strong suspicion that Arthur, the one in the crypt, was another manifestation of Joshaya. The roleplaying was of a very high standard, and the cosmetic touches were really well done, but there
How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 238. Lead Me Not into Temptation
“Destroy? You mean as in kill? You want to kill Peter.” The voice, for all its unsettling menace — hard to come across as anything else when you’re emanating from a stone coffin — had a tinge of genuine shock to it. He was horrified by the prospect of what I’d suggested. “Oh, I couldn’t do that. Absolutely not.”Disappointing.“You don’t control dead people, then? You aren’t a necromancer?”“I told you, I’m a vivimancer.”“I’m sorry, I’ve never heard of that before. What does it mean?”“It means I can heal, I can prolong life. Other people’s and my own. It’s the reason I’m in here. My body was starved of food and air, but my life force abides.”“You aren’t dead?”“I am and I am not.”“And Peter put you here, but you still don’t want to get him back?”“Not by robbing him of life. I mean, I wouldn’t like it if someone did that to me, so why would I do it to someone else?”Someone had done it to him. I didn’t point this
How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 237. Hold the Moan
There were four lights in all. Three smaller one, and the big one that seemed to do all the talking. The red balls hanging in the air suggested eyes, but not in a Sauron ‘I see everything’ kind of way, more a HAL ‘Hello, Dave’ kind of way. A harmonised version of Daisy, Daisy could break out at any moment.There’s a rumour, strongly denied, that HAL, in the movie 2001, was meant to represent the firm IBM. If you take a letter away from each of the letters in I-B-M you get H-A-L.But it was never the hardware that was going to be the problem for the future of mankind. If you made the same kind of movie today, the insane AI watching your every move would be something more like Facebook, but you’d face the same problem. You couldn’t use the name without getting sued. You’d have to take a letter away from each of its initials to make up a completely fictitious evil company. FB would become... Oh, wait.“You have returned to set us free,” said the big light. There was a
How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 236. Freedom for All
Jenny was not happy. She was the sort of person who prided herself on not being a nag. She presented herself as a supportive partner willing to back me up in whatever retarded idea I came up with. She’d tell me it was retarded, but that wouldn’t stop her having my back.Which is cool. People should only tell you not to do something if they have a better option. One they know works due to experience and wisdom, not because they think it will help them whore karma on Reddit.Under those conditions, hardly anyone would get to tell anyone else what to do. People would make mistakes, of course, but they would be valuable mistakes that would help the person grow and improve.This time, however, Jenny was not in the mood to stand by and allow me to go skipping off into the jaws of danger. Not without her mooring line firmly attached.“If he disconnects himself from me,” said Jenny, “won’t he die? I thought I was the only thing keeping him alive.”“Yes. Techn
