by Grant Hunter
‘Well done, but now you have to go.’ I pulled open the door and let a sigh of relief escape when I saw that I was outside. I had to screw up my eyes against the bright light. This time I knew I would make it.
34
Suddenly a siren went off. The sharp noise sounded like in my dream. Above the huge fence, a red flashing alarm system light up. With the knife clamped firmly in my right hand I hobbled to the enclosed fence. Behind it was a wide river of grey-brown water. In the distance I saw ships.
‘Hey! Help me.’ I waved at them, but they were too far away. Everywhere I looked there was water. Then I realised that it was an island. Nowhere could I find a connection to the mainland.
‘That bastard brought you to a remote industrial island. This means climbing and swimming. Come on. Pussy!’
I leaned forward, putting my hands out to the fence. Ignoring the warning sign, with high voltage on it. The slap on my body that followed was like a shot in my chest. My teeth chattered loud and the jolt went through me like boiling lava. I was catapulted backwards and smacked into the sand. I could smell burnt hair and there sounded a high buzzing noise in my ears. The alarm stopped and I didn’t know if Gabe’s cracking voice through the intercom was my imagination or real.
‘Dumb idea, you can’t get away. Be glad we kept the voltage low.’
I threw my hands over my ears and screamed out. It helped, because the nasty buzz disappeared.
‘There are cameras everywhere, Naomi. Where do you think you can run to?’
I dug my nails into my scalp until it hurt. ‘No, don’t be fooled, Naomi. You have a knife.’ I picked up the rock that lay in front of my feet. Shaking, I pointed the stone at the camera and hit the thing hard on the lens.
‘That’s one less!” I screamed.
A sense of invincibleness came over me. I didn’t feel the icy wind anymore, my pain was gone and my razor-sharp thoughts throbbed powerfully through my brain: I will survive this. When I bent down to pick up another stone I saw on my left a shed where someone appeared. He also wore a balaclava, to cover his face, but his man had the posture of Gabriel. I stood up and got ready for an attack when he ran my way. Oddly enough, I was completely calm when I took the knife to him. He slipped aside, grabbed me, turned with a leap and kept me in a hold. I gasped for air and dropped the knife.
When my feet came off the floor, I moaned in pain and made gurgling sounds. While I was felt life draining from me, with my last strength I struck the rock over my shoulder, where his head should be.
He screamed and his grip slackened just enough to get loose. I fell, out of breath, to the ground and grabbed the knife.
‘Quickly. Be ruthless. He will never let you go alive. It’s him or you!’
With a smooth motion, I stuck the knife deep in his abdomen, turned it and thrust it through to the other side. It slipped through the flesh as if it were butter. Even though he wore a balaclava I saw his eyes where huge, he looked at me with horror. Then he made a sound I had never heard before. It was like an animal in distress. He tried to grab the knife, which I pulled out in a jerk.
A pink mess came out with the deep red flow of blood. He breathed heavy, collapsed and made spastic movements. His eyes rolled back in his head. Silently I stared at him, until his body stopped shaking. My blood flowed icy cold through my veins, it drained all the warmth out of me. The knife slipped from my unfeeling fingers, into the sand.
‘Finished. It’s over.’ I slumped to my knees, stared at the lifeless body on the ground and couldn’t believe what I had done. His intestines hanging out from a gaping wound, which his hands were over. As if he wanted to shove them back inside. The sand around me coloured red, the blood ran viscous over the ground, like a river.
Hot tears ran down my icy cheeks. I balled my fists and dug my nails into my palms and I screeched until no more sound came out of my throat. Eventually I got up, stretched out my hand and pulled out the balaclava off the face.
‘Oh, God...’ I couldn’t understand what I was seeing. I blinked my tears away and rubbed my eyes. This could not be true. ‘Jules?’
‘Damn. What have you done?’ Gabe screamed from the intercom. ‘Now you have ruined it, hear me Naomi! You ruined everything.’
From behind I heard an engine starting, very gently. I turned my head and saw a boat coming my way. My heart made a leap of joy. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me to the fence and turned to the speedboat.
‘Help! Help!’
The speed boat turned sharply to the left.
‘No, stop!’ I screamed, while I ran with it. ‘Come back!’
The boat disappeared behind a shed and out of sight.
‘Shit!’
I ran over to the shed, climbed over a mountain of old rusting metal and stopped only when I heard the sound of the boat again. I could almost not suppress a laugh when I saw the speedboat moor at a jetty.
‘You’re saved! Finally safe, Naomi!’ Delighted, I came closer. Just as I wanted to shout and wave, something in me froze. A feeling as if something wasn’t wright.
Men in suits came from the boat, and walked over the deck of the jetty, towards the fence, which opened automatically for them. I hid behind a little wall and looked breathlessly at how the figures came closer, until I knew it was not a hallucination.
Jack Willow walked in with two bodyguards to the factory. Again, this time the door opened for him and I saw the gate at the port slowly closing. ‘Get the fuck out. Right now, Naomi. That boat is your last chance to get away from here alive.’ I ran with all the energy I had left to the fence and got through it just in time.
I slipped on the greasy bottom of the speedboat, scrambled and almost fell through the hatch that was still open. I walked to the helm and searched under the chair for a key.
Someone moaned. Gently. Muted. ‘Don’t look. Just start the boat and make sure you get out of here.’
I walked to the other side and pulled out the second sitting area, hoping to find something to start the boat with. The sound was louder now, and I couldn’t restrain my curiosity. I went to the open hatch, bent over, to look down. But it was too dark to see anything.
‘Hello?’ I whispered.
When my eyes were accustomed to the semi-darkness, I saw a woman squirming over the floor. At the same time I heard footsteps behind me, and before I could turn, I felt a hard thump on the back of my head.
An icy cold feeling brought an end to the darkness that I had been in. A rope was tightly tied around my body, and held me sitting in a chair. The hellish, stinging pain made me squeak. My head felt like it was on fire.
I opened my eyes and the first thing I noticed was my new dress. Completely black. Someone was dragging his feet back and forth in front of the chair.
‘Are you an angel of death, Ms. Quinns?’ Grumbled a loud voice. ‘Why don’t you just play the game like the others?’
He grabbed my hair and pulled my head back. I felt the warmth of his breath. He smelled like peppermint, coffee and shaving cream. Even now he was impeccable, even stylish. This men in his Armani suit, appeared out of place, in this dirty building. With the cloud of Eau de Toilette, that hung in the room, I noticed how much I sweated.
‘I don’t understand, Jack. But please, let me go.’
He let go of my hair. The light of the lamp was flashing.
‘Do you know how many risks I am taking now? Do you have any idea?’
I shook my head, and immediately regretted it as a pain flew through my temple.
‘And now...’ He continued as if he had made an decision, ‘... now we have a problem. An exceptional problem, you understand, Ms. Quinns?’
The one thing I did understand was that Jack would never let me go. How could I have been so naive? I thought. Tears of anger flowed down my face. Warm and stinging. All of a sudden he stopped walking up and down, crossed to the door and whispered something to someone who was behind it. Immediately afterwards he closed the door and pointed at the camera in the co
rner. The red light went off.
Jack bent down over my chair and looked at me penetratingly.
‘That crying is not what they want to see.’
‘What?’
He took a phone out of his jacket and tapped it. Immediately after that he held the screen under my nose. ‘I’m gonna tell you a secret. Look...’
I blinked my eyes and tried to focus, which was almost impossible.
‘These are statistics here. Do you see that table? Those are the number of hits. And do you see this? These are the comments of your viewers. They went sky-high after your unexpected actions.’
‘I don’t understand,’ I whispered.
He typed something else on his smartphone and kept the lit screen again in front of my nose.
Welcome to Net X
That logo! It was very familiar to me. But what? I thought. Suddenly, it shot through me, I knew it now. It had been there all the time; As a symbol I only recognised now.
‘The Eye in the Spider’s web...!’ I stammered.
The drawing I had seen in my nightmares. He scrolled down and I read as quickly as possible the letters that flew past.
This first interactive platform revives Roman times. For the first time in the history of mankind the spectators determine, on-line, the missions and the play. Specially selected Preys fight in our arena, for life and death. Our members decide: who stays alive and who doesn’t? Contribute and win.
He scrolled further down, to photos and data about young women.
‘What the fuck is this?’ My face reddened when Jack showed my profile with my photo. Not only were there pictures of my social media accounts, but also my weight, my background and even my education. My whole life laid out as a collection of dates over me. Below were commentaries. Jack scrolled down, allowing me to read the commentary of Cicero98:
Snappy thing. I want to see her fight against the wolves. I bet 20,000. But only when she comes out of it alive!
I held my breath when Jack showed me another comment.
Tell her the truth and let her fight with Angel. If she wins let her go. Bet 4 mln. only if C. Accepts my bid personally. – Som43
‘Angel?’ I whispered and I gasped for breath.
Jack pulled a knife and started to cut my ropes loose. Motionless, I stared at my feet, while I still sat in the chair. Unable to move.
‘This has never happened before. It is therefore an exceptional situation. I act on behalf of my clients. You should not take this personally.’
‘What? It’s not personal?’ I said, gasping for breath.
‘No. It’s entertainment, Ms. Quinns.’
‘Fuck you!’ I shouted at him. ‘Where is Gabriel? That bastard. I will…’
‘Relax, Naomi. I will take over. As you can see, the bets have become very high. They clearly love you and they have voted Gabriel out. You won.’
‘I won? What? So I may go?’
‘Well, I want to talk about that. Forget Gabe, you beat him, but now the viewers want to see something new. You can be a star.’
‘Stars are death,’ I said.
Jack raised his eyebrow and laughed with his teeth bared; ‘Still a sense of humour. But see it as great opportunity. Net X is more than my pleasure seeking. It’s my media company. I give the customers what they want and my customers are picky. They want something spectacular, something they never saw before. That’s why I built the arena, the only one of its kind. And I think you are ready.’
I shook my head, because I didn’t want to know. Preferably I wanted to run out of the door, but my useless legs seemed to resist; At the thought of running they were already weak.
‘I will give you a choice.’ He pointed to the camera that still stood out. ‘This stays between us. I have never seen this before. The world is at your feet. The whole underground web watched it live, and they love you!’
‘Underground web?’ I stammered. But Jack didn’t let me talk.
‘You amazed the spectators, and me, because to be honest, there has never been anybody to get further than level three. Apparently you are the first prey they love.’
Jack stared at me begging, with a strange brilliance in his eyes. Damn, I had inadvertently become the star of his freak show. I suddenly realised what that meant. He had to keep his customers, those psychopathic voyeurs, satisfied. This offered me an unexpected advantage.
‘You can’t kill me -’
The look I got was indescribable; penetrating and ferocious. Yet, he remained calm and shrugged his shoulders.
‘Beware, I can let you be tortured. They always love that. You don’t know how many bids I receive for hard-core rape.’
That was true. I didn’t realise that.
‘Let me make you an offer, Ms. Quinns. Don’t look at me with those big eyes. Just see me as your manager. You have passed the last level and the viewers want to see more of you. Play the role, voluntarily or die. When you accept to play, they give you a million. But only if you win and do whatever they want you to do.’
‘That’s not an offer, I have no choice.’
‘Stop being a bore. Act like a star, Naomi. You are their favourite; you are at the top of the site. If this were the Olympic Games, then you got a gold medal.’
‘You are fucking mad.’
‘So is the world. I’ll only give my viewers what they want. Stop being naive, Naomi. Don’t look at yourself as a prey. Act like a hunter. Only the strong survive.’
I shook my head; Darwinian craziness.’
‘An eye for an eye. They want a sacrifice, because they don’t want to see you dead. So give your fans a big final. Be the star they want you to be. Rest a bit, think about it and when you accept, I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.’
35
Jack had taken me to another building, not far from where Gabe held me prison. At the entrance, I was surprised to see a reception desk, and an interior that looked more like a luxurious casino. He laughed as he saw me stare at the red carpet underneath my bare feet. It was soft and made me feel quite relaxed, even though I did not expect to get out of there alive. The guards who followed us stayed in front of the entrance, while I followed silently behind Jack Willow to the upper floor. The room that Jack opened for me was in stark contrast to the factory I had come from.
‘Take a bath and rest a bit. I will see that they give you a proper meal.’ And with that he had left me alone, and now I had been here for half an hour, laying in a sweet smelling bubble bath, staring at the window.
I had been contemplating for a while just how to climb out, but all the cameras in the room were focused on me, so I stayed inactive, safe under a blanket of velvet bubbles. Occasionally, I focused my gaze on another camera and then I saw the lens zoom in. I was wondering how much control the viewers actually had. Probably a lot, if this game was directed by the paying clients.
‘You saved yourself, Naomi,’ I whispered softly. By doing things I never thought possible. I had killed, and it was easier than I had imagined. By that method I could have escaped. Then Jack had offered me a lot of money; I would be rich if I did as he wanted.
‘It’s them or me, right?’ One of the cameras winked, I sat up in the bath while I swirled the foam around me slowly. The camera immediately zoomed in again.
‘Oh, you like that guys?’ I stroked my nipples while my thoughts wandered to the place on the web where it was being broadcast right now. To the voyeurs that I would never meet. My fans, my saviours, my torturers. Thanks to these bastards I was trapped here. I hated them, but at the same time I had to love them because they were my way out. What did they look like? And how much did they know about me? Unwillingly, I was there, in a virtual world, to become a superstar. A star in the darkness who was no longer ignorant about the game, and that would save me.
I smiled at the camera and slipped on the bathrobe that had been left ready for myself. I swung my hips as I walked to the bed.
‘Goodnight, darlings...’
The tiredness came over m
e. I just wanted to sleep for a very long time. And I did.
A hellish uproar dragged me out of a delightful dream. I opened my eyes. Again that sound. It sounded like a wild animal in distress. I had never heard such roaring and screeching before, and curious I jumped out of bed. My eye fell on a parcel at the door. Slowly, I crept over to it, listening anxiously. The howling had stopped. I grabbed the parcel off the floor and tore it open. Just as I started to open the box, I heard a cry, a cry that pierced my soul. This time it sounded feminine, and I turned to the camera and opened my mouth. Even before I could speak, music blared from the speakers. Not harsh techno music like before; it was more like lounge music.
‘Hey, can you turn down the sound a bit?’ I snapped at the camera. ‘Someone asked for this music, right?’
As I stared in the lens, the light above it went out.
‘Shit!’ When I turned to the camera to the right, it also blinked out. Don’t lose control. Naomi. Keep your head straight! I took a deep breath, opened the box and pulled out an envelope with a big X on it.
Curiously I opened it and read the note inside, whispering aloud.
‘Naomi. A gift from one of your admirers. Put it on for him. Get ready for the arena and do what you are told. You will not regret it. Today is your day! Enjoy it, champion.’
I turned the note over. There was nothing else written on it.
‘Today is your day,’ and immediately I felt the knot in my stomach tightening. Something terrible was going to happen, I could feel it, this nasty premonition, the screams. Don’t think about it, Focus on surviving.
Inside the package was a sequined suit. It looked like a swimsuit, although the upper part was more like a basque. I dropped the bathrobe to the floor and slipped into the tight costume, without worrying about the lights on the cameras, which were now lit up again. I would give them a show they would never forget!
‘We are going to do everything we can to survive! Everything,’ I murmured to myself and just then Jack walked in. He handed me a glass of orange juice. When I drank it, he plucked at the strap of my suit with a wide smile.