Unchosen Academy: Monster Games
Page 10
I throw the meat out of the cage. It flies in the air like a heavy pie. Carnivore doesn’t bother looking at it or running back to catch it. It wants me. Only me.
Running to the side again, I climb the bars on all fours like a monkey one more time. When I reach the top of the barred cage, the opening is too far in the middle, so I have to climb the cage’s ceiling, again, like a monkey, but upside down. Gymnastics wasn’t my favorite class in school, but neither was math, which I ended up studying and passing. Math is horrible. I can’t imagine there is anything else to teach beyond 2 + 2 = 4. That’s all math is about. The rest is some complex gibberish that the average girl never uses. Ask Carnivore. It’ll tell you how much math sucks.
Carnivore jumps into the cage while I am hanging upside down like an amateur spider. It lashes out at me with its paws from down there, trying to reach me. I am amazed that the cage’s ceiling is so high, even for it.
Show me how you can climb the bars like a monkey now, you heavy miserable white creature!
Although its paws can’t reach for me, it slashes through my hair, scraping a big chunk of it away. I pull myself flat to the bars of the ceiling while reaching for the opening.
What’s with everyone in this world tearing at my hair? I am not just dying. It’s even worse. I am balding in here.
“Thanks.” I grin at Carnivore. “How’d you like it if I rip out your white fur?”
The audience in the Zeppelin right above me claps and laughs. Such an awkward position for me to watch the Zeppelins from.
“We love you!” a couple of kids say behind the glass, as if I were the clown in the circus, pulling my latest tiger trick.
“Go get a life!” I scream at them. “Go fall in love. Break your heart. Meet somebody. Go live, instead of watching live video games of people being killed!” The kids are taken aback.
Finally, I reach the opening and pull myself up. Carnivore slashes one last time. Once I am up, I discover that he slashed at my right arm. It hurts like hell, but I don’t want to look at the wound. I’ll consider it Carnivore’s signature on my body.
I pound on the roof for Leo to take notice.
“Thank God!” he yells. “You jump out of the Super-V now. I’ll take it from here.”
How is he going to take it from here? He can’t pull the cage shut from where he is driving. What keeps Carnivore in the cage is me. As long as I am standing on top of the cage, it thinks it can get me. If I jump out, it will jump out too and hunt me. I can’t leave. I have to stay here until we find a way to kill it.
When I raise my head, gazing in front of me, I see one of the steep cliffs up front. One of those cliffs Leo used to kill the other tiger, making it chase us and steering the wheel back at the very last minute. It won’t work now because Carnivore is inside the cage.
Leo is speeding up toward the cliff.
“Jump, Decca,” Leo shouts. “Jump!”
Now I know what Leo is thinking. He is on some kind of crazy suicide mission, driving with the Carnivore in the cage over the cliff, ready to die with it to save me.
No!
“Don’t do it, Leo,” I scream, trying to crawl back to him.
“I am just dropping it off the cliff,” explains Leo. “I can steer the wheel and turn around at the last second after it’s thrown out of the cage and off the cliff. Trust me.”
“No!”
“I just can’t do it when you’re still up there. Jump off the Super-V, Decca.”
We’re getting closer and closer to the edge. The stupid Carnivore is still trying to reach for me from the inside, not knowing what is about to happen to it.
“We can do this,” Leo insists. “Don’t mess this up by staying with me. If I die, it won’t matter, because you will survive the games. Don’t you give up at the last second.”
So close to the edge.
Even the Zeppelins are slowing down. I can’t imagine what is scaring them when they’re flying in the air. Dumb audience.
Watching the edge of the cliff approaching, I crawl back into the passenger’s seat. Sometimes my stubbornness is my only friend.
When Leo sees me back in the seat next to him, his eyes widen with anger. But it’s too late. I can see the hollow void leading all the way down over the cliff.
“Leo!”
He steers the wheel with all his might to the right and hits the brakes so the Super-V slows down a little. I hear the sound of Carnivore banging heavily against the bars of the inside of the cage in the back. It’s a mix of roaring and moaning. I think it fell out of the cage, and off the cliff.
Ready to go even further down the Rabbit Hole with Decca, Leo, and Woo?
Unchosen Academy: Monster Rising is available now!
Pop Culture References
Let’s continue from last time!
1) Hannibal Xitler is named after the character Hannibal Lector in Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs, and Hitler – we all know who that is. The superficial use of names is to hint at the superficial world of Faya. I didn’t use complicated names because when the Summit found what’s left of America’s history in containers (the Arc), they were far from interested in complicated and intricate naming.Try to imagine how intricate the Romans, Greeks, or the Ancient Egyptians really were, and compare it to what we think we know about them now. Then apply this to the nation of Faya, and what they think they know about us now. Speaking of names, there is a lot to be interpreted in Decca’s name, but will be revealed later.
7) The Z letters are silly and cheesy. I like it. We all have to loosen up once in a while. Did I say I know they’re cheesy?
8) A detail that was mentioned once, and it seems that it didn’t linger with some of the readers, is that the Amerikaz buried the history of the world before the Great Disease in containers under the Burning Man effigy – who was not meant to be considered a God. He was more of an x-marks-the spot so survivors would notice it and dig for the history of America, and learn from it. I am mentioning this because some argued that no one should remember David Bowie – and the pop culture references – anymore, which is far from the truth. Nothing died. It was all documented in the containers under the Burning Man. Think of it like Noah’s Ark. What happened was that Xitler and his family altered it and messed things up, which brings up the most controversial Zootube and Zwitter issue. There is by far no intelligent naming in a dystopia, but here is the thing: Xitler, as much as he is a fierce ruler, is douche bag. He just added this Z letter everywhere, to differentiate himself from his ancestors.
9) Yes. Decca’s liking for Leo was insta-liking. What’s wrong with insta-liking? But Leo’s love for her wasn’t insta-liking. Again, what’s wrong with insta-liking?
10) If you have never been bullied, or known someone who has, you will never get what being a Monster feels like, and you might not get a lot of the spirit of this book at all.
11) Decca’s scattered feelings are intentional. She is young, and the Summit has messed with her brain through the iAm, like TV and internet messes with everyone.
12) The Rabbit Hole that everyone is looking for was right in front of your eyes – and Decca’s eyes – but you both missed it. It will be discovered later.
13) Finally, remember one thing: You’re not your heart rate, you’re not your weight, and not your education. You are all, infinite, and unpredictable, and don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise, because you’re capable of change and transcendence. And if you don’t like what I said, I’ll tell to myself everyday and leave ya hanging.
Unchosen Academy: Monster Rising is available on Amazon now!
About the Author
Buffy Brown loves pop culture, fun, and cheesy 80s & 90s movies and TV Shows. No Pulitzer Price for Buffy, duh. Just popcorn, wine, and writing books that read like movies for fun and giggles.
You can contact here: www.BuffyBrown.com
Or email: contact@buffybrown.com
emy: Monster Games