“What the hell is all of this?” Eddy asked Jess.
“I think I have a pretty good idea.”
Eve walked behind them and gave the same crooked smile again as they were led around the arena to a raggedy cage with other survivors inside. The man opened the cage and stared at the group. Jess looked at the blood on the ground and nearly gagged by the smell. Jess zoned out and thought about what could happen once she enters the cage. Suddenly, a loud uproar scared Jess, forcing her to turn around and see one of the men inside the arena fall to the ground with a machete forced between his eyes.
The man lifted his gun up to her head, “Get…in…the cage.”
Jess turned back around to her group all standing in the cage watching her. Jess moved her head away from the gun and walked inside. The man slammed the cage and locked it, but Jess still watched the dead man being dragged out of the arena and the other man walking away. She noticed how he wasn’t cheering like the others were; he just stared blankly at the ground and disappeared behind the fence.
“It’s a deathmatch,” Eve said as she approached the cage, “a deathmatch that determines who truly deserves the right to fight on this planet; and who deserves to serve me.”
“Why?”
“The weak are not allowed. Only the strong survives. I’m pretty sure you’ve heard this before.”
“So, what you’re saying is, you aren’t strong?” James said.
“Excuse me?”
James walked closer to her, “From what I can see, the weak are the ones watching other people kill one another. Getting rid of the stronger ones so they can hide their tails and attack when we’re down.”
“You really think so don’t you.”
“I never think. I know.”
“And look where that’s gotten you.”
“Ma’am,” one of the men approached her, “are we done for the night?”
Eve looked at Jess and her group, “No, no we’re not. I have one last thing. I put this cage here because you can see perfectly clear at the arena, but the cage is only for those who have someone they care about fighting.”
Jess’s eyes widened, “No, don’t do this!”
The gate opened as two men threw Faith inside of the arena and walked away. Faith quickly stood up and ran to the gate, but it closed before she could reach it. She walked away and looked around at all the people screaming and shouting at her. She noticed many weapons dangling on the fence and walked towards them.
“Faith!” Jess screamed.
Faith searched for Jess and finally caught eye contact with her.
“Jess!” she said as she ran to the fence.
“They’re going to make you fight!”
“And you’re right!” Eve yelled.
The men opened the gate again and dragged Jess and Marcus out of the gate, but Eddy and the others tried holding them in. One of the men hit Eddy in the groin and pointed their guns towards them. they had no choice but to watch them being taken away. Faith turned around to Eve standing on the benches with her people. The gate opened, and a man was thrown in the arena along with Faith. The people screamed again as the man crawled towards the gate and yelled to leave. Faith kept her eyes on the man while listening to Eve.
“The weak are not allowed on this earth. Tonight, on this very last fight of the night, we will find out who’s worthy of calling themselves survivors.”
“I’m not fighting! I’m not!” the man yelled.
“You don’t have to, but you’re going to lose the ones you love in the process.”
Faith heard a woman and child crying as two men had guns pointed their head. The man ran to the fence and yelled at the man. He cried and apologized to his family. She looked at the man’s family and noticed the other men drop Jess and Marcus next to them. Faith started to breathe heavy because she knew what was going to happen. A fight was going to occur one way or the other. If it doesn’t, Jess and Marcus or the man’s family will die.
“So, what’s it going to be? Fight or watch your loved ones die?” Eve asked.
The man looked at Faith and kept shaking his head in regret. Faith knew he didn’t want to fight, but the only way to save his family was to kill her. He quickly ran to the weapons behind him and grabbed an ax while Faith slowly backed away from him. The people around them shouted and cheer the man on as he slowly crept closer to Faith.
“You don’t have to do this!” Faith yelled.
The man ran up to Faith and tried to swing at her, but she quickly dodged his swing and kicked his leg, forcing him to fall. Faith ran to the fence and grabbed a machete, but she kept shaking while trying to focus on the man.
“I can’t let my wife and daughter die,” the man cried.
“I can’t kill you!”
“One of us has to die. It can’t be me.”
The man ran up to Faith and swung his ax towards her stomach, but she threw herself back and prepared herself for the next swing. The man brought his ax up and tried to stab her head, but Faith jumped to the side of him and cut his arm. He yelled in pain, but kept coming after her. She looked at the blood on the machete and gripped it harder. The man threw the ax down and ran to the fence, grabbing many small knives and running up to Faith. He threw one know at her, missing her head, but cutting off a little of her hair. Faith started shaking and she watched carefully as to what he was giving to do next. He threw another knife, but she managed to hit it out of the way. Unfortunately, she didn’t see the next knife he threw immediately after and stabbed her in her left shoulder. Faith screamed and dropped her machete, staring at the man as he prepared to throw the next knife. She closed her eyes and quickly snatched the knife out of her shoulder. Before the man could throw his knife, Faith grabbed the knife by its edge and threw it at the man, piercing him in his arm. The man gasped loudly and dropped all knives, but he still ran after her. She tried running for the machete, but he had already tackled her to the ground. He threw his body over her while she struggled to move. He snatched the knife out of his arm and tried stabbing her. She managed to grab ahold of his arm, but the more she struggled, the closer the knife got to her face. She kept trying, but she felt around his arm and pushed her thumb inside of the wound. The man screamed and forced the knife down harder, but she moved her head and watched the knife shove into the ground next to her. She felt another knife near her hip, so she immediately grabbed it and stabbed him on his stomach. The man looked directly into her eyes and began to tear up. He knew he had lost, but Faith looked away from him and tossed him off her. He looked up to his wife and child and started crying. Faith sat up and didn’t know what to do. She crawled over to him and placed her hand across the stab wound.
“I’m so sorry.” Faith cried.
“He’s still alive.” Eve shouted from the benches.
“He’s lost! Just stop!”
Eve grabbed her gun and pushed it against Jess’s head, “He’s still alive!”
Faith felt the man grab her arm, but she couldn’t look at him. He squeezed her arm tighter and she finally looked at him. He didn’t have to say anything to her. The blood gushing out of his stomach began to overflow between her fingers, but she didn’t want to move her hand.
“Three…two….!” Eve shouted.
Faith looked over at a knife and grabbed it quickly. She didn’t give herself time to think before the knife found its way inside his chest. The sound of flesh being torn repeated in her mind. She closed her eyes and felt his pulse throbbing in her hands. She kept them closed as the heartbeat began to slow down. Eve gave that crooked smile and watched Faith cry as the man’s hand slowly let go of her arm and drop to the ground. Faith let out a loud cry that was shadowed by the cheers of the men around her.
Eve stood up from her chair and looked down at Faith as she turned to Jess and the others staring at her. Jess saw in her eyes how broken Faith was. They’ve killed to survive, but never have they killed someone who didn’t deserve it. Faith distinctively listened to his wife and child cr
y aloud. She didn’t even dare to look their way; to the disappointment she would have to face or the anger the wife had to be feeling.
“Take them away. We’re done for today.” Eve ordered.
The men opened the cage and surrounded the man and Faith. Two men dragged the man away as the other two picked Faith up and led her out of the cage. Eve looked at Jess and felt the tension in her stare. Jess was angry, but it didn’t make Eve flinch not once.
“Hope everyone has a good night. The fun has yet to come!”
Men approached the cage and pointed their guns at the group while another opened the gate and forced them out, leading them out of the arena and into a dorm hall. In the hall was men and women with guns laughing and talking, but suddenly stopped when Jess’s group walked in. They all stared at them as they walked by. One of the people, an old, dirty man, made a flirty whistle towards Jess, making her stop and look at him directly.
“Why don’t you do that again!” Jess threatened the man.
His gritty smile flashed in front of Jess as he limped over to her and whistled again. Before Jess could do anything, Eve walked in the room and the man instantly walked away, disappearing behind the men who escorted the group inside.
“Put them in the cell.” Eve ordered the men.
As they continued to walk, Eve looked over at the older man and pointed at him, “Come here.”
The other men moved out of the way, exposing the man to Eve. He crept up close to her with his head hanging low.
“Was that you whistling to her?”
“Yes ma’am.” He stuttered.
“Hmm. Do you think she’s sexy?” Eve smiled.
The man continued to look down, but Eve walked up closer to him, “Do you think she’s sexy?”
“Yes…yes ma’am.”
“Good. See, was that so hard?” she laughed.
Eve stabbed the man in his throat and snatched it out quickly. He fell to the ground gagging, but no one dared to help him. They all stared and watched every move Eve make. She stood over his body and brushed her hair back laughing.
“Don’t let me hear this again. If I find out this happened and I wasn’t told immediately, I’m killing everyone who knew about it.”
All the men answered, and Eve walked over the dead man’s body, “Clean this shit up!”
─
Steven and Lisa took shelter in a nearby store, one that was dominated by vines and rigged plants. It was the second night, and they were sitting down and eating canned food. The night was dead. Not one chirp was heard. No crickets. Just that constant ring in their ears that put them on edge.
“You think this is going to work?” Lisa asked.
“It has to. We don’t have a choice. If we want them to get out alive, everything has to go to plan.”
Lisa sat quiet for a moment, “I know what I did back at the community. To Drew. But it was necessary. Then there was the man in the store. It seems to keep coming at us.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Massacre. I honestly don’t know if I can make that choice again.”
“This is the world we live in now. I’m not saying get over it, but you can’t ignore it either. You definitely can’t run from it.”
“How do you deal with it?”
“I embraced it.”
“It doesn’t sound that simple, though.”
“Never said it was. It took me months before I could finally own up to who I was becoming. Some days, I even went too far. I never let it get in my head.”
“Still, you said you were pretty young when everything went down.”
“Yeah, that’s another reason why. I was alone. No one to look after me. I realized I was the only person I could rely on. A few groups and some years later, I found a group I could be comfortable in. And that’s when we ran into Jason. Then Sam. Then you.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re with us. Don’t like the events that led up to this, but you know what I mean.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
“Alright, so it’s almost time. Just like we said, for now, we must figure out exactly where they are. After that, we plan their escape.”
“Alright.”
─
They brought Jess and the group inside the dorm hall, where the center field was surrounded by the dorm buildings on each side. The back building seemed to have the worst structure from the rest. Its rigged windows were boarded to the inch and a huge sign oversaw the top of the building: “THE DAMNED”.
“What the hell is this place?” Eddy whispered.
“It doesn’t matter. We’re getting out of here soon. We have to.” Jess whispered back.
Everyone was thrown into a dorm room. There was no furniture, no beds, nothing. Just empty rooms and blank, dirty walls. Their sight of the outside world was unseen. Faith strayed from the group as the others confined with each other.
“What do we do? We’re going to make a plan, right?” Eddy asked.
“Of course, we will.” Jess answered.
“Oh, give me a break,” James interrupted, “there is no plan. I don’t even know if there’s ever going to be one. I’m all for fighting, but I know a dead end when I see one!”
“This isn’t it though!” Adam said.
“I mean, he has a point Adam. We don’t know what to do. They clearly have the upper hand.” Denny replied.
“So, this is it? We just give up?”
Jess intervened, “No, Meredith. We’re not. We can do this. It’s not going to be an overnight thing, but if we just be patient-”
“Jess,” Faith interrupted, “I love you, I really do, but just stop for one second.”
“But I can’t!”
“Yes, you can. Just stop! We need to stop!”
“I can’t stop! I’ve never been able to stop! From the beginning, I have been doing nothing but surviving. You should know, you were there with me! And after years, I finally thought I could settle. That we could settle and be happy for once, but now, I feel like I’ve lost everyone! Sam is gone! The community is gone! So no, we can’t stop!”
“Have you ever stopped and wondered what I’ve lost too? You don’t think I get it? I’ve lost the love of my life too! I’ve lost a child too! But every time we fight, more of us die! I can’t keep doing this if it means we won’t live in the future.”
“But we can’t give up now! We’re not in any position to do so!”
The room stood quiet and Faith and Jess just stared at each other. The tension alone made everyone unsettled. Eddy walked up towards them and sighed.
“We are being held against our will by a woman who will never listen to negotiation. For us to yell at each other like this will only make things worse. Remember, Lisa and Steven are still out there. I have no doubt they will find us and figure something out. All we can do now is be patient. Don’t do anything to cause trouble and everything will be fine. Okay?”
Jess looked at Faith with despair, “I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about. I know you’re just tired of the same thing happening to us.”
“I am. I just don’t need all of us giving up right now. We can’t give in to this fear. We have to stay strong for each other.”
Faith approached Jess with a warm, genuine hug while Eddy smiled and walked away.
“It’d be better to rest up for the night. I have a feeling we’re going to need it.” Eddy said.
The sound of the front door opened as they all looked at the room door, listening to the footsteps approaching. The knob rattled and Eve walked in with a knife in her hand.
“It seems I have something I need from one of you.”
Everyone stared at her confused, but Eddy didn’t hesitate, “Look, what do you want from us?”
“You. I’ll take you.”
“What? No! I’m not going!”
Eve walked up to him and slashed his cheek. Everyone gasped and stood back, watching Eddy yell in pain and hold his hand over the cut. Eve stood
their gripping the knife, giving that crooked smile and staring at him.
“Do I need to repeat myself?”
Z Island Series | Book 3 | Survivors of Z Island [Retribution Part 1] Page 6