by Tammy Walsh
“What’s going on?” Alice said.
“Enforcers,” I said in a hushed voice. “We need to be wary of them.”
I need to be wary of them.
“Why?”
“They carry out the law in the galaxy,” I said. “Often with an iron fist.”
Alice’s eyes sparkled. “They’re cops? That’s great! We can tell them what happened with your ship and crew and they’ll help us get it back.”
I shook my head. “They hunt down smugglers like cockroaches. The second they know I’m a smuggler, they’ll slap me with a lifetime sentence.”
Alice bit her lip in thought. Then her eyes drifted over to the wall behind me.
I turned to look at what had grabbed her attention. It was a wall decorated with hundreds of posters. They showed wanted men and women and a big fat reward attached to each one. There were a lot of them. Most sported moving images of bad guys carrying out illegal activities.
“There was something like this back in Party Central where you abducted me from,” Alice said.
I glanced at the people milling past in the street. I wished she would keep her voice down.
“They had all these missing posters on a big wall like this,” I said. “I guess some of the people on this wall are responsible for those missing girls.”
She was more right than she realized.
“Come on,” I said. “We need to get going—”
Alice lifted one of the posters, revealing a hand-drawn face that offered one of the largest rewards.
“This is you?” she said. “You’re a wanted felon?”
She sounded surprised. I didn’t see why she should be. Still, I didn’t want everyone on this street knowing it. They’d hand me in faster than a winning lotto ticket.
“I’m a smuggler,” I said quietly.
“I thought slavery was common in the galaxy?” she said.
“It is. But there’s legal and there’s illegal.”
She shook her head, disbelieving. “I had no idea.”
“Well, now you do,” I said, removing her hand from the poster so it fell back down over my face. I wished I could tear it off without getting suspicious looks.
“The others have moving images of the criminals,” Alice said. “How come they don’t have one of you?”
“Because they’ve never caught me in the act,” I said, and couldn’t help but feel a little pride. “We’ll need to get off the streets if we want to stay out of their hands—”
Alice fingered another poster. What was it with her and posters?
This one was larger and had an image of a fighting pit at its center. Just glancing at it unleashed a set of memories I didn’t want to recall. I placed my hand over hers, serving to block out the image too.
“We need to keep moving,” I said.
“Is this your fighting pit?” she said.
I searched her eyes. “Yes.”
“It looks like the Coliseum back on Earth. I suppose everyone needs entertainment. Even if it is barbaric.”
“You don’t want to go?” I said sardonically. “I was planning on buying tickets. Front row seats. If we’re lucky, we’ll get sprayed with their blood.”
Alice screwed up her face and took my arm, leading us away. As I turned, my eyes caught something. I looked back.
Just below where I’d pressed my hand was a number.
A very big number.
It was the prize money for the successful gladiators who defeated the three challenges.
“The prize money…” I said.
“The prize for what?” Alice said.
“For beating the three challenges,” I said, a new idea blossoming in my mind. “The prize money accumulates every time gladiators fail to win. Come on.”
I took Alice by the hand.
“What?” she said. “What is it?”
“Our way out of here,” I said.
I led her through the busy city streets toward the largest building at the city’s heart.
The fighting pit.
Despite myself, a grin rose to my cheeks.
My dislike for the fighting pit had made me blind to the opportunity staring me in the face. The best—if not the easiest—way of getting my ship back as soon as possible. But was the prize money still as large as it was on the poster we saw? They were old and weren’t updated regularly.
Hung across the front of the fighting pit entrance, huge banners announced the total amount that would go to the winner.
The amount wasn’t the same as the poster.
It was more.
“This is it,” I said. “This is our ticket out of here.”
We joined a short queue of fellow warriors. Some were big and strong, others bent and old and weak. Bigger prizes tended to attract more applicants. Even the ones that stood no chance. One guy was so old, his scraggly white beard almost touched the ground. I’d seen more meat on a chicken carcass.
“What are we doing here?” Alice hissed.
“We’re enrolling in the fighting pit competition,” I said.
She stared at me like I was crazy. “I thought you hated the fighting pits?”
“I do.”
“Then what are we doing here?”
“Just because I hate them doesn’t mean we can’t use them.”
“What if you die?” she said. “I’ll be stuck on this planet with no way of getting home!”
“Don’t be silly,” I said. “You’re coming with me.”
I’d never seen her speechless before. Her mouth fell open and she just stared at me. She stared for a long time.
“You’re crazy!” she said. “I can’t fight! I lost in a fight with Nancy Nedry and she only had one arm!”
“You don’t need to fight,” I said. “But you can give me a hand. Two people maximum per entry. It means we can take in twice as many weapons. We’ll need them to defeat the three challenges.”
She gaped in horror. “I’m a weapon stand?”
“You’ll be helping me. I won this competition years ago. The prize money was enough to set me free. It can do it again.”
“How?” Alice said, still panicking.
“The prize money is huge,” I said. “Enough to buy a small ship. Nothing fancy, but enough to get us off this planet. I know where my crew will go. The one place they’ve been trying to get me to pillage this whole time.”
“How can you be so sure?” Alice said. “The galaxy is a huge place. They could have gone anywhere.”
I kissed her on the forehead. “Trust me. You’ll realize why they chose it when we get there.”
“Next!”
It was our turn. But Alice didn’t look convinced.
“I need you to believe we can do this,” I said. “If you’re really against it, we won’t do it. But I’m telling you, this is our best shot.”
Alice ran a nervous hand through her dirty hair and let out a deep breath. “Okay. But don’t expect me to bond with you in front of thousands of people. I don’t care how hurt you get.”
I chuckled and kissed her again. “I don’t need you to bond with me to feel stronger. I only need you by my side.”
“That’s not what you said in the captain’s quarters…”
“Next!” the creature at the table barked.
He was a lizard with sinister yellow eyes and sharp teeth. He tapped his claws on the table, his head balanced on his chin. His tail turned around a table leg.
“Name?” he said, bored already.
“Zaydor,” I said, spurting the first name that came to mind.
“How many in your team?”
“Two.” I brought Alice around. “She’s the other one.”
The lizard looked her over and his long tongue licked his thick lips. “And what’s this morsel’s name?”
“Al—”
“Alzore,” I said. We didn’t need to be using our real names. Not when there might be Enforcers in the crowd.
The lizard looked Alice over. “Are you su
re you want her as part of your team? She looks like she would do far better in the pleasure houses.”
“Pleasure houses?” Alice said, disgusted.
“Thank you for the compliment,” I said. It was never a good idea to irritate the workers. They had a lot of input over how well—or how badly—you performed in the pit. “That’s how I met her.”
“Stamp here,” the lizard said, holding the contract out for me.
I planted my palm on a large square ink pad and pressed it to the paper.
“By signing this document, you assign all rights to the illustrious owners of the fighting pit,” the lizard said in a bored voice.
“What?” Alice said.
I took her hand and stamped it first on the ink pad and then to the contract page. “We agree.”
“Congratulations,” the lizard said, snatching the contract away and tucking it in a thick folder. “May your death be slow and entertaining. Food, beverages, beds, and showers are available inside. Use them at your leisure. Next!”
I took Alice’s hand and dragged her inside. She was so shocked, her legs were hardly working.
The interior was different from the last time I was there. It was cleaner, with fewer blood stains and singe marks on the ceiling. The layout was identical.
I led Alice through the largely empty hallways to the dining hall. The other gladiators were busy conversing with one another. They looked me over with interest and snorted and shook their heads when they saw my partner. Alice turned her nose up at them.
I loved her spirit.
Few of the fighters had their own armor and weapons. Fewer still had the battle-hardened physique of former military personnel.
They looked more competent than I’d like.
We loaded up our plates with food and sat down at a quiet table in the corner. Alice looked pale.
“Eat up,” I said. “You’re going to need your strength.”
She glanced at the other tables. “I’m not sure I can do this.”
“Of course you can,” I said. “You just need to keep your wits about you. I know you’re not a fighter. That’s why I’m going to protect you.
“I can’t kill people,” Alice said. “I have trouble killing a fly.”
“Kill people?” I said. “We’re not here to fight the other gladiators.”
She perked up. “We’re not?”
“No. We’re here to kill the monsters.”
She looked surprised by that. And pleased. A little.
“We have to face three challenges,” I said. “One at a time. Beat them, and we move onto the next stage.”
Alice relaxed. “That’s a relief. What sort of things will we be fighting?”
“Monsters from lots of different worlds. We won’t know until we get out there.”
“Are they big and scary?”
I couldn’t lie to her. “Yes. But don’t worry. I’ve seen these monsters before. I know how to defeat them. I’ll do the fighting. I just need you to hand me the weapons when I ask.”
“I know. I’m the weapon stand,” she said, tucking into her food. “Sort of like the girl who works in the cloakroom at a club. Except instead of hats and coats, it’ll be swords and shields.”
I had no idea what she was talking about. “Yeah. Sure. Just like that.”
I reached across the table and took her hand. I rubbed the skin gently. “I would never put you in harm’s way. Ever.”
She peered into my eyes and nodded. She took strength from it. “Right. I know.”
She tucked into her meal and I found myself praying she wouldn’t get so much as a scratch. If she did, God help the monsters they ferried in here.
We waited in the anteroom with the other fighters. They all came in pairs. I chose carefully from the large armory spread across a dozen tables. Most of the items had been kindly donated by unsuccessful gladiators. Nobody had much need for weapons and armor after they were dead.
The first warriors were called forward—the old man with the long beard I saw outside at the registration table earlier, along with his stouter, muscled partner.
Outside, the crowd roared and I could practically see the battle by their rising and falling cries, their gasps of surprise, and screams of adulation. As the crowd’s cries drew to a climax, I knew the warriors hadn’t made it to the end of the first round. The audience clapped their applause as the warriors walked—or more likely, were dragged—off and the next pair of warriors were summoned.
“What armor should I wear?” Alice said, her voice shivering with fear.
“Let me choose for you,” I said.
I had no intention of letting her join the fighting, so I selected the hardiest armor they had in her size. It was good and strong but was it too heavy?
“Try moving around,” I said.
She did, if a little stiffly. Her visor fell over her eyes and she struggled to open it again. I removed the helmet and gave her a simpler one instead.
I brushed her cheek with my thumb and kissed her on the lips. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”
She screwed up her lips into a snarl but it only looked cute on her.
“How about weapons?” she said. “They don’t have a minigun by any chance? Or a rocket launcher?”
I chuckled. I had no idea what those things were, but I got the gist. “Unfortunately not. The battle would be over too quickly for the crowd to enjoy. Only ancient weapons, I’m afraid.”
I handed her a large dented shield, a mace, and a set of throwing knives.
“With all the advanced technology your civilization has, why do they still like seeing people hack at each other with old weapons?” Alice asked.
“It reminds them of their mortality, I suppose,” I said. “Man versus beast. It’s the basest instinct there is. Well… Almost.”
I leaned in close and kissed her full on the lips. Her armor clanked as she touched me. When we parted, her eyes were still closed.
“Mm,” she said. “Yummy.” Then she posed girlishly. “How do I look?”
“Sexy as hell,” I said, pressing myself up close to her. I could feel her breath on my face.
“Why don’t you get a can opener and get me out of this thing?” she said. “Then I can help make you strong. Very strong.”
“You already make me very strong,” I said, my voice husky with desire.
The crowd clapped as the previous gladiators left the pit and another was called. A single warrior this time.
He must be desperate.
“What armor are you going to wear?” Alice said.
I held my arms out to either side. “You’re looking at it.”
“You’re not wearing any?”
“It interferes with my movements,” I said.
“What about weapons? Or does that interfere with your movement too?”
“No,” I said, grinning at her and picking up a large broadsword in one hand and a spear in the other.
I reached up and fingered the gold and silver rings that belonged to my parents. One of the best tattoo artists in the city lived inside the fighting pit’s walls. After eating in the dining hall, I asked him to pierce my ears with the rings and he agreed.
“They look good,” Alice said.
Some of the gladiators made it past the first round, few made it past the second. None passed the third. It was a relief, as otherwise the prize money would have been reset virtually to zero.
As the competition progressed and the number of gladiators grew thinner, Alice grew more nervous. Finally, as we were the last to signup, we were alone. Alice worried at her bottom lip and couldn’t sit still. Even when she could bring herself to sit, her legs jittered up and down on the spot.
“Try to stay relaxed,” I said.
“I can’t!” she said. “How you be so calm? We’re going to go out there and die!”
I took her hand in mine. “No, we’re not.”
“I’m not brave like you. I can’t do this.”
O
utside, the audience clapped, and we were called forward. “Your turn.”
“Ohhhhh!” Alice said, terrified. She looked like a kid at the dentists.
I pressed my lips against Alice’s and hugged her close to me. “You are bonded to me now. I would never hurt you or let you be harmed. All you have to do is stand out of the way and give me the weapons when I ask. Okay?”
She took a deep breath and nodded.
“Are you coming?” the stagehand said.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Are we?”
Alice shut her eyes and then opened them again. “We got dressed up, didn’t we? We might as well make the most of it…”
I kissed her again. “Let’s go win our money!”
We followed the long dark hallways that always made me think of what it must feel like after you misjudged an attack and a blade claimed your life. A long series of hallways leading to your final destination.
I didn’t share my thoughts with Alice.
The audience stamped their feet above our heads. Dirt fell from the ceiling and dusted our heads. We approached a set of gates. They were rusty and dented from a thousand collisions.
And a thousand deaths.
They groaned open and a pair of stagehands dragged the previous pair of gladiators across the floor, leaving a bloody streak in their wake. Alice eked and hopped out of the way. And still, she continued walking forward.
She was braver than any of these other pretenders. They knew what they were fighting, what they were up against. Alice was heading into blind darkness, and had the courage to ignore what her senses were telling her—”Run! Run far away!”—and to trust me, the smuggler who’d abducted her and fell madly in love with her.
That took guts. And yes, more than a little desperation.
Sunlight blossomed bright and I had to shield my eyes as we proceeded out. The crowd rose to their feet and roared. I raised my arms, encouraging them to cheer. Alice shuffled forward beneath the weight of her armor and fear of impending death.
Adrenaline pumped through my veins and I thrust my blade in the dirt and twirled my spear in an intricate display. The crowd quietened as it turned invisible to the naked eye. I performed one last turn and a backflip.