by Kieran Song
Dog carefully peeled off the rest of the body bag, and lightly stepped off the cart and onto the ground. Dog frowned as he noticed the open fields surrounding them. He had to take the guards out, otherwise they’d see him fleeing from a mile away.
The second guard had disappeared into a shed about twenty yards away. Dog would eliminate the visible guard first and then finish off the other one when he came out of the shed.
He crouched low and treaded towards the fat guard, keeping his footsteps light and delicate. As he drew closer, he could smell the stink of the fat man’s sweat and hear his laboured breathing. Dog zeroed in on the semi-automatic rifle that hung loosely around the guard’s shoulders.
The fat man let out a massive yawn and stretched his arms out, giving Dog the opportunity he needed. In one swift motion Dog grabbed the dangling gun while unlocking the safety and drove the barrel into the guard’s belly, pulling the trigger and unloading a few rounds into him. The fat guard stared at Dog with shocked eyes and mouth wide open as the cigarette fell from the corner of his lips just before the rest of him collapsed to the ground.
“What the hell is going on out there?” the other guard cried as he stepped out of the shed with a sandbag under each arm. He was unarmed but Dog didn’t hesitate unloading the rest of the clip from the gun into his body.
It was the first time Dog had ever used a gun and he couldn’t help but thank Garret for the words of advice he gave Dog long ago.
“If you’re ever stupid enough to try something with the guards and find yourself holding a gun, remember to take off the damn safety before you pull the trigger. And please, don’t make me regret telling you this. I still want to go home to see my wife one day, though I don’t know if she feels the same way.”
As Dog dragged the bodies of the dead guards into the fire, he teared up again while thinking of the old man. He almost felt foolish, crying so much over someone, but at the same time, he felt as if the sadness was telling him that he really was more human than monster after all.
Chapter Twenty-Nine.
“All I know is that while I’m asleep, I’m never afraid, and I have no hopes, no struggles, no glories,” Allegra read aloud. “There’s only one bad thing about sleep, as far as I’ve ever heard, and that is that it resembles death, since there’s very little difference between a sleeping man and a corpse.”
She stared at the worn pages of the paperback copy of Don Quixote in her hands and wished for nothing more than to be able to read the entire book from start to finish. She heard Dallas’s voice call out to her from down below.
“Allegra get your ass down here!” he shouted. “Your thirty minutes are up.”
She placed the book back onto the shelf and grabbed the heavy sack stuffed with jewelery, cash, expensive cameras, and watches. It was a good haul today; one that Ryker would surely be happy about. She headed down the stairs of the bedroom and found herself standing in the kitchen.
The sight of Dog startled her. He was covered in blood and dirt and smelled terrible.
“Dog?” she asked, almost in disbelief.
“I’m here Allegra,” he said. “I promised you I’d find a way for us to escape, and now’s that chance.”
“How? The guards and the mines…” she was speaking nonsense and she knew it. Seeing him outside of the Arena seemed so surreal that she couldn’t help but think she was dreaming.
“Do you trust me?” Dog asked.
Allegra nodded without hesitation. She desperately needed to believe in this wonderful fantasy of escaping the Arena that nothing else mattered to her at that point.“Yes.”
“Then come with me,” he said as he held out his hand. She took it.
Dog led Allegra to the back of the house, through the glass sliding doors, and out into the yard.
“I’ll help you over,” Dog said as he pointed to the tall wooden fence. Dog picked her up and boosted her over and he followed close behind, pulling himself up and over with relative ease.
In the distance, Dallas was now screaming.
“Get your fucking ass out here, now! I’m not playing anymore. I don’t care what Ryker thinks you’re worth, I’ll put a bullet in your tits if you make me wait any longer!”
“Come on, let’s keep moving,” Dog instructed as he led them past a row of houses before they entered the narrow side yard of another home and into the back.
“I’m scared,” she said.
“I know you are,” Dog said. “I’m feeling a bit jittery myself, but there’s no turning back now. You’re still with me on this, right?”
“Of course I am.”
They hopped over a few more fences and headed through empty neighbourhoods for what seemed like hours, hiding behind brick houses and bushes when they heard the sounds of the van driving by. They remained hidden behind cover, nervous as they listened to the sounds of the van’s engine and crunching asphalt under its heavy tires while it passed them. Only when the sounds of the van were completely faded did they continue moving again. After a couple more hours of sprinting, climbing fences, and hiding in shrubs, they finally stopped to rest.
Dog opened the glass sliding door of a quaint brown-bricked home and motioned for Allegra to follow him.
They found themselves inside the kitchen of the house. Dog opened the door to the pantry and rummaged around for a few minutes before coming back out with two cans of cola.
“You think pop goes bad?” he asked.
“At this point, I don’t care,” she said as she reached for the can greedily. “I’m dying of thirst.”
Allegra popped the tab and drank deeply from the can. It had been so long since Allegra tasted anything so sweet as she gulped the delicious caramel tasting liquid. Only after she finished the entire contents of the can did she remove it from her lips, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Despite the pop having gone flat, it was still the greatest drink she ever had. Allegra let out a quiet burp.
“Excuse me,” she said, blushing. Dog smiled.
“That good huh?”
“Sorry.”
“It was kind of cute, in a gross way,” he teased.
“Whatever,” she laughed. “If you want to talk about gross, you’re smelling pretty ripe yourself.”
“Yeah,” Dog said. “I should go find something to change into. These clothes are smelling rank. Wait right here.”
Allegra took a seat at the kitchen table and closed her eyes, allowing herself to catch her breath. She was drenched in sweat and her heart was beating rapidly while her lungs seemed to burn from all the sprinting and climbing. She was definitely not in the same shape as Dog was.
A few minutes later, Dog returned to the kitchen in a new brown t-shirt. “We can’t stay here for long,” he said. “Pretty soon, Ryker will have this entire area crawling with guards.”
Allegra had so many questions for Dog but didn’t know where to begin. She decided to start off with the one that had been nagging at her the most while they were playing hide-and-seek with the van.
“How are we going to get out of here?” she asked. “Even if we can escape from the guards, there’s no way we can leave Bimini’s perimeter. We’ll be blown to kingdom come.”
“Yes we can,” Dog said as he pulled something out of his back pocket and showed it to her. It was a GPS tracker for all the mines. Only a select few had access to them and she was shocked to see that Dog came into possession of one.
“How on earth did you get your hands on one of those?”
She almost regretted asking him the question when she saw the look of sadness overcome him. “Garret left it for me,” he said. “The old man also left me a key to the morgue. That’s why I stink. I hid myself in a body bag and they dragged me to the surface thinking I was just another corpse to be burned.”
“Oh my god,” Allegra was aghast.
“Do you believe we can do this?”
“Yes. I trust you,” Allegra said. “You’ll do what’s best for us.”
He n
odded. “Come on then, we better get moving. We’ll try to make it to the condominiums by nightfall. There’s too much open space in the suburban areas. We’ll stay in the condos for the night and we can take it from there.”
“We’re free,” Allegra realized as she smiled.
“Not yet, but soon,” Dog said. “We’ll be free soon.”
Chapter Thirty.
They were careful in taking only routes with plenty of hiding spots. Occasionally, a few vans drove by, but they were well concealed behind the empty buildings in the shopping district. From the sounds of things, Ryker had already started deploying guards in the suburban area, where Allegra was last seen.
She was exhausted but forced herself to keep moving. She wouldn’t allow her physical limitations to be a burden for Dog. They were going to leave Bimini no matter what.
They stopped by a convenience store to look for a few supplies. Most of the food remaining had already been spoiled and there wasn’t much left inside worth salvaging with the exception of two bottles of water, which they both consumed down to the very last drop. Allegra was starving but she tried to ignore it. The thoughts of freedom were more than enough to suppress her hunger.
With each exhaustive step, the towering condos in the distance—blurry pillars from the haze of the sunlight—drew closer. When twilight finally cast its gentle glow across the horizon, they had reached their destination.
“We’ll stay here tonight,” Dog said. “Once we get some rest, we’ll make a break for it a couple hours before the sun rises. Ryker’s men will most likely be exhausted from the search by then.”
They entered through the glass doors of the tallest condominium and walked across the foyer, decorated with artificial trees and a barren stone water fountain.
“The elevators are dead. There’s no electricity here,” Dog said. “We’ll have to take the stairs. Let’s try and get ourselves to a high spot.”
They ascended the winding stairwell. Her calves tightened and her thighs burned as she clung onto the railings, dragging herself up. She wiped sweat from her brow and did her best to keep up with Dog, who kept a modest pace in front of her, traversing each step with relative ease, while the gun dangled loosely around his shoulder.
Allegra realized that he could have left the city long ago without her. However he had come back for her, keeping his promise that they would escape together.
Finally at the twenty-fourth floor, Dog opened the door leading to the hallways. The first condo unit they saw was 2404. Dog turned the handle and gently pushed open the creaking door that was rusted at the hinges.
“This will do,” Dog said as they both entered into the residence. Layers of dust blanketed the condo like snowfall on a winter’s morning. Dog immediately began to sneeze. Allegra was used to the dust on account of all the cleaning she had done in the Arena.
“Will you be alright?” Allegra asked as she wiped her finger on the kitchen’s countertop, revealing black granite underneath the layer of grey powder.
“I’ll be fine,” Dog said.
“Why don’t you search for some food and water while I clean the place a bit? There’s no point in us inhaling this stuff all night if we plan on staying here.”
Dog agreed and he left the apartment in search of supplies for the night. Meanwhile Allegra set to work cleaning up the place. She found towels in the linen closet, which she used to wipe down the dust on the countertops, leather couch, shelves, window sill, and anything else it covered. When she was done, she opened up the taps hoping to get a drink of water, but as she suspected, it was bone dry. The entire city was sucked of its resources with the exception of the Arena. Ryker had generators and water systems built so it could still function properly despite being in a dead city.
Dog finally returned with some canned food, bottled waters, and a can opener.
“Look what I found,” he smiled as he locked the door behind him.
“Is that food?”
He nodded. “I got some canned beans, peaches, and vegetables. Hopefully they’ve kept.”
“I’ll eat anything,” Allegra said. The dinner itself was nothing special, but her hunger had seemed to enhance her taste buds and every morsel of food was sweet and savoury on her tongue. When their meals were done, she was disappointed that there wasn’t more.
“I can’t wait until we’re out of here and can eat some real food,” Allegra said. “I’ll do almost anything for a pizza.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever had any,” Dog said.
“What? Are you serious?”
“When you don’t own a single penny, pizza’s a little difficult to come by,” he sighed.
“That’s the first thing we’ll eat when we’re out of here,” Allegra announced. “A pepperoni and double cheese pizza with thick crust and a mountain of garlic bread accompanied by honey flavoured chicken wings.”
“That sounds amazing,” Dog said.
Allegra took the can of eaten peaches and drank the thick syrup left over at the bottom before sitting back and letting out a sigh.
“You look exhausted,” Dog said. “Why don’t you sleep first. I’ll keep watch of things.”
She agreed and headed into the bedroom and collapsed atop the queen-sized bed and closed her eyes. The last thing she remembered was the sweet taste of peaches on her lips just before she fell into a dreamless sleep.
When Allegra woke from her nap, she noticed Dog standing by the window, peering out into the night. She rose from the bed, walked over to him, and wrapped herself around his massive arm. She felt the tension run down the length of his arm from his shoulders to his fingertips.
“What are you looking at?” Allegra asked. Dog pointed to the orange glow in the distance.
“Ryker’s burning down the houses. He’s trying to smoke us out.” he replied.
The only memories left of the families that lived in this tragic place would soon be reduced to cinder and ashes. It was all so very sad, Allegra thought.
“He won’t find us, will he?” Allegra asked.
“I don’t think so. We gave ourselves some distance. Even if they do decide to scout the condos, there’s way too many rooms in each one for them to check thoroughly,” he said, though Allegra could hear the hint of doubt in his voice.
“It is a rather large place,” Allegra said, trying to reassure both of them.
“Yeah,” Dog agreed. “I don’t think Ryker ever anticipated the slaves escaping from the Arena itself. The only contingency he has outside of the Arena’s walls are the mines. He’ll be relying on that alone to prevent us from escaping but he doesn’t know that I have a GPS.”
Dog looked through the window and up at the sky and smiled. “It’s funny,” he began, “even though I’ve lived outside for so long, I never truly looked at the stars. I guess when we get out of here, I’ll have a new found appreciation of them when I’m sleeping outdoors again.”
Even though there was a smile on his face, Allegra could tell there was sadness behind his words. Dog needed comforting and she owed him that much at least. Allegra leaned forward and closed her eyes, her lips moving slowly towards his.
He drew back from her.
“Why?” she asked. “You love me, I can see it. Why won’t you kiss me?”
Dog shook his head as his face was suddenly wrenched with pain while his words were full of an aching longing. “You don’t love me.”
Allegra felt as if she had been struck. Dog’s words were blunt, but she knew they were also true.
“I’m sorry,” Allegra said. “I want to love you, I really do.”
“Don’t apologize,” he replied. “It’s hard to love a murderous beast. I understand that.”
Allegra shook her head. “No, you’re not a beast. Ryker is.”
“You don’t know the things I’ve done. You don’t know who I am and where I’ve come from. I’m a monster.”
“You’re a victim of circumstance,” Allegra said.
Dog disagreed. “It’s
in my blood. Wherever I go, violence finds me.” He took a step away from her.
“I’m going to sleep for a bit,” Dog said. “If you hear anything, wake me up.”
“I’m sorry,” Allegra repeated.
“Quit apologizing,” Dog said. “I’ll get over it.”
“What if I don’t want you to?”
Dog shook his head. “You’ll forget about me,” he replied. “Just like everyone else always does.”
Chapter Thirty-One.
“Why do you love me?” Allegra whispered aloud as she glanced over at Dog, who slept soundly in the bed, the gun resting beside him. She wanted to forget the look of hurt on Dog’s face, but she couldn’t get it out of her head.
Underneath that monstrous tattooed body of his, Dog was as brittle and broken as she was. Allegra cared for Dog and she felt safe when he was around, but to love him was something else entirely. She tried to picture a future with Dog, but it was difficult. Casting a long shadow over him were the bodies and the ghosts of the Arena.
She often wondered if given another time and another place, if it was even possible for them to have a relationship like they had now.
“Why do you love me?” she whispered again.
Allegra was not deserving of anyone’s love. She had failed so many people in her life: all the boys that died because of her inability to save them. The one that haunted her the most was her brother. Her stubbornness resulted in his death and her imprisonment. If only she had swallowed her pride, she wouldn’t have left the house that night dramatically after such a trivial argument with her parents. Allegra’s sole purpose at the time was to punish her mother and father; to make them worry and she knew her leaving the house in the middle of the night would do just that.
Of course, Allegra’s brother found her and convinced her to come back home. He was always good at bringing her back when she went off on her self-centered tantrums. He calmed her and promised that he would always be on her side.