Gladiator

by Barry Solway

  As she landed on the ground, yelling from above drew her attention up. The boys and Gorgeous climbed down in a rush, almost out of control. Gorgeous waved to them, but Mel didn’t understand what she wanted.

  She jumped down next to Mel. “Run! The branches were touching higher up and the frogs crossed to the new tree. Get out!”

  Mel pushed Evan and Sharon forward, just as Jon and Jeff hit the ground. They ran, with Evan trying to beat a path forward. Mel followed Evan as Sharon fell behind her and then Gorgeous and the boys took up the rear. Mel didn’t know how long they ran for, but eventually they came to a clearing. Vines and other jungle growth covered a wide slab of white concrete-like material. Chunks of the concrete poked out of the foliage at odd angles. Mel thought it was probably a building that had crumbled over.

  Evan leaned up against a large boulder, panting and unable to talk. Mel jogged to a stop next to him to catch her breath, turning around to see how the others were doing. But no one else came out of the jungle.

  Chapter 29

  Mel listened, but couldn’t hear the croaking. They had lost the frogs. But they had apparently lost Sharon and the others as well. Unsure of what to do, Mel put her hands to her mouth and called out. But the sound seemed to get swallowed by the jungle and she didn’t hear a reply. She noticed she could hear the wildlife again. Another sign they had escaped the frogs.

  “Where is everyone?” Evan asked.

  Mel paced in front of the boulder, scanning the pathway. “I don’t know. They might have turned a different way.”

  “You don’t think… did the land piranhas get them?”

  Mel shook her head. “I have no idea. I didn’t hear any screams, though.” But she wasn’t sure she would have heard any screams, not if they were too far away.

  She crouched down, holding her head in her hands. What happened? Why had the frogs chased them like that? Maybe the information on the frogs was wrong. Like how you were supposed to play dead for one kind of bear and act big to scare away another kind, and everyone always got the kinds of bears confused.

  She grabbed Evan. “This is a mess, but we don’t have many choices. We can see the spire, there,” she said, pointing it out. They were a bit closer to it than the last time they checked. “Everyone knows to meet there, so that’s where we go. The others will make it out. We have to take care of ourselves. Maybe if we can reach the goal, we can end the game before anyone gets hurt.”

  “Okay. I hope they’re okay. That whole thing was insane—” Evan cut off in mid-sentence and screamed, pointing behind Mel. Mel spun and almost had a heart attack as a form crashed out of the jungle. But she caught herself as she realized it was Gorgeous.

  “There you are! I thought I heard yelling,” Gorgeous said.

  “Oh my god, Gorgeous! Sharon, Jeff? Did you see them?” Mel said.

  “Sharon was ahead of me, but disappeared. I realized she went the wrong way and I tried to go back after her, but I lost her. Jon and Jeff were behind me at one point, but I lost them looking for Sharon. Then I heard you yell, so I ran this way.”

  Damn. Sharon was potentially on her own. Mel hoped she would keep her head about her and remember to meet at the spire. But there was nothing they could do about it now. Looking for her in this mess would be a waste of time. The better bet would be to win the game as quickly as possible and hope Sharon didn’t die in the meantime.

  “We need to head to the spire and meet the others there,” Mel said. “Let’s get out of here.”

  The going became much easier, and Mel finally realized it was because they were getting closer to the city center. The jungle was pervasive, but it was growing over and around half-crumpled buildings that slowed it somewhat. There were fewer trees and they weren’t as large. Mel guessed that the wide expanse they walked on now might have been a road or even a highway at one point. They had to climb over mounds of concrete, but it was faster progress than before.

  As they got even closer to the blue zone, the crumbled concrete gave way to buildings that still stood, although just barely. The buildings were four to six stories high and Mel could see concrete and glass. Vegetation grew all over the surfaces and had crept through the windows. The image of a building screaming as the vines slowly crawled down its throat stuck in Mel’s mind.

  Evan stopped at the doorway of one building, trying to peer in through the gloom. Mel urged him to continue on, but he held her back. “No, look. The vegetation’s been cleared out around the door. There’s something in there.”

  “You shouldn’t go in. There could be predators. Or the building might collapse.”

  Evan shrugged. “The building is fine. Just give me a second. I think it’s a pack.” Evan scooted forward and shined his flashlight into the door. Half a dozen birds flew out of a broken window, squawking loudly and causing Mel to jump.

  Evan was right, there was a pack. They opened it to find four EM pistols and a pouch of extra rounds. She took two of the pistols and gave one to Gorgeous and Evan. Gorgeous hadn’t trained much with the firearms and didn’t really want it, but Mel didn’t have use for a third one. They also found several long machetes that Gorgeous eagerly snatched, and an assortment of small vials of liquid. Evan stuffed the rest into his pack.

  “The vials might be medicine,” Evan said.

  “Maybe,” Mel replied. “Or just as likely it’s poison. We shouldn’t use it unless you know for sure.” Evan smiled, but it was forced and Mel thought he looked sick.

  They continued on, trying to move fast while keeping an eye out for predators and the other team. At that point, the buildings were getting bigger, around ten stories, and Mel could see that the spire was less than a quarter mile away. The buildings near the spire were twenty to thirty stories tall, with the spire being at least forty.

  Mel pulled Evan and Gorgeous to a stop. “We have to be careful. We’re in the blue zone, or close. The other team will be nearby.” Evan nodded and they continued on more carefully until they were a few blocks from the spire. At that point, there were patches of concrete and an asphalt-like material they could walk on for long stretches.

  Raising an arm, Evan stopped them and pointed to a clump of vines near a building. Walking towards it, he motioned for the others to follow. “There’s something there, in the vines. If it’s what I think it is, we need to check it out.”

  Mel and Gorgeous kept watch while Evan dug into the vines. A few moments later, he pulled back, gently cradling a long, tapering tube with small fins on one end.

  “What is that?” Mel said, stepping away from Evan. “It looks like a missile.”

  “Kind of. It’s an artillery round deployed during the civil war, but that never exploded. Anna warned us about these in the presentation a few nights ago, remember?”

  “Uh. Sure. Kind of. Not really.” Mel looked up and the down the street nervously. “We’re really exposed here. What are you planning to do with it?”

  Evan pointed to the closest building. “Anna and I discussed ways of using them as weapons if we ever found one. Let’s go in there. I need to get some water and we can see if we can rig the explosives on this thing.”

  “Are you sure that thing’s okay to move?”

  “Sure,” Evan said. “It’ll be fine.”

  He carried it through a gaping hole where the doorway had been and into a small lobby area. Across the lobby was a wall with square metal doors that may have been elevators once.

  They all took long sips of water and ate some of their rations, which Mel thought were made from the same porridge they’d been eating for weeks, but with something added to make them chewy like fruit bars.

  “What’s your idea, Evan?” Gorgeous asked.

  Evan disassembled the top part of the round and it hung from the rest of the tube by a few wires. “I’d be afraid to carry this thing around the battlefield. After seventy-five years, it may be unstable and could blow up if it gets dropped. But maybe we can rig it to blow here.”

  Mel’s voic
e rose in surprise. “I thought you said it was safe to move.”

  “It’s fine to move short distances. I’m afraid of dropping it, or someone shooting at it, that’s all.”

  “Okay, I guess,” Mel said. “Try not to blow us up, please.” Evan’s face turned scarlet and Mel immediately regretted what she’d said. “I mean… it’s good, Evan. You’re doing good. This is a great idea, really. Just be careful.”

  Evan stopped moving but didn’t look up at Mel. “I just thought… maybe it would be a good distraction. Or something.” He looked at the bomb without moving. “Maybe this is a bad idea.”

  “No. This is exactly what we need, you doing weird stuff I don’t understand to help keep us alive. I’m sorry I said that. I trust you, okay? You can do this.”

  Evan nodded again and went back to the round. “I’m not sure how powerful it will be. We can plant it on the wall by the doorway. At least it should create a lot of noise when it blows.”

  “If we leave it here, how do we make it explode?” Gorgeous asked.

  “We can make a really simple AM transmitter and receiver from the firing mechanism and parts from one of the EM pistols,” Evan said, removing the pistol Mel had given him earlier. “I worked it out with Anna a few nights ago. It won’t have a huge range, maybe half a mile, but it’s the best I can do here.”

  Evan set to work, while Mel paced the lobby, forcing herself to not rush him. Finally satisfied with his work, Evan placed the round against the wall near the entrance. He held up the half-disassembled pistol.

  “I’ve rigged the pistol to act as a transmitter. When you press the trigger, it will send out a high-pitched tone on an AM frequency. When the receiver picks it up, it should send a signal to the firing mechanism and blow the bomb.”

  “Is that like AM radio?” Mel asked. “Why can’t we use that to build walkie-talkies?”

  “We could, in theory. Except I don’t have a mic or a speaker. You could make that too, or salvage parts, but it would take hours. You ready to go?”

  Evan tucked the bomb trigger into the back of his pants and the three of them returned to the street. As Mel froze in her tracks, Evan ran into her from behind.

  “Whoops, Mel, what’s—” Evan said. “Oh.”

  Three figures stood in the middle of the street, less than a block away. The tentacle-headed aliens Soryda and Carun, with Red Shirt crouched behind a broken chunk of concrete. The two larger aliens stared at the three of them, but didn’t move forward. Mel noticed both were armed with a staff. Gorgeous tensed next to Mel, the long machete-like knives out. Mel didn’t go for her pistols yet. She didn’t want the other team to know she had them.

  But she couldn’t figure out what they were doing.

  “What are they waiting for?” Gorgeous asked. Nervous energy radiated from Gorgeous, which made Mel feel better about the amount of terror she was feeling.

  “I don’t know,” Mel responded, but her attention wasn’t on Soryda and Carun. She looked past them at Red Shirt and a warning went off in her head. Red Shirt had been there when the frogs attacked. He had been in the path of the oncoming wave of frogs but was still alive. But he wasn’t looking at Mel and the others. He was looking behind them.

  Mel spun around and screamed at the sight of two large cat-like creatures crouched twenty yards away. Squished faces, almost more like a pug than a cat, along with the abnormally long neck and legs, gave them an alien quality. Their bellies hugged the ground as they stalked towards Mel and her friends. Gorgeous spun around, her knives out. At Mel’s scream, the cats stood up, pacing side to side. Every time they turned, they got just a bit closer to Mel and the others.

  Mel drew her pistols, then yelled as Evan raised his improvised detonator and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. Cursing, Evan spun and ran back into the building.

  “Evan, no!” But there wasn’t time to follow him. The two cats were too close and had returned to stalking mode, preparing to jump the distance between them.

  “Should we run?” Mel asked, trying to split her attention between the cats and the three aliens behind them. Scratch that, two aliens. Red Shirt had disappeared again.

  “Don’t turn your back,” Gorgeous said. “Back up slowly into the building, and follow Evan.”

  Mel nodded, keeping her pistols trained on the cats. Soryda and Carun continued to watch, waiting to see what would happen. As Mel took a step, the two cats launched forward.

  Mel fell back, firing on reflex, aiming both pistols at one of the cats. Surprisingly, Gorgeous didn’t run but stepped forward. Gorgeous slid under the animal as it jumped, her knives in front of her. Both of the knives plunged into the cat’s abdomen. Gorgeous hung onto the blades as the animal wailed and somersaulted in the air, crashing on its back with Gorgeous on top. The cat rolled as Gorgeous jumped free, but she came to her feet still holding one of the knives. Red blood dripped from the cat’s stomach as the other knife quivered in its belly.

  Mel barely registered that flurry of activity as she landed hard on the ground. She rolled sideways and came up to one knee, continuing to fire as the other giant cat sprinted directly at her. She fired three shots from each pistol in the space of a second, but the cat didn’t stop. Pedaling backwards, she screamed as she fired another three rounds, then dived to her left just as the cat reached her. Landing hard on one shoulder, she forced herself to move and get the pistols around. A moment later, she realized the cat was dead. Blood dripped from multiple wounds in its head, including a direct hit to an eye. She wasn’t sure when it died, but its own momentum must have carried it forward.

  She almost laughed, as crazy as it was, but then remembered Gorgeous. Spinning around, she raised her pistols just in time to see Gorgeous pull a knife out of the cat’s stomach, as it twitched on the ground. Mel turned to look for Soryda and Carun, but they weren’t at the end of the street. Turning back to Gorgeous, she was knocked off her feet as something struck her from behind.

  “I’ll take those,” a voice said from behind her. Groaning, she crawled to her knees, realizing she had dropped her pistols. The smaller alien, Soryda, was bending down to pick them up, pointing one at Mel. Carun crouched behind her, holding tightly to his staff.

  Mel began to stand just as Evan burst from the building and ran past them.

  “The bomb, the bomb!” he yelled. “Run!”

  With a quick glance at Soryda, Mel raced after Evan. She had enough experience with falling buildings and exploding bombs to take that warning seriously. Gorgeous was right behind her. Soryda and Carun stared at them in surprise, before they both decided that running was the better part of valor. They followed them, but angled off slightly. Soryda raised a pistol but then apparently thought better of it and tucked it into her waistband as she ran.

  They made it half a block away when a thunderous roar erupted behind them. A wave of heat and smoke overtook them as the ground shook.

  “Damn. That was stronger than I expected,” Evan gasped. He helped Mel regain her balance, then turned back to check on Gorgeous. Mel could see the bodies of Soryda and Carun sprawled less than thirty yards away, on the other side of the street. Soryda rose to her knees, then turned to Carun, shaking him.

  “That was crazy,” Evan said, his face as white as a ghost. “I think we should be okay now.”

  “We need to get farther away,” Mel said. “Trust me, if that building comes down, we’re dead.”

  With Gorgeous in the lead, they jogged farther up the block. The ground shook as the building began to vibrate. Clouds of choking dust wafted past them. Soryda and Carun stumbled up the street, but then Mel lost them in a cloud of dust. In a renewed burst of dust and noise, the front half of the building cracked and slid into the street.

  Two blocks away, Mel and Gorgeous staggered to a halt, Evan just behind them. The two aliens were half a block back, Soryda half-carrying Carun down the street. New tremors shook the ground and Mel noticed a crack running through the middle of the street.

  “
Get off the road!” she yelled, pushing Gorgeous off to the side. A giant fissure formed in the roadway, caving inwards on itself. Jungle vegetation and broken asphalt tumbled into a dust-filled darkness. Mel and Gorgeous ran to the doorway of the closest building and turned back to a scene of devastation. The gap in the road widened. Soryda and Carun were on the other side of the street when the ground buckled beneath them and the road under Carun disappeared. Mel could hear the scream as Soryda reached out to her husband, her hand inches away from his as he plunged over the edge.

  A moment later, Mel reached out futilely as the same thing happened to Evan.

  Chapter 30

  The scene played out in Mel’s mind, over and over, like a glitch in her brain. Evan, a yard away, hand outstretched as he fell backwards, down and away. Surprise and confusion on his face. Mel reaching out and brushing the tip of his fingers before the ground dropped away and he was gone.

  Grimness set in, a kind of apathy, as if it was dangerous to feel anything. Anger, grief, even laughter would have felt more normal than this strange nothingness. She hadn’t yelled for him and Evan hadn’t screamed. He had disappeared in silence, an echo of the emptiness she felt now.

  Shaking her head, she tried to interrupt the loop. Outwardly, Gorgeous was taking it harder than Mel. All Mel could do was stare down into the blackness and dust, while Gorgeous crawled on her knees to the edge, frantically yelling Evan’s name. Mel slowly woke from her stupor and pulled Gorgeous away. Evan was gone and they had other places to be.

  Soryda lay unmoving on the other side of the chasm. One arm hung over the edge. Mel wondered if she was injured or possibly dead. Carun had been her husband. She couldn’t quite imagine what that must feel like, to lose the one you love, and like this. On the other hand, Mel couldn’t imagine why two people who seemed to care about each other would volunteer to be in this hellhole.

  Gorgeous gave her remaining pistol to Mel. For a moment, she considered shooting Soryda; she had a clean shot at maybe twenty yards. The thought brought up a momentary swell of disgust with herself. Soryda was defenseless and had just lost her husband. And Mel’s first thought was to murder her. The extent to which she had changed in the few weeks she had been a prisoner and combatant suddenly weighed heavily on her. Would she eventually overcome these changes and become herself again? What if this was who she really was? Her core, cold-blooded and murderous, shining brightly.