“I die, you die.” I spat bloody saliva onto the floor as she was hauled off of me, kicking and screaming like a hellcat. “Now, you can’t leave me behind.”
“Natalia, we have no time for this,” Amelia said in a rush. Chuka and the middle-aged man were already gone, taking their leave during the scuffle. Our numbers dwindled. “We must go.”
The hatred in Natalia’s eyes promised torture. “You just made a very grave mistake, mouse.”
“And I could have left you all down there, but I didn’t.” I rose to my feet and wiped at my copper-slicked lips. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 10
Lea Vs. Zombies
With no choice but to press on, Natalia shoved my shoulder spitefully as we moved forward. Amelia took point, a crowbar in her hands, and Natalia and I trailed her. A brunet with a barbell pierced through his eyebrow brought up the rear behind a pretty college girl with pale hair.
Our group had gone from ten to five in less than thirty minutes. At least two of our teammates were dead, and three had deserted us. I hoped Grant was having better luck. Or maybe not, since his luck would inadvertently harm mine.
The corridor we followed was riddled with boobytraps. Our progress slowed as we ducked and weaved through swinging blades, sizzling-hot lasers, and floor tiles that disintegrated underfoot. Natalia and I had a hell of a time doing it while still shackled together, but we managed.
If I hadn’t tossed the keys, she’d have shoved me over the edge to get eaten. I was sure of it.
At long last, we poured from the mouth of the narrow hall into a large room. Debris littered the ground like the ceiling had collapsed in several places, and I wondered if it was evidence of the other team. Had they already been here?
“Come on!” Barbell barked, stepping into the room only to trip a wire and fall straight through the floor. His scream cut off quickly as he was impaled by ten-foot-high spikes. The body slid down an inch, the metal glistening with bodily fluids, and I bent at the waist and emptied the contents of my stomach onto the cement floor.
“What’s wrong, mouse?” Natalia sneered. “Never seen a dead body before?”
Bile and sour spit dribbled past my lips as I shot her a glare. “Fuck you, ice queen.”
She shrugged off the insult. “Tread carefully, unless you want your brains on the walls.”
With that macabre advice, we cautiously shuffled across the floor. Each step was torture, the mental stress cramping my brain. Would this step be my last? Did I even want to survive this? I really shouldn’t have drunk so much last night.
Amelia had reached the center of the room, a stone’s throw in front of Natalia and I, and she turned around with a smug grin. “Almost there.” She waved her crowbar in triumph, and a red laser gleamed off the iron.
“Amelia!” Natalia’s warning was met with the splatter of warmth on my face as a spinning saw erupted from the ground and split Amelia’s body in two. The halves crumpled to the floor with a wet splat.
The blood and brains on my face should have broken me, but I was too numb to truly understand my current, gruesome state. My breathing was shallow and my ears rang, but I didn’t cry. No, I side-stepped the grisly remains and ducked below the laser beam.
With a tug on the chain, Natalia halted my progress, and I glanced at her. She grinned wickedly, and my heart leapt to my throat.
“Watch your arm,” she instructed before she waved her hand in the laser’s beam, tripping the saw.
“No!” I threw myself backward as the ground shook, and cool metal teased the edge of my fingertips as the saw spun between us.
Amelia’s mutilated body exploded into smaller pieces as the blade sliced through the chain tethering me to Natalia like it was made of butter. Without her counterweight, I tumbled to the floor, and I took cover in preparation for another trap.
When none was triggered, I peeked through my arms. Natalia, satisfied to no longer be attached to me, gathered the severed pieces of her friend and tossed the body parts ahead of her, carving a path through the obstacle course. The pale-haired college student followed after her, matching every step Natalia took.
As they reached the metal door at the end of the hall, Natalia faced me, a chilly smile tugging on her lips. With Amelia’s discarded crowbar, she waved then chucked the damn thing right at me as I stumbled my way back to the trail she’d left in her wake.
“Natalia!” I screamed as the crowbar hit the ground, the stone floor depressing with a metallic clunk, and I had no time to save myself as the ground within a fifteen-foot radius crumbled like sand. “You bitch!”
My insult was lost as my footing evaporated, and gravity grasped my ankles and pulled. I plunged into darkness, Natalia’s smug grin mocking me as I fell.
I plummeted through pitch darkness, my body sliding into some type of tube as I dove ever deeper. It rode like a slide, but I was too terrified to enjoy the thrill. The moment my panic ebbed, I shot out of the tunnel, hitting slick, rocky ground and rolling.
I landed with my face in damp earth. I coughed, raising my head to investigate my surroundings.
Mounds of debris littered the floor beneath random openings in the ceiling. Some piles were simply smashed pieces of wooden beams or rock while others were broken weapons.
Staggering to my feet, I stumbled around the room in search of an exit. Several tunnels branched from the room, all dark as pitch and ominous. The air thickened with the foul stench of rotting corpses. Judging from the crunching bones beneath my boots, I feared I had fallen right into the zombies’ den.
Guttural moans and blood-chilling shrieks echoed eerily through the air, bouncing off the rock walls. I couldn’t tell where they came from, but my bones rattled as they grew in volume. The zombies were coming home after a long day of munching bodies.
I tripped over a still gooey skeleton, bodily fluids slicking my boot. Swallowing back bile, I peeked into one of the many tunnels burrowing deeper into the earth. My gut clenched, stagnant air beading my forehead with sweat, and I heeded the instinctual warning and moved on to the next archway.
The slightest breeze tickled my curls as I stood at the mouth of the next corridor, and I inhaled fresher air. This was the exit. Relief tore through me, and I stepped over the threshold only to pause when the most unexpected sound cut through the reverberating cries of the undead.
“Help,” a feeble voice pleaded, and I scanned the empty room. “Someone help me, please!”
Following the direction of the voice, I came upon a pile of fallen debris. A pair of short, slender arms poked out of the mound, their hands grasping the air in desperation.
“Please! Is someone there?” The tearful voice tugged on my heartstrings, but I hesitated, my tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth.
Was she a zombie, too? Was this a trap?
I eyed the splintered wood and crumbling rocks, debating whether to start digging or simply sneak away quietly. The shrieks of my ravenous hunters rang in my ears. My heart hammered at the threat. They would be here soon, and I needed all the head start I could manage.
But could I possibly leave someone behind like this? Was I the type of person to abandon a stranger to die alone?
No, I couldn’t.
Pushing past my self-preservation, I groaned and shoved several planks to the floor. Boulders the size of my torso stacked in an unstable pile, and I gritted my teeth and utilized whatever strength remained in my noodle-arms to roll them to the floor.
The timid, feminine voice had gone silent, the occasional twitch of her fingers the only indication she was still alive. It took me longer than I would’ve liked, but soon, I had cleared enough of the debris to free her. Grasping her wrists, I dragged the woman out of the pile, liberating her legs.
Only, it wasn’t a woman. The unconscious body belonged to that of a small child, no more than eight. Scratches and several bruises covered her exposed skin, and one of her pigtails had come undone. She reminded me so much of my sister, Megan. I panicked a
t first, wondering how she’d ended up here. After a second glance, I understood it wasn’t Megan but an unfamiliar child.
What was she doing in here?
My thoughts were interrupted as snarls reverberated around the room, shadows playing along the walls from one of the tunnels opposite us. We needed to hurry.
Unsure what else to do, I picked the little girl up and positioned her comatose body until her legs wrapped around my waist, her head on my shoulder. She would slow me down, but I couldn’t leave her. She’d be zombie food, and I couldn’t let that happen.
With muscles shaking from exhaustion, I locked away my terror and stumbled back to the hallway. The breeze was stronger now, cooling my sweaty face, and I almost sobbed. I tightened my grip on the precious cargo in my arms as the first limping, decomposing body entered the room.
Fuck.
Charging into the corridor, I tried to relax my tense body as fear threatened to consume me. I couldn’t panic now. Not until we were safe.
The tunnel was dimly illuminated by single torches spaced too far apart to offer sufficient light. Shadowed walls hinted at untold dangers, yet, I couldn’t pause to check if there were boobytraps. I had no choice but to flee and hope for the best. The alternative was staying here to become zombie chow.
As I rounded a sharp corner, I skidded to a stop with a yelp. Crushed under the weight of two boulders the size of two of me was Ye-jun. I only knew it was him because his bloated head had somehow escaped the squashing. His face was discolored and frozen in an expression of agony, and his lifeless eyes stared at me from the grave.
Regardless of the fact he’d abandoned me and our team hours before, I still pitied him. No one should die alone, squished like a pancake under rock and cement. Even selfish jerks who had obviously left a child buried under rubble to save their own skin.
I shook my head to clear my mind as I skirted around the dead body. I had more important things to worry about right now, like the horde of undead nipping at our heels.
After a quick glance behind me, my hysteria kicked into high gear as a horrifyingly familiar figure gained on us. Knobbly Knees, the young girl from the first task, gave chase, her pubescent face decayed and sunken. She was missing one eye, and skin sloughed off her jaw, revealing jagged, dark teeth.
Becoming zombies was so not in the fine print!
Or maybe it was. I still hadn’t read it.
The child in my arms stirred, her hands tightening on the back of my neck, and I cradled her close as I forced my jelly-legs to run faster. “It’s okay,” I panted in her ear. “It’s gonna be okay. I’ve got you.”
Of course, the moment the reassurances passed my lips, I tripped. The girl tumbled to the rocky ground with a cry, and I screamed as clammy, dead fingers wrapped around my ankle. My fingernails dug into earth as I was dragged backward, and hot, searing pain roared up my leg as teeth ripped into my calf.
“Fuck!” I shrieked, turning and kicking Knobbly Knees in the face. Her jaw shattered, disintegrating on impact. I gagged as putrid blood soaked into my pants. “Fucking die, you rotting bitch!”
Using my heel, I smashed her face in until I broke through her skull, and her body finally went still. Squirming out from beneath the dead weight, I crawled across the floor to the whimpering child.
“It’s okay. Come here, sweetie. Everything’s okay.”
She gladly wrapped her arms around my neck again as more putrefying bodies limped into view. Groping hands reached out for us, and I finally succumbed to the terror. We were going to die. I was going to die… again.
Tears tracked down my face as I pressed back into wall, trapped as the corpses of those lost in the first task converged on us. There was no escape. This was it. This was the end.
“Above us,” the girl whispered urgently, and I craned my neck to follow her pointing finger.
A tiny cubbyhole big enough for a child burrowed into the wall above our heads, and I acted without thought. “Up you go.” I hoisted her into the air, supporting her weight as she scrambled into the hole, out of reach of the creatures.
“But, but…”
There wasn’t room for me, and I couldn’t reach it anyway. I was too short, and she wasn’t strong enough to pull me up after her. There was no miracle for me, but she’d be okay. At least, for now. As the zombies chomped away on my body, maybe she could make her escape.
“It’s okay.” I smiled tearfully as cold fingers fisted into the back of my shirt, and her big brown eyes watered. “It’ll be okay. Just don’t look.”
The darkness threatened to swallow me whole, and I surrendered. Images of inky hair, rose petal lips, and eyes dark as winter cocoa swam in my vision, comforting me as the end drew nearer. Dying was going to suck donkey balls, but at least I had this moment to cling to before the inevitable biting and tearing started.
“Take my hand,” the little girl ordered, her voice stronger than before, much less childlike, and I met her suddenly unfazed gaze. “Lea! Take my hand.”
There was no logical reason to obey, yet the aged confidence in her young face compelled me. And she knew my name. How did she know my name?
“Take my hand.”
So, I did.
The moment our fingers twined, the air vibrated, and the hallway lit like the surface of the sun. The zombies wailed, and I squeezed my eyes shut to protect my retinas from the scalding light. Just as quickly as it began, the light blinked out. I slumped to my knees. Perplexed, I let my gaze explore the now empty corridor; the zombies had disappeared.
“What the…” I drifted off as I raised my head to find the little girl. Except she, too, was gone. I was alone.
Panicked, I searched my surroundings for evidence of the child, but somehow, she must have escaped during the solar flare. Or she’d been eaten already. My brain cramped, my logic lost. None of this made sense.
“Lea.” My name floated lazily on the breeze cooling my sweaty face, and I staggered to my feet.
At the end of the tunnel was a hidden door outlined in light, and a hysterical mix between a laugh and sob scraped my throat at the irony. I was literally walking toward the light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe I really was dead.
It seemed to take forever, but I finally reached the slab of rock. This would probably open to another room of horrors, but my only other choice was returning to the zombie den. And that was out of the question.
Exhaustion hung from my limbs, but I gritted my teeth and placed my palms on the jagged surface. I pushed with whatever reserve of strength I possessed, and inch by excruciating inch, the rock wall shifted. It creaked and groaned, and light streamed through the growing crack, blinding me. But I didn’t stop until I could wedge myself through the opening.
Clawing my way to freedom, I shrieked as my body finally surged through, and I fell to my hands and knees, my palms slapping against sleek marble. Bodies swarmed me, and I screamed in terror as I flailed in defense. The zombies had found me again.
“Lea, calm down.” A familiar male with graying hair crouched before me, wearing light purple scrubs—the doctor who wrapped my knuckles yesterday. “We need to stop the bleeding.”
“Huh?”
He repeated himself as a nurse jabbed a needle into my ravaged leg. I balked at the torn flesh where Knobbly Knees had feasted. The world tilted. Uh-oh.
Sharp ammonia stung my nose, and I gasped into consciousness. I was still lying on the marble floor, only this time, I managed to make sense of my surroundings. The medical team backed away from me when I smacked the packet of smelling salts out of the doctor’s hand. I struggled to my feet in a brightly lit room where Death and his entourage stood on a raised platform and my fellow competitors panted behind me.
Blinking through blurry eyes, I met Grant’s dark stare from across the room. His jaw was taut, his expression filled with a mixture of relief and regret. My face lit in an exhausted smile. As angry as I was with him, I was grateful he was alive.
“Welcome back,” Death call
ed from the top of the stairs, flanked by his black-hooded assistants. He clapped his pale hands together before addressing the entire group. “Now that everyone’s here, we’ll announce the scores.”
I already knew the scores. Since I was the last to arrive, my team had lost because of me. I’d just condemned them to a fate of mindless service. Or being a zombie. I couldn’t decide which was worse.
As the adrenaline wore off, I locked my shaky legs and surveyed the remaining contestants. I looked away from Schmidt, Grant, and a nameless female to check how the others had faired. Natalia stood beside Chuka, the only ones of my team to have made it to the finish line, and if looks could kill, I would have been incinerated from the heat of her glower.
Death gestured to Grant’s small group, a calculating grin curling his lips. “Group one made it out of the task first, and is, therefore, the winning—”
A small figure blanketed in dark, hooded robes sidled up next to Death and tugged on his sleeve. His white hair rippled over his face as he stooped to meet the shorter’s height, inclining his head. I couldn’t hear the whispers, and Death’s face gave nothing away as he listened to the newcomer.
He nodded once before straightening and clearing his throat. “Forgive the interruption. It appears there has been a change to the rules.”
“A change?” Natalia’s anger shifted from me to Death, her nostrils flaring.
He nodded. “Yes. Certain circumstances have come to light, and we’ve reconsidered our position.”
“Hey, asshole, that’s not fair!” Schmidt shouted from beside Grant, his glare set on Death. “We made it through first! You can’t go changing the rules anytime you damn well please, you fucker. We deserve to—”
Death flicked his wrist, and the ground opened beneath Schmidt. He didn’t even get the chance to scream before the earth swallowed him whole.
“Anyone else have something to say?” he asked casually, as if he hadn’t just murdered someone in front of us. Not that I minded too much. Schmidt was an ass, and I was past the point of feeling anything but apathy.
The Death Games Page 11