by Chad Leito
“Agreed, Iggy,” Tom Bernard said. “It appears as though the mass murderer Tonya Wolf and two of her teammates, Ned Tunk and Marcy Tull have been taken out. The Boxers now only have four teammates remaining in the competition.”
So that’s their names, Ned and Marcy, Baggs thought. And Tonya is dead. Wow. It was hard to believe that the same Tonya Wolf that he had just argued with before the competition started was now deceased. It also means that the four of us are going to have to be some of the fastest on the sand to make it to the ladder; we can’t hope that our teammates will do it for us anymore.
They ran, taking the second corridor at their absolute fastest pace. Spinks was hot on Baggs’s heels, but Larry and Hailey Vixen were falling behind, often trading positions for last place.
I’m glad I haven’t smoked at all this past week, Baggs thought.
He led them, making quick turns and often going down long straightaways. He lost track of time and of how many turns he made. Each time he rounded a corner he had a surreal feeling that they were about to come face to face with a lion. Around the arena, people were screaming and lions roared—the sounds were deep, loud, and furious. The crowd was a constant white noise of clapping and hollering coming from all around. The announcers on the HoloVision Box commented on the contestants dying as the audience ate junk food, relaxed and tried to enjoy the show.
Baggs took a left turn and Spinks yelled from behind him, “I think we’ve been here before; we’re going in circles.”
Baggs didn’t think so. But on second thought, that decapitated corpse looks familiar; didn’t I jump over that a few moments ago?
Baggs didn’t know. There was no way of telling. He had been running at a full-out sprint for the past two minutes, pulling and pushing with his abs and arms, launching his body forward, one step at a time, with his agonized legs. He didn’t pay attention to the pain, or how tight his chest felt, or how much sweat ran down his hot face and into his beard; I will run until my legs fall off, he thought. But it’s no use if we’re going in circles.
Baggs looked at the corridor beyond the corpse and saw a right turn, which seemed to lead to the ladder, followed by a spot on the left wall that had a hole in it big enough for a human to crawl through. Yes, we have been here before, he thought. He had taken the right turn a few moments ago, and it had led him back to this spot. “You’re right,” he said back to Spinks. He huffed in a few breaths before saying, “sorry.”
She didn’t respond. He could hear her panting behind him. He kept moving with long strides; he leapt over the corpse, went past the opening on the right and then looked up to see something that brought an electrifying fear into his chest and throat. Dozens of yards away, three people were climbing the ladder up to the HoloVision Box; two of the people wore gold armor and the third wore green and red. That’s two teams! Only three more will be allowed inside the safe room!
He couldn’t imagine the terrified dismay he would feel if he learned that the safe room door had locked and he was damned to run around the maze until lions overcame him.
Baggs slid to a stop, got down on his hands and knees, and then crawled through the hole in the left wall. I hope that this is the right way, he thought. He got out onto the other side and stood, looking around as Spinks, Hailey and Larry crawled through.
“The Tigers and the Crows have both made it to the safe room now,” came Tom Bernard’s voice from the speakers. “Just in time, too. Here comes the second batch of lions.”
Spinks cursed. “It feels like we’ve been in here longer than three minutes.” Her face was blotchy with patches of pink on her cheeks and neck that matched her hair.
Baggs imagined Tessa sitting on the Linstrom’s saggy, patched couch as she watched the television. I hope she’s not watching this. He thought back to the night before he left and walked to the Media Tower. He remembered lying in bed with her for three hours while she slept. I wish I had stayed four. I wish I could live through that time again. Tears welled up in his eyes and he purposefully bit his tongue hard enough to draw blood. This isn’t the time to be remorseful, damn it!
Baggs and the others were in a long corridor they had never seen before; they could either turn right or left. Both passages split off into many adjacent hallways. The right side had a series of seven corpses lying atop the sand; all of the bodies belonged to the same team, Baggs noted, looking at their green and pink colored armor. Six of the corpses were on their backs with dead, unseeing eyes gazing up at the sky. One of the corpses had sand on its exposed eyeball, but it didn’t seem to mind. It appeared as though each of the corpses had been killed in the same manner; deep puncture wounds ran along the sides of the corpses’ necks; The same lion probably killed every one—it probably grabbed the backs of their necks in its jaws, shook the people, broke their spinal cords, and then moved onto the next one. This sight disturbed Baggs, bringing on a wave of nausea. In Ancient Rome, the lions entered the arena hungry so that they would be more likely to want to eat the gladiators. The lion that did this wasn’t hungry, it just wanted to kill people. All of the meat on these corpses is still there.
Spinks, Larry and Hailey all looked up at Baggs with exhausted, sunken-in eyes, waiting for him to make his decision. He noted that he was now the only one of them still carrying his sword; the others had dropped theirs along the way, presumably because of the weight. We’ve been lucky so far, Baggs thought. I don’t think we’ll go on much longer without running into a hostile team, or worse, a hostile lion. Then we might wish we still had those weapons.
Not wanting to break for much longer, Baggs turned left and they began to run over the sand. Baggs’s sandals were slick beneath his sweaty feet and his arches were swelling significantly. Again he thought, I will run until my legs fall off. In his adrenaline-fueled state it was as though he was aware of the pain, but didn’t care that it was there. The lactic acid that burned through his thighs and hamstrings as he sprinted himself to exhaustion seemed only a nuisance to him, even though the pain would have been enough to make him collapse if the situation wasn’t so dire. Even with his body in full-out panic mode, though, it had its limits. The mucus-like paste that used to come into the back of his mouth during his workouts with Shade was now being produced. He was beginning to notice that the world was greying-out in his peripheries as he forced his body onward; Baggs knew that this meant his brain was making the decision to begin stopping neurological functions that weren’t absolutely necessary, like interpreting visual stimuli from the peripheries. If I keep this up for much longer, I’ll pass out.
An announcement from above made Baggs stop in his tracks; he wasn’t listening enough to know if it was Iggy Smiles or Tom Bernard talking.
“It looks as though James Baggers doesn’t see the danger up ahead.”
Danger? What danger?
Baggs froze. Spinks, Larry, and Hailey followed his lead, stopping along side him. Baggs glanced over at Hailey; her mouth was slightly open, revealing flawless white teeth. Her skin was smooth and her cheeks were flushed. She’s beautiful, Baggs thought. It was an odd, useless thing to think while on the Colosseum floor, but still, the thought had come.
And then Baggs saw what the announcer had been talking about; a lion turned the corner and began to sprint towards them, taking great strides over the sand. The animal’s tongue lolled out the side of its mouth as its body coiled and then stretched out, reaching with long legs over the sand. The lion was running so fast that its mane was pulled backwards, tight against the animal’s head.
Oh, Tessa.
This lion was much bigger than the one that had been in their cage. And they said that they’ve released the second batch, Baggs thought. That means that there are sixty lions in here with us.
Seeing the size of the creature, they knew that fighting it would be futile. None of them were experts with weapons and combined the four of them barely weighed half as much as the lion.
And so they ran.
They turned and dug their
feet into the sand. Baggs felt like he couldn’t run fast enough. Before, he had ignored the pain in his legs but now he just didn’t feel it. I’m about to die. He remembered watching the HoloVision Box at Greggor’s and thinking that this would happen. I knew this was a risk, he thought. And even if I don’t die now, Byron Turner will kill me.
Another part of him screamed NO! NO! NO NO NO! I WILL NOT DIE! I will see Tessa again; I will hold Olive and Maggie again!
He couldn’t hear the crowd or the announcers anymore. His whole world was just the sound of panting and feet hitting the ground and the sight of sand passing underneath him. There were feet beneath him and feet behind him. The feet behind him could be divided into two categories—the quiet, shuffling noises of his fellow humans, and the rapid-fire bounding steps of the killer lion that was running after them.
Baggs glanced backwards; that thing is fast, he thought. He tightened his sword in his hand. I’ll only have one chance to stab at it.
Spinks was running right beside Baggs; her pink head of hair came up to the middle of his chest. She seemed to have better endurance than him—her breaths didn’t sound quite as desperate as his own.
Baggs glanced backwards again. The lion was now ten yards behind Hailey and Larry, who were running at an even pace.
Baggs slowed down a bit, letting Spinks pass him and falling back towards Hailey and Larry. It was risky, but he thought his best shot would be to wait for the lion to leap at one of his teammates and then stab at the animal’s exposed neck.
The lion took two more strides—it was seven yards away now.
Spinks approached a hallway, peeked inside, and then passed, running even faster than before. What was in there? Baggs wondered. Another lion? Why did she pass?
But before he came to the opening, he looked back again to see that the lion was now only one or two leaps from reaching Hailey and Larry. Baggs fell back to a jog and raised his sword, readying it for the moment the beast sprang upward at his teammates. It’ll probably try to bring us down by our necks, he thought. If it jumps up, I’ll get a clear shot at its exposed jugular.
But before the lion could reach them, Larry Wight stretched up, grabbed Hailey’s hair, and yanked her backwards so that the lion would reach her first.
You bastard! You murderer! You traitor! Baggs thought. Hot white rage filled him and for a moment he wanted to kill Larry. The lion didn’t have to jump to reach Hailey; she fell right towards the animal’s gaping jaws. The lion caught her, shook left, and then right in a vicious and powerful manner. The lion dropped the corpse to the ground, stomped on her face and kept coming.
Baggs ran onward, faster now. He put distance between himself and Larry. I was going to try to save him, but now I’m not so sure I want to, he thought. The selfish bastard killed her! He knew that he shouldn’t be so surprised; he had seen people do worse in the Colosseum, but he somehow hadn’t expected someone he knew to act in such a savage way.
He came to the hallway that Spinks had avoided and looked down it to see a group of purple-clad Outlive participants running toward him. They were in a dense group, running hard. They don’t see the lion, Baggs thought. And then, he saw the opportunity. If I run fast enough, the lion will be held up in the process of killing this team. Baggs tucked his head down, ran forward, and soon the purple-clad people were screaming as they ran into the lion.
“That’s James Baggers and Larry Wight close behind him; the lion ju-yu-ust missed them. Ooooh, that was close,” Iggy Smiles said.
“Also of note, the Tigers and Hawks are now ascending the ladder,” Tom Bernard added. “Once they reach the safe room, only one more team will be allowed in.”
“Shit!” Baggs cried; he looked upward and could see the humans ascending the ladder in the center of the room.
Up ahead, Spinks turned right and Baggs and Larry followed her. They were now amidst a thick patch of turns and Spinks moved left and right into the corridors without a moment’s hesitation.
I hope she knows what she’s doing, Baggs thought.
“And it appears as though the Boxers are about to run unknowingly head-on with the rogue members of the Panthers,” Tom Bernard’s voice said through the speakers.
Rogue members, Baggs thought. What the hell does that mean?
Iggy Smiles agreed with Tom, “looks like the killing crew is about to have a few more victims. Tom, do you think that what they’re doing is just senseless murder or do you think it has strategy?”
Baggs didn’t hear Tom’s response. Up ahead he saw a blur of movement through one of the clear walls and then two men ran out in front of Spinks. The first man was naked and covered in blood—his body shined with the red liquid. He was short and wiry, with green eyes that shone like jewels. The other man had a long beard and was wearing nothing but his skirt. Baggs didn’t have time to notice anything else about them before they attacked.
The naked man swung his sword in a wide arc towards Spinks’s head. He’s not strong enough to use the weapon properly, Baggs saw. Spinks ducked out of the way and Baggs drew back his own sword with both hands and then hacked at the man’s neck with all his might.
What am I doing? he thought. The crowd cheered and three flying cameras circled them, capturing footage of the action.
Baggs swung, shifting his weight as he did so and the blade slashed neatly through the man’s head, decapitating him. When Baggs saw the head roll of the shoulder, he shrank back in disgust, looking at what he had done.
While Baggs’s attention was diverted, the bearded man charged. Luckily for Baggs, Spinks was crouched and ready. She drove her spear up into the man’s gut, stopping him and then driving him to the ground. The man fell heavily onto his back, eyes staring wide in immense pain. Feeling like he was back working for Mr. Snow, Baggs stepped forward and hacked at the man’s neck in a powerful downward swipe. This time he didn’t decapitate his opponent, but he almost did. The man’s head was now attached to his body by a thin layer of cervical spine, skin, muscle and fat. The bones were smooth and surprisingly white. The face twitched; the eyes winked at odd intervals and the mouth moved in sporadic contractions by the surrounding facial muscles.
Spinks bent down and picked up the dead man’s spear from where he had dropped it on the sand and they took off once more.
What were those guys doing, just running around and trying to kill people? Why? Just one last hoorah before they died?
Baggs took the lead and then slowed down, surrendering it to Spinks. She has a better sense of direction than I do, he thought.
They were close now, only about ten yards away from the ladder, but they still had a few layers of corridors blocking their route. But it looks like we’ll get there soon. The clear walls in this area were dirtied with sand at the bottom and were beginning to fog up from all the sweating participants sprinting through the maze. Before each turn, they tried to peer ahead of them through the glass-like barriers, but this was becoming harder to do with the build-up on the walls.
They took a left turn, then a right turn and Baggs looked up and felt his heart flutter. They were only five yards away. We’re going to make it, he thought. We’re actually going to make it! Relief ran through him like warm water, but then this sensation turned to ice as they rounded a turn and saw what was up ahead.
“No!” Spinks yelled. She took three paces forward and put her hands on the glass, as though it would yield. They were at a dead end. “We were so close,” she said, looking up at the ladder.
“Oh,” Larry said from behind them. His voice was small and squeaking. “Oh no, no! Shit!”
Tom Bernard announced what Larry was going on about before Baggs saw it. “It looks as though the Bears’ only remaining contestant has found the ladder.”
A moment later, Baggs saw the bloodied man climbing up towards the HoloVision Box.
7
Larry’s eyes were so wide they seemed to be protruding from his eye sockets. He tugged his hair in panic. “That’s the last team!�
� He screamed. “That guy makes it and we’re toast! That’s the fifth team!”
“Stop yelling,” Spinks said. “It won’t help.”
“Well, let’s move,” Baggs said. “This dead end isn’t helping us. We need to find another route through the maze.”
Spinks wasn’t listening, she just stood there, staring down at the sand.
“Let’s move!” Baggs yelled. He could hear panic cracking through in his own voice. He looked up and saw that the man had made progress up the ladder, but he was moving slowly. Half a spear was lodged through his left leg and he was climbing upwards by gripping the rails above his head and then hopping up a rung with his right foot.
“I need to think,” Spinks said. “Let’s stay here for a while.”
“Are you kidding me?” Baggs screamed. Now the panic wasn’t just peeking through in his voice, but it was coloring every word he spoke. “If that guy makes it, we’re dead, and he’s still climbing. You want to wait here for another group of rogue teammates comes and tries to murder us? There are sixty lions in here, we need to move before they come and corner us!” His voice was shrill.
Spinks shook her head. “Shut up, I need to think.”
Larry pulled out a clump of his gray hair; tears from frustration and panic were streaming down his face. He looked from Spinks to Baggs, searching for guidance.
Baggs took three steps backwards. “I’m leaving without you,” he told Spinks. But as he reached the next corridor, he paused. Spinks’s eyes were closed; she was breathing hard.
“Wait! Come back,” she said.
Baggs was trembling. The bleeding man was over halfway up the ladder. He was bent over the rungs, panting and exhausted, but continuing his slow march upwards.
“I have an idea,” she said. Baggs stood there for a moment, wondering if Spinks had gone crazy. Whatever your idea is, it should take place outside of this dead end. Spinks kicked sand towards Baggs in frustration, “C’mon! Help me!”