by Chad Leito
Even though it made no sense to him, he jogged by her side.
“Lift me up,” she said. “I want to reach the top.”
Baggs grabbed her by the waist and hoisted her up so that her knees were atop his shoulders. She placed her palms on the clear walls to balance her body and then stood up on Baggs’s shoulders. She reached as high as she could, but her fingertips were still a couple feet below the top of the wall.
“Isn’t this against the rules or something?” Larry asked.
Neither Baggs nor Spinks answered him.
Baggs wasn’t sure if they would be punished in some way for this maneuver, but as the bloody man climbed higher and higher up the ladder, he didn’t think they had much choice.
Spinks’s spear was slung up over her back, the sharp metal reflecting sunrays.
“Higher,” she told Baggs. “I can’t reach.”
Baggs grabbed her small feet inside of the leather sandals in both of his big hands and then shoulder pressed her upwards until his arms were locked in extension.
“Still can’t reach,” she said. Her fingertips were now six inches from the top.
Baggs stood on his toes and scooted closer to the wall.
“Higher,” Sinks said above him.
“That guy’s almost there,” Larry shouted.
Baggs’s legs were completely exhausted, but he forced them to give an additional effort. He bent his knees and jumped as high as he could, sending Spinks into the air. He came down empty-handed. Spinks had gripped the top of the maze and was pulling herself up to a standing position atop the wall. The wall was about as thick as a finger, and Spinks shook slightly as she stood atop it.
“In a bold move, the Boxers’ pink-haired computer hacker, Sally Nooks, has climbed atop the maze and it looks like she’s going to try to tight-rope her way to the ladder,” Tom Bernard said.
“This looks like too little too late,” Iggy Smiles responded. “Theo Ozark of the Bears is almost at the top of the ladder. Once he gets inside the safe room, the door will be shut to all other contestants.”
Tom Bernard was wrong about Spinks’s plan of walking over the top of the maze. Instead of trying this, she crouched down and jumped over the next hallway and grabbed the top of the next wall; her body slammed into the wall and she screamed. One of her hands came loose, and she turned for a moment, revealing a bloody nose. Spinks gripped the top of the next wall, pulled herself up, and repeated the process. She was only one corridor away from the ladder now.
Baggs looked up at the top of the twelve-foot wall that he had just helped Spinks mount and then down at Larry Wight, who blinked up at him. He decided that he would have to take a different route to the ladder than Spinks had—there’s no way Larry can lift me that high and I’m not wasting my time helping him up after what he did to Hailey.
Baggs backpedaled, turned, and once again was running through the maze, trying to retreat out of the corridor that lead to the dead-end. He glanced up to see that Spinks was now climbing up the ladder on the opposite side of the bleeding guy. The man had made it nine tenths of the way up, but he was moving at a slow pace due to injury, blood loss and fatigue. Spinks was shooting up the ladder as though she were bear-crawling over the ground, taking quick, one-rung steps up towards the safe room.
Larry followed closely behind Baggs, gulping air into his inefficient smoker’s lungs.
From above came the announcement: “The third batch of lions have been released.”
I’ve only been in this place for six minutes? It feels like days.
The news that he was now in a maze with ninety lions drove Baggs to run faster, turning around bloody corridors, looking for the ladder. He was dismayed when he looked up to see that he was further away than when he had helped Spinks into the dead-end. This maze is probably counter-intuitive, though, he thought. You may have to go further out to eventually reach the ladder.
Baggs and Larry turned a corner and came into a corridor in which a lion was snacking on someone’s abdomen. The lion had a stack of corpses lined up behind him and didn’t so much as take a step towards Larry or Baggs.
They ran onwards. Baggs was thankful for the good luck, but aware that the odds were not in the favor of the next lion they passed being as docile.
The crowd began to whistle, scream and cheer in a crescendo that told Baggs that someone was about to make it into the HoloVision Box and secure the last spot available.
Please let it be Spinks, he thought. If it’s Spinks, the door will open for us.
But it wasn’t Spinks; it was Theo Ozark of the Bears, hopping along the rungs on his one good foot. Spinks was thirty feet below him; at that height, she was diminished to the size of a mouse by perspective.
Baggs wondered what would happen to them if Theo made it inside. What if we make it to the ladder? Will we hang there until we are too exhausted to hold on any longer and we fall to the lions below? Baggs didn’t think that this was likely—it would take too long. Someone as small as Spinks could even sit on the rungs, making it possible for her to stay out of the lions’ reach for days. They’ll probably send some animal like baboons after us—something that can climb. They won’t want this to take up too much time.
High above, Spinks took her spear out from the leather holder behind her back, and flung it skyward at Theo Ozark.
Good try, but there’s no way she’ll hit from that distance, Baggs thought. He was running through the maze and watching her at the same time.
Baggs was pleased to see that his prediction wasn’t true. The spear wobbled through the air and seemed to be headed right at Theo Ozark. Theo saw this too, and was quick enough to jerk his body backwards and dodge the projectile. In doing so, though, his right foot slipped on the bloody rung and he tumbled down into a sitting position. Spinks wasted no time; she climbed up the ladder, pulling herself upwards in violent strokes.
Then the corridor led to a turn and Baggs was forced to run in a direction that made it impossible to watch Spinks any longer. He turned twice more and thought, we’re getting close to the ladder. He couldn’t be sure, but he suspected that the next turn would lead him to the base of the ladder. Which won’t do me any good if Spinks doesn’t pull through.
Baggs looked up above again. Spinks had closed the gap between herself and Theo Ozark. She had switched over to the other side of the ladder and had one hand wrapped around the ankle of Ozark’s injured leg. Blood leaked down onto her face. Theo’s hands were only two feet away from the opening at the bottom of the HoloVision Box, but Spinks was preventing him from climbing any higher. He jerked downwards and in a stroke of violence he kicked her in the face. Her body slumped and for a moment, Baggs thought that she had passed out. Her face was now leaking blood that mixed with the blood dripping from the injured man above her. She managed to hold onto the ladder and Theo’s foot, though.
Baggs’s attention was torn from Spinks as he looked ahead. Something big is coming, he thought; he saw a large shadow move down one of the adjacent corridors. The object came hurtling out into the open and Baggs saw that it was Chobb Lowe, the powerlifter from the Pirates.
The man was wearing his helmet but had ditched his breastplate. The skin on his torso seemed ready to burst as it tried to hold in the mass of dense muscle. Lowe was grimacing as he ran forward, holding a sword in his right hand—his left hand was covered in blood.
At first, Baggs was glad to see that the thing approaching was Chobb Lowe and not a lion. Then he saw the man’s eyes. They were tiny slits of fierce anger and determination.
We might have to fight him. He probably won’t attack us, though, because there would be no point. The battle for the last spot within the safe room will be between Spinks and Ozark; none of his teammates have made it, so there would be no reason for him to try killing us.
Up above, Leo Ozark tried to kick down again, aiming the heel of his good foot at the center of Spinks’s face. Spinks still had the injured man’s left ankle in her hand. When Ozark k
icked, he was only holding onto the ladder with his hands. Hundreds of yards above the earth, Spinks tried something desperate. Spinks latched onto Ozark’s ankle like a rock climber holding a rope and just as Ozark kicked, she pushed her feet into the ladder, lunging away from the solid surface and propelling her body over open air.
A moment later, both she and Ozark were falling fast towards the ground. Ozark’s arms and legs flailed but he was too far away from the ladder to grab hold of it again. He landed on the sand with a disturbingly loud BOOM. Spinks had managed to stay close to the ladder as she fell, but she dropped thirty feet before she managed to grab hold of a rung. She was falling fast when her hands grasped the metal and she let out a gut-wrenching cry of agony as she stopped her downward motion and slammed into the ladder. She wrapped her legs around the rung and then sat there, high above the maze floor. Seconds went by and she didn’t move. Her arms hung limply beside her and she made no effort to keep climbing.
She’s injured, Baggs thought, horrified. Maybe she can’t climb anymore. This makes Chobb Lowe a problem. There’s still a spot for him in the safe room.
Chobb Lowe was sprinting towards them and was about to turn down a corridor on his left side when he skidded to a sand-spitting stop. Baggs and Larry stopped beside him a moment later.
We’ve made it, Baggs thought, looking down the hallway. The ladder stood before them, thirty yards away, reaching up to the safe room.
Between themselves and the ladder, though, a skinny lion was lying on the sand. He looked young—his mane only came out a couple of inches over the top of his head. But he’s still three times as big as I am, Baggs thought. The lion stood, roared angrily, and then charged them.
Up above, Spinks still hadn’t moved.
Baggs and Chobb Lowe both ran at the creature at the same time, swords held out in front of them. Larry stayed where he was. The coward, Baggs thought.
The lion was not at all scared of the two humans charging them. Baggs was aware that some gladiators killed lions; he wondered if an Outlive participant had ever killed one. Baggs knew that it would be possible, but that the feat would require a lucky stab at a vital area.
Tessa, close your eyes, Baggs thought.
He and Chobb Lowe ran side by side. For that moment, they were teammates, two men fighting to kill the same lion. But if we kill this thing, the second it’s dead, he’s going to turn on me, Baggs thought. And I’ll return the favor.
The lion leapt from twelve feet away; the animal weighed over six hundred pounds and was almost twice as long as Baggs. The predator had its paws spread wide and was jumping right in between Chobb Lowe and Baggs. Baggs thrust his sword forward, right at the animal’s massive neck. One shot, Baggs told himself.
It happened quicker than Baggs would have thought possible. The lions paw exploded forward, driven by enormous shoulder muscles, and cast Baggs’s sword uselessly aside.
I’m going to die, Baggs thought, and then the lion was on him. The sheer weight of the creature was incredible, and he was knocked to the hard packed sand with such a force that he instantly couldn’t breath. The fur of the mane came onto his face and then the creature allowed its entire bodyweight to pound into Baggs’s flesh. The impact was incredible. Baggs’s rib cage contracted so much that he thought it would burst.
Any moment now, it’ll rip my throat in half.
Baggs’s fingers groped blindly for his sword. All he could see was orange fur—it was in his nose, his mouth, and his eyes. His hands moved over the sand, hoping to find purchase on a weapon, but all they found was more sand. Baggs moaned and squirmed.
Any second now, it’ll kill me.
He squirmed some more, and then paused.
He realized that the lion was immobile on top of him. The crowd was cheering. He was still alive.
I can barely breathe.
He put his hands up and pushed the animal off of him, sure that it would spring into action at any moment, but it didn’t. Baggs was able to push the huge mound of hot flesh off of himself and stand.
Larry was standing there; he had helped get the lion off of Baggs.
The lion was dead. Baggs’s sword was cast uselessly aside, but Chobb Lowe’s sword was lodged deeply into one of the animal’s eyeball, penetrating its brain.
Whew.
“Where’e Chobb?” Baggs asked.
Larry pointed at the ladder.
Spinks was still sitting idly on a rung high above them with her injured arms dangling by her side. Chobb Lowe was ascending, still far below her, but making quick progress.
“Give me your spear,” Baggs said. Before Larry had time to respond, Baggs took it from where it was held in leather straps on Larry’s back and began to run towards the ladder.
Larry followed closely behind. They climbed up. Baggs was shocked to see that the moment Larry was higher than the walls of the maze, three lions burst down the corridor and sprinted towards the ladder. They stood on their hind legs and roared up at them, but couldn’t climb the rungs.
Baggs had the spear in his teeth. It tasted like sweat, wood and sand. He moved higher, breathing hard around the handle of the wooden spear in his mouth. Up above, Chobb Lowe was climbing just as fast and just as frantically. This isn’t good, Baggs thought.
From this height, he could look down and see the entire maze at once. There was movement below, but all of it was from the backs of prowling lions.
We’re the last people alive.
Chobb’s massive legs moved in short, choppy steps up the ladder. Baggs took the ladder two rungs at a time, hoping to catch him. He was looking right up at the ex-power lifter and if the massive man fell atop him, he doubted that he would be able to hang on. He was inexperienced with spears, and he preferred to stab Chobb than throw the thing. Chobb’s sandals were ten feet above Baggs’s hands as they reached the halfway point.
Spinks still hadn’t moved. She must be seriously hurt, Baggs thought. As he got closer, he saw that she was holding onto one rung with her chin while she sat on another.
Baggs looked up at the door that led to the safe room. It was beautiful to him. Sweat and dirt streaked down his face as he thought, if I reach that, I can see Tessa again.
He had momentarily forgotten about Gigi’s letter.
Baggs wanted to go faster, but found that he simply couldn’t. Chobb Lowe kept a steady pace, and soon he reached Spinks.
Spinks did not move as the muscular man reached her, but just sat there, arms hanging by her sides.
She was still an obstacle, though, and Chobb switched to the other side of the ladder to go around her. Baggs bit down hard on the wood of the spear and gained on the man. Chobb passed Spinks just as Baggs was reaching her. Baggs spun around Spinks’s body, took the spear from his mouth, and thrust upward at the bottom of Lowe’s foot.
Lions were roaring below.
Larry was now climbing over the backside of Spinks’s body—his feet were small enough to wriggle them into the space beside Spinks’s torso.
The metal spearhead cut through the sole of Chobb’s sandals and blood rained down on Baggs. Chobb Lowe screamed and looked down at Baggs. Baggs shifted position and saw that the spearhead had gone all the way through Lowe’s foot, splicing through the connective tissue in between two metatarsals.
Chobb looked like he was about to try to come down and push Baggs off the ladder, but then Larry climbed even with him so that they were face to face, hundreds of yards above the sand, on opposite sides of a thin ladder.
The wind picked up in a strong gust, ripping at their clothes.
Lowe’s eyes locked onto Larry. He’s going to push him off, Baggs thought. He saw Chobb rear back, getting ready to strike at Larry’s face with his massive fist.
Baggs turned the spear that was lodged in Chobb’s foot so that the width of the spearhead now ran perpendicular with the metatarsals. It was now lodged in such a way that it would be almost impossible for it to slip out. Just as Chobb punched, Baggs yanked his foot downwar
d and Chobb slipped back a few paces.
Larry went right past Chobb, climbing hand over hand until he reached the top of the ladder. Baggs held onto the spear, making sure that Chobb didn’t climb up and beat Larry.
Lions roared below.
Humans roared from the seats around them.
Larry made it to the door, and climbed in.
The Boxers were the last of the five teams.
But now I’ve got to get past the big man, Baggs thought. The lions were clustered around the ladder now—there were twenty of them at the ladder’s base, hungry and roaring from their chests.
Baggs increased his grip on the bottom of the spear and readied his body to get out of the way if Chobb Lowe tried to attack him. Don’t watch, Tessa.
The big man above him tucked his head down and said, “Was that guy on your team?”
“Yeah,” Baggs said between pants.
“That was the fifth team, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
Chobb’s face fell. “What do you think will happen to me?”
“I don’t know,” Baggs said.
Chobb’s lips trembled and then he started sobbing with his head against the railing. “You guys go first,” he said. “Then I’ll try. Maybe they’ll let me in,” he said.
Baggs didn’t respond with anything; he wanted to move before Lowe changed his mind. He let go of the spear and climbed down to Spinks. “I can’t move my arms,” she said.
“Not at all?”
“Well, I can’t move my shoulder joints. I think that I dislocated both of my shoulders.”
The arms were hanging in an unnatural position. “I think you’re right,” Baggs said.
“What are we going to do? Please don’t leave me.”
“I’m not going to leave you, sweetie,” Baggs said. He was feeling emotional and sentimental this close to the finish line.
He climbed down until he was facing Spinks and then he grabbed the front of her shirt with both of his big hands. Together, they climbed slowly upwards, taking steps in unison.
“Don’t drop me,” she said.
“I’m not going to drop you.”