“No use, man,” his cellmate said. “You’re stuck until they decide to let you out.”
Panic flooded Chase. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t be trapped like this. Not while Molly had no idea where he was. Not while she was caring for the children he’d sworn to protect. He imagined them sitting back at the campsite as the sun slipped below the horizon. Would they come looking for him? And what if they ran into Luke or another scout?
He walked back to his cot and sank down, buried his head in his hands. If only he’d just concentrated on his mission, focused on finding food and supplies. Or maybe he should have gone back right away. They’d had enough dried food for one more night, and he could have stopped in the next town, the next empty town. Then he could have presented Molly with her music box. He would have been a hero. Instead, he was a prisoner. And he didn’t have a single person to blame but himself.
“I’m Bowie, by the way,” his companion said. “Well, my real name’s Mike but I like going by Bowie now. Like the old twentieth-century musician. He was great. God, I miss music.”
Chase couldn’t believe this guy was babbling like nothing was wrong. His life was over, and this guy was about to launch into a convo about the nice weather they’d been having.
“What’s your name?” Bowie asked.
“Chase. Chase Griffin.”
“Chase Griffin.” Bowie appeared to consider. “I like that. Good fighting name. You should tell them. Maybe they’ll let you keep it.”
“Keep it?”
“Sure. If you have a boring name they’ll change it. They need to impress the crowd after all. Can’t draw people who aren’t interested. Can’t interest people with stupid names. Herbie MacMillan versus Beauregard Goldblum! Lawlz. Hardly going to get a crowd with that.”
“What?” Chase was getting a worse feeling than ever.
“You don’t get it, do you?” Bowie said. “You’re a gladiator now.”
Chase’s stomach roiled. “You mean they’re going to make me fight…?”
“Duh. That’s what they do here. The town is run by this ex-wrestler named Brutus. He’s a bit crazy—obviously. I think he must have been hit in the head a few too many times. But he brought a bunch of survivors together and formed a makeshift government. It’s safer here than a lot of places. And every other Friday—if anyone really knows when Friday is these days—they have ‘sports.’”
Sports. Great. Bowie likely wasn’t talking about reestablishing the Carolina Panthers. “So, they recruit fighters for the ring?”
“Yup. Well, recruit is maybe stretching things a bit. They grab people passing through and make them into gladiators.”
But that’s barbaric, Chase wanted to protest, but knew it would do no good. “And we fight other gladiators?” he asked.
Bowie laughed. “No. You fight the Knights of the Living Dead. You know, the changed people. Brutus figures people from outta town brought them down on us; they should be the ones to do the fighting.”
Chase cringed. Knights of the Living Dead. Others. The crazy people of this town wanted him to fight Others in a ring. With screaming fans watching. Awesome.
How had he gotten himself into this mess, again? More importantly, how was he going to get himself out?
“Have you fought?” he asked Bowie.
“Sure,” his new companion said. “I’ve been in the ring three times now. Kicked those Others from here to kingdom come.” He grinned. “If I win five more fights I get my freedom. I get to be one of the people who live here. Course, I gotta kick this broken leg first.” He motioned to his cast. “Damn Knight cracked it last time before I knocked his head off his shoulders with my axe. It was a pretty crazy fight.”
Chase closed his eyes. Crazy? That’s exactly what he’d call it. And a few other things.
He wondered if Molly would come looking for him, then felt another wash of shame. He was the man; he was supposed to be the one protecting her. Now, because of his weakness, he’d fucked everything up again. He’d inadvertently broken his promise to his brother. After all, he couldn’t very well care for the children if he was clawed to death by an Other in a gladiator ring.
He pictured Molly’s disappointed face as she realized what had happened. How stupid he had been. She had been angry at just finding the pills; she’d never forgive him for getting himself into this mess. And she shouldn’t. He sent up a vow to what ever divinity was listening: If he got out of this—someway, somehow—he’d quit the drugs. Cold turkey this time. No matter how much it sucked. Not that he had much chance of making that happen.
A rattling noise made him open his eyes. He looked up to see a tall man dressed in a tuxedo and top hat tapping on the bars with a cane. “Hey, new boy,” the man growled. “Let’s see how well you do in the Thunderdome.”
Molly headed cautiously down the exit ramp, scanning the scene as she went. So far, no sign of life. Not any animals. Not any humans. Nothing. A completely dead town. So where was Chase? How far could he have gone? What if he’d been dragged off to some Other enclave, never to be seen again?
She shook her head, trying to clear it of morbid thoughts. They weren’t productive, for one thing. Better to stay positive. To believe he was still alive.
She hadn’t originally wanted to bring him along, but now she couldn’t imagine the journey without him. And it would be a lie to say it was just his cooking or the way he was able to effortlessly deal with the kids. It was his quiet company that she appreciated. His smile. His eyes. His occasional laugh. Like it or not, she’d grown more attached to him than ever over the last week. She didn’t want to lose him again.
She sent up a prayer, begging what ever higher power was listening to keep him safe, then did another scan of the surrounding area, trying to find some sign of life. Even with her implants, nothing. Nada.
Molly wandered street after street, searching, seeking, but always coming up empty. It was as if Chase had walked into the Bermuda Triangle, vanished, never to be heard from again. Discouragement crept into her, and she wondered what she should do. She didn’t want to go back alone, admit defeat and tell the kids that one more person they loved and depended on was likely gone for good. So she kept looking. And looking.
“Psst!”
Molly whirled around, her cyber defenses activating automatically. The razors shot from her fingers and nanos pumped hardcore adrenaline into her veins. She scanned the street. A small girl with stringy blonde dreadlocks, eyes circled by black and bruises up and down her arms had appeared out of nowhere, holding up her hands in a gesture of surrender. Molly lowered her razors. A human! And a girl! Maybe she could help.
“I’m looking for someone—” she said, but the girl put a finger to her lips and gestured for Molly to follow. Curious, Molly nodded once and did as requested.
Down a dark alleyway, through an empty building, up a hill. The girl paused in front of a small stone church and beckoned once again to Molly, then slipped inside. Molly hesitated. Should she go in after her? What if this was some sort of trap? But this girl was the first person she’d seen in this godforsaken town and thus her only prayer for finding Chase. So she sucked in a breath and stepped into the church sanctuary.
It was dark inside. Deserted. Spooky. Dust-caked pews stood empty, led to an equally dusty altar. Obviously the place hadn’t been used for years—likely not since the fear-filled church parishioners made their last useless requests for divine intervention against the Super Flu.
The blonde was already at the front of the church, pulling aside a red velvet, moth-eaten curtain. Once again, she beckoned before slipping beyond.
This time Molly hesitated. “Stop,” she called out. “I’ve followed you far enough. Talk to me.”
The girl came back and frowned at Molly. “You want to know about your friend or what?” she asked, crossing her bruised arms over her chest.
Molly’s shoulders sagged, realizing she was utterly at this stranger’s mercy. “Yes,” she said quietly, lowering her hands to he
r sides. But the razor blades slipped back out from under her nails. Just in case.
The blonde girl disappeared again behind the curtain. Molly followed, pushing aside the red velvet and stepping through into darkness. She adjusted her night vision, blinking twice to adjust the brightness. They’d entered a small back chamber, maybe once the domain of priests waiting to say mass. It was packed floor to ceiling with relics, and ornate crosses adorned nearly every inch of free space.
The girl was there. And she was brandishing a knife.
Molly didn’t hesitate. She round house-kicked, striking the girl’s arm. Her attacker bellowed in pain but kept her grip, slashing out at Molly with the knife. It sliced through the leather on Molly’s left shoulder.
Gritting her teeth, Molly leaned forward and head-butted the girl. The force of the blow sent the blonde flying backwards into a pile of crucifixes. If she had been a vampire, she would have been a goner for sure. But, mortal, she rallied, leaping back to her feet, and her knife slashed through the air again.
This time Molly was ready. Using her nano-accelerated reaction time, she was able to grab the girl’s wrist and yank her around, pinning her arm against her back. The girl cried out but kept a death grip on her knife. So with her other hand, Molly reached out and grabbed a fistful of long blonde dreadlocks, pulling backward. The girl finally dropped her knife and it clattered to the floor. Molly pushed her forward and grabbed the knife as the girl crashed face-first into the wall.
“I thought you wanted to know about your friend,” the girl said sulkily as Molly stood above her.
“I do. And yet you see fit to try to lure me into a dark room and try to kill me.”
“Only after you attacked me.”
“Then why the knife?”
“Uh,” the girl rubbed her head. “ ’Cause I don’t know you from Adam and I needed protection? It’s dangerous out here nowadays, in case you hadn’t realized. And I’m risking my life even talking to you.”
Oh. Right. Molly hadn’t thought of that. She swallowed her embarrassment and offered the girl a hand up. The blonde took it, brushed off her filthy pants and muttered, “Thanks.” Then, walking over to the wall, she pulled out a book of matches and used one to light a candle.
“So, why did you bring me here?” Molly asked.
“It’s one of the few safe places in town,” the girl explained. “One of the few empty places. Pretty much everyone here is pissed at God for the whole plague thing, so they avoid it like…well, you know.” She gestured around. “It’s become my home away from home. When I need to…escape for a bit.”
Molly again studied the girl closely, noting the black-and-blue marks on her arms. They’d just fought, sure, but some of those bruises didn’t look fresh. She wondered what exactly this girl needed to escape from. In the current world, there were a million possibilities.
“I’m Molly,” she said, deciding to make the first overture toward friendship.
“Helga.” The girl put out a bony hand and they shook. It seemed weird to re create old-world formalities, but kind of nice at the same time. “You’re with that Chase guy, right?”
Molly felt a surge of hope. So, the girl had been telling the truth. “You’ve met Chase?” she asked. “You know where he is?”
Helga nodded slowly, in a way that made Molly think wherever Chase was, it wasn’t exactly good. “There’s a new group running this town,” she started to explain. “They rose up after most everyone died in the plague. There’s a council and a sort of police department to enforce the new laws. It’s good in some ways. They make sure everyone in town has enough to eat and a place to sleep. They hold regular patrols to keep the Knights of the Living Dead at bay.” She paused then added, “You know. The zombies. I think your boyfriend called them the Others.”
Molly started to correct her on the boyfriend part but decided it wasn’t worth it. “Right,” she said, wondering what any of this had to do with Chase. Was he okay or wasn’t he?
“Anyway, another thing they do is hold pit fights. Kind of like they did in the old days with slaves.”
“You mean, like gladiators?” Molly asked, thinking back to her dad’s beloved movie collection.
“Yeah, that’s the word,” Helga agreed. “Anyway, they hold them in the old boxing arena at the edge of town. Basically they put one human and one Knight of the Living Dead in the ring and they fight.” She paused then added, “To the death, of course.”
Molly was beginning to get the picture, and it wasn’t pretty. “So, let me guess. You have plenty of Others—Knights—but not a lot of human volunteers.”
Helga nodded. “Right. So, the government gives bonus food and protection to those who can bring in new fighters. My boyfriend works as one of these ‘recruiters.’ He’s a real bastard, but he’s great at his job. He talks people passing through into coming home with him and then drugs their drinks. Then he turns them in to the council.”
Something about this didn’t make much sense to Molly. “But why would Chase go home with him?” she asked. “He knew we were waiting.”
“Well, Luke always promises something. He’s a master at figuring out what people need, and let’s face it, people are needy these days.”
“And so Chase was looking for food for…?”
Helga rolled her eyes. “No. Drugs, of course. They’re one of Luke’s specialties.”
Molly’s insides tightened, and for a moment she thought she was going to throw up. She’d come here, risking everything, wasting precious time, all because of Chase’s drug addiction? Just fucking great. She was an idiot to have given him another chance. He had a problem, just like her mother, and that problem wasn’t going to go away. Even if he wanted to change, and she wanted to think he did, he’d likely have to fully detox first, and even then there were no guarantees. In the meantime, if she did that for him, got him out of whatever situation he was in here and put him through the process to clear him up, while she waited for him to get better, her own body would start breaking down. He’d get better—maybe—but she’d die before ever reaching Disney World.
It was her mother all over again. Except, Molly’s mother had given birth to her. She didn’t owe Chase a fucking thing.
She considered just up and leaving, abandoning him to the trap he’d walked himself into. She’d take the children and go, get them down to Disney, accomplish her mission. She didn’t need Chase. She didn’t need his bullshit. He’d let their entire group down and he deserved to pay. He deserved to get his ass chomped by a zombie in some dumbass bizarre post-apocalyptic pit fight. But when she tried to take that first step toward the exit, her feet wouldn’t cooperate. Nor would her mind. Instead of anger, she simply saw a vision of Chase. Beautiful Chase, who had promised long ago to protect her from all the horror at the end of the world. Even when his own world was torn apart by the horrific death of his sister, he’d still put her needs over his own. And then she’d abandoned him.
Well, things were different now. Things could be different. He needed saving, and she was the only one left to do it.
“Can you take me to him?” she asked the blonde.
Helga considered it. “On one condition,” she said.
“Which is?”
“You take me with you.”
“Take you with me? To rescue Chase?”
“I mean afterwards. You two must be going somewhere, right? You have a destination in mind,” Helga said, looking desperate.
“Yes, but…” What would Molly say—that there was no room in the inn, that she didn’t need any more baggage than she already had?
The girl held out her arms, and Molly saw again all the bruises. “I can’t stay here any more,” she said. “It’s already bad, and if Luke finds out I helped you, he’ll kill me.”
Molly’s heart went out to the girl. It was a horrible world they lived in, and the good people had to help each other out. “Okay,” she agreed. “You help me get Chase back and you can come with us.”
&nbs
p; The girl breathed a sigh of relief, grinned, and Molly noticed she was missing half a front tooth. “Thank you so much!” she said. “You won’t be sorry!” She grabbed her knife off the floor and pushed aside the red curtain. “Where are we going anyway?” she asked. “Afterward, I mean.”
“Disney World,” Molly said, though she felt a bit silly saying it.
Helga stopped and turned, surprise written across her freckled face. “Really?” she asked.
Molly nodded.
“Wow. That’s so cool!” Helga turned and skipped down the church aisle. “I’m going to Disney World!” she cried. She paused for a moment and said, “I hope it’s not like Baltic Disney.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
When Molly got to her locker the next morning, she saw someone had crammed a note into the vents. She yanked it free and smoothed it out, studying the words with a skeptical eye. A group of kids were evidently planning a party. And not just any party—an outdoor, end-of-the-world rave. At first she was annoyed to think that people would make light of what was going on. After all, people were dying. It seemed so disrespectful.
She thought about crumpling the paper up and tossing it in the recycle bin. But then she had a second thought. People were scared. Stressed. Panicked. Maybe this was an opportunity to relieve some of that. Celebrate what life they had left. And maybe she’d get some more info on what the hell was going on with the world—seeing as they had all been forbidden to talk about the Super Flu at school.
Not to mention, she’d get to hang out with Chris.
Ever since last week, when they’d first kissed on his basement couch, the two of them had been practically inseparable. They’d been eating lunch together, meeting at their lockers for between-class smooches and hanging out after school. But it wasn’t all about young love. They’d been developing a plan, an escape for friends in case things got really bad. They’d recruited Chris’s brother Trey and some other kids from school, stealing and stockpiling supplies and non-perishable food in a storage facility just outside of town. Packing suitcases full of clothes and toiletries. The idea was simple: be ready to go at a moment’s notice. Head up to the mountains and hide there until things got better.
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