Gladiator (Gauntlet Prime Book 1)

by Barry Solway

  The road continued for half a mile, then angled downwards into a tunnel that went under another highway. Take the tunnel or climb the embankment onto the main highway? If she did the latter, she would have better visibility. And the tunnel would be a great place for an ambush. But it would also be cooler and would hide her. She hated not having a way to communicate with the others. If she hid from the other team, she was hiding from her side as well. Pausing for a moment, a far-off sound caught her ear. Growling, maybe. Metal grinding. It was hard to tell and she still couldn’t figure out what direction it was coming from. She headed for the embankment.

  It was a quick climb up the concrete wall, then she crawled her way up the embankment to the highway above. Dozens of box-like cars littered the highway, abandoned husks. She kept low while scanning the road. To the right, heading into the city, she could see the highway bend to the left. Something moved there, a form hiding in the shade behind a large truck. She almost called out but decided it was wiser to keep quiet and get closer.

  Creeping to the closest vehicle on her right, she hid behind it. She really hoped it was Beats up ahead. It made sense that he would be looking for shade, and she felt bad for him in this heat. Dashing to the next vehicle, she examined the truck. She couldn’t tell from the angle who was behind it or if anyone was still there. The highway was drenched in silence, except for her own rasping breaths.

  She ducked behind another vehicle, trying to get an angle to see behind the truck. As she peered out, a large object flew through the air and slammed into the vehicle. It didn’t hit her, but it sent the little car spinning into her, throwing her backwards across the highway. As she fell back, she caught a glimpse of a large blubbery mass ducking behind the truck.

  Air rushed from her lungs as she slammed into the ground. Plastic and metal shards fell around her as the object bounced off the car and landed near her head. She threw up her hands to cover her face.

  Terror overtook her, the realization that she was only thirty yards away from a monstrous killer. She staggered to her feet, looking back only a second, before running back up the highway. The sound of a revving engine spurred her on. The Whale must have stolen one of the trucks from the scavengers or found one that worked. He wouldn’t be able to handle this heat, but with a vehicle, he would have a huge advantage.

  The truck squealed to a stop behind her as Mel hit the embankment, throwing herself off the highway and skidding down to the street below. Blood splattered on the pavement from a cut above her eye. She didn’t remember when that happened, and tried to ignore it as she ran into the tunnel, crawling behind the husk of an old vehicle. She couldn’t hear the engine anymore. Would the Whale follow her down the embankment? She thought she could hear footsteps, the crunching of gravel at the entrance of the tunnel. The scraping continued along with the sound of breathing, amplified by the concrete walls of the underpass. Hiding against the vehicle, swallowing the sob that threatened to reveal her location, she waited as the sounds grew closer and closer.

  Chapter 19

  Finally, unable to bear the stress any longer, Mel peered around the edge of the vehicle. Nick staggered at the entrance of the underpass. Dark red streaks along his face framed a nasty gash. Mel closed her eyes as relief faded to anger. No. She had promised them they would get home. All of them.

  Crouching, she waved to Nick. He stumbled in a circle, touching his head, confused.

  “Nick,” she hissed.

  He glanced over, startled, afraid of anything that moved or made a sound. Seeing her, he visibly relaxed. But the look on his face was almost too much to bear. The look of sadness, fear and self-pity all mixed together.

  “Get over here,” she whispered. Too loud, but Nick wasn’t dealing with things too well. He staggered towards her, slumping against the concrete wall, feebly pushing a flap of skin on his forehead up and out of his eyes.

  “Mel…” he said slowly, as if he couldn’t remember how to speak. “She cut me.”

  “Who?” Mel asked.

  Nick looked at Mel in confusion. “Wicked… she had an ax. My head hurts.”

  Mel stifled a half-mad laugh. “Yeah, I bet. Doesn’t look too bad though,” she lied. “Stay here, behind the car thing. We can hide until someone gets the goal. We’ll make it back, just hang in.”

  So much for Kathor’s AI. And where was Beats? She turned to ask Nick when she saw the shadows. Grotesquely stretched-out silhouettes of Wicked and the Whale. Maybe she could run, distract them and they wouldn’t notice Nick. She was sure she could outrace the Whale, but she didn’t know about Wicked. Not on her ankle. No other choice.

  She pointed to the vehicle and mouthed Hide here to Nick. Scrambling around the far end of the vehicle, she tried to give herself space before she was in view. Then Wicked and the Whale stepped around the concrete barrier onto the road. They stood at the entrance to the underpass, surveying the wreckage of cars. The Whale stood ten feet tall, a mass of blubber with four rubbery tentacles for legs and arms. The massive limbs were like anacondas and ended in half a dozen wriggling snakelike “fingers”. His head looked like a lump of melted ice cream with dark blotches that might be eyes. Mel thought the Whale was the most hideous creature she’d seen, all slimy and wriggling like a fat eel. A fat eel the size of a car.

  Wicked was athletic and armed. While she didn’t have the natural grace that Gorgeous did, her gangly arms and legs moved with an eerie confidence. At least two knives were tucked into her belt and she casually swung a small ax. And Mel had been so proud of herself for finding a plastic rod from a lamp. Remembering that Marksman and Junkyard both had long knives, Mel wondered where they were finding all these weapons.

  Mel glanced down the underpass. Four broken vehicles and a forty-yard run to the other end. She could climb the concrete barrier where the underpass ended, or run an extra ten yards and directly climb the bank to the road above. Wicked looked fast, but Mel thought she could make it. Even if she did, where would she go after that?

  Mel sighed and flexed her legs. The longer she waited, the less of a head start she would have. Deep breath. Go.

  She raced for all she was worth. Six or seven seconds to get to the concrete, another few to climb it. Three breaths into her run she felt a hot sting in her left shoulder. A scream tore from her lips as she stumbled. Somehow she kept going, even after looking down and seeing an inch of metal pointing out the front of her shoulder. Every step hurt. A laugh escaped her lips; she wasn’t going to be climbing any walls now.

  Mel staggered to a stop, just five yards from the embankment, leaning heavily against an upside-down vehicle. She could feel a pulsing in her shoulder and the blood dripping down her arm. Wicked had hit an artery. Mel sank to her knees. Glancing back, she heard the scream a moment before Nick flew through the air to crash against the far wall of the underpass. He slumped to the ground, groaning.

  Mel glared at Wicked as the alien approached her. The star-shaped mouth opened in five directions at once, quivering lips pulling back to show small pointy teeth. The translator indicated that the shape of the mouth and the wideness of the eyes was a smile.

  “It is a mystery why you poor things come here to die,” Wicked murmured. Her speech sounded like wind rushing through dry leaves. The translator gave her a human female voice, but bleak and dusky. Mel thought it suited her perfectly.

  The Whale gurgled from somewhere deep in his blobbiness; Mel took it for a laugh.

  “Can’t argue with that,” Mel agreed, realizing her words were slurred. Wicked wasn’t even worried about her running.

  Reaching over her left shoulder, she tried to pull the knife out. At least it would give her something to fight with. But she couldn’t reach it and the pain of trying brought a momentary blanket of darkness.

  Wicked leaned in and whispered into Mel’s ear. “Odd. Your strange little mouth is moving, but I can’t understand a word of it. I had thought you an overgrown Chota, or perhaps an Asadharan. I’m strangely reluctant to kill you w
ithout knowing what kind of creature you are.” She touched the knife in Mel’s shoulder. “Shall I help you with this, pet? No fears, I shall make it quick. You may have gotten the goal, but we can still play until your teammate completes the match.” With a twist and quick pull, she wrenched the knife out. Mel screamed, clutching her shoulder, feeling the blood spurting through her fingers. Her mind reeled. She was going to die like this, bleeding to death in a deserted alien city.

  Wicked smiled. “Finally! A sound from this wretched thing that I can understand.”

  “Get away from her!”

  Jeff crouched at the mouth of the underpass, Beats standing behind him. Jeff’s eyes fell on Nick’s body crumpled against the side of the wall. Squinting through the pain in her shoulder, Mel thought she saw Nick’s arm shift. She hoped he was still alive. Not that it would make much difference if they couldn’t escape from these two psychotic aliens.

  “Hang in, Mel,” Jeff said.

  Wicked stood up and gazed at Jeff with a look the translators said was confusion. But her eyes were on Beats.

  He moved behind Jeff, his deep growl cutting through the air. “There was no need to hurt the boy. He wasn’t a threat to you.”

  Wicked glanced at Nick, dismissing him with a movement of her head. “That is true. I believe Whale did it for amusement. But I am surprised to see a Manesh in a gauntlet. I have never heard your kind as fond of violence. Perhaps you’ve come to bore me to death with empty threats?” Wicked gently laid a hand on Mel’s head and stroked her hair. The Whale shambled up to stand next to her. Jeff took a careful step forward, closing the distance. Beats walked just behind him, angling towards Mel.

  Jeff held a short sword tightly, and slightly awkwardly to Mel’s eyes. Briefly wondering where he’d found it, Mel realized how precarious her situation was. Jeff was afraid, she could see it and she guessed that Wicked saw it too. He had made the most progress in their brief training but still barely qualified as a beginner at combat. Wicked’s score was more than twice Jeff’s.

  On the other hand, Mel thought Beats was the most beautiful thing she had seen. Even drenched in sweat and looking like a half-drowned cat. He was probably glad to be in the shade of the underpass. She didn’t know if Beats would fight or not, but both Wicked and the Whale had their attention on him.

  Glancing over his shoulder at Beats, Jeff pointed towards the Whale. “Get the big dude. I’ll protect Mel.” Mel’s heart sank a bit. She felt guilty thinking it, but personally she would have preferred Beats coming to her rescue. Beats hesitated a moment, and Mel thought he looked annoyed with Jeff. But he shrugged and stepped off to Jeff’s right.

  Wicked’s hand flexed against Mel’s cheek, and Jeff stopped. A stalemate. Jeff couldn’t cover the five yards between them before Wicked killed Mel. Mel felt her energy fading; she had to end this. Trying to catch Jeff’s attention, she pointed at the knife in Wicked’s hand. She needed a distraction. But Jeff was too fidgety, concentrating too much on Wicked.

  “Tell me, where do these poor creatures come from?” Wicked said to Beats. “I thought perhaps this female was an Asadharan with a very bad birth defect, but now there are three of them. And my translators can’t make out a word they say. Quite perplexing.”

  Beats stopped a few yards to Jeff’s right. “A new race, I suppose. Not that it matters. We don’t have the goal. You are wasting your energy fighting us when you should be heading to the red zone to stop our teammate. We can all walk away from this and no one needs to get hurt.”

  “There isn’t time to catch your Sathir friend,” the Whale said. He sounded like water hissing on hot metal; even the translated voice had a sibilant quality. “I’ll take your head instead. I’ve never fought a Manesh before, with you all being cowards and such. We’ll see if you’re as fearsome as people think.” The Whale laughed, a deep rumbling that made his whole body shake. A tentacle reached out as he took a step towards Beats.

  Wicked turned to say something to the Whale. At that same moment, a rock flew through the air and struck Wicked across the side of her head, just in mid-turn. Nick collapsed back against the wall, blood oozing down the side of his face. Mel lunged for the knife in Wicked’s hand.

  Wicked reacted instantly, pulling her hand back, and Mel didn’t try to wrestle with her. Following Wicked’s momentum, she guided the knife towards Wicked’s side.

  It might have worked on someone less skilled. Even so, Mel managed to drag the sharp blade along the alien’s inner thigh. Bright green blood splashed across her face as Wicked drew back and slammed her other fist into Mel’s jaw.

  Mel’s head slammed into the ground, her face splashing in a warm pool of red and green blood. Lying on her side, she could barely see through the pain in her head.

  Jeff sprinted forward, swinging the sword the moment Mel had moved on Wicked. She ducked but he charged forward and slammed into her. The two of them rolled away in a flurry of slashing steel. Jeff came up with a cut on his arm. Wicked wielded her ax in one hand and held the knife underhanded in the other. While fast and skilled, the blow from the rock and her wounded leg combined to off-balance her. Waving his sword in the air, Jeff feinted then pulled back, still unwilling to fully commit against the better-trained fighter.

  Wicked spun in smoothly, reminding Mel of an ice skater. Compact movements, never stopping; a turn, precision step, blades in constant motion. Strangely beautiful.

  Jeff’s sword gave him a reach advantage. Parrying the ax, he swung the sword like a bat. Wicked blocked it with her knife, but the force of the blow staggered her.

  Mel’s vision faded slightly. Wicked and Jeff had been fighting for only a few harried seconds when it happened. Spinning left, Wicked’s ax carved a figure eight in the air. Jeff scrambled backwards, tripping and landing with a thud on the ground. Reflexively kicking at Wicked from the ground, Jeff off-balanced her. Maybe without the leg injury she would have recovered. But her step was slow enough that Jeff swung his sword forward and caught her in the side, sending her staggering backwards. Clutching her side, Wicked flicked her wrist. Jeff yelped and raised his arms as the knife slashed across his forearm before clattering to the ground. Jumping to his feet, he wildly swung his sword. She blocked with her ax, backpedaling furiously. Suddenly, Beats jumped in from the side and grabbed the ax from Wicked, knocking her backwards.

  A second later, the Whale lumbered up. Mel had lost track of the fight between Beats and the Whale, except for vague movements farther back in the tunnel. A huge tentacle smashed against the side of Beats’s head, sending him to the ground.

  “Hold still and fight!” the Whale bellowed, landing another blow as Beats lay on the ground. Beats growled and Mel thought he looked angry, but Beats only moved to block the blow. Jeff jumped forward and slashed at the Whale’s tentacle, barely dodging backwards in time to avoid a counterblow. Creeping in to stand closer to Beats, Jeff waved his sword menacingly. Beats rose to his feet as the Whale took a step backwards. When he looked back and saw Wicked lying injured on the ground, the Whale growled at Beats and Jeff. Scooping Wicked up, he lumbered back down the tunnel.

  Beats touched the side of his face and Mel saw light red blood, almost pink, dripping from his hand. Almost collapsing with relief, Jeff spun back towards Mel before rushing to her side.

  “Mel,” Jeff said gently, rolling her onto her back. She winced at the throbbing in her shoulder and her head. Concentrating was difficult and she realized her breathing was slow and thin. Unlike her heart, which beat like a hummingbird’s.

  “Thanks,” she whispered. Talking was painful and felt like she had a mouthful of sand. Confused, her eyes flicked to Beats, his shadow blocking the sun from the overpass entrance as he crouched at her head. “You’re too nice.”

  Beats shook his head, wiping his claws into the dirt to get the blood off. “I told you that being charming was my best quality. Not very useful in the gauntlets, unfortunately.”

  Jeff pursed his lips, hovering over Mel. “We took ca
re of them. They both ran. We need to get you medical care.” Mel didn’t understand why he was talking to her through a long, black tunnel. Why he was so far away. They were supposed to stay together.

  “Don’t leave me,” she tried to say. She couldn’t tell if the words had come out. “Nick… I promised… promised to get everyone home.” Tears streaked her cheeks, a new kind of pain squeezing at her heart. She didn’t want to leave the others but felt like she was coming undone. Jeff, Anna, Riley. Beats and Gorgeous. She had promised they would all be okay, and she couldn’t even save herself.

  “You first. I’ll check on Nick in a minute.” Jeff pressed frantically on her shoulder, which had gone numb, as if trying to push the blood back into her body. But it kept spurting out between his fingers and she could see he was getting queasy. “I won’t leave you. I’ll get you back to the ship,” Jeff said through the tunnel, but Mel knew from the look in his eyes. She wasn’t going back to the ship. They were all going to die there, in an abandoned city whose name she didn’t even know. Apparently starting with her.

  A piercing sound cut through the air. Looking up in surprise, Beats disappeared from view. Jeff took off his shirt and was pressing it into her shoulder.

  “Show off,” she muttered. He grinned, but it looked sickly and she wondered if he was going to throw up on her. Her breathing had turned to gasps, each one more difficult than the last. “I’m cold.”

  Eyes wide with panic, Jeff shouted towards the tunnel entrance. “Help! Someone help! I’m losing her.”

  Mel tried to shake her head. She wasn’t lost, she was right here. Couldn’t he see her?

  Suddenly Beats’s shadow hung over her. “The match is over. There’s a ship coming down now. Hang on, help is coming.”

  Help coming…. The last words she heard before she was swallowed by the blackness.