by Bridget Ladd
Pushing myself to my feet, I looked up, my breathing heavy. A line of boulders ran the length before me, each with varying distances between them. Not knowing what else to do, I unholstered my shield and axe, gripping their handles determinedly before leaping over the first small gap.
Knowing I needed to keep my momentum I quickly charged the next gap and continued forward, leaping between each boulder as I tried to reach the last rock which had the highest vantage point. The fifth gap was wider than I expected. Taking the chance, I pushed everything I had into my legs, forcing a hard sprint, and leapt again.
—I lost my footing when I landed and fell hard, my side skidding across the boulder. My armor scraped across the rock’s surface as I went, the shrill screeching causing my ears to cringe inward.
Finally, I lay still.
One. Breathe. Two. Breathe. Three. Focus.
Bubbles stalked me from below I knew. He was somewhere near, I just didn’t know where exactly.
Taking a moment to reclaim my gasping breath, I searched the field with my eyes, spotting Xander and Harnister going at it some thirty yards to my right. Xander’s fluid movements as he swung his blades reminded me of an elaborate dance of death. He looked as though he was working Henry quickly, impatient to be done with him. Sparks flew off Harnister’s heavily plated arms as he defended against Xander’s attacks, his movements becoming slower and sluggish with every attempt.
Pushing myself to my feet again, I prepared to jump the distance between the final gap. I needed to get within shouting distance to Xander, so I took a deep breath—and charged.
I glanced below as I leapt.
My breath hitched in my throat when I saw Bubbles standing, waiting beneath. Anticipating my arrival, he jumped and grabbed my leg midair. He had misjudged slightly and grabbed at my ankle awkwardly before he had to let go. I cried out as I slammed into the boulder in front of me, the air knocked from my lungs again as I landed belly first onto the rock’s uneven ledge.
To my horror, I started to slide.
Scrambling to keep my hold, I gritted my teeth as my fingers found two small divots in the porous stone. My legs swung without purchase beneath me and I barely managed to keep my shield pinned between my chest and the boulder.
Should I fall—it would be into the waiting arms of Bubbles McGee. I could even hear his grunting efforts to try and grab at my dangling feet through my armor’s screeching protests. I didn’t have a decent enough hold, so I made the quick decision to toss my right axe on top of the rock before I completely lost my purchase, my shielded axe, somewhat still pinned beneath my chest. My fingers dug into the stone above, my nails becoming bloody as I held on for my life.
I could not fall, especially not with my axe now left lying on top.
I will not fall.
A memory of the same determination flashed into my mind as I sat atop a beam, looking down into the dark waters below. Grunting and baring my teeth, I swung my booted leg up. I could feel the salty sweat of my efforts trailing into the corners of my mouth. And like that—my boot found a small footing in the rock. Growling, I pushed against my leg as leverage and somehow managed to pull myself up.
I lay on the warm gritty surface, breathing heavily. I don’t know why, but I laughed as I lay there with cheek against the stone.
Bubbles cursed again.
Come on, Lily. Gather your wits.
“Come down ‘ere, girlie. You can’t hide up there forever!” Bubbles bellowed from below.
Ignoring Bubble’s taunts, I glanced to my north and saw that Xander was sufficiently wearing down Harnister. The man’s massive chest heaved viciously and sweat dripped down the length of him. Harnister knew he was being defeated. As a last ditch effort, he bellowed, ramming both fists into the dirt, sending a shock wave of broken earth straight towards Xander. Xander maneuvered his way around the quaking surface and quickly bounded back to Henry’s side, gifting him with the downwards swing of his blade—an attack that Harnister barely managed to block with his heavily plated forearm.
“You see what we can do, girlie? Either you come down on yer own or I make you come down,” Bubbles called up to me.
“Lily, stay where you are!” Xander yelled across the distance as if anticipating Bubble’s next move.
I watched as Bubbles crossed over to the front of the boulder I now sat crouched on. I grabbed my axe and shield under me, determined to not have Xander finish my fight.
“I warned you, girl,” Bubbles said just before he sent a similar sonic wave into the ground just below the rock, causing the entire boulder to shake which sent me sprawling again.
Baring my teeth and gathering my strength, I counted out another time sequence. If my only physical talent was dancing, then let them know what a real dancer could do.
One. Two. Three. Four . . . the boulder shook again. One. Two. Three. Four—I pushed myself quickly to my feet and ran the length of the trembling boulder. Reaching the edge without stopping, I caught sight of Bubbles standing below and judging the distance between us in the split second that I had, I leapt.
Time slowed into mere molecules of matter as I drove my arm into my side, lifting my legs as the muscles knew to do and cartwheeled in the air above him, my shield arm outstretched towards his face. We caught sight of one another as I passed above, a look of awed respect flooded his expression—just before my shield hit home. I felt both bone and skin compress as my shield connected with his skull.
Time reformed as I skidded across the ground and landed awkwardly onto my knees. Bubbles had been rocked by my assault but not downed. He held one large hand to the back of his head.
This was my only opportunity.
Reacting quickly, I sprinted towards him.
Thinking of a particular aerial leap combined with one of the ground takedowns Xander had shown me, I grasped Bubble’s shoulders, swinging myself around him and using the momentum to slam his body forcefully to the dirt.
Bubbles rolled beneath me and I mounted his wide girth quickly while the vibration of the impact still coursed through my body. He grunted as my knees shoved into his sides. Releasing the shield from my left axe, I tossed it aside and crossed both axes at his exposed throat.
Blood welled up from the pressure I applied. The crowd cheered their accord, the sound becoming only a distance echo to my ears.
Breathing heavily, I glanced up just in time to see Xander finish off Henry. Grabbing his head, Xander slammed his armored knee into his unprotected face. Harnister crumpled to the ground, unmoving.
Bubble’s chest heaved below me, snapping me back to attention—to the axes I held at his neck.
The crowd roared again, wanting action.
For a brief moment I looked up a second time—and what I saw gave me pause. The little boy from Sector 3, Hugo’s nephew, stood on his toes, trying to overlook the standing crowd before him. He was the only focused thing among the blur of faces. His eyes were sad. He had just lost his uncle to the Barrage. He could not be denied his hero too.
“The brave love mercy . . .” the voice of the chalk-covered man in the street echoed throughout my head, invading my senses.
I could feel my nostrils flare as I held the axes firmly to Bubble’s throat. “Concede!” I growled. “Say it!”
Bubbles looked at me resolutely, unmoving, unblinking.
“Get away from him!” I heard Xander shout as he maneuvered across the broken terrain towards us. Wall after wall of spiked fences had shot through the air in his path, making him pivot and dodge his way through them like a maze.
I glanced his way, angry tears gathering. I returned my gaze to Bubble’s dirty face. Blood trailed from his scalp where my shield had hit home, small droplets mixing with the sweat at his temple. His mustache pricked as he regarded me coolly.
“Save your pride for someone who cares! Say it!” I cried.
“Lily! MOVE!” Xander shouted from a distance.
Bubbles blinked for the first time—quickly bucking his
enormous body which sent me flying from my hold. Bubbles knocked both my axes from my grasp and flipped me to my back—into the same positioning I had him in moments before. Bubbles held my arms down as I kicked and tried to shimmy my way from beneath the large mass of his body. “You should’ve done it girlie. I’m sorry, but I have to save my Sector.”
Panicking, I glanced sideways and saw that Xander—on his attempt to reach me—had been trapped by another wall of spiked fences. This fence’s design, however, sprung forth from the ground shaped differently than the others, boxing him in entirely.
The Council apparently had their cruel partaking in the situation.
Xander roared a guttural sound of pure hatred before finally deploying his mechanical wings and jets. The wings swooshed at his sides and in his fury to get to me, looked very much like my own Angel of Death, trapped and enraged.
Both Bubbles and I watched in shocked awe as he surged upwards and rammed his armored body through the enclosure, sending an array of blue sparks and broken pieces of iron fencing to the sky. Xander’s mechanical wings extended to their full length as he reached his apex, a shadow momentarily blotting out the sun.
Bubble’s hold was firm. I grunted as I tried to wring my wrists from him. He continued to pin me, though that’s all he did as even he sat impressed by Xander’s menacing aerial display.
“Hit your Defyer!” Xander yelled desperately in my direction. “Do it NOW!”
I couldn’t budge under the muscle of Bubble’s massive arms to reach anywhere near the middle of my chest. Why would the Defyer have helped anyways? Gravity was not what I needed—I was already being crushed beneath his massive weight.
Snapping out of his daze, Bubbles looked down at me with determined eyes. “I’m sorry . . . I gotta’ make this look real.”
Bubbles suddenly released one of my wrists and loosened the Cestus from his fist in a hidden way, dropping the spike away from his knuckles. Taking the opportunity, I quickly stretched out, trying to grab hold of the axe I saw in my peripheral. My bloodied fingers clawed into the dirt. My axe lying just out of their reach.
My heart’s echo thudded in my ears. I knew what was coming.
I turned my head back, preparing to face it. Wanted him to look me in the eyes as he did it.
“I’m sorry,” Bubbles gruffed out again just before a brilliant white searing pain cracked and shot through the side of my face like a lightning strike. The muscles of my neck spasmed as my head slammed into the dirt behind me. Bubble’s un-Cestused fist had still connected hard, causing one eye to ignite into a blooming hot light while the other dimmed.
I gasped both from the pain and in relief as I felt Bubble’s weight get suddenly propelled from me. A commotion broke out below my feet, sounding as though two large masses had just collided into an explosion of metal.
Reaching at my sides, I patted the ground uselessly blind as I tried to feel for my axe. But all that my fingers found were open fissures in the cracked dirt. Fissure that weren’t there moments before. I tried to lift my head to find my axe, but my vision swam. The sky above me swirled and I couldn’t quite gather what was up from down. Judging by the broken earth spreading from me like jagged wounds, Bubbles had removed the spike from his Cestus, but not the impact-enabled sonic discharge.
I lifted a hand to my face. My left eye felt odd and I could now only see a thin sliver of sky past my eyelashes—it was swelling quickly and not responding to me wanting to blink.
A horn blew loudly, echoing throughout my head.
The crowd went silent as the amplifier to the Magistrate’s box sounded, the feedback, another piercing echo.
“This bout of the round has ended. Stop the fighting. We have reached a tie as it stands currently.”
A tie? Were ties even allowed?
I managed to raise my head just enough to see that Bubbles lay belly-down to the dirt, his closely shaven head pulled backwards with a blade held to his throat. Xander stood over him, his nostrils flaring as he considered the Magistrate’s words. With Harnister already down and Bubbles not far behind, it didn’t look like much of tie to me.
When did they begin stopping the fights?
“Two of the competitors have been disabled: Lady Emerson and Henry Harnister.” A pause. “Do you wish to continue this fight later? A half hour break to recoup is all that is allowed,” the Magistrate called out across the loud speakers.
Xander growled savagely as he shoved Bubble’s face to the ground, sourly relenting the blade from his throat. I was barely aware of the swift footfalls that sounded beside me as he approached, his helm illuminated by the sun from behind. His face dark, and not because of the shadow.
His eyes scrunched through the slits in his helm—he was wincing from what he saw.
“Bones, Lily.”
“I’m fine. We must continue . . .” I tried to say, but the words came out malformed, jumbled.
Xander removed his helm, throwing it to the ground with a cold fury. He shouted towards the crowd and the Magistrate, his chest vibrating with an angry resentment with each word, “We’re removing ourselves from round one. We forfeit into the elimination rounds.”
No.
Xander then kneeled and supported my lower back and knees, carefully lifting my armored body against his. My head lolled unrestrained from the motion, making me feel sick. He supported my face to the cold steel of his plated chest when I unconsciously groaned.
A shocked gasp traveled through the audience. Shouts of disapproval erupted all around before becoming quiet once more.
“If that is what you desire, then it shall be so. Victory this day goes to Sector 6!”
I wanted to tell Xander no, that I could fight. It wouldn’t be much longer before I got my head on straight. I tried to speak, but the words never formed.
Frustrated and angry that he would decide such a thing without me, I tried to sit up, but couldn’t. Now that the fighting was over, the adrenaline began to fade, leaving a throbbing ache in the left side of my cheek. The crowd sounded like buzzing insects, making my temples throb even more.
Xander’s shadowed face looked down to mine beneath the blinding sun.
“I’m taking you away from this. Don’t fight it,” he said.
And this time I listened. I knew nothing more as I succumbed to the pleasant calm of darkness.
Chapter 29
First Scars
Two head traumas in the span of one week proved to be a major headache. My temples pounded in a frantic rhythm as I lay staring into the darkness of our little hut. Only a small light emanated from the far corner, casting shadows upon the wall. Falling unconscious from a blow could never be compared to what it felt like after having one of my episodes. There was no pain afterwards. I would prefer my condition over this any day.
My cheek felt numb and my left eye was refusing to cooperate. I tentatively reached up to touch the side of my face only to have someone stop me.
“Don’t. You’ll not want to risk infection.”
“Xander?” I asked hesitantly, searching him out in the darkness beside me. He lit a candle and sat it before him, illuminating the hard planes of his face. The area beneath his eyes was darker than usual, his cheeks shadowed with stubble. He looked exhausted.
“Your left eye is quite swollen, but it should heal. Here—” He reached over, crinkling something in his hand. “Lie this over your cheek for a while.”
I grimaced at the thought. “That bad?”
Xander didn’t respond, just handed over what I soon noticed was a frozen sack of beans wrapped in cloth.
“Why is it that I always find myself beat up and bullied and in need of healing when I’m around you?” I said, grinning weakly as I took the cold sack, but winced when a pain shot through my cheek.
“You’ll have a scar,” Xander said suddenly. “The force of the impact broke open your skin, forming a jagged line from just above your eyebrow to the top of your cheek. I tried to clean it as best I could, but .
. . I cannot promise it will heal smoothly.”
I shot my hand up again to feel the abrasions of my face only to find Xander gathering my fingers into his.
“You’re beautiful. Nothing will ever change that,” he said softly, his tone surprising me.
I bit back the emotion that choked at me. Had Xander sat at my bedside all night? Until I awoke?
Xander released my hand and I swallowed, looking away. “Bubbles didn’t want to hurt me. I saw it in his eyes. He even loosened the Cestus beforehand. If he didn’t, I . . . I would undoubtedly be dead,” I stammered out in defense of a man I didn’t even know.
“Yes, very kind of him to leave the sonic charge enabled too. The shock wave through your face added a nice dramatic touch.” Xander sighed, realizing I wasn’t smiling. “When I saw you hesitate, and how he took advantage of it—” He paused, his savage eyes haunting me. “I nearly lost it. Nothing was going to stop me from getting to you. Nothing.” He swallowed, his turn to look away. “Not all will be as forgiving as Bubbles. Next time—”
I frowned, a sorrowed pressure threating to build in my chest and clot behind my throat. “Next time? I do not want to kill anyone,” I said exhaustedly. “Not even Scottie.” I brought my fingers to rest at my hairline. “That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t mind breaking every one of his grubby fingers. Someone needs to teach him to keep his paws to himself.” I blinked. “For Hugo though, he deserves much worse.”
Xander eyed me curiously, but thankfully didn’t ask. “I suppose I’ll just have to deal with the others on my own terms before they even get to you.”
I scoffed weakly. “Were you even there today? The Council decides what happens in the Barrage. They’ll make sure to get the outcome they’re looking for. If they want me to fight the biggest and the baddest, they’ll find a way to spilt us up.”
Xander gave me a look. “I know. I was only kidding.”
Somehow, I don’t think he was.
I sighed, my thoughts running rampant. “And why did the Council stop the fight? That’s never happened. You heard what they allowed to happen to Hugo? Why now? Why with us?”