by Mark Tufo
“Please,” I whispered, “don’t be scared. I don’t know who you are or why you’re here but I’ve done nothing to you so far, and I don’t plan on starting now.”
She looked me over carefully and must have decided that I was telling the truth, as she loosened her death grip on the blanket and actually stretched out her legs a little bit to relax her fetal position.
“Who are you?” I queried. “And what exactly are you doing here?”
“You mean you really don’t know?” she uttered skeptically.
“I don’t know much of anything right now other than the fact that I’m being held captive in an alien ship and so far I’ve killed two other human beings, and more than likely my time left alive on this ship is measured in hours as opposed to days, plus that was the first good laugh I’ve had in what seems like decades.” She winced when I mentioned the part about my death, but I didn’t know her from Eve so I don’t think that my passing would greatly affect her.
“I’m a spoil.” She seemed to have almost gagged upon that word.
‘A spoil?’ I thought to myself, all I could think of was milk. Why the hell would she be comparing herself to old milk? Ohh, now I get it, I must have hit my head a little harder than I thought.
“You’re my spoil, as in spoils of war?”
“That’s it.”
“But that's crazy!” I said.
“This whole thing is a little crazy, wouldn’t you agree?”
We both almost started the whole laughing bit again, but the pain in my side abbreviated that.
She continued. “We, meaning the remaining women, are made to watch all the matches as they are waged. We are awarded to the winner and he may do with us as he sees fit.”
“You mean you have to clean this place if I tell you to?” I said jokingly. But then it struck me, if this girl was somebody’s girlfriend that meant that Beth could possibly be with another man right now. My heart almost derailed, it hammered inside my chest as if it were trying to get out. She must have seen the concern in my eyes.
“What’s the matter?” she asked with true empathy.
“Someone that I care about is out there,” as I swept my arm across the expanse of the ship.
“I’m so sorry, I know how it feels.”
“How could you possibly know how it feels?” I shot back angrily.
“I also went to the concert with a loved one, and then I got to watch him die a horrible death in the first round. At least your girlfriend may still be alive.”
“I am so sorry, I’m such an idiot. I’ve been alone for so long in this room I don’t even know how to act around people anymore. I am truly sorry for your loss. It wasn’t me was it?”
“What? No, it wasn’t you, but it doesn’t matter now anyway.”
“Sure it does, how could I possibly face you if I had killed your boyfriend?”
“Fiancé.”
I shut up, she truly did have me bested. My girlfriend was at least on the ship, but her fiancé had departed for a better place, or at least I had to believe that.
After a few moments of a drawn out and awkward silence she extended the hand of friendship.
“What’s her name, or better yet what does she look like? I might know her. They let us stay together in one huge communal room.”
I began to give her a description of my Beth and the more descriptive I became the more I noticed the light of recognition on her face. Hope surged. I was almost afraid to get any news because my mom always used to say ‘no news is good news’ and thus far in my life I had no reason to dispute that. Well, I thought to myself, now is not the time for the faint of heart. I said her first name… and my new friend said her last.
“You know her?” I asked incredulously “You truly know her?” Here was a person that had been in contact with my love, most likely just yesterday.
“Not really, but I know of her.”
I don’t understand what you mean.” I was now grasping for straws, I just wanted to hear anything about Beth.
“She is the Goddess of the Arena.”
“What the hell is that!?” All the goddesses I had ever read about were always sacrificed for some stupid reason or other. This twist couldn’t be good.
She cringed at my outburst but continued anyway. “She was chosen to be the most desirable among all the women here.” She huffed as if to say ‘what am I, chopped liver?’ Which, my dear reader, I can tell you right now she was not. “And it was decided by our glorious hosts that she will be given to the winner of the entire tournament.”
The image of that animal Durgan with my girlfriend did nothing to ease my nerves. The questions I had for her came out in rapid fashion.
“Please, I will answer all your questions as best I can, but please give me some time.”
“That’s the problem,” I noted as I pointed to the screen where the 3rd round had just begun. “I don’t have much time.”
“Okay,” she said. “I’m sorry. By the way, my name is Debbie, Debbie Carody.”
“I’m pleased to meet you Debbie.” And under any other circumstances I would have been truly happy to meet her. She was around 5’3” with long blonde hair, green eyes and a complexion that belied her hair and eye color, she was actually a little darker than I was and considering I had some Italian mixed in with my English heritage that made her look all the more exotic. She looked a lot like Michelle Pfeifer with a great tan and she had the body to match the face.
“Do you know why I’m still alive? I’m not a doctor but the blood I saw pouring out of me was a deep crimson, it was an arterial strike and by the way I was bleeding out I should have only had a few moments left.”
“Well, from what I gather the aliens were more than a little peeved when in the first round an additional fifty-two victorious combatants died from injuries sustained in their bouts. They decided to step in from Round Two on and save the victors with their advanced medical techniques.” Oh, I thought to myself as I absently touched the alien pack on my side. That explains that.
“Deb… do you mind if I call you that?” I asked.
“No, most of my friends call me that anyway.”
“Why were you so terrified when I woke you, I know that this whole situation is crazy but I’m one of the good guys, at least I think I am.”
A sudden nervousness clouded her face for an instant, than passed when she realized that I was only asking the question out of concern and with no hidden malice behind my words. I guess she finally decided I was telling the truth. Damn, I thought to myself, this was one attractive woman but I decided in the best interests of all to let my primary head do the thinking. It’s amazing to be a guy, on an alien ship God knows where, with potentially less than three hours to live, yet I still was having strong feelings of desire for this girl I didn’t even know.
“And why,” I asked, truly curious now, “was someone as gorgeous as you “assigned to such a lowly ranking as myself?”
She visibly flushed. “You weren’t supposed to win,” she said quietly, hoping to not upset me. Too late, I thought. “The ranking system is almost always right. These monsters take pride in that fact. You, Mr. Talbot…”
“Mike,” I interjected.
“Mike, you are considered an anomaly, they were actually going to let you die so that their predictions would be true, but I guess now you are some sort of curiosity to them. So far you are only one of fifteen that has gone against the odds.”
“Lucky for me I guess,” I said with very little inflection.
“And lucky for me, I suppose too.” But she definitely put more feelings in her words than I had.
For the first time in a week I felt something besides hate and pity, and for a moment in time I wasn’t afraid. She responded to my smile with a friendly kiss that could have easily melted me.
“Thank you." I told her. The softness of her lips on mine would linger for a long time.
"For what? She asked.
"Giving me something to live fo
r." I told her honestly.
“You're welcome.” she said ever so softly, “and thank you for not taking advantage of me.”
“Deb, I might be caged but I am not an animal.”
We talked for hours about everything until we came back to my original question, which she had tried to skirt around for the entire conversation. She told me she was so afraid because Durgan had started a gruesome trend among the victors. She explained that not everyone had followed his lead but enough did to make it a very macabre event. Upon winning his second battle, quite easily she added, Durgan was awarded his spoil right there on the field. He then proceeded in front of the whole alien audience and the rest of the women (the spoils to be) to rip the clothes off of his newest acquisition. When that was done he pushed her down to the ground on all fours and mounted her from behind.
“He raped her right there in front of God and everyone,” she sobbed. “Those fucking alien things were going crazy. That poor girl was screaming in pain, she was so afraid, I just wanted to go down there and help her.”
It was at this moment that I wanted to kill all of those alien bastards, and not only for what they had done to me, but for what they had put Deb and the other women through.
“He was brutalizing her until blood began to come out of her.”
That sickened me, how could you possibly take such a beautiful act and turn it into such a gruesome event?
“This went on for almost half an hour, he just kept doing it and doing it, and the girl, she was now just sobbing a little bit, the bastards even put close-ups of the whole thing on the big screen, they were eating it up. Finally he finished what he had started and then it really got bad.”
“How the hell could it get any worse?” I didn’t think that I wanted to know, but I was too involved now to not find out.
“He… he killed her,” she stammered. “He drove his sword through her back and pinned her to the ground like a butterfly, it was horrible. She was so battered and bruised that the girl could barely muster up a scream. Many of the contestants followed suit after him with their own spoils, it was a slaughterhouse. I just cried and cried for those poor souls, and I am ashamed to admit it now but I hoped beyond hope that you would die also.”
“I understand if I died I wouldn’t be able to do those awful things to you. I’m so sorry that you had to see that. I know it’s horrible inside the arena floor but I at least somewhat control my own destiny.” I paused to gather my thoughts. “Deb, I know you’re upset but I have to know…”
“What is it?” she whimpered
“What happens to you if I die in this next round?”
“Don’t even say that! Please don’t even think it!” she yelled.
“Deb, look at me, I’m 165 pounds, I’m far from the bruisers that are out there now. I’ve faced one old guy and a half dead guy who almost killed me, my odds of going too far aren’t all that great.”
“Please!” she cried.
“Deb, what happens?” I asked a little more urgently.
“I go to your victor,” she sobbed. “Please don’t let that happen!”
I hugged her with all the strength I could muster, she winced in pain but she didn’t want me to let go either. We cried for what seemed like hours but in reality it was only minutes. Then the screen roared to life.
“Gladiator, prepare yourself, your bout is about to begin.”
All of our conversation ceased as we watched the events unfold on the screen. It was obvious more pomp and ceremony was attributed to the higher rankings. Durgan didn’t even have an armed escort leading him into the arena. He appeared to enter willingly, all too willingly actually. The camera honed right in on him and I was able to get a good look at him. He looked like a wrestler in his garb, he even had what appeared to be a silk robe on. This really did look like Saturday Morning Wrestling only I wasn’t on my couch at college and I definitely wasn’t smoking a big fattie with Paul. Durgan even bowed before the crocs, and they loved him, they hissed back their collective approval. It was when they announced his competition that I knew something was amiss. His competitor for this round had died from his injuries sustained in the prior round. So even the alien technology was only so good, they did have faults. That was a good piece of news, if only I could get out of here to tell somebody. Durgan was getting a bye for this round and he was pissed; he was angry that he was not going to get the chance to kill another human being. How far from the edge had this man been on Earth? It couldn’t have been that far, if he was pushed over the edge that quickly. And then as he turned to his spoil his eyes gleamed. No, I mean they really twinkled, if it wasn’t for the evil grin that spread over his face I would have actually thought that he cared for her. I was riveted to the screen, I felt like I was watching a train wreck in action. The camera pulled back from the massive structure of him to the shrieking and shivering form of the woman in the center of the arena. She was tied to two posts, so that she was spread eagled and naked standing up. Tears flowed down her eyes in rivulets; she could not take her eyes off of him. She knew this monster and she knew that her fate was sealed, but that didn’t make it any easier to swallow. He slowly sauntered his way to the center of the arena. The crowd was going crazy, they were actually throwing flowers onto the floor of the arena.
“They’re as sick as he is!” I shouted to no one in particular.
The woman renewed her shrieking and screaming with a vengeance. He approached her and actually walked around her once, slowly. The woman desperately tried to follow him with her eyes all the way around; he finally came to a stop in front of her and just stood there, eyeing her up and down. It was the kind of once over that could get you in trouble for sexual harassment on our planet. He looked at her for another few seconds with her just quivering and crying and then bang, he punched her full force in the nose. Her nose cracked with an audible pop. What was once a beautiful aristocratic nose was now a shattered piece of flesh and cartilage on her face. Blood poured out and her eyes instantly blackened. The crocs looked like they were foaming at the muzzle. I had hoped that the punch would knock her out so that she would not have to endure the inevitable torture that he was about to rain down on her. But whether he had pulled the punch just enough, or she was just strong enough to withstand it I didn’t know, but she was still cognizant, the terror in her eyes revealed that her senses had not been dulled in the slightest. Durgan removed his robe and let it gracefully fall to the floor, he then undid his kilt and with one quick motion he fully violated this woman. She went slack. This once probably strong and vibrant woman just gave up the ghost, she had accepted her fate and was most likely now making peace with her God, but to me it didn’t seem that he was listening at the moment. That animal was everything men had striven not to be, he was more the missing link than a human. He let out a triumphant yell as he came and even stepped back and beat his chest like King Kong. He pointed into the audience and yelled “This one’s for you!” The camera zoomed onto the person he had been talking to. I fell against the screen, it was Beth. Her face was pure hatred and terror. The camera flashed back just in time to catch the sword as it made its way through Durgan’s newest spoil's neck. I shut the screen off before the woman’s head had a chance to hit the ground. Deb was crying and I was dry heaving into the toilet. It was a long time before I was able to regain my legs and stand up. When I finally exited the bathroom Deb was still whimpering a little bit, but she must have been dreaming of the atrocities because she was now fast asleep.
They came sometime after I had fallen asleep. At first I thought Deb was trying to awaken me. But the feeling was unmistakable, cold and clammy and immensely strong. They felt dead to the touch and their eyes did little to change that appearance. I jumped, Deb jumped too. Tears flowed from her eyes anew.
CHAPTER 22 – Journal Entry 17
“Wake up hu-man, it is time to die,” the guard stated. If I had known any better I would have sworn he laughed, but through the mass of teeth they have it's nearly impossi
ble to tell if they even possess any human-like emotion.