by Kyle West
“Ready yourselves!” Samuel shouted.
The gate, now open, released its payload. Six men filed out, each wearing a headdress of jaguar fur. They were the jaguar warriors, the Empire’s most elite fighting force – the ones Julian had told me I would never want to face off against. Each of them wore leather armor and was armed with two axes.
Upon seeing the jaguar warriors, the crowd cheered, as if at an unexpected surprise. The jaguar warriors began to fan out. They were six against our five. Following Samuel’s lead, we backed away, so as not to get cornered. The crowd booed at our maneuver. But we weren’t trying to win the crowd. We were trying to win our lives.
After that, things got going immediately. Anna stepped forward, hoping to incite one of the warriors to attack. Taking the bait, one of them fell on her from the side with a dual flash of axes. But she had expected that. She sidestepped him, cutting him in the back, with great economy of motion. With wide eyes, the warrior fell. Nimbly, Anna stepped away, rejoining our ranks.
The crowd roared in fury at the first blood being drawn by us. Only five of the warriors were left, and they leapt into action upon seeing their comrade fall. They completely encircled us, causing Makara and me to go back to back, Makara pointing her spear outward. Anna’s training came back to me – even if she had taught me with her katana, her lessons of keeping calm amidst danger steadied my resolve.
Three of the jaguar warriors surrounded Makara and me, each wielding their dual axes that shimmered in the sun. The other two faced down Samuel, Anna, and Julian. Since we were outnumbered, Makara and I had to do our best to hold our own until the others could take care of their own adversaries.
Samuel wielded his maces as his group’s two jaguar warriors sprung forward in tandem. Samuel sidestepped and spun, clobbering one of them with his mace in the back. The crowd hissed again as the warrior fell to the dirt. Samuel, with a baleful roar, bashed the warrior’s skull in with a squishy crunch. Anna, meanwhile, had no trouble dispatching the other before he could reach Samuel. The warrior sprang forward, and Anna did the same to him, taking him off guard. As the jaguar warrior’s axe fell toward Anna’s midriff, Anna did a barrel roll, the axe blade missing her body by inches. At the same time her sword, held outward, cut the man deep into the gut as she landed acrobatically on her feet. The blade remained embedded. With the full strength of her torso and legs, Anna ripped straight through the man’s abdomen, severing his spine. The top half of the jaguar warrior’s body toppled and crashed into the dirt while the legs buckled from underneath. The crowd screamed in both horror and revelry as blood splattered the ground in a torrent.
The three remaining jaguar warriors retreated as the five of us lined up and advanced slowly. Judging by the rising drone of the crowd, this was not the way it was supposed to go.
Finally, the men turned tail and fled from the gate from which they had come. Makara launched her spear. It sailed through the air, arcing downward to the last warrior. It nailed him in the back, sinking below his right shoulder blade. Soundlessly, he fell to the dirt, quivered, and grew still.
The last two warriors were now completely routed. They banged on the gate, desperate to escape the arena. We stood in front of them in a semi-circle. Makara, next to the body of the man she had speared, pulled out her weapon, pointing it at the two remaining warriors.
At last, the gate was raised, and the men fled inside the staging area. It was shut again.
The echo of the closing gate reverberated throughout the Coleseo, leaving in its wake dumbfounded silence.
***
The silence lasted a few seconds before the arena was filled the jeers, boos, hisses, and the maddened faces of the crowd. Several men tried to jump from the stands onto the dirt ground, restrained only by loved ones and friends who understood the foolishness of such an action.
We had won the fight. That’s what mattered. But something was wrong. We were still alive, and they weren’t letting us out. Were they going to send more warriors after us this time?
“We stay here, until we die,” Julian said. “It is that simple.”
My hopes sank. “They’re just going to send more in until we are all dead?”
Eventually, they would overwhelm us. We could fight all we wanted, but it was not going to do any good. My only hope now was that Ashton would drop out of the sky and save us all. Of course, he had no way of knowing that we were here, so that would never happen. We couldn’t get lucky every time.
Finally, every head in the Coleseo turned to the Emperor’s box. Here, long bearded men in rich, multicolored clothing sat, looking on in silence. The Emperor himself was speaking to the fat man who had announced the beginning of the match. At this very moment, they were discussing our fate.
At long last, the fat man returned to the dais. The entire Coleseo fell into silence. He kept his hand raised, outward, commanding the attention of all present. The five of us stared upward at him.
“The governor commands,” the fat man’s voice boomed, “for your entertainment, Wastelander blood, this very day!”
A roar of approval met this pronouncement. The sound buried us, dimmed us to nothing.
But we were not done, yet.
I nearly jolted out of my skin when I heard the rattle of chains come from all around us. Four square-shaped holes had appeared on the arena floor, descending into darkness. I wondered if we were meant to go down them. The clinking of the chains ceased.
“Trap doors,” Julian said.
“For what?” I asked.
Samuel knelt down, ready to fight. “Whatever they plan on using to kill us.”
Then, the chains clinked again. The trap doors rose back up, and as they did so, the crowd waited with anticipation.
Finally, the doors’ payloads were revealed. There were four of them, yellow with black spots, thin, as if starved, but all the more deadly for it. They were jaguars – real ones this time.
The crowd cheered as the four beasts prowled toward us at a low crouch. I gripped my gladius, ready to jab the first one that got too close. Makara stood next to me, doing the same with her spear, while Samuel and Anna stood nearby.
“Bring it on,” she said.
The first jaguar sailed through the air right for Anna. But that was a mistake. She held her sword aloft, and with a cracked yowl, the jaguar impaled itself through the gut. The crowd oohed, unable to help being impressed by Anna’s skill.
However, holding her sword that way left Anna’s side exposed. A jaguar dashed from the side, going for her exposed abdomen. I rushed forward, scaring it off with a swing of my blade. The other two jaguars, with lightning speed, circled around me, going for my back. Samuel and Makara stepped in from behind, keeping my back protected. The three jaguars that were left encircled us.
The five of us formed a circle as the three deadly cats stalked around us.
“Stay in formation,” Samuel said. “Don’t break for anything.”
It continued this way for five minutes. The heat of the sun baked my skin, turning it red. My throat was parched, and every part of me ached. But I did not lower my shield. Not for anything. This was a waiting game, and we would not be the first to break ranks.
The patience of the cats was unsettling. I tried hard not to stare into their black, hypnotic eyes and become transfixed. I could see their mouths salivating in anticipation of their meal, sticky saliva dripping from their jaws and onto the dirt. The crowd had deadened, now talking amongst themselves. I told myself to be ready for anything.
Still, they circled, and none of us spoke. We had been standing here at least fifteen minutes, maybe longer.
The crowd started to get bored and restless. I glanced up at the Emperor’s box, noticing that the rich men were talking to each other. I saw one man nod, and disappear into the arena. What was going on?
One of the cats yawned, settling itself into the dirt.
Five minutes later, the crowd started booing. But I couldn’t let that break my concentrati
on.
Then, something happened that we could not ignore. It came as a steady clinking of chains from our right.
“The gate is rising,” Anna said.
The gate was halfway up, and from the darkness behind it I heard a high shriek. It was a familiar, horrible sound – cold and unyielding, making you want to run, scream, and cower.
“Oh no...” Makara said.
Then they came out of the gates, at a low, dead run. It was a part of my home that I didn’t want to be reminded of.
“Crawlers,” I said.
***
The first to fall were the jaguars, not us. If there was anything that could knock the boredom out of them, it was crawlers. These were big ones, too, not like the ones in the Wasteland. They were long, serpentine, and scuttled about on multiple legs. Their three eyes were haunting white orbs, without pupils so that you could not see which way they were looking. Their long tails swung back and forth like a scorpion’s. How the Empire had managed to capture them and transport them here, I couldn’t guess.
There were three of them, and that was more than we could handle on foot. The first crawler surged out of the tunnel, leaping right for one of the jaguars. The cat gave a pained yowl as the crawler swiped it with its tail, red blood spewing into the air. The crowd gasped in shock as the torrent of blood fell, splattering onto the dirt. The cat fell lifeless.
The other two cats, hair on end, tried to slink away out of sight. It was pitiful to watch them as they were put against the walls, the three crawlers surrounding them on all sides. The crowds in the stands pulled back as the hideous monsters approached, flexing their tails to strike. In tandem, they stabbed the jaguars, over and over. A fine mist of blood collected in the air from the momentum of the stabs. The cats, after giving a few pitiful wails, fell silent, and the crawlers began to feast on their flesh.
The five of us stood in the center, weapons ready. It was only a matter of time before they lost interest in their fresh kills and came after us. Samuel motioned with his hand, taking a step forward. He meant us to follow him. I saw that he meant to take them by surprise. We had no other shot, anyway.
We snuck forward, and with our movement, the crowd began to get excited. Still, the crawlers dug into the fallen jaguars, the sounds of their chewing and gnashing sickening. Flesh ripped and bones crunched, and nasty slurps sounded in the air. As we neared, the monsters’ stench made me want to retch. I had almost forgotten how horrible everything infected with xenovirus smelled. It was like corpses dead for weeks, like garbage, like untreated sewage.
The crawlers didn’t seem to have much intelligence, even if they were powerful. We were ten feet away. Up close, they were even more giant, still munching away at their prey even as Samuel gave the signal to attack the one on the far left.
Letting out primal yells, we charged forward, hacking at various parts of the crawler’s body. Anna slashed at the tail, giving a good chop that only went halfway through, causing the tail to hang askew. The creature shrieked, turning on us and glaring at us with those white orbs. As it reared up, Makara and stepped forward, stabbing it in its soft, white underbelly, where its dark crimson scales were not so impenetrable. Purple blood gushed from the wounds. It thrashed about, catching Julian with an insect leg, sending him sprawling to the dirt.
Now alerted to our presence, the other crawlers encircled us, blood dripping from their fangs. Their mouths opened, revealing forked tongues and rows of sharp, yellow teeth. They gave unearthly bellows, their breath smelling of rot and decay.
Samuel dealt a killing blow to the first crawler. He swung his mace down, pummeling its head into the dirt. Dazed, the creature remained still as Samuel hit it, again and again. The creature twitched and grew still.
There were two crawlers left. One broke from the other, going right for Samuel, mouth agape. Anna jumped forward, but the crawler tackled her, sending her to the dirt.
The crowd was on its feet, cheering. As Makara rushed to help Samuel, and as Julian was getting back onto his feet, I ran to Anna. Anna tried to force herself up, but the crawler snapped its face downward, its mouth opening...
“No!”
I was too far to save her. I hurled my gladius toward the face of the creature. I had a lucky throw; my gladius spiraled, connecting with one of the crawler’s three eyes. The creature roared in pain, turning to face me. It stamped the ground with its front four legs, and scuttled toward me at an alarming rate.
I dove to the side, but it wasn’t enough. Its teeth snapped at me, grabbing me by the shirt. It picked me up with its mouth, swinging me left and right. The bottom half of my shirt ripped, and I flew through the air, landing right on top of the body of the downed crawler Samuel had killed just a minute before.
I crashed into the armored creature, wincing in pain. I had barely missed landing on the row of spikes jutting from its back. I thought the crawler was going to leave me alone at this point. I was wrong. It was dead set on killing me, here and now.
Just as it was nearing, I heard Makara scream. She now stood right in front of it.
“Makara, no!”
The creature tore into her. She screamed in pain and toppled to the ground, her shirt wet with blood.
“Makara!” Samuel shouted.
The evil creature flashed its teeth, as if in a triumphant grin. But that wasn’t to last. It didn’t even scream in pain as Anna stabbed downward, right into the back of its head. Closing its eyes, the crawler slumped to the ground.
All three crawlers were dead – somehow, the other had been felled while I was occupied with this one. I didn’t care about that right now. All that mattered was Makara.
I ran to her. She held her side and was shaking. Blood gushed from a deep wound – the kind of wound a person did not survive. Her face was pale under the bright sun.
I pulled off my shirt, pressing it against her side. But even that couldn’t stop the flow of blood from leaving her.
“Makara...” Samuel said.
He touched her face. Makara’s eyes focused, if only for a moment.
She looked at Samuel. She said nothing, her eyes fluttering. She then turned to look at me. She smiled slightly, I don’t know what for. The ground around her form was stained with her blood.
“Why?” I asked, tears coming to my eyes.
She looked at me a moment, her green eyes growing hazier every second.
She never answered. She faded, and closed her eyes.
Chapter 17
I couldn’t be shocked. I couldn’t be anything. I was dead to everything. I couldn’t believe that what had just occurred. Makara had saved me, countless times, and she had saved me one last time.
And I didn’t deserve it. I didn’t.
I stared at the ground, tears welling in my eyes, refusing to believe. But there she lay, on the ground, her brother’s hands still unable to stem the tide of red leaking out. My mentor, the one who taught me how to survive. My friend was dead.
Samuel was on his knees, tears in his eyes. He still held her wound, blood soaking through his hands. But no matter how much he held the wound, the blood wouldn’t stop. The pain wouldn’t stop.
I fell to the ground, and didn’t want to remember anything anymore. Anna was by my side. Tears were in her eyes, too. Julian watched, eyes glistening with tears, as if he too couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
It seemed impossible. We had all gone through so much together. And now this.
Something had finally gotten to us.
The ground shook, I didn’t know from what. I thought it was the crowd at first, somehow making a constant thumping noise. Then I realized it was more like a set of legs.
“Look out!” Julian shouted.
I turned to see what would be our final doom. A Behemoth, and there was no Recon to outrun it this time, no spaceship to drop from the sky and give us a ladder. Only four of us, once five, with our paltry weapons and a whole Empire against us.
The Giant wasn’t like the Behemoths we
had seen in the Waste. This one was less humanoid, and more reptilian. It was at least ten feet tall, had stout, thick legs, and hard green scales that none of our weapons could pierce.
It would be our final battle.
I cried out. Fueled by grief and anger, I readied my gladius for a jab. The Behemoth lowered itself, opening its wide mouth to reveal its needle teeth. It gave a scream, its warm breath toxic and putrid. Still, I ran forward. The others joined me in my berserk attack. As the creature arched its neck to take me out, Anna swung in from my left.
Not you, too...
Thankfully, the creature ignored her, coming straight for me. That was fine. I didn’t want anyone else to die because of me....
The teeth snapped closed, right on my gladius and inches from my hand, rending the hilt in two. I had nothing but my bare hands now. Unthinking, I leaped on top of the monster’s head, straddling it with my legs. Annoyed, it shook itself, but it wasn’t going to be rid of me so easily. I took my right hand, and, making a fist, jabbed it in one of its two completely white eyes.
It roared in pain, and this time, the Behemoth successfully threw me off. I fell ten feet to the ground, rolling and landing sprawled on my stomach. I scrambled to get up, but every part of me hurt. Every damn part. I stood on unsteady legs, but fell again.
I rolled over, to see the Behemoth coming for me again. One of its eyes dripped purple blood. The purple stuff was all over my hands, stinging them. I wiped them in the dirt, grabbing a handful of the arena dust. The creature shot its face down again, mouth widening. I dodged to the side, throwing the dirt directly into its other eye at the same time.
It hissed. It gave me the moment I needed to kick it, right in that eye.
It pulled up again, screaming in agony, shaking its colossal head. It stepped forward uncertainly. I had completely blinded it.
Anna took up Makara’s spear, and with a primal yell, stabbed downward into the creature’s clawed foot.
The creature screamed again and again as we slashed and stabbed and pummeled its legs, forcing it to the ground. The crowd was on its feet, watching and screaming like crazy. Crying out, I slashed at the back of the Behemoth’s knees, so now it was completely grounded.
