“Come on! What are you waiting for?” he yelled to the remaining three men.
They hesitantly turned toward him while keeping an eye on Sarah and the others, who were still in a defensive position. Alex could tell she wanted to help, but he quickly shot her a look as if to say stay where you are. He even mouthed that he had this under control, although nothing could have been further from the truth. Blood was running down his back, he was already getting dizzy from blood loss, and all he had was a dagger to defeat three men with two spears and a knife. This was going to be nearly impossible.
With no more hesitation, Alex came at them. The biggest of the three men stepped forward and thrust his spear at Alex who just dodged it as it went by his head. Then Alex plunged the dagger into the man’s chest before feeling what would be his end. A spear pierced his hip and buried into the bone, crippling him in the process. Alex fell to the ground. He was beaten, tired, and worst of all, he had failed to eliminate the enemy that might just kill his family. He stared up at the artificial lights that lit up the city and wondered what came next. Would he see Will and Jake again, and what about his parents? Was he going somewhere far beyond this world where there would finally be peace? No, there was no way a man like him would be welcome there, not after he had failed to save those he loved. He hadn’t been able to save Jake and Will when he was young, and here he was failing all over again when it really mattered, or so he thought.
Alex’s eyes began to feel heavy, and as the world started to fade away, he heard Sarah yell out as she and the others charged forward. They had been in a defensive formation for long enough, and it was now or never if they were going to stand a chance of saving Alex. Sarah came at the man still holding a knife and flung herself at him dagger first, and they crashed to the ground as it plunged into his chest. He spat blood up and coughed violently for a few seconds before death finally took him.
Meanwhile, Lee went straight at the man who had stabbed his father. Thanks to the spear being stuck in Alex, he was no longer armed, so Lee acted quickly and hastily, thinking this would be an easy enough fight. He stabbed the spear at him, but just as quickly, Lee’s enemy sidestepped the blow and grabbed the spear halfway down. Then he delivered a well-placed jab to the bridge of Lee’s nose, breaking it in the process and knocking him to his knees as he let go of the spear. Finally, the man turned the spear around, took a firm hold of it, and pulled it back to deliver the killing blow. Lee’s life flashed before his eyes. Was it meant to end here? Could he really leave his mother and Alisa all alone to deal with the rest of the fight?
At that moment, he saw a spear go through the back of his would-be murderer’s head and come out his mouth. He hit the ground, and Alisa was standing behind him, hobbled but overall, looking quite satisfied with herself. Lee was pretty happy himself.
“Hey, I thought I was supposed to be the one saving you,” he joked.
“You already did back at the palace. Just consider us even,” Alisa said and extended her hand down to him.
Lee took it, and as he stood, a realization hit him all at one time. The adrenaline was wearing off, and he remembered exactly why they had come out of their defensive position. His father had been wounded. Alex might even be dead. He rushed to his dad’s side to find that Alex wasn’t even awake.
“Is he okay?” Lee asked in fear.
He didn’t know if he truly wanted the answer to that question. If Alex wasn’t all right, it would destroy him on every level. He had always been so worried about the shadow his father cast, but now he knew the truth. Lee should have been grateful for the honor it was to have a father who had accomplished so much.
“He’s still breathing, but he won’t last long without help,” Sarah said while shaking her head.
“What can I do?” he asked desperately.
“Stay with him. I’ll fix this,” Sarah said and walked to the center of the pit. There she motioned for the crowd to quiet down and looked straight at the luxury box where Charles Boyd was seated.
“I’m asking for mercy! We come from a great family with an incredible history. We’ve also been allies of New Vegas since we knew each other existed. You can kill us today and show everyone you’re full of wrath and power, or you can show them a different side of you. Show your people that you can have mercy, and let us live! I’ll do anything you want. I’ll work out a new trade deal on your behalf. We’ll even give New Vegas a certain amount of goods,” Sarah pleaded.
Up in the box, Charles was listening with a grin on his face. Travis couldn’t stand to lie for one more moment about who he was, and he thought that telling him the truth might change things. At the very least, it would assure mercy for one member of the Morgan family.
“I’m not Lee Morgan. We lied to you because we didn’t know what you planned to do with Lee. My name is actually Travis, and if you let them die in the arena, then you’ll have no leverage against Raines. I’m a nobody there,” he said.
“My boy, I don’t give a damn who you are. I don’t need any of the Morgans to do what I hope to,” Charles said.
“What are you talking about? Of course, you do,” Travis said in complete confusion.
“Oh, you’ll see soon enough.”
“Either way, I’m begging you not to kill them.”
“And why wouldn’t I kill them? They broke into my palace and murdered quite a few of my guards.”
“Because alive they’re worth something. Make me and Lee your slaves, and keep Alex and Sarah around as trophies. They were the mightiest Raines had to offer, and now they’ve been reduced to this. Everyone will remember that you were the man who put them there if you constantly have them as prisoners to remind the people. You’re not sparing them to show you have mercy. You’re doing it so you’ll have a constant reminder for everyone of what happens when somebody crosses you.”
“Interesting,” Charles said with a grin while stroking the stubble on his chin. “I think you might be onto something. I can make the rest of their lives a living hell and use that as a way to make sure no one gets on my bad side again. Wait here, kid. You might be smarter than you look,” he said and walked out.
Charles made his way to the announcer’s box where he took the microphone just as the next opponents were coming out to make easy work of what was left of Alex and Sarah’s team. He announced mercy for Sarah, much to the crowd’s dismay. They grumbled in low voices, but no one dared boo. They had seen what happened to people who openly disapproved of Charles Boyd’s actions in the past.
“This mercy does not come without a catch, however. From this day forward, everyone who was spared will be in my service. You’re no longer royalty. In fact, you’re the dirt under my feet. I doubt you’ll be glad you were spared a few days from now,” Charles said before walking away from the microphone.
Sarah let out a sigh of relief, however. It didn’t matter what she had to be. She just had to get help for Alex. He was the only man she had ever truly loved, and having to watch him die would have broken her. She would have given up right there in the middle of the pit, and as a result, Lee and Alisa wouldn’t have stood a chance of succeeding. Of course, that was assuming they were even going to have a chance to begin with. Round seven was going to consist of six fighters, and five of them looked more than capable of taking care of a team of three that had two inexperienced people on it.
Sarah bowed her head thankfully, and then the medical staff rushed out to get Alex who regained consciousness as Sarah started to step away. He looked confused, so Sarah told him everything was fine. It was over. He had no idea how things had worked out, but he was grateful. Somehow they were alive, and for now at least, it seemed like it was going to stay that way. As he slipped out of consciousness, Alex smiled, blissfully unaware of the trials that still awaited him. There were much worse things than dying!
* * * * *
Now long gone from New Vegas, Roger and Veronica were only a few hours from home. They were both exhausted, however. He hadn’t been ab
le to sleep because he was driving, and Veronica, on the other hand, had been kept awake by the phantoms in her mind. She worried for her brother and her parents’ safeties. Should they have stayed, or were they doing exactly what needed to be done? She couldn’t decide, but Veronica was certain of one thing. Until all of this came to a conclusion, sleep wasn’t going to come easy.
“Why in the world are you still awake?” Roger asked as he glanced over at her red eyes.
“How can I sleep when we have no idea if they’re all right?” Veronica asked.
“They’ll be fine. Trust me. Your parents know exactly how to survive on the outside.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Because I remember what it was like back then. I was just a child, but if there was one person I could always count on, it was Alex. He was an excellent fighter, and he had street smarts. He had a heart, too, which was dangerous then, but thankfully, he had a heart for people like me.”
“I never have asked because I didn’t know if I should, but we’re way passed tiptoeing around each other now. What happened to your parents?” Veronica asked.
“My mom got sick when I was four, and my dad died before that. I don’t really remember him very well. I think I have one memory of him from when I was three, but it’s hazy, and I’m not completely sure if I didn’t make it up. He stole from the wrong people, and back then, that would get a person killed quickly.”
“So he was a thief,” she said low, almost to herself.
“Yeah, but not in the way you think. Where you come from, a thief is a low life. When I was growing up, everyone was a thief. You stole from your neighbors, the insiders if you could, and even from friends. It wasn’t personal, and we didn’t do it all the time of course, but some weeks you ran low on food. It was better to steal than go hungry. The problem was that my dad didn’t know how to steal from people who were either too weak to do anything about it or who would look the other way, knowing it was his only option.”
“I didn’t know how bad it used to be. I know now, though. Those people took me just because they thought they could get some credits out of it, and then a ruler of a city even used me to get to my parents. It isn’t just outsiders who do cruel things. It’s insiders, too. I couldn’t have known, but we were living in paradise back in Raines,” Veronica said and shook her head.
“Don’t beat yourself up about it, and whatever you do, don’t color every outsider as a bad person. Alex saved me when I was a little kid, and that girl Lee met helped us save you when she had nothing to gain by doing it. For every thief hell bent on getting every credit they can, there’s a good person who’s trying to do the right thing, even if it isn’t always possible for them.”
“I guess you’re right. It’s hard to see good in the world now, though.”
“Those men who took you . . . they didn’t hurt you, did they?” Roger asked.
“No. Like I said before, they wanted me healthy. One of them kept staring at me, and I was worried what might happen, but thankfully, they sold me off to Charles Boyd pretty quickly. He’s a monster, but not the kind that rapes women.”
“Good. When you were missing I had so many crazy thoughts running through my mind. I didn’t know what was happening to you, but I must have envisioned every bad thing that could’ve happened. To tell you the truth, it was starting to drive me crazy,” he said and reached over to take her hand.
“Well, as you can see, I’m fine. I do worry, though. Just like all you could see was the potential bad things that could be happening to me, I think of every terrible thing that my family could be going through. I just want to turn it off, but I can’t.”
“I know exactly what you mean, but how about we do something to take your mind off that?”
“What could possibly distract me from the hell Lee could be going through?”
“How about you try driving for the first time? I could definitely use a break, and it might be entertaining to see you trying to drive a stick,” Roger said with a grin.
“I would love to, but do you think I can?” she asked nervously.
“You climbed down three stories and escaped a palace full of guards. This should be a cinch.”
“Good point. All right, I’ll give it a go,” she said and smiled for the first time in a while.
Once they switched places, exactly what Roger expected to happen did. She let the clutch go too quickly and the truck went dead. After two more tries and more jerking than either of them would have liked, they finally started moving. Shifting was a challenge, and she wasn’t exactly keeping the vehicle straight on the road. Still, after a minute of driving, her nervousness faded, and Veronica’s struggles started to become comical even to her. By the time she finally got halfway decent at driving, they were both laughing.
“Well, that went better than I thought it would,” Roger said with a grin.
“And how did you think it would go?” Veronica asked.
“Oh, I figured we would be in a ditch by now, especially after the way you started out,” he said and laughed.
“Shut up!” she said and playfully pushed him.
This was nice, and although she was still worried, Veronica could feel every terrible scenario fading in her mind. Just maybe everything would be all right. She had never told him, but when Roger was around, she always felt like things would work out somehow. Even when she was imprisoned and all hope seemed lost, a part of Veronica knew that he would come for her.
“Roger, thank you for always being what I need.”
“I’ll never stop being that. Now, we’ve only got three hours until we’re home. Do you think you can drive until then?”
“I can, but what happens then?”
“I don’t know. I thought you were the one with the plan,” Roger said expectantly.
“I’m going to tell our new leader exactly what happened and what will probably be coming our way. Then I’m going to plead for a preemptive strike.”
“How would that even work? It’s hard enough to win a war, much less to destroy an enclosed city with an army of armed citizens outside of it.”
“It’s simple actually, or at least I think it will be. In case you haven’t noticed, war isn’t exactly my specialty. I was thinking, though, and the sewers are fairly unsecure.”
“What are you saying? They’ll put more guards down there after what happened last time.”
“I know that, but with a group of some good fighters we can take the sewers. From there, we can take the entire city hostage if we want to.”
“How?”
“Think about it, Roger. Those tunnels go everywhere under the city. With some well-placed explosives, we can make them do whatever we want.”
“And you said war wasn’t your specialty,” Roger said and grinned.
“Well, I am my mother’s daughter. The only problem is going to be finding out where my family is. We don’t want to hit any location where they could be.”
“Don’t worry about that. If we do this right, we won’t have to hit very many spots. The threat of blowing holes in their city will be enough.”
“I hope it’s that simple.”
“It will be because we’ll make it that way,” Roger assured her.
They were almost home, and when they got there a plan that could change everything was going to be made. Unfortunately, Alex was fighting for his life back in New Vegas. For him and the others, Roger and Veronica’s plan couldn’t come soon enough.
Chapter 15
Aftermath
Bloody and bruised, Sarah and the others were escorted back to the palace while a second set of guards took Alex’s body. He looked dead. In fact, Lee was almost certain that his dad was gone. It was in that moment, walking through the streets with New Vegas citizens gazing at them and whispering backhanded jokes about them, that Lee went numb. He had a blade sticking out of his back, his father might be dead, and their future seemed bleak at best. How would he ever get over any of this?
Suddenly, he felt a hand grab his. Alisa was stroking his hand encouragingly, or at least that was how he interpreted it. Lee thought that she had noticed how worried he looked, but the truth was that Alisa simply needed a hand holding hers in what was the worst moment of her life, too. They walked hand in hand to the palace, worried the whole time, and when they arrived, they were escorted up to the second floor where Travis was waiting on them with two guards standing behind him. They motioned for all of them to go into a bedroom. Alisa was all for following orders, considering these men could easily kill them, but she knew Lee needed help.
“Lee is wounded. He needs a doctor,” she said.
“We only have one medical team in the palace, and they’re going to examine Alex Morgan. There’s a first aid kit in the bathroom with everything you’ll need to patch him up. You outsiders know how to do things. Apply yourself,” a guard said and shoved her into the room behind everyone else.
“This is really bad,” Sarah said with worry reflecting on her face as the door shut.
“No, it isn’t. They just said that Alex needs their medical team, which means he’s still alive. I wasn’t so sure when I left the arena, but we’re alive, and so is he. That’s the best thing we could’ve expected out of this situation,” Travis said.
“He’s right. Your husband is going to be fine, and we’ll live to fight another day,” Alisa said before they heard Lee wincing in pain. The adrenaline and worry was starting to wear off, and pain was all that Lee could feel.
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