Fizzler, on the other hand, was quite enjoying the feast. One of the zombies had brought a bowl of squirming bugs. Maggots and worms by the looks of them. Fizzler had to ask politely almost three times before the zombie would fulfill his request, but had eventually won out with pure persistence. Zack kept telling him he had to be aggressive.
“If they don’t come in the next five minutes, Fizzler,” he had said, “I want you to stand up and punch the next zombie butler you see in its rotten face! Give all the photographer gremlins a picture worth taking!”
“I am afraid I cannot do that, Call-Me-Zack,” Fizzler had answered.
“Leave him alone, Zack,” Maddie said.
He did. The next thing we knew a zombie, with about as many squirming maggots in his decayed teeth as were in the bowl he’d brought, set the food in front of the gasling.
The maggots squeaked as Fizzler’s great jaws crunched down.
I started nibbling on the lettuce and celery they put on the plates for show. Yes, it was possible for me to still be hungry in a room full of sickening meals and monsters.
“We’ll leave when Fizzler is done,” Octavius said.
Zack gave him a fed-up look. Sighed.
“Let him enjoy himself,” Octavius said.
So we did.
When Fizzler finished we stood up. Cameras clicked and flashed and the nearby monsters watched us with snarls on their faces.
The Boogeyman stood at the head of the table, laughing very loudly with a few of the Saber Corporation bigwigs. I doubted the joke was funny. I didn’t doubt it was somehow at the expense of the humans.
I scanned the table. Didn’t see Marena Psydin. I thought that was weird. Mostly because she was probably up to no good.
Then I turned around and there she was, right behind me.
She was no Ariel, I’ll tell you that. Sitting in her tub of saltwater on wheels, she peered out at us over the murky glass with large eyes. Eyes that were gold with a black slit for a pupil. Like cats’ eyes.
“Leaving so soon?” the mermaid asked. Her voice was like a drowning man’s last plea before water floods his lungs.
“Marena,” Octavius said. “How wonderful to see you.”
“Octavius,” Marena snarled.
The way they spoke to each other made it seem like they had gone way back. I didn’t know if that was the case, but it seemed like Octavius was about as popular as anyone at the Games.
“The spread isn’t exactly up our alley,” Zack said. “I was hoping for, like, a Chinese buffet type deal. Not really into fingers and brains.” He patted his stomach. “I’m trying to watch my weight.
Of course, the mermaid didn’t find this funny.
Neither did the rest of us. I would’ve had the tensions not been so high.
With a flick of her head that sloshed some of the water out of her portable tub, Marena’s hair, which was like a thousand thick eels growing from her pale scalp, whipped backward.
This close, in this lighting, I got a really good look at her. She was much scarier in person. Her tail fin took up most of the tub, coiling around the glass like some great water snake. Deep scars embedded in the tissue. Blue-green in color. Scales, too. Her upper half was technically human. But calling it human was like calling a gasling a warrior. Her skin was the color and consistency of spoiled milk. Her ribs jutted out far enough for me to count them. Her breasts were deflated and drooped almost to the beginning of where her fish-half began.
She drummed a clawed hand on the edge of her glass. I wished they would’ve found the peddles in front of her so she could wheel on out of our faces, but they didn’t.
“I’m surprised to see you here,” Marena said.
“Why so?” Octavius asked.
“Yes, we’re in the Games, aren’t we?” Maddie added. “And Octavius is our friend.”
They were playing more games than the Monster ones. I didn’t care for that. The basilisk attack didn’t kill me, but it sure pissed me off.
So I spoke up. “You’ll have to try harder than a dumb snake,” I said. “Don’t you know who we are?”
Marena’s lips parted. Rows of jagged teeth visible for all.
A gremlin stood on a chair for a better view of this whole situation. Marena saw it out of the corner of her eyes, turned her head, hissed, and the gremlin nearly fell off of the chair in fear.
“Brash, aren’t you, young one?” Marena said. The opened mouth formed a smile.
“No, Abe’s real!” Zack said. “As real as the streets! As real as the Fright Squad!” Then he started barking. Maddie had to pinch him to get him to stop.
All eyes were on us. The conversation around the dining hall halted. Even the Boogeyman was looking on in curiosity, his staff held at his side like a weapon he was prepared to use at a moment’s notice.
Marena, of course, didn’t know what the hell Zack was talking about or why he had begun barking. I really didn’t know, either. I assumed this was some sort of intimidation technique.
It hadn’t worked.
With that same smile on her face, Marena said, “Believe me, Fright Squad, I intend to try much harder to make sure you suffer. Ask around the contestants. Find out just what I’m paying for the three of your heads. They would make fine mantle pieces. And if you somehow avoid my hitmen, believe that I have more than a few tricks up my sleeve.”
“Same as always,” Octavius said. “All bark, no bite.”
“Be careful, Octavius,” Marena warned, ignoring him. “Or you may find yourself on my mantle as well.”
Maddie chuckled. It caused us all to look in her direction. She’d been so quiet up to now, so civilized. “Assuming you mean you’re going to decapitate Octavius, which I’m pretty sure that’s what you meant, how would he find himself on your mantle if he’s dead? Humans don’t live very long when their heads are detached. I don’t know about fish-women.”
“We could find out,” Octavius mused.
“Damn!” Zack said. He threw up a fake gang sign, flashed it in the mermaid’s face. “You just got served!”
Again, no one knew what this meant. Not even me.
Maddie continued, ignoring her boyfriend’s outburst. “That sounds quite good, Octavius.”
Zack went absolutely bonkers. Jumping up and down. Shouting. Whispers rippled through the dinner crowd. I sensed a certain calm before the storm.
“Is that a threat, human?” Marena demanded.
“No.” Maddie stepped forward so she was now almost eye to fish-eye with the mermaid. “That’s a promise.”
Marena scoffed. Hatred on her face. “We’ll see about that. We’ll see about that.” The mermaid reached out for her pedals. With a squeak the tub of water lurched forward violently. A wave spilled over the top and splashed on our shoes. Soaked me down to my socks.
That was okay. Seeing Maddie stand up for us like that was worth it.
“I don’t think she likes you all very much,” Fizzler said.
“Really? What made you think that?” Zack asked. “I didn’t think she sent the basilisk to our tent for hugs.”
“Good,” I said, also ignoring Zack. “We’re not here to make friends.”
Then again, we had enough enemies as it was.
19
First Task
The rules of the first task came the next afternoon. I believed the other contestants had had them for much longer than us. They probably had them delivered the previous night or that morning. Maybe even before that.
But that was okay. We knew what to expect. No matter what the little scroll of paper said, we knew it would never be to our advantage.
There wasn’t much to the rules of the first task, either. We were allowed one non-projectile weapon of our choice. The item we were hunting was called the Fang.
Octavius sat in the tent going over the scroll with us. “The Fang,” he said with a chuckle.
“What is it?” Zack asked.
“Apparently it is a fang,” Octavius answered.
That made sense.
“Yeah, but what’s it significance?” Maddie asked.
“You’ll find out, I suppose,” Octavius said.
Next thing we knew, we were back in the arena, back in the shadows behind the portcullis. The crowd was going absolutely crazy.
Octavius told us that they could sit in the arena and watch the Games play out on the big screens or watch them from home. Drones would be following the Champions around, getting everything on video.
The playing field for tonight was about a half-mile stretch up the mountain. We were required to get to the end in one piece. At the end was a large building made of old stone. It was barely visible from the arena. There, inside, we expected to find the Fang. Whoever got it first would win the most points. A hundred to their overall score. Apparently there was either more than one Fang or the thing regenerated because second and third place got fifty and twenty-five respectively. Then everyone below that would be rewarded twenty and below. But points didn’t matter if you were dead. Points only mattered if you wanted to get into the last round. The championship round. That seemed like a long way away.
We just knew we had to survive, and we knew that was going to be pretty hard.
The Boogeyman spoke, his voice amplified a million times louder. “Bring the Champions in! Bring them in now!”
The portcullis raised. We were smacked in the face with the screaming voices of thousands of excited monsters. They were sitting in the bleachers decorated in Saber’s logo.
I’ll admit, I was nervous. I hadn’t been this nervous in a long time. And it wasn’t because of the imminent death on our horizons. No. It was mainly because I had never been good at sports. I’m sure I’ve mentioned that a few times before. In gym class I was often picked last for any game we played. In dodgeball, I always took the most balls to the face. I know how that sounds, but it’s true. The last time I exercised for fun was pretty much never. And here I was entering this arena like a dollar store gladiator.
The Boogeyman clapped. The noise shook the arena. Amplified by the microphone.
“You ready?” I asked Maddie and Zack.
“Are you?” Maddie replied. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”
I looked down at the sword I held in my hand. It was a throwback to when we’d stormed Perdition Cemetery, when the NOD was attacked by Doctor Blood’s evil mutated minions. That sword I had defended myself with was gone, yeah, but when we were given our choice before entering the arena, the sword was about the only thing I could pick up and not blow a vein in my head in the process. Zack took not a hatchet but an ax, this one a lot bigger than the one he’d used in Perdition Cemetery. Maddie took a scythe like she was the Grim Reaper. It was almost as tall as she was.
I looked around at the other competitors. The cyclopes had battle axes twice the size of me, much larger than Zack’s. The werewolves wore daggers on their belts, daggers that were still about as long as my sword. The vampires each had swords, too, but they weren’t like mine. Mine was a brutal thing some blacksmith with only a few fingers had probably forged. The vamps’ swords were like the kind of swords you’d see the Three Musketeers use. They were long and skinny and deathly sharp.
The ‘Steins each held medieval weapons. A mace, a halberd, and a bardiche, which was basically a long pole with a curved axe head at the end. At the top of the axe head was a point that would rival the vamps’ swords in sharpness. One hit would prove deadly to us. Lop off an arm, sever an artery.
The reason I know these weapons is because Medieval History was about the only subject I paid attention to in high school. So I knew just how deadly each of those weapons were. Especially when operated by a race of super strong inhuman monsters that had a grudge against me.
The one I’d punched in the face looked over then. He held the mace.
Among the others were a smattering of blades, clubs, lances. The succubi wore glittering brass knuckles on their hands, a spike about six inches in length on each of the crests.
“Champions, line up!” the Boogeyman yelled.
We were herded to the other end of the coliseum. Another portcullis rose. Beyond the opening were the mountains. A rising field of lush green. It looked as if a bulldozer had cut a path through the trees. It was wide enough for about half of the twenty or so races to walk through side-by-side.
“The rules are simple,” the Boogeyman said. “Grab the special item first and win the most points. Tonight’s special item is the Fang.”
The crowd gasped.
A few of the monsters were looking around like they were real worried. I didn’t know why.
“Yes, the Fang!” the Boogeyman went on.
“He sounds like a prick, doesn’t he?” Zack said.
I grinned, but the grin didn’t tell how I really felt. Which was terrified.
I heard a deep laugh behind us. Turned around. There was the werewolf who’d congratulated me on punching the ‘Stein in the face.
“He is,” the she-wolf said.
“Don’t we know it,” Zack said.
Maddie hit him, probably for talking to the competition. I don’t know how I felt with having the werewolves behind us and all, but there was nothing we could do about it now.
“The twist,” the Boogeyman said, “are these!” He pointed to the sky just above where the new opening in the arena was. A boom rocked the ground, like someone had let off a barrel’s worth of fireworks.
But there were no pretty colors, no bright explosions.
Swarming in the air were more vamps.
“Their eyes,” Maddie said. “Look at their eyes.”
They were far away, but we could still see their eyes. They were a vicious red.
Which could only mean one thing.
“Rabid,” Zack said softly.
The crowd gasped again.
“Yes, these vampires have the Madness. And they will attack anything they see moving within the field of play. Even their fellow kin,” the Boogeyman said. With a grin, he continued. “Did you think it would be a cakewalk? No! This is the Monster Games!”
Another boom. This time fireworks lit up the night sky. In that crazy brightness, I singled out the gaslings in the crowd. All that were left, the elders, Fizzler, and Gizzler looking up at the sky with dumbfounded looks on their faces. Sitting below them were Octavius and Slayer. Octavius didn’t care for fireworks. He was looking right at me. He nodded. I nodded back. Slayer waved. Lip quivered. He was scared for us. I was scared for us.
“Places, everyone!” the Boogeyman shouted. He spun around so viciously, his minotaur minion wasn’t expecting it and took an elbow to the shoulder. The Boogeyman hardly noticed this. Now he was looking toward the opening as officials carrying the many sigils of the participating monsters ushered us forward. It felt like we were being marched to our death despite the jovial mood of the crowd, the smell of firework smoke in the air, and the bright lights all around us.
We lined up at the mouth of the portcullis in rows of three. We’d been placed somewhere in the middle. The werewolves were behind us. So were the ‘Steins. This had been the case, no doubt, to cause a little drama at the beginning of the first task. Get the Monster Games right off to a bloody start.
“Dead,” the ‘Stein I’d punched in the face said. “So dead.”
I ignored this.
On our left were the succubi and the demons. Both groups looked focused. Didn’t care that we were there.
I kept looking over my shoulder at the ‘Steins. At their medieval weapons. At their protruding jaws full of jagged corpse teeth, hearing that deep voice say “Dead.” It didn’t make me feel too good, hearing that.
The flag holders ushered us forward even more. Now we were about three rows away from the Rodanian Mountains and the course beyond.
Maddie squeezed Zack’s forearm.
“It’s gonna be okay,” he said.
But was it? I didn’t know. It certainly didn’t feel like it was going to be ok
ay.
“We’re gonna kick monster ass,” Zack said.
“Let’s just survive,” I said.
As long as we didn’t die and as long as we didn’t get last place in each of the tasks, we had a chance. Because we’d end up in the last round. The last round was what we needed to win.
I looked over my shoulder again, gripping the sword tightly. I looked past the ‘Steins, the harpies, the banshees, the werewolves. Saw Octavius and Fizzler and Slayer on Gizzler’s shoulders.
The elders raised their webbed hands up. I raised mine back.
“As soon as you hear the starting gun, my friends,” the Boogeyman said, “you may begin your destruction. But remember, you may have to work together. The Fang is hidden. First place takes the most points. But first place means nothing if you’re dead.” He cackled and stamped his staff down on the stage. The worm-man waited patiently behind him. He was the commentator, I assumed.
We heard the terrible roaring of the Madness-infected vamps. They glided around the tree tops. Red eyes alert for anything worth eating. Like vultures.
The Madness is what the monster community calls rabies. A vamp is bad enough by itself. A vamp with the Madness? Double the fun if getting sucked dry is your thing.
“On your mark, Champions! Get ready! Get set! Go!” the Boogeyman shrieked.
Another explosion. This one signified the start of the Games and possibly the end of our lives.
With a lurch, the crowd of monsters swayed forward.
We had no choice now.
The ‘Stein, as soon as the gunshot and the fireworks went off, barreled into my back.
The rest of the monsters—most of them, at least—went out in an orderly manner. That really wasn’t saying much for monsters.
The other ‘Stein plunged forward up the path, left the Fright Squad and two of the ‘Steins behind.
The crowd cheered at this display of violence.
I stumbled, tripped, and took Zack down with me, in turn, taking Maddie down, too.
So there we were, in the dirt with two ‘Steins hovering over us. The one I’d punched in the face and his Bride of Frankenstein pal.
The Monster Games Page 14
