“Not if you punch her in the liver. You can hurt yourself if you’re not careful, so when you punch, twist your fist into each strike.”
“In the liver? Ew. Violence is not really my thing, ya know, but I’ll do what I have to do to survive.”
“Go for the eyes, nose, neck, throat, nuts, or knees—all those vulnerable parts.”
“Nuts, huh? You need an anatomy lesson. I’m fighting girls.”
My expression grew grim. “You don’t know that.”
She peered at me long and hard. “You don’t think...”
“You could have to fight off male guards.”
She swallowed hard but we both knew it was a possibility.
“Any questions?” I asked.
“I remember you telling me the neck is the most deadly target on the body. If I hit her hard enough there, it will knock her out, won’t it?”
“Yup. Go for vital point strikes, any body part that will mess with her ability to breathe properly, or you can cripple her mobility by going for shins, knees, thighs, instep and toes. Also try one of the chokes we showed you, a sleeper hold. Remember, if you can control your opponent, you can keep them from hitting you back.”
The door opened and Kirk smiled, having overheard the end of our conversation. “Teaching her some pretty good moves there. I take it you accept my offer.”
I pasted on a thankful smile. “Yes. Thank you for your kind generosity. All we ask for is food, housing, and protection, as you promised.”
“You only have to fight twice a week. Not a bad price to pay for everything we’re going to give you, and you’ll have peace of mind knowing a zombie won’t try to chew on your leg while you’re sleeping.”
“Thank you for such a generous offer,” Jackie said.
He looked at her. “You have a long way to go, my dear, but we’ll turn you into a warrior yet.”
“I’ll work hard,” she replied. “Thank you for giving me this chance.”
“No longer will you live on the streets, fighting for survival. You’ll have a real home here, your own dorm rooms.”
“And freedom to move around the city?” I asked, sounding hopeful.
“I’m afraid not. For now, until you prove yourself...honorable, you will reside in a fenced-in area. The good news is that you will have double-protection from the zombies, the outside fencing that protects the compound and the added dorm fencing.”
Prison fencing, I thought, feeling as if I’d just been sent to the federal penitentiary.
“If you earn our trust,” he continued, “we’ll give you more freedom and even let you have a house in our community. Our very best fighter has a beautiful home, is married, and just had a son. He loves our community, and I’m confident that in time, you’ll learn to love it too.”
Jackie pasted on a fake smile. “That sounds wonderful.”
I said a quick goodbye to Jackie as they separated us.
* * *
Kirk led me to a dorm room furnished with bunk beds and a few dressers filled with clothes they had found for me. He looked at me suspiciously. “It seems as if you are onboard, but I’ve been fooled before. It will behoove you to know that I have given orders to my men that if you try any daring prison escape, Jackie and Asia are to be executed immediately.”
I swallowed hard. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Good.” With that, he shut the door and left.
As soon as he was gone, I began looking for anything I could use as a weapon. I found no belts or anything sharp. I figure I could pull out a dresser drawer and whack somebody in the head with it, if I could somehow con someone into opening the door. Even if I subdued them and ran, though, I had no idea where Jackie was. I couldn’t put her life on the line like that. I needed the layout of the place, and I had to know exactly where she was being held. I needed more of a solid plan, so I had to play nice for a few days.
When night came, I found myself sitting in a dark room with no lights or electricity. Moonlight streamed in through a narrow window I knew I’d never fit through. I watched a spider crawl on the ceiling for hours as I fought boredom and worry. How’s Asia? Is Jackie okay? Are they treating her well? How could they separate us like this? Neither girl really had time to fully recover from their last abduction by Charlie. I was worried about them constantly, but they were brave, good fighters, and above all else, survivors, and that gave me some comfort.
I crawled under the covers to try and warm up. The room was freezing, but hours later, I somehow managed to fall asleep, even with my teeth chattering.
Chapter 14
The next morning, I was loaded into a van. Much to my surprise, they didn’t shackle me with any restraints.
Kirk sat across from me and shot me a look. “If you try to escape, I’ll kill Jackie and Asia myself. If you do anything foolish and we aren’t back in two hours, my men will kill the girls. I hope you understand the rules. I’m just clearing the air so we’re all on the same page.”
He had the leverage to keep me in check, and all my thoughts of escape were quickly abated. I had thought about escaping and going to get Nick, Lucas, Val, and the others to come back and help me retrieve our friends, but I knew by the time we got back, Jackie and Asia would already be dead. I couldn’t risk their lives like that, so I wouldn’t even attempt an escape. Bearing all this in mind, I leaned forward and shot him my best tough look. “Like I told you, I’m not going anywhere.”
“Good.”
When the gates opened, I realized we were heading outside the compound, and that surprised me. It was pretty clear that he felt safe because of the threats he had made. He knew I wouldn’t endanger the girls, so he didn’t seem to be too worried about me making a move.
I swallowed down the anger and tried to play his game. “Where are you taking me?” I asked.
“Training.”
“Outside the city?”
He refused to elaborate anymore.
We drove for about thirty minutes before the van came to a stop in front of a collapsed building. They parked and ushered me out. They were armed with Marlin rifles, 22 Magnum pistols, 9mm Glocks, AK-47s, Savage rifles, and M-12s. They looked like some sort of Special Forces unit, armed to the hilt, 1980s action movie rejects. Clearly, they were trying to make the point that I had no chance against them.
“You’re training us in a parking lot?” I asked, wincing as bitterly cold wind blew across my face. “What’s wrong with a gym?”
Kirk motioned around him, ignoring my sarcasm. “This is one of my favorite tests for beginners. It will deem you worthy, fighting a mindless opponent in the elements. If you cannot handle this, what good will you be in any other kind of fight?”
“Mindless? Wait. You don’t mean...” I immediately knew the impact of his statement. I was out there to prove to him I wasn’t scared of the undead. The place looked deserted, and I had no idea where he was keeping them, but he was going to make me face a zombie after all. “I’ve killed plenty of those things. I guarantee you it won’t be a problem,” I retorted. “But I thought you said we weren’t going to have to fight them?”
“I said you would not fight them in my arenas,” he said, smirking. “This is merely part of your training. It takes a real man to do hand-to-hand combat with a walking corpses. They don’t play favorites, and they don’t get tired. They just want to eat your bowels. I’ve lost many potential fighters out here. As they say, only the strong survive. I hope you are one of them.”
A cold chill flooded through my entire body. “Another one of your famous tests?”
“Yes. Pass this one, and you’ll have your first fight in a few days.”
“Who will I fight?” I asked.
“You’re getting a little ahead of yourself now, aren’t you?”
“I can take down anyone you throw at me, even a zombie.”
He chuckled and look back at his cronies. “Funny. Lewis said the same thing.”
The others laughed, and I had to wonder what un
timely demise he’d faced or if they were just messing with me.
I cleared my throat. “Again...who am I fighting?”
“You will start in the amateur ring, and you will fight Marcus. As you know from your time as his celly, he can be pretty tough. You will need to be careful.”
I just nodded.
“You ready, Dean?” one of the guys asked.
“Yep,” I answered.
We walked to the back of the building, then followed a trail into the woods for a few minutes. Dread filled me with every step I took. I glanced around, peering into the thick vegetation, but I didn’t see anything. When I heard those horribly familiar grunts and moans, I stopped.
Kirk shoved me forward. “Keep movin’, kid.”
The moans grew louder as we walked, and I didn’t like that one bit. The stench of death hung heavy in the air, like a wet blanket. I recognized that familiar smell of rotting death and decay. When I burst through the bushes, my stomach clenched at the sight before me: a clearing, infested with undead. It took my mind a moment to comprehend what I was seeing. They had buried zombies strategically in the ground across the meadow. Some were buried up to their heads, others to their waists. Still others hung upside down from tree branches. Who would tie up zombies to hang down from tree branches? Not far away, was a big, red barn.
“What is this?” I demanded.
“It’s a zombie minefield,” Kirk said proudly. “It’s one of my favorite tests to weed out the weak.”
“You’re sick,” I said under my breath, then instantly hoped he hadn’t heard me.
I glanced around at the zombie field, horrified at what my eyes beheld. Nothing in the worst of horror films or the most graphic of videogames could have ever prepared me for that. Why is my life an endless battle, with conflict everywhere I turn? I thought. Seeing that depraved madman’s agricultural experiment, I gave up hope that we would ever enjoy a civilized society again. Wherever we went, we ran into warped human beings. I glanced over at Kirk and his salivating men and shook my head. How could we have strayed so far from human compassion and dignity?
“So...what kind of test is this?” I asked.
“Easy. If you live, you pass. The only rule is that you have to stay in the confines of the minefield,” he continued. “If you cross the invisible barrier, you lose.”
I could tell by the look on his face that he enjoyed putting me through the psychological wringer. He was getting a power buzz, loving the fact that he could manipulate and control me. What he didn’t know was that in my own mental chess game, in my own head, I had already declared war.
“And what happens if I go out of bounds? Define ‘lose,’” I said, resisting the urge to pound the guy right then and there.
“Then I shoot you in the head like Toby. The wimp tried to run, but it wasn’t the brightest of ideas. There is no such thing as Superman. No one is faster than a speeding bullet.”
My fist clenched instinctively, and I stepped closer, ready to sucker-punch him. His only protection was the fact that he had Jackie and Asia. His men were armed, and he had threatened two people I cared about, so I had to know my limits and pick my battles carefully. I knew it was better to wait, so I decided to make it my personal mission to undermine Kirk and his group covertly rather than hitting him straight on. I had to calculate and plot every move, and my grand strategy would bring me the ultimate reward of escape. Once Jackie and I had a solid plan, we’d strike first, before they had time to think or prepare. We’d catch them off guard, knock them off balance, and get the heck out of there.
Kirk pointed to the left. “I’m sorry about that,” he said. “He was bitten in the cheek and leg, so we had no choice but to put him down. We must weed out the weak.”
I looked in the direction he was pointing and saw Lewis, lying in the tall grass with a huge circular patch of skin torn from his face. In the vegetation, I saw another dead body. It was Toby. I could feel the anger coursing through me. They had already killed Lewis and Toby, and I knew Marcus was being trained for fights. I had no idea what had happened to Elliot or Theo. All I did know was that I’d just hopped into bed with a bunch of lunatics, and that was disturbing, even if it was just an act to get us out of there.
“Are you ready for all those zombies we’re about to release from the barn?” a guy asked in a sarcastic tone.
As if the minefield wasn’t bad enough, now they had to release more zombies. He wanted a zombie battle inside his zombie minefield. And I had to stay inside his boundaries or I’d lose his little game.
Stepping on a zombie was just as dangerous as stepping on an explosive mine. How could I fight the oncoming zombies with all the moaning ankle biters buried in the grass? This was so not fair.
“I need a weapon,” I insisted.
“And what would be your choice?” Kirk asked.
“I have no idea what I’m really up against here.” I pointed to a guy holding a machete. “Just give me that.”
Kirk crossed his arms. “Interesting choice. Why would you pick that?”
“Because it never runs out of ammo, and I have a feeling a whole horde will be after me.”
“Smart boy, but I’m afraid we can’t give you the machete.”
“You’ll get no weapons or help from us,” a guy chimed in.
“Great. So I just take them all on with my bare hands?”
“Yep,” he said. “Unless you can make a gun magically appear?”
“Any other rules?” I asked. “I’d hate to be disqualified.”
Kirk straightened his shoulders. “I told you the rules. Just stay in the minefield and kill anything that comes at you. If you run or get bitten, you’ll be joining your friends Lewis and Toby as zombie fertilizer in my pretty little garden here. Be the last man standing in the area marked out for you, and you’ve got it in the bag. It’s as simple as that.”
“Okay, got it,” I said. I was absolutely pissed off that they treated my life like a game show, but at least I still had a pulse.
A few of the guys walked over to the old barn with peeling red paint. Chuckling, they hurried over to the doors and pounded on them. A chorus of growls and moans came from inside. My breath hitched in my throat because there sounded like a lot.
“Yep, they’re ready and waiting,” one of the guys chuckled.
I looked at Kirk. “If I win this thing, I want Toby and Lewis buried. They were good men,” I said, knowing they didn’t deserve such a cruel, callous fate.
“You’re in no position to bark out orders,” he said snidely.
“I want them buried,” I said, standing my ground. “It’s the honorable thing to do.”
“Honorable? They were weaklings in life, not worthy of admiration and respect in life, and they do not deserve a proper burial in death.”
“They fought fiercely to live. That’s honorable, as far as I’m concerned.”
He stared at me hard. “Fine. Have it your way. If you win, they’ll be buried.”
“I am not digging another hole,” one of the skinny men complained.
Kirk turned to face him and said nothing, but the man shut right up. He then turned his attention back to me. “If they are to be buried, you’ll be wielding a shovel. My men will not waste their energy or their sweat to hide the garbage.”
“I would consider it an honor,” I said.
He shook his head. “Of course you would.”
I couldn’t believe how cold and heartless this man was.
“Start walking,” he said, pointing into the zombie minefield. “I do hope you’ll fare better than those two did.”
I swept an uneasy glance around, my senses on full alert.
“Good luck,” a deep voice echoed behind me, followed by several sarcastic well-wishes from the others.
I was a bit concerned about not having an actual weapon, but I knew my greatest weapon was myself. I walked forward, then zigzagged left to miss a buried zombie with long black hair, reaching for me with the blackest fingern
ails I’d ever seen. It looked like a female, and she howled something fierce, crying for my blood.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to strategize. One thing came to mind as I stared at the snarling corpses: They’re all intact, not at all injured. I couldn’t believe Toby and Lewis hadn’t done any damage. There were so many buried all over the place, and I feared being bitten in the ankle. How could I fight the zombies that were being released from the barn with these things grabbing at me? Several were buried up to their waists, but they could easily reach out and tear through my pants and infect me with their long, sharp fingernails. Some only had one arm free, but they were still dangerous. My eyes scanned the cold ground and I knew I had to take out as many as I could before the others were released. It’d give me more of an even playing field. I could fight and not have to keep looking down and making sure teeth weren’t clamping down on my legs.
Who would have the time to think this psychotic scenario up? I wondered, looking at Kirk again. Seriously. We’re trying to survive out here in this world, and they’re thinking up ways to play human games.
Chapter 15
Kirk looked down at his watch. “You have two minutes to mesmerize the layout and strategize the best place to fight. Then we’ll open the doors.”
“There’s no safe place,” a guy said with a laugh. “We got them buried everywhere. He doesn’t stand a chance.”
“Let the games begin!” Kirk said, like some sort of sociopathic game show announcer.
That was my cue to start delivering as many blows as I possibly could.
If only I had a gun...
I had to avoid teeth at all costs, and the only way to do that was to eliminate the threat. I had to smash the zombies’ heads before they ever got the chance to do any damage. It took me back to my childhood days, when I’d enjoyed games of Whac-A-Mole, except I didn’t have a mallet this time. I would have to use my heels and crack one frail human skull after another. I took a deep breath and tried to mentally prepare myself for the battle before me, focusing on what I needed to do to survive. One of the most difficult things to overcome was the stench; it smelled like I was thrown into an unrefrigerated meat locker full of rotting beef.
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