Gyaros Book One: The Mice Eat Iron (YA 17+ Sci Fi Adventure)

by Rohan Healy

  “Things ain’t looking too good for Maxen’s Marauders!” yelled the announcer, stating the obvious. As Miles’ vision began to fade, he noticed the look in Lucy's eyes, the same look she had when she had attacked him at the gas station, the same as when she freed herself from the cannibal raiders in their desert camp.

  “LET GO OF MY PAPA!” she screeched with a terrifying spark in her usually soft brown eyes, her voice rising above the roar of the spectators as she leaped onto the huge man's back and began savagely clawing his neck with her fingers, digging them into the soft flesh of his throat. Roger let out a pained scream and dropped Miles onto the sand as he reached back and struggled to shake Lucy off. Eventually he succeeded, taking her by the leg and throwing her down hard onto the floor of the pit like a lifeless ragdoll. Her face struck the ground forcefully with an audible crunch. The crowd winced and let out a collective “ooh” as Lucy was slammed onto the dry, dusty ground. The pathetic, sickening sight of a child being treated so violently brought out a moment of sympathy even from this crowd.

  “NO!” Miles shouted, still trying to regain his breath as Roger prepared to finish off his opponent. The muscular freak crouched over Lucy and pulled back his arm for a final devastating blow but before he had a chance to launch the strike, he brought both hands to his head, collapsing to his knees beside Lucy and letting out a blood curdling howl.

  “What's this? Looks like Roger's having some issues down there!” said the announcer as the large screen above the arena shifted to a close up of the grimacing Gunn. Miles knew exactly what was going on, he had hoped that it wouldn't come to this but he gladly accepted any alternative to certain death for himself and Lucy. The crowd fell silent as they looked on at the strange events unfolding beneath them and all that could be heard were Roger's horrifying screams of agony. Lucy began to glow, emitting bright white light from somewhere deep inside just like she did the night she lost her arm. Even Maxen and Kevin stopped fighting, mesmerised by Roger’s sudden, unexplained behaviour. And then it happened, the screams came to an abrupt end as the huge man popped spectacularly and was reduced to little more than a puddle in the sand, his entire body exploding from the inside out sending gore hundreds of feet in every direction, some even reaching the shield that protected the audience, evaporating on contact. The entire stadium remained silent for several more seconds before bursting out once again in screams of excitement and shock, louder than ever!

  “WOW! She destroyed that guy without even touching him!” boomed the announcer. “This is unbelievable folks! That's two Dustbowlers down and-” Maxen seized the moment of disbelief, using his left hand to deliver a powerful punch to Kevin's, still slack, jaw. Freeing himself from his attacker's hold, he climbed to his feet and finished off the last remaining opponent swiftly, the same way he did with Janice. Kevin screamed, “NO!” and raised his hands to protect his face in a futile act of self-defence, but Maxen’s energy cannon ripped through Kevin’s flesh and bone like nothing, spreading a red jelly pulp across the gritty pit.

  “Hold on folks, make that three! Ladies and gentleman, THE DUSTBOWLERS HAVE BEEN DEFEATED! And not a single casualty for the opposing team, GIVE IT UP FOR MAXEN’S MARAUDERS! What an incredible victory!!” The arena stands erupted louder than ever as triumphant rock music blasted through the speakers. Chants of “MAXEN’S MARAUDERS! MAXEN’S MARAUDERS!” rocked the stadium, the spellbound spectators serenading their new heroes!

  “Congratulations to our glorious victors! That was our final battle of the day folks, come back tomorrow for more unbeatable entertainment at TITANS ARENA!”

  As spectators began reluctantly leaving their seats with the help of the security staff, Miles ran as fast as he could over to the blood soaked Lucy who was lying unconscious in the sand. He threw himself to the ground and placed his arms around her, propping her head in his hand.

  “Lucy, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry you had to be a part of this. I never wanted it to come to this,” Miles whispered as he wiped Roger’s blood from her scratched and slightly bruised face with his shirt. He could feel her little pulse pumping away in her right wrist, and her soft breath tickled his neck as he held her close. He took her limp body in his arms and stood up, regrouping with Maxen in the centre of the arena.

  “Is she okay?” asked Maxen, looking down at Lucy and wiping Kevin’s still warm blood from his cheeks.

  “She'll be alright in a while,” Miles replied, slowly regaining his breath, “how about you?”

  “Still in one piece,” his voice wavered. Miles could tell from Maxen’s demeanour that he had underestimated the arena battles, he was visibly shaken, and it was not easy to shake Maxen.

  Soon after the battle had finished, the familiar arena security guard returned and Miles and Maxen were escorted back through the tunnels that ran underneath the stadium stands. This time however, the guard took a left and the three were lead to a large mess hall occupied by several other arena fighters all dining on hearty meals of meat and bread.

  “What's all this?” Maxen asked the burly security guard, still dazed from the fight.

  “Your dinner, on the house of course.” Although Miles was hardly in the mood to eat after witnessing the gruesome deaths of three people and with adrenaline still pumping through his system, he was happy about the free meal. Food was not easy to come by on Gyaros, Miles knew that better than anyone, you just didn’t turn down free food on the red moon. However, the sight of large cuts of meat accompanied by a rich, thick gravy looked a little too much like Janice and Kevin’s remains for him to build up much of an appetite.

  “You'll need your grub if you wanna survive your next fight tomorrow.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Chapter 25

  “WHAT?!” Miles said, stopping in his tracks and quickly turning his head to the guard incredulously, a second battle was never part of the plan.

  “What the fuck are you talkin' about? We're done with this place!” Maxen added angrily.

  “Are you kiddin' me? You guys were way too entertaining, boss says you gotta do at least one more fight.”

  “Fuck your boss!” said Maxen, closing the distance between him and the security guard, “we're takin' our money and gettin' the fuck outta here.” The guard was clearly beginning to grow impatient with Miles and Maxen.

  “You can leave whenever you like but you're not gettin' paid until you fight again,” his nose now less than an inch from Maxen’s.

  “We were almost killed out there! You expect us to do that again?!” Miles shouted, losing his temper.

  “I expect you to do whatever the hell you want but if you guys want your money you gotta get back in that pit tomorrow! Now, if I were you, I'd start thinkin' about my options. Make up your minds and get the fuck outta my face!” With that, the security guard left, leaving Miles, Maxen and the still unconscious Lucy in the mess hall.

  “Fuck!” Miles exclaimed loudly not paying any attention to the other combatants now staring at them, “they can't do this! We need that money Maxen!”

  “Chill the fuck out, man!” Maxen said, putting both hands on Miles' shoulders. He took a deep breath before continuing, “look Miles, I don’t like it either, but it looks like we don't have much of a choice here, if we want that cash, we're gonna have to fight.”

  “Are you serious? After what we just went through?”

  “Let's just sit down and think about this.”

  “Alright,” Miles said quietly as he tried his best to calm himself, suddenly conscious of the number of eyes that were on him. He carefully sat Lucy down on one of the chairs that were placed around a square, four person table and took a seat next to her, gently moving the hair out of her face and resting her head so it was comfortable.

  “Okay then,” said Maxen, sitting across from Miles and Lucy, “looks like the only options we got are; one:” Maxen held up the index finger of his mechanical hand, “we forget about the money and head straight for New Fortune. Two:” he held up his middle
finger, “we go back to Adam and Miriam’s and have to come back and fight again anyway, or three,” he held up his ring finger, “we fight again. If we make it out alive, we get double what we initially bargained for.” Miles silently contemplated the options, rubbing his forehead vigorously trying to make the right call. ‘I didn’t ask for all this fucking responsibility, I just want to go home God damn it!’ He took a deep breath, exhaled and feebly responded,

  “Turning up at New Fortune without any money would be just as dangerous as fighting in this arena, maybe the second match is our best option,” he said at last, accepting the reality of the situation.

  “Yeah, and we did alright in the first battle, plus we know what to expect now,” said Maxen. Miles closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh, ‘How the hell can Maxen be so calm after what just happened?!’

  “Yo Miles,” Maxen leaned in and lowered his voice, “you mind explainin’ to me what the fuck Lucy did to that big son of a bitch in the pit? The dude popped like a water balloon filled with ketchup man! I ain’t never seen anything like it!”

  Miles sighed, he knew that this moment would come eventually.

  “I don’t know how she does it, but when she gets really upset she can make people, well, explode,” Miles looked down at his shoes sheepishly.

  “And you were gonna tell me this when exactly?” Maxen whispered angrily.

  “I’m sorry, I know I should have mentioned it, but I was scared, I needed your help and I was afraid you wouldn’t stick around if you knew Lucy was capable of that!”

  “Shit man, I don’t care if she can do that, but you gotta be honest with me Miles, we’re fucked if we don’t share this kind of thing! How d’you expect us to stay alive if you hide shit like this from me man?” Maxen composed himself, “aw shit, I’m just jumpy from the fight, don’t sweat it man, but no more secrets, you got that? How’d you find out about it anyway?”

  “I really am sorry Maxen,” Miles appealed sincerely. He owed Maxen his life, he should not have hid this from him, “I just wanted Lucy to be taken care of. If people found out what she’s capable of no one would want to touch her with a ten foot pole, let alone give her a home, you know? Okay, no more secrets.”

  Miles extended his hand which Maxen shook.

  “I didn’t save her from the cannibals the night she lost her arm, she saved herself, she turned those two guys into mush just like she did with Roger in there. I couldn’t believe it!”

  “Man, that’s fucked up.”

  “But listen Maxen, you can’t tell her about this. I’m not sure if she even knows she can do that to people, she doesn’t need to find out she’s a killer. Maybe I can get her some help, find a roboticist that can fix her, but for now just keep it between us, please.”

  Maxen hesitated, they had only just agreed not to keep secrets, but he could see that this was different. Lucy did not need to know she’s been killing people, who knows what she would do if she found out.

  “Okay, I’ll keep quiet about it.”

  “Wha...what happened?” Lucy mumbled as she began to regain consciousness, rubbing her eyes, “Where am I? Did we win?”

  “We won, Lucy,” Miles answered, smiling as best he could.

  “So we can go to New Fortune now?” Lucy asked groggily. Miles and Maxen fully explained the situation to Lucy, she was upset that they needed to fight again at first but came to understand that it was the only viable solution. All she really cared about was being with Miles and Maxen.

  “I guess we should probably eat somethin',” said Maxen after a while.

  “Good idea,” agreed Miles who had now developed quite a hunger, “looks like that's where you order,” he pointed to a small window at the back of the mess hall where an older lady stood, behind her, a chef dressed in white could be seen preparing the food.

  “I'll go up and order, you two stay here,” Maxen said as he left the table and made his way towards the window.

  “That was a great fight you guys!” said a gruff voice from behind Miles and Lucy. They both turned to see a man with short dark hair who looked to be in his early twenties, wearing a dirty yellow “Titans Arena” t-shirt and torn, baggy cargo pants. His muscular arms were heavily tattooed and he had a short, scruffy goatee.

  “Uh...thanks I guess. Who are you?” Miles asked, raising an eyebrow, slightly puzzled.

  “I'm a chuckster,” replied the man.

  “A chuckster?” Miles asked, his voice rising in tone sharply at the end.

  “Yeah, I toss animals into the pit during the fights, didn't you see me up there? I was the guy who threw in that boar,” the chucktser grinned and folded his arms in front of his hefty chest, quite proud of himself.

  Miles thought back to the battle and did indeed remember seeing the young man above the arena.

  “Oh yeah, I saw you,” Miles said, forcing an awkward smile.

  “I'm Scott by the way,” the chuckster held his right hand out to Miles who shook it politely. “So, you gonna fight again?” he asked.

  “Apparently we have to,” replied Miles shaking his head, thoroughly nonplussed, “the guard told us that ‘the boss’,” Miles gesticulated with air quotes, “won't give us the prize money until we fight at least one more time.”

  “Huh, that's weird,” said Scott, his eyes narrowed in a puzzled way, his hand rising to fondle his goatee, “pretty sure it's not usually like that, maybe they changed the rules or somethin'.” At that point, Maxen returned to the table carrying with him three large white plates of hot food.

  “So I guess I'll see you out there tomorrow,” said Scott, leaving the three to dine in peace. Miles gave a polite nod and turned back around to face Maxen.

  “Who was that?” asked Maxen, setting the plates down on the table and taking a seat.

  “He’s a chuckster, his name’s Scott,” replied Miles.

  “What the fuck's a chuckster?”

  “They're the guys who throw the animals into the pit,” explained Lucy, now more or less back to her usual chirpy self.

  “Huh,” Maxen began cutting into the generous portion of meat on his plate with a knife while holding it in place with a fork, “what did he say?”

  “Not much,” said Miles, also beginning his meal, “he just congratulated us on the victory. Oh and he said it’s weird that we have to fight again, said it must be a new rule,” Miles shrugged and shoved a forkful of meat into his mouth.

  “Huh, well, after we eat, I'll go find out what I can about this next fight,” said Maxen before taking a large mouthful.

  “Good idea,” agreed Miles, his speech muffled by the meal, “it would be better if we knew as much as possible. We don’t need any more surprises like today, having to fight the damn Dustbowlers!”

  They got through the rest of their meal without saying much more and, after finishing everything on the plates in front of them, Miles and Lucy returned to the pickup truck in the parking lot while Maxen remained inside the building trying to ask a few questions regarding their next match. It was at least twenty minutes before Maxen left the stadium and joined the other two in the truck.

  “Did you find out anything?” Miles asked as Maxen climbed into the passenger seat and closed the door behind him. Lucy too looked up at Maxen.

  “Yeah, looks like we're in the first match tomorrow, ten o'clock,” replied Maxen.

  “Did they tell you who we're fighting?”

  “Nope, said it's a secret.”

  “That doesn't sound good...” Miles said sounding worried.

  “Relax,” said Maxen, “it's probably like that for everyone, keep the fights exciting you know. Besides, we're champions or somethin' now, right? It’ll probably be some weak ass team like The Wasteland Warriors.”

  “I hope so. In any case, we should probably get some sleep.”

  “Yeah, you're right, that was one hell of a day and we gotta be ready for another one tomorrow. I guess we're sleepin' here tonight?” ceded Maxen.

  “Looks like we
'll have to,” replied Miles.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Chapter 26

  A loud beeping noise filled Miles’ ears, abruptly forcing him awake. As he opened his eyes and let them adjust to the brightness of morning, he turned to his right to see Lucy and Maxen waking up beside him in the pickup truck. Maxen pressed a few buttons on his mechanical arm turning off the alarm as Lucy yawned and rubbed her eyes. Miles stretched his arms as high as he could under the low roof and looked out the windows at the mostly empty parking lot around them and the giant stadium straight ahead. ‘Let’s just get today over with,’ Miles thought as he remembered what was in store for the trio. Miles enjoyed a remarkably peaceful night, considering the circumstance, then again it was more a case of losing consciousness due to exhaustion, rather than a regular sleep. There were only a couple of hundred cars in the sprawling parking lot as the arena had just opened and the first fight, which Miles, Lucy and Maxen were to participate in didn't start for another two and a half hours. After taking a few minutes to fully wake up, the three slowly exited the truck and reluctantly made their way toward the stadium. Before entering, they stopped by the registration booth to confirm they were present and ready to fight.

  “Maxen's Marauders, right?” said the young man at the booth, “you're on first today. Head to the mess hall for breakfast and wait there until the guard escorts you to the arena.”

  They followed the instructions given to them, returning once again to the large mess hall which was less busy this time, only two other teams were dining there. They were given the same meal as they had eaten the previous night but it was nothing to complain about, it was good food and it was free. Maxen studied the other two teams wondering if either of them would be their adversaries today. As they began to eat, the voice of the arena announcer could be heard booming through the stadium speakers above.