“I’m never getting out of here, am I?”
“Not alive.”
He passed the bowl back and sat back down. The sun soon went down, and the arena once again filled up with the roar of the crowd. This time he wasn’t left alone to listen to the violence. His cage was opened, and he was hauled out and lifted to his feet. But as his captives let go, he dropped under the weakness of his legs. The grate was shut, and the arena empty. He looked around to see there was a full crowd as it had been the last time he fought there.
Jay was on his throne, smiling back at Zed. He was enjoying this far more than any normal human being should. The bell was rung, and silence followed as Jay stood up to address the crowd.
“Tonight I have something special for you!”
The crowd roared, and he lifted his hands to call for silence.
“This man has greatly offended our town, and his suffering will serve as payment for that. Beat him, bleed him, but do not kill him. His debts cannot be paid in one night!”
They roared even louder than before. A gate opened in front of Zed, and a single Brave stepped out into the arena with no weapons to hand at all. He realised that Jay was telling the truth. They were taking him to death’s door one strike at a time, but he was defiant and wouldn’t make it easy for them. He put his hands down on the ground and used them to help himself upright.
Anger was growing inside of him, and that supplied him with a new surge of strength and determination. It was adrenaline, fear, hatred, and bitterness that fuelled him, and he was happy for it to do so. There was nothing to worry about anymore. He was a dead man. All fear was gone, and all he wanted to do was get a little payback before his end came.
He gestured for the Brave to come forward. He was an average height man, stripped to the waist, and less muscled and scrawnier than Zed. His body had been decorated with black paint so that he looked tattooed all over. He threw his arms up and screamed to excite the crowd. This was a spectacle, and Zed was going to make sure it was one to remember.
“Begin!” Jay gave the order.
The Brave yelled his battle cry and rushed forward enthusiastically. He came at Zed as if he meant to run him down, but Zed was far from the dead man he looked. The Brave swung wildly with a massive right hook. Zed widened his stance and ducked under, delivering a thunderous punch into the Brave’s abdomen. It caused him to keel over. Zed grabbed his hair and yanked him upright before punching him twice to the face.
The Brave was stunned by it all and unable to respond to the ferocious defence. Zed spun him around, grabbed his head, and snapped his neck. The Brave went limp, and Zed threw his body to the ground like a ragdoll. The crowd was silent as he stared at Jay. He looked impressed and disgusted all at once.
“Who’s next?” Zed yelled.
The gates drew back, and two more Braves entered the arena. There was no way to win this. He already knew that. They stepped cautiously forward as they looked at their dead friend. Zed seized that opportunity as they hesitated. He charged towards the one to his left so that he could minimise their numbers. He blocked a punch as it came towards his head and drove in with a hook, followed by an elbow to the face and then a heavy knee into the man’s stomach.
He was beating the man down when the other struck him in the ribs. He turned just in time to see another fist come for his face. It hit hard, and he staggered back. The Brave came at him with a flail of attacks now, but Zed held his ground and let him close to a clinch and locked on around the back of his neck. He yanked the man over with a throw so that he landed flat on his back with Zed on top.
Punch after punch struck the man as blood started to flow from his mouth and nose, and a cut on his cheek. He felt something grasp him from behind and pull him away. He was dragged back across the sand, but kicked up so that his boot connected with his attacker’s head, and he fell back.
Zed was back on his feet in seconds, but so were the Braves. Both were bleeding badly and worn down, and his anger was building every second. The one to his left came forward with a kick to his legs, but Zed snapped a straight hook hard to his face so that he tumbled over. The other came at him, but he quickly recovered with a back fist to the face. It was enough for the man to stagger back and allow Zed to pounce on him on the floor.
This time he would not let him get back up. He punched and punched one after the other, smashing his head into the ground until he was beaten unconscious. He got up and turned to face the other who had just recovered. His nose had broken and burst out blood all over his face and body. His legs looked weak, and he had the look of a defeated man about himself. That was the opportunity Zed needed.
“Argh!” Zed roared as he rushed at the man.
He didn’t even bother striking when he crashed into him. He drove him back to the walls of the arena, grabbed his hair, and repeatedly smashed his head against the bumper of an overturned car that made up part of the wall. His skull was fractured, and he collapsed down. Zed fell forward and rested on the car for a few moments to get his breath.
Looking back at Jay, he knew he couldn’t show any weakness. If this one last insult to Jay were all that he could manage, it would be better than dying with nothing. He righted himself and stepped back into the centre of the arena.
“Is that the best you got!” he shouted.
He tried to slow his breathing and take in long gulps of air. He knew that within moments he would have to fight again. He ached all over, and his energy was starting to deplete. There was only so far he could get on adrenaline alone.
“You want me, come and get me!” he screamed.
The bell rang out several times, and the gates opened once more. This time four Braves stepped into the arena and encircled him as the gates shut. He couldn’t win. Jay could never let him win. But he smiled as blood gushed down his face.
“Come on!” he goaded them.
Chapter 22
Dawn came and he awoke. He got a lot more sleep that night, but he didn’t remember how. He must have been knocked out eventually. There was dried blood all over his face, and his fists ached as much as everywhere else on his body. That made him smile. He had made them pay dearly for their fun.
The grate was ripped open, and he was dragged out again. Once more he was brought before Jay.
“Any more punks of yours for me to beat on?” Zed asked with a smile.
He looked half dead, and yet still he was defiant.
“I’ve had my fun with you,” stated Jay, “But you will not fight in this arena again.”
“Too good for your boys?”
He began to sway. His head felt light.
“You will not get a good death. You would enjoy death by combat. No, you will suffer until the end.”
He turned to his Captain.
“Take him away. Take him to the Hill!”
Laughs and cheers rang out. It didn’t sound serious, but he could tell that it was some new level of pain and suffering he had not seen. That wiped the smile off Zed’s face. He knew Jay was right. He had hoped to at least die fighting, and he didn’t know what to say. Trigger and a Brave grabbed his feet and hauled him out of the arena. They threw him in the back of a truck, the one he had stolen the rifle from. As Trigger stepped in behind the wheel, he realised who it belonged to.
Zed began to laugh, but nobody could understand why.
“What’s so funny?” Trigger asked.
He looked insulted that Zed wasn’t showing fear.
“Lovely rifle you used to have here,” he replied, still laughing.
Trigger shook his head. He didn’t even know what to do to make Zed suffer anymore. The Braves bound his hands and feet. Maybe now they were beginning to understand how dangerous he could be.
The truck roared to life, and another two Braves leapt on. They raced out of town with a further two cars in support. A beaten up El Camino, and a Jeep that looked like it had been lifted more than ten inches with massive tyres. It looked like a mini monster truck.
&nbs
p; Zed tried to get up to see where they were going, but he was booted back down by one of the Braves. He felt every bump through the bed of the truck and that caused his bruised and battered body to only ache even further, but he would never let it show.
They went on for what felt like a mile before turning and heading uphill. The trail only got rougher, and then they stopped. The Braves leapt off, grabbed his feet, and hauled him out. He hit the ground hard, but it was not sand, but rock. His head hit the ground even harder as he was dragged a few feet further. As the pain began to ease, he sat upright as best he could.
Jaytown was clear as day for him to see on the highest elevation in the area. It was a nice sight, just like the view he had climbed for at Calico, but he turned around to see what the Braves were doing. They were lifting a huge wooden cross out of the ground with a decayed corpse lashed to it. Now it was setting in, what his future entailed; he was to be crucified.
It was the last thing he expected. Anything would have been better. He thought he’d be beaten to death or die fighting, but not this. They untied the body and launched the corpse over the edge into the canyon. They then picked Zed up and carried him over to the cross now lying flat on the rocks. Trigger saw the fear in his eyes, and he began to laugh.
“You’re an asshole, you know that, right?” Zed asked.
“But not a dead asshole like you,” he replied and kept laughing.
They lashed his legs to the cross with thick rope. It looked like it had been constructed from a telegraph pole.
“I ain’t dead yet.”
As they untied his hands, he lashed out and punched one of the Braves, but Trigger drew out a blade and placed it to his neck.
“No, you ain’t dead yet, but you could be. I could just as easy tell Jay you struggled.”
“But that would ruin his fun, wouldn’t it? And then what would he do to you?”
There was no chance Trigger would risk that, but two Braves had hold of his arms now, anyway, and were tying him firmly to the cross. It felt good to get one last strike before it was all over. They lifted the huge crucifix and dropped it down into a hole in the rocks. He was facing Jaytown.
“Jay likes to watch. Has a telescope so he can see whenever he likes.”
“Figures. That’s the kind of asshole he is.”
He didn’t care about angering them. There seemed nothing worse they could do to him than they already had. He fell silent, as he looked out to the town and the open plain. There seemed no hope for him. No one was coming to his aid. This was it.
“Stay here till he’s dead. No stupid stuff. Don’t touch, don’t hurt him, just watch!” Trigger ordered.
He jumped back in his truck and left the rest of them there. Zed couldn’t imagine for a minute how he was going to get out of the strong bonds, but even if he could, there seemed no hope of escape now.
“Have fun!” Trigger shouted to him.
His truck fired up, and he burnt off down the trail. The Braves only looked at Zed occasionally to make sure he wasn’t up to anything. They pulled out a sheet and stretched it over their two vehicles for some shelter from the blistering heat. That made it all the worse for Zed. They sat down in the shade with canteens of water as he roasted on the cross. This was definitely never the way he imagined going out. It made him sad, and the Braves seemed to revel in it.
They soon had a pack of cards out and were playing a game amongst themselves, using bottle caps as currency. There were eight of them. Far more than seemed necessary to guard him. Jay wasn’t taking any chances this time.
“Hey, assholes, not one of you could take me in a fight. Not even together!”
They tried to ignore him, but he kept badgering them.
It’s better than doing nothing, and maybe, just maybe I can provoke a response that might give me an opportunity.
“All a bunch of pussies, aren’t you? Not a man among you!”
Finally, one of them snapped and rushed forward with a knife drawn, but two of the others ran up and grabbed him. Zed just smiled. But the time still passed slowly. The day went by with no events at all. At morning light he awoke. Somehow he had managed at least a little sleep, but the new day seemed like more of the same. He could just imagine the sick and twisted Jay watching him through his telescope.
What I would give to see him eat that telescope!
The day went on with no more activity, and he could feel the life being sapped from him. They were far enough away from the makeshift camp that in the darkness he could only just make out the vehicles and not see the other Braves at all.
“Not long now!” shouted the one who had drawn a knife on him the day before.
He lapsed in and out of consciousness as dehydration sank in. He kept seeing images of Lannie and his daughter. They were pleasant thoughts. Those memories were all that kept him alive. Nothing recent came to mind. He kept the memories of his time as the Boss far from his thoughts. If he was going to die, he wanted to do it with fond memories in his head.
When the sun finally went down, it was a welcome relief, and he felt at least partially alive again. The same Brave once again came up to him. He looked up and smiled before unzipping his fly and began urinating at the base of the cross.
The smell was revolting, but Zed could do nothing to avoid it. All the time he looked up at Zed with that same wicked smile.
“I look forward to seeing your head on a spike,” he said.
A cry of pain rang out from one of the Braves, and the one below Zed turned in shock.
“Hey! What’s going on? Hey! Stop messing around!”
A single gunshot rang out, and they saw the muzzle flash come from inside the vehicle encampment. Silhouettes of figures appeared all around the vehicles rushing in towards them. The Brave turned back to look up at Zed but froze as he came face-to-face with Rave. He was too surprised to move or react. With one quick swing, she slashed across his throat with her hatchet, and he fell to the ground trying to stop the flow.
“I’ll be right back,” said Rave.
She rushed into the darkness towards the vehicles. Screams of panic and agony rang out as a dozen men and women descended on the encampment and butchered all inside. Zed wasn’t sure if it were a dream. He had been in and out all day that he wished it wasn’t, but he couldn’t be sure.
He could just make out the glimmer of movement as people fought it out amongst the vehicles. It went on for a few minutes until a single figure approached him once more. He prayed it would not be a Brave, and to his amazement, it was Rave. She had other people’s blood over her face and hands and dripping from her hatchet, and a smile across her face. He couldn’t tell if that was for seeing him or the enjoyment over the killing she had partaken in. Another few figures stepped up behind her. One was Lannie, another his brother.
This seems too good. It has to be a dream.
“Come on, help me get him down,” said Johnnie.
They lifted the cross out of the hole and placed it down on the rocks as gently as they could, but he still winced in pain. Rave slashed the ropes that bound him, and Johnnie and Lannie helped him up.
“Can you stand?” Lannie asked.
He put all his effort in and managed to stay upright.
I’ll be damned if I am going to have to be carried!
He put his hands on each of their shoulders to feel if they were actually there, even Rave seemed to have a tear in her eye. It was dawning on him that this was real.
“How is this possible?” he asked them.
“Don’t worry about that, but we haven’t got long. They probably heard that gunshot. We should be going,” said Lannie.
“And we got wounded to deal with,” added Johnnie.
“Who got hit?”
“Perry, took that bullet on the way in. Clean shot though, he’ll be fine.”
Zed nodded in appreciation and let go to stand for himself.
“Any of them left?”
“One,” added Johnnie.
Zed
staggered over to Rave and took her hatchet from her. He wandered back to the vehicles with the others close behind. He found the one prisoner being watched over with a crossbow pointing at his chest.
“What shall we do with him?”
“You can’t reason with these people, Lannie. You can’t deal with them.”
He lifted up the hatchet and buried it in the man’s head, just as Lannie had done to one of the prisoners back in Calico. Not a single one of them was surprised or showed any empathy for the man. Zed looked around to see the others were dead. Only two had managed to even draw any weapons. They had been caught entirely by surprise.
One had two crossbow bolts in his chest. The others had been killed with blades and percussion weapons.
“Might as well take these trucks. The game is up anyway,” said Johnnie.
Zed clambered into the bed of the El Camino and collapsed as Rave climbed in beside him. He woke just long enough to hear the engines fire up and then start moving. The realisation that he was now safe caused his body to finally shut down, and he fell into unconsciousness.
Chapter 23
Zed woke up in a bed with morning light just creeping in through the hatches of a window. He was wrapped in a blanket and had a soft pillow under his head. For a moment he could forget he was in the hellish apocalypse he had awoken in. He stretched out and felt the ache in his body, but still it felt good. He looked to the end of the bed. Sasha was sleep in a chair with her head rested on the edge of the bed.
The door opened slowly, and he looked to see who was coming. Lannie stepped in and caused Sasha to stir.
“You’re finally awake,” said Lannie.
“How long have I been out?”
“Two days.”
It was a surprise, but he was glad of it. He had never needed sleep more than then.
“Sasha hasn’t left you since you arrived.”
He nodded slowly and kicked his legs out of the bed, trying to get up. Lannie helped him, and Sasha rushed to his other side, helping him stand upright. As his feet touched the floor, he noticed he was wearing nothing but underwear.
15 Years Later: Wasteland Page 17
