by Morgan Rice
I look all around us, and can’t believe the carnage. The fighting went so quickly, was such a blur. All around us are littered bodies. The other dozen kids are all dead. The six of us have won. Despite Flo’s warnings, we worked as a team. And now we are the lone survivors.
The crowd roars and stomps like crazy. It seems we have beaten the system.
We all stand there, looking at each other, each out of breath, holding our weapons. Now there is no one left to fight but each other. And, of course, none of us would hurt each other.
Or would we?
I look over, and see Flo staring back at me, hard eyed. I see her summing us all up, surveying all of us as if we are her final competition.
The crowd quiets as the leader steps forward.
“ There can only be one survivor. If you won’t fight each other, then we will kill you all.”
We all stand there, frozen in an awkward tension. Flo huddles beside Charlie, and Logan, Ben and Bree stand closer to me. Ben has his hand on his bow and arrow, and Bree on her slingshot. I can see that a part of Flo wants to be the only victor, for Charlie’s sake. But I think another part of her is divided. After all, I have saved her, and Charlie. And now I also have backup with Bree and with Ben. She hesitates, overwhelmed with conflicting emotions.
We all stand there, none of us moving, and soon the crowd begins to boo. And then, to heckle us. They start throwing down small rocks, and they land all around us, like hail. But the rocks miss, the crowd too far away to do any serious damage.
Just as their booing grows to a pitch, I begin to hear a great rumbling noise. It sounds as if the world is about to explode, and I can’t figure out what it is. Until I look up.
I spot a massive boulder being rolled, pushed straight down the cliff. It goes over the edge, rumbling, and comes rolling straight down the walls-right for us.
At once we all run together, trying madly to get out of the way as it comes flying down at us like a missile. I grab Bree’s hand as I run, and we all manage to run just hard enough to get out of its way. It misses us by feet. It flies by, stirring up a cloud of dust, and then crashes into the far wall of the canyon like a nuclear bomb. The ground shakes, and it raises an even bigger cloud of dust and debris.
The crowd cheers wildly. The leader steps forward.
“ That was only one boulder. We have dozens of others. If you don’t fight each other, you will be killed by us within minutes. Now stand and fight!”
The crowd cheers, and Flo slowly turns to me.
“ We have to fight,” she says. “If we don’t, they’ll kill us all.”
“ I don’t want to fight you,” I say. “There has to be another way.”
“ There isn’t,” she says. “If not for our sake, then do it for the sake of the others. You and I have to fight.”
I look up and spot another boulder, perched high up, and I realize she’s right. If we don’t do something soon, those boulders will kill us all.
“ No, I don’t want you to fight!” Charlie screams.
“ Neither do I!” Bree screams.
I turn and look at them, feeling their pain.
“ It will be okay,” I say. “Don’t worry.”
Flo turns and walks out slowly into the center of the canyon floor. As she does, the crowd goes wild. As I watch her, I feel I have no choice. I have to do it. If this is what she wants, this is how it will be.
I walk out, too, following her, and the crowd rises to a frenzy. The two of us stand in the center, facing each other.
As I am standing there, wondering if she will really fight, the crowd screaming, suddenly Flo rushes towards me, sneering, raising her sword high. She brings it down, right for my head, and I raise my sword and block her blow at the last second. Her blow is strong, one meant to actually kill. I am shocked. I can hardly believe it. She is not posturing: she really wants to kill me.
The crowd cheers like mad.
As I stand there, blocking her blow with my sword, the strength of her swing is making my hands shake. I’m shocked at the strength in her shoulders. I know that I can’t hold her back for long, so at the last second, I step to the side, and her sword goes flying down, to my side. Her momentum carries her flying past me, and as she goes, I wheel around and hit her in the back of the head with the flat of my sword, sending her stumbling forward.
The crowd cheers, and Flo turns and scowls back at me. She charges again, sword high, and slashes down; I stand to the side, and she just misses. I slash back at her, and she blocks my blow. We go blow for blow, swinging and parrying, pushing each other back and forth across the floor.
One of her slashes is slightly quicker than mine and she manages to slice my bicep. I scream out in pain, as blood squirts out. It is my first wound of the day.
The crowd screams like crazy. I reach over and cup my wound and see my hand is red, stained with blood.
She stares back coldly, unapologetic. I can hardly believe it.
She charges again, and we go blow for blow. She is strong, and fast, and I’m getting tired quickly. She is a machine. My shoulders are aching and burning, and I realize I can’t sustain this much longer.
For some reason, I think of dad. His words ring through my head, as I think of everything he taught me. All those lessons about fighting. About being tough. About hanging in there. About not fighting on the other guy’s terms, and I realize that’s what I’ve been doing: fighting on her terms. I realize I don’t need to. I know other ways of fighting. Who said this needs to be a sword fight? I decide instead to make it a hand fight-what I am best at.
As she slashes again, this time I step aside, and instead of slashing, lean back and kick her hard in the ribs.
It works. She wasn’t expecting it, and she keels over. The crowd goes wild.
Without giving her a chance to recover, I reach over and grab her by the back of the hair and knee her hard in the face.
She drops her sword as she falls back, landing on her butt, then on her back, her nose broken. She lies there, dazed and confused. She hadn’t expected me to turn this into a fist fight.
The crowd screams like crazy, standing on its feet.
I take a step forward, and hold my sword at the tip of her throat. I have her beat. I can kill her easily now if I want to.
“ Kill her! Kill her! Kill her!” the crowd chants.
As I stand there, the wound in my arm hurting, a part of me feels betrayed, and wants to kill her. After all, if this were me down there, wouldn’t she kill me?
But I see her staring back at me, and I think of Charlie, without a sister, and a part of me just can’t bring myself to do it.
“ Do it,” she smiles. In that moment I realize that she wants me to. She’s had enough: she wants to die.
The crowd quiets, and I look up and see the leader step forward.
“ If you kill her,” he screams down to me, “I will spare you. All of you. All you have to do is kill her. And then you will all be set free.”
The crowd cheers. I look down at Flo and see her breathing hard, scowling up at me.
“ Please,” she says. “Do it.”
I see that she is genuine-she really wants to die.
“ NO!” Charlie screams. “Please don’t kill her!”
I think of the leader’s words. If I kill Flo it will spare Bree. And Charlie. And Ben. And Logan. And myself. All for someone who wants to die anyway. For someone who would have gladly killed me.
I know I should do it.
But as I look down at her, a part of me just can’t do it. Besides, I want to defy the leader.
So instead, I drop my sword. It lands on the dusty canyon floor with a clang.
The crowd jeers and boos and screams down at me. But I don’t care.
Flo slowly shakes her head in disgust. “Stupid,” she says.
There is a tremendous rumbling noise, and at first I think it’s another boulder; but then I look up and see no rocks coming down, and realize it’s something else. The enti
re ground is shaking beneath me, like an earthquake, and I realize that whatever it is, it’s much more ominous.
Suddenly, large steel traps open on the ground and walls all around us, and water comes gushing in. It comes gushing in like a river, like a dam breaking, from every side, a huge tidal wave coming right for us. I look over at Charlie, Ben, Logan and Flo, and see them all looking wide-eyed at the water.
Bree holds out her hands and runs for me. I go to pick her up.
But it is a lost cause.
Suddenly, we’re slammed by water from every direction. My world turns upside down as I go head over heels, tumbling beneath the waves. The gushing water picks me up and smashes me down again, and I go tumbling, end over end, water shooting up my nose. I whirl and whirl, trying to make my way to the top of the water, trying to hold my breath.
After about thirty seconds of complete chaos, I manage to surface. The water is swirling all around me, and I can hear the crowd cheering like crazy. I look for signs of the others, and in the distance, I spot Bree and Charlie, their heads bobbing just above water. Further away, I can see Flo, alive, and Ben, flailing. But I look everywhere, and don’t see Logan.
Then I spot him: his head bobs up, just feet away from me. He looks in utter agony, and I manage to swim over to him, fighting the current.
“ Brooke!” he cries out.
He holds out one hand and I swim for it.
Our hands just touch when I see something in the water beneath us. It is a whirlpool, sucking down everything in its path. Our fingertips graze each other, and then he gets sucked away, the whirlpool pulling him down.
“ Brooke!” he screams.
I see the fear in his eyes as he gets pulled away from me, sucked deeper into the whirlpool.
“ Logan!” I cry.
He goes down, under water, then disappears.
There is nothing but silence.
The whirlpool disappears-as if someone turned off a switch. I search the calm surface of the water.
“ Logan!” I shriek.
But it’s too late. He’s gone.
I can’t believe it. Logan. The backbone of our group. Dead.
My heart breaks. But I can’t think about that now. I force it from my mind. The waters are swirling and rising, and I spin around, looking for any sign of the others. I see Bree and Charlie, close to each other, each flailing, struggling, arms up over the water. Luckily, Bree is a strong swimmer-and it looks like Charlie is, too. But I can already tell that Bree is losing strength and won’t last long. I have to save her.
I fight the current, swim over to her, the waters rising and frothing all around me; it is like swimming in a giant fishbowl.
Somehow, I manage to reach her; I grab her with one arm, from behind, wrapping my forearm around her chest.
“ It’s okay, Bree, hang on.”
She is gasping for air. The waves have pushed us close to the canyon wall, and I look up and see the rope dangling down the side of the cliff. Just minutes ago, the rope was a hundred feet off the ground-but now, it’s right there, in my reach. I can hardly believe it.
I reach out and grab it, it’s the knotty rope digging into my palms, then hoist Bree up onto it. Once she’s safe, I look over and about fifteen feet away spot Charlie, who’s getting swept away in the wrong direction.
“ Save him!” Bree cries.
I swim to him, fighting the currents, grab hold of his shirt, and with my last burst of energy, fight my way back, against the current, towards the rope.
I make it, and hoist him, too. Now he and Bree are both on the rope, dangling, and already beginning to climb their way up. I reach up and grab on behind them, and hang onto it, breathing hard, catching my breath. I look around, but see no signs of Ben or Flo. I wonder if they’ve made it.
But there is no time to search, or to rest on my heels. The water is rising fast all around us.
I look straight up, and see the steep climb ahead of us, two hundred feet to the top of the canyon. We have no choice.
“ Climb!” I yell, over the roar of the gushing water.
Bree quickly climbs, as does Charlie, and the three of us ascend, straight up the rope. I use my feet to push off the rock face, as if repelling, and gain momentum.
Soon, the three of us are high up, a good fifty feet above the water. I’m starting to feel optimistic, that we might actually make it out of here.
And then, I hear a cry.
I stop and look down over my shoulder, and can’t believe what I see: there, in the center of the gushing waters, swimming for the wall, is Flo. Her face is etched in panic, and she reaches a hand towards me. I’ve never seen panic on her face before, and I can’t understand it: is it because she cannot swim?
But then, I see it, what has her terror-struck-and my heart drops.
A huge tentacle reaches up out of the water, wraps itself around her leg, and drags her down, beneath the water. Flo disappears, bubbling, then moments later surfaces again, gasping for air.
“ Please!” she screams.
“ Flo!” Charlie screams.
But we are helpless. There’s nothing I can do from up here but watch as the sea creature raises its ugly head. It is the most hideous creature I have ever seen: it looks like a giant squid, but with rows and rows of sharp teeth and a single, large eye. Its face is grotesque, some sort of freak animal that probably resulted from the fallout of the nuclear war.
It reaches out with another tentacle, wraps it around Flo, and sucks her down for good.
The crowd roars, as Flo is pulled down underneath the water, and the monster disappears with her.
I look down at the waters beneath me with a new sense of dread. If I slip and fall, I will be finished.
“ MOVE!” I scream to Bree and Charlie, who stay there, looking down, terror-struck.
We all climb faster, when I hear a mocking laugh, and look straight up: the leader stands there, less than a hundred feet away, looking down and holding a machete.
“ No!” I scream.
But it’s too late. He swings it down, chopping our rope.
Instantly, the three of us go hurling through the air, screaming.
E I G H T E E N
I fall faster than I ever have, plunging towards the water. Before I can catch my breath I hit. My world goes dark, as I find myself plunging deep beneath the surface.
For a moment, as I struggle to catch my breath, my world goes black. I see my dad, standing there, looking down at me, hands on his hips.
“ On your feet, soldier! What did I teach you? Fight back. Fight back!”
I open my eyes, still underwater, and look up towards the surface. It looks to be a good twenty feet away. I kick and swim and fight my way back up.
Moments later, I surface. I immediately look around, and see Bree and Charlie close by. They tread water, and look around, terrified, on guard for the monster.
I look around, too, and now, these gushing waters have a much more sinister feel. I know that the monster is in here with us, somewhere. Flo hasn’t surfaced, and I’m sure she’s dead, and that Ben must be, too-and that we will be next. I feel helpless. I have no idea what to do now, or where to go.
“ Up here!” shouts a voice.
I crane my neck back and see, about fifty feet high up the canyon wall, standing inside a small cave in the side of the cliff, is Ben. He stands there, bow and arrow slung over his shoulder, beside a dangling rope leading up. I am amazed. Somehow he made it to the other rope, managed to climb halfway up the canyon wall, and found a little cave to hide himself in. He is a good twenty feet above the water, and safe.
I spot the rope leading up to the cave, but it is a good fifty feet away. I don’t know if we can make it there before the monster finds us.
I swim over to Bree and Charlie.
“ We have to make it to that rope,” I say. “Can you guys swim?”
They nod yes, their eyes frozen with fear as they scan the water for the monster.
The three
of us break into a swim, heading for the far canyon wall, for the rope. I think of Flo’s awful death, and I’m half-expecting the monster to drag me down at any moment. I swim faster than I ever have, in terror with each lap. Bree and Charlie swim just as fast beside me.
It feels like a lifetime, as I expect each moment to be my last-but to my amazement, the three of us make it. The monster never surfaces. I wonder if he’s disappeared somewhere. Maybe they opened those steel doors underwater and let him back in from wherever he came from?
I reach out and hoist Bree and Charlie up and onto the rope. I then reach for the rope myself, and pull myself halfway out of the water-when suddenly, I feel a thick, muscular tentacle wrap itself around my right leg. My heart stops.
I clutch the rope with all my might, desperate to hang on; but I am losing my grip. The thread cuts into my wet palm, and I am slipping. Finally, I lose my grip.
I go flying through the air, landing in the water on my back. The last thing I see is Bree’s terrified face, looking down, watching me. Then my world goes dark.
I am plunged down underneath the water, and as I open my eyes, I see the awful face of the sea monster, all his tentacles flailing in the water, his rows of teeth. I see a piece of a leg stuck between two of his teeth, and realize it is what is left of Flo.
The monster, flailing, temporarily releases my leg, and I waste no time: I race for the surface.
I think that maybe he lost his grip and I can get away. I immediately plunge out of the water, reaching up and grabbing the rope again. But before I can go far, I once again feel his tentacles, wrapping like ice around my calves. It is then that I realize that he never let me go-that this is just the evil nature of this creature. It likes to play with its prey before killing it, like a shark playing with a seal.
As I feel it yanking me, I have a feeling that this time I will go down for good.
Before I go down, I look straight up, and as I do, I see Ben standing there, on the edge of the cave, arrow pointed down, seemingly right at me. Is he going to kill me? Is he going to spare me from a painful death? I almost wish he would. I’d rather die by his arrow than by the creature’s awful teeth.
