9 Penny #2
They all looked feral and it made my skin crawl.
Then I saw him. Thilar. This time, however, he didn’t have that controlled, analytical look in his eyes and that caught me off guard.
This time, something was different. He seemed uncomfortable.
Twitchy, even. Rigid. He was cracking his neck from side to side and rolling his shoulders, his brows fiercely knitted.
I swallowed, wondering if he’d go for me again.
At the very least, I didn’t think he wanted to kill me.
I couldn’t say the same about the others.
With all the new faces, I was realizing that no one cared who died.
They’d just be replaced in the next round.
And I was betting that if any of the apes got a hold of me, they’d kill me before defiling my body… which might be for the best.
I reasoned that my only options were to die, hide for the duration of the event, which was very unlikely, or somehow stay close to Thilar.
“If we are all lucky, you will die this round,” the valerian woman said. I glared in her direction and she answered with a smirk. “Then they will not demand games so often. I can already tell this will be normal if you stay. They will get rich off you until you die.”
“This is bullshit,” I hissed. “You were giving advice before. Now you want me to die?”
“Hmf. I have time to think. Yes. You dying is best.”
I was tempted to just toss the dull knife on the ground, but a dull piece of metal could still be useful, I supposed.
“So? What did Thilar say to you before he left?”
“He say hide. Both of us. There are many nozun in the game today.”
“Which ones are the nozun?”
“The long-limbed beasts. They unkind. Unkinder than Thraxxen, even. At least Thraxxen not go for females.”
“And Thilar? You said he doesn’t usually go for women.”
“Not usually, but today he will.”
“Why?”
The starting horn blared and everyone took off.
I really didn’t want to move, but I knew I had to.
I’d be screwed whether I ran or not… literally.
So, I bolted like all the rest, running straight for the thick foliage.
I was smaller than the others and I hoped the dense plants would give me a chance.
I could squeeze into places the others couldn’t.
Climbing seemed like a stupid strategy since more than one of the males looked perfectly capable of scaling a tree and the last game proved that there would be no time to get higher anyways.
I would have to stay low. Find a crawlspace, perhaps.
Unlike the desert biome, the ground was mossy and spongy, making it a lot easier to run with my bare feet.
Some of the males were already tackling the females.
Tussles and screams filled the dome, but I ignored it all.
I wasn’t in a condition to help anyone and there wasn’t anyone in that game that was willing to help me.
Except Thilar… maybe.
But that was wishful and dangerous thinking.
To my right, a gray ape, a nozun, was plowing toward me, using all four of his limbs to propel himself across the ground.
I reached the trees and quickly slid between two giant, arching roots taller than I was.
The nozun slammed into them, too large to get through like I did.
The space on the other side was almost too small for me.
My backside and breasts scraped across rough bark as I shimmied out and entered a tropical maze of foliage.
Tiny drones followed, their incessant buzzing like mosquitoes as they searched.
I stumbled into a small clearing and spun in a circle, waiting for another feral beast to come crashing through the trees after me. I could still hear them, but their snarls and screeches were muffled by a dense tangle of branches that formed a natural barrier.
Maybe I could actually make it through this round.
I pressed on, doing my best to stay hidden while chaos erupted all around me. My lungs burned, and I kept catching my feet on roots and loose stones as I pushed through enormous leaves and clusters of purple fungus the size of dining chairs. The air was rich with a sweet, earthy scent.
It was probably all a lie.
For all I knew, I was trampling through plants that could kill me with a single touch.
I shoved my way through a curtain of thin vines and emerged into an open space. The clearing resembled a crossroads, with several narrow paths branching off in different directions.
But I wasn't the only one who had found it.
Twenty feet away, someone else burst into the clearing.
His gray skin was smeared with blood and in his hand was a thick knife the length of my forearm and it was sharp, unlike mine.
His head whipped in my direction, his eyes nothing like the man I remembered sharing a cell with.
His broad chest was heaving, and his nostrils were flared like a charging bull.
Even his lip twitched like a wolf that had caught the scent of a wounded deer, giving me brief glimpses of his sharp canines.
He slowly turned toward me, his shoulders squared, and something about that made my heart jump into my throat. He took a step toward me and I took a step back, the threat of his presence like a physical force keeping me away.
Whatever sliver of safety I felt in his cell when I was desperately seeking warmth had dissolved and was replaced by pure dread. He told the valerian we were to hide. I was wondering now if he meant for us to hide from him.
A small drone swooped overhead as if it sensed what I was about to do.
The moment it passed, I spun and bolted, running as fast as my legs would carry me.
I didn’t need to look back to know Thilar had given chase.
His heavy footfalls thundered just behind me, close enough to rattle my nerves.
Terror sharpened everything. I felt like prey.
My pulse roared in my ears and my muscles burned and trembled with the strain. I was fit, but this? This was something else entirely. This wasn’t training or competition or bootcamp.
This was life or death.
I saw a turn that looked narrower and veered toward it, looking for anything that might slow a giant guy like Thilar down. I felt his fingers graze my arm as I turned and yelped with surprise.
The terrain became denser again and I tried to push through, hoping Thilar would get stuck.
I came out into another clearing and suddenly the moss was flying up around me like something had ripped it straight into the air.
A sharp pang shot up my right ankle, and I screamed as my foot was yanked out from under me.
I slammed into the ground and quickly rolled over to see a tripwire stretched between two trees, vibrating from the impact.
Blood was already seeping from the deep wound in my ankle, but I just leapt to my feet again.
Survive.
Before I could catch my breath or my balance, Thilar’s hard body slammed into mine. I stumbled back into a thick tree trunk, eyes so wide I thought they might pop out of my head.
I should have expected this. It was the game, after all.
Thilar’s kindness inside his cell meant nothing.
We were both players, willing or not, and we both wore collars.
Inside, we were different people. Out in the arena, we were just animals trying to avoid death or torture.
Thinking he wouldn’t do what he was meant to was foolish on my part.
I didn’t even ask him to stop. I didn’t beg. I swallowed my words.
But I fought. It was all I could do.
His body caged me and in a fit of desperation, I writhed and flailed, trying to shove him off me. His eyes weren’t the ones I saw before. They were black. Empty. Crazed, even. He was a beast. An animal driven by something deeply primal. He was possessed.
I tried to break away again and again, but each time he cut me off with infuriating ease. No matter which direction I chose to move, he was already there, anticipating everything I did. The effort felt useless, and the swell of frustration and fear tore a scream from my throat.
At last, he pushed away from me and even let me take a few desperate, limping strides before he lunged. In one brutal motion, he hauled me off my feet and slung me over his shoulder. I kicked and thrashed until his thick arm clamped my legs against his chest.
He had barely taken a few steps when something burst from the trees, weapon drawn.
“Look out!”
He spun, flinging me from his shoulder. The moss softened my landing, but pain still radiated through me and my wound was truly beginning to bleed.
Thilar caught his attacker's wild swing and the clash of metal on metal rang through the clearing. He drove his opponent back and slashed at the nozun with his blade, missing by a hair.
The nozun landed on all fours, dirt and moss exploding into the air around him.
As the two launched into battle, I rolled away and dragged myself across the forest floor toward a tangle of massive roots, hoping to lose myself somewhere the larger pursuers couldn't reach. Once I was close enough, I scrambled onto all fours, desperate to disappear.
Then a massive gray shape dropped from the trees and landed directly in front of me.
Nothing was going to go my way. Nothing.
My gaze traveled upward until I found his face. His teeth gleamed in a predatory grin as he stared down at me, saliva glistening between them, as though I were less a person and more a meal.
He reached down, long fingers tangling in my hair, and yanked me to my feet. Before I could cry out, something whistled past my ear and lodged itself just below the nozun's neck.
He cried out, a low, guttural sound, and dropped me.
I twisted to look over my shoulder and found Thilar standing several paces away, one arm still outstretched from the throw.
I scrambled out of the way as he hurled his opponent to the ground. With a brutal wrench, he yanked the nozun's head backward until its spine cracked audibly.