Page 51

The platform shakes before descending toward the arena floor, leaving us little time to decide our strategy.

Jonah jumps for the climbing wall to our left, reaching it by the skin of his fingertips.

I hesitate too long, wanting to keep my eyes on Amos for as long as possible.

Once the wall blocks my sight of him, I hop off the ledge of the platform, which is now only a few feet off the ground.

I look over my shoulder to the left of me, where Jonah has climbed to the top of the climbing wall and is now attempting to walk across a suspended bridge.

He takes his time, testing each step before putting down his entire weight.

Smart. Everything in this arena is likely meant to trick us, hurt us, and eventually kill us.

But Doctore wants to put on a show so he can’t kill us too quickly.

My eyes dart around this side of the arena, looking for anything I can use as a weapon.

A wooden shed sits in between the solid wall that separates me from Amos.

I sprint to it, thinking how much it looks like the shed my dad got at Amish Mike when I was a kid.

There’s a single door and a window on this side of the wall.

I peek through the window and see a cache of weapons.

Bats, whips, machetes, knives.

Any weapon fit for hand to hand and close range fighting.

I try the door. Of course it’s locked.

But there’s a note that says, “Gone fishing.”

“What do you see, Lori?” Jonah shouts from above.

“Weapons. But it’s locked. Do you see anywhere to go fishing for a key?”

Jonah points behind me, toward the audience.

“There’s a ball pit. Try there.”

A ball pit?

A freaking ball pit.

As I sprint over to it, a sharp jab to my arm stops me in my tracks and I fall to the ground.

Looking up, I’m prepared for a fight, but there’s little I can do against a bunch of spikes moving in and out of a wall.

“Lori!”

“I’m fine!” And I am.

I look down at what I thought would be a huge gash in my upper arm, but the wound is already healing.

This new super juice has escalated my healing abilities.

Standing over the ball pit, I hesitate for a moment, looking down into what should be a colorful pit of delightful chaos.

The rainbow colors are unnoticeable underneath the rancid, decaying gore that I hope came from animals and not Doctore’s human lab rats.

I kick at the inflatable pit, checking to make sure there are no undead surprises waiting for me.

One more kick just to satisfy my anxiety, then I slowly step in.

There has to be more blood and gore than plastic balls.

The smell of it has my gag reflex struggling to keep my stomach at bay.

It’s only knee deep, but I know it won’t be easy finding a key in this carnage.

Before I begin searching with my hands, I hear shouting from the other side of the wall.

Amos, Olivia, and Kyle have company, and not the kind you’d invite to dinner, but they are ready for a feast.

I know Amos will be okay because he has to survive this.

We have to survive this together.

I drown out everything around me—the shouts from the arena floor, the cheering from the crowd, the squelching sounds of the guts under my feet—and focus on finding the key to the shed.

My hands search every layer, every inch of the ball and gut pit until it lands on something solid.

I scoop it up, cleaning off the excess sludge, and hold it up to examine a piece of blood-soaked paper.

Carefully, I climb out of the pit, wishing again that Doctore would supply me with a pair of fucking shoes.

I wipe my feet on the ground as I open the paper, which says, “The key is in your hands.”

I run back to the shed and punch through the window, not caring if that’s what the note meant.

The broken glass shreds my hand, but I’m able to reach inside and unlock the door.

As it swings open, I pull my arm out of the broken window and run inside, grabbing the first weapon I see, a mace, and open the double doors on the other side.

Zombies are everywhere.

Deadies, grabbers, and freshies.

I go for the fast ones first, drawing them away from the shed so that the others can grab some weapons.

I chance a glance up, hoping to find Amos safely on one of the raised beams. He smiles at me before climbing down, sprinting for the shed.

Kyle and Olivia at his heels.

With four of us armed now, we make quick work of the remaining zombies and run for the shed again, closing the doors behind us.

Jonah joins us a moment later, all of us out of breath, but alive.

From the safety of the shed, I take a moment to examine Amos.

Apart from the obvious fatigue of enduring Doctore’s sacramentum gladiatorum, he looks in good shape.

“How are you feeling?” I ask.

“I’ve been better.” He wraps his arms around me, pulling me to his chest as he breathes me in.

“I’m so fucking scared, Copperhead.”

“I am too. If you die in here, if you turn—”

“Doctore doesn’t leave this place alive,” Amos interrupts.

Using the name only his guards and those who fear him call him.

Because today, we are going to conquer fear itself.

“We will do everything we can to bring him down. Today.”

I nod against his chest, attempting to drown out the boos from the crowd.

As much as I want to hide in here forever, we can’t risk getting surrounded by zombies.

“Which side should we defend?” I ask.

Jonah answers with, “Our side. There are things we can climb up to higher ground, even though there’s a net full of zombies hovering over us. We might be able to climb out of the arena and into the empty stands.”

“But there is some kind of control panel with levers and buttons on our side that could give us a way out of here,” Kyle says hopefully.

“Do you really think that psycho would give us a way out?” Olivia says in anger.

“The objective is to watch us die, slowly. Or maybe we won’t die because we are all like Lori now. But I don’t want to gamble on that. I say we go over to the other side and take our chances there. Together.”

“I’m with Olivia on this,” Amos says, keeping me tucked tightly to his side.

“You have great instincts, Kyle, and I love your optimism, but we have to stick together.”

Kyle nods in agreement, grabbing a few more knives from the shed’s gracious supply.

The rest of us arm ourselves as heavily as possible, using rope to secure extra weaponry to our bodies since the gray prison garb doesn’t offer many pockets.

But they have belt loops.

“Ready?” Jonah asks, but doesn’t wait for us to respond as he opens the door.

The five of us rush over to the climbing wall, hoping to make it over the suspended bridge and onto the elevated rock wall that will bring us over the chain-link fence.

It’s a risky move, but one we have to take.

There are no other choices.

As Olivia and Jonah make it to the top, Kyle is already climbing.

I nudge Amos to go next, but he doesn’t budge.

“Together, remember?” he asks, flashing a beautiful smile that makes his eyes glow.

I smile up at him, the love in his eyes so pure and enduring my heart clenches.

“Together.”

Halfway up the wall Amos lets out a roaring wail, losing grip of the wooden slats.

I reach out to him, holding him up as his body vibrates with an invisible torture.

“My arm!” Amos shouts.

“Take my arm off!”

Then I hear it.

A sound like a taser gun.

I climb over his back, holding him against the wall with my hips as I grip the edges of his metal arm, squeezing the buttons on the side to release it from his stump.

The crowd lets out a groan of astonishment at the sight, reminding me we are not alone and we don’t have a single breath to spare.

As I toss the metal arm to the floor, the sound of chains rattling from above makes me look up at the zombie-filled net.

Someone is lowering the net, opening the sides up slowly to allow the crowd a moment of anticipation.

A lone zombie rolls off the edge of the net, aiming right at us.

I shield Amos with my small body, not ready to test his immunity.

The zombie bounces off my back, thrashing its undead limbs.

The splattering sound as it reaches the ground causes my stomach to churn.

I just swam through guts and gore.

I can endure more of this.

“Come on,” I say to Amos, helping him find his footing on the wooden slats of the climbing wall.

Kyle holds out his hand to Amos, hoisting him up onto the skinny platform.

Jonah and Olivia are already at the other end of the bridge, getting ready to jump to the rock wall as I reach the top of the wooden climbing wall.

A loud bang makes me grip the wall tighter.

Looking around, I try to find where the sound came from, if it’s something we should be worried about.

“Jonah!” I hear Olivia shout.

Pulling myself up over the platform, I can’t find Jonah anywhere.

Olivia stands at the edge of the bridge alone, looking down.

I follow her eyes to the ground.

“No!”

I release my grip on the climbing wall and slide down to the ground, side stepping the unmoving corpse that fell from the ceiling as I run to Jonah’s side.

A giant hole in his chest makes my knees buckle.

I look up at the others on top of the bridge.

“Get down! There are cannons!”

Another boom leads my eyes into the empty stands where I see a small cannon, smoking from its recent shot.

Amos, Kyle, and Olivia quickly get to cover, sliding down the wall just as I had.

Jonah’s hand reaches out for mine, violently shaking.

I grab hold of him just as the net above releases.

Zombies rain down on us from every angle, most of them landing on the two square trapeze nets strategically placed so that all the zombies don’t splatter all over the ground before having the chance to feast on our flesh.

“To the shed!” Amos shouts, grabbing one of Jonah’s arms to help me drag him to safety.

Olivia and Kyle fight off the zombies closing in on us, quickly creating a tripping hazard for the other deadies and grabbers.

Amos and I pull Jonah into the shed as gently as possible.

Once inside, I kneel back down to examine his wound.

It’s fatal. He won’t live for very long unless Doctore’s sacramentum gladiatorum works on him.

Grabbing his hand, I call to him.

“Jonah. Please don’t die. Please. I know I said I would kill you before you turn, but you might be cured. I can’t…”

He grunts in response, making the tears I’ve been holding back come bursting out.

I quickly wipe them away.

No time for crying. Not yet.

“Now what?” Kyle asks.

“Looks like we are going to have to go with your plan, Kyle.” Olivia crosses her arms. “We’re fucked, aren’t we?”

“Yes. But we will not stop until we get out of here. All of us.” Amos kneels next to me, kissing my temple.

“You need to go after him. Now. A surprise element. They all think we are cowering in here. But we are going to blast through those double doors, use them to barricade the tunnel in case there are more biters down there. You are going to climb up and jump out of the arena. Hunt that scum of a man who calls himself Doctore, and rip him to shreds.”

I like this idea.

I do. Even though it means splitting up, which was something I’ve never been about.

I don’t want to leave my people behind.

But it’s the best plan we got.

The only plan. Standing up, I prepare myself for the battle ahead.

Olivia and Kyle dismantle the doors as Amos gets ready to take on whatever is waiting for us on the other side.

When the doors are off the hinges, all four of us charge into the arena.

I help Amos take down a few wandering grabbers, swinging my mace into their skulls once, then twice, for good measure.

Once the arena floor is clear, I drag Jonah out of the shed for the crowd to see that he is still alive, placing him under the elevated beams.

I hand Olivia my mace, then sprint for the hanging ropes and jump onto the one closest to the wall in the middle of the arena.

I climb up a few feet before swinging.

On the fourth swing, I’ve got enough momentum.

Letting go of the rope, I let my pure hatred fuel my confidence in the plan I’m formulating in my mind.