Indian Hill (23 page)

I looked over at
Tanya
, s
he stood there proudly, hands on hips
, defiant even
. That was a good thing, I thought. Even if I didn’t make it through to the end, I had given these women something invaluable: hope. I grinned at her and she grinned back. No words were needed; we both knew we had saved each other’s lives out there. Most likely her actions weren’t as altruistic as I would have hoped, but either way the outcome was the same. I was alive and I could continue on my quest. And yes, that’s what I felt it was, a quest. I was now on a mission I did not yet fully understand the magnitude of.

I turned
back to
the Jumbotron to check out No. 2, Adam Kirkland. My confidence waned ever so slightly when I saw him. He was nowhere near the size of Durgan but every part of him was pure muscle. The best way I could describe him would be to take a picture of Patrick Swayze and shave his head. Obviously this guy had studied martial arts before he ever stepped into this three-ring circus. He, like Durgan, didn’t believe in using weapons, he had no need for them.
Kirkland
disposed of his latest victim quicker and with more finesse than Durgan had. It was almost an art form the way he killed him. I’m relatively sure his competitor never felt a thing. His foe had thrust his spear at
Kirkland
’s torso, but he quickly evaded the attack. He put one foot behind the man’s leg and literally tripped him over his shin, a mere fraction of a second later the heel of
Kirkland
’s boot was smashing through the bridge of that poor man’s nose. Pieces of cartilage into the brain cavity did the rest of the work. Unfortunately
Kirkland
saw no reason to be quite so merciful to his spoils. The woman shrieked in terror as he approached. Obviously she knew something I didn’t. What I watched so sickened me that I vowed I would kill him just for that single act. With the woman still tied up, hands over her head, he delivered a hard karate blow to her arm. The elbow gave way and bent the opposite way from which God had intended it to. With a sudden fury
Kirkland
kicked in both of her knees. Her legs bent backwards like an ostrich’s. The audible crunching of the bones could even be heard over her shrieks. The woman just kept screaming and
Kirkland
just stood there, hands on his hips looking at her as if he was admiring his work. And then he just walked away. I was yelling at the screen at the top of my lungs.

“Damn you, finish her you fucken bastard!” I spat. This man was far crueler than Durgan, if that was even possible. He just left her hanging there with a broken elbow and two broken knees. I think it was shock that finally killed her, the sobbing stopped after twenty minutes but her tears went the distance. Forty-five minutes later when her final death throes were over I was shaking uncontrollably. I had cried so much the front of my shirt was damp. What was even worse was that the aliens with all their advanced medical technology just left her there to die. I once again vowed revenge for all the souls that had lost their lives here, but especially for Kate Hellsboro, the girl they left to die. They would pay with blood or whatever flowed through their crocodile-like veins. The first plan of action was to figure out a way to eliminate Adam Kirkland. But with God on my side, how could I lose?
I went back to my room just to be alone and think.

Deb asked a question, breaking me out of my contemplation. “Mike, can I talk to you?” Her voice sounded distant, almost as if spoken through an intercom system. I don’t know how many hours I had been sitting there in the dark but I still felt no relief from the internal pain I had experienced earlier. Debbie repeated herself before I was really even sure somebody was talking to me. Her voice groped in the dark, looking for my ear like a blind man in unfamiliar territory.

“What is it Deb?” I replied slowly and with a hint of an edge.

“Are you alright?” she asked tentatively.  

“What do you mean Deb?” I snapped, “Do you mean in the physical sense?  Because yeah, I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in. I’ve got muscles in places I didn’t even know existed. Or do you mean my mental state? Yeah, I’m as sharp as a razor. I can think of more ways to kill a man than you can imagine. Or do you mean spiritually? Because I’m sure God just loves the work that I’m doing down here. And you know what Deb? I’m starting to
like
it. I feel more alive when I kill somebody than at any other time. Even more so than when we’re making love!” That seemed to sting her like a bee, she outwardly winced. “I’d rather snap someone’s neck! Don’t you see what I’ve become? I’m losing my ability to empathize. I’ve seen more death and torture and destruction of the human soul in the past couple of months than most people see in a war. And we’re doing this for the enjoyment of a civilization that couldn’t give two shits about us. Sometimes I think it would be easier if I just went into the arena and fell on a sword.” If Debbie’s facial expressions could have been capable of making noise I would have been able to hear her face drop even in the gloom of the bedroom.

“Stop that, don’t talk like that!” she implored. “We have got to survive, we just have to!” She seemed to be saying that more to herself than to me.

“Please leave,” I motioned. “I just want to be alone for a while.”

A while turned into
four days
. I didn’t so much as say hi to any of the women the entire time. The aliens came and I went with them without uttering a word, and not surprisingly no words were offered in return.

Well, one thing I couldn’t count on anymore was the help of a woman. Since my last fiasco
,
all women captives were kept up in the stands until completion of the battle at hand. For the first time since I got on this ship, I saw Beth. I guess I was early because she was just being led to her
'
Guest of Honor’ seat. I know that she saw me too because she paused for a moment and almost made to wave but then thought better of that idea. My heart had somehow made its way into my throat. Sweat leaked out of every pore and I hadn’t even moved yet. I had almost forgotten the deep feelings I felt for her. No time for reflection though,
Kirkland
was
already being led into his side
. When I entered my side of the pit the crowd hushed into complete and utter silence. While I had my chance I yelled at the top of my lungs so that all could hear, even though the message was for one only. “I love you!” And barely audibly, so that no one heard but I
knew,
Beth repeated those same words. And so the saga continued. I picked up a spear. I hoped that
Kirkland
hadn’t developed any new moves in the last two weeks. The terrain this time out was only a small grassy hill in the middle of the arena that flattened out on the top. But it effectively hid my competitor from my view and vice versa. I knew from watching him that he would be approaching at a steady pace up the slope and he would be unarmed. I checked my homemade knife which was hidden in the belt loop of my trousers. I hoped it wasn’t noticeable. The laws of the games strictly prohibited the use of two weapons. I hoped that this rule didn’t apply to homemade ones. I’m not sure how favorable the alien board would look upon another infraction from me. It had taken
me most of
a week to sharpen the strip of metal I had taken off of the fridge. And still I wasn’t sure if I would be able to deliver a killing blow with it. I was fairly confident it would cause injury but it had to be enough to slow this monster down. I walked toward the hill with a pace that would make a turtle happy; I was in no rush for this showdown. Obviously
Kirkland
was, though, the crowd began its incessant buzzing. I was certain that th
o
se croc-aliens were capable of smelling death. Well let them, for one of these days it would be their own deaths they smelled.

But enough reflecting.
Kirkland
was coming and he was coming fast. And the bastard was smiling. I think it was the sight of the spear. I’m pretty sure he thought I was g
oing to be as easy as his last victim
. That was fine with me, the more confident he was, the better I felt. He would be less wary in his over-confidence and eagerness to finish the job.

“That’s right,” I mumbled to myself. “Stick with your normal routine, and you’ll be dead in another twenty seconds.”

And so we squared off. I felt as if I was performing an instant replay for the NFL but this time the ending would have a different outcome. I slowly jogged towards him, spear in hand. I jabbed at him with the spear; he feinted right and dodged left. My heart jumped; he was doing exactly the same routine. With his left foot out his left hand grabbed the spear, with his right hand in the small of my back he used my momentum against me to force me to the ground. As he pushed and gravity took over, I began to twist my body. When I hit the ground I was already in motion; my hand found the hidden knife. I pulled it out from behind me as I began turning my body away from his kick. His right foot missed my face by no more than a shoe’s width. He seemed to hesitate with the change in the game plan. But that was something I would think about later, I was acting purely on instinct at the moment. With one deft motion I drew the sharpness of the blade across his Achilles heel. The tendon snapped like a broken rubber band and he fell fast. His face was twisted in agony. I still had no follies about going in for the kill just yet. He may have been down but he was far from out. The lethality of his hands hadn’t been diminished in the least with the crippling of his leg. Extreme caution was now the order of the day. I wasn’t going to give up the advantage I had fought so hard for. The crocs were silent, must have been a bunch of them that lost a crap load of drakka on that last move. They looked stunned. They didn’t like the unexpected, by all their accounts I should be dead by now, but much to their future chagrin I still had a few more battles left in me. I don’t know what I was thinking but it definitely wasn’t about the task at hand. I began to drift off; I started to think about my first encounter with Beth and how I knew that there was something special there just from the way her skin felt on mine. I hoped beyond hope that we would once again be able to unite but I wasn’t sure if she would or even could love me after witnessing my destruction of human life. She had always been an advocate for peace and a vegetarian to boot. Could she handle a soul mate that violated her most fundamental principles? I hoped so, the thought of going on without her hurt more than the broken rib I had just sustained.

“What the…?!” I yelled as I snapped back to my predicament.
Kirkland
had sensed my thoughts were elsewhere and was kind enough to help me back by projecting his left foot into my rib cage. One, possibly two ribs snapped with the dryness of a twig under a hot desert sun. But the pain made it feel as if my entire side had collapsed. I was in trouble, he had punctured a lung, my breathing was becoming shallower and the blood that rose up my throat was also a good indicator
of how much trouble I was in
. I figured I had about a minute to finish him off before I was the dead one. Wouldn’t that just screw up my plan?
Kirkland
was also aware of the damage he had inflicted; he started to pull himself away from me as fast as a one legged man can, which believe it or not was amazingly fast. I stumbled after him but my breathing was becoming more difficult, I was drowning in my own blood. My heart raced in fear, my thoughts drifted to my mother. I missed her toasted cheeses for dinner,
Eddie
Peak
, my best friend in the first grade, Betsy Hoegler, the first girl I ever had a crush on. Mandy, the first girl I was ever intimate with. Breaking a million on Missile Command. Kate Hellsboro. A blood splattering cough racked my body, I fell face forward; I barely had enough strength to turn myself over.
Kirkland
, seeing my potential demise, was coming back for the kill. His eyes gleamed with the prospect of another victory. He appeared to me to look more like a serpent than a man. If I could only concentrate on something besides the pain, but everything began to become unfocused. Images kept fading in and out. Kate Hellsboro. ‘Who is Kate Hellsboro?’ Recognition through the pain.
Kirkland
also noticed the change in my face, the clearing of my eyes, he hesitated and my opening arrived. With
Kirkland
literally in my face I stuck my crude but effective knife straight into his throat. If I had been a surgeon it would have been a perfect tracheotomy. Blood criss-crossed my face, air bellowed out of the hole. He still had the presence of mind to try and finish me off; he attempted to break my neck, but I was never going to give him that opportunity. I just kept sticking the knife into the side of his neck until he had to accept the inevitable, life as he knew it was now over. He rolled off of me and tried to cover his multiple wounds with his hands but the blood poured through every crevice. I felt the need to let him go into the afterworld with one final parting shot.

“Hey dumb ass!”

He actually acknowledged my words and turned to look at me.

“If you had just left me alone I would have died all by myself in another minute or two.” With th
ose
final
words
his
time was
over, but even though my eyes were closing I had the distinct feeling it wouldn’t be forever. For some strange reason I thought I smelled a cheeseburger.