I stood there for a moment, frozen with indecision. How could I trust that she’d actually take me to Eagle? She was a viper, and I was a bunny rabbit who’d stumbled into her snake pit.
“The fights go on for hours, you know,” she said. “It’ll be dark before they’re over. Do you really want to be standing here in the dark still waiting for him?” Her expression remained the same—annoyed—yet her body language turned aggressive, as if preparing to drag me along if I didn’t go willingly.
I glanced around, taking note of the remaining people. They were either busy or bored, and paying me no attention. But who knew what happened here when the sun went down. I didn’t want to be here to find out.
Steeling my nerves, I straightened my back and took a deep breath, attempting to calm myself. Just put one foot in front of the other, I thought, and whatever you do, don’t panic and run off.
I took a small step in Liv’s direction and then another. I could do this. I could definitely do this. I would follow her to the pits, find Eagle and ask him to take me home. It would all be over soon and I’d be safe again, back behind the row of padlocks and bar-covered windows, back inside the quiet and the dark.
“Hurry up,” Liv called over her shoulder as she disappeared around the corner of a building.
I made no move to pick up my pace; I was just happy I wasn’t running in the opposite direction. Especially considering I could now hear the din of what sounded like a substantial-sized crowd waiting for me on the other side.
I wasn’t wrong. The moment I turned the corner, I was surrounded by people. Even out in the open, without the buildings to interfere, it was a tight squeeze, suffocating as the people around me moved as one, cheering and waving their hands in the air.
Flustered and panicked and ready to turn tail and run back in the direction we’d come, I was almost grateful when Liv grabbed hold of my wrist and yanked me forward.
“Use some elbow grease!” she shouted over the noise, and sent her bony shoulder into the soft side of a large man. He turned, his fists already swinging, but Liv quickly ducked past him, and still dragging me with her, we vanished into the crowd.
I allowed her to pull me, grateful for the sole fact that as long as she was holding me, I wouldn’t be swallowed alive by the crowd. Although it was nearly impossible to distinguish one person from the next, I tried desperately to find Eagle. Where was he? Was he even here?
And the smells, oh God, the smells were even worse than the marketplace. I found myself breathing only through my mouth, but the stench was so heavy here, so demanding and forceful, that it didn’t seem to matter that I could no longer smell it. I could taste it.
Time passed with agonizing slowness. My panic escalated, my stomach clenching with every shoulder or hand that accidentally or purposely grazed my body. Spinning chaotically, my mind churned with fears of never again finding Eagle, of being lost in this awful place forever, alone and at the mercy of this awful woman.
“Here we are!” Liv yelled, yanking me to an abrupt stop at her side. Releasing my wrist, she pointed ahead of her to where a large portion of the field had been dug out. “We need to get closer!”
There was no need for her to grab my wrist again. We were close enough to the center of it all that as soon as the others standing near us saw her, they parted for her, allowing us a pathway that led us straight to a small wooden barrier. Behind the barrier was a large metal cage, currently empty.
A nearby man crawled up the side of the cage. He was as large but nowhere near as big as Eagle, substantially older, and had a thick head of white hair. I stared up at him, my mouth agape.
Now standing on top of the cage with a large megaphone in his hand, he surveyed the crowd with a bland smile. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said with theatric flair, only to stop short and begin to laugh. He laughed loud and hard, and soon the crowd joined in, until I felt surrounded by nothing but laughter. Only it wasn’t the joyous sort, but the kind that sent shivers up and down your spine.
“Tonight’s fight,” he said as he turned in a circle to survey us all, “is going to be a damn interesting one. You all know Paul, right? One of our scavengers?”
The crowd responded with a cacophony of jeers and booing.
“Yeah, that’s him,” the man continued. “Well, Paul was caught stealing. While all you good people were protecting Purgatory, holding up the gates against the rotters, Paul was rifling through our shit and taking what wasn’t his!”
Another round of booing commenced, this time louder, darker, and much more bloodthirsty than the first.
“Normally we’d cut off both his hands and be done with it, right?” The announcer grinned down at his hyped-up audience, and they screamed and cheered. “But Paul here is asking for mercy.”
As the crowd erupted into yet another round of booing, the announcer gestured for them to quiet, which to my surprise, they did.
“And since Jeffers is a fair man, he decided to give Paul a choice. The first being he could have both his hands cut off, and the second ...” The man paused, running his gaze over the bulk of the crowd, purposely drawing out the building tension.
A surge of fear barreled through me. Biting down hard on my tongue, I sneaked a glance at Liv and found her watching me expectantly, a smirk twisting her lips. Something bad was going to happen. Something even worse than a man who was potentially about to lose two hands.
“The second being he can keep one of his hands, whichever one he wants, but he’s gonna have to fight for it!”
The crowd roared with excitement. And if it weren’t for the fact that I was standing directly beside Liv, I was sure I would have been trampled in that moment. Yet, just like with Eagle, people seemed to know to steer clear of her.
“First, let’s meet Paul’s opponent!” The announcer turned to his right, and I followed his gaze to where the crowd was parting, giving whoever was coming through an even wider berth than they’d given Liv.
I gasped when I saw Paul’s opponent, and my heart came to a shuddering halt. It wasn’t an opponent; it wasn’t even human. These sadistic freaks had brought in a biter.
The creature snapped and snarled at the people nearby, trying to lunge for them, yet each time it tried, the chain around its neck tightened, stopping it short. Affixed to the chain was a long metal pole, and holding the pole were two scared men. Like a feral animal that knew no better, the biter flailed its arms and gnashed its teeth, desperate for the nearby flesh, only the people didn’t seem to mind. They all laughed and cheered, throwing stones at it and jeering as it was pushed forward and shoved inside the cage. The door was quickly slammed shut, and as the monster staggered around the cage, throwing itself at the bars, it left a sticky trail of gore and blood in its wake.
