Murder Genes (11 page)

On more than one occasion a fight broke out between Valuables.
 
Freckles had explained it like he had explained everything.
 
Action and consequence.
 
If someone, for example, brought back a charity box and there was nothing of use within, there would be consequences.
 
No one really knew what was in each box, but like a fight for the biggest White Elephant gift--grass looks greener on the other side.

In Jay's case the grass really was greener on the other,
any
other side.

"You will play the Game and follow orders.
 
If you 'forget'
again
, the bomb I've strapped to the back of your fucking neck will remind you," Freckles had said after he'd finished with Karah.
 
Served Jay right for making such a pathetic excuse.
 
"I forgot" didn't work on Gamer any more than it had from Kyle.

But it was his newest and favorite response that really got him in trouble.
 
"Fuck you," he'd responded.
 
He realized that Karah had saved him, but he also realized that he was going to die in Morir, anyway.

And he was never going to see Kyle again.

He was bitter.

That's when Freckles pushed the button and twenty-four hours began.
 
Twenty-four hours to get a blue flag and kill the poor bastard who happened to be holding it.
 
Course, Jay was likely to be the 'poor bastard' who actually died, what with the bells and the blinking beacon at the back of his head.
 
Aim here for fireworks.
 
What fetish did Gamer have that kept putting head and explosion together, anyway?

Gamer took 'headshot' to a whole new level.

Jay tightened the cloth wrap he'd covered the bomb's blinker with.
 
It'd at least dim the light so that his surroundings wouldn't glow every two seconds.
 
The last of the Valuables was dragging at a box.
 
She was a tiny woman with tiny arms wearing a necklace with someone's ear strewn on it.
 
Team Whisperers.
 
She could hardly move the box and she threw her frail weight at it with a determined set to her jaw.
 
It slid--if slowly--and then into the night she was gone.
 
No one else appeared for minutes.
 
Left in the center of Haven was stacked enough supply for four or five times what had been taken today.

Game on.

Whoever got the supplies without getting killed kept them.
 
The flags would be swept up first as they represented next week's drop.
 
And they were easier to retrieve compared to the bulky containers around them.
 
Flags could also be used to trade and barter between teams until the next drop.

Except none of that mattered right now.
 
Because standing in front of Jay, was the biggest bare-ass naked man he had ever seen.

Bondsman!
 
Jay thought as the huge man jingled forward.

He bolted awkwardly, scrambling away up the mound of brick and concrete.
 
The Bondsman caught Jay's ankle and hefted him down to the ground.
 
He slid on his stomach, his skin ripping and tearing across the jagged stones.
 
Pain.
 
He rolled just in time to miss getting his head kicked in.
 
"Wayt Wayt Wayyt!" he screamed, holding his hands out.
 
He tore off the cloth covering the bomb around his neck.

The other bondsman hesitated, a human finger swung at the giant's earlobe.
 
From here, Jay could see that there were three of eight bells still intact around the Bondsman's throat.
 
Yup,
around
, not through.
 
Damn Freckles.

He jabbed his finger at his neck and scrambled limpingly rose to full height.
 
"Thiss is an bomb.
 
If I diey, bommb goes off.
 
If I pull offf, bommb goes off.
 
If thos whatching think I'm bwreaking fucking rules...
 
Bommb.
 
Goes.
 
Off.
 
AND I'll bwet if they think you'rre close ta me, what dew
you
think happendds?"

The Bondsman held up his hands and backed away.

"Tha'ts wright," Jay muttered.
 
"...bear-buttcheeks outa my face."
 
He picked up the cloth to rewrap the bomb.

A rock the size of his head flew through the air, it had a foot long re-bar protruding from it.
 
"AHH!"
 
Jay slammed to the ground.
 
The bar grazed the back of his shoulder as it past and the rock shattered on the wall behind him, dust sparkled around him.
 
He heard a clang as the bar fell.

Jay twisted and grabbed the bar and sprinted, his leg unresponsive and jabbing at him, toward where the rock had come from.
 
As he ran he swung the bar into a nearby wall, chipping off concrete still attached.
 
Move, move, move!

The bomb blinked again and another rock came flying from the darkness, Jay barely ducked in time.
 
How easy could Freckles have made it?
 
He stumble-charged again, wielding the bar in front of him and using his other hand with the crumpled cloth to try to muffle the light.
 
*Blink*
 
Jay hurtled to the side, an explosion of chips, more sparkles.
 
Cool air chilled the front of his body.

He froze, breathing, anxiously repositioning the cloth over the bomb.
 
Kyle Kyle Kyle Kyle Kyle,
his mind chorused.

What could he do?
 
Run outside?
 
Where everyone on any team could see his blink-blink... SPLAT?
 
Seconds passed, and he let himself breathe just a bit in slow silence.
 
No blink.
 
Jay carefully tucked the re-bar under an arm and went to work retying the wrap, fumbling a bit.

Jingling.
 
Right behind him.

Jay abandoned the tie and seized the re-bar.
 
He swung the bar around him.
 
It cut air.
 
A foot kicked him in the stomach and an empty breath locked up his throat.
 
Jay collapsed, trying to breathe and scramble away.
 
Huge hands grasped him and he was lifted.
 
His fist smacked into the wall and he lost his grip on the bar.

"Aaaarrrgh!" the bear man roared, charging the open entrance.

Then Jay was flying.

Down the steep valley-esque side of Haven--towards the light.
 
His legs and arms pumped air as he fell maybe fifteen feet, he barely got his feet under him as he hit the ground.

His legs buckled and he was rolling.
 
The back of his head struck hard against something.
 
A high sound pitched.
 
"Shittt!"
 
Jay screamed.
 
He reached back and clawed at the strap around his throat, trying to unlatch the belt buckle-like clasp.
 
He yanked desperately, pulling, tearing.

The strap broke.
 
Jay threw the bomb as hard as he could.

Boom.

Barrels of water, stone, wood, and colorful
stuff
exploded around him.
 
He was thrown back, wetness and then scorching heat flashed his chest.
 
A vacuum descended around him and he lay still, trying to breathe.
 
To think.

Gradually, dulled screams and yells and sounds of primitive warfare enveloped him.
 
He groaned.

His body refused to move but his mind flitted through thoughts, processing at a thousand miles an hour.
 
He opened his eyes.
 
Above him, wood boards and clothes covered him.
 
Muted impacts pressed painfully on his body and he realized that he was buried and people were running, fighting, and whatever, directly above him.
 
On him.
 
He probably could have grabbed a leg if he reached through the debris.
 
Jay managed to turn over.
 
He had to get out before someone unknowingly dug him out.

Jay crawled forward.
 
Somehow, he moved through the ache.
 
Somehow he burrowed like a worm, downward.
 
It was like swimming though a pool of webs.
 
His ears were still pitching, and he felt wetness in one.
 
He touched it, tasted it.
 
Blood.
 
His hands touched earth, earth that felt like it had been paved with broken glass.
 
His leg didn't seem to hurt anymore.
 
Nothing seemed to hurt.
 
He felt light.
 
Endorphins flooded his system.

He crawled low and used the earth to push him forward, hoping no one above noticed his movement.
 
A heavy pressure suddenly weighed into him, flattening him into the ground.
 
Jay didn't move.
 
Seconds later the pressure was gone and he was crawling again.

His fingers touched something that felt like plastic with a stick attached to its side.
 
A flag.
 
Jay seized it, wrapping it.
 
When he did his hand touched another, made out of the same material.
 
He bundled the second one.

He didn't plan on returning to Gamer.
 
With the bomb off and the fact that nearly all of Morir had seen him blow up, he had his ticket to freedom from the sadistic prick.
 
The flags were bargaining chips if needed, that's all.

He prayed that the luck would hold.

Jay grabbed nearby clothes and enfolded them around the flags.
 
He burrowed deeper, breathing hard and sweating.
 
His chest ached and he panted.
 
Feeling the hurt coming back at him full force.
 
His leg with the gun wound flashed.
 
His jaw, his head and face dug into his skull.
 
But instead of knocking him into disorientation, a sort of raw energy filled him, a weird excitement.
 
Vividness.
 
He was still alive and he would continue to survive.
 
Away from Gamer, he might have a chance.

To see Kyle again.

Jay managed a slow crouch, reading himself.
 
The impacts of feet had stopped a while back and he poked a head out to glance at his surroundings.
 

Only two lights still illuminated Haven's center.
 
Thank God for that.

Jay could hardly make out the teams in the darkness as people slashed, stabbed, and bludgeoned at each other.
 
There were a lot of them.
 
A lot more people than he would've imagined hiding.
 
Lines had formed where Beaters, the warriors, fought.
 
Behind these lines, teammates relied on their Beaters' protection to rush out and steal away what supplies they could.
 
Many Beaters had already collapsed, dying or injured.
 
Teams, the four major ones and a bunch of minor ones, played a modified form of Dare.
 
At the lines the Beaters advanced and retreated by intimidation alone.
 
Most of the swinging now was done in threat and would not have struck.

Jay snuck through the moonlight up and out of Haven without confrontation.
 
After he was out, he took a moment to struggle into the clothes he'd found.
 
A baggy pair of jeans and a thick T-shirt.
 
Any other details he'd find out under tomorrow's daylight.
 
Then too, he could find a way to get the bells off his face.

"Going somewhere?"

"Noope," Jay responded to the darkness.
 
"You?"

"Funny.
 
Hand the flags over and I'll let you live."

Jay cupped a hand to an ear.
 
"Sorrry?"
 
More than that, from what Freckles said, the voice wasn't following the rules.

A flashlight clicked on.
 
"There are eight of us and one..."
 
Jay jumped at the flashlight and led with his good knee and fist.

He connected solidly.
 
The flashlight hit the ground and rolled away.
 
Jay twisted, falling to the ground.
 
Didn't move.
 
Listening.
 
He ignored his raging and inflamed leg.

When the man let out a moan he smashed a fist into the guy's face again.
 
For good measure.
 
Jay'd learned his lessons well.
 
Move
first
.
 
"Eightt of you?"
 
Jay retrieved the flashlight and pointed it at the guy.