Outlive (The Baggers Trilogy, #1) (37 page)

             
After a moment’s consideration, Baggs thought that Spinks was right. The lions would kill more Outlive competitors than the swords would. He dropped his thirty-pound shield, took off his forty-pound breastplate, and removed his ten-pound helmet. Larry Wight followed Baggs’s lead.
He should probably drop his sword, too,
Baggs thought, but didn’t say anything.

             
“Stupid,” Tonya Wolf muttered, straightening her helmet. “We’re supposed to stick together and you’re taking off your armor,” she said to Baggs. She poked him in the chest. “If you die, we’re screwed. Do you get that?” She was talking loud and her eyes bulged with fear.

             
Baggs didn’t respond.

             
Tonya pulled out her sword and held it at Baggs’s chest. “Get your armor back on,” she growled. “I’m taking over. You’re going to follow my lead. I’m not dying today.”

             
“Scared, Tonya?” Baggs asked. He withdrew his own sword and said, “Get that thing away from me or I’ll kill you before this competition even starts.” Baggs surprised himself by how menacing and hateful he sounded.

             
Tonya lifted her upper lip in a snarl and backed away. She didn’t sheathe her sword, though, but brandished it with two hands as she leaned against the glass and waited.

             
The two Boxers who Baggs hardly knew walked over and stood beside Tonya. The male with the rat teeth eyed Baggs suspiciously.

             
So we’re splitting up,
Baggs thought.
This day just keeps getting better.

             
Hailey Vixen stood with her feet together beneath her short skirt. She looked from Tonya to Baggs, as though not sure who’s side she should take.

             
Baggs looked up into the crowd and saw a spectator exiting the arena through one of the big tunnels that penetrated the stands.
He’s probably going to the bathroom,
Baggs thought, and then he burst out in a humorless laugh. “What’s funny?” Spinks asked him; she stood a few steps back, as though slightly afraid of him. Baggs shook his head and covered his mouth, still laughing.
When you got to go, you’ve got to go,
he thought.
And why wouldn’t that guy go to the bathroom—why NOT? I mean, he’s just at a show! This is entertainment to him, and if our deaths get boring, then he’ll leave! And if he’s got to piss while we’re dying, then he’ll take a piss. It’s not like these will be the only deaths in the Colosseum. There will be more when he gets back from the little boys’ room. Or maybe he’s just hungry; maybe he wants a hot dog to gobble down while watching the lions eat their snacks.
Spinks took another step back from him, eying Baggs suspiciously with her green eyes.

             
Baggs gritted his teeth and forced himself to stop laughing.
Get it together, buddy. Get it together. This isn’t time for giggles.
Baggs swallowed hard and then his urge to laugh was gone, but now it was replaced with a frosty fear that gripped his stomach and he found himself holding eye contact with the lion in the cage behind him.

             
“Citizens, oh citizens, my citizens of New Rome,” came Emperor Daman’s voice. His head appeared in the HoloVision Box and he smiled, showing his metal teeth. “It is my pleasure to give the microphone over to Outlive announcers Tom Bernard and Iggy Smiles, but first, a word from our sponsors.”

             
The hologram of emperor Daman disappeared and then commercials began to show on the HoloVision Box. The first showed off a luxury Cadillac helicopter, giving the audience close ups of the leather interior and wood paneling. The second commercial was for HappyJack and showed a hot beef patty with melted yellow cheese atop a hamburger bun. Baggs marveled at the fact that people were trying to sell food before a crowd that was about to watch lions devour humans. The third commercial was for a cigarette company and showed Nikki Wild inhaling deeply on a pineapple flavored cigarette and then blowing the smoke back into the camera.

             
“I could use a smoke,” Larry said. “My last smoke. Kind of like Jesus’s last supper.”

             
“Don’t say that,” Spinks said. “You’re not going to die.”

             
After the commercials were over, the HoloVision Box showed Tom Bernard and Iggy Smiles sitting in a broadcasting booth as they looked down upon the maze on the arena floor. Tom Bernard was an old white man who was completely without any hair on his head—the skin atop his eyes was smooth and shining and without eyebrows. Baggs wondered if this was an aesthetic choice, a mutation, or a drug reaction. Iggy Smiles was a handsome man with olive colored skin who appeared to be thirty years old. He had short, neatly spiked graying black hair and a trimmed grey beard. Iggy Smiles wore diamond studs in his gigantic ears.

             
“Afternoon, ladies and gents,” Iggy Smiles said. ‘Smiles’ was a nickname that he received from the goofy expression he often wore on his enormous mouth. He was the color-man while Tom Bernard gave the more clinical play-by-play.

             
“Yes, indeed,” Tom said. “This is Tom Bernard and Iggy Smiles here in the broadcast booth, and we’re pleased to announce this event live for the citizens who have made it out to the Colosseum and for all the viewers watching at home on HoloVision Boxes or televisions. This is episode eight of season ten of the hit show, Outlive, and I’m sincere in saying that I think this is going to be a good one.”

             
“Right-O,” Iggy Smiles said, nodding. Some people snickered in the audience. Iggy Smiles had a comedic timing that made things he said funny even when the content wasn’t particularly humorous.

             
I wonder if Tessa is watching this,
Baggs thought.
She is probably sitting on the Linstrom’s couch, watching the television.

             
Tom Bernard’s voice echoed along the stadium. “Without further delay, let’s go through some of the rules so that we can get to the action. What we have here, ladies and gentlemen is your standard Outlive maze, with a few changes. What we mean by ‘standard Outlive maze’ is that each team will start from a different portion of the maze and have to work their way through to a certain point. Today, the safe point happens to be the HoloVision Box in the center of the arena. The first five teams to make it inside will be allowed to live. Only five teams will be allowed inside the HoloVision Box. This is something that each team needs to remember; the key is going to be speed. The bottom of the HoloVision Box has a computerized trap door that is currently open. Once those five teams have made it within, that door shuts to all other Outlive participants.”

             
“Exactly, Tom,” Smiles cut in. “I’d just like to add one thing real fast, if ya’ don’t mind. If one of a competitor’s teammates has made it within the HoloVision Box, he or she will always be allowed within the HoloVision Box. Even if the trap door shuts for some teams, competitors will always be allowed within if one of their teammates has already made it.”

             
“In other words,” Tom said, “if James Baggers of the Boxers climbs the ladder in the first three minutes, one of his teammates could enter an hour later, even if the trap door has been shut for other teams who weren’t fast enough.”

             
“Exactumondo.”

             
Baggs looked up and, once again, saw a live feed of himself on the HoloVision Box.
They probably told the announcers to concentrate on me because of what happened at the Competitor’s Dinner.

             
Tom Bernard went on explaining the rules. “To make it a bit more interesting, lions will be released after the competitors. Once the competition begins, a door will open, allowing the participants to start running through the maze. There will then be a twenty second countdown and then the lions will be released after them. And then, after three more minutes, another batch of lions will be released.”

             
Iggy Smiles laughed: “I bet we’ll see some fast running today, Tom.”

             
“I know I’d run fast if a lion were chasing
me,
” Tom said and then chuckled. The chuckle conveyed that this is an impossible idea.
He’s right,
Baggs thought.
It would be impossible for a rich man like him to find himself in the Colosseum.
“So that everyone can keep track, we will keep a list of the teams who have made it inside the HoloVision Box listed up on the display.”

             
“I bet that this will be useful to some of the competitors,” Iggy added. “They can look up and see if their team has already made it into the safe room.”

             
Spinks pulled out her spear and held it ready. “So, in short, the rules are ‘run like hell and hope you find the ladder before a lion eats you.’”

             
“Basically,” said Larry. His glasses were dirty and he was sweating profusely.

             
“As is tradition for Outlive battles,” Tom Bernard went on from the broadcasting booth, his voice booming from speakers in the Colosseum, “We will have a quick start immediately following the rules.”

             
Iggy smiled with his big mouth and leaned towards the camera. “GO!”

6

              Baggs looked up at the HoloVision Box and saw that there were five empty slots displayed on the screen; each of the spots would be filled with a team name as the members of the five teams that would live made it to the HoloVision Box.

             
If five teams make it.

             
Above the empty slots was a timer counting down from twenty seconds to when the first batch of lions would be released.

             
All three of the clear walls surrounding the Boxers fell to the floor the second that Iggy Smiles said ‘go.’ Red-yellow sand plumed up from under the fallen panes. Tonya Wolf and the two Boxers whose names Baggs never learned sprinted off through the right corridor, their heavy armor clanking with their steps.

             
Baggs looked at the three paths, then back at the lion that would be released shortly. He didn’t see an advantage to any of the routes.
I suppose that a lot of who wins will just be the result of a guessing game,
he thought.

“C’mon,” Spinks said, and she began to run down the left corridor. Baggs an
d Larry followed closely behind. They were a few steps away when they heard something crash heavily to the sand, followed by a scream.

             
Baggs halted, turned around, and saw Hailey Vixen lying on the ground. For a moment, he thought that she was headless; he was horrified. After staring at her for a couple more seconds, he realized that her head was inside of her breastplate; she had apparently been trying to take it off at the same time that she started running and fell. She was on her stomach; her legs kicked at the sand behind her. She was gripping the armor so hard that her fingers were turning white as she attempted to push it off her head.

             
The timer above clicked off time before the lion would be released.

             
Baggs looked behind him to see that Spinks and Larry had stopped also, a few feet away from him. “Come on,” Larry told Baggs. Larry saw Baggs looking back at Hailey. “We don’t have time!” he shrieked, clenching his fists beside him.

             
Baggs didn’t respond, but ran back over the fallen clear door to Hailey’s side. She was struggling within the armor, unable to untangle herself and get the breastplate off her head. She shouted and wriggled, but it wouldn’t come off.

             
Baggs reached Hailey’s side and looked up at the timer. Five seconds had gone by already.
It feels like longer than that,
Baggs thought. He cursed and then tried to yank Hailey’s breastplate over her head. Hailey was saying something but Baggs couldn’t tell what over the roar of the crowd. As Baggs yanked, the armor got caught on her armpits and wouldn’t budge; she was panicking and beginning to scream within her breastplate.

             
“Hold still,” Baggs shouted at her. Upon hearing his voice she calmed some and held her arms straight up for him. He pulled the armor from her head to reveal her sweating, scared face. Tears were running down her cheeks from her blue eyes.

             
“I tried to take off my armor and tripped,” she said. Her voice had taken on a childlike, pathetic quality.

             
“C’mon,” Baggs said. He put his hands beneath her armpits, and hoisted her up to the standing position. Baggs glanced and the HoloVision Box and saw that there were seven seconds left before the lion would be released.
And, if we’re not one of the first five teams to make it, we’ll run around this maze until the lions drag us down.
Baggs cursed and they began running towards Spinks and Larry, who were waiting for them.