Outlive (The Baggers Trilogy, #1) (39 page)

             
Spinks, Larry and Hailey all looked up at Baggs with exhausted, sunken-in eyes, waiting for him to make his decision. He noted that he was now the only one of them still carrying his sword; the others had dropped theirs along the way, presumably because of the weight.
We’ve been lucky so far,
Baggs thought.
I don’t think we’ll go on much longer without running into a hostile team, or worse, a hostile lion. Then we might wish we still had those weapons.

             
Not wanting to break for much longer, Baggs turned left and they began to run over the sand. Baggs’s sandals were slick beneath his sweaty feet and his arches were swelling significantly. Again he thought,
I will run until my legs fall off.
In his adrenaline-fueled state it was as though he was aware of the pain, but didn’t care that it was there. The lactic acid that burned through his thighs and hamstrings as he sprinted himself to exhaustion seemed only a nuisance to him, even though the pain would have been enough to make him collapse if the situation wasn’t so dire. Even with his body in full-out panic mode, though, it had its limits. The mucus-like paste that used to come into the back of his mouth during his workouts with Shade was now being produced. He was beginning to notice that the world was greying-out in his peripheries as he forced his body onward; Baggs knew that this meant his brain was making the decision to begin stopping neurological functions that weren’t absolutely necessary, like interpreting visual stimuli from the peripheries.
If I keep this up for much longer, I’ll pass out.

             
An announcement from above made Baggs stop in his tracks; he wasn’t listening enough to know if it was Iggy Smiles or Tom Bernard talking.

             
“It looks as though James Baggers doesn’t see the danger up ahead.”

             
Danger? What danger?

             
Baggs froze. Spinks, Larry, and Hailey followed his lead, stopping along side him. Baggs glanced over at Hailey; her mouth was slightly open, revealing flawless white teeth. Her skin was smooth and her cheeks were flushed.
She’s beautiful,
Baggs thought. It was an odd, useless thing to think while on the Colosseum floor, but still, the thought had come.

             
And then Baggs saw what the announcer had been talking about; a lion turned the corner and began to sprint towards them, taking great strides over the sand. The animal’s tongue lolled out the side of its mouth as its body coiled and then stretched out, reaching with long legs over the sand. The lion was running so fast that its mane was pulled backwards, tight against the animal’s head.

             
Oh, Tessa.

             
This lion was much bigger than the one that had been in their cage.
And they said that they’ve released the second batch,
Baggs thought.
That means that there are sixty lions in here with us.

             
Seeing the size of the creature, they knew that fighting it would be futile. None of them were experts with weapons and combined the four of them barely weighed half as much as the lion.

             
And so they ran.

             
They turned and dug their feet into the sand. Baggs felt like he couldn’t run fast enough. Before, he had ignored the pain in his legs but now he just didn’t feel it.
I’m about to die.
He remembered watching the HoloVision Box at Greggor’s and thinking that this would happen.
I knew this was a risk,
he thought.
And even if I don’t die now, Byron Turner will kill me.

             
Another part of him screamed
NO! NO! NO NO NO! I WILL NOT DIE! I will see Tessa again; I will hold Olive and Maggie again!

             
He couldn’t hear the crowd or the announcers anymore. His whole world was just the sound of panting and feet hitting the ground and the sight of sand passing underneath him. There were feet beneath him and feet behind him. The feet behind him could be divided into two categories—the quiet, shuffling noises of his fellow humans, and the rapid-fire bounding steps of the killer lion that was running after them.

             
Baggs glanced backwards;
that thing is fast,
he thought. He tightened his sword in his hand.
I’ll only have one chance to stab at it.

             
Spinks was running right beside Baggs; her pink head of hair came up to the middle of his chest. She seemed to have better endurance than him—her breaths didn’t sound quite as desperate as his own.

             
Baggs glanced backwards again. The lion was now ten yards behind Hailey and Larry, who were running at an even pace.

             
Baggs slowed down a bit, letting Spinks pass him and falling back towards Hailey and Larry. It was risky, but he thought his best shot would be to wait for the lion to leap at one of his teammates and then stab at the animal’s exposed neck.

             
The lion took two more strides—it was seven yards away now.

             
Spinks approached a hallway, peeked inside, and then passed, running even faster than before.
What was in there?
Baggs wondered.
Another lion? Why did she pass?

             
But before he came to the opening, he looked back again to see that the lion was now only one or two leaps from reaching Hailey and Larry. Baggs fell back to a jog and raised his sword, readying it for the moment the beast sprang upward at his teammates.
It’ll probably try to bring us down by our necks,
he thought.
If it jumps up, I’ll get a clear shot at its exposed jugular.

             
But before the lion could reach them, Larry Wight stretched up, grabbed Hailey’s hair, and yanked her backwards so that the lion would reach her first.

             
You bastard! You murderer! You traitor!
Baggs thought. Hot white rage filled him and for a moment he wanted to kill Larry. The lion didn’t have to jump to reach Hailey; she fell right towards the animal’s gaping jaws. The lion caught her, shook left, and then right in a vicious and powerful manner. The lion dropped the corpse to the ground, stomped on her face and kept coming.

             
Baggs ran onward, faster now. He put distance between himself and Larry.
I was going to try to save him, but now I’m not so sure I want to,
he thought.
The selfish bastard killed her!
He knew that he shouldn’t be so surprised; he had seen people do worse in the Colosseum, but he somehow hadn’t expected someone he knew to act in such a savage way.

             
He came to the hallway that Spinks had avoided and looked down it to see a group of purple-clad Outlive participants running toward him. They were in a dense group, running hard.
They don’t see the lion,
Baggs thought. And then, he saw the opportunity.
If I run fast enough, the lion will be held up in the process of killing this team.
Baggs tucked his head down, ran forward, and soon the purple-clad people were screaming as they ran into the lion.

             
“That’s James Baggers and Larry Wight close behind him; the lion ju-yu-ust missed them. Ooooh, that was close,” Iggy Smiles said.

             
“Also of note, the Tigers and Hawks are now ascending the ladder,” Tom Bernard added. “Once they reach the safe room, only one more team will be allowed in.”

             
“Shit!” Baggs cried; he looked upward and could see the humans ascending the ladder in the center of the room.

             
Up ahead, Spinks turned right and Baggs and Larry followed her. They were now amidst a thick patch of turns and Spinks moved left and right into the corridors without a moment’s hesitation.

             
I hope she knows what she’s doing,
Baggs thought.

             
“And it appears as though the Boxers are about to run unknowingly head-on with the rogue members of the Panthers,” Tom Bernard’s voice said through the speakers.

             
Rogue members,
Baggs thought.
What the hell does that mean?

             
Iggy Smiles agreed with Tom, “looks like the killing crew is about to have a few more victims. Tom, do you think that what they’re doing is just senseless murder or do you think it has strategy?”

             
Baggs didn’t hear Tom’s response. Up ahead he saw a blur of movement through one of the clear walls and then two men ran out in front of Spinks. The first man was naked and covered in blood—his body shined with the red liquid. He was short and wiry, with green eyes that shone like jewels. The other man had a long beard and was wearing nothing but his skirt. Baggs didn’t have time to notice anything else about them before they attacked.

             
The naked man swung his sword in a wide arc towards Spinks’s head.
He’s not strong enough to use the weapon properly,
Baggs saw. Spinks ducked out of the way and Baggs drew back his own sword with both hands and then hacked at the man’s neck with all his might.

             
What am I doing?
he thought. The crowd cheered and three flying cameras circled them, capturing footage of the action.

             
Baggs swung, shifting his weight as he did so and the blade slashed neatly through the man’s head, decapitating him. When Baggs saw the head roll of the shoulder, he shrank back in disgust, looking at what he had done.

             
While Baggs’s attention was diverted, the bearded man charged. Luckily for Baggs, Spinks was crouched and ready. She drove her spear up into the man’s gut, stopping him and then driving him to the ground. The man fell heavily onto his back, eyes staring wide in immense pain. Feeling like he was back working for Mr. Snow, Baggs stepped forward and hacked at the man’s neck in a powerful downward swipe. This time he didn’t decapitate his opponent, but he almost did. The man’s head was now attached to his body by a thin layer of cervical spine, skin, muscle and fat. The bones were smooth and surprisingly white. The face twitched; the eyes winked at odd intervals and the mouth moved in sporadic contractions by the surrounding facial muscles.

             
Spinks bent down and picked up the dead man’s spear from where he had dropped it on the sand and they took off once more.

             
What were those guys doing, just running around and trying to kill people? Why? Just one last hoorah before they died?

             
Baggs took the lead and then slowed down, surrendering it to Spinks.
She has a better sense of direction than I do,
he thought.

             
They were close now, only about ten yards away from the ladder, but they still had a few layers of corridors blocking their route.
But it looks like we’ll get there soon.
The clear walls in this area were dirtied with sand at the bottom and were beginning to fog up from all the sweating participants sprinting through the maze. Before each turn, they tried to peer ahead of them through the glass-like barriers, but this was becoming harder to do with the build-up on the walls.

             
They took a left turn, then a right turn and Baggs looked up and felt his heart flutter. They were only five yards away.
We’re going to make it,
he thought.
We’re actually going to make it!
Relief ran through him like warm water, but then this sensation turned to ice as they rounded a turn and saw what was up ahead.

             
“No!” Spinks yelled. She took three paces forward and put her hands on the glass, as though it would yield. They were at a dead end. “We were so close,” she said, looking up at the ladder.

             
“Oh,” Larry said from behind them. His voice was small and squeaking. “Oh no, no! Shit!”

             
Tom Bernard announced what Larry was going on about before Baggs saw it. “It looks as though the Bears’ only remaining contestant has found the ladder.”

             
A moment later, Baggs saw the bloodied man climbing up towards the HoloVision Box.

7

Larry’s eyes were so wide they seemed to be protruding from his eye sockets. He tugged his hair in panic. “That’s the last team!” He screamed. “That guy makes it and we’re toast!
That’s the fifth team!”

             
“Stop yelling,” Spinks said. “It won’t help.”

             
“Well, let’s move,” Baggs said. “This dead end isn’t helping us. We need to find another route through the maze.”