Outlive (The Baggers Trilogy, #1) (41 page)

             
Baggs and Chobb Lowe both ran at the creature at the same time, swords held out in front of them. Larry stayed where he was.
The coward,
Baggs thought.

             
The lion was not at all scared of the two humans charging them. Baggs was aware that some gladiators killed lions; he wondered if an Outlive participant had ever killed one. Baggs knew that it would be possible, but that the feat would require a lucky stab at a vital area.

             
Tessa, close your eyes,
Baggs thought.

             
He and Chobb Lowe ran side by side. For that moment, they were teammates, two men fighting to kill the same lion.
But if we kill this thing, the second it’s dead, he’s going to turn on me,
Baggs thought.
And I’ll return the favor.

             
The lion leapt from twelve feet away; the animal weighed over six hundred pounds and was almost twice as long as Baggs. The predator had its paws spread wide and was jumping right in between Chobb Lowe and Baggs. Baggs thrust his sword forward, right at the animal’s massive neck.
One shot,
Baggs told himself.

             
It happened quicker than Baggs would have thought possible. The lions paw exploded forward, driven by enormous shoulder muscles, and cast Baggs’s sword uselessly aside.

             
I’m going to die,
Baggs thought, and then the lion was on him. The sheer weight of the creature was incredible, and he was knocked to the hard packed sand with such a force that he instantly couldn’t breath. The fur of the mane came onto his face and then the creature allowed its entire bodyweight to pound into Baggs’s flesh. The impact was incredible. Baggs’s rib cage contracted so much that he thought it would burst.

             
Any moment now, it’ll rip my throat in half.

             
Baggs’s fingers groped blindly for his sword. All he could see was orange fur—it was in his nose, his mouth, and his eyes. His hands moved over the sand, hoping to find purchase on a weapon, but all they found was more sand. Baggs moaned and squirmed.

             
Any second now, it’ll kill me.

             
He squirmed some more, and then paused.

             
He realized that the lion was immobile on top of him. The crowd was cheering. He was still alive.

             
I can barely breathe.

             
He put his hands up and pushed the animal off of him, sure that it would spring into action at any moment, but it didn’t. Baggs was able to push the huge mound of hot flesh off of himself and stand.

             
Larry was standing there; he had helped get the lion off of Baggs.

             
The lion was dead. Baggs’s sword was cast uselessly aside, but Chobb Lowe’s sword was lodged deeply into one of the animal’s eyeball, penetrating its brain.

             
Whew.

             
“Where’e Chobb?” Baggs asked.

             
Larry pointed at the ladder.

             
Spinks was still sitting idly on a rung high above them with her injured arms dangling by her side. Chobb Lowe was ascending, still far below her, but making quick progress.

             
“Give me your spear,” Baggs said. Before Larry had time to respond, Baggs took it from where it was held in leather straps on Larry’s back and began to run towards the ladder.

             
Larry followed closely behind. They climbed up. Baggs was shocked to see that the moment Larry was higher than the walls of the maze, three lions burst down the corridor and sprinted towards the ladder. They stood on their hind legs and roared up at them, but couldn’t climb the rungs.

             
Baggs had the spear in his teeth. It tasted like sweat, wood and sand. He moved higher, breathing hard around the handle of the wooden spear in his mouth. Up above, Chobb Lowe was climbing just as fast and just as frantically.
This isn’t good,
Baggs thought.

             
From this height, he could look down and see the entire maze at once. There was movement below, but all of it was from the backs of prowling lions.

             
We’re the last people alive.

             
Chobb’s massive legs moved in short, choppy steps up the ladder. Baggs took the ladder two rungs at a time, hoping to catch him. He was looking right up at the ex-power lifter and if the massive man fell atop him, he doubted that he would be able to hang on. He was inexperienced with spears, and he preferred to stab Chobb than throw the thing. Chobb’s sandals were ten feet above Baggs’s hands as they reached the halfway point.

             
Spinks still hadn’t moved.
She must be seriously hurt,
Baggs thought. As he got closer, he saw that she was holding onto one rung with her chin while she sat on another.

             
Baggs looked up at the door that led to the safe room. It was beautiful to him. Sweat and dirt streaked down his face as he thought,
if I reach that, I can see Tessa again.

             
He had momentarily forgotten about Gigi’s letter.

             
Baggs wanted to go faster, but found that he simply couldn’t. Chobb Lowe kept a steady pace, and soon he reached Spinks.

             
Spinks did not move as the muscular man reached her, but just sat there, arms hanging by her sides.

             
She was still an obstacle, though, and Chobb switched to the other side of the ladder to go around her. Baggs bit down hard on the wood of the spear and gained on the man. Chobb passed Spinks just as Baggs was reaching her. Baggs spun around Spinks’s body, took the spear from his mouth, and thrust upward at the bottom of Lowe’s foot.

             
Lions were roaring below.

             
Larry was now climbing over the backside of Spinks’s body—his feet were small enough to wriggle them into the space beside Spinks’s torso.

             
The metal spearhead cut through the sole of Chobb’s sandals and blood rained down on Baggs. Chobb Lowe screamed and looked down at Baggs. Baggs shifted position and saw that the spearhead had gone all the way through Lowe’s foot, splicing through the connective tissue in between two metatarsals.

             
Chobb looked like he was about to try to come down and push Baggs off the ladder, but then Larry climbed even with him so that they were face to face, hundreds of yards above the sand, on opposite sides of a thin ladder.

             
The wind picked up in a strong gust, ripping at their clothes.

             
Lowe’s eyes locked onto Larry.
He’s going to push him off,
Baggs thought. He saw Chobb rear back, getting ready to strike at Larry’s face with his massive fist.

             
Baggs turned the spear that was lodged in Chobb’s foot so that the width of the spearhead now ran perpendicular with the metatarsals. It was now lodged in such a way that it would be almost impossible for it to slip out. Just as Chobb punched, Baggs yanked his foot downward and Chobb slipped back a few paces.

             
Larry went right past Chobb, climbing hand over hand until he reached the top of the ladder. Baggs held onto the spear, making sure that Chobb didn’t climb up and beat Larry.

             
Lions roared below.

             
Humans roared from the seats around them.

             
Larry made it to the door, and climbed in.

             
The Boxers were the last of the five teams.

             
But now I’ve got to get past the big man,
Baggs thought. The lions were clustered around the ladder now—there were twenty of them at the ladder’s base, hungry and roaring from their chests.

             
Baggs increased his grip on the bottom of the spear and readied his body to get out of the way if Chobb Lowe tried to attack him.
Don’t watch, Tessa.

             
The big man above him tucked his head down and said, “Was that guy on your team?”

             
“Yeah,” Baggs said between pants.

             
“That was the fifth team, wasn’t it?”

             
“Yeah.”

             
Chobb’s face fell. “What do you think will happen to me?”

             
“I don’t know,” Baggs said.

             
Chobb’s lips trembled and then he started sobbing with his head against the railing. “You guys go first,” he said. “Then I’ll try. Maybe they’ll let me in,” he said.

             
Baggs didn’t respond with anything; he wanted to move before Lowe changed his mind. He let go of the spear and climbed down to Spinks. “I can’t move my arms,” she said.

             
“Not at all?”

             
“Well, I can’t move my shoulder joints. I think that I dislocated both of my shoulders.”

             
The arms were hanging in an unnatural position. “I think you’re right,” Baggs said.

             
“What are we going to do? Please don’t leave me.”

             
“I’m not going to leave you, sweetie,” Baggs said. He was feeling emotional and sentimental this close to the finish line.

             
He climbed down until he was facing Spinks and then he grabbed the front of her shirt with both of his big hands. Together, they climbed slowly upwards, taking steps in unison.

             
“Don’t drop me,” she said.

             
“I’m not going to drop you.”

             
Chobb Lowe got out of the way when they came by and allowed them to pass. Baggs got behind Spinks at the very end and pushed her rear while Larry and some of the other participants who had already made it reached down and pulled her up. Baggs came in next, the crowd was cheering his name.

             
The inside of the HoloVision Box was refreshingly cool. There was a cooler with water in one corner. Competitors sat along the edges, slumped against the wall with exhaustion. Baggs entered through the hole in the bottom. He could hear Chobb Lowe still crying beneath him.

             
After the last inch of his foot was past the threshold of the opening in the bottom of the HoloVision Box, a clear door slid over the gap, closing the opening. The bottom of the HoloVision Box was clear, and Baggs looked down and could see the sand far below him.

             
“That was the last of us,” someone said. “They won’t let him in.”

             
“You think they’ll just let him hang there until he gives up?” someone else asked.

             
They didn’t have to wait long for their question to be answered. The ladder shook for a moment and then began to slowly recede into the ground. It went slowly, only a few feet per second, as though the sand was swallowing it up. The lions below began to whimper in anticipation. Chobb Lowe climbed to the top rung and waited. The ladder continued to descend.

             
The crowd loved it.

             
Now all I have to do is not get killed by Byron Turner and I’m home free,
Baggs thought, panting as he lay on his back.

Part 4

1

              It was weird to Baggs. It almost felt like everyone had gone crazy.

             
The things that followed were clinical and functional and it made him feel on-edge.

             
He didn’t know what he had expected;
it’s not like the next gladiator shows are going to be stopped and they’ll shut down the Colosseum forever. It’s not like anyone cares. Larry, Spinks and I were just three contestants of the thousands that have played the game before. We’re not special.

             
Even though he knew this, it was strange to him when the maze walls started retracting and the Colosseum employees began ushering the lions back into the doors surrounding the sand. They didn’t start this process until after Chobb Lowe had been eaten, of course. The show didn’t end when the last people made it, the show ended when the last person died;
really, that’s what it’s all about.

             
Most of the lions eagerly hurried back through the openings around the arena floor; this made Baggs suspect that they were being baited with some kind of food.
Or maybe drugs. They could all be addicted to cocaine. Or glass.
A handful of the lions refused to get off the sand and were shot with tranquilizer darts before little robots that looked like monkeys came out and tied the somnolent felines’ feet up with thick red rope. The rope ran all the way from the lions on the sand to a spot in the stadium’s interior. Baggs suspected that the ropes were attached to some kind of machine, because the sleepy, enormous lions were dragged off the sand with a smooth and constant progress.