Chapter Nine

CHAPTER NINE

The next day came before I was ready. I woke up tired and restless despite the good night sleep I got. My handler was already sitting in my room, a plate full of a complimentary breakfast of biscuits and gravy. I ate, no longer able to withstand food. I licked the plate clean and held it out to my handler. His face was a little sad. I raised my eyebrows.

                “What?”              

                My handler sighed deeply. “It’s not fair.”

                “What’s not?”

                Jared looked up at me. “They changed the trials for you and your two friends to only pairs to take down the Drailers. And, to make it even more challenging, there will be two level one and level two Drailers you have to defeat.”

                “That’s not so bad.”

                His smile is full of anything but happiness. “Except that you were paired with Talon.”

                I drop the plate.

                “If you react badly, you will not pass the test,” he said. “Ryan has already gone Drailer on them. I have to attend to him. He needs me right now, Sloane.”

                Knowing what this meant I picked up pieces of the plate and threw them at the window. Don’t ask me how I knew, intuition maybe, but I knew someone was watching me. I walked to the window calmly as I could, put both hands up above my head and leaned my face against the window.

                “One day, I’m going to destroy the Federation, and you’ll be the first person to go.”

                I can’t hear anything on the other side, but my handler silently gets up and leaves. I keep staring out the window. I know the person is still there, and I do know whoever it is, is also watching me carefully and studying me like a specimen. I let them. What more is there for me to hide? They know everything, how to stack the odds. I bet they won’t even give us weapons.

                Eventually, the door opens and Talon walks in. He looks somber, a mirror of myself. I don’t know what’s going through his head, but part of me believes I’ll hurt him if he messes up. The part of me that has also become a monster due to the Federation.

                Perhaps, like the Drailers, my soul is shattered.  

                He stood there for a couple seconds, fidgeting with his hands. He finally looked up at me. “I’m sorry they did this to you.”

                I raise my eyebrows again. “Why are you sorry?”

                “Because they are trying to destroy you.”

                “That didn’t bother you before.”

                He shrugs. “What you said yesterday, about the Federation wanting to destroy you because you’re a threat to their power . . .” He shrugs again, not looking at me. “I wanted to ask how the Drailers got out.”

                I snorted. “Do you really think that the Drailers got out of their holdings?” I walk over to him. “They were let out,” I whisper.

                I don’t have to look at him to know his reaction. The bells go off, signaling the time to go fight. I take hold of Talon’s limp arm and start dragging him out of the room. He keeps whispering no to himself.

                So I slap him. Hard.

                He looks up at me, startled. “What was that for?”

                “For being weak,” I said. “Now show me the other arena we are supposed to fight in. I’m looking forward to this.”

 

The arena isn’t very big. Actually, it’s rather small, unlike the last one. It has more foliage and things to trip over. I study it while the people along the bleachers talk about the latest things. Talon is a few meters from me, talking to some girl that was making cow eyes at him. I’m tempted to embarrass him because the girl is rather pretty, but decide against it. I’m better than that. And besides, one of us has to be competent in the arena.

                Of the squads that battled yesterday, only three made it through completely clean. One of them was Talon’s squad which had the girl I was impressed with. She was small but quick and sharp minded. Her battle style was a lot like ours and I wondered whether she came from the city like we did.

                The president, once again giving a speech, ordered everyone to take a seat. Talon sat down almost right away. I, on the other hand, stood by him, leaning on a rail and smirking at the president. He couldn’t make me sit if I didn’t want to.

                To prove my theory, he kept his chilling gaze on me his entire speech. He made the girl’s squad go first. They did good, better than I expected originally. They weren’t so bad as soldiers. Talon’s old squad actually knew a few things about Drailers and how they fought. Go figure.

                “Squad 13,” he said, “you’re next.”

                I smile, basking in the supposedly unlucky number that the president had kept attached to me through yesterday. He even tried to use superstition on us to get us to fail. It was a sad attempt, especially knowing it was futile. It was almost comical.

                Talon was handed two knives. I, on the other hand, was handed nothing. I glowered at the man giving out the weapons. He shrugged, inclining his head towards the president. I nodded, knowing that it was not his fault I got nothing to fight with. But, the president being stupid as he was, probably didn’t count on me and Talon getting too far in this competition between the prodigy soldiers and Drailers.

                We entered the arena. Talon took his place on the other side of the arena. To me, this was a stupid strategy. He should give me a knife because we weren’t facing just one level one Drailer but two. I had nothing to use against it. But, since I sparred with Ryan with nothing and had gotten somewhat closer to beating him before we came here than usual, I guessed I’d be ok.

                The Drailers came out a little shy at first. Talon took to the camouflage of the foliage. He snuck his way towards one of the Drailers. It looked at him almost right away. I guess in their school they didn’t teach them that a Drailer’s eyesight was better than ours by quite a bit, even a level one. They could see us a mile away.

                And smell us.

                All in all, Talon was a stupid fighter.

                I walked right up to the Drailer I was supposed to fight. It looked up at me, the humanity still in its face. I closed my eyes and swung at the Drailer. My fist connected with her face. I spun and kicked her in the side of her head. I opened my eyes and grabbed her shoulder and threw her on the ground. I picked up a rock and threw it at her face. It connected.

                I turned from my Drailer to find Talon finishing off his for the count. I could see the blood running down the Drailer’s body. I sucked in my breath, and looked down at mine, then up at him again. He was walking towards me, knives posed to take the Drailer’s life.

                The only reason I let him slit the Drailer’s throat was because, in reality, it was a mercy to kill them and save what was left of the human before.

 

I stayed to watch the rest of the fights. Out of the nine that passed yesterday, eight passed today. I have yet to see Sean or Ryan, so I guess that they are either next or were failed. After about a few minutes of waiting to see if they were going to fight, I get up and start to leave. Then the president’s voice comes on over the buzz of the crowd. I hear him say Sean but can’t get much more than that other than he’s fighting next. Someone lets him into the arena. He has no weapons, like me, and his partner has two knives like Talon. I smile at the irony. It’s like they want to kill the prodigy students too. The student isn’t nearly as good as Sean, but they manage to kill the two Drailers. I feel a little bad for the guy Sean has to battle with. He’s worse off than if he was with Ryan right now.

The president yells at them to get out of the arena. Sean smiles and gives an f you in sign language. I chuckle, earning me dirty looks from nearby people. I look around to try and find Talon and I see him with the same girl as before. Her group passed too. I turn my attention back to Sean and his partner. He pushes his partner and starts yelling at him. It takes me a moment to realize why Sean is yelling. His partner has a cut on his arm. Sean is yelling at him for getting hurt from a level one Drailer. I shake my head, smiling. That’s just like Sean.

After Sean is finished yelling he stomps out of the arena. His handler puts the leash on him. Sean practically drags him through the room and out the door, too angry to notice me in the crowd. His partner is staring dumbstruck after him. I feel bad for him once again. He walks out and returns the knives. The boy then looks at the crowd. He spots me. He gives me a shy look and slowly makes his way up to where I’m sitting. I raise my eyebrows when he’s close enough to see. He swallows hard and takes one more step. I glance over at Talon. He’s now looking at the boy, a dirty look on his face. I smile. Good.

                The boy reaches me not too soon after. He is standing right next to me. His face is white from fear. He looks at me, not meeting me eyes but looking at my nose. I wait for him to say what he wants.

                After about forever, he finally says, “Can I sit here?”

                I nod. He sits and puts his head in his hands. I stare at him. Surely if he is sitting next to me he must not see me as a monster like everyone else.

                “Why are you sitting here?”His head snaps up. He starts to stand, muttering apologies. I usher him down. “It’s just a question, jeez. You scatter like a rabbit.”

                He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pair of glasses. He puts them on and looks at me. “I, uh, um . . . I . . . I wanted to sit . . . with you . . . because I wanted to talk to you about, um, Sean.”

                I smile at his nervousness. “Ah. You want to know if he’ll kill you.”

                The boy nods.

                “If he can fair better without you, yes. He’s a survivor, just like the rest of our Crew.”

                “Crew?”

                I snort. “That’s right. I forgot. You aren’t educated on us “rebel monsters”,” I laugh. “A Crew is what we call people who come together to protect people who can’t protect themselves.”

                He thinks for a moment. “So you are like the Federation, only wild.”

                I smack him in the face. He yelps. I can see heads turning and people looking at us, but I don’t care. I grab his hair and force him to look at my face.

                “We are nothing like the Federation.”I push him back from me. “Get lost before I kill you instead of Sean.” The boy scatters. “Rabbit,” I mutter.

                Talon comes up to me. His hot, angry eyes settle on my face. “What was that about?”

                I look at him calmly. “He insulted me and my Crew.”

                Talon tries to grab my chin. I dodge his big, strong hand and look up at him. He looks down at me. “What did he say?”

                “He called us like the Federation, only wild.”

                He crosses his arms over his chest. “Really? That’s all?”

                I jump up. “That’s all!? He called me a traitor, a monster, and above all a murderer. He called Ryan and Sean and Ian traitors, monsters, and murderers.”

                Talon takes my hand and pulls me down to sit with him. Still enraged, I rip my hand from his and sit, crossing my arms. He is staring at me.

                “Sloane, he doesn’t know any better.”

                “Rabbit doesn’t have to be an a*s, though. It’s obvious we hate the Federation and what they do.”

                He blinks. “Rabbit?”

                “That’s his name from now on. He acts like one and I don’t know his real name. So it’s now Rabbit.”

                Talon shakes his head. “Whatever. Just give him a chance.”

                I don’t have a chance to answer because the president comes on again and Talon’s attention shifts from me to him. Through the whole speech I give Talon a very dirty glare. He glanced at me once and shrugged. I pushed him off the bench and he climbed right back on. I sank low and went into a pout. He just would not leave me alone today.

                “Ryan’s going to fight.”

                I bolt upright. “Oh no.”

I hear the familiar roar of rage. I turn to see my handler letting him loose and slamming the door behind him. Some of the people in the stands are starting to leave. I can see the fearful glints in their eyes. They hurry without a second glance at the Drailer in the arena. Some others are wearing sick smiles. I shudder and return my attention to Ryan. He’s alone. No one is helping him.

When the doors open, he doesn’t waste a moment. He moves like the monster he was created to be. His movements are decisive and strategic. The doors hadn’t even fully opened and the first Drailer was dead on the ground. He took the second down quickly. He whirled around at the sound of the president’s voice. He roared again. His anger returning. He ran across the arena and jumped on the dome fencing. He climbed his way up, eyes burning with bloodlust. People were screaming and running from the arena. I didn’t blame them for being afraid. Ryan was something to be feared and obeyed.

The president was starting to descend the staircase from the stage. Ryan was at the top of the fence. He jumped over and started to race to the president. I started to run down the steps towards him. He stopped for a moment when he saw everyone running. I knew he was fighting the monster in him. He shook his head and the monster returned to take over his body. He started to run again. He was almost past where I ran in front of him. He slammed into me, talons sinking into my arms. We both fell to the ground. He straddled my stomach, his face inches from mine, the dangerous poison starting to drip from his mouth. Ryan snarled and started to get up.

“Ryan, no,” I said. “It’s not worth it. Don’t be the monster they created. It won’t solve anything to get yourself killed. Save it for another time when we can destroy them. Then we’ll free everyone and you will still live to show them how to control it. Without you the Drailers will kill everyone, including Sean, and me. Don’t do it.”

Ryan took the claws out of my arm, starting to calm down. He looked down at me like he always does and I could see him start to speak.

Then Talon tackled him. He punched Ryan in the face and took out a small pocketknife. He stabled Ryan too close to the neck for comfort. Ryan threw him off and started to go after him, blood running down his torso. The animal bloodlust was in his eyes again. He roared and sunk his teeth into Talon’s shoulder. Ryan pinned the hand with the knife. Talon screamed and with his free hand hit Ryan in the eye and then the kidney. Ryan let go briefly. He snarled into Talon’s face and went to bite his neck. I screamed and ran to Ryan. He looked up and he got up quickly. I threw myself into his arms and started sobbing.

“Don’t kill him,” I cried. “The Federation will kill you if you do. I don’t want you to die.”

Ryan put a hand on my head and put one on my shoulder. He pushed me away gently and looked into my face.

“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

He turned and looked at Jared. My handler slipped the leash over Ryan’s head and took him away. I started walking towards Ryan. Jared caught this and looked over his shoulder.

“Don’t, Sloane. He doesn’t want to see you right now.”

I started to walk again. Talon came up behind me and took me by the arm. He turned me around. He started to look at my face then caught sight of the shredded skin on my arms. His eyes went wide and he looked at my face again. It was stained with tears and I didn’t meet his eyes.

“We need to get you to the infirmary.”

I pushed him away. “No. I want Ryan.”

Talon took a couple steps forward. “You can’t have him right now. Later.”

“Now,” I growled.

He took a deep breath. “No. You need to get fixed up.”

I looked up at him. “What is the point of he’s with strangers hurting!? He doesn’t calm down unless I’m with him and he certainly doesn’t want anybody else to fix his wounds. Why don’t you b******s understand that? He doesn’t WANT your help, he doesn’t NEED your help and neither do I or Sean! We can take care of ourselves. Just let me go!”

His hands were on my forearms. He pulled me close to him and put his arms around me. I hit his chest.                

“Let. Me. Go.”

I hit him again. He didn’t let go. He pulled me tighter and sat down. I was on his leg. I struggled to get away. I beat his chest, I hit his face, and he didn’t let go. After a while I stopped and resigned to crying against him. He rocked me a little and stroked my hair. I must have cried for about an hour because the bell rang for everyone to return to their rooms. Talon didn’t get up. Neither did I.

“Why did you do it?” he whispered.

I knew what he was talking about. Still, I asked, “What did I do?”

“You jumped in front of him. He was going to kill the president and you stopped him at the cost of the skin on your arms.”

I grabbed his shirt in my fist. “It’s just skin.”

“Why did you do it?”

I sniffed and said, “I love him.”

Talon’s grip loosened. “You love him, huh?”

I caught the tone in his voice. “Yes. Only him.”

“Why?”

“Are you suggesting that because he’s a Drailer no one could love him?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Then I love him because he is who he is. Not a monster, but a person, and a good one.”

Talon loosened his grip completely. “Does he love you?”

I shrug. “These days I don’t know.”

Talon was quiet for a moment. “We have to get you to your room before people notice you’re missing.”

He sets me beside him. Talon stands up and offers me his hand. I take it, not knowing that it meant to him something that it didn’t mean to me. He gave me an uneasy smile and steered me towards my room.

The hallway was dimly lit while we walked. Not many people were around. Some gave us judging stares. We weren’t supposed to be in the hallway at this hour after the battles in the arena. If anything, we were supposed to be safely in our rooms all clean and ready for tomorrow, the last stage of the training. I couldn’t wait. As soon as we were out in the field, me and my Crew would take off and leave this forsaken place behind.

My eyes slide to Talon’s face. I wonder if he would come with us or stay behind. He seems to have changed for the better. Though, I am curious on why he changed. I’m sure it wasn’t something I said to him that made him change. Part of me thinks the president asked him personally to befriend me and watch my back for the show, to get me to trust him, just for him to stab me in the back and make me something I don’t want to be. Or maybe it’s just me being paranoid. Who knows?

When we come to the door to my room, I stop. I remember this morning someone was behind the door.

I look at Talon again. “Who was here in the morning?”

He doesn’t meet my eyes. “No one should have been here before me.”

“I mean watching through the window,” I say, pointing to it. “Who was there?”

Talon opens my door. “You should go in. I’ll be back with bandages.”

I stay where I am. “Who was there?” I ask again.

 “Just sit down and do what you’re told,” he growls. “There are so many things you don’t know it’s almost funny.”

“Like what?”

He looks at me, his eyes half closed. “Has Ryan told you what he really is?”

I raise my eyebrows. “He’s a level two Drailer.”

Talon shakes his head. “Ask him next time you see him what level he really is, and if he says two, he’s lying.”

He turns around and leaves me at the doorway. I stare after him, my heart beating wildly.

If Ryan wasn’t a level two Drailer, what was he?