Dark Universe & Forbidden Love (46 page)

It had been three weeks since
Jason arrived at prison Listan. Jason couldn’t imagine another thing more
boring than swinging a sledgehammer all day. He missed Gloria, his father and
friends. He dreamed of Gloria every night and he couldn’t help. The only thing
stopped Jason from losing himself was the notion to break free to see her. He
had been thinking about it since he talked with Geuinm. Even though Geiunm told
him it was impossible. Jason was not the type of guy who listened to others. He
started to take notes on guards’ shifts, when drones left to be charged and
other routine stuffs.

After
dinner, Jason was preparing for his big night. Tonight he would fight for the
first time in the prison. The fighting ground was right under the watch tower.
There was no boxing ring or anything to mark the boundary. Jason had seen three
fights since he got here. It was inhuman to say the least. But when he came to
think about it, they were not Human anyway. Today he would fight Faty, the big
Intinese. He watched Faty fight with a Lysisese about two weeks ago. The
Lysisese couldn’t really hurt Faty, because the thick fat absorbed all the
momentum. Faty simply waited until his opponent ran out of energy and won in
one strike. Jason knew Faty’s weak point was his eyes. But he was only half the
height of Faty. 

There
was still half an hour until the fight, but hundreds of prisoners had gathered
near the watchtower. Eiteuoo jostled among those prisoners and wrote down their
bets. Luee was standing in the distance. Since Jason punched him last time,
Luee was scared and alway kept a distance from Jason.

Jason
walked to Geuinm. They had become some kind of friends or the closest thing
this prison could offer. Jason always gave the sloth some candies, which
pleased Geuinm as well. He got those candies by trading in the gems he stole on
the working site.

“Did you
bet?” Jason asked easily as he handed a candy to the sloth.

“No.”
Geuinm shaked his head.

“Why
not?”

“I am
not sure how good you are. You might surprise us all.” Geuinm said seriously.

“Oh, I
see.” Jason smiled reluctantly.

“Did you
bet?” Geuinm asked.

“No. I
am broken.” Jason chuckled.

“I
didn’t see you practice for the fight.” Geuinm said in a relaxed tone.

“I usually
practice while I am doing it.” Jason said easily. He actually didn’t know how
to defeat the Faty.

“That is
positive.”

Jason
saw Faty sitting on the other side of the playground. Dozens of prisoners
treated Faty as the king. Some prisoners were holding the tower; some were
serving him food; some others were functioning as human-powered cooling fans.

Jason
was a little jealous. He was never that popular in his life. When he was a kid,
he had some friends, but as he got older, he became more and more aggressive.
As a result, his childhood friends were kind of scared of him. When he was in
the Human preselection institution, the situation didn’t get better and he only
made one friend Erikon.

“It’s
time!” A guard shouted.

Jason
shook those old memory out of his head and walked to the watchtower. Throngs of
prisoners slowly backed off, clearing a path for Jason. Dozens of prisoners
were shouting slogans for Faty. The crowd was heating up.

Jason
and Faty both stepped into the zone. Some 200 guards were watching them from
airborne platforms. Hundreds of flying drones were cycling above the crowd.

“Alright,
you guys all know the rule. Fight to death. No time limit. The game is on.”
Hwoei shouted.

Faty
slowly walked to Jason, his bloated body shaking right and left, his chin
dropping over his neck, his mouth opening wide.

Keeping
his eyes on Faty, Jason slowly backed off and hit a chair. The crowd broke into
laughter.

“Fight,
you pussy!”

“Idiot!”

“Come
on! Come on!” The crowd was boiling.

Jason
gazed at the chair and then glanced over at Faty. He lifted the chair, carried
it in front of him and dashed to Faty. When he got close enough, he threw the
chair at the ground and then leaped into the air. The moment the chair landed
in front of Faty, Jason jumped on it and used it as a springboard. He fired his
fist at Faty’s mouth. Faty was too slow to dodge the attack and Jason thrusted
his right fist into Faty’s mouth. Faty screamed in pain and bit down hard at
Jason’s forearm, but he didn’t forget to protect his eyes. Just at this moment,
Jason stabbed his right arm further into Faty’s mouth, grasped the base of his
tongue and pulled it outwards. Faty hit Jason with his fists, but Jason didn’t
let it go. He kicked on Faty’s midriff and pulled with all his strength. Jason
could feel Faty’s teeth were getting loose.

“Aaaaaah.”
Jason screamed and used all strength for the final kick. He fell hard on the
floor with Faty’s tongue in his hand and some of Faty’s teeth on his right
forearm.

Faty
slumped on the ground, his body trembling, and blood spewing out of his mouth.

The
crowd was dead quiet. Nobody expected it would end this fast.

Jason
slowly stood up and stumbled to Faty.

“Bong!”
He stepped on Faty’s head and squashed it into pieces.

Most
prisoners gazed at Jason in panic. Several of them threw up.

“The
game is over. Everyone back to your cell. Now! Your mother fuckers!” Hwoei
shouted angrily. He just lost a whole month salary on this bet.

The lights were off. The bloody
smell on the playground dissolved in the seemingly peaceful night. Dozens of
drones were flying around leisurely, checking each cell. Jason sat on the bed.
He was tired and sore, but he wasn’t sleepy. When he thought about Faty’s
death, he didn’t feel sad at all. He didn’t understand why. He told himself
that he didn’t have another option except killing Faty. He started to recall
all the fights he went through, either with animals or someone else. He
remembered he fought a lot when he was in the preselection institution and he
didn’t always win. In one of the fights, Erikon came to help him and they both
got beaten badly. But the good side was Jason and Erikon became friends since
then. There was alway a good side, no matter how fucked up you were. Thinking
about this, Jason smiled at himself.

Just at
this moment, one guard came near to Jason’s cell and said, “Hey, you, come
out.”

The bars
slid open and Jason stepped out. Following the guard, Jason walked onto an
airborne platform and they flew out of prison block and entered a tunnel.
Several minutes later, they came out of the tunnel and landed in the middle of
a beautiful garden filled with all kinds of flowers. There were four guards
waiting for them. Jason got off the platform and followed the guards to the edge
of the garden. There the warden Wy itetn, facing a huge window, was sitting
near a table with five guards standing by his side. A guard said something to
Wy itetn and Wy itetn turned to Jason and said, “So I saw you fight today.” He
motioned Jason to sit next to the table.

“I
didn’t hear a question.” Jason said coldly and didn’t sit down. 

“Haha,
huh, anything to drink?” Wy itetn asked with a hypocritical smile.

“No,
thank you.” Jason said coldly.

“You
see, I have seen many fighters while I am here. I know the difference between
those who was born to kill and those who was trained to kill. You have the
talent. You probably think God wouldn’t do such things. Well, this gift is not
something God intends, but rather the sum of all unintended wills.” Wy itetn
said like an expert.

“That is
deep.” Jason said as he flashed a brittle smile.

“Your
Earth bound things no longer trust God anymore. What a shame! But don’t blame
yourself. We went through the same period as well, but we learned a long time
ago that sciences and technologies could only explain things on a material
level. Just so you know.”

Jason
didn’t say a thing. He was never a fan of God or any other religions.

“I
always want to ask you. How you end up here?” Wy itetn asked.

“What do
you care?” Jason said easily.

“Maybe
you don’t know either.” Wy itetn smiled.

“Does it
matter?”

“Not
really, I mean as far as I concern, you are just a prisoner who can fight. And
let me remind you, if you don’t fight, you will end up dead. You should make an
effort to make me like you. In that case, both you and I will enjoy this
process.” Wy itetn said proudly.

“I will
think about it.” Jason said as he forced a rigid smile.

“I bring
you here to tell you the big game will be in three months. If you lost that
one, you don’t need to worry I will kill you, you will die before that.” Wy
itetn said hastily.

“Anything
else?”

“No.”

Jason
left with guards.

Klaycon was strolling back and
forth near Gloria’s room. He was wondering what Gloria was doing at such late
in the night. Jason was no longer here. Ever since he heard that Jason was locked
up in prison Listan, he had been keeping an eye on Gloria. Klaycon checked the
time. It had passed the midnight.

“What is
she doing this late?” Klaycon muttered to himself. He was worried about Gloria,
even though he knew no one was threatening her life. Klizan was dead and nobody
cared about the love story between Jason and Gloria. Right now the high rank
officers in the Glycan selection committee was busy with grabbing the power
left by Klizan. Thinking about Klizan, Klaycon realized that he didn’t really
miss his grandpa that much.

Gloria
walked to Klaycon from behind and said, “What are you doing here?”

“Hi,
Gloria, I am waiting for you. I brought you this.” Klaycon said as he handed an
exquisite box to her.

Gloria
glanced over at the box, but she didn’t take it.

“Where
have you been this late?” Klaycon asked caringly.

“Take
care of some business.” Gloria said coldly as she opened the door.

“Maybe I
can help?” Klaycon asked kindly.

“Save
Jason. Do you think you can help?” Gloria said ironically as she rolled her
eyes at Klaycon.

Klaycon
quickly looked around at the hallway and asked, “Can we talk it inside?”

Gloria
let Klaycon in. It was a very small and cramped room barely the size of the
restroom in Klaycon’s room.

“It is a
nice place. Very cozy.” Klaycon said reluctantly.

Gloria
kept an ice face and looked at Klaycon in a cold way.

Klaycon
gazed at Gloria, admiring the beautiful curve of her body. It was so smooth and
natural, flowing from her face to her feet.

Gloria
slowly stood up and took off her uniform, pants and underwear. Now she was
standing naked in front of Klaycon, her bodying shining under the light, her
medium size breasts high and perky, and her long legs straight like arrows.
Klaycon watched her in shock, his hands shivering, his mouth opening wide, his
throat burning. .

“If you
can save Jason, you can do anything to me!” Gloria said seriously.

Klaycon
had imagined this scene so many times that he lost the count. For a second,
Klaycon just wanted to jump to Gloria and took her. But he walked to Gloria
slowly, looking into her eyes, and asked, “You can do anything?”

“Anything!”
Gloria said firmly.

Klaycon
let out a long sigh and shouted, “No one can save him. No one!”

Gloria
didn’t say a thing and quickly put on her clothes.

“You are
going to save Jason?” Klaycon asked in a worried tone.

“That is
none of your fucking business!” Gloria said calmly.

“That is
prison Listan. The most heavily guarded prison in the universe. You don’t even
know where it is.” Klaycon shouted.

“If you
can’t help me, fuck off.” Gloria said coldly.

“I can’t
let you do this!” Klaycon said hastily as he grabbed Gloria’s shoulder.

Gloria
swung a fist to Klaycon’s face, but Klaycon dodged it. He grabbed that fist and
yelled, “Why do you do this to yourself?”

“You
will never understand.” Gloria said firmly.

“I love
you. I have done things for you. Much more than Jason.” Klaycon said
emotionally, his eyes filled with tears.

“Oh,
really? Tell me about it. Don’t you forget I saved you from that tunnel. We are
even!” Gloria said coldly.

“I
killed…”

“I don’t
care who you killed. Now leave!” Gloria interrupted Klaycon as she pointed at
the door.

Klaycon
knew this conversation wouldn’t go anywhere. He hesitatingly turned around and
walked out, heading back to his room. When he arrived at his room, he saw some
40 girls waiting for him. Ever since he came back, he was even more popular
than before. Klaycon smiled at them politely, but he had absolutely no appetite
tonight.