Little Dead Monsters (12 page)

Chapter Twenty-Seven.

The Arena was buzzing with another Sunday night fight and from the gym, Dog could hear the murmurs of the audience.

“I can’t believe I’m missing the fights. Of all the times you had to work out, did it have to be now?” the guard, nicknamed Chatterbox moaned. “By the way, I’m hearing a lot of rumours about your next fight.”

Dog ignored him as he completed another set of bench presses. He sat up and wiped the perspiration off his brow with his towel.

“Don’t you want to know what they’re saying about your next fight?” Chatterbox asked. The new guard Ryker had assigned to Dog was giving him a headache. The idiot never seemed to shut up and Dog wondered if this was a means of torture that Ryker was inflicting on him. He did his best to tune out Chatterbox’s raspy smoke-corroded voice, but today, every single word he said was like amplified static, crackling loudly in his ear. Knocking him out was going to be a pleasure. He just needed to wait a while longer for the fights to start and everyone’s attention was focused inside the pit.

“No,” Dog replied. “I don’t care.”

“It’s a good one, I promise,” Chatterbox said. Dog ignored him and attacked a heavy set of dumbbells and began curling them with his thick biceps.

“They say you’re going to fight Tiberius. Isn’t that crazy? It’s a clash of champions. When I heard about it I crapped my pants.”

“So that’s what that smell is.”

“What?”

“Forget it.”

“So do you think you can?”

Dog set the weights down and gave Chatterbox a puzzled look. “What?”

“Do you think you can beat Tiberius? I’m going to be betting on this fight but it’s a hard call,” Chatterbox said. “Tiberius is physically stronger than you, but it’s been a while since he fought. I need some advice here.”

“Save your money. Invest in education,” Dog said. He heard the fight announcements echoing from a distance, indicating the start of the matches. Dog headed for the exit of the gym while Chatterbox trailed behind him like a yapping puppy.

“I’m serious, I need this cash. Ryker promised to sell me this girl at a great price. I only need five hundred dollars more and I can make that through betting on this fight,” Chatterbox said. “Do you have any injuries or anything I should know about?”

Dog glared at him. “Women are not to be bought and sold. Find yourself another woman.”

“This girl is a special one. She’s got this tight little body. The best part about her are the eyes,” he grinned. “They look so innocent. Something about that just gets me going. You know that timid look they have when they’re afraid of you?”

Dog hit him hard and Chatterbox’s jaw shattered underneath the weight of Dog’s fist and it felt good. The guard crumpled to the floor and was out cold.

“Now that you mention it, my knuckle is a bit tender,” Dog smiled. For a brief moment, he considered killing Chatterbox, but finally decided that he wouldn’t kill someone that was already unconscious. Only animals did that, and he was no animal. 

He dragged Chatterbox to large bin of dirty towels and buried him deep inside, well hidden beneath the layers of sweat-stained fabric. With the first part of his plan completed, it was time to move onto the next step where things would get pretty ugly.

With most of the guards positioned around the pit, it was fairly easy getting from the gym to the morgue. There was one point where Dog heard footsteps echo down the tunnel and he concealed himself in the shadows, watching as the stray guard strolled right past him. When the path was clear again, Dog moved with a hurried pace to his destination.

Even before Dog opened the morgue’s steel doors, the vile stench of death was noticeable. Once he was inside and the door was closed behind him, the overwhelming stink of rot assaulted his nostrils and made him gag. It took a few moments for Dog to regain his composure.

The morgue itself was a dimly lit change room for subway utility workers back when the Arena was still a functional transportation system. The first thing Dog noticed was the rows of lockers that lined the walls of the room. The second was the trails of dried blood on the white, tiled ground that bended around the corner of a locker row and into the darker depths of the room.

Dog followed the bloody path, leading him to an open showering area. Four body bags were piled atop each other on the ground. Dog could tell that at least one of the bodies was already decaying by the repugnant smell. The idea of spending a night in the morgue was less than appealing but the thoughts of freedom and the promise he made to Allegra gave him the stones he needed to do this. But first, he needed something—anything—to help with the smell. He had to be quick about it; it wouldn’t be long before they dragged the first corpse in from tonight’s fight.

He rummaged through the various lockers and it wasn’t until the fourth one that he found something useful. On the top of the locker shelf was a jar of menthol vapour rub, the kind used for chest colds, and a pack of mint flavoured gum. It wasn’t much, but it would do. Dog took the vapour rub and smeared a wad of it under his nose and inhaled. The penetrating scent of menthol made his eyes water, but it was far better than the smell of dead bodies. Dog shoved a couple pieces of gum into his mouth and pocketed the rest, figuring he would need it throughout the night.

Dog found a clean, empty body bag and laid it out on the ground in the shower area, next to the other ones. Suddenly he heard the sounds of heavy footsteps and strained voices from outside.

“This freaking kid is heavy,” came the rough sounding voice of a guard.

“If this kid exercised a little, I bet he would have lasted longer during the fight,” the other guard grunted.

They were heading for the morgue.

Dog quickly tucked himself into the body bag and did his best to zip it up from the inside, which was a bit of a challenge. He managed though, leaving an open gap at the top of the bag, enough for a bit of light and air to breathe. Dog finished just in time as he heard the rattling of keys followed by the creaking of the hinges on the steel door. He closed his eyes, held his breath, and remained perfectly still.

“I can’t wait until I’m out of grave digging duties,” the gruff sounding guard complained. “A couple more months and I get promoted to crowd control.”

“Lucky bastard,” the other one muttered. “I’ve got another year of this crap. Sometimes, it’s impossible to get the stink of the bodies off of me, no matter how many times I shower. I even tried stupid home remedies like dousing myself in cinnamon. I end up smelling like a rotting pastry.”

“Ah well, the pay is good and we get plenty to drink and women to screw. That makes it all worthwhile.”

“Speak for yourself. No slave girl wants to touch me after I come back from disposing bodies.”

“Just do what I do,” the gruff one said.

“What’s that?”

“Choke the dumb bitch a little and force yourself on her. What are they going to do? Tell on you?” He let out a fully-bellied laugh.

“You’re sick, you know that?”

“You’re no angel yourself. Come on, let’s toss fat boy here and get back to the fights. If we’re not too late, we can still catch the end of the finals.”

Dog felt the all wind knocked out of his lungs when the heavy corpse landed on top of him. It took everything he had not to move a muscle or make a peep. It was only when he heard the steel doors shut again did he pull down the zipper of his body bag, freeing his upper body. He shoved the heavy body bag off of him and gasped.

It was going to be a long night.

Chapter Twenty-Eight.

At some point Dog must have fallen asleep while hidden in the body bag because the next thing he knew, he was being lifted by a pair of strong hands onto a steel cart. Much to his relief, he was the last body to be loaded, which saved him from being crushed under the weight of the dead.

Every breath he took was a cautious one, trying his best to not make a sound, while they wheeled the cart through the tunnels and onto the maintenance elevator that led to the surface.

The first blast of the cold, open air on his brow was relieving and he inhaled the welcoming scent of the outdoors, which he sorely missed. Eventually the cart came to a halt and he heard the voices of the guards from last night again.

“Alright, start the fire,” the rough sounding one said.

“Why do I always have to do it?”

“Because I have seniority. Now quit your whining and get to it.”

The smell of the gasoline gave Dog a flashback to a couple of years ago, when he had watched the child molester burn. He had his regrets about it but there was nothing he could have done. Regardless of whatever choice Dog made, Ryker was going to kill the pedophile. Dog had seen Ryker’s true intent in those deceitful eyes of his.

The crackling sounds and the wave of smothering heat from the fire warned Dog that he needed to get out of the body bag soon, otherwise he’d burn as the pedophile had.

“Go and get the bags of sand,” the gruff guard instructed.

“Seriously? I start the fire
and
I have to get the bags?”

“Yes.”

“How is this fair?” the other guard moaned.

“In a couple of months, you’ll be saddled with some new guy. Be happy in the fact that you’ll get to order him around. Now go get those sandbags while I have myself a smoke.”

Dog heard the other guard let out a huge sigh which was followed by heavy footsteps as he walked off. Now was Dog’s chance. He slowly unzipped the top of the body bag and peered out. The remaining fat-bellied guard was facing away from Dog and the fire, while sucking on a cigarette and scratching an itch on his lower back.

Dog carefully peeled off the rest of the body bag, and lightly stepped off the cart and onto the ground. Dog frowned as he noticed the open fields surrounding them. He had to take the guards out, otherwise they’d see him fleeing from a mile away.

The second guard had disappeared into a shed about twenty yards away. Dog would eliminate the visible guard first and then finish off the other one when he came out of the shed.

He crouched low and treaded towards the fat guard, keeping his footsteps light and delicate. As he drew closer, he could smell the stink of the fat man’s sweat and hear his laboured breathing. Dog zeroed in on the semi-automatic rifle that hung loosely around the guard’s shoulders.

The fat man let out a massive yawn and stretched his arms out, giving Dog the opportunity he needed. In one swift motion Dog grabbed the dangling gun while unlocking the safety and drove the barrel into the guard’s belly, pulling the trigger and unloading a few rounds into him. The fat guard stared at Dog with shocked eyes and mouth wide open as the cigarette fell from the corner of his lips just before the rest of him collapsed to the ground.

“What the hell is going on out there?” the other guard cried as he stepped out of the shed with a sandbag under each arm. He was unarmed but Dog didn’t hesitate unloading the rest of the clip from the gun into his body.

It was the first time Dog had ever used a gun and he couldn’t help but thank Garret for the words of advice he gave Dog long ago.

“
If you’re ever stupid enough to try something with the guards and find yourself holding a gun, remember to take off the damn safety before you pull the trigger. And please, don’t make me regret telling you this. I still want to go home to see my wife one day, though I don’t know if she feels the same way.”

As Dog dragged the bodies of the dead guards into the fire, he teared up again while thinking of the old man. He almost felt foolish, crying so much over someone, but at the same time, he felt as if the sadness was telling him that he really was more human than monster after all.

Chapter Twenty-Nine.

“
All I know is that while I’m asleep, I’m never afraid, and I have no hopes, no struggles, no glories,
” Allegra read aloud. “
There’s only one bad thing about sleep, as far as I’ve ever heard, and that is that it resembles death, since there’s very little difference between a sleeping man and a corpse.”

She stared at the worn pages of the paperback copy of
Don Quixote
in her hands and wished for nothing more than to be able to read the entire book from start to finish. She heard Dallas’s voice call out to her from down below.

“Allegra get your ass down here!” he shouted. “Your thirty minutes are up.”

She placed the book back onto the shelf and grabbed the heavy sack stuffed with jewelery, cash, expensive cameras, and watches. It was a good haul today; one that Ryker would surely be happy about. She headed down the stairs of the bedroom and found herself standing in the kitchen.

The sight of Dog startled her. He was covered in blood and dirt and smelled terrible.

“Dog?” she asked, almost in disbelief.

“I’m here Allegra,” he said. “I promised you I’d find a way for us to escape, and now’s that chance.”

“How? The guards and the mines…” she was speaking nonsense and she knew it. Seeing him outside of the Arena seemed so surreal that she couldn’t help but think she was dreaming.

“Do you trust me?” Dog asked.

Allegra nodded without hesitation. She desperately needed to believe in this wonderful fantasy of escaping the Arena that nothing else mattered to her at that point.“Yes.”

“Then come with me,” he said as he held out his hand. She took it.

Dog led Allegra to the back of the house, through the glass sliding doors, and out into the yard.

“I’ll help you over,” Dog said as he pointed to the tall wooden fence. Dog picked her up and boosted her over and he followed close behind, pulling himself up and over with relative ease.

In the distance, Dallas was now screaming.

“Get your fucking ass out here, now! I’m not playing anymore. I don’t care what Ryker thinks you’re worth, I’ll put a bullet in your tits if you make me wait any longer!”

“Come on, let’s keep moving,” Dog instructed as he led them past a row of houses before they entered the narrow side yard of another home and into the back.

“I’m scared,” she said.

“I know you are,” Dog said. “I’m feeling a bit jittery myself, but there’s no turning back now. You’re still with me on this, right?”

“Of course I am.”

They hopped over a few more fences and headed through empty neighbourhoods for what seemed like hours, hiding behind brick houses and bushes when they heard the sounds of the van driving by. They remained hidden behind cover, nervous as they listened to the sounds of the van’s engine and crunching asphalt under its heavy tires while it passed them. Only when the sounds of the van were completely faded did they continue moving again. After a couple more hours of sprinting, climbing fences, and hiding in shrubs, they finally stopped to rest.

Dog opened the glass sliding door of a quaint brown-bricked home and motioned for Allegra to follow him.

They found themselves inside the kitchen of the house. Dog opened the door to the pantry and rummaged around for a few minutes before coming back out with two cans of cola.

“You think pop goes bad?” he asked.

“At this point, I don’t care,” she said as she reached for the can greedily. “I’m dying of thirst.”

Allegra popped the tab and drank deeply from the can. It had been so long since Allegra tasted anything so sweet as she gulped the delicious caramel tasting liquid. Only after she finished the entire contents of the can did she remove it from her lips, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Despite the pop having gone flat, it was still the greatest drink she ever had. Allegra let out a quiet burp.

“Excuse me,” she said, blushing. Dog smiled.

“That good huh?”

“Sorry.”

“It was kind of cute, in a gross way,” he teased.

“Whatever,” she laughed. “If you want to talk about gross, you’re smelling pretty ripe yourself.”

“Yeah,” Dog said. “I should go find something to change into. These clothes are smelling rank. Wait right here.”

Allegra took a seat at the kitchen table and closed her eyes, allowing herself to catch her breath. She was drenched in sweat and her heart was beating rapidly while her lungs seemed to burn from all the sprinting and climbing. She was definitely not in the same shape as Dog was.

A few minutes later, Dog returned to the kitchen in a new brown t-shirt. “We can’t stay here for long,” he said. “Pretty soon, Ryker will have this entire area crawling with guards.”

Allegra had so many questions for Dog but didn’t know where to begin. She decided to start off with the one that had been nagging at her the most while they were playing hide-and-seek with the van.

“How are we going to get out of here?” she asked. “Even if we can escape from the guards, there’s no way we can leave Bimini’s perimeter. We’ll be blown to kingdom come.”

“Yes we can,” Dog said as he pulled something out of his back pocket and showed it to her. It was a GPS tracker for all the mines. Only a select few had access to them and she was shocked to see that Dog came into possession of one.

“How on earth did you get your hands on one of those?” 

She almost regretted asking him the question when she saw the look of sadness overcome him. “Garret left it for me,” he said. “The old man also left me a key to the morgue. That’s why I stink. I hid myself in a body bag and they dragged me to the surface thinking I was just another corpse to be burned.”

“Oh my god,” Allegra was aghast.

“Do you believe we can do this?”

“Yes. I trust you,” Allegra said. “You’ll do what’s best for us.”

He nodded. “Come on then, we better get moving. We’ll try to make it to the condominiums by nightfall. There’s too much open space in the suburban areas. We’ll stay in the condos for the night and we can take it from there.”

“We’re free,” Allegra realized as she smiled.

“Not yet, but soon,” Dog said. “We’ll be free soon.”