The Arena (Ultimate Soldier Book 1) (4 page)

Despite the excitement of the evening and the questions humming through Lila's head, despite the hardness of the concrete and the rising wolf howls outside, it wasn't long before the flickering fire began to blur before her eyes and she allowed sleep to welcome her in its embrace.

"Protector, what is this place in the middle of the plains?" A twelve-year-old Lila, far too thin due to a recent growth spurt, sat crosslegged on top of a heavy wooden table with a faded and badly creased map spread on the polished wood in front of her. She was chewing on the ends of her hair, a habit which annoyed Protector to no end―almost as much as when she bit at her fingernails instead of trimming them with a knife.

Protector looked up from where she was hunched over the sink, washing dishes, giving Lila a glare that made the girl take her hair out of her mouth and flick it back over her shoulder. The kitchen, lit by the light of the large windows set over the sink, was a mix of technology and primitive living. The electric stove, dishwasher, refrigerator and other appliances were useless and sat gathering dust. Over what had been built as a large but mostly decorative fireplace was a rough metal frame that held a large pot, wherein water boiled noisily. Large flat rocks in the fireplace were used to bake coarse breads and potatoes or other root vegetables from the overgrown area out back that had once been a garden. A large plastic tub in the corner held water that had to be brought, bucket by bucket, from the stream outside―LIla's least favorite chore. Lila had found the map a few days ago, in an old desk upstairs. Protector knew much of the Arena by heart, unlike Lila who had seen only the village where she was born, and the abandoned house where they now lived.

"City-ruins," Protector said when Lila held the map up for her inspection. “Or Antoch, as it was once called.”

"Does anybody live there?"

"There are rumors that many people live in the city ruins, but it is said that they do not allow outsiders to live and will fiercely protect what is theirs. Their laws are harsh, and those who do not obey are sent to exile in the forest, where they are left to the wolves."

"But that's awful!" Lila exclaimed.

"Don't shout, child. They are only rumors. I have never been there. Do not put your trust in rumors, little one. The fear of an unknown is always greater than the reality."

"Even the wolves?"

Protector's face grew grim and she turned back to the sink, scrubbing at a pot so hard that it clanged against the side of the sink. "Except the wolves. No matter how strong and fast you think you are, they will always be better."

"Maybe the people in the City-ruins are like us! Maybe they want other survivors to come live with them, to make them stronger. I don't see how they could be otherwise, you told me it is foolish to not accept help when it is offered. Maybe we should see if we can find them."

Protector shook her head sharply. "You know not of what you speak, little one. It is not yet time for us to leave this place."

The tone in her voice signaled the end of the conversation, and Lila sighed and dropped the subject. As she stared at her guardian's hunched, tense shoulders, she felt there was more to the story. She wished she dared press for more details, but she knew better than to push Protector when she was in this kind of mood. In a gesture of rebellion that Protector couldn't see, she stuck the end of her hair back in her mouth and chewed it thoughtfully as she studied the map in front of her.

Lila woke with a start when Seeker jumped up and began violently scratching at an itch on one ear. Grumbling, she rubbed her eyes and stretched gingerly, supressing a groan. Hard concrete did not make a very pleasant bed, even if it wasn't the worst place she had slept. She suddenly remembered the pot of water she had set near the fire, and found it boiling rapidly with about an inch of the water evaporated. Wrapping the hem of her shirt around her hand, she set the pot outside the ring of stones to cool, blowing on her fingers when the hot metal scorched her through the fabric. The steam rising from the pot wafted the smell of boiled deer meat and onions into her face, making her stomach growl loudly.

The bed across the fire was empty, and a quick glance around showed Lila that Katie was sitting at the mouth of the tunnel, silhouetted by the pink and gray of predawn light. Outside, a lone wolf howled. The sun had not yet risen above the horizon to the east. As Lila rose and quietly walked to sit a few feet away from Katie, the other girl gasped and jumped a little. "You are too quiet!"

"Sorry," Lila apologized, sitting down at the lip of the tunnel and hanging her legs over the edge. "I didn't mean to be." She dipped her hand in the little stream where it splashed over the edge and down the cliff to the ground below and splashed outward, watching the drops glisten in the still air. "Did you sleep well?"

Katie shook her head. Her color was better than last night, though there were still shadows under her eyes. "I'm not used to hearing the howls of wolves so close at night. It fills my dreams with the image of them standing all around me. How do you bear it?"

“
It isn't easy, but you'll get used to it. Until the wolves learn to fly or climb like the squirrels, we are safe up here.”

Katie's lips twitched in a hint of a smile.
“Good to know.” She fell silent, gazing out toward the rising sun. “I'm sure you have lots of questions,” She said after a while.

Lila bit back a sarcastic answer. “Yes.”
That's the understatement of the millennium
she thought, remembering one of Protector's favorite sayings.

“I know I've made it pretty obvious I'm not used to living out here like you do.”

When Lila realized that Katie wanted more of an answer than a nod, she shrugged and said “I guess so.”

Katie's shoulders slumped and she looked down, placing a hand on the ruffled purple fabric over her belly, running her fingers along a rip in the cloth. She was silent for so long that Lila began to wonder if the young woman had fallen asleep. When she finally spoke, it was with a vehemence that made Lila blink and Seeker sit up from where she was laying at Lila's side.

“We were exiled, offered to the wolves like a sacrifice to an angry god. And all for a few stupid loaves of bread!” Katie had pulled a leaf from her hair and flicked it violently off the edge of the tunnel. “When I first got pregnant, I was always hungry and weak. I was expected to work just like all of the other women, but I was too tired. My husband snuck some bread from the pantry for me. One day he was caught and we were both put on trial. In the Fox village, taking food is against the law, and nobody cared that I was hungry,” a stick joined the leaf “and needed the food to keep my energy up. We were found to be guilty, and we were carried on horseback in opposite directions and left in the forest with enough food and water for a few days.”

“Fox village?”

Katie nodded, looking out over the forest as she worked the fingers of one hand through her matted hair. “It's on the edge of Antoch, the old city. There's two villages, Fox is the stronger one. The village leader is a great, fat slug named Jarda. She's had it in for me ever since I married her son without her approval instead of the stupid grunt she wanted me to marry. Then I had the nerve to go and get pregnant and it just drove her crazy.” Katie flung another leaf out into the void. “I still can't believe she would exile her son, her own flesh and blood! And over
food
! She's just a horrible, vengeful, idiotic, gluttonous piece of...” Katie's angry demeanor crumpled and she burst into sobs, burying her face in her hands.

Lila sat watching her awkwardly, not sure what to do. Was she supposed to leave Katie alone, or keep talking? Her desire for more information struggled with a wish to comfort her sobbing companion. So it was true, what Protector had told her--not only were there survivors in the city ruins, they were exactly as the older woman had said. Harsh laws, unfriendly. Here, less than a dozen feet away from Lila, sat proof that not only was she not alone, there were many others--but there was also the sinking feeling that came with the knowledge that even if Lila were to find them, neither she nor Katie would be welcome. It went against everything Lila knew to think that there were people that did not wish to help fellow survivors of the wolves' tyranny, who would condemn a pregnant woman to almost certain death over stealing food. She could hardly imagine that such evil existed in human hearts--up until now she had always pictured humans as the good, wolves as the evil in her view of the harsh world she lived in. It was hard to comprehend that the world was not as black and white as she had always believed.

Katie continued to sob, and Lila shifted uncomfortably. Seeker whined, and padded over to nudge the crying girl gently with her nose, but Katie just jerked back. "Go away!" she yelled at the dog, shoving her with one hand. Seeker ran back to Lila's side.

Lila gasped in shock and jumped up. She often struck the dog, but always gently and usually in jest. To see someone else strike her best friend made her heart start to race. "Seeker did nothing to hurt you! Why would you hit her?"

Katie's hands dropped and she glared at Lila through her tears. "She's an
animal
! Just like those demon wolves! Why would you care if she gets hurt? She's just like them! She'll probably go off and lead the wolves right to us the first chance she gets! She's just a stupid, mindless, fat pig that should be ground into the dust under the foot of any decent human! I ought to wring her stupid little neck!" She pushed herself to her feet and stumbled forward, but Lila moved to stand between her and the cringing dog.

"You will not hurt her!" She cried, feeling the unfamiliar stinging of tears pricking at her eyes. "She has done nothing to you!"

There was a loud smack and pain blossomed on her face as Lila reeled back. Her hand came up to touch her cheek where Katie had slapped her. Seeker barked and lunged forward, but Lila crouched and caught the dog before she could attack. Katie staggered and seemed to fold in on herself, sinking down to the floor and clutching her knees, where she sat rocking back and forth. "She will betray you!" She cried. "They always betray you! You can't trust anyone! You trust someone and next thing you know they plunge a knife in your back! Just take her away," she sobbed, arms around her legs, hiccuping with the sobs that wracked her body.

Resisting the urge to grab Katie and shake her, Lila strode back to the fire, her hands shaking with anger. Her heart thudded with the unfamiliar emotion, and the burning in her eyes intensified as tears threatened to spill down her cheeks. Pulling one of the strips of meat out of the pot, she ignored how the still hot water stung her hands. She bit off half of the strip and threw the rest to Seeker. Her stomach roiled even at this small amount of food, clenching with the intensity of the anger flooding through her veins. She didn't stop at the fire, but kept going until she reached the pile of her belongings. She tossed aside the box that held her dwindling stock of sewing supplies, the large pot that had rusted through and no longer held water, and the rock she kept for sharpening her knife. She pulled out the orange and black striped backpack, checking to make sure the yellow flashlight and batteries were still in there, then slung it on her back, the hard plastic end of the flashlight thumping painfully into her spine. In one smooth movement, contrary to the harsh rhythm of the anger flooding her veins, Lila jumped to her feet and took off down the tunnel away from the light of the rising sun, running upstream besides the trickling water that divided her home in two.

The dusky darkness of the tunnel soon welcomed her into its grasp as she passed beyond where her fire or the pink gleam of sunrise could reach. The ceiling soared into obscurity above her head, and in front of her loomed what would have been called a “grate” if it were smaller, but in this instance was a vast network of metal bars as thick as Lila's arms that created a grid spanning the width and height of the tunnel. Just beyond, the tunnel split into three dark circles.

Lila slid her backpack underneath the lowest horizontal bar and ducked through a square. Seeker crawled through on her belly just behind Lila.

A moment later, Lila had pulled the flashlight out and flicked the switch to allow the beam of light to shine ahead of her. She ran into the left branch, wanting as much space between her and Katie as possible lest she do something she regret. Eventually the angle of the tunnel took her out of sight of the grate and she sunk to the ground, the flashlight cradled loosely in her hands. Tears streamed freely down her face as sobs caught in her throat, making her feel as if her heart would suffocate her. Her chest ached and the tears burned as they ran down her face. Seeker whined, licking her face, and Lila wound a hand into the dog's fur, burying her face against one bony shoulder blade.

Why?
She wanted to scream at the lifeless walls.
How could I have been so wrong? How could I have been so
stupid
?
She asked herself fiercely. Over the long, lonely years she had painted a glowing picture in her mind. She would find another survivor, perhaps rescue them from the wolves. She would bring them to her cave, they would be just as happy as she to have a friend, the two (or more) of them would live happily, taking an equal share of each day's burden, and she would have someone to talk to through the long and lonely nights.