Page 81 of Once Upon an Apocalypse

“I do apologize for that horrid sound.” His deceitful sympathetic voice makes me want to vomit. “Now, as you can see, I have quite the treat for you all today. My very first gladiator has returned to me, bringing with her some friends.”

I am going to kill this man. This is the last day he will breathe the foul air of this wretched world he built.

“To make it fair on all the players in the arena, I have treated them with my new sacramentum gladiatorum.”

It takes me a second to understand what the hell he just said. When I see Jonah’s face drop in horror, I remember exactly what sacramentum gladiatorum is. Doctore dosed my friends, my husband, with the same shit he gave me five years ago. The red serum that cured me from the zombie virus and made me his gladiator. I turn my gaze to Doctore again, seeing red.

“I believe I have perfected the serum,” he boasts, “but there is still a slight chance that one or more of them will turn. It will be quite a shocking surprise. I would very much love to know who you place your bets on.”

Dead. He is so fucking dead.

Chapter 50

Theplatformshakesbeforedescending toward the arena floor, leaving us little time to decide our strategy. Jonah jumps for the climbing wall to our left, reaching it by the skin of his fingertips. I hesitate too long, wanting to keep my eyes on Amos for as long as possible. Once the wall blocks my sight of him, I hop off the ledge of the platform, which is now only a few feet off the ground.

I look over my shoulder to the left of me, where Jonah has climbed to the top of the climbing wall and is now attempting to walk across a suspended bridge. He takes his time, testing each step before putting down his entire weight. Smart. Everything in this arena is likely meant to trick us, hurt us, and eventually kill us. But Doctore wants to put on a show so he can’t kill us too quickly.

My eyes dart around this side of the arena, looking for anything I can use as a weapon. A wooden shed sits in between the solid wall that separates me from Amos. I sprint to it, thinking how much it looks like the shed my dad got at Amish Mike when I was a kid. There’s a single door and a window on this side of the wall. I peek through the window and see a cache of weapons. Bats, whips, machetes, knives. Any weapon fit for hand to hand and close range fighting.

I try the door. Of course it’s locked. But there’s a note that says, “Gone fishing.”

“What do you see, Lori?” Jonah shouts from above.

“Weapons. But it’s locked. Do you see anywhere to go fishing for a key?”

Jonah points behind me, toward the audience. “There’s a ball pit. Try there.”

A ball pit? A freaking ball pit. As I sprint over to it, a sharp jab to my arm stops me in my tracks and I fall to the ground. Looking up, I’m prepared for a fight, but there’s little I can do against a bunch of spikes moving in and out of a wall.

“Lori!”

“I’m fine!” And I am. I look down at what I thought would be a huge gash in my upper arm, but the wound is already healing. This new super juice has escalated my healing abilities.

Standing over the ball pit, I hesitate for a moment, looking down into what should be a colorful pit of delightful chaos. The rainbow colors are unnoticeable underneath the rancid, decaying gore that I hope came from animals and not Doctore’s human lab rats. I kick at the inflatable pit, checking to make sure there are no undead surprises waiting for me. One more kick just to satisfy my anxiety, then I slowly step in.

There has to be more blood and gore than plastic balls. The smell of it has my gag reflex struggling to keep my stomach at bay. It’s only knee deep, but I know it won’t be easy finding a key in this carnage. Before I begin searching with my hands, I hear shouting from the other side of the wall. Amos, Olivia, and Kyle have company, and not the kind you’d invite to dinner, but they are ready for a feast.

I know Amos will be okay because he has to survive this. We have to survive this together. I drown out everything around me—the shouts from the arena floor, the cheering from the crowd, the squelching sounds of the guts under my feet—and focus on finding the key to the shed. My hands search every layer, every inch of the ball and gut pit until it lands on something solid. I scoop it up, cleaning off the excess sludge, and hold it up to examine a piece of blood-soaked paper.

Carefully, I climb out of the pit, wishing again that Doctore would supply me with a pair of fucking shoes. I wipe my feet on the ground as I open the paper, which says, “The key is in your hands.”

I run back to the shed and punch through the window, not caring if that’s what the note meant. The broken glass shreds my hand, but I’m able to reach inside and unlock the door. As it swings open, I pull my arm out of the broken window and run inside, grabbing the first weapon I see, a mace, and open the double doors on the other side.

Zombies are everywhere. Deadies, grabbers, and freshies. I go for the fast ones first, drawing them away from the shed so that the others can grab some weapons. I chance a glance up, hoping to find Amos safely on one of the raised beams. He smiles at me before climbing down, sprinting for the shed. Kyle and Olivia at his heels. With four of us armed now, we make quick work of the remaining zombies and run for the shed again, closing the doors behind us. Jonah joins us a moment later, all of us out of breath, but alive.

From the safety of the shed, I take a moment to examine Amos. Apart from the obvious fatigue of enduring Doctore’s sacramentum gladiatorum, he looks in good shape.

“How are you feeling?” I ask.

“I’ve been better.” He wraps his arms around me, pulling me to his chest as he breathes me in. “I’m so fucking scared, Copperhead.”

“I am too. If you die in here, if you turn—”

“Doctore doesn’t leave this place alive,” Amos interrupts. Using the name only his guards and those who fear him call him. Because today, we are going to conquer fear itself. “We will do everything we can to bring him down. Today.”

I nod against his chest, attempting to drown out the boos from the crowd. As much as I want to hide in here forever, we can’t risk getting surrounded by zombies.

“Which side should we defend?” I ask.

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