Page 84 of Once Upon an Apocalypse

Silence engulfs me. A silence accompanied by the thumping of my heart as blood continues to pump out of me from the knife wound at my side. How fitting this is that I should die at the feet of the man who made it his mission to create an undying soldier. I once craved death. I yearned for the day to arrive when I would no longer take another living breath. As I lie in pain and exhaustion on a blood-soaked floor, all I want is to live.

Chapter 52

Amos

Idon’tknowifit’s this gladiator serum shit that has me seeing red or simply fear coursing through my body. Yes, I’m fucking terrified, but I’m also amped up. Ever since I woke up tied to a cold table, every instinct inside me says fight, kill. Though that could be because my very first thought was about Lori, how the Praetorian Guards had her surrounded. I fucking lost it.

Kyle, Olivia, and I shot at every fucker who came out of the woods. But they had an army waiting for us. I was so scared they were going to kill Lori right in front of me. Even knowing she can’t die. Images of her torn to pieces fueled my rage. I’m still raging. We tried to hold the Praetorian Guard back, but we were simply outnumbered.

The rage I felt only strengthened after we surrendered. I was blindfolded. Herded through the woods. Thrown into a vehicle. All the while not knowing if Lori was somewhere close by. All I could do was hope that she would be taken to the same place they were taking me. That she would be okay.

While I was tied down—my metal arm removed—Dr. Tuwile explained everything he was doing to me. That he was injecting me with that gladiator shit. I was helpless to stop it. The serum burned through me. I thought every cell of my body was on fire. Waves of pain hit me at every angle until I couldn’t control my screams. I felt like I was going to die. I thought I had died.

Then, all of a sudden, I couldn’t feel anything. A woman reattached my metal arm. The arm that sent a shock of electricity through my body. I hope it was Dr. Tuwile who rigged it with a taser and not Norman. If it wasn’t for Lori, I’d have fallen off that climbing wall. Though we weren’t that high up, I know I’d only have caused Lori to hold herself back to take care of me.

Lori. If I lose her…no. I can’t think that way. Fear threatens to paralyze me as I watch Lori hand her mace to Olivia. I can’t look. I can’t watch as the love of my life leaps out of the arena to face her demons. To kill Doctore. All I can do is shove my fear aside and find a way out of here with my friends. Lori will be okay. Not because I need her to be, but because she is fucking fierce. Nothing will get in her way.

But fuck, I wish I could be by her side. It’s selfish, but I want to be the one to kill Doctore. I know Lori has every right to kill the fucker. It doesn’t change my need to plunge a knife into his heart and watch his life fade from those demonic eyes.

“Amos!” Olivia shouts, bringing me out of my rage.

I look down to find a biter. Its head smashed in from the multiple swings I took with the metal bat in my hand. This side of the arena is clear, but we still need to reinforce the doors against the tunnel that likely leads to a locker room filled with more of these flesh-eating monsters.

I sprint over to Olivia and Kyle. They’ve secured the doors enough to hold back the few biters that lingered in the dark tunnel. It doesn’t look like it will be enough to hold back a swarm of them though. The thought terrifies me. We have nowhere to run to unless we go up. That would mean leaving Jonah behind, which I refuse to do.

Olivia stands with her hands on her hips, Lori’s mace haphazardly hanging from a belt loop of her joggers. “What now?” she asks.

“Kyle and I will take a look at that control board looking thing, see if we can open a door out of here,” I say. “Keep watch over Jonah. If he turns—”

“Got it,” Olivia answers quickly, stopping me from saying more.

I should hate the guy. I did hate him. That was before I met him. Before he saved my life. I don’t want Jonah to die. If not for my sake, then for Lori’s. Though I know she isn’t in love with him anymore, Jonah is still an important person in her life. I will do everything I can to make sure she doesn’t lose another person she loves. Including me.

Kyle and I step up to the section of the wall where the control panel is. Or what we believe is a control panel. Nothing is labeled.

“Let’s play,” Kyle says as he examines the panel.

A wave of fear races through my heart at the idea of playing this deadly game of Russian roulette. I go first, pressing a black button, setting off the cannon again. The loud bang that follows sounded as if it hit the other side of the metal wall.

Kyle and I look up at each other, eyes wide. “Fucking hell,” he says. “Should we keep going?”

“What choice do we have?” I pat him on the shoulder. He feels hot to the touch over the thin fabric of his gray shirt. We are all probably overheating with anxiety, anger, and fear. “Your turn.”

Kyle goes for a red button next, making the metal spears on the left side of the wall shoot out. I look back to where Olivia and Jonah are huddled a safe distance away. When I turn back around, I try a lever, pulling it all the way down.

A loud, whining sound makes me look up to the ceiling as the pulleys that held the net up come crashing to the ground. One of them nearly got Kyle and me, but the other pulleys definitely landed on some biters on the other side.

As Kyle reaches out a hand to grab at a knob that looks like a volume dial, he groans in pain, falling against the panel. Several things happen all at once: the platform rises, the cannon goes off, and the shed explodes. I’m knocked backward from the force of the explosion.

Silence fights with sound as my ears regain their hearing. I roll over to my side and push myself up with the only hand I have. My vision is a little blurry, but I can make out Kyle’s gigantic form, hunched over in front of the platform. I crawl over to him to make sure he’s okay, hoping he didn’t smash his head too hard against the metal of the platform.

“Hey, man. Are you okay?” I ask, as I reach out, grabbing his arm to pull him up. When his eyes open, the green of his irises is surrounded by red. “Kyle?”

My best friend launches for me. I’m slow to react, shocked at what is happening, refusing to believe that he’s gone. One second he was my best friend, the next…

He bites me hard on the soft spot above my shoulder, gnawing on my flesh for a few seconds before I kick him off of me.

“Kyle!” I scream, hoping to reach any part of him that is still human. But I know better. Kyle is gone. The monster in front of me is not my best friend, as much as he might look like him.

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