I prepared for my fight against Mouse Man mentally, physically, and spiritually. I was ready and it was time. When we finally made it to the arena Mouse Man did little to convince me that he wasn’t part rodent. He was always looking around and twitching; he made my skin crawl. His shifting eyes were disquieting, they were always darting around looking for a place to run and hide. He constantly raised his head and sniffed at the air. I wondered, maybe he was a mouse and could smell his victims coming? And his 5’4” frame made me look like a giant. The terrain this time looked like something from an Isaac Asimov book. It appeared to be a city after a nuclear holocaust. Rubble was everywhere. Pieces of buildings stood but much more of them lay in pieces on the ground. This looked to be Mouse Man’s home territory, I was wondering if he had put in this request. From what I could tell on the big screen there appeared to be many hiding spots and only one or two possible pathways through the litter covered streets. Was the little turd licking his lips? No it had to be a trick of the light, it looked like he was even rubbing his hands together. We had got to get this over with before I lost it completely.
The battle was going pretty much to plan, I wasn’t dead and that was a great plan thus far. I had prepared for one form of attack, if Mouse Man changed his routine in any way I could be in for a serious run. I started down the narrow litter strewn path that at one time could have been Main Street in any city. These aliens were really good at reproductions. From the looks of it they must have been watching us for a good long time. My heart was pounding in my chest, even more than normal in these situations. Fear gripped me like a vise; I had a premonition of a lamb being led to the slaughter. Then it happened, I felt a thud in the small of my back. I fell to my knees more out of relief than anything else. It was finally over.
* * *
Debbie screamed in horror. “Oh dear God no, please don’t let him die!” She stared at the screen in utter disbelief, unable to comprehend that her new found love was about to die and so was she. Tears flowed heavily from her eyes. Her vision was so blurred it was all she could do to tell in which direction the screen was, focusing on anything was beyond reason. But she wiped as hard as she could with her shirt sleeve when Stephanie yelled in a jubilant tone.
“He’s still alive, he’s still moving!! Get up!” she shouted.
Could it be? Deb thought to herself, could he actually take a stab to the back and still be alive? If Mouse Man would just get closer so that Mike could kill him the aliens would actually come in and fix him up. It was too much to hope for, and now she was hoping for the aliens to intercede.
Mouse Man finally felt good. He felt as if he had come into his true calling. He had always been the brunt of his so-called friends’ jokes, but these aliens, well, they were ugly but they loved him and all he had to do was keep killing people. He got the jubilation from the throngs and all the free women to do with as he pleased. Life was actually good. He didn’t even care that he had not been ranked so high, it made killing his opponents all that more satisfying. His 5’4” skin and bones frame made it incredibly easy for him to hide in some of the most unusual places. And he felt as if he could move more silently than should be normal. He was truly coming into his own. These ugly alligator things had given him more in the last month than all of society in the last twenty-four years. In fact, up until two weeks ago he had been a virgin, not something he was particularly proud of, but it was now no longer something he had to be concerned with. He loved this place. Maybe the adrenaline surging through his veins or the self-induced high he was on made him unaware that the knife had not struck home, because he took his time reveling in his glory. The smile on his face convinced Mike that he had absolutely no idea what was going on, except for the cheering of the crowd. True to form Jenkins aka Mouse Man came in front of Mike to finish off the battle with his signature move. The crowd became silent, holding their collective breath to let out their roar upon the conclusion. Debbie and Stephanie watched in horror, embracing each other in their perceived final moments. Beth, higher up in the stands, shed a tear.
* * *
Time stood still. My heart beat once, Mouse Man reared back and let loose a bone crunching kick. My second heart beat brought my left arm to block the brunt of the kick, although I felt that he possibly may have shattered my arm again. On my next heartbeat my right hand came up and thrust the sword which had been trailing on the ground in and through the frail frame that once belonged to Jenkins and was now a soulless shell. His eyes grew wide in disbelief.
“You’re dead,” he whispered. “I killed you, you’re supposed to be dead now, they love me, can’t you hear it?”
He must have been listening to the voices in his head; the crowd was as silent as a hockey stadium after a playoff game in which the home team loses in overtime. I pulled my sword out of him and mustered my strength to stand. I didn’t think my heart would ever calm down. Even in death, his eyes had a gaze of disbelief forever frozen in them. I pulled my shirt up and to everyone’s amazement unstrapped the cushion from my weight bench. The aliens did nothing. Deb and Steph cried and laughed in relief. Rat Man’s corpse still stared in disbelief.
I yelled up to the stands. “Isn’t this what you wanted? You ugly fucks! Isn’t this what you wanted?”
More than likely there were only one or two in the stands who knew what I was saying; the rest probably thought that I was doing some sort of war chant. And that they did love, they went crazy. Hissing and cheering and clapping, it was sickening. I walked to the center of the arena and claimed my spoil. She was another blonde; my favorite flavor, I thought to myself. Don’t let this place take you down with it. Keep it together.
“Please,” she said. “Don’t hurt me.” Her voice was pathetically weak, to me it seemed that she had already resigned herself to a gruesome fate, no matter what the outcome on the battlefield today.
“Don’t worry,” I said, trying to be as reassuring as possible. But a picture is worth a thousand words, and here I was approaching her with a sword, my chest heaving from the surge of victory and the blood and gore of Mouse Man all over me. What a sight I must have been. “I’m here to save you my dear,” I said in my best Clark Gable impersonation. It wasn’t that good. I’m not sure that she was going to believe anything I said up to that point, but the tone I used and the true smile did more to calm her down than any of my actual words.
“Come on, let’s go home,” as I cut her bonds. “You can meet the other women.”
“There’s more women at your place?” she said in disbelief.
“No matter what you’ve witnessed out there, I leave it on the arena floor. The women who are at my cell are free to do as they wish, at least within the confines of the cell.”
That actually seemed to cheer her up a little bit.
“Now if you could do a little something for me.” She eyed me warily. “I could use your shoulder to lean on, my back and my arm are throbbing. I’m afraid I might fall over and I don’t want those things getting anywhere near me.” So she leaned in close and supported enough of my weight to get me back to my cell, with my dignity intact. And that was how I met Leanna. I’m pretty sure I slept for twenty-four hours straight and no matter how long it truly was it was definitely a deep sleep, because when I awoke I found myself in a totally new room. It was almost as big as my old house. There were three bedrooms and two bathrooms, a full kitchen and a den. I was wondering what real estate went for out in space these days. You’d probably have to pay a pretty penny for a place like this. I could almost get to like it, especially since I found myself wrapped up in Debbie’s arms.
“I didn’t think that you were going to get up at all today,” she said playfully. “You know you scared the crap out of me out there. See, you got me so upset I actually cussed. I never cuss.”
I was preparing my comeback when she put one finger over my mouth and made a shushing sound. I had begun to like her shushing techniques. With her tongue she outlined my now hardening nipple and traced a l
ine of saliva all the way down my flat belly. For two days we stayed in that bedroom, never venturing far except to grab the occasional drink or a sandwich.
To look at my ‘prison’ one would have thought I was a multi-millionaire caught embezzling funds. Donald Trump in his heyday would have been envious of this place. But the most prized possession in the entire room was the window. It was no larger than a foot across and a foot tall, but it let us see that there truly was an outside to this ship. Even if it was cold, vast, distant space, it was still infinitely better than the confines of this alien vessel. It allowed us to see our planet, our real home, even though it seemed light years away.
“Do you think anyone down there can see us?” I said to no one in particular, but wanting everyone to hear. It was then that the newest addition to my entourage spoke.
“I’ve been thinking that same question over and over, why don’t they send help? And then I realize where we are and that more than likely this ship has some unbelievable defensive capabilities.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, “but what is your name?”
“Leanna. Leanna Cantrell. And I wanted to thank you for saving me.”
“And Leanna, I wanted to thank you for carrying me back.”
“It was the least I could do,” she smiled. She blushed ever so slightly but quickly controlled herself when she saw Debbie’s eyes on her. Obviously Stephanie had informed our new guest about the house rules. The budding tension was broken with Stephanie’s shout from the den.
“Look, the new ratings are coming up!”
I found myself being drawn to the screen, the competitive spirit in me was coming out in full force. I was sort of horrified at my morbid fascination for this tournament. But I had to know. It wasn’t a long wait either. There it was, and as if one we all let out a collective sigh. Luckily as advanced human beings we were above mere superstition, or at least I hoped so, because there I was, lucky No. 13. The field had trimmed down to a svelte 306 men. (Out of 4,000 plus.) Even with all their advanced technology two more men had died needlessly. Well they would have died anyway, I thought to myself, sooner or later, it was just a matter of time. I spent the remainder of the day? Night? How do you tell that kind of thing in space, do the aliens even care? In any case, I spent the next few hours watching reruns of the events and I had to be honest my next opponent scared me the most. He wasn’t big and he wasn’t small. He was actually just about my size. He was the type that had made it thus far on wits, more so than power. So it was safe to assume that he was at this exact time watching my re-runs. This looked to be my toughest event yet.
“What’s wrong Mike?” Deb said as she curled up tight next to me on the couch. Apparently the scowl on my face was very noticeable.
“It’s my next opponent.”
“What about him? He doesn’t look very remarkable.”
“My point exactly.”
“What do you mean?” She sounded perplexed.
“Well, he’s not huge, he’s not terribly fast, yet there he is. Still alive and kicking. He’s smart. He didn’t overpower any of his competitors. He outsmarted them. His road thus far looked twice as tough as mine.”
“Oh, I see what you mean,” as she sat up and took real notice of the man that could potentially end her very existence. “But you’re smart too,” she said, but her voice had lost some of its conviction. Not another word was spoken for quite some time. The significance of the conversation hit Deb deeply, she line for line inherited my scowl. The similarities between my mirrored opponent and myself, however, ended at the conclusion of each match. My competitor quite literally looked insane. After killing his latest victim he began to dismember him. That was about all I could handle, I had eaten a good lunch and had no desire to see it again. I shut the screen off. I had found his weakness anyway.
“Leanna,” I said, removing my hand from its resting position on Deb’s stomach. Deb seemed a little perturbed that I disturbed her, but she did her best to hide that she felt that way.
“Yes Mike,” Leanna answered warily, trying not to let her voice waver in any way. I think she wished to have my hand on her stomach but she had no desire to cross swords with Deb, at least not yet.
“Do they let the women watch these reruns?”
“Yes, and we make sure to watch every one.”
“Why?” Stephanie said as she turned away from the book she was reading. “Don’t they make you sick?”
“They do, they’re horrible,” Leanna trembled. “But we have to know our fate. Don’t we? We have to silently cheer for one or the other in the ring to win; our very survival depends on it. And sometimes when the two men in the ring are both insane we can merely hope that death is swift,” she sobbed. The room fell silent. The women waiting to become spoils were living in a hell no less worse or better than mine, there's was just in a slightly different location.
Leanna finally broke the silence with a smile in her voice. “You’re one of the favorites.”
“Excuse me?” I asked in disbelief.
“Well, you are so cute,” she said, quickly glancing at Deb continuing on anyway. “And smart, and plus the obvious fact that none of your women suffer the fate that so many do now.”
“I understand completely,” I said “And yeah, I am kind of cute aren’t I?”
“And big-headed,” Deb said as she threw a pillow at my enlarged ego. Obviously I wasn’t too fast because the pillow caught me right on the side of my noggin. We all laughed, it was the first time in a long time that we were all finally at ease with each other.
“So you believe that any of these women will recognize me?” I asked hopefully.
“Most certainly, but if you don’t mind my asking, why are you asking?”
“I just think that I’m going to need a little help in this next round. That’s all.”
Nobody knew my plan and at the moment I wasn’t in the mood to explain any further.
Deb later admitted to me in bed that she did not at all like Leanna’s revelation.
“What do you mean Deb?” I knew the answer but egging her on was fun, what can I say. Sometimes I’m a shit.
“I don’t like the fact that you are now a desired commodity.”
“Would you rather I looked like the hunch-back?”
“You know what I mean, why are you mocking me?”
“I’m just playing, cool your jets woman.”
“I’ll tell you what. If anyone tries to make any moves on you I’ll make the tournament look like a sandlot football game.”
I laughed, but she didn’t see the humor.
“And I just bet that you would Deb, I just bet that you would.”
The next few days were tense ones. Up to this point in my life I had never felt so much accumulated tension. I was having a hard time with the women. No, they got along fine, it was the responsibility that I now shouldered for them. Back on Earth I could barely take care of myself, now I was responsible for the very lives of these three women. That weighed heavily on me. I avoided all three. I just couldn’t bear the thought of anything bad happening to them. I would have gladly given my life if I had any opportunity to spare theirs. But the only way I could keep them safe was to do the very opposite. I could not spare the lives of my opponents, I had to be ruthless and that’s just not who I was. It was a lot to wrestle with in those proceeding days. Deb tried her best to offer support and comfort but she also had to wrestle with her own demons. The potential of losing her lover and possibly losing her own life kept bleeding through into the membranes of her very existence like poison. She even had to wrestle with the alternative: what if I kept winning? I’d eventually get Beth back and then what would happen to her? She was torn. Neither scenario offered much comfort. It was two weeks until the much awaited match came. The tension never loosened its grip the entire time. The girls spoke to each other less and less over the following days and then it was usually only in passing that any comments were made. Deb seemed to pull back more and more every day
. But nobody could be blamed for any strangeness of feelings that surfaced. When the day of the fight finally arrived it was more of a relief, at least now I could get out of the cell and try once again to shape my own destiny as opposed to just obsessing about it. Deb wept openly as once more my door vanished and I made my way to the arena. Leanna’s eyes seemed to be watering a bit, but the biggest surprise was the total lack of emotion on Stephanie’s face. I’m pretty sure that the weight of the previous weeks had finally found a way to settle down on her shoulders. She appeared to have physically aged years just in the past few days. So there it was, I left my semi-castle with some mixed feelings. At this point I seriously doubted that I was ever coming back. Oh, the sweet relief to just let go, to not have to shoulder this burden anymore. I trudged onwards towards my fate.
* * *
As soon as the door once again materialized, Stephanie turned to Deb.