Zuri opened her eyes. Her lips were dry. She tried to swallow, but the coarseness of her throat caused her to wince as she rolled over on the hard floor. The barrels of fire surrounding her cage were roaring, tall flames that danced menacingly over her, their burning heat stinging her bare arms.
Kady groaned in pain. Zuri looked over at her mother. If there was enough water in her body, she may have formed a tear, but there was not.
Kady had failed. For three weeks, Zuri had worked on her, talking to her, supporting her, begging her to find strength. But the true grasp of the addiction was now clear. How could she have been so wrong? Her thoughts landed on Jude, and her cracked lips curled to a faint smile. Such a romantic he was! So innocent, but so right. She knew that now. This wasn’t her mother. Her mother wasn’t weak; she was the strongest person she knew. No, it was Croc that had destroyed her. She could see that now. Just like it had taken Jude’s father, it had taken her mother, and like him, she had chosen the drug over her only child. It was incomprehensible, but true.
It was the evening of Arnero’s Trials, and the witch's soldier had come this afternoon to deliver some food and her mother’s Croc. The last syringe of the month, the one Zuri needed to make her escape attempt. Without it, she knew she’d be dead before the next Trials.
Kady held the syringe in her hand, transfixed by the golden liquid. She wanted to hand it over, to give her daughter a chance. Zuri saw it in her mother’s eyes. She watched her arm trembling towards her, through the bars, shaking and rattling. Her face contorted in pain and fear as her hand halted just out of reach of Zuri’s. Then she vomited at her feet and snaked her arm back into the safety of her own cage. With a look of desperate despair, she had plunged the drug into her neck, sealing her daughter’s doom.
Zuri passed out then.
The sound of barking dogs woke her. She’d been out for a while. She looked through the break in the building and saw the sun creeping away, past the hanging bodies she had become so friendly with during her stay.
The door to Arnero’s quarters flung open with a crack.
“Jenko! Where the fuck is Marcus?”
Jenko came into view. Through her dusty eyes, Zuri watched him step down from his trailer and strut across the car park. If she could muster the saliva, she’d spit at him.
“Yeah…I dunno. I’ve sent four men out to find him.”
“Well, send four more! How can we have Trials with no prize? He was due back with the drop hours ago.”
“I said it wasn’t safe,” replied Jenko, with a shrug.
Zuri fixed her gaze on Arnero. She had seen plenty of the Shanty Queen over the past three weeks to know her tolerance for disrespect was near nonexistent.
“Come here, Jenko, my love,” she smiled, though it was far from welcoming. Zuri winced at the thought of the razor-sharp teeth biting down on his flesh.
Jenko crossed the room tentatively, stopping in front of his master as she looped her arms around his neck and nuzzled her face into his shoulder. Her dark eyes looked violent in the light of the flames. Her head turned up towards the big man as she thrust out her tongue and licked his neck. Jenko’s arrogance evaporated.
“If the next words out of your mouth don’t please me, I'll take your throat.”
“Queen, ya right, we needed to send him out. I just thought we should send a bredda or two with him, ya know, keep him safe. Keep the Croc safe. I only want to serve ya the best I can.” His broad frame seemed to shrink into her arms, and for a moment, Zuri thought he would cry.
“And I told you, the Conduit won’t supply the Croc unless Marcus is alone, totally alone! If I thought they would, I’d have done away with him years ago. Maybe you think you should lead this shanty, Jenko, is that it?”
“P-please,” he stammered, “no, you’re my leader, Arnero. You have my love. Did I not suffer a year with the bastard Dawson at your order? I’ll do anything for you.”
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Arnero released him and stepped back. “Send four more men to find him. Best case, he’s on the moonshine. Worst case, he’s cut and run. But he can’t be far.”
“Yes, my Queen.”
“Nothing is going to get in the way of tomorrow. I want the two bitches alive. Get them cleaned up and fed. Don’t let the old hag die of withdrawal. She looks fucked. Give her a top-up if you have to.”
“Of course, I’ll do it meself.”
“Speaking of Dawson,” Arnero spat with disdain, “give me good news. Did you deliver my message?”
“I went to him earlier. Man tried to have me shot on the spot until I told him we had Zuri. He agreed to meet here. Tomorrow at noon.”
Arnero’s eyes brightened as her vicious smile curled up towards them. “Good. He can watch his wife hang. Was he…upset with me, Jenko?”
Jenko laughed heartily. “Oh yeah, ya could say he was upset.”
“Very pleasing.” She grinned, then continued, “Now, I’m going to try and enjoy the Trials. If Marcus isn’t back with the Croc, the winner will be brought up and executed quietly.”
Arnero turned to Zuri. “Enjoy your final hours with Mumma, princess,” she said with a theatrical bow, before she cackled and stormed away towards the lower floors.
Zuri sank in her cage, resting her back on the cold bars, as she looked out at the swinging bodies and resigned herself to her fate. If she had just kept her temper in check, she could have been miles from here, tucked away in some corner of the city with Jude.
The thunderous applause of a baying crowd echoed up through the car park, followed by drums and stomping feet. Zuri shuddered. She closed her eyes and drifted off into an uneasy sleep, her nightmares plagued with distant howls of death.
When she opened her eyes, the feral baying of a crowd still hammered through the shanty. Zuri pulled herself to her feet, her mother creased on the floor of her cage, twitching and rocking. Her black-scaled skin leaked puss and blood, though she was completely unaware or unbothered.
“Be strong, Mumma, I’m here.”
Zuri scanned the room and laughed as she realised there were only two guards. Usually, there were four or six. They must be out looking for whoever this Marcus was. She cursed and thumped herself in the forehead. If she’d have gotten that last syringe off her mother, she could have injected a guard when they let her out to the toilet. It would have left her with just the dogs and one more guard to deal with. Sure, she’d still have the whole rest of the shanty between her and freedom, but at least she could have died trying. She laughed, closing her eyes. She pushed her face into the bars and laughed some more until she started to cry uncontrollably.
“Shut ya noise, bitch,” Jenko hissed as he strode across the room towards her. “Dismissed, breddas.”
The nearest guard looked perplexed. “Erm, sir, Arnero has to dismiss us.”
Jenko halted his stride and turned to the guard. Zuri noted his dishevelled face, his eyes ringed and bloodshot. He looked volatile. He swigged from his flask and tossed it to the floor with a dull clang as he pulled a revolver from his waistband.
“I said dismissed, ya insolent bastard.” He waved the revolver at the guard, who slowly raised his hands in surrender.
“Ok, Jenko. No problem here. Let’s go.” He nodded at the second guard, and they moved off towards the ramp to the lower floors.
“Good choice, bro.”
Zuri felt a shiver as the big man turned towards her. He staggered across to her cage and halted on unsteady legs. He hawked and spat on the floor as he reached into the bag strapped to his chest and pulled out a syringe of golden liquid.
“Here, bitch. Don’t die before your big day,” he slurred, flicking the syringe into Kady’s cage. Zuri looked down to see her mother scrabbling for it before she looked back at Jenko.
“I’ve got something for you too, princess,” he muttered as he fumbled at his keys. “You’ve needed a lesson since the day I laid eyes on you. Need putting in your fucking place, arrogant bitch.”
Zuri panicked, her heart pounding. The dryness in her mouth pained her as she stammered over her words. “Jenko, no, please. You're drunk. Arnero won’t want this.”
“Sick of that bitch...ordering me, threatening me. I’m done.”
He unbuckled his belt and unlocked the cage door. Zuri threw herself against it, praying she could weigh it down until the guards returned with Arnero. Something she never thought she’d wish for. Jenko’s huge foot swung towards the cage. The door thundered through her, smashing her backward into the rear bars. The wind escaped her stomach and she folded in half on the floor. As she looked up, Jenko stumbled into the cage and cracked her across the temple with the butt of his revolver. Zuri blinked the blood and tears from her eyes.
“Please, Jenko,” she begged, but the hunger in the man’s eyes was all she needed to see.
There was no way out of what was next.