Chapter 16: Rattle the Cage

Ash and Kiara spent thirty hours cramped in the same holding cell, waiting for Sander to return with their bail. The two of them began to doubt if Sander would return with the total sum: 200 bullets. With that sort of money, the three of them could rent their rooms with Francis for forty days or park their motorcycles with Dunstan for thirty days. They could afford nearly twenty-five high-quality meals, better food than the three of them had eaten over the last week. They could purchase three, four, or even five dependable guns at that price, depending on their bartering skills.

They did calculations in their heads. Ash refused to sell the bolt-action rifle and the bulletproof vest. He and Sander had stolen them. Ash wanted to return these two items, plus the water canteen if they had the opportunity. The idea of selling them made him feel ill. Similarly, Kiara refused to sell her revolver. She wanted to keep that weapon until her last breath, preferably tightly gripping it with the bodies of her enemies at her feet.

Still, both of them were grateful to have access to a packet of cigarettes and his lighter. They smoked the entire packet out of sheer boredom. Eventually, Ash felt the need to tell Kiara everything about his previous life, about the real world, about his family. Kiara listened patiently, although her attitude seemed more akin to a cynical teenager waiting on a lovable but unintelligent puppy. She received his personal history more as a fantastical story than documentation of the facts of some faraway place, a place beyond the scope of this world.

Once finished, Ash coughed into his hand. His throat had grown hoarse from talking. “All I want is to go back home, to see my family again,” Ash said.

“And how are you going to do that in a video game?” Kiara said, sarcastically emphasizing the words ‘video game’.

“I don’t quite know.”

Kiara asked no other questions.

“What about you?” Ash asked. He realized he had been speaking for the last hour or longer without asking her any questions.

Kiara smiled but said nothing. “You’ve heard my story,” she said. “There’s nothing more than what I’ve said. I got taken from my father and sister. They’re probably dead now.”

“Don’t you want to find out?”

Kiara breathed heavily. “If I don’t go, I don’t know what happened. You might think that’s a curse, but it’s a blessing. Right now, in my head, they’re at peace. They’re dead. He had the Affliction. She probably caught it. Dead. If they somehow survived, things would be worse. Much worse. Since you’re new to these parts, you don’t know how cruel life can be. I like to think they’re at peace.”

“You’ve gotta go back. You have to!”

Kiara snapped her head in Ash’s direction. “I don’t have to do anything. You know what I want? I want to go to The Cuffs. I want to find every single member of the Chain Gang and make them suffer. I want all of them dead. You want something from me? You want me to go somewhere? Take me to The Cuffs with a good weapon and a whole lot of ammo. When I’ve killed every single one of them and razed their compound to the ground, then, maybe, just maybe, you can persuade me to go back to my father, back to my sister. They’ll see I didn’t abandon them. I didn’t abandon them!” Kiara’s voice had increased in volume during her speech. Her eyes burned with vengeful tears. She pulled away from Ash, wandered into the corner of the room, threw her arms against the wall, and hung her head against them.

Ash looked at her, watched her body heave with silent sobs of anguish. He recognized the source of her anger, her hostility. She felt as though she had failed her family. Ash caught movement from the corner of his eye. The soldier, the woman with the red hair, had been staring at them.

“Am I breaking up a little love story?” the soldier asked cynically.

Ash pressed his lips together. This soldier lacked an ounce of respect in her body. To her, everything could be turned into a cruel joke solved by reckless violence.

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“No,” Ash managed to press from his mouth.

“Good, because I want to have some fun. You have eighteen hours until your execution, unless your friend returns. He might feel the jingle of 200 bullets in his pocket and decide the amount is too good to give up. He’ll just leave you to us.”

“He won’t!” Ash shouted reflexively. He knew that Sander would come back. He would. He had to. He would never let a real human like him perish in this world, especially if there were no respawns. Kiara joked about the concept, not realizing this world could render them permanently dead. He and Sander lived a second life, a life distant from their real lives. They would bond over that key fact.

The soldier laughed to herself. “That confidence! I like it. You know, you’re not the first one to feel that confident in their friends and allies, but let me tell you, I’ve seen a lot of betrayal between these bars.”

Ash looked over his shoulder. Kiara remained in her corner, but her body no longer heaved with tears. He could tell that she was listening to this brief exchange.

“Anywho,” the soldier said flippantly, “you have a new cellmate. So, stand back. And get your lady-friend too.”

The soldier flicked the automatic rifle that hung from a cross-body strap toward Ash. He immediately pushed to the back of the room. He seized Kiara by the shoulder and brought her to the bench at the back of the room.

“Bring him in!” the soldier shouted. Another full-kit soldier approached the holding cell with an old man in handcuffs. The old man stumbled weakly on his bare feet. The soldier unlocked his handcuffs and pushed him into the holding cell. The gate closed behind him.

At the sound of the cell locking, the old man looked from the floor into Ash’s eyes. Ash recognized him: Jack ‘Smiles’ Gadshill.

Almost as if reinvigorated by this discovery, the old man snapped to attention. “Look at my luck! Casper Brakes. What? Not glad to see your old friend? Huh, you don’t like my new voice? A little raspier than before, eh?” Smiles reached for the collar of his torn shirt and pulled down the fabric that hung about his neck. A large pink scar, a puckering circle, throbbed on the side of his neck. “It took awhile for the nurse to pull out all the splinters.” Smiles grimaced in his small bout of laughter.

“I thought you died,” Ash responded.

“Almost did. If it weren’t for a spare stimpack, who knows. For now, I walk among the living.”

Kiara wiped the streaks of tears from her face. She straightened herself with the new threat within their holding cell. She sat with her feet firmly on the ground, ready to leap to her feet at the raising of his fists.

“You know this guy?” Kiara asked.

“Yes, he does,” Smiles responded with a voice filled with gravel. “Stabbed me in the neck a few days ago. I heard you ran out of town. I had to find you. Get my revenge.”

“How’d you know I was here?” Ash said.

“I didn’t,” Smiles laughed, clutching the side of his neck. “These parts are good for rumors, and rumors I wanted. Didn’t think getting copped would be my ticket to you.”

“And now that you’ve found him, what are you going to do?” Kiara asked.

“I was planning to get a little revenge. Knock a little snot from his nose.”

“You’ll have to get through me,” Kiara said, standing.

Smiles shook his head. “Ain’t that a sight! Where’d you find such a feisty one, eh? Ah, girlie, I don’t mind. I don’t mind. I’ve faced the likes of you before in the ring, in the arena. Never lasted long.”

“They were made from weaker stuff.”

“We’ll see.” Smiles rolled the sleeves of his torn and dirty shirt. Then, in a fit of fury, he smacked himself in the face a few times, howling with a sense of madness. “Let’s go! Let’s do this! Let’s do this!” He let out another guttural howl, filled with the gurgling of his neck wound.

“Kiara, stand down,” Ash said firmly. “This is my fight. You’re not getting hurt for me.”

“Two against one! I don’t care!” Smiles responded in his adrenaline. He began to hop on the toes of his filthy feet.

“I’m not letting you fight this crazy man! Look at him.”

Smiles slapped himself in the face once more. With his hands, he began to drag down his grizzly beard to a point. “No more talking! No more talking! Let’s go!”

At that point, the soldiers on the other side of the cell gathered to witness the scene. All of them had one of their firearms at the ready. The woman, the redheaded soldier, had her automatic rifle in her hands. “Hold it!” she shouted.

Smiles turned to face her, growling. “I’ll take you on too! I’ll take all of you!”

“If we want a cage match, I want the odds to be fair,” the female soldier said. “Do you want one-on-one, or do you want one of my soldiers to join?”

“I don’t need help!” Smiles growled. His energy started to peak. He wanted combat soon. His body almost vibrated with the want of violence.

“One-on-one, it is. Open the gate!” the redheaded soldier ordered.

One of the soldiers unlocked the gate and pulled it aside.

“Who do you want?” the female soldier asked Smiles.

“The boy. Give me the boy.”

“You heard him. Get the girl out of here.”

Two soldiers in full kit pushed into the holding cell. One of them jostled Smiles into a corner of the room, so he wouldn’t try to escape or attack the guards without their approval, while the other soldier grabbed Kiara roughly by the arm and pushed her out of the cell. Once outside, he got her to kneel in front of the holding cell. She was going to watch the cage match, whether or not she wanted to.

The gate locked shut.

The female soldier crouched beside Kiara. She took the kneeling woman’s chin in her hand. “So, love, who do you think wins this round?”