I woke up inside of the pod as the bastards made me wait to be released. I refused to give them the satisfaction of trying to get out, and eventually, the pod lid opened as normal. I tried remembering what had happened in my previous game, and all I could get were flashes. I know I had been assigned as a traitor, but the rest was blocked out from my memory.

I sit up, and lo and behold Xix is slithering up with his cameras. I presume he wants to paint me as some tragic hero, forced to make the sacrifices he never wanted to make, but I'm not going to be a part of his narrative, even if I could remember what had happened. The robe gets handed to me, and I immediately start walking away. Xix catches up pretty quickly for how far away he had been as I reach the exit door. He must have picked up his pace when I started leaving. As he approaches I notice the lights on the cameras aren't blinking, the recording must currently be off.

"Are you done acting like a petulant child? they ask.

"Are you going to open the door?" I ask the guard. At the shake of their head, I turn back to Xix "What do I need to do to get out of here?"

"Answer some questions, as per usual. It's standard practice for all participants in the games to have a post-game interview."

"If it will get me out of here sooner, ask away," I said rolling my eyes.

The cameras began rolling. "Welcome back Noah! Before you get the chance to head back and rest, the audience had just one or two tiny questions to ask you. With your sister's recent inclusion in the games, people are wondering how the newest Landry will fair in the games, given her older brother's recent successes. Two win streaks aren't that uncommon, participants do it all the time, but only losing 1 of your teammates between both of them, even with both a traitor and an innocent game? That's gotten people talking. The audience wanted to get your opinion on how successful you expect to find your sister." I managed to get to the part of the question where he mentioned my sister before my vision went red.

"You put Lindsay in the games?!?" I yelled.

"But of course, we have finally started to lose participants now with certain.... situations having occurred. I believe you saw one on the way here did you not? It's a shame how violent your species is, it comes with a large amount of risk for our poor guards, why the hazard pay alone is exorbitant. When we were looking for participants, I volunteered that we might choose relations of participants in the games, and of course, your little sister was one of the first names I suggested." Through the haze, I could make out a smug smile on his face.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

With a roar, I tackled him to the ground, slamming my fists into his stupid grin over and over again. In some corner of my mind, I knew this was likely what he wanted, but I quashed those thoughts as soon as they appeared. The only thing I cared about was killing the son of a bitch in front of me. Snakes must be tougher than I thought because as a jolt suddenly causes all of my muscles to lock up, and the guard picks me up off of Xix, I see him get up with only a small amount of blood evidence that I had hit him at all.

"Well then, I dare say I'm glad I wore my personal shield to work today," Xix says, dusting himself off. "Mr. Landry has some energy he still needs to work out it seems. Perhaps the Thunderdome will need another run soon if he doesn't learn to behave himself. Put him in with Ziphal for now, maybe he can teach this child some manners." Xix spit some blood at my feet and walked away, cameras still rolling.

I remained unable to move as the guard waved over another snake. They carted me down a much dirtier and worn-down hall of the prison, unlocked a cell, and quickly threw me in face down. I heard something get up, and I felt myself being picked up and moved onto a bed. Eventually, I was able to move my head and turn it towards the figure. They were big but obscured by shadow.

"Stunning sure does a number on you doesn't it mate? It'll wear off in a couple more minutes, once you can move the head the rest of the body catches up right quick." I squinted into the darkness, trying to make out the person I was sharing a cell with. I wasn't quite able to talk yet, everything still felt numb.

After a few more minutes, I felt well enough to groan out a few words. "You experienced with stunners or something?"

"It speaks! I was worried for a second they had put a faulty translation chip in ya. But anyway... whatcha doing in here with me for?" It paused for a second, "As for the stunners, I may have had experience with 1 or 2."

"Xix seemed to think I needed an attitude adjustment, probably because I tried to rearrange his face. Who are you? I'd have thought some sort of torturer based on how Xix talked about you teaching me some manners."

"Interesting decision you made pissing off the host of the games like that. Not your best move." It stepped forward out of the shadows and revealed itself to be the sharkman from the video Xix had originally shown me. "I should know, did the same thing when I first got here."