BL R2: Eden Part 2

Jaime, for his part, found this contestant to be much more satisfying. The instant she was through the door into the ring, her spear was in her hands and he knew it was time for a real fight.

Wasting no time, she lunged straight for him. It was a simple matter to step away from the thrusted spear, not even requiring him to knock it away. She wanted to get straight to the point, get the job done, and have it over with. He could respect that, even if it resulted in Popper's vocalized disappointment with a lack of buildup.

He tried a quick little jab with the knife from his wrist, and its blade hit the wood of her weapon. He smiled inwardly as they broke apart. What was the use of exposition if action more than made up for it?

This was more like it. None of the idle chatter or false starts of Micah. She didn't care for the crowd or even take joy in gutting her opponent. Of course, from what he'd seen and heard of this woman, this Felicia, she was just as unstable as his last opponent (but who among them wasn't?), but she was in the ring for victory. She was exactly as he'd expected from watching her match: hard, merciless, utterly determined, and very simply his lesser in combat. That didn't mean she didn't require caution, as proved by the damage he'd sustained from the madman with scissors, but truly, Jaime wasn't worried. This was where he could test himself for the next round, test himself for weaknesses that could easily be exploited by the stronger contestants.

He darted at her, a blade in each hand, ready to cripple or kill the woman if possible, or in a more likely scenario, puncture a few debilitating gashes into her. The crowd enjoyed that, but she didn't seem to notice their yells. Her eyes were entirely on him, poring over every inch of his face with disgust, with fierce determination, with touches of hatred and unease.

She pushed him away with a snarl of either frustration or concentration. Felicia was strong, stronger perhaps than himself, ready, but not nearly as quick. That would be to his advantage.

Jaime felt himself relax and ease into battle, flipping off all parts of himself not essential to combat. Felicia had already done the same a long while ago.


--------------------------------------------------------------


Eddie was getting restless.

Today wasn't as scary as the one before. It was actually fun. Eddie didn't get to have much fun, so that was something special. He'd been with mama ever since she got back, and got to go along while she talked to that serious, pretty lady and then watched as some men in white coats cleaned up the blood on mama's arm. Some of the men in the armor still looked at him all angry, but nobody tried to pull him away after mama talked to the pretty lady.

They'd slept in the cold room where the people with the white coats were. They looked at him, too, took blood to make sure he was healthy. All the competitors had to have a checkup, that's what they said. (Mama must have had hers after he'd gone the first day.) Mama watched them the whole time, real stiff and tense.

He got his own little cot, but when all the bright lights went off, he could hear people crying. There weren't lots of them, but they were loud and they didn't stop. It was like when they had to hide because there were angry people yelling and wanting to hurt people, but those nights always smelled like burning. The clean white room smelled all sharp and clean in a fake way. And it smelled empty. He couldn't even hear the wind.

After a little while, he crawled over and curled up next to mama instead. She put her arm on his shoulder and that's how they slept.

They made him leave in the morning. They got food, which made him happy because he never got to eat this much before, and then afterwards some of the quiet men in red armor came over and said real softly that he had to go. The one he recognized, the nice one, was there. He already had the other boy Eddie'd made friends with; Lorne, he remembered.

Mama and the nice Carrier, Charles, talked a little all quietly, and then Charles took his hand and lead the two boys out. Felicia didn't fight, and this time it felt okay. He had a friend now.

When they passed the place with the grass and tree and clear ceiling, Charles said that they could go in there. He said that they could go in there or out into the stadium, where they spent yesterday. He said that Miss Harper was fair, but she couldn't break rules, and that once their mothers' matches were done they could come back.

Lorne had taken over then, acting all mature and saying how they could take care of themselves, but Eddie liked the man helping them. When they got to the doors out to the stadium, Charles looked around all quick and bent over and put something in Eddie's palm. It was a shiny coin, and he'd had given the two a big smile before he went back in.

Lorne smiled big too, and then they were off exploring the giant grey concrete dome. There was lots to look at, lots of strange people and funny little stands and new foods to try after Lorne swiped some important-looking wallets. Eddie kept the coin safe in his satchel, as a little charm instead of using it. Everybody needed a good-luck charm. When he saw mama again he'd give it to her.

But that was a long time ago, and all he wanted now was to go back to her. Neither boy liked the glass-ceiling room with the grass and tree after they saw it was fake. It felt wrong and a little bit scary, so they went back out into the stadium. All the magic was gone, though, and the yelling people were so loud. He didn't like it as much, and neither did Lorne.

He needed to give mama his new good-luck charm. It suddenly felt real important to.


--------------------------------------------------------------


Even before his knife had slit her belly, she wasn't winning. The bastard was fast like a scorpion, with quick little nicks and cuts so he didn't have to get too close. There wasn't nothing good about him. He moved like a scorpion and there was poison to him.

His eyes told everything bout him. Told bout cold venom and fast lies and not giving up. They looked like a sick sky the morning after worlds had been burned down.

She didn't want to talk to this one even if she could, and he didn't try to start talking. He was going for her and coming right back after she knocked him away, and she didn't like that. With the girl yesterday, Felicia'd been in control. She couldn't beat her for a long time, but she was in control then. She wasn't in control now. This man wouldn't slow down long enough for her to get in a hit. But he wasn't getting too close. Knew she could take him down if she smashed her spear into his head just right, so he wouldn't get too close. The man was smart.

She hit him this time when he cut her. She got a little slice on her hand and he got a little jab between the ribs. It bled a little, and that was good. Dart away and come back, cut, dart away again.

Felicia thought bout that pattern and next time, she timed it just right. Hit him real hard, right in the side with the side of her spear. He stumbled but kept her away with one of those damn throwing-knives. It missed her, but he was up again and she was coughing.

Just like that snake in her stories, that's what he was like. Quick and clever and poisonous. Getting in the way of paradise.

He came back at her when she was still coughing. She wanted to get her knife, finish him quick like the girl, but he wouldn't back off long enough for her to do it. Didn't matter how fast she tried to get him, the man kept hitting it away with his wrists or leaving little indents from the knives. Wouldn't break, though, she told herself. Her spear wouldn't break. Too strong to break, and that was good.

So she screamed at him and ran forward but he just stepped away. Then he stuck her in the arm, but only a little. Real easy to ignore. The crowd liked it, because they were getting loud again. But he didn't look to care, there still wasn't nothing in those sick yellow-morning eyes. Nothing in them but the way Harper talked, all polite and smart but not really meaning it.

Felicia thought to try something then. She made like she was gonna lunge her spear forward and brought her arm back. Real quick, he sprang at her when she was open, and she punched him. Her free hand grabbed at that pretty girl-hair and the spear went to his throat, but he hit her hard in the gut and she had to let go.

He smiled halfway, not in a bloodthirsty way like some sadistic wasties did. He smiled like someone that got a good trade. An expression of appreciation and such.

She was getting a funny sense of something that she told herself couldn't be fear. It couldn't be fear because snake-eyes wasn't scared of her, not at all. So she couldn't be scared of him. She was gonna win, after all.

She hit at him, a little wild this time. He clapped his hand against the end, and then real fast wrapped his fingers around it and swung his foot up.

There was a real loud crack, like a bone crunching apart, and that's the sound it made when her spear smashed in half.


--------------------------------------------------------------


They watched some people fight. Lorne looked at it all serious and thoughtful, but Eddie didn't get it. All the people sitting down were yelling and standing up like they were having fun, but the people fighting were getting hurt. Some of them got hurt real bad. He didn't get it and so he watched in puzzlement.

Right then, one of the men got hurt bad, and Eddie frowned. He didn't like seeing people get hurt. He saw it plenty and he didn't like it. But all these other people did. They all cheered, standing up and yelling praise. But they was all from In, and In wasn't supposed to be like that.

Lorne noticed the way he was watching all the fighting and he decided it was his job to say something. "It's okay," he said, real fast. "It's okay. See, they fight and then one of them wins. The winner gets to fight the next person. But the loser, um, the loser just…can't go back. They have to go home. That's all. They leave."

Eddie gripped the railing and looked over at them. They were high up, but he could still see the little people fighting all the way on the ground. One of them wasn't moving too much now. He closed his teeth around his lip a little, because it was so strange. Why would people want to fight?

"And at the end, the winner gets their prize. The losers just can't go back, is all. So that's why they aren't in the cafeteria anymore afterwards."

He looked over at Lorne. He was funny, the way he talked. Like when a bird got all puffed up to look bigger than it was because it thought something was gonna hurt it.

Eddie smiled just a little, because he liked that. It made everything sort of okay.


--------------------------------------------------------------


It would be over soon.

Felicia was bleeding steadily from the stab wound in her gut, and she'd slowed considerably. For the moment, she'd propped herself against the great stone wall in effort to compose herself. Despite the woman's best efforts, she was still coughing, although the heaves did not bring up any blood. He hadn't stabbed quite as deeply as he'd hoped to.

She wouldn't give up, of course. She was still plenty dangerous. A broken spear and sudden pain meant nothing to her. Even now, she brought it up as his twin daggers snaked forward and her knee hit his stomach.

He was glad to have fought her. She was strong, she fought hard and deserved a better death than what many of those maniacs would have given her.

For a moment, he considered of what he knew of this woman. Her name was Felicia, and she was his senior by at the most a decade, and she fought with the ferocity of an enraged grizzly. She fought for her son, he remembered. To win a better life for him.

That thought stuck. She had another life to protect, and he still hadn't decided on a prize.

But that could not matter now. Victory was a few moments away, and this was not nearly as terrible as finishing Micah.

It had taken time to wear her down—though not so much that the crowd had grown restless—to the point that it would be safe to finish this fight. And now that was all that remained: finishing this fight.


--------------------------------------------------------------


She felt better today. There'd been more damn needles in the hospital, but nothing like that first one. Nothing like the one that had sent her to sleep when they were taking her boy away.

Felicia gritted her teeth at that thought, not just from the needle part. Her son was gone again. She let them take her son and it made her sick. But she couldn't take that. Soon as they finish cleaning her up after this fight, she'd demand to see Harper again. Not take no for an answer.

It didn't cross her mind that there might not be an 'after this fight' because she wasn't gonna let nothing happen to her. Couldn't let nothing happen to her when Eddie was waiting for her up somewhere in those stands. If she had thought of it before, she'd carefully rejected that thought until it didn't seem possible no more.

The crowd didn't seem so loud today, now that she knew it. She had surprises when the heavy doors swung themselves open to show that grey concrete death-pit, just like hell stripped down to its basics. Nothing new there.  

She was starting out when a Carrier by the door called to her that ma'am Miss Harper would like to see you after your fight. Felicia snorted at that. The feeling was mutual on both counts, of wanting to see each other.

Her opponent strode out much different than yesterday's girl, not all wandering and aimless. He stood up straight with little glimmers of knives in his hands. There were little glimmers of knives in his eyes, too. Those snake-eyes slid over her and she bared her teeth.

Still not like the girl, he didn't waste no time. Once he looked her over, he started a sprint right at her. Felicia brought her heavy spear up to deflect the attack just in time, but it still jarred her hands.

This was gonna be hard, harder than yesterday. But nothing she couldn't handle.

As he shot forward and pushed her back towards the wall because he was so quick, Felicia still didn't worry. Nothing she couldn't handle. It'd maybe take a while was all. Snake-eyes cut her arm, and that's when she remembered to take it personal.

The fight really started then.


--------------------------------------------------------------


And now she was on her knees with a broken piece of wood and a knife stuck in her boot. She never be able to get to that knife in time, she hadn't the whole fight.

She hurt, she hurt bad. There was blood all over her hands and it made it hard to hold onto the wood. Couldn't grip right anymore. She tried to stand but ended up yelling instead because it hurt so bad.

But she wasn't dead yet.

Couldn't be dead. Couldn't be dead yet, not when she had so much to fight for. Look at snake-eyes, he didn't have nothing worth winning for. He didn't have nothing in him like she did. She felt wall behind her and clawed at it.

She had her son. She was breathing so hard now, so desperate. Her boy, the only thing she could call hers. The only person who hadn't never broken her heart. He was such a good boy, and she hardly never told him that. But he was such a good boy. So she couldn't lose this. She couldn't die, he didn't deserve that.

It felt like it took a long time for him to come at her again, long enough that she managed to stand herself up.

Couldn't die in this hell. It was worse a hell than the wastes, right here, she thought. Lots worse. Least in the wastes, wasn't people screaming for your death everywhere. There were plenty of violent ones, touched in the head and angry, in the wastes, but not like these people from In.

And that thought scared her, shook her way down deep. These bastards were Innies, the lot of them. But that didn't make no sense. People from In weren't all bloodthirsty like the wasties, because In was paradise.

But right now she couldn't worry about that because he had his knives and he was coming right at her and she couldn't lose. She couldn't. Her spear was broken, but it still worked to smack away his knives. Knocked one to the ground, too, but that didn't matter much since he had plenty of others. To prove that, there was one in his hand, and then in her side 'fore she had time to move again.

She was screaming again now, she was screaming and coughing with rage and pain and hate. He didn't look to get any pleasure out of her pain, but there was satisfaction on his face. He knew how this was gonna end.

But all that Felicia was thinking was how she'd better do something quick, before he took control of the fight again. Winning was just gonna be a little bit harder was all. She wasn't gonna lose.

When she saw the shiny-red knife coming at her neck, she knew she had to move. So she smashed herself into him real hard, hard enough to push the both of them down. He yelled a little at that, which was the first noise she heard him make. Those damn demon-yellow eyes narrowed at her quick and they moved at the same time.

When his hand stabbed forward, she smashed the length of her spear right into it. Wouldn't slow him down too much, just bruise it up, so she kept going. She hit his nose and heard it make a noise just like the sound her spear made when he broke it. Next time she jammed the jagged broken end right down onto his face, and when she took it back she didn't know which of their blood was splashing everywhere. It was all over his pretty mouth and his black girl-hair and all over her, too.

He was still making that quiet little yell-sound and he grabbed at her face, hard. His fingers almost got to her eyes before the sharp end of her weapon went down into his left one. That's when the quiet yell turned into a right-out scream and she had to smile inside because she hated those damn eyes so much.

But this was taking too much time. She was hurting real bad and he could get her off any second. So when he screamed, her face went grim, she hoisted up the spear, and smashed it down once. Then again. Then again. And again.

And she kept on doing that till he finally stopped screaming.

And that was it.