Radioactive

Part 2: Day of the Fight

          My dreams are of the spectators of my fight. The greedy, murderous eyes of the leader of the Tattoo glow, and a smile is swallowing his face as I pummel the purple and silver-eyed girl, blood caked under my nails and staining my teeth a disturbing red. I grin and lick the blood out of my nails and teeth.

        I wake with my stomach growling. The other Fours are awake as well, but the dark shadowy bruises under their eyes and the shaking of their hands tells me that I have the advantage of sleep. The floor screeches as the giant, metal door opens. I watch the Tattoo member walk in, a long syringe in one hand and hundreds more wrapped around his waist in a belt. As usual, a Four lunges for the door. I wonder how fast he thinks he is, and how stupid he must be, given the silent, deadly threat of the syringes. A wide, crazy grin dominates the Tattoo's face as he injects the syringe into the Four's neck. After their time in the pits is over, the Tattoo still crave the feeling of inflicting a gruesome end. The only thing that would please them more would be if there was more blood. The Four staggers and falls, wheezing and gasping for breath.

        There's no noise for a second, then "What's in that?" whimpers a new Four, tears in her eyes. I glare sharply at her. You don't ask the Tattoo questions. It can and has gotten many Fours killed before, since in our current situation we are very replacable.

        I am surprised when he says "Adrenaline mixed with poison. The adrenaline is for, you know, keeping him fully conscious until his heart stops." The poisoned Four gasps in fear, body shaking. If his heart stops, his brain will stop working, meaning no more him. His body parts won't even be used to create new Fours. They'll probably just throw his body away. "I'll leave him right here. After all, this cage needs some decorating." He leaves, the door crying behind him.

        A thin, gaunt girl creeps towards the body, eyes wary, and gingerly sniffs the corpse.The poison would kill her if she ate the body, which means less competition for food today. But..."It'll kill you!" I blurt. At least a hundred eyes of hundreds of different color shades narrow at me in the  almost-total darkness. A boy shoves me, shaking his head. I stumble, barely keeping my balance.

        "It's fine, really, she just wants it for herself," he lies, looking me right in the eyes with a threat for if I speak again.

        "No, I don't. Be smart. If the meat was good, the others would be fighting each other for it right now," I continue, gesturing out the door, in the direction of the metal pit. She hesitates, then backs away. The boy next to me grabs my throat, lifting me a foot off the ground, to his eye level, where ice-like whitish-blue irises glare into mine. I suddenly realize he has no pupils, just white with a circle of blue, as if his eyes were a lake in Alaska, that frosty, unnatural color surrounded by white.

        "You listen to me," he snarls, slamming me against the metal wall, "or we'll have a problem!" I cough, struggling to breath, and kick and claw at his arms and chest until he throws me down. "Understand?" he asks. I stand up and wave my claws three inches from his face.

        "If we weren't having our fights today, I'd kill you for that," I threaten.

        "There's always tomorrow...if you survive," he smirks, as he walks away. The girl I saved-wow, that's so bizarre to put in a sentence- walks over to me.

        "Why did you save me?" she asks, her voice soft and quiet.

        I shrug, and reply "I don't  need two reeking corpses in the cage." She rocks back and forth on the tips of her feet.

       "Well, thanks," she says awkwardly. The loud, screeching noise of metal on metal ends the conversation.  A Tattoo walks in, searching us Fours, finally stopping on me.

        "You, Four," he snaps. I turn behind me hopefully. "With the yellow eyes" he says slowly, as if he was speaking to a toddler. I walk towards him and he grabs my arm and drags me out the door. The floor cries out in pain, same as either me or my oponent will soon.

         I squint into the twilight; the pit is vast, and open to the night sky, which is why we only fight at night. All of us hate the light, and the Tattoo seem to love the night. If the sun is just setting, this must be the first fight of the night. I wait for the Tattoo to drag in my opponent.

        She stands across from me, offering me a grin that makes me tremble. Her teeth are seven rows of razor blades with a tiny version of me glinting off the surface of the razors.But I'm not truly shuddering until I glance at her hands. Her hands are a mixture of flesh and something similar to suction cups. She notices me looking at her hands, and demonstrates. She walks up to the wall and gently touches her hand to the wall. She starts to walk away, and the metal whines as it pulls toward her hand. All without her having even the slightest grip on it, simply those suction cups. If she grabs me, she can pull me apart with her bare hands. There's no getting away from a force like that. She is definitely a Five, I realize just as the Tattoos exit the pit and she lunges at me, hands outstretched.