Tested

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

“We can’t survive this forever,” Pria whispered.

Denise and Beth were still asleep in one corner of the cage. The noise of vampires dragging women out of the room had woken Pria and me. We had watched as three of the cages were emptied. Nobody had fought back. Nobody had returned.

“We could run,” she continued. “Try to get out somehow. The best place is on that field. They can’t protect every inch of it.”

“They’re fast. Next time could be the big fight everyone keeps talking about. But even if it isn’t, how do we know there’s freedom over that wall? How do we know we’ll make it two steps farther than that?”

“I just don’t want to die on that field.” She slumped back against the bars. “If you hadn’t been there, I don’t know what would have happened.”

“You would have fought just the same.”

“They would have tried to kill me,” she whispered.

I couldn’t argue with that. We had both heard Beth shouting to leave Pria to the vampires, that it would make the rest of us safe. Fear did terrible things to people.

When our food came that evening, the only meal of the day, I ventured to ask the vampires a question.

“When’s the big fight?”

“Soon,” one said with a grin. “Very soon.”

“And do we get weapons this time?”

Another banged on the cage with her fist. “Enough!”

Beth gasped, and I shut up.

After the vampires left, Denise asked, “What if they cut us down to two next time?”

“Then we cut them down,” Pria said viciously.

I nodded, but when it came down to it, I doubted any of us would do anything other than fight to survive, whatever the cost. That made me hate myself. 

***

 The next morning, three vampires came into the room and observed the occupants of the cages.

“We need more,” one said as they walked past our cage. “We’ve a lot to prove.”

“Too weak,” another said. “They’ll see we couldn’t control—”

“Enough whining!” the first snapped. He was always around, but he never did any of the work, so he had to be in charge.

“What about the cubs?” a third asked. “They killed a young vampire.”

“A young vampire?” The Boss sounded scornful. “That doesn’t take much. We need something better than that.”

“Pit them again,” the second said. “Against something bigger. If they survive, they’ll put on a good show. They’re sick of the older ones. Less sport.”

The Boss stared into our cage as if contemplating buying us. I resisted the urge to show him my teeth. He screwed up his wrinkled mouth. “Perhaps they’ll work. Clean them up until they’re pretty, and give them a show of arms. Let the Association see that we played our part up here.”

“Good,” the third said. “Their test was more entertaining than the others. If we’re lucky, they’ll last longer than a few minutes. We’ll run out if we don’t.”

“The lowlife is fetching more as we speak,” the second said, and they all walked away.

“What was that about?” Denise asked when they had left.