Chapter Thirteen: The Punishment: Marcie's Bloody End

Marcie banged on the cage wall, screaming and shouting for someone to open the cage door, but was completely ignored by the other people. The people in the bleachers just stomped their feet and yelled at Boss to kill her already.

"KILL HER, KILL HER, KILL HER" Echo thought out the building with the sound of feet stomping to the rhythm. From this there is one thing I have to say about this town . . .

These people are fucken crazy.

Marcie continued to bang on the cage door with tears pouring down her black eyes from the beating she got before. The crowd's cheer grew louder when Marcie's hair was grabbed by Boss and was tossed to the middle of the arena. A small patch of hair was missing from her hair which was now clutch in Boss's fist.

Marcie tired to crawl away but was grabbed by the leg and is drag back in the middle again.

"Come on, get up and take the punishment!" Boss screamed at the top of his lungs.

He pulled Marcie onto her feet and as soon as she was standing, he punched her right into her mouth. The sound of the punch could be heard all the way from where I was at.

Drops of thick blood sprayed on the dirty white floor of the arena as Marcie took a few steps back while covering her mouth. More tears poured out of her eyes as she removed her hands away letting blood and pieces of her teeth to fall to the floor. Before she could do anything she was grabbed by her hair again and was literally lifted up into the air with her screaming and struggling to let go.

Using her as a punching bag, Boss started hitting her in the stomach, face, shoulder and chest.

"Boss is very strong for an old guy" Kristine said

"Idiot, he's only thirty years old" a girl's voice said in the back

We turned to see the girl sitting up and rubbing her head a bit. "Who are you" I asked

"I'm Lindsey, my cousin and I were hired to go along with Marcie to get the vehicle back" she said

"Um, Marcie killed him after she knocked you out" Kristine said

Lindsey didn't say anything, all she did was shook her head and sat there.

"So you were the one Marcie was telling me about before she pulled a switch blade on me" I said

"And she must've gotten you deep because you're bleeding" She said, pointing at my shirt.

"Bianca, when did you started wearing bright colors" Kristine asked

I looked down at my dirty shoes, boy, this is embarrassing. I can actually feel Kristine and Matt leaning over to hear the details. I guess Matt could sense the uncomfortable closer I was feeling when he said "Kristine, why don't you check to see if Garret and Jimmy are ok"

"Ok" she said, walking away.

"So" Matt said looking around a bit then at me again "what happened with you and Jimmy"

I turned red, dammit I felt like a girly-girl and soon I'll be waking up dress up like a Valley girl and saying "like" all the time. I stared at the arena again, Boss slammed Marcie's head in the freshly bloodstained floor. Her screams were choked up by the blood and saliva and . . . ooh . . . I heard a bone crack.

"Nothing happened" I said

Matt gave me that look, the look that read ' you're lying to me Bianca'. I hated that look. "He found me in a place I'm rather ashamed of telling and took me to a safe place for me to recover." I said

He gave me the 'I know there's more' look.

"He took care of my wounds"

"You actually let him-"

"I"m not one of those sluts that shows them everything Matt!" I shouted.

Kristine, Lindsey, Garret, who was awake, stared at me for what seems like a long time til Garret spoke up. "Um . . . what's going on here" he asked

"Boss went insane and bought us all here to be slaughter to death by his own hands" Lindsey said.

She was in the back of the cage with her knees up to her chest and losing her color every second. "I might be spared since Jacob was my cousin and was part of Boss's team. I'll just get a beating, but for the rest of you, you guys are dead meat" she said

"Geez, thanks a lot for your kindness" Matt said

"But she's right if we don't get out of here" I said

"Getting beat up by Boss isn't new" Garret said

"Consider Bianca and Matt being lucky" Kristine said

"Why" Garret asked

"You, me and Lindsey are zombie food in the next game" Kristine shouted and started to cry.

Garret looked horrified "Bianca, you need to do something, I don't want to be eaten alive" Garret shouted.

"Alright Garret, stop spitting on me" I said

"Oh, just face the fact, you whining sixteen-year-old, we're all dead" Lindsey said

"You will, but we're be out of here before he finishes Marcie's off" I said

"Which is any minute now" Lindsey said, pointing at the arena.

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Marcie fell to her knees and started throwing up blood all over the floor and watched it spread across and touching her thumbs. Drops of tears fell into the thick puddle, slowly mixing, follow by more drops of blood falling from her mouth, nose and the gashes on her cheeks.

She can hear Him laughing at her for this humiliation. Oh, the laugher, that's all she could hear as she slowly lifted her head up and stared at Him and his cut up knuckles. The crowd shouting at him to finish her off and a few occasions, throwing food at her as if she was an animal in a cage.

Fuck it, she was that; an animal, the prey for an insane killer.

(Where did I go wrong) She thought.

All her teenage life, she did everything she can to be perfect, of course she thought she was perfect, she was skinny, nice, with two lovely parents and two older brothers that were always there to protect her. The flaw in her 'perfect life' was the fact that she dresses up like a boy and only had a couple of friends.

Then she fell in love, hard, with a boy in her freshman's year; a tall, blonde football player that was in his junior year.

(Marcie smiled from those memories as she was dragged to the center of the arena again)

She worshiped him with every fiber of her being and due to that foolishness, a group of anorexia blondes noticed her affection for the boy.

"Hey look girls, a tomboy is in love with one of the football players" The leader of the group shouted.

Laugher booms throughout the hallway and the boy looked at her with disgust while his friends made fun of him for having an unattached person liking him. Being a tomboy, Marcie bit her lips to hold back the tears and ran off as far away as she can to the laugher would fade. Next thing she knew, she was over a toilet, throwing up, crying and cursing herself for being a tomboy.

(Marcie was lifted up into the air again and was tossed to the other side of the arena, crashing into the cage wall and collapsing to the floor. She spit out another tooth and just laid there)

Make-up, high heel shoes, bright, glittery clothes, blonde highlights in brown hair and no eating because you're a fat pig.

"But DAMMIT, why do I have to be so short!" she screamed at herself in the mirror.

Pulling on her hair, she cursed herself over and over again for being so short and fat. No boy would love a girl short and fat no matter how pretty she is. She would fix her up and go to school, only to be laughed at by the 'perfect' girls and be called a wannabe.

"I must be perfect" she screamed and punched the mirror. Pieces fell to the floor while others pierced through her skin. Blood.

(Marcie was too out of it to hear Boss yelling at her to get up unless she wanted another round of beatings before killing her. Marcie stared at the cage that held her teammates in and right into the brown eyes of Bianca. She hated her.)

Her 'perfect' life ended when the dead came to her town of Phoenix.

"Hurry up Marcie!" Her mother shouted "we got to go to a safe place before those things come"

With a bandage wrapped around her hand after that mirror incident, Marcie scrambled around her room, grabbing all her make-up and hairbrushes.

"MARCIE!"

"I'M NOT LEAVING WITHOUT MY MAKEUP" She shouted. (I must be perfect)

It took her two brothers to drag her out of the house with her screaming and kicking. The dead heard her screams and ran toward her and her family at full speed since they were fresh. Her father held them back with bullets as she was shoved into the car with her mother and brothers. As she watched her father being eaten alive, she could only think of one thing.

She didn't get her make-up.

(She was grabbed by the hair and was lifted up so she would stand on her feet. Boss was yelling at her to wipe the smile off of her face as she continues to daydream)

Due to the commotion on the day the dead walked the earth, there was a car crash, leaving the rest of her family dead and Marcie crawling away in a daze. She walked around the streets, cursing her family for not letting her get her things. The dead were near as well as people. Shots were fired and Marcie past out.

(More punches and more blood shooting out of her mouth and nose, but she continued to smile)

Months past in her new home of Flagstaff and Marcie recovered then was force to join up the Supplies Gathers. Which means she has to go under severe training and obeying orders given by The Leader she was about to meet.

"Hi, I'm Bianca, the leader of the team you were assign to"

Marcie looked up to see a messy tomboy with her arm extended out for a handshake. She hated her and looked away, muttering "not perfect"

She bit her lip hard throughout the two years as she obeyed every order the tomboy gave and watched her become more popular in the town for bringing food or taking serious beatings in the zombie games and walking away from it proudly. She wasn't even perfect, but she had an engagement ring on.

Yes, she blames her 'un-perfect' new life on the tomboy, even after the attempt to kill her, Marcie still suffers.

With this in her mind Marcie slowly got up from the floor, blood coated her body, her face was full of gashes and was swelling up and most of her teeth were punched out. She was ready, ready to die and go to hell with all the other 'non-perfect' people.

She turned around to face Boss with a big smile on her beat-up face and waited. Boss cracked his bloody knuckles and swung.

Marcie lifted her head and was punched right in the nose. She felt her nasal cavity shoving up and stabbing her brain with a fatal cracking sound. A gush of blood blew out of her nose as she collapsed to the floor, dying with her eyes wide open.

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I pushed Kristine to the edge of the cage before she had a chance to throw up on us. As I patted her back, the others were having a hard time believing that death happened and I knew if we didn't do anything soon, that's going to be our fate as well.

"I don't want to die" Kristine cried.

"It's ok, Kristine, we'll make it out of here soon"

She threw up again and I wonder how can she have so much vomit when she hasn't eaten much in days.

Boss was given a break so that people could remove Marcie's body out of the arena and mop up the bloody floor. Boss walked over to the cage and smirk "Don't worry, Bianca, you and your little sidekick are next" he said, and walked away.

Matt stared at me, wondering if I came up with a plan yet and sadly, I haven't. I watched as Marcie's body was dumb into a pile of dead people that had a sign that said "Trash" on it.

This is bad, I was too wounded to fight Boss at full strength and I had to face it, beatings from Boss were nothing you can get use too and everyone knew he can take on more then two people. Only a weapon could kill him and that's when it hit me.

The Switchblade!

Marcie probably has it in one of her pockets and didn't have time to get it out during the beating, but how can I get it if I'm trapped in here. I looked around and spotted a boy that looked like Garret's age, pasting by the cage while drinking a soda.

"Hey, kid" I shouted

The boy stopped and looked around to see where the voice is coming from. "Over here" I shouted again.

He spotted me and walked over to the cage "what" he asked

"Look, my best friend and I are about to be beaten to a bloody mess like that girl so I was wondering if you can do me a favor"

He took a big sip from his soda "What is it and it can't be me letting you go unless I want to be the next victim in one of these hellish games" he said

"Look, all I need is for you to go over to the girl's dead body and bring me back her switchblade"

"You want me to pickpocket a dead person. that's gross" he said

"Please, do me this favor and if I make out of this alive, I'll give you something in return" I said

"Anything" he asked

"Yeah, anything"

"Bianca" Matt called out "They're getting ready for the next fight"

"Just name it" I asked

"I know about that giant vehicle that guy came here inif you're going to leave can you take me out of this place" he asked

"Take you with us" I was stunned, I thought he would want money or something like that.

"Yeah, I have friends that live in the El Paso Outpost and I've been trying to find a way out of here"

"Deal, we'll take you there, now go and get me that damn switchblade" I shouted

He nodded and ran over to the pile of bodies and started searching through the pockets with a disgusted look on his face.

The cage door opened and two people grabbed Matt by both of his arms and pulled him out. "Bianca!" Matt shouted as he struggled to get away.

Garret tried to hold him back but he was punch in the cheek "Back away kid or we'll just shoot you here and be done with it" One of the men said as the other punched Matt in the stomach and dragged him away.

Lindsey stayed in the corner, Garret cupped his cheek from the pain and Kristine sat there, pale from vomiting. "Bianca" she called out.

"Don't worry Kristine, we're going to get out of here, just keep yourself calm" I said

She nodded but grew paler as two other people came in and grabbed me by the arm. I grabbed hold of the cage wall trying to buy me some time for the boy to return.

"Calm on, girl, don't make me have to hit you" the guy said.

I kicked and screamed to get away from their grip as they tried to drag me out of the cage. I turned my head to see the boy running over with the switchblade in his hand. The two men didn't care that the boy came over and quickly handed me the switchblade, they just want to see two teenagers getting beat up and blood being shed.

I stuffed the switchblade into my pocket then I continue to struggle as they carry me by both arms and legs to the arena. I struggle and struggle til I was carelessly tossed like a doll into the arena.

"You ok, Bianca" Matt asked as the cage door was closed and locked.

"I've been better, Matt" I said.

The crowd started to stomp their feet again and cheering for our bloody end to come. On the other side of the arena, the cage door open and Boss walked inside with bandages wrapped around his bloody knuckles.

"Let the round two of the blood shed begin!" The guy on the intercom shouted . . .

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Chapter Fourteen: The Punishment 2: Red of Vengeance: Being wounded in the stomach, Boss finds this an opportunity to go after her greatest weakness, Matt.