- Argh... son of a bitch.
Lee cursed softly as he stood up, putting his hand on the back of his head, feeling the area that had been hit throbbing with pain.
As soon as they arrived in front of a container, Lonnie, or that asshole next to him, hit him on the head, knocking him out.
- Are you all right, Lee?
Alice's voice caught Lee's attention. He looked at the girl as he stood up, giving her a small smile as he put his hand on her head.
- Yeah, I'm fine.
He replied, raising his gaze to the people he was stuck with.
Some men, some women, even some children, teenagers.
Lee looked around confused, they all had a rather downcast expression on their faces, they looked sad, some even defeated. Others looked like the dead bodies that were lying in the corner of the container, rotting along with the living.
- What the fuck?
Lee grumbled softly, looking at the bodies in the corner. Disfigured, butchered corpses, some of their bones were exposed from their decaying flesh. Lee looked at this in disgust, and the urge he had to kill those people grew a little stronger in his being.
- How long have we been here?
He asked, looking again at the girl in front of him, who was looking at him curiously.
There was a certain brightness, a certain intensity in Alice's gaze, as if she was analyzing him, as if she was just observing the way he was dealing with the situation.
It was a strange look, but one that Lee was learning to ignore, the girl had shown him looks like that several times, and he never found out why.
- Not long, a few minutes.
Alice answered.
- Are you two all right?
He asked, looking at Brenda who was a few steps away, with her back against the cold metal of the container.
She was crouched down, clearly affected, she was hurt mentally, that was obvious, but physically she was fine, apparently.
-They haven't hurt us... not yet.
Alice answered with a sad tone, and Lee looked at her for a few moments.
He looked away and walked to the entrance of the container, looking through the gaps.
He was in a courtyard, the entrance to the factory was just ahead. There was only one man standing guard, he was sitting a few feet away from the container with a rifle in hand.
- That guy, Badger? He said something about an arena, what the fuck is that about?
Lee asked, somewhat uneasy and irritated. It was no surprise that he was in a bad mood, he had been thrown into a container by people he had told himself he would kill as soon as they found them.
And with the whole situation, he was more than motivated to do this.
- It is exactly what it sounds like, an arena, where you are forced to fight unarmed against the dead that they throw at you, as far as I know. I've never seen it, I've only heard about it.
Alice answered again, with that maturity in her voice that she occasionally had, which made her sound older than she really was.
- Any idea where it is? Did they say anything?
He asked, turning to the girl and looking around, beginning to make various plans in his head.
He needed information, anything would do, any bushes, trees or corridors nearby could serve as cover.
- What difference does it make, man? There are guards everywhere.
A male voice caught Lee's attention, and he turned to a man, actually a teenager. He was sitting between two other people, his legs bent in front of his torso as he rested his arms on his knees.
His brown hair covered part of his forehead, he had a small scruffy beard, he didn't look a day over twenty.
He looked like the people around him, dirty, defeated, gloomy. He had probably been there for some time, or had simply been found by those guys in a rather miserable situation.
Maybe those guys were the ones who made him look miserable.
- It makes all the difference. Depending on the place, it shouldn't be so complicated to escape.
Lee replied, starting to look around, looking for something.
- Yeah, good luck.
The young man said again, laughing lightly, almost mocking him.
Lee stared at him for a moment, but then looked around again, the boy was beaten, defeated, of course he would think that way.
Lee began to walk everywhere inside the container, his footsteps being the only source of noise in the place, which seemed to bother some people, but he didn't give a shit.
- Will you be fucking quiet?! What are you looking for?! Whatever it is, you won't find it!
Another man, this time a little older than the previous boy, said somewhat irritated.
Lee just ignored him, continuing to look around, checking even the rusty parts of the place.
- Holy fuck, another lunatic.
The man complained again, this time a little quieter, although he was evidently annoyed.
It was then that an idea flashed through Lee's mind. He turned slowly and stared at the bodies lying in the corner.
It was crazy, almost a sick idea, but he had already done so many crazy and sick things that he didn't even care anymore.
He walked towards the bodies, and pulled one in particular, the one on top of the pile of corpses.
The sound of that dead body falling echoed through the container, and people looked at Lee as if he was crazy.
- What the fuck man?! What the fuck are you doing?!
one woman asked, angry, surprised, disgusted. But Lee just ignored her, slightly irritated by the loud tone she used.
Luckily, the man was too far away to have heard.
- Have you no respect for the dead?
Some other random voice asked, and then Lee looked away, mildly amused by all those incredulous looks.
- I respect the dead, I respect their memory, who they were, but nowadays the dead can be useful to the living.
He said, and turned to the body at his feet. Lee ignored the confused looks of the others, lifted the decomposing leg of that corpse slightly, and stepped hard on a specific part.
The sound of breaking bone made the others complain softly, surprised and mostly disgusted by it.
Even Brenda looked at him in confusion. Alice too, but there was a faint spark of interest in her eyes.
The legs of that body had pieces of flesh missing, meaning that it wasn't that hard to break the bones, and pull them out of the few remaining muscles.
Lee stepped on one part of the leg, to keep it stable while he pulled the bone that had broken out.
Pushing hard, he breaks the bone again, and looks down at his newest weapon. A sharp piece of a human bone.
- This could easily pierce a throat.
He said, mentally thanking the owner of that dead body, and paying his respects, even though it wasn't worth much.
This was cruel, disgusting, brutal, but it was a necessary means to an end.
He looked back at the group of people, who stared at him more incredulously than before.
-You can't be serious...
The woman from before said again, and Lee looked at her with a slight smile as he hid that piece of bone between his clothes, tucking it into his waistband, below his jacket.
Alice looked at him with a happy, even excited smile. As if she was seeing a great attraction in front of her, a show.
- This guy is crazy.
The same man who had complained earlier said again, shaking his head as he looked at the floor.
- We are all crazy, my friend. We wouldn't have survived this long if we weren't.
Lee replied, looking through the gaps in the entrance again, cursing mentally as he saw four armed men talking further ahead.
- You've been here for quite a while, haven't you? Where is this arena?
he asked, growing impatient as he watched the men ahead. They were still talking, but could walk towards the container at any moment.
He looked at them after a while, getting a little more irritated by their silence.
- Fucking Hell. Where is this fucking arena?
he asked again, irritated, looking away from the men in front of him and looking at the people next to him, who remained silent.
- Okay, fine. Stand there waiting to die.
He said, rolling his eyes and looking again at the men in front of him.
-It's not at the factory. There is a soccer field nearby. We are forced to walk there. They get the zombies trapped in the bathrooms and release them all at once.
Lee looked at the boy who answered him, he didn't look so old, fifteen, sixteen maybe. His blond hair was already long, reaching halfway down his back.
- Is there a room nearby? How many exits? How many guards?
Lee asked, still looking at the boy.
- There is the room where Badger stays, he is like the "judge", you could get there through the hallway if not for the guards. There are two accessible exits, the front gate, and the back gate, which is where they bring the zombies. There is also another exit, but it is through the Badger room corridor. In all, there are twelve guards, but half of them are taking care of the factory. Even though they are few, there are still the people who are part of the community, they don't carry guns with them around, but they certainly won't let you out the front door.
The boy answered again, hugging his own legs while trying to avoid looking at Lee.
-Have you been here long?
Lee asked, looking again at the men, who seemed to laugh at something one of them had said.
-Yes... but not fighting in the arena... I watched.
The boy said, and Lee looked at him surprised. The boy didn't seem to be the type who would like something like that.
He had to stop underestimating children, one day he would die because of that.
- My friends and I walked alone for a long time, after our previous group died. We were starving, we found this community, we had no other option. After we saw the rapes, the murders, the torture, we wanted to leave. We were forced to watch the fights in the community's makeshift arena for a while before we tried to escape.
The boy explained, not needing to look at Lee to notice his gaze.
- When they found out that we were planning to escape, they brought us here in a truck and threw me and my friends into the arena. They died, and I stayed alive. This happened one day ago.
The boy finished saying, resting his head on his knees.
Lee looked at the boy with pity for a few seconds, and then he stepped away from the entrance to the container and sat down as he saw the men approaching.
A few moments passed, and the container was opened. Three men stood further back, pointing their rifles in their direction, as one of them entered the place.
- Come on big guy, today is your debut in the arena. Badger really likes you, the others won't have to fight tonight, just to watch your show. Except for you Victor, you're going to fight.
The man said, smiling amused at Lee and looking mockingly at the man named Victor, the same man who had been angry with Lee earlier.
Lee slowly stood up and put his hand up in surrender, calmly walking out of the container, looking around as he left.
- Come on, everyone move along.
The man said again, waiting for everyone to leave the container.
They started walking along the road ahead, heading towards the town. One of the men walked further ahead, another walked right in the middle of the people, and the other two walked behind.
It didn't take long before they reached the soccer field, maybe a ten minute walk from the factory to there. Lee immediately looked at the exits from the place.
It was just as the boy had said, but he didn't expect to see so many people together like that.
There must have been dozens of people there, men, women, young and old. It had been a while since he had seen so many people together.
As soon as they arrived, people began to shout, as if celebrating. Some started shouting insults, and even throwing things at them, from rocks, to even a glass bottle, which broke right at Lee's feet.
He looked coldly at the people "cheering" around him, keeping those insults and those multiple voices in his mind. That night would be very hard work for him.
He had many people to kill.
Lee was very calm about that thought, he couldn't just run away from there, he would kill as many as he could. He couldn't leave those people alive, they would continue to do those atrocities, plus he ran the risk of being hunted down.
Besides, this was not the first time he would commit a massacre. The situation even looked the same, people he wanted to kill on one side, zombies on the other.
- You two come with me. Brenda and Alice, you go with Lonnie.
The man said, pulling Lee by the arm to the center of the field.
His brown eye followed the two girls as they walked away from him and towards the corridor ahead, until they disappeared from his line of vision.
Lee looked around, focusing his eyes mainly on the guards. Exactly as the boy said, six guards. Two were in front of the corridor, two were by the entrance gate, and the last two were by the bathroom doors, probably the ones that would release the zombies.
- I know that many of you have been looking forward to this moment!
Badger's loud voice caught Lee's attention and he looked at the man.
He was leaning on the open window of his office, looking out at the audience with an amused smile.
- The last few fights, although they were fun, were too easy! Not much action! And watching a bunch of teenagers die isn't that much fun!
He shouted again, as soon as the crowd had stopped shouting.
It was a little strange that they were making all that noise in such an open area, especially near a city. But if they had been organizing these fights for a long time, then it meant that they had few zombies around, since they captured them all.
- Those high-pitched screams and that desperation is boring! But today, we have some very interesting people here! Unlike those idiotic teenagers, these ones were not afraid to look me in the eye!
He shouted again, and Lee closed his face when he saw him pulling Brenda by the hair. He closed his fist tightly and took a deep breath, thinking of the ways he could get to that room.
He would have to deal with the guards first, or just delay them, either way, that would give Badger enough time to escape.
In other words, he would have to take one of those guns and try a lucky shot at the man, the problem was, he had a high chance of missing when shooting with a one-handed rifle.
- Today, I have a feeling we are in for a great show! As a testament to my excitement, my personal team will be joining the fight! Release them!
Badger shouted, and from the hallway, some men with melee weapons in hand were calmly walking towards the arena.
Lee looked at them confused, and at the same time, a little worried.
Although there were only four men, they were all armed with machetes in hand, and also had a numerical advantage.
The noise next to him caught his attention, and Lee cursed softly as he saw a huge number of zombies coming out of the bathrooms.
There were bars preventing the zombies from reaching the bleachers, or the men who opened the doors, and the only free way for the dead was to go straight towards Lee, and that man named Victor.
- Damn, this just gets better and better!
Lee heard Victor grumbling beside him.
And despite the complicated situation, it was not impossible to survive that. The greatest of their threats, in fact, were the men. And for the men, the biggest threat was the zombies, since both Lee and Victor were "unarmed", besides being only two men.
- Yeah, use the dead to your advantage.
Lee said, putting his hand on the bone at his waist, and waiting for one of the men to approach him.
