THE ARENA

Chapter 4

Nathan was finish building the ladder to get to the WICS when he heard a machine gun go off.

“TWO HOURS ADDED TO THE TIMER; THREE HOURS AND THIRTEEN MINUTES REMAINING”

“Did it really take me that long to build this damn ladder?” Nathan asked, sweat dripping down his face.

“It sure did. Thank you for doing all the work,” a man said, making Nathan jump into a fighting stance.

“Back off, I don’t want to have to kill you,” Nathan said and pulled his blade, holding it out in front of him, ready to attack.

“I want to kill you,” the man said before pulling out two blades, his partner follwed his lead.

Before Nathan could negotiate the couple dropped to their knees before falling over, revealing what killed them.

‘Damn, I did not even see them,’ Nathan thought looking at the couple walking over. “Thank you for saving me,” Nathan said.

“We didn’t save you,” the woman said and pulled a ninja blade out of one of the bodies.

“TWO HOURS ADDED TO THE TIMER; FIVE HOURS AND TWO MINUTES REMAINING”

“Why don’t they rather chop the numbers instead of adding time,” the woman asked, thinking no more time was needed since there are only two couples left.

“AS YOU WISH; FIVE MINUTES PER PERSON; TWENTY MINUTES REMAINING”

“What the hell? They can hear us?” the man questioned, looking around.

“Where is your partner?” The guy asked.

“It does not matter, we only need to kill him,” the woman said and threw a blade at Nathan.

The Blade hit the ladder Nathan has been working on. The woman wasted no time and walked over to the other body and pulled the ninja blade out from the back of his head and immediately threw it at Nathan but missed again.

“One would swear you are missing on purpose,” her partner accused.

“Or I just have fast reflex,” Nathan said, with two of the blades in his hands, thinking, ‘I am no good at ninja blades, I should get to Addison.’

The man launched forward and swiped his blade at Nathan while ordering his partner, “start climbing the ladder.”

She immediately started to climb the ladder while the two men circled each other, swiping every now and then.

Dakota was sleeping, when the back-to-back announcements woke her up, “finally.”

Dakota got out of her tent that has been shading her from the sun all day and noticed something against the stage that was not there before. She looked at the sky, ‘the sun is setting, hopefully, I will have a warm bed to sleep in tonight; after my brains get screwed out.’

Dakota walked over to what looked like the top of a made shift ladder, thinking, ‘is that for me?’

She reached it and saw a woman on her way up, her eyes wandered down to the two men that was circling each other.

Dakota sat down, her legs hanged off the stage, and just watched the men and the woman, thinking, ‘I will be damn if I am getting pinned down tonight.’ A plan forms in her head and she patiently waited for the woman to accent some more.

The woman was about two meters from reaching the top when Dakota stood up and took a hold of the ladder, “hello.”

“What are you doing?” the woman asked, panic in her eyes, realizing why it took two to apprehend the WICS.

“Hope the devil f*cks your brains out!” Dakota said before pushing the ladder away from the stage.

The woman screamed but her partner cannot come to the rescue since Nathan had him in a choking hold. The moment the woman hit the ground and broke parts of the made shift ladder Nathan shoved her partner away from him, just in time as the man met his maker by a rainstorm of bullets, his blood splattering over Nathan.

“TEN MINUTES REMAINING”

“What? We are the last ones!” Nathan shouted out.

“NINEMINUTES AND 55 SECONDS REMAINING”

Nathan ran as fast as he could back to Addison.

“What the hell is going on? Why is the time being cut?” Addison asked while Nathan draged one body over.

“Stupid woman had to flap her mouth about there being too much time left,” Nathan said out of breath.

“Are we the last ones?” Addison asked.

“Yes, but I guess we have to get the WICS before the time runs out,” Nathan said and dropped another body near Addison.

“Why don’t you just go up the ladder yourself?” Addison shouted, thinking there was no time.

“Because the WICS is a smart b***h, she just killed a woman,” Nathan said.

Nathan was still going for the third body when the landmine that Addison was standing on, explodes.

Limps and flesh falling down around him, “Addison?!”

“Let’s go,” Addison said, limping as fast as she can.

“If you die, I die and then all of this would have been for nothing,” Nathan said, sweeping her up in his arms and running with her to the stage.

“FOUR MINUTES REMAINING”

Nathan put Addison next to the stage wall before trying to push the ten-and-a-half-meter ladder back to the stage wall. The ladder cracked but Nathan ignored it as he started to climb it as fast as possible, some of the steps gave way after stepping on them.

Dakota tried her best to offset the ladder again, but Addison’s hold was firm.

Nathan reached the stage and got greeted by Dakota’s stiletto in his face, piercing his left cheek.

Nathan grabbed her ankle, “bitch.”

Their eyes met and it shocked Dakota to the core, “you?!”

“Hello again,” Nathan said and climbed onto the stage. Addison started to make her way up to the ladder in great pain.

Dakota grabbed Nathan by his throat, “you f*cking *ssh*le,” she yelled, recognizing Nathan as the last man she had s*x with, “you sold me out?!”