Chapter 12
The Game
It was later the evening and David was still tending to a wounded foot. Despite how bulky and strong his appearance was, it had wounded him greatly and had bought him down to his knees, basically. David was out and about with Penelope and Sarah, as Jack stayed back complaining that his head was sore, in which David merely rolled his eyes at.
The brightly lit city of the angels was glowing warm under the set sun and the crowds swarmed into the city centre like moths to a bright light. It was animosity and it was something that Sarah had to put a stop to, but not now. She was Jill, not Sarah. She had to stay in character for the fate of Spyral laid gently in her palms and she was the one that had to call the shots.
David hobbled along the dirt paths with the aid of Penelope helping him, while Sarah refused to help the wounded. It was her belief after all and her perception of what society was like, and David understood this, but he didn't know how long it would be until he had a go at Sarah. But for the time being, he kept low and he kept quiet.
Knowing little about Penelope and her nature, Sarah was blissfully ignorant of Penelope in general. She hadn't shown any uprising or anything in the defiance nature, but Sarah had her own paranoia eating at her.
It was muggy and the humidity had to be over fifty percent tonight for the people's clothes stuck to them like glue almost. There were many people down on the streets tonight for it was the night where everyone got their food ten times cheaper, and this only happened once a month, and ever since The Council had their regime implemented. This was meant to 'help' the people to cope with the day-to-day struggles of life, and food was the number one priority at the top of the list. Sarah could see women and their families just carrying boxes full of fruits and vegetables. Some had meat in them as well. It was unbelievable the animosity in their eyes, they were a bunch of rabid dogs in Sarah's eyes, not humans.
Where was the control of outflow of food? Where were the guards and the control? By the rate The Council was going they would eventually run out of food for everyone, including for themselves. Where was the rationing? Sarah was obviously appalled by the environment she walked through, almost being bumped several times by large bulky men, who held strong resemblances to pigs. She stopped and turned around, to see Penelope and David not far behind her.
"Something wrong, Jill?" asked David, as he came to a halt and Penelope halted as well. Sarah shook her head. "What's the matter then?"
"I can't find the apples," answered Sarah, who kept herself placid by acknowledging the fact that she didn't want to be sentenced to death by The Council, before Spyral had a chance to fit back at them.
"Over there," said a lady, pointing to the piles of red and green apples not far from where the trio were standing. The lady had overheard Sarah's answer and had stopped specifically to help her out.
"Thank you," thanked Sarah, giving the blonde-haired woman a small smile.
"Well, aren't you the polite lady?" asked the woman, as Sarah nodded. "I'm glad someone has manners around here. All this pushing and shoving, doesn't sit well with someone who's claustrophobic-" Sarah saw the lady staring at something or someone behind her. She frowned as she turned around to realise that the lady was staring. Sarah should've known, sh was staring at the town bicycle. Sarah rolled her eyes and looked forward. She walked on, leaving the town bicycle, Penelope and the strange lady to themselves. "Why am I not surprised to see you here, David?" Her speech was thickened by her very obvious English accent.
"Well if I were to be a surprise to you, I did a bad job of it," answered David, as he couldn't help but to give a faint smirk. The lady who had the blonde hair and wore a blue sundress looked from David to Penelope who had one of David's huge arms wrapped around her neck, for that was the only way Penelope could help him, seeing how Sarah refused to help the poor man who had been attacked twice by the same method of injury but by two different people. "This is Penelope." He smiled, with cheek.
"Hi..." Penelope had no clue who she was greeting and looked rather confused. David turned to her.
"This is Holly," he introduced. He lowered her voice and took it down to a whisper in her ear. "Beware, she's a vixen to women and to all men. So if she gets nasty with you, I'm telling you now, no surprise. She's the meanest Worlder I've seen since, I don't know, Sarah, I suppose. But even Sarah has flexibility at times, this one never budges. She was born arrogant, I swear on my father's grave."
"What are you putting in that girl's head, David?" asked Holly, crossing her arms. If any onlooker had been at the sidelines of David's entire life, that onlooker would have concluded that David loves blondes, thus, Holly and Bella, on top of every other blonde that had crossed David's path, more than once, and David made sure they crossed his path more than once.
"Nothing," answered David, with an innocent look on his face. He was almost tempted to put his puppy eyes on but decided that motion was too desperate. He was desperate, but not that desperate. He already had Bella wrapped around his finger, he didn't want more, just for the time being.
He tightened his grip around Penelope, to the point where Penelope was starting to think that she was David's doll for the evening. Penelope didn't know David that well, personally, but she saw how every woman treated him. With the eyes of a dog - the puppy eyes when it was obvious that the woman was in love with him, and the other, the eyes of a rabid dog - the ones that held this characteristic had made it clear that they wanted David dead. Probably because they were once the women with the puppy eyes turned rabid.
"The sad thing about your lies David, they're very easy to pick up, or at least for me," Holly replied, not very impressed with his attempt to tell the truth.
Holly and David went back before the dawn of time, and by that, it's implied that they went back before Spyral had its regime in place. They were once a happy couple who sat on their porch on their Texan porch every dusk to watch the sunset. Holly, who was originally from England, and by the sounds of it, hadn't lost her accent either, had sacrificed a life in England to be with David. That was until the blast had hit that fateful day, and it was David's excuse to leave Holly, fighting for her life by herself, while he went around the land seeing if there were any jobs he could use as a scapegoat to not come back to Holly. In all honesty, David thought Holly was dead. Up until now. The burns from the blast had lined her once-smooth hands and the scars from being exposed to so much radiation along with the memories, was all that Holly was stuck with.
"I don't know what you're talking about to be honest," David smirked, but gave an honest tone in his voice. "Did the blast rupture your mentality?"
"You left me to die," Holly remembered, as tears started to swell up in her green eyes. The reflections from the lights surrounding them could be seen in the built up tears. "You said you loved me and you wanted to spend the rest of your life with me. Is this how you treat a loved one? Left to just die alone?"
"I thought you were dead so that's why I left," David explained, as Penelope tried to make sense of what was happening but was having a hard time trying to take David's side on this argument. "I left because I was too afraid of what life would be like without you-"
"That's not how I remember it-"
"Holly, you were in shock you don't remember things correctly-"
"I might have a shaky memory of things but there are events that I am certain of," Holly said, uninterrupted. "You were never one for a relationship you just want to play in the playground." Holly gave Penelope a dark look and looked back to David. "Which would explain the mistress that you've got hanging from under your arm there."
"Excuse me?" Penelope pouted. "I'm no mistress Holly, and I can assure you that right now. I am no one's ***** or mistress. And I've never lowered myself to those standards that you're accusing me of lowering to."
"What's happening here?" asked Sarah, coming back with a few apples that she had picked out from the mountains of newly picked apples that were on sale in front of a small market stall.
"We're having a small discussion here," answered Holly. "It's between me and David." Holly cringed and then closed her eyes. She opened them back open again and looked at Sarah. "I'm sorry but who are you again?"
"Jill," answered Sarah. "And you are?"
"Holly," answered Holly, bluntly.
"Well, Holly, you're starting to pick a fight here in public with a good friend of mine and that will simply not do," Sarah told Holly off. "Are you of New World or Old World descendant?"
"I was born and bred an Old Worlder, and proud of it," answered Holly. Holly scanned Sarah with her eyes and frowned. "By the skimpiness of you, you're a New Worlder. Pathetic little New Worlder seems like she can't live with the lovely rule of The Council now. Spyral ain't here to save you no more. Spyral's long gone." Holly was pushing buttons, a lot of them. She was pushing Sarah's in particular. Sarah had gone to all means everyday to avoid hearing such words. Penelope was about to crack as the comment about being David's mistress had severely gotten to her. David just wish Holly would shut her mouth and walk away before trouble erupted.
"Jill, we should go," David persuaded Sarah, but it seemed like he was speaking into thin air. He knew that Sarah wouldn't be holding on too long to her patience but he had no idea what Penelope was about to do.
"And by the looks of you and your little friend, Penelope here, you've been having bites out of David yourselves," commented Holly.
"Holly, are you here just to pick fights or what?" asked David, as he rolled his eyes at Holly's nasty glare that she sent him.
Penelope had lost it, she had enough of Holly and her mouth. She let go of David, who eventually had to hold onto a nearby pole because of his limping foot and came at Holly, in the full view of the public. Penelope managed to get a punch in before Sarah had the chance to separate them. But as soon as Sarah opened her mouth to tell Penelope off for acting like an animal, a full fist had hit Sarah in the jaw. Sarah fell down to her knees, clutching her jaw and almost crying in pain. Yes, she could have fought back as her true nature would have automatically done but she wasn't herself, she was meant to be someone else for a change. Her identity was on the line and Sarah didn't want to be on the receiving end of the firing squad.
"You want to start me, both of you?" asked Holly, as Penelope came to Sarah's aid. Penelope managed to forcefully remove Sarah's hand away from her jaw to reveal blood was pouring out of Sarah's lips and into her hand. Her lips was stained with her own blood.
"Are you alright?" asked Penelope, as Sarah nodded and Penelope helped her get to her feet.
"Oh ****, Holly, don't do this to them, it's not worth it," answered David. Penelope and Sarah frowned as they looked up to see about ten or fifteen men now gathered around them. "You can't bash them for being New Worlders."
"You stay out of this," answered Holly, as she pointed her firm finger at David and turned back around to see Penelope and Sarah looking at the floor. Sarah had dropped her apples and was looking to where they went. Holly detached herself from the circle of men and came into where Sarah and Penelope were standing. Both of the girls looked at her.
"You don't attack people who play the good person who tries to break up the fight," said Penelope. "Your problem lies with me and vice versa."
"Do you realise who I am and what importance I have in this society girls?" asked Holly, as both Penelope and Sarah shook her head. "It looks as though David forgot to tell you something, again. I am the one that everyone obeys and I'll ******* checkmate you when I'm done with you."
"In other words, gangland?" asked Sarah, as Holly nodded.
"Oh ****," Penelope cussed.
"Oh ****, that's right, you've just stumbled across my path the wrong way," answered Holly, as a man who wore a black suit (quite similar to what Sarah's associates wore in the Spyral days) came up to Holly and handed her two small knives. She took them, and threw one on the floor. "The rules to this game is easy. If you live, you win. If you die, well, you lose. The rules are quite simple. I hope you do know how to fight."
Penelope turned to Sarah quite worried.
"Do you know how to fight?" asked Sarah, lowering her voice so that only the two people in the conversation could hear what was going on. Penelope shook her head. "There are two big differences between me and you, Penelope. I know how to fight, on the other hand you do not know how to fight."
"So who's going to play this game of death with me, Penelope or Jill?" asked Holly, as she held the knife in her grip tightly. Sarah turned around and took a step forward. She picked up the knife and closed her eyes. It had been a while that she had held a knife in her hands and she wasn't quite sure within herself that she would live to see another day. "Ah, so it's Jill." Sarah nodded.
It was the matter of seconds and without warning, that Holly came forward with blade pointed straight at the beating heart of her opponent. Sarah held the knife with her teeth, crouched down and waited for her opponent to come at her. Within leg range Holly had arrived in a matter of seconds, and Sarah spun around with one leg stretched out and tripped Holly right over onto her back. Sarah got to her feet, took the knife out between her teeth, held it with one hand and automatically went for her heart. Holly, too, was quick to react, but not quick enough. Sarah had pinned her down with both knees on her chest, and made sure that the tip of the sparkling silver blade lined up with the beating heart of her opponent. Holly grabbed the knife in between both palms as one force was pulling it down towards her chest and the other force was trying to push it away. Holly didn't care where it went but anywhere not in her body. Sarah decided that because Holly didn't play fair before with the quick fight with Penelope, she wouldn't play fair either. With her spare hand, she reached behind her and pulled out a knife. Holly's eyes lit up as soon as she realised that Sarah, or Jill, as she was more known by, had a trick up to sleeve.
Sarah was suddenly pulled back by her collar of her shirt and tossed back onto the dirty ground, where she slid for several metres. She could feel the skin on her back scraping against the dirt and cringed at the very pain of it. A knife went missing out of one hand during the process of her sliding but she managed to keep the knife that she had been originally given. As soon as she realised that she had stopped sliding, she opened her eyes to see a man standing over her. It was one of the men that had stood around in the circle around Penelope. Punch after punch and more blood poured out from her mouth, Sarah finally managed to put the knife through his ribs. He cried out in pain and rolled off her. Sarah got to her feet to see where Penelope and David were, but she could only see where Penelope was. She too was being attacked by the same dressed man. Sarah started to run to her aid, but was side tackled and fell to the ground.
More struggling and more pain, as Sarah felt the very anger in her rise up. Where was David? Was this a set up? Sarah fought back, again, trying to play the game, unfairly as ever. They had cheated anyway, they were attacking Penelope and that wasn't part of the deal. Sarah ended up just headbutting the guy who had pinned her down and knocked him unconscious for a fair good couple of minutes. Sarah got to her feet, staggering to see where she was going. Blood was just coming out of her mouth like it was a fountain and her eyesight had been badly affected.
Suddenly, she stopped, as she realised that Holly was coming at her. She tried to turn back around to try and run because she wasn't thinking clearly at this stage, but she overbalanced and fell to the dusty ground. The back of her top had been ripped open to see the wounds on her back. She tried to get to her feet but just kept stumbling. The next minute she could remember was that she was fighting for life. Holly had grabbed her by the throat and pinned her against a wall that had sharp nails sticking out from it. Sarah cringed and cried, as the pain grew even worse in her back. The sharp pains in her ribs felt like her rib cage was going to explode every time she tried to breathe.
Why did she take on Holly when she knew in herself that she hadn't fought for a good while and lacked the skills she once had?
Sarah heard Holly say something but to her it was just a bunch of random noises that she couldn't make sense of it. Sarah's bloodied face had gone blue and Sarah was still trying to fight for her life. She couldn't see Penelope in sight anymore and the last thing she remembered of David, was that he had gone. He had betrayed Spyral. He had betrayed Sarah.
Holly came out with more random noises that weren't coherent at all and Sarah felt like she was seriously going to die now. But all of a sudden, Sarah heard this bang, and Holly fell down backwards. Sarah felt herself falling, but was too wounded to try and poise herself for landing. But thankfully, she didn't need to. Someone who was clad in black, maybe David, had caught her, and that was the last thing Sarah remembered from that night, right before she fainted.
In all together, Penelope and Sarah sustained multiple injuries that night.
Penelope was the most frightening case, the doctors said who had arrived not shortly after Sarah had blacked out, and Penelope was on the ground crying. Someone who had witnessed the fight had called for emergency. She had abdominal internal bleeding, sustained a cracked skull, and several broken bones. Sarah was quite lucky, she had sustained a concussion, a broken rib or two, minor bleeding, and bruising.
And for the person who caught Sarah. Just say he didn't consider himself to be a hero, he told the authorities, he was just a simple and plain factory owner.
****
