Battle Planet: The Champion of Earth by Andrew Gates

Author:Andrew Gates [Gates, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-22T16:00:00+00:00

***

When she came to, the crowd outside had grown excited. Cheers and chants filled the air like attendees at a Depeche Mode concert.

Jan felt dizzy. The room seemed to spin. She slapped herself in the head, then slowly began to orient herself. The cell bars leading to the arena were on her left. The shadows’ cell was straight ahead. The door to the hall was to her right. That meant the bears’ cell was behind her.

Now back with her bearings, Jan studied the inside of the room. The first thing she noticed was that Itzel was not in her usual spot by the door. Odd. Jan quickly looked around, realizing that Itzel was looking through the bars instead. She’s never watched a round of the competition before, Jan thought, surprised to see the woman there.

Friedrich was next to her, holding his aching head with one hand and massaging his back with the other.

Jan turned her gaze into the arena now.

That’s when it all came back to her. She remembered everything now.

Ru, she recalled. Little Ru.

The innocent seven or eight-year-old girl trembled and spun her head nervously as she held her oversized weapon. She stood beside a mounted guard as her platform rose to the surface, then came to a full stop as it reached the top. A trail of liquid flowed down the girl’s toga between her cocked legs.

“Ru!” Itzel longingly called to her through the bars and reached her hand through to the outside.

The girl instantly turned to face Itzel and walked off the platform to meet her. The mounted guard quickly followed behind and shouted some orders, alien words which Ru could not understand. When the girl did not stop approaching the cell, the guard then stabbed at Ru in the heel with its spear.

“Ja’i!” Itzel shouted, desperately pressing herself as close against the bars as she could as if she herself could feel Ru’s pain.

Ru turned to face the mounted guard and stumbled back. She struggled to get to her feet, but the guard stabbed at her in the heel again, this time drawing blood.

“Ru, you have to get back to the platform! The contest hasn’t started yet!” Friedrich shouted, frantically pointing to the platform.

The girl saw Friedrich’s motioning and quickly stood back up. She stumbled to the platform with tears in her eyes. She looked back at the cell as she moved, not breaking eye contact with Itzel the entire time. When she finally stepped back onto the platform, the guard stood down and sat calmly on its horse-like animal.

It was in that moment that Jan realized she had not even bothered to see who else was in this battle with Ru. She had paid exclusive attention to Ru and none of the other gladiators.

But before she could even have a chance to study the others, the gong chimed. The battle had already begun. It all happened so fast.

Ru’s mouth and eyes opened wide as she stared at Itzel with an expression of pure desperation.

Jan was not quite sure what happened next.

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