In Search of Home

Chapter 11

The ringmaster must have thought it was enough fighting because the whistle that ended the arena's fights pierced the air. Oorah and Viktor both stilled, well-trained in the shocks that were handed out gleefully if they both did not stop fighting. Growling, the beast snapped its jaws at him threateningly. Viktor snarled back. Blood dripped down from the bite on his arm. It throbbed painfully.

When he looked up at the ringmaster, he had been expecting him to wave his employees to fetch Viktor and take him to be treated for the bite on his arm. He was expecting the ringmaster to be nonchalant in his stature, face relaxed, or perhaps a bit happy at the money he had surely received on the outcome of Kohgrash's fights. 

What he was not expecting was a frantic alien shouting at the ringmaster, gesturing to the world outside of the arena. What he was not expecting was the whistle hanging from the ringmaster's mouth with a look of shock written on his face. 

The ringmaster yelled one word, and pandemonium erupted. 

The crowd started scrambling for the exits, stomping on each other in their haste to get out. The noise was unlike the level of chaos he was used to hearing. Everyone outside of the arena was fighting to exit the place. Employees and patrons alike scattered. The ringmaster himself was quickly getting escorted away, but the two aliens that were accompanying him quickly stopped him. They pulled out something from under their clothing and showed it to a shocked ringmaster. 

Worried now, Viktor quickly turned away from the ringmaster, unconcerned with what those two aliens wanted with him. He needed to get back to the warehouse. This could be their chance to escape! 

Feeling cold with nerves and sick with hope, Viktor quickly ran to the door he was always shoved through. By some divine luck, the door had been left wide open, no doubt in response to the quickly aborted whistle and subsequent panic. He shoved the heavy wooden door open, following the path he has taken hundreds of times to the warehouse. There was no one here. Viktor thought he was going to be sick with relief. 

"Guys!" he shouted breathlessly as he ran into the warehouse. He skidded to a stop right outside the closest cage, sheltering Zach, a man he hardly knew. He inspected the door quickly, frantically looking for a lock, a handle, anything. 

"Viktor? Where're the aliens?" Aiko yelled, rushing to the door of her cage. The others followed suit, confusion lacing their faces. 

Nearly speechless with hope, Viktor explained what he had seen out in the arena. "I think those two alien guys were cops or something. Everyone left! We can get out of here!" He shook the door frantically, yelling in frustration. "Fuck!" 

He moved on to the next door, but it was the same. There was no way to unlock the door. The remote. They were usually attached to the belts the employees wore. His hands traveled to his hair as he grit his teeth in dismay, feeling hot blood drip into his hair. The hope that he had in his chest was quickly getting snuffed out. "I don't have the key," he said miserably, looking at each of the others. They, too, had gotten their hopes up.

"Damn it," Ezekiel cursed, kicking his water trough and sending water spilling over the edge. "Fuck!" 

There was a moment of silence, accented only by the commotion happening outside the walls. 

"You said cops were out there?" Pedro asked after the silence became too unbearable. 

Viktor shrugged helplessly, clutching his arm with the other hand. "It could've been another ring leader for all I know. I just ran here as fast as I could." 

The commotion got louder, closer, but it was more of organized chaos than the frantic mess he had witnessed earlier. The ring's patrons must have all fled by now. Viktor stepped closer to the cage doors, feeling exposed as he stood on the wrong side of them. His heart leaped in his throat as the sounds of footsteps, dragging tails and shouting got closer to the warehouse. He nearly jumped out of his skin as the door opened. 

Lilac was in the doorway, looking around a bit frantically. Her eyes landed on Viktor, standing in front of one of the cells with his hand wrapped around the bars, wide-eyed. "Kohgrash!" she yelled. 

Viktor scrambled as Lilac started rushing at him. Suddenly very afraid of what she may do to him since he was out of his own cell, he frantically started running towards it, easily dodging her large hands as she tried to grab him. "Kohgrash," he heard Lilac say, exasperated as she followed him into his open cage. He glared at her from the corner, glancing at the warehouse door. He could run out. But he would have to leave the other humans behind. He couldn't do that. 

"What?!" he shrieked at her. He was pressed against the cool wood wall behind him, feeling trapped. His heart was pounding out of his chest. "What do you want?!"

The others were speaking, but he could barely hear them over the rushing of his blood in his ears. His chest was heaving, but he could barely get any air in. He was feeling light-headed. He looked down at his arm, feeling a bit sick. His whole lower arm was covered with his blood, which seeped sluggishly out of the bite wound.

Lilac was shaking him roughly, grabbing his reddened wrist. When had she gotten hold of him? She was uncapping the ointment tin with her other hand, and he tugged his arm weakly, whimpering. "Please, no. I'll be good. Please," he begged to no avail. It wasn't like she understood him, anyways.

After needless squirming and hot searing pain, Lilac let go of his arm and capped the tin. She shouted something down the warehouse, and Viktor noted foggily that bigger aliens started to swarm in. They were hauling in carriers of all sizes. Some were big enough for Oorah and others were the sizes of cat carriers back on Earth.

He glanced at his arm, waving it around for a moment. It was still throbbing, but the sharp pain from the bite had dulled significantly. The wounds were closed, just barely, leaving raw red skin behind. Viktor didn't know when he had fallen onto the floor, but he sat up, pressing a hand to his head. Lilac looked down at him, a strange expression on her face. It took Viktor a moment to place it through his lightheadedness due to blood loss. Worried. 

He couldn't protest when she scooped him up in her arms, though he did let out a grunt of protest at being carried. He was too dizzy to do anything drastic, and his adrenaline had left him when he had been slathered with ointment. He was placed carefully in one of the larger carriers, glad to be out of Lilac's arms but missing the warmth. 

After a short moment, Viktor could feel a hand carding through his dirty hair. He cracked open an eye wearily, finding himself on the lap of Aiko. Pedro sat across from them. The floor beneath them was rumbling. "What...?" 

The hand in his hair stilled for a moment. "Nice to see you, sleeping beauty," Aiko said, resuming her ministrations. "Lilac fixed you up and put you in this cage. She must've managed to convince those cops to stick us together because me and Pedro were put into this one. The others are in two other carriers. No idea where we're going." 

"Huh," Viktor smacked his lips, feeling thirsty. "Maybe back'ta Ear'h?"

There was silence, a sigh. Viktor felt his foot getting patted by Pedro. "Sure hope so, kid. Doesn't look like it, though. Go back to sleep, you need the rest."

Viktor obeyed.