Infliction |Infected Book 2|

Chapter 3 - Ryder

"Just talking to myself about how lovely the view will be," I said tightly as I reluctantly waltzed over to sit next to Vivian.

Turner and Vivian began to murmur to each other as I eyed the sea of people below me.  I could see how this used to be a normal theater with a stage at the front, but instead of a cast of actors singing, there was a line of men in black with guns.  I looked away from them and looked at the elevated stage about the size of a boxing ring.  The red ropes that probably once dangled along the sides were now replaced with twined barbed wire encompassing a blood stained floor.  The seats to the right and left of the cage had been modified and turned in so that they were facing the 'show' they were about to witness.

"Ladies and Gentleman,"  The loud voice boomed again through the speakers.  The audience hushed and turned to look towards the big red doors at the back of the theater.  "Please give a round of applause for the most acclaimed fighter in the cages.. Ryder!"  The audience stood from their seats; men raising their chins with pride and women fidgeting in their dresses to get a glimpse of Ryder. 

The doors swung open and in walked Ryder with a firm stride down the long aisle of seats.  I heard girly shrills from the women and cheers erupted from the men as he passed, leaving them in his quake.  Ryder didn't look to them or touch their hands that reached out to high five him; his eyes stayed locked onto the cage in front of him.  The cheers began to subside as he opened the door to the cage and stepped inside, closing it behind him.

I gripped the edges of my arm rests as the red doors opened once again and a stream of light shone in through the entrance.  The soldiers shuffled in hauled and infected boy, who had to be younger than I was.  His hair was short and black and his face was completely unscathed except for the field of acne that spread across his cheeks.  As he snapped his teeth, I could see the shimmer of braces that lined them, and my heart throbbed in remorse at the thought of how young he must be.

I glanced back at Ryder who was standing in the cage, motionless except for the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed in deeply.  I could see the sadness in his eyes and I knew that he felt the same way I did about the boy approaching him.  I wanted to scream at him and tell him not to hurt the boy too much, but I saw Vivian watching for my reaction out of the corner of my eye.

I tried to keep my face devoid of all emotion, but I found it harder and harder to do as the boy approached the cage.  His snarls broke over the excited crowd and rang to familiar in my ears, sending me back to when I was running from the infected.  Chills swam down my spine and I felt the urge to find a weapon and protect myself. 

A soldier stepped in the cage with Ryder, keeping the boy restrained in his arm and held out something small and twisted to Ryder.  A smile broke onto Ryder's face and a rich laugh exploded from him.  If I wasn't where I was, and about to watch what I was going to watch, I would have smiled at his infectious laugh. 

"He's amused with his weapon," Turner chuckled two seats down from me.  "I figured it was time to start getting creative with him."

I narrowed my eyes to examine the weapon in Ryder's hands and then they widened in horror.  "A corkscrew?!"  I screamed in disbelief.  "Are you kidding me?!"

 My voice rang high above the babble of the audience, the snarls of the infected boy, and Ryder's laughter.  Every single one of them turned to look at me. 

The audience's eyes looked confused, wondering who I was.  Their gaze turned understanding as they saw I was sitting in a balcony with Vivian and Turner.  Ryder gazed at me with amusement, the side of his mouth turning up into a grin of acceptance.  The infected boy snapped his jaw at me and growled lowly, drawing everyone's attention back to the match.

"You'll regret that later," Vivian whispered in my ear, just as the bell rang.

The boy launched himself into the air and towards Ryder who reacted quickly by jumping to the side, sending the boy running into the barbed wire.  I watched as he pulled himself out of the barbs, blood beginning to trickle down his face and the rest of his body.

Cheers came from the crowd as Ryder punched him in the face, knocking the boy down onto his back.  The ecstatic look on Ryder's face seemed fake, but the crowd joined in with him as he raised his fist in the air. 

The boy started to get up off of the ground, but he wasn't up for too long before Ryder roundhouse kicked him to the jaw.  Another roar from the crowd deafened my ears, and Vivian couldn't even hear me as a sob came from my lips.

This continued for another half hour, the boy becoming a bloody battered mess that stumbled along the stage with hunger and pain in his eyes.  Silent tears ran down my face as I thought of the boy before the infection, probably with his nose shoved in a book at the local coffee house.  I could tell Ryder hated every blow that he landed on the boy from the pain in his own eyes.  Just end it already, my mind spoke.

As if he could read my thoughts, Ryder grabbed the boy by the neck, picked him up, and slammed him down onto the floor of the cage with a hard thud.  The audience winced at what that must have felt like and laughed to themselves. 

Ryder straddled the boy's chest, pinning his arms down with his knees and kept his head still by holding his throat.  Bringing the corkscrew in the air first for everyone to see, he brought it down into the boys eye, making him scream a gut-wrenching sound that made me shiver and the audience explode into cheers of satisfaction. 

Blood spurted from the boy's eye as Ryder began to twist the corkscrew further and further into his eyeball.  The screams began to overwhelm the crowd's volume as Ryder ripped the screw out and held it in the air.  On the very top sat an eye with streams of nerves wiggling off the edge of it.  My face turned cold and I felt bile rising in my throat.

I tore my gaze away from the screaming infected and back to Ryder who was holding his weapon and prize in the air.  Slowly he brought his arm down and turned to look at the boy.  I read his leaps as he said, "I'm so sorry," and raised his wrist to the boy's mouth.

Braced teeth sunk into Ryder's skin and he closed his eyes in the pain of the bite.  Suddenly, the boy's head dropped to the floor and color flushed back into his face.  Ryder stood up off of his body walked towards the door of the cage, leaving the cured infected on the floor.

In the ring the boy brought his hands to his eye and rolled to his side screaming and sobbing at the same time.  Ryder's skin glistened with blood as he walked back up the aisle towards the doors.  I saw his face begin to turn red as he reached the doors, flung them open, and slammed them shut behind him.  I might have been the only one to hear it because I was so enveloped with Ryder, but behind the doors of the theater I heard a heart-shattered scream, and I knew it was Ryder.

If a guy like Ryder can't even handle this, I thought nervously to myself, then how the hell am I supposed to?