• Chapter One--Paintball

    Sahara knew this was no ordinary game of paintball. There were no such things as playful, ordinary, simple games here. This was a place where those who survived the game lived for the next one. This was the planet Talair, and this was a place for no baby.

    The shipment of new players and terrors that were the bane of Sahara’s existence had arrived this morning, effectively knocking this game from next week to today.

    As Sahara caught her breath behind a rock, her followers passing her by inches, she thanked her muse for giving her the idea to take a mud bath to hide her blonde hair and bright clothing she had been forced to wear. She was on the Prey’s side this time. She wondered for a moment why she seemed to be on the Prey’s side more often than the Predator’s when it came to search-and-shoot games.

    She gave a mental shrug and caught her breathing when she heard someone on the other side of the rock she was crouched by. It seemed to be a boy by his deep breaths. Sahara hoped that is wasn’t Snow. Snow had always had a grudge on her, she didn’t know why. And she knew if it was Snow, he would show no mercy. He was one of the rare ones who had been born and raised on Talair.

    The hairs on the back of her neck rose as she recalled what he had whispered to her as the gun was placed in his hands. He had hefted it in his almost bulky, muscular arms and grinned at her with those icy eyes he got his name for. He took one long step towards he strung a lock of her long hair between them.

    “I’ll see you out there, hot stuff.” He growled in his rough voice and she shoved him away.

    She had gotten her name for her looks, but she hated it when the boys and men here mocked her about it. “Hot stuff” and “heat wave” were two of the most common plays on her name.

    “You’ll only see me under your boot in your dreams, icicle.” She replied and his eyes narrowed.

    “We’ll see about that, desert wind. We’ll see,” Then he had walked off to the other men and women who were on the Predator side.

    The gunshot went off to let the Prey have a head start and Sahara had bolted off into the several acres of woods that they had fenced in for this game and more.

    She had five hours to stay safe and not get hit.

    The boy on the other side of the rock moved and brought Sahara out of her thoughts with a jolt. She tensed up and the movements stopped again. She bit her lip and closed her eyes tight, waiting patiently for the enemy to go away or find her. She hoped it would be the former.

    Suddenly, air from someone breathing deeply touched her face and she took in a hissing breath. They found me! I’m done for!

    “Shh!” Two fingers pressed against her lips and they were soft and calloused at the same time. Her eyes flipped open to see a boy kneeling in front of her. He pushed up against her so she was tight between his body and the rock. Another pair with guns ran past.

    As soon as they were safely gone, Sahara asked, “Why did you save me?”


    Chapter Two--Pine Needles

    The boy gave her a curious look. “We’re on the same team, right?” Sahara noticed his also mud-covered clothing. She sighed a bit. Her muse must not have original ideas.

    Sahara shook her head and gave him a look. “You must be one of the new ones, huh?”

    He winced and rolled a shoulder. “Yeah,”

    She sighed. “That makes sense. You don’t understand the unspoken rules around here.”

    “Unspoken rules?” He looked confused.

    “Exactly which planet did you come from?” She pushed him back so he sprawled onto his butt. She stood up and looked around quickly before glancing at him. “It’s dangerous if you stay with me. Staying in numbers when you’re Prey is a death wish.”

    He gaped up at her and she sighed, putting her stringy, dirty hair behind her shoulders. She was surprised he had lasted so long.

    “Well thanks for your…generosity.” She walked off, not looking back. Sahara skittered off into the shadows, disappearing from the boy’s view.

    Jalard watched after the girl covered in mud and smiled a bit. She was sure spirited about all this. As she left his field of sight, he shook his head and walked in the opposite direction she had taken.

    Little did she know, but he was by far an amateur in this kind of business. In fact, he had been brought here for a reason.

    To defeat and kill the one here named Snow. Oh, and don’t forget his opposite.

    The one they called Sahara.

    The only problem: He didn’t know what they looked like. But he would find them, pick them out from the hundred who lived here.

    Now all he had to do was win the games. He rubbed his hands together. This would be a piece of cake.

    ***

    Sahara climbed another branch. He was coming. Sweat dripped down her face and she looked at her watch desperately. There was less than half an hour left. How had Snow found her?

    She braced herself where she was in the thick pine and ignored the sticky sap that was probably stuck all over her clothes and hair. He was right below her!

    Snow looked around with the gun set loosely in his palm and resting on his shoulder.

    “Now, my little desert. I know you’re around here.” He chuckled deeply and she shivered. A dead pine needle dropped onto the ground by his foot and she froze.

    Snow bent over to pick up the brown needle and grinned, looking up into the tree. “Ahh…” He sighed. “There you are, heat wave.” He slowly took the gun into a shooting position and pointed it up.

    A click. A small ball of the paint mixed with poison whizzed past Sahara’s ear, passing her to hit a branch on the other side of the tree. She held back a cry and shuddered again, little needles raining around Snow.

    He chuckled again and prepared to shoot once more. Sahara looked around for anything she could use and saw a patch of pinecones. She smiled and quickly moved across her branch to them, another poisoned paint ball passing her.

    Sahara plucked one off and aimed for Snow’s smug face before chucking it at him. It went a little to the side, but the open cone scratched his ear in the passing. He seemed surprised that she had retaliated, but it was only a second before he pointed the gun again at her.

    “This time, I won’t miss, desert.” He grumbled and was bout to shoot when a gunshot beat him to it.

    He faced the north, where the entrance to the woods was and sighed, lowering the gun as it made a clicking noise, to prove that it had automatically locked itself. It wouldn’t be able to be used until the next paintball game.

    “You won’t be so lucky next time, hot stuff. I’ll be ready for you in the next game. Don’t go lettin’ other people hurt you now, got it?” He started walking off and Sahara jumped out of the tree lightly, landing on the balls of her feet.

    “We’ll see about that, blizzard. We’ll see,” She quoted, yelling after him.


    Chapter Three--Muddy Waters

    Sahara came out of the forest after another twenty minutes. She had been on the far side of the forest and she had wanted to avoid Snow, so she had taken a longer route.

    The leader came over to her. “Ah, Sahara. I was just about to mark you as missing in action.”

    “I’m not going down that easily.” She said lightly.

    “Yes, you are a flaming ball of will, aren’t you?” He looked her up and down and sighed. “Go take a shower before coming to the mess hall.”

    “Yessir,” She saluted him and ran off to the showers gladly. It would take plenty of washings before she felt anything near clean again.

    Sahara grabbed one of the large towels they put in the front and noticed that there must be someone else in the showers. Towels were always stacked in fives and there had been four left before she had taken hers. She shrugged.

    She moved quickly inside the small building and heard a shower going off in a separate section. Her guess had been correct. Sahara went to the other side and moved behind the thick blue curtains that closed off one of the showers.

    She quickly stripped out of her clothes now caked in dried mud that was still soft to the touch where it was thickest and tossed them over the curtains, knowing that they were pretty much useless now. It would just be a waste of time and bleach if she tried to wash them out.

    She turned on the water and plunged her head under it, even though it was still cold, warming up slowly. Silt-like mud and dirty water dripped from her head down to ooze to the drain and she winced. This stuff would take forever to get out of her hair, possibly even still be there for several days. Her muse sure had a sense of humor.

    That’s what you get for making a pact with the muse of tricks and games before you came here, she told herself and sighed, starting to attack her hair with soap and shampoo.

    Six shampoos, one bar of soap, and three conditionings later, Sahara finally felt somewhat clean again. She turned off the spray of the shower and wrung out her hair, reaching out for her towel hanging high on a bar connected to the cement wall.

    She made a contented sound as she wrapped it under her armpits, flipping over the top few inches to make sure it stayed on, pulling it up some more. It still went down to her knees, which she was glad for.

    With a population of one hundred in this specific part of Talair, only a fourth of them were girls. With all the men and boys everywhere, it was better to be modest. There were always those stories of multiple rapes from somewhere else on Talair, but she had never come in contact with it. The general here was strict. If he found you messing around, you would probably never be seen again. The chances that you would get caught or found out were too large.

    Sahara shook her head, clearing her mind as she came out from behind the curtain and into a bare chest.

    Hands caught her before she fell backwards and she tensed ready to punch whoever this was in the jaw if he did anything to her.

    She looked up to give a steely look to whoever it was. Then she blinked.

    “So, we meet again.” The boy who had kept her safe out in the field smiled down at her.


    Chapter Four--Orange Eyes

    “So you made it out okay, I see.” Sahara muttered and wrenched her arms out from under his hands.

    “You sound like you would have rather had me die out there.” He chuckled and for an instant, Sahara thought it sounded really nice, nothing like Snow’s laugh.

    “No, I’m just surprised you make it out okay.” She said without really thinking and looked around for her muddy clothes. They were nowhere to be seen.

    “Uh-huh.” He sounded smug. “And I threw those clothes away. You couldn’t have cleaned them out easily.”

    “I was going to throw them out.” She retorted. “I’m not stupid.” Sahara turned to give him a look and her eyes trailed over his form unintentionally instead.

    As he was only wearing a towel snugly around his narrow hips, and he wasn’t covered in mud, she was able to actually see better what he looked like. His hair was short and black, ruffling around his ears in wet spikes. His bare skin was bronzed by everyday sun and his lithe muscles made her think that he worked for some sort of agricultural job. His cheekbones were strong and his mouth curled up into a smile naturally, dimpling his cheeks. When Sahara met her eyes with his blue-green ones, he arched a black eyebrow.

    “Like what you see?” He smirked.

    Sahara blushed a little. “S-Sorry. You’re new and all so…I guess I was only sizing you up.” She gave him the lame excuse.

    “Yeah, I can tell that you really thought hard for that one.” He shook his head. “But…if that’s really why you were looking, I hope you don’t mind me doing the same?” His eyes roved over her form and she blushed harder, gripping the side of her towel with one hand, her other one reaching up to clutch at the top of it, pulling it a bit higher.

    Jalard appreciated her body silently in his mind. A beautiful blonde with a curvy body hidden behind the large towel that left little imagination of how long her pale legs were. And she had a spunky attitude. Maybe his stay here wouldn’t be so bad.

    “Anyways,” She said shakily and Jalard looked up into her bright orange eyes. Just like little suns. he thought absently. She must come from the planet Tzerk. They had different orange and red eyes there, found on no other planet.

    She ran a hand through her long hair. “I should probably go and get some clothes to get dressed into…”

    “Oh, yes. Sorry.” He automatically backed up and she glided past him, her arm brushing his as she paused at the door, looking around before she ran off to a small building close by.

    Sahara ran into her room and closed the door, leaning against it. Her heart was beating crazily and she knew it wasn’t just from the sprint she had run. His ocean eyes, looking at her like that…if he hadn’t been new, she would have broken his nose.

    She sighed and sank to the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees.

    She couldn’t wait for the ceremony tonight.


    Chapter Five--Mother Hen

    Sahara stared into the mirror and sighed. They didn’t let you wear dresses here and it made her slightly sad. She had left so many of her cute outfits behind. Who said that gladiator women didn’t act like girls?

    The ceremony is one of the only things that you had to dress up for here. It was where you introduce yourself to the group and they make a name up for you to be called for the year—or less—that you would be here.

    Sahara thought of names to call the boy she had met in both the forest and the showers. But she couldn’t be the only one to choose it. It had to be consensus.

    Sahara walked out of her room and to the main building, where they would meet in the mess hall, rearranged to reveal foldable chairs with padding placed in a circle.

    She had put on black pants that were tight around her thighs, ending to flare a bit over her black boots. Her black shirt clung to her torso and she felt confident that even though it wasn’t exactly the best outfit in the world, she still looked good enough for the ceremony.

    Sahara came into the newly changed mess hall and saw that most of the people were already there. Everyone would be here, all but the newbies. The general would bring all the newcomers at the same time

    Sahara went over to sit by Hen, the older woman, still young by gladiator terms, who looked more like a mother than someone who would be here. But she was and she kept surviving.

    Hen looked at her and smiled softly. “Hello, little desert.” Her voice was soft, knowing that Sahara didn’t like being called that in a condensational way. Sahara knew that this was not mocking, more of a comforting word than an insult.

    Sahara smiled back. “Hey, Hen.” She looked around and frowned. “I forgot how many we had lost…”

    Hen’s eyebrows puckered. “Yes, you forget so easily. I think we lost almost thirty this month.” She sighed sadly.

    “I think so, too.” The memory of Shadow’s dark eyes, glaring at her was she put the gun against his chest, over his heart.

    ‘You don’t have the chance to feel shame or regret here, Sahara. Don’t hesitate to kill the one who will hurt you as soon as your back is turned.’ He smiled a bit. ‘Live your life, dearest desert. You, if anyone, have to survive this place.’

    The words floated through her mind like pale lines, continuing as she remembered the tears streaming down her face as she kissed him softly at the same time as she pulled the trigger. He jolted under her touch and she blinked her wet eyes clear to watch the last shreds of life in his black eyes dissipate as he fell to the ground.

    Sahara shuddered and remembered the killing spree she had gone through after she had grieved over his dead body, her hands and clothes splattered with Shadow’s blood.

    She alone had killed over ten of those thirty, her vision red with anger and self-disgust.

    “Sahara?” Hen broke her from her reverie. “The new ones are coming.”

    “Oh. Right. Sorry, I just kind of left with my muse to the land of wanderings.” She said the excuse from her planet.

    Hen just smiled and shook her head. “I heard there was a really handsome one in this lot.” She waggled her eyebrows and Sahara laughed once before silence fell onto the group of gladiators, waiting for the sight of the people they would be battling in the next game.

    The general walked in first and barked a few orders behind his shoulder and kept the door open as the newcomers walked in a straight line to sit on the chairs that were set in the middle of the circle. Sahara watched closely and smiled a bit as she spotted the boys.

    Hen let out a quiet whistle. “Wow, Potato wasn’t lying. He’s one good looker.”

    It took a bit before Sahara realized she was talking about the boy. She smiled wider.

    Yes, this would be an interesting ceremony.