Apex Predators (3 page)

Her tattoo was covered with ointment and gauze and they
were led to brush their teeth and brush their hair out. When they were finally
led back to the stalls little trays sat on each of their beds. Oatmeal, a
banana and two bottles of water sat on the trays. A plastic spoon and a napkin
were laid beside the bowl.

She pretty much inhaled the still warm oatmeal, bananas and
drunk the water. She felt much more human again and a million times cleaner.
The three of them were talking about the tattoos when a third woman joined into
their conversation.

Her name was Dawn and she had a soft voice, she was
another blonde who had been taken out of the stalls with them. They pretty much
all had the same theory. Her number was 320 so she was the 320
^th
woman they had taken. Piper was 319 and Kira was 321.

That was beyond disturbing on so many levels. “You said
pretty girls never stuck around. Is this why you think?” She asked Kira. “Look
at these women, this is exactly why. It has to be.” She agreed with her. “There
traveling to other cities to, no way are all these women from this small ass
town.” Piper stated. She also agreed with her.

Their conversation was stopped when they started hearing
the sound of chatter and laughter from somewhere in the stable. Stall doors
being slid open could be heard as well. It wasn’t long until their own doors were
opened and they were pulled out. They were walked in a line again down an aisle
towards the sound.

They were stopped and stood in a line behind other women
from the stalls. She looked to her left through a rectangular pexiglass window
into a huge indoor arena. The ground was covered in flat smooth sawdust. The
ceiling had long glass skylights, two very large mint green chandeliers hung
from the ceiling.

A painted low gray brick wall and a metal white railing went
down each side of the room filled with people. Above on a higher level on a
long couch of some sort sat the two men in suits sat on it looking at the
crowd.

“Well, ladies this is the first night of the Apex Trials.”
A large man spoke from the front of the line. “You will be sent out in pairs of
two, a weapons wall is at the opposite end of the arena.  The only way to win
is to kill or lose and be killed.” They all just stared at him.

“The only way to kill a vampire is to harm their brain or
chop off their head, if you win you will go on to part two in two days. Good
luck ladies.” He grinned brightly. She was still stuck on the whole vampire
thing. She still refused to believe they were real.

They watched through the window as a voice boomed over a
PA system. “Welcome to this year’s Apex Trial, we have a lovely batch of new
contestants that will be joining us in just a moment.” The large audience
loudly applauded.

After the voice was done speaking the first two women from
the front of the line were led into the arena. A lone short haired brunette
stood in the center smiling at them. “Let the Trials begin!” The voice boomed
out and the girls were left in the center with just the brunette.

None of the three women moved at first. The brunette looked
harmless. The crowd was yelling for them to do something. Suddenly the brunette
lunged forward like a snake going for a mouse and grabbed one of the women up
by her throat. The next second the woman was soaring across the arena and
landed hard on the ground.

The crowd started hooting and hollering. No one should be
that strong. She had tossed the woman like a football. The second woman had the
sense to dodge the brunettes attempt to lunge at her. The brunette was fast
though and snatched her on her second try.

The woman she grabbed couldn’t get away and she looked
away as her neck was snapped and she was dropped to the ground. The crowd
cheered loudly. The little brunette had just killed the two women with lazy
ease. Her own stomach turned as the next two very scared women were pushed into
the arena and the two dead bodies were removed by men in overalls.

The next women stood a little further apart from one
another and from the brunette looking slowly between them. One of the women was
heavier set with a short shaved hair cut but she was still pretty, the other
was a prettier red head with a thin but curvy body that you could make out in
the black dress.

The brunette went for the red head first but the bigger
woman had her back and grabbed the brunette by her hair and used her weight as
an advantage and took the brunette to the ground. The red head ran forward to
help her.

The brunette went to get up and the bigger woman slammed
her to the ground by her shoulders and sat on her pinning her arms. The crowd
was going crazy now.

She could see bets being placed and the two brothers
talking to one another and gesturing to the red head. The red head made it to
the wall and randomly grabbed a weapon, a spiked wooden bat. This was sick, how
could they just sit back and watch this?

The brunette surged up from the ground and with her arms
still pinned she bit into the heavier woman’s neck.

The woman screamed and was flipped off of the brunette as
she tore into her. As she stopped screaming the brunette went to get up but the
redhead swung the bat.

The bat stuck in the back of the brunettes head and she
screamed now as the red head jerked her back and pulled the bat out and wasted
no time bringing it down on her face. The brunette twitched once or twice and
then stopped moving completely. Blood covered the arena floor where the two
bodies lay.

The crowd cheered loudly and the redhead was promptly
escorted out another door than the one they were by. A truck came and cleaned
up the arena and smoothed out new sawdust. The announcer clicked on announcing
Kim finally being taken down and by a bat of all things.

That caused some laughter. She was a nervous wreck and her
stomach was in knots. This is how it went. A new vampire was brought into the
arena, a very large man. He took out duo after duo. She turned away from the
window after a minute.

She heard the announcer say something about a four on one
but she didn’t know they meant her in that four until the doors were opened and
there were only four of them left. She was ushered into the arena and the doors
closed behind them. Piper and Kira stood on either side of her they glanced at
one another. How were they going to win this?

The crowd had grown quiet besides a few murmurs. She knew
if they stood close they were sitting ducks. This man was only in a leather
vest and was almost seven feet tall and his arms were more like boulders. He
didn’t look exhausted at all and why should he?

The man was just killing like it was nothing; none of the
women had stood a chance. She had no idea how but she was determined not to die
in this hellhole or let her friends die either.

The man grinned at them but it wasn’t friendly. They had
been in the hall talking about how he moved and studying his strategy before
they had turned away so she knew exactly what was coming. He stepped forward
and stopped, looked confused and then went right towards Piper who knew what he
was about to do and moved out of the way with ease and quickly put distance
between the two of them. They needed that weapon wall.

The fourth woman, Dawn, apparently didn’t pay much
attention because he grabbed her up in a second and dug into her neck. Her
friends gave her a look and she knew they had just had a silent conversation.
Piper ran and jumped on his back. He let Dawn go and went to grab Piper but
Kira kicked his legs out from underneath him. In the meantime she went for the
wall.

She sprinted to the wall and grabbed the first black
handle her hand touched. As she ran back to her friends who were dealing with
the man a door opened and another vampire ran into the room.

The crowd cheered loudly. She came straight at her but she
dodged out of the way and faced her.

She looked at her weapon, a scythe. The woman smiled at her
and then leaped in the air like an animal and came at her.

She turned the scythe and swung it upwards successfully
catching the woman in mid air in her stomach. She landed on the ground and she
had to twist to get the damn thing out back out of her.

She dislodged the scythe and swung it at the woman’s head
and almost threw up as it disconnected from her body. She turned and ran back
towards her friends. The man reared up from the ground but Piper tackled his
legs knocking him down and Kira kicked him in his face and jumped down on his
back.

They struggled keeping him down. Kira rolled out of the
way as she reached them and she swung the blade down into the back of his head
ending his miserable life.

She threw the long blade down on the ground and her quickly
friends embraced her. Poor Dawn was dead on the ground. She realized the room
was quiet. They looked around and all eyes were on the three of them.  

The room erupted in deafening applause and two vampires
emerged to escort them from the arena.

They were led to a different row of stalls. These looked
the same on the outside but the inside was different. There was an actual twin
bed against a wall, a real toilet with a curtain around it and a sink. The bed
actually had a blanket set on it. This was laughable. Don’t die and they got a
twin sized bed and a sink?

She was closed in and sunk down on her mattress. She had
killed twice. She felt no remorse, those disgusting things deserved it. She
couldn’t fathom yet that this was all real.

That vampires ran some secret morbid fight club.

No, she couldn’t believe that vampires were real at all. She
sat staring at the wall for who knows how long. She heard a voice from the
aisle way talking to the red head she had seen in the stall across from hers.

“You did very well tonight.” She heard the voice and knew
it was the blue eyed man. She couldn’t hear the woman’s response.

She did her the door unlocked and slid open .It was silent,
they were talking low for a good few minutes and then she heard the distinct
sound of heavy kissing.

She was instantly disgusted. How the fuck could she kiss
that vile man? He was clearly the ring leader of this whole thing with his
brother.

Soon the sounds were far beyond kissing. The mattress was
creaking and her moans of pleasure echoed throughout the quiet stable. She had
to of been in that room when he screwed and killed the blonde. She heard Piper
mutter under her breath as she drew her knees to her chest and put her head
down.

They had to get out of here. She had fallen asleep in her
position and was sore the next morning being awoken by a tray being slid
through a slot in the stall door, breakfast. “Eat up girlie, you got a big
night tonight.” Skulls laughed and walked away.

Breakfast was the same thing as what she had last night but
now there was a muffin and some orange juice. She picked at it but drank the
orange juice. They were instructed to put their trays back through the slots
and as she did a plastic bag with 320 written on it in permanent marker was
shoved through.

Toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush and a new outfit identical
to the one she had on, a simple note told her to wash up and put this on.
Folded inside of it were a rag and a hotel sized body wash along with a lace
thong and bra. How did they know what sizes they wore?

She quickly used everything in the bag and changed. She lay
back down on her bed and fell asleep. She was awoken by Piper and Kira calling
her name. Right before her door was slid open and the blue eyed man was
standing there.

She was wide awake now and sat up. “You did well last
night.” She couldn’t stop the glare that overtook her face. “That won’t work on
me.” She snapped at him.  She briefly had forgotten just who she was talking to
but instead of kill her he smiled at her. It was a beautiful smile but she saw
the points of his teeth and that ruined it.

“I don’t want to fuck you.” Well, that was good to know because
she didn’t want him to. “Well. I do. Not here though, I wanted to let you know
I have something special planned for the second trial tonight.”

She just looked at him wanting him to burst into flames
and got to hell where he belonged. Something so beautiful shouldn’t be so deadly.
He left after that. He couldn’t have just told her that from outside of the
cell?  “Hey, we need to plan.” Piper whispered from the other stall. “We also
need to not draw his attention to us but it’s too late for that.” Kira spoke up.
She agreed with both of them. It wasn’t as if she asked for him to stop in for
a chat though.

“We need to know what were up against before we plan, they
might expect me to go for the wall again so Piper why don’t you go for it this
time?”  That would leave just her or if they pushed the three of them out
together again then that would leave her and Kira to deal with whoever they
sent in the arena with them.

Piper agreed she would go for the wall either way. She
couldn’t believe they had gone from playing pool to planning how they were
going to avoid being killed and killing someone.

She spent the rest of the day restless and nervously
waiting for what tonight would bring. They were fed again and a few hours later
they were led back towards the arena. They were at the end of the line again
but this time on purpose. The red head went first with a spike haired mocha
skinned girl.

They faced off with a skinny girl who moved inhumanly
fast. When she grabbed for the spike haired girl the red head got her off of
her before she could hurt her but she just went back at her and killed her the
second time. The red head managed to make it to the wall why the woman was bled
dry.

She took a hammer to the skinny woman’s head and came out
a red bloody mess but with her life.

The crowd cheered for her as she was led from the room.
Another green haired woman survived the night but besides that it was a
massacre. These poor women, she wanted to do something, anything to help them.
They were being sent in as a trio again and two women stood waiting for them.

They were ruthless to anyone before them and she knew this
was literally going to be a fight to the death. There plan wouldn’t work like
this. They would need at least one down. It was only three on two tonight no
fourth girl was sent in with them.

The two vampires in the ring were called Ursla and Windy.
They both had metallic silver hair pulled into ponytails and still had the
blood on them from their previous kills.

As soon as the doors shut behind them, Windy came at
them. She knew the chick was fast from watching her. They scattered like
marbles in different directions of the arena making her have to come at one of
them separately.

Ursla went for Kira who ended up nearest to her and Windy
made it to Piper a grabbing her friend by the throat. Piper didn’t let her get
the grip she was looking for and broke free and punched her in the face. A
satisfying crack was heard and her nose started to bleed. Windy’s face was pure
anger as she went for her friend again but she tackled her this time and they
hit the ground together.

Kira was fighting Ursla hand to hand and doing pretty well.

She charged forward herself and shoved Windy off of Piper.
She spun and jumped up grabbing her. She tried to sink her scary sharp looking
teeth into her neck but she moved and she got her shoulder instead.

She cried out in pain as her teeth pierced her skin and she
could feel her start to pull the blood from her body. She grabbed Windy by her
hair and yanked her head as hard as she could, she got her off of her but the
pain in her shoulder wasn’t going away.

 She used upper body strength to flip them and get up.
Windy swung and caught her in the face. She responded by kicking her as hard as
she could in her stomach.

Piper had reached the wall and now ran back and wrapped
some sort of num-chuck thing around Windy’s neck and pulled. It had to have
blades on it because blood squirted from Windy’s neck as Piper pulled. She let
Piper finish her and ran to help Kira.

Ursla was winning their little fight. Kira had bruises
already on her arms that she hadn’t had before and some nasty gashes. Ursla
whirled on her and now Piper who had taken care of Windy.  Kira took this
opportunity to run at her from behind but that had been Ursla’s plan, she
turned and grabbed their friend by her neck and drug her with her across the
arena.

They followed but Ursla was too damn fast. She didn’t
remember what she yelled as they watched her smile at them like she had just
won and tore out Kira’s throat.

Blood went everywhere.  Piper screamed as their friend’s
body was carelessly tossed to the ground. Ursla went at Piper and knocked her down
tackling her; she was at her friend’s side before she could do any real harm to
her though. She kicked her in the stomach before using her good arm to yank her
off.

Ursla grabbed her leg and yanked her down. She landed on
her back and hissed in a sharp breath as she used both of her arms to hold off
the vampire trying to tear out her own throat.

Piper wrapped the chucks around Ursla who almost jerked it
off of herself but she kneed her in the stomach and rolled her. It took every
ounce of last energy she had to hold Ursla still so her friend could almost
fully severe her head.

She had blood running from her shoulder and blood from
Ursla now covering her as well.

Piper gently helped her up and they ignored the cheering of
the crowd as they were escorted back out of the arena. They weren’t led to the
stall block but to a set of stairs within the stable.

They went up the stairs silently and were directed to
enter a room that had white brick walls, a concrete floor and medical
equipment.

A skinny man with round glasses stood in a lab coat. “That
will be all, you may go now. I have it from here.” He spoke to the man who had
escorted them up. He just shrugged and left the room.