"Mighty Warriors! You have a new cage mate. You can call him ’The General’" shouted Draco followed by a scornful laugh as he abruptly pushed Zach inside one of the barred room.
Zach had managed to memorize every corner of the passage they had just walked through. Just like the other rooms that he’d seen on their way here, the room that he was in now was around eight by six feet with a metal bed bolted to the ground, a sink and a toilet.
Only one side of the room had a complete wall from floor to ceiling, while the other sides were covered with metal bars, dividing the rooms with each other. It looked so much like a cage. That was probably why Draco was calling it a cage; a human cage.
Each of the ’cages’ had only one occupant. It looked like they were all fighters. Based on their facial features, Zach could tell that they all came from different places all over the world. Although he presumed that the majority were his fellow countrymen.
"So General... I hope you enjoy your new five-star room! Don’t forget to make friends and enjoy your last time together because later on you will have to kill each other! Ha ha ha ha" Draco added, followed by an evil laughter that roared throughout the deck on which all the cages were located.
"You’re the new fighter? Hi, I’m Riley... I’m also known as ’Pretty Boy’, which is my alias," said a man who excitedly greeted Zach from the right side of his cage, as soon as Draco left.
True to the alias he was given, Riley had a small body, a fair skin complexion and soft feminine facial features.
"Uhm, can you understand me?" Riley asked as he moved closer to the metal bars which separated him and Zach.
Zach answered with a simple, "Yes."
Riley almost jumped out of joy as he said, "Finally! I’m glad to finally have a neighbor whom I can talk to! The man before you did not speak at all, so I often just shouted to Cobra if I wanted to have a conversation. Cobra is the guy over there, to the left of your room. He also speaks our language."
Zach turned his head to the room on the left side of his cage, and looked at its occupant, a man whom Riley called Cobra. He was sitting on his bed with crossed legs and his eyes closed. It looked like he was meditating.
Zach remained quiet and just laid down on the bed.
Riley moved even closer towards the metal bars between him and Zach and whispered as he jerked his head in Cobra’s direction, "Doesn’t he look scary? So, I heard you are called ’The General’. But I think my alias would suit you better. You’re so handsome. Maybe you could be ’Pretty Man’. Though you’re not exactly the delicate type like that..."
Riley paused to look at Zach with admiration. This was the first time he saw a handsome fighter like Zach. All the other fighters looked scary and most of them were unsightly.
He then added as he scratched his head, "By the way, though I look like it, but I’m not a boy anymore. I’m already twenty six years old. But yeah, they called me Pretty Boy because of my small body, compared to most, and my soft features."
Zach ignored Riley’s continuous chatter about his appearance. He instead just asked, "Why are you here?"
Riley leaned his face onto the metal bars and said, "I was sold by my uncle when I turned eighteen. I became a street fighter and miraculously got taken in by a kung fu master. However my master was killed."
Riley sighed as he continued narrating his story, "... So in short, I ended up in this organization and have been serving as one of their fighters. But the Boss said he will set me free if I win this upcoming tournament."
Riley reminded him of Torin, who was also a blabbermouth. Zach would only ask him one question and Riley would respond with ten answers.
’I hope he is fine.’ Zach muttered silently at the sudden thought of his best friend who had saved his life.
"And you really believe that?" Cobra interrupted mockingly in his deep and loud voice, hearing the word ’free’ from Riley.
"Boy, did you not hear it? They will change the rules this time, so you will have to fight until your last breath. Do you really think you could win against each and everyone here? Or do you think anyone here would spare you, instead of fighting to the death for their own freedom?" Added Cobra with a gloomy face.
Riley dropped his shoulders and shrunk his body more until he was slouching on the ground. Zach got up off the bed and went towards Riley and squatted down in front of him.
He was gathering more information about the tournament to see if there were other details that he could use to his advantage.
Then Zach sighed and said, "Cobra was right... They were only saying that to motivate you so you would fight fiercely for your freedom, but in reality you will only have to fight for your life. Even if you don’t die and end up winning, as long as you are still profitable for them, they would never set you free. They will still keep you locked up in a cage, just like now."
Cobra’s eyes were still closed as he said, "So it’s better if you don’t get close to anyone here, boy, because you will end up killing each other..."
Riley crumpled his face and irritably said, "Can’t we at least experience having a good friend once before dying?"
Zach looked at Riley with pity and sorrow for his misfortune. He felt apologetic about the fact that a pure-hearted man like Riley had managed to fall onto Leon’s grasp. For a person to be able to retain his innocence despite all of the hardships that he had gone through, it would only mean that Riley was a good man.
Zach’s abhorrence for Leon grew even more. The man was truly a plague to society for subjecting good people like Riley to a horrible ordeal such as this.
Should Leon somehow decide to join the fight himself, Zach wouldn’t think twice to end the bastard’s life.
Zach’s mind was busy formulating a plan on how to escape the ship before the tournament began. He had already heard enough about it to understand what Leon had in store for him.
It would be a violent and brutal tournament in which every fighter would have to eliminate each other by death until the last man standing.
Zach gritted his teeth because he knew that Leon would never let him off easily. Leon obviously did not plan for him to only fight. He wanted him to kill. He wanted to see blood on his hands. Well, Zach wouldn’t mind killing. As a soldier, he had killed before. But the blood he had on his hands had always been of those who were scum of the earth.
But to kill a man like Riley...
Zach sighed. He must escape from the ship no matter what...