Gyaros Book One: The Mice Eat Iron (YA 17+ Sci Fi Adventure) (40 page)

“Yeah that’s true,
and I could probably deal with three of these freaks on my own,” agreed Maxen. He stopped for a moment to think before continuing,

“I’ll grab my bike and scout around for someone to make up the numbers, it’ll be faster and safer that way. You keep an eye on things here, I’ll try and be quick, get this shit over with.”

Miles nodded in agreement and Maxen exited the truck, this time making his way to the back of the pickup. Miles sipped away at the water in his canteen and took a look in the rear view mirror to see how Maxen was getting on. Miles frowned when he saw Maxen talking to someone at the back of the truck, his dark face much paler than usual and looking genuinely shocked. Miles had never seen him look so stunned and his heart began to race. ‘What the hell is going on back there?!’ Miles placed his hand on his pistol which was tucked into the front of his trousers, leaned out of his window and shouted back,

“h
ey, everything alright back there?”

Maxen looked up to Miles.

“Uhhh, I think you’d better take a look at this Miles.”

Hopping out of the truck
Miles rushed to the back to see what what was up. He looked under the tarp which Maxen held aloft and he felt his heart stop in his chest for a moment. Miles felt shivers travel up his spine and he choked slightly on his own saliva. Sitting there next to the beat up old motorcycle was the miserable figure of an extremely distraught Lucy, her eyes red and swollen from sobbing, her arms folded indignantly in front of her chest and her mouth pulled down at the sides creating the very opposite of a smile.

“L-Lucy, I-I don’t…”

“You said you’d never leave me,” Lucy said in a weak warbling voice then sniffing. Miles didn’t know what to say, this wasn’t supposed to happen.

“Look Lucy, I-I only wanted you to be safe,” he appealed but Lucy didn’t budge.

“But I’m safe with you! How could you just leave me?” she said, her voice rising as she visibly fought back tears. Maxen motioned to Miles that he would leave them to settle things and walked away sheepishly to check out the various stalls and try to find an extra teammate.

“Lucy you have to understand,” Miles gesticulated emphatically
, pulling his eyebrows together in an expression that attempted to appeal to Lucy’s sense of reason, “I didn’t
want
to leave you, it’s because I care about you so much that I couldn’t bear to see you in danger again, I just didn’t want you to get hurt. Adam and Miriam are nice people, I thought you would be happy with them.”

“I love Adam and Miriam but they’re not my papa!” Lucy slammed her
left fist down on the truck bed making a large dent in the thick steel. Miles had to be careful, she becomes a threat not only to him but to many others when she loses control of herself. She continued angrily, “you said the only thing that matters is the moments we’ve shared, the things we’ve been through together. You said you would take me with you to Carthage and let me visit your house, your family. Why did you lie to me?” tears began welling up. It was clear from her bloodshot eyes and her croaky voice that she’d cried much of the way to the arena, and it seemed like she still had a few tears left. Miles felt disgusted in himself, how could he explain what he did in a way that she would understand? It was too late for that now, the fact was she was there, with Miles, at the Arena. He had to deal with the reality.

“Lucy,” he said
sitting down next to her under the tarp, and looking deep into her glistening dark eyes. He placed his hand on his chest, knitted his eyebrows once again and continued, “I’m sorry, I truly am. You don’t know how hard it was for me to make this decision. I know you think I’m selfish for leaving you at Adam’s but that’s not true. It hurt so damn much to drive away without you, I didn’t think of myself even once. You have to believe me, I only wanted you to be safe.”

Lucy’s shoulders relaxed and her lower lip began to tremble, she jumped on Miles and embraced him tightly burying her head in his chest and bawling uncontrollably. Miles
placed his arms around her and gently stroked her soft dark hair.

“There, there, it’s okay, everything is okay.” But everything wasn’t okay. Lucy had tagged along and now everything changed. Miles still needed to get back to Carthage but could he really take Lucy with him? What if he did and she lost control around Chet, or around Hellen? What if thos
e who created her on Carthage came looking for her, Miles still had no idea why she was sent to Gyaros in the first place, or where she came from or what she was designed to do! And if he chose not to take her to Carthage with him, what if she became emotional, lost control and killed him? How could he possibly find a safer place to leave her than with Adam and Miriam, and would she ever trust him again anyway?

Miles was a man completely conflicted. He genuinely loved and cared for Lucy, but at the same time he was well aware of her erratic nature and the danger she pose
s to anyone and everyone when she becomes her other self. Although it hurt to leave Lucy back at the homestead he knew it was the right thing to do, he knew that the pain would subside and all would be well. Now he wasn’t sure of anything anymore. Miles could see Maxen coming back toward them from the bustling crowd. He frowned sorrowfully as he looked down at Lucy crying and Miles doing his best to console her. He could relate, for weeks he and Jenny had turns of crying and comforting each other after the death of Mellissa. He felt their pain as he watched while Lucy cried her eyes out, and Miles gently rocked her and rubbed her back.

“Hey, you two patch things up?”
asked Maxen. Miles simply sighed and shrugged.

After another minute Lucy let go of Miles and wiped the tears from her eyes and cheeks. Miles handed her a tissue which he produced from his back pocket and she blew her nose.
Miles looked puzzled.

“Lucy, how did you
know we were leaving? I thought you were asleep!”

“When I had my operation,” she started, sniffing and gulping for air
, “I had a bad dream. You told Adam you were gonna leave me here. I know it was just a dream but every morning I woke up early and pretended to be asleep so I’d know if you’d try to go away without me,” she blew her nose again and continued, “this morning I followed you to the truck and got in the back while you were reading the map. I knew you wouldn’t let me come so I had to hide…” she started crying again. ‘She overheard my conversation with Adam while she was under the influence of the dreamscape, damn it! That’s why she was so scared when she woke up!’

“So look Miles,” Maxen
interjected, “time’s tickin’ on. I know you didn’t expect Lucy to be here but we still gotta get ourselves some money today or we ain’t getting’ outta here man.”

“I know, you’re right,” Miles looked to the sky, the sun was directly above them and was no longer rising
, “did you have any luck finding a third person for our team?” But before Maxen could answer Miles went on, “wait a minute, you’re going to have to find two more team members now!”

“Two extra members? Wait…why?” Maxen exclaimed.

“Well because there’s no way I’m leaving Lucy on her own in this place, have you seen the people here!? I can’t enter a fight with you and just leave her here, she’ll attract way too much attention. She’s the only kid here for God’s sake!”

“Shit,” Maxen said under his breath and he kicked dust into the air
, “so what on Carthage do we do? I just talked to twenty people and couldn’t get one of ‘em to agree to team up, no way I’m getting two and still having time to fight today!”

“Well I’m sorry Maxen,” Miles shouted back
, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, “but you know, things didn’t exactly go to plan today, we need to rethink everything!” Maxen folded his muscular arms and growled.

“Let me fight
,” said the weak, whispery voice of Lucy who stared down at the dusty ground, her feet swinging off the edge of the truck bed.

“Absolutely not,” said Miles
, “this is exactly the kind of thing I wanted to avoid by leaving you with Adam and Miriam, I won’t let you put yourself in danger like this. There has to be another way, we just need to think.”

“I just want to help, why won’t you let me help?”
she asked looking up at Miles indignantly, her brow furrowed and her mouth in a pout.

“
Lucy it’s not a matter of helping, it’s a matter of being in a fight. Your weapon is for self-defence, Maxen taught you how to use it in case you were ever attacked, not so you can fight in arena battles. Isn’t that right Maxen,” Miles looked up at Maxen hoping against hope that he would back him up.

“Well that’s true
,” said Maxen, “but listen Miles the girl’s got a point.”

Miles stood up and threw his hands in the air in exasperation.

“Oh for God’s sake Maxen, are you serious?!”

“He
ar me out man!” said Maxen putting out his hands in a conciliatory manner. “Look the whole point was for me to do the fightin’ right? You and Lucy hang back, stay safe and I’ll take care of the action. They’ll be too busy with me to even notice you guys. And hey, if the three of us fight we don’t need to share the spoils with no one else, which means we’ll be outta this shit hole even sooner!”

Lucy looked up at Miles in anticipation. Miles meanwhile rubbed his face in frustration, not only was he outnumbered two to one on this,
but he knew that Maxen had a point. This really was the only viable option at this stage. They could probably make it back to Adam’s before dark but what would be the point of that? They’d only end up back at the arena needing to make some cash anyway and there’s no way Lucy would fall for the same trick twice. It was unlikely she’d let Miles out of her sight ever again after what he did!

“Fine,” said Miles
after a long sigh and Lucy jumped, a smile breaking through the gloom for the first time that day. But she quickly put on a serious face again to make sure Miles was fully aware that she was still angry with him. “We do it like Maxen says, you stick with me Lucy and we’ll let Maxen do the fighting. Only use your weapon if it’s absolutely necessary, okay?”

“Yes papa.” Miles
squatted down and put his hands on her shoulders.

“We already fixed Adam’s tower so we can’t afford for you to lose another arm
, you hear?” he said jokingly, Lucy let out an almost indistinguishable giggle but Miles heard it and smiled.

“Speaking of which, Adam and Miriam must be worried sick about you going missing!”
said Miles looking into Lucy’s eyes.

“Oh don’t worry, I left them a note. I said thanks and told them that I was going to New Fortune in the truck with you
,” she sounded quite proud of herself.

“Well that’s a weight off my mind
. That was very responsible of you, well done.” The pair smiled and hugged. ‘What have you done Lucy, for once everything felt right, now I don’t know what to think anymore…’ It would take more than a hug to repair the damaged trust between them, and Lucy was still far from happy about being snuck out on and left behind, but it was a start. Miles knew their situation was dire but there was no point staying upset. They needed money, and fast, they had to patch things up and work together. Miles stood to address Maxen.

“So I guess we’d better sign up before they stop taking registrations for the day.”

“Hell yeah, lock the truck and follow me.”

The trio made their way to the registration booth where they had to wait in line another twenty five minutes under the sweltering sun. Finally it was their turn to speak with the man in the booth. The sweaty young man was covered in acne and his voice broke when he spoke.

“Please register the name of your team, the names of the individual team members, their weights, heights, ages, their gender, bio-mechanical constitution and their fighting style
. When completed place the form into the box on your right then enter the tunnel and take a seat in the competitors section. When your team name is called make your way down into the arena and fight.” The young arena employee took a breath after rattling off the spiel he must have repeated already a hundred times that day, “you got all that?”

Maxen grunted and pulled the registration form
and pen from his sweaty outstretched hands. The form did not have to be filled out on the spot so Miles, Maxen and Lucy headed back to the truck and got inside, out of the sun. Lucy sat in the middle of the cab’s bench seat.

“So let’s get this over with,” said Maxen holding the pen and paper
. “We need a name,” Maxen slapped the pen on his chin, deep in thought.

“How ‘bout Maxen’s Marauders?”

“Hmm, a bit one sided don’t you think,” replied Miles.

“Well
shit yeah, ‘cause the fights, sure as hell, are gonna be one sided. I’m the one doin’ the heavy liftin’ remember?” said Maxen defensively, Miles laughed, he was only teasing.

“What about The Lucynators!” Lucy shouted laughing, Miles and Maxen giggled as well.

“This is so stupid,” said Miles, “we just need some money, we might as well call ourselves the Hungry Bastards. Look just go with Maxen’s Marauders and let’s move on.” That made Maxen smile, despite the juvenile nature of it. He carefully filled in the team name and placed his and Miles’ names into the individual team member slots. He stopped at Lucy.