Blood Red Road

move!
    She’s froze with fear, still crouched down by the cell bars where we was talkin.
    Mad Dog spots her.
    What’re you doin there? He pushes his stick through the bars an pokes at her. Come on out, you rat! She shrinks away.
    Leave her alone, I says.
    Oooh, he says. He moves along to my cell an leers at me. If it ain’t the Angel of Death.
    I stare at him. Let him see how much I hate him.
    You think yer somethin, don’t you? he says. I tell you, if it was up to Mad Dog, you’d be outside right now gittin a beatin you’d never ferget. That day will come. An when it does, you’ll be beggin me fer mercy. But not now. Yer the star attraction in Hopetown these days an Mad Dog don’t wanna git into trouble. But I’m bored. I wanna bit of fun.
    He points at Helen. Bring out the rat, he says.
    He jerks his head an the guards unlock the main cage, push their way in through the girls. They twist Helen’s arm behind her back an haul her out.
    Helen! I says. Wait! Leave her alone!
    Mad Dog drags one of the guard’s chairs into the middle of the cellblock an sits on it backwards. His eyes spark with excitement an he’s startin to twitch. His fingers, his shoulders, his feet. That means trouble.
    Let’s see, he says. How about you sing me a song?
    I dunno no songs, says Helen in a low voice.
    She don’t know no songs. Mad Dog looks all around, like he’s surprised. Well, can you dance? Do me a little dance … rat. Go on, what’re you waitin fer? Dance.
    Helen don’t move.
    I said, dance!
    Leave her alone! I says.
    Shut up, jest shut up! Gawdammit, he yells, do I hafta do everythin myself?
    He throws his chair aginst the wall an it smashes into bits. Then Mad Dog starts dancin. He twirls his stick, throws it in the air, dances around it.
    See? he says. Look how easy it is! I’m dancin! Let’s everybody dance! C’mon!
    Helen’s stood there, her arms clamped to her sides, starin at him.
    Suddenly he stops. What’re you starin at, rat? I said … what’re you starin at? He screams it at the top of his voice, the veins in his neck poppin out. He grabs her by the arm an starts draggin her towards the door. She cries out.
    Helen! I scream. Let her go, you bastard! I leap at the cell door, fergettin I’m chained to the cot an the cot’s fixed to the floor. I land face down but scramble up right away.
    Mad Dog shoves Helen at the two cellblock guards. Take her outside, he says. They take her by the arms an hustle her outta the door.
    Helen! I says. No! Helen!
    Mad Dog’s unlockin the door of my cell. I scrabble back onto my cot, into the corner, an kick at him as he unchains me from the cot. He grabs my arm, yanks me to my feet an outta my cell. He pulls up the metal trapdoor in the floor of the cellblock an shoves me down inside.
    Sweet dreams, Angel, he says. Then he spits on me. He slams the door shut an I’m in the Cooler. In the darker than dark. The blacker than black.
    I know I’ll never see Helen agin.

    The girls in the cellblock stay silent. They don’t do much talkin to each other an sure as hell they don’t talk to me. They blame me fer Helen bein dead.
    They ain’t wrong at that. I blame myself. If she hadn’t of bin talkin to me, if I hadn’t needed to know about Lugh so bad, we would of bin more careful. Not talked so long. We would of heard the guards an Mad Dog comin. If we had, Helen might still be alive.
    But not fer long. That’s the truth of it. Helen’s time was runnin out. Everybody knew it. She knew it. She was only waitin to lose her third fight. She was only waitin to die in the gauntlet.
    I seen what’s left of a person after they run the gauntlet. At least she got spared that.
    She’s free now. Like she wanted to be. But she lies heavy on my heart.
    When I ain’t thinkin about Helen, I’m thinkin of how I’m gonna find a way outta here. Midsummer eve, she told me. I gotta git to a place called Freedom Fields in the Black Mountains by midsummer eve. Jest over three weeks from now.
    So I watch. An I wait.
    My chance is gonna come soon. I know it will. It must come.
    It must.

    I stand in the middle of the Cage. Stare out at the crowd. They jump to their feet an roar fer me. I’m the biggest draw they ever had in Hopetown. They pack in when I’m fightin.
    I look up through the top bars. Nero’s there, like always. Perched on top of the light tower that stands right next to the Cage. It ain’t carried light since Wrecker days, of course. Now all it carries is the