Z 2134

familiar with the powerful energy the hunter orbs could produce, blasting a person to ashes in seconds.
    Viewers cheered loudest during Mesa battles, often hoping this would happen, and sometimes believing they could will it into motion through the strength of their volume. It rarely happened, and despite a new Game every other week, and Jonah having seen nearly four decades’ worth of final battles, he had only seen the orbs cut contestants to nothing at the top of the Mesa a couple of times.
    He paused at the door into the cage, either at the end of his life or taking his final steps into the rest of it.
    Zombies no longer mattered.
    Not today, and probably never again.
    He looked over at Bear, who was relaxed and waiting, still smiling as if Jonah wasn’t any threat at all, even with a machete curled tightly in his palm.
    Jonah looked at the cage entrance once last time, then stepped inside, blinking twice as the gate swung shut behind him and a metal rod slid shut, locking them in.
    Bear stopped slapping the axe into his palm and started swinging it in the air instead, tossing it from his left hand, then back to his right, like a hot potato.
    Jonah circled the man beast, ready to die but not willing to fall just yet, keeping far enough away from Bear that the giant would have to throw his axe to hit him. Jonah was quick enough to duck, but in rough enough shape to miscalculate and make a fatal error.
    “It’s over for you now, Mr. Officer Man!” Bear laughed, then shook the axe above his head and brought it down hard against the Mesa’s metal surface to show Jonah he could hold the rattle in his arms.
    Jonah continued to circle.
    Bear laughed louder. “Watch, listen, and report this!” Bear cackled, mocking the City Watch signs posted around each of the Cities.
    Bear then swung his axe in a wide arc, probably not intending to hit Jonah, but rather scare him. Bear swung the axe through the air a second time as he glanced to his right, still laughing.
    There was something horrible and knowing in his laugh. Jonah followed the giant’s gaze to the left and over the Mesa’s lip. Fifty feet down, on the ground, were nearly a dozen zombies, moaning their banshee cries as they ambled into the clearing, quickly crossing the empty land to the base of the Mesa. Jonah wondered if the zombies had found the entrance he’d used, or if the Network opened up other doors along the wall surrounding the clearing. He didn’t have time to look, however. He had to keep his eyes on Bear and his mighty axe.
    Death was a matter of preference: the killer without mercy before him or the walking dead below. The cage had never opened during a final battle before, and he hoped the Network wasn’t introducing a new wrinkle to add to the Wow Factor — a cage battle plus zombies!
    But as the zombies began to ascend the same ramp he’d just come up, he was almost certain that something bad was about to happen. Really fucking bad.
    Once the zombies reached the Mesa, they’d be able to walk around the lip of the cage, and likely reach inside, which limited how much room each man would have to move around. One step too far, and the zombies might reach in and get them.
    Jonah imagined the audience back home and how much they must be cheering through the streets. He hated that Adam and Ana were probably watching from wherever they were.
    The Final Battles were almost impossible for civilians to avoid; even four-year-olds knew when it was Finishing Day. It was the biggest day for the State-run television, always on a Sunday so everyone could watch, and was also a huge boon to the gambling industry — the legal, and illegal, ones.
    Death was life, and entertainment for the masses.
    But this was his life, and his death — and knowing his children would probably see him torn to tatters, either by zombies or man beast, was something he couldn’t accept. That they might be rooting, along with many others, for him to receive Darwinian Justice, cut him deep.
    Jonah wasn’t guilty.
    The City was guilty. From the esteemed “one true leader” Jack Geralt to the leaders of the Inner Circle, to the Directors to The Watchers — everyone who had played along in the charade was guilty.
    And in that sense, Jonah, who was part of the machine for so long, was guilty .
    He hadn’t killed his wife, but nobody would ever know of his innocence if he didn’t make it out of The Darwin Games alive.
    He screamed, then charged at Bear. Bear was expecting