Never had she ever thought in her life of striking a baby...but these creatures were different, if she stayed still long enough then these infants would eat her alive.

She looked over her shoulder and saw the babies righting themselves on all fours to attack once more, she grabbed one and shoved it away, but her arms ached and she was tired and the creature was soon upon her. Biting hard on her already b.l.o.o.d.y arm, Ca.s.sandra felt the pain, but would not accept it, she struggled with the infant on her arm as the others leapt on her back.

She reached out for a weapon of some sort and grabbed some broken wood at her side, ignoring the splinters that now entered her hand, she swung hard and struck its side.

The infant yelped and fell off her, she twisted around and fought wildly, kicking and punching at her miniature attackers. They pulled at her clothes and shredded them with their tiny claws, Ca.s.sandra screamed and rolled around as their claws dug deeper on her flesh. "GET OFF ME, YOU b.a.s.t.a.r.dS!"

Her eyes roamed around her body at the *babies' as she began to pa.s.s out from the frenzied attacks on her body until she heard a voice.

"GET OFF HER, BOYS, YOU CAN SHARE HER PARTS LATER...POTTY MOUTH IS MINE NOW, I'LL CUT OUT HER HEART FOR A SANDWICH." The creature paused. "HMM, A BACON AND HEART SANDWICH. SOUNDS LOVELY RIGHT ABOUT NOW, MIGHT ADD SOME EGG OR CHEESE TO IT."

The infants recognised the voice immediately and scattered, crawling away with each one having taken a bite from the fallen teenager.

Ca.s.sandra was still looking upward when the voice came into view.

"h.e.l.lO, POTTY MOUTH."

The humongous monster who she saw earlier stood over her, his stench, staining the air. The creature grunted. "THE ONES WHO SURVIVE CALL ME *STREAKY' BUT NOT MANY SURVIVE, POTTY MOUTH. IF YOU TRY TO ESCAPE, YOU'LL END UP LIKE *FIREHEAD' HERE." The beast roared with laughter as Ca.s.sandra retched when she saw what was around his neck, it was the head of the red-headed girl she saw in his hands earlier, on a gruesome chain.

"SHE WOULDN'T DO WHAT I SAY, SO I TAUGHT HER SOMETHING. WHEN YOU CRY...YOU DIE."

Ca.s.sandra couldn't hold it in anymore and vomited on to the last remaining infant too slow enough to move away from the orders of *Streaky'. "YOU LIKE, POTTY MOUTH? I COULD TWIST OFF YOUR HEAD IF YOU LIKE? WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE A SET."

She wiped her mouth and screamed at him, "YOU SICK FREAK!"

Streaky wheezed and bent down cracking his right hand knuckles against the forearm of his oversized left arm. "ROSES ARE RED VIOLETS ARE BLUE...I'M GONNA GUT YOU LIKE A FISH."

Ca.s.sandra had no more screams inside her and just mouthed her horror at the monster lumbering its way towards her, the creature held a can of lighter fuel in his hand.

"ATE THAT OTHER GIRLY RAW...GONNA COOK YOU THOUGH, SWEETIE, MIGHT ADD MARSHMALLOWS AND PEANUT b.u.t.tER."

Ca.s.sandra scuttled backwards on all fours, ignoring the pain in her side. "WHAT ARE YOU?"

Streaky grinned and put the fuel can down. "TV PEOPLE MAKE ME, PUT ME IN HOUSE AND GAVE ME MY *BOYS'. PEOPLE COME TO MY HOUSE AND I GET RID OF THEM FOR TV PEOPLE, STREAKY GOING TO Sc.r.a.pE THE FLESH FROM YOUR BONES NOW, POTTY MOUTH, ME START NOW."

In three quick steps Streaky was standing above the terrified girl, he wrapped his blood-stained hand around her tiny waist and flung her across the room; her body smashed against a gla.s.s cabinet.

Rolling around in the gla.s.s she looked up at him in contempt more then fear now. Before she could move, she was gracefully lifted her off her feet and hurled into some curtains, the railings broke and followed Ca.s.sandra to the ground.

"WATCH STREAKY, BOYS, WATCH HOW YOU CATCH DINNER."

Streaky went over and picked her up again and squeezed her waist, making Ca.s.sandra gasp for breath, the monster laughed as her arms were pinned to her side.

"YOU LOOK NICE POTTY GIRL, ME KISS MY DINNER GOODNIGHT."

Ca.s.sandra struggled but could only thrash around her head, she kept on moving it as Streaky's head moved towards hers, a thick black tongue slipped out of his mouth, it was wet and stank like the rest of him, it probed her face and then entered her mouth. Ca.s.sandra couldn't scream even if she'd wanted to.

"YOU TASTE NICE, POTTY MOUTH."

Ca.s.sandra retched and pulled away hard, his foul-tasting saliva tricked down her lips.

"PUT ME DOWN, YOU b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

Her outburst angered Streaky and he held her above his head. "I TRY TO BE NICE TO YOU, POTTY MOUTH, BEFORE I EAT YOU."

Streaky flung her again across the room and Ca.s.sandra hit hard against a wall clock, he was on her in a flash and before she knew it, she was flying through the air again, this time crashing into a nest of tables. Her lip had burst and there were more cuts to her head, Ca.s.sandra was fading into unconsciousness.

Streaky walked over and dug his nails deep into her thighs, the pain was unbearable and Ca.s.sandra screamed, a sound that echoed all around the derelict house.

Grabbing her by the leg he tossed her into a grand piano, Streaky couldn't play it, it was just placed there by the Network, and Streaky found tapping the keys every now and then kept the *boys' quiet. But now it was a mess of piano wire and teenager.

Ca.s.sandra didn't move, her head was buried deep in the remains of the piano, only her b.l.o.o.d.y legs were visible, and they twitched ever so slightly. Streaky picked up the fuel can.

"YOU DEAD, POTTY MOUTH? DON'T DIE YET... I WANT TO HAVE SOME MORE FUN WITH YOU, GOING TO MAKE YOU SCREAM NOW, GIRLY." Streaky shook the fuel can. "GOING TO COOK YOU NOW." Ca.s.sandra still didn't move. "GOING TO LICK YOUR BONES CLEAN, BECAUSE I'M MEAN." Still nothing from the piano. "STREAKY LIKE RHYMY SPEAKY WORDS, ME TRY AGAIN. THERE WAS A GIRL WITH A MOUTH LIKE A TRUCKER AND STREAKY THOUGHT I'M JUST GOING TOa"

There was movement from the piano, Ca.s.sandra's legs moved, Streaky c.o.c.ked his head to the side.

And then for the first time tonight the grotesque giant was speechless, she pulled herself free from the piano and brushed herself down, Streaky couldn't acknowledge what he saw.

Ca.s.sandra's head was missing, well her head was there...but it wasn't human, the heavy head breathed hard and shook with adrenaline, a feral grin appeared on her face...the face wasn't human anymore.

Her eyes were green and illuminated the area around the piano, her fang-filled mouth was sharper than the mutant babies', she started to chew down on her jaw, her steel gaze never leaving Streaky, he returned the look, unable to free his eyes away from her face.

Her skin had darkened to a reddish-brown and was rough, ragged and hard. It was now elongated by a broad snout with a small horn on the front, and little horns above her eyes. Her head had turned into a magnificent dragon, unlike at the Chicken Shop, her whole head had changed. She still didn't know how this happened and why, but the facts were clear, she could turn into a dragon, somehow her little shoulders supported her heavy head and she stepped forward as Streaky surprisingly moved backwards.

She opened her mouth to speak and she did, her voice sounded more husky than her human voice but still had the coa.r.s.e Ca.s.sandra feel to it.

"HEY *STREAKY', GUESS WHAT?...I f.u.c.kING HATE LIMERICKS."

Ca.s.sandra pulled back her head and tried something, she felt something in her mouth and chewed briefly and spat it out...a jet of flame left her mouth and hit its target, not Streaky, but the fuel can by his side.

The explosion tore through the side of the house, sending the fiery body of *Streaky' hurtling through the night sky, his burning trail lighting up the still warm night.

Shaking uncontrollably, she dropped to her knees as the gaping side of the house burned.

The babies screamed like banshees and headed for the front door, crawling with purpose, Ca.s.sandra snapped into action, leaping over the babies she headed towards the front door, shaking her head as went. It returned to its normal self. Scratching at the door, the mutants completely ignored Ca.s.sandra as they desperately tried to escape the oncoming flames, she wasn't a monster, contrary to what her appearance had just been, and she opened the door to free herself and the babies. Thick black smoke swirled around her as the front door was flung open, they ignored Ca.s.sandra and crawled onto the front lawn and past the sc.r.a.pped out cars. She watched them shoot away in the night, she wanted to scoop all of them up and get them to safety but they were fleeing too fast for her to catch and maybe the Network were standing by to the rescue them, but the main thing was that they were out of the fire and now it was Ca.s.sandra's turn to flee the burning house, she ran across the unkempt lawn and back up the steep hill to get back to her car.

Ca.s.sandra yelled in defiance as the twigs returned to scratch her face once more, she tripped over a branch and fell heavily to the leafy ground, struggling to her feet she yet again attempted to reach the top of the steep hill, she crashed into more trees on the way and began to weaken again, she had lost a lot of blood and was wobbling on her feet. Ca.s.sandra struggled up the hill in darkness as the branches cut through her dress to reach her thighs, she reached the top in her knee high boots and hauled herself over, she did a complete body flip and fell heavily to the concrete road on the over side.

Her body was cut from the gla.s.s and being flung to all the far corners of the mutant house. But she was away from the horror house and back on the motorway by her car. She was safe but screamed out in terrified frustration.

"SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

The car careered onwards and left the ground, it rose in the air as it struck Ca.s.sandra. The impact sent her hurtling high and beyond the car her ribs were broken as she fell head down behind it.

The car pulled to a standstill and a uniformed man got out he brushed down his hair with his hands and walked over to the stricken body of Ca.s.sandra who did not move. Apollo, dressed in a breakdown service uniform, stooped over her body. "I told you to stay in the vehicle."

The room where Elias found himself was not the normal room he shared with the other prisoners, it wasn't as cold and it was much smaller, s.p.a.ce enough for only about three people, and the bed where he awoke from wasn't bunches of straw on a floor but more like the bed he had at home.

As he rubbed his eyes and scoured the room his throat felt the driest it had ever been since his incarceration, his heart felt the briefest of flutters when he saw what lay on the table in front of him.

Fruit and fresh bread with a pitcher of water and fine wine lay with an a.s.sortment of biscuits and well-cooked meat. Elias threw the covers to the floor and made his way to the table, pouring the water down his throat but not too eager to at least pour the wine out in to its accompanying gla.s.s and savour the taste and then tearing off a leg of chicken and gnawing down like a starved dog with all the time in the world.

Grapes and shortbread pa.s.sed through his lips and he greedily licked the salt from his mouth when he tried the cooked potato chips, he had just poured himself his third gla.s.s of wine when the only door to the room opened and his little feeding frenzy came to a halt, Dandridge stood at the door.

"I hope the food was to your liking?"

"The food is but I'm not too sure on the company," was the reply.

"I'm sorry you feel that way, I was just following orders, to make sure you were comfortable and to get you ready for your TV appearance."

"I don't care about that, where are the others?" Elias defiantly asked.

"They won't be returning to Olympia anytime soon, their new home is at Gommerstall Prison, I do hope that you won't be joining them and are reunited with your family. I mean that really, you think I'm just in it for the money...I am most of the time but you have to draw a line somewhere."

Elias was surprised by Dandridge's sudden surge for a conscience.

"Then let me go, let me go so I can be with my family, I could just walk out that door right now and I wouldn't say a thing, n.o.body needs to know."

Dandridge scratched his head thinking about Elias's plea if only for a moment, looking around the room for inspiration from somewhere.

"Like I told you before, if I let you walk out this room now and out of the studios it'll be me replacing you and I've got better things to do today than get dragged around an arena by wild horses."

Elias's eyebrows were raised. "Here's me thinking teaching would be a safe occupation, am I an idiot or what?"

Dandridge spoke. "It might only be one horse if it's any consolation but you didn't hear that from me...they or it may drag you slowly though, doesn't necessarily have to be fast."

"Will I bring in a good crowd?"

"Are you kidding? Everybody's talking about it, the teacher with the biggest school in the district, who defied Big Man for so long? I think they're saying that you're corrupt too and there's illegal betting going on at the school, just to bring in more viewers."

"That's not true," Elias said.

"Since when did the truth interfere with that which is entertainment, I'm afraid you cannot win this battle."

"Then answer me this, Dandridge, my fellow prisoners have been moved to a prison miles away because the one below us will take in water and be flooded for some reason, but what then? Will they be moved back? Or will they rot in that G.o.dforsaken prison?"

"Who knows? They might even escape and head back to Olympia, or my orders were to move them out and watch over them with a few guards until I was instructed otherwise."

"Big Man's prisons are full with people, how can a *few' guards contain them?"

Dandridge gave an oily smile, the smile you would readily a.s.sociate with a shifty hired hand like him.

"There are other guards in Gommerstall, some you wish never to meet."

"Are the others in trouble?"

"Only if they try to escape...if they try to escape then G.o.d help them, G.o.d help them all."

CHAPTER TEN.

The Theatre of Screams The arena resembled a giant football stadium, it was one of the biggest studios in Big Man's underground complex, holding roughly ninety thousand people, the huge floodlights lit the bare sandy ground.

Big Man sat in his exclusive box, high in the stands. Apollo had returned from the motorway and sat a few rows behind. He looked around the auditorium at the sea of people who couldn't care less for the justice system, so long it didn't ruin their planned night of bloodshed, so many people packed the stands and the well travelled bounty hunter looked down at the floor if only to compose himself for the upcoming events, the events which he played a part in too. It wasn't until he raised his weary head and looked around the arena again that he heard the crowd baying for blood, and he regained his thoughts and waited for the carnage to begin.

The arena gates had been opened for a while but nothing was happening, n.o.body had appeared. Big Man gave a look to Apollo to find put what the hold up was, and leaving his seat, Apollo hurried down the steps, side-stepping the latecomers struggling to find an empty seat.

Reaching the bottom, Apollo walked through the huge double doors of the arena as the *boos' from the impatient crowd grew louder, *Why are we waiting?' *Why are we waiting?'

Construction vehicles occupied the north stand of the arena, they were completing the task of expanding the stadium by another ten thousand seats, a giant orange crane swung into view and lowered its arm slowly towards the stadium centre, attached to its hook was a small portacabin, it swung gently but was always secure, the crowd watched in slight trepidation, not knowing what to expect from the cabin.

The waiting was over, a horse slowly appeared from inside the long dark tunnel, the sounds of the crowd echoed from the stands outside. Seemingly unaffected by the noise, on its back rode Apollo, his face a picture of concentration as he steered the creature to the front of the crowd, walking so close that the people were close enough to pat the horse.

Attached to the horse's body was a length of rope which flowed for a few lengths more behind Apollo until it came to an end, which was Elias. His hands were bound by the rope, his face was bloodied and it was fresh blood, administered by the new rider of the horse who paid off the original rider and battered Elias's face after the switch around.

Dandridge had cleaned up Elias's wounds quite well but his work was undone in a matter of moments by Apollo, whose knuckles were red and sore as he gripped the reins.

The horse slowly started to pick up speed, as the audience cheered.

Elias was just about managing to stay on his feet as the trotted around the arena, his restraints rubbed against his hands as he struggled to keep upright. He knew that if he fell down he'd be dragged on his front and he had not the strength to right himself, Apollo turned around and taunted, "I applaud you, Glaucas, I had money on you being dead by now, you have cost me, and it seems I'll have to take it from your hide...again. I hope you didn't mind me adding some colour to your face but Big Man did want a decent show, you'll have some company very soon."

Elias didn't answer; he couldn't as his mouth was full of blood. Apollo did a few more circuits, stopped the horse and turned his head to check on his prisoner.

Elias was exhausted and collapsed to his knees, his eyes frantically blinking as he tried to take air in and to observe the giant crane above his head. Apollo hadn't been still for long when the crowd started booing. They leapt from their seats and howled at the arena floor demanding that Apollo get the horse walking again so they could see Elias suffer.

Bellowing obscenities down at him and throwing fruit onto the arena floor, some even sat with their parents who threw fruit in turn and shouted at Elias, saliva trickling down the side of their mouths from laughing so hard at his plight.

Many were parents, the same parents who trusted his views and listened intently to him as he gave glowing reviews about their children at Parents' Evening. The trust had now gone and Big Man had done his job.

The crowd were being whipped up to Frenzy. Suddenly the ground opened at opposite ends of the arena where the goalposts once stood but had been moved and two marble posts emerged from the large gaps. Chained at the wrists, attached to each large post were two people struggling furiously with their bonds. On one side was Felcey and on the other, the re-captured Kimberley. Felcey remained silent while Kimberly squirmed in her chains and noticed on her front that she was now carrying a small microphone. Looking around at the crowd, she began to panic as she realised someone was missing. "NAYAN, NAYAN, WHERE'S NAYAN? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HIM?"

Big Man stood up from his seat, and motioned to a production a.s.sistant, who pressed a b.u.t.ton on the remote control in their hand. Suddenly everyone was able to hear the cries of Kimberley and waved Apollo to stop despite the booing, then whispered back to his a.s.sistant, "Can I hear her now?" The a.s.sistant nodded, as Kimberley repeated her question.

"NAYAN, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? WHERE IS HE?"

The whole crowd heard her now, and Big Man responded through his own microphone, his voice lingered around the many speakers dotted around the arena.

"YOUNG LADY, YOUR RESCUER, NAYAN, BETRAYED ME BY REFUSING TO ROUND YOU AND THE REST OF THE *FREAKS' UP AND HE QUIT AND THEN RESCUED YOU AT THE LAKE. EVERBODY SAW IT SO I SENT MY SECURITY GUARDS THERE TO DO THE JOB NAYAN USED TO DO."

Kimberley screamed back, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HIM?"