Gladiator Read online

  Contents

  Copyright

  Coming Soon

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  What's Next?

  About the Author

  GLADIATOR

  Gauntlet Prime: Book 1

  by Barry Solway

  Copyright © 2018 by Barry Solway. All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, events, or locales is purely coincidental. Reproduction in whole or part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited.

  I greatly appreciate you taking the time to read my work. Please consider leaving a review wherever you bought the book, or telling your friends about it. Thank you for supporting independent authors!

  Spiral Path Arts, LLC

  http://www.barrysolway.com

  Coming Spring of 2018

  GHOSTS

  On the run. Hunted. The only way to survive is to become a ghost.

  GAUNTLET

  Their final play for freedom. Enter the deadliest Gauntlet ever, a tournament of eight teams: the Gauntlet Prime.

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  If you liked Gladiator and want to see more of this series and the many exciting new books that are in the pipeline, please leave a review wherever you bought your book, or on Goodreads. Or just shoot me an e-mail at [email protected].

  Please leave a review for Gauntlet!

  Chapter 1

  It began with a memory. Fading dreams of pink Caribbean sand between her toes as she gazed across an ocean of vivid blue. The dream contrasted with the smooth surface beneath her fingertips; a mix of warm silkiness and plastic alien to her touch. But something was missing.

  Sand. Her hand brushed against the surface she lay on. Why should there be sand? She didn't know where she was and felt reluctant to open her eyes to find out. Something about sand… She had been at the beach. A wave of confusion.

  She opened her eyes. A small room, dark gray walls. Beneath her was a bench or bed inset into one wall, about six feet long and two feet wide. There were no blankets or a pillow, but the room was comfortable enough. There was nothing else. No doors or windows. No desk or chair or bathroom. She could really use a bathroom right now.

  She swung her legs over the side; the world tilted strangely for a moment. Pausing in a sitting position to steady herself, she held firmly to the side of the bed. Waves of dizziness crested and passed. She reached a hand down and touched her pants. They were baggy and gray, made of a soft, light fabric she couldn’t identify. The gray t-shirt fit more snugly, but not tight. Matching gray slippers adorned her feet, without socks. What happened to her clothes?

  Sand. Waves. Her name was Mel. She had been at the beach in Nassau. The night before? With her friends from school and those other kids they’d met. Jeff and Anna. Jeff’s friend Jon, and the nerdy kid whose name she couldn't remember. They had been drinking. Of course, Anna was always either drinking or high. Had Mel been drinking? Was it even last night? She had no memory of anything after the beach. Like being caught in a time warp, as if the night on the beach happened moments and years ago at the same time.

  As she examined her surroundings again, she winced. She could really use a bathroom. Standing, she shuffled across the floor. Things didn't work quite right. Her body creaked and popped, stiff and achy. Even shuffling was an effort. Ignoring the discomfort, she walked the few steps to the wall across from her bed and ran a hand against it. She traced her finger to the left and to the next wall. The room was smaller than her bedroom at home, with weird angles between the walls. The wall she faced now was less than six feet long while the opposite wall was nearly twice that length. Halfway along the wall there was a faint curving line. It formed an oval about six feet tall and three wide. The entryway, she presumed, but she had no idea how to open it. There was no door knob or hinge. Just the outline of a door.

  Sighing, she walked to the far wall. Identical to the first, except it was twice as long. A similar oval etched in the material, except not as wide. She went back to the smaller wall. Brushing the wall with her hand, she paused, wondering what it was made of. Somewhere between metal and glass, but with a strange quality, almost forgiving. Wondering if she could force it open, she pushed gently on one edge of the oval.

  The wall disappeared. It didn't slide back or down or swing outward. It just… vanished. Before her was a large space with a long, curving black wall on one side and several straight walls to her right and left that met at angles, like a honeycomb. The ceiling curved into a dome overhead. A line of light ran along the bottom of the dome, diffuse enough that it gave the impression it came from everywhere. The walls of the honeycomb were about five feet wide, with oval outlines in some of them that were just like hers.

  This was clearly not the Bahamas. Could it be a hospital? What the hell had happened?

  “Hello.” What came out sounded like a croak. Clearing her throat made her realize how dry her mouth was. She had to appreciate the irony of being parched and having to go to the bathroom at the same time.

  Trying again, she managed a louder call. Instead of echoing, her voice died when it hit the wall. Combined with the long black wall and the strange material of the walls, the space felt wrong. A sharp pain in her lip made her realize she was biting it again. She ignored it, but couldn’t ignore the fluttering in her belly. Following the wall to her right, she ran her hand along the strange metallic surface, pushing at the ovals. “Hello. Hello.” No response. The ovals didn’t open. Nothing.

  She completed a circle, including the long black wall. That felt more glassy and less metallic. Returning to the center of the room, she took a deep breath and yelled at the top of her lungs. “Is anyone here!”

  A muffled shout came from behind her. She spun in place, trying to identify which wall it had come from. That wall, there, across from hers. She ran to it and pushed, with no effect.

  “Can you hear me?” she called.

  “Hey! Where the hell am I? How do I get out of here?”

  “Riley? Is that you? Push on the oval, near the line. Try pushing on the right side.”

  Silence for a moment, then the same effect. A shimmer and the oval vanished. Riley stood on the other side, dressed in the same gray clothes as her, staring at the open doorway with his mouth open.

  “Mel,” Riley finally said. “Where are we?”

  “I have no idea. I've been up maybe ten minutes. This is as far as I've made it. Ther
e's nothing here. Just these rooms and the black wall. Do you remember anything?”

  Riley shook his head, as if surprised at the suggestion to remember something. “The beach? I was a bit wasted, but… you were there. And Nick and Anna. We were talking about the shrimp. How did we get here?”

  Right, the shrimp. That brought back some other memories, but she shook them off. “No idea.”

  Riley nodded and looked suspiciously at the missing oval wall. “Is it safe to step through this thing? It's not going to reappear halfway through, is it?”

  Mel shrugged. “It didn't for me. It would be good to know if that's a thing, though, so why don't you try it?”

  Riley laughed but his eyes were wide. Shaking his head, he almost jumped forward, turning back to look at the empty space. “Can it be closed?”

  “Who cares? What I want is a bathroom.”

  “That would be nice. I could use some water, too. My mouth is bone dry.”

  “Do you think anyone else is here? I’ve checked the other door things, but they won’t open from this side. We could check them again, though.”

  “I don't have any better ideas,” Riley said.

  They each checked different doors, eleven in all, but made no progress. If anyone else was there, they didn't answer their calls. One door, however, was different. It stood in the middle, directly across from the curving black wall. The door outline was wider and a different shape. An arch instead of an oval. Pressing on the outline at different places had no effect.

  Mel rested her hand against the door and hung her head. “Do you hear that?”

  Riley paused, concentrating. “I hear a whole lot of nothing.”

  “If you're quiet, you can feel a vibration. Like a humming. This place is super creepy. I think… I think we've been kidnapped.”

  Riley’s laugh changed to a smirk when Mel looked at him, but he finally nodded his head. “Sure, why not. Makes as much sense as anything else. But doesn't explain where we are.”

  “I was thinking. Thinking about thinking. I feel thick, like it's hard to keep track of my thoughts. Not confused, just… numb or something. Don't you think we should be more worried about where we are?”

  Riley nodded. “I gotcha. Being kidnapped sounds bad, but I almost feel like it’s funny more than anything. Of course, I normally find most things in life funny, so who knows. Still, you thinking we were drugged?”

  “Maybe. I think we might be on a boat. A ship of some sort. The humming could be the engines.”

  “A boat? These rooms don’t seem like a ship to me. And what’s up with those doors? That’s some serious new-age, virtual tech crap there. It’s more likely we’re in a prison, considering how Anna Banana was acting around the fire and all. Maybe we burned Nassau down and they locked us up and threw away the key. The humming could be a generator, or someone singing, or your imagination.”

  Mel slapped her palm against the arch outline. “We need to find a way out of here. Figure out where we are.” An instant later, the arch outline vanished. Mel and Riley backpedaled as three figures lurched towards them.

  They were dressed in the same light gray shirts and pants as she and Riley. They shuffled awkwardly forward, heads bent, limbs stiff. Two men and a woman. The man in front raised milky eyes, looking through Mel. His skin was an off-gray, pulled taut over the bones of his face. Thin wisps of hair clumped in patches on his head. His mouth hung open and a bit of drool leaked down his chin. She had a flashback to the hotel lobby. A friendly face smiling at her, the words Do you need any help? forming on his lips. Mel took another involuntary step back.

  “What the hell?”

  When the man saw Riley and Mel, she thought he looked surprised. He raised an arm, reaching out to Mel, grunting something. Mel dodged to the side, not wanting to touch him. Riley stepped forward and pushed the man back. “Leave her alone!”

  The man stumbled into the woman and they crashed into the wall. Riley glared at them both. Grabbing him, Mel pushed Riley past the second man, through the doorway and into the hall beyond. “Go, run!” she yelled.

  They raced down the hallway, the three people stumbling behind. They quickly came to an intersection. Randomly turning right, she jogged a bit slower. Another man stepped out of a hallway on her left, reaching for her, grunting unintelligibly. Plowing into him as he grasped her arm sent them both tumbling to the ground.

  “Get him off, get him off of me!” she screamed. Riley kicked at the man, then grabbed her other arm and pulled her away as the man lost his grip. He grabbed her leg instead. Flailing with her free leg, she landed a foot in the man’s face and yanked her leg free. Tears streamed down her face as she scrambled to her feet and raced away.

  “This is crazy! Who are these people?” Riley yelled, panting as he tried to keep up.

  They entered a curving hallway with more oval doors on either side. Mel had lost track of where they had come from, not that she supposed it mattered. But the curve of the hallway prevented her from telling if anyone was following them. “They're like zombies. But I recognized one of them. The first one. He worked at the hotel on the beach, I think. I don't know, I can't think straight. But we have to get out of here, we have to escape. I can't… I just can't…” The panic had subsided slightly, but her heart still hammered in her chest. She suppressed the urge to curl into a ball, close her eyes and scream for help.

  Riley picked up on her fear. He reached forward and grabbed her shoulders, pulling her forward. “Keep going. We'll be okay. We can do this together, we can get out and find help. Okay?”

  Mel nodded, sudden immense gratitude to have Riley there flooding through her. She leaned against Riley so hard, they almost fell down. Sobbing, she hugged him close. “I'm so glad you're here.”

  Riley grimaced. “I can’t say I share that sentiment.” Mel kept crying, she couldn’t help herself. “Mel, get yourself together.”

  Mel wiped at her tears, talking in a rush. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Oh god, this is horrible. I think you're right, we were drugged. I can feel it wearing off and I just have all these emotions coming out all at once. I was panicking a second ago and now I'm just so glad you are here and I'm not alone.” She shook with a sudden, Intense anger. “Why are we even here? They don't have the right to do this!” She pushed Riley away, looking down the hallway in fury. Four of the zombie people shambled around the curve and came at them in a lurching run, arms outstretched. Mel snarled and took a step towards them.

  “Are you insane? The other way, come on!” Riley urged, shaking his head in disbelief as he pulled Mel down the hall. Another intersection, with the hallway continuing to curve ahead of them. Riley pulled Mel to the right, then a quick left, right, and another left. Mel lost all sense of direction. Riley ran straight until they came to an open space with another curving black wall and another hallway on the other side. Following the new hallway, Riley took a left and another left. They came to an intersection and turned into a hall with an open door at the other end. A strange difference from all the other sameness in the hallways.

  “That's it! It has to be a way out. Hurry, I can hear them catching up,” she cried.

  Riley paused in confusion, shaking his head. “No, something's wrong. They'll catch us.”

  Mel could see sweat pouring down Riley's forehead. His hands were shaking. He's terrified, she thought. But it was okay. She had been terrified just a few minutes before, but a flood of hope surged through her. They would run through this door and be free. Maybe it was a ship and they could get to the deck and find a raft or a rowboat. Everything would work out perfectly. She grabbed Riley and pulled him forward, away from the oncoming zombies and towards their door to freedom.

  They flew through the door into a large half-oval room with a long black wall. She scanned the room quickly for other exits, spinning in a circle. Behind her, Riley was crying. “You are so amazing, Mel. I'm so happy we're friends.” He tried to hug her and she fumbled awkwardly in an attempt to push him away.

/>   She blinked in confusion, coming to a rest near the black wall. Pressing her hands against it, she tried to push it out of the way to escape. The hope was fading. It should fade, she realized. They had made a circle and were back in the large room they had started in. There was no escape, no way out.

  Riley must have realized where they were just as he shifted into a state of intense anger. He swore profusely as he slammed his body into the black wall, pounding on the surface like a madman.

  The faintest traces of the hope she had felt a moment before lingered at the edge of her mind. There had to be a way out. There had to be. She just had to find it. Whether it was caused by Riley’s pounding or just coincidence, she didn’t know. But a light grew from the bottom of the wall, rising slowly up, burning into her eyes, engulfing her vision. A round burning half-circle to her left. The curve of a greenish-blue orb rising from the bottom. In-between it all, the blackness pricked by pinpoints of light.

  “No,” she said. Riley's pounding abruptly stopped.

  “We're in space,” he said with momentary awe. “It's so… beautiful. We can still escape. We need an… an escape pod or something. We can get an escape pod, that's how it works. We'll get free, you'll see.”

  “No.” Mel leaned against the glass and closed her eyes. The last whisper of hope was gone. Dark fingers clutched at her mind, the glowing sun like an eye that burned into her. They were on a ship. But they would never get free. They would be turned into zombie people, like the man from the hotel. And they would die there. Tears streamed down her face as a loud wail burst from deep in her lungs. She barely felt the hands clutching her arms and hair, dragging her across the floor. Her body convulsed in spasms of despair, watching as three zombies swarmed over Riley; even now he was still calling to her, telling her how they could escape, how everything would be alright.