The 17 Read Free

would surely be stuffed into it.
    “Hey, fresh meat,” Harness bellowed. Even his voice was Adonis-like. “Welcome to hell.”
    Harness had given this place a name. It seemed to Zack, though, that he liked it here. He stood over the girl, who moaned and bled from a wound to her side. The blood seeped out of it, coloring her white tank top a bright crimson. She was sweating and her eyes flittered about.
    Before Zack even realized what he was saying, “She’s gonna die,” fell from his lips.
    Harness stared at him, his eyes narrowed. “She’s not gonna die. Well, she is, but she’ll come back. They always come back.”
    The girl, her skin wan, coughed a spray of blood that hit the carpet like cardinal raindrops. She let out a long exhale and died.
    Just like that— poof—she was gone. Her lifeless eyes fixed hauntingly on Zack, who swallowed down crouton-laced vomit that had slithered up from his belly.
    “Never seen anyone bite it before?” Harness said, laughing. “Well, get used to it.”
    The Asian stared at her with compassion and wiped a stray tear that had trickled down her cheek. She was the only one who seemed to care. Then she and the others walked briskly into the kitchen. Harness laughed, clanged about and popped Hot Pockets into the microwave that their captors had provided.
    Zill spoke softly. “One of these days we’re not going to come back.”
    “What’s her name?” Zack asked.
    “This was, well, is Jenai. She’s okay I guess. Kind of emo. She came just before you did. This is like the third time she’s died. Kind of the runt of the litter, you know.”
    Zack lurched back and nearly lost his croutons again when Jenai began blinking wildly and coughed up more blood. She sat up, blinked even more rapidly and stared at a smirking Zill.
    “Jesus, I died again?” Jenai seemed more frustrated than anything else. “Jesus. I can’t believe I died again. Grrrrr. I’m such a loser.”
    Harness and the three others entered the room from the kitchen. Harness wiped his greasy lips with the back of his hand. “You’re damn right you’re a loser. Hey, we have a new guy. Maybe he’s more pathetic than you. He looks like he is. Damn. We got another loser. How are we going to compete when we keep getting losers like him and you, Jenai?”
    “Shut up! Shut up!” Jenai yelled, stood and bolted down the hallway. Zack could hear the sound of a door slamming.
    “Okay. Okay. Okay,” Zack kept repeating “Okay.” He repeated things when he was flustered and confused. He babbled. He was a babbler. It was perhaps his way of mentally processing the events around him. He wondered if it was even possible to mull these kinds of events. “What. What. What …” He was once again babbling, “is happening?”
    He heard laughter; the laugh-at kind, not the laugh-with kind.
    “Wha wha what’s happening,” Harness mocked. “Look around, noob. What do you think is happening? We’re royally and completely screwed.”
    Harness was right. Zack didn’t know why he was here or where here was or who these people were or even if he was awake or alive or dead. He did know one thing: Yes, he was definitely royally and completely screwed.
    “C’mon, Harness,” Cass said in a strong British accent. Zack knew she had to be Cass because she, well, did look ratchet with a short shirt, a tank top that displayed an ample amount of cleavage and a face so heavily caked with makeup that Zack wondered what was really under there. She had a ring on her bottom lip that she flicked with her tongue before she spoke. “Give the new bloke a break.”
    “Seriously? Look at him.” Even when Harness spoke, his muscles flexed and he looked like a god. “He can’t help us. He’s just going to drag us down.”
    “Help you do what?” Zack asked.
    Harness drilled a hole in Zack with his eyes. “Win, stupid. When we win we get stuff. When we get stuff, we can forget for at least a little while that we’re in hell. When we