Galdoni (2 page)

My muscles tensed. There would only be one
chance. I threw a glance at the boy. “Run!”

“
What?” he asked in
surprise.

“
Run, now!” I yelled. I
turned and charged past the three men, diving at the leader with
the gun. His eyes widened; he stumbled back and pulled the trigger
as he fell against the wall. The bullet whizzed past my head and
echoed down the alley as my fist connected with his jaw. I heard
the boy run by and dodge the other men. I punched the leader twice
in the stomach, then turned in time to duck the table leg aimed for
my head.

I kicked one of the men. He gasped and
doubled over. The man with the table leg swung it again. I let it
pass inches from my chest, then put my weight behind a hard right
to the man's jaw. He spun with the force of his momentum and my
punch and fell to the ground.

I dodged a haymaker from the third man and
turned back in time to see the leader groping for his gun. I
couldn't see it in the darkening alley; I turned back just as one
of the men threw a jab at my face. I ducked, punched him in the
stomach, then threw my weight into a hook to his jaw. I moved to
finish him with a quick chop to the back of the neck. A shot rang
out; fire tore through my right leg just above the knee. It buckled
under my weight and I stumbled with a gasp.

The beefy man hefted the table leg. I
ducked, but was a hair too slow. The leg smashed into the side of
my head and I spun and hit the ground. I pushed up slowly. Blood
ran down my face. I shook my head to clear it from my eyes. A boot
kicked me in the ribs at the same time that the table leg smashed
into my back. I collapsed on the asphalt.

A foot stepped into view. I gathered what
was left of my strength, then gritted my teeth and lunged. The man
cried out as his knee buckled backwards. The satisfaction I felt
was short lived when the table leg connected with my injured wing.
I fought back a sob at the pain that clouded every thought. I dug
my fingers into the pavement in an effort to keep from passing
out.

Someone stepped on my back, flattening me to
my stomach on the ground. A loud snap sounded and a knife-like pain
flowed from my right wing to my chest; a yell tore from my throat.
Another foot connected with my ribs and I felt them give.

“
Not so tough now, eh
Galdoni?” The table leg slammed into the back of my
head.

Someone stood on my broken wing. Black
feathers drifted past my cheek. Gravel bit into the side of my face
and I barely felt another kick.

“
Is he still alive?” the
leader asked.

Fingers fumbled at my neck. “Barely,” came
the response.

The first man snorted. “Well, he won’t be
for long. Take ‘em out of the Arena and they die just as fast as a
human.” His voice darkened. “Let’s see if we can find the other
one.”

“
Freakin’ Galdoni messed up
my leg,” one of the men whined.

Their footsteps faded away. I couldn’t clear
my thoughts enough to take pleasure in the fact that the man had to
be helped by his comrades in order to walk.

Ringing filled my ears along with a
whooshing sound like how books described the ocean, only it was
steady and growing. I knew that my life blood spilled around me,
but I couldn’t find the strength to care.

***

Pain intensified when I awoke. Each breath
brought a sharp throb through my ribs. I gasped and doubled over in
an attempt to make it stop, but the movement awakened deeper,
searing pain in both of my wings. I opened my eyes but saw only a
blur of darkness. I tried to sit up, then stifled a cry at the pain
that jolted through my body.

“
Hold still,” a soft voice
said. Surprise registered through the fog in my mind that the voice
was female. A hand put a gentle pressure on my shoulder and eased
me back down. “You’re safe here.”

“
I can’t see.” I fought to
keep my voice steady.

“
The doctor said that might
happen; your head was hit pretty hard.”

Her words brought back the fight. It flashed
through my mind as though I watched from a higher point of view.
Shame filled me at the mistakes I had made, mistakes I knew better
than to make. I should have done away with the gun in the first
place and finished them without mercy. We hadn't been trained with
firearms, but it was a stupid mistake; a deadly one. The crack of
my broken wing and the sound of the shots echoed along with their
laughter. Blood pooled around me and the memory went dark.

I reached up a hand to rub my forehead and
found it wrapped in cloth.

“
Are you
thirsty?”

The answer was yes, more so than I had ever
been in my life, but the taste of fear dominated the thirst. I
looked toward the sound of her voice, but couldn’t see anything
past the black blur. “Where am I?”

“
My friend Nikko’s house.
My brother Jayce, Nikko, and I found you in the alley. There was so
much blood I thought you'd die, but Nikko’s dad’s a doctor. He came
to help when we got you back here.” I heard the scrape of a chair
across a wooden floor. “Nikko told me to call him as soon as you
woke up. Dr. Ray had to teach a class, but he'll be
back.”

I grabbed where I guessed her hand would be
and found her fingers. She let out a small squeak of surprise but I
didn’t let go. I fought back nausea at the pain rolling in waves to
the point that I almost blacked out again. “Wait,” I managed to get
out.

She held very still until the pain cleared
enough that I could think again. I realized that my hold on her
fingers was a lot harder than I intended and loosened my grip.
“Sorry. It’s just. . . .” I couldn’t find the words to describe the
way my heart pounded at the thought of strangers I couldn’t see
filling the room.

She seemed to guess my thoughts. “You can
trust us. We brought you here because it’s safe.” I let go of her
fingers and she stepped back. Her footsteps seemed to hesitate,
then a door opened and they faded away.

The need to escape pulsed through my veins.
I tried to sit up again and fought back tears as the weight of my
bandaged wings pulled against the wounds. A splint kept my wounded
knee straight. I eased it to the ground, then gritted my teeth and
pushed up against the bed.

The second my weight settled on my knee, it
collapsed under me and I fell to the floor. A cry broke from my
lips as I hit the ground. I rolled to the side and fought to keep
from losing control as wave after wave of pain and nausea coursed
through my body. Hurried footsteps rushed down the hall. Muffled
voices spoke quickly, but I couldn’t make out the words past the
roar in my ears. Darkness swarmed my mind and I gratefully gave in
to it.

Chapter Two

Voices whispered in a low cadence nearby.
Instinct kept me still as I slowly regained consciousness.

“
. . . dangerous, what
with the police declaring them suspects. You should turn him
in.”

“
He’s hurt, Dad, almost
dead. You said yourself he shouldn't have made it through the
night. Now you want to hand him over to them? They'd probably just
let him die.”

A few moments of silence, then, “You're
putting everyone at risk.”

“
We know the danger.
Everyone's had a say, but something doesn’t feel right about all of
this. Until they give us more information, he should stay. Please
keep helping him.”

A sigh. “Alright, but you need to be
careful. Keep the door locked and don't let anyone in. He's still
dangerous.” The door opened and closed behind them and their voices
faded away.

“
They’re gone,” a soft
voice whispered close by.

I jumped in surprised, then clenched my jaw
against the pain.

A hand touched my shoulder. I fought not to
shy away from it. “Sorry,” she said, her tone genuine.

I opened my eyes and found to my relief that
the darkness had lessened somewhat. I could make out a dim shape
near the bed that moved with the sound of a chair creaking in
protest. “How did you-” The words came out rusty.

Her voice showed her smile. “When you’re
awake, you breathe shallow because of your ribs.”

I noted that for the future. “You’re
quiet.”

“
I’ve made an art of it.”
Her tone softened but she didn't expound. She turned away and my
throat burned at the sound of water being poured. “You must be
thirsty. Dr. Ray said you could drink as much as you wanted when
you woke up.”

A straw touched my lips and I sucked
gratefully at the water until I heard a gurgle of air.

“
Wow, thirsty,” she said.
“I’ll get you some more.”

I shook my head, then put a hand to it to
stop the spinning. “No, I’m okay.” I pushed up from the bed, slower
this time.

“
What are you doing?” she
asked in alarm.

I held my ribs and leaned forward into a
sitting position. “I’ve gotta get outta here.”

“
You can’t!” She took a
step back. “You'll be killed if you're found; I’ll go get
Nikko.”

I shook my head quickly, then leaned my
forehead against the side wall to stop the nausea that followed. My
wings ached with every movement, but I kept myself from wondering
whether I would be able to fly again. I definitely wasn’t in a good
enough mental state to consider what I would do otherwise. “Wait,
please. I can’t stay. You heard that guy. I’m a danger. You
shouldn’t have brought me here.”

I felt the bed lower when she sat on the
corner. “You would’ve died.”

I fought back the impulse to say I wasn’t
afraid of death. The phrase had been drilled into us at the
Academy, and I thought I believed it until death had actually
stared me in the face. Anger rose in my chest. “They would have
killed him if I hadn’t stopped them.”

“
Who?”

“
A boy; they were beating
him because he was a Galdoni.” My lips curled in disgust. “They had
a gun, and he was afraid to fly away.” I stared in the girl's
direction, angry beyond the attack itself. That simple act had
shattered my every hope of the world outside the
Academy.

We sat in silence for a minute, then the
girl gave a low chuckle. It was a pleasant sound that chased away
my dark thoughts. “What?”

“
You wouldn’t get very far,
blind with two broken wings and a shot leg. Where’d you plan to
go?”

I gave a small, wry smile at the thought. “I
don’t know. Not far, huh?”

“
Definitely not
far.”

I turned one of the pillows so that I could
lean against the wall and face her without putting pressure on my
wings. They ached with the movement, but I ignored the pain.

“
Why'd you help
me?”

“
We couldn't just leave you
there.” Her tone was one of amazement that I would even suggest it.
Then her voice brightened. “Hey, I don’t even know your
name.”

I thought about it for a minute. “Kale,” I
answered cautiously. “What’s yours?”

“
Brielle, but everyone
calls me Brie.” She sat in silence for a minute, then said, “You
know, you’re different than I thought.”

Her curious tone caught my attention. I knew
I shouldn’t encourage her to talk to me; my presence put her in
danger, but talking to her kept the pain at a bearable distance.
“Different, how?”

The bed moved as she shifted her weight. Her
movement made a sharp stab of pain race from my knee up my thigh,
but I didn’t show it. “Well, Galdoni are supposed to be savage,
brutal fighters. Animals, really; at least, that’s what they tell
us.”

A knot began to form in my stomach. “Who’s
they?”

“
The Arena reporters. They
say it before and after every show.” Her voice darkened. “I think
it’s to make sure people don’t think of Galdoni as human, because
you’re killing each other.” She paused, and then said in a quieter
tone as though uncertain she should continue, “According to the
reporters, Galdoni were a failed genetic experiment. You only want
to kill, which is why you were chosen for the show.”

Bile rose in my throat. I swallowed hard.
“We were made, not chosen. We’re trained to fight, to not be
afraid. But I didn’t know it was for some show.” I didn’t hide the
disgust in my voice. My head started to throb.

“
Not just
some
show, the most
watched television show in the world. People throw away their life
savings betting on you guys.”

“
Betting on which one of us
will die?” The implication made my stomach roll. It had never
occurred to me to question what we did at the Academy. None of us
did. Training and fighting was all we knew; but what Brie said
brought it all into a perspective I wasn’t prepared to
face.

I saw the Academy for the first time from a
profitable point of view. There was too much to consider at once,
but jarring details swirled through my mind like the forbidden
questions, the separation of ages, the restrictions. I gripped the
blanket beside me until my knuckles ached.

Her voice quieted. “There’re a lot of groups
out there making waves, saying that it’s unethical. I think that’s
one of the reasons it got shut down; that and a rumor about some of
the big wigs skimming money off the top to pad their own
pockets.”

I nodded silently. When they had shut down
the Academy, all we had been told was that we were to be given a
chance to make our own way in life; but if what Brie said was true,
they must have lost millions, if not billions, just by letting us
walk out the gates. Exhaustion clouded my thoughts. I closed my
eyes.