Prey on the Weak

By: Wheels

She smiled woefully,”You see, we are short on food, otherwise we may have found a way to avoid this. The counsel has determined that you are to be used to replenish that supply.”

I did a double-take because of her sudden and threatening statement.

“Of food? You’re going to eat us?” 

She turned her head down, “apologies in advance, and thank you for your contribution.”

I shook my head furiously, “ no, nope, no thanks, i’m gonna decline.”

“That’s not an option.” she swayed out of the room and the door shut yet again.

“Guys we need to get out of here”

“No shit sherlock,” my brother snapped, “Now give me a hand with Jake, he’s hardly conscious.”

I helped lift my brother, and I tried to watch for weaknesses in the Mantis fiends as my brother searched for a way out.

Hours passed as we took turns pacing and sitting in the stone cell. Finally a mantis returned and opened the room. They motioned for us to follow, and we could only hope we would make our way out.We were led back to where we had originally landed, and were yet again surrounded by the creatures. 

The leader stepped forward, and raised their foreleg, silencing the buzzing crowd of insectoids.

“As a sign of respect and honor we will now begin the trials, 1v1, Predator versus Prey. Choose your first fighter.”

“Aw come on man, I’m not gonna sacrifice my siblings.”

“So you will go first?”

“Uhhh, I guess…”

“Let the trial begin.”

The crowd grew louder as a mantis stepped forward and bowed its head, the leader signaled the start of the match, and I put up my guard as if I had any clue how to fight this monster.

“Wish me luck guys.” We started circling each other, but before anyone could make a move, a screaming projectile flung itself at my mantis opponent, and landed gracefully next to me. 

It was my sisters friend rachel, who had swung in on a vine hanging from god knows where. But I was fighting an insectoid so I was not going to question how she got here.

“Nice seeing you kiddo, grab your siblings and head towards the wall.” She stood at my back, reading herself to fend off the angry mantises. I wasn’t going to argue with a girl who saved my life, so I did my best to drag my unresponsive brother to the wall, where we saw an air vent. Why and how was it in a rock wall in the desert? I pulled off the grate, and started helping my siblings up and into it, so we could crawl to safety. I couldn’t lift my unresponsive brother into the vent, and we couldn’t drag him with us anymore. The mantises were closing in, and Sarah was running out of energy.

“Leave him, we can’t get out of this with him, we can only send him help when we reach safety.”

“What?!? We can’t just leave him! He’s our brother, and he can’t defend himself right now”

“We can’t protect ourselves either, trust me this is the best option.”

My sister dragged me through the vent, and her friend jumped in at the last minute, following up the rear of the group, and directing us to safety. We crawled through the dirty tunnels in total darkness, for an hour or so, before we reached sunlight. We exited the tunnel by a pile of rocks, near the end of the trail, a half mile or so from our car.

We crawled our way to the car, chugging some extra water that was stashed there. As I drank, I felt faint, and drifted off to sleep. Blissfully unaware of reality.