Zombie Fight Night: Battles of the Dead Read Online Free PDF Page B

palms against his kneecaps. “So . . . how’d you get into coming here?”
    “Me?” Jack said. “Ah, you know, wanted to see what it was all about. Found out I liked watching dead guys get their brains beaten in. Found out I liked making money. Even, weirdly, enjoyed the heart-sinking feeling when you lost it. Yeah, I know, weird, but whatever. Point is, I like the fights. Where else can you come and watch these—I don’t even know what they’re called anymore, these guys that fight them—fighters? Adventurers? Blood-hungry mascots? Psychopaths—whatever—you know? Where else can you come and watch bizarre characters duke it out against guys who once took over this planet?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Nowhere, that’s where. I have no idea how the guys we watch get involved and, frankly, I don’t care. I’m here for the thrill. And I’m nice and safe here in my seat, too. Just sit and watch and no one—no one being me—gets hurt. All good. Place a few bets, win a few bucks, go home and keep to myself.”
“Where do you live? I mean, what area?” Mick asked.
“The upside of down.”
Mick looked at him, brow scrunched.
“My answer when folks ask me that. Sorry. Nothing personal. Just like my privacy.”
“No worries.”
Jack eyed him for a moment as if to cement his point.
    For a second, Mick wondered if Jack was going to ask him where he lived. Jack didn’t.
    Mick grabbed his Controller and scrolled through the screens until he landed on the just-released details of the next fight. He hated that Blood Bay Arena—namely Sterpanko—only released the who-versus-who just minutes before the next bout. Obviously, it gave the skunk an edge. He knew who was fighting. He paid them, after all. The guy—if he wanted, and probably did—could have all kinds of bets running on each fight, the information he had on each fighter giving him a huge advantage over every other patron in Blood Bay Arena tonight and no one could call him on it. Zombie Fight Night wasn’t regulated. It wasn’t like the old days when these types of things were.
    The very thought of it made Mick grimace. He hoped he pulled through this evening. Perhaps, if and when this was settled, he could somehow settle things with Sterpanko.
    Personally.
    He closed his eyes and suppressed the thought. No point getting all worked up over it right now. There was a fight to bet on and he didn’t want to lose.
    He wondered how Anna was doing and if she was still mad at him. He could envision her doing one of two things: either sitting at home, watching the fights on TV—despite how much she hated them—or frantically pacing their living room, wondering if he was going to come home alive. Either one would fit her character. Just all depended on her mood, and with her, when she was mad, assumed actions were hard to peg.
    Mick studied his Controller and absorbed the details of the next fight. This one should be interesting. One of the fighters was an old hand at combat, and old was an understatement. The fighter might not be grandpa-old, but given his lifestyle, well, surely leading the life that he had would have aged him far more than your average person. It was a tough call. Each fighter had their own type of advantages. That’s what made these fights frustrating to bet on: they were more or less evenly matched, but sometimes the show-boating went too far. The fighters got careless and more than money was lost.
    Mick took a deep breath and soaked in what he read.
    He placed his bet.
    “Ready to rock and roll?” Jack said, leaning over to Mick as he finished replacing the Controller in the back of the seat in front of him.
    “Ready like always.” Kind of.
“Then this one should be good.”
“Should be.”
“Hope so.”
“Yeah.”
A couple of minutes later, the arena went dark.
     
     
    10
    Axiom-man vs Zombie
    Bet: $100,000
    Owing: $791,000
     
     
    I t had been thirty-one years since it all began, his quest against evil and to stand up for those who