Buccaneer Sky - Part 1: The Cage

How old could she have been? Thirteen at most, I would guess. How did we end up here, so far from what we once knew, reduced to this, real exploitation and violence as mainstream entertainment. The girl, only dressed in leather panties, was pushed into the huge cage. At every side, men and women, children and adults, watching inexcitement . We had all seen it before, with hugely varying results. Hearts were beating heavily, some because of concern for the girl, some because of concern for their bets. The girl had been given a large knife before entering the cage, as was the rules. She cried, her tears soaking the blade. She knew perfectly well what was going to happen. A few days ago, when her parents had still been alive, she'd been a member of the audience, just like me. If she was to win, she would be free. The way of losing was death, always, as were the rules. All around me, cheering and shouting, nothing really aimed at the girl, except for a few; "give him hell", "die, bitch!", "Kill him!" and "if you kill him, I'll fucking kill you!" The usual shit. I put my hand through the bars of the cage and signalled for the girl to come over, as I called out for her. The crowd suddenly stopped their screaming, and that was probably the only reason she actually heard me and walked towards me. Towards me, but smart enought to keep out of reach. At the other end of the cage, a door had opened, the reason everything was so quiet. Everyone was waiting for her opponent to emerge. I knew time was short. When he was to walk out, the crowd would start shouting and cheering again, louder than ever.
"What's your name girl?" I asked the girl. She looked at me nervously, still sobbing.
"Rae" she said, looking down. A man to my right picked up a rock and threw it at her.
"Die bitch!" he yelled, laughing, his friends laughing with him, joining him at throwing more rocks.
"Rae," I said, trying to make her concentrate on me, "stab him in the head or neck, if you can't reach it, cut his legs to make him fall... His torso is too thick, he has probably done and survived this many times before."
Just as she nodded and I was sure she had heard my advice, I heard the crowd starting to cheer again. The lust for blood was in the air, and now the second contestant entered the cage. Just as I thought, it was one of the biggest guys they had. He was a huge guy, as ifbuilt only by muscles. His disadvantage was a blindfold. The rules said he had to wear them all the match, if not, he lost, and had to be shot. If the girl pulled the blindfold off him, she would be shot for cheating. This was it, her weak body and long blade against his bare hands and strong body. I had seen this kind of fight too many times lately, the strongest looking guy against the weakest looking child. It was a rigged game, as rigged as it possible could be, and a chosen few knew all about it, and had a lot of money invested in the big guy. I already understood that the rock-thrower had his money on the big one. And as the fight had started, and everyone was watching and cheering, I went over to him and slit his throat. I didn't even give him a chance to respond, I just slipped up behind him and let my wrist-blade cut him. But even as his last drops of blood spilled over his friends, they just kept on cheering and watching the events unfolding inside the cage. The murder of the rock-thrower wasn't to be noticed for a long time, and most certainly no-one would know who did it. Then again, few would care. There were more important things going on, and I walked back to my previous spot and kept watching the fight in the cage.1

The girl was sweaty and shaking, obviously scared. She looked over at me for a second, as the giant she was facing took small steps towards her, fumbling in the air with his hands. I gave the girl a wink, and made a stabbing motion with my hand. She took my advice perfectly. She ran towards the huge man she was facing, and tapped his right arm. He tried to grab her, but she was too fast, and she made him turn after her, just as she had wanted. In the noise from the crowd, the huge man was not only blind, but practically deaf as well, and the girl snuck behind him, blade ready in hand. She kept her head low, and went slowly against the lower back of the huge man. Then she cut his foot, straight behind his right knee. Blood gushed out, and the man screamed in pain. He turned around and grabbed the girl by the hair. It all happened so fast, and the girl had no chance to react. But the girl was a quick thinker, and immediately cut the hand that was holding her. The giant had to let go, but seemed tired of the game. An anger came over him so intensely that he forgot the rules of the game. He ripped the blindfold off his face, and ran towards the girl, who had by now retreated to the other end of the cage, near me. He ran as fast as he could, ready to mash the girl to death with his giant fists. The guards of the cage didn't react, even though the rules required them to shoot the big man now. But this was no place for just rules, and as the girl approached me, tears and fear in her eyes, I told her to duck. She threw herself down, and I pointed my flintlock pistol through the cage. Black smoke and dust filled the air as i pulled the trigger, and the giant fell to the ground with a significant hole through his head.2

"Open the gates" I demanded of the nearest gate-guard. He knew I had been just in my act, and did not put up a fight. The crowd, however angry, also knew I was right. Only a few people lingered on to see the girl get out of the cage. She didn't say anything as she was let out, but she ran straight over to me and gave me a hug. I hugged her for a long time, before standing up and reaching her my hand.
"I'm Raphael, Rae, nice to make your acquaintance" I said, and bowed. Her face once again filled up with tears, but i could see that she was happy this time, and not frightened. But as it turned out, our trouble was not over quite yet.3

"You owe me some fucking money" a man said, stepping out from between some of the few remaining people of the crowd.
"Me?" I asked, looking around for anyone else he could possible be talking to.
"Either that, or she owes me her life" he said, and pulled a large rusty blade from his pants.
"You owe me too" said another voice, belonging to a beautiful young woman who took side by the man with the blade. She held a small dagger herself, playing with it to show us she knew how to handle it.
"Fine, come collect then" I said. In less than a second, we had all made our predetermined moves. I had slipped behind the man with the rusty blade, now holding my own wrist-blade against his throat. The woman had positioned herself behind the girl, and held her whilst covering her eyes. She made sure that the girl couldn't see anything, and then gave me a nod. I took the que, and slit the throat of the man with the rusty blade. He fell to his knees with a confused look upon his face, until I bendt over to kiss the woman, then kicked him over to his final resting place on the ground besides the cage.
"Well done Janet" I said and smiled, as Janet took away her hands from Raes eyes, and greeted her.
"I obviously had to save you two," Janet smiled, "but now, let's get out of here."