27 "The Way Things Are Done"

(Continued from Chapter 26)

“Right.”  Charlene said, “No problem.  From now on, I will only offer my affections, to whoever my future betrothed will be.” 

Now a guy standing on the stands nearby called out, “Time to hang the cheerleader!”

Along the line of cheerleaders, Mrs. Ramierez walked, carrying the box from which each girl drew a cord with an empty noose.  This time, the girl who drew the cord with the hanged cheerleader doll was Alyce Vanderland.

She heard Karen call out, "One less passenger for Zabelton."

Alyce looked at her and said, "'It's all part of being a cheerleader!'"

Then Miss Vanderland angrily threw the doll down against the floor.  Without waiting for the Team to escort her, she stamped out across the gym floor, heading toward the Home Team goal post, kicking a few dead warriors on her way.

She reached the goal post, where the brand new rope with a noose was dangling.  She turned around to face the crowd, grabbed the noose with both hands, put it over her head and around her neck.

The Students who’d been mingling with the Warriors had moved back to the stands. Charlene, who’d returned to the stands without Dave, was watching all this. 

She spoke with distress and no bloodlust.  “It’s Alyce?”

From inside the goalpost, Alyce called out, "Hey Haskins!  Get your ass over here, and put an end to me now!  And this time make sure you do it right!"

The crowd of both teams and school officials were already gathering around the goal post.  Jimmy came up beside her.

She told him, "I want to stay dead forever!  I don't want to come back like Karen or Louise.  I want to be partying in Paradise, like dead cheerleaders are supposed to do, and I want my classmates eating sausages made of me, at Monday's lunch."

He told her, "Well I'll do what I can, but once you're dead, who knows what'll happen?"

He moved behind her, and snapped the handcuffs around her wrists.  Then he moved in front of her.

"Welcome to Paradise.” He said.

She told him, “I’ll be waiting for you there.”

Then Jimmy Haskins put one arm around Alyce Vanderland, and kissed her on the lips, while firmly gripping one of her bare breasts with his free hand.

After that, he moved to the side, gripped the rope, and began pulling her up off the floor, raising her high for everyone to see her die gagging, squirming and thrashing around.

In less than two minutes, the chosen cheerleader Alyce Vanderland was dead.

Everyone began to disperse from the gym.  The spectators headed out through the main entrances, while the team members headed for the locker rooms.

Jimmy stopped to talk with Mr. Avery for a moment.  Then he came over to the sideline, where Sarah and Larry stood with Dave, Karen and Louise.  Charlene stood nearby.

Jimmy said, "I just spoke to Avery.  We've got his permission to take Alyce to the Glad He Ate Her, and barbecue her for the party.  We'll be eating her fresh cooked meat, right off her bones."

Larry said, "Great idea."

Everyone else in the group expressed approval, except Charlene, who looked uneasily at the dangling, dead Alyce.

She said, "Wait.  You're gonna be eating Alyce?  When you know who she is?  It's one thing eating sausages or patties.  You don't really know who it comes from.  Now we'll be eating someone we actually know?"

Jimmy asked her, "How'd you like to share the meal with me?"

"Share the meal?”  She looked over at Dave.  “Is this some kind of a date?"

"You could call it that."

Charlene looked over at Alyce, hanging dead inside the goal post.

She said, "You City Building guys really don't waste time, do you?"

"Right.  So would you like to share the meal with me?"

"Okay.  I just want you to understand something.”  She looked over at Karen and Louise.  “I'm not going to be a team girlfriend."

He said, "That's okay Charlene.  I'm just asking you to share a meal.  Nothing else." 

"Good."  The niece of Pastor Luzak said, "I'll be happy to share a meal of Alyce's barbecued flesh with you Jimmy." 

27

“The Way Things Are Done”

Two hours after the Game ended, the Warrior Guys, Girls and Cheerleading Squad of the H.S. L-1378-55 Team had gathered for the barbecue in the downstairs recreational hall of the Glad He Ate Her Lounge, along with a few guests.  Charlene Luzak was among the guests.

A 6 & 1/2 foot long, three-foot wide, "Full Body Size" electric barbecue grill stood at one end of the room.  The dismembered arms, legs, and other body parts of Alyce Vanderland were spread out atop the metal grill, where they'd just begun to cook.  The naked, headless bodies of several warrior girls, from the L-1791-22 Team, lay on a work table behind the grill, where they were now in the process of being dismembered.

The heads of Alyce and the other warrior girls were impaled atop stakes that stood to the right of the grill.

About halfway between the grill, and the opposite end of the hall, Jimmy stood in the crowd, beside no longer lustily bloodthirsty Charlene; who now wore a bandage pasted over the deep cut in her naked left breast.

He told her, "It's gonna be a while before we get to eat.  Is there anything you'd like to do in the mean time?"

"Like what?"

He told her, "I don't know if you've seen it, but upstairs in the back, they have some alcoves behind curtains, where a guy and a girl can be alone, and do whatever you want to call it, with each other."

She smiled.  "Thank you Jimmy.  That's very flattering, but I told you I'm not a team girlfriend.  Don't get me wrong.  I appreciate the compliment, but where I come from, we girls do have time to wait, before we do whatever you want to call it, with a guy."

He told her, "But you and I don't have time.  You'll be leaving tomorrow."

She said, "And you'll be coming with us."

He said, "Do you mean that while I'm in Zabelton with you..."

"Sorry Jimmy.  For me, it'll have to be a committed relationship."

"You mean a 'betrothal', like this thing with Dave and Karen?"

"That's how it is with us outside.  I'm sorry Jimmy.  You're an okay guy.  If I was a City Building girl, things might be different; but I'm not.  I've been doing a lot to try to fit in while I'm here, but that's one thing I'm just not doing."

Jimmy was about to reply, when someone working by the grill called out, "We're not gonna have enough meat for everyone!  We need one more girl to barbecue!  Does anyone want to volunteer?"

There was laughter throughout the hall.

A girl in the crowd called out.  "She will!"

There was more laughter.

Another girl answered, "Only if you will too Louise!"

"They only need one of us, Karen!"

Karen and Louise were standing in the crowd, on the opposite side of the room from Charlene and Jimmy.

Karen asked Louise, "How about letting Dave decide who it is?"

"That's okay with me!"

The laughter had stopped.

Larry and Sarah came through the crowd, and stood beside Jimmy and Charlene.

Larry said, "Krendell's about to make his choice."

Now Dave stepped out from the crowd, carrying a crossbow.

There was murmuring throughout the hall.

Both Karen and Louise had remained bare breasted after the Game, except for their knuckle bone necklaces, bracelets, and earrings.  Each girl wore a pair of shrunken heads on her belt.  The two girls came over to Sarah, removed the necklaces and handed them to her.

Then the two of them stepped away from everybody, and headed toward the opposite end of the hall from the grill.

Now Charlene asked, "What's going on?  Is Dave gonna kill one of them?

"Karen!"  She called out, "Louise!  You both said you'd decided to choose life!"

The two girls halted and faced Charlene

Louise told her, "We decided that we shouldn't try to kill one another.  We're letting Dave decided which one of us he wants."

The girl from Zabelton said, "I can't believe you're actually doing this Dave!  I know things are very different here than they are on the outside; but are you actually going to kill a woman who says that she loves you?"

Dave told her, "Don't say any more Charlene."

Charlene went on, "They're not warrior girls on an opposing team, who you don't know, and they're not target girls on Level 700, who you don't know either.  They are women who both love you!"

He repeated, "Don't say any more Charlene."

"What do you mean don't?  I am gonna say a lot more!"

"For you own good," he told her, "don't say any more."

"My own good?"

Karen called out, "One of us is supposed to die Charlene, but it sounds like you're trying to keep us both alive."

"Well I am!"

"Don't say that!"  Louise told her, "That means you're trying to save our lives, and that's against the law."

"It is?"

"Yes," Louise told her, "and you can get in very serious trouble; so for your own good, don't say any more!"

"Okay I won't, but this just isn't right!"

"Charlene!"  Karen spoke firmly.  "I should have killed you before, you slut!  Right after the Game!  I’m sure your uncle would have agreed with me; and he’s a very reasonable man!

“When we go outside the City Building, we'll do things your way, but as long we're inside, this is the way things are done!"

Louise and Karen headed to the far end of the room; away from where everyone else had moved.  They were about ten feet from the far wall, when the two turned and faced Dave, who stood in the middle of the floor, holding the crossbow in both hands, at the level of his waist.

Now Dave raised the crossbow.

Charlene moved closer to Jimmy, who put his arm around her, and firmly squeezed her un-bandaged breast.  She slapped his hand away, and moved a few steps beyond his reach.

Then everyone in the hall began to clap and to chant.

"More meat to eat!

More meat to eat!

More meat to eat!

   More meat to eat..."

The chanting and clapping continued as Dave pointed his weapon in the direction of Karen and Louise.

Charlene stood apart from everyone, watching with the same fascination that she’d had during the game, but without the bloodlust.  The chanting and clapping went on.

"More meat to eat!

More meat to eat!

More meat to eat!

 More meat to eat!"

Then Karen and Louise began to sing.

"We are the Warrior Girls!

We’re brave and deadly pearls!

‘Angels of Death’ at play,

When in combat games we slay!

“We kill with sword and spear;

When we’re killed we show no fear!

While we help supply…”

Dave shot the crossbow.  The arrow struck Louise between her breasts, cracked through her breastbone, punctured her heart, and poked out her back.

She cried a quick “Kuh!!!”, and heard everyone in the crowd call out.  "Welcome to Paradise!”

Louise collapsed, and lay sprawled on her back, dead on the floor, while Karen who stood beside her, completed the verse.

“While we help supply the meat,

For everyone to cook and eat!”

Then she called out.  "Oh Dave!  You really do love me!"

She ran away from the dead girl, heading toward Dave, who tossed the crossbow aside, to someone in the crowd.

She went into his arms, and he held her tight, as they kissed passionately.

Charlene stood beside Larry, Sarah and Jimmy, looking at the dead Louise with the arrow sticking out from between her breasts.

Sarah said, “It looks like the three of us’ll be the only ones going to Zabelton with you.

"I thought of her as a friend."  Charlene told them, "I have no idea what to say."

Now Larry spoke, "Well it's still gonna be a while before we eat.  Any ideas about something to do until then?"

Jimmy said, "Well I had one."

Charlene said, "Forget it Jimmy!"

Sarah said, "Charlene and I can have bare boob chick fight."

Charlene said, "What?  Why?  I thought we were getting along okay."

"No, that's not it."  Sarah told her, "You see, after what you just pulled, trying to save both their lives, you might get in serious trouble if somebody reports it; but if people see you taking part in sadistic recreation, they'll know you're okay, and you'll avoid any of those problems."

Charlene felt her bloodlust return; along with her lusty grin.

"Well, I don't want any problems with the law," she chuckled, “and someday I might come here to live as a resident; so I think it’d a good idea for me to start training to be a fearless Angel of Death.”

She and Sarah removed their accessories, handing them to Larry.  Then both girls faced each other chuckling, with their fists raised and grins on their faces.

A woman’s voice called out from the far end of the Hall.  “Hey Krendell!”

Everyone turned and looked in her direction.

The girl in Dave’s arms spoke.  “Uh-oh.”

He said, “I hope this won’t get us in trouble with Avery again.”

Louise Torelli now stood above the spot where she’d been lying dead, with the arrow still sticking out from between her breasts and poking out her back.

She called out, “This isn’t Paradise, is it?”

Later that evening, Pastor Domnick Luzak was in his tiny room in the hostel, putting items in his backpack, getting ready for tomorrow's departure.  After a week of meetings, he had a firm preliminary agreement, that he was sure the Government outside would find acceptable.  Of course, that would all depend on whether or not the City Building's Government kept their word.

From outside the door, he heard two teenage girls coming down the corridor singing.

"We are the Warrior Girls!

We wear our hair in curls!

We walk with our boobs bare,

So boys get hard and stare!

“We only fuck with boys,

Whose things we use as toys!

When those boys eat our meat,

They’ll get a satisfying treat!"

He went to the door and slid it open.

In front of him were a laughing Charlene, Jimmy, Larry and Sarah.  Both girls were bare above the waist, except for accessories carved from human bones, and shrunken heads tied on their belts.  Charlene had a bruise under her left eye, and the bandage remained on her left breast.

"Hi Uncle Domnick."  Charlene spoke with an embarrassed laughing voice.  "I hope I'm not late."

"No you're not."  He said, "I hope you'll all remember to stay fully clothed, during all the time that you'll be spending with us in Zabelton; and while you're there, I hope you'll also avoid singing that 'folksong'."

Jimmy said, "No problem with that Pastor Luzak."

Charlene laughed, "We're all gonna be good girls and good boys."

"Charlene?"  Her uncle asked, "You have a black eye?  There’s a bandage on your…?"

"Yes."  She nodded, smiling.  "I was taking part in some vigorous recreation; keeping myself out of trouble."

Now the man asked, "So how did the Game go?"

"We lost," Jimmy told him, "and the cheerleader who got hanged was Alyce."

The Pastor looked troubled.  "Not Alyce?"

Charlene nodded, and stopped laughing.  "She won't be going with us to Zabelton Uncle Domnick.” 

Sarah added, "Along with another girl who won't be going."

Pastor Luzak asked, "And the other girl was...?"

Charlene spoke.  "The other girl," she looked away from him "has other plans."