I was laying on my cot while Charlie is snoring loudly over in his cot glad he could sleep after today. I couldn’t get back to sleep for some reason every time I closed my eyes I kept seeing Dinkerman face scrunched up on the other side of my fist. I got off my cot and went to the cell door and looked out the small plexiglass and saw the rows of cells doors closed across from me. Nothing out of the ordinary every time it’s lights out cell doors close anyone caught out gets killed by the security bots that patrol the cell blocks after lights out. I can still smell the yellow mustard gas still lingering in the air as it wafts into my nose, but what I saw after I gagged from the smog completly surprised me.

Dinkerman was out of his cell being carried off by a pair of men wearing the city guard armor light baby blue and gold the city guard uniforms. I wondered where they would be taking him, but it’s none of my business if they drag him off to execute him or whatever so I turned back to my cot to try to sleep some more. Tomorrow I get a real meal and since Charlie knows that we are up next to the pit he said we can get cleaned up at the clinic. I think to myself that yeah tomorrow is going to be a good day as I drift into a uneasy sleep.

**(Dinkermans point of view)**

I woke up with a alarm blaring and complete chaos all around me I notice that I’m on the ground. My eyes watery and stinging from the gas being pumped out around us shit that means it’s a riot. The last memory I had was of this little pup fresh off his mother’s tit swinging at me catching me by surprise and knocked me to the ground out cold I guess. I know what I had to do once I get out of this mess I have to snap that pups neck like the mutt that he is if I’m to save my reputation.

As the security bots came with its rubber baton and began to beat anyone who isn’t in the submissive stance I balled up on my knees and waited for the all clear. Wasn’t much I could do to that twerp that wouldn’t land me in a hot box. I hate the hot box it’s a three foot high cage by two feet wide where your stuffed in at a nearly deadly heat of a hundred and fifteen degrees fahrenheit all day and night. I seen what happens to them poor souls who come out they are tanned raw and damn near lost their own minds from heat stroke.

So I let the pup take Charlie back to their cell the time were they die will come soon enough. I went back to my cell the whole zone got put into lockdown so I’ll have to take care of my wounds after tonight. I was eating the slop they serve as food you get used to the taste of this slop but as I sat eating I couldn’t help but think back on how much I spent and wasted back when I was on top of my game in the free world.

I grew up like a lot of kids did after the great wars I was orphaned couldn’t remember if I even had parents. If I did to hell with them for leaving me to fend for myself in the slum towers of New York. I took to the streets running around making drops for bangers to hot to even think of hitting the streets since I could run and was small enough I can pass threw the crowds with no one noticing. Growing up orphaned wasn’t so bad no legal tags keeping you on radar of the big corps so you could do lots of different jobs for these hot bangers like hits, drop offs, and collecting debt.

When the job is done you disappear into the walking mass of the city with a few credit and look for a different hot banger to do some work for. That’s what I did I ran for a big time banger whose street named was toothless for always leaving the people he dealt with toothless after they cross him gruesome way to die have all your teeth yanked out your mouth one by one then left to bleed out in the streets. I saw it done once I learned that day the only way to make something of yourself is by making less of others. Toothless was a hot banger who ran a whole eight blocks and two slum towers. Being hot is one thing the citizens hated it made your credit useless unless you got a hacker who can launder your credit it also lets any city guard with a tracker able to spot you. Its why runners like me are invaluable to hot bangers like toothless.

The city riots of New York came along during my adolescence years I joined in the fun got a crew together and turned over a few city guard cars burned a few buildings and stole so much merchandise I didn’t starve or work for a whole month. Me and my crew actually got a lot of respect during the riots and that’s worth more then any amount of credit. It was set in steel that my crew and I were no mere punk runners no more we are something to be feared, respected, and that we’re an up and coming crew.

The city riot was harsh old toothless got murked by some up start banger and his worthless crew the up start died the next morning by yours truly ever since then I ran all of toothless old turf. Sure lots of slum tower bosses didn’t like that I ran the streets or that I was greedy and started to take over anyone else’s turf the moment I saw them flinch. If most of the old bosses didn’t die or were sent to the work camps I’m sure I would’ve died in a week at most a month after I started expanding my turf. Thankfully I was smart only took out the fresh new bosses and waited my turn for the few surviving old and smart ones.

One by one I took all of them out the last one to defy me was Kulviska Regalado a old Italian boss who ran little Italy with the help of the mob. A few shaked hands and a kick back or two and I had his own family take I’m out hey what’s family for am I right? I was king of the New York metro complex and it was good. My years of hard work left me so hot I was the most wanted man by the city guards, but I was smart enough to escape out with my loyalist men to Chicago where I’d make real deals and tired to turn legit. That was my biggest mistake if I thought the bosses of New York were rough I had no type of preparation for the corporate governance of the Chicago metro complex.

I took over a few gangs turf cleaned up the streets in the Chicago slums promised the citizens a new era of peace by making the gangs sign a peace treaty. I was a man of my word not a single crumb was stolen or a person ever touched with out my go ahead. I only took out those who needed justice the city guards were to scared or wouldn’t touch like the rapist, the drug addicts who stayed above ground, the other ilk that oozed crime and poverty for the decent folks trying to feed their families. It was good I even had people saying I was a blessing in the slums property value rose up to ten times their previous worth families got enough credit they could actually leave the slums with a few credits in their cards and a new chance at life.

The corps didn’t like that they like the downtrodden to stay broken and hopeless. If enough poor people got rich that ment less the credit value is worth for them and they don’t like that I knew business like any other boss so I knew this can be worked out maybe a few extra kick backs from my organization to the corporate governance would keep them happy. I set up a meeting with a few corporate P.R. it was a trap I walked into the meeting place and before I knew it I was surrounded by the Marshall security corps. I was finally caught the place had pounds of white, sharp, and grade A zombie all different narcotics that I don’t touch or even let dealers set up shop, but the evidence was stacked against me sure I could’ve wasted tons of credit on fighting the case or use it all to bribe the warden in the newly established corps funded Arena where I’m going to be sent to.

I did that exactly my crew was taken by complete surprise by my capture, but I told that it will be fine just run business as if I was still there. I used my cut to make my existence in the Arena as comfortable as possible extra meals, work out equipment, and all the booze one could want. My first kill was some poor sap who got caught stealing corporate data on the world wide web and sent to be my fodder. The geek had no type of combat training besides leveling up his fantasy role playing characters up fat lot of good that did him.

Back then the Arena was different none of these expensive backgrounds like Metro zone or the desert wastelands it was just a cement pit twelve feet wide twenty feet deep underground and two entered one left standing. The geek grabbed a city guard stun baton off the wall that was lined up with dozen of weapons and I grabbed a pair of battle knucles his baton was simple a foot long baton that gives a electrical discharge. My battle knucles were made of a crude metal with sharp spikes on each knucle ready to tear into a person’s flesh. The fight was brief the geek tried to keep me away with the baton but I moved to quick for him side stepping his swing and back handing him with the spiked knuckle the cameras that were suspended above us were drenched with his blood a few spectators that payed to watch cheered on as they were splashed with blood too.

He dropped his baton and fell on his back I jumped on top of him and beat his face in leaving the man dead in three seconds. I knew he was dead still that didn’t stop me as I beat his face into the concrete floor leaving the floor stained with his blood and bits of his face. I got off him slinging the gloves off my hands after a minute standing away from his body as the Arena guards came in to lock me back up in my cell. It was brutal deadly combat back then before you didn’t get credit but after my fight ratings went up. Soon I was a main attraction and started getting payed for the kills and got more deadly weapons to have these punk brutalized with.

Five years later I’m still top dog in the Arena that pup got a lucky punch after my fight with that thieving rat Charlie. I thought to myself as I ate my last bit of slop from my tray and layed up on my cot. It was a few hours later that my cell door opened up and a few of the wardens men were on the other side of it. “Come with us the old man wants to see you.” They said in unison and walked into my cell.

“No way is my boss going with you.” Lando said he’s a tall Asian a tough son of bitch he’s my cell mate and personal body guard. The wardens men didn’t even reply they just used there baton and beat him down pretty quickly knocking him out. While they wailed on Lando I jumped over them and started to beat on the wardens men with my tray and killed one but his partner got me right on my jaw with a up swing of his baton leaving me dazed.

I was being dragged out of my cell I can hear my men banging on their cell doors as I passed them. Whatever is happening I know it won’t turn out good as they dragged my body over to elevator at the end of the block going past pit and up to wardens office. I slowly regained consciousness during the elevator ride just in time to see the door open. I hate the warden he been a good ally in the past but he’s been letting people skim out on me like Charlie and who knows how many else it’s that credit that keeps my men living decently in this hell hole.

The wardens office is solid marble floors and walls no windows, but it has a good amount of paintings of the outside world down the hallway to his main office. Once we went threw the doors I saw the warden in his plain corporate suit and tie sitting behind the big sized desk with a large bookcase behind him. The warden has a short clean cut that you see all over the top floors of the mega corps towers with neatly trimmed and clear polished nails. His sharp face with a large pointy nose gave him a bird like look and the years of plastic surgery left him looking far younger then he actually is.

“Good evening Dinkerman. I hoped this meeting would have seen less blood then has already been spilt today due to your debacle of handling Charlie.” The warden said standing up right and with a posh look on his face. “Wouldn’t have been a debacle if you just kept your word and gave me half of their credits like we agreed.” I replied back shaking the wardens men’s hands off of me.

“Oh that isn’t a valuable deal anymore seems your men on the outside have short changed me on our deal. I kept quiet about it but I figured you’ll get control of them, but seeing as it’s been a week and I yet to have my daily supply of my narcs. How am I suppose to make my busy side business flourish if my supply runs low only because my supplier decides to rob me?” The warden ask in a sarcastic tone as he pushed his chair out from his desk.

“Do you know how it is being bent over a table being fucked over with no lubrication while being punched on the back of your head?” The warden asked again in his sarcastic tone. “No, I’m usually the one fucking the other that’s bent over.” I answer back at him grinning.

“Of that I’m quite sure of Dinkerman. See the thing is you just left me like that or to be exact your men left me like that. Now I have two options I can punish you by leaving you crippled and sending you into the gauntlet, or you can save yourself that ordeal by giving me the name of the one who fucked me over.” The warden said as he turned around and began to search for a book on the huge bookcase behind him.

I chuckled to myself. “Is that all you want? What’s with the scare tactics if all you wanted was Binks name?” I asked knowing if it was narcs the warden wanted he would’ve said so. “That’s just to remind you that you are a criminal in my prison I can protect you or I can leave you to die like the rest of this filth you’ll do well remember that.” He said with a serious tone in his voice that sounded as deadly as a bullet to the heart.

“Fine I’ll get you the narcs you been missing give me a cell.” I said looking at him waiting for him show a bit more of his hand, but he didn’t instead he handed me a cell. “Call this Binks and get me my narcs twelve hundred credits worth of each.” The warden said as he threw me a cell phone as he sat in his chair with a book in his hand.

I quickly call Binks number and wait for him to pick up after five rings he finally picks up the phone. “Yeah who’s this?” Binks said sounding either nervous or half drunk it’s hard to tell with him. “It’s Dinkerman have you been fucking with my Narcs?” I ask him, but the phone is silent on the other end for a long time.

“Hey punk have you forgotten that I own your whole life? You hear me Binks?” I yell at him threw the phone. “You don’t understand Dinkerman things have changed.” Binks says his voice clearly shaky this time. “Falcon is dead and the vultures are circling us.”

“What?!” I said then heard a single gun shot on the other end then silence. “What the hell is going on?” I say as I slam the phone on the wardens desk as he looks up at me from his phone. “Oh, yeah I replaced all your men with a bunch of corpses.” The warden says flipping threw the pages of his book not even reading them. “Books are such fragile things but hold such wonderful information if your not careful you can lose them and the information they hold forever.”

“What are you going on about?” I yell at him as his men quickly restrain me. “Information, it’s created and destroyed empires since the dawn of mankind. Yours Dinkerman was just crushed under my fist.” The warden says as he stops flipping the pages a pulls out a film of clear plastic. “This is the Falcon isn’t it?”

I stood there in complete defeat the Falcon is the data sheet with my bank accounts, the black mail information on dozen of corporate big wigs, and everything that I spent my entire lifetime creating. When the web isn’t safe enough to store data people can create thin sheets of data called Film that can store just about a never ending amount of data on it. I use my film to have everything from my bank accounts to my contacts of all types and a ton of blackmail I used to get corporations to bend the rules for me in my New York stronghold. I kept it locked away in a bunker in the middle of nowhere armed with a state of the art defensive system and two corporate grade robotic guards if he has that he owns everything I spent my life working towards.

“This will fetch me a great deal of credit more then I can possibly ever spend, but trust me I will find away to spend it.” The warden said with a wink and a cruel smile. “I have no need for you or your men anymore I’ll be rich and I’ll be able to fund my newest projects. You’ll love this new project I call it Meto or metamorphose embodiment to Orcs.”

The guards took me to the elevator I knew I was beat there is no way I can come out of this alive I’ll just have to hope for a quick and somewhat painless death. The ride was short but I was in a place where I never been before this area was weird almost sterile and reeked of disinfectants like a corps funded Hospital. The guard drag me to a room where I see a lone mechanical arm that hung over a large metallic bed. “Lay down Dinkerman.” The wardens voice came from speaker on the wall. “Due to low narcs I can’t promise this will be painless.”

I knew I was a dead man but I’ll be damned if I’m used as some sort of guinea pig for the Spector. I tried to wrestle out from the guard grip but the more I struggled I noticed that they got stronger. “Its too late to avoid this Dinkerman.” They both said in unison and dragged me off to the table where the mechanical arm reached out and pricked me with some kind of muscle relaxant.

I wasn’t able to move at all but I felt everything like the men grabbing me and laying me on the table. Then they striped me naked as the many tools of the mechanical arm spun above me hypnotically like a carousel. I saw one tool move closer then make a cut across my chest then two more peeled back my skin. I could feel everything I saw the blood fly around sending my heart throbbing and pounding as the other tools connected to the mechanical arm went to surgically remove different organs and move things around watching them move skillfully and quickly like a well trained pianist playing a tune on the piano.

The muscle relaxant made it impossible for me to move but I felt every jab and poke and as the tools were prodding inside of me. The pain was too much for me to handle and I passed out after a while, but I woke up from time to time. Tears running down my face from the pain then I slip back into the darkness the only thought that kept me going was that I will survive this if only to kill the damn warden with my bare hands

** (Jack Bulkins point of view)**

I had a nightmare as I slept I was in a long alley with a intense feeling I was being chased. Logically I ran down the alley into a unknown darkness everything seemed to speed up around me but I moved slower and slower. For some unknown reason I looked back behind me and saw a hoard of shadowy figures coming towards me their limbs moving in unnatural ways some had extra appendages jutting out from their bodies those came closer to me as all I saw were beady red eyes on them when I woke up gasping for breath. I looked around and saw that I was by myself in the cell and the whole habitable zone was quiet.

I felt sick to my stomach and went to the toilet and began to puke up a watery fluid probably some funky after effect from the food I ate last night. I flushed the toilet and walked out feeling a bit better but the pulling feeling in my stomach came back when I noticed why everyone was up and quiet they were doing the cell raffle. Its a joke the raffle everyone knows if you have enough credit you can have your number conveniently missing during the raffle but it’s a waste you get too comfortable you’ll end up dead real quick on your next trip to the pit. I found Charlie shaking hands with one of the cholo bangers from last night probably passing thanks and credits for saving our ass from Dinkerman and his thugs yesterday.

That reminded me that I saw Dinkerman being dragged away from his cell last night. I tried looking around but saw none of his men or him in the crowd around the monitor during the cell number raffle for the Pit. “Hey Jack fool come on gear up we have a trip to the clinic and the buffet.” Charlie said as he waved me over. I didn’t care I hoped they killed Dinkerman and went with Charlie to get some real food and medical attention.

While walking down the habitable zone with Charlie I noticed a group of new criminals being marched into the induction area where I was put into when I first came to the Arena. In the group I saw a few cuties but one girl stuck out to me she had big black hair bigger knee high boots and a short skirt with a black and white striped long sleeve shirt. Her face was as pale as a albino and heavily caked in make up. Our eyes met together and I instantly remembered her.

“Chelsea!” I yelled out and waved at her she just waved back but the line moved up and she soon went into the induction. That’s were they implant the tracker chip behind your ear and tell you about the basic rules about the gangs the arena the habitable zone and credit hall and how the cell your placed at might get called into the Arena. I couldn’t believe it Chelsea was here she was my first kiss back before my life took a turn for the worst. I’ll have to find her after she gets out of induction area.

---