I found myself back in the Arena. The hot lights beamed down on me and David. The crowd seemed to be in an even wilder and more chaotic state than usual. The roar of the crowd was deafening. Father K's floating platform appeared above us. I checked out Father K's wardrobe. He was dressed all in leather with a flowing black cape. His makeup job was even more garish than normal.

"Welcome back. To the Temple of Trials. Have we got an exciting show for you tonight!"

The crowd roared its approval, and Father K bowed theatrically.

"Tonight, we have the final elimination Round. Three teams will enter, but only one will leave. But where shall this competition take place? You the audience get to decide and decide you have? The final round will take place in space. That's all I can say for now. I don't want to give too much anyway," Father K said and swooped down to our level.

Great, here comes the interviews with the eager contestants. Father didn't disappoint. He ran up to us and shoved his microphone towards us.

"Young lovers, I can't remember a more exciting show in my decades of hosting. What do you have to say about this final round?" Father K said.

"We're looking forward to winning and having it be over," David said.

Father K turned to the crowd for its reaction. The crowd booed and shouted insults. Father K turned towards me.

"And what do you have to say, Ms. Grant? It seems that something has come between you and Mr. Ross. Please tell us everything that you can think of."

"Nothing's come between me and Agent Ross," I said coldly, "We're partners on this mission. We work together, and that's it."

"Are you sure, Ms. Grant because I could have sworn we saw romantic sparks fly?" Father K said with a sneer.

"I'm sure." I said and that was it. I stepped away from the microphone.

"The young lovers, everyone," Father K said to the crowd and bounded off to his platform. He spent the next few minutes interviewing the other two teams. David and I stood together silently. Finally, I couldn't take it any more.

"Listen, Ross, what happened back in the cell..." I started.

"Forget it, it was my fault. I stepped over the line. I'm sorry, Grant."

"No, it was my fault. But if we don't make it out of this round. I just want to say that you're a good person. One of the best people I've ever met in my life."

"Thanks. Now let's win this thing and put a stop to this whole obscene charade."

Father K finished his interviews and jumped back on his platform. He rocketed to the center of the arena. The leader boards lit up and showed that we were all in a three way tie for first place.

"As you can see. We have a unique situation here in the Temple of Trials. A three way tie for first place. Only a final elimination round can decide who will win, and the winner will take all, because this final round is where the contestants fight each other to the death!"

The crowd gasped and then cheered. I couldn't stand this crowd. It reminded me of the worst the galaxy had to offer. Anyone who would cheer for people dying was beneath contempt. Life was cheap here in the Outlands.

"Contestants, listen up. You will jump to a derelict space freighter that has been outfitted with the most insidious traps known to our TempleMasters. Once there you only have three hours to make it to a shuttle craft which only holds three because this freighter is on a one way course into the nearest star. Three hours is all you have. Who will survive? Things are heating up here on the Temple of Trials." Father K said.

I looked at David. This was going to be the most severe test of all. Only two of us were going to make it off this freighter, and I intended that to be us. I wasn't going to be fried. Fire. It always came back to fire. There was nothing hotter in the Universe than a Star. I would have to use all of my self control not to freak out when we got to this freighter. I don't know if I was capable of it. I imagined the heat shields failing and the temperature rising. The radiation forcing its way through the hull, frying me and David to a crisp. I shook my head and forced myself to concentrate. A Keeper of the Wend does not run from Fear. She embraces it.

"Are you ready, Grant?" David said to me.

"Sure," I said although I didn't know if that was the truth or false bravado. Sometimes you need to fake it until you made it. That's what Uncle Paul always told me. I remember thinking that was weird advice for a University professor to be giving, but Uncle Paul could be that way.

Father K raised his staff into the air, "Let the final round begin!"

Jump Doors opened in front of us, and David and I leaped through them.

***

David and I landed in pitch darkness. The smell of rotting meat assaulted my nostrils and I almost vomited right then. I looked around for David but couldn't see him. It was that dark.

"Ross, where are you!"

"I'm right beside you, Grant. Calm down."

I reached out for David's hand and felt reassured when he grabbed it. The light from our razor phone's shot out and illuminated the cargo hold. I almost screamed when I saw where we were.

Rotting human beings hung on hooks. Dozens of them. They looked like they died screaming. Horrible expressions of fear and pain were on their faces. I turned away in disgust.

"Who could have done this?" David said in horror.

I scanned the bodies with my phone.

"They've been dead for at least a week. I'm trying to access the ship's log to see what happened."

"Do you think the TempleMasters did this for the show?" David said.

"I don't know. I can't seem to access the ship's log. There's a block on the ship's computer. I can't get past it."

"Let me try-"

The sound of moaning cut David off. We looked around, and saw the dead humans stirring on their hooks. Rotting eyes opened and stirred around. Arms waved in the air.

"Zombies." David said.

"Everything's better with Zombies," I joked.

The arms of the undead reached out to grab us. One after another the zombies reached back and pulled themselves off their hooks. They fell to the ground and got to their feet.

"Run!" David said.

I wasn't going to argue with him. I knew from experience that Zombies were stupid fighters. Easy to beat. The problem was that Zombies were tough to kill. Photon blasts didn't stop them, only the Wend or our Etheric Knives would, but there was just too many of them. In these tight quarters, we were completely at a disadvantage. The zombies could easily overwhelm us. Running seemed like the best bet.

"This way!" David said and pointed at a nearby doorway. We blasted the door open with our Razor phones and ran for our lives. The zombies shrieked and gave chase.

David and I tore down the passage way of the deserted freighter. I could barely see where I was going. Our razor phones were almost out of power and the pale beams flickered in the passageways, barely illuminating the way ahead. The howls of the zombies told us that they were right behind us.

We ran through an open doorway to find a large cargo hold stacked high with containers. There was no way to get around the containers. We had no choice but to climb. David and I climbed up on the containers, scrambling to get as high as we could. The containers were slippery and I struggled to find a firm grip.

I looked behind us and saw the zombies enter the cargo hold. Without, hesitation they climbed onto the containers and gave chase.

"These are some pretty smart zombies," I said and climbed onto the top of the containers.

"Just our luck to get stuck with the smart zombies," David said.

David and I reached the top of the containers. We looked across the wide cargo hold to see a large door on the other side. Suddenly a large laser cannon that was positioned on a movable loading crane near the ceiling unleashed a torrent of blasts at us.

"Look out!" I yelled and grabbed David, barely pulling him away in time before a laser blast would have incinerated him.

We jumped down behind the containers before the laser cannon could blast us to pieces.

"We can't stay here," I said and pointed to the zombies that were climbing towards us from the bottom of the hold. I checked the charge on my razor phone. I only had power for just a few more photon blasts. David scanned his phone.

"This has gotta be one of the traps the TempleMasters set for us."

"Can you turn off that laser cannon?"

"I'm trying to access the ship's central computer, but there's all kinds of security measures. This might take me a few minutes."

I looked at the swarming undead that were slowly making their way up towards us.

"We don't really have a few minutes."

David furiously tapped on his phone. "All right, I'm into the central computer. I can't turn off the laser cannon, but I can open the airlock."

"Open the airlock. Are you sure that's the only way?"

"That's our only option."

"Then do it, while we still have time," I said. The zombies were only a few feet away and gaining ground quickly. I thought about using The Wend but I was too close to David. I might absorb him too. No, the airlock was the only way.

"All right, get ready. Take a deep breath," David said and pressed a button on his phone.

A loud klaxon alarm bell shrieked and the large cargo door creaked open. Instantly a ferocious wind swept through the cargo hold. The temperature dropped and the air quickly left. Smaller containers were quickly sucked out into the vacuum of space. The zombies shrieked and flew out the cargo hold. The laser crane ripped off its base and flew out into space.

I could barely hold my breath much longer. David pressed a button on his phone and the cargo hold slowly closed. Finally the compartment re pressurized and air was available to breath. I sucked it down with greedy breaths.

"I never knew oxygen could be this good," I said between breaths.

"Come on let's get out of this hold," David said.

"First off, it would be nice to know where the hell we are," I said.

David looked at his phone. "I've got some bad news. This is an extremely large ship, and we're on the lower decks. We've got to climb about five decks to get to the shuttle craft."

"And who knows where the other teams are. Can you get a reading on them?"

"The good news is that the other teams aren't that much closer than we are. The alpha draconians have bogged down on the upper levels, and the prisoners from Rigel Seven aren't doing much better. It seems they're stuck in the lower levels below us."

"We'd better get moving," I said.

Suddenly a low whine came through the ship and the floor rumbled. David looked at his phone again.

"The ship is moving towards the star. We've got about three hours to get to the shuttle craft before the heat shields fail."

"Then let's go," I said and tried not to think about what was going on. The heat of the star coming closer and closer with every second. I could almost feel the extra heat coming through the hull of the ship. I shook my head and focused myself in the moment.

"Grant, are you all right?" David said.

"I'm fine, Ross. Let's get going."

We ran across the containers that were left and into the next passageway.

At least the lights were working in this next passageway. The only problem was that it ended in an elevator shaft. David pressed the button to call the elevator but nothing happened.

"Come on, help me open this door," David said.

We strained and pulled our best and finally got the door open. David looked at his phone.

"All right, I'm looking at the plans of the freighter right now. We've got to go down. Cross the next level and then we can go up again," David said.

We stepped into the elevator shaft and shined our lights from our phones down into the depths of the shaft. About twenty feet below us, we saw murky water and floating debris that looked like garbage.

"Water has flooded the entire lower level. We're going to have to swim for it. It's the only way across," David said.

"Nothing like a little dip after almost getting sucked out into space," I said.

David and I grabbed our rebreathers from the backs of our photon belts. The rebreather was a very usual piece of equipment which allowed Rangers to breath for up to ten minutes underwater. I'd never used it before and was unused to the metallic taste of the air. Still, it was all we had and I was grateful for it.

David and I climbed down the shaft carefully and slipped into the water. The water was cold and again I was happy for the protection of my Ranger jumpsuit.

Diving under the water, we kicked downward and shone the lights from our phones to illuminate the dark murky water. We swam down the elevator shaft until we got to a closed door. David and I grabbed it and forced it open. We shined our lights into the compartment. A long corridor extended in front of us. David and I swam down it, moving slowly because of all the trash and junk that was in the water.

Suddenly, we rounded a corner and saw a dark, writhing mass of blackness that looked like it was alive. The mass filled the corridor so we couldn't even see around it.

David and I shined our lights on it and the mass revealed itself to be a collection of long snake like creatures. The creatures appeared to be feeding on the corpses of the prisoners from Rigel 7. I could still see the looks of terror frozen on the faces of the prisoners.

"Centaurian death eels," David said through his rebreather mic.

I shuddered and thought of how awful it must have been for the prisoners. Eaten alive by these monstrous creatures.

"Move slowly and follow me. They're only dangerous if they're hungry," David said and swam down the corridor.

"Lucky for us," I said and followed David.

I followed David. We swam over the black mass. I tried not to look at the corpses of the prisoners, but couldn't help myself. The eels were stripping the prisoners down to the bone. I saw the skull of one of the prisoners as an eel munched on its face. I looked away, but the image burned itself into my mind. David and I swam down the corridor and rounded a turn. I looked back.

The Death Eels were coming right at us!

To Be Continued

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