Dom, who had been off to the side with her arms crossed, caught Brennan’s eye and raised an eyebrow.Are we doing this?
Brennan shrugged and grabbed a gun and a vest.
Nellie slipped another bill to the employee who opened the door to the arena for them.
“You’re the best, Lee,” she said.
“You’ll post like you promised?” grunted Lee. “We got a huge surge after the last time.”
“Already got my caption picked out,” Sunny said, fingernails clicking against the screen of her phone.
“Good. Just don’t break anything, okay?”
“That only happened once,” Nellie said.
“You ripped a door off its hinges.”
“What else was I supposed to do? Sunny was gonna kill me.”
“That was the only time Nellie’s beaten me,” Sunny said.
Lee grumbled something about “No property damage,” before closing the door behind them.
“Lee’s sister is the vampire who runs the blood bank,” Nellie explained. “She hooks us up sometimes. Makes sure the cameras go off while we’re playing, so there’s no need to hold back.”
“Except for property damage,” Brennan added.
“Eh,” Sunny said, “we’re good for it.”
Brennan took in the arena. It was massive and elaborate, themed like a space action movie somewhere adjacent to Star Wars or Star Trek. The base level was full of red sand, decorated like a Martian wasteland. Big scraps of junk metal and random materials were scattered throughout as cover, and at the opposite ends of the battlefield were two bases. They were designed like space stations or massive spaceships, with multiple floors, entrances, and windows. Playing in the background was ambient music that tried too hard to sound like Star Wars without infringing on copyright.
A bell rang, and Nellie took the gun slung around her shoulders into her hand, shouted, “Ninety seconds to start!” and then sprinted toward one of the bases. She was wicked fast, red sand kicking up behind her.
Beside him, Dom was as unimpressed as ever, her face carefully bored.
Sunny studied them both, calculating. “I don’t go easy on people.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to,” Brennan agreed. Sunny sprinted off toward the same base as Nellie with deadly speed.
Dom’s single arched brow was the only sign of amusement. “I guess this one’s ours,” Dom said, nodding to the other base.
Brennan couldn’t help starting to strategize, brain kicking into fullgear. They’d need to be on the defensive, surely, which meant finding a decently defensible area of the base to occupy.
“We shouldn’t split up,” Brennan said. “We’ll need to cooperate if we want to survive.”
“I’m pretty sure they’re gonna destroy us either way,” Dom said.
“Yeah, probably,” Brennan agreed. Then, “We should seek higher ground.”
“Yes, sir.” Dom mock saluted.
They took off toward the base, a huge rocket with three levels and a lot of hiding spaces. They weaved through an elaborate set, different rooms with big machines and flashing lights. Brennan didn’t stop until they reached the top level, where there was one small room designed like a control center: a big control panel in front of a swiveling captain’s chair with a view of the whole arena below. There was one entrance and one large window, so they sat on the floor back-to-back. Brennan watched the door to the room, and Dom checked the window for any sign of movement.
“So, have you done this before?” Dom asked. She sounded like she couldn’t care less about the answer.
“Only once, in, I don’t know, sixth grade,” Brennan said. “My mom didn’t like me playing with anything resembling a gun.”
“Wow, and you did anyway?” Dom said, somewhere between dry and mocking. “What a rebel.”
