Desi

I stood in the middle of the cage, my hands shaking at my sides as I waited for the red doors to open, revealing the group of infected that Ryder and I would be fighting. The audience wasn't just cheering, they were screaming, the excitement of this match almost too much for them to handle.

I turned my head and glanced up at Ryder, standing next to me in the cage, a look of defeat written across his face. I may have shared a steamy kiss with Cody in the hall earlier today, but that didn't mean that I didn't hurt with Ryder as he tried to hold back his tears. After everything we've been through, he is a part of me.

"This is it," Ryder said, my ears barely able to decipher what he was saying. "It's all over. The plan was all a waste because we're going to die."

"Hey," I told him, grabbing for his hand and lacing my fingers through his. "What are you talking about? We've come this far, Ryder. Don't you dare give up on me."

Suddenly, he turned to face me, grabbing my other hand, making us face each other. "I'll never give up on you," He told me, switching to survival mode. "You're right. And after this, when we make it through alive, I'm going to get you out of here."

"Then the plan's not a waste," I told him, trying to smile. "We can do this. We just have to--"

I was cut off by the red doors swinging open, and the snarls of infected filling my ears. Ryder and I both turned our heads to see a group of two men and two women, snapping their teeth at the guards that dragged them in. People in the audience leaned back as they passed, scared that they might get bitten. I hoped one of them did.

I eyed the infected one by one, noticing one of the men was missing an arm and the other had a hole in his cheek. The women, however, were more terrifying. One woman's face was unidentifiable, her face covered with gory bite marks. I shuddered and glanced away from her towards the other woman with long black hair, that stayed covering her face. I kept my eyes on her, watching as she calmly walked; snarling, but not snapping at anyone. She seemed the most deadly, out of all three, considering that she could control herself.

My heart raced faster and faster as they neared the cage, my hand gripping Ryder's like I was about to fly away. He leaned over and whispered in my ear.

"Don't worry. I'll keep you safe."

I slightly relaxed, my hand allowing Ryder's circulation to continue. It was impossible to be completely calm though as the first of the guards grabbed the cage door, swinging it open. They filed in one by one, lining up against the inside wall, each of them grabbing keys out of their pockets to unlock the infected's handcuffs.

Another guard stepped in, holding a bat in one hand and a knife in the other. Well, I thought to myself, at least they're giving us weapons.

"You take the knife," Ryder told me, reaching for the bat. "You'll be able to do more damage with that."

I grabbed for the handle of the knife, practically ripping it out of the guard's hands. He turned and looked at the line of infected and ran for the door, scared to be in here when they were let loose.

The guard on the far left counted down from three aloud, and I eyed the door, wondering if they were all going to be able to make it out alive. When he said, 'go', all handcuffs dropped to the floor with a clank and the guards sprinted to the door, panic written on their faces.

They all managed to get out safely, until the woman with the scary black hair reached her arm out, grabbing the last guard by the back of his shirt and yanked him to her. He screamed as she tore at his throat with her teeth, the other infected quickly latching onto one of his limbs.

Ryder grabbed his bat with both hands, raising it behind his head, and time froze at that moment. I remembered Cody with his bat, swinging it back and forth, smashing the wood into the heads of infected. I suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be here watching and my eyes scanned the back walls of the theater, to see him standing at the very back in a guard uniform. He was too far away to see the look on his face, but I knew that I couldn't die. I might be terrified out of my wits right now, but if he were in my place he would do everything he could to get back to me.

I gritted my teeth and gripped the knife tighter, rearing it back, ready for one of the infected to notice I was here and run at me with their teeth bared. But they all turned their attention to Ryder, except for one. Of course, I thought to myself as I saw the woman with black hair watching me, it has to be the deadliest one that wants me.

Bring it on.

Cody

It was almost near impossible to stay against the wall. I wanted to run to the cage, to grab Desi by her small waist and pull her out of there and safely into my arms or to even switch places with her, but I knew I couldn't do that, no matter how much my heart begged me to.

Three of the infected ran towards Ryder and he swung his bat, smashing it into the skull of the man with no arm. He fell to the ground, slowly making his way back to his feet as Ryder swung again and again, breaking the leg of a woman and butting the other man in the face with the end, making his nose bleed uncontrollably.

I turned my gaze away from them and focused on Desi. She was swiping her knife out in front of her, only slicing air as the woman with black hair dodged her blows swiftly. She inched closer and closer to Desi, making my body shake with terror.

With every missed stab, Desi became more and more defeated, her stance becoming less confident. The woman was close enough to Desi now for her to attack when suddenly she got knocked aside with a blow of a bat to the ribcage, and a loud cracking sound as her bones broke.

I glanced to the other three infected Ryder had been fighting to see two of them laying still on the floor, puddles of blood surrounding their heads, and the other slowly sliding across the floor, his broken legs limp behind him. The black-haired woman glanced from Ryder to Desi, trying to decide which one she should go for and her eyes locked on Desi, a snarl escaping through her lips. Ryder swung his bat towards her again while she was distracted, but her hands reached up, catching the end of the bat right as it was about to hit her face.

With a superhuman strength, she ripped the bat from Ryder's hands, throwing it back behind her, out of their reach. Ryder and Desi both stood frozen, not knowing what they should do, then Ryder took action.

"Desiree!" He yelled, as the woman stalked towards them. "Throw me your knife and scale the wall! Get up high!"

"What?" She asked confused, her hair whipping in front of her face and she glanced from Ryder to the barbed wire walls of the cage. "I can't climb--"

"Just do it!" Ryder yelled, holding his hand out for the knife; the woman wasn't too far away now.

Desi tossed the knife, Ryder catching it by the handle and turning to face the infected. As Desi turned to run to the wall, the woman screamed, running towards her.

Ryder tried to jump in front of her, but the woman was too quick and dodged around him. Desi jumped up, grabbing onto the highest barbed wire that she could reach. I heard her scream in pain as the barbs pierced the skin in her hands, but she kept going, lifting her feet to a different wire and beginning to climb them like it was simply a ladder.

But she wasn't quick enough as the infected woman, grabbed her ankle, her nails tearing into her flesh, trying to pull her down. Desi screamed and kicked her leg, but the woman's hold was too strong and I thought she was about to pull her down off the wall. But Ryder came through, plunging the knife into the woman's back, removing it quickly, the blade soaked with blood.

The woman yelled in fury more than pain, letting go of Desi and turning to face Ryder. As they began to dance around the cage, Desi continued to climb the barbed wall until she was at the top. I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that she was safe for the moment and watched Ryder and the infected woman, trying not to watch the blood drip from Desi's torn hands.

The infected woman's shirt was drenched red in the back where Ryder had stabbed her, but she continued to attack him as if nothing had happened. Ryder was quicker with the knife than Desi and the woman still dodged his blows. She began to corner him and I could have sworn I saw a sinister smile spread across her lips.

Desi glanced down directly below her, where Ryder was now pressed against the barbed wire, the infected woman ready to attack. I saw the panic in Desi's eyes as she realized what was about to happen. He was going to die.

Suddenly, Desi let go of the barbed wire, falling down towards the floor of the cage, and my heart literally stopped. I wanted to scream her name, tell her to get back up there but Desi landed on top of the woman, pinning her to the ground, smashing her face into the blood-stained mat.

"Ryder!" Desi yelled at him, as he stood paralyzed, a blank look on his face, shocked at the change of events. "Do it now!"

Ryder lunged forward, burying the knife into the back of the woman's neck, her body squirming for only a moment before she went completely still.

But then Desi screamed in pain.

The infected man with the broken legs was forgotten and he had managed to snake his way over, embedding his teeth into Desi's bare calf. Wrapping her fingers around the handle of the knife in the dead woman's neck, she yanked it out, spinning around to plunge it into the back of the man. He shuddered once before going still.

"You won't be cured of my blood," She said loudly, her voice deadly. "Not today."

Ryder stepped in front of her, holding his hand out for her to grab, pulling her up onto her feet. The audience, which was so quiet I had forgotten they were even there, stood up, bursting into applause. They blocked my view, and I craned my head to the side, trying to spot Desi, and I saw her arms wrapped around Ryder's neck, his arms wrapped around her waist.

They stood still, embracing each other, off in their own world as the audience around them cheered chaotically. I tried to find the jealousy and anger in me as I stared at his hands on her back, but it wasn't there. Ryder had just risked his life to save Desi, put her life before his as that infected woman chased after them. He deserved this moment.

I dared to glance up towards the balcony, to where Vivian and a strangely elegant man sat side by side, the man's face lit up with excitement and Vivian's red with fury.

I pulled my back up off of the wall and turned towards the red doors, making my way back up to the suite before she could see me.

Desi

After the match, I sat in Doc's suite, wincing as Doc wrapped my hands with bandage after stitching up the deep cuts from the barbed wire.

"It probably wasn't the smartest thing, climbing that wall," Doc said, as he taped the bandage together, leaving my hands looking as if I was wearing white boxing gloves, except for my fingers sticking out of the top. Well, I thought to myself sarcastically, this is sexy.

"It was my idea," Ryder interrupted. "She needed to get safe. All that woman wanted was her."

"Better safe than sorry, Doc," Durbin said, putting in his word. "Sometimes dumb is smart."

"I get what you're saying," Doc said, keeping his gaze locked onto the bite on my leg, rubbing it with an alcohol that made me wince. "It just kind of messes with our plan."

The room went silent. No one had thought of this yet. We had gotten the hair dye to make my natural shade a dark brown, but with these giant white bandages, it would be obvious who I really was.

I'm the one that broke the silence. "We can still go through with it. Do I have to wear the bandages? What if I just wore gloves or something?"

"The cuts on your hands are very deep," Doc argued, now wrapping bandage around my calf. "They could easily get infected. Plus, we are already risking enough with them recognizing you, but we can't change the color of those, like your hair, if a guard sees them before Durbin does his part, then we are toast."

"No one will see them," I reassured him and everyone else in the room. "Just pretend this," I held my hands out in front of me. "Never happened. I can take off the bandages for a little while and I'll hide all the cuts. We are getting out of here, Doc. Just because the insides of my hands look like hamburger meat doesn't mean we aren't going through with this."

I heard Durbin chuckle behind me and I turned my head to look at him. "Now that's the Desi that punched me in the face," he said, a smile on his face. I remembered when I drove my fist into Durbin's jaw after Selma had died because of his drunken stupidity. And I remembered the arms that had held me afterward.

"Where's Cody?" I asked Doc as he rolled his stool away from me, taking off his gloves and throwing them into the trash.

His head nodded in the direction of one of the bedrooms, his gray hair flicking away from his face. I glanced at Ryder as I got up and headed in the direction of the bedroom, trying to ignore the cautious look on his face.

I stepped down the short, narrow hallway and looked into the crack of the room Cody was staying in, thankful for the fact that the door was already open and I didn't have to try to turn a doorknob with these thick bandages blocking my way. I nudged the door open, stepping inside, seeing Cody sitting on the edge of the bed, staring off into space.

"What are you doing?" I asked, making Cody jump, his eyes widening as he looked at me. He must not have heard me come in, and that worried me knowing he was in such deep thought to not hear the door open. Is he mad about me hugging Ryder after the match, I asked myself.

"Desi," Cody whispered, his eyes on me as if I was about to disappear. "Watching you in that cage, fighting for your life like that was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I saw you that first time, but it was so quick and so effortless; this was absolutely horrible."

"I'm so sorry," I said, stepping towards him. "I knew it would be hard, it was always hard for me to watch anybody go in there."

"You could have died when you jumped down from the top of the cage," he said, never taking his eyes away from mine. "Why the hell did you do that? You could have easily died."

"You know," I told him, leaning down onto my knees, resting my arms on his legs as he looked down at me, his light brown hair swaying into his eyes. "You were the only person I thought about while I was fighting. Yes, I thought about Ryder and yes, I care about him. But you were the top one on my list. I was safe up there, but you weren't. If Ryder had lived and I had died at least I would know that you would be safe and he would get you out of here. If Ryder would have died, you would most likely die too." I looked down towards the floor, the thought of Cody being dead hitting me like a ton of bricks. I'd felt that feeling before and I was not going to feel it again.

"I know what it feels like to think you are dead," I told him, feeling his eyes on the crown of my head. "And I can't live through that again."

Then Cody's hands were on my face, tilting my head so that he could look at me. "I'd rather be stuck here and rot, then have to live knowing that you are dead."

He pulled my face to his, pressing his lips against mine, combing his fingers through my hair to wrap around the back of my neck. My arms traced up his legs, wrapping around his back, my body pressed into the bed in between his legs. His kiss shot through me, bubbling my blood, making me want more.

I lifted myself from my knees, Cody leaning back, his arms falling from my neck down to my waist, gripping my hips and pulling me up onto his lap. My legs were around his, my face tilted down into his, our lips dancing in sync around each other. I couldn't control my hands as they pulled at his hair and traced his cheekbones, as he traced my spine and gripped my thighs.

In this moment, I knew who I was meant to be with. This person that I've been so connected to from the very beginning, the boy that saved my life by waving me to his cellar, the boy that stood between me and a shotgun held by his dad is the one that my heart wants and needs.

Cody held onto me like he would never let go, and I didn't want him to. All I wanted was to be even closer to him than I already was.

A throat cleared behind me, in the doorway, making Cody and I break our kiss and turned to see who it was. My heart broke as I saw the look on Ryder's face as he looked and Cody and I.

He said the one thing that completely described the moment. "Um, this is awkward."