Part V

           Ruben took Orlando into the city; the streets were crowded with cars and people. Orlando didn’t think that zombies would be hanging out in the open. But Ruben seemed to know what he was talking about. He told Orlando that he had been hunting zombies for a while. That he enjoyed it, he liked the rush that it gave him.

          Orlando rode his Sportster, Ruben had his own ride his was a blue Kawasaki sport Z1000. Ruben expected Orlando to follow him but yet when he turned down streets he would turn at the last possible second. He thought maybe Ruben didn’t have any idea where they were going.

          They drove by union station headed south towards North Broadway. Ruben pulled up stopping at a bakery. Orlando parked alongside him.

          “Why are we stopping here? You hungry or something?”

          Removing his helmet Ruben responded, “Or something. This place can get pretty crazy. You’ll see what I mean, dude.”

          The streets were busy they were filled with tourist walking up and down the streets of Chinatown. As Ruben and Orlando began to walk away from their motorcycles Ruben paused and without looking back he raised his right arm and pushed a button on a keychain. The noise of two beeps sounded securing his ride.

          “Seriously?” Orlando asked as they headed forward.

Ruben pointed out a small shop that sold herbs and teas, “This place is known for its underground fighting. I think it would be a good place to test you out.”

“Underground fighting? In that place?” He asked uncertain about whether or not Ruben was being straight with him.

“Yeah, man. Come on I’ll show you.”

They entered the shop no one was at the front counter, Ruben walked right on into the backroom. “Looks like they’re all down there already.” Kneeling down Ruben removed a piece of board that was covering a narrow opening. Looking up at Orlando he asked, “How’s your magik? Are you a classified novice or mercurial?”

          Orlando didn’t know the answer to that for he hadn’t been tested yet so he said, “Guess we’ll find out.”

          “Fair enough,” Ruben was about to led the way down when he was stopped by Orlando’s question.

          “Who am I going to be fighting?”
          “Not who, it’s what. People like to see zombies fight each other and bet on them.”

          “Oh,” Orlando thought that was the craziest thing he had ever heard.

          “Yeah, it’s totally awesome.” The sound of excitement in his voice was clear. “It’s how I met Maxwell, he showed up one day and asked me if I wanted to hunt these things down. Said I’d be good at it, cuz you know I kicked their butt’s in the ring.”

          “Wait a minute, you went one on one with zombies?” That took Orlando by surprise.

          “All the time, it was easy money.” Turning back to Orlando he added, “Just don’t embarrass me man, these guys here they know me.” With that said he led the way down the stairs and into a tunnel. They could hear the noise from the fighting at the end of the tunnel. The sounds of bone hitting bone, the grunting and the shouts of the gamers placing bets on the fights, greeted them as they entered the room.

“Yo! How’s it going man?”  Ruben called out to a man at the entrance.

“You in today?” The man asked. “We got some good ones.”

“Yeah? That’s awesome! This here is my friend Orlando.” Ruben called Orlando over, “My money’s on him.”

“For reals?” The man looked Orlando over not sure there was a fighter in him.

“Dude, you’re asking me? You do remember all the wins I have on my belt?”

          The man began to laugh, “Let’s put him in.”

          Ruben turned back to Orlando a huge grin on his face, “You didn’t eat this morning did you?”

          Within minutes Orlando was in the ring with a zombie. The zombie was taller then him, it was hunched over with broad shoulders that looked to big for his body and its head was grotesque. It had an electric collar around its neck Ruben told him it was a way for the handlers to keep the zombies in line. The zombie growled at him salivating at his lips, it looked hungry. Its collar lit up prompting the zombie to attack. It took a wide swing at Orlando.

          Orlando easily sidestepped the attack ducking down targeting its kidney area.  The zombie turned growling swinging both fist widely. One swing caught Orlando on his chin. He went down; it felt like a semi truck hit him. The zombie was about to drop to his knees hands outstretched for Orlando’s head. 

          Turning onto his side Orlando kicked one leg out hitting the zombie in the midsection. It didn’t move the zombie back much but it did give Orlando room to jump to his feet. They were face to face now the zombie had bent down to Orlando’s eye level. The zombie reached across for Orlando’s shoulders it wanted to rip his arms out of his sockets. Orlando could see perfectly into its sunken lifeless eyes. Raising his hand he poked the zombie in the eye. The zombie stumbled backwards Orlando was quick to follow him. The zombie ripped its wounded eye out of its socket and flung his eyeball at Orlando, causing him to pause for a moment. It was bleeding from its eye as it swung at Orlando missing him with each strike. Orlando inched his way closer breaking the zombies neck with a few twist.

          “What the hell man! You killed my zombie!” An outraged man cried out in foul.

          “Yeah, dude,” Ruben said to the outraged man, “that was the point.” Ruben took out his sword and tossed Orlando’s his own. His eyes firmly set on Orlando now as he said, “This outta be fun.”

“Ruben!” the man Orlando had met earlier at the entrance charged forward, “What are you doing?”

Without sparing him a look Ruben answered, “Killing Zombies.”