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CHAPTER 40 Escaping the sands

Still shocked after once again his life was almost ended, Zonda recovered from the low metabolic state that he had placed himself in. He sat up on the metallic table while he stared at the mysterious orange creature very closely.

"We don't have much time, my furred friend." The creature identified as Ginetta spoke to him.

"Wait. How did you know what I was doing?" Zonda questioned him. It was true that time was short, but it was very suspicious that this creature was apparently aware of his plans.

"I knew that you weren't dead." Ginetta replied. "I have a sensory organ in my nose that enables me to technically smell the scent of life. I can sense your core's temperature with this ability, even at a distance."

"Vomeronasal organ." Zonda replied. "Very common on reptiles, though you don't look like one."

"Besides that, the man who was murdered at the beginning of the tournament advised me to keep a look on you three. He knew that it was going to be impossible for you to come this far without my help."

The orange furred creature's alibi was very convincing. Besides, Zonda didn't sense any negativity coming from him. He was as sincere as any Retcan or Evocanis could be.

"But you have done this before; the way that you negotiated my body with those guards."

"No, my friend; this is the first time I do this. Corpse smuggling is very common in this forsaken land. I just got advantage of the situation. It was risky, but fortunately they fell for it."

Five minutes had passed now. Zonda had no option but to trust in this creature from here on.

While Zonda tried to stand on his legs, an enormous pain invaded his body. He felt a wet sensation running down his belly and across his right leg. His precious red blood was draining out of the wound that Morrison had inflicted on him. Ginetta quickly aided him.

"That female human was very clever. For a second I thought that she really stabbed you." Ginetta said as he examined the large wound. "Your abdominal wall is virtually untouched. She must have turned the knife to a side while stabbing you, so it only went under your skin and fatty tissue."

Ginetta patched Zonda really quick and gave him some local haemostatic ointment.

Suddenly, a loud banging was heard on the door.

"Are you finished with what you are doing, Doctor?" The guard yelled.

"What are we going to do, my friend?" Ginetta asked scared.

"I have a plan. Listen to me very carefully..."

Their hearts pounded heavily. The guard outside was getting impatient and suspicious of why Ginetta didn't reply to him. Zonda had to put up a plan really quick. Fortunately, the guard was alone, but they had to act quickly since he wouldn't doubt to call for reinforcements if he felt that something wrong was going on.

"Guard," Ginetta yelled, but not hard enough so the guard thought that something was wrong. "You have to come and see this."

The guard cautiously opened the door, readying his weapon. As he came into the room he saw Ginetta standing in front of the table, giving his back at him. The lights were turned off, so he only saw what his mounted flashlight pointed at.

"What the hell is going on here?" The guard yelled furiously.

"Please come and see this." Ginetta insisted.

"Turn around immediately, Doctor!" the guard ordered when he saw that the table was empty. Before he could even react, something fell on his back. It was Zonda, who was hanging from the ceiling. He quickly immobilized him after he let out an electric discharge at him.

"Close the door, Ginetta!" Zonda yelled. He had fallen to the ground, gasping for air.

The orange furred alien obeyed immediately and aided Zonda after.

"Electroplax Cell Organ," Ginetta said as he helped Zonda get back on his hind-paws. "I guess I'm not the only mammal with non-mammal abilities."

"I can't..." Zonda tried to talk in between gasps. "I can't do this too often. Even worst now that I'm so drained."

Zonda was almost within the limits of his resistance. But they had to go on. Their chances of escaping were shorter by the second. They had until the fight between Alpha and Morrison ended, and they had no idea how much longer they could go on.

"The first thing we need to do is deactivate the collars. As long as we have them, our life runs a permanent risk." Ginetta said, as Zonda tried to recover and organize his ideas.

Ginetta pulled down the neck of his sweater, revealing the deadly collar wrapped around his neck.

"I don't know if this helps you trust me better. I've gone too far now as well. If we don't succeed, I will die too. And I don't want to." Ginetta said. He looked like a very sensitive creature. His eyes flooded with tears as he said this.

"I trust you. And don't worry; we will get out of this."

After tying the guard up and securing his weapon, both stood next to the door, ready to continue.

"Do you know how we can deactivate the collars?" Zonda asked.

"I've helped maintaining the systems in this place. We have to gain access to the main control room. There, we will find the computer that controls the security systems, weapons, cameras and the collars."

"Good. Let's move!"

"Wait," Ginetta stopped Zonda on his tracks. "It is more complicated than you think. If we try to gain access to the terminal, it will ask us for a code." Ginetta explained.

"And let me guess; you don't have the code."

"I am sorry."

Zonda again fell in despair. While they stood there speaking without doing anything, their time was running out.

"There might be a way," Ginetta said. "I know how to put the terminal in maintenance mode."

"Why didn't you say so?" Zonda asked desperately as he again tried to hurry outside of the room. "How can that help us?"

"Again, it's not that simple since it will ask for a code again. But I have a hunch; if somehow there is a power failure and the computer terminal is placed in maintenance mode just when the auxiliary generator kicks in, that might cause a failure in the systems, causing it to reboot."

"Why don't we just destroy it?" Zonda thought of the easiest way around the dilemma.

"We can't do that, I am afraid. The device has a security countermeasure that will prevent this. If we destroy the computer terminal, the collars will activate. Turann is highly schizophrenic and would rather kill us all than to risk a rebellion."

"What do we have to do then?"

"Please be aware that this is just a theory. I have to put the terminal in maintenance mode. Then we have to destroy the main power generators. It will take approximately two minutes for the auxiliary generators to activate. Once that's happening, we have to be vigilant with the collars. The moment that energy is restored and the terminal reboots, we will have close to ten seconds to take the collars of."

"It's our only choice. If we don't, we are dead, I suppose."

"I'm afraid so. The terminal will probably ask for the code once it restarts. As you know, I don't have the code. And causing another power failure is not a possibility since the auxiliary generators are outside this facility, out of our reach."

Ginetta took the com device from the unconscious guard and gave it to Zonda. He advised the Retcan to set it up a private link to his own com device. Finally, they were ready to proceed.

Carefully, they walked outside the room, being vigilant of their surroundings.

"My furred friend; you will have to go to the generator room and destroy it. I will guide you by the com device. I will head for the control room and manipulate the security terminal."

"Take the weapon, Ginetta."

"No. The guards don't know of my desertion. I will find a way to lure them out of the control room, or disable them, I don't know; I'll think of something. Most of them might be watching the fight since it is the final. I will take advantage of that somehow. Besides, you will need it to destroy the generator." The orange alien said.

"Very well, then. Take care, Ginetta." Zonda said as he ran down the corridor.

"Wait!" Ginetta yelled, stopping Zonda once again. "What is your name?"

"Zonda." the grey Retcan replied.

"Zonda, please be careful and follow my instructions. Good luck."

They both finally went on separate ways. Ginetta directed Zonda through the com device as planned so he could reach the generator room safely and as quick as possible.

Meanwhile at the arena, Alpha and Morrison kept their fight going. So far their fight had the audience, as well as Turann entertained. Their enactment was brilliant, even going as far as giving themselves an occasional strike with all their strength. It looked very real.

"Well, well," Turann chuckled. "I never expected such final. That woman has come a long way. And that rat has proven its worthiness."

"There is no point on continuing this." Feastus said very irate. He stood up, with the guards readying their weapons after his sudden move.

"Where are you going? Bored of the fight?" Turann told him in a mocking tone.

"What point there is for me to watch this? You will probably end the fight before they kill each other. If not, you wouldn't have given this money to me. At least admit that I was right about those rats."

"If you were right, then the other rat would still be alive. Be grateful that I decided to pay you one of them at least."

Feastus just walked away from the private box with his briefcase full of credits. But before he could exit, a very large human full of scars stopped him.

"You are not going out until the boss says so." The large human said.

"What is the meaning of this? I have more important things to do. Turann, tell this buffoon to get out of the way!"

"General Verznost, can you show our guest his seat please?" Turann directed to the large man.

The large man now described as General took out a massive knife and threatened Feastus.

"The Emperor insists of your stay." He said with a rash voice.

Feastus never looked so terrified. He knew Turann very well and was shocked by his sudden actions. The scrawny Feastus had no choice but to go back to his seat, trembling in fear.

That man called Verznost had a dreadful reputation of being a sadist who found pleasure on the suffering of others. He was also in charge of all the guards and Turann's personal army. Some even claim that Verznost was even stronger than most of Turann's best gladiators including the now dead Kiire.

"What's wrong with you, Turann?" Feastus asked nervously.

Before he could react while waiting for an answer, he felt a huge impact on his arm that caught him by surprise. The adrenaline that the sudden impact caused made him feel no pain at all until he looked at what had hit him. Next to him, General Verznost was looking at him to the eyes with a glare of pure evilness. Verznost had driven his twenty inch combat knife through Feastu's arm, nailing it into the armrest of his chair.

The pain now started invading Feastus who tried to get loose at no avail. The General kept him immobilized with one hand as if Feastu's effort meant nothing to him.

"Now listen to me," Verznost said. "First: You don't give orders to Emperor Turann. Second: If you call Emperor Turann by his name again, I will cut your arms of and beat you to death with them."

"His arms?" Turann said without even taking his sight from the fight below. "Usually you use the leg." He then laughed manically with Verznost.

Inside the complex, Zonda ran through the corridors very cautiously as he followed Ginetta's directions. To his surprise, the corridors were all empty; just an occasional camera that he had to outsmart by going under its blind spot.

"I'm in front of a junction, Ginetta. I see a door at my right just before it. The door is white." Zonda said in a very low voice as he held the weapon ready while peeking into a corner.

"Take a left turn, Zonda." Ginetta responded.

Very cautiously, the Retcan took a left which took him to a downward corridor. Before he could reach the bottom, he again found a junction.

"Take another left, my friend. Be careful, there might be a technician at the room at the end of the hall. That's the generator room."

"Understood,"

Zonda continued as directed, until he found himself in front of a large door. There was apparently no one around, but he had to be careful before he entered there.

The large metallic double door seemed locked from the inside, which was a huge problem. Zonda had to figure out how to get in.

Back at the other end of the complex, Ginetta finally made it into the security control room. He quickly asked for clearance, though the guards were suspicious of why the doctor was there.

"I need to inform you of something very important." That was the only thing Ginetta could come up with. His adrenaline started bursting in his bloodstream as he noticed the suspicions on the guard's face.

"What the hell are you doing here?" the guard asked with his rifle at hand.

"The screen failed in my laboratory. I need to follow up with the tournament. You have the biggest screen in the complex, so I thought of staying here."

"Why don't you just go to the arena?"

"The smell of blood irritates my sensitive nose." Ginetta quickly excused himself.

The guard wasn't too convinced. He walked outside of the room, looking at both sides like if suspecting of something. Before he could return to the room, Ginetta took a syringe from his pocket and jumped at the back of the guard, injecting him with the strong sedative. The guard didn't have time to react as the strong chemicals disabled his body completely. This happened steps from the entrance of the security room, which gave Ginetta the opportunity to slip in after swiftly securing the guard's weapon and the controller.

As soon as he got in, the other guard was walking outside to see what the commotion was. Ginetta quickly ran and jumped over a few panels, landing on the guard and injecting the sedative. His physical characteristics made him a vey agile and graceful creature. He was not used to act violently, but due to the circumstances, it was him or the guard. After securing the weapon and the controller, he immediately ran to the camera controls and talked with Zonda.

"I have you on screen, Zonda. Now listen to me," Ginetta said as he desperately manipulated the camera control panel, shifting camera views until he found the right one. "There is no one inside the generator room. The only way to get in will be to blast the lock with the rifle. Do it quick, I'll keep an eye on you while I manipulate the security control panel."

Zonda proceeded. For one second, as he raised the rifle and aimed at the door, his vision started to get blurry. His heart started beating in an irregular pattern, making his legs loose strength. The rifle fell to the ground as so did Zonda. He tried to get hold of the weapon, as he gasped for air.

Not now. Please, body. You need to resist.

His determination was his only strength left. He got hold of the rifle and stood up once again. Charging the weapon for a few seconds, he held it still until one powerful shot was fired. A huge whole appeared in the door.

Zonda walked, dragging himself across the wall to avoid falling to the ground. He finally reached the door. Sticking his arm inside the whole, he managed to manipulate the door's lock and finally opened it. Zonda found himself in a very large and noisy room.

"I'm in." Zonda reported. His voice sounded weak.

"Are you ok, Zonda?" Ginetta asked.

"Tell me what I have to do?" Zonda demanded, ignoring the question.

"Do you see two large capsules at your far right? You should notice that they have thick cables coming out of them and running across the room's ceiling."

Zonda panted heavily, as he tried to focus.

"Yes. I think I do."

"Zonda, listen to me. You have to destroy them; shoot at the cables when I say so!"

Ginetta could only hear Zonda's panting getting softer and slower, but no answer was given.

"Zonda, are you alright? Did you get my instructions?"

"I'm sorry; I can't go-" the Retcan barely managed to reply. A thud was heard on the com device.

Ginetta yelled for Zonda to respond, but nothing else was heard. Ginetta ran to the camera controls and saw the grey furred alien lay motionless on the ground.