Survival Games

Chapter 5

         Lila woke up hours later, curled up into a ball with Jay sleeping about an inch away from her. Most of the others were also awake now but a few had also decided to nap. Jack was awake and twisting bits of straw into odd shapes before discarding them. After a minute, Lila sat up and Jack looked over. Pushing himself to his feet, he walked over and started to speak in a whisper.
          ‘Are you okay?’ He asked her. ‘You… didn’t look so good after this morning.’
          Lila took a deep breath and shook her head. ‘They’re dead because I failed them…’ She said. ‘I used to be such a good player… But I couldn’t beat him.’
          He grabbed her shoulders suddenly and stared firmly into her eyes with his own. ‘They were going to die, even if you didn’t try to save them. None of this is your fault.’ His eyes were like steel holding her captive and gradually she realized that he wasn’t the stoic outcast the others regarded him as. No, he was the only one that really cared. He was like her, placing value on others’ lives before his own. She had suspected after the story of his mate, but the look in his eyes confirmed it.
         ‘Thank you.’ She said. ‘How long have I been asleep?’
         ‘Most of the day.’ Jack replied. ‘He was looking after you, wore himself out when he should have been resting.’ He gestured to Jay.
         ‘Most of the day?’ She winced. That meant…
         ‘Yea. He’ll likely be back for the next game soon…’ Jack finished. ‘So I guess you should psych yourself up.’ He tossed aside the piece of straw in his hand and took a deep breath. Silence followed for a few short minutes before the tell-tale footsteps preceded the cat’s arrival through the front door of his house. Once again he was carrying a small paper bag which he deposited on the counter beside their tank.
         Starting to hum the tune to some song she didn’t recognize, he stepped sideways and lifted the lid to the container and reached his hand inside. Used to the routine, she didn’t struggle as he carried her up and over to the table once more. He returned a few minutes later with the night’s prize, a male mouse whose name Lila hadn’t learned, but who by far looked to be the youngest one out of them all. He didn’t have the look of a child, but he certainly wasn’t an adult either.
         Dropping the young mouse into the vase as usual, he disappeared into whichever room contained the board games and returned with whatever game he had in store for tonight. Lila watched him curiously as he unboxed the game and started to set it up. After a few moments she recognized it as Chinese checkers. The star shaped slots were mostly empty as he set it for only two players out of the maximum six.
         ‘Do you know this game?’ He asked.
         ‘Yes, I’ve played a lot of board games before.’ Lila answered. ‘I know how this one works.’
‘Good. You go first.’ He said.
         She sighed, this was always how he had been starting the games, by making the mouse go first. She had no real strategy that could be used from the beginning, so she simply moved her first piece from the corner of her starting triangle. He did the same, and so it went for the first seven turns before their setups started to become apparent.
         She managed to make a quadruple jump with one of her rear pieces to get a further lead. He managed a similar move, but only a triple.
          The game was moving very quickly, making Lila very nervous and edgy. She scanned the board with frantic eyes to ensure she didn’t lose another of her fellows. The cat had the same passive stare as he always did when he made his moves. It was impossible to read his expression which forced Lila to stay on her toes. At t is point both of them had begun to make good progress to reaching their opponent’s side, but the game could still go to either player.
          Realizing she was going to take too much of a risk if she played conservatively, Lila started to play more aggressively. Pushing her pieces further, she started to make more jumps in the name of faster progress. The cat’s lip curled into a smile, clearly enjoying the upped challenge. In response he began to play more aggressively himself.
         It did not take long for Lila to realize she had made a mistake. While she was being more aggressive she lacked the cat’s keen eye and foresight.
         ‘No… Not again…’ Lila started to cry as it became more and more apparent that she couldn’t win. As he made his final move, placing his last piece on its place, she still had three pieces to go.
         ‘Two nights in a row?’ The cat shrugged. ‘Are you sure your heart’s still in this?’
         She couldn’t reply, too lost in her own sense of failure to form words. She felt his hand slip under her as he lifted her to his face. His large sharp gazed eyes examined her shivering body and he pressed his lips against her for a moment before licking over her body. His tongue dug at her skin and tore small chinks from her fur.
         ‘Do you think it might be time to give up?’ He asked. His breath wafted over her, bringing with it a wet heat and day old stink.
         ‘No!’ She screamed suddenly, surprising herself and the cat with the sudden desire to keep living in spite of her predicament.
         ‘Well, there’s some fight in you yet.’ He grinned. ‘What’s say we have another game? You can try to save someone else, but you haven’t saved this one.’
         ‘Mff… Fine!’ She squeaked. She gave an apologetic look to the trapped mouse in the vase and shook her head sadly. She gripped the cat’s fur tightly as he lowered her back to the table. He dropped her unceremoniously, making her roll into a heap before reaching for the vase. The cat’s victim started to hyperventilate, squirming and squeaking in distress as he tried in vain to evade the cat’s descending clawed fingers.
         ‘Hold still…’ The cat grumbled, overturning the vase and sliding the mouse into his grip before holding him close in a tight fist. He gave a slow lick over the mouse’s face before feeding him bit by bit into his drooling maw.
         Lila cringed as she watched, once more reduced to a shivering spectator of a horror she had failed to prevent. She tried to keep her mind focused on Jack’s words but the sense of responsibility she felt was simply too strong. Before she realized what she was doing she found herself crawling across the table and reaching for his lips.
         ‘Hmm?’ He muttered, still slurping the morsel slowly as he saw her. He leaned down so Lila could reach him and smiled, drool leaking from his closed maw as he nudged her hand. ‘You changing your mind?’
         Her fingers brushed against his lips and she gripped, now able to feel the struggles and hear the faint muffled cries of the young mouse trapped between those deadly jaws. The cat spread his teeth apart slightly and wrapped his lips around her before slurping hard. She was pulled in up to her waist, and felt her upper body slide across his teeth to rest on his tongue. Her hands brushed against fur, and she felt the arm of the other mouse. Panting frantically she tried to grab him enough to pull him to safety only for her hand to slip because of his drool matted form offering no grip. She was unable to see but felt her feet leave the table as the cat lifted her up and tilted his head back.
         ‘Here… hurry!’ She cried, but her fellow mouse was simply too slick with feline saliva to struggle against the slowly shifting tongue.
         ‘I…I can’t!’ He squeaked and Lila could tell he was crying through the cracks in his voice. A low rumble echoed around them as the cat moaned happily. Even though her eyes were wide with horror, Lila couldn’t see anything as the sickeningly loud wet gulp silenced the panicked panting of the other mouse. Lila let herself fall limp on the cat’s tongue as her own tears began to roll free.
         ‘Mmmh, that’s new.’ The cat murmured, his voice resounding around her before he opened his maw and poked out his tongue, holding her aloft where she now had the perfect view of his glistening throat that had seconds ago claimed its prey. He picked her off by her tail before continuing. ‘Were those your tears I tasted just now?’
         ‘…Fuck you!’ She screamed. Her body gave a defiant kick, but he simply grinned at her comically squirming little body.
         ‘That was good. You actually tasted like the rest of them just then.’ He giggled sadistically before dropping her back onto the table. With one sweep of his arm he slid the board game back into its box before standing back up. ‘Another game, then you can go back with your friends and have your own dinner.’
         He left the room for a few minutes before returning with the next game. As he put it down, she took notice. It was Battleship. An interesting choice. This was one that was dependent on luck as much as strategy. Meaning if she could get off to a good start, she could still save someone.
         ‘Hurry up.’ The cat gave her an impatient look. Doing her best to calm herself down, she began to set up her pieces. With only a small amount of experience in this particular game, she reasoned that the best bet was to spread her ships out as much as possible.
          ‘I’m ready!’ She called back. ‘This time YOU go first!’
         He grinned and sniggered. ‘You think that’ll change your horrible luck?’ He pondered for a moment, scratching his chin before calling out. ‘B7.’
         ‘Miss.’ She responded. ‘C2.’ Her breaths were still slow and rapid, but she was beginning to focus much better now.
         ‘Wow…’ He muttered. ‘That’s a hit.’ He slowly picked up a red marker and placed it somewhere on his side. ‘Not bad. Maybe you’ll turn this around after all.’
         The game continued. Lila managed to sink the battleship and the submarine of her opponent fairly early, while he caught onto the location of her patrol boat and her battleship. As the game went on, she also found the location of his cruiser. Three down and he only had two.
         She looked at her board, her hits compared to her misses. All of his ships were close together, it seemed to make sense that the others would be too if that was his game. When it was her next turn, she picked a spot close to the rest.
         ‘…Hit.’ He murmured again. His own return shot was also a hit. Lila took a deep breath and reminded herself to stay calm. She was still in the lead even if he had found her aircraft carrier. More turns passed, and to her dismay the ship had been sunk without her being able to locate his fifth and final ship, the patrol boat.
         She took another few guesses in the corner where the rest of his fleet had been. Still nothing. He continued to guess in what seemed to be random intervals, trying to place shots evenly across the board to maximize his ability to sweep. Eventually he found her fourth ship, but in subsequent turns had resumed his random searching.
         She realized his strategy. He was trying to find the last one before he sank them both. Her heart began to race. She was having no luck finding his last boat and if he found hers first then her losing yet another game was a very real possibility.
         ‘A9.’ He said. She was silent for an agonizing few moments.
         ‘H-hit…’ She replied faintly. Her worst fear was upon her and now she was still being forced to throw out random guesses while he could finish her off with another four moves. She looked at her plotting, the top corner where his ships had been so far was almost covered in shots, while the rest was covered in sporadic guesses.
         Two more turns passed. Her only hope now was to guess exactly the right locations for both points his patrol boat occupied. Swallowing nervously, she opened her mouth and called out what could be her final guess. ‘I9…?’
         ‘Um, hit actually. Nice work.’ He replied, nodding impressed. ‘I hope you guess the right side for the next one.’
         He was right. There were still four blank squares around this hit marker where the other section of the boat could be. She had only a one in four chance of winning now. The cat made his next call, sinking her submarine and leaving her with only one slot left on her cruiser. It was her turn, and her last chance to win this game.
         ‘…I8?’ She guessed. He looked down at his side of the board. A smile slowly formed before he shook his head and called out the last co-ordinate needed to win him the game.
         ‘Ohh, you were so close I’m almost tempted to give that one to you.’ He laughed. ‘It’s a pity you didn’t catch on to my trick earlier. What do you think? A friend showed that one to me.’ He spun his side of the board around, showing her that four of his ships were lumped together with the fifth smallest ship across the other side.
          She had fallen for it, assuming that all of them would be close together to maximize the chances of random guesses over the board hitting nothing, while at the same time placing hers in exactly the opposite fashion. It had been easier for him to find his targets, and harder for her to do the same.
         ‘This isn’t fair…’ She sobbed. She slumped into a heap on her knees and leaned forward. Her tears fell on the table before her, causing the cat to lean close again.
         ‘Don’t be like that.’ He said. ‘It’s more than fair. You were caught and I bought you. That I do any of this is a kindness to you. Most mice wouldn’t have this chance. Now then…’ He stood back up and reached for the vase, before stopping. ‘Oh right, we didn’t pick a new contender yet. I guess I’ll just pick one now.’
         Lila looked up, distraught as he stepped over and began reaching inside the tank. She couldn’t make out who was who from hear, but as the cat brought his selection back over to the table, she recognized the frantically squirming form of Ari…
         ‘Yummy.’ He said, licking his lips before running his rough tongue over Ari’s belly and chest. ‘This one was pretty desperate to keep away. But that wasn’t enough.’
         ‘Ari? Noo!’ Lila cried out.
         ‘Oh? You made friends with this one huh?’ He grinned, and held Ari out near the edge of the table. Enough for Lila to try and reach out, but not quite touch. ‘Well this time the offer is genuine. If you really want me to let her go, you can take her place. You become my dinner, she goes free, and the games stop. The rest of these poor little mice become mine.’
         Lila met Ari’s gaze, the cat’s cruelly tight grip had left Ari unable to manage any more than shallow gasps, but the look in her eyes was just as conflicted as Lila’s own mind. Ari would never see her kids again. But an escape from this house was no guarantee that she would either, after all they were such a long way from home. And further, Ari was likely not the only mouse in that cage who had been taken from a family.
          ‘Well mousie?’ The cat asked, a tinge of impatience in his voice. ‘What will it be?’