The audience cheered Valeria as she rose to her feet. Her body gleaming with blood and sweat, she thrust both arms toward the sky in triumph and pranced around in a circle as if doing some sort of victory dance. The way she looked—beautiful and shiny, hair blowing in the hot wind, breasts bouncing and swinging—drove the audience to a frenzy. All around us, people stood up.
My view was blocked, so I stood up, too. As did Lee and Rusty.
Apparently enjoying her ovation, Valeria danced around even more wildly.
As she leaped and twirled, lightning in the shape of an upside-down tree turned the sky brilliant. Every detail of Val-Richard Laymon eria trembled in stark relief—the wild look on her face, the curves of her muscles and ribcage, the jutting tips of her breasts....
I felt hard and achy. Without underwear on, I was pushing tight against the inside of my jeans. I started to worry about having another accident so I sat down. This not only relieved the pressure, but it took Valeria out of sight.
Thunder roared, shaking the night.
Lee sat down beside me. “You okay?” she asked.
I nodded.
“We’d probably better get going,” she said.
“I guess so.”
“Before something else happens.”
“Guess so,” I said.
She patted my leg, then turned her head the other way. Toward Rusty.
But he wasn’t there.
Chapter Fifty-five
All I could figure was that Rusty must’ve had an accident, himself, and hurried away to prevent Lee or anyone else from noticing it.
“Come on,” Lee said. She started to stand up.
“No, wait.”
“What?”
“Why don’t we wait here for him? He probably just went...”
Lee shook her head. “He knows we’re about to leave. Maybe he just went on ahead.”
We were both wrong.
In front of us, the spectators sat down and we saw Rusty halfway down the bleacher stairs, waving both hands overhead. Shiftless and bandaged, he almost looked as if he’d already been in the cage with Valeria. Racing toward the bottom, he shouted, “Me! Me! I’m next! I call it! My turn!”
The audience cheered him.
Lightning ripped through the sky.
“Oh, my God,” Lee muttered.
I couldn’t believe my eyes—oh. yes I could. Though stunned, I wasn’t very surprised. Of course Rusty wanted to get into the cage with Valeria. He probably saw this as the opportunity of a lifetime.
And maybe he was right.
The thunder came ... a long, rumbling noise. I could feel its vibrations in my chest like the drums of a parade band.
The storm was coming closer.
But wasn’t here yet.
Valeria stood in the cage, breathing hard, slowly rubbing her body with the towel. She hadn’t put her top back on. It was probably still inside the casket.
“Rusty!” I shouted. The crowd was clapping and yelling, so maybe he couldn’t hear me. “Don’t!” I called out.
“Come on,” Lee said. She stood, sidestepped past the empty space left by Rusty, and started to make her way through the seated spectators.
I stayed close to her.
“Excuse me,” Lee said to the people we had to disturb.
We were facing forward. The knees of those behind us jammed the backs of our legs. Our thighs rubbed the backs of people the next row down. I’d lost my boner by then, or it would’ve poked some heads.
“Excuse me,” Lee said. “Excuse me. Excuse me.”
A few people stood up to let us by. Others didn’t budge and we had to shove past their legs.
“Excuse me. Excuse me.”
“Sit down!”
“Down in front!”
“Y’make a better door than window!”
As we struggled across the row, I watched Rusty scribble on Vivian’s clipboard. She took his arm and led him up the steps to the cage. As they entered the cage, another tree of lightning cracked across the night.
Lee and I broke through the end of the row.
Thunder crashed.
But still no rain.
If the rain starts, I thought, will they stop the fight?
Probably not.
I followed Lee as she raced down the stairs toward the arena.
“I SEE WE HAVE AN EAGER YOUNG VOLUNTEER,” Stryker said, his amplified voice loud and crackling.
“I’M RUSTY,” Rusty said into the microphone.
The audience cheered.
Rusty turned all the way around, grinning like a dope and waving at the crowd.
Someone called out, “Go get her, Rusty!”