In Search of Home

Chapter 8

As the weeks progressed, Viktor got better at fighting. The once squeamish guilt in his gut whenever he fought something smaller than him was nonexistent. They were animals, fighting to survive this Hell just as he was. There was no time for pulling his punches and his kicks to something that would not offer the same mercy to him. There was no hesitation when he fought things that towered over him, either. He fought to live, to eat the next day, and to please the ringmaster. 

After the beating he had received for something as idiotic as making the fight short, Viktor made sure that there was no reason for the ringmaster to be cross with him and by extension, the rest of the humans. The ways that the other humans had tried to protect him in any way they could did not go unnoticed by the ringmaster. 

Once, Ezekiel, who had had enough of fighting for he had fought three times in a row that week, had refused to budge from his cell, no matter the blows and shocks from his collar. He was a large man, and even the aliens could get hurt by an attacking human as big as he. The ringmaster had gotten called in, who had yelled something at Ezekiel. Still, the big man refused to budge.

Ezekiel had said that he'd take a beating over another week of fighting any day. He was stubborn as a mule, even when the rest of the humans had tried telling him to comply. If Ezekiel got himself killed, they would be distraught. Ezekiel had kept quiet, but Viktor suspected that he might prefer death over this. He thought that sometimes, too. 

The ringmaster, instead of giving up and slamming the cage shut, had barked out an order, and Viktor's cage had opened. Jumping back from the door in alarm, he scrambled to put distance between himself and the alien approaching him with a hateful gleam in his eye. "No, no, no, please," had fallen from his lips and onto deaf alien ears as he was dragged out of his cell by a large hand on his collar. 

It hadn't taken much more than that to convince Ezekiel to exit his cell, yelling obscenities at the aliens, who didn't really care. He had come back from fighting still angry, arms covered in the blood of whatever creature he had fought. After reassuring himself that Viktor had been put back in his cage unharmed, he settled in a corner and stayed silent the whole night.

Nowadays, it only took a glance in Viktor's direction to persuade the humans to cooperate. They didn't want to risk the possibility of another beating. It warmed Viktor's heart to see that they cared so much about him, but it also made him angry that the ringmaster would use him as a bargaining chip. 

However, that didn't stop some of the other mean aliens from tormenting Viktor. They found it funny how he flinched and the other humans protested and shouted loudly every time they opened the door to his cage. Notail and Tail were particularly nasty to him. They didn't tend to stop at the doorway, they actually went in. Oftentimes, one of them would come into his cell and shove him around. 

It wouldn't have been so bad, had they not been ten feet tall and stronger than they looked. Whenever he got to his feet, they would yell, "Kora, Kohgrash!" and laugh at how he flinched and brought up his arms. They never struck him hard enough to leave considerable lasting damage, especially since the ringmaster had yelled and raged when he had found out Viktor had been unable to fight when they had done it last due to unending dizziness. They had struck his head hard enough to send him sprawling on the floor, and he had only gotten back up because he heard the ringmaster enter. 

The humans knew to talk only when there were no aliens in the room, aside from Lilac, with who they had all grown semi-comfortable. She was the only alien who treated them with any kindness, and by that, they meant that she never slammed on their bars and yelled loudly at them. She scooped more gruel into their dishes after a fight and tried to heal everyone she could with the stinging ointment. Some of the humans, the ones that Viktor had rarely spoken to since they were so far away, distrusted her regardless of the help she offered. He couldn't blame them. Viktor hardly trusted her himself.