The Gang Wars
an excerpt

Jaku stepped through the passageway that led to the chamber where his ‘interrogation’ would begin. To him, it wouldn’t matter if they were interrogating him or not. If he didn’t tell them what they wanted -which he wouldn’t- to hear then he would simply kill them. Oh. The room was massive. It was filled with hundreds of animals- Outcasts. Every one of them was bound by thick layers of wet vine around their front and hind legs and face. There were too many magnetic signatures to register, but one thing that Jaku could tell was that they were all Outcasts. He gasped. There was only one animal that wasn’t an Outcast- the Fire leader.
"Welcome, Jaku."
Jaku quickly fumbled for words. "Hello!"
"What’s wrong? You seem startled. Why?"
"Uh, well, I expected this to be an interrogation regarding the identities of our spies-" There were gasps in the audience. "-not, well, I guess I didn’t know that you already knew who they were."
"Yes, we knew. But just for formalities, who are they?" Jaku again tried to find the right words. In the end he ended up telling the identities of some of the spies"Good. Watch this."
The Fire leader leaned over and knocked on the wall three times in rapid succession. Scores of guards emerged from the doorway.
What is this?
As the last one came through they all formed a group and struggled to push a humongous door shut. It was two meters thick. Jaku didn’t know if he could even break through it if he went Supernova. All of the guards turned and marched over to the Outcasts. One by one they untied the vines covering each of their faces. Jaku stared, first in curiosity and amusement, then in horror. The Outcasts in the room weren’t spies, they were prisoners. He had been tricked yet again. Then each guard took out a shard of diamond and proceeded to stab the closest one to death. Shrieks and screams filled the air. It gave Jaku a chilling feeling inside. It sounded so much like the shrieks and screams he heard when the humans were delivering the tranquilizer darts at the San Diego Zoo. Some would be shot, and they would be terrified as the dart sank into their skin, the freezing liquid literally chilling them to the bone. Then the others would shriek and scream in fear from the knowledge that they were next. This time they were afraid for their lives. They needed Jaku to save them from death. He became sick all of the sudden. Both animal and guard were too close to each other to go Supernova, and that same problem applied when he decided to boil their blood. He could toss the guards against the walls like he and Bud had done to each other in his dream, but there were too many to concentrate on, and eventually one would manage to pin him down, and then others would jump on, and he would eventually die from crushing. If he tried to get out by setting the wooden walls on fire, he would die of oxygen deprivation before the fire would burn through the two meters of solid wood on all sides. Getting out through the doors was also not an option. Not only could he not save the Outcast prisoners from death he had also assured it for his spies and, if he didn’t find a way to get out of this room soon then he would also lose his life from oxygen deprivation. Jaku’s legs began to tremble uncontrollably.
"Yes. Does this hurt you? Does this make you question yourself? Does this make you sad?" Nothing was spoken for a few tense moments. "No? That’s too bad. The point was to make you feel those emotions. Oh well. There is still hope, though." The Fire leader turned over to the guards. Their shards were dripping with fresh blood. "Kill another batch of them."
"No…"
"What? Wait." He signaled to the guards. "Do you have something that you want to say?"
Jaku brushed his right paw over his left one, the animal equivalent of swallowing to show that you are nervous. "No..."
"Okay. You may resume." The guards murdered another 80 some odd Outcasts, each one screaming louder that the last as they painfully died. Jaku’s legs could no longer support his body and he collapsed. Tears leaked down from his eyes in sadness and he breathed in long sobs.
"Now, does this hurt you? Does this make you question yourself? Does this make you sad?" Jaku continued to whimper and cry. "Wow. Okay, men, kill…"
"Wait."
"Do you have an answer to my question?"
"Yes I do. The answer is yes."
"That is to be expected. Kill another round."
"No, don’t… please. What do you want from me?"
"Why do you think this is about you?"
"Because, it obviously is. Now answer my question."
"Why?"
"Because I cannot kill eighty five Fire animals that each have a diamond shard. I can kill you, however."
"Ah. That is what I like to hear."
"Please, stop playing games with me. I can work up something with the Outcasts, just leave them alone."
"Oops, you just ruined it. Kill the third round as planned."
"Stop."
"No." Scores more of Outcasts died in the timeframe of mere minutes. Jaku could do nothing but watch and cry.
No. I can’t take this any more. This has to be stopped. Now.
The last of the wounded Outcasts collapsed and died. "Kill me instead."
"Ha! That is also to be expected. Humor me. Why should I order my guards to kill you?"
"Because I have already told you the identities of our spies. I am nothing more of value to you. I know that you plan on killing me, so just do it. There is no more need to waste precious lives. Every time you ask your guards to ‘kill another round’ you kill 5% of the entire animal population. So stop. Just kill me. I know you want to. All that is necessary is for one of your soldiers to plunge one of those shards into my heart, right between these two ribs and it will be done." Jaku sat up and made a stabbing motion into his chest. He was extraordinarily troubled at the sight he just saw. It seemed reasonable from the standpoint of the Fire leader. The supply of prisoners was running low, only enough for another round and a half. So if this was to be going anywhere then the Fire leader would have to do something different. They wanted him. Jaku didn’t know if they wanted his life or not, but they wanted him. The air was beginning to stink from the hundreds of dead bodies. "Please, just do it."
"No. we don’t want to kill you. You are a prime negotiating tool for our purposes. Besides, death is the easy way out." The Fire leader stepped forward and depressed a square on the floor. The ground disappeared around Jaku, and he fell into another trapdoor. The leader came and stood above him, then motioned for the guards. They came with a huge tree trunk that only 85 strong animals could carry, and shoved it down into Jaku’s trap. It had no danger of being crushed from it, and it became stuck after the first meter or so. It was a plug to stop him from getting out.
This new area that Jaku called home was much smaller than the already small hole that he had had before this trap was sprung on him. It was circular, and less than a meter in circumference. There wasn’t even enough room to lay down flat, and this time the ground wasn’t going to let itself be dug. There was only a meter of room from floor to ceiling as well. He was trapped in a tiny cylinder. The earth wasn’t porous, either, and the only oxygen Jaku had to work with was what was in there at the beginning. Within an hour he was forced to go to sleep to conserve air, and within two he had lost the ability to wake up by normal means.