Between a further fit of coughing his father just about managed to splutter something out.
“Your next battle, it’s in two days’ time. You’ll be fighting in the falcon X Remember I showed you the video of one of them before. The one that goes really fast.
Timmy’s heart was beating faster.
“But what about..?”
“I told you before, there can be no ifs and buts. There are only those who win and those who die.. I don’t want you to be part of the latter group. Come on, let’s get you out of that bed for a while. You need to be watching videos and thinking about strategy.”
He then went through the long routine of getting him out of bed and dressed, all the time making sure not to injure Timothy’s perceived fragile body. Then he lifted him into his dilapidated wheelchair.
After a bite to eat, it was video games to aid with his strategic thinking and then highlights of a recent wheelchair duel that hes father had managed to secure.
The two fighters were briefly shown before the fight. One was a girl about Timothy’s age. She had long, auburn hair that draped her shoulders. Timothy thought she was beautiful. Her disability was difficult to gauge.
Her opponent had a large head, totally disproportionate to his twisted body.
Then it began. Both had top of the range machines. For the first few moments, it was unclear what was happening but then one wheelchair rammed the other in the side, causing it to crash to onto its side. It was over and fast.
“Now look Timothy, she does the right thing and kills him quickly. That’s an important act of mercy. Otherwise, he would have been left for the ratis to feed on.”
Ratis were Timothy’s worst nightmare. He feared them attacking him while he was stuck in his bed alone but his father always reassured him that that their quarters were probably locked. He had only seen them a handful of times feasting on dead bodies. They were rumored to have come to the planet with humanity but then evolved to become bigger and more aggressive.
Timothy had much to ponder, but he also wanted to savior this time with his father, he might not have much left.
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