“This is crazy,” Zeke muttered, pressing close. His blue eyes swept nervously over the crowd. “Jeb told me about places like this. We have to find the others and get them out now, before someone shoots us in the back for no reason.”
I nodded. “The raiders said something about Jackal ‘putting on a show’ at the Floating Pit,” I mused. “He’s the one we want. If we find him, we’ll probably find the others.”
“Right. So, we have to find the Floating Pit.” Zeke looked around, noticed a dark, wild-haired woman walking toward us, and sighed.
“Excuse me,” he said, reaching out to stop her. “Would you help us, please?” She jerked back, eyes narrowing as she raked Zeke up and down, then her thin lips curved into a smile.
“Excuse me?” she mocked, her voice high and nasal. “Excuse me, the boy says. Oh, well, how polite and proper. Makes me feel like a lady again.” The grin grew wider, showing missing teeth. “How can I help you, polite boy?”
“We’re looking for the Floating Pit,” Zeke said calmly, ignoring the way she leered at him, her tongue flicking through the spaces in her teeth. “Can you tell us where it is?”
“I could.” The woman stepped closer. “Or I could show you where it is. How ’bout it, boy? I wasn’t going myself—Jackal’s little shows are a bit much for me—but for you, I’d make an exception, hey?”
I stepped up beside Zeke, resisting the urge to growl. “Just directions, if you don’t mind,” I said pleasantly, with an undertone that warned get away from him or I’ll tear your throat out. The woman snickered and drew back.
“Ah, well, that’s too bad. I would’ve made it worth your while.” She sniffed and pointed down a catwalk, where a group of people were already headed. “Just follow that path till you reach the Pit. It’ll be all lit up this time of night. You really can’t miss it.”
“Thank you,” Zeke said, and the woman cackled, holding her hand to her heart.
“Such manners,” she said, pretending to wipe away a tear. “If only my slug of a man spouted that poetry, I might actually want to stay with him. Well, have fun, you two. This is your first show, eh?” She snickered again and brushed past us, shaking her head, calling back over her shoulder. “You might want to bring something to throw up in.”
Zeke and I exchanged a worried glance.
“That sounds ominous,” I muttered.
*
THE WOMAN WAS RIGHT, the Floating Pit was impossible to miss. Standing on a street corner, the square stone building wasn’t as tall as the skyscrapers around it, but the towering, neon red CHI AGO sign next to the entrance glowed brilliantly against the darkness. Besides missing its letter C, the sign was full of holes and cracks. But despite the damage, it still functioned. For what purpose, I had no idea.
“I guess that’s the Floating Pit?” Zeke muttered, watching raiders crowd through the door. Since the first floor was underwater, the walkway connected to a wooden platform that led inside the building. “Doesn’t look like a pit to me. And the sign says Chicago. You’d think they’d call it something different.”
“I’m guessing literacy isn’t high on a raider’s priority list,” I murmured as we approached the building, craning my neck to gaze up at the sign. Looking down, I saw an overhang shimmering beneath the water, probably where the original doors would be. The entrance into the building was an arched stone frame with no hinges or doors, making me think it must’ve been a window at one point.
More walkways and bridges covered the flooded front hall of the building. I couldn’t see the first level, but stairwells rose out of the water and ran up to second story balconies, where the crowd was headed. We followed them up the stairs and through the doors into a dimly lit arena, where anticipation hung thick on the air and in the crowds milling about the room.
“And this is why it’s called the Pit,” I said, looking around in amazement.
The chamber we’d stepped into was huge, an enormous domed room that soared majestically overhead. A balcony stretched around the room, lined with moldy seats that folded into themselves. On the left side, part of the balcony had fallen away, leaving a jagged, gaping hole, but there were still enough seats here to hold every raider in the city. Narrow aisles led down to the edge of the overhang, where it dropped away into the dark waters below.
Below us, an enormous red curtain stretched across the back wall, dropping down until it touched a floating wooden stage. A cage covered most of the platform, twenty feet high, with wire mesh covering the top so nothing could escape. The back half of the stage was hidden by the curtain, and I wondered what they were keeping back there.
Then Zeke touched my arm, pointing to something inside the cage.