2. The Prize of Three

The story continues...

2. The Prize of Three

 

 

It took a little while to sink in, he was no longer a name, just a number…408. After a few moments he looked to the other man.

“Why can’t I remember anything?”

The other man was still grinning. “Easy, they don’t want you to”.

He held up his hand “And before you ask who ‘they’ are, ‘they’ are the auditors, we’ll get to them in a moment”. He paused and sighed, looking pained for the briefest time before shaking it off and continuing, “I’m getting pretty sick of giving this explanation, so it’ll be much faster for both of us if you can sit there, shut up, and save your screams till the end, think you can manage?”

408 nodded. The man continued.

“The strong silent type, my favorite. OK kid, here’s the deal; whatever life you had before now is gone, there’s only one way to get it back and that’s to listen to me”.

408’s beating heart had slowed, but the adrenaline coursing through his bloodstream was keeping his nerves up; it was hard to sit still, yet he managed to nod again. The man took a deep breath and carried on.

“The reason your head is pounding right now is because you’ve just been through brain surgery. If you touch the back of your head you’re gonna find a little metal plate there. Don’t play with it, you’ll die. They’ve put something in your head to stop you remembering anything before today. In your case this is an advantage because you shouldn’t be thinking about anything other than your survival, which as of right now, is at stake”.

408 tilted his head sharply, “Why?”

The man looked suddenly worn, tired.

“Because it’s a game, kid, and you’re already losing, everything in this world right now is stacked against you. If you don’t play their game, they’ll kill you, if you play, they’ll find a way to kill you anyway. All you’ve got left right now is a bit of hope, and a lot of luck”.

His heart was starting to quicken again, he stopped the man, holding up his hand. “What do you mean, what’s the game?”

The man shook his head “Don’t interrupt, I’m getting there. It’s blood sport, a fight to the death in an arena with thousands of people watching you, hoping you screw up…” He paused for a moment, apparently savoring the effect of these words before continuing, “There’s a ranking, a ladder, if you win, you climb the ladder and get rewarded, climb high enough, and you’ll get a name. Fights happen all the time; you can check the scoreboard in the middle”. He gestured to the massive screen-pillar in the center of the cavern. “Your number will still be down in the dark, most people don’t survive their first match but if you do, you’ll see it soon”.

He was now casually examining his fingernails, as if it were all a bit boring. 408’s mind was reeling from the information, a million questions were bubbling to his lips, desperate to be spoken first.

“So…I’m supposed to kill someone, just like that, with my bare hands?”

The man actually laughed, the effect it had on his face was quite bizarre,

“No, not if you can help it, there’ll be plenty of-“ he suddenly stopped and looked upwards towards the roof. 408 followed his gaze in alarm but he couldn’t see anything there. The man crossed to the opposite wall of his cell and placed his hand against it, concentrating, before turning to him with a smile and saying

“You might want-“ the rest of the sentence was drowned out in a colossal, deafening explosion of sound and vibration. The entire cavern shook around them and a monstrous roar split the air. 408 clapped his hands to the side of his head to stop it shaking, the sound was in his ears, his head, his chest and his gut. Then, just as suddenly as it arrived, it stopped, leaving nothing but a whine and a ringing in his ears.

“What did you say?” he shouted, his ears were still ringing from the explosion. The man grinned and lowered his hands which he had moved to cover his ears. “I said you might want to cover your ears, the finishing fire makes one hell of a noise”.

Even though it sounded like he was underwater, 408 could still make out what the man was saying,

“What’s the-“

“Shut up and let me finish” the man growled.

“It works like this; a hatch in your roof will open and a platform comes down, it lifts you straight into the arena. The arena is different every time but has a few similarities - they’re important so listen up”. He began to pace back and forth, sounding less at ease now, as if he was reliving it whilst he described it.

“First, there’s the box, it’s your first and only priority. You get to it no matter what " or you die. It looks like a big metal refrigerator and it locks from the inside " you better hope you’re inside when it locks. It only has room for one person so kill your opponent if they’re going to get there before you”. He paused then, and stared at 408, apparently deciding that the words had been understood he carried on. “Second is that each match lasts exactly five minutes, you’ll hear a siren when there’s thirty seconds left, but hopefully you’ll have everything figured out by then”. 

408’s head was swimming, but the man’s voice was making him drink it all in, he felt as though his nerves would fry at any moment, yet he could hear his own voice muttering back to the man

“Five minutes…get to the box…”. The man nodded and continued.

“The third thing to remember is that once the five minutes is up, or if you lock the door of the box the finishing fire will be activated, and as your ears are still recovering from the wonderful example we just heard, you don’t want to be out of the box when that happens”. He paused once more, looking a little strained, “The finishing fire…cleanses the arena in an instant. You don’t always have to kill, you just have to be the only one left alive”.

There was silence for a few moments as all this information settled in. The thing which surprised 408 most of all was his own quiet acceptance. Where would he run to anyway? Why shouldn’t he fight? If no one here knew who they were, how was their life any more valuable than his? By the sound of it, if he wasn’t prepared to kill he wasn’t going to live long enough to feel bad about it. He wondered for a brief moment if perhaps that was a clue to unlocking his past. Was he the sort of person who wouldn’t back down from a fight, or was this just him dealing with inescapable circumstances? The man gave an odd little chuckle.

“You’re taking it well…”

He leant against the bars with his forehead resting at a slightly sinister angle. “The last four before you didn’t enjoy my speech so much…seemed to think it was more important to cry for their mothers than listen to my advice. They all died in their first match.”

408 felt an odd calm spread through him. Maybe he had a chance, maybe in some other identical cell there was a shivering mess of a human, unprepared and disadvantaged…he looked from his hands back to the man, doing his best to keep his voice steady “What happens if you win?” At this the man clapped his hands together “Good! Good, let’s talk about progress, if you win you will be richly rewarded, with the Prize of Three!” Here he held up three fingers for emphasis, then pointed upwards “Something to help you up” he pointed to the open side of the cell “Something to help you out” then pointed to the side of his own head “And something to help you in”.

His hand dropped,

“You’ll see what I mean if you win, it’s pointless discussing it now”.

He began to pace again, ringing his hands restlessly, “I’m glad you’re paying attention, over the next few days I want to give you some survival and strategy tips. The first thing we’ll do is identify your strength and how to-“

He was cut off by an entirely new sound, a smooth mechanized whirr coming from the roof above 408’s head. A camouflaged hatchway slid neatly open and a small square platform supported by four cables descended until it touched the floor with a smooth hiss. The man stared at it in disbelief.

“No…no they wouldn’t do it this early…I need more time…”

408’s neck almost snapped at the speed with which he looked between the man and the platform,

“Does this mean…do I have to…?”.

The man’s eyes were wide, clearly something was wrong, he reached his arm through the bars and beckoned to him “Come here quickly, we’ve got less than a minute”.

408 scrambled to his feet, his heart pounding once more and moved to the bars, he held out his hand and the man grasped it, whispering urgently,

“They say matching is random but it isn’t, this has been fixed and I don’t know why, someone is either gunning for you or the other guy and either way it’s bad news that you’re involved. You need friends here boy, not enemies, I need to know right now you’re my friend, are you?”.

408 nodded quickly and the man continued,

“If you win, you must ask them how long the sewerage pipes are, I know it doesn’t make sense right now, but promise me you’ll ask, and you’ll have my friendship forever”. Not having a clue what he was agreeing to 408 inclined his head once more,

“I promise”

Relief spread across the man’s face, yet his grip tightened suddenly,

“Get to the box, do whatever it takes, just get there”.

408 attempted a smile which resulted in something more like a grimace,

“I will, but how do I know I can trust you?”.

The man’s worried expression became a grinning one once again,

“Because my name is Phoenix, and I am number 6”.

He let go of his hand,

“Now go! Go and win!”

Author's Note

© Chris Chalmers 2014

Reviews

[kclyaine]

Nice chapter! I'm still intrigue by their number system. So does their nunber name change as they rank higher? If it doesn't, then does that make the Phoenix guy one of the oldest member? Well I guess I'll find my answer on the next chapter.

[Naysan arif]

Beautifully written .. i loved the way you expressed the character it seems as if the reader is connected
'emotionally' ... beautiful portrayed ...:)

[AprilRN1210]

I can see the appeal for the young adult category now.. resembles hunger games slightly.. I like this addition.. it answered some questions.. it teased with details.. and it ended with a cliffhanger.. my favorite.. I noticed the glitch added " in places.. there were a few places I would add more punctuation, but overall VERY nice again.. this one excites me to read further.. I like the idea of him using his reactions to try and piece together his personality to help remember past.. clever and creative.. something I would do.. were a few words that I had never heard of, or wouldn't use.. think it is a language thing.. seeing as I speak "American English will attribute it to that.. kinda like you picking on my check vs cheque.. in one of my pieces.. (examples in case you are curious: leant, sewerage)


ok.. you are THE expert.. but going to throw my two cents in.. (since you think it has some worth)

(408’s beating heart had slowed,).. think I would cut out "had" here..

( leaving nothing but a whine and a ringing in his ears.).. you used "ears" 5 times in those 4 sentences.. maybe switch it up a little.. in this one, maybe say leaving nothing but a loud echo in his head.. or something like that..also used "ringing" in next sentence, so deleted from that one.. you will be able to fix better than me.. just pointing it out.. :P

also, is there a particular reason why the next line is underlined?

[KWP]

well - ha there's that words again, I must say well done, I usually wouldn't read this genre of writing ... poor unknown little bugger being thrown in the deep end like that ..

I like the way you write, I like the layers that keep you thinking and needing to know more ..