The Karma Study

Chapter 14 - Tardigrade Gene

Participant Z-7-4

Father was true to his word and gave me one final day of rest. I don't believe I needed it, seeing how my wound from the needed surgery was already healed, but I believe maybe the sleep was important for today's activities.

When I woke this morning, I was immediately whisked from my bed and changed into better fighting attire. Today's ensemble consists of plain black spandex shorts with a matching halter top. Simple, clean, and skin tight as to not give any opponents an advantage with easy grabs. I was left barefoot, which typically could be a disadvantage, but knowing my father, I will most likely be on mats today anyway, which means I'll have a better grip, as well as freer and faster movements with my feet.

I'm still in restraints as the orderly, who I identified as Tyler Green; alias as Creature, escorts me into a gymnasium area. The room is large and wide with floors and walls made of concrete further confirming that this has to be an underground bunker. Along the east and west walls there are treadmills, and some basic equipment. There are no windows, and the only light in the room is coming from shitty fluorescent lights flickering and buzzing above us. There is only one large blue mat in the center of the room. On the south wall there is a little viewing room, almost like a vestibule. The walls seem to be made of glass that is slightly tinted, and I already know that's where father sits. Watching, waiting, and always observing.

There are nine other men in here that are lined against the northern wall. I'd assume they were participants but they seem to be dressed as guards. Matching black cargo pants, heavy black boots, paired with skin-tight black long sleeve shirts. I assess them all from left to right. Mostly tall and they range from five foot six inches to an estimate of six foot nine inches. They are definitely more muscular than me, all lean but definitely all built, especially the one on the far right. His body type is similar to the one I remember as Dean, but might be a bit smaller. I don't pay attention to their identifiable descriptions, all I focus on are their size and mass, and I search for weaknesses. They are standing completely still, seemingly assessing me the same way, meaning I can't tell if they have any existing injuries or nervous tells just yet.

Except one. Third man from the right. Almost a foot taller than me, and would double my weight class, but I see a black bandage wrapped around his wrist, as well as what looks like a healing broken nose. This tells me he recently got into combat and although he's alive, it was easy to get hits on him. He looks like an easy target, but I won't underestimate anyone.

Creature walks me to the center of the mat, and the guards all keep their eyes trained on me. Some of them break their stoicism and laugh or chuckle with each other. Good, this means they're underestimating me. I am shorter, leaner, and I've been asleep for three weeks with just living on a liquid diet. They may have an advantage in their strength, but a lot of my power comes from my speed and my brain.

I square my shoulders and just barely lift my chin. This will be a challenge, I know that. If I didn't think it'd be tough, I would have already lost.

"Gentlemen," Father's voice echoes around the gymnasium from some speakers in the corner that I'm just now noticing. Looking at the speakers now, I notice cameras in all four corners of the room. I think there was something about cameras I needed to remember. I think it was the one betrayer I called Brandon that worked with cameras. Father's voice drags me away from that breadcrumb trail and says, "This is Participant Z-7-4. We will start with one on one bare knuckle combat in order from smallest to largest. Men, you will stop when I say stop. Z-7-4, you will only stop if your opponent dies or I say otherwise. Nod your head if you understand these rules."

I give a curt nod, but continue to keep my eyes fixed on who my first opponent will be. The shortest, and the leanest— he's still bigger than me by a few inches but I don't let the difference waiver my stance.

As he begins to approach me, I still don't notice any existing weaknesses in him. I widen my legs to plant my bare feet firmly against the mat and he stops in front of me, leaving about a foot and a half between us.

"Begin." Father says from the speakers above.

I didn't react quick enough, but when my opponent's fist flew out and clocked me in the front of my mouth my ears started ringing immediately. His buddies started to hoot and holler for him because he managed to get the first hit in without me even having time to block it or counter it. I barely step back and correct my head to look back at him. He shakes out his hand, rookie, and looks at me expectantly with a shit-eating grin.

Blood begins to pool in my mouth, and instead of spitting it out, or even swallowing it, I decide to smile broadly at him. When my lips stretch my expression the blood that has pulled in my cheeks slowly drips and oozes down my chin and neck.

This is when I finally get insight on my opponent. He watches the blood, and I watch as his complexion slightly pales. He tries to hide it by reinforcing his smile, but it's too late. I already know that he is wary of the sight of blood.

I suck in some of the blood, and spit it directly into his face, blinding him temporarily to my movements. He audibly gags and tries to wipe it from his face, but before he can regain his own control I land a kick to his chest, making him fall onto his back. The moment the back of his head lands on the mat, I don't waste any time. I jump off of the ground, and land precisely, with both of my feet directly at the center of his throat. The room falls silent and you hear the satisfyingly wet crunch of his bones and tendons, followed by an abrupt silence as soon as you hear his gurgling stop and and we all watch him take a soggy final breath.

I straighten my posture and step off of my first opponent, and walk to my respective side of the mat, waiting for further instruction from father.

"Time was nineteen seconds." Father says, and relief washes over me. "Remove the body, and the next guard can join Participant Z-7-4." Two of the larger guards take the dead guy from the mat and drag him to the far right side of the room, once they drop his legs they return to their positions in line.

The second guy approaches me, and as my father instructed, he is just slightly bigger than the last. First guy was easy, but he definitely could've had me if I continued to react slowly.

My new opponent eyes me up and down, however he doesn't show a glimmer of doubt in his eye. He seems to respect me as an opponent. These are the ones you have to worry about. He's not underestimating me in the slightest, but he isn't overestimating me either.

Him and I square our shoulders and feet almost in sync, and there is something about him that looks familiar. The way his hair is swooped back in a low bun but clearly long enough to reach at least his shoulders. The sandy brown color resembles the hair of someone I know, or at least someone I used to know.

Teddy.

This one looks like Teddy. The flash of the resemblance almost throws me off balance, but I shove the thought away.

Teddy betrayed me too. He's a liar, and a thief, and dirty, and wrong just like the rest of them, just like my father.

Numb. Go numb. You have to go numb, or the pain might just kill you.

I shove down the thoughts of those men. Those men that used me, broke me, and claimed to put me together, but truly they just stole pieces of me and hoarded them to themselves. All for some selfish twisted game. To what? See if they could break the unbreakable? To bend what once wouldn't sway?

I hate them; and it was foolish to think that I could ever possibly love them.

I can't love. I wasn't built to love. I was built to kill, to destroy, and to take. I was built to serve my father as his machine made of flesh and bone.

And as the second seems to have drawn on for far too long, my fathers voice surrounds me like a weighted blanket, "Begin."