Intense Consequence

Chapter One

     Braden blinked several times as he slowly woke up.  The last thing he remembered was his feet being pinned by a fallen log as a massive beast rampaged and attacked the rest of his classmates and teachers.  A small prick as something struck his neck was the last thing he'd felt before passing out.  He slowly raised his head to look around him. 
     Cold, dark walls made out of what looked like black bricks surrounded him on all sides, unbroken aside from a thick metal door in one wall.  Tiny round holes were the only way he could see to the other side, and they didn't let in much of a view.  The opposite wall had a toilet, a sink with a heavily reinforced window above it, and a bed, all lined up beside each other.  It took Braden a moment to register where he was, but once he did, panic began to set in. 
     "A cell?"  He asked himself, his voice cracking.  "But-."  His voice broke off as the panic rose higher.  He should at least be in a hospital bed, given the possible injuries from the log and whatever had hit him.  He pushed himself up to a sitting position as his breathing quickened from fear.  His hoodie and jeans had been switched for black-and white striped pants and a matching long sleeved top.  The clothing was much too thin to do much against the chill from the wind coming through the window and door. 
     He noticed a number stitched into the chest of his top in green thread.  His hands went to his thick, slightly shaggy dark hair as his stress increased.  This wasn't right.  He hadn't done anything wrong, so why was he locked up?  He only hoped it wasn't where he thought it was.  Braden began to feel sick as his worry reached its peak.  He tried to stand, to get to the sink or toilet, but a sharp pain in his feet and ankles made him nearly face plant. 
     Dark black and blue marks covered the pale skin and made Braden panic even more.  If he was where he thought he was, he'd have no chance if he were thrown right into a fight.  His wide, round, light blue eyes began to tear up and he began to hyperventilate.  He was on the verge of a full panic attack as the cell door unlocked and opened. 
     "Up!"  A loud, aggressive voice told him.  "Time to move!"  Braden remained on the cold floor, shaking and crying now.  Two strong hand grabbed his arms and yanked him up.  He cried out in pain as the hands forced him to stand. 
     "Shut it!"  Commanded a second, just as aggressive voice.  "That won't work here.  Now walk!"  The hands pulled Braden forward and he was forced to step on his injured limbs.  Tears and more crying followed as he was pulled down a long hallway, his bare feet growing more painful with each step. 
     "Stop your wailing!"  The first voice commanded.  "It won't help you.  You'll only make yourself more of a target."  Another door opened and the second voice commanded:
     "Inmates, away from the door!"  Braden couldn't see through his tears, but he heard the shuffling of fabric as some number of people moved.  He was lifted and thrown into a room, landing hard and crying out in pain.  He heard the door slam and lock and then it was quiet for several moments aside from his wailing and heavy breathing. 
      After some time, Braden heard slow footsteps approaching him and someone lifted him off the ground and carried him multiple steps away from where he'd landed.  He was set down again on what felt like a foam mat with a blanket laid over it.  The blanket was folded over him and Braden found it was thin but soft enough to be comforting.  He heard the footsteps walk to the foot of the mat and whoever it was sat down.  Another set of footsteps approached, this time stopping near his head. 
     "Hey, buddy," someone said quietly as a hand settled on his shoulder.  "We need you to calm down, okay?  That wailing is gonna attract something nasty if it goes on too long."  The voice and hand were gentle, but Braden was panicked and it always took some time for him to calm down from an attack. 
     "I don't think he's gonna calm down that easy, Doc," a second voice said.  Whoever was seated on Braden's other side shifted, and a moment later he felt the lip of a bottle touch his mouth.  Cool water flowed from it and Braden was forced to swallow so it didn't spill out.  He gasped at the suddenness and flailed for a moment. 
     "Easy, buddy," a hand touched the back of his head and lifted it a couple inches.  "Give him a little more, Caz, I think it might be helping."  Braden was still breathing heavily and he kept his eyes closed.  The water bottle touched his lips again and he realized how thirsty he actually was.  His fingers wrapped around the bottle and the other person let go to let him hold it.  Braden still had tears running down his face, but his eyes opened as he drank.  He blinked several times and looked around. 
     "Hi, buddy," a tan guy in his mid thirties knelt nearby.  It was his hand that supported Braden's head. 
     A few feet away sat a tall, muscular teen around Braden's age.  He had light grey skin with large, almond-shaped amber eyes with bright green rings around the pupils.  Tattoos swirled around his bare arms, chest, and neck, and Braden realized the boy must've torn his top on purpose to make it sleeveless and open.  Braden blinked several times as he finished his water.  There were more figures around the room, but they stayed in the shadows. 
     "So what are we doing with him, Doc?"  The grey-skinned boy asked.  His was the second voice Braden had heard, so he must've been Caz. 
     "Right now, I need you to hold him while I check him for injuries," Doc slowly lifted Braden up to a sitting position.  "He might freak out again."  Braden stiffened as muscular arms wrapped around him, holding gently but firmly. 
     "You're okay, buddy," Doc slowly removed the part of the blanket covering Braden's feet. "It hurts, I know." He stretched Braden's legs out straight and gently pressed on one of his feet. Braden immediately cried out and pulled both feet back towards himself.
"Easy," Doc told him. "Okay, I won't touch." Braden found himself leaning into Caz as he balled up again.
"He's still spooked," Doc carefully stretched Braden's legs back out in front of him. "I don't think he's got any breaks, but there's a little swelling and definitely bruising. He'll need some bandages, but he'll be fine." He pulled a large blue backpack closer and began digging inside. He brought out a drawstring bag and found the wrap bandages he was looking for.
"This is why I've been hoarding these," Doc began bandaging Braden's feet and ankles. "You never know when you'll need multiple." He finished bandaging and dug in his bag again.
"Let's see if we can give him some pain meds," he said. "I think I still have a few pills left." He pulled out a green plastic bottle and shook out one pill.
"Wish I could offer a stronger dose, buddy," he said as Braden cautiously took the pill. "But I don't get these often, so I have to give them sparingly." Braden cautiously put the pill in his mouth and tried to swallow it with the tiny bit of water left in his bottle. He struggled a bit, but managed to make it go down.
"Not enough water?" Doc asked gently. "You gotta save that, bud, they don't fill the fountains every day." He recovered Braden's feet and legs and gently took the water bottle. He walked over to a round, three-tiered fountain and filled the bottle back up. He put the lid back on as he gave it back to Braden.
"Drink that a little more sparingly this time, okay?" He said, and Braden nodded. He ruffled Braden's hair a little and gave him a smile. Braden gave a nervous smile back and Doc turned to Caz.
"You can let go of him now," he said. "I think he's calmed down a little."
"He's leaning on me," Caz loosened his grip and removed his arms, but Braden stayed against him. Something about his body felt comforting.
"He's seeking comfort," Doc knelt beside the two again. "Just let him stay and he'll move on his own eventually." He turned to Braden again.
"You got a name, buddy?" He asked. "Or do we have to call you by your number until you give us one?"
"Braden," Braden gave his name. He was still unsure of these two, but he didn't want to be a number, especially if he was where he thought he was.
"That's a name you don't hear every day," Doc said. "Okay Braden, you just call me Doc, everyone in the group does. That kid you're leaning on is Caz. Sorry he's a little tense, he doesn't like people in his bubble. He's the one who carried you over here." As much as Braden wanted the comfort of leaning against someone, he pushed himself up and off of Caz. He didn't want to make him uncomfortable. The other teen relaxed a little, but stayed where he was. Braden leaned against the wall to keep himself up.
"Do you know where you are, Braden?" Doc asked, his dark eyes becoming more serious.
"I think I do," Braden answered quietly. "But I want to be wrong." Caz huffed beside him.
"Unfortunately, once you see these walls, there's only one place you can be," he grumbled. Braden's heart sank. He'd been hoping he was having some sort of nightmare up until this point, but now he was sure he wasn't.
"See those cameras?" Caz pointed up to the corners where tiny blinking red lights hung like evil little eyes waiting to catch something horrible happening. "Once those lights turn green, the show starts."
"But I didn't do anything wrong!" Braden argued. "I shouldn't be here! I don't belong on this gameshow!"
"None of this group does," a new voice cut in. "The people who run this show have stopped caring. They've started grabbing any random they can make an excuse for and throwing them in with real criminals." A young woman around her mid twenties emerged from the shadows and moved closer, her caramel colored bangs growing over one grey eye. The rest of her bellow-shoulder hair was a slightly darker brown. Braden thought about asking if it was dyed, but it didn't feel like the right time.
"Molly," Doc told her. "He's barely calmed down, don't get him scared again." He turned back to Braden.
"Sorry," Molly apologized.
"She doesn't always realize how something might sound before it comes out of her mouth," Doc explained. Braden shook his head.
"I-It's fine," he stammered. He breathed out loudly. "I hope they don't think I killed my classmates and teachers." His hands went to his hair again.
"I didn't, I didn't! It was that giant beast!" His voice began to crack again. 
     "Easy," Doc said soothingly.  "Don't panic yourself again.  We know you didn't do anything wrong.  Breathe."  Braden took several deep breaths, letting them out loudly. 
     "That's it," Doc said.  "Don't get too far into your own head, it's not your fault.  Just calm yourself, you talk it out when you're ready, you don't have to now."  Braden continued to breathe just for something to get his mind off of the fear chewing at him.  He knew another panic attack wouldn't help anything, and he'd already made a weak first impression with the first one.  He wanted to pull himself together as much as he knew the rest of them needed him to.  He had to become part of the team whether he deserved to be here or not. 
     "You good now?"  Doc asked ten minutes later as Braden's breathing normalized.  Braden nodded, not wanting to speak right away for fear of panicking himself again.
"What we need to do is figure out his ability," Caz said, scanning Braden with an intense look in his eyes. "They'll probably release us into the maze now that we have enough people."
"Let's not pressure him too much right from the start," Doc advised. "He just got here, and we've seen what happens when he gets too escalated. Give him a day or two for his injuries to heal before we start expecting him to fight."
"Fight?" Braden had heard about Intense Consequence, the gameshow where criminals were put against each other in teams to navigate a massive labyrinth, but he hadn't looked too far into it. Caz nodded grumpily.
"This isn't just about getting through a labyrinth to win freedom and money," he explained. "They throw combat and monsters in for better flavor. See that bracelet on your wrist?" He pointed and Braden looked. He hadn't noticed the narrow metal band around his wrist, it must've been put on while he was unconscious.
"That's for them to send you tasks through," Caz explained. "As if everything else wasn't enough. That also shocks you if you ignore tasks or do something they don't like. Viewers don't always get to see what the tasks are, but most of them are pretty mundane. Once in a while, though, someone gets a pretty crazy one. As long as you complete at least part of the tasks, you won't get shocked. You just don't get as good of a loot reward as you do if you fully complete them."
"So it's kind of like a dungeon crawler with PvP and side quests," Braden tried to wrap his head around the information. "Except you die for real instead of respawning. Got it." 
     "If that's the easiest way for you to think of it," Doc said.  "What Caz was talking about earlier is that each team member usually has their own role or skillset within the bigger group." 
     "I'm kind of good at puzzles," Braden offered.  "Maybe strategy if I had to." 
     "Better than nothing," Caz said.  Braden yawned suddenly, and he realized how tired he actually felt. 
     "Let's not talk about it anymore for now," Doc suggested.  "Poor Braden's exhausted from his scare.  We'll discuss things more after we all get some sleep.  We're gonna need to be rested for whatever happens when they open the wall for us."