X-periment 5

The Feeling

Note:    Yes, I'm alive and no I haven't abandoned this story. Over the past months, I've been crammed with so much work that I haven't even had time to read or think of ways to develop this story further. Thanks to everyone that emailed me about their concern, it really means a lot. I reread this story and realize that I used to put so much effort into it and how happy I was every time I was able to update. I'm going to try and do that more often now. Love, Maya

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I never realized how many young people resided in Tent City. Young cadets and medical aids swarmed the top floor of the hotel that laid above Tent City. Based on its interior design, I reasoned that it used to be a grand ballroom. Five chandeliers hang precariously from the ceiling. Torn wallpaper adorned cobwebs. But in the center of the dirt ridden marble floor, laid a large platform, enclosed by ropes. There were at least 50 young cadets holding onto the rings, jumping, and yelling towards the commotion going on inside the nylon barriers. The room was filled with a quantized rhythm mixed with sharp banging and a raspy voice. I've never heard such a heterophonic clash of noise. While inspecting the commotion, two figures wearing bright blue wigs turned around and jumped off the platform edge, making their way towards me. My feet felt as though they were melted into the ground. I didn't want to be here.

     "Rye! Ha-You, look like you're gonna pass out any second!" Xander smiled giving me a goofy smile. I already noted that Xander was a relaxed character but he seemed even more so now. Clara was next to him, laughing at Xander's sluggish words. Wow, so she is capable of feeling!

     "Rye, Rye, Rye, come close-" Xander pulled my arm forward so our faces were uncomfortably close. "Listen carefully! Are you listening!" I nodded but my eyes pleaded at Clara to get him away from me. She simply swayed her body and stared at the ceiling to avoid my gaze.

    "Don't eat whatever Dev offers you. Man, his food from the last function had me sick for a week straight. Just stick to drinks!"

     "You are quite the lifesaver, thank you..." I muttered, swatting his hand away from my hair. Winking, Xander walked towards the exit with Clara. I swear I could still hear their laughter even as the Lift descended.

You should've followed them and made a run for it... But something told me that I would be stuck in an even more compromising situation.

    As I walked closer to the platform, the noise became louder and louder, my entire body felt like it was vibrating. I pushed through the crowd whose breaths collected into a cloud of a strong odor. Once I made it the front of the crowd, I held tightly onto the ropes that encompassed the platform as the people around me continued to jump around maniacally. There was a hologram in the center of the ring projecting a group of 4 individuals, wearing black clothes and their hair all in the form of spikes. There was one moving around the platform, screaming a tangle of words into his microphone. The crowd was screaming back a similar fashion. I couldn't hear my thoughts.

     But the holographic man was distorted as a tangle of bodies fell through him.Two bodies on the floor of the platform fighting each other. I looked around the ring. Some cheered them on, others seem to be so intoxicated they didn't even notice the moment when first blood was drawn. Thankfully there was another figure looming before the two fighters. He grabbed the fighter who'd thrown the punch and raised his arm high in the sky. I could barely recognize him. His face was filled with bruises adjoined with a split lip and swollen eye. Unlike the other fighter who jumped up and ran over to the crowd and took a large gulp of a cloudy white liquid, Levii remained in the middle of the platform staring aimlessly at the crowd. When he met my eyes he whispered into the announcer's ear and walked towards me. As he exited the ring, he was handed a bottle, while a swarm of females surrounded him. He looked behind his shoulder and shouted, "Are you coming?" and continued to jump off the platform and head towards the exit. I followed as the announcer began to introduce the next set of fighters that would be entering the ring. Rather than taking the Lift, Levii directed us towards a stairway, which led up to the rooftop of the hotel.