Journey

Elijah

I watch as Lorelei is dragged through the door and I see red. When I get up there I might kill him. I realized that there are a lot more test subjects than fighters. After Lorelei and Kourtni go into fighters category I stop paying attention for a while. Then Indiana goes up.

He struggles against the Bright bringing him up to the Highest Order. The Bright wins. Obviously. The Highest Order stares at him. He looks confused.

"Take him to the hospitals," He tells a Bright on our left.

The hospitals? Strange.

I was the last one to go up. My Bright smiles at me. I walk up to the Highest Order. He stares me down.

"Fighter," He announces.

My Bright leads me down the hallway that both Lorelei and Kourtni went down. When I'm in the room I get a pack and a bunk. The Bright that escorted me to the room clears his throat and everyone silences.

"Time for training," He tells us.

We all follow him out of the room and down the hallways. We enter a room that is filled with weapons and targets. Punching bags and hand powder.

"Spend time looking through the weapons and find one that speaks to you," The Bright tells us.

I pick up the bow and arrows on the table. I shot the target. Five shots in the middle. I smile. I look over and see Lorelei throwing knives at targets. I walk over and take some of her knives. She hits the board with crazy accuracy.

I attempt to hit the board with the accuracy she does. I don't.

"Good job. You two will go far in the trials," The Bright tells us.

"Thank you," Lorelei tells him.

"All right! Now move to hand to hand combat sessions," The Bright yells.

We move to the punching bags. The Bright shows us how to punch the punching bags. I smack mine as hard as I can but it hardly moves as much as the Bright's did. I look over and see that not many punching bags were even moving.

Then we move onto kicking. My bag moves even less. Anyway my foot hurt after everything. We went to sleep after that. The door was locked.

When I got up in the morning my body was sore. So was Lorelei.

"I haven't felt like this since I ran 15 miles," Lorelei sighed.

"Yeah. That sounds about right," I tell her.

"I wonder what Indiana is doing right now? What did he end up getting?" She asks me.

"They sent him to the hospital for some reason," I told her.

She looked so confused.

Yeah. It's strange.

"Guys! The first match is today!" Kourtni says yelling to us.

"Who is fighting?" I ask.

"Fox and some other dude," She told us.

At least it wasn't one of us. Well it was Fox but he is Fox so he'll be fine.

The Bright walks into the room and leads us to another room. It is giant. The lights are dimmer but you wouldn't realize it because of the constant glow of a thousand Brights. Fox was down in the arena with another person we don't know and might possibly never know.

In the highest seats are the Highest Order and some lady I don't recognize. Fox comes into the arena. He looks confident with his armor and sword. The other person has a sword as well. His steps are uneven probably soreness from yesterday.

"When the bell rings the fight begins." His voice carries.

I grab Lorelei's hand and she squeezes mine. I look up to where the Highest Order is sitting. His eyes are focused on the arena but the lady next him isn't focusing on the arena she is focusing on me. Her eyes are wide.

I try not to notice. I look down to the arena. The bell has sounded and they are circling each other.When you first look at Fox you might not think he is a good fighter but then when you look at his stance you realize how wrong you were. He is like a snake poised and ready for attack.

The gu we don't know takes the first swing. Fox dodges easily. He parries and returns with a jab. The guy dodges but not fast enough it nicks his arm. He cries out enraged. I look over to where the Highest Order and the lady are sitting. She is looking down at her lap. Can't handle violence I guess.

The other guy jabs at Fox. It gets Fox in the side. Fox makes no sound and grabs his side with his free hand. He is now enraged and it gives him power. He gets the guy in the side. And then again. They aren't deep cuts.

They are more of an annoyance than a fatal wound. Then I realize what Fox is doing. He is playing with the dude. Five stabs into the stomach and the guy is hardly staying up on his knees.

The guy's sword is all the way across the arena. Fox leans closer to the man.

"Checkmate," Fox says into his ear.

Fox drags the blade of his sword across his neck and the man falls on the floor. The room erupts into cheers. This species is sadistic. It makes me feel sick.

We are taken back to the dorm but the Bright left the door open. I walk out of the room. Lorelei falls behind me.

"Where are you going?" She asks me.

"I'm going to make sure Indiana is okay," I tell her.

"That's a little dangerous," I tell him.

"You can go back to the room if you want," I tell her.

"No way. I'm just making sure that you know we could get into trouble."

We wander the hallway with our hoods pulled up over our faces. If people realize we aren't supposed to be here we might die. We kind of go through rooms of trial and error. Then we walk into a room with the Bright escort we had in it.

"What are you doing?" He demands.

"We are trying to find the hospitals," Lorelei squeaks.

"Why?"

"We have a friend there and we would like to know if he is okay," I explain quickly.

He gives us a quizzical glance. I smile nervously. Lorelei laughs a little nervously.

"What's his name?" The Bright asks.

"Indiana," Lorelei stammers.

He gets onto his com.

"Do you have an 'Indiana' in the hospitals?" He asks into it.

He listens for a while. He gives us another glance.

"Follow me," He tells us.

We are caught. They don't believe us. I drag myself after the Bright. We walk down hallways and into a room that is filled with technology.

"Why are we here?" I ask.

I couldn't keep my questions in.

"You need glasses." The Bright tells us.

"I have 20/20 vision," Lorelei tells him.

He hands us a pair of glasses that look very big. I put them on. They don't do anything for my vision until I see the door. In big letters it says technology on it. I take the glasses off and the letter turn into letters of another language.

"Woah," I exclaim.

"Are you ready to go to the hospitals now?" The Bright asks.

"Wait. What's your name?" Lorelei asks.

Only Lorelei would want to know the Bright's name.

"Leopold," He tells us.

"Thank you Leopold," Lorelei tells him.

Then we head to the hospital.