The Arena

by Bradford Bates

  What did that mean for the Ascendancy? Would they have the support they needed to continue now? I started to wonder if more people would leave now that they could see the numbers shifting. How could you leave an organization dedicated to protecting people? It was tough for me to fathom. The rest of this year was shaping up to be just as crazy as the first part.

  I reached the group and gave April a little hug and shook hands with Marcus. I gave the twins a wave and dropped my duffle to the ground. “It looks like you guys have been out here for a while. Any new news?”

  Marcus waved his hand, indicating the area around us. “As you can see, not all of the students here have decided to stay. Most of the ones leaving snuck out during the night. I’ve been down here since about five and have only seen one or two people actually leaving.”

  April motioned toward the twins. “The good news is, with all of the new people joining us, it has more than balanced out. We should be leaving here with more people than we started with.”

  It was good to know we had that many new people joining us. On the other hand, it was sad to know that we had lost a good portion of our potential fighting forces. I wondered if one day I would be forced to fight against people I used to attend class with. “So, any idea what is going to happen next?”

  Marcus smiled. “You are going to have to see it to believe it.”

  “They are going to be creating a portal,” April said.

  I was a little stunned. “Like, a magic portal, walk in one side and out somewhere totally different?”

  This time it was April’s turn to smile. “Yep, just like that.”

  I could feel the grin spreading across my face. I didn’t know that we could travel like that. It was just too freaking awesome to be true. Portals to anywhere—wow. The more I learned about what was possible in this world, the more I fell in love with it. Marcus was right; I couldn’t wait to see the portal. Every time I thought that I was getting a handle on what was possible, I learned something new. This life was never going to have a dull moment.

  The staff started walking around, putting us together in groups of five or ten. Once everyone was ready, we started heading toward the center of campus. I had started building all kinds of crazy images in my head about what the portal would look like. I wondered if it would be a tear in the sky, or maybe a giant liquid circle you walked through. In the end, it was much simpler; it was a door.

  A giant firehouse door awaited us at the center of campus. It was open, and people were slowly being allowed to enter. I assumed they had someone on the other side telling people where to go. The small groups being sent through would make sense then. It would give the people on the other side time to get them pointed in the right direction. Slowly we moved with the line until it was our turn.

  We walked into the doorway on our side of the portal. I felt a slight pop in my ears, kind of the same feeling you got on an airplane when it took off, before the pressure adjusted. Then the feeling was over and we were somewhere else.

  I had walked from an outside courtyard and was now standing in an underground tunnel of some sort. I could see a group of teachers waiting for us ahead. Just beyond them was a bright splotch of sunlight. Something about being in a huge outdoor space and then finding yourself in a tunnel was a little bit disconcerting. Shoving my claustrophobic feelings aside, I followed April toward the group of teachers.

  It turned out the teachers were just there getting their room assignments, the same as us. As the crowd cleared, I could see Betty. She had helped me on my first day at the academy. She looked the exact same today, although she might have been slightly frazzled.

  It was my turn in line and Betty looked at me. “Name and previous keycard, please.”

  “Jackson Fairfield.” I reached into my pocket and gave her my old card.

  Betty flashed me a quick smile. It made her look just like the matronly grandma I had met on my first day. “Here you are, one new keycard, and you will find your room across the arena floor all the way up the stairs to your left. Also, I have a small welcoming packet for you.”

  “Thanks, Betty,” I said, giving her a smile. I hoped she wouldn’t be stuck down there all day.

  I hurried out of the line. She was busy, and there was already another group of students coming through the portal behind us. There had to be at least a few hundred more people who needed to come through. I felt kind of bad for her. Taking a few more steps brought me out of the hallway and onto the sand floor of the arena. Imagine you were thrust into the arena from Gladiator, except slightly bigger and way, way cooler. That is where I found myself now, at the bottom of a gladiatorial arena. It felt like I had taken a step back in time.

  The only thing that tied it to ancient Rome for me was the sand floor. Granted, this sand was red, probably made from the crushed rock excavated from the mountain. The other thing that gave it an authentic feel was the seating built into the walls. The seats had been carved directly out of the mountain, and continued up as far as I could see. The wall to the arena was also carved out of the mountainside. At one point, there had been some kind of scroll work carved into the pillars and the wall, but years of rain and brutal sun had washed most of them away.

  Apparently, finding a large mountain of Arizona red rock and turning it into an arena was something magic could also do. What the people of this world could accomplish sometimes simply amazed me. They turned the side of a mountain into a coliseum. I just couldn’t make this stuff up.

  I felt a sense of history around this place. There was a time that I could see men competing for a chance at greatness, for a chance to be free. I wondered how many battles had been fought here, how much of what the Gifted could do with magic was shaped in these halls. I could see the battles clearly in my mind: for love, revenge, money, and power. The battles fought here using magic must have been epic.

  I followed April and Marcus up the stairs, not talking but trying to take in all of the arena around me. When we reached the top of the stairs, I turned around to survey the arena floor. From up here, you could see the other half of the arena. There was a drop off and then a gap of about forty feet before a wall rose out of the ground. The wall was about fifteen feet high, just enough to make sure that you couldn’t see over it. I started to wonder if they ever filled the area between the arena floor and the wall with water.

  Marcus nudged me to get my attention. “How cool is this?”

  I had to admit it was super cool. “This place is amazing.”

  April chimed in. “We are going to have to get down there and practice. Moving in the sand is different than on firm ground; it also takes more effort. We are going to want to work on your footwork.”

  April was always the first one to be able to break down something for combat. It was a great skill to have, especially if you were going to be fighting for your life on different types of terrain. “All right, April. Let’s get settled into our rooms and grab some food, and then I’ll let you pound the crap out of me in the sand.”

  She smiled. “Pound the crap out of you, huh? I was just thinking of the heavy training sticks, but if you want to go for a real fight, I’m in.”

  I held up my hands in submission. “Heavy training it is.”

  April turned and walked off in search of her room.

  Marcus looked over at me. “I’ll see what I can scrounge up for food and meet you guys down there. Also you might not want to say things like pound the crap out of me.”

  “You always go straight to the gutter. See if you can redeem yourself by getting us something really good for lunch.” I hit him in the shoulder and turned down the hallway, looking for my room.

  The passageway was carved into the mountain, as if someone had somehow tunneled through it. Lights hung from the ceiling. I wondered if we had electricity or if they were powered by something else. When I finally stopped gawking at the lights, I looked down the hallway to see a bouncing black ponytail that I knew very well. I had spent hours looking at the back
of that head while I was on the elliptical.

  I moved a little bit quicker, hoping to catch her but not wanting to look as if I was running. “Hey, is your room over here, too?”

  She stopped walking and gave me a big smile. “I think so; what number do you have?”

  “Looks like B17. How about you?”

  “Huh, I must be in the wrong spot. I’m in C24.”

  “Ah, man, I was hoping we would be neighbors. I guess that is still close enough.”

  “Well, now that you know what room I’m in, you don’t have an excuse not to come over.”

  I watched as she walked off down a hallway to my right. I started to wonder if she had walked down my hallway on purpose, just to remind me to come over. Yeah, right, get over yourself, Jackson. No one even knows where anyone is staying right now, so how would she even know where to look for you? With thoughts of Britta drifting through my head, I wandered off in search of my room.

  The keycard beeped, and I entered my new room. While it lacked the sophisticated polish of my room back on campus, it made up for it in rugged charm. The walls had been carved out of the interior of the mountain. The floors were solid rock that had been leveled and polished. Thick rugs stood out against the stunning reddish floor, providing an interesting contrast. The furniture was all chrome and dark leather. The main difference was that the layout resembled more of a studio apartment. A half-wall separated the living room and the kitchen from the bedroom. The only door inside of my new living quarters was the door to the bathroom. The solid stone bathroom was accented by the light blue glass that framed the shower. After standing in the center of my new digs for a few minutes, I had to say I was thoroughly impressed.

  I didn’t have too much time before I was expected back outside to meet with April and Marcus. I changed into my workout clothes, picked up my heavy training sticks and sparring helmet, and headed back out to the arena. Trotting down the stairs, I could already see Marcus chatting with April near the sandy floor.

  I tried to grab a sandwich off the plate Marcus had brought down, but April slapped my hand away. “What the hell, April?”

  “You are going to have to earn that sandwich first. Come on, put on your gear and let’s get started.”

  Damn, and I was hungry, too. There was nothing else to do about it. She wouldn’t let me off the hook until we got this workout done. I hoped that when we were done, I wouldn’t be too tired to eat. Who was I kidding? I was never too tired to eat.

  After gearing up, April and I worked through some stretches. She took the time to walk me back through a couple of the forms, using the heavy training sticks, and then tossed me some lighter escrima sticks for sparring.

  I already had a good sweat worked up, and thought we were almost done with our impromptu workout.

  April gave me a wicked grin. “Ready to see how the sand treats you at full speed?”

  “Not really,” I grumbled.

  “What was that?”

  “I said, I’m ready.”

  We spent the next thirty minutes trading blows at full speed. I was nowhere near as good as April, but that day, I gave her just as many hits as I received. By the time we quit and went to sit with Marcus, both of us were covered in a dark red mud from our sweat mixing with the sand. I cracked a bottle of water and washed off my hands before grabbing a sandwich.

  Stuffing my face, I looked over at them. “What? I’m hungry.”

  They both laughed at me. April pulled a towel out of her bag and wet it with a bottle of water, and then spent some time wiping off her arms and legs before coming to join us. I probably could have done the same, but I wanted to eat. Getting clean could wait.

  While we had been working out, Marcus had apparently been out gathering some new gossip. He started to fill us in. “So, the arena is where we would have come for the end of semester tournament, but for now, it has been repurposed as our base. The big news of the day, though, is that we are still going to have our tournament, only it is going to start tomorrow.”

  My mouth must have fallen open with food in it, because I felt April’s finger on my chin pushing it closed. “Seriously? Tomorrow?” was all I managed to stammer out.

  “Yep.”

  “Isn’t that a little unusual?” I asked around another bite of my sandwich.

  “Man, what part of living in a combat arena fits into your definition of usual?”

  I guess Marcus had a point. Nothing about our move here was usual. “So why are we having the tournament at all?”

  April finally looked up and started paying attention to the conversation. We both waited for Marcus to answer.

  “Well, the way I hear it, they want to evaluate us for combat as soon as possible. That way they can see who needs the work in what areas, and bring them up to speed with individualized training faster. That way, they can have us training out in the field and not just with each other. The Ascendancy now has the entire West Coast to protect, and frankly not enough field agents to do it.”

  April grinned. “Do you really think they are going to let us out in the field so soon?”

  Marcus looked super happy when he answered. “I sure do.”

  I started to feel a little sick and put down my sandwich. “So you are saying that we might have to go out and fight Lycans and other things soon.” My heart was racing just thinking about it.

  Both of them looked ecstatic when they answered simultaneously. “Yes!”

  I could see why they were excited; both of them had been training for this moment for a long time. On the other hand, the thought of tangling with a werewolf still scared the shit out of me. Seriously, I knew I had magic, but it still seemed suicidal.

  I moved the conversation on to something that was a little less terrifying. “So, Marcus, tell me about how the tournament works.”

  I could tell Marcus had slipped into teacher mode. Time for me to sit back and relax while he rattled off a longer than expected answer. “Well, I have no idea how they came up with the rankings for this year since we didn’t finish our classes, but the highest seed faces the lowest seed from each class. Then the winners face off until there is a winner from each year. Do you watch college basketball?”

  “Yeah, of course. My dad and I used to get together every year and watch March Madness. The first weekend is always the best forty-eight games in four days. Both of us filled out brackets and bet with some of his friends from work.”

  “So think of it like that, except each region is a semester. The final four would then be one student from all four semesters. One versus four, and two versus three. The winners of those two matches face off against each other for the title.”

  “Ok, that makes sense to me. Tell me, how hard are we supposed to fight against each other?”

  “Hold nothing back; the only thing you cannot do is kill your opponent. Each match has a referee assigned to it. Their job is to stop the match if it gets out of control, and protect the students if they can. There have always been rumors of students dying, but for the most part, the worst thing I could verify was a lost arm.”

  “Jesus, someone lost an arm?”

  “Yeah, but even though I’m sure it hurt like hell, that is something the Ascendancy’s healers can fix pretty quickly.”

  “And you guys are excited about this?”

  Both of them broke out in smiles again. April said, “This is what I live for.”

  Marcus gave April a good-natured wink. I could tell he loved this. He ended the conversation by saying, “They should be coming by each of our rooms tonight with more information. We should probably head back to our rooms so we don’t miss them.”

  I shook my head, having a tough time getting used to the ruthlessness that was needed for what we do. Taking it easy on someone would only get me hurt or, worse than that, dead. I had to start thinking like a killer, and stop thinking like me. Hesitation would mean death out in the field, or maybe even in the arena.

  I said my goodbyes and headed back to my room. I
couldn’t wait to get a shower in and maybe a little more food. I was going to need my energy for tomorrow. I wondered what it would be like squaring off against a fellow student with the intention of beating them into submission. How did something like that make you feel?

  16

  Jackson

  A knock at the door stirred me from my sleep. Wow, I didn’t remember falling asleep on the couch. I guess my workout with April had taken more out of me than I’d thought. It took me a while to find the light switch in my new room. I felt pretty accomplished when my fingers finally slid over the switch. I had managed to only bang my shin once and knocked over less than five things. Seemed like a win for waking up in a brand new room shrouded in inky blackness. I probably should have made a light in my hand while searching, but I was still coming to grips with being able to use magic all the time. With the lights on, I headed toward the door.

  When I opened the door, I was shocked to see the person on the other side. It took a second or two to sink in that it was Sarge standing in front of me. His head was shaved, not that that was a huge departure from his normally close-cropped cut. This was different because he also had three white lines running from the tops of his eyebrows all the way down the center of his shaved head. His lips were also painted white, and the entire look was punctuated by the deep black circles around his eyes.

  The outfit he had on reminded me of the fighting tunic I had found in my dad’s chest. There were no symbols on Sarge’s tunic, either. His entire body was covered in the white cloth. Only his head remained exposed. Next to him on the left was an Asian man I had never met; he was holding a scroll out in front of him. To Sarge’s right was an African man holding a small chest. All of them were dressed and painted in the exact same manner.

  Before I could think of what to say, Sarge started to speak. “Jackson Fairfield, you have been called on to participate in the arena. Do you accept this honor?”