by Logan Byrne
“Really? Nobody? We aren’t moving on until one of you comes up with the answer,” Petram said, crossing his arms.
As I looked around a little more, I swallowed my nerves, slowly raising my hand as the rest of the competitors turned their attention to me.
“Yes?” Petram asked.
“You would use the cauterization liquid on them first to stop the bleeding. It will burn fiercely for a few seconds for the patient, but it’s the only way to quickly and safely end the bleeding, which is helpful if you’re on the move. You’d then need to wrap it with gauze and possibly more bandage to soak up any blood as well as to prevent anything from getting into the wound so that it can heal properly,” I said, almost stunning myself with how in-depth I went.
“That, everyone, is exactly the answer I was looking for. You all could learn something from this young woman,” Petram said.
“Good job. How did you know that?” Liam asked, whispering.
“Wild guess,” I replied, smiling.
“This is a splint. It’s a simple device that will allow you to set a broken limb should anything happen to you. While mostly used on a leg, this can also be used on an arm. You simply stick the titanium rod against the back of the limb, press the small button on the back, and voila, the rings will wrap around the limb without causing any pain while keeping it fully in place. It’s as easy as that,” Petram said, as he demonstrated on a stick.
We walked around the ecosystems a little. All three of them joined in one spot in the middle of the room, like thin pieces all joining to form a triangle. There weren’t any animals around, likely there wouldn’t be until the actual competition, though I could just imagine them flying around, jumping from branch to branch, as they stared down at us and wondered what we were doing here.
A few hours later, after exploring a little and listening to Petram talk about what we could expect to happen in every scenario, he said it was time for our skills test, which I was feeling a little confident about. He said we got to work with our partner, which was great, because I thought Liam and I complemented each other well in here.
“I have some assistants here who will help assess your skills test. Because there are twelve groups, I cannot be there to watch each and every one of you, as there are three different ecosystems and you will be split up, with four groups going to each system. Now, for the selection,” Petram said, as his assistants walked up behind him.
They handed him a digiboard, which he held up for us, each ecosystem showing up on screen. The different ones, forest, rainforest, and island, were surrounded by a frame, before our faces, groups of two, popped up on the screen, magnified, and then shrunk back down before going into a sectioned-off frame. Liam and I watched intently, scanning each face quickly to find ours, before we popped up, the images of our wide-eyed, frightened faces the same ones we had seen several times before, starting with our lottery selection that fateful night.
Our shrunken heads flew to the forest ecosystem, the one I was hoping we’d get. I smiled, Liam clasping his hands together in excitement, and I knew, we knew, that we were actually going to stand a chance.
“Okay, get into your groups, go with an assistant or me if you’re in the forest, and we’ll get started. Once inside, your superior will tell you what skill you must perform for them. If it requires tools, they’ll give you what you need,” Petram said.
Liam and I walked over to Petram and another assistant, and the three other groups came over as well. I knew we were in good hands, and hopefully we’d be able to impress Petram, though I guessed in hindsight that wouldn’t really matter too much. All we needed was to secure a card, and no matter what the test was, I knew we were ready.
“Okay, I’m going to figure out what you all can do,” Petram said, as he looked at his digiboard while we stood around him.
He pursed his lips, his eyes scanning around the tablet, as I waited anxiously, ready to do any test he saw fit.
“You two,” he said, pointing to Liam and me.
We perked up as he looked back up at us.
“You two will make a fire for me,” Petram said.
He went on to tell the other three groups what they’d be doing, and Liam and I looked at one another, a little excited but also a little nervous. I paid close attention to Petram during his demonstration earlier, and I was fairly sure we’d be able to pass the test. If he had us do it without the starter, it would be a bit of a challenge, but Liam and I were ready for anything, even if it killed us.
After giving them their assignments, the other three groups went off with a couple assistants before Petram turned to Liam and me, ready to judge us.
“I have some of the tools here. You’ll get a fire starter and a knife, and there are some sticks here. You’ll have twenty minutes to make two fires, one with each method, and your time starts now,” Petram said.
Liam and I rushed down, taking one of the sticks and scraping off the bark with the knife, before tossing the scraps aside. I slid the knife down the outside, making little strips of wood, as Liam gathered some leaves and pine needles from the ground around us.
“Want to do the fire starter first? Get it out of the way?” he asked.
“Yeah, good idea,” I replied.
Liam grouped the tinder together, making a little bird’s nest, as I got some sticks ready for when the fire took. Petram stood over us, tapping on his digiboard, like he was grading us and writing notes. To say I was nervous would be an understatement.
Liam picked up the fire starter, holding it over the tinder, before clicking the button on top, and bright, vibrant sparks flew out the bottom as they scattered over the tinder. Liam clicked the button with speed, even putting it closer down towards the pile, before it took, a little spark of life in the form of a flame igniting inside the tinder pile.
“Yes,” Liam mumbled, before picking up the pile carefully and beginning to blow into it.
I waited at the ready with my pile of sticks, a few more in my hands, all of them feeling bone-dry and ready to burn. After almost a minute, Liam’s lungs likely also feeling like they were burning after so much blowing, a larger flame erupted, Liam quickly sliding it into my cone of sticks as the flames caught onto the bark and started to grow. We looked up at Petram, who was looking back down at us, before he gave us a thumbs up, telling us we passed that part and now needed to make one by hand.
“Make a board and get a notch in it. I’ll get the spindle and make some tinder,” I said.
Liam took a thicker, longer piece of wood, cutting it down the center before he carved a shallow little hole for the spindle. I used the same spindle I had carved the bark off of earlier, making sure it was even smoother so that we wouldn’t get any splinters.
“Are you ready?” Liam asked, a minute later.
“Yeah, I have the spindle and some tinder for our coal,” I said, handing him the supplies.
Liam put the butt of the spindle into the notch he’d carved, lining it up perfectly, so it fit like a glove. With the tinder pile next to the board, he put his palms on the top of the spindle, making sure they were flat, and started spinning it, his hands sliding down in the process. I watched intently as his hands ripped up and down the spindle like they themselves were going to light on fire. He looked determined, a few beads of sweat forming at his hairline, his biceps bulging and his teeth grinding.
“You have five more minutes,” Petram said, as Liam quickly spun the spindle.
“Come on,” Liam muttered.
With my hands clasped together, my vision set on the spinning butt end of the spindle, I saw a tiny wisp of smoke as it wafted upwards, growing with each spin Liam made.
“It’s smoking!” I exclaimed, as he kept spinning it.
Within seconds smoke was flying upwards. Liam stopped, pulling the spindle away as a little coal sat inside the notch, which was now black and a little deeper than when we started. Liam picked up the board, hovering it over the pile of tinder, and gently nudging it inside,
before he picked up the pile and began to gently blow into it.
This was just like the fire starter tinder, nothing different, and the only thing this baby needed was a little bit of air and a whole lot of love to turn into something great.
“You have three minutes remaining,” Petram said, in an almost enthusiastic voice, like he was trying to encourage us even further.
After Petram’s words of encouragement, Liam blew once again, his warm breath filling the tinder with gray smoke, it building up more and more with every breath he gave.
“Come on,” I said, as the smell of smoke filled our immediate area.
The tinder caught, a small flame erupting from the chasm between the pile, before Liam set it down into a pile of sticks I had at the ready, just like the first fire, which was still burning, although it was small.
“One minute,” Petram said.
The sticks crackled as the flames swallowed them, the orange fire catching slowly, like it was trying to test our patience. As the seconds counted down a fire grew, the sticks consumed by the flames, and I felt the heat against my hands.
“Good job. You two passed, and just in time. You had twenty seconds left. You’ve each earned your cards,” Petram said.
“Yes!” I exclaimed, before jumping forward and hugging Liam.
“We did good,” Liam said.
I let go of him, leaned back, and looked at him, smiling as the two fires burned, both of us three for three.
“We did great,” I replied.
Chapter Twelve
I woke up the next day feeling both accomplished and nervous. Liam and I had both earned three cards and fared much better than some other teams that had only earned one; some teams only earned one between the two of them. I was nervous, though, because there were two phases left and none of us had a clue what they consisted of. As a person who always liked to have a plan, it wasn’t my idea of a fun time.
We had gone through a phase each with Borgis, Quinn, and Petram, covering self-defense, strategy, and survival. We were told during orientation that each instructor could cover more than one subject, but with all of the main ones out of the way, I had no clue what they could teach us going forward. We all had a pretty good understanding of the competition and what it entailed, but I guessed they had different plans for us, and our fates in the competition might just rest on the shoulders of the next two phases and whether or not we earned the cards.
I rolled out of bed every morning to the sight of calm, majestic trees on my screen, giving up the city view and lights, as I wanted to prepare myself for the competition. I liked the forest ecosystem the most, and even though the other two ones were great, I wanted to immerse myself in the forest before even stepping foot into the grid. With the days counting down, I needed to feel like I was there.
I walked out into the lobby after getting ready to see that almost everyone was already there, all of them devouring the trays and tables of food like hungry lions that hadn’t eaten in weeks. I was amazed every morning, walking out of my room and having a meal of this magnitude ready for me to eat. If anything were going to happen to me here, it would be the curse of gluttony, and I knew I wasn’t going to get a spread like this ever again, especially in a labor camp. We’d be lucky to get bread that wasn’t stale, let alone fresh fruit.
I’d only eaten for a few minutes before the tightly closed doors of our little sanctuary opened and Christian walked through, his hair looking radiant as his heeled shoes clinked and clanked across the tiled floor. He looked serious, not as chipper as usual, which was never a good thing for us.
“I trust all of you had a good night. I see you’re finishing up your breakfast, but I thought I’d give you our day’s itinerary and let you know what you’ll be doing today,” Christian said.
Christian looked over his digiboard, flicking his finger across the screen as he hummed to himself, something he did often, especially while deep in thought.
“I know that you don’t know what phase you’re competing in today, so I suppose I should let you know that it’s a dueling phase that Borgis will be in charge of. I wish I could give you more information, but that’s sadly all I have. I trust Borgis will tell you more once we get down there, which will be in five minutes. So, finish up your breakfasts so we can head out,” Christian said.
We had to do a dueling phase? I was hoping we had gotten the attacking and self-defense out of the way since our first round, but I saw I was clearly and foolishly mistaken. It wasn’t that I didn’t think I’d do well, especially against some of these older competitors, but the competition was never about this kind of thing, at least to me. Every year I’d watched it on TV, it had been about a treasure hunt of sorts for something that was so small, yet so powerful and life-altering. Taking self-defense or doing duels just instilled into competitors that we needed to fight one another instead of just doing this the right way, which was with our minds and hackers, with intelligence and strategy reigning supreme. I guess they’d do whatever they had to do to get ratings, though. That was how these things always were. Sacrifice the well being of real people so that you can make an extra buck or promote something big.
After eating we were escorted down to Borgis, who was in the same expansive room that we had used with him for the self-defense and attack training. He didn’t smile as we came in, his belly hanging over his high-sitting belt, and his face looked a little bristly and rough. He cleared his throat before getting ready to speak, sucking up snot and spitting it out to the side, which made me gag and look the other way for a quick second.
“I heard that Christian told you about our plans of dueling today. I’m sure some of you are nervous, because you’ve never had to do anything like this before in your lives, but I’ll calm your fears and tell you that it isn’t so bad. To some, it’s actually quite fun! I know some of you may be worried, thinking that a duel can be an unfair request for something as precious as a card. After all, you might be anxious, have a very experienced opponent, or pick the wrong weapon that will severely limit your ability to win your card. To make things a little fairer, you will be fighting three times, and you need to win two of the matches to earn a card. There will be a staff stage, a rifle stage, and a random stage, where you may pick any hand weapon to use. Though you have to participate in all three rounds, once you win two, say your first two matches, you’ll automatically get a card no matter how the final match goes. Any questions?” Borgis asked.
Gracie raised her hand, looking a little nervous and shy as she did so.
“Yes, what’s your question?” Borgis asked.
“Isn’t firing rifles or blasters at each other a little dangerous, especially since this isn’t the grid? We could get hurt,” she asked.
“Great question, my dear! You will be behind a special structure. There will be a membrane shield protecting your actual body, though thousands of tiny motion detectors will pinpoint every little bit of your body’s movement with great accuracy. You’ll fire at your opponent, and if your shot hits where they’re standing, it’ll count as a strike. You won’t actually get hit or hurt, I promise,” Borgis said.
Gracie gave a polite smile and looked back down, her right hand holding her left elbow, before Borgis looked back around the room for any more questions. Nobody else raised their hand, so Borgis walked over to the wall, his staff clanking against the floor as he used it for balance. He hit a few buttons and summoned up a weapons rack filled with staffs and staffs alone.
“Please come up and pick a staff to use. They’ll be for your first challenge, and I’ll soon get your assignments up on the screen here and tell you the rules,” Borgis said.
All of the staffs were the same length, the same weight, and exactly the same as before. While mine fit relatively well in my hands, there were some people, particularly the shorter females, who had a harder time holding and wielding something much too large for their shorter and smaller frames. I didn’t hold much hope for them.
“Alright, I’m g
oing to have you all matched up with your opponents at this time. Remember that this is the only person you will duel against for this round, and you win by getting your opponent on their back and putting the butt end of your staff against their heart. To prevent any aggressive shots, like ones to the head, some of my assistants will be passing around helmets so that you may be protected, no matter how aggressive your opponent is. Now, let’s get started,” Borgis said, before hitting a button on the side of the wall.
The screen lit up, our faces showing blank stares, a grim reminder of the state of our spirit and souls while in this place. They started moving, bouncing around the screen, before slowing down, each methodically joining another head as they moved into place, three rows four groups deep, all of the heads finally stopping next to someone.
I scanned the screen for my face, looking furiously before seeing myself on the left-hand part of the section. My eyes moved one face over to the right, seeing Bridgette was my opponent, the same girl who was matched up with Jason and who’d stirred up trouble for Liam and me. Maybe this duel wouldn’t be so bad after all, especially considering that I’d get to whack her with a staff.
Our pairings on the screen were labeled with a number that matched up to the section of the room we were to fight in. I walked to ours, number ten, and Bridgette soon came, her staff in hand, before an assistant came by and gave us our helmets. I easily slipped mine on, tucking my hair back so that it wouldn’t fall in front of my face and hurt me later on. The top of the helmet was open, though beveled to not let a staff from above actually hit your head, and although it felt light, it was definitely as strong as they came. I’d seen training police officers use these.
As we both stood there, helmets on, staffs in hand, I peered over three spaces, seeing Liam matched up against George, which was going to be a challenge for him based on George’s sheer size alone. Sweeping him onto his back was going to be a challenge, but if I knew Liam, he always liked one of those.