For Her Honor

Chapter 2

My dad led me through the building, pointing out certain rooms and certain people. Some of them I recognized as co-workers of my father, but some of them were foreign to me. But I waved back all the same, smiling to hide the fear that had taken residence on my face. Toni seemed to realize this too and clung to my arm as if that would help calm my fears.

I thought I knew her, but it turns out she's got a whole other life.

When we got into the elevator I felt like my head was spinning, all of this was too much. The men that attacked us tonight, the alcohol, getting slapped for the first time in my life. My world was spiraling out of control and all I could do was watch. I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes, rubbing my temples to dull the headache growing behind my eyelids.

"I know this is a lot to take in honey." My father sighed, coming to my side and hugging me tightly against him.

But I pulled away, "You haven't told me anything yet. How can any of this be overwhelming when I still don't know anything? I think I definitely deserve an explanation because if I see one more person walking around with a gun I'm going to have a heart attack."

"Calm down Harmony. We're almost there." Toni slid up to my other side. She had cleaned up the blood on her face and had brushed through her tangled mess of hair. We were both still barefoot and in our party clothes but Toni promised the company would offer clean clothes once we got downstairs.

And then I had to wonder what 'company' she was referring to because my father's business didn't offer clothes to cold and tired party girls. They wouldn't even give us the time of day if I weren't the daughter of their boss.

I heard the elevator bing and saw that none of the lights at the top of the elevator were glowing to signal which floor we were on. I looked to my father in confusion but all he replied was, "The floor we're on technically doesn't exist."

When the elevator doors slid open I felt my heart drop. We were definitely under ground, tinted windows could be seen at the very top of this huge room I was in, letting in small amounts of sunlight. And when I say huge room, I mean huge room. It seemed to stretch on forever and it was as tall as my house stacked on top of itself nearly three times. The walls were made of thick concrete and dim lights hung from the ceiling.

But after I got over the shock of the appearance of this room, I suddenly realized that there were people in this room. Off in the far corner I saw a large grouping of vegetation growing as high as I've ever seen. And there were people in there, jumping from tree to tree and running through the leaves that were bigger than them. Off to the right was what looked like a large swimming pool but the water was rough and loud, and even though it looked like a nightmare I could see people swimming through the waves, diving and coming back up.

On the ceiling I could see people swinging from vine to vine and struggling across one of those rope obstacle courses, though none of these people seemed to be wearing safety harnesses.

All across this room I saw different types of geographical areas and people trying to conquer them. There were rocks, fires, wind. This place looked like a training room for the Avenger's or something. But instead I saw only humans attempting to master these locations.

"What is this place?" I gasped aloud, my eyes taking in every inch of this room and the insane people in it.

Toni laughed, "My home away from home. Actually, the only home that I have... aside from yours of course."

I ran my fingers through my hair in desperation, "I'm sorry but I have no idea what you're talking about."

To my immediate left I saw a practice mat rolled out and people were sparing against each other. But I saw bright flashes of blood as they actually tried to beat the shit out of each other. Then right next to that mat I saw people throwing knives at the wall where other people were standing as still as the wall behind them. They were throwing fucking knives at each other?!