Ones and Zeroes

Chapter 8: Salt in the Wound

Tw: panic attack, mention of blades/ weapons

George was surprised Dream hadn't shown more of the downstairs rooms to him. Aside from the bedrooms, there were three extra rooms downstairs. One of them was connected to the main living room, a large open archway led into the kitchen. Marble counters and a large wooden dining table took up most of the room. He walked around the kitchen and looked into a smaller storage room. The shelves were littered with random boxes and materials.

George walked over to the other side of the kitchen and followed Dream and Sapnap into a small dark room. They closed the door behind them making the room pitch black.

Click

A blinding white light filled the room.

Wait. Is this-

"Welcome to the training room newbie." Sapnap looked at George proudly.

I took in my surroundings. Although the room was smaller in size. There was definitely enough training equipment to make the room equally as useful as any larger room. Large black mats covered the floor, it was thin yet efficient for preventing major injury while training. Multiple free weights were placed against the right wall. A weightlifting bench and pull-up bar were pushed against the left wall of the room. I looked behind Dream and Sapnap and saw two human- sized dummies sitting against the back wall.

"Alright let's get you a weapon." Sapnap smiled.

Just when I thought there was nothing else, Sapnap managed to amaze me more. He used two hands to excitedly rip a wooden panel from the wall revealing a gaping hole.

Oh my god.

Various kinds of weapons littered the small cube- shaped hole in the wall. A mixture of pistols, revolvers, and rifles hung on small hooks along the walls of the hole. Grenades and small knives, even throwing blades lay at the bottom.

"Woah." I breathed out a bit surprised.

"Woah is right. Now go ahead and choose one." Sapnap said, hinting for George to just go and pick a weapon of his liking. This scared George. Was he testing him? Did he really just want George to take something so dangerous?

"Um... is there anything you recommend." He didn't want to sound inexperienced in any way. But he was. He had no knowledge of weapons or fighting for that matter. This would take a while.

Sapnap grunted and turned to walk back over to George after setting down the wooden plank, seemingly annoyed. Before he could start talking however, Dream stepped in.

"How about I get him started and you set up the dummies Sapnap." He looked at the impatient boy before turning to George. "C'mon I'll help you get a weapon."

Dream faced me in the direction of the weapon stash. 

"So there's lots of choices." He began. "First let's figure out what you want. Do you want a gun, knife, anything specific?"

I looked into the stash and thought about my experiences with guns. Maybe I should stay away from guns...

Dream seem to catch the change of moods in my facial expressions. "Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry." He looked apologetically at me. "Let's try something other than a gun."

He reached in and grabbed a set of three identical, small blades. Each had a short leather hilt and 6 inch long blade. He placed each one into a small holster with individual pockets for each blade. The holster was attached to a long strap made to wrap around the user's waist for easy access.

"Here. Let's try these." He handed me the dangerous items. "Go ahead try it on."

I looked down at the faux leather blade holster before wrapping the strap around my waist and adjusting it to my size.