Task: Super Smash Bro Brawls
May stayed at my house for the first night. I put a double bed in earlier, so we just shared. When I woke up, May was already walking around. I took a sip of my water and put in back in the chest.
“Morning!” I smiled.
“Hey Gwen,” she replied back. Her eyes had a sad expression in them – almost as if she were longing for someone. Her hazel eyes seemed glassy, from tears over the night. I think that she was missing someone.
“Any idea what we’re doing today?” she asked.
“Well, we could go see Olympia. I’m a bit scared in here, to be honest,” I said. In my head this translated to: find Olympia and get the hell out of this place. I didn’t want to say that aloud though, they could be spying on us or something. May brushed her messy side fringe from her face.
“Sounds good to me,” she nodded. I led the way out of my – our – house and to the booth.
“How do you think they made this place?” May asked curiously, she gazed around the surroundings.
“Maybe some sort of computer generated world. Definitely not real, but green screens would have to be used for the background. You can’t just throw 20 kids into a video game world without splashing some cash…” I continued to explain my theory of the teleport booths and how we got here. May led the way in and I pressed the number 15. My blood red nail polish was still gleaming, no chips or scratches on them. The gust of wind blew my knotty hair around my face and the door clicked. I opened it to find Olympia’s house – I had never seen it before. It had spruce wood on the outside and was two floors high. I led May inside and had to bend down to feel the white carpet – it was plush and velvety. My little purple and blue Nike joggers didn’t belong on such beautiful carpet. We went upstairs and found Olympia on her bed with her colourful hair sprawled around her like wavy sea.
“Olympia! Time to wake up!” I jumped on her bed.
“Gwen!” she moaned but had a smile playing on her lips, “I wish I put a lock on the door,”
“Come on! We can go exploring,” I pulled her out. Translation: we can find a way out. That was my plan. Olympia tied her teal, blue and purple hair in a messy ponytail and we walked downstairs.
“So, why don’t you have a house?” Olympia asked May,
“I was angry so I just wrote ‘Take me home’ in big letters – diamond and gold. So it’s still very expensive,” she laughed at the end. It was sweet and musical. I hadn’t heard her laugh since being here. I guess everyone had someone to miss – everyone but me. Unless you count Ethan, but he was always a nice guy so he probably found some new friends. We walked out the door and came to a halt as we saw the huge hovercraft on Olympia’s lawn.
“Get in!” a muscly man ordered. I was frozen. I didn’t want to go with them. I had to get out of here, I had a bad feeling about this entire place.
“Get in,” the man repeated.
“Come on, Gwen. We’ll be fine,” May took my hand and gave it a small squeeze. We walked up the ramp of the hovercraft and took the remaining three seats. I sat between my two friends, while Olympia sat next to a boy with blonde hair and May sat on the very end. I did a count. 10 boys and 10 girls – including us. Why have such specific numbers? I didn’t know. It was loud as we went higher into the sky. I lifted my knees to my chest and hugged them. Where were they taking us?
***
We landed after about an hour. It was a long, silent ride. The windows were blacked out, so I had no idea where we were. Several men ushered us out of the hovercraft into a metal corridor. Once again, nothing outside could be seen. They were keeping this place a secret. I looked up at Olympia and she gave me a reassuring smile. I turned my gaze back to my joggers. They echoed quietly on the silver metal. We stopped at what looked like a hanger door. A man at the front pressed the green button and it slowly opened up – half the door going into the wall on each side. We walked in and everyone – who wouldn’t – gasped at the sight. Mechanical suits lined the wall. They had enough room for a person to fit inside.
“Go to your correct numbers and await further instructions!” the robotic voice crackled. I spotted number 13 and sighed. Why this number? May broke off and went to number 5, while Olympia walked me to my suit before finding her own. I stared and inspected it for a moment. The parts told me it was very high tech – I hadn’t seen this anywhere. It looked like it was from the future. It had no labelling whatsoever, giving me no clue to what country these came from. I saw that everyone else was climbing into the suits. I took the stairs to a small platform and put my feet were the marks were. The suit clamped around my body. It fit perfectly. The arms and legs turned a dark purple. It looked like the suits out of Spy Kids: Game Over – where they stood on top of the big robots and fought each other. That was a bit old school but I absolutely love spy kids. It was like the one that Junie wore except it was purple. I wiggled my fingers and smiled. If I was so obsessed with technology – I would have been running out, but I guess I was stuck now. Suddenly I was jerked backwards and spun around until I found myself in a small room in which I was behind a glass pane. I couldn’t see any doors. I was just trapped inside this room. I jumped as a projection lit up in the glass. It was flashing red words. Super Smash Bro Brawls. So I was going to play the game? I looked around for a controller but found nothing. The words were replaced by a selection of characters – they ranged from Peach and Mario to Marth from Fire Emblem. I searched for Pikachu, he was my favourite. I tapped on his image and the projection disappeared and a holograph was in front of me. Pikachu. I walked closer to the glass, so did the Pikachu. I tilted my head thoughtfully. I jumped up and down. So did Pikachu. So I could control his movements with my suit – that’s why we had them. I felt myself moved to the side – it must’ve been the room, and my blank room was now not so empty. Another hologram was in front of Pikachu then another glass pane with a boy behind it. He had black hair that was a little long and was over 6 foot. He looked quite scary with his menacing build and thick glasses. I didn’t recognize his hologram, a little silhouette. Suddenly the walls around our holograms disappeared; it left me and my opponent on platforms above the small rectangle that held Pikachu. I looked around and saw several other platforms like this with other people on them. I couldn’t see Olympia or May.
Fight! Flashed across my screen. The boy caught me off guard but Pikachu is fast – and I have good reflexes – so we dodged him easily. I jumped up and used quick attack, which forced him to the edge. He jumped up and I used a quick smash attack up. His character flew into space slowly. I’ve never heard of it, but obviously Pikachu can beat him so that’s good enough. The boy opposite me gave me a cold glare and suddenly disappeared. My Pikachu returned to my side as a girl with long dark brown hair appeared in the boy’s place, she looked like a singer – Christina Perri maybe. Wolf, from Starfox, popped up in front of her. Wolf was much bigger than Pikachu.
The fight was longer than my previous one, but we both ended up going off the edge. It said that I lost, but I think I won. I cursed so loudly that I think my parents would hear me. I fought three others after that, I lost one and won the other two – one of the girls who I won against was terrible at it. After the games, I found myself back to where we found the suits. The suit came off automatically and I ran down the steps to Olympia – she was only one person away from me.
“Hey Gwen,” she said as I ran into her arms. She was like my sister to me, May was more of a mother or sister figure – I wasn’t sure which.
“Who was your character?” I asked, “Mine was Pikachu. I won three fights and lost two,” I said excitedly, and just as she was about to reply, the scary men came into the room. Everyone fell silent. They herded us back towards the hovercraft, but we went into a room instead. There were 18 chairs – not enough for everyone – and a lady stood on a stage in front of the seats. A huge board was behind her – ranked 1 to 20. My name was 6th on the board. Olympia was 7th and May was 5th. We all had good rankings. I took a seat next to May and watched the lady in front of me.
“Hope you enjoyed your game. But each game, two will die. And unfortunately for two of you, you’re time is up,” she said. Her voice was cold, it made goose bumps rise on my arms. “Personally, I’m a fan of tigers, so I think this is appropriate. And keep in mind – anyone that evens thinks about stopping me will be next.” She hissed at the end. A caged rolled in next to her with a huge tiger inside. It pawed at the bars of the cage.
“In last place,” the lady gestured to the girl who appeared in front of use. It was the girl who I versed earlier. She was dangling by her feet above the tiger’s cage. I didn’t know what this psycho was thinking. Luckily the cage had a roof on it – at least, I thought it did. The tiger leapt up into the air – the girl let out an ear piercing scream as the tiger pulled her into the caged. I buried my face in May’s body. Nothing could stop me from hearing her screams though. I took a peek back and saw her red body, the tiger ripped her arm off, making blood and bones scatter in the cage. It munched on the arm – I shivered as it crunched the bone so easily between its teeth.
“Please! Stop!” the girl cried. She tried to drag herself away but the tiger grabbed her back and played with her between its claws. It threw her up in the air and she flopped to the ground. Screaming and yelling for someone to help. And keep in mind – anyone that evens thinks about stopping me will be next. That’s what she had said. I turned back to stop myself from seeing the horrible scene. The screaming stopped suddenly. I turned back – just in time to see the tiger rip off her head and kick it between his feet. I almost vomited. The smell of blood and flesh filled my nose. Why was I here? This was how I would die. The cage squeaked as it was rolled away.
“And in 2nd last place,” the lady grinned like this was a game to her. Which it probably was. A boy wearing a brown leather jacket was wheeled out. He was strapped to a chair and next to him – on a stainless steel bench – was an array of sharp tools and knives. Two tall men came out – one with red hair, the other with brown – and looked over the tools. I couldn’t imagine what they were going to do. The red head pick up some bolt cutters and the other picked up a spoon – a spoon, seriously? The boy in the chair struggled – fear was obvious in his sapphire coloured eyes. He was desperate. May went to get up but I pulled her back down. I shook my head and she sighed. I couldn’t lose her. The boy screamed as the red head – who I’ll call Skinny – chopped off one of his fingers. Blood poured out. He pushed the finger to the boy’s mouth. Then, forcing open his mouth – he shoved the finger in. I assume Skinny was saying to eat it because the boy slowly gulped it down. He looked like he was about it be sick. Skinny put the bolt cutters down and picked up a peeler. A ran it down the boy’s arm – his screams tore through the room but made the lady smile – and then made him eat the skin. I shivered. The room was silent, except for the boy’s screams. The blood dotted the boy’s arm, but Skinny peeled it again until you could see the muscle and fed the boy his skin. The boy choked and was rewarded with a drink of his own blood. Then the brown haired guy – who I’ll call Goldy, because when he grinned he had several gold teeth – got the spoon and lifted out his eyeball. I covered my eyes, to scared to look but I had to peek. They made him chew on his own eye slowly.
I didn’t know how long it went on for. They fed him various parts of his own body. His skin, fingers, toes, eyeballs, tongue and they even pulled out his own teeth and shoved them down his mouth. All the while, the boys screamed for help and cried for someone to stop until he finally gave up and stabbed himself with one of the knives. I was still shivering from the horrors I saw. Would that have been me if I lost? I knew that I shouldn’t have stayed. Everyone on the hovercraft was silent – except for the occasional sniffle and the crying of the friends of those who had been tortured to death. We landed on the shop island. May went to get some food, but I wasn’t hungry. Olympia took me home and set me on my bed.
“Try not to think about it, Gwen,” Olympia whispered as she lay down next to me,
“How could they do such horrible things?” I sobbed into my pillow, “That could be us, you know!”
“I won’t let anything happen to you. These are bad people but we’ll find a way out. We’ll find a way to survive,” she rubbed my back gently.
“I don’t want to die,” the tears had soaked my pillow already. Two days in and I was a total wreck. How could I stand to be treated – let others be treated – like this?
“You won’t.” she promised. A door closed and I jumped in fright.
“It’s just me,” May called. I heard her put some stuff in the chest before sitting on the other side of my bed.
“I’ll see you tomorrow okay, drop in if you need something.” Olympia said, stifling a yawn. It knew it was dark outside. We had been in that hell hole for hours. I used to like video games – now I wasn’t so keen on them. Especially not ones where people die. Olympia closed the door behind her, leaving May and I in silence. I was right – Dad was right – we were paying a price to live in a paradise.
“Want me to sing to you?” May asked softly. She pulled off my shoes and pulled the blankets so they covered me. I nodded my head. She began to sing ever so softly.
Sleep, my child, and peace attend thee,
All through the night
Guardian angels God will send thee,
All through the night
Soft the drowsy hours are creeping,
Hill and dale in slumber sleeping
I my loved ones' watch am keeping,
All through the night
My eyelids slowly drooped. My body began to relax. I wouldn’t worry about how to get out tomorrow. For now, I would survive – All through the night.