The Arena

As I stand on my platform in the thirty-mile arena, my mind continues thinking evil thoughts about the gruesomely disgusting government. They implanted a chip in all of our necks which tracks our every movement and records every word we say. Every year they hold “fun” games for everybody to watch at home. Ten people fight to the death with whatever they can find around them inside of this massive arena. I happen to be one of those people. Except this year it was different. Every fifty years they would do this: take five pairs of teenagers, a brother and a sister, make them team up, and then whatever brother sister team left alive wins. Because the government is so generous, the winners’ (only) reward is their life!

King Justin, the mastermind behind the games, blares annoyingly over the overwhelmingly loud speakers to explain the rules of the games, which is basically don’t do anything disgusting with the dead bodies, put on a good show for the crowds at home, and to kill anything that moves. He began to count down from ten as a large locked metal cage filled to the brim with every type of weapon, food, and medicine you could imagine arose from a platform in the ground. The weapons I see inside of the locked cage don’t tempt me. I know it’s 2170, but the weapons they give us are like those used in ancient times. This doesn’t bother me because I am dangerously accurate with the sling shot, if I do say so myself. I glance over at my brother, Josh, who has just turned thirteen years old (the youngest age allowed in the games) two days ago, and he is literally shaking with fear.

“Its gonna be alright. I’ll be here with you the whole time. Just stick with me and everything will-”

TWO. ONE. Everyone makes haste towards the large, rusty steel cage in the middle. Why now? How could I forget that he was counting down? Why didn’t I just-? I have no time to scold myself. Josh and I begin running towards the polar biome, which appears to be the closest biome to our platforms, with only four small knifes we found on the floor and two waterproof thermal bodysuits which protected us from the cold completely (at least from the neck down). It might seem not so bad, but compared to the weapons that everyone else would have, this was nothing. This would have to be sufficient enough though, because as soon as I thought of running towards that cage, an arrow whizzed past my head. I shove the arrow which landed on the floor into my pocket, and bolt into the freezing temperatures.

There are three biomes: polar, woods, and grasslands. Everyone will be headed towards the forests because there are lots of wild berries for food and there is good shelter.

Josh looks at me, eyes hollow, “Ka-ka-Kaylee, did you see how those three people died back there?”

I did but I don’t want to freak him out more by describing how gruesome their deaths were. “Nah, I just heard their names announced on the speaker confirming their deaths.”

“Oh, okay. I’m worried but I know I have you with me” Josh mutters, his lips shaking from the cold and from being out of breath.

“I know buddy, but we have to be strong for Mom and Dad. I also bet you’re pretty cold too, huh?” I say trying to make him forget his worries. He just looks at me and smiles. We know we have to continue distancing ourselves from our opponents.

I sit down after running for about twenty minutes straight and close my eyes. After resting for a few minutes, I spot what looks like an arctic hare hopping around a tree. I tell Josh to be quiet as I ready myself to kill it, but Josh just laughs and points out that the poor creature is hanging from the tree by a rope tied to it’s foot.

“What is that, Josh?”

“I made it.”

“When did you learn to do that? When did you do that?”

“While you were sitting down being a fat sack of potatoes.”

“Oh shut up.”

“Also, I guess you could say I’m self taught. Why do you think I would always go out and play in the forest with ropes and wires?”

“I honestly just thought you were gonna kill yourself one of those days, but it works for me!” I say jokingly.

As day begins to slip away and dusk begins to creep in, I tell Josh that we should separate to go look for some wood or anything flammable to start a fire. About an hour later we meet up in the same spot. I show up with some twigs and a small two ounce bottle of lighter fluid I found buried in the snow, and Josh arrives with what has to be at least ten pounds of wood in a backpack he found and a sharp axe.

“Hey, look. You actually did something. Now give me the wood,” I state with a smile, still bothered about being called a sack of potatoes. I start the fire while he skins the hare. As I finish cooking the savory smelling hare, I hear footsteps getting closer to us. Both of our stomachs are screaming for food, but we have to leave it unattended. We sneakily crouch behind a large rock to hide us from the intruders. We see one boy who was about my age, seventeen, get close to the hare and inspect it. I see him take a bite out of it. I suspect that it is rather strange for him to not give some to his sister, but that’s when I realize she’s not there.

“He must be the brother of one of the two girls that died earlier,” I whisper to Josh. “We have to kill him, you know.”

Josh being innocent as always, says, “Well can’t we just ask him to be on our team, and if he says no, THEN we kill him?”

I ignore what he says, “You know he took a bite of our food right?”

He looks at him from behind the rock then turns to me and says, “Lets kill him.”

We devise a plan in a matter of seconds. Josh jumps out from behind the rock and distracts him. Then, as the boy prepares to run at Josh, I throw a knife which I assume hits him somewhere in his core. He lay gasping for air as we grab the barely roasted hare off the ground, then run away. Only six left. We hear his death announced over the speakers knowing that we better find a hiding place for the night. When someone dies, everybody in the arena knows who dies and where they die. This is very helpful, when you’re not the killer. Everyone will be looking for a killer, us, so we must move swiftly. We snuggle up inside of a large, hollow tree and drift off to bed.

I sleep for about four hours then I am suddenly jolted awake by Josh screaming gibberish at me. “Whoa. Hold on, slow down. What’s going on?”

“Kaylee, they’re coming! They’re coming. We have to go now, there’s no time to explain!”

I immediately jump out of the musty smelling yet comfortable tree. As I’m running, now I can clearly see ‘they’re coming’. A team, is charging at us with a club with spikes and a slingshot. Wait, a slingshot. If I could get my hands on that, we would win for sure. “Josh you see that lake up ahead?” I say pointing towards the huge lake with ice floating around in it, which is about one hundred yards in front of us. He nods his head. “When we get to it, I want you to jump in and swim like your life depends on it Just make sure you don’t put your head underneath. If you get water in your suit you’ll die of hypothermia. Got it?”

“But our lives do depend on it.”

“Then you better swim fast.”

We swim far out into the frigid lake and get on top of a large piece of floating ice in about two minutes, while we dodge the rocks, which unfortunately hit the bottom of the lake, being catapulted at us by the amateur slinger.

Now I mess with their heads, “You’re lucky I don’t have that slingshot or else you’d both be dead.” I say with a smirk. “Do you even realize how bad you are with a sling?”

Josh adds to my humor, “Yeah, my dog has better accuracy than you; and he only has three legs!”

The girl turns red as she tries to think of something to say, “Oh yeah. Well. Umm. Do you know how dumb you are?” She says in a mocking tone while her brother laughs at her. “Why don’t you come swim over here and try and take it from me?”

“Umm. I think I’ll pass on the offer, sweet cheeks,” I replied even more mockingly.

Now she is really heated, “That’s it! Were staying here until you come back from there. You’ll eventually get too cold. Or the ice might kill you. I’ll wait.” she says snobbishly.

We swim back, almost, but not fully numb thanks to the thermal suits, and are shielded by the darkness. I look to Josh and whisper, “I think they’re all asleep. When I say ‘now’ you subdue the boy and throw him in the lake and I’ll handle the girl with her own slingshot.”

“Wow you got violent. Let’s do it”

“Well do you want to survive or not?”

Josh doesn’t respond. “That’s what I thought you little potato sack. NOW!”

Everything is going exactly as planned, but the girl with my slingshot wakes up and begins firing. We dodge behind a tree.

“Now what, Kaylee?”

“Well there’s two of us and one of her. You run this way and then I run that way, and we’ll keep switching until you’re close enough to get her with your axe.”

“Actually, Kaylee, I left my axe back at the tree. So all we have are the knives”

“Well It’s just going to have to work then! Now!”

We both take off running in different directions, weaving in and out until she runs out of rocks. We catch up to her, then make her death fast with one swift snap of the neck. Only four more people left. Only four more. I take my slingshot and begin to run back so we can grab the axe and what’s left of the hare. Now our stomachs are growling like crazy. We warm ourselves by the dying embers of the fire and I hand Josh his axe. I hand Josh a small piece of hare while I greedily eat the rest. Why I’m doing this, I don’t know. But the arena changes you…

We hear two teen’s names on the speakers. At least now there’s only one team left. Just in the nick of time, like always, King Jerk err, I mean King Justin comes onto the speakers, “Hello everybody. As you now know, you are the four remaining survivors so far. But we need to get this show moving faster; so, I refilled the cage with everything you could need. GOOD LUCK!!” Obviously it is just a trap to set us up with the last remaining survivors. But that cage sure is tempting. We have to go.

“Ughhhh were going to that metal cage box thing, aren’t we?”

“Yup,” I say hiking back towards the middle of the arena.

We arrive at the cell and no one is there, but we are still on high alert. Without warning. A sharp blade is hurdled towards Josh which he almost dodges. His ear begins to bleed. Now we take cover. We see two large teenagers come out from the forest biome and begin picking through the refilled cage. They don’t know I have a sling though. I pick the girl off with a rock to the head.

The brother’s face floods with anger, “Where are you! Show yourself!”
I have a rock aimed at his throat, but Josh stupidly throws himself out from behind cover, “Don’t hurt her. Kill me instead.”

The bulky boy threw a knife barely missing Josh’s head. I pull Josh back behind cover, “What are you doing? You know for having such a big head, you’re pretty dumb. Here put this on your ear.” I say, handing him a bunch of leaves off the ground.

“Sorry I’m just SOOOOO hungry, I can’t think straight.”

I run out from under cover and the boy begins chasing me. I shoot a large rock at him and he deflects it with some type of shield. He raises the sword above his head as I prepare myself to die. Now I know how David felt when he faced Goliath. Instead of slashing me into one thousand pieces, he falls to his knees and then his face. I see Josh standing over him with the giant axe.

“We did it. Josh, we really did it,” I say as tears trickle down my dirty face.

“Yeah, and I didn’t die,” we both chuckle.

We wait for King Justin to announce “The Rodriguez Siblings” as the winners for this year’s games, but what he says changes my few tears of joy to tears of sadness.

“This years rules have been updated. The brother and sister must fight to the death. Only one winner is allowed this year. Good luck to both of you.” Of course he won’t let both of us live. I mean he actually eats cold, raw meat. He is the face of evil.

Josh drops to his knees and begs me not to murder him harshly, “I’m not gonna kill you. They can’t force us to fight each other.”

“Oh, can’t we?” King Justin says creepily.

“What are you talking about?” asks Josh as he held his injured ear in pain.

“Well if you don’t fight to the death, I guess we’ll just have to kill your mother and father.”

“Oh, please. Like you know where my parents are-”
“Kaylee, Josh. Mom and Dad are okay. Don’t listen to them everything is going to be ok-” I hear my mother grunt with pain.

“MOM, DAD NOOO! KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OF THEM!!” my yelling obviously isn’t changing anything. I know what I have to do. I walk up to Josh, ” Y- you know I love you, right buddy?”

“Yeah I know. Just make it quick, alright. I love you, Kaylee.”

I pull the arrow out of my pocket as I stand over my innocent brother. I break it in half and raise it above my head. I shove the arrow right into my beating heart. I begin to fade away as I hear my brother screaming and crying telling me to come back.

“It’s okay, Josh. Where I’m going, there won’t be any more pain. I love you.”

“NO PLEASE DON’T GO, KAYLEE!! I NEED YOU. I LOVE YOU. YOU CAN’T JUST LEAVE ME LIKE THIS. PLEASE SOMEBODY HELP HER. SHE’S DYING. PLEASE- ” I feel tears run down my face but they aren’t mine. His voice slowly comes to a hush until it is gone. I am gone.

“I am proud to announce this year’s winner, Joshua Rodriguez!”

 

**************

 

 

As I look at my dying sister, a rage bubbles inside of me like never before. Why did she have to die like this? Taking her own life to save our family. I can’t stand to watch another one of these games again, let alone participate in one. Everyone that has died in this arena has families just like us. I can’t do this anymore. I won’t do this anymore. Someone needs to fight back. It’s time to take a stand.