Gassed

I was stunned. I mean, we had been told for years that the only thing that these artifacts were capable of doing was providing a sustainable source of renewable energy. The public was specifically told that we were incapable of using any of these weapons for battle. That's the only reason that the public's attention really hasn't turned its attention to how these can be used for warfare. The more I thought about it, I realized that's probably the reason that wasn't revealed to the masses. If the general public found out that we could use ancient weapons of mass destruction, that would destroy the peace of mind that the government had spent decades building. Most people wouldn't be relieved that their country had these tools to protect them, they would be terrified of the possibility of other countries getting their hands on this technology.

Then a horrible thought came into my mind, and the woman's next few statements confirmed it out right. After letting that sink in for a few seconds, she quickly resumed speaking, keeping a calm tone of voice, presumably to keep the six of us as calm as possible.

"You were all chosen because you either showed an extreme talent for combat, or a propensity for learning new skills incredibly quickly. We need you to learn how to use these weapons, how to use them in combat, how to use them for new and innovative purposes. You need to learn how to fight, so you can finish the war that we should never have started. We fucked up, you're here to help us fix our mistakes."

Before any of us had any time to react, she began picking up speed. She was no longer calm and began speaking in a panic. It took me a minute to realize it was because there were people in full body armor entering the room. She appeared to be familiar with them, seeing that she nodded her head and signaled to them, but she didn't seem to appreciate them being there.

"It seems I'm running out of time, so I'll explain what's gonna happen as quickly as possible. You will all be transferred to a remote government facility where you will be working and training with about 700 other students for the next five year. There you will be given a weapon that fights your current style of combat or a style of combat that testing determines to be best for you. We will go into detail about how the school's system will work and what will be required of you"

Just as she finished that statement, I heard three loud bangs coming from all corners of the room. I quickly jerked my head around, only to see the guards setting up an unfamiliar machine in the back of the room. It was a large rectangular, dark grey box with small, barely visible holes lining the box. On the sides of the box were two thick tubes leading towards two large vats of green liquid. When I saw the vats, my chest grew heavy, and I felt an overwhelming sense of dread. I quickly turned around to ask what the liquid was, but when I saw the woman putting a gas mask on, that seemed to confirm my suspicions.

Very few times in my life in my life had I felt so terrified, very few times had I been able to physically feel my blood boil in anger. Very few times had I gotten to a point where those two emotions collided into one miserable feeling of dread. My heart fill with anger, fear, anxiety, panic, and dread. Thoughts began to race through my head as I struggled to get a grasp on the situation. My eyes started to dart around the room. Thinking back, I really don't know what I was looking for, perhaps a way out of the room or a way to relieve the pain. I really couldn't tell you. What I can tell you is that in a last attempt, even though I knew it would only bring me more pain, and no answers, I screamed.

"What the fuck are you doing!"

The woman seemed taken aback for a second, however that didn't last for long as she pulled out a digital stopwatch, a relic I almost didn't recognize since that type of technology hasn't been used for years.

"We're gonna put you to sleep for a while. We can't risk anyone finding the location of the facility. It could put millions of lives in jeopardy. It's nothing fatal or anything like that, though I will admit that it is an unpleasant experience, so feel fear to get a few licks in when you wake up"

She then pressed the start button on the stopwatch and tossed it to me. Gas began to fill the sealed room.

"Think of it as your first test, see how long you can last without losing consciousness, most don't get past 30 seconds. And again, I'm sorry it has to go like this."

I opened my mouth to reply, but as soon as I did, dark green gas filled my lungs. I began to gasp and wheeze in pain. My throat felt like someone had poured liquid fire down it. After a few seconds, I began to feel my throat seal, and I felt myself lose my ability to breathe. I tried gasping for air, but I couldn't, I was totally helpless. I swayed and stumbled around the arena I was in, clasping at my throat.

'I hate this, I hate this, I hate this. I'm gonna die. I need a way out, Anything, QUICK!' I thought to myself as I began scrambling around trying to find or think of any solution possible. I knew there was no getting out of this, I was gonna be knocked unconscious, but I wanted it to end. I turned towards the woman on stage, hoping to ask her to end it. Hoping that she could just punch my lights out or just blindfold me on the way there, but I couldn't ask, because nothing would escape my mouth. I looked up in sheer desperation, in the vain hope that she would see that I was in pain and rush to help me. However, when I looked up, I saw on her face clear and undeniable horror. She clearly hated this, but if she was going to do anything about it, she would have done it by then.

'Fuck this', I thought, 'I'm not going through this again.'

I got down on my knees and started bashing my head against the floor. I could clearly hear the woman yelling at me to stop, but I didn't care. It took about 5 bashes for me to finally slip into unconsciousness. In my last moments of consciousness, I was clearly able to see the stopwatch that I had been holding in my hand. I read 1:13. I lasted 1 minute and 13 seconds in the gas. I lasted 1 minute and 13 seconds, nearly suffocating to death. I clearly remember thinking to myself, 'Hey, new record'. After that, I finally passed out.

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I woke up laying sprawled out on a bench in one of the disgusting locker rooms that are found in any one of the Ring's many locations. I was still terrified of what I had just experienced, the feeling of gases closing and burning my throat still lingered in the back of my mind. Laying down I couldn't see much, only the vomit green, rusted out, industrial ceiling. I knew immediately that I was in the Ring, the rusted-out weights and fist coverings lying about was a dead giveaway. What I couldn't figure out was how and why I was there in the first place. I felt exhausted, like my body had just gone through hell. I hadn't remembered anything that happened leading up to my waking up, but given the extreme soreness my body was in, I gathered that I had recently finished a fight. I had probably got beat to hell too, judging by the bruises all over my body. I thought to myself that I had probably got hit in the head, which would explain why I couldn't remember anything. I gave myself a few minutes to actually wake up, then I slowly got up from the bench, and began to pace around the room.

After pacing the room for a long while, I was finally able to convince myself that it was a dream. If it wasn't there was no way I would be here now in a location having nothing to do with those events, and it was clear that everything here was real. I mean I could feel everything, and I was extremely aware of my surroundings. I mean, everything then felt real too, but at the time that was the only way I could rationalize what I just experienced. Right as I was about to finish my 500th lap of the room, the door opened and my manager burst into the room, very clearly angry.

"Raphil, what are you doing in here, you were supposed to be in the Arena 5 minutes ago. Get your ass out there" He screamed. I could tell he was getting ready to go on a rant, but then he paused, looked at me up and down. He then sighed, with a bit of a smirk on his face. He was fucking with me. Not gonna lie, it creeped me the hell out. He stayed silent for a few seconds, most likely to collect his thoughts, and then he began to speak.

"Look, I know your nervous. You damn near killed each other last time." He then reached up towards me to grab my shoulder, pulling me somewhat out of my dazed state. "Look at me. You've known me for 6 years, fighting with me for 2 right. I hope that at this point, you can trust me when I say this. You beat him before, you can do it again, and if anything gets too out of hand, if he goes too far, the referees will stop him. Breathe, get a drink, and then hurry out into the Arena. I'll stall for a bit of time, but don't blame me if everyone thinks you ate some expired sushi. They should all know how that feels." He laughed and left the room, leaving me in the room still processing everything I just heard.

I stayed there for a few minutes, just sifting through the conversation I just had. The fact that the fighter that I was supposed to fight, nearly killed me before to the fact that somehow, I had beat the guy who nearly killed me. The most puzzling thing about it all, however, was that I was fighting him again. I still had no idea who it was, but if he had nearly killed me, he wouldn't have been allowed to fight again. Same thing would happen if I had beaten him beyond belief. Neither of us would be allowed to fight another day. So why was this all happening? By the time my mind had wrapped around everything, only one thought came to my mind.

'Guess I got-ta fight.'

I grabbed my gloves off the bench and slipped them on. I walked down the hall, towards the arena. I wouldn't have taken a single step outside of that locker room if I had known I was about to relive one of the single most terrifying moments of my life.