10 How it Works

Dawn felt her heart beating in her chest and slowly moved toward the stairs and the next room that had the normal light in it. She nearly jumped ten feet when she heard the scream above her. She wasn't sure why she ran toward it. That was a really stupid idea. Clearly if someone was screaming you should avoid it, plus what she'd just seen.

However she found herself up the stairs and in a large rectangular shaped room with a ton of different plants in it. There were UV lights and also blue lights that were lighter. She crept around the room where there were some aisles but the plants were growing up the walls and across the floors and you could pretty much walk wherever. The entire floor was dirt for the most part but a few walkways.

She saw movement to her left and stopped crouching down. She had no idea where she was, and this was really starting to freak her out.

"Is someone there?" She heard a female whisper and so she moved forward to find Jackie crouched between two larger plants that looked like ferns.

"Dawn!" She said loudly and launched herself up and pulled her into a death grip. Jackie was sobbing. "Oh my god, where are we? There was this thing, it was so close to me just watching me with these silver like eyes. I've never seen an animal like that before."

"Where is it?" Dawn asked looking around, clearly what she'd got a glimpse of had been what Jackie had seen.

"I don't know, it scared the shit out of me and I screamed. Nearly fell into the water. When I stood back up it was gone." Dawn looked toward the large pool and tried to look in every corner but it was hard to see in some spots. However she didn't feel watched at the moment, but she saw movement and froze.

Jackie did to because she felt Dawn tense, they broke apart and backed up. Dawn calculated the distance to the stairs. Plus there were another two entryways up here to go into some other rooms. Along the one wall there was a gap of about four feet and you could see down to the floor below.

"Hello?" Came a male voice that neither of them knew. "I heard someone screaming." A man came into view. He was normal build and about their age with blondish hair which reflected the blue light rather well.

"Who are you?" Dawn asked suspiciously, she wasn't trusting anything.

"Mitch, who are you? And where the hell am I? You one of those crazy people that ran us off the road?" He demanded taking a more aggressive step forward.

"No, we were run off the road by two trucks!" Jackie said still crying a bit. "Where's Rick? Where's Craig?"

"I have no idea who those people are lady, but I'm missing two of my friends too." He said and then someone else appeared. This man was built. Had a lot of muscle and Dawn was pretty sure he was one of the fighters that she'd seen.

"You people stuck in here too?" He said in a hoarse voice. "Where are we, what's going on here? I was going out to my car when I was shot with something and then dragged into some vehicle." He said, and he'd been listening to them, just not showing himself.

"Okay, so we were all dragged in here." Mitch said making a motion with his finger of a circle toward the floor. "We are still missing a few of our friends, and this makes absolutely no sense. They just stick us in a house to watch us run around?" He demanded looking around.

"Oh my god, what if this is some nut job like those movies! With that guy that wanted to play games!" Jackie said.

"Saw?" The fighter asked looking around.

"I watched that shit, I am not cutting off limbs." Mitch said looking around.

"That was one guy though there were multiple ones that did this." As he spoke the fighter turned looking around the room. Like an exit sign was going to just appear out of nowhere.

"Calm down. Freaking out is not going to help." Dawn said, but she had a lot of the same thoughts going through her head. "Wouldn't they have said something?" Besides there were a lot of crazy people in the world and things like kidnapping did happen. Just not such a large scale as this seemed, something was off about this whole thing.

"Well then what are they waiting for?" Jackie said almost hysterically, "Plus that thing is in here. Oh my god what if they put us in here to watch that thing eat us!"

"What thing?" The fighter demanded to know looking at Jackie. Dawn realized that when Jackie was scared, oh my god was a favorite phrase.

"This thing, it looked like… like a lizard but a wolf maybe? I don't know, it had this long tail and it was big."

"Well what was it, a lizard or a wolf? There's a huge difference." Mitch said and Jackie was shaking her head.

"If there was something dangerous in here don't you think that we would have seen it? Or that it would have attacked us?" The fighter told her.

"I saw something too when I woke up. It was dark in color and all I really got was a glimpse of a tail." Dawn was looking around the room, she moved forward toward the next room that had a red light and the others were talking. Asking questions to which they didn't have an answer to, because this made no sense.

She looked in the room with the red light, and it looked like three jail cells. Glancing through toward the next room was a more yellow light and she could see what looked like a bedroom with perhaps two ladders in it going up. In the cell room there were stairs going down and a kind of green light but she could tell it was probably a bathroom.

"I'm looking for a way out of here."

"Yeah like that is going to happen. You think they just stuck us in here and said ha ha, just kidding. We were just fucking with you, go ahead and walk out?" Mitch told the fighter.

"What are we just going to sit here with our finger in our ass until someone decides to tell us what to do? Or comes in shooting?" The fighter retorted and Dawn turned around to walk back to where the others were talking, or rather starting to raise their voices.

"Do you think that they already put our friends in here? Do you think something has already happened to them?" Jackie asked rubbing her arms. Dawn opened her mouth to speak but when she turned to them someone was standing in front of her. She was startled and stumbled back nearly going down the flight of stairs, but they reached out steadying her and then letting go of her. She'd made a startled sound and the rest turned to look.

"Hey who are you." Mitch demanded moving forward. Dawn looked up at him and met the grey eyes and instantly knew who this man was.

"They got you too?" She asked, who were these people? They were able to clearly catch fighters off guard. Had he been taken right after she had left him? Was that how they chose them, because she'd been standing there with him?

"I know who you are." The fighter said, still not having shared his name. "You're that man that beat Rhino. You know what's going on here?" He turned his head and looked at him as he spoke.

"Maybe." Dawn was shocked when she heard the soft voice. It was masculine and deep but quiet, kind of like he had to try to talk. But he shouldn't be able to talk right? Obviously he'd lied to her, she felt kind of dumb.

"Maybe? What does that mean?" Mitch asked moving closer. "Me and my friends were heading home from a trip, maybe isn't what I want to hear." Lucian gave a shrug at the man's tone and threatening step toward him. It didn't bother him, what did he care. The man wasn't a match in the slightest.

"You were backed by Debutant." The fighter said seeming to think and in Dawn's opinion it looked like it was hurting him a bit. She reached forward touching Lucian's arm. He turned his head back looking at her. She had a shudder run through her at his look. She couldn't tell if it was an excited or scared shudder, but there was something off that she could tell.

"Do you know why we are here? Did someone talk to you?"

"Holy shit!" The fighter said before he could answer. "This is trust fund betting isn't it. ITB they call it. Fuck this shit. I thought that was all talk. There's no way that they get away with taking people off the streets. I heard it was volunteer fighters and scenarios."

"Looks like you were told wrong." Lucian spoke again, and Dawn noted his gaze at the three others like he was simply deciding whom he wanted to deal with first. She wasn't sure how to feel about that. After all what did she know about him? Nothing.

"If that's what's going on, then let's get it over with. These three nobodies don't stand a chance, and I'm not sitting around here just waiting."

"Wait what? What the hell is ITB?" Mitch wanted to know, looking at the others. It was clear that his group had not been taken from the fighting ring.

"It's supposed to be high stakes betting. People pitted against each other or environments. The winner's supposed to leave extremely rich." For the first time Dawn saw a slight smile from Lucian. It was humorless and made him look almost sinister for a second.

"There isn't a winner is there?" Dawn asked reading his expression. Clearly he knew exactly what was going on. "What do they want?"

"Money, and entertainment at your expense." Lucian said looking at her. He spoke matter of fact, and it didn't seem to bother him. With is response and demeanor it was clear that Lucian knew something they didn't.

"What are you, our referee?" The fighter said with a laugh. "Got any rules for us, because I'd like to get this over with and go home. Like to collect my winnings and call it a day."

"No rules." Lucian responded, still standing there.

"Why didn't you say you could talk before? Did you help pick us or something?" Dawn took a step back unsure and untrusting. His gaze moved over her for a second seeming to think.

"I don't pick who comes in. Just a reward for what I do." She noted that the collar wasn't around his neck anymore. She wondered at what he meant by that. What would he be rewarded for? Clearly he had an idea of what was going on. He knew these people. So why was he in here, and where had that animal gone that they weren't thinking about anymore? Dawn glanced behind her a bit just to be sure.

"Yeah and what's that?" Mitch asked. Jackie was standing with her arms crossed looking at the others confused and obviously scared. Lucian shrugged and continued to stand there. Looked like he wasn't going to be all that forthcoming with information.

"So is this a fight or what we are trying to win?" The fighter asked cracking his knuckles and Dawn thought him stupid to be so eager. After a second Lucian just nodded, watching the man with a darker look.

"Of course when you die, they'll just replace you with another. Or add them over time." He never raised his voice from where it was. The only reason they could hear him well, was because it was quiet in here. It was odd, you'd have thought him to have a stronger louder voice.

"Die?" Jackie said. "Oh my god, they put us in here to die?!" She started to freak out a bit.

"Shut up bitch, you're whining is starting to get on my nerves." The fighter said.

"Fuck you, I didn't ask for this."

"No one asked for this." Dawn retorted angrily.

"Yeah but this asshole seems to want it." Jackie said pointing at the fighter and he turned to her. He took an aggressive step toward her.

"Maybe I should get rid of you first princess. That'll make it real easy. Don't have to listen to you, easily taken care of." He moved toward her when she flipped him off and was clearly going to strike her. Mitch grabbed his arm to stop him.

"What the hell are you doing?!" He said. "You can't just play into their hands, and beating the shit out of her isn't an answer."

"He's right. Who says they'll let you go? This is kidnapping for starters." Dawn said stepping around Lucian to be next to him. He just watched her, he was just waiting for one to start it and he was pretty sure that in the next five minutes he would be able to enter the game. Though he was supposed to let them go at it alone unless they were refusing to fight. Then it was them against him for entertainment purposes.

"I don't care, you think I want to sit in here and wait? I don't know you people. I don't owe you shit, and as far as I'm concerned he's the only real contender in here. Though how he managed what he did. I don't know. Personally I think it was rigged."

"You're a lot of talk you know that? That's how you operate, talk until you get the others riled up. When riled up a person thinks less, you can't really fight all that well." Dawn said. It was obvious that he was going to do something. He had it in his head that the only way out was to eliminate the rest, but what he did to the rest was his weakness too.

"Wanna put that to the test honey?" He commented, taking a step toward her this time.

"Maybe I do, maybe the rest of us think we can take you easily." He moved forward then toward her when the rest looked at him. Clearly they'd take her side.

"Aren't you just a little motivational speaker? I hate people like you."

"Why because it's so easy to undermine those like you?" Dawn kept her gaze solid as he advanced on her. Mitch moved as if to intercept him. However the fighter just shoved him out of the way hard. Mitch fell back into some of the plants.

"I guess I'll start with you then. Always hated the wild card anyways." Dawn wasn't exactly sure what she was going to do. He was a big guy and she wasn't exactly trained but clearly he was going to start something. Or rather he was going to try and beat the shit out of her. She'd seen the way that these men fought.

"How archaic of you." She said and noted a gardening tool of some kind just to her right. She was going to wait to the last second and grab it if he really meant to hurt her. He came at her and was clearly going to strike her, Dawn reached for the tool as he started to swing.

She braced herself waiting for the hit because she'd waited a bit too long. But the fighter stumbled to the left having his arm grabbed by Lucian. He stopped him mid swing and didn't even flinch like it had jarred him at all. Dawn felt grateful in that moment that he stepped in. Though she was still unsure of Lucian and just where he stood.