FIVE: Deadly seconds
I stared up at the fake sky with pain radiating from my left leg and clouding my thoughts about the reason we were there at that moment. There was no voice in the air and everyone else was breathing heavily.
Even without understanding why everything happened, we were all glad to have survived, which for me, in particular, was very ironic.
I sat up slowly and reached down to my right leg to see the injury I had gotten…as if that would do anything to make me feel better.
Tearing the green bodysuit covering my right leg I was faced with a ghastly site which made me bend to my side and empty the gastric contents that surged into my mouth in a matter of seconds.
My bones were exposed and bloodied and some part of it was crushed into tinier bits.
Why was that happening?
Was that the price I had to pay for resenting life itself? Were the forces in charge of life mocking me?
'You hated life and now you can't deal with the pain that comes with almost losing it?' was it the sick thought that they had?
Moaning in pain I stared at my bloodied leg not knowing what I could do at that moment.
"hey, " a voice said to me.
I hadn't noticed when someone walked over to where I lay pitifully with my bloodied legs exposed. When I looked up I saw a girl.
She hovered over me like some battered-up goddess returning from war, extended her arm, and then said
"Do you need any help standing?"
'do I need any help?' what sought of question was that? Of course, I did. I didn't even try to stand on my own because I assumed it would hurt even more than it did already.
But I didn't get to answer her question because a voice that filled the air took my mind away from her question.
It was the instructor's voice and with that metallic voice, it said "You can now exit the arena. Choose your next arena"
'Next arena?' I wondered as I looked upwards as if I could see the instructor floating somewhere in the fake sky.
Was that it? Would there not be any moment when some group of people would jump out and shout " And that was one hell of a prank" or something of that sort?
Then far into the distance, exactly where the green line was there was a tear in space; at not one or two or even three locations. Extending from the floor up into the sky the space devolved to give way to another place.
They were up to eight of those, appearing out of nowhere and at a sizeable distance from each other. They had the diameter of the door of an average house but their length extended upwards, reaching the fake sky.
I wondered if the field behind the doorway was still the same. The other parts behind the green line that were not directly behind the doorway were normal fields.
At that moment I almost forgot the pain I was experiencing and my mind was filled with awe and a low sense of impending doom. Each of the doorways was different because of the nature that they led into.
The first doorway led to a windy dimly lighted place. I couldn't see past to find out what it led to but the amount of wind that escaped from the doorway into the part of the field in front of it was unbelievable.
It looked like it could lift buildings and take them to a land far away.
The second doorway led into a much darker place. The only light that graced the place was from the lightning that struck every few seconds or minutes.
The place shook from the thunder that clapped announcing the next lightning that was about to strike. A piece of my mind still refused to believe that everything that was happening was true.
I was amazed at what technology it might have taken for the organizers to make something as nerve-wracking as what my eyes beheld.
The third doorway was filled with thick fog, so thick that it was so hard to see through it. What was hiding in it?
It somehow reminded me of mornings back at home when I would come out to meet the humid air that filled the atmosphere making the morning look aesthetic.
I always sat and watched with my thoughts as clear as a blank paper till it disappeared a few seconds later. But this one was different. It made the hair on my body stand in dark anticipation.
It was as if something was in there staring back at me as I stared into it trying to see through. It wasn't a pleasant sight to behold at all.
The place behind the fourth doorway wasn't as windy as the first one or as doom terrifying as the second or as creepy as the fourth one, it was like the opposite of all three previous ones.
It was bright, the brightest place I had ever seen. The fourth doorway gave way to a large space of sand… it was a desert and sunlight that illuminated it was at its hottest, so hot that I could feel that heat by just staring at it.
Even though where I had lived was in the tropics it had never been that hot.
The fifth doorway led to a cool dimly lighted rocky path that had trees on its sides but it was raining. I stared through the doorway as drops of water landed on the ground with loud clangs like it wasn't water but stones that rained.
The sixth doorway led to a snowy place. I couldn't make sense of it because the snow was thick and the darkness that filled it wasn't helping the eyes too.
The seventh doorway was almost as foggy as the third one but it was different. It felt as though it wasn't air but something thicker than air.
The eighth doorway was normal. Out of the eight doorways, the place it led to was the least frightening. It looked like the inside of a cave…
The kind I only saw on geography channels on television. It had streams of light coming from its far end. If I was going to choose that would definitely be the place I would go to…
"What the heck?" The girl said.
We were thinking exactly the same thing. The doorway and stone creatures that appeared from nowhere, the fact that there were stone creatures and every damn thing that happened were all unbelievable and outrageous.
"You have 30 seconds to vacate the arena. 30, 29, 28…"
The voice counted towards zero and as she counted the place began to fall apart.
Fire started to burn the sky and the place just beyond the green line that surrounded everyone started to disintegrate into nothingness.
My instincts kicked in and I didn't want to know what would happen if the instructor reached zero.
"Please help me up," I said to the girl who was looking around. The panic got to her too.
"Hey!" She said to someone behind as she dragged the person to her side without saying anything.
"Please help me to get her to stand"
When I looked up it was the guy.., the lonely guy in the corridor from earlier. He still looked as calm as he did the first time I saw him... As if he didn't experience any of the things I had experienced.
"Thank you so much," I said to them as they bent over and put their arms beneath mine, and helped me to stand.
"Can you walk?" These three words coming out of his mouth were so devoid of any emotion but still filled my insides with warmth and sent shivers down my spine.
I was filled with a feeling of odd admiration as his melodic voice filled the air. He sounded as gorgeous as he looked.
'So he talks' I thought to myself.
It was almost as if my mouth forgot how to function so I just shook my head instead.
The instructor was still counting down to zero and we barely had up to twenty seconds remaining to get out of there with the large distance.
Just then he went to stand in front of me as I leaned on the girl to avoid leaning on my wounded leg.
"Get on," he said as he squatted halfway down.
Wow!
On the verge of being completely annihilated by whatever tricks the organizers were about to pull, I felt totally flustered and barely held the smile that was about to appear on my face. What sheer stupidity?
Even with the horrid pain I bore, I still could feel something akin to admiration…
"Thanks," I said to them
The girl was helping me get on his back and just as soon as he held my legs to keep me from falling he stood up with a shocking speed bringing my mind back to the feeling of total panic.
He was headed to the cave when the doorway disappeared stopping the crowd of people in front of it from entering it.
"Oh shit," The girl said.
The other doorways remained and we had barely ten seconds to choose between them which was more bearable from just their looks.
Who knew that bare seconds passing could be so nerve-wracking? As the seconds drew closer to zero I was tempted to jump down and crawl through any doorway just to escape whatever was going to happen in that arena.
Running through the second doorway after the one that had disappeared we barely made it from the explosion that sounded just a few moments before the doorway was shut closed.
Seconds after landing on the snow I got off the guy's back to feel the soft fluffiness as it enveloped me threatening to drown me in it.
That was the first time I had ever felt snow but after a few seconds it started feeling like hell; a cold hell that would spoil all the fantasies I had built up in my mind about how wonderful witnessing snow would be.
Barely minutes after we got there my body shivered as the cold threatened to freeze me to death.
The guy and girl were breathing loudly as they lay on the floor. If they hadn't helped me would I have survived the arena?
I turned to the girl who lay just an arm's reach away from me and said to her " Hi, I'm Jess. What's your name?"
With labored breathing, the girl said " I'm Sky"
'Wow,' I thought. It was such a unique name that I had never heard someone being called except on television of course.
But she didn't look like she was from Nigeria at all. She had a pale white skin color and very long silky hair; two things that were not characteristic of a typical Nigerian.
These didn't matter at all, all that mattered was that she saved my life and I was so grateful for that… even though the life could possibly be taken away by hypothermia.
"Hi…" Before I could introduce myself to the guy he cut my words short and told me his name. "I'm Hassan"
Before I could think another thought I passed out.