Maggie and Sammy were staring blankly at me, their gaze going up and down, scanning me. After a moment, Maggie buried her head in Sammy’s arm. He tried to comfort her as he met my eyes. I saw something in his eyes, something I wish I never had to see. It was a look of horror, pain, and most prominent of all, betrayal. “I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “Goodbye.” I turned my back on them. I don’t know why. My mind said not to, it was telling me to stop. But I couldn’t. Looking back at the table, every single Elite was standing in front of the table, watching me. And Letie was holding another remote, pointing it at me. “What di-” I stopped talking, my words frozen in my mind. I wanted to finish my sentence. I needed to finish my sentence. But no matter how hard I tried to form the rest of the words, they just wouldn’t work. It was the remote. Letie was controlling me. My actions, my words. I stopped fighting, and Letie lowered the remote. “The sooner you start cooperating, the easier this will be, Elias,” Letie said quietly. I nodded as the wooden wall slid back into place.
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I sat back down at the table. I wanted nothing to do with this. I wanted this to all be over. “Now that you’ve said your goodbyes, the main part of our meeting may take place. The meal,” Eelti said. I gave a half-hearted smile and people dressed in suits carried plates out onto the table. People put down place settings, and soon, everyone started eating. I didn’t though. I had too much to think about.
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Once the meal was over, Eliet and Telie brought me back to the hallway. They led me to another room. It wasn’t like the room where I had met the Elite. It was more like the lab. Cold, metal, and silent. I looked around the room. There were cameras mounted in the corners, monitoring me. On one wall, there were panels of screens. They all flashed the same screen: a Tribaum, rotating over and over and over. A metal file cabinet was pushed into a corner, and a thin mattress sat on a metal frame. “What is this?” I asked, turning around in a small circle. “This is going to be your bedroom for the remainder of your stay on floor 50,” Telie said. She made it sound like a hotel. “And why do I need to stay on floor 50?” Every time I’d asked that I'd get the same answer. This time was no different. “We have a purpose for you.” I nodded as Telie and Eliet left. I stood in my room, alone. There was a basket on the bed. Looking inside, I saw a remote. 145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhz7se8OAHp
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I turned the remote over in my hands, inspecting it. It looked like a normal T.V. remote. The back had a panel that slid open. I removed the panel and found two batteries inside. Nothing out of the ordinary. I pointed the remote at the main screen and clicked a button. The screen changed to a list of various activities. I scrolled through the options. Bowling, library visits, movie screenings, and many more. I accidentally clicked on an option. I didn’t register which one I clicked before the door to my room slid open. Letie stood next to a black canvas bag. “What is that?” I asked, pointing at the bag. “Your computer sent a message that you wanted to try a martial art called Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Come on.” I’d chosen to do martial arts? Well, at least my death would be quick. For lack of a better option, I followed Letie out of my room. She picked up the bag, and I started to wonder, How big is this place to fit a martial arts studio?
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It was massive. We walked into a room, if you could even call it that. It was more like an aeroplane hanger. The majority of the ground was covered in blue, plastic-coated mats. Letie put down the bag. Looking inside, there were lumps of fabric that looked like a scratchy bathrobe. I looked back at the mats. A few people were on them, rolling around with a partner. I started to walk forward to get a closer look. “Stop,” Letie said. I turned around, one foot suspended in midair. “What?” I asked. I hadn’t done anything wrong, right? “No shoes on the mat.” I groaned, rolling my eyes, but pulled off my shoes nonetheless. “Happy now?” Letie smiled, then pulled the bathrobes out of the bag. “Put this on.” She handed a blue one to me. Once I was wearing the bathrobe, which Letie told me was called a gi, I was handed a cloth belt. It was completely white, except for a small portion at one end that was black. Letie walked me through the complicated motion of tying the belt before tying a purple one around her waist in a matter of seconds.
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Finally, once we were both wearing the proper outfits, we walked onto the mat. One of the people stopped what he was doing and approached us. “Hello, Letie,” the person said. Letie plastered her palms to her sides, then bowed to him. He bowed back, the ends of his black cloth belt flopping around. I awkwardly copied the motion. The man turned to me. “You must be Elias. My name is Peter.” He shook my hand. Once he let go, I started thinking about all the ways I could have just messed up, and how easily this man could kill me. “I believe you are here to learn some Jiu-Jitsu.” Peter and Letie started walking towards the middle of the mats, where a few other people were sitting. “Elias? Are you coming?” I nodded quickly and caught up to Peter and Letie. I sat down, looking around at the people near me. Everyone was wearing bathrobes… I mean gis. Everyone also had a cloth belt tied around their gi top. The majority of the people had white belts like me, a few had blue ones, two people, including Letie, had purple ones, and one person had a brown one. Peter was the only one with a black belt. I’d read a few books about martial arts, and from what I could remember, black was the highest level.
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“Welcome, everyone. You’ll see we have a new student, Elias,” Peter introduced me to the group. A few people waved, and some just stared at me. “First off, how’s everyone doing?” Peter asked the class. A moment of silence, then a few people said, “Triangle!” I furrowed my brow. What did that mean? That wasn’t a good answer to ‘how are you doing’. Apparently, Peter knew what it meant, because he smiled. “Great. Let’s warm up.” Everyone jumped to their feet. Some people did this weird thing with their hands and feet, swinging one leg far out behind them before standing up. “Let’s run,” Peter said, starting the warm-up. Why did we need to warm up? It was just martial arts. How hard could it be?145Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ57obmXrDdA
