Station 2-14: Chapter Eight
Round One: Ley vs. Ellis
Previous Chapter - Station 2-14
Chapter Eight: Round One
The three rules of the Games:
Contestants cannot push opponents with their minds.
Contestants will not burn or blind opponents.
Contestants will win through knockout or if their opponent crosses the boundary line.
Every year the Games are shown across the Station. In every pub, every home; every screen that could host the signal was automatically tuned into the Games. Normally, Ley would have found herself a place to peer into someone’s house to catch a glimpse or taken up a spot in the crowd outside the stadium to watch a match. For as long as she could remember she had watched the Games. Studying every round, desperate to understand how to win.
Determined to win herself.
Now she waits for an attendant to lead her to her own match with her makeshift team and the creator of the Games itself.
It could have sent her spiralling into anxiety but there was nothing to be nervous about - she was going to win.
She had to.
‘How are you feeling?’ Asks Voss.
‘Good.’
‘Great - off you go,’ says Voss with a gentle shove, pushing her towards the waiting attendant. Pangere slaps his hand away and turns to Ley with a sigh.
‘I think what Voss means to say is that so much of this is instinct,’ says Avery as she kneels down in front of Ley. She can’t work out why but for a moment Ley finds herself catching her breath as the nerves came racing in. Maybe she didn’t have instincts. Maybe she was doomed to lose from the start. Avery puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. ‘You have everything inside you. So just take a deep breath in,’ Avery mimes taking a deep breath and forces Ley to do the same. ’And out…’ Ley breaths out. ‘There you go. Now, go out there and win this thing.’ The attendant steps forward and leads Ley away, deeper into the stadium. When she’s out of earshot, Avery turns to Tessa and Voss:
‘Do you think she's ready?’ She asks.
‘Doesn't seem like she has much of a choice,’ says Voss.
‘You know that's not what I meant - do you think she's ready to win?’
‘She could flatten this city if she set her mind to it,’ says Tessa. They all know it’s true but there was something unsettling about her words. Like they were setting her on a path where she couldn’t return.
Ley looked back only once to see if her team were still behind her but the depths of the stadium was a labyrinth of turns and she loses them along the way. When they finally arrive at a large set of double doors, the attendant leaves her waiting without a word. The soft light from her cuffs are the only thing mildly illuminating the space around her but she can tell that the stadium floor is just on the other side. She can hear the thrum of the audience through the doors.
She doesn’t have to wait for long before the doors creak open on their own and Ley looks out onto the floor of the stadium. She sees Ellis on the other side standing at a similar entrance. The space between them is flooded with so much light that the seats around the floor look empty. She could have believed that it was just the two of them if it wasn’t for the roar of noise. It made what she heard in the basement at Tessa’s fight sound like a whisper.
Ellis waves as he enters and Ley realises that she has to do the same.
This is it.
What she had been working towards. She had to win to save her mum. She had to win to save their future. A rush of nerves floods over her but she shakes it off like a dog and steps out onto the stadium floor:
‘Let’s do this.’
Ellis is working the crowd as he walks but Ley pays them no attention as she approaches her starting mark. A drone whirs in front of her, streaming her face onto the giant screens across the crowd and throughout the station. Another opportunity for her nerves to show themselves but she makes a point of looking fierce.
This is it.
She is going to win.
Across the floor, Ellis steps onto his starting mark and half the boundary line glows green. Ley finds her mark and rest of the boundary lights up, completing the ring.
This is it.
Her hands twitch at her sides, waiting for the starting siren, while Ellis stands tall smiling at the crowd. A loud boom bursts across the stadium as the countdown starts.
Three.
Two.
One.
The siren sounds.
The match begins.
Ley draws a breath, ready to win. She steps off her mark and runs. She doesn’t have a plan but she now knows that when she gets close enough her instincts will kick in. It’ll be seconds before she closes the distance and then she can set her mind to work. She wants to scream. To roar into at Ellis and wipe the smirk off his face.
She’s barely made it two feet before Ellis steps off his mark and dramatically claps his hands together, making an arrow pointing at Ley's heart. A punch of air comes straight for Ley and sends her flying back across the floor and out of the ring.
The boundary line turns red.
The siren wails.
The match is over.
