The Arena: The Awakening (1)

Chapter 1

In the beginning

“
Another day!”
thought Mia to herself. Lying there staring at the ceiling, she could hear the daily movement of her husband Kyle, creeping along the corridor, getting everything ready for the daily routine of looking after her. His every movement was given away by the creaking of the floorboards in their colonial style bungalow. The occasional “Goddamit!” could be heard being muttered under his breath as he dropped the milk from the fridge while preparing the breakfast. Hearing that would normally bring a smirk to someone’s face but Mia could only chuckle to herself on the inside.

“
Here we go,”
she thought. This daily routine had been the same day in and day out for the last two years. She could hear Kyle coming along the corridor. The door to the bedroom opened just in time for the 8am bedside alarm to sound but, little did he know, she was already awake and waiting.

Kyle generally didn’t say anything to Mia as he didn’t see the point any more. Over the years he had become accustomed to getting no response and, despite his thoughts and feelings towards her, he couldn’t handle continually having a one-way conversation all day, every day. She didn’t blame him for it. She knew he loved her, but just wished he would say it a bit more often.

Gently, Kyle reached into the bed and picked Mia up with a strong and firm hold. He cradled her like a newly-wed carrying his bride across the threshold. If only it was for such a romantic gesture.

He moved her from the bed and placed her in the 'chair', where he made sure she was comfortable and stable before taking her through the connecting door from their bedroom into the spacious bathroom. He brushed her teeth, combed her hair and gave her what would pass as a blanket bath.

All this time, Mia stared at him and screamed in her head
“WHY DON’T YOU KNOW THIS ISN’T NECESSARY! I CAN DO THIS MYSELF! ALL I NEED IS SOME LP76 FROM THE CLINIC!”

But he didn’t know. He had no idea!

When the screaming in her head stopped, Mia had another thought buzzing around.
“What am I talking about? LP76? What the hell is LP76?”
Something about today was different! Something had changed. She had no idea what it was, but it was just
wrong.
Although there wasn’t much she could do about it, these thoughts didn’t hang around for too long, as in conjunction with her daily routine, it was now exercise time. Kyle would take her and lay her on the bed once again. He would move her legs back and forth several times, as well as exercise her arms, head and torso. He was a borderline expert at this but that’s what two years of routine will do for you.

Breakfast was a tedious time in the house. Although Kyle tried to vary her food, it was always some type of puréed cereal, toast or fruit. It was healthy and nutritious but, after two years, she was dying for a decent meal. Something substantial, something different, but if the truth was really known, she craved for something really unhealthy, like pancakes, bacon, eggs. All the things missing from breakfast over the years that she used to enjoy treating herself to.

As he fed Mia, a spoonful of the pureed breakfast at a time, Kyle looked her straight in the eyes and did something that she had been longing for.
He spoke to her!
As the words came from his mouth, Mia was in awe.
He was actually talking to her,
which brought back memories of past conversations before the incident that changed their lives. The moment passed quickly, as what he said was the last thing she was expecting.

“I got an email from Dr Cooper from the Appledore Rehabilitation Clinic in D.C. yesterday” he said. “He wants me to bring you in for some testing to make sure that the work they did to you is holding and that there aren’t any issues forming that they don’t know about”.

Mia didn’t recognise that name but Kyle had said it in such a comforting way, it didn’t cause her any alarm. She had a vague recollection of a centre with hospital-type beds from a long time ago, but this was a distant memory that wasn’t too clear in her mind.

“The only problem honey, is that he wants you to stay at the clinic for four days. This is so he can bring you into a sterile environment to make sure that their findings are accurate, so I won’t be able to stay with you. I hope that’s OK?” He carried on staring at her as if he was expecting a reply. Mia was saying
”Yes”
in her head but he would never know. All she knew was that she was going to the clinic whether she wanted to or not. It did make her think though. It would be a change of scenery and, as Kyle had looked after her all this time, he would get a break from the monotony of their daily life.

“We’ll be going in for lunchtime today so I was up early getting the car ready. We need to drive into the city so we’ll be leaving shortly, OK?” said Kyle. Again, Mia was thinking to herself, “
Is he expecting me to reply or is he just being nice?
”

Before she knew it, the morning had passed and she was moving down the driveway towards their car. As she got closer, she thought to herself about the car they both had when they first got married. A bright red 1970 Dodge Challenger. Her mind skipped to a warm summer afternoon heading from Annapolis to Alexandria through the tree lined streets. Not a care in the world and starting the first part of their married life together. It was odd though. The memory was so strong in Mia’s mind but in the dream, every time she looked at her husband, she couldn’t see his face. It was always a blank face. This dream and those feelings were soon shattered by the heavy duty '
clunk-click'
as Kyle placed her into position in their humdrum custom minivan. There was a big difference between it and the muscle car and an instant reality check. They pulled softly out of their driveway and headed off on the two hour trip to Washington D.C.

It wasn’t such a bad drive to the city. Although Kyle still didn’t speak, the radio was on and the morning DJ was talking about the news, traffic and the latest bands to hit the scene in the D.C. area. He could have been talking about soil erosion or the mating habits of the beluga whale, it didn’t matter! The voice was all that Mia was interested in. He wasn’t talking to her, but it didn’t matter. It made her feel normal and still in contact with the world.

The Clinic was at the far side of Lafayette Square, at the junction of Vermont Avenue in the heart of the city. It was within a stone’s throw of the White House so there was security everywhere. As they drove along Pennsylvania Avenue towards their turn-off, beefed-up, armed-to-the-teeth Secret Service agents patrolled in vehicles and on foot around the area, but it didn’t seem to faze Kyle. He just carried on towards the clinic. Thankfully, he had a disabled parking permit for their vehicle which he kept in the sun visor. In the city, there was limited parking available but outside the clinic, there were some disabled parking bays which they could use. As they pulled up into a space, the agent on the opposite corner turned and stared directly at their minivan. Without skipping a beat, Kyle dropped down the sun-visor and placed the disabled badge on display on the dashboard of the van, as if it was second nature to him. With that, the agent then turned away as if everything was all right with the world.

Before she knew it, there were bright lights flickering past her eyes as Kyle took Mia into the Clinic. The corridors were long and cold with head-height brownish tiles and dirty cream paintwork above that.

“
Although it’s nice to change the scenery, could they not come up with something better than this?
” thought Mia to herself. “
I really wish Kyle had brought a blanket; I’m really cold.
”

Again, this was a futile thought as Kyle didn’t know, he was oblivious. The corridors went on and on, each as dull and uninteresting as the next. Out of the corner of her eye, Mia could see the occasional nurse scurrying along the adjoining corridors. Where they were going didn’t matter, it was the outside world, with people!

At the end of what seemed to be the hundredth corridor, they entered an elevator. Kyle made sure Mia was in and approached the floor number keypad. Out of nowhere, he put his hand into his right jacket pocket and produced a key.

“
What’s that for
” Mia said to herself.

Kyle inserted it into a slot above the floor numbers and turned it to the right. He then pressed the floor number 9, 0, 3 and 8 and turned the key back to the central position before removing it and placing it back into his pocket.

”
What the hell was that?!
” thought Mia.

Although her voice was only in her head, she started to feel a little anxious. If it was said out loud, it wouldn’t have been in your average 'indoor voice'. The elevator doors closed and it started to descend. After it passed minus three on the digital floor counter, Mia was really starting to feel unsafe. Kyle never looked at her or said a word, like he had done this before and it was nothing. All of a sudden, the elevator stopped dead in its tracks and started to move sideways to the left.

“
WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?
” Mia was now at the shouting stage. Frustrated that Kyle couldn’t hear her even though he was less than two feet away. “
WHO THE HELL HAS A SIDEWAYS MOVING ELEVATOR?!
”

Her eyes were moving all over the place at this stage, as if she had been given an electric shock, hoping for an answer to the voices in her head. Just when it seemed like it would never stop, the elevator slowed and ground to a halt.

The doors opened to a spectacular blast of bright light into the dull interior of the elevator. Mia closed her eyes and then opened them slowly to allow them to adjust. When her focus came back, what she saw was unbelievable. A clinically clean corridor that looked like you could eat off of the floor, stainless steel instruments, lights, desks like something from science fiction. There was something going on here. There were nurses and doctors everywhere. Kyle took Mia to a desk at the end of the far room where there was a nurse sitting with her head buried in a computer screen or, at least, that’s what it looked like. Mia’s mind was going twenty to the dozen by this stage as she didn’t understand what the hell was going on. When they reached the desk, Kyle didn’t say a word. The nurse looked up, flipped her computer monitor around and, with a very stern voice, demanded “Access code?”. Mia watched closely as Kyle, using his right hand, coded in the numbers 42-39-56 onto the touch-screen monitor. The outline of the screen flashed red twice, then a bright fluorescent green, followed by a '
ping
' sound like an eighties computer. She caught a quick flash on the screen of her name. With that sound, the nurse’s attitude changed completely. Mia was quite taken aback as the nurse stood up and shook hands with Kyle. “Welcome back to the Arena,” she said before nodding and indicating towards the door to the rear of where she was standing.

“
WELCOME BACK
WELCOME BACK? WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?
” shouted Mia.

Before she knew it, she was being pushed towards the door. As they circled the desk to get to it, Kyle turned Mia around as if to take her through the door backwards. She noticed that the nurse was staring at her with a half-smile on her face. The nurse sat back down and as she did, Mia noticed that at the edge of the table, strapped to the underside of it, was a gun in a leather holster.

“
Jesus
” thought Mia. “
Why does a nurse need a gun?
”

By now, she felt catatonic! Her heart was racing, no one was listening, she could feel herself perspiring but it didn’t matter, no one was noticing! She started to feel faint as if the room was spinning and the lights were turning out one by one. The last thing she heard before passing out was from Kyle.

He bent over, kissed her on the forehead and said “I love you honey, and I’ll see you in four days”. With the bang of the door as Kyle left the room, Mia was unconscious.

Chapter 2

The Arena

“Ladies and Gentlemen” boomed a commanding voice. “Welcome to the Arena and thank you for coming”. The feedback from the microphone being used caused Mia to rouse from her unconsciousness. The overhead spotlights felt like they were almost trying to burn a hole in her eyes.

After blinking for a few moments, Mia regained her focus.

“
What? Where? Who?
” were the first questions she asked herself. “
Who is this guy?
”

Standing in front of her was a tall man dressed in a suit, with dark hair. He had his back towards her. In front of him was a lectern. As Mia squinted her eyes, she could see past him to a semi-circle of people sitting at desks looking on intently.

“
Oh God, Oh God! What’s going on? What is this?
” thought Mia.

Her thoughts were broken by the tall man who started talking again.

“It’s been two years since we embarked on this project together and, after successful testing in the field, it’s now time we showed you where the funding money you contributed to Project M.I.A. has gone. Before we proceed with the demonstration, I think it’s important that you know the background of our subject. Mia was a field agent of this agency working out of our office in Philadelphia when she was assigned to investigate a series of threats towards high-profile public figures.”