"Be careful!" Switzerland called to Liechtenstein as she left to buy some more milk. He always told her that whenever she left the house alone, and by now it was just a habit.
Liechtenstein smiled back at him. "I will!" She closed the door behind her, making sure not to slam it, and strolled down the sidewalk.
It was a nice spring day out. Well, 'day' wouldn't be the best word to use since the sun would be setting any minute now. There were a few people out, but not too many. There were flowers just starting to bloom, and the trees didn't have a lot of leaves on them yet. Liechtenstein figured it wouldn't hurt to take a little detour through the park. It got dark quickly after the sun set. The street lamps illuminated the path through the park, but they weren't too bright, so she could still see the stars. The night air was kind of cool, but it was refreshing.
As Liechtenstein walked, she thought she heard something. Like some rustling in the bushes. She slowed to a stop and turned around cautiously. "Hello? Who's there?" she asked. Nobody replied, and she thought she had just imagined it. She smiled and greeted the people who walked past her, and the amount of people she passed quickly dwindled to nearly nothing.
She was on her way home with the milk, and she decided to cut through the park again. Now it seemed like there was nobody there at all except for Liechtenstein. She didn't mind it, though. She thought it was peaceful.
Suddenly, two men walked over to Liechtenstein. It was like they appeared out of nowhere. Liechtenstein had a bad feeling about them. They were both dressed in black hooded sweatshirts and sweat pants and had similar builds. They both had sunglasses and leather gloves on too. They didn't look friendly. Liechtenstein walked away, thinking maybe they didn't really want anything to do with her. They followed her at a faster pace. None of the men had said a word. Not to Liechtenstein, and not to each other. Liechtenstein was certain they know she'd seen them, so she didn't think that was why they were staying so quiet. She started running when one reached out to grab her. Surely enough they ran too. She almost tripped and dropped the milk, splattering it all over the pathway. She didn't care about that at the moment. God, she wished Switzerland were there. She was about to scream for help when a third person appeared put a hand over her mouth and grabbed her.
She kicked and struggled as the man told her to stop in a hushed but frustrated voice. She might have gotten away, if the other two men didn't come over and help restrain her. She remembered her brother telling her if someone puts their hand over her mouth to kidnap her to lick it or bite it, and they'll probably pull away. Since the man was wearing gloves licking him wouldn't help, but she managed to bite his hand hard. As Switzerland said, he pulled his hand away. "LET GO! SOMEONE HELP ME!"
"Damn brat!" said the man whose hand she bit. He reached into his pocket and pulled out what Liechtenstein found out to be a taser. She couldn't really see what it was until he used it on her. The other two men let go and she fell to the ground. Before she could do anything else she felt something like a needle in her arm. Her vision blurred rapidly and her head pounded. She heard the men whispering with each other although she couldn't make out what they were saying. She gathered her quickly diminishing strength to call out one more time. "Switzy... help..." Then everything went black.
Liechtenstein came to when one of the men from before shook her and told her to get up. Her vision cleared, and she saw she was sitting in the back of a normal car, buckled in. She probably looked like their kid who had fallen asleep on the way home. "Well move it!" the man hissed, pulling her out of the car. Her legs were weak, much like the rest of her, and she was dizzy. The other men had joined them and they all pushed her along through the small garage they had parked in and down a few hallways. She stumbled into an unwelcome room, with a woman in the room waiting for them.
"Hello, hun!" the woman said with a smile Liechtenstein knew was fake. Liechtenstein kept her mouth shut tight and kept her eyes on the floor. "You feelin' okay?" Liechtenstein shook her head. "Aww, hun, I'm sorry. Say, can I get your name?" Liechtenstein still didn't say anything. "Oh, please?"
Liechtenstein hesitated, then looked up at the lady. "Lili..."
"Could you spell it?" the woman asked, turning around and fiddling with something on the counter.
"L-I-L-I"
The woman nodded. "Good, good. Thank you." She spun around again and held up a metal rod with a big L at the end. "Tell me, Lili, do you know what this is?" Liechtenstein's eyes widened and she turned to run, only to find the three men were blocking the only exit. "That's right," the woman praised, her smile turning to a devious grin as she put the rod in a fire. "A branding iron." She glanced at the men. "Hold her."
The men pounced on Liechtenstein and held her left arm out. Liechtenstein screamed and begged for them to stop as she felt the hot metal pressed on her skin as they stamped her name on her arm. The woman grabbed a smaller branding iron with a two on the end and told the men to turn her around and move her hair out of the way. She branded a six digit number on the back of Liechtenstein's neck. Liechtenstein didn't know what her number was or what it meant, and heck, she didn't even know what she was doing here. But she did know her number started with a two.
"Smile!" the woman told her as she snapped a picture of Liechtenstein. Of course Liechtenstein didn't smile. There were actually tears running down her face. Those branding irons really hurt and she was scared. How could she smile? Lastly, the woman clamped some kind of metal band around Liechtenstein's wrist. The woman shooed her away and turned around again. "Alright, take her away."
They grabbed the sore girl and brought her down another hallway, handling her roughly. This time they brought her into a large room with a lot of people. A lot of them had torn shirts, skirts or shorts, or whatever it was that they were wearing. Some of them had scars on their faces or arms. They all looked rather thin and they all had their names branded on their arms and those bands on their wrists. Liechtenstein figured it was safe to assume they all had numbers on their necks too.
The men dragged Liechtenstein to another door. "See this? Room 63? This is where you'll be staying," one told her.
Another one tried to open the door, but it was locked. "Open up, we have a roommate for you," he said as he pounded on the door. There was a click and the man was able to open the door. The room was dimly lit and had a cot on each side of the room to act as a bed. Liechtenstein couldn't really see anyone, but she didn't get much of a chance to look before they threw her in and slammed the door. Liechtenstein wouldn't mind just laying there for a while, but she sat up and gingerly put her hand on her still sore neck. The second she did, there was a pocket knife in her face.
A boy was standing above her, the blade of his knife inches from her nose. "Alright ... just... don't try anything and I guess we could get alo-" he started, but he couldn't finish the sentence when he got a look at Liechtenstein's face. "Liechtenstein...? Is that you?"
"Sealand?" Liechtenstein asked. He was thin, and his hair was messy and matted. Liechtenstein wasn't sure if it was the light or if he was a little pale too. The bottom of his shorts were a little torn, and so was the right shoulder of his shirt.
Sealand dropped his knife. "God I'm sorry. They got you too?" He noticed that her eyes were wet and wiped them for her. She'd get a bad name if people saw her crying, even though most of those people out there, Sealand included, probably cried when they were branded.
Liechtenstein nodded. "Yeah." Sealand went to help her up and she saw his arm said 'PETER' on it. "Wait, who's 'they'?"
"The crooks who own this place," he replied. Sealand sighed. "This place sucks."
"Yeah." Liechtenstein sat on one of the cots. "What is this place, anyway?"
Sealand shrugged. "It's kind of like some kind of fight club. They kidnap people and force them to fight until someone dies and let people place bets." He went to lock the door again. "A lot of people here aren't very friendly and you never really know who you can trust." He returned his focus to Liechtenstein. "You know how to handle a weapon?"
"I can use a gun," she replied. You don't grow up in Switzerland's house without knowing how to use a gun.
"Yeah, that's all I knew how to use before I got here." It was the same growing up with Finland; you have to know how to use a gun. "Unfortunately a gun is the one weapon they don't give you. The fights are too quick." Liechtenstein paused, then reluctantly asked Sealand if he's killed anyone. Sealand didn't look like he wanted to answer. "It was either them or me. ...I had to..."
"Well, I can call Switzy and have him come get us," Liechtenstein said, remembering she had a phone.
"They took it," Sealand told her as she reached into the pocket on her skirt.
"Oh..." Liechtenstein mumbled. There was a bit of a silence, then Liechtenstein got curious. "Sealand, how'd they catch you?"
"Me?" Sealand asked. "I was walking with Iceland when they ambushed us."
"Did they get Iceland too?"
Sealand shook his head. "No, just me. They decided it was too much of a problem to take us both. They tazed him and drugged me. They said I might last longer. ...I don't know what happened after that." He tried not to look depressed when he asked how they got her.
Liechtenstein fidgeted in her seat. "I went to the store and they came out of nowhere. I bit one and they tazed me and... I think they drugged me too."
"Probably what they used on me. They make it so complicated. Did they use a needle on you too?" Liechtenstein nodded. "I don't know why they do that. There's easier ways to do that, isn't there?" Sealand shook his head. "You know, I found out that they only do things like that to the people they think are going to be problematic. Although you might have just ticked that guy off. They normally gag them and tie them up."
Nobody spoke for a moment. "...So I'm going to have to kill people?"
Sealand sighed. "Yeah, you are." He planted himself on the cot next to her. "But probably not for a few days. They know you're gonna be sore from being caught and branded, and if you give them a bad fight, they get less money."
"I've never killed anyone before," Liechtenstein said quietly. She would like to keep it that way.
Sealand picked up his pocket knife and stared at it for a moment before he put it back in his pocket. "I didn't want to."
Liechtenstein suddenly had a million questions. "Why did they brand us, anyway?" she asked, looking at her arm. It still hurt pretty badly.
"Because they won't have to point out who's who in the arena. They know we'd kill them if we got the chance. So they just say our names and the audience knows who's who."
"Why our necks?"
"Oh, those? It's just like an ID," Sealand explained, "Since they don't brand our last names on, thank God, this is how they tell people with the same first name apart." A bell went off and Sealand perked up. "Oh! Dinner! I'll answer any of your other questions after ok?" He opened the door and motioned for Liechtenstein to follow. "Come on!"
She went outside with him and found there was a crowd screaming at one another in the back of the room. There was a window opened at the back where they were handing the food out. Sealand bit his lip and looked back at Liechtenstein. "Eh, y'know what, you're still sore so how about I get food for the both of us, ok?"
"Are you sure? I mean, I could probably-"
"No, I got it, trust me, you don't want to get in that mess if you're already hurt." He glanced over at the crowd. "Just wait here."
Sealand ran into the mob and Liechtenstein did as she was told and stayed put. She heard little pieces of what the other people were saying.
"Move the fuck over!"
"That's mine!"
"I haven't eaten anything today!"
"Just please let me through!"
Sealand pushed his way through, got kicked, and eventually came back with two small plastic bowls of macaroni and cheese and two plastic cups of water. He had to put the cups in the bowls to carry them. He smiled nervously and said he hoped she didn't mind. "It was either that or we didn't get anything to drink." He looked around to see if anyone who didn't get dinner was going to try and take theirs. "Anyway, come on, let's go back to our room."
Once they were back in room 63 Sealand handed her food and locked the door again. The pasta was kind of cold and hard, and the water was room temperature, but Liechtenstein didn't complain. She knew better than to complain. She's been poor before and she knew that she should take what she could get in bad situations.
They were about halfway done when Liechtenstein started to interrogate Sealand again. "So, Sealand?"
"Hmm?"
"Why doesn't anyone escape? I mean, there's nobody at the door over there. And there's enough of us to break it down and overpower anyone who comes along. Plus you have that knife."
Sealand swallowed and took a sip of water before he answered. "These things," he said, holding up his wrist to showcase the metal band. "They can shock us whenever they want. If we manage to get outside we'll get shocked, and they'll probably kill us." He shifted around in his seat. "They have a lot more guards than you think. And this old thing wouldn't do much, why do you think they let me have it?" he said, sounding kind of depressed.
"They let you have it? But you said-"
Sealand hugged his knees. "Well they didn't let me have it. More like I found it and they never took it. They do that sometimes, drop things in here for us to take. Nobody knows why, but I think it's to give us a reason to kill each other; if someone dies you can just go and take whatever belongings they had." He took another sip of water before he added, "And I think it works..."
Liechtenstein looked down at her cup. "That's awful."
"Yeah, it is," Sealand agreed.
"How fair are the fights?"
"Huh?"
"Well," Liechtenstein started, "I mean, would we have to fight an adult, or..."
"No no no, they don't do that," Sealand assured her. "They don't make us fight anyone who doesn't stay in this main room. We only have to fight people seventeen years old or younger. Anyone older stays somewhere else."
They finished their meals in silence. After they threw everything away, Sealand asked what was wrong. "As if I didn't already know... but you looked like you had a million questions... and you still kind of do. You can ask you know. I'm ok with it."
Liechtenstein shook her head. "No, I do, I just feel kind of guilty that's all."
"How so?"
"Well, it's just that you had to learn all of this stuff on your own, and i just got here and... it doesn't feel right," she admitted.
Sealand smiled. "Well if you decide there's something you want to know, you can ask ok?"
Liechtenstein nodded. "Alright."
Sealand knelt down and took a blanket out from under his cot. "Here," he said, handing it to Liechtenstein and grabbing another one for himself. "I'm going to go to bed. Good night."
Sealand hopped on his cot and tucked in facing the wall. Liechtenstein sat there for a little while before she went to bed. Switzerland was surely looking for her by now, worried sick. She'd been gone for... she didn't really know how long. She could stay up all night thinking, but she was sore and tired and.. scared. She needed sleep. She pulled her blanket up over her and looked at Sealand. She had one last question. "Sealand?"
"Yeah, Liecht?"
She hesitated. "How long have you been here?"
She didn't think she was going to get an answer, but Sealand said, "I don't know really... a week or two. Not too too long." After awhile, when Liechtenstein thought that Sealand was asleep, he added, "I just want to go home." She couldn't see it since he was still facing away from her, but he was crying; she could hear it in his voice. Liechtenstein wanted to cry too, but she tried not to. If she cried she would end up sniveling and Sealand would know and get worried. She just rolled over and tried her best to fall asleep.