Work in progress - Doc Title Judge.

This started as a dream. The document title originated from a CBRNE test a friend and I had to take in the air force. The answer button was "Judge." I haven't found a better name yet.

There I sat staring at the blank page before me, the canvas for my art if you will. My room was dark, the curtains drawn, and the only light came from the computer monitor that held the blank page, darkness usually helping my muse, but at the moment my muse must have been out to lunch. I was experiencing the writer’s block from hell. I decided to take a small break from my blank canvas and paced about my small apartment. I thought to myself, the carpet should be worn in this passage I’ve been making so many trips up and down it in the past week, then I see a sight that took me by surprise, my reflection in the mirror, my face lacked the color it’s had once, my eyes were bloodshot from my lack of sleep and concentration on this new project and deadline, and my hair much worse for wear from the many times my fingers ran through it in the past few hours. My hair much worse for wear from the many times my fingers ran through it in the past few hours.

“A hot shower, that might help,” I thought and walked into the bathroom, which contained my mirror. After the shower and when I was properly dressed I sat myself back in front of the monitor, and still nothing flowed as it once had so freely, so once again, I was on my feet and pacing the halls.” If I don’t find a muse within the next few hours I’m going to end up one of those starving artists that you always hear about.” I thought and then thought about my last book and how I left it open for any kind of sequel

or Prequel imaginable but that wasn’t what I wanted to work with. The muse for that left me feeling quite…dirty. So I decided to leave the house and find a muse by hook or crook. The day wasn’t remarkably cold but I decided to grab my jacket just in case I found myself out later than expected.

The streets were flowing with potential ideas, though not a one was what I found myself wanting to write. A father picking his daughter up after school let out inspired a family piece though I didn’t know which direction to take it. A costume shop inspired horror, and that had me thinking of my previous work. Slashers are easy to write but they have so little in development that it’s not worth the effort to write another. I passed a couple on a date and I had to laugh, me writing romance is a joke. First I should get a love life then maybe I could consider that. All in all I found nothing worth the time of considering.

Just as I turned to go home I heard a voice from behind say, “Richard Johnson?” A female voice but I still jumped in surprise. I turned to look at her and saw one of the most exquisite forms of beauty I’d ever seen. Raven hair, ruby lips, slender frame and breasts to die for, which I had a tough time looking away from. “Excuse me?” I managed to say and she just smiled and asked again. “Are you Richard Johnson?” I laughed and told her that I was. “Let me guess, you read my book and recognized me from the cover.” Then something I didn’t expect.

“Come with me or you’ll be late.” She said with the same smile and turned leading the way down a narrow alley. I found myself following her, I don’t know why really, though it might have been her ass. It was hypnotizingly perfect. After a few minutes we came to what looked like a rundown house in a rundown neighborhood. There were weeds in the front lawn and a rusted and barely standing chain link fence. She led me to the door, and I began to think she might be a prostitute. She opened the door and insisted that I enter so, like a fool, I did. No sooner than my legs hit the floor the door slammed shut behind me and locked. I turned to talk to her but she did not enter and there was no handle on my side of the door. I almost panicked but decided that now wasn’t the time and looked at the surroundings. A small blank room was what I saw, with a stairwell and light coming from the bottom. Seeing as there was nowhere else to turn I started down the stairs.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs I couldn’t believe what I saw, the room that I ended up in had a high ceiling and was finished in mahogany and cherrywood. The room was segmented into two by balconies and staircases that spiraled up, the windows from the outside shone out on the balconies though covered with the bars from the outside, “Were they more for keeping people out?” Is what I thought as I saw them. There were bookcases all along the upper walls and a row of pool tables along the right side down on the bottom, and darts opposite. The room was spacious and had four hallways out, one in each corner, one of which I was standing in. When I saw an open bar at the far end of the room, I marveled and then I decided I needed a stiff drink to cope with the shock.

I walked over to the bar and poured myself some scotch. When I was just about to have a drink a voice called from directly behind me startling me and causing me to spill my drink. I turned in a fervor and saw a man laughing at me. A young man with dark hair and dressed as if he were fresh out of college. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” He said between chuckles. “I’d just seen you when I came in and Though you had the right idea. The name’s Alex.” The man said, then asked for a drink which I gladly got him. “So were you going to be late too?” I asked and he looked at me in a puzzled manner and I laughed and told him to forget it. Alex was a nice kid, about 25 and not more then a year or two out of college, and the more I talked to him the more I liked the kid. After about half an hour of drinking and talking a man walked in.

Bald, Big, and Burly, Dressed in traditional biker leathers, eyeballing everything as if it had the potential to be a weapon. He payed special attention to the pool tables and then saw me, Alex and the bar. Smiling, what might have been the last grin many people on Earth saw before they left the mortal coil, he made his way over to the bar. When he got to about twenty feet he said something with a laugh. I flinched and he laughed harder. He stood next to me and patted me on the back, nearly pushing me over. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I was just asking for a bottle of whiskey.” I laughed nervously and Alex handed him a drink. His name was Francis, but in his words,” the Christian names is Francis, but if you call me anything but Frank I’ll make sure you never have another thing to say.”

I poured him a drink and he left over to the pool tables because more people had arrived. As the chandeliers over head began to turn on the place was full, I had the liberty of meeting a few other people, a sweet, young, single mother whose child had recently gone missing named Clara, an older British gentleman with blonde hair and a gambling problem names Geoff, and a highly eccentric young woman claiming to be an heir to one of the wealthiest families on this continent, she was quite stuck up so I made it a point to just call her “Heiress.” About an hour after people stopped trickling in the woman that had lead me to the house appeared in a part of the balcony that was in accessible but for a door that was on that side, How she’d gotten to that door I couldn’t begin to understand but before I could wonder at her appearance she spoke.

“You all have been brought together for one purpose. A game of sorts that will require all your strength and wits. You all have traits that are unique to yourselves and you’ll need every, single, part of those to make it through these games. As for now the night is coming to an end and you all should rest. The lights on the floor will lead you to your rooms. Rest well, there will be one to a room, and if anyone is caught trying to break into another’s room there will be dire consequences. Showers and clothing will be found in your rooms. Goodnight to you all.” She said and then left. She must have been wearing a microphone because when she spoke the entire room filled with her voice.

“A game, Huh?” Geoff blurted out. “Well, how about we make a pool on who’s going to win.” He said with a laugh and I shouted in return, “I bet it will be in stages. I bet twenty I’ll lose in the third round.” I said with a laugh and he immediately began making a chart for who would wins and losses and took my money for my bet, though I was joking at first the bet became real to him. After the betting was done everyone left down the only lighted hallway left, it sloped downward with a gentle spiral then let out into a hallway that was reminiscent of a five star hotel. Names were affixed to the door, in alphabetical order it seemed. I walked to the R’s, found my room on the right, and entered. The room was almost exactly like one I’d stayed in when I’d been on the publicity tour for my novel. I showered and went to bed. I wonder what this game is going to be...

The next day I awoke to a preset alarm, though I did not set it, and went to the closet to dress, There was a pair of black slacks, A white shirt with a big red one on it, a pair of white socks, and red sneakers in there. My other clothes were nowhere to be found so I dressed in the clothes I had, surprisingly enough they all fit perfectly. I turned around and found a small tray of food on the table by the bed. I was wondering about the curiosities that had just occurred when a voice came from a speaker that was planted in the corner of my room. “Everyone will meet in the center plaza. I repeat, Everyone is to meet in the center plaza.”

Upon hearing this and having nothing else to do in the room I walked to the plaza. When I arrived there were six other people in the room. All with similar clothing, though they all had different numbers and the even numbers were green, and wore green shoes. Alex was among the even and I began talking with him. When the last member entered a man in a black business suit entered the balcony where the young woman had before entered. “I hope all of you had a restful night because today you’re going to be introduced to the game. Look at the color of your shirt and proceed down the hallway with the corresponding color, find the door with your number and enter, there you’ll find a VI interface and a suit. Dress in the suit and when both competitors are ready the game will begin. Good luck to you all.”

I looked at the hallways and noticed one red, one green, and the one with the sleeping chambers was blue. I walked down the red hallway and found the number one. It was between seventy-three and twenty-seven. I entered the room and put on the suit, it was form fitting but loose enough to fit over the clothing given. The wires were built into the fabric and the suit seemed to have an air bag system like pilots use for anti gravity. Though the bags were all over the suit, not just in the legs. The helmet was more of a face shield, though the wires and tubes that were attached told me different. When I put it on I saw nothing but a blue screen that said Welcome and asked me to speak my name.

“Richard Johnson” I said and then was transported to a green field, or rather it seemed I was transfered, I never left the spacious room that the suit was in. A voice in the system said, “Enjoy the waiting screen while waiting for a challenger.” I wandered about the room a bit and the interface was quite stunning, there was a good deal of feel for the little bit of stuff around. A breeze blew and I reached out and picked out blades of grass, though I didn’t actually feel the grass. There was a tree in the corner were there was a wall before and If I had reached for it I know it would have felt real, before I could however the scene went to a blur and ended up in a Japanese Dojo setting, across from me in what appeared to be practice clothing was Heiress. She had a confused look on her face and looked over to the side of the room. A voice came from the helmet, “The rules are simple, Defeat your opponent.” I looked to the side of the room where Heiress was already heading toward. There were wooden practice swords, I looked to the other side of the room, there were real swords. I ran to the side of the room and grabbed one of the wooden swords just as she picked one up as well. “You’re mine now.” she said and made a lunge. I lifted the sword before I had time to marvel at the fact that I actually felt it in my hand I parried the blow and felt the recoil in authentic manner. “They did a great job with this...” I thought as she bounced backward from the recoil of my parry. She made another attempt and met with the same effect. “I’m not going to attack you. It goes against all I stand for.” I said as I blocked her attack and quickly shifted to dodge her next wild blow.

She continued to attack at me but I continued to dodge and parry until she got frustrated and threw her wooden weapon down and headed for the real thing. After she grabbed it she made a charge at me which I used the wooden sword to try and parry but had to move out of the way as the blade carved through the wood like a knife through butter. “Shi...” was all I had time to say before sidestepping a lunge. Her blows were slower due to the weight but made all the more dangerous because of the way it cut through the wooden sword. At one point I dodged a blow but left a leg out and she tripped over it, the blade she had bouncing off the floor when she hit. She rolled over, before I could think I heard her shriek and watched as the sword that had just bounced from her hands came back and pierced her chest. Blood flowed in a realistic manner and then the simulation shut off. I pulled the helmet from my head and found not only the sweat of exertion on my brow but also the cold sweat of fear.

After removing the suit, I left the room and made my way to the common area. I saw Frank there already, a big grin on his intimidating face. “So I see someone else made it out.” He said with a laugh. “Have a tough fight?” He asked, I noticed something a bit strange about him as I looked him over, “You could say that. They didn’t take your jacket?” I replied, his leather jacket was on over his whit shirt with a red seven on it. “Or my boots.” He said with a laugh. “No one will get these unless they pry them from my cold dead fingers.” On that note we went to get a drink. Soon enough Alex, Clara, and Geoff made their way back. “That’s one round in the bag.” Geoff laughed and looked at his sheet with all the names on it. When about half the people came back from the rooms the young lady appeared over the balcony and said, “Congratulations to all of you. You’ve won good matches and deserve a nice rest, The others are being seen to so don’t worry about them. You all have done well. Enjoy the rest of the day. When the lights come on please return to your rooms. As for the game rooms they’re locked. You’re next match is tomorrow. Rest well.”

I wasn’t up for socializing, so I just returned to my room early. On the desk I noticed something strange, a pad of paper and a pencil. On it there was a post-it note. Congratulations on the win Richard. Here’s something to occupy your time. Hope your muse comes back soon. Was written on it in a woman’s hand. I was confused by this but I wasted no time in using it. I began writing all the events of that day and the day prior, what you’re no doubt reading now. This will make for a great novel someday.