Chapter Four

The Tele-Train's wake up siren sounded in a loud, rhythmic baritone, shaking all the passengers awake. Jacron and Masa stepped off, Masa taking lead and she stopped outside the train. Jacron bumped into her, making her fall off balance and stumble a bit. She turned around, flustered, "Hey! I was trying to act dramatic! You don't even notice a movie-like opportunity." She complained. Jacron rolled his eyes, "Not my fault dramatic stops aren't on my 'Things to do in District 14’ list."

The Tele-Train had stopped at the central city of District 14. The city was partly covered in moss and rust, but still managing to hold some sort of majesty. They gawked at its size and rustic feel. Next to the station was a travel guide. What once showed a helpful map for tourists now was covered in damp moss and foliage. Brushing some of it aside, Masa and Jacron peered at it. "Look, a map... What's, the Bomination Station?" Masa asked, confused. "Don't know, but we could probably follow this path and then hop on this one. It's not too far I guess." He said, pointing to a few points on the map, showing a route to take. "I guess that's a way to go."

They started walking that way and noticed some of the major buildings from the sides were marked with a purple line, trailing from structure to structure, following where they were going. "Wow, I guess they actually marked the paths with the map's colors." Masa quipped. Jacron looked on the other buildings and saw that they were marked with differing colored lines, showing that they were heading in different directions and nodded in agreement. "I wonder what this district spent it's time making...?"

Masa asked, gawking around. "What do you mean by that? I thought all the districts were all the same." Jacron retorted. Masa shook her head, "Nope! Each district instructed its scientists to alter their population, to make it easier to notice foreigners and such. Our district focused on Mammals, which is why we look like this." Jacron looked skeptical for a second, but eventually put it off.

It made sense as far as criminals go, but is it so we can accept difference easier? In our District system, all located on the same rotation pattern as District 1, each District having different people than the last. A different population to originally inhabit it, but still allowing each to travel within one another without need of passport.

All they need is money for the tickets and their government already know of their arrivals. Surprisingly, there isn't a race war. There were many at the start, but people eventually came to accept that we are all

different and that seemed to allow them to get along better. Still, there was the occasional dispute between Districts that wasn’t limited to racial comments and slurs, but weren't too keen on attacking a person for their origin. I mean, who can control that sort of thing?

Everyone understood that each had their own origin and stories, but conflict still could envelope them at a moments notice. That's not saying the Districts didn't have wars, quite the opposite. Several Districts denied access from others from high tensions and they kept their weapons on the prime, but with each District so far from another, conventional warfare was difficult. Spaceships were expensive and were destroyed easily, resulting in losses for both sides as all scrap parts just floated in space.

With no effective way of retrieval, they left the parts out there. That is, until the invention of the Tele-Train, which made the need for military troop training to become a must. Each weapon being equip with a melee and ranged option to suit its person. This made several troops perform better with their weapon of choice and sometimes even of their own making. Sure, it made the wars bloodier, but made them very much less expensive to either side. People didn't seem to mind this way, if they kept their battles outside of cities.

To prevent person loss on a grand scale, each District agreed to make an arena where they send about five hundred of their officers on each side. The best of three matches would be victors of the war, making wars much faster than before and basing the wars upon skills and personal strength instead of numbers and explosives. Although, sometimes a District wanted to overstep the rule boundaries, when this happened, every District sent troops to the violators and even hired mercenaries from the Bounty HQ.

Satisfied with these terms, each District now had a way to keep civilians safe, keep an economy strong, limit lives lost to a max of 3,000 and had force to back it up on all sides. Most drew favor from the military, which now was laxer in their ways of training, allowing troops to keep a sense of humor and have more free time. These changes kept the District system from destruction and they revelled in their new governing. Even with a new governing system, there still was religious wars. Mostly Satanic clashing with Christian and Jewish in holy wars, which were told to keep their battles away from the cities.

Any use of explosives or advanced machinery was met with military intervention. Begrudgingly each agreed to do so, but you'd never know when they fight because they keep their battles away from the media. The constant danger when exploring the wilderness was running into an ongoing war, not to mention the dangerous wildlife, which was now joined, primarily in the 14th District, with Floyd's Abominations.

Jacron noticed a very large building around the corner on the left, which showed a very well-made building, vastly better kept than the surrounding buildings. It shown in bold, lighting letters on a sign outside 'Arena' and had a small sign at the entrance with a ticket taker next to it. The ticket taker seemed to be partially altered with mechanics, having an artificial arm that started after his elbow on his left side. "Guess machines were their thing then." Jacron said, pointing to the ticket taker.

They approached the guy and he said with the utmost enthusiasm, "Welcome to the Merry Arena! You two look new here, so I'll give you the rundown on this place. Starting with our building which used to stand for gladiator fights for public entertainment, but now serves as a way for people from all around to fight off the growing spread of Floyd's Abominations! The door to your left is to the stands, where you can watch other competitors fight for their lives against a random Abomination we bait from our underground holding facility. To your right, that door allows you to participate in the matches, along with getting fighting experience, you can also get some cash for each one you kill. Beware; though, because the creatures are random, there's no telling whether you'll have a small Klipom or the gigantic Frecior. The stronger the Abomination killed, the bigger the payout."

"Meh, I don't want to fight anything right now. Also, would you happen to know where we can find Floyd?" Masa questioned. The ticket taker shook his head. "Nobody does, really. I've heard he lives far off in another district, but that's just rumors." Jacron pulled Masa aside, "We can take this opportunity to ask around, don't you? I can fight in the arena and ask the other contestants if they know anything and you can ask some people in the stands." Masa nodded, and they turned back to the ticket taker, awaiting a reply. "I'll take a spectator ticket and he'll have a participant ticket." Masa said, confident. The taker's eyebrows raised while exchanging glances to Jacron and Masa. "Okay, that'll be five for the seat and participation is half that." He replied. "Great, it's cheaper than I thought." Masa said as she handed the guy some cash for the tickets.

"You be careful. There are shady people all around here and make sure the battle isn't too much to handle. You can tap out by yelling that you give up if it proves too much for you." Masa said while motioning to the rules. "This should be easy, don't worry. Just focus on asking around, okay?" She nodded and they walked to their separate doors.