The Gladiators in The Cube

        Today's been nice, unlike yesterday I've had little to no seizures so yay! I also read a Sonic the Hedgehog comic and it was nice.(I do love being a nerd, you get to do the funnest stuff! However since I don't follow the comic, I just kinda picked it up on a whim, I have no idea what's going on yay! I do know that its Robotnik bad! Get him! What I also like is that since Sonic's been around for like 20 years he's been adjusted to be serious enough to appeal to the older “nerds” that have been into since they were young yet still adjusted for kids so he isn't stupid dark like some other things. Y'know some shows are too whimsical and some shows are too serious and both ends can get annoying? A lot of times Sonic hits a sort of middle. Reminding me of not too serious but not too whimsical is Pixar(Note:Sonic is not like Pixar!) Remember Pixar's “Up”? It did serious and fun in the same film that's what made it so awesome in some places. Heh, now I've got the mental image of Sonic the Hedgehog with the old man from Up. Now I've got the mental of image of Sonic being the old man in Up wrinkles and everything.

The Gladiators in The Cube

        A slowly spinning metallic cube floated in a zero gravity stadium. The audience had normal gravity, but anti-gravitational devices are what made the cube exist in its own little zero gravity world separate from them. The stadium was packed and the audience ready for the show. The audience was protected from the affects of the zero-gravity zone by a wall made of numerous complicated alloys and glasses, but all completely clear so they could see all the action. And any action inside the cube was displayed on screens at various points in the stadium, as cameras were inside every wall of the cube. It was impossible to miss anything if you had the right seats.

       It was a gladiatorial stadium built in 2200 AD. All the contestants were due for execution of course, convicts all of them and it was a lethal game. But there were no weapons, no guns, knives, not even spears or clubs. But the cube had holes in it and outside of the cube there was no air. The seal that protected the audience also encased the cube to be floating inside a simulated “outer space”. The contestants inside had no spacesuits and they had to push the others out to kill them. Naturally if the contestants did not kill each other fast enough the ship would run out of air. But if one managed to remain he would be saved and by law he would be pardoned, though put on a strict parole.

      This game involved ten contestants. five women and five men. When the bell rang nine of them immediately went to work, all knowing that they only had fifteen minutes before the air in the cube ran out. None of them had any way to tell the time and they knew their panic would distort their ability to even guess how much time had passed so they thought they needed to rush to make sure they survived. They didn't want to fight for their lives just to have the cube run out of air. Though on contestant stayed still. But at first almost no one noticed.

       The audience cheered whenever a victim was pushed out of the cube. One by one until only two contestants were left. A man named Jeremy and a man named Thomas. Thomas was the man who never moved. Every contestant had a name tag, and the announcers could address the contestants in the cube if they wanted and everyone could hear what the contestants said. It was all part of the fun, the announcers often taunted the contestants.

        “Looks like we had a clever one, Thomas let the other constants pick each other off. He didn't move throughout the entire game.” one of the announcers laughed as he showed a few a clips of the contestant just floating in place in the zero-gravity cube.

        “What a cowardly man.” said Jeremy the other remaining contestant, he had persevered and removed the most contestants himself.

         “No, I just refuse to play your sick game.” Thomas said.

        “What!?” one of the announcers yelled. “That's just an excuse! We have your criminal record! You were sentenced to the gladiatorial cube for first degree murder!”

        “I was framed. I never killed anyone, and never will kill anyone, especially in something as sick as this.” Thomas glared. He didn't know where any of the cameras were that were watching him so there was no one he could glare at so he just glared forward, almost like a painting an in art gallery would, which actually made his glare even more unsettling to the announcers and every member in the audience. “If you think I'm just using this as an excuse if I lose than I will kill myself.” Thomas then put his feet against a wall and pushed himself at the nearest hole in the cube. “Enjoy the show.”

         Normally the crowd would cheer when the last contestant before the winner would die but this time they just sat their silent. The announcers announced nothing. The contestants for the next games of the day were both happy and puzzled when they were not called at the time when they were to participate. They didn't know what had happened. When they were called thirty minutes late the audience actually sat silent instead of cheering when the contestants were brought up to the pod that would send them to the cube. Then a single man booed. Then the crowd booed while the contestants were put into the pod. Then the crowd started to riot marching toward the pod. The room with the pod was also where the announcer's room was.

        “Now calm down everyone! I see you don't want them to be inside the cube to be done.” one of the announcers said with his knees shaking. “But we do need to execute them somehow.” The crowd continued to approach.

        “Perhaps a chess tournament? That isn't violent at all!” Another announcer said with a nervous smile. The crowd grew more angry. In a few more minutes they would reach the room.

        “You know what screw the law! I'm getting out of here before they block the door! They could do a lottery for all I care!” A third announcer said. The announcer ran out of there with the other announcers quickly following him. All of the contestants were taken hostage by the rioters. They were not released. Though it was riot it had more sense than that, they instead went to the number one beneficiary of the gladiator cube stadium, the courthouses, the profits from the games were usually collected by the government.

         The events of the “game” was televised and spread all over the Internet and riots and protests took place everywhere. After that incident it was quickly made illegal to hold any gladiatorial cube games. The government still wanted the profits caused by the “games” and so the country leaders came up with a genius compromise that would please the protesters, bring in reveue and please fans on the old games. For these convicts they would hold games in a gigantic zero-gravity sphere filling with gas. The sphere had a single hole in it. Whoever got out of it got a pardon. Now the gas was knockout gas and the convicts would get life sentences instead! They had stun-guns to slow the others down. Everything was non-lethal! See, the government is all about compromise, everyone was happy!!! And the games continued!

Comment on Story: Hilariously this story was actually inspired by a completely non-violent dream I had a year and a half ago. I have vivid dreams every single night(with varying degrees of remembering them, I've kept a few dream journals off and on) (I started having vivid dreams about two years ago, so its not like its been my entire life) I'm not sure if it counts as you coming up with a story if you base it off a dream you have. I guess I ripped off myself. Anyway, the dream was me and my family playing the cube game in the story. Though we were in spacesuits so it was naturally non-lethal and there was no audience or anything. I made it a gladiatorial game in my story. If I can remember correctly this is the only story I have ever based on one of my dreams.