Pale Viper 

We were lucky we had only known each other for a few hours. It was easy to change the way we called each other. Of course, it was shocking that there were 998 other people, who had also been abducted and shoved into a hole like me and Neo. The days after the announcement had been quiet, and we realized a few things. First, there were definitely people watching us, and acting as... staff or administrators. We could tell this because every three days a small basket hardly bigger than my head was lowered down into the hole with our food. It was barely enough to sustain two people, and consisted of moldy bread, a flask of water and some slightly rotting leftovers from what looked like a wealthy person's meal. We would divide the food every time it was delivered, eat it all on the day it was delivered, and then the two other days where they gave us nothing, we resorted to eating the disgusting moss that grew in the cracks and lines of the pit, and occasionally, using the light from the chrona, we were able to catch a couple of lizards and insects skittering about on the ground. Another thing we realized on the day of the broadcast was that this was a competition – 600 vacant spots remaining out of apparently 1,000 contestants was scary. Every time the food came down, there would be a scribbled note in pen telling us how long we had left. And on the fourth time it was lowered down the pit, the note told us that we had two weeks left to escape the pit. We were still working on that part. 

"Sh*t!!" 

My hand slips off the rock I'm holding and plummet back down onto the rock hard floor of the pit. Neo shakes his head at me.  

"I estimate about thirty feet," he says. "Barely three-quarters to catch up to me, Sword."  

"Oh, shut your trap," I groaned, my voice slightly high pitched as my whole body ached from the fall. "Damn combat graduate monster." 

"Do we really have to keep the lights off like this?" Neo asked, helping me up to my feet.  

"Yes," I replied. "I already told you why." 

It was simply because I wanted us both do develop better vision in the dark. I was pretty sure that after this bullsh*t there would a be a lot more to come, and most of it was gonna take place in this cave, and something else told me that being able to see well in the dark was going to be pretty useful. Over the two weeks that had already gone by, me and Neo and been training ourselves for the climb we had to make in the near future, honing our bodies, and practicing climbing the wall. Another thing we found out was that for some reason, our bodies seemed strangely sturdy compared to before, as well as stronger – in the past, it would have been a dream for me to climb up an almost flat wall with my bare hands, and even if I could the fall would have smashed every bone in my body to dust and turned me into a grease spot. Now, all I get is aches and bruises.  

"Fine," I tell Neo. "You climb up then. I'm going to take a break. I just climbed up the wall six times in a row." 

"Alright," Neo shrugged. "I'll see if I can reach the top." 

"If you do, then don’t just run off by yourself!" I called after him, as he began to ascend at frightening speed. "We're in this together!" 

"This is 36th time you told me that!" He shouted back down to me, his voice jumping off the walls.  

I sighed and slumped against the wall, fiddling with a piece of flint and a rock. I had been carving a knife out of the flint since day two – unfortunately we had absolutely none of the ground-breaking chrona technology we had normally. I was hopeful that we would regain access to at least some aspects of it when we escaped the pit, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Just then, a spine-chilling hiss echoes through the darkness. In an instant, I'm on my feet and I have the knife ready in my hand. And then, it comes gliding through the darkness like a ghost. It's a ghastly white snake, with bright red, bloodthirsty eyes staring straight at me. It's about two foot long, and in an instant I know what the thing slithering towards me is.  

"Students, this is the pale viper," the professor said, showing us a snake with pearly white scales and red eyes. "I doubt you'll ever encounter it, but it lives in the Central Region deep underground in dark caves, and had enough venom in one bite to kill a hundred healthy combat graduates." 

"What should we do if we ever do encounter it, sir?" I had asked, out of curiosity.  

"Run," he had said. "And pray. Although you'll probably die anyway because it can strike in half a second." 

I stare at the pale viper moving towards me, and the knife feels slippery in my hand because of all the sweat. A bead of sweat rolled down my forehead and into my eye, which caused me to try and blink it out. And then, the snake was gone and there was a flash of white before me. Without thinking, and my heart leaping into my throat, I jumped back and lashed out with my other hand. My palm hit something hard and cold and next thing I knew two foot of writhing white muscle was pinned to the ground under my hand. In a split second I snapped back to my senses and struck the snake hard on the head with my knife.  

It stopped writhing around and went stock still, blood pooling around its kite-shaped head. I breathed heavily, and then let go of it. The corpse went limp on the ground, and I was about to hurl the thing into the darkness until I remembered something else my professor had taught me about pale vipers. 

"As said before, pale vipers are incredibly dangerous," he had said. "But they are still in high demand both in the black market and between aristocrats, and thousands of people still risk their lives hoping to catch one every day. This is because if you kill a pale viper, then remove it's venom glands and squeeze out the dead viper's venom, it has unique properties which increase your bone and muscle density by several-fold, making you much stronger and durable along with higher stamina."  

He had then proceeded to show us a clip of how to remove the two venom glands of the snake, and back then I had thought that the fact that we needed to know that was ridiculous, but now I am nothing but grateful for that lesson. I take a hold of the sharpest edge of my flint knife, and I cut out the snake's two venom glands, leaving a bit of flesh at either end to prevent the venom from spilling out. 

Neo slammed back down to the ground a few minutes later. He had climbed up about sixty feet, and then climbed back down before jumping the last twenty.  

"Whew," he panted, dusting himself down. "That sure d- what the hell?" 

He stared at the snake carcass lying next to me in a puddle of blood. 

"Oh, hey Neo," I say, turning around and showing him the venom glands. "You know what these are?" 

"Isn’t that a pale viper?" He asked, examining the corpse. "You managed to kill this thing?" 

"Why do you look so surprised?" I asked grumpily. "I did also graduate at hand-to-hand combat. Maybe I won’t give this to you after all." 

He stared at me incredulously.  

"You’re gonna eat that?" 

"Yes." 

"I know that pale viper venom IS an elixir that only the super soldiers on the front lines have the privilege of getting, but that's after refinement with about nineteen-thousand chemicals. Now, it'll only give you a ten percent chance at succeeding, and even if you do, you'll  have to endure extreme pain. And like by extreme pain, I mean like stubbing-toe-on-the-doorframe pain." 

"…surely it's not that bad." 

"Bad comparison," Neo agreed. "But well, it'll feel like you’re having molten lava poured down your throat with a siding of shredded glass, seasoned with fresh metal-corroding acid and boiling water."  

"Yeah," I agree. "But it's effectiveness is twice that the refined one. It's worth it, trust me." 
"No thanks," Neo says, pushing the venom sack back at me. "You have both." 

"What about the climb soon then? I'll leave you in the dust." 
"It doesn't matter. I'll climb up behind you anyway and if I get tired you can carry me, can’t you." 

"You… you've got it all planned out, huh?"  

He winks at me mischievously.  

"Came up with it on the spot," he grins. "You just told me didn’t you?" 

He made a fair point, so I left it at that. 

"Are you sure you want to do this?" 

"Yes. That's the sixth time you've asked me." 
"If you’re that sure, then I won’t stop you." 

I've cut off one end from both venom sacks, and I am holding them both together in one hand, with purple liquid venom inside gazing back at me. I'm having second thoughts just looking at it. Neo pretends to turn away, but I can still see him sneaking peeks at me over his shoulder in the dark. I take a deep breath. My fingers are trembling, and my insides are churning. I want to stop what I'm doing write away and hurl these tiny sacks of death across the diameter of my rocky prison. But no. This is something I need to do. 

I will survive. And when I get out of this hellhole, I will survive then too. 

I steel my nerves, and raise the venom up to my lips. I can do this. I can-"You have a ninety percent chance of dying on the spot," Neo adds helpfully. 

I forgot he was there. My hand jerks in surprise and the venom shoots down my throat.