Weeks passed as Havok stayed in his new room in the medical wing, 'food' was brought to him by the staff allowing him to stay in his room and read without being bothered. The books he brought had nothing to do with fighting, he grabbed anything that he thought was interesting. He chose to read about world history. When he was in the library he gathered as many books as he could that were based on history.
He read in another book that learning history was important, so that the same mistakes are not repeated. He knew very little about the outside world, in fact he still didn't even know what country the complex was located in. It didn't bother him that much though because even if he knew where he was it would not help him escape. He was certain of one thing and that was that English was the only language spoken here, which did allow him to narrow down his list of possible locations.
Havok found history fascinating. It did not matter what era he read about. They all had the same things in common. Peace never lasts, it was as if the world could not function unless people were at war with each other. He read about kings, their rise and their inevitable fall. Civilizations that seemed as though they were going to be around for eternity only to be wiped out and serving as a footnote for the next civilization.
"Being a king sounds like a shitty job, if you are too brutal you eventually get overthrown by the people you rule. Or you can be too benevolent, and you end up being schemed against by your family or the people close to you. Either way you receive nothing, but grief. Poor dumb bastards, I wonder if they would still want to be king if they knew how they would be remembered?"
A month passed as Havok enjoyed his time of relaxation and gaining knowledge of the world's history. Tomorrow was the day that he would finally get his casts removed, however, today he had his first encounter with the only person's name he got to know and would never forget.
He was sitting on his bed reading when someone walked in the door.
This is the only name Havok would remember out of everyone from this facility. His name is Raffi, he stood just above 6 ft tall with medium length curly black hair that resembled springs used in mechanics. He has a stocky build, neither fat nor muscular. His face seemed to always look like he was pissed off and the look in his eyes could be described as deranged. He was currently wearing a white wife beater that had stains on it and from the color of the stains Havok knew that it was blood.
There were two scenarios that Havok could think of and neither of them were good. Either this man just let the blood dry on his shirt from some earlier incident or he cleaned his shirt, and the blood didn't come off and he still decided to wear it anyway. Either way Havok was ready for anything when he saw him. His crutch was lying in the bed, and he tried his best to grab it without Raffi knowing.
Raffi eyed Havok for a few seconds before he finally said, "Congrats on your recent win streak. "Unfortunately, you are going to lose your next fight." Havok was confused by what Raffi said,
"What do you mean by that?" Havok questioned as his gaze became unsightly because he didn't like where this conversation was heading.
Raffi chuckled, "Based on that look in your eyes you know exactly what I mean, you will lose your next fight on purpose and make it look convincing. I have a good chunk of money riding on you losing your next match and with the betting odds continuously growing along with your winning streak, I will make a shit load of money. While it may seem like you have a choice, you actually don't. You either lose that fight or you'll face consequences that you cannot even fathom. Either way I will get something that I want in the end." Raffi didn't wait for Havok's response as he left the room laughing as he seemed to take pleasure in the look on Havok's face.
"Motherfucker!" Havok shouted, pissed off that this guy had the nerve to come tell him to lose. He had to stop himself from punching the wall as he didn't want to injure his one good hand.
Havok absolutely hated losing, and since he started fighting one on one, he has yet to lose a single fight. Add to the fact that he would be losing on purpose made him feel disgusted. "Well, I'm sure as shit not losing, if I get beat then that's one thing. But just going out there to get my ass beat on purpose will never happen regardless of the consequences. Also, I'll lose my library privileges. The library is the only thing in this place that I like, the people and food are both shitty, and I am not giving up the little bit of happiness I have for that asshole." Havok took a deep breath and calmed himself. He sat down and grabbed the book he was reading before that interruption. Trying to put what just happened at the back of his mind.
Other than his run in with Raffi, Havok spent the whole day reading. The next day he went to get his casts removed and was escorted back to where the rest of the boys were. He was told that he had one month until the next fight.
Once he arrived in his room, he started to plan out what he was going to do next. He needed to put on muscle, which means he needs to eat more of that gruel. For that he would need to beat up several of the other kids and take theirs.
However, right now he was sleepy, so he decided to take a nap until it was time for lunch. He woke up a few hours later as the buzzer for lunch went off, he was feeling refreshed. As he made his way through the cafeteria Havok spotted a couple of groups that met his requirements. A group that would not put up too much resistance and take the least amount of effort.
He got his lunch first and made his way to the corner where he only ever briefly sits to finish his 'food'. He only ever stays there for a short time because he never finishes the full bowl because he usually ends up throwing away about half of it, which led to him leaving the cafeteria as quickly as he could. Today he wanted to finish his very first bowl. However, trying not to vomit just from the smell alone was a major hurdle.
The smell would bring back all those memories where he did in fact vomit. The taste was truly indescribable, it was as if whoever made it just threw in all the vitamins the body needed along with everything else the body needed without a care for how it smelled or tasted. The more he thought about it, Havok was pretty sure that was exactly what happened. No one who works here really gives a shit about the kids here, so tasting this disgusting slop to make sure that it is edible probably doesn't even occur to them. If they did somehow know how it tasted, they would probably just enjoy the looks of the kids when they drank it.
Havok steeled himself and pinched his nose shut and tried to chug as much as he could before he got the feeling he was about to vomit. He only had about a quarter of the smoothie left before he finally had to pause, Havok felt his stomach turning over as if rejecting him drinking this revolting sludge. Havok paused for a moment to give his stomach time to settle. He kept his nose plugged because he knew that if he smelled it right now everything would be over because he knew for a fact that he would vomit everything back up. He knew that he couldn't allow his plans to be delayed because of a weak stomach.
His stomach still wasn't one hundred percent settled, but he was done waiting. The longer he waited the more it cooled down making it slowly turn from a liquid to a solid. He decided to chug what was left of the slop. He quickly left the cafeteria with his hand covering his mouth to keep from throwing up, he made his way to his room as quickly as he could. He got to his room and kept his hand on his mouth for a few more minutes before he felt like he was no longer in danger of vomiting.
Havok sat down on his bed with a look of relief on his face. "I swear if I ever find out who made that disgusting ass slop, I will kill them in the most vicious way I can think of. At least I managed to keep it down, the first one should be the hardest. Hopefully, the more I do it the more I will get used to it. Alright, time to go back. I will start off with taking one extra serving from someone today and then increase the amount and hopefully my tolerance will increase along the way." Havok said with a sigh as he calmed himself and went back to the cafeteria.