September 2030

Dizzy

Nothing. I can hear the sound of the wooden walls around me moving in the strong wind and my own uncontrolled breathing, but nothing else. I work on getting my heart rate slowed down and under control just as I see a movement to my right. I turn around quickly and a couple of meters away I can see how the yellow light from the flashlight I left in the bathroom reflects in a couple of eyes. They're just a bit under a meter over the ground. I don't want to turn my back against whoever, or whatever, it is to grab the light, so I continue to walk forward with the knife in front of me.

"Come into the light." I demand.

I hear a deep growl just before the eyes position suddenly are way above me. It's too late when I realize that it's a large dog that jumps, and I can't help the scream that escapes me.

Holding the knife in front of me, I try to hit the animal anywhere possible, but I'm already falling because of its heavy weight. My body smashes against the hard wooden floor and the dog opens and closes its strong yaw, trying to reach my throat. For a second I wonder why I was taught so little about fighting animals. But I guess it's because no one thought I ever would end up here.

The sharp teeth snaps just a centimeter from my throat. I breath heavily as I try to push it away from me, and the big paws rip my stomach as it looses its balance and tries to regain it. Its head is just above me now, and the smell of the dirty fur almost causes me to cough. The dog snaps after me again, and I try to turn away, but it's way too heavy. The teeth reaches my neck this time, and I can feel the warm blood from the wound. My head aches, I must've hit it when I fell. I try to kick the dog with my legs, but I'm unable to reach it and I'm barely rocking it back and forth with my movement. I roar, loudly, and the dog, probably a german shepherd, flinches a bit from the sound before it gets ready to finish everything with a strong bite to my now reveled throat. But in the few seconds the dog was confused by the sound, I was able to get my knife ready, and just as I'm about to dig it into its furry neck for the final hit, the dog yipes and its heavy body is thrown of me. A tall guy throws it through the hallway and it lands with a thud on the floor before it quickly gets up and runs away. The guy watches it while it passes through the open door and then he switch his focus to me, laying on the floor. I can nothing but stare, he's kind of blurry.

I really hate being saved. Somehow I always meet new people during a time they think they can rescue me. It makes me seem weak and dumb, and I hate it, because I'm not. I didn't survive years in this chaos alone by being weak and it frustrates me that I somehow always manage to be seen that way. I would have killed that dog myself.

A darkness is starting to fill my view and I mumble something I don't even know myself. I try to stay awake, but my mind drifts away as my head sinks towards the floor again.

I wake up, dizzy, and slowly raise my head from the ground. No, not the ground, a bed. I'm laying in a small bedroom under a thin blanket, and my head is spinning. I let it fall back towards the soft pillow, and just before I fall unconscious again, I can see the guy sleeping on a mattress on the floor a couple of meters away. I'm mad, very mad, that I didn't have the time to kill the dog myself.

I wake up again, this time in pain. The dark haired guy is looking out the window to my right now, and as I try to speak my throat burns. My head aches and I can feel my eyelids shiver as they close against my will. I need to stay awake and be alert, but I quickly fall asleep again.

The heat wakes me up, but the headache is almost gone this time. I raise my head from the pillow and look for the guy. I need to be aware of my surroundings even if I'm a mess. He's not there. I should get out of here. I try to sit up, but it's like I forgot how to control my own body, I'm barely able to move my head. I can feel the constantly recurring and ordinary frustration trying to sneak its way into my mind. But over the past few year I've gotten better at controlling and disguising it. My face is nothing but plain and relaxed. I've learned that sometimes acting is better than hiding. That's why I'm currently in a city. It might be abandoned, but hiding in the open has proved to be effective during the last year. They won't look for me here i the first place.

Especially if I had someone with me. They must assume I'm alone, hiding from the world like I used to do. They wouldn't believe it if someone told them that I'm not alone. That's the opposite of what I was trained to do. I was trained to hide and never be seen, to act in the hidden.

Suddenly, he walks into the small room.

Let the game begin.