Assassin's Dream

Chatpter Four

Callie had left nearly half an hour ago. Wyatt had pulled out his stylus for something to do, because all of them were starting to get anxious.

What if we aren’t going to the Dream? Derek thought. Something has to be going on.

He wasn’t sure what, but he was starting to feel uncomfortable. He had been stuck in a cell for hours and the only thing that had happened, besides his intense boredom, was Callie being dragged out of the cell with almost no explanation. For a second, Derek had thought Wyatt wanted to say something after Callie left, but he had kept his mouth shut.

Wyatt was trying to focus on his stylus and the news updates it was giving him, but he couldn’t stop thinking of Callie. He hadn’t had the chance to explain anything to her. What if she didn’t know about the classification colors? Or if she didn’t impress the judge? Any wrong move could get her killed. Not necessarily right away, but Dream and the people who controlled it had a way of quickly ‘eliminating’ anyone the empire, or judge, didn’t like.

Wyatt also knew he had to talk to Ivy and Derek, but he was hesitant. He liked using his stylus as an escape, if it distracted him he wouldn’t have to think about the Dream. If he talked to them he would have to talk about the Dream.

Finally, his stylus just wasn’t good enough anymore, putting it away, he cleared his throat.

Ivy looked up as Wyatt suddenly cleared his throat, she thought it was cute, in a way, that he felt the need to clear his throat to prisoners.

“How much do you guys know about the Dream?” he asked.

Ivy shrugged, “Just what I’ve seen, criminals are placed in teams, and at the end only one team survives.”

“It’s more than that,” Derek added. “It’s when ordinary criminals are turned into killers. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the professors at the Academy show little clips of the Dream to us. This way, everyone is  frightened away from committing a crime.”

“And yet here we are,” Ivy stated, Derek couldn’t read the smile on her face.

“Yeah well that’s all true,” Wyatt said. “But the real secret of the game is how to win.”

Derek looked confused, “Are you trying to say there’s a way to win besides killing all the other teams?”

“No,” Ivy said. “He’s saying the empire has a way of making sure we can kill everyone.”

+++++++++++++

As she was led out of the testing room, Callie was still musing over what the men had told her after her testing trial. Silver was a good thing, right? That meant she had a chance at surviving the Dream, and was being put on a team with other people who best complimented her skills, attitude, and zeal for life. At least they hadn’t tried to end her right then and there! Maybe going into the Dream wasn’t the ideal plan for survival, but it gave her a longer period of time to live than she originally thought she had.

Callie was brought back to reality as she ran into a wall. “My gods that hurt like a force field!”

She looked up and was surprised to see that while she had been lost in her dreamland, the guards had led her through the building to another wing labeled as ‘Waiting Rooms.’

The same guard that she had tried to attack unlocked the door and held it open for her. Walking down the hall, they stopped again at the first door on the right. The same guard unlocked this door as well and turned to Callie.