Rise Above

Chapter One

"I can't see anything." Savanna stayed in the tree. "That doesn't mean something isn't coming, though. I can barely see anything."
"Can you tell where we are?"
"The middle of nowhere."

Of course. Biting hard on her lip Amira looked around, trying to see if there was anything else there for them, and that was when she noticed the satchel. It had been shoved under one of the bushes, so she wasn't sure she was meant to find it, but she had, so she was going to take it. Samuel stayed ready, in case something or someone did attack. The three of them knew what they were best at and they would make the most of that. The first thing she saw in the satchel was an envelope. When she took it out she couldn't help thinking she didn't want to read whatever was in it. At the same time she knew she didn't have any other choice, not if she wanted to know what was going on, which didn't make opening it any easy.

"We were left a letter. Do you want me to read it out to the two of you?" Amira looked at her siblings. "It's from Lady Kahina and Eugene."

"Go ahead." Dread filled Samuel's voice. "We might just as well get it over and done with." He sighed. "Finding ourselves here, wherever here is, isn't a good sign."

"'My dearest Amira, Samuel, and Savanna, I am writing to explain to you why you find yourself in the Tunnels. I am sorry it was done without warning, but they are a test of your skills and in order for it to work in the way it's meant to we couldn't have said anything about it in advance.' Are either of you hearing the lie in that?" Both Samuel and Savanna, who'd climbed down the tree and grabbed her own weapon, nodded.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one. 'Your parents owed us. They tried to escape without paying and we did the only thing was could - we took the three of you in order to prepare you for this. By triumphing in the tunnels you'll pay us back for both your parents debt and the debt you owe us. However, as I'm sure you've already realised, triumphing isn't going to be easy. You will have to fight your way through them and there is a chance you won't all survive what's coming.' Took the three of us? For our entire lives they've told us our parents are dead and now there's a chance they might be alive."

Samuel made a sound and Amira looked up at him. "You know better than that, Mira. We've all seen how Lady Kahina and Eugene deal with problem. Our parents are dead, dead at the hands of the two people who raised us, and, to be honest, ending up here isn't a surprise. They were preparing us for something from the beginning."

"Yeah, they were." Amira shook her head. "I just didn't think they were preparing us for our deaths, Sam." She looked around. "Maybe this part of the tunnels is safer, in comparison to the others, because the last thing I want to deal with is something attacking us today." Her eyes met with Samuel's, so she could see how unlikely he thought that was. "A girl can hope, Sam."

"Hope, it appears, is the only thing we have left." He shrugged. "We're not all meant to survive this. I think we need to plan ahead for that. There is a chance none of us will."

"Mira will." Savanna sighed. "If any of us will get through this alive it's going to be Mira and I want a promise from you, if you do survive."

"You have it."
"Good." They knew each other well enough that Savanna didn't need to say anything about what that promise was. It was obvious. After what had been done to them all three of them wanted Lady Kahina and Eugene dead. "How are we going to survive this?"

"The same way we've survived everything else." Amira stood with the letter in one hand and the satchel in the other. "Together." She wrapped her arms around Samuel and Savanna. "We can do this."

"I wish I had your belief." Samuel was the pessimist, Amira was the optimist, and Savanna was the realist. "I will do everything I can to survive, but I don't think I'm going to leave the tunnels alive. I... the last thing I want to do is leave the two of you. I just..." He shook his head, looking around. "They put us here for that reason. They knew not all of us were going to leave the tunnels alive and that's what they wanted. I don't know what happens when we get to the end."

"Do we know there is an end?" Savanna shrugged. "This might just be a never ending battle for survival and we'll never again see the outside world."

"What a wonderful though that is." Amira glared at her sister. "Thank you so much." Breathing deeply Amira pushed away the fear Savanna might be right. "Let's get going."