Rise Above

Chapter Four

Amira had just finished her last arrow when she heard a voice. "Remember this one has the dust creatures in." A group of three teenagers stepped out and seemed shocked to come across other people.

None of the dust creatures appeared. "Who are you?"
"We're allies, if you want them."
"Maybe we do." The girl in the middle, who looked to be the oldest of the three of them, took a wary step forward. "How long have you been here?"

"Less than 24 hours."

"I remember what that's like." She sighed. "Then you don't know what's coming and as I've been through it all I might just as well share what I know. You must be siblings."

"We are." Amira gestured behind her. "That's Samuel and Savanna. I'm Amira."

"Anywhere else I'd say it was a pleasure to meet you, but here... well, you obviously know you've been put here for a reason."
"To whittle us down."

"Pretty much. I was here with my three siblings - Adam, Esther, and David. I'm Mary. Now I'm looking out for Tony and Lloyd, because they lost their own siblings, and I know how hard it is to be alone in this place. The Tunnels aren't nice.

However spending the last three years in here has taught me a lot. It's probably taught me more than I ever wanted to know."Her eyes met with Amira's. "You're very unlikely to all get out of here alive, if you find a way out at all.

Apparently there is one. I haven't found it yet. A couple of other people have... who were then stupid enough to come back in to see if they could take more people to it, which was a mistake. Find it and get out. Find it and bring an end to this, if you can."

"What do you know?"
"I don't know where to start."
"We have food, if you want it." Savanna stepped forward. "Sam managed to catch a couple of rabbits, so we have stew, and there's plenty to go around."

"You don't trust the food you were given either."
"Of course we don't. We were dumped here by Lady Kahina and Eugene for a reason. Maybe they did train us for it, but there's no doubt in any of our minds they want at least one, hopefully more, of us to die."

"I have heard of that happening. I've never come across people who have actually been trained, though." Mary studied them more closely. "Do you feel ready for what's to come?"

"Being able to fight things doesn't mean we're ready for this." Amira smiled. "We're not. This is simply something we have to do, because we have no other choice, thanks to the people who raised us. Now we're here we're going to do our best to survive. It's the only thing we can do." She brushed a hand through her hair as she sat with Samuel. "When we do get out we're going to put an end to this. It's wrong."

"Yeah, it is, and most people don't know the Tunnels exist. I think, although I'm not certain, we're the children of people who did managed to escape, because getting out means we're better than anyone else. As soon as we're 'free' we get paired up with someone of the opposite gender.

Then our children are meant to come through the Tunnels themselves. They, the Battle Lords and Ladies, are doing their best to create a group of people who are better than everyone else for some reason, but they've never told anyone what that reason is. It seems likely they want us for something in the future."

"To make the world a better place, probably. It sounds like the sort of thing they'd do and of course they would think it's best to make the world a better place by conquest, wouldn't they?" Amira accepted a bowl of stew, before staring at the bowl. Somehow Savanna had managed to create some basic crockery, and that made Amira smile, even though she would still need to eat with her fingers. "Our parents are dead."

"It happens to people who won't give up their children, Amira. We're born for this place."
"I am going to change that, Mary, because this, no matter what sort of logic they have for building this place, it's not right to put children through this." She looked at Tony and Lloyd, who didn't look like we're much older than 13. "How long have the two of you been here?"

"About a month." One of the boys looked down at the ground. "I was here with my brother, Jack, but he died in one of the more dangerous areas, and the only reason I survived was Mary. Now I'm not certain I want to."
"Tony..."

"Mare, I think it's important to be as honest as we can be. If Amira really is going to bring an end to the Tunnels she needs to know why she isn't just doing it for her family, but for other families too."

The other boy, Lloyd, nodded. "I agree. I was left here with my two younger sisters about six months ago. They were desperate enough towards the end to eat the food we were given and found it was as poisoned as I believed it was.

Both of them died three days later." He shuddered. "Get out of here for us, Amira. We could all have lived nice normal lives.

Unfortunately our parents willingly gave us up to one of the Battle Lords and it might well be because they knew what was going to happen to them if they didn't."

"Death is better than giving up your children willingly, but I can understand why some people wouldn't think the same way I do.

If I can put an end to this I will, Lloyd, for all three of you and for the other siblings who've been through this." She reached out and took the two boys' hands. "Do you have any idea what direction we should be heading it?"