THE LAST GAMES: PROJECT PANDORA

CHAPTER III: T H E R E B E L L I O N

Winter is slowly gaining consciousness, her eyes slowly lifting, but only to fail me again by opening only for a glimpse and closing once more. Rachel walks up to me and grabs my hand.
"She will heal here. Away from the battle. She is safe. Our friends are not." Now we slowly melt into the darkness of the Earth, only to re-appear in the same spot I was ready to die not long ago. I'm not sure how much longer Rachel can hold this up. It seems to be draining her.
All these buildings that once stood tall are now ruined, and radiate sorrow. The beasts are no longer anywhere to be seen. That scares me more then their seemingly endless gaze being right in front of me. My friends are in danger. My grazed knee no longer is in pain. As I said before, I don't care about my self anymore. So me, and Rachel, begin to look. Look through the ruins of the buildings of glass. Nobody is anywhere to be seen. Where could they be? Could I have been to late?
Tears start to well up inside of me, threatening to show on my face. It has been a long day. "Come on!" I yell. "We're over here!" No answer. The sound of my voice trails off in an echo over the dead landscape. A single tear drops from my eye and runs down my face.
Then a metal shine catches my eye. A glimmer of hope. I run towards it. Rachel just stands there, silent, without a word. I run in between the collapsed towers and burnt rubble, and find one metal carcass, along with three dead bodies. Maybe there in still hope. Only two serpents left. But most of all, I know where they were heading. "Come." I yell over to Rachel. She jogs over and stops when she sees the sene. A grim look on her face.
"This is where we started. Where you woke from you consciousness." My heart drops. I refuse to believe it. Then, in the distance, I see a figure. It is running, moving closer. Then another, and another. A smile seeps into my face. My tear drys.
"Thank you God" I whisper to myself "thank you."
Soon I have thirty figures running towards me, followed by two of the beasts. It is now time to fight. I reach over and take a long, sleek, high tech sniper rifle from my back. It was given to me by Rachel. I drop to one knee and aim. My finger lightly touching the trigger, waiting. Finally everyone has run past me. The first serpent is forty feet away, the other following only ten feet behind, hungry for blood. I tug on the trigger and a blast of energy flys towards it. Getting closer and closer. I cross my fingers, hoping it will hit its mark. And it does. The Wyvern crashes of its path, rolling into sky scrapers before it ignites in a firry blaze, to far away now to kill me. I pull the slide of the gun and it begins to charge, getting warmer by the energy flowing through it. I get up. If I wait for this weapon to charge I will be dead.
My cabin-mates are not too far ahead. I slide my rifle onto my back, and try to catch up to my friends. They are losing speed, tiering after hours of running. I am surprised we have lasted this long. My back is warming, growing hotter as my weapon is charging.
As I catch up I see the glimmer of metal in front of us. They are rounding us up! Why? Then I realise, but I do to late. How could we be so blind. Now that we can barely stand, they will kill us. My weapon is now glowing with heat. A smile slowly spreads across my face. I take it out.
"Stop! You are running into your death!" A wave of confusion swallows them. Then they know what I mean and stop. Another War Wyvern swings at us. Rounding us up and trapping us. Then they are everywhere. Rachel is nowhere to be seen. The guy in front of me drops dead. Then another. I see movement, take out my sniper rifle and shoot up at a building.
A dead body of a soldier drops from it. Along with his weapon - a sniper rifle - the same as mine. This makes me question Rachel. How she knows so much about where we are and what we do. I pull back the slide of my gun.
"They're in the buildings!" I yell. Everyone arms themselves, and start shooting blind at the buildings. The occasional shoot hits, but it's not enough. I shakily realise how well this was planed out. I shoot again, this time at a Wyvern, but it misses. I curse under my breath. Suddenly a sniper gets thrown out a window. And another. And another. Rachel. She appears next to me. I can't help but smile. She flicks her hand and another man gets thrown from a building. I almost laugh. The man kicking and screaming as he plummets. Then my leg pulses with pain. I drop to the ground. The top half of my leg stings with blood. I bite my lip, trying not to yelp. I try not to look at my wound but my eyes betray me.
A deep gash has ripped its way into my thigh. I have been shot. The wound spiting a thick dark red liquid with every heartbeat. My heart is racing out of my chest. Then Rachel's voice once again appears in my ears. Darkness and fear can only win if we let it. I try to believe it. I will not let them win. I can see Rachel's muscles tensing. She has been shot. Her shirt sleeve is socked with blood. A Wyvern charges, knocking ten people to the ground, but not all of them dead. If I shot it now the explosion would kill us all, so instead, I stand. It is hard, but not impossible. Adrenalin has taken over and I can no longer feel the pain.
"Hey, over here you big metal sacks!" Not my best insult, but the Wyverns' turn to me. I start to run in and out of buildings, away from the battle. And, they follow. Then my face hits the ground. My face is covered with blood and so is my right shoulder. I can't help but scream. I hold my weapon in my good arm and shoot. It hits its mark, the beast ignites the other and they both burn. No more metal serpents. I get lifted up into the air, the world ablaze, spinning around me. Flame licking at my body. My vision begins to fade, and my sight goes dark. But I can manage a slight smile. I know that for me it is over, but my friends still have a chance. They still have a future. Not a bad way to go. Not to bad.

I can feel my consciousness being slowly sucked back into my empty body. No. I don't want to move. I don't want open my eyes. I don't want to think. I just want to go back to being dead. There is not an inch of my body that is not in unbearable pain. I am beginning to gain feeling. An image of what is around me is slowly starting to form. I feel a rough, hard concrete wall behind my back. The un-smooth surface hurts my brittle skin. It's cold, icy feeling - or at least it seems that way - gives an unpleasant tingling sensation, like pins and needles. Only worse. I don't bother to try and move. I know I do not yet have the strength. Not the strength to open my eyes. Not the strength to do anything. I can feel the same concrete floor underneath me. A cold, damp, smell drifts through the air and makes its way to me. This makes me think nobody has been here for a long time. As feeling appears throughout every area of my body, as I wish it hadn't, I feel something even colder than the walls around me engulf my wrists. Maybe it's metal. A tinge of curiosity pings in my brain. Though I'm not sure, if I could, I would want to open my eyes and let colour fill them. So I just lie there, on the cold hard ground. Waiting. Gathering strength.
As strength comes, so does pain. And with that pain comes memory. And worry. And anticipation. And curiosity. And fear. But last of all comes hope. Hope and fear are not to different. Both false if you do not believe in them. Both have just four letters. Then I open my eyes. Slow at first, but then faster. Curious to whatever icy thing is covering my wrists, that's where I look, my eyes zipping strait to my arms. Then I see it. And suddenly all this makes sense. The old musty smell, the cold hard walls of concrete. I take a deep breath. My spirit drops. Like I was standing on the edge of a cliff and this was the thing to finally push me off. Shackles. Iron Shackles. I am chained to the wall by my wrists. I am imprisoned.
I hear the slam of a door somewhere nearby echo around me. I quickly close my eyes. I don't know why though. Maybe so if I decide to die here I still can. Blood is smeared over the wall behind me. I guess it is just not my nature to give up. Hard, heavy footsteps storm towards me. I am sure someone - or something - is coming for me. I hold my breath.
The door opens, and in all honesty, I am terrified. I want so bad to open my eyes but I know if I do he or she will see me. My lungs begin to hurt. I am not sure how much longer I can keep this up. Whoever is here walks over to me. I stay as still as I can. Then a hard boot slams into my ribcage. My body topples over like a rag doll. The wind is knocked out of me and I gasp for air.
"I know your awake, now get up!" A deep mans voice yells at me. How does he know? I can't think strait. Another boot hits me and I think my ribs are broken.
"I said, get up!"