Writer Games: Pending Secrets

Task Four - The Great Escape - Male Entries

Peter Mask

*DID NOT HAND IN* Strike One

Logan Hudson

Blood and death, bodies, soldiers, friends, dead tributes, a broken city... All of the images swirled in Logan's mind faster than he could fully process. Memories flooded inside his mind, scattered and broken.

Chris huddled behind an overturned truck as the Peacekeeper tanks drove toward them.

Grady darted toward Logan, relief consuming his expression. "You're alive!"

Logan sliced his sword across one Peacekeeper after another.

The Peacekeepers yanked him inside the airship, just before district thirteen exploded.

Chris stabbed Grady, who fell to his knees. Logan dashed toward Chris, clashing swords back-and-forth.

Naomi screaming as Chris jumped down on top of Jana, and tore open her chest.

Chris and Logan fighting with their backs against each other. "I'm watching your back, Logan!" Chris shouted.

Logan broke through Chris' defenses and stabbed his chest.

Chris didn't see another Peacekeeper charging toward him. Logan's sword pierced into the Peacekeeper's chest. "I'm watching yours, too, buddy."

Chris collapsed to his knees, staring at Logan in surprise. "Guess... I'm not... watching your back anymore..."

Creature Grady darted around Logan, heading straight for Naomi.

Logan fell to his knees beside Grady, holding his brother's head in his lap. "Grady... p—please don't..."

Logan sliced his sword across Grady's head, severing it.

Grady rasped once before his body stilled and his breathing stopped.

Each image was another memory, and each memory merged together until they all blurred and Logan could no longer tell one from the other. In the end, it was Naomi's voice singing to him quietly that brought him back to reality. It was a quiet lullaby; one she often sang to him whenever his PTSD episodes struck him. Whenever he heard the song, it was an instant reminder that the images inside his mind weren't real.

Naomi tethered him to reality.

"N—Naomi?" His voice was rough and hoarse—as if he'd been screaming for hours on end. As he looked around, the first thing that he noticed was that they appeared to be inside some sort of crevice. Naomi was covered in scratches and cuts, but other than that, she was unharmed.

"There was an earthquake, and you weren't responding. You darted through the building as it fell, so I had to push you over. We landed down inside a crevice. I think there's a way out, but you were completely unresponsive and I couldn't move your dead weight alone." Naomi's eyes brimmed with tears, and fear was etched all over her features.

Logan sat up and slung an arm around her shoulder, crushing her to him. "I'm sorry." Guilt welled up like a fist inside his chest, and it felt as if all his breath was sucked out. Grady had died because of him, and he couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to Naomi—didn't even want to think it. If something happened to her...

Logan shoved the thought aside furiously, trapping it inside the back of his mind. "Let's go. We need to figure out where we are." He stood, shifting his arm so that he only held her hand.

The crevice itself was smaller than it originally appeared. Water dribbled from the rocks, pooling onto the floor, but it wasn't enough to cause alarm. The air smelled murky and stale, making Logan crinkle his nose.