Build To Survive - The Orphans

The Gathering

Three nights later and the girl's body still lay lifeless on the mulch ground, below us. We are too scared to move from our structure even though we can't be attacked, supposedly. To our luck no other gatherings or disasters have occurred but I can't help but feel that our luck is slowly running out.

We decided that today was the day, that we moved to another plot, our own plot. The night before we packed as much stuff as we could into the bag the principal gave us, and now the dreaded time had come. To get the bags, left by the girl, and find out what was in them. I climbed my way towards to green bag, making sure of every movement. I reached the green bag just after James reached his blue one. The moment had come, time to find out what was in these bags, I slowly unzipped mine, as I pulled it open it revealed a range of building materials and tools, relief rushed through me like water breaking from a dam, with excitement i looked up to see James pulling a small cylinder from his bag and a quiver of arrows. He pressed a button on the side of the cylinder, two arms flicked out, connected by a string, He was holding a bow, I suddenly felt a surge of assurance and power and started climbing towards the big white back at an alarming pace.

James was making his way to the pink and black bags.

***

My scream shattered the silence that hung dormant in the air, the flock of birds near by flew off. In my fright I let go off the rope and fell. I crashed into a netting of ropes that criss-crossed like an asterisk, I had lost all my breath and in the confusion didn't notice the body that now hung from it's neck from the top of the rope structure, then I remembered that's what made me fall in the first place ... when I first opened the big white bag I saw a single shoe, thinking it was a bag of clothes I opened it further and revealed a body that lay in the bag. I felt my vision slip out of my control.

***

When my eyes opened, James was sitting down next to me, staring off into the grounds. He noticed me and looked over.

"Hey, you alright?" he asked, with a gentle tone.

"Uh, yeah, I uh think so" I replied

"We should probably go get to our own plot, at least there won't be any bodies in bags ... " he joked.

I almost vomited at the mention of the body, it's only been 4 nights and I have already had two horrific experiences, that will forever remain in my memory.

***

We started walking down the main-road of the grounds, people came out of their huts and tents to watch us go by. One guy was very young, younger than us, maybe 11. He looked very hostile and seemed to know exactly what he was doing, he had a canvas tent with boxes laid out in neat rows all with different items in it. Weapons in one, food in another, medical supplies and bottles of water. I almost kept walking after James turned left at the point where the last Gathering was but he grabbed my sleeve and pulled me with him.

As the road we were on started to bend, I spotted an empty plot. We threw our stuff onto it, it was then that I remembered the bags.

"What was in the other bags?" I asked James

"Oh, just more bodies" I shuddered at the response, "I'm only joking, one had medical supplies and the other had some more food."

I let out a sigh of relief.

"So what now?"

Just as James opened his mouth to speak the feminine voice spoke,

"Gathering in 30 seconds"

"We go to the gathering." said James a look,that I did not like one bit, crept onto his face. A young smirk suggested he had an idea, and his ideas were never brilliant. He started rummaging through the bags that lay a stray all over our plot, he hands me a belt with an array of knives lined up in it, and he slips a quiver over his shoulders. I suggested to him that we should hide our bags, so he decided the nail them to the tree that twisted and curved its branches, perfect for hiding our bags. Once we were sure everything was well hidden and secure we started to leave.

"Gathering in 20, 19 , 18 , 17 , 16 , 15"

James broke out into a sprint, his head cocked back looking at the map. I've always been faster than James and I caught up to him with ease. We ran side by side as the countdown progressed further to 0. We reached the gathering as the countdown got to 6, when he stepped into the plot that the gathering was on, our feet got glued to the ground, in some sort of quicksand. I quickly realise that if you enter the gathering before it starts then you get glued to the spot. It's clever.

***

The six second wait is painfully slow but when the countdown finally finishes, James shoves me towards the closet table and tells me to get on it. Confused, I do what he says even though every part of me says it's going to be a very very bad idea. He started to push the table towards the road, I could see the muscles straining in his arm.

"The newbies shields have been disabled for all gatherings and disasters" boomed that voice that appeared on the first day.

At that exact moment a young girl maybe 17, slashed at James' back with her sword. He arced his back and the tip sliced his shirt revealing his lower back. I reached to my belt and grabbed a knife, I swung my arm in a wide arc and released the knife. It flew directly into the girl's shoulder and her body spun backwards throwing her to the ground, blood flowing from her wound and the knife standing like a rigid pole from her shoulder.

She screamed as she ripped it out, but her scream was cut short by an axe swinging down onto her neck, cutting half way through, silencing her forever. The wielder of the axe looked directly at me and held my gaze for one second, then he spun around and smashed someone with the blunt part of the axehead. He body went limp. James finally managed to push the table onto the road, and spun it, so it was facing longways down the hill, our plot sits at the bottom beckoning us. He pushes off the ground and jumps onto the table, we start rolling down the hill. I knew it was bad idea.

We start to pick up speed, as people chase us down the hill. James knocked an arrow and drew back the string, calming his breathing and focusing his strength. He let the arrow loose and it shot through the air, striking someone in the knee de dropped his sword and crumbled to the ground, holding his knee. His sudden stop caused a collision among the people chasing us, as more and more fell over James kept letting arrows fly, hitting people in the cruelest of places. Once most the people had been immobilised he jumped off the table and onto our plot whilst I was left to crash into the tent on the plot in front of me. As I braced for impact, nothing happened and I realised that the table had come to complete stop in front of our plot. I jumped off and James was estactic, only four days in and we are already the talk of the town.

"What the fuck was that?" boomed the male voice, I have decided that it's a male behind the voice.