Build To Survive - The Orphans

The Light

I stood back and laughed, as James attempted to climb the tree that stood in our plot, constantly intimidating us. He jumped and crawled at the tree as he threw himself over it. They past few days were really boring for us, not to say that nearly being killed is enjoyable but its better than nothing, I guess.

Our protection is slowly running out, which is exciting, in a sense but n another sense the scariest thing in the world. Considering some of the people in this place, it's scary. Yeah definitely more scary than it is exciting. 

***

When James finally gave up on climbing the tree, we decided to sort through our weapons and food. Inside our canvas house, we built some shelves to stack food on and James nailed hooks into the walls to make curvatures that perfectly nurtured our weapons. Just as I placed the last can of tuna on the shelf the familiar famine voice rung out through the grounds. Although muffled by our canvas walls I was just able to make out what 'it' said ...

"Disaster in 10 seconds"

In that same instant I was reaching for my arsenal of knives, whilst my veins pulsed with excitement, thrill and worry. James, following suit, throw his quiver over his shoulder and picked up his bow., as we stepped outside the feminine voice became clearer and it spoke with an eerie tone.

"Disaster in 3 second"Disaster in 2 seconds"

"Disaster in 1 second"

By this point I was jumping out of my skin in excitement, but I had to control myself so that James wouldn't freak out, although I'm fairly certain he is excited too, This is the first disaster or feast in  5 days.

"Flood"

My jaw dropped and I just stared at James, he looked back, a spiderweb of worries sprawled across his face, as I felt water start to lap at the edge of my foot. The water dragged me back into reality and I jumped into action, sprinting for the tree with James following close behind, by the time we reached the tree the water was already ankle high, James' face was even more worried than it was before. As I started to climb the tree James yelled

"Joey, I can't climb." It pained me to say but I replied

"I know, you have to stay." His eyes went glassy as he watched me climb into the very top of the tree. At the top of tree I reached into a hole in the trunk and pulled out a sphere. I pushed myself form the branch towards the ever rising water, and landed next to James, which made him squeal. 

"I thought you were leaving me to die," he yelled over the surging waters.

"No, I was getting this." I yelled back.

I squeezed the metal cylinder and dropped it into the water. I felt the shrapnel of the metal sphere explode into my leg as a blow up raft exploded from the sphere. We both jumped into the raft careful not to let our weapons pierce it. Once I was safely positioned in the raft and taught James how to steer it, I pulled up my jeans and inspected my leg. There were around four pieces of metal embedded in my shin, I flinched as I pulled them out and threw them into the water. It's amazing how much my tolerance to blood has increased.

***

The water level has now risen above our house and is still rising fast. James grips the oars so tight that his knuckles turn white. He steered us around obstacles with phenomenal ease, which put my mind at some sort of peace considering our lives are quite literally riding inside a rubber boat over raging flood waters. I finally got the time to take in what was going in around us ... there were others in boats similar to ours and some people who were struggling to stay afloat in the rapidly flowing waters. As I turned in our small boat, I saw a knife sailing through the air towards our boat, our small vulnerable excuse for a boat, reacting as fast I could I took to my own knives and flicked a medium sized hunting knife towards it.. As my knife struck the incoming knife a small explosion of sparks lit up the air space directly in front of us, as both knives fell ungracefully towards the water one struck our boat and ripped hole in the front.

"Shit." I said.

"What?" James asked, as the water started to rush into the boat. "Oh that." he said rather calm, possibly a bit too calm. As our boat got pulled further and further under the raging waters our options started to run out.

"There," said James as he pointed at a tree that was fast approaching us. "We have to jump." he yelled.

"Uh ... okay" I replied

"3 ... 2 ... 1 JUMP" yelled James as he jumped for the tree arms outstretched. I followed suit and jumped after him, reaching for the tree. My heart raced as I flew through the air, it felt like hours even days. Then as my hands gripped around one the branches my legs failed to reach the tree and my body was left dangling. The rushing water rose up to me as if to grab me and rip under towards my own watery grave. I started to feel my fingers slip off the branch, at the moment I tried to scream for help the water ripped me from the safety of the tree and my lungs flooded with water.

I kicked my legs as hard as I could to surface. When I surfaced I spluttered and gasped for air and was mid breath when I was dragged under once more. After relentless kicking, splashing and  several attempts to surface only to dragged back under, I gave up trying to stay afloat and let the flood waters take me to my grave as I regretted in my head skipping swimming lessons back at the orphanage.

The pain in my chest gave me motivation once more as I kicked towards the surface, or what I think was the surface, it proved to be useless and my vision started to be invaded by dancing spots. I surfaced once more and was able to steal one more glance at my best friend before I was dragged under one final time and my vision was flashed with a bright light before it turned to nothing.