The Death Games

Departure

Leo was trying to sleep, but he couldn’t, his mind preoccupied with thoughts of The Death Games. Who was he going to have to kill? Would he get out of there alive? What would his family do if he died? And… Kia. How would she deal with it? He gazed up at his ceiling, looking at the glow in the dark stars he and his mom and decorated it with in another, happier time.

He shifted and looked at the neon clock on his bedside table. 12:01am. At that moment, there was a loud knock on the door. Leo knew who it was. They knocked again, and he heard the door open, and muffled talking from downstairs.

The talking stopped, and he heard footsteps climbing the stairs. His mother pushed open the door, and whispered “Leo? Are you awake?”

“Yeah.”

His mother flicked on the light, and Leo could see the black circles under her eyes, and that her hair was in complete disarray, at least compared to the neat bun she refused to leave her room without.

“It’s them. The government. They’re here to-“ she stopped, and turned away, sobbing. 

“It’s okay, Mom.” Leo said, getting out of bed and hugging her.

“Your father is downstairs, waiting for you.” His mother said quickly.

Kia toddled into the room, clutching a stuffed bunny tightly to her chest. Leo guessed that all the racket had woken her up. “Mama, Leo, what’s going on?” she asked.

Leo knelt down and looked her in the eyes. “I’m going away for a while.”

“When will you be back?”

Leo looked up at his mom, clueless of how to respond. She was to busy wiping away tears to respond.

“Before, you know it Kia.” Leo said, getting up.

Kia nodded, and left the room.

Leo’s mother looked at him, and said “We should go downstairs.”

They did, and Leo found his Dad talking to an unfamiliar figure. 

“So this is Leo?” the person asked.

“He is.” his father said.

“Come on then, Leo. We must be going.” the strange man replied, and he escorted Leo out the door.

Leo looked back at the open door, and saw his mother, openly sobbing, his father, standing stiffly, and Kia, who had come downstairs at one point, joyfully waving. He stared at them for a long second, then forced himself to turn around. He couldn’t dwell on the past.

As he followed his escort, Leo saw all the other people he went to school with being escorted alongside him, silhouettes in the misty night. Everything was quiet, everyone to terrified to make a sound.

Excluding Elizabeth. She had been found waiting outside her house, and when the escort showed up, she told them they were late, and marched ahead of them, insulting the escort, and asking questions about which weapons would be available. 

They were both escorted into huge, black, windowless planes. Leo was strapped into a seat, sitting across from that girl Hannah from yesterday. Elizabeth, Anastasia, Alan, and Michael all ended up in the other plane.

Leo stared at Hannah curiously. She’d stood up to Elizabeth yesterday. And no one stood up to Elizabeth, except for Anastasia and Alan, because they’re too blindly in love to see what a stupid idea it was.

“Hey… Hannah, isn’t it? That was brave of you, standing up to Elizabeth yesterday.” Leo ventured.

“Well, she was being mean. I’m going to die anyway, so why not?” Hannah responded.

“No. We can’t be sure of who’s going to survive this.”

“It won’t be me. It’s obvious. I’m short, and fat. And Elizabeth hates me.”

“Yeah, you’re small. You could hide away somewhere.”

“My only talent is falling asleep whenever I want to. That isn’t going to help me much.”

Leo didn’t know how to respond to that, so they lapsed into silence.

Meanwhile, in the other plane, Elizabeth was terrorizing the people around her.

“I’m going to kill each and every one of you, and I’m going to love it.” she loudly declared. “Maybe I’ll cut out you’re tongues first, because you’re all too obviously to stupid to know how to use them!”

Michael was filming the whole thing with his phone, which he had somehow managed to sneak onto the plane.

“Elizabeth, my followers are loving this. We’re going to have so many sponsors!”

She turned around to face him. “We?”

“Yeah! I’ll promote you, and get us sponsors, while you kill anyone who bothers us! One female, one male tribute, remember?”

Elizabeth thought for a moment. “I work alone Michael.” she hissed. “You can go find someone else to ally up with. I don’t know if you wont stab me in the back at the first opportunity.”

Michael stared at her, shocked. “What? But-“

“Get over it Michael.” Elizabeth snarled.

The intercom crackled, and a smooth, emotionless female voice spoke. “We have arrived. Please wait for your straps to come undone, the proceed in an orderly line to the exit.”

The straps unlocked with a quiet click, and everyone slowly lined up. Except for Elizabeth. She pushed and shoved her way to the front of the line.

The line slowly moved forward, exiting the plane.