Arabella

Chapter 17

     "Arabella you're doing it wrong," Max muttered to his little sister as she was trying to hold up the bow and arrow perfectly to direct at the tree, "Hold it with whichever arm you're more comfortable with. Try your best to aim." She stared ahead with confidence and pulled back, letting go quickly, but only missing her target by a couple inches.
     The pit of her stomach fell, "I didn't make it Max."
     "It's okay, practice makes perfect," he patted her head gently with a grin and held onto the bow and arrow. Max set his position to shoot at the tree trunk that was in their backyard, "Stay in position just like this." He pulled back the string, and let go immediately. The arrow hit in the spot Arabella had wanted. Amused, she applauded her big brother like he was the hero of the town once more.
     "Is there something wrong, Arabella?" Dalton asked as he stood by her side waiting for something to happen. The two of them were put into separate rooms again with one or two people each. She had just been lucky enough to be with Dalton, the one who wanted to know just about everything.
     Arabella snapped out of her small dream, and noticed that Max was on the other side. The two of them sat down together against one of the walls in the empty room, seeing clear ahead of the people in rooms beside them.

You're a very special person, Arabella.

    It was the same mysterious voice that reappeared in Arabella's head a while back. A random screen appeared on the clear walls filled with information. Dalton pushed himself off the floor and began to reread intently at each word. They color coded each ability and personality a person would have with the rimmed eyes. "Isn't this you Arabella?"
"The leader of the group," he murmured to himself as he read the blue color code, "you are strong, selfless, persistent, and open-minded. You are human, and no one can stop you from following your heart."
She shook her head in confusion, "I'm no leader."
"You're full of crap," he turned back to her for a while, then continued reading the holograms. "You lead us to the palace, you survived and risked your life to keep us safe. Then you came back. I thought I'd see you slaughtered, only to find out you came back alive and well. Maybe a little tired. You took the responsibility of a baby too."
Arabella chuckled, "Okay." She helped herself onto her feet and read every persons color coded eyes. From purple to red to blue to green, gold, white. Just then the lights went out stopping all of them.
A voice rang through the speakers, "Pick up your weapon of choice." Each in every room, there was a table that laid out the same weapons used. There were swords, axes, guns. She sighed and picked up a saber, two pistols and one machine gun. The glass windows lifted up and soon vanished in the ceiling with no trace of it. The gigantic area was slowly forming into a single room. Max, Dalton, Noah, Luke, Chris, Arabella and the others all exchanged looks of confusion and fear.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two...

Arabella glanced at Dalton and muttered under her breath, "Good luck." The floors rumbled with great force, and a peaceful silence. The arena started to form its holograms of trees, bushes. All of them felt real, and looked real. "What the hell is this place?" With one snap from a twig, a deadly snarl from the unknown monster had risen.
Noah's eyes widened as Luke grasped onto his arm tightly and then whispered, "Don't.... move." The monster was gigantic and leathery. It was seven foot tall and ugly, the depth of it's eyes looked far from natural. The heavy breathing of the mysterious creature was just below them
"Move!!!" Chris pushed Noah and Luke out of the way and began to shoot at the creature. Arabella was right behind it, and began to slash it with her sword. The creature screeched with pain and Dalton stood back watching their backs. He had chosen a knife and pistols, from what Arabella had been teaching him since they've went into the Palace. It was almost hard to manage, but after it had died, more screeching came from both sides.
A pang of fear hit Luke in the chest as he saw Arabella fighting with all of her might. But he quickly recovered and began to shoot as well. "Arabella!!" He screamed loudly.
"Get out of here!! Run to the other side," she grunted and yelled as loud as she could. With being at a great height when on top of the monster, her arms raised up high with her sword and forcefully jabbed it into the creature's head. "We all split up somehow!! Take Dalton with you or something!!"
Dalton looked up at her, "I'm not leaving." With the creature's last breath, Arabella slowly climbed down. Luke glanced at her one more time as wild screams were echoing.
"We're sticking together then," she rolled her eyes and pushed everyone in front of her as she ran, "I'll be taking cover then."
They ran as fast as they could away. "WE NEED TO HIDE!!!" Max screamed as he had ran into his sister.
"There's no such thing as hiding anymore!!" She screamed and dragged him along. They were shooting their guns for as long as they can remember, and with every reload and every time the trigger was pulled one by one of the monsters went away.
Behind the glass, many of the people of the Palace watched these teenagers fighting for their life, "Is this really what our daughter is capable of?" Arabella's mother questioned MIichael, "I never knew she could be this strong."
"Trust me... You do not want know," he raised his eyebrows and continued watching through the glass.
After fighting in pain and being tortured by burning sensations from overworked muscles, the battle suddenly stopped. They walked out fulled with sweat and dirt on their bodies, brown from soiling up in the mud and fighting too long. By then, Arabella felt shaky from all the adrenaline. Alex had waited in the front. All of the trees and bushes had disappeared, not the dead bodies of the creatures. Looking at the amount, they had killed over one hundred creatures, the big one being Arabella's biggest hit.
The boys were glancing around. Instead of it being continuous, the glass was surrounding them filled with people who were astonished by how the hunters had killed every single one left. As they all glanced around in confusion, Alex laughed and shook his head, "You guys are amazing. I guess our God has officially tested you at your best ability."
"Test me again and I might end up ripping your eyeballs out," Arabella threatened him as Luke patted her shoulder lightly, and traveled his hand to her waist. Dalton and Noah were gazing at the Guardian Angel.
He chuckled, "Fiesty.. I like it." She just rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, "I don't know how you guys do it, but I can tell how much of a struggle it was for you to find that cure."
"Don't mention it," Chris sighed tiredly as they all walked past them, and dropped their weapons on the way out back to their rooms to take a shower.
Alex called out Arabella as she passed by, "Oh.. and Arabella?
"What?" she turned around in annoyance.
He smirked, "Luke is really lucky to have one hell of a girl like you."