Levels

Roja

Dayl watched her go and at the moment she vanished behind a dune already out of sight, he was on his own again. His brain was running through the things that had happened in the past few minutes, but how did it turn out like this? He never wanted her to leave. Everything was a lot easier with Allessa by his side. She was the one with ideas and the one who always turned up with some plans that got them through Level 1.

And now he was alone. The sun was still shining hot on his face drying his skin and yet, he still hadn't moved an inch from the place they got dropped of from ship.

Once his spirit slowly seemed to come back to him, he stood up and started to walk. Ten minutes later, he had already lost his orientation. Where did he come from? Was this the direction Allessa had gone? But he still kept on walking, the sun draining his power to go on. His throat was dry and felt like asphalt on a hot summer day. Every breath burned down his lungs and his body was bagging for a sip of water.

Something or someone was approaching him from behind, but the moment he realized, it was already too late.

He turned around and instantly startled at the sight of four metallic barrels coming from two shotguns directly pointing at his face. His eyes widened as he tripped over his own feet, falling to the ground and hitting the hot desert sand behind him.

"Give me one good reason, I shouldn't blow you brains out right here and now." An unfamiliar voice sounded from the person standing above him, still pointing to probably loaded shotguns at his face.

Dayl had to shield his eyes from the blistering sun directly shining in his eyes, so he could make out the person standing in front of him.

It was a young woman, not much older than twenty-five, she had a calm but serious expression on her face. Her skin was light brown and long flame-red hair was falling down her head slightly touching her shoulders, a string of hair covering one eye. She wore thick leather boots, a pair of black holy jeans. A grey shirt hardly covering her upper body, showing her bare tummy, a dark brown leather west and a white already ripped apart cloth around her neck. Two shotgun holsters were strapped to her back.

"I don't like to repeat myself you. Tell me, what would keep me from killing another competitor and increasing my chances of winning this game?" Her look hardened.

"Be...Because I can help you to get through this level." Dayl stumbled in a low voice, still staring up at her.

Her eyes were still fixed on his, looking like she was struggling to make a decisions.

Finally her expression eased and she lowered her guns to the ground.

"Fine, reason enough to keep you alive for the next few hours. You must be thirsty, here drink this and then get up already." She threw the leather flask filled with water, which was strapped to her hip, next to Dayl on the ground.

Dayl flung himself at the bottle like a lion on a gazelle, gulping the water down so hastily, he nearly spilled half of the water to the ground.

He got up from the boiling sand and looked at the burned palms of his hands, noticing Allessas heartrate at the little display on his wrist. Her heart was racing and her counter was close to 180.

What's wrong with her? What is she doing? ... I wish I could help her right now...

Suddenly guilt filled Dayls brain and he wished he would have followed her. Only after he realized what Allessa being in danger meant, he worried about his own life too, but his first concerned was meant for Allessa only.

Lost in his thoughts, he didn't even realized that he was already up and walking again, next to the women who saved him from dehydration.

"Thank you. But I'm wondering, who are you? I can see that you are from Reliquos, the fourth of the seven worlds." Dayl asked her.

She hesitated for a moment, but then she spoke: "Whatever, since we won't see each other again, it won't hurt to give you my name. I'm Roja Mondes, the best gunner of all of Reliquos. What's your name?"

"Nice to meet you Roja, I'm Dayl Riley from Explos."

Roja remained silent.

After another hour of strolling through the relentless desert, they came to a stone pillar standing in the middle of nowhere surrounded by sand only. On it, was a little golden lock with a whole for a tiny key.

"What do we do now?" Roja asked eyeing him.

"Let me see." Dayl put his hands on the golden look. He could feel the complex mechanism through his hands, seeing the intricacy in his mind and trying to solve it.

Suddenly the lock popped open. A huge spiral staircase revealed itself below the sand, forming a path into the ground.

"Wow, that was pretty...amazing!" Roja seemed astonished.

The followed the stairs down to the underground where a huge tunnel appeared in front of them. After a few yards, the tunnel split into two separate paths.

"Listen, we split here, each of us takes one way, if one of us comes to a dead end or the path splits again. We come back here."

"Right." Dayl answered.

Dayl went further into the channel, lightening his path with the display of his wrist band, until he came to a halt. It was a dead end and the sun was shining through a tiny hole above him, all the way to the ground onto a little pit filled with water.

He stepped forward, not daring to believe his eyes as he looked down at the surface. Something was floating in the water, a body. He scrutinized it closer. His stomach turned over, triggering a sudden urge to throw up.

The body was Allessa. At the moment he jumped into the water, he took fast glance at his wrist, Allessas heartrate had dropped to ten.

He grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the water as fast as he could, his heart beating up to his throat.

He placed her besides the pit. Grabbing her hand with both of his, he leaned over her pleading for her not to be dead.

"Please Allessa, don't do this to me. Don't be dead. You can't be dead. Gods, this is all my fault, I'm sorry." Tears glanced at the edge of Dayls eyes as his words left his mouth as a silent whisper.

Allessa opened her eyes. She instantly dropped on her hands throwing up the water she had swallowed.

Dayl took her in his arms as tight as he could, one hand place at the back of her head. Quiet sobs escaping his mouth.

"Oh my god, for a moment I thought you were dead."

"I'm sorry...Dayl... I never meant to be so harsh on you, I'm so sorry." Her voice was muffled but Dayl was just glad to her hear voice again.

"Don't say anything, I don't care what was going on with you, I'm just glad you're back and alive."

He said, as he pulled her into another tight hug.

All this time, he wasn't even worried about losing his life if I die.

All this time, the only thing he worried about, was losing me.