Fallen Heroes

Prologue

"I have never, in all my years, ever smelt anything as bad as you." Sunny said dramatically as he sat down on the floor.

Mess didn't have to look to know it was him, he spoke with the accent of the privileged and the octaves of the modest. He'd relaxed so much since they'd first met. He used to be so reserved and guarded, now he was more carefree.

"If you are able to locate a shower then let me know and I'd be more than happy to give it a whirl." Mess replied without her usual sass, the heat was unbearable, like it was melting her skin and sticking her to the floor.

"I think it would require acid rain to get rid of your stench at this point Mess." Sunny retorted. He was new to the concept of insults and, while he still had a long way to go, some of the comebacks he threw were genius.

"Funny Sunny." Is all she said, moving around to escape the puddle of sweat that had pooled beneath her spread out body.

They were in the Chill Zone of the Sin Bin. The Sin Bin was the highest level security prison in existence. The Chill Zone was an area of the prison where the trouble makers were sent to curb their anger. It was basically a large expanse of a room that seemed to have no end and no beginning. Doors opened from nowhere and closed into oblivion. The heat was terrible, the temperature was always high, almost like you were permanently inside a microwave and everything was red and squishy. Nothing was sturdy and there was no way to get your bearings. Walls, floors and the roof were all the same. Sometimes you couldn't tell if you were up or down, most times you didn't care.

They always kept you in the Chill Zone for just that little bit longer than nessacery, as if you'd remember how awful it is and be good so you wouldn't get sent back. The thing about the Chill Zone is that is sucks all the energy out of you and your brain feels like soggy mush in your head. You are basically baked into submission. If the heat was real, from the actual sun, it would have been more bearable, but it wasn't. Everything pulsated with warmth, there was no escape.

"Cogs not here yet?" Sunny asks.

"I'm here." Cogs said as she sat down.

The three looked at each other for a while before lying down on the ground in a small circle.

"So Sunny did you get it?" Cogs asked.

"Yes it's all sorted. Everything is in place but I had to make a deal."

"Deal what deal? We didn't agree to a deal." Mess said suddenly wide awake. Bits of sweat rolled down her forehead as she stared at him wondering what trouble the bumbling idiot had got them into now.

"It's okay, it actually works out better this way. It gives us some time."

Cogs and Mess look at each other cautiously, "Well what is it then?"

"We have to write it out."

"Write what out?"

"Our story."

"What?" Mess asks.

"Story?" Cogs creases her forehead in annoyance.

"Yes what happened. We start at the beginning, where we first got dragged into this mess and go from there. We each have to write our own, everything leading up to how we got here." Sunny explains.

"Why would they want that? We offered them everything and they want a story." Cogs said disbelieving.

Mess shook her head and frowned, "It's obvious. It's our story. I can't believe we didn't think of it but it's genius."

"Exactly." Sunny looked proud of himself, "Tonight they are going to collect us and take us to the Writers Wroom."

"What is that?"

"No!"

Sunny and Cogs turn to look at Mess in surprise at her outburst.

"I thought we get to write whatever we wanted, our story."

"We do." Sunny said still confused.

"Then why are they taking us to the Writer's Wroom?"

Cogs tilted her head and looked between the two. Sunny said simply, "Because they are going to put us in the Scribes Sim, so they know it's the truth. Why? Were you going to lie?"

Mess squinted at the Sunny, "Of course I was going to lie! I was going to leave out huge chunks and only write the important bits. Under the sim it doesn't work like that. They know everything. They find out everything. Every little thing."

Mess sat up and rubbed her hands over her face, sighing in defeat.

"There are things that I don't want to write about either Mess," Cogs said leaning forward, "Painful things that I don't ever want to think about again but if it helps us escape and all the rest then I'll do it. What's more important to you?"

"She's right. We've been planning this weeks, we are in way too deep now. We are bartering our lives for our lives. It seems rather fitting if you ask me." Sunny added.

Mess groaned into her hands one more time before nodding her head and agreeing, "Fine. Okay. Whatever it takes to escape."

"Good." Cogs said.

The three of them talked for a little longer about the finer details of their plan. They would be escorted to the Writer's Wroom tonight and placed under a Scribes Sim where they would write and write and write until they were done waking only from their trance like state to eat and use the bathroom. Once they were done, they would be escorted back but on the journey something would go wrong and the three of them would escape, heading straight back to where they were first caught to continue their original mission.

When they were done they retreated to far corners of the Chill Zone giving a simple nod of goodbye to each other as they went. Three of them had lived and lost and loved, each of them terrified of what the readers were going to find out but they knew. They had to escape. They had to complete their mission. 

This is the story of three people who were never supoosed to become extraordinary but did.

Mess, Cogs and Sunny.