Dead Ringer *Watty 2016*

Ruse

The time ticked away quickly and Larkin began to get closer and closer to giving up when Briar sat bolt upright.  "Lark they came in the first night, when I was bleeding pretty bad."  Briar said then she held a long pause.  "He opened the cage and bandaged me up."  Briar finally continued.

"So," Larkin asked lowering her voice as she realized how they knew when Briar was injured, "we stage a fight we already have a history of being violent to one another."  Larkin responded, "but you have to be loosing this time.  I'm not worth anything, they won't save me."

Briar nodded knowing that Larkin spoke the truth.  A look of pure panic crossed Briar's face and for a moment Larkin looked around for the source before she realized that they were beginning.  "You're not her," Briar backed up as if she was fearful of Larkin.

"What are you talking about?"  Larkin asked hoping that Briar would see where she was going.

Luckily the years of spending every waking minute together and Briar continued.  "You imposter!"  She shouted.  "You demon!"  Then she lunged her arms hitting Larkin's injured shoulder hard, resulting in a real scream of pain.  Larkin quickly flipped her, not sure if it was because of her own ability or because Briar already knew exactly how the fight had to go.

There was a moment of hesitation before Larkin allowed her fist to connect with Briar's face, trying to avoid any real injury.  Larkin's knuckle hit down hard on the bone above Briar's eye and Briar let out a yelp of pain before instinctively shoving Larkin off of her.  Briar checked her head for blood and found none but the pause allowed Larkin enough time to clamber back to her feet and take one large kick, swinging hard but barely tapping Briar's ribs.  Briar let out a gasp of air as if the wind had really been knocked out of her and then they heard the footsteps.  The ruse only needed to carry on a few minutes more but Larkin was having trouble bringing herself to hit her friend again, seeing this Briar forced herself to her feet.

Briar threw a sloppy punch at Larkin which barely connected with Larkin's good side as she stepped out of the way.  Then, realizing her attack had not done the job, Briar began to collect spit in her mouth and she spat a large wad in Larkin's face.  More out of instinct then out of malice Larkin jumped at the other girl, grabbing her by her throat and flinging her into the metal bars.  Holding her there in what looked like a vicious choking maneuver as she let her temper cool door.  The movements of the guard were loud behind Larkin but she didn't let Briar go.  Then just as the click of the cell door popping open, seemingly from the solid cell, Briar placed one carefully calculated kick into Larkin's midsection sending Larkin within inches of the newly opened door.

Just in time Larkin wedged herself in the opening so that it would not close without Briar, who was now being looked over by the guard who had yet to notice that Larkin was leaving the cell, probably assuming that she was too intimidated by his presence to keep fighting.  As his slick black uniformed body bent over Briar's pale, dark form, Briar laid convincingly still.  Then when he was too close to maneuver out of the way she jabbed her sharp untrimmed thumb nail into his eye socket, twisting it ever so slightly as she did so.  He let out an inhuman hiss of pain before recovering just in time for her to follow the same pattern to the other eye.

Once again he recuperated with unnatural speed but he was blinded, making Briar's escape from underneath him easy.  Feeling the absence of the warm body he spun on the spot charging for her, judging her position on sound alone.  In a matter of seconds Larkin had ripped her shoe off and threw it across the cell, landing firmly of the other side of him.  He spun and lunged for it, throwing his head into the wall.  He lay dazed for just long enough that Briar was able to join Larkin in the cell doorway before they exited together, allowing it to close automatically behind them.  The guard had now become the prisioner.

Unfortunately for the two girls, escaping the cell proved to only be the first step in escaping the labyrinth that they were trapped in.  Once the left the dimly lit room that the cell was housed in they realized that neither one of them had managed to remember the path to escape.  The hallways were no brighter than the place they had just been and with Briar's eye already swelling shut they had to rely solely on Larkin's vision.  Larkin tried to choose paths that were sloped upward, knowing that they were far below the entrance to the cave.  It wasn't long until the pair of them began to hear footsteps and voices, searching for the escaped prisoners and they were no longer looking for an exit, but rather being chased through the belly of the beast.

Footsteps would sound in front of them only for them to turn into a dead end side corridor long enough to let them pass, return to the main corridor, and hear gun  shots coming from them from behind.  Each time they stepped into a path that proved to be a dead end both girls hoped that they would not be followed into it, effectively trapped and out in the open to be killed.

Soon it seemed that more and more paths were dead ends, and unfinished tunnels with tools for mining lying about.  It was when running down one of these tunnels that the girls heard footsteps following them, getting closer with each passing second.  They were so frantic to escape in the dim hall that they ran right into the dead end wall, knowing that it was too late to turn back they began to panic.