Dunkirk • H.S

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I throw the heavy bag of fertilizer into the wheelbarrow, an exhausted huff leaving my lips as I go to wipe the sweat from my forehead. The sun is pelting down on everyone working in the field and you can hear their complaints as they get scolded at seconds later for talking.

My legs and arms burn like fire from pushing all of these heavy loads of dirt from one place to the other. The holes we had dug we are now filling them in with fertilizer and planting apple trees there. At least the holes were for planting and not something else.

It had been days since me and the Sir had spoken about the plan, therefore I can't help but feel a little on edge that he had made that whole story up. But why would he make a story up like that? Not only is it a lie to me, but if someone were to find out about it, they would probably kill him. And not just him, me too.

"I can't do this anymore," a girl that was hauling a barrel filled with dirt dropped to her knees and started crying. I looked around to see if there was any shooters close by, and when I saw that there wasn't, I stopped pushing my barrel and walked up to her. My knees digging into the hard ground as I knelt beside her.

"Hey, it's okay. Come on, get up before a shooter sees you." I extend my hand for her to take and she laughs dryly, looking up at me with watery eyes.

"You think I care? Let one of them see me. Let them beat me again, they might as well just shoot me now. I'd rather be dead than live one more harrowing day in this camp." Her voice rises an octave as she stands, her uniform covered messily in dirt.

"You don't want that, trust me. You have-" she cuts me off.

"I have to what? Have hope that one day we'll get out of here? Let me tell you something; if you think that's going to happen, you have your head too far up your ass." She growls at me in anger. I ignore her insult and shake my head.

"Never mind, I tried to be nice to you, but you clearly you don't accept the offer." I turn around and grip the handles of the barrel and pushed forward, away from the girl.

"You really need to stop thinking there's a way out." The girl calls from behind me but I ignore her. "Because there isn't, and we're all gonna die here."

I ignore her and keep pushing the barrel, her words echoing through my head. But what if she's right? What if we are all going to die here and there really is no way out? What if the Sir really was lying to me?

***

"Everyone shut up!" A shooter hollers at the top of his lungs to make us keep quiet. Everybody stops talking and the large room gets eerily silent.

A large portion of the girls, including me, were brought to this concrete building after we've all ate our meals. It's dim inside, and hollow. Nothing in it but a few punching bags and a broad square platform.

"You've all been in this camp for a week now," the shooter speaks to all of us. "It's time that we chose the ones who would be good fighters. We looked at all of your records, your weight, your muscle mass, and this right here will let us know if you're any good at survival."

I let out a heavy breath and feel my palms sweat. They're going to make us fight? Confusion is the first emotion that ripples through my head, followed suit by a spike of caution.

"Two of you will be fighting at a time, the one who loses goes back to the main building to shower and go to your cell, you're out. That's it for you." He shrugs his shoulders then continues. "But the ones who still stand...well, we have plans that can't be said aloud right now for you all." His voice sounded depraved, and the smirk set on his thin, pale lips made my stomach twist into a knot.

The first two he paired up together was an ebony girl, her face hollowed but her eyes set with no emotion, and a pale red-head, her face looking like a deer caught in the headlights of a truck going ninety to nothing.

Crazy. That's what this is. That's what all of this is. It's sick, unfair, monstrous, and downright wrong. I know I've said these before, but I have no there words to use but the truth. Making us fight each other to see who's stronger in the field of physical strength. And for the one who lost, the ones who don't win the fights, they just go back to their cells?

I didn't watch it. I didn't want to see two human beings, that know not one single thing about one another, fight until one gave up from weakness.
It's not something I want to see. Nor was the day I saw the woman lying dead on the train cart something I wanted to see. The girls that got up on that platform and begged not to fight were forced to anyways, so they had no choice. We have no choice.

When the first fight was over, they picked two more innocent victims. And when one of them stumbles upon the platform, my heart stopped. All of my surroundings became silenced and all I could see was my sister standing in front of the crowd. Her hair was fallen around her shoulders and her face looked beaten up, bruises covering the majority of it. She is such a beautiful girl, I always admired that about her, but the sight of her now makes my chest hurt.

"Lexa." Her name leaves my mouth in a whisper as I gain control over my movements. "Oh my god." I can feel the hotness from the tears on my cheeks as I push myself forwards and past the other girls.

I let out a grunt when two arms hold me back, keeping me from walking on the platform. The man that was announcing the shots minutes earlier steps off the platform and walks up to me, and all eyes follow him. Including my sisters.

When her eyes meet mine, I try my best to give her a smile, but the look on her face makes me confused. Her face is monotonous. She doesn't even blink at me, or cry, or even say my name. She just stares at me blankly.

"And you are?" He asks, pulling a fake smile out of his pocket.

"Blair," my name comes out in a breath. "Why are you making us fight?"

"That's just how it is. Now if you're done we can resume the next fight, yes?" He turns around and I shake my head. Lexa just looks at the helpless girl in front of her, looking her up and down like she's sizing her up. Challenging her. This isn't her, she's never fought anyone in her entire life.

The men's iron-like grip on both my arms are constricting me from moving but the abandoned plead of my voice is loud.

"Lexa!" I shout her name as she lunges for the girl in front of her, her eyes wild. "Stop!"

Half the room is staring at me from screaming at the top of my lungs and the other half is staring at my sister beating an innocent victim. That's not my sister. My sister would never do such a thing, she couldn't even hurt a fly.

"What the hell did you do to her?!" I say to the announcer, my face red hot with rage. "Answer my question!"

"Bring her to Jared, I'll handle this on my own." The announcer says, putting his hand over his gun in authority.

I struggled the best I could in the man's grip as he pulls me away from the crowd of girls, my sister's face vanishing from eye sight. I didn't yell, I know that would tick the man off even more, but when I made the fatal move of elbowing him in the rib, I regret it.

Because the last thing I felt was the cold end of his gun against my nose and everything went black.

Please don't kill me:(