The Captive Game

Chapter 5

I am escorted out of the hospital by two short nurses; I have to hunch down so that I can drape my arms around their shoulders. After my freak-out earlier they decided that it was best to drug me and send me to sleep. The drugs are just setting in now and I am wobbling back and forth between my feet like a newborn deer.

"W-w-where are you takin' me?" I slurred, trying to stay alert.

"You don't know?" the nurse on the left with curly puffs of blonde hair asked.

"Don't you remember, Violet? Coo-coo." The second nurse waves her hand around and they both laugh.

"Silly me, Heather, I almost forgot. I'm sure that she is very confused and scared right now. It almost makes me care."

They both laugh again.

"No, wait, it doesn't. Actually, I care even less. Now stop moaning or I'll make you."

I close my mouth and try not to wince as the nurses drag me through the unfamiliar hallways. The halls are lined with doors with numbers over them. Each starts with a two and a slash and has what appears to be the number room it is. We approach a door with the number 2-147 and the nurses haul me in. They drop me on the top bunk on a bunk bed and leave, locking the door behind them.

The room is small and sparsely decorated, the only furniture being the bunk bed, a single dresser, a couch, and a television across the room from the bed. I force my aching body to sit up and I turn on the television. At first, the screen is black and then a room with blue walls comes up. A small heap covered in rags is in the corner. It takes me a while to figure out that it is me. A shiver goes up my spine and I focus on the screen. The gray mass of a soldier enters the room and walks over to me. He hands me a shiny piece of silver that I assume is a gun and I look down at it, panic lining my face. Then, he opens the lid of the box and before I can look away, a shot rings out, blood coats the camera lens, and a second later, the recording stops and the television screen goes black.

They were watching me. They knew. They were watching me. I have to escape. I have to get out. I have to go.

Before I have time to think, I hop off the bed and limp to the window. I slam my elbow against it again and again. Nothing happens. I kick it. Nothing happens. I grab the sides and yank with all of my might and finally, I feel it budge. I yank even more, using every last bit of my remaining strength. It gives way and falls onto the floor.

That's when I hear the beeping. It's like an insistent alarm clock, roughly jerking you from your peaceful slumber. It goes on and on until my ears are practically bleeding. It makes me want to rip them off just so that I don't have to hear it anymore.

Not being able to bear the noise, I close my eyes, back up, and run towards the open window, my escape. I make it to the sill, push myself a little further, and smash, with all of my momentum, into an invisible barrier.

I hear feet pounding in the hallway and the door to my room slams open. Two strong arms yank me up and no matter how hard I struggle, I cannot break free. I am thrown onto the floor and I feel my arms and legs being tied up. I twist, turn and writhe on the floor but I cannot escape. "Let go!" I scream. "Help! Please, someone!"

The man just continues tying. "No one can hear you, girl, and even if they could, they wouldn't help." He yanks my wrist, until I hear a snap, and fastens the last knot. "You are just a waste of space; you won't last a week here. I can't wait until I see your guts spread across the floor. The only reason why I'm not killing you now is because I don't want to steal other people's rights to watch you get killed. That's the thing about the games. You don't stand a chance; nobody does."

A tear drips down my face but I stare back at the man, not allowing myself to look away, to surrender. "Sir," I try to smirk but it comes out more like a cringe. "The only person who doesn't stand a chance, is you." And I spit right on his unblinking eye.