She awoke. The heat from the harsh sun pushed on her face. She could barely pull her eyes open from the brightness. Once her eyes adjusted she looked around. The terrain was rough. Rocks and sand surrounded her. After a few seconds of craning her neck around she concluded she was in the desert. She tried to stand but lost her balance, forcing her to plummet back onto the ground. Her eyes went blurry and she felt herself almost black out. When she pulled herself back to full consciousness she decided to give her self a while to wake up and figure things out. She had no idea how long she had been asleep, why she was there, or when the last time she ate was. Abruptly a realization washed over her. She didn’t even know her name. She knew nothing other than what she had woken up to just a few moments earlier. Almost panicking she shot up out of the sand. The emptiness in her head was deafening. Nothing was there. She was pushed to tears by the desolate plain where memories would be stored. When the first tear dropped down her cheek her head dropped to allow it to run off her nose. Looking straight at the ground she realized she was standing on a glass panel about the size of a mattress. The curiosity forced away the tears and she bent down to feel of it.
The panel was burning hot from absorbing the sun's heat and felt perfectly smooth. When stood back up she felt her arm brush past something cold as her arm swung back to her side. She looked down once more and saw a gun hanging at her side. She pulled it out of the holster and examined it. It was silver and black and had a silencer attached to one end. She pulled back the slide revealing one bullet already in the chamber. She let the slide push back to its normal position and push the mag release on the side of the grip to check the clip. Completely empty. “Only one shot. Great.” She returned the magazine back into the weapon and pushed it back down into the holster.
She looked around once more, hoping to find a something that might help her. She turned to see a boulder, about the size of a six story building rising out of the ground. She thought she could make out a human shaped figure standing atop it. She stepped off the glass panel toward the boulder. Just as her worn out tennis shoe left the glass she heard a loud alarm behind her. It lasted for about five seconds. She turned her body back to the panel and looked down at it again. A message appeared on the glass.
-begin message-
You have been given one bullet.
A single chance.
No mistakes.
Kill yourself.
Or kill her.
The choice isn’t yours.
But you will be the one to make it.
This is the only escape.
-end message-
She was hoping the message would answer her questions but had only created more. Despite being even more confused than before, she decided to move on. She turned back to the boulder. The figure was gone now. “I wonder if ‘her’ is the person I saw on top over there.” She began to run toward the rock.
When she reached the bottom she was gasping for air. She could tell she was dehydrated and the blistering heat was only making it worse. She wanted to stop and rest but she knew that she needed to get to the top as fast as possible. She stared the scale the up the rock. She moved quickly, but with caution, checking and double checking every step she made. She threw her arms over the last ledge and pulled her self to the top. There was no sign of the figure. She looked around the rock on all sides. She saw she was on an island. It looked to be perfectly round. Sand stretched in all directions, only occasionally interrupted by a rock similar to the one she was standing on. She continued searching. The cool wind rushed against her face and cooled her body temperature. She had almost decided to stay where she was and wait for help until she saw a lake in the distance in the very center of the island. “Water!” She practically flew down the side of the boulder. When she reached the bottom she decided to conserve her energy. She slowed her pace to a walking speed and made her way toward the lake.
