Roomscapes I - survive

Chapter 18 ~ Tubes and Competitors

 ** VALENTINA'S POV **

I woke up to the sour smell of my tube. What in the world?! My days here have been an endless adventure in which I could not stop asking myself questions. I felt as if the air was being sucked out of me milliseconds after I opened my eyes to reveal another room, this one rather bright. After the the awful feeling had gone away I gathered all my scattered pieces and took a deep, long breath. This was a new phase. Everyone had passed. I honestly didn't know how to feel about it. A loud, high-pitched woman voice interrupted my thoughts as I rubbed my eyes from the sleep I obviously lacked. "Well hello there! Look at all of you, survivors of the first and second phase! How exciting!" Her words were more excited than her tone, which made her seem extremely fake, "Well, we made some changes--once again-- and I am glad to announce.. that we will be adding more competitors! Yay!" she made what I thought was a clapping sound, "Before you start, I will let you know..." she giggled, "We will only be adding five." and the speakers were off, her sayings striking everyone.

I once again fixed my annoying hair and pulled it in the tightest bun. Despite all the time I spent on trying to figure this out, the information given to me would simply not process correctly. After a couple of minutes, I gave up trying to process what was going on and just laid my head against the glass, looking at the tube to my right. My expression and feelings changed in less than a second when I caught glimpse of who I was staring at. Cameron.

He turned and noticed me, and his face was by now pale. He looked somehow scared and sorry, and there was something else in his eyes, but I couldn't make out what it was.  I looked away and unwillingly started to let go tears I had been holding forever. I prayed he didn't see me break down and kept my head straight, not wanting to look at him. He couldn't know I was hurt. He couldn't. Minutes passed and a bright light appeared, a projected light, and started showing the ones who weren't able to make it. "And now," the same old lady said, her sad tone completely fake, "We will stay silent to honor the fallen ones..." and no more sound emerged the speakers. I stayed silent, fighting the urge to sob as the screen lit up, and the first face shown just made all the tears I had been holding go, and they were falling down my cheeks as the picture of Iyan brought back memories I hoped I was over--and clearly wasn't-- and made my heart beat faster.  The next face did not have as much effect on me, and I sniffed as Ben's face covered the screen, his eyes wide and his expression emotionless. And the pictures went on, showing all the ones that had died, including Maira, Austin, Carlos, and another kid-- Leslie I think was her name. They also showed Adriana, and to my surprise I didn't cry when her face appeared, but instead my heart stopped, and all I wanted for a second was one thing. I wanted Cameron DEAD. 

After all the deaths were shown, the screen once again lit up and without the woman's voice filling my ears, a list of competitors was shown and I read as fast as I could, knowing they would take it down too soon. It read: Salma, Valentina, Angel, Nicole, Parker, Kevin, Caitlynn, Chris, Jordyn, Cameron, Kelly, Eli, Daniel, Jacob and Mary. This was going to be hard, but I could survive, right? I hoped so as the lady made the clapping sounds through the speakers and said, "Well well then, Let's begin! One last word? Survive." And the tubes went down...

This phase was completely different from the others, it was a race. But not a normal race, an obstacle race, and probably the longest race, too. You had to start and the objective is to get to the other side, which was probably more than twenty miles away, I think more. We would get there in a week at least. There were deadly traps, logic puzzles, and mirror rooms as well as mazes. The worst part was probably that the race was so huge that they let competitors out in completely different places, but it was guaranteed that at least two people would meet throughout the race. So it wasn't only survive the traps and mazes, it was also survive your deadly enemies. Great. This was going to be just great.

"Go!" and the tubes opened, revealing a narrow glass hallway that showed other competitors on its sides. Oh. So this is how it worked: all competitors start off next to each other but separated by glass. Then the glass hallway takes all of them each to different places, and the games begin from there. So I ran, imitating everyone. I ran and ran until the glass hallway came to an end but the next passage was still going straight ahead, without turning. I didn't stop to think about anything, this time I just ran for whatever was waiting for me. Because this is what you do when you have nothing to lose, right? You go for it.

I got tired after a while and gasped when I came to what was apparently our first--my first-- obstacle. It was so similar to the training room in THG Catching Fire. A bow and a couple of arrows were neatly placed on a metal table that was firmly attached to the metal ground. My boots made soft thumps as I walked slowly towards the table, admiring the advanced technology. As soon as I picked it up, and automatic voice spoke up, and I listened carefully, taking in every word, "Welcome, hit targets and get to the door to the next room," it stopped for a second, and I thought that was all she would say until it surprised me by continuing, "Or die." Geez, this is sure awesome... I thought to myself as I took a step forward, waiting. Before I could take another one, an orange, cube consisting figure-- or projection-- came running towards me with an axe, and I quickly assumed I was supposed to kill it, or destroy it, or whatever, just hit it with the arrow. So I aimed and let go, failing. Oh crap. It was getting closer, and I was getting scared. I aimed again and let go, failing once more. The figure was too close for me to aim and throw now, so once it was just inches away from me, I ducked, got an arrow, and stabbed him with it. It disappeared. Maybe bows and arrows are not my thing...  I thought, barely concentrating in my thoughts, Maybe I'm just more of a stabber...  I laughed a little at the observation I had made and kept my eyes open, waiting for another figure to come, and sure enough, it did. This time I aimed and let go, actually hitting the enemy in his stomach. Ouch. I smiled at my improvement. All the color drained from my face and my mouth was wide open when I saw another orange figure come out, it was different. Instead of being like all the others, this one was weird, this one--it looked like Cameron. And it was running towards me with a knife.