Roomscapes I - survive

Chapter 26 ~ The purge and watch him die

 ** VAL'S POV **

"Kelly...." I had heard enough. The woman had said it. There was nothing else to ask. All crime was legal. "Kelly wake up!!!" I whispered loud enough to make her shake. She immediately sat up and punched my face a little bit too hard. "Fuck!" I screamed.

"Oh my god... oh my gosh I'm sorry... I didn't mean to hurt you--I thought you were-- I'm sorry..." I nodded and woke up Eli, my face still stinging. I decided not to tell Kelly since she would feel bad. I had a feeling of sudden panic and my heart start to beat way too fast due to the strike of realization, "Cameron!" I started breathing slowly, and then faster and faster, and I thought I was going to faint, "Where's Cameron!?" I was looking around frantically as Kelly tried to stop me but failed every time. My desperation was too pure and strong to be stopped by someone--anyone. "Val you have to stop" I stopped as the words emerged her mouth, and looked at her with a disgusted look on my face. "Stop?!" I screamed, not noticing the sounds in the air as more wooden planks covered the windows, "How the fuck am I supposed to stop if Cameron's gone!?" I was screaming and yelling but I did not make any type of movement. I stood there, looking at her. She seemed frightened. "Valentina I know he's gone but you can't do anything about it. He might as well be dead by now and who knows but we have to keep moving in order to survive. He is gone." And I couldn't bare it anymore. I started walking away, not knowing what awaited.

"Where the hell are you going?" She called, her voice just loud enough for me to hear, "You're walking straight to death!" She was right. I didn't know where I was going, I was just walking in a broken down city when all crimes had just been called legal. What kind of idiot am I? Not to mention I was also leaving them to a certain death, which was the thing I regretted the most about leaving, never-minding my own life giveaway. 

"I know." I simply said, and walking to who knows where, it came to my attention that no crimes were committed anywhere near here so far, and that's when I heard a raspy voice and turned to be proved wrong.

 ** CAMERON'S POV **

Whose dumb ass idea was it for all crime to be legal? This is total bullshit, and for all I know, Val could be dead by now as well as Eli and Kelly and all the others. I screamed at the thought and cursed under my breath. "What's up, bud? So sad already? Couldn't find mommy and get in the house? Stuck out here with all the crime thing?" I heard a chuckle and immediately tensed up, "Aww, look at you... you're scared..." another chuckle filled the air and I could feel the raspy voice getting closer. I had literally no chance of survival right now, I was going to die. I was. Cameron!! Cameron!! It's me!! GODAMNIT CAMERON!! 

What the--? I guess I found out what the voice was when I heard a gunshot and the sky went black...or maybe it was just me... "Val?"

Cameron! Turn around! Now! Do it! Please! Cameron! Cameron? Cameron.. the words faded slowly as the sky became darker, and I wondered simply why...

 ** ELI'S POV **

"Kelly!" I was literally panicking way too much, this was my worst fear. Ever since day one. I was scared that one day all crimes would be legal and I would be stuck outside because something happened and I couldn't get to my house. This was like my fear landscape, only that real. It was real. It wasn't just a book simulation... it was real... it was actually happening and I had to put up with it and survive, or else I would be living the rest of my days dead, if that made any sense.

** VAL'S POV **

It was Cameron. I saw him. He was screaming something and cursing when a raspy, old man voice made him flinch and stand straight, not turning. This caused him to believe the man was some sort of masked killer prodigy, but he wasn't. He was an old man with a kitchen knife as a weapon. I saw him. I knew. "Cameron! Turn around! Cameron!" I ran to him, but found myself just bumping into cold, hard glass like an idiot. What? Please...no... not now... "Cameron!!!" I screamed, hitting the glass violently. Wait a second.. I had barely walked a mile--shit, I hadn't even walked half a mile away from Kelly and Eli yet when I turned I saw the man and Cameron, not them. What in the world!? When I turned again, this time rather quickly, I saw Kelly and Eli, both of them looking around, terrified. Eli was the worst one. He was sweating and his eyes were wide with fear as he looked around, taking in the rusty buildings and the gray sky as well as all the windows covered in wood and metal, preventing murderers and robbers from coming in--at least trying to. "Kelly! I'm here! Kelly!" my voice--rather desperate-- broke and I started letting tears fall, rubbing them away seconds after. They couldn't hear me. And Cameron couldn't, either. I turned again, this time to see his figure blurry. What? "Cameron!! Turn around! Do it! Please! Cameron!!" his figure became even more blurry, only to make me lose hope little by little, "Cameron? Cameron..." I breathed fast and heavily, walking backwards, away from him just to find my back connecting harshly with thick glass. I turned so that my face would be gently pressed against the cold material. Through it I could see Kelly trying to comfort Eli but in return getting nothing but a pale face and wide eyes. What was up with him? 

I heard a gunshot and jumped in surprise, turning around to look at the other scenario. The thick glass was closer to me now, something that disturbed and scared me. "Cam?" I stepped closer, trying to clear up the whole image. Nothing. No progress. All I could see was that the sky was black and he was nowhere to be seen. Then it hit me, something on the floor. Something too small to be a drunk man yet too big to be any type of weapon or object. It was Cameron. 

The glass walls around me began to move in, enclosing me. I felt suffocated, and the space around me began to shrink. Oh no... what is happening? For some reason I just felt like they wouldn't kill me. I didn't mind having glass walls practically charging at me. I knew there was something behind all this, and I stared at Eli and Kelly until it hit me, and I smiled. 

  ** THE CREATOR'S POV **

"Move them closer," I instructed and Linda obeyed, to my instant satisfaction. I watched as the glass walls that showed her friends suffer were shoved closer and I frowned. "Stop." I instructed once again, "Stop moving them, there's something wrong." my eyebrows scooted closer to one another, deepening my frown. It was Linda who suddenly interrupted my thinking and broke the silence, which made me want to fire her.

"What's wrong, sir?" she asked, looking at me in concern. She was annoying as hell. 

"Nothing, only that she's not scared, she's not terrified, she's not screaming for help, she's not crying, she's not frustrated out of her mind... she's-- she's smiling." I said it in such a disgusted tone I decided not to add anything, hoping she would understand the message and give me an idea. I was running out of them. I was trying to make this a fear landscape for each one of the players, but I honestly was lost. "What next? I don't know what else to do! These stupid kids WON'T DIE!" I smashed the cup of coffee I had been holding on the white, silk-smooth table and yelled in frustration. These people were smarter than I thought. I had to eliminate them now. NOW.

"I"ll fix it, we can make new fear landscapes, we can put them in places of more danger..." she worked on her ideas and tapped huge screens all over the place as she pressed the call button on her phone and called for cleaning assistance.

"Linda...wait... don't do anything--" I had gotten the smartest yet most cruel idea I had ever come up with, and with a smile, I went over to the list of ideas and added one, not waiting a second to put it in action. Linda eyed me with a horrified look on her flawless face.

"I don't think--" 

"I didn't ask what you thought..." I said rather calmly and smiled, pulling down a handle, only to receive the sickest look from Linda and a choked sound from her as well as I laughed, admiring my own cleverness.

"You don't understand what you just did! This can-- what were you thinking!?" I smiled and took a step closer to her, "Do you have anything to complain about?" I said with a threatening tone, and she shook her head with a pale face and fixed her glasses, getting her coffee mug and a bunch of papers off her desk before she was gone for the day, and I smiled to myself. She was still there.

"Want me to tell you my plan... or are you too mad to talk to me?" I turned and grinned at the sight of her, she was a horrible spy. "Well?" I said after seconds of indecisive silence.

"Tell me." and I turned and sat on my chair, looking down at the hot coffee on the precious and expensive desk. I had enough money to buy at least a billion of those, so I didn't really care.

Before I could tell her anything the huge screen showing every competitor lit up and I walked over to it slowly, stopping inches away and reading the screen before turning to Linda with an emotionless expression.

"It started."