Oblivion

Chapter 17 Part 4

          I woke up in a blanket on freezing cold snow. The clothes I had been wearing before I was thrown into the Testing was now soaked. My teeth chattered loudly, I pushed myself to my feet, even my shoes were soaked through. I started to shoved myself through the snow, it was waist high. I didn't know what I was looking for.

I was in a field of cold snow.
       In the distance I saw the tree line. Something in my brain told me to start heading toward it. I covered distance slowly; my limbs were slowly becoming more and more frozen as time went by.

         A noise drifted through the air and I stopped to listen for the noise again. The sound of dogs barking filled the air and my heart stopped. Run! My head screamed, I didn't need to be told twice. I whipped around and I tried to sprint as fast as I could through the blistering snow. I was heading towards the tree line, I was heading where I would feel safe and covered.

       My feet slid right from under me and I fell against something hard buried beneath the snow. Fear laced my heart and I gently swiped away excess snow, I realized what I had fallen on. What lay just below my fingers was a frozen over lake, I had no idea how thick or thin it was., but at this moment I had no time to think about the density of the ice below. The braying of the dogs grew rapidly towards me and I shoved myself back to my feet before taking off on the ice. My feet would slide and slip as the ice would give way to reveal sinister black water below. The dogs were getting closer, they're paws slipping on the ice and men hollered with glee.

        I was running across the ice, trying to ignore the creaking of ice beneath me, I urged my legs to keep running even when they started to scream in protest. My stomach dropped as the ice below my feet broke away sending me into pitch darkness.

        The black water around me swirled angrily. The freezing cold temperature of the water stole the breath away from me. The only light that was casted down into the water was from the hole I had fallen through, everything around me was nothing but darkness. I jumped when I felt something slimy brush against my bare legs.

         "Addieca, you're back, Addieca." Hissed a voice right by my ear. I spun around, the water swishing my hair in front my eyes; I searched desperately for whatever had whispered to me. I saw things moving in the darkness, their bodies where long and slimy like snakes, they swam smoothly through the water like predators. My lungs were starting to burn with pain from lack of oxygen.

      "Do your lungs hurt Addieca? Maybe you should just give up and let us take you?" one of the snake like creatures. A long snake like head appeared for the darkness and slithered into to the light.

     "Are you afraid of me yet, Addieca?" the snake-like creature hissed, it swam around me and I followed it, making sure I never had my back to it.

        "You really should be afraid of me." It hissed to me, its eyes were nothing but darkness and evil. My lungs were screaming loudly, in need of air.

       "You need air, don't you? Why don't you try to breath?" the snake creature said to me, it's eyes had a wicked glint to it.
      Out of desperation, I ignored the snake creature and I started to swim towards the light that casted down into the water. I reached the spot where I had fallen in, the hole was covered up with a new layer of ice, I pounded on the layer of ice as hard as I could. I slammed my fist so hard against the ice till my knuckles bled, my lungs withered in agony at the lack of air. My vision was steadily growing darker and my strength was slowly waning, I couldn't even bring myself to raise my hand to beat at the ice. The water feathered around me, tickling my skin as I started to sink father away from the surface.

         "Come to me, Addieca. Sink below the surface to us." Whispered the snake creature as it wrapped itself around me and started to drag me towards the bottom.

      I didn't have the strength to fight against this creature as it dragged me down to the depth of the freezing lake. It was like every bit of strength that I had once possessed had been drain from my body. Like I had lost hope. Hope. The word echoed in my head, it sounded meaningless to me. Hope? How can I have hope in a place so dark? I wondered to myself.

        So, what! You have to fight or you'll die! My body screamed, urging me to not let this creature drag me down to its depths. My eyes snapped open and a newfound strength tore through my being. I struggled against the slimy creature, bating my hands against the snake. Its hold didn't feel like it was going to let up; as a last-ditch effort to free myself, I fastened my teeth around the body of the snake and bit down as hard as I could. I bit down as hard as I could until I tasted blood. I felt its body slacken and I saw my chance, I wriggled out of its grasp and booked it towards the surface.

    Just above me, I saw a light. Light from the sun, that was being casted down into the water's depths. I struggled towards it, I was ready for the ice sheet that covered the hole but I wasn't backing down now, not after I had just gotten free of the snake creature. I slammed my hands against it, the ice cut open my palms but I didn't notice I just kept beating at the ice. Something creaked under my hand and I smiled, the ice was starting to break!

       "Do you think you can get away from me!" cried the creature, I could see its eyes blazing from the depths as it swam its way towards us.

The ice creaked more and with my remainingstrength I shoved myself through the hole.