Special Children (Experience 1: Survival)

Day 2

***2 days (morning) (445-429 children) (1 special)

“TODAY YOU WILL RUN. YOU WILL RUN AROUND THIS TRACK AS FAST AS YOU CAN TILL YOU PASS OUT FROM EXHAUSTION. AND IF YOU BELIEVE YOUR TINY LEGS CAN’T RUN ANYMORE, KEEP RUNNING OR CRAWL. IF YOU DO NOT…WELL YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.”

After yesterday the little girl, had been given food and water. She had been left in her small room with the bars and the locked door. For the rest of that day and night, she had tried not to look at all the blood. Now all the children were back outside, with their torn and bloody gowns. The knight and the creature were back. A track had been roughly traced in the sand. 

The little girl had tried to approach the girl she had hurt, but she had refused contact. Her cheek had been bandaged just like the little girl’s arm had been. The little girl had decided that in her mind the other girl would be called Purple, because she had bright purple eyes.

“BEGIN.” The knight said. There was no hesitation; the children had learned to listen to him. They all began to clumsily jog in the sand. The little girl had trouble and kept losing her footing. She put her hand on the wall to try and keep her balance.

“FASTER!” The knight yelled. The little girl jogged faster, not wanting to be the creature’s breakfast. It lincked in between its claws. The dark skinned boy who had been given the dagger ran past her. She decided she would call him Stone, because he was the only one who had stood as still as a stone, even if he had fallen afterwards.

“FASTER!” The little girl tried to go faster, but the sand kept making her trip, she couldn’t keep her balance. She saw that other children were having the same problem.

“IT WOULD SEEM YOU ARE NOT MOTIVATED ENOUGH.” The dreadful click of the chain releasing the creature filled the air. The creature snarled and surged forward. A child tried to run out of the track to avoid the monster, but the knight had blocked him.

“DID I NOT MENTION THAT YOU CANNOT LEAVE THE DRAWN TRACK?” He said. Screams filled the air as the creature ate a child. After that it was chaos for the little girl.

Every child stumbled and ran as fast as they could as the creature chased them. Children were pushed out of the way by the children who had an easier time with running in the sand. The little girl had been pushed three times. Luckily for her, the creature always had another child to gobble.

It didn’t take very long for the little girl’s beating heart to accelerate. Her breaths came in short and she was soon exhausted of running. The more the seconds past the more the throbbing of her wound starting to blind her vision.  She tried as hard she could to run away from the creature as all the children started to run past her. Before she knew it, all that was left between her and the creature was Purple. The little girl didn’t want the creature to eat Purple, but she also didn’t want the creature to eat her.

The creature leapt towards a stumbling Purple. Purple tripped on her own feet and fell. She screamed and curled up in a ball as the creature came closer.

In a fraction of a second the creature was dead and twitching and Purple was alive. The little girl didn’t understand. She had not saved Purple. She had not seen anyone come to Purple’s aid. No, electricity had come out of Purple and hit the creature. Electrifying it and sending it backwards. Purple looked up in awe. Everyone stopped running.

“A PRIMARY ELEMENTAL. GOOD. VERY GOOD.” The knight said. It ignored the dead creature and lifted Purple up by the arm. Purple growled and fought back and the little girl admired her courage. The knight shook her till she stopped. Without another word he headed to Purple’s hole.

The little girl pushed her sweaty hair out of her face. Where had Purple gone?

***2 days (night) (429 children) (1 special)

The little girl was in her hole and the bars had been let down. However, this time someone else was with her. It was the man with a white lab coat. He had a syringe in his hand.

“Don’t worry this will increase your brain capacity of learning. Tomorrow you’ll learn how to talk.” He said as he brought the needle to her arm. The little girl did not fight, but she did close her eyes. She didn’t want to be eaten. She didn’t want to be brought away. All she wanted was to sleep. The man pushed the liquid in.

“Good girl. Now if you can tell me you want a blanket tomorrow I’ll give you one, okay?” He asked. The little girl wanted to say she wanted a blanket, but she didn’t know how. The man patted her on the head and left.

The little girl curled her legs under her ripped nightgown and fell asleep in the shivering night.