March Of The Cyclops

Chapter 4

"Come on, we're almost there!" Melissa Underwood called out to her best friend Colsen Anders. Colsen struggled to catch up, he'd never been much of a good runner.

He didn't know why he let Melissa talk him into this. They had a project due the next day, and he couldn't afford to fail his Devil-Spawn of a math teacher's stupid busy-work.

Colsen didn't know where they were going. He trusted Melissa not to get him killed. Now, here they were, in a barren, sandy wasteland that North Carolina didn't even have.

Oh, gosh, Headmistress Potts would be so mad! They were supposed to be back at the orphanage half an hour ago! "Melissa!" Colsen shouted with extreme difficulty. "We need to go back!"

Melissa's voice seemed so distant now. "No way! I've been waiting for weeks to be able to show you this!"

Seriously, where the heck was Melissa taking him?

A few weeks ago, Melissa tried running away from the orphanage, only to find this really gigantic military looking place that stretched for miles and lined by a barbed wired fence in the middle of nowhere. The only reason she'd returned to the orphanage was to tell Colsen. Then, of course, Headmistress What-Ever-Her-Name-Was grounded Melissa for three weeks, since this was her third time trying to escape.

"Here we are!" Melissa yelled over excitedly. Colsen caught up to her, clutching his sides, lungs desperate for air, a good five minutes later.

A military base? Colsen thought. He watched with great interest as the people - kids Colsen and Melissa's age (13-14) - went through all these seemingly meaningless tasks on a huge training field littered with obstacles.

One person in particular caught Colsen's eye and refused to let go.

The girl had bright red hair and her face and her arms were covered with freckles. She wore a black sports bra, camo cargo pants, tan combat boots and a camo bandana. She was laughing with this other strong-looking brunette girl as they punched a punching bag with brass knuckles. At one point, the red haired girl threw a punch at the bag, and the whole stand came toppling over, and the girl cover her mouth in shock as the 50 pound bag nearly crushed this really short kid. More laughter. "Isn't this cool?" Melissa said, awestruck. Colsen smiled. "Yeah, but it's strange, this looks like an army force of some sort, but they're kids!" Melissa shrugged. "Maybe it's some kind of boot camp?"

Colsen walked closer to the fence. With a little yelp, Melissa pulled him back. "Don't get near it! It's some sort of electric fence with once heck of a charge. Learned that the hard way," Melissa pulled the blond, curly hair back from her neck, revealing a big bruise of many unnatural colors. "Oh my gosh, Melissa! We need to get you to a doctor or something!" Colsen flipped. Melissa laughed. "Doesn't hurt!" she said causally.

And then things got strange.

Colsen could hear the whispers of his family. His dead family. Feeling a wave a nausea and panic wash over him, he looked over at Melissa, who was hyperventilating and covering her ears

"Colsen," said a voice. a little, high pitched cute voice that Colsen knew all to well. "Colsen, come here!" said the voice. "EMILY!" he called out to his little sister's voice.

The girl with the bright red hair and the brunette's heads shot over to Colsen and Melissa at the fence. "221!" the brunette yelled, and she and the redhead took off running towards the fence.

The girls raced down to Colsen and Melissa while the other kids on the field took off for the main building.

With amazing force, speed and little effort, the girls climbed up and over the fence. Colsen and Melissa dropped to the ground and covered their ears. But it was almost for nothing, since Colsen could still hear his little sister calling to him in a whispery, mellow voice. "Colsen! Colsen come home! We miss you here! Don't you miss us? Come home!"

"STOP IT!" Melissa yelled. Any longer, and Colsen knew he and Melissa would go crazy.

The girls Jumped over them from the top of the fence and landed right in front of them. "T! Hurry!" the brunette shouted. The red haired girl, T as the brunette called her, swung her brass fist and punched the bloody heck out of whatever was making that horrid sound.

The voices stopped. Melissa started crying, and she couldn't stand up. Colsen tried to stand her up, but she refused the help. Colsen looked at the girls. They were a little ways away, talking quietly, debating something. T's brass knuckles were stained with blood, the rest of her not very clean either. Colsen almost threw up. He'd never seen so much blood in his life. Wait, no, that's a lie. Back at the orphanage, he and Melissa would be constantly beat-up, thrown and bruised. One time, some devil-spawn boys kicked Melissa in the back when she was already on her knees. Melissa was throwing up blood, and I'm talking projectile. The spine damage disabled her ability to function properly when it came to physical activity, yet she was still a better runner than Colsen. She had always needed help with a lot of things, but all she ever wanted to do was to be able to do something on her own. That's why she refused Colsen's help.

"Who are you?" the brunette demanded. She grabbed Colsen's shirt and pulled him shakily to his feet. "C-Colsen!" Colsen stuttered.

"Jayda, knock it off!" T said. The strong girl let go of Colsen's shirt.

Melissa was hunched over and started coughing up blood. T ran to her side and put her hand under Melissa's mouth to catch the blood. "Blood attracts monsters," she explained to Colsen, seeing his puzzled face.

"Come on, we need to get these two to Turner!" Jayda said, picking Colsen up and throwing him onto his shoulder like he weighed nothing. "Hey! Put me down! Let me go!" Colsen struggled, but Jayda's grip was too strong. Melissa coughed up one more splatter of blood into T's already red-soaked hand before fainting of blood loss. "Melissa!" Colsen yelled. T picked up Melissa and placed her over her shoulder less aggressively than Jayda did with Colsen. T, who walked behind Jayda as they started around the fence, pulled out a little pouch from her pocket with one hand. It was forest green with a gold rope for a tie. T got a bit of it in her hand and blew it on Colsen's face, making him go unconscious.