Survival

Alaric

She kissed me. I feel like I am walking on clouds. My vision is fuzzy and blurred in a good way. Heaven is a reality when I am with her and everything is better, perfect, I feel… whole. We slept and it was peaceful. But today is the day we break into the town hall, today is the day we risk everything. The banquet starts at six thirty in the evening. I wake up at nine forty in the morning. I turn over and Skyrah lays beside me, her long elegant arm stretched out above her head, her hair hanging over her face in a soft blonde wave, long eye lashes fluttering when I move.

“I love you” I whisper getting out of the bed. I go into the bathroom and take a shower, the warm water runs over my body, over the scar I have on my arm from fighting with a Wolfane, over my bruises and my skin, cleansing me. I step out and wrap a towel over the lower half of my body. I walk out of the bathroom and she stands up with a hungry look in her eyes. She walks up to me, swaying as she does so. She runs her soft silky hands over my bare chest and down my back. She stands on her tiptoes and presses her lips to mine, the kiss starts off small and sweet but soon turns into a passionate hungry kiss, like we are breathing each other’s souls. My hands slip around her waist and she wraps her legs around me so that she is off the ground, I hold her up, not breaking the contact between our lips as I walk back and sit on the bed. Her nails dig into my back slightly but I don’t mind, I push her hair back and she pushes me down onto the bed so that I lay flat. My hands roam her body as we become a tangle of limbs, lost in one another. Too fast. We are going too fast. I pull away. She starts kissing my neck, her full weight on top of me.

“Skye, stop” I say gently. She sits up, he face red and her eyes wide with disappointment? Excitement? Anger?

“I-I thought this is what you wanted?” she says pushing her hair back as she sits up and moves off of me.

“I do, not now, when all of this is over, I want to have a family with you, a life with you, but we can’t start that until all of this is over and I don’t want it to happen like this” I say taking her small hand in my large one.

“Like what?” she says, her voice croaky.

“Me sitting in towel and you trying to prove to yourself that you aren’t afraid of getting close to someone and especially not when we have the pressure of breaking into the government’s secret files” I say rubbing my thumb over the back of her hand, she pulls it away abruptly when I mention her trying to prove something.

“I am not trying to prove anything” she squeals.

“Skyrah, I know that you are” I say half smirking.

“You’re an ass, you know that right?” she says punching my arm.

“But I’m your ass” I say smiling.

“That sounded weird” she laughs and I kiss her softly. I go back in the bathroom to get changed, something that should have happened about fifteen minutes ago, I will not wear my suit until tonight. I go into the kitchen and pull open the refrigerator. It is a large silver box with gleaming handles, cold air is blasted at me as I open it. I pull out a banana and strawberry smoothie and thing they call a protein bar, I don’t know what that means but it tastes good. I go into the living room and sit on the couch. I pick up the transparent remote control. I tap the screen and five boxes appear. Volume, brightness, channels, 3D and general controls. I choose the channels box and a list of thousands of television show names pop up onto the controller. A voice behind me calls out,

“Put Fame Falls on, it’s hilarious”

I turn around and Emory stands in the kitchen, he walks over and sits on the armchair. I select Fame Falls and the television comes to life. I turn the volume up and rest it back on the table.

“What is this?” I ask.

“So basically, famous people sign up and have to live together, they have to complete loads of tasks and gross challenges and they have to see which one can stay there the longest” he says. A girl is on the screen, she has long green hair and black eyes, her skin is pale, a ghostly pallor.

“That’s Destinee Simmons, she is an actress in some show Skye hated, I didn’t think it was that bad” he says shoving a potato chip into his mouth.

“It was terrible, like totally awful, she is a terrible actress, even I could have done a better job” she says laughing. She sits down next to me and I put my arm around her shoulder.

“So, uh, you guys a, uh, thing now?” Emory asks awkwardly.

“Yeah” Skyrah says and Emory just nods. Destinee has to complete a challenge in which she has to answer questions of the history of the earth, every time she gets one wrong she gets covered in a yellow slime that looks like bile and for everyone she gets correct she gets to pick a luxury of her choice, but she only has thirty seconds to choose, if she doesn’t choose her luxury in this time she loses the privilege and is covered in more slime. Let’s just say that she is not an intelligent girl.

“I have a book on the history of the earth, I would kill that challenge hands down” Skyrah laughs. Raine sits down giving us an odd look but then she realises what is on TV and starts squealing about how much she loves this show.

“Okay, so answer those questions” I say smiling.

“Okay, challenge accepted” she says and rewinds the show to the first question.

How many world wars have there been?

“Four to date; the first war began in 1914 and lasted a total of approximately four years, the main countries involved were Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Italy” she says “the second world war started in 1931 and ended in 1945, there was a dictator called Hitler that did a lot of bad things, it’s too complicated to get into” she says softly “the third world war started in 2035 and ended in 2057, the US and Great Britain teamed up and declared war on Korea and many middle eastern countries that were already suffering from civil wars, it was a war based on power and pure evil, there was no real spark of events leading to it, they just decided to be evil” she says frowning “and finally there was the string of wars known as The Age Of Imperfection, the countries broke apart and fought, each state in America had turned against each other and everyone destroyed themselves, the few Texan survivors formed the dome, as did many survivors in other states and countries, they vowed never to leave the safety of their city, to never get into another war, this was 300 years ago” she says proudly.

“You memorised all of this?” I say amazed.

“I like to read; The Age Of Imperfection started in 3666 and ended in 4003, the string of wars are also known as The Satanic Wars, because 666 is supposedly the devils number and they were the longest and worst wars the earth has ever witnessed, generations after generations in endless combat” she says sadly. The world is a dark place. We have made it that way with our selfishness and brutality. The second question is:

What are the seven written rules of Creptium?

“An individual should never come to harm another individual, Crime is not permitted anyone seen breaking this law will be punished severely, An individual should do their required job and should not wish to do anything else, An individual should wear the required uniform at all times unless they are attending a special event, An individual must stay in school until they are a full adult and will suffer the consequences if they drop out or skip lessons, An individual should always follow government protocol and any government requests, and most importantly an individual should never question the government policies” she emphasizes the last rule.

“Okay, so I think you get the idea that I would win this challenge” she says smirking.

“Smartass” Emory says under his breath.

“Hey” she says and throws a cushion at him. For a moment, I feel like a normal teenager, sitting with my friends and my girlfriend, messing around watching TV, acting normal. We carry on like this for a while, laughing about bad TV shows, eating chips and drinking soda, none of us thinking about the daunting task ahead of us. The task that could potentially lead to one of our deaths. Our only shot before our time is up. But all of that is irrelevant because in this moment, this normal moment; I feel safe.