Survival

Skyrah

I wake up, sitting up quickly checking my body for any injuries. My head hurts so much. I remember when I was eleven my parents took me to a party, there were a few kids there, but not many. There were tables of glasses filled with a bright red liquid, I stole a glass and no one noticed until I threw up everywhere. It was alcohol, a wine probably, but when I woke up the next day my head stung and I felt dizzy and sleepy and all I wanted was a hug from my mom and sleep. That’s what I feel like now, plus my limbs are achy and my neck and hip hurt from the thin mattress I seem to be laying on.

Where am I?

I look around, disoriented, I see a few people sitting against a wall, others standing by some crates, others just walking around. I see a man in a suit leaning up against the wall, he unbuttons his suit jacket and smiles at me, and pushing himself away from the wall he walks over.

Wesley Carter. I am going to die. I panic and search for a weapon, that’s when I notice Alaric is gone. They’ve already taken him.

“Where did you take him?” I shout, my voice breaking with the realisation that he could already be dead.

“He’s fine Skyrah, you’re all safe, and no one is going to hurt you here” he says sitting down next to me.

“But it said in my file” I pause “that you were going to kill me that you needed to”

“I am with the government Skyrah, that is no mistake, but I am also part of the insurgent scheme set up here, I’m trying to save people, we are trying to save people” he says motioning to everyone around him. He explains to me the purpose of the programme and how Rick is going to be their leader and how I need to be trained. He also tells me there is someone that I need to meet. I look over at Astraea and the others. Astraea’s mouth hangs open and her porcelain arm hangs down by her side, but I see her chest moving very slowly and I know she’s okay. I drag myself up and stretch out, my muscles burning as I do so. Wesley gets up and leads me down a corridor, then another, then another until we get to a room. He opens the steel doors and I see a large glowing table in the middle with holograms hovering a few centimetres above. A woman with tanned skin and dark wavy hair stands next to the table, her hands gripping the edge as she leans forward. Alaric’s brows are furrowed as he looks over the holograms, another man stands at the edge of the room, a phone in his hand, and a woman sits on a chair at the edge with a pad of paper on her lap, a pencil in her mouth. She looks too young to be here. Alaric looks up and spots me, eyes gleaming with excitement, he walks over and presses his lips to mine, soft and quick. I can taste him, salty and dark. I don’t know if someone can taste dark, but I knew that Rick did. He pulls away smiling. I look at him unsure. He takes my hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze. He leads me over to the dark haired woman.

“My name is Gabriella” she says extending her hand, short but slim fingers wrap around my hand.

“I take it you already know who I am” I say confidently. The woman stands up straighter, flattening her shirt as she does so. She nods and leads me over to the table. Everything is dark, the lights flicker every so often and the thick concrete walls have started cracking in places, this room is old, this place is old. Flawless is not the word I’d use.

“Are we underground?” I ask taking in the lack of windows and the permanent dimness to the room.

“Yeah, it’s not perfect but the government have no idea that we are right beneath them, this is literally underneath the basement of the city hall, they built it as a sort of safety bunker, were anything to ever happen to Creptium, but my father was in charge of the project, he told the other government members that the project was abandoned, that’s why they have no clue” Gabriella says pulling a chair over from the side of the room.

“Gabriella” Alaric starts “how are you still alive?” he says looking at her, eyes filled with a thirst for knowledge.

“Ah the dreaded question” she says flopping back onto the chair. She takes a deep breath and begins.

“Okay as Alaric already knows I am Gabriella Winterton if I take my father’s name, Gabriella Archer if I take my mother’s” she looks at me, seeing my expression change as I realise the woman that sits before me is the woman I looked up to for so many years. When you read a book and when you fall in love with the character you want to be them. You want to be them because they are so much cooler, smarter, prettier, better. It doesn’t matter to you what world they live in, if they’re in a war or not, you still want to be them just so you can escape your own reality. Letting in the Light is set in a better version of my own world, it’s not unattainable, but it’s not real. Not yet. But that’s the world I wanted. Now she sits here in front of me and I am incapable of escaping because she doesn’t live in the fictional good world, she lives in the real bad one, with me. I can’t escape anymore. She gets up and walks over to a man that just walked in.

“Thank you Jett” she says to the man as he hands her a small wooden box. The box is made from a dark wood it has a symbol carved onto the top, the same one that is on her arm band. Gabriella walks back and puts her fingers on the lip of the box to pull it up. She then takes out a small vial of bright glimmering purple liquid.

“This” she says putting the box on the table carefully holding the vial.

“This is life elixir, not a creative name but it does what it implies, it prolongs life by stopping the aging process, and it’s a mix of Lifeblood Berry juice, Ginger, Bilberry and Gingko, it is the worst tasting thing in the world but it looks pretty and I’m still alive” she says looking at the bottle, cradling it between her fingers like a baby.

“How much do you have to drink?” I ask.

“Two vials a day, you have to team that with eating healthy foods, good sleep and a lot of exercise” she says looking at her watch.

“Speaking of exercise, we are late” she says rushing out of the door. I look to Alaric and he shrugs. She pops her head around the doorframe.

“Are you guys coming or not?” she says.

“For what?” Rick asks.

“Your first training session” she smiles. But it isn’t just any smile. It is like she is hiding something that we don’t know. But then again, she probably is.