Advanced Clockwork: Young Writers Prize 2014

Chapter 11

She couldn't see anything, it was all a fuzzy blur of black and color. She could hear though, though it was faint and distant. The screams of the Lords, Ladies, and nobles there, the sounds of gunfire, the crashing of glasses and candlers falling to the earth, even the shouts of the Royal Guards as Christopher gave the orders to fire. It was all so loud, so loud that it hurt her head to hear it. She couldn't feel anything, but she heard Elisha above everything, his voice so close and scared as he tried to wake her up.

"Eve! Eve! Come on, you can't die like this!" He shouted, shaking her shoulders as he did so. He sounded so scared, and her hand raised to touch his face when she heard a weird sounding bang and him gasp in breath. In that instant, she heard his body thump to the side of her, and she tried to look to him, his blurred figure unmoving but his eyes were closed. There was so much red getting into her eyes, so much blood.... But who's?

"Grab the girl!" A female voice cried out, piercing through the air like the bullets that whizzed in the air. "Hurry up boys! Winds are changing!"

She watched as two blurred brown figures stood above her, lifting her up as easily as lifting a feather, and slinging Eve over one of the men's shoulder. She closed her eyes, knowing she could not trust her eyes anymore, and simply listened. The gunfire was getting louder, the sound of dead bodies hitting the floor and screams of pain from both sides echoing around the ballroom like a terrifying song of murder, till there was a shiver. She felt the cold instantly go through her circuits and knew they had gone outside. Fear gripped her mind suddenly and she felt all her circuits and power sources freeze up, her hands grabbing at the first thing they could. Fabric, a yelp of pain coming from her carrier, her mind piecing it all together slowly. Her senses were distorted somehow, she wasn't sling over a shoulder, but bridal style carried out. And by the sound of the yelp, there was no way the man was over the age of fifteen.

"You're alive!" The teen shouted, but by the way he was panting he was still running. She opened her mouth slowly, her eyes blinking slowly as she tried to make out his form. But it had all gone dark, her sight completely gone. "But how? You should be dead!" The sounds of gunshots were fading away into the night, soft footsteps fallowing after him as the ruffle of leaves and tapped on a glass path. The maze. They were cutting though the maze. She opened her mouth again, tying to form words that did not come out right. "It's ok, ma'am, you're going to be fine. We just have a little ways to go now." He said slowly, putting a cloth over her face, holding her closer as another ruffle of leaves and a grunt.

She moaned a little, gripping his shirt just a little more as she felt the cold night air thicken around them. As boot hit cobblestone, she knew were they were going, she knew this city like the back of her hands. They were heading to the closest wall they could fine, they were going to take her out of the city, they were going to run away from here. She didn't want to go though, Gig and Samuel expected her to come home. She tried to struggle but her body wouldn't move, her system shutting down slowly making her panic.

She didn't want to stop. It was like dying, she didn't want to die. She was just starting to learn, she was starting to feel! She was almost.... Her thoughts started to trail off as she felt her body go lip in his arms, her hearing slowly fading as she heard someone shout something at the boy carrying her. She couldn't make out what they were saying, like she was so deep underwater that anything from above the surface was muddled and unrecognizable. This was the end.

She was going to die.

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Adam watched in horror as the bullet hit her in the head, right between her eyes, causing her to fall backwards onto the floor in a crumpled heap. She wasn't moving, and his heart stopped. 'No.' He thought, his eyes widening in horror. 'She-'