Purgatory

Mission 1 • Group 1

Members: Cade Dorre, Ava Lou, Gabriella Greene, Noah Phelps, Jake Wilson, Sapphire Elkins

• Ava Lou •
My head aches. I blink, a blinding light shining in my eyes and voices blurring together in the background. Where am I?

I open my eyes. Everything is white. This seems surreal. My fingers trace the white smooth floor. I feel like I'm in a box.

"She's awake!" Someone says.

"About time." A grumpy voice says afterwards. A boy with bright blue eyes and brown hair hurries towards me. I assume it's the guy who announced my awakening.

He holds out his hand. Hesitantly, I take it, and he pulls me up. "Where are we?" I ask, looking around at the five unfamiliar faces who are also staring at me curiously.

"Oh my gosh, Genius. We're in a fucking white box. Who the hell knows?" Wow. What a grump. I roll my eyes in response.

"Everybody needs to CALM THE FUCK DOWN." This girl yells, panic in her voice.

Another boy laughs. "Dude, you having a panic attack or what?"

"Shut up, you idiot! We're all gonna die!" The blonde crumples to the floor in hysterics.

"I'm stuck in a room with a bunch of losers. I should be the one crying on the floor." His voice is emotionless.

I open my mouth to answer to him, but I'm interrupted by a tapping sound. "Welcome," a voice says. The blonde looks up, surprise filling her face. We all look around the small room and see nobody other than the other five. "Look around you. You should see five people."

We all look around. "Introduce yourselves."

"I'm Cade." The grump mumbles.

"Gabriella." I had hardly noticed the quiet brunette sitting in the corner.

"Ava." I say.

"Noah." The one who helped me up says.

"Sapphire," the blonde says.

"Jake." The one sitting by the brunette says.

"Now that you've introduced yourselves, let me tell you that this is your group, your team. This is who you're going to be spending your life with- unless you survive. Because if you survive, you can live in paradise. I see that you guys are confused. Let me explain," the woman makes a sound that is somewhat like clearing one's throat. "You have three missions. You will need to survive each mission WITHOUT separating from your group. You have a certain time limit for each mission depending on it's difficulty. However, missions will get more difficult the more you move on. You guys will be attempting survival in the wilderness."

"So what's the fucking point of this?"

"I was getting to that, Cade Dorre. Thank you, sir." Her voice vibrates the room with a hint of annoyance. This takes us all by surprise. "On the off chance that you do survive, you will be rewarded with eternal bliss and happiness in Paradise Cove. Your first mission begins when you wake up. Do not be afraid, you're going to start feeling drowsy. Don't fight it. Once you arrive at the location of your first mission, the operator will tell you your time limit, what you have to do to survive, and your mission. Enjoy your stay."

My heart races. This has to be some kind of nightmare. I am about to tell someone to pinch me, but my knees wobble. I see that everyone zones out for a second, and I begin feeling drowsy myself, just like she said. I close myself and allow myself to drift away, hoping that when I wake up, I'll realize that it was a nightmare.

°          °          °

It wasn't a nightmare. When I wake up, heat engulfs me. I open my mouth to take a deep breath. The air feels like fire in my lungs. I stand up. We're all standing in perfect alignment. How is this possible?

"Welcome to your mission. You must survive the obstacles you face in this hot desert for 3 days with no supplies to begin with. Enjoy your stay." A buzz sounds. I assume that signals the beginning of the mission.

"This doesn't seem so hard." Jake says.

"We're all gonna die." Sapphire shuffles her feet.

"Better that way." Cade says.

I bend down and scoop up some sand. It's hot and burns my fingers. I drop it immediately.

"The fuck you doing?" Cade calls out to me.

"Bro, what's your problem?" Jake asks.

"Stop fighting!" The brunette, Gabriella, speaks up. "If you guys didn't realize, we have three days. We're gonna die without food, so why don't we go find some?"

"Gabriella's right. Let's split up. We can cover more ground." Noah says.

"We can't. We're eliminated if we
separate, remember?" I say.

"Fuckkkkkk." Cade whines.

"Shut up, you idiot." Gabriella hits his arm. He flips her off.

"Pull yourselves together!" I yell at them. Cade rolls his eyes at me. "Cade, stop acting like a child. Trust me, we would all love to leave you behind, but it would cost us our lives. Let's go try to find some cacti fruit, okay? That way, we get hydration and food."

He shuts up and stuffs his hands in his pockets. We start walking. This is my future. This is how I'm gonna die. With a group of strangers who can't get along.