Writer Games | Death Wish & 51

Task Three: Houston, We Have a Problem - Females

Audrey Blackwood [21]

My fist throbs with pain, and my chest tugs with anxiety and anger after hearing the news from the government.

They can't get us out. We're trapped...
Trapped...

The  tiny voice at the back of my head shrieks louder and louder until tears  are flowing from my eyes and my veins thirst for any form of substance  to take me out of this reality. Many of us are worried... worried who  will be picked off next. Amari sits next to me now, speaking words that I  choose not to hear and snapping at everyone who steps over her boundary  line.

As  soon as the announcement was made over the tinny loud speakers overhead  images began to flash before my eyes: my children's births, my  husband's laugh, the sweet taste of narcotics and then, unlike any fit  of anger I've ever had the images ended on my children... before my fist  ran into the stone wall.

"It  hurts." I complain through gritted teeth as another girl, Kerry, is  turning my pile of jumbled bones and skin over and over in the palm of  her hand, assessing it.

"You've  broken something, that's for sure," Kerry rolls her eyes and shakes her  head in a disapproving way. "I'd suggest making a splint with whatever  piece of junk you can find in here," she pauses and stares off into the  distance, her expression tired and angry. "Maybe my husband was  right..."

Glass  shatters in amongst the group of us and everyone turns to see the  aggressive blonde hair girl holding a shard of what was once a crystal  flower vase. Everyone clears way for her, and soon she is in the centre  of the circle, all by herself. She's young; her face screams of  rebellious ways and the way her hands move speaks of inexperience and  impatience. Each and every one of us shares a glance of fear; who's  going to be next?

"Kara,  please put the shard down." Alicia speaks calmly and collectively,  stepping into the circle before being pushed back by yet another young  blonde girl. This girl circles Kara, looking her up and down as if she  were the predator in the wild. Everyone holds their breath as Sarah-Kate  stops in front of Kara and folds her arms across her chest  dramatically.

"What the hell are you doing?"
Kara  bites her lip and motions the shard at Dylan, the pale kid with the  oversized hoodie. "He threatened me! He's going to kill me!"

"I am not!" Dylan whines and takes a step back, hiding behind Alicia.
"We're  all going to have to work together if we want to make it out alive,"  Sarah-Kate easily takes the shard out of Kara's hands and pushes her  backwards; she's now the centre of attention. When I first walked into  Area 51 I knew there would be some clashing personalities and people who  would be more inclined to fight rather than listen, but now that we're  faced with life or death... I'm losing faith in this group.

"We  need a game plan," Sarah speaks loud and clear, her voice echoing  throughout the hallway. "The government doesn't know how to get us out,  but there must be a back exit hidden deep within a room that we don't  know about." She bends down and begins to draw a map of what we know so  far in the dust with the shard of glass.

"Hold  up," Without thinking my mouth moves before my brain and that my feet  go along with the unexpected plan and soon I find myself face to face  with the take charge twenty year old. "What part of going deep into an  unknown room sounds good to you?"

Just  like that the room falls silent. I close my eyes and Calypso's death  springs back into my vision. It was only last night that Amari and I  held her hand as she gasped for air, the infection spreading from her  hand and to her heart, passing through the lungs along the way. The tip  of her statue must have been poisoned with something from centuries ago;  if that's even possible. As her eyes glazed over and her body fell  limply on the ground, she looked like me in my younger, naïve days.