Author Games: The Final War

Task Three Males

Fire Strong: Epping Collin

My eyes snapped open. I yawned, still groggy from sleep. As I stood up, I tripped. I guess I was still tired. I stretch my limbs, my eyes wander in search of human life. From what I saw- there wasn't any. I knew I needed to get going, so I picked up my sword off the ground before I walked ahead.

It wasn't long before I stopped walking, noticing that there was something different in the way I breathed in the air. I felt suffocated. In that moment, my eyes connected with someone else's. Cassidy Quinn, if I believed correctly. I went to open my mouth to speak to Cassidy, as we had earlier organised to be allies- but I found that I couldn't speak. When I opened my mouth to talk, nothing came out. Cassidy, too opened his mouth to speak, and yet again there were no words being spoken. What's happening? The two of us stepped closer towards each other. I shrugged my shoulders at him, which just caused Cassidy to shake his head as if to say, 'what the hell?'

I stared into his green/blue eyes, as I tried to pinpoint his emotions, seen as we were no longer able to speak. My assumption; the game makers had everything to do with this. Figuring this out, I tried telling Cassidy. Although I had no idea how I was supposed to tell him.

How on earth were we supposed to communicate? That's when Cassidy grabbed a stick off the ground. I watched him with a curious gaze as he started drawing something in the dirt using a long stick. Once he had finished, Cassidy pointed at it. I looked at it, noticing that he had written something. The writing was hard to read and I could barely tell what it said, but I just managed to decipher it. 'What's going on?'

Getting an idea, I lit a fire up in my hands and started to write words in the air. It came out messily, and I wasn't sure it was even readable. Cassidy shrugged his shoulders, stomping his foot. I groaned, doing the same thing, but this time I attempted to make it neater. I ended up just writing in capital letters. It turned out neater that way.

Once Cassidy had finished, he nodded his head, agreeing with me. I wrote how I thought the game makers were up to something with this, and that there had to be a way to solve our current issue. I stood, looking behind me, making sure nobody was there. Once I was satisfied, I looked back to Cassidy.

With his stick, Cassidy began to write something else. I stared at the ground, watching as he wrote, trying to understand what it said. Once I figured it out, after silently getting frustrated, I looked back up to meet Cassidy's eyes. I stepped back a few inches, feeling something brush the top of my head. I ignored it. 'Yes we're allies,' I mouth to him, the slowest, and best I could. He raised his eyebrow at me and smacked his forehead. I groaned, although no noise came out. Now that I knew he didn't understand lips, I resorted into communicating the same way as him. I turned to me left, dropping to my knees and grabbed a stick. I carefully carved out the words, 'yes, we're allies.' Cassidy nodded his head.

'We reed to yo,' I read on the ground. That couldn't be right. I shook my head, closing my eyes in frustration. Life was so much easier when you could talk. I wasn't the biggest talker, but I wasn't quiet either. Anyway, Cassidy and I needed to communicate better than this. I looked back at Cassidy. His eyebrows were furrowed slightly causing wrinkles to appear. He pulled back a strand of brown hair, leaving his hand there. As I studied him, I quickly figured out he was more frustrated than I.

Thinking back on what I'd read, I finally figured out what it was supposed to be. I nodded my head, turning to my right, beginning to walk that way. I hoped he got the picture. After a few seconds, Cassidy followed. My eyes searched our surroundings for any signs of clues. There wasn't any. I sighed, no sound coming out.

After twenty minutes of walking Cassidy and I stopped, and looked at each other. I shrugged my shoulders. I don't even know why I did. I looked up, my eyes scanning my surroundings, and were met with something weird. There were two things hanging from the branch of a tree. I couldn't tell what they looked like, but I tapped Cassidy on the shoulder. I pointed over to them and he turned. The two of us stepped closer to the object until we were right in front of it. I pulled it out of the tree, my eyes widening in shock. They were gas masks. Cassidy and I gave each other a look. They were here for a reason.