Author Games: The Final War

Task Five Males

Fire Strong: Epping Collin

"Attention candidates. You must find your way out of the arena in which you are in. You must then find your ally. Failure to comply to this will lead to your timely demise."

The mutt was dead, floating limp in the water. Trails of blood followed. I shivered, wrapping my arms around my stomach where blood poured freely from the fresh wounds. I didn't care much for the announcement, knowing already I needed to escape this arena and find Cassidy. There had to be an exit somewhere. The announcement proved that. All I needed to figure out was where they'd put an exit. If it was up to them, it would be hidden in a small area, somewhere hard to spot. Somewhere not obvious. Now that I thought, could there be an exit underwater?

A hidden exit under the water. I'd say that that was something worth looking at. I was soaking from head to toe, so it would make no difference to my already weakened state if I dove under the water. My reflection shone in the water, although blurred and weakened. From what I could tell, my hair was glued to my forehead, and right now, you couldn't tell the difference between the blue bits and the black bits. Underneath my eyes were bags, not to mention the three cuts across my cheek. I knew if I was looking into an actual mirror, I would not look good.

Prying my attention off my reflection, I scrounged for my last bit of energy and dove beneath the water, my body stinging. The water seemed to be clear enough, but what I hadn't realised was how deep it was. Now other than that, I thought underneath the water was beautiful in an eerie way.

It wouldn't be long before I had to resurface. My breath was already running low. Through the haze in my eyes I couldn't see much, but I searched nonetheless. I hadn't been under long. Maybe only thirty seconds, but that was enough to leave me more exhausted than I was before.

My head bobbed out of the water as I took a big breath, in no time at all, I dove back down. I touched the sandy bottom with me hands, feeling for a handle that could lead to the exit. That's when my hand touched it. I was almost out of breath again, but pushed passed it because of my new discovery.

I pulled the handle with as much force as I could. Bubbles floated out of my mouth as I struggled. Suddenly, it popped open, knocking me in the head. Finally, not being able to deal with my lack of breath, I resurfaced, breathing in as much air as I could.

I was beginning to feel drowsy, my senses weakening. Now that I thought about it, how much blood had I lost? It would've been easier to tell if I was on land, but since my blood was left in a trail through the water. How could I tell? I coughed, the movement through my chest caused a wave of pain to course through my stomach. I ignored the pain, diving back under the water, and this time would hopefully be the last.

Knowing the exact placement of the door, I swam straight towards it. Once I made it through the door, my body landed with a thump onto hard flooring. I sucked in a breath of pain, holding my arms around the wounds on my stomach. Now that I was out of the water, and not to mention in a strange room, I could breath again.

I laid there for a few minutes, trying to catch my breath. My whole body ached, and because I was still soaking, I couldn't control my fire. My best weapon was still inactive. I couldn't bring myself to get up just yet, so instead, I peeled back my shirt, that like before, was basically glued to me. Now that I had proper light I could see my cuts to the full extent. Around the three cuts on either side a bruise was beginning to form. It was a discoloured yellow. The cuts were deep from what I could tell and just underneath each was dried up blood. They weren't bleeding too much anymore, only slightly, which, at least was a good sign.

After another couple of minutes, I sat up, pulling wet strands of hair off my forehead. Once I was up I discovered a second door, but when I looked to the wall beside it, I discovered another door. That's odd. Which door did I have to go through?