25 Deaths

Chapter 5 - Capture the Flag

-Dawn's POV-

Lets start with an injury count.

Lindsey is in a coma (not that I really care), Shaun is unconscious and David can't walk and has a 50-50 chance of survival. I'm completely covered in cuts and blood, then Imogen is perfectly fine, no surprises there. Oh, and Riley is dead.

I was sitting around the dining table eating a green mush supposedly called breakfast, I was one of the few, most of the other players were still in bed, caring for there wounds from both yesterday and the day before challenges. As usual, right after 'breakfast' the speakers screeched, ready to introduce us to our next challenge. Shaun is actually lucky, he won't have to participate since he's unconscious.

"Good morning everyone, I hope you all slept well and enjoyed breakfast." the voice said "So far we've had a death per day, maybe one of you will be able to go home before the month is up. But I doubt it," I hate this girl with a passion "Today I've planned something a little more exciting. We're going to play a lovely game of capture the flag!"

I seriously doubt that.

"So far, one player from each team as died, those people's heads will be used as flags. Each player gets a weapon from the choices which can be used to fight the other teams players. Your goal is to retrieve the opponents 'flag' and bring it back to your team's male cabin," even from the dining cabin I could feel the vibration indicating that to platforms were being raised outside. "The heads and weapons are here. Your team has ten minutes to grab the head and find a suitable base for your team, you can choose anywhere, but once the time is up, the head cannot be touch by anyone that isn't in your team. If you want to live, you won't try to bend the rules. Time starts now,"

I sighed loudly then slumped off my chair and began to walk outside with the few others from my team there were still standing. Out of all the games so far, this is probably the most gruesome. It's not the most life-threatening, but who wants to steal a head?! It's just not normal.

As soon as I was outside, the first thing that met my eyes was Imogene's head. Her flesh rotting, dried blood all over her neck, an eye missing and you could even see part of her skull. Maggots gnawing through her head, skin dangling off her. Her blonde and blue hair had become a birds nest, tangled and dirty. It was a horrific sight. Then I saw Riley's head. His looked a lot cleaner, when I cut him, his head was connected to his neck and arm but it looks like someone had cut his arm off and cleaned out all the blood. But just because it looked cleaner didn't mean it was. Maggots were biting through him, flies sniffing in his scent and his usual black curly hair was now made up of small and tangled patches of grey. His eyes were white and un seeing. And it was my fault. But I didn't care.

I looked around at the rest of my team, most of them were avoiding my gaze. Probably because of Riley. One of the girls, Twiza, was blushing slightly and looked like her crush had just called her beautiful or something. She kept glancing at Imogen and smiling, I had no idea why. I guess Twiza's just a cracked nut.

Imogen came up to me "What's the plan?" She asked me, almost normally

I looked at her confused "Did you hit your head?"

"What?" I expected her to make some rude comment, but she just laughed "Oh, right, sorry about the past few days, I guess I just want to survive here, you know?" I'm not falling for it. Yet.

"Well," I said "I'm not carrying Imogene's head around, so that can be your job,". I saw her a flinch cross her face, but she kept smiling. Just that small expression showed that this was an act. If she completely flinched and made a grossed-out expression I might've kept believing her, if she kept smiling then I may have believed her. But just the fact that she flinched and tried to cover it up? That shows that she's planning something. Oh, Imogen, you really have to be more careful. I'd never make that mistake.