Chapter 4 -First Draft

_alisa_

by _alisa_

Story

Everything was a blur of colors, high oval-formed walls surrounded the small, mud and plant-filled arena. And the thousands of people, standing on top of those high walls, were looking down at us, cheering as if they were expecting the most significant and entertaining spectacle of them all. “This is just repellent!” I looked back at Hope, who joined me stepping out of the heavy iron door, that had held us captive just moments ago. “What?” “All these people cheering, almost as if they are eager for us to die.” Hope assessed our surroundings, before letting her gaze fall back onto me “They’re just pathetic and quite frankly unimportant. What is important right now is that we have a plan. Assuming that the flag behind us is our home base, we ought to defend it, while still attacking the other team. I reckon our best chance of survival would be splitting up.” I needed a moment to process all the information. “Are you completely insane? Splitting up? Wouldn’t we be way stronger fighting together?” I whispered shouted back. “No Ruby, listen. That’s precisely what the other team thinks we’re doing, the only way we will win this is by doing what they least expect.” I nodded in approval even though uncertainty consumed me. This game wasn`t only going to kill half of us, but also make our first impression. From what my sister had told me growing up, this was the most vital error participants made: making a bad or weak impression on those `pathetic` people watching us like vultures from above. This meant almost certain death. Suddenly Hope’s idea of splitting up seemed genius, we would look strong and desirable if we didn`t get killed, inviting odds right? A clangorous booming echoed through the entirety of the arena, as great clamor erupted. Go now, what are you waiting for? Go go go! My orbs met Hope’s fiercely ones before my gaze fell onto her hands trying to signal for me to go. “Don’t die okay?” She screamed after me as my feet started moving over the stony soil below me into the unknown. It’s funny how in situations like these things such as running, which would normally make my skin crawl, didn`t even bother me the tiniest bit. All that could be heard was my shallow breathing and my heavy legs hitting the ground in a steady rhythm, while I coordinated my surroundings to not bump into a tree trunk at full speed. The green and red tree crowns were enough coverage so that I could fully concentrate on the dangers facing me and not the bloodthirsty faces watching my every step. The entire battlefield looked exactly the same with trees everywhere, leaves all over the ground, and the occasional puddle or small river. Even if I wanted to there was no going back now, so I just kept going straightforward. Anticipation was flowing through every vein in my body, pumping faster and faster. `Run past the rivers, run past all the light. Feel it crashing and burning till it all collides…` I hummed with the little breath I had left. Singing had always made things less scary, and it still did. With more determination than ever, I arrived at a massive crashing river stream and just jumped. I didn`t think about how it would be certain death not making it over, I just flew. Loud cheering was the audience’s response and the corners of my mouth started lifting, we could do this. As I looked up again, my gaze found a small clearing, and in the middle of it: their home base.

© _alisa_ 2023-09-09

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