After Earth's Fall | ✔ UNDERGOING CONSTRUCTION

Chapter 6

"Are you sure that we're safe out in the open like this?" Kaitlyn asks, her voice filled with concern. "I swear this stupid game is starting to give me chronic paranoia."

The group has just awoken for their first official test and are huddled up in a circle, raiding the bags they've just scavenged up for anything useful. For the last three trials the group had always collected the bags but never got a chance to see the items that they held inside before getting snatched in the claws of some mutated beast.

"It's fine! Every time, the lions would show up at least an hour after us waking up. It's only been," Nila pauses to look at her glassy-black, T.E.D issued watch. "Fifteen minutes."

"What do we have here..." Anna mumbles behind her and pulls out canned food, bottles of water and three torches from inside the crushed boot of a hatchback.

"Jackpot!" Riley bellows with an excited look in his chocolate brown eyes.

Everyone turns to his direction to see Riley holding two pistols in his hands, pointing them jokingly in the direction of the rest of the group.

"God, Riley! Didn't anyone tell you to watch where you point those things?" Kaitlyn lectures him, still crouched beside Anna on the road.

"Great find!" Anna beams. "Is it loaded?"

"No but there's some ammo scattered around in the bag. Not much but it'll do."

Slowly, Riley stands up examining them in deep thought.

"Well I can't really have one because I'm the navigator of the group," he pauses for a second then hands one over to Anna then walks over to Nila with the other. "Here you go. You're one of the top students, right?" He asks and smiles, plopping the gun into Nila's hands and walks away without bothering to get an answer.

"Uh, yeah but..." Nila starts, looking down at the polished white gun, but stops when she realises Riley isn't in front of her anymore.

The only reason she succeeded into the top ten was because of her efforts in other subjects. She still can't shoot properly even if her life depended on it, so she decides to take comfort in hoping it never will.

With a sigh, she places the gun into the back pocket of her pants.

The group had stayed up all night last night working on a plan on how to make it through this last simulation. No, they aren't going to go up, down, sideways or diagonally. The group is going to go straight through. But this time, they're going to use their time wisely, stealthily.

"Ok, it's nearly eight o'clock, we should start getting ready," Riley states.

Anna scrunches up her nose at Riley's remark. "Is it just me, or is time flying?"

With that, the group gather their duffle bags of goodies on their backs and start off following the cracked bitumen road. Sadly, there are no singing dwarfs or anything of those likes to greet them and definitely no good witches around to sing all their worries away. Nila remembers briefly of an Old-Earth book she read in the library back home. Wait, what does she mean back home? She's still on Mars, this is just a simulation. Nila shakes her head at herself and stifles a giggle. Abruptly, Riley comes to a stop and Nila looks down at a large hole in the road, holding a freshly made mud puddle.

Riley bends down and scoops up a handful of the foul-smelling, gooey substance in his hands.

"Uh...what?" Kaitlyn asks both in disgust and general confusion.

Anna seems to get the idea Riley is trying to convey and starts smearing mud all over her arms and legs. "Come on, Kaitlyn. You don't want the lions smelling your scent. It'll only be for a little while, to get them off our trail. We'll be passing through a river to get to our destination anyway," Anna lectures as she now packs the mud on her face.