The Games

Chapter 5

Sarah

Sarah could hear her heartbeat through her ears, her breathing erratic as the bay doors opened. This was it.

No maximum of how many times you'd repeat, just thirty minutes for each sector; six sectors, six monsters, six weapons.

As the doors opened, Sarah looked to the reflective glass over head, to a particular spot on it. Behind that piece of glass, she could almost sense the malicious aura coming off the councilmen, one especially.

With a deep breath, Sarah looked to her hands, the marks from her nails on her palms beginning to sting; the anxiety had become overbearing from her wolf.

Once her foot stepped into the maze's first sector, the level would begin. Thirty minutes to find the second sector, to find a weapon, and most important of all to try to stay alive.

As she neared the almost invisible barrier that smothered the entrance, the barrier that would make sure she didn't chicken out and run back over the line, Sarah thought about Azura.

She needed her alive, and wondered if she'd made it through the level. Like she needed Azura, she also needed Sarah alive, so what difference did it make if neither of them got out. Sarah only prayed for the more appealing outcome.

As her foot reached the tip of the line, Sarah ears caught the sound of a slight humming noise. Turning, she spotted the hovering cameras the councilmen had been using to document the successes of the girls on video.

She took the step over the barrier into the first sector. A loud siren called out over the arena, signalling the start of the thirty minutes for the first sector.

Sarah began a slow run, until she came to a stop where the one trail split into two.

"Eeny, meany, miney, mo" Sarah's gaze landed on the left path. Taking off into another slow run, she kept guessing the way.
Turning back from another dead end for the fifth time, Sarah took a right turn before she came across a small clearing, with a pedestal sitting in the middle. On top laid a spear that looked like it would be as much use as a twig against anything bigger than a small dog.

"Really?" Sarah sighed as she stepped closer to the centre of the clearing.

Just as her finger grazed the wooden pole of the weapon, Sarah heard the heavy breathing of something getting closer to where she stood.

Grabbing the spear with both hands, she stayed close to the centre, swivelling in a circle to cover the whole clearing. The breathing got heavier, as well as a faint scratching of something heavy on gravel filled the air.

Sarah swallowed the bile in her throat as she caught a glimpse of the creatures eyes in the shadows on the walls. It was like their eyes were clouded in a thick fog, blocking any colour apart from black around the eye rims from escaping  to see.

Sarah kept a steady hand as the creature emerged from the shadow.

The creature, a ghoul, stalked forward, saliva dripping from it ripped jaws. His teeth an off yellow colour, while his skin looked green and rotting. Sarah could see the ghouls bones trying to rip out of the skin, some wounds were oozing black blood while a sickly bone could be seen hanging out of his back leg. None of the wounds deterred the ghoul from his mission of what looked to be eating Sarah alive.

"Hey, buddy. Aren't you an ugly little thing." Sarah tried taunting the creature forward, but it only lead the ghoul to snap and growl.

Taking her eyes off the ghoul for no more than a second, she noticed the digital clock on the camera said she had less than ten minutes to find the next sector. This was going to be impossible with a ghoul chasing her.