No Place Like Home

Part 16

They walked until sun-down, making sure not to hit the dangers at their specific time.

"Wait," Phil said and stopped. "What's that?"

Dan turned to see what Phil was looking it, and kind of wished he hadn't.

It was another force-field, but this one had some kind of red liquid pouring down it on the other side, like water on glass.

But this was a thick red liquid, and it had scream's coming from the other side as well.

"What the Hell?" Dan said quietly.
"Is that..." Phil said as they got closer. "Blood?"

It was. Hot, thick, red blood pouring down the force-field.

But there was still scream's echoing through to Dan and Phil, "Are there people in there?" Dan asked.

There was. Dan and Phil both yelped and stumbled back when they saw hands banging on the force-field, only slightly visible through the waterfall of salty blood.

"Help!" a girl scream and banged her fists on the force-field. "Oh God! Help us!"

A cannon blew off as one of the scream's disappeared.

"Oh my, God," Phil breathed, and then looked at Dan. "Should we help them?"

Dan walked over slowly, and carefully held his hand out.
His hand touched the force-field separating them and the rain.
Dan shook his head, his eyebrows furrowed, "We can't."

3 more cannons blew off, as the blood continued falling.

Dan and Phil watched with interest, as more hands started banging on the force-field, screams begging them to help slowly faded away.

A few minutes later, they saw the blood rain slow to a stop.

"Okay," Dan said. "Maybe we should avoid that area. Let's go."

Dan started to walk away, as Phil walked up to the section in which the blood had been falling, there was no blood anywhere, nor bodies on the ground.

Phil shook his head and followed Dan, "This arena's weird."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They came to a stop a few hours later, and Dan panted, "I need some water."
Phil nodded and gasped, "Me too."

They paused as Dan nailed the sile to a tree with a rock and took a long drink of it.
As he walked away, Phil took a drink, "Hey, Phil?"
Phil mumbled with a mouthful of water, "'ot?"
"There were 4 people in that blood-rain, right?" he asked.
Phil gulped down his water and said, "Yeah, I think so. Why?"

"There were 15 left to kill, right?" Dan asked, and Phil nodded. "And now there's only 11 left."
A cannon blew off.
"Okay," Dan chuckled. "10 left to kill."
"Yep," Phil said.
"Given your plan, tactics and how much smarter you are than me," Dan asked. "How many do you think our plan will kill?"

Phil looked Dan in the eyes, "Every single one of us."
"Everyone?" Dan asked.
Phil nodded slowly, "Every last one."

Dan hesitated, before turning to Phil and asking, "But your plan will get us out of here alive, right?"
Phil nodded again, "Yeah, we just have to do what Alyssa said."

Dan raised an eyebrow, "What?"

Phil turned to look at him with a cocky smirk, "Play dead."