Author Games - Ghost Town

Task 7 - Stone Everglade

I think I’ve managed to lose myself completely.

 

I was lost before, but now somehow in this swirling vortex of murder and fear it seems I’ve lost myself even more, I hadn't even known that was possible.  It scared me more than hell. Or to put it better; I scared myself more than hell.

 

I had come here to die, only to discover death scared me more than my life did. I had decided to save innocents, only for them to die. I had tried to kill myself, only to live. I had tried so hard not to kill, only to lose all control of myself and do it in cold blood. It felt like I had been running around in circles since the games had begun, despite the fact I’d sworn to myself I wasn’t their pawn. I was confused. I was beyond confused- I had no clue as to who I was. And I didn’t think having an identity crisis in the last leg of a fight to the death was good.

 

Alex and I sat crouched in the shadow of one of the machines, hiding in it’s cover. The careers were hunting us, I knew they were. A brief memory of Aspen’s decapitated body flashed through my mind, I let the image harbor in my mind a minute as the blade of pain twisted itself in the already deep, penetrating gash in my heart. I had failed to protect him. I swallowed the tears I felt well up in my throat as I turned to look at Alex who sat in the middle of hell with a small smile on his face as he stroked the duck (yes, we still had the stupid duck) he had adopted, tenderly. His eyes no longer appeared to look like black pits of hell, rather, the iris seemed to be a deep sky blue.

 

I realized that Alex had become a bit like a little brother to me over the past few days. I had never seen it coming, not in the least. He had been a freaking psychopath... but now he seemed like a normal kid… maybe he had just needed someone to care about him.  

 

I decided that I would die for him, so he could go home and start over… and so that I could finally die. I found myself really wanting him to have that chance, I’ll admit on some level I was concerned that he had not changed and was just using me like everyone else does. The possibility of being used was a chance I had taken many times, most of which had resulted badly, but maybe this time would be different. I really hoped that it would.

 

Its funny what just one little seed of hope can do.

 

That was when all hell broke loose. The machine behind us lit up, I gasped raggedly, spinning around and jumping backwards a few steps. My heart thrumming in my chest from shock, adrenaline rushing through my veins as I realized we had been sitting underneath a screen.

 

I glanced over at Alex who was desperately trying to get his startled duck under control, it flapped wildly, squawking loud enough to wake the dead. ‘Well there goes our last chance at subtlety,’ I thought bitterly as I watched Clara and Clement swing around the corner. We  were on a roll, we had simultaneously managed to hide in front of a flashing screen and we had a loud duck to direct the careers to the screen on the off chance the had gone blind.

 

The blue headed girl pointed excitedly at us and she and her partner charged us, their weapons glinting in the bright factory light. I braced myself, really wishing I had a weapon right now- then they froze looking at whatever was behind me with dread.  

 

My back muscles stiffened, chills running down my back like raindrops running down a piece of glass. I slowly turned around, expecting to see some horrible mutt looming over me, ready to tear me to shreds- instead I saw creepy-ass Antonio’s face illuminating the screen. I glowered at him, he smirked his eyes dancing over everyone in the room. Eventually falling on me where they seemed to settle, “Hmm…” His voice curled condescendingly from the machine's speakers. “So you're the ones who survived Lock Down.” He sounded almost disappointed, I curled my lip in disgust. “Congratulations. But I wouldn’t celebrate just yet.”