Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
They were running out of supplies.
Despite keeping eating to a minimum over the past few days---at least, Alisa believed it had been days--- and taking Becca's backpack and supplies, their food rations were dwindling all the same. All they had left of their water was four plastic bottles, certainly not enough to carry them through more than three days---and that was if they drank sparingly.
Perhaps their government's idea all along had been to let them die of hunger and thirst. Alisa wouldn't put it past them. From what she'd met of the President, he would be more than willing to let a group of innocent teenagers and a dog starve to death within the unforgiving walls of a giant steel maze.
He'd taken her eye and her hope, after all.
I wish they'd talk to me. Sort of.
Cheng Xin and Red hadn't spoken a word to her since she'd brushed off the abyss like it was nothing, acting like it had been a bothersome stranger who'd nearly fallen to his death and not her precious twin. She hadn't been able to help it. Seeing the two together, Cheng Xin crying on Red's shoulder while his last bits of optimism were crushed to bits, had ignited a spark of something she'd never felt before in her heart. Jealousy.
I'm sorry---
Was she really? She didn't know.
Alisa's hand unconsciously moved to her nearly-destroyed arm, feeling the split flesh beneath easily give way as she pressed her nails down on the flimsy gauze. She felt blood soak through the bandage, no doubt tinting her fingers sangria. The heat of a thousand fires prickled her throbbing arm, her breaths flowing from her lungs in shallow exhales.
The passage ahead was growing dimmer by the second, igniting terror deep inside her. She didn't know how much longer her nyctophobia could be held back for. Already her lungs were struggling to function against the race of her heartbeat, her blood pressure no doubt spiking to inhuman levels.
"You're bleeding again."
The words, caring and concerned, was like a welcoming sea breeze over her taut nerves. Alisa opened her mouth, ready to reply, when she realised none of her companions had said the desired sentence. Although the voice had sounded a lot like Red's, he wasn't the one speaking. He was over with Cheng Xin, the two holding each other's weary bodies---and souls---up. Jada sat in her brother's arms, peacefully asleep. A pang of envy struck her. Who will do the same for me?
"You're bleeding again, Alisa."
There it was again, the voice---but it was no longer soothing and kind. Now, it sounded like the harsh grate of nails on a chalkboard, mocking her, teasing her, delighting in her pain and misery. "You're bleeding again, Alisa Lee. Why don't you bleed to death? Why don't you simply bleed out and die, you fat swine?"
"I..." Alisa paused, looking around, searching for the source of the taunts.
A laugh followed. "Bleed to death now, it'll be easier," the voice coaxed. "You'll die sooner or later, anyway. No one wants you around. Your father looked down on you. Your mother hated you so much she had to lock you up to avoid seeing your ugly, pathetic, disappointing face. Even your stepmother's love was fake; you were undeserving of her affections. No one wants you. No one will ever love you."
