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EVEN MY SLEEP WAS TORTURED by the threat of the games. I tossed and turned, but even in my dreams I couldn't escape them.
I sat up gasping for air, clutching my throat.
"It's about time you woke up. I was starting to think that you were the one that was dead." I looked up to see Finn sitting upright on the table.
I breathed a sigh of relief. "Finn, oh thank god you're okay!" I jumped to my feet and hugged him.
I guess the trials were making me a hugger. Who would have guessed?
"We have to tell Colt. He's going to be so stoked." I turned to go grab him but Finn grabbed my wrist and held me back.
"No don't. I already went out there to check on him and he was asleep. Drax said he held out for as long as he could but he finally let him take over as lookout and decided to get some sleep. He needs to sleep."
He was right. Colt probably stayed awake worrying himself to death.
"So how are you feeling? That bullet was laced with tarragon."
"I know. I can feel it." He twisted a little and winced.
"I just want to say thank you for jumping in front of that bullet for me. I froze. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have come back from it as easy." I looked around the room awkwardly avoiding eye contact.
The truth was, I didn't really even know why I couldn't look him in the yes. He just jumped in front of a bullet for me, and I couldn't even repay him with eye contact.
"Thanks, by the way." He mumbled. "For the blood. I wouldn't have made it out if it wasn't for that."
I nodded. With Colt it was easy to talk. He was chill, laid back. Hell, even Drax was easier to talk to thank Finn was. Finn was intimidating, and brutishly charming. All things that I wouldn't have thought I'd find myself attracted to in a million years but standing there I finally let myself admit that I was.
"So, how did that gun hurt you? I thought vampires were immortal, or invincible, or whatever." I felt stupid even asking.
Finn smirked. 'You've been watching too many movies, but that's exactly what our dads want people to think. The truth is vampires can be killed if it involves tarragon. We live really long, but we’re not immortal. Super sexy and handsome? Yes. Immortal? No.”
I sat for a minute, mulling over my thoughts. It felt like every day the guys found a way to make me realize that everything I thought I knew about vampires was a load of shit. I thought about how many humans in the city still cowered under vampire control, believing the ruse that they were all powerful and all knowing.
If the entire city knew what I knew, would things be different?
"So, we should talk." Finn cleared his throat. He sounded determined.
I blushed, hoping he didn't secretly have the power to read minds too?
"Yeah?" I tried not to stutter.
"I don't think putting us in the trials was a last-minute decision."
My eyes widened.
Colt appeared in the doorway. "Because there's no way they would have had time to add tarragon weapons to the map. The map was stocked weeks ago."
What he said bounced around in my head.
"But that would mean-"
"That they were planning on putting us in the trials weeks ago." Finn finished my sentence.
None of it made sense. I didn't understand.
I was about to fire off another question when a noise stopped dead in my tracks- another siren. This one was different than the commencement one that let contenders know that it was time to start. It was the phase one siren. Before I could even register what was going on the ground underneath my feet started to rumble. It started out as a low hum and turned to violent vibrations that shook the small building.
I froze and stared at Finn wide eyed. Even he looked scared, and I knew that some deep shit was on its way.
“Phases? They’re still doing phases? I thought they change the rules!” I panicked.
“Unfortunately they can change the rules however they want. There’s no government entity overseeing the trials besides them. They can make it as sick and inhumane as they want.”
"Guys! You have to come see this!" Drax yelled from the front of the store.
Finn hopped down from the table and dashed out front.
He must really be healed. I thought as I trailed behind him closely.
"What is it?" I peered out the dirty glass window. It was just after sunrise and a heavy downpour drenched everything that the light touched.
I squinted in the direction that Drax was pointing. Far off in the distance there was a huge wall of water tearing through the city, like a tsunami.
"We have to go, now!" Finn yelled. We burst out of the corner store and we all ran as fast as we could. The ground beneath us rumbled and shook, and behind us the water crashed loudly through the deserted city. It was so loud that I could barely hear my heart thundering in my chest.
Shots fired from an upper floor in one of the buildings that towered over us and pelted the street next to me as I ran. I ducked, frantically trying to find the shooter.
Another spray of bullets rained down on us. There was too much going on, I couldn't concentrate. I couldn’t even imagine how the guys felt. Their senses were probably going insane.
Drax tossed me a gun that we’d snagged from the chest and another spray of bullets was unleashed on us. I heard the tink of one hitting a piece of my armor. It didn’t go through but the impact dented it and stung my skin good enough for me to wince.
I had to find where these bullets were coming from, and fast. It was hard to focus over the incredible roar of the collateral damage of the wave.
I looked up and for a split second I saw a small flash of light, like a gun scope catching the sunrise just right.
Got you. I squeezed the trigger and it soared through the air. A few second later a body fell from the third story of a building up ahead and landed on the sidewalk below. I prayed that was the only one as we ran past it.
“We need to get to higher ground!” Drax screamed. His voice was nearly lost in the fray.
He was right. We couldn’t outrun a flood surge like that, it was too big and coming way too fast. By the sounds of it, it was taking out all of the smaller weaker buildings on its way to us.
Suddenly up ahead I spotted another hotel, this one was much taller than the one we were dropped in. It towered about 20 stories into the sky.
I got the guys attention and pointed to it, before I realized someone stood at the entryway waving their arms frantically trying to get our attention.
I picked my gun up and aimed directly at him. The closer we got the more I could make out what they looked like. It was a man in his early twenties like me. He had dark eyes and tanned skin that went well with the light brown scruff that covered his chin. His sandy hair matched.
I held my weapon steady as we made our way to him.
“Don’t shoot, don’t shoot. I need you to follow me.” He held both his hands in the air.
Behind us I could hear the water crashing closer and closer with every second.
“Tell me one reason why I shouldn’t.” I barked. I was done blindly trusting strangers. Bobby ruined it for me.
“Because I’m not part of the trials.” He said.
I lowered my weapon for a second.
What? How is that even possible?
I raised it again, pointing it back at his strangely handsome face.
“And you really can’t afford not to trust me at this point.” He nodded behind me and I turned to see the rush of water come around the corner and flood onto the street destroying everything in its path.
Point taken.
I lowered my gun and he smiled quickly ushering us inside. We made our way through the door and walked into a large and surprisingly clean hotel lobby. There wasn’t a speck of dust on it, and the electricity even worked. The second we stepped inside two large metal doors lid up from the floor and clamped tightly behind the flimsy glass ones we walked through. The same sheet of thick metal slid out from the windows and secured them too. The place was locked down, and it looked like it was airtight too, but I still wondered if his measures could hold up against a tidal wave of water like that.
Inside the lobby stood two guys with rifles standing guard. The man nodded to them as we passed and quickly shuffled into an elevator on the opposite side. We piled in and he hit the number twenty on the keypad. The elevator slowly lurched upward and classical music started to play.
I looked at Colt and he didn’t even need to read my mind to know I was screaming what the fuck inside my head.
The elevator shot straight up way faster than I was expecting and my knees almost buckled underneath the pressure before it lurched to a halt and the doors opened up to see a room full of people who were scurrying back and forth. We got there just in time to see the thick metal guards slam closed on all of the windows in the large room and the lights slowly flicker on. There were at least fifty people scattering around in the place. It was filled with computer monitors, desks, and weapons.
The moment we stepped foot in the room everyone around us halted and stared at us. It took me a few seconds as we walked forward that they weren’t staring at the guys, their eyes were locked on me.
Before I had time to ask any questions someone from the back of the room yelled “Brace of impact!”
I didn’t need to ask any questions to know what that meant. I crouched to the floor and everyone else did the same. I held my hands over my ears but it still wasn’t enough to cancel out the loud crash of the waves as they washed down the street. The floor rumbled and shook. I could feel the building pushing back, fighting the powerful force of nature.
The lights flickered and the building creaked underneath the pressure. It only lasted a few seconds but it was the longest few seconds of my life before the. Building settled into its place and everyone raised their heads up.
A smile spread across my face. My heart was thudding and adrenaline was racing its way through my veins. I didn’t know how thrilling it was to evade death until I was thrown into the mess but I couldn’t go back to living the way I was before.
I let the excitement go to my head, I spun around and pulled the closest person to me in for a kiss- Drax. His lips pressed against mine and I could feel the confusion on his face, but the confusion quickly melted into the kiss too. I pulled away and the look on his face was priceless. Under normal circumstances I didn’t go around kissing people I barely knew, but it was something Scar would do. And every day that passed, every time I almost died, it was like a little piece of Scarlett died too. The old me was fading, and I didn’t even know if I cared anymore. I couldn’t go back to the way things were before, even if I won the trials and got to go back to my old life. The old way wasn’t cutting it anymore, and I was realizing more and more that I got to choose who I could be, not anyone else.
I pulled away from Drax and left a smile plastered across his blushing face.
The man stood in front of me, stunned at what he’d just witnessed but quickly pushed it out of the way and smiled.
“Scarlett Johnson, the National Human Rights Association would like to welcome you to its headquarters.”