FINAL HOPE

WARNING- HAS VOILENCE AND A LOT OF DEATHS. PLEASE DO NOT READ IF YOU CAN NOT HANDEL SUCH CONTENT.

By the time I stepped outside the leaves are on fire. You might assume when I say “on fire” it means that they’re color between red, yellow, to describe autumn. Well allow me to burst your bubble.They’re literally on fire and that’s my fault. Sirens buzz and my legs sprain .I keep on racing through the trees that are to me a blur of red and yellow. One wrong move and I’m dead, if I don’t well I assume I’ll live a few minutes longer .I know what the risks were when I set them on flames but it was the only way. Growing up we have been taught- no drilled in our brain that never, go near the leaves scattered across the lake of aurora. A few of my friends have dare each other over the years to go ahead only to never to be seen again- still haven’t. Though if our plans work then they will be sighted once more and dozens others. I wonder if anyone would recognize them or have they've moved on with their lives. I read it once, humans can’t tolerate emptiness for much time, and the hole fills up soon enough. I wonder if I will be remembered . The cars come closer; I expected them to show up earlier. Perhaps its a blessing, like God wants us to end them

“Stop running“                                                                                            

Their speaker speaks. I don’t obey. I might be able to divert their attention a bit linger. Even mere seconds have such importance now .It maybe because of them they'll get in undectectd. I hear a dozen of clicks, a sound that haunts my dreams- the sound of a gun putting its bullets into place. I turn around a corner, perhaps the wall will protect me a few shots. And then there they come.There is pain, immense pain, my back, leg, arms sting and then there is nothing but eternal darkness

Be safe

***

We are lost, we failed. He might’ve distracted them but what now? What next?

Ashvyr’s typing the codes; I wish he’d hurry up. Hannah is – like me- doing nothing just waiting, in another life I would’ve told him to hurry up, I’m really impatient but I don’t, this is no game and he needs his concentration. Besides if he doesn’t concentrate we won’t get in and frankly we can’t do anything until we’re inside.

I allow myself to look around, we might need it in case we have the chance to get out- if we survive. For all I care we’re walking straight into a death trap, just like our former companions. It would’ve been a blessing if I was the first one killed.

The floor, roof and walls are covered in white marble. The light is almost blinding- almost as if they would increase it about a perfect and we wouldn’t be able to see. The room we are in though is well furnished, luxurious couches, glass ornaments glinting on the wall and potted plants in every corner- no cameras, we checked. I suppose all this glass would be good for defense, it would do good damage if I threw it in some one’s face.

“Aha” shouts Ash, Anna punches him good girl he deserves a kick in the butt for good measures, they must’ve hear his voice and found out where we are.

The iron door slides open, smoke pours out. Instinctively I pull my mask over my mouth and nose; my goggles are already on my eyes. It had no effect on us just as Jimmy told us though precaution is necessary. I find out Anna and Ash didn’t even bother with their safely gear. I want to snap at them; don’t they know what kind of responsibility hangs over our shoulders? What threats might be next? Then I realize I am getting a bit too paranoid but then again I do have a lot of reasons to be so we lost the rest of our gang because of being careless like when NO  don’t think , not now- but we did loose Maggie and Zed in a situation similar to this and NO.

The room is white, purely, no furniture just five path BINGO!  This is the room we were looking for. My companions take a step ahead,

“NO” I hiss under my breath “hold up”

“Sorry” Anna says wincing. They forgot, idiots.

I throw a and chips. Nothing, no reaction, no lasers, no sirens, nothing. We walk onwards.

“I don’t know how I keep forgetting this stuff” Ash admits “how do you remember?”

Because my sister, your boyfriend , his brother and best friend got ripped in front of our eyes because they didn’t do what we just did

I say nothing.

The five paths , I can hear Jimmy’s voice the middle one goes to their office, it either sides, they’re traps, the remaining- dead ends, never go in them you will get caught.

It’s a miracle we met him, or we’ll be toast, literally, all of us would’ve died weeks ago. Anna’s fawn hairs bounce up and down as she walks to there it was and bends down. Her face is scrunched up in concertration. She runs her fingers on the gap between the tiles- the only one in the room- I see her lisping, probably praying. She lifts her finger, covered in dust. She failed, nothing’s happening. But then I hear a clang and it slowly lifts. The hidden path- we found it.

We exchange looks; we know very well where this leads. The lost citizens. I can’t help myself from recoiling. If I am correct our childhood friends, parents, uncles, aunts and so many more are in there or whatever is left of them. The path downwards is blackness and we must never use a light in there.

“we need weapons, armor, something” I say, it’s true, we have nothing except a few sticks, smoke bombs, stink bombs, books, food, and our empty guns.

“We can’t” Anna says, “We have no time”

“but-“

They aren’t listening. Anna is halfway down. I’m not letting her down in there without me, there could be cockroaches in there she hates them, or hated them- once. Ash comes on after me. We can’t see anything. Eyes open, eyes close, the view is the same, darkness, silence. The path is narrow; my shoulders bump in the walls.

“Anna keeps one foot ahead of you’ Ash says.

This is it, it’s the end. There are tears in my eyes and my throat is clogged. I can’t help myself. I want to escape and run until I reach my blankets in my old bed and read; I want to go anywhere but here. Logan would comfort me but he’s not here. He’s gone, I let him go, didn’t even stop him. He must be dead, or tortured like Mathew, NO. Now my head is swarming with the images of whatever was left of him, one hand ripped, two fingers missing in the other, skin half torn, eyes fished out, nose snapped and so much blood. I want to puke, cant. This corridor is endless; I pray my death would be quick and painless. I can’t see anything but my dead friends.

“We need to pin point the exact location of their headquarters “says Zed.

“Yeah, we definitely don’t want to walk in armed into a poor old couple’s house” adds Maggie.

 “Shut it” snaps Logan.

Ash, Sam are busy decoding. At least there isn’t a ticking time bomb here. Red lights flare. I was wrong wasn’t I? A plant was tilted halfway and there standing closets to it was Daniel.

“It was an accident” he shouts both hands in the air.

 “That’s new “Jimmy remarks,” last time I checked there weren’t any booby traps”

“LETS GO “shouts Anna.

“We can- “jimmy starts saying but freezes and I don’t have to wonder why. We hear footsteps, dozens of them; they’re coming closer. The door we were working on opens. We have nowhere to go. There are no windows Jimmy told us; it’s to prevent us from escaping. They know we’re in this room if we aren’t in here they’ll open the next one and surely catch us out. I pray to God, we will die.

“GO “shouts Dan.

“What? “Shrieks Mary.

“THE ROOM” he hisses.

Logan tugs my shoulder, I let him drag me. The rest of us also move inside. I know this is the end, whets the point of admiring the view of this glorious room? They’ll get us eventually. We are running. I hear a shout. Its Jimmy, Dan throws him inside and shuts the door. It’s the last I see of him – alive at least- standing in the doorway a machine gun in his hand, white light illuminating his face. He says something I wish I didn’t hear but I do

“I love you” he says to Jimmy and the door closes and there are gun shots.

That’s one of the worst days of my life. There are a few more. I wish there weren’t but there are and I can do nothing about it. I wonder if there’ll be more one of them. I think so, I can feel it, something must go wrong.

Jimmy is sniveling beside me. They’ve got him. They must thing he’s the only one otherwise they’d be here already. I know he loves him too- Dan, he told me yesterday. I wish they had time. These people might double up security.

“There won’t be anyone here” Jimmy says his voice hoarse. What courage he has to speak or simply move on I don’t know. I wish I wouldn’t.

We reach the door he told us about. I swear this place keeps on getting bigger and bigger, it’s endless. We aren’t supposed to go in that one, the other one, on our right, third ones a distraction. Big and mighty door should reach rooms with hidden secrets right? Wrong, this ne leads to the security barricades.

Tip toe, tip toe, that’s how were suppose to reach our destination, stealthily. Only then the door opens and there are a dozen men with guns. They fire them and, Zed and Maggie are in the way and their screams are horrific.

I realize for the past minute I am thinking how will I die, I come up with stupid ideas, getting stabbed, falling in a nuclear pit, a lava pit and plenty more. Maybe I should try writing afterwards- that’s if we survive, my minds getting creative.

There is a bulb glowing there, no guards, none needed. Anna lifts her hair and pulls out a key from around her neck. The door opens and by far, this is easiest one to open. We enter a massive room and there are probably a hundred – if not more- people over here.

“Hum ap ko nikaalne aaye hain” Ash says loudly. There are whispers in the crowd. I wonder how many can understand him. I certainly can’t, “ yahan pe who to nhi hain?”

“NHI, yahan pe who kbhi b nhi hote, hamesha upper hote hain” an elderly woman says.

“hamare pass waqt km h, hm waise b der se aayain hain”

“hmein lrna aat h” a buch of kids say. It breaks my heart to see them there; they are too tiny to be imprisoned.

“They can fight” Ash tells me and Anna urgently.

“How will we get out?” I ask “they’ll get butchered”

They look at me and smile. I gasp when I see whets I their bags, revolvers, a lot – and me a lot I mean a lot- of them.

“They’re loaded” Anna says distributing them out.

“Guns wale aage, baqi peeche, jald az jld yahan se jaana hoga buhat km waqt h”

There is an answering roar from the crowd and I can’t help myself from smiling, we can survive. The woman who spoke earlier gives us sandwiches, they’re soggy but I don’t care, I gobble them down. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I ate it. We will survive, nothing can go wrong now.

The doors fly open – there are ten doors in this room and they all burst. I shouldn’t have said that. Children shriek and I see a woman hug a child into her. My blood turns cold because standing ahead of me is my brother-Daniel, with the enemies and he’s grinning.

***

He is covered in blood. With a jolt I realized it’s fresh, it’s his. Something's not right, his eyes are wrong. My eyes trail down, there are bullet holes in him, his arms, legs, stomach, face and he’s smiling, does not recognize us.

In the empty door next to him comes a woman. I have never seen her but she feels off He has waist length jet black hair and she’s wearing a suit. She’s pretty but I don’t like her I don’t know why

There are guards, so many of them, they come from each door. They all have machine guns , probably loaded. And then there is this smell of rotten meat. A few figures move onto a raised platform, the smell is stronger as they come near to me. When I realize who they are I vomit, again and again . I can hear others emptying their stomachs too. My eyes are watery and I can’t see a thing.

 Why amn’t I dead? I raise my head up and I see the woman staring at me smiling. It’s like she’s waiting for me to see who are up there. Ash cries in despair and without wanting to me see them too.

Logan

Sam

Angelina

Zed

Maggie

Daniel

Mary

Andrew

Impossible. They’re dead, but still up there. Rotten, stinky, half naked, ripped but still up there. I suppose nothing worse can happen now can it? A figure pass me and I vomit, it has no head, but it’s moving. Its body is cut and mangled but it’s moving and it’s wearing his clothiers, Jimmy.

The woman beckons her hand and Logan and Mary move forward. I can’t bear to look at them they look nothing like the siblings I remember except for the clothes and lochan, he – lochan left an hour ago. Are they zombies? They’re standing in the middle of the platform. The woman smiles wider “where are the Lochans” no. nobody comes out. “Get out “Ash holds my hand, Anna holds his. A think looking man and woman walk out, guns pointing their backs. In another life they must be beautiful, there is nothing left in them except for each other and I wonder if that’s why they’re alive. Ash grips my hand tightly but there is no need for him to, I know who they are, my parents

“What is it Jessica” my father says and I can feel as if he’s about to spit.

“Do you know who they are Cedric?” she says with another lazy flick of her hand towards what remained of my siblings “ever wondered what happened to your children Cather?” she turns towards my mother and she trembles. Logan and Mary grin wider, I can see five of Logan’s teeth are missing.

There is something wicked about her, I can feel it in my bones, she’s about to do something that we will all regent. I can see calculation in her mind and then she says “bring her up “

A man comes from behind me and pushes me forward. I feel every eye on me Anna punches him straight in the **** and he falls down in pain. Jessica snaps her fingers and there is a gunshot and she comes down, bleeding from her head. Ash and I scream in despair. He is sobbing and I am being taken to the platform. I don’t protest. I want to die. There is nothing to live for. 

I can see her, coming closer in to view as I move towards her. This is the woman who tore all these families apart, who tore loved ones apart, she tore our family apart, took my parents and left me and my siblings with our uncles. When I see her there is nothing but rage. I don't feel sympathy. There must be a reason for doing this, t always is. I don’t want to know, the reason behind this but maybe.. there might be one chance left. I place my hand in my back pocket and I feel it, the tip of my blade- weeks ago I took it out of my pencil sharpener to cut wood pretending I'm a woodcutter. One chance, just one.

I lung for it. She doesn’t see it coming. With a swoosh blood oozes out of her neck it feels warm. It’s not deep but the aim is perfect, I went for the weakest spot. Her eyes widen in shock and I grin. There are screams and I did it, avanged them all. Instantaneously there are bullets in me .Maybe I'll become a legend. there's a scream my mothers, sounds like Mary’s. I can’t describe the agony piercing my skin and I don’t have to, I close my eyes embracing my faith and there is no more.

I wish I had the chance to find out more, to appreciate my family- whatever I had, whenever I had of it -, to get a chance to know my parents. I want to know what happened here, why did Jessica became the person she is why were they taken prisoners who approached the leaves. It’s not for me to find out, Jimmy was taken before he could tell us but we knew whatever they were doing was bad. I don’t know if there will be an afterlife for me or I’ll rot in hell for killing Jessica, I don’t know if my body will be used as a zombie . I don’t know what happened to my companions. I don’t care. I want to rest for eternity, maybe I can.