Never give up (Part 2 to No greater stakes)

“It doesn’t count if you’re already planning your defeat.”

I rubbed my eyes and scanned the water around me, one of the girls was basically saying that we should just let them kill us. I knew her, she had gone to school with me, Annie, I think her name was. Jackson and I had brought her food when her mother died in a freak car accident.

“Why would you come in here with that attitude, that’s how you die first.”

The girl that I had noticed at the droppings was talking now. We had only just entered, everyone was crowded together. We would have maybe ten minutes to try and find somewhere safe before they started unleashing things to kill us. I kicked through the water to them,

“Guys, enough with the arguing, were running out of time. We need to get moving.”

Annie looked at her feet and I swam closer to her,

“It’s just, there’s no way we make it out of here, so what’s the point?”

I put my hand on her shoulder,

“There’s so many reasons Annie. We can do this, we can keep each other alive, but we can’t give up.”

She sighed and forced a smile to her face, I nodded and went over to the other girl, her fingers still wrapped tightly around her dagger.

“Keith.”

She nodded at me,

“Alessia. I’m glad someone else came as prepared as me.”

I looked out over the crowd. I was a born leader, I was used to taking the role.

“Alright everyone, were not gonna play this like everyone else has for the past fifty years, we need to find shelter, the weather will be the first thing that hits us.”

I turned, and kicked my feet, easily cutting through the water. Everyone else began to follow, Alessia, at my side.

I knew we were short on time, so I moved as quickly as I possibly could. We swam to the outer reaches of the water, nearly reaching the wall that blocked our exit. We ran into a big cave, big enough to fit all of us. We filed in quickly as we heard the thunder beginning to rage. Water was like land to us, we could breathe in it, walk in it if we wanted, live in it. The weather, was no exception.

We all breathed a sigh of relief. The cave was an air bubble, so we had a solid surface to work with. People that had brought a pickax began work on the left wall, we had to tunnel out a spot for a bunker type enclosure, if the cave was breached.

I was giving people their roles and setting up a guard system when I remembered the bulge in my pocket. Mom had put something there right before I was taken.

I turned away from everyone and pulled it out, it was wrapped in brown paper. Slipping it off quickly, I smiled to myself when I saw what was inside.

Mom you sneaky rebel.

This was definitely illegal. Mom had snuck a portable force field into my pocket. It would cover the whole entrance of the cave, meaning we wouldn’t need as many people on guard.

I scanned the cave until my eyes fell on her,

“Alessia, can you come here?”

She looked up from unpacking her bag and swiftly walked over to me,

“Keith we need to finish preparing, the storms are getting closer.”

I shook my head,

“Look.”

I held out the small device in my hand and her jaw dropped,

“How-”

I cut her off, I knew I couldn’t tell her that Mom had given it to me, they would kill her if they found out.

“My dad had a bunch of them, saved them before they got expensive, I brought mine with me.”

She gaped at me,

“This, this will change everything! We might actually be able to all make it out of here.”

I smiled,

“We won’t need to have so many people on guard at once and we’ll have more numbers to send bigger groups out when we need food.”

Her eyes welled up,

“I thought that I would have to fight for my life, I didn’t think that we’d stand a chance.”

She threw her arms around me and I blushed, hugging her back but not like the way I hugged mom. She pulled away quickly, a faint pink rising in her cheeks,

“Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t know what got a hold of me.”

I smiled and rubbed the back of my neck,

“Don’t worry about it, we need to keep preparing.”

Suddenly, I heard screams and saw a flash of light. Lightning had struck the cave entrance. I nearly fell over as the cave started trembling. Alessia toppled over and I reached out, catching her quickly and pulling her to me. We both fell to our knees and I covered her with my body as rocks began falling from the ceiling. Every other guy in the cave did the same with the nearest girl. This wasn’t abnormal, every time the trials were held, the guys always kept the girls safe. The men protected, the women provided.

I cried out as a rock struck my back, sending a tingling sensation down my spine, Alessia shouted over the roaring wind and rain,

“You good?!”

I grit my teeth and shifted so she was fully shielded,

“I’m ok, just keep your head down.”

She tried to move to cover me,

"You're going to get hurt!"

I didn't budge.

Finally, there was a break in the showers of rubble and I shot up, running to the entrance. I made sure that everyone was inside before placing the circular device on the wall and pushing the button. The force field activated and covered the entire opening. The rocks stopped falling and the effects from the storm bounced off the invisible wall like they were petals being thrown against glass.

I turned around and scanned the room, everyone was covering someone else.

“Is everyone okay?”

They all made their sounds of approval, I waited for Alessia’s but it never came. I ran over to where we were crouched,

“SOMEONE GET A MED PACK!”

She was unconscious, a deep wound on her forehead, blood was trickling down the side of her face. A massive rock lay not far away. A girl came running to my side, a medical kit in her arms. She thrusted it towards me and quickly got to her knees, gently sliding a spare pillow under her head.

I used a disinfectant wipe to clean up the wound and carefully wrapped her head with cloth and gauze, I turned to the girl.

“I’m Keith.”

She nodded,

“Dalea.”

I sighed and wiped off the remaining blood that was on her ear.

“Well, Dalea, can you grab me a blanket if we have any?”

Thankfully, everyone had brought all sorts of stuff this year. Someone had even brought cots that shrunk down to the size of rubix cubes. She stood up immediately,

“I’ll bring a cot too.”

“Thank you.”

I easily scooped up Alessia’s tiny frame and set her down on the cot that was brought to me. Covering her with a blanket, I turned to Dalea,

“We need people to take turns watching over her. I have to help with set up, if she wakes up notify me immediately.”

I went about helping the others unpack all of our gear and setting up our sleeping arrangements. Finally, just as I finished figuring out who would be on watch duty and at what times, Dalea came back to me.

“She just woke up.”

I nodded,

“Thank you.”

Walking back to Alessia, I thought about all of the days that were going to come, and if we were going to make it out alive. Mom had told me that there was a way out and I was determined to find it. I would bring every single one of these kids with me.

She smiled weakly at me as I approached,

“So hotshot, what’s your plan on getting us out of here?”

I smiled, if only she knew.