I and my friends are lying around on our beds and it's not even 8:00 p.m yet. Most members and us of the Community today have had nothing to eat. Sebastian and his friends are starving us. We could confess it was us so no one else has to suffer, but what would they do to us? They already know it's us. Cloud's face is heavily bruised up.
Yeah, surrendering is a bad idea. They can't starve us all forever, right? People will die otherwise and then they have no one to rule over. It would be counter-productive for them.
Just as I'm thinking, I hear a knock on our door. Louis and Kelsey groan, rolling off their beds to answer it. "What?" Grumbles Kelsey, opening it to see Harriet.
"Sebastian wants to address everyone. That includes you all too." And then she leaves. I try to stand, but topple straight over. Cloud comes to my rescue and places my arm around his neck to help me walk. I lean on him for support.
When we file out into the hallway, all the members of this boarding house are here in their PJ's. They all looked hungry and tired like us. Training wasn't easy today. As Sebastian addresses everyone, I feel myself shaking.
"You okay?" Cloud whispers to me. I shake my head. "Your blood pressure could be low?" He whispers afterwards. I see Louis and Kelsey exchange a glance.
Are they going to tell?
Louis slowly goes to raise his hand, but Samantha's hand shoots straight up, saving him.
"It was me."
"What?!" Sebastian yells. "I was the one trying to escape." She says again. "And your team?" Rain questions from the side of the hall.
"They have nothing to do with this. Only I was trying to escape." Samantha responds.
"Geez, you'll never change. This is why I'm not friends with you in particular." Shelby speaks up, hissing.
"Alright, let's say I believe you, sprout-" Sebastian begins when I hear a dead weight sound and see Kelsey and Louis lying on the floor on each-other, exhausted.
"Sebastian! This has gone far enough." I hear Owen say, stepping in. I'm glad they aren't all heartless! "Valerie..."
"Cloud?" I answer, weakly hearing him call my name. Next thing I know, we have both hit the floor too from exhaustion. I hear an "Ugh." And I see Shelby roll her eyes. She's leaning against the wall and props her leg."Sebastian!" Yells Owen again, standing to confront him. I see Harriet smile a bit, walking over to Kelsey and Louis. She helps them up and then moves onto Cloud and me.
"I will handle this problem and discipline with Samantha accordingly." Owen tells him with his arms crossed.
"Fine." Sebastian grumps, walking off followed by Rain and Shelby I see Shelby and Harriet share an angry glare at each-other, but then Harper turns to us with her common warm smile.
"Okay, all of you. Go back to your rooms and rest up. I and Harriet will bring up some food and water up." Owen announces. Everyone nods, walking back to their rooms. Samantha, Avery and their team help me and my friends up quickly, but then leave us. I see Owen along with the Guards and Harriet give us a look.
I think they know it was us. "Valerie... C'mon." Cloud whispers to me, starting to pull me along back to our Rooms.
---
After another night's sleep alongside some food and water, were feeling better.
I'm sitting at our table in the dining hall. It's really cold out, more than usual. I take a glance around to see how tired, exhausted and cold the other members are. The food and water was something last night, but it's not enough to really help us all feel better completely though.
Then I hear a series of footsteps and clapping. "Good morning my property."
It's Sebastian, Rain and Shelby. All the other competitors stand up except my team. Were beyond caring at this point. Death would be salvation.
"Uh, hello? Get up!" Rain shrieks at us. I see Louis roll his eyes and some of the Guards come walking over to us when I feel someone pull back the back of my clothes to make me stand. It's Samantha.
She gives a quick nod to Ricky who's the leader and they all retreat. "Just behave!" She whispers into my ear in a slightly threatening manner, before going back to her table. I and my friends are now standing.
"Good, now that you are all are standing, Owen and Harriet have taken a sick day today, so it's just us on duty.
Allow me to remind you that these are OUR games and OUR community. We control them and we own YOU. Got it, Sprouts Yes? Good!"
So after last night's fiasco and the fact I don't believe certain so and so's are telling me the truth!"
Sebastian says the last part under his breath. I know it's directed at Samantha "So there won't be food today again till the real escapees come forward. For every day that you's don't come forward, you and your fellow community members will suffer.
Let it sink in a bit, heh."
"No!" I hear Kelsey yell, slamming her firsts on the table and standing up. "Kelsey!" Louis whinges, trying to pull her to sit, but she doesn't budge.
"Anything you want to tell us?" Rain taunts and Kelsey bites her lip.
Sebastian looks angry. "Ricky, remove this immature teenager." He says, signalling to Ricky who grins, approaching her. "Oh, so now you admit that I was formally a teenager?!"
But it does no good.
"Stop!" I hear Avery yell, standing up too. Ricky looks at her, signalling Paige to help out. She starts approaching Avery.
"Fine, anyone who wants to get locked up in isolation too, be my guest. We have more than enough Guards." Sebastian says dismissively, not looking at us.
But not all in the one area... Some are out hunting & scavenging so in this immediate area, there's only 5 of them and like 32 of us. They can't take us all! I wave my hand a bit and I see Louis alongside Cloud stand up.
"Alright, no problem! I pride myself on being resilient then." Sebastian says, still not caring. I look to Samantha and she sighs, standing up too. I see her wave her hands a bit and other member stand up too which scares Sebastian a bit. She has some influence... He looks shocked. I stand up too, lastly.
"You can't take us all." I announce. Sebastian and Rain look beyond fuming now. I see Shelhy shake her head like, 'No, you're stupid' towards, Avery.
Avery looks scared a little. Is there something there too? I feel like everyone in this room has secrets with someone and every here or there, etc.
"Sebastian, this isn't working!" I hear Rain growl at them losing control over us. "I know, I know." Sebastian grumbles back.
"Okay, you know what? You all can go out in the snow and harvest Merge!" Shouts Hadrian and a few Guards trucks drive up.
Who called them?!
Before I know it, we've all been marched out into the snoey woods outside the community. The guards along with half the leaders today are standing around, watching us.
Were all standing in a straight line, wearing plastic medical gloves, hair net and wearing full protective clothing and holding a sack. "Allow me to remind you all and for the ones who are new, if you think about escaping into the winter-land behind you... It's not worth it.
It's just a frozen wasteland out there. There's no civilization beyond here. Got it? And as always I say, safety first.
Merge when it's not been converted, is still growing wild, has dangerous properties. You don't want to end up like how Natasha did, do you?
Good, now all of you start collecting."
I turn around walking with my friends and Samantha alongside Avery and their team. They look upset.
"Sooo, what's the plan?" Louis asks.
"There is no plan. We just have to do this." Samantha responds flatly. "But-" Louis starts off, but she shoots him down. "May I remind you - you're team got US into this!
And we had other members of our group before... One of them was Natasha, Avery's older sister, she died collecting Merge so don't inhale it."
After that we sort of disperse to pulling this long hard white stick that has a crystalized appearance out of the ground.
It has a really strong chemical smell. Good thing we were given breathing masks. "Valerie, with me."
I look up, seeing Samantha waiting for me. "Really?" I ask. "Yes. Now, come on!"
She walks over, grabbing my arm and dragging me. "Sam..."
"What?!" She snaps.
"Can we talk?"
"You can try."
I sigh as we come to a small patch of Merge. "It's really cold out." I tell her. "Yeah, it is..." She responds back, starting to pull Merge out of the ground.
"Can you tell me about this Merge-" But I don't get to finish. Merge is a kind of plant and yes, I know it doesn't look like one. Touching it and breathing it in is only dangerous in it's primary form.
When Sebastian converts it into medicine, it's no longer lethal the smell and to touch, but it still carries some dangerous properties, but you don't need to worry about those unless you consume more than 80ml of Merge once it's converted."
Oh, and word of advice, try not to rip your gloves. Because if the pointed pieces pierce your skin, you'll get an infection and really sick, suffer a fever. You'll start to suffer from hallucinations. It's really quite awful! Sebastian would make an antidote, but you'd suffer in the mean time."
"Okay."
"I can see you have alot of other questions."
"Do the others use it?"
"Uh, no."
"So how much of this do we need to collect?"
"Whenever Sebastian tells us to stop."
"Okay..." I respond quietly. From then on, we just rip it out of the ground for hours on hours. This is worse than training!
I notice around me as time goes on some of the members have given up and are just lying there in the snow exhausted. Sebastian is smirking. It's really only my family and Samantha's friends left.
"How are they going?"
I hear Shelby's voice. "Good, good. I think they will have learnt their lesson soon." I hear Sebastian respond.
"This should teach them about ever standing up to us in the future. Better to suppress the rebellion now before it becomes a bigger problem." I hear Rain answer with.
I feel so angry with them and just clench my fists, but don't get far as I feel a gloved hand touch mine. "Take a few deep breaths, Valerie..."
It's Samantha. She looks tired, but is being gentle. I take a few and watch the cold air when it leaves my mouth through the mask. "Do you feel better now?" She whispers. I nod.
"Good, just remember you can fall back on that when you need it..."
I look off into the distance at the snowy covered mountains. "Don't, his right when he says it's a snow covered wasteland. I think this world just goes on forever. The only life here is us.
Going out there would be suicide."
"You're wrong." I tell her.
"Am I? What proof do you have to support this theory?"
"The plane. It came from some place else... And we come from some place also."
Em looks away from me. "What aren't you telling me? You can trust me, Samantha."
"...My story really isn't worth telling, Valerie."
"Sam."
"What?" She snaps, again.
"Do you know how me and my friends entered this world?"
"I heard rumors, but rumors can just be that. Rumors."
"Stairs. We were wondering a a gateway hall of other star gates and ended up here. It's invisble to the naked eye typically unless you know what you're looking for."
She turns her face with a shocked expression. Seems like I got through to her.
"We could go out searching, Valerie, but the most we might find is a makeshift camp of member who have escaped the community and living out there."
She says, pointing. "Anyway, I don't want to go out there."
"Sam..." I push her and then she looks like she's reconsidering or something.
"I have an idea, Valerie, come here." She says, eyeing Sebastian who's distracted.
"What?" I ask, approaching her when I feel her grab me both my arms. "Sam! What are you doing?!" I panic, trying to flail around.
"Just play along!" She grunts under her breath. She picks me up off the ground it almost hurts. I see we've gotten everyone's attention including the leaders.
"I am going to win Sebastian challenge, you hear me?! I'm strong and you're weak!" She starts shouting at me. "I'll make sure of it that I'm their favorite here on, out!"
"Stop, please! You don't have to do this!" I cry.
"Oh, but you're in MY way and you won't ever stand down!" She yells back.
"Samantha, put my friend down now!" I hear Kelsey yell, raising her fists and Cloud and Louis join her.
"Stay out of this you pipsqueak! You're a weakling! This is between me and Valerie!" Samantha yells back.
"Weakling? Pipsqueak?!" Kelsey yells getting angrier she looks ready to rush at Sam when I see Shelby restrain Kelsey.
"Don't do anything stupid that you will regret later!" She scolds Kelsey "Let go of me!" Yells Kelsey, trying to get out of Becky's grasp.
"No, this is for your own good." Shelby responds. I see Louis grab Shelby's mask that's hanging off her shoulder head and throw it into the nearby lake. Shelby lets go out of Petra and glares at Lukas. She says nothing for a bit then speaks.
"Good thing I have spares. I won't be getting that one back, thanks to you!"
"Why?" Asks Louis playing dumb. "You idiot!" Screams Shelby. "Merge has contaminated this worlds natural water supplies. If I go in there, I'll get sick and maybe even die!"
"The perfect plan!" Sam grins, evily bringing me closer to a lake.
"Stop!" I hear Sebastian yell. "Ricky, Paige, the rest of you! Stop her!"
They grab Sam and I drop to the ground, seeing Rain wrap her arms around me and drag me back, through the snow.b onto me and pull me out from the middle of the snow.
"Enough! Will you all stop fighting?! This is more chaos than usual!" Sebastian yells.
"And I'll do so much worse, destructively if you don't feed any of us." Sam responds back.
"Fine! We'll play it your way, Sprout! I just don't want you actually getting my family and friends or any members killed. That includes injured too.
Take her to isolation! Food is reinstated for the time being, but you ALL will be confined to your quarters from now on!
You hear me?!"
All the member nod. "Good." Sebastian responds. I see Avery approach Shelby. She goes to pat her back when she turns around, grabbing her hand, glaring.
"Sherbet-" Avery starts, but is quickly cut off. "Forget the mask, Avery. It doesn't matter." Shelby tells her.
"But-"
"And were not friends! We haven't been for ages! I don't need friends!" Shelby yells, storming off. Rain and Sebastian look shocked. Ricky's patting Sam's back as they drag her away. Poor Avery bends down crying a little after being left alone.
"Shelby and Avery were once friends? Huh. I wonder what the deal is still with Sam and Ricky?
"Sam used to be one of our guards."
"What?" I say , turning my head forgetting that Rain saved me kind of. "They still have certain affections for each-other. It's nothing big and I personally don't mind a bit of romance in my day."
I look at Rain shocked. "What? And Stop staring! She betrayed us, so we demoted her to being a farm worker. Don't worry about it. She's hot head like my Hubby and I am too sometimes, but she'll calm down soon. Sebastian as well."
I gulp upon hearing this and close my eyes tightly. "Hey, you okay?" I hear Rain ask, placing her hands on my shoulders. I open them slowly, seeing her pale skin has turned golden slightly and it's like warmth is radiating off of her. And her long blonde hair in a ponytail looks white.
Her eyes look cherry colors rather than blue and doey eyed.
She has a concerned, puzzled expression on her face. "Valerie?" I hear her call my name. I squint my eyes again.
"Do you have a headache? Fever? Not feel well in any way? Maybe you feel like you're going to be sick?
I don't answer her. I feel her pull me into a hug which is odd, lifting me up into her arms. "Sebastian, let's assess Valerie for Merge exposure."
He doesn't protest, nothing and follows her.
Was this all a part of Sam's plan? I don't know, I'm so confused.
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