"Valerie, wake up! Please!"
"She's not dead is she?!"
"I don't know if someone could survive that in her condition. She was already not well off. She hit the back of her head on your face, Cloud. You only have minor facial bruising."
I hear voices, but they don't sound like the leaders which is a relief. I slowly open my eyes to see my friends. "This is a relief!" I gasp.
"Valerie!" I hear my friends gasp. Kelsey slips her arm under my back, helping me to sit up slightly. I notice I am on a couch.
"Where are we?"
"Take a look." Louis tells me. I look around to see it's the hidden room we found. "Is the door still locked and barricaded?" I question.
"Yeah, it is. We checked." Kelsey responds. "We were so worried about you, Valerie!" Louis whispers.
"I-I'm sorry, but I'm okay now."
"No, Valerie. It was our fault! More than anything. Don't blame yourself, please!" Kelsey begs me.
"Yeah, our fault. Were so glad your awake now, though!" Louis adds on.
"Valerie, if you had died-I-I don't know what I woulda done-"
"Kelsey, stop, please. It's fine. I'm okay... just, ah... Sore." I tell her. She nods shamefully. Louis does as well.
I look around the observatory. "Where's Cloud?" I ask, noticing his not nearby.
"I'm right here, Valerie."
I look to a sink in the corner of the room to see Cloud. He's holding a tissue to his nose.
"You landed on me, almost broke my nose."
"I'm sorry!" I cry. Cloud takes a seat near us. "Don't worry, it's not your fault. It will heal. I've faced worse."
"Worse?" Cloud pipes up with, an eyebrow raised.
"Once you have shared a tent with- Uh, you know what? Nevermind..."
"I don't get it..." Kelsey starts off with, but Cloud cuts her off with. "Anyway, Kelsey! We need a new plan because this one didn't work!"
"Can I ask a question?" I interrupt with. They all look at me. "If we tried to escape... Don't we need to get to our Room? They'll search this community and we aren't there. Were here..."
"Oh, you're right!" Louis gasps.108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSnzCGSIj4A
Kelsey helps me to stand. "Can you walk?!"
"I-I think."
We all head to exit when we hear a whirring sound. "What is that?" Cloud questions, tapping his fingers against his beard. He goes to the giant telescope and looks through it.
"Very perculier."
"Perculier?" Louis questions with her arms out.
"It's a plane, flying right towards us. Into the airspace of this whole place..."
"What would a plane be doing here?" Kelsey asks. "I don't know..." Cloud mumbles back.
Were all looking out the window now, Cloud still with eye looking through the telescope. We see lights in windows slowly light up outside. The lights that line the cafeteria, hospital, etc light up too.
"Seems that plane woke everyone up." Louis murmurs. questions. "This could be our distraction we need!" I cry out.
"Yeah, you're right, Valerie!" Kelsey whispers to me. "If they are distracted, they won't be looking for us!"
Just then we see some guards down below, outside on the ground looking up to the sky.
One of them looks different though, smaller. "Is that Shelby?" I question, struggling to see as it is dark out.
"It is." Clouds responds quickly. "Wait..."
"What?" I hear Kelsey snap, getting a bit impatient. We all start to back away fron the window, but it's too late and we see her turn around to look up at us. Our eyes meet.
We all gulp. "We need to get out of here!" I gasp.
We take off running through the passengers in the walls and make a frantic dash down a desolate side street as best we can before Shelby comes up here. Kelsey and Louis are helping me to run.
---
We sneak into the dormitory and I place my hand on the door handle to open the door of our room when I hear a voice.
"Now, look what the cat dragged in."
We all gulp. Kelsey and Louis let go of me to get ready to fight, raising their fists. Solayo taught us magic, but he also taught as other practical skills and even brought guests in sometimes. We learned martial arts from the police chief, Ryland back home. Cloud wraps his hands around me instead in protection.
"Woah, friends, relax! Were all chill here!"
I turn around looking to see who. It's Avery & Samantha. "Avery!" I squeal, throwing my arms around her neck. She returns the hug.
"We thought you were Shelby!" Cloud says, stepping forward.
Samantha rolls her eyes. "I don't like that girl."
"Does anyone?" Kelsey says sarcastically. I see Samantha smile a bit and Kelsey returns it.
"Ah, Valerie, I was so worried about you!"
"Avery, I was too! What happened to you was my fault!"
"No one was at fault, alright?!" Grumps Samantha.
"Can someone explain what's going on? And the extent of what happened to Valerie and Avery?" Louis begs.
"Sebastian just got angry, he does alot. When he needs to blow off steam, he picks a victim to incur his wrath." Avery answers.
"But Valerie was freezing cold and sleep-deprived and starving!" Kelsey yells. "Being taken underground is a scary place, but thank god it wasn't worse, worse if you know what I mean." Avery responds, trying to he dismissive.
"Worse?" Louis repeats.
"I don't want to talk about it..." Avery trails off with. She let's go of hugging me.
"You all should get changed into your PJ's asap so it looks like you were sleeping." Em says.
"Shelby saw us! Changing our pj's might not absolve us." Cloud exclaims. "Yeah..." Cloud answers.
"Just get changed, now! The leaders need to think you were in bed, asleep! It's almost time for curfew to end." Samantha says with a real look of panic on her face. She pushes all into her room.
We hurry to get changed into our pj's108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLqL37ve4pw
and hang up or tuck away the clothes we were wearing. Good thing we didn't get them muddy. They do have some dust on them though and I see Louis boost Kelsey up and she hides our backpacks in the roof, a tile easily able to be moved aside.
I must have been asleep when they discovered this.
I hear Samantha's voice outside. "Oh, Shelby! Hello, hi, what do us - your loyal members owe your visit?"
I peak out the door while my friends are busy. Avery is nearby and slips inside, pushing me back in. Samantha has her distracted up the other end of the hallway, but Shelby is quickly chewing her out on why her & her team aren't in bed right now.
"Valerie!" Avery whispers. "You all need to get into bed now!"
Cloud, Louis and Kelsey dive into theirs. I jump into mine, but we all notice we forgot the light. Avery runs over, switching it off than dives under my covers to hide.
She's down low near my legs. I can feel her shaking and she has her arms around them, her skin ice cold.
We hear intense knocking.
"Surprise inspection!" We hear Shelby yell as the door bursts open. She walks into the room, a key in her hand.
Kelsey and Louis fake, waking up groggy. Cloud stays pretending to be asleep. So do I.
"Have you all been asleep in your rooms the last few hours?"
"Why are you here in our room? What is it? Like 5 a.m?" Kelsey says feigning a yawn.
"Answer my question, Kelsey!" Shelby snaps, clearly not in the mood for messing around. I see Shelby grab Kelsey's arm, pulling her out of bed and throwing her to the floor. I see her hit her head on the nightstand beside her bed on her the way down through my slightly peeking eyes.
"Kelsey!" Screams Louis. I and Cloud jump 'awake' as there is no way we can ignore this any longer.
"Valerie, Cloud." We hear Shelby say. "What are you doing?!" Cloud yells walking her to her, but she pulls out a metal shovel from a strap on her back, th end pointed from being recently sharpened.
"I wouldn't come any closer if I were you, Cloud."
He freezes. "Good decision." Shelby says sarcastically and then we hear another knock. It's Harriet.
"Sherbert, my 'sister', there you are! 'Mum' and 'Dad' are looking for you! What are you doing here?!"
"Making sure everyone is where they needed to be, 'Sis.'"
"Okay, okay..."
"Agh!" Shelby yells stomping out. Harper looks at us all. "I'm sorry for her barging in here at this hour, guys... Breakfast will be in two hours from now. Go back to sleep if you can."
And Harriet leaves the room, closing the door. We let 10 minutes pass, afraid to move incase this is a trick. Nothing happens and we all hop out of bed. Louia locks the door and I pull the covers off my bed. Avery sits up. "That was a close one! She scares me!"
"She scares me too." I tell her. Avery looks at me. "I need to go back to my room, Valerie. I'll see you at the cafeteria later. Sam is goanna wanna debrief with me."
I watch her leave. A part of me can't help, but feel sad at her departure.
---
I'm sitting at my groups designated table. Kelsey and Louis look dead tired. It's a good thing the main injuries we have are not visible from underneath our winter gear, but we will have to lie as Cloud's face is bruised and my head's aching.
I feel dizzy a bit. The next thing I know is a hand on my shoulder which makes me jump. I accidentally kick Louis and Kelsey in the shins beneath the table
They both give me a look. "?!?!?!?!?!"
"Now, they are a bit more awake. We lost a few hours of sleep."
"Valerie." I hear a voice. I turn my head to see Samantha. She places a clear cup of water in-front of me.
"Mind if *MY* groups joins yours?"
I go to speak, but just end up resorting to nodding. Samantha, Avery and the other two guys on the team joins us.
Samantha passes other cups of water towards my friends.
"Sooo, how is the morning treating, ya?" Samantha asks with a cruel smirk.
We all nod weakly. "So, I was thinking. How about we all 'team up' to try and win these games even though Sebastian hates team-work between other groups. We can help eachother out you know and be buddies."
"What do you want in return? I feel this isn't just you wanting to piss him off." Kelsey and Louis say together, weakly.
"Oh, nothing, nothing. I just want us to be friends, that's all."
Samantha lowers her head a bit. "I can keep your secret about last night. I know what you guys did. So how about it?"
"You're black mailing us?" Louis says quietly.
"Yep, streaky. So how about it?"
"Fine." Grumbles Kelsey. "Fantastic!" Em smiles and I feel her slap my back. It hurts.
"Attention, attention everyone!" I hear Owen call, appearing. We and everyone else turn our heads. In front of where we get food from is Sebastian, Rain, Sherbert, Harriet & Owen. I see Harriet smile at Shelby, but Shelby just brushes her off with a scowl.
I look to Samantha. She has a small smile on her face. I look over to where she is looking to see Ricky. His smiling too. He stops though when he sees me. Samantha stops and I feel a pressure on my foot for a few seconds, then it stops.
"Ouch."
"Shut it." Samantha says under hear breath.
"I bet you all heard that noise last night, huh? Like a plane engine?" Samantha begins, stepping forward, arms behind his back.
Everyone nods and we do too. "Well, the problem has been dealt with, so don't worry about it. There is no risk to any of you. We'll protect you."
That doesn't feel reassuring. "I want you all to go about your business. Just... last night outside the entrance gate, it seems we had some individuals escape, based on the number of foot-prints in the snow, not to mention the fence was found, cut.
I don't know who of you did it, but this is your home now, all of you so it will serve you well to remember this. Were supposed to be a community.
And don't anyone ever think about escaping ever. You know what lies outside the gates of this community actually? A frozen wasteland. Out there is guaranteed death.
Do you all know what is Merge is?"
Outside isn't dangerous... Well, as far as we've seen. We hear everyone else gulp & some scared whispers are exchanged.
I see Louis mouth to Cloud. "What's Merge?"
Cloud shrugs his shoulders. I don't think he knows. "Think about how good you all have it here. In here you are protected by walls, our guards, have beds of your own and access to food, water, first aid, not to mention, emergency medical attention and even friends.*
I sware Sebastian is smiling at me when he says 'close friends'.
"Most of all, some of you guys get to play games all day! It's much better than working long hours, huh?"
I see Harriet flinch when he says 'work.' Is there something there? I don't know...
"Well, I'll be off. You all enjoy your day and get ready for training today. Valerie's team, you're back into the competition now. What a lovely day today will be, oh, and there will be no breakfast this morning. If one of you misbehaves, you ALL suffer the consequences! Think about the people around you next time any one of you think about escaping!"
After that all the leaders have left. I sware Sebastian and Shelby are staring me down, but without proof... They can't pin it on us.
A minute later, I hear Samantha mumble and Avery sigh. "Not again..." Samantha whispers.
"What do you me-" I start to say, but Samantha shushes me, pressing her fingers against my lips.
"We'll talk later, Valerie."
Samantha and Avery plus the rest of their group rise and go sit back to their table. I look back at Ricky. He has a glass of water in his hands. I see him walk over and hand it to Samantha. They both seem to have a small two second moment and then he leaves, with an annoyed expression again.
"Are we able to have, water?" Louis calls out. "No, none of you! The leaders don't care what orders we, Security impose unless it affects them." Slab grumbles as he walks past us. "And the mere cups Samantha gave you, were letting slide."
I hear Louis sigh and Kelsey throws her head on the table, distraught.
"No... Please not her. Not again..." Kelsey cries.
'Kelsey..." I whisper.
"I'm sorry, Valerie, I'm so sorry!" She cries into her hands, tears flowing.
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