Neo's Hunt

Ringing… That's all Emma can hear. Ringing. She feebly attempts to open her eyes but quickly gives up due to the glaring light shining from somewhere above her. She lies on the cold stone floor of an unknown room shivering, curled up in a ball, and whimpering slightly. After a couple of minutes, she slowly opens her eyes, wincing at the harshness of the glare that is the single light source in the unknown room. When she finally does manage to get her eyes open, she looks around blearily for any other signs of life. At first, she sees nothing, but as her eyes adjust to the harsh glare of the lamp above her, she sees four other figures, also laying on the cold stone floor.

She recognizes all four of the figures around the room. The first, a larger man, Andrew Delta, her roommate and fiancé. The second and third, Emma's two daughters, Lyra and Sapphire. Sapphire had a black eye, which enraged Emma beyond belief. Sapphire was 7 years old then. Lyra was only 10 months old. She looked around the room more closely and noted one other person. Li Belladonna, who had been a childhood friend of Emma's as well as a babysitter for Saph and Lyra whilst Emma was away. Emma had been preparing for Sapphire's 8th birthday party when she had received a phone call from Li, asking if she could spend a few nights with Emma and Andrew. Why? Emma never got the chance to ask why, due to the fact that the line mysteriously went dead for no reason. Emma had tried to call Li back… no response.

Emma attempted to rise from her current, uncomfortable position, but found her movements barred by shackles binding her to the floor. At this point Emma started to panic. What was she going to do? How had she gotten here in the first place? But none of these questions were as prominent as the one eating at the edges of her mind. How was she going to get out of here? How was she going to get her and her family and friends out of this desolate place alive? How? She didn't know exactly how. But she knew she had to, her family depended on her. As she was contemplating how she was going to get out of the current situation, she heard a quiet rustling behind her. She craned her stiff neck around to possibly identify the source of the noise. But when she turned her head over to locate the source of the noise, she saw nothing but a dark corner of the room she, and her other family/friends were currently located. She discarded the idea as a mere figment of her own, panic stricken imagination.

She returned her head to it's previous position, sighed, and closed her eyes in exasperation. As she was wallowing in her own self-pity, unaware to her, a camera lens flashed as it rotated to face her. Silently it stared at the motionless woman laying on the floor of a room, lit by nothing but a single string-bulb lamp. The camera slowly panned to the rest of the room, in which the other 4 "inhabitants" were stationed. None of which showed signs of being alive, other than the slow, methodical rise and fall of their chests, indicating that they were breathing, or at least simulating breathing. All but Emma had been tranquilized. Emma however, had been knocked out with a condensed, serum that could be administered through contact. None of the five in the room knew of the true intentions of whoever had done this.

Andrew woke slowly and attempted to roll into a more comfortable position. He also found his movements contained by thick iron shackles. He was not a small person by any measure, but found it difficult to even lift the shackles. He, like Emma, had started to mentally panic. Except his version of panic was a tad bit different to Emma's. While Emma had remained calm and collected, Andrew had begun to flail around wildly, causing Emma to jerk her head upwards violently. Which in turn woke Li, who then started to scream loudly, which in turn caused both Lyra, and Saph to start. Everybody was awake now…

The camera in the corner snapped around to view the whole room. Which in itself, was not very large. The group in the small room was trying to calm down the hysteric Sapphire who was blubbering about a short figure in an overcoat, who had attacked her, Li, and Lyra. Andrew meantime was trying to find a way to undo the shackles around his wrists with no success. But his efforts were not in vain. By the time Saph had calmed down enough to be able to understand what she was actually trying to say, everybody else had communicated a little bit about the current situation. From what they had discussed, they had been kidnapped, brought here, and were being held here for who knows what. Still one question burned in all of their minds. Why? Why would somebody abduct 5 people just for the heck of it.

None of them had yet noticed the small metal door on the far wall, probably because they had been too caught up in the chaos that had been scared Sapphire. But it was soon pointed out that in fact, there was a door on the far side of the room, half shrouded in darkness. But before any of them had a chance to say a word on the subject, a monotone, electronically synthesized voice began to speak.

"Welcome to hell." The voice sounded almost bored, as if it had spoken those words many times before. "While you may not know the purpose of your sudden arrival, I assure you it will be entertaining… for me."

The group exchanged glances and turned towards the door, expecting more. But no other voices were to be heard. They all waited in silence, so thick it was almost tangible. For what felt like a long time, nobody said a word. Until a small yawn broke the heavy silence. It was 10 month old Lyra, who until that time had not made a sound. The group all moved their heads in unison towards the noise. Lyra was the only person not shackled to a surface, and chose to cuddle up with her mother who was peering around to check for any injuries that the infant may have sustained. Seeing none, she sighed in relief and attempted to cradle her daughter the best she could given her condition. Emma noticed that something small and shiny was slung around Lyra's neck. She nudged Lyra into a better position and studied the object for a moment. It was some sort of key. As she examined the key carefully, she realized it was the key to her own shackles!

Emma gasped and attempted to reach for the small, metal, key that was fastened loosely around the infant's neck. After a couple minutes of struggling and grunting, she finally grasped the small key tightly. When she tried to undo the shackle around her wrists, she noticed that the chain connected the the key was wrapped twice around Lyra's throat. If she pulled any more, she would choke Lyra. She quickly released the key, which swung back and struck the infant roughly in the chest. Emma winced, she didn't want to hurt her young daughter. But she also wanted to be free. She thought hard about what to do next. She couldn't remove the key without asphyxiating her young child, but she it was the only way she could see to get these shackles off. What to do- Wait! That's It! The only way she could see! Maybe she was looking in the wrong spot! Emma franticly searched with her eyes for any other means of escape. When she found none, she started to lose hope. But she didn't give up yet. She looked to the others for assistance.

"What do you think I should do?" Emma inquired. "Can you see anything out of the ordinary? I mean other than the fact that we are all stuck in a room, shackled to the floor, and are part of some freakish game that is."

"I can see a switch to my left, I'll see if I can Reach it." Li said hesitantly.

Li attempted to reach a small black switch, located a couple of inches from her left foot. She tried for a couple seconds before the switch threw itself seemingly autonomously. Li looked back to the group after giving the slightest glance to the camera in the corner of the room that none of the others had seen.

"I got it! My foot barely reached it!" she exclaimed.

The shackles holding Andrew in place popped off. He rubbed his sore wrists and stood up hesitantly, as if waiting for a trap. When nothing happened, he rushed over to the sleeping infant and removed the key from around her neck. He quickly undid the shackles holding Emma. She stood up and rushed over to her other daughter, who had silent tears pouring down her face. Emma stood up and began pacing the small room, looking for any means of freeing her daughter. Yet again, she found none. This bothered her. She then walked over to Li and noticed that there was no possible way she could have reached the switch from her position. She tried flipping the switch again. The small lever wouldn't budge. She tried again, reaching no greater level of success. How had Li flipped the switch, when she was tied down, unable to physically reach it, and do so as quickly as she did. Unless she didn't actually flip the switch…

Emma looked at Li curiously. Had she been lying about hitting the switch? Why would she lie, unless she was hiding something. She decided to keep that to herself, in case saying something would spook Li. But she would be watching Li more closely from now on. She looked towards her daughters, her was still chained to the ground. She had to find a way to get her out. As she thought, it came to her. If there was a switch to release Andrew, then there should be a switch to release everybody else. She hurriedly scanned the room for any other abnormalities. She saw a small gray button about 3 inches above the floor, on the wall to the left of where Li was being held. She ran over to it and pushed it. For a second nothing happened, then the shackles holding Sapphire unclasped themselves for around her small limbs. She immediately rushed to her daughter and embraced the crying girl.

All that was left was to free Li. Emma wondered why Li was last to be freed, she was the closest to the small door that was the only means of exiting the room. Why should she be last to be freed? But before she had time to pursue the subject, the shackles holding Li fell to the floor with a clatter. Almost as if they hadn't been fastened at all… Stange. After a quick embrace, the 5 people in the room rushed over to the small door, and found it, to their astonishment, unlocked. Did whoever put them here think that they wouldn't figure out how to undo the shackles? Or was it something more sinister? The door opened up into a small atrium, which consisted of a room, 4 doors on each wall, the first being the one they had just exited through, and a small garden, complete with a tree and a pond. Emma sighed, just when she thought they were free, just to find out that they had been in a room, inside a room. Overkill? Or just sport?

Emma told her group to check each door, she was hopeful that one of them led to freedom. She was partially correct. One door, the one Andrew checked, was locked with a heavy brass padlock with the inscription: "Property of the Atlesian Military" engraved on the side. The second door was also locked but with a chain and lock that was rusty and had cobwebs on it. On the side, barely distinguishable from the rust, were the initials SDC in curvy, thin letters. Next to the letters, was what looked to be a snowflake. But it was hard to tell, given the age and condition of the object. The third and final door, was unlocked. All that could be seen, was a corridor running about 15 meters long, and was about 2 meters wide. The group quickly rushed down this hallway to yet another door, which was also unlocked. A small light was shining through the keyhole.

Emma quickly opened the door and laughed as she felt the sunlight hit her face for what felt like the first time. Her joy was dashed just as quickly as it began. There was a 3 meter high wall running the perimeter of a large courtyard. A large iron gate was visible through a thicket of blackberry bushes. They were hesitant to rush towards the gate for fear that it might be guarded. Emma glanced behind her and looked past the group of captives; into the room from which they had just come. The door at the far end had closed, and appeared locked. What sort of sick game was this? Pushing this from her mind, Emma creeped hesitantly towards the gate. When she reached the blackberries, she stopped, looked around for any sign of surveillance. When she saw none, she pressed forward. The blackberries snagged at her clothes and scratched her exposed legs and arms. Finally she reached the gate, she pushed it open. It, to her surprise, was not locked either. She marched forward and surveyed the area that they were in. It appeared to be a rolling hillside with a few trees here and there. None of her surroundings looked familiar. She turned, expecting to see her quarry behind her. But they weren't there. She rotated on the spot, and collapsed from sheer exhaustion. Before she fell asleep a faint ringing could be heard, getting louder as she drifted off…

Then she woke up.