Rating: K

Disclaimer: The characters do not belong to me; they belong to Fox Broadcasting Company. This is an uncommercial fan fiction.

Characters: William, Mulder, Scully

Summary: "To survive, we have to kill each other. We do not know the past; we live at present to fight the future. Even if we do not know what our future is."

Red Balloon

Chapter 1. We

William POV.

April 2010.

It was not a dream. Joan was dead!

We woke up at 5AM, much like an automatic computer. There were only 7 members survived in our group. In the general "test" last month, Joan was unable to swim across that lake… I looked at her empty bed. They quietly carried her away, just like what they did with Tom, Marc, Bill and David.

They killed Joan. Her body was deep in the frozen lake. We knew that clearly. We didn't believe GovMan anymore. They tried to cheat us; they said Joan was unable to continue the training course, so they brought her home. Ridiculous! Home? What home? We didn't have any home. We didn't know anything about our parents. We had to stay here, we had to take some cruel examinations, we had to struggle to survive. If we could not, we would surely die!

This is a remote island, and all of us children, born in 2001, were brought here since an early age. They (GovMen) divided us into 12 groups, each group had a name derived from the names of months in a year. Our groups called "May," consisted of 8 boys and 4 girls. Ethan was the instructor.

In recent times, we had to take a general "test" each month: swimming across the lake, using guns, fighting against some monster-like creatures… after each test, there was a member eliminated from the group. The first was Tom, he reacted a little too slow, and get a bullet right on his forehead. We used to cry a lot, but not anymore now. The need to survive was much greater, we simply had to try our best to survive…

"The day is coming. December 22, 2012."

GovMan always said that. They wanted us to remember that day, the destiny day. The day we leave this damned island, to fight another battle. The battle of Humanity.

We were running across the forest. It was the general "test" , fighting in a forest.

"Williams…" James whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Only 7 left in January group. Vanessa said to me this morning. It's Hugh. He died because of his own poison…"

"Hugh?" I asked, but kept staring at the long road ahead with the gun in my arms.

"Yes. Vanessa was really scared. She said she doesn't know what's coming next. She doesn't know if GovMan will stop this or not…"

I felt his voice trembling with fear. James and Vivian were two of my best friends here.

"AAAAAAAA!"

There was a distance voice, someone cried out loud. I felt like a knife cut through my whole body. It was Vivian's voice. I ran as quickly as I could to her. James followed me closely. My heart started to beat like hell. We ran across the bushes, even that meant we were destroying our formation. Never mind that. I didn't want to see Vivian die right in front of my eyes.

"BANG"

A series of bullets from my gun hit the monster, it fell down to the ground immediately. Green blood from its wound flowed all over the ground.

"Vivian. Are you OK?"

"I'm OK." Vivian groaned, her hands pressed on the wound.

"James, help her stand up now. We must not lose this test."

"Come on, Vivian." James put her arm over his shoulder, tried to help her on her feet."

We stopped, tried to figure out which way to go. If we didn't finish the test on time, no one knew what would happen.

"We are lost, Williams." Vivian said worryingly.

"Shhhhhhh…" I asked her to stop making noise. I closed my eyes, tried to hear something. I could hear some familiar voice from the distance.

"This way!"

"Williams, you are the best!" James said joyfully.

"Not now James. Hurry up!" I smiled.

James and I carried Vivian on the back by turns, we ran like hell to the final checkpoint. Vivian held a gun in her hand, tried and shot any creature flying around us.

The time was running out.

"Williams, James, just leave me here, you two go your way, or all of us will be late."

"No!"

"Oh please, Williams. I don't want you and James has to die because of me."

"Shut up and try to shoot those flying creatures!" I interrupted her.

"You're so stubborn!"

"Vivian, it's not a bad trait of his personality, especially in this situation." James started to giggle.

His giggles made us felt ease, at least for the moment.

"TIME'S UP!"

It was Ethan's voice. He was our instructor. Fortunately enough, we arrived on time. I put Vivian down, sat beside her and breathed heavily. I looked around; there were just 6 boys and girls…

Ethan tapped his finger on his wristwatch.

"Go! Go! Go!" Ethan said loudly, pointed at a helicopter parked nearby.

"Why don't we wait for Edwards? There are only 6 here…"

"Williams…" He stared intensely at me. "We will look for him later."

I stopped asking. We walked into the helicopter. I knew he lied. Edwards stayed in this deep forever.

"May group report, Sir." Test completed. 6 remain. List completed now!" Ethan said through his walkie-talkie.

"Is Williams alive?" A man asked gravely.

"Yes Sir, he's still alive"

A/N: Don't ask me about Ethan. Yes, he is Scully's ex-boyfriend. LOL. Hehehe. Write a review for me, will you? Love you.