Rifle

Chapter Eight

At first it was darkness.

Then she was in a hallway- the academy. How did I end up here? Where was I before here? Why am I here?

She turned. She saw someone familiar approaching her- it was Kyle again- he wouldn't stop following her. She rolled her eyes and returned to her locker. Taking out textbook upon textbook from her locker. She ignored him. She knew what he wanted- especially this time.

"So… you're going to that celebration thing?"

"Every student is required to."

"Oh…well…I'll see you there."

That was it. She didn't expect it, but it was like that. He didn't ask her to go with him.
She was curious, and in confusion she watched him start to walk away. He was going to ask her, he was, she could tell.

"Well?" she yelled at him, and he stopped.
"Don't you have anything to ask me?"

"Well… only if you'd want to go with me…"

"No! You Jack-wagon!" she slammed her locker shut and walked the other way. Why would she go with him? He was…Kyle…Annoying Kyle. She didn't want to go with anybody. She hated formal events where people paired up. She thought they were stupid, useless, whatever. Why would she want to dance when she could be training? A war could break out at any minute between any two factions. So why bother with something so useless as dancing?

She would go and honor the guest, sure- but she was leaving after that. Nothing more to stay for- she wasn't old enough to drink the Champaign- and she wouldn't risk the disrespectful act of drinking cider in their midst. Her, the most accurate student in the establishment, drinking Cider and Dancing! What an undignified time.

Eventually, the party came to be- she sat quiet in the back- in a black dress that went past her heels. She was trying to avoid being seen by Kyle. She wore her hair in in a bun. It was no use, though, Kyle saw her.

She stood up and in a quick pace, entered the dancing crowd; Escape was all that she needed; escape. She quickened her pace even more. She didn't remember this part happening- the music slowed- the dancers slowed. Everyone but her was in a slow motion. She wondered if Kyle had been slowed, too. She turned around and he was still chasing her at full speed. She pushed past the crowds of people and outside.

This wasn't how it happened, though.

She felt like she wasn't herself anymore- like she had no control- like she was watching herself. It had to be a dream.

She went out the double-door entrance into the night air. It was warm. It wasn't supposed to be warm- she could remember how her wrists and cheeks felt that night. It wasn't supposed to be warm. It was supposed to be freezing cold- a chilly day in October. It wasn't cold.

She turned around to see Kyle following her, still, he ran towards her. She stopped. This was where she met Elizah- the scared little girl. Elizah had just made her first friend- Bant. Aron and her would become best friends. They would graduate together, joke together, watch old movies, and practice using lethal weapons. It didn't happen. She didn't understand why. Elizah pulled a gun at pulled one, too. She turned and saw that Kyle pulled one- so she pulled her own. So many unnecessary firearms- loaded and pointed in a memory that didn't exist. She cocked back the gun.

It didn't load; She didn't have any ammo; it was suicide to do anything but hold up her hands in surrender…or bluff. She bluffed.
What are they doing?
She gulped and turned her gun at Kyle. Only then did she realize the weapons that everyone drew.
Why does everyone have a simple handgun?

She didn't stand down. She kept her pistol poised. Any second could cost her life.
She felt above it all, again. It was like watching herself act it all out- a scene that never really recorded in the banks of her memory- a nonexistent sequence. Her hand flinched and shook, moving from pointing at Kyle to pointing at herself.

All in sudden- it loaded with ammo. She shot herself. She could hear it echoing off the building, her friends laughing. I shot myself…I really just shot myself.
She could feel the pain in her head. Everyone else shot her.
Kyle shot her leg, bant shot her arm, and Elizah shot her in the shoulder. She could feel every shot and hear it echoing sickly as it bounced off the trees.

She could feel herself bleeding, he friends laughing at her- she held her ears to block the noise, but it sounded through her hands. Her hands pulsed, then, and she brought them to her face to look at them. They were covered in Pry. She turned to her friends- they had the Pry all over them and resembled zombies- and then they morphed into the crazy human-like flood from the cave.

They closed in on her, her blood gluing her feet to the ground, as she watched from the clouds- her friends devour her. Her chest shot pains through it. She felt like her physical heart was exploding. She could see her flesh being ripped as she watched it. She yelled. She couldn't make any sounds- it was all silent except for the sounds of her dying- the moans of the flood; The horrifying sounds of her skin being ripped from her bones.

White. Blank. Black.
She was in a dark room, it seemed. She sat up from where she was laying- her brain still fuzzy and nauseating- her body was still aching from the last nightmare- Her thoughts still spinning from the fake memories of her sleep.
Am I still dreaming? Where the gunshots real?
It felt like it, to her, at least.

She got up from where she was- a white room in a black lighting. She opened the door and stepped out. She saw a creature outside of her door. It hissed. It was tall and built like a human- but it was green and brown and oozed from it's strange claws attached to its arms. The claws resembled hands.

This is my dream…so I can control it.

She pointed her hands like a fake gun, curling her fingers to interlock with each other, then whiplashed them upward "Bang!" she yelled. The monster fell to the ground and twitched. She chuckled and marveled at her dream powers- maybe she could control it after all- no more nightmares.

So I can kill anything with my hands, eh? I should probably get a real gun anyways…
…one with ammo.

There was a room adjacent to the one she was in. She passed the creature that struggled on the ground and entered it. Elizah and Bant sat inside- Elizah in a chair and Bant in a hospital bed. Is that where I am? The Hospital?
She feared they would eat her again if she woke them up, so she was careful to avoid making sounds or getting too close to them.

She snatched Elizah's purse from underneath the chair and took the pistol from it. This is a dream- she won't need it anyways. Why was she carrying a purse?
Oh…right…to not freak out citizens with weaponry.
She turned on her heal, neglecting to put Elizah's purse back from the center of the room to under the chair where Elizah sat.

She checked it for ammo as she left the Hospital Room.
At least twelve rounds were already loaded, and it had an extra cartridge taped to the handle. I guess she didn't want to lose her extra ammunition.
The creature was gone when she got back into the hallway, but she figured that was how dreams worked- always morphing into something else and changing even when you're looking.

Groggily and wearily, she strolled the halls until she found the exit. The halls seemed longer to her- more confusing.
She found a transportation system, but the sounds around her sounded off.
…Flood…
…In the city.

She turned, a few popcorns were scattered here are there around her.
She pulled out the pistol she took from Elizah and shot them-
nothing big.
She shrugged and used the method of transportation she was accustomed to.

Apartments.
On the way there, there seemed to be flood in the streets- Flood everywhere.
She had to shoot a few of the little demons before she got to an apartment.
It wasn't her apartment.
She wondered what she was doing there.
She opened the door with a key she had.
She didn't know where she was.

She locked the door behind her. She didn't want any flood getting in. She almost wanted to plop down on the couch she saw- she felt tired for a dream. She dropped the metal gun in the floor and it fell with a clang- even on the carpet. She didn't bother to turn the lights on- she thought nothing was going to happen to her. She waited, expecting the nightmare part to happen soon but it didn't.

Her eyes in the darkness, scanned around. She still didn't recognize anything. The media devices were out of place- or where they? She wondered if the original owner had made it that way…or if there was something behind it. She considered the fact that maybe someone forgot to put it back. Maybe someone was hiding something.

She moved the media things farther towards the couch- giving her enough room to crouch behind it. She felt around the wall with the hands- no secret compartments or anything.
Why was she searching for a secret in a house she knew nothing of?
She looked at the ceiling above where the media devices should have been placed- but it didn't make any sense to her. The only thing that made sense was the floor. She scraggily moved her fingers around where the carpet ended- it was unknown to her what she was looking for, but she looked anyways.

The carpeting was loose.

She pulled it up with ease- it had obviously been moved multiple times- who knows when that truly happened. She found a hard stone door underneath- a trapdoor with a sterling silver handle that led to who-knows-where. She pulled on the door- it had been left unlocked. It was quite a wide opening in the ground- how was it so well hidden? She held onto the stable parts of the stone as she slipped herself inside.

It was damp and cold- torches were lit.
She had a feeling that the nightmare part was about to hit her.
It smelt of ashes, mold, and something she couldn't identify- waste maybe?
It was dusty.
She heard the ringing of chains- clashing together- as some poor creature moaned in agony. She couldn't really see a whole lot in the stone cave. There were two passageways she could go- right or left. She saw a faint green or blue glow from the Left- so she wanted to take it safe.
She figured right was right. Aron, taking the right passage, was bombarded, as the most horrid of the smells grew stronger. A short distance down the passageway, another torch was lit by a figure engulfed in chains. The chains continued to rattle.

She could feel it even worse now, a sense of fear, goose bumps. She tried to remind herself that she was a soldier- that she had nothing to fear.
Unless it's more flood…
Upon getting closer, she was rubbing her hands up and down her arms.
Was she feeling apart from the scene again? Or was it the smell? She gulped.
Was something bad about to happen?

She got closer to the figure. She examined it.
It was human.
He had dark hair…a horrid case of the Pry…
His eyes had dark circles under them, his shoulder and half of his bare chest was covered in Pry. He had been infected for a long time. He might have had muscles- but they were out of practice and were beginning to fade. It was obvious now; he was a Spartan.
She didn't have to recognize him or identify him.

She knew who it was.

She stumbled backwards, and felt a pain in her head… a stone? A tool? A weapon? The Pry?

A flash of white, a flash of Black- she saw herself dying there. She felt away from the situation again… her head was bleeding… she died while he sat chained to the wall- doomed. The nightmare part had occurred.

A flash of white occurred which was followed by a flash of black.
Her nightmares looped.