Contradicting Worlds

I look up and sure enough, the CCTVs are looking down at us but then each head suddenly bows like life had been extinguished from them and I can"t help the grin to escape. Things are just starting to be messy.

I whistle again, 3 consecutive, one long and two shorts. My body felt light all of a sudden and my feet start dangling in the air. My heart is beating so fast as I fly higher and higher until I am a thousand feet up. The wind hit my face, I stifle my smile because it felt too good like I wasn"t heading towards my death. It almost felt as if I am free from my chains and I hate it because I have to face the effing truth too soon, I hover in the air while glaring at the faces of these merciless killers.

I wish I can put my hands on them but this is not our spot, so as I cross the barbed wire I made sure to glare at each one of them knowing that they would definitely feel my presence.

As we pa.s.s the towers I can see that some of our people are already in a fight with the warriors and thankfully our people are fast enough to finish them and none of the warriors had the chance to raise their alarm but it will not be long enough before someone in the city noticed that the towers are empty. I kept the pride burning inside my body to myself, I felt excitement surges through my veins. If earlier I still have my doubts, right now my hands are getting itchy to get a warrior blood in my hands.

My feet landed on the ground softly, I drew the hood of my cloak on even though we are currently invisible. I"ve heard different versions of how the city looks like inside. They said ma.s.sive buildings would tower over you and you will absolutely feel small just by staring at them, some said the city looks alive and cheerful. Some said it looks mysterious but my description of the city didn"t fit any of those things.

I stare at the stone-cold buildings, curtains are drawn over the windows, few of them has their lights on and they look like stars twinkling in the lifeless night sky. There are no houses in the city only apartments, hotels and motels and buildings. The only people who can live here are the ones who work under the government. They get to enjoy the luxurious life inside here while us, the exiles, live in the forest, with no roof to cover us when it rains. They get to eat different types of foods and not worry of running out of supplies while we are there, outside the boundaries, crawling in the dirt just to find something suitable for eating if we can"t find one, we are to sleep the hunger. They receive a good stock of money here while we are left there to fend for ourselves.

My blood coils at every thought and I want nothing but this city to burn into ashes. They see a mysterious city that is waiting for its secrets to be unlocked. They see this as a lively stage that will provide a cheerful performance for them. Others see this city as a door full of opportunities, as the light in their never-ending s.p.a.ce of darkness. I see none of those things but a ruthless, life-taker, self-centered a.s.s**** that will surely be reduced into ashes if I get my hand on one of their buildings.

We continue walking, and I look down to see the end of my shoes peeking out. I glance at the others to see if they are experiencing the same thing and apparently, all of our ends are starting to show. We didn"t waste any more time, we quicken our pace but we still move silently. The City is awfully quiet and deserted. Something told me that going inside here is a very bad idea.

The city has no streets on the front so I am almost certain that we will find the different pathways at the heart of this. So soon, a monumental s.p.a.ce comes into view.

I clench my jaw, swallow the lump forming in my throat, and dig my fingers so hard into my palms that I am afraid that they would draw blood and leave trails behind. There is a creepy fountain sitting in the middle of the red square, the fountain has an angel--or looks like an angel-- standing on it holding a sword and pointing it downwards. Gooseb.u.mps run down my arms and I have to fight down a shiver.

I double up my now-quickened-up pace and I didn"t look back to see if they were able to catch up because there really isn"t too much to see and I really want to step out of the red square ASAP cause memories bring back effing too bad memories.

I pa.s.s down the fountain and have to suck in a breath when I finally got the full view of the castle (The Castle is what we called to the main building of the government). I mean because it looks like an effing castle but fudge I didn"t have any idea that it would be this big. It stood in the head of the red square, looking calm and stoic. How can a building look calm and stoic? I don"t know. I am just describing it the way it looks. A heavy arch french door lies ahead but unfortunately, there are two warriors guarding it up.

Ragged breathing steps beside me, "What do we do now?" I recognize it as Ila"s voice. "How can we step inside?"

"Just wait," as if on cue, a siren rang out, making the two warriors jump in surprise, I prepare myself to lunge at them but they share a look then they ran from where they stood. My eyes follow their movement and I brace myself as they approach us but they just run past us, leaving the building unguarded. Just then, the invisibility wore off and we stood there, looking at each other. What just happened? A siren in the city means trouble, a serious one, but they left the castle unguarded?

"What now? Are we just going to stand here and have a staring contest?" Ila"s annoying voice speaks first. "If you are not doing anything well, I, at least, gonna do something."

Then something clicks as if I have found the missing piece of a puzzle, the screws in my brain are turning. The white room, the laboratory where no one is allowed to come in, the files with our names in the office of the director. This is a trap for all of us, a betrayal.

My eyes snap back to Ila who is now about to walk onto the steps leading to the french door. I bolt forward, grabbing her by the waist, making us topple backwards and then just as we hit the ground, a loud explosion happened before us. I put Ila beside me, shielding us from the shards of the explosion.

We got up immediately, she stared at me with wide eyes. "What the h.e.l.l? What just happened?"

"That," I point to the french doors which are now in tattered pieces, smoke covering it from us. "Happened. The Director, how long have you been working for her?" I look at her straight in the eyes so she can"t lie.

"8 years." Her voice quiver a little.

"How about you?" I turn to face our companions, all looking just as shaken as Ila. "How long have you been working for the director?"

"We are working for her for a couple of years. But Ila is the longest among all of us." Aida said.

Shoot. I pace back and forth, biting my nails. They are working for her for years, that give her enough time to study all of them. Their weakness and strengths and right now we are standing inside the mouth of our own enemies. I close my eyes. How could I be so dumb?

"Hey, stop pacing and tell us what the h.e.l.l is happening?" Ila bickers.

"We are in a trap."

"What?" Gasps filled the air.

"Every time that we train, remember I was always late? I told you I overslept. Or I wanted some fresh air or I jogged either way that was all a lie. Because the truth is I take my time to explore my new surroundings. I get uncomfortable when I am inside some stranger"s house or building, whatever you call it. Once, I thought there"s nothing to see but then I came across the laboratory room. It was filled with people and I thought they are all yours but something"s off because I haven"t seen them before so I took the initiative to investigate this director of yours. One night, I went inside her office, I rummage through her drawers, I didn"t notice them at first but when I look around again that when I saw it. One cabinet is isolated among the rest, when I opened it, it was filled with your files, your names, abilities, age. I brush it off because I thought it is normal to have your own list of names right? As the head. But now, it all makes sense. Those files are the evaluations of your abilities, the laboratories are for them to a.n.a.lyze your DNA and the white room is for..." I trailed off but Ila gripped my shoulders so hard and shook me.

"For what?"

"Execution." She staggers backwards, one hand is placed over her heart as if she"s having a hard time to believe it. "Aikah"s sister. What does she do?"

"Don"t tell me--"

"That could be the possibility. They are eliminating the useless ones and---" my voice was cut off by another explosion on the east side. We all look in the direction. "No time for chit chat. I"ll explain everything later. Right now, we have to contact our colleagues. Lei, can you fly and check on them? Take Ciara and Nikki with you. We will meet you in one of the secret pa.s.sageways in the dungeons. I want you to relay my message to them. Retreat and kill everyone who is going to come in your way." She nods then they flew away. "Let us go, this way." I lead them to the west side of the city away from the chaos.

"Wait, how can we trust you? How can we be sure that you are not gonna turn us to them?" Mice said in an obvious fear.

"Trust me, betrayal is the last thing I am going to do while I am alive. Now let us not waste any time, shall we?" I began to run but I stopped dead in my tracks as I realize that we are missing two of our companies. "Where are Raven and Mica?"

"They headed to the east dungeons to..." she doesn"t need to finish it. I curse silently. I draw my crossbow and loaded it with an arrow.

"Go to the west tower first and check on our team there, if they are captured or if you notice anything weird, go straight into the dungeon, we aren"t leaving them behind but save yourselves first before you save the others. You already know where the secret pa.s.sageway is, it is probably heavily guarded so right now is not the time to hesitate. Kill warriors on sight. Kill them not hurt them." They nod and then we went on our different ways.

I run fast but stop when Ila fall in steps beside me. "You are off to that way."

"I am coming with you."

"No. You are coming with them." I stop running to face her. She glares at me. "I can take care of this. Thank you."

"I am not coming with you because of you, I am coming because I need to save Mica."

"Of course." I roll my eyes at her. "You see--" another explosion booms in the same direction.

We look at each other. "You know, let"s save our fight later."

"Yeah, I agree." Together we run towards the explosions and smoke engulfs us as we reach the east side of the city.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

I cough over the smoke. It cleared a minute later and my jaw dropped--not in a good way--at the sight. Blood covers the place like a blanket, the east tower is now half the original size of it, bodies are everywhere and worst, most of them are ours but few are warriors. Ila looks like she"s going to be sick but I became adept to this kind of scenario so I can handle this better than her.

I look around then I see the small pa.s.sageway, leading to the east dungeon but it stayed close so I am a.s.suming that Raven and Mica didn"t go there or they got caught up in the explosion. My heart hammered in my chest but I force myself to calm down. This is not the time to lose control. I look over Ila, her forehead forming creases, her eyes eyeing the small pa.s.sageway, I came to conclusion that she is thinking the same thing.

"Hey, let"s try and look around," I don"t like the way I sound and I don"t like my idea either but it"s the only effing way. She nods, obviously liking it as much as I like it.

We begin looking around, most of their faces are covered in ashes making it hard to see them but I can manage. I heard a whimper not so far away from me, I stride towards the sound. I caught the sight of a girl not so older than me--or so it looks that way--under a pile of rocks. Blood is running down from her forehead and she is coughing so hard. Something inside me stirs but I couldn"t waste any more time. I kneel down to try to move the rocks off her but I"ve got no luck. She coughs up blood and that"s when I knew that even though I could move these rocks I cannot save her, we are far from late.

I hear footsteps behind me and Ila gasps. She knelt down beside me, tears running down her face. This is the first time I have seen her so emotional. Even the toughest person can cry too.

She runs a hand in the girl"s face, brushing away some hair from her forehead, the girl gives her a shaky smile, "Kate, just wait. I will move these away and we will get you away from here okay?" she starts to stand up but Kate grabs her hand. She shakes her head lightly. "What do you mean no? We"ll get you out of here." Kate tugs at her hand, smiling gently but I know it takes a lot of her energy.

"It"s too late. You can"t...It"s too late...I..am happy...actually...because before I die...I get...to see your face...big sister," she smiles a crooked smile. More tears fell out from Ila"s eyes and I can"t help but feel that twisting knife in my gut. I lead them here, I was the one to blame. "Help the others who can be help...I just wish...that when...we finally have our freedom...people won"t forget about us," she coughs up blood and Ila"s sniveling intensifies and I know that she badly wants to move those rocks but she didn"t and I know how hard it is to watch the person who means a lot to you dies.

Kate takes two handful breaths through her mouth then she releases her one final breath then her chest stops moving, her eyes stare into nothingness. Ila runs a trembling hand over Kate"s face, closing her eyes. She looks peaceful now.

I held Ila as she cries, running a hand over her back and as much as I hate what I am going to do, I have got to do it. "Viola, we need to move." She upright herself while staring at me with fire in her eyes.

"I am going to kill her. I am going to kill them all, and I won"t stop until I taste her blood in my tongue." I know who she"s talking about and believe me I want nothing than her lying dead in my feet.

"I know and I won"t stop you. Now, let"s go and rescue the others and get the h.e.l.l out of here." She nods and we both stand up, more prepared to the battle ahead than ever.

My body tense suddenly, the hair on my back standing up and a shiver runs down my spine up to my upper arms. "Duck!" I shout to Ila and she didn"t skip a beat. I turn around and shot my arrow to the direction just in time for a knife to greet me in the face and thanks to my fast reflex I avoid it barely missing my hair. "Who is it?" Once I regain my composure I stalk towards the smoke. A girl walks up to me, I have to do a double-take to fully see her face because her black hair is drape over her face but when I finally see her, I recognize that she is one of ours.

"What the--" Ila stops whatever it is she is going to say when she sees her too. "Aikah, oh ghad, are you alright?" she runs towards her, checking her all over and Aikah"s face was filled with relief when she sees who we are. "What happened here?"

Aikah gulps before talking fast, "We--we were attacked. We took over the tower and we thought that we were done, the warriors guarding the tower were all tied up and no one saw us. I swear no one saw us because we are invisible, right? But for some reason, the siren blew up and then the other warriors started bombarding us. We didn"t have the time to react, soon the tower was falling and it was taking us down. Some of us fled in action, some stayed and fight. I got away but I chose to come back and then I saw this. I didn"t know what to do so I hid. I am so sorry for being such a coward." her eyes were deep in remorse.

"Don"t blame yourself. It is okay. You did the right thing. We were trapped. The Director is one of them. She betrayed us."

"What?" Their eyes flash to me but it was Ila who answered.

"Long story but yeah." Another explosion caught our attention, we turn our head towards the direction. Apparently, Ila was thinking the same thing. "We"ve got to get moving." Yeah, because the direction was towards the west tower where most of the squad leaders went.

Suddenly, detonation was engulfing us. And I know that all towers were down and that we need to move as fast as possible, see any survivors and get the h.e.l.l out of here.

My eyes burned with the smoke and my lungs are getting feed up by the ashes. We move silently, taking down the warriors moving in our way until we finally get into the red square. As we run, I absently touch Mica"s gift, hoping in heavens that she is alive and she and Raven got away.

When we reached the red square, I am having a real hard time to see anything through the smoke. I can"t almost see Ila and Aikah, just their figures.

My muscles tense again but this time gooseb.u.mps run all over my body. I tightened my body, sharpened my sense and try again to see through the smoke. That"s when I see them, the warriors--they are all around us and shoot the looks of them--they are past the transformation.

"Ila. Aikah. Don"t freak out okay?"

"Yeah?" Ila asks, beside me.

"Why?" Aikah asks in a trembling voice.

"Because they are surrounding us."

"Shoot," Ila said. Aikah whimpers but this is not the time to be scared. I pull my last arrows from behind me, 5 arrows, I need to make a good use of all of this if we want to come out of here alive. All of a sudden I can feel the knife Mica gave me digging into my thigh but not yet, it will be my last resort.

A growl sounded in front of me and I know that they are snarling at us. "Ready yourselves."

"Oh, I am more than ready," Ila said and I can almost hear her smirk through the smoke. I hear her shift beside me, getting into a position. "Bring it on." She groaned then all of a sudden all of them are charging towards us. Right, bring it on.

My hands work accordingly, loading and shooting and getting the arrow from the dead again and again. The smoke clears a little, helping me with my vision. I see two warriors bolting towards Aikah and Ila but they didn"t seem to notice because they are too busy with their rivals. I have only one arrow, it is a risk but I know better than to contemplate.

I run away from Aikah and Ila and away from the two warriors too, I meet some other warriors but I chose not to use my last arrow on them instead I hold my arrow in my hand and using it as a knife slashing and stabbing and attacking at anyone who dares to come at me. Then I settle at one of the sidewalks, I kneel down and out of my peripheral I see warriors running to me so I have to move fast--very fast. I fasten my last arrow in my crossbow, aim it at the two warriors now nearer to Aikah and Ila then I pull the trigger.

My arrow moves fast too as if sensing the need, it went inside the head of the first warrior then it moves towards the second one and then within seconds they lay there, lifeless and eyes filled with utter shock and surprise.

I turn to my side and slams my crossbow to the first warrior that comes insight. She sways and I have got enough time to get the knife in my thigh and buries it in her skull. She sags before falling down to the ground with a thud.

I snap my attention to the others who are now running towards me with effing incredible speed. I push the b.u.t.ton on my knife and it turned magically into a sword. I have never had a sword nor did I ever practiced with it and the strange weight in my hand is suddenly too much to bear but I manage. I whirl around, slashing, cutting bodies in half, decapitating, stabbing, burying my sword in guts and chests again and again but they didn"t seem to lower in number, they keep coming and coming and soon my vision is turning blurry, my head is spinning and I can"t think clearly, I can"t even see clearly but a sharp pain in my shoulder causes me to snap in my senses once more. I groan, turning around, raising my blade but stop when I see Mica"s wide-eyed face.

She squeals then said, "Oops, sorry. Bad eyesight." I almost sag in relief when I see her, it takes a lot for me not to run to her and tackle her in the ground but we have got a fight ongoing in around us. She is holding a bow, it seems like she is aiming for the warrior behind me and sc.r.a.pe my shoulder in the process but I didn"t care.

I practically jump towards her and give her a fast tight hug. "Where were you?" I ask her, looking intently in her eyes.

"Long story. Will explain later," she is heaving very hard and I give her one more hug before asking.

"Where is Raven?"

"There," she points towards the middle of the red square where Raven is standing over the edge of the fountain and is holding a sword too and he swings it explicitly at the approaching warriors. As if sensing me stare he turns around shortly then offers me a wink before going back to what he was doing. I had to stifle a smile but didn"t bother to hide my blush.

That"s when I notice that it isn"t just Mica and Raven who got here but the other leaders are here too, and some of ours are helping us too. Pride flares in my heart and it continue to swell but I can"t just keep standing here and watch.

Adrenaline is surging through my veins again and I felt more alive than usual. I crackle my neck and my limbs too. I look at Mica who is staring at the fight with the same fire in her eyes just like in mine. "Hey, let"s go and mark ourselves in the history of history."

She giggles before saying in a sinister voice. "Oh, I think we are going to destroy the history babe." I grin down at her. Destroy the history? I like the sound of that.