The Choice: Part Six Back on the first day in this place I may have smiled, I know better now. Smiling is a waste of energy, and a waste of hope. We only smile now to hide the searing pain each breath causes. We're thirsty, tired, and close to giving up. "Kathy!". Jade motions me towards an outcrop of red rock. "Look." My eyes find the spot of ground that she's pointing to. There it is, the thing we've worked for, we've pushed our bodies to their limit and this is our prize. The puddle is brown, mosquitos skim the stagnant surface, and it smells awful. "Drink up guys.". I whisper in horror, not a hint of irony in my voice. Wasn't this what I prayed for? Water? It feels good as drips past my dry lips and onto my parched tongue. After drinking our fill, we set out once again in search of food. This is the hardest part, water is rain so it falls from the sky, but food doesn't, and it's to my knowledge that nothing has survived out here for centuries. I force my blistered feet to keep walking in the merciless sun, I will myself to keep standing, 'cause I know if I fall now I won't get back up. The sun begins to set, my stomach is hurting, and the world turns upside-down literally as we're caught in a snare. "Kathy we've got something!"

The Choice: Part Five It's easy to see how, after living my entire #life under a glass bio dome, I was more than a little frightened by the open, unprotected sky. I stand on the dry dusty ground which was once mud. Wreckage is everywhere, the spoils of war. My stomach does involuntary backflips, skeletons litter the wasteland. In way that's comforting, it means what happened here was a long time ago. This place is far from the seven cities, but is the very reason why they were created. They called it the Never War, the never stood for never ending. America created a new super weapon, a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb, and with a thousand times worse after affects. The radiation from this bomb is so powerful that it can kill you with no detectable symptoms until the end, until it's too late, until you're writhing in pain. The worst part about this bomb is that the radiation it creates is almost undetectable, and even then only in small quantities at a time. The after affects were the worst the world had ever seen. So seven cities were created to install qualities into the human race that would combat the desire of war. One-community, two-generosity, three-obedience, four-humble, five-tolerance, six-foresight and seven-cowardice. Nearby is a pole with a several radiation monitors attached, they all read medium. I hate this place, I already feel ill. I know it's not the radiation that's making me feel this way, it's fear, fear is all it takes. At the top of the metal pole is a speaker. "You have three days, survive them and you pass. Try to run away, and we find you.". There's a minute of static afterwards. A minute is all it takes to start the fear, fear is all it takes to start the carnage, carnage is all it takes to start the hopelessness, hopelessness is all it takes to destroy you.

The Choice: Part Four There's nothing like relief filling you to the brim with warmth inside when you know you've succeeded. I don't get that feeling, I've failed...awfully. Two, that's it. No more, no less. Two. I didn't save them, I didn't save them. The girl woke quickly, she has sharp eyes, cunning, confident, wild. She was ready to wake, I just prompted her to wake a little sooner. The boy...the boy woke me, so he never was in any danger. He saved my #life. Saved my #life...but I didn't save... Fourteen; that's how many there were...are? No...were...definitely were. I heard them scream and...and...no that can't be real...this can't be real...it is. I know it is, I watched them...ha -hack...chop...cut...slice. I know I watched them scream...I don't want to know any more was real. Am I sane? No, not anymore. I feel like I'm running, and I can't stop, but I want to...want to...die...do I? Yes? No? Maybe, maybe. I'm lying on my side, my knees drawn close to my chest to help ward off the horrible stomach cramps I keep getting. I'm shivering, drenched in sweat, cold, frightened and wanting to throw up. "Well? Are you going to just lie there and do nothing, or are you going to help me out here?". It's a horrible thing to say, especially since she's witnessed the same atrocity I'm traumatised from. Still, she's quick, and sharp to the point, I've got a funny feeling that I'll need her on my side. "I'm Jade, and you are?" "Feeling rather sick." I snap. Her lips pucker as she judges me. Soon enough though they twist into a lopsided, yet respectful, smile. "I'm Kathy." She frowns then mumbles, "Yeah well thanks for waking me up and all that... But don't think for one second this means I owe you one, got it?" "Sure." I let it slide, it wasn't that she was being ungrateful, she just seemed a little embarrassed that for one second her #life had relied on me. There's nothing wrong with that, some people just like to control their own fate; self reliant. "So what city are you from?". She asks me, chewing intently on a bit of old, soggy, gum. "Three, you?". Her eyes remain fixed on a strand of hair that floats millimetres from her iridescent green eyes. Somehow, after all that's happened, she manages to look bored. Jade's either one of two things, heartless or a brilliant actress. I think it's the second one, her eyes keep flitting around the room every so often, and her ridged position suggests that she's not at ease. "Five." She replies, though there's still a small shaky undertone to her voice. "Wait a minute, five?" Jade nods as I stare open mouthed at her. Five is the city of tolerance, children are taught to be seen not heard, and to listen not talk. "I'm sorry, it's just you don't really seem the tolerant type." "Yeah well you don't exactly seem the obedient type either honey." She retorts. In city three you are taught obedience, to always follow the rules and do as you are told. How I hate the rules, the endless rules. The boy sits in the corner looking at us intently. "Do you know him?" I ask, trying to figure out why he's staring at us. "No, I tried to ask him his name, but he wouldn't speak to me." "I wonder why." "It's obvious isn't it? He's from seven!". City seven -cowardice, courage is seen as wrong there, children are brought up to be shy and needy. It's a horrible thought but at least he'll be easy to kill, if it ever comes down to it. A screeching enters the chamber, followed by a voice on microphone. "Meet your team mates for the next challenge." The walls begin to rise, and I find myself somewhere totally new.

The Choice: Part Three The screams reverberate around the air, shattering silence to nothing. I slowly start to back away, ears ringing from the awful crescendo. The worst part of it all is that I can't find where the screams are coming from, they seem to just surround me like a massive python, coiling in circles, tighter, tighter. Staggering backwards, I try to find a way out of this nightmare. Shudders run the entire mass of my back, then stop entirely. I've bumped into something. A thousand terrible scenarios fill my head, A man with burns across his face and no eyes laughing madly, a person holding me at gun point, a desiccated corpse hanging from a willow tree. All these things are horrible, but none could be further from the truth. I turn, to find I've bumped into someone who isn't there, something that isn't there; and all at once I know my wall out of this hell. I close my eyes, then open them. The basement is filled to the brim with the stench of damp. It's unpleasant, but rather comforting when compared to the smell of rot in the field. Around me others scream in a trance, none of their eyes are open; they have failed. I hear footsteps approaching the door. We hear they're screams every year, the ones who didn't choose, but I didn't choose, we hear they're screams every year, the ones who choose, the ones who failed. Quick as I can, I dart around the room, rousing everyone I can, desperate to save them from the icy claws of death. Hissing fills the room, I'm running out of time! I can't breathe, the hissing is stronger, the hissing is louder! I fall backwards into nothingness, into oblivion, wondering where I will end up.

The Choice: Part Two Lights glare down fiercely, as I sit, wounded and disorientated. The sickly sweet coy along my lips suggests that I may not have been falling as long as I thought. Rather, I conclude, I had merely dreamt the hours of falling, my deluded mind playing five minutes over and over in my head. To put it simply, they'd drugged me. Well this really wasn't a good start. A high keening sound fills the small enclosed chamber, followed by a menacing hiss. White mist creeps in, mocking me with it's slowness. I begin to gag, a horrible retching noise as I desperately try to fill my lungs with the non existent oxygen. I slip into blackness, slowly closing my heavy eyelids, resting my tired head. The field is brown. Old, dying grass rots in the mud on this desolate, hostile landscape. My eyes scan for means of escape, and fine none. The grass isn't the only dead thing in this place. Perfectly intact corpses lie at my feet. Closed eyes never to open. I feel sick, as I step over them, row upon row. That's when I hear it;the horrible sound, the horrible, monstrous sound; that's when I hear the screams.