The Carnelian Islands

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

„Get up! All of you! Launch off in an hour!“ A loud voice from the speakers wake me up and I’m sure, all of the other teens are up too. As I went to bed with my clothes, I just take the clothes off, have shower, pull my garments on again and go to the cafeteeria.

We eat breakfast together, teams in the same table. I sit next to the Firecracker, across Blondie and Christian makes rude comments about me.

„You really are stupid and full of shit. Leaving the interview shortly after claiming to know Harley Quinn personally! Laughable!“

I give him a very angry look and show him my middle finger once again. „I don’t like you, I don’t need you talking to me.“

„Fine, but you will go down before me.“ Christian shruggs.

„I won’t.“ I assure him and he chuckles.

„I will kill you.“ His smirk really gets to me, but I stay calm and smile.

„Be my quest.“ I tell him and finish up my meal of mashed potatoes, big loaf of bread, steak and some apple juice.

„You coming?“ I ask the boy with fire dye haired boy and he nods. „Yea, sure, we have to go in 10 minutes anyway and being the number right after you, our capsules are next to each other.“

I grab his hand and he entwines our fingers. We look a lot like a couple, me with my reddish hair and him, well that boy looks like he dipped his head into the colouring bowl.

I like the fact, he can keep his sea green orbs off my body, but then again, I am nothing special.

We walk to the rooms where our capsules are sent out to the islands. It’s like traveling with train, only you sit in a tiny tiny room on your own. I see my designer and she waves me over. „Barbie! I have the perfect clothes for you!“

Firecracker sends me a ’Barbie??’ look and I wave him goodbye. „Show me what you got.“ I tell my designer and she hands me a set of clothes. I spot a red shirt, black underwear, dark brown pair of pants and some boots.

A man, whom I see the first time grabs my left foot and I wince. „What do you want?“ I ask and he shows me the tracking device planter. „Sorry.“ He apologizes and I let him inject the little chip into my flesh before turning back to the lady with blonde and blue hair.

„Wear these.“ Kordial instructs and that’s what I do. The bra is a match, so is the shirt, the pants and the boots. I don’t get why we have to wear boots though. I ask my designer that and she smirks.

„Sneakers are too low class, don’t you think?“

I shake my head. „I used to wear sneakers all the time, they were all I could afford.“

Kordial pats my head in a motherly way and kisses my cheeks. „Don’t you worry about a thing other than keeping yourself alive, okay?“

„Allright.“ I say and wrap my hands around her for a moment, embaracing her. Her hands soothe my back and I am ready to go.

„I’ll bet on you, don’t let me down.“ The man, who prepped me, tells me and I smirk. „Bring it.“

He leads me to the capsula and before I get into it, I see Firecracker. The boy is terrified, just like I am, well inside at least. I give him a smile and he knows, I’m not going to kill him if he doesn’t make it away from the supplies by the time I get there.

He nodds in appreciation and sends me a sing, two nails of the fingers of the right hand pressed to his temple, so the fingers cross over his eye, blocking the boy’s sight for a while.

He trusts me.

That makes the two of us.

I give him the sign back, carefully using the same technique he did, not to humiliate him. Firecracker understands and heads to his capsule. Following his lead, I find myself in a red and black coffin like room with the upper half being full glass and I smirk. I’ve always loved vampires.

I sit on the small chair and get myself mentally ready, but then again, how could I ever be ready to kill innocent people.

„Number 11, liftoff in one minute.“ The robotized voice announces and I get comfortable. There is not much do do in this thingie anyway.

„50...49...48...47...46...“ Wonder what Hailey is doing at home? Is she watching me get killed?“

„30...29...28...27....26...25...24...“ I wonder if my relatives, the one’s, who still alive, see me struggle.

„5...4...3...2...1“

I am lift off to the ground and I see many faces I never even spotter earlier. A girl with a scar running down her face, a boy with long pink hair, another boy with striking yellow eyes and so on.

With a loud BANG, we see a clock in the sky and a young girl with golden hair, runs out of her capsula towards the supplies, that are about few hundred metres away from us.

She grabbs a big bag and tries to make a run towards the forest, but her 60 seconds are up and the sound of ticking comes on. She is getting killed soon, I know it, everybody knows it.

A boy, with shaggy black hair goes running to the supplies, grabs a knife and jams it to the stomach of the poor girl. A big bang indicates her death.

Poor her.

Minute after minute teens go running out from their capsulas, three more tickings come, three more bangs are heard before the clock shows 12. I see Firecracker running, he stumbles and falls, gets up, runs to the supplies and trips on a body again.

My minutes are up, I get to move and I dash to the backpacks. I see Firecracker grabbing one too and I run to the weapons pedestal with him, which is about 500 metres away.

„You okay?“ I ask and he mutters. „Splendid.“

 I grab a hatchet, and Firecracker takes a bat from the heap of weapons. We are ready to run off, when something stops us.

The sound of ticking.