Perised

Chapter 3

We barely get to talk any more until the soldiers surrounding the room usher us into another set of metal corridors. Red lights flicker through them as we are herded as frightened sheep. There is no talking, just silence and anxiety of what is coming next.
After some time, we enter a room which looks like a kindergarten room which is surrounded by bright colors. There are geometric pillows, toys, shapes on the walls, and animals, all made of wood. Surrounding the walls are mirrors that reflect ropes and ladders for climbing, thousands of colored light bulbs and some big, white lights hung under the ceiling.
I wrinkle my nose in confusion and turn to Luna 'Isn't this supposed to be Hell? This looks like kindergarten or circus to me.' I only receive a concerned face in return as if she knows that this isn't as innocent as it looks.

Suddenly, all the lights go out and we're in complete darkness. The colored light bulbs start buzzing and flickering on and off only to reveal some details of the surroundings during the intervals with pitch black darkness. A shrilling scream fills the room and panic starts rising as the shrieks intensify. Luna is pushed away by some dark objects and I start panicking, what's going on?! Luna calls for my name and I run towards the sound of her. In the flickering lights, I see people from my group becoming scarce, and in-between the bigger gaps of people I see bodies flung across the room when suddenly a cold, block like object with something sharp brush my ankle. I jump in sudden pain and terror. Chills run down my spine. What the fuck was that? I need to get up high and I search around me and in the flickering lights I notice the ropes. I sprint towards it, lift my arms and fondle through the air when I suddenly locate the rope and start climbing upwards.

Luna cries my name again, yelling 'Hannah! Where are you?!' I look for her through the flickering lights and I see her climbing one of the wall-ladders. Other people try to climb the ladders too, but they fall, scream and that's when I notice sharp blades on the steps. A snake like creature made from wooden blocks slithers its way up towards Luna. At its body, there's blades attached to the wooden blocks. It's gaining on her and in my desperation to try helping her I start to swing my rope towards her direction.

The rope listens to my command and starts swinging towards Luna. I'm gaining on her little by little until my rope suddenly detach itself from its grip in the ceiling. I fall with the rope tangled around my body and gravity makes my body slam to the ground. Groaning, I try to force my aching body to rise from the wooden floor. However, the limp rope starts living its own life and swirls and tightens itself onto my body like a Python snake. I can feel it's crushing and choking effect on me. This freaks out, screaming for my life and the more I writher, the harder the rope crushes my body. My ears start ringing, my eyes see white dots all over and as my screams become smaller. The ringing in my ears wont stop and in my snow screen view, I notice a shape sprinting towards me with a sword.

*****

I'm lying on the floor, drifting through consciousness and unconsciousness. My head spins and I can't recall where I am. Why are my ears ringing? And what are these muffled noises that I'm hearing, it sounds like screams. A sudden sensation of something wet and warm spreads over my stomach. It smells sweet and metallic; my fingers touch the liquid and moves towards my eyesight. This looks like blood, but it has a light green color... How did this happen? Who's, is it?

I notice a shape in my blurry vision, it's a woman and she has massive curly hair. She leans towards me, mumbles something I can't comprehend, and I shake my head. She leans to the other side, waves a hand in front of me and my vision becomes clearer. It's Luna. She asks softly 'Hannah, are you alright?' Trying to focus, I answer 'Uhm, yeah, I think so...' Suddenly she jots towards me, squeeze my body and gives me a tight hug as she says 'Oh dios mio! Hannah! !Sigues vivo!' Still feeling slightly uneasy and confused I ask 'Luna, who's blood is this?' She places her hand on my shoulder to calm me down and answers 'Pobre Americano confundido... It's from the rope that strangled you.' I answer 'Oh, ok, thank you...' Feeling a bit uneasy and embarrassed, we just sit in silence. However, I notice that she is covered by the same green blood. Did she save me? I also notice a blue sword; it looks weird and has a glow to it. I ask her 'What's up with the shiny blue sword?' She panics slightly, and answers 'Oh, uhm, it's not important...' She stares to the side, avoiding my gaze. Suddenly her eyes turn serious though, and she turn her gaze to me again and says 'Hannah, have you noticed the mirrors on the walls?' Not really thinking much about them I turn and look at them and answer 'not really, I do now though.'

Luna, she says 'Hannah, the trials are based on one person using a power and the only way we can survive the trial is to kill the person using it.' I stare at her, confused and she continues 'I bet'cha that this person is behind one of those mirrors.' She points at the mirrors. Suddenly I notice a wood blocked lion is attacking from behind Luna and I just stare at it blankly. She turns her gaze and notice it. In a swift action, she rises and slice through the animal's neck. Separating the head from its body. Blood ooze from its body and sprays Luna. As she leans over the dead body with her sword's edge placed into the floor, she turns her face to me and says 'The person we're searching for is usually one of the masked people,remember? You saw one in the briefing room, the guy in the suit with a ram's facemask on. Shocked, I just nod and stare at her and the dead animal on the floor while green, sickish blood surrounds it.

Through the flicking lights of red, green, yellow, and blue I squint my eyes to focus while we move towards the wall ladders. I can't see anything other than people being slashed, hacked, or eaten by animalistic blocks. Some survivors have climbed up the ladders and fends themselves with their feet, kicking the block animals. Others are panicking in corners, people are captured and hung by the snake-like ropes and some has perished and are still laying on the floor.

We continue to walk in the shifting dark where Luna acts like the tank, killing things in our way while I limp after her until we reach the walls. We climb several wall ladders and Luna shatters the mirrors with the end of her sword.Several mirrors destruct until we find one that has no wall behind it.

Behind the shattered mirror there is a small room with a red-light buzzing. A person is strapped into a chair wearing a Komodo Dragon mask and a black suit.The person appears unconscious although he is covered with tubes all over pumping green liquid into his body. Luna starts climbing into the room and stealthily she raises her blade as she tip-toes towards the person. My heart is racing, is this right? How do we even know that this is the right person? While I'm silently panicking over murder, Luna slides her blade slowly through the anonymous person's head with an assassin's precision. Nothing happens and she just stands there, with her blade stuck in this person's head. She turns to me,seems slightly confused until the lights suddenly turn bright again making her jot. She removes her sword and wipes the blood on her thigh.  Still standing in the wall ladder, I turn and look into the room, the light reveals blocks formed as dangerous animals, a mass grave of dead bodies and a big pool of blood mixed with green and dark red. The room feels like that of the silence after the storm. Some people survived, they seem confused, but notice me and Luna in the room and just stare at us with a sense of gratefulness for this endeavor to be over.