(OLD) Forever Desires

Chapter Four

Four

I panted like hell as I raced across the sand dunes, leaving dust to fly behind my legs. After surviving six hours without my bag, I was hungry, parched and kept falling into traps of Dis. Except that wasn't the case now. Now, I was running away from myself. As I kept my gun and newly found - long, sharp, shiny diamond blade - knife, clasped safely in my palms that were sopping in sweat, I felt a bullet whiz past my arm - skimming it slightly. As hot, sticky blood began to escape my new wound, I decided to try my luck on a moving target. I slowed my pace, spun on my heel and fasted a much more scarier version of myself. An Alice. A new collection. I had long frizzy sunset orange hair, decayed flesh and an alien, with red and green splotches covering it's torso and circling my eyes, glued to my side. The Joker.

I inhaled sharply and kept my eyes reluctantly fixed on my Alice self. Good god, I won't ever wear orange again. I thought grimly and raised my gun. I was reluctant to shoot. If I shot my Alice self, would I drop to the ground dead as well? Or would I be spared, except be haunted with guilt? Geez, decisions aren't meant to be so hard! Suddenly a trigger was pulled.

And it wasn't mine.

※※※

I woke up clutching the collar of my forest green shirt. I exhaled slowly feeling as if I were safe until suddenly, my eyes shot open as a trigger was pulled. My heart in jumble, deciding if it should or shouldn't panic - frankly I had no idea either, if it was my half-dreaming or was actual reality. My gun was held safely in my sweaty, dripping palm. Except the gun was my old, dependable one and my knife was the one I've always used, the one Sail handed me after he dug through a pile of shit - and not a fancy, dolled up knife that looked better than it cut. I crawled over to the sun peaking through the poorly dug hole. I sat on my heels before sliding my gun and knife in the belt then climbing up the steep slant.

I kept hearing gunshots. I wasn't entirely sure if it was still my ears, or if it was my brain. I shrugged. Either way - real or not - I'd still have to be on my guard. After all with Kemint and an anonymous girl on the loose, and possibly my team could be turning on me as I spoke were out to kill me. To put me in an eternal sleep. I remembered when Sail promised to always have my back. Well did that ever fail. Maybe if I died; seven (almost eight) years would be over. The Poors could pull away from their radios, the Richs could place the new nine-year-olds in the arena, and give them a whole new hell, that we've discovered.

I crawled to the opening and peeked through the narrow hole. As my hands dug into the cool sand, I looked up to see an astonishing sight. Cover. Alone. With my bags, and his. Sail and Vow could be off to some sort of dune trying to fight for their lives, making Cover search for me...alone. I felt an incredible amount of guilt rise in my body, and kill my veins. I was really selfish - damn it. Cover continued to walk past me, totally oblivious to the fact that my hands were pressed painfully in the cool sand. As his back became more visible, I pulled myself up on to the sand and knelt there watching Cover. "Where is she.... Why did Sail give me such an impossible task? I mean...fuck, what the hell is that?" Cover muttered and removed his foot. A loud hiss was deafening the silence that was once there before Cover began to speak. I saw the body. Bright, hazardous...poisonous.

Without a second thought I drew my gun and shot it once. The hissing stopped and the snake's hiss was gone with the still wind. Cover turned around. "Hey," I greeted and staggered to my feet. My chocolate hair was probably all tangled and my face probably had sand stuck on it. I must've looked horrible. But then again, we did beauty ever matter? Cover stood rigidly. His face was showered with emotions; sadness, happiness, astonishment, relief.... Do I really do that to my team when I run off when my heart is full of hatred? "my new hiding place is...the sand." I laughed nervously and pointed to the hole that was a few feet away from me.