Audacia Plains: Uprising

Day 10

1

Running... We have to keep running. Always. If we stop for even a second... they'll get us. Oh, man...

How long is it we've been out here? Too bright... It's different from those plains, but... All the same, we're trapped - and all there is to do is delay them until we figure out how we can escape.

"Brad, you have to go faster! NOW!!"

We've been on the run for almost a day, now - hiding out in these forests. Down in The Facility, each day starts to feel like a week, and then a month... Realistically, it's been two weeks. Inside my head, I've been here my whole life. Okay, where was I... thinking about how I ended up here... 

Oh. Henry. Everything was a blur after... that Hunt, I was unreachable for nearly a week. I thought I would never escape, that I would live down there for the rest of my life in guilt and pain. That all changed, just 4 days ago. In that time, I would discover just how important my role was in this hellhole, and the mystery behind my father's disappearance...

Day 10. So it has been almost a week since the Hunt, huh... I said to myself. I sat up and checked my inventory for the first time as a non-vegetable. Someone had taken all of the stuff from the old compartment and put it in this one, I assumed. Other than the old things, there was bandages scattered all over the floor, a single chair and a dank mattress on the floor which had so many lumps and springs loose it was probably less comfy than the ground itself. Compared to the old compartment, this was definitely a step up - I'd actually feel comfortable calling this a "home" now, if I wouldn't burst into tears every time the thought crept up.

As my head started getting woozy again, I counted backwards from 10 as I breathed slowly, and recounted my situation as instructed by the nurses. "My name is Brad Machair. I am 19 years old. I have no family. I belong to The Facility. It is my home. I am the sole survivor of The Hunt, in which I recieved critical injuries and a possible concussion. I am recovering now." I breathed, in and out. 

Teddy knocked on the door - pretty fancy, I had a door now - and poked his head in, smiling. He's not supposed to live with me anymore, but he kept sneaking in every now and then while I was getting better to spend the night. Even with that teddy bear of his, I guess he still gets lonely down here. Of course, there was more that happened during the Hunt than I will tell most people. My friend Henry took it upon himself to kill every last inmate on those plains, and gave up his own life so that I could live on. I still question his actions to this day, and Teddy's the only person I have told - probably safe, seeing as he's completely mute. Everyone else, though - including my other two friends, Jill and Katie, think that I massacred the entire Hunt all by myself, and won't talk to me. Probably a good thing... Even if I could explain it, I'd only end up causing a riot and making things a lot worse for all of us. It's a lot better to let everyone fear me in a place like this.

I decided now was a good time to check over all the old stuff for the first time with a clear head. The first thing I happened across was the old pad of paper, with a mysterious message written on one page - given to me just before The Hunt. "DON'T. BELIEVE. HIS. LIES." was scribbled across it in crazed handwriting - so far me and Teddy are the only ones that know about it. I can only assume it referred to Henry, as a warning - there's still a lot I don't know about what he did, or why he did it. Perhaps he was initially going to trick me, playing me right into his hands so he could use me to off a couple of the other participants. It doesn't really matter, in the end - I knew nothing about him. All I know now is that he's dead and it's my fault.

Grabbing the old pillowcase/blanket from our old compartment, I slid out the stitched-together photograph I got from the Boss, the one of my father giving a speech in The Facility's Inner Cavern. I hadn't been able to keep my eyes away from it. What did this mean? Why show me this, I thought. I kept going through a cycle of thinking it meant "he didn't abandon me since he was taken here", to "he's been running this place... what a monster" and back to "well I don't know, he could be saying anything." I wasn't going to know what it was, not with just this photograph - but I bet there's someone around here who does.

"...I think I'm ready... to go back out there, I mean. Want to go to dinner?" I asked Teddy. Nodding enthusiastically at my suggestion, I tested to see if I could peel myself off the mattress I had been glued to for the past week, and stepped out to the mean streets of Level 4. Everything here was split into levels and ranks - the "weaklings" are on top at Level 5, and as each floor goes down, you'll find that the people get sicker and more twisted. A few hours after I was summoned by Level 1, Buny came screeching into our old compartment announcing that the Boss was so happy with my performance, he was promoting me to Level 4 - also known as the Tyrant class. It lies just in the "best" place of the hierarchy, according to her - those who were insane enough to murder everyone in a trial as a one-off, like me - and still those who try to hold on to whatever shred of humanity they have left, and basically end up as free-roaming psychopaths who pick on the only people lower than them - the Level 5s.

 So far, I hadn't met any other 4s yet - but I do have a very noisy neighbour, who's always somewhere inbetween laughing manically and screaming constantly. I heard people standing outside his door calling him Chuckles and asking him to sing a tune before walking off laughing... Of course it was barely audible under his pained cries for help. I don't think I like him, anyway... Gives me nightmares, sitting in the dark shrieking so much it sounds like a crazed school girl laughing her head off. I used to have much more sympathy for people crying down here, but this was Level 4. Whatever he did, I hope it haunts him from the rest of his damn miserable life.