ASUNDER (I) : tmr newt

01: I'm Scared

"Well what would you rather we do?" The angry voices asks.

"Something useful!" The light voice answers.

"Anything that will keep us from panicking." I shout back. "We can't be panicking."

"You're screeching isn't helping the panicking." She fires back, and for a second all of our voices blur into one and I can't tell who is who.

"What we need is more information." I cut through.

"What we need is to get out."

"No, we need you to stop shaking this whole contraption, before it falls apart in our fingers."

"We need to stop fighting if we have any hopes of getting out of here." I tell them.

"Quiet." The third voice says it with a quiet conviction, a whisper of a thought, and for a second we all listen.

The floor slams still behind us, and the mechanical whirring stops. Above us I can hear pounding feet, and large laughter booming around us. My legs are still and I can't move. Shoving myself into the corner, not trying to wonder what is on the other side of these walls, but trying to forget there is another side.

Suddenly, there is light.

It opens in a stream, flooding down on top of us, and I can't flinch away into the corner anymore.

"Shuck."

The first word I hear is one I don't understand, and I wonder if the people above me speak a different language. Someone's hand is tapping my shoulder, trying to pull me up, but I am still blinded by the light. Blinking, my eyes try to adjust themselves, as I hear murmurs above me.

"You're kidding." An accented voice backs away from the box, I can hear feet scuffing off of one another, as they struggle to move forward. "Four shucking girls? Someone's got to go wake up the shuckin' slinthead. Alby needs to see this klunk."

As my eyes begin to adjust, I look up. There are figures looming over top of, all standing and peering down at me like vultures circling their pray. I blink and shake my head, as I try to get my eyes to see faster. All I can see are their rough outlines, blurry silhouettes.

"He's still shuckin' asleep, was sick as klunk last night, bet he's still buggin'" The accented voice continues. His speech is shaped almost identical to the girl with the high pitched voice rings out, although his is smoother, and his voice is kinder.

In one blink, suddenly I see everything. There are boys, maybe only six or seven peering down at me, and staring with burning eyes. They range from younger to older, but none of them could be pushing 20.

I wonder how old I am.

I let the hand on my shoulder lift me up into the centre of the box, peering around at the girls with me. There's no way to tell who is who, from their silent mouths and quiet expressions, but I can see them perfectly well.

The girl who lifted me up and forward has red hair flowing down to her shoulders in a frizzy tangled mess. It moves of its own accord, and she glares above us with her electric blue eyes, and freckles that dance across her cheeks. She looks like a flame, and I wonder if the name will stick.

The blonde girl is much taller than her, but not any taller than me as I realise how short the ginger is. The blonde has sparkling blue eyes, and a furrowed brow ready to crease to anger at any second. Her skin is smooth and clear, though slightly darker than the other girl beside her.

The third girl has curly black hair, in tightly ringlets around her dark face. She looks much younger than the other two, but is the same height as the ginger. She stares at the boys around us, and her eyes are like dissecting tools.