Author Games - Ghost Town

Task 7 - Stone Everglade

 

The machines started to slow, their incessant whining grinding came to a stop. I looked around seeing the careers looking just as dumbfounded as Alex and I, as if they were unsure of what they were supposed to do.

 

Then the lights went out, plunging us into inky darkness. My heart stopped as a few screams of surprise rang out, echoing in the dark. They weren't going to make us fight it out in the dark? Were they? ‘Don’t be stupid, Stone. These people serious psychotic/narcissist/sadist mental disorders and are in the need of psychiatric help- of course they are going to make you fight to death in the most inconvenient place possible.’ I chided myself in annoyance.   

 

At that second a sliver of light sliced through the darkness  like a jagged knife. I saw two silhouettes dart through it and into whatever lay outside. I took a deep breath and ran towards it, feeling slight dread. I knew whatever lay outside would be far worse than anything we had faced so far. The Gamemakers always saved their most twisted, sick ideas that sprung from the deepest, darkest corners of their minds for last.

 

And we were running right into it.

 

I pushed through the door, bursting from the envelope of darkness into the sunlight of the end that held our future. Irony seemed to tickle the back of my mind, but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was ironic about the situation at hand- not that it was important. I hated irony.

 

The dim sunlight somehow still managed to sear my eyes burning them, I squeezed them shut for a second before blinking and trying to get them to adjust. And when I did get them to adjust I wished they hadn't.

 

Dark clouds frosted the sky, blocking the sun from view. A chilly breeze rushed past me, tugging at my short hair. I shivered looking over to the careers who had stopped dead, looking at the damp rubble of buildings, ravaged by the title wave. Lightning cracked like a whip across the sky, momentarily alighting the inky shadows that shielded the oncoming danger from view.

 

Rotting corpses were dragging themselves from the remains of the buildings, their wide unblinking eyes fixing themselves on the living as they yanked themselves free and began to limp toward us, the decaying flesh hanging off them, the overpowering stench of death assaulted my nostrils.

 

Zombies. When I said that Alex’s stupid duck was squawking loud enough to wake the dead, I hadn’t meant it literally!

 

Speaking of the devil; Alex stood next to me, quite apparently unfazed. He stroked his duck and whispered soothingly to it. I grabbed his wrist, “Come on, duck-boy!” I yelled, breaking into a sprint for a few steps, only to realize their was no where to go. The zombies crawled from every nook of the arena, they infested every cranny of the rubble.

 

I backed up, feeling my heart begin pound fervently on my rib cage, as if it wanted to break free from this horror and leave me behind to deal with this mess on my own. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck prickle as I backed up. I scanned the ground for something to defend myself with. My eyes fell upon a very familiar wooden board that had a nail sticking out of it.  I ran over and grabbed it feeling the jagged wood splinter my hands.