The God Codex

3. Tremble

BOOK OF MIA: 2081

Chapter 3: Tremble

When I come to, I feel the icy cold ground beneath my cheek and a shearing throb on the side of my head. Everything is ninety degrees anticlockwise, a vertical image rather than the panoramic I am used to. I see out only through my left eye. My right is against the ground. I turn my head so my vision can go back to three dimensional.

For a moment, I can't fathom what I'm looking at, except it's carnage. Total carnage. And so loud. God, it's so loud I can barely hear myself think. In fact, I can't remember a thing since hearing the blare of a foghorn, and the announcement to let 'the ceremony begin'. But this is no ceremony. Not from what I see. No one is cheering and clapping and whatnot. No. They are screaming — for their life. The sound, overlapping one another, curdles my blood. What the hell is happening? And where's Nate?

What I see is mayhem — a massacre — a frantic scramble up a mountain for survival. To plant a team flag and declare victory the peak, so they can move onto the next phase of their lives, alive. The recruits. It is a well-planned massacre and I'm in the middle of it. Wait till I tell my parents about this!

I try to move, to sit up, something, but I am frozen in place, part by fear, part in pain. God, the noise, it's unearthly, and the ringing in my ear won't stop. The squelching thuds, the mewled screams, the vocal-cord shearing cries for help.

They resound around me as bodies drop one by one, logs in a timber yard. A shiver courses through me. Am I one of those bodies, hanging onto the last shred of life? I hope not. I'm not even sixteen yet, dammit!

I look down at my hand and realise I'm still holding the taser I stole from Sentry 176 somehow. My hand is slick with blood. So much of it. Is it mine?

What happened? I try to think back, as I slowly push myself up on one elbow. My head threatens to fall off my neck, and I shake the pain away, glancing up at a mirage of horror. I dare not look around for fear I might know a face or two, if not more. My elbow slips under me, across the red floor. My face meets the concrete again, splashing the pool of warm blood from someone's body. A sensation shoots across my temple upon contact, and I yelp in pain.

Shit!

Through blurred, double-vision, I see a guy twice my size turn in what was once a blue bib, now red, spot me. A burly mountain of a kid one would not think was a child. About him, a pile of flesh once living lies. His flaming red hair bristles around his head like a demonic halo and the spatters of crimson arterial blood across his face only add to the devilish look. His bright green eyes narrow at me. A hellish grin lines his thin, slippery lips as he advances my way, slashing down anyone within reach like they were twigs.

The sight sends me skittering back on all four, still dizzy, still disoriented. I bump arms, disembodied, kick torsos in desperation to get away from certain death. Till I feel nothing more than an icy wall against my back. Fuck! Sorry, I slipped. I can't help it. Fudge just isn't powerful enough right now.

I eye the katana in his left hand, the likes of a fire poker in his immense grip. On the other, he holds an odd weapon — a massive stone on top of what looks like a baseball bat. One to slice with, the other to bludgeon, probably. Effective, and definitely not good for me.

I look at my taser, and luckily there is enough charge left for one more shock, so I mustn't have used it yet. I point it at him, a warning of sorts — do not come closer or I will use it on you. His grin morphs into a snarl on his red face. He's enjoying this and I know for certain the adrenaline rushing through his veins makes him immune to the minor inconvenience of an electric shock.