first chapter. i feel a bit more comfortable writing my story now, but i cant help but feel that what i am writing is complete rubbish. hopefully practise will help to iron out my problems :P i wish :P
Chapter 1 – Born in a warzone
I had a dream. I was desperately trying to remember something. But as I wake up, such strands of thought are lost as I open my eyes.
“Where I am I?” I wonder to myself.
My body feels sluggish so I survey my surroundings where I lie, waking for my body to wake up. I am in what would be best described as a cell, no more than 2 meters square in size. I cannot see too far in the darkness, but the room appears to be completely empty. As I push myself up into a sitting position, I feel a thin mattress behind me. Straining my eyes, I look around more carefully, but it is the only thing in the room.
There is a feint light which I can make out coming through a half open door in the centre of one of the walls. But before I can even stand up and leave the room, I hear shouts and footsteps echoing outside. As I wonder if they might be able to tell me where I am, gunshots echo loudly and I instinctively freeze. Who is shooting, and who are they shooting at?
I have no time to consider before my door is flung open and light floods the room. Perhaps this is the same person who was shooting? If they are, then I may be about to die, not even knowing why.
As my eyes adjust to the light, I can make out the figure of a person in the doorway. Their height and build are that of a child, about 12 years old. They are looking directly at me, probably attempting to identify me. But as suddenly as he appeared, he turned and ran out of the room and down the corridor.
By reflex I reach out to stop him.
“Wait! Plea-“
I stop as I notice the blood on my hand. Jumping to my feet I try and wipe it off with my other hand, but not only is my other hand covered, but all the way up my left arm and all along my left side my clothes are stained a strong red. It appears I have been stabbed somewhere, but I have no recollection of being injured. Quickly I feel along my arm and body to feel for injuries, but I cannot feel anything unusual, if anything, I would say I felt perfectly fine. That would mean…..I killed someone?
I look around the room I already know is empty, perhaps hoping to find anything that would tell me what is going on, but the sudden feeling of my helplessness in the situation starts to realise on me and I start to panic, unable to cope with all the unanswered questions. I sprint from the room in desperation and turn the same direction as the child had run. They might have more of a clue than me, and I need to do something, anything is better than sitting around.
On leaving the room, I notice the building I am in seems to have been half destroyed; the walls and floors have gaping holes exposing the concrete and reinforcing steel that form the skeleton of the building. Wires and pipes are running in all directions, some of which are damaged. Sparks fly from electrical units in the floor and walls where they are broken. The building could collapse and I wouldn’t be surprised.
I sharply turn left at a junction and nearly fall through the hole that crosses the whole width of the corridor. The gap is too far to jump and I turn around without thinking and run the opposite way, the only other way I could have turned.
As I reach the end of the passageway, there is a large room with double doors, perhaps a hall of some kind. Perhaps other people would have made it here. I reach the doors and push them both, but they do not budge. I reach for the handle, but there is nothing on this door to open in from the outside. Among the damaged building, the doors appear completely untouched. I look left, and the passage continues as far as I can see with half of the overhead lighting circuit out.
Stopping for breath, I remember that the boy and I are not the only people here. Almost on cue, I hear the same shouts behind me. Turning around I can see a group of people dressed in camouflage and barely visible in the darkened surroundings. At least two are running towards me with rifles of some kind. I don’t know who they are, but my gut tells me to run. With no other ideas, I take my own advice and turn to the nearest door which is open.
Instantly a man stops and points his gun in my direction, but I am already inside the room. Gunshots echo out, and I know that they were aiming for me. I sense something near me, and as I look down, I see the same boy from earlier running past me to the door. He hasn’t noticed me, and judging by his speed, he had already been running before the gunshots started.
I manage to analyse the situation. The boy will undoubtedly be hit by the gunfire. I am the only one who can change this. Again trusting my instinct, I pull myself backwards using the door frame. In a fraction of a second I am travelling towards the corridor again. As I crouch down, I wrap my free arm around the boy’s waist, and jump forward with all my might. I am aiming for the door the opposite side. I am completely blocking the gunfire. I am about to be shot, protecting a random child, but I guess that’s ok.
As I fly across between the two doors, the gunfire does not stop. I feel two bullets hit my arm and leg, and a third scrape my side. But I have already hit the door, my momentum forcing it open. I cannot react to what I see. There is no floor; a large portion of the building is missing, the rubble a few floors lower, and nothing in between. I am already rotating from grabbing the child, and I will hit the ground on my back. Accepting my fate, I hold the boy tightly, protecting his head as we fall the two stories to the uneven ground below.
A fraction of a second before the impact, the entire floor we were on ignites and explodes in a bright display of red and yellow against the overcast sky. Now I know the reason why he was running so fast. But as I hit the ground like a ragdoll, I feel several bones break and the added weight of a person on top of me breaks my ribs. The boy is thrown from me and lands several meters away from me. I can see he is still breathing, which is more than I can say for me.
As my blood leaks out onto the rubble I lay on, I cannot help but feel something similar has happened before, but the pain is too much and everything goes blank. There is no way I can be saved. I am dead.
Topic: Blackout (Read 3109 times)
