• Chapter II

    “Ungh!” cried a brown-haired boy jokingly. He wore a black vest over a white shirt with jeans.
    “What is it?” asked a red-haired boy. He wore a black shirt with jeans. Me.
    “Nothing, I’m just tired.”
    “Zeek you are probably the weirdest of all of us,” joked a black haired girl. She wore a brown sweater with blue jeans.
    “And the best looking!”
    “Right,” replied the girl sarcastically. The trio laughed.
    “Kid wake up! It’s lunch time!” yelled a low voice. I woke up, bumped my head on the bunk above me, and stared at the white, burly guard in front of me. Just a dream, I had thought to myself. And now’s the nightmare.
    “Ugh. What is it?” I mumbled. I scratched my red head. I never made it flat since the explosion.
    “It’s lunch time so git ‘afore I hafta feed ya.”
    “Whatever.”
    “I’d best be careful with my attitude, lad. ‘Else ye hafta be fed through a tube,” warned the guard. He pointed towards the barred door at the other side of the door. The asylum’s true prisoners were at the other side.
    “Right.” I had just left my cell when a blonde haired boy came up in front of me.
    “Xilus!” he cried. He wore a checkered shirt and canvas pants.
    “What do you want?”
    “What’s up?”
    “None of your business, Devon.”
    “Xilus we’re roommates. And roommates have to stick together!”
    “I don’t give a muck for your philosophy!”
    “Why are you so angry?”
    “Sorry. Just had another flashback.” Translucent people start teasing guards. Deceased prisoners, of course. “And I can see some of those ghosts again.”
    “Ghosts?”
    “You probably think I’m crazy.”
    “Trust me, you’d think I’m crazy if I told you why I’m here.”
    “Really? Why are you here?”
    “Not telling you.” I knew that was coming. It always has. Saying good-bye to Devon, I went away to the cafeteria.
    The cafeteria was pure white, a contrast to the cell hall’s gloomy greens and rusty orange. Burly men with trays in their hands walked to their tables. A skinny, blonde haired boy in black. As I walked across to greet him and welcome him to his new “home,” I was called by another voice. It was a whisper. A hollow man stared at me glumly. He stared at me, eye to eye, and whispered even more words.
    The game, Xilus. Prepare for the game!
    The man finished his bizarre words, he disappeared into dust.
    “What? What are you talking about?” I yelled. The chatter in the room stopped. All of the thugs stared at me. The blonde boy disappeared, too. I hurried to my room. Sector S, Room 254. “Am I really going crazy? No. I can’t be! I know these things are real!”
    “What are you talking about?” asked a curious voice. Devon again.
    “Nothing.”
    “Come on!”
    “Nothing, Devon! Nothing at all!” {i]It’s been three years. Three years of seeing these hallucinations. Or are they real? I wish I could just figure out a way too…
    “Devon report to the head’s office. Devon report to the head’s office. Devon, ID: S2542,” commanded a voice over the intercom.
    “Aww, crud! What did I do now?” moaned Devon.
    “Maybe you, I don’t know, started your fifth riot this month?” I retorted.
    “Blah blah blah!” Devon left the cell, bumping his head on the bunk he was sitting on. As I sat there in complete silence, I had random flashbacks.
    “Hey Xilus, what’s on your mind?” asked the teenage girl with black hair.
    “Nothing, Xiona. Just bored,” my past self replied.
    “You know what I’m thinking?”
    “What?”
    “It’s good to be your friend,”     she replied sincerely.
    “What?”
    “What, you think I’m ugly?”
    “No, it’s just…that was random.”
    “Yeah it is isn’t it?”     We laughed in the sunset as if there wasn’t going to be any form of danger coming before them. But little did we know that our world would end.
    ALERT! ALERT! THE WARREN HAS BEEN ASSASSINATED! THE CULPRIT IS CURRENTLY ESCAPING TOWARDS SECTOR S, ROOM 254!
    It was the alarm. “What the?” I asked to myself. “What’s going on? Wait…room 254? That’s…”
    “Hurry up, Xilus!” yelled Devon who ran across the hall. Trouble.
    “That kid’s gonna give me a heart attack! And I’m not even qualified for that!” I sprinted behind Devon. “What the hell’s going on?”
    “The warren’s been assassinated, so we’re busting out!”
    “Are you mad?”
    “Maybe I am. Xilus watch out!”
    A cell door swung open. I ducked, fumbled, picked myself up, and ran again. Cursing under my breath, I followed Devon around a corner. “You idiot! Guards are behind us!” Men in bullet vest holding pistols ran behind us, yelling commands to stop immediately.
    “We should stop!”
    “No freaking way!”
    Panting and cursing, I crashed through a window. “Oh my g…!” Landing on my arm, I rolled over on the gravel. The rocks scratched and beat against my skin. Devon jumped out after me. “Are you insane? We could have gotten killed!”
    “No time for that, look!”
    Men in black armor rushed to the scene. They yelled commands like “Freeze!” and “Don’t move!” The clicking of guns filled the air.
    “Devon you freaking retard!” I hissed. “If we make it out of her alive, I’ll…!”
    A soldier fell with a cry. Devon held a blade that smoked a fume that screamed murder.
    “What the hell did you just do?” I exploded. He ignored me, threw me a gun-blade, and shot another soldier.
    “Shoot!” he demanded. A helicopter’s rotor ripped the sound barrier. “Shoot, Xilus!” The soldiers came closer to the point of best accuracy. My mind raced. Killing a person? The guns clicked again. The helicopter was now in close range. Without thinking, my arm aimed. The trigger clicked. A ringing sound, a spark on the rotor, and an explosion ripped the helicopter into a fiery heap. The other soldiers were burned along with it. The alarm from the asylum stopped sounding. Feeling cold inside, I straightened my back. Threw the blade to the ground. Yelled a blood-thirsty oath in my mind.
    “Alright! Go, Xi!” cheered Devon. He was not the least bit affected by this.
    “Let’s get out of this sad excuse for an asylum.”