Wildfire, Part II

A thunderstorm falls along with the night, as everyone in the facility has already made their way into their rooms after the third hunt. The facility where these children rest — and the only place they could call "home" for now — is divided into three sections.

The main hall — by far the largest of them all — capable of housing three times the children participating in the hunt. Although the hall is impressive for its size, it stands out for what it does not have. The giant white door leading to the forest — now permanently open — and a glass ceiling that seems to have some sort of beige tone preventing most of the sunlight to cross are about the only highlights for this area. Everything else, a metallic, grey tone fully covers all walls. Truly a hollowed place.

The rest-area hallway — starring towards the giant white door from the opposite side of the mail hall, there is an L-shape hallway that takes the children to the rest-area hallway to the left. This hallway is a straight path of numbered doors of two-bedded rooms alternating on either side. None of the rooms have any visibility to the opposite rooms across the hallway. This is the most harrowing place of the facility, as the hallway stretches wide enough to only allow three children to walk next to each other. The glass ceiling remains, as well as the lack of any sort of color or decoration. The hallway stretches as far along as the eye could see to be able to host all the participants. At the very end of this hallway, a metallic door awaits with a large drawing of what appears to be a caped woman holding a large book and the letter "V" on the very top.

No one has been able to open that door.

The Forest Outskirts — a relatively small area, coming from the giant white door — leading to a hill straight to the forest. In this area, the concrete floor turns to grass and this is the only place where the children have any view of "the outside". The sky is clearly visible, but the large trees ahead block any view of anything. As far as these children are concerned, only the sky knows what lies beyond The Forest of Hollows. When outside, and unusual and omnious calm is felt. If one were to stand outside alone, only the moving trees and the animals would make any sort of noise. Turning to look at the giant door from the outside, the ceiling of the facility stretches well above, as if merging with the mountain area that surrounds it.

The only way out would be through the forest, but not a single soul has been willing to cross the off limits area the Tracer shows.

No one knows what would happen.

No one knows knows where to go.

No one knows anything.

As the thunderstorm bathes the home of the now sleeping children, one of them seems to be on and about outside their room. As she walks along the absolute silent hallway — the white lights of the facility turned on permanently — she ends up in the main hall and proceeds towards the giant white door.

This is is Alexandra.

She was not part of the third hunt, as she had eliminated a target in the previous one.

With a very somber look to her face, she stops right at the door, the raindrops inches away from her feet. She gazes at the distance, as if she could see beyond the forest and beyond the horror this place has brought her. In her head, before the second hunt, she was a girl trapped in a facility. Now, she is a murderer promoting what the facility stands for.

Neither truth nor lie, this is what goes through the head of Alexandra before she gets a visitor.

"Can't sleep?" she hears from behind her, "I have not been able to, either" the voice concludes.

Alexandra turns around as a lightning bolt shines the forest now behind her. She makes out the person. It is Cross.

"Yeah, I guess," she says while internally surprised she did not react scared, all the while she tries to remember the boy's name, "to be honest, I don't know what I'm even doing out here. Doesn't matter where I am, the end result is still the same."

"Well, you're not alone in any of that. Might as well talk about it, right?" Cross says as he approaches the opposite side of the door.

"You — you're the one who first approached Reese" she asks as Cross's face becomes clearer and she recognizes him from the — now infamous — first hunt.

"I do have a name, you know. And it's not Barney" says Cross with a sarcastic tone.

"It's no surprise you can't sleep, either" she says.

"Sort of — but I am also looking for something I seem to have misplaced. Was hoping to step outside, but..." Cross says as he stares at the heavy rainfall and rests his right shoulder on the giant door's entrance.

"You killed the second target of the second hunt, right?" He asks, but Alexandra does not respond.

"During the first hunt — in the middle of all that chaos — I could not believe what we had seen."

Alexandra remains silent.

"I remember at the time, I was not even thinking about how I would even do such a thing, if the time even came. I was just running aimlessly through the forest along with my cluster. I felt my heart was about to explode for so long, yet I was able to run so far and not feel tired at all. For some reason, I felt that if I ran endlessly, I would leave this nightmare behind. Because this is what it feels like for all of us."

Alexandra stares at him across the edge of the door. She can feel Cross's words hold heavy weight and resonate strongly within her. His eyes tell as much.

"That panic within me — I am sure if I would have been alone it probably would have cost me my life back there. Adrenaline of that level, it can make you feel numb to so many things. It makes you do things you normally would not... and surely end up regretting."

Alexandra is fully locked to every word Cross speaks, so eventually she cannot control the urge to ask him.

"Did you?"

"What?" He asks confused.

"Do something you regret?"

Cross looks back at her and then again at the forest, falling in deep thought. After a few seconds, he replies.

"Not yet."

Alexandra at first does not understand the answer. However, her mind flashes back to the moment she strangled a target back at the second hunt — a desperate moment for her and her cluster. These memories force a couple of tears out of her, unbeknownst to Cross, ones she quickly wipes away.

"The only time I am going to be able to judge myself will be when I see this through to the end. Any other choice was taken from me before I..." Cross concludes without finishing his sentence. To this, Alexandra responds with some questions.

"What if you could do something about it? What if a situation presented itself that might change something? Anything! To make you feel better? To cope with all of this? What then?" she says in a somewhat quiet but desperate tone.

This time, Cross steps away from the door — knowing full well the rain won't stop anytime soon — and looks back a Alexandra with a neutral expression.

"Something like that... unfortunately... does not exist for us any longer."

Alexandra's eyes widen, as she clearly is affected by Cross's answer.

"If you think you have found something like that, I would be very careful" he says as he slowly walks further away from her in the direction of the rest-area. Alexandra's eyes are locked on him, waiting to hear every word. She has found both comfort and anxiety in his words, as he continues.

"At our lowest, we might think we are reaching for the light" Cross's next words impact Alexandra to her core. Something about the message hits home for her.

"... when actually, we are starring right into the abyss" he concludes.

Alexandra stays quiet after hearing this. A long silence fills the main hall and just before Cross is about to go out of her sight, she asks him.

"You never told me what you had misplaced."

Cross stops, however, he does not turn around. Without hesitation, he replies.

"I took a knife from the target I killed in the first hunt. However, after we came back from today's hunt, I can't seem to find it anywhere. I know I had it with me when I came back" he says.

Alexandra does not respond nor reacts to this.

"Knives don't usually go missing on their own" he concludes before resuming his walk and disappearing from Alexandra's sight.

After a short while of standing at the giant white door, Alexandra mutters to herself.

"Right into the abyss, huh?"

The next day, Hunt #4 begins.

Chapter 10 - Wildfire, Part II: END

to be continued...