The shelter wasn't really that deep into the forest. We walked maybe a couple of hundred feet until we bumped into another sign, much bigger than the last one, that said 'Welcome'. We looked past it, and we found a couple of large cabins neatly built in rows. There was a bigger one right in the middle. The ephemeral fears of the forest were no more.
George began to pine for food. His stomach caused ours to grumble as well. We started to walk faster to the largest cabin that we could see. The minute details on the way were missed. The closer we got to the center of the location the more people we saw outdoors; many of them were working out, running, or playing. There were many adults, but there were also many kids with affable faces. To think that they would be competing in this savage game as well.
Other than the majestic backdrop and pleasing atmosphere, the whole place was insipid. There were no unusual sounds, or smells, or things to be seen. There were too many muscle-minded men doing hundreds of reps while their bulging biceps, which were covered with gallons of sweat, glistened in the sun. Now that I said it out loud, it sounded kind of disgusting. We shifted our gazes out of all of that and made it to the large cabin.
The door was wide open as if it expected our coming; we stepped right in and were greeted by a bombardment of unnatural smells. It kind of smelled like hairspray mixed with burnt meat. It smelled bad. I observed the surroundings; it was clearly larger than it looked. The walls seemed to be claustrophobic as they shoved posters and infomercials in the customers' faces. We were inside of what seemed to be a gift shop although all the shelves were empty of cheap accessories and handy keychains. Cobwebs replaced the comics that should have gone on the front desk, and a fine layer of dust covered almost every single square inch of this place. We walked a little closer to the front desk, and I rang the small, gold-painted bell. From the back door, a girl who looked around our age walked out. She seemed taciturn as she did not ask us any questions or provoked us with any rude or pleasant remarks. Her droopy eyes slowed time to a crawl. The more I looked into them, the more I felt like I was getting pulled into a trance.
Her plastic nail made a racket on the banal wooden desk; it snapped me out of the trance. She spoke in a high and squeaky voice, "I assume you're here to rent out a cabin?" We all nodded our heads. "Is anyone of you over or equal to the age of sixteen?" The twins shook their heads. I nodded my head to see what would happen. She tapped her nails on the desk and pulled out a piece of paper. "Sign here," she said. I read over the paper and quickly signed with the pen that she gave me. I didn't want to annoy her by wasting her time. Though, I had a pretty good idea that she didn't use her time very well.
She sighed and tucked the paper away and handed over three keys. One for each of us. She then left us. She left us without telling us which cabin was ours. We all slapped our foreheads simultaneously. We promptly ran out of the cabin and began to search for our cabin. We split three ways and agreed to come back when we could unlock whichever cabin was ours.
I ran over to the nearest empty cabin that I could see and injected the key into the knob. I twisted it. *Click* It opened? It opened! I ran back as soon as I could only to see George and Bill already standing there.
"Guys! Guys! I found the right cabin!" I said with joy.
George said, "Mine worked too."
Bill said, "Me three." We all looked at each other. Bill continued to say, "Give all the keys." He opened his hand, and George and I placed our keys in his open palm. Bill lined all of the keys up side by side, and said, "They're all the same keys." George and I both looked at him with dead eyes. What the fuck was wrong with this place?
I followed Bill back to his newfound cabin. He unlocked the door, and we all step inside. I was astonished by the paucity of space. Not only where was the floor small, but the ceiling also seems like it was caving in. We had to hunch our backs every time we went towards the middle of the cabin. There were bunk beds, but they looked old and worn out. The beams that were holding them in place were eaten with decay and rot. What a waste of our money; instead of this, we could have been sleeping under the stars. But, Bill and George were full of zeal when they saw the interior. They were complimenting how it was way safer than the streets, and how the room actually provided shelter from the elements. I just couldn't understand them. Never mind the elements, what if the entire roof caved in on us while we were sleeping?
George jumped on the top bunk of the bunkbed and Bill joined him on the bottom. I lay my head on the floor in the corner of the room. No way in hell was I going anywhere remotely near the middle. I wasn't too stupid to do that.
We all lay on our backs. We all let our chests rise and fall at the same time. We all heard the same sounds of children laughing, and the crickets singing. We all fell into a deep sleep in our bastion.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Micheal Grey POV:
I wake up but don't do anything. Not that I could do shit. I was strapped down to the bed and was forced to listen to the lifeless machines. My head was nauseous. My body felt numb. I tried to stimulate any feeling by biting my lips or tongue, but all I got was a dull and almost unacknowledgeable sense of pain. I sighed. Maybe I shouldn't have jumped out of the car.
No use in regretting that now. I tried to at least keep myself occupied by counting the numbers by primes or squares. I then tried to make my equations, and theories, and laws. I was rusty since it's been so long since I used any of them, but I figured that I might as well start now, or later I would have a hard time coming up with that immortality drug. The so-called scientists at the lab can't do a damn thing. I recited all the things I knew. Forwards. Backward. I tried to visualize the experiences that I had in my head. I tried to set up different endings to all of my regrets. I thought of the Evolution Games, and how they started in four days. June thirteenth. That was the date. I also remembered the boy that looked like me. Was he really going to participate? Could he really be my clone? If he was my clone, what would I do? Would I get rid of him? Use him for experiments? Raise him like a son that I would never have? I mustered a weak laugh. What kind of thoughts was I having?
I resumed distracting myself in a room filled with nothing. Darkness blocked the light, the sounds, the feeling of being bed-ridden. It enveloped me. Gave me a sense of isolation that I appreciated and did not resist. It gave me a sense of comfort, familiarity, and peace. Something to think about, and somewhere to spend my gradually waning time. But, in the back of my head, a small thought fed me with great disturbance and a point to ponder. Was the child also thinking about these things?