Spoiler! :
The prologue gives a summary, too, in the spoiler.
Sami kept her eyes closed. She wasn’t quite awake, but she wasn’t asleep. Her conscious danced dangerously close to the edge, falling occasionally, sending Sami into a dream and making it hard for her to tell whether she was awake or not when her eyes fluttered open. The first thing she was aware of was the smell. It was rusty and familiar, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. The second thing she realized was she wasn’t in her room, or her house, and she was surrounded by strangers. A group of teenagers, some sitting up blinking, others crying softly, and others still were lying on the ground asleep. There were about thirty of them, girls and boys. As far as Sami could tell, they had nothing in common.
Sami was fourteen, and by the looks of it the people around her were anywhere from eleven to fifteen. The last girl had just woken up.
“Whats going on?” She asked. She looked a year younger than Sami, with bright red hair. She had green eyes and freckles that spread cross her cheekbones and nose.
“Well isn’t it obvious?” A boy of about fifteen with dark brown hair and a very handsome face said. “We’ve all been kidnapped!” One of the girls who had been crying softly looked up at him as if she had been slapped across the face. She dropped her head into her hands and began to sob. In everyone’s eyes Sami saw the same thing: Fear. Fear of what would happen, fear of where they were, and fear of never seeing their family again.
“What are we going to do?” A boy who was wearing glasses asked.
The handsome boy replied, “there’s nothing we can do. Look around you, there aren’t any doors or windows. How would we get out?” There was an eerie silence as everyone looked around. Sami followed suit, curious to see where she was. She was in a room similar to a warehouse with nothing in it besides a large screen the size of a bilboard suspended in the air by wires. Just four walls, a ceiling, and a wood floor. The walls were white and uninviting, and the ceiling was very high. But the boy was right; there were no doors or windows, or any other way of getting out.
“Well, I’m Rachel,” the girl with red hair said.
“Jake,” the handsome one nodded his head. Everyone took their turn saying their names. The girl who had been crying stopped long enough to tell us her name was Becca. The boy with the glasses name was Andrew, but he said he went by Drew. There was a shy girl named Leah, and a boy with a thick African accent named Zeet. The others introduced themselves to the group before quieting down again.
“Sami,” she said, knowing her eyes were just as full of fear as any one of the other kids in the room. There was a knot in her stomach and she felt nauseated. She sighed, causing a few pairs of eyes to turn towards her. Nobody said anything; there was nothing to say.
“Welcome!” A booming voice declared. Many people jumped, including Sami. She turned to see an old man on the screen. He had a slight smile on his face and an expression in his eyes that said “I know something you don’t”. Becca screamed and we all looked at her. She had her hands clamped over her mouth.
“Well, this is certainly an enjoyable group,” the man said with a hint of sarcasm.
“Who the Hell are you?” The boy named Ethan yelled. A look of disgust crossed the man’s face, but he regained his smug look in a heartbeat.
“Young man, have you no manners? I am Dr. Argentine. Welcome to my humble abode!”
“Humble? This is hardly a humble abode!” The girl named Maddie exclaimed.
“I’m very sorry my lovely little storage space isn’t to your liking. I’ll make sure to accommodate all of your needs by tomorrow. Perhaps you may even get a little… Surprise!”
“Whats going on?” Tia yelled.
“Well now, that’s an interesting question. Let me tell you what my plans are. We are going to have a little test. A test to see who the best man, or woman, is. It’s a little experiment. I have undergone a series of minor experiments on all of you, without you knowing it of course, to get the most able bodied and minded children to help me with my experiment. Here’s what will happen. Tomorrow, you will wake up in a different place. On the other end of the room you wake up in is a door. Find that door and get up the stairs past it. Only one of you will get to the very top floor.”
“What happens to the rest of us?” Drew asked.
“You will die.” Sami heard herself gasp. It was all she could do to keep herself from screaming. Others couldn’t contain themselves, they screamed and cried. Sami’s stomach twisted and her mind began to race.
“Now, before you get to excited, let me continue. Tomorrow’s level will be fairly easy, but still present a challenge. The level after that will present even more of a challenge and after that even more, and so on, and so forth. The levels themselves will be as diverse as you children. By the last level, only one of you will be living. That lucky soul gets to go home. Here are the rules: At the beginning of each level will be a weapons wall. You can take whatever you get your hands on. Any arguments over the weapons will be settled… well you have weapons in your hands, so you can figure it out. Also, this will take more than a few days. So provisions, food, water, clothing, etcetera, will be hung on the wall. One in each level, so get it quick. Other than that, it’s a free for all! I’ll leave the rest to you young ones, farewell!”
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