Through Your Eyes ( I Am Alive Series Book 1 Episode 3 ) (I Am Alive serial) Read online

  THROUGH YOUR EYES

  I Am Alive Series

  Episode 3

  ( including author’s note in the end )

  a novel by

  Cameron Jace

  Edited by R J Locksley, Susan Hocking

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Copyright © Akmal Eldin Farouk Ali Shebl 2012.

  All Rights Reserved

  US Copyright Registration Number

  TX 7-525-458

  ISBN-13: 978-1475076509

  ISBN-10: 1475076509

  “And these children that you spit on

  As they try to change their worlds

  Are immune to your consultations

  They're quite aware

  of what they're going through”

  ~ From David Bowie's "Changes"

  “Readers of Battle Royale (by Koushun Takami), The Running Man, or The Long Walk (those latter two by some guy named Bachman) will quickly realize they have visited these TV badlands [ meaning Hunger Games ] before.”

  ~

  Stephen King’s review of the Hunger Games

  Author’s note:

  The Stephen King quote above explains that the plot device of children fighting on live TV in the arena is not exclusive to the Hunger Games books. In fact, they were originally invented in Battle Royale ( book and film ), written by Koushun Takami 1999, who has honorably mentioned having borrowed the idea from several Stephen King novels before. I Am Alive uses that plot device as well.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 29

  Sleep When I Am Dead

  Flip.

  I open my eyes.

  The sky is blurry. I think it is blue, with a tint of orange. The sunrays struggle to reach me, blocked by thick brown branches and green leaves. The thinner straight sunrays make it through, looking like piercing light behind shutters. My head feels heavy. I am still lying on my back. The earth underneath me feels like water; it helps me float and prevents me from falling deep. I realize that I am hallucinating. No. I just woke up from a drug-induced dream.

  I gather my strength to sit up, looking at the forest. It’s definitely morning, if not noon already. There is no one with me in the forest. There is an unfinished, melted chocolate bar next to me. Leo’s chocolate bar.

  What happened to me? Am I still dreaming?

  I don’t think so. The air I breathe feels so alive, and the world doesn’t feel secure like in dreams. This is the real world, as in-your-face as it gets.

  No, I am not dreaming. But I am deaf.

  My head feels so heavy. I shake it violently, hoping I can hear anything, but I can’t. The back of my head hurts. I look back at the chocolate bar, trying to resist the conclusions my brain comes up with.

  I remember now. The chocolate bar. Leo sedated me.

  Why?

  Where is everyone?

  What time is it?

  Maybe all of this is just a bad dream. Maybe the Monster Show is just a constant nightmare, and all I need to do is wake up.

  I walk around, lost, not thinking straight, wondering where everybody is.

  Why would Leo do this? Is Leo my real enemy? Did he betray me?

  No, I don’t believe this. We kissed yesterday. It felt right.

  But the chocolate was an ambush. Why sedate me, Leo?

  I see Leo’s backpack on the grass, closed and stuffed. As I kneel down to open it, I start to hear again. There is a faint sound coming from afar. The same sentence repeated over and over by different people, something that ends with the word knife.

  I am not sure, hitting my head with my hands, looking around. The voices are approaching, but I can’t see anyone around.

  I hear screams.

  I get up, ready for anything. What is going on? I feel like something just popped out of my ears, like a huge amount of air pressure that blocked the sound from coming in.

  I hear them now. They are screaming: “I am alive.”

  The voices are coming from my iAm.

  It’s Leo, Bellona, Woodsy, and Pepper. They are in the game. Why am I not there?

  They look awful. Leo is cursing behind steel bars. There is a dead animal or some creature behind him on the ground. The picture is not clear. It’s phasing. Bad transmission. Why did they do this to me? Why did they leave without me? Anger fills my veins. Not because they left me, but because I am not fighting with them. I hear Timmy make fun of them.

  So it’s almost noon, the third day of the game, and they decided to save me from dying? Whose idea was it to leave me behind?

  Why didn’t I get an electric shock? No outranked can escape a game. They would be shocked instantly through the iAm.

  Although I can hear, my left ear hurts badly. It hurts more in my neck, right under my ear. I reach for it. There is a wound with little traces of some liquid. I look back at my hand. It’s blood.

  The first-aid kit! The one Leo and I got from the bus. He removed my receptor. Didn’t he say it was too dangerous?

  I look at the iAm in my hand. I am not connected to the network or the Summit anymore. They can’t track me. Leo and the others must have told them I died. This must have been their way of saving me, disregarding how I would survive here alone in the battlefields.

  This is exactly what Woo would have done. Even though I doubt his survival. I am starting to believe that he couldn’t survive the Playa.

  My stubbornness walks me out of the forest. I am not going to live a boring life down here. A life with no meaning. I am going to catch up with the others. I stop and look back at the bag and pick it up. I still feel dizzy and my head still hurts, but I have to fight and I will give them hell.

  The Monorail is not in its place, so I push the button to call it from a station called the Mirage. Why are they in the Mirage? Isn’t this supposed to be the Carnivore game in the Monsterium?

  I keep thinking about Leo’s story about the Rabbit Hole. What is it that his mentor, Wolf, knows that we don’t? Does the Breakfast Club really exist or is it only built in our minds? I don’t care. No turning back. I remind myself that if I die today, I will not die on my knees. I came here to bury myself in the Playa and hide forever with Woo, but today I will bury someone else.

  The Monorail arrives. I jump in, watching the game. Timmy announces that two of the skaters are dead. What does this mean? Who is dead and who is alive?

  Timmy can’t track me now so the Summit doesn’t know that I am coming. It wouldn’t be a good idea to call Timmy and declare that I am alive. The Monorail arrives at the Rabbit Hole and takes the dive into the tunnel. After the usual crazy ride, it continues to the Mirage station. I can see the Mirage battlefield in my iAm. It’s like a huge desert with too many waterfalls, muddy earth, and… white tigers.

  Is this what Timmy was talking about yesterday, when the audience said they were bored with the game in the Monsterium? The game is played now in this Mirage desert?

  Timmy announces that the game is still on: they have only c
aged one tiger, and two are left. The game is about catching and caging the tigers, dead or alive.

  Brutal and uncreative. That’s the plan. Brutal and raw enough to kill us all. It’s just like Ariadna said. The Summit doesn’t want to spend more money on the games, so they brought us a trio of tigers to chase us to death today. No more Artificial Sky or Breathing Domes.

  There are eight million viewers watching today. That’s without me attending, I try to flatter myself. I need to boost my confidence even if my confidence is just imaginary. Belief and faith are the only things that are going to get me there.

  I arrive. The Monorail doesn’t stop five stories high. It opens straight in front of the sandy desert filled with the sound of Humvees and roaring tigers. I don’t have time to catch my breath.

  “There she is,” Timmy screams through the iAm. An external camera must have caught me. So I am still connected to the network? At least they can’t trace me through the iAm anymore. “I know what you want, Decca,” Timmy claims. “I know what you want. You want to take a break since you’re surprised you’re in the game already. But here is my advice to you: take a break when you are dead.”

  Chapter 30

  The Mirage

  Suddenly, a Humvee steers in front of me, spattering mud all over my face. It has the word ‘Super-V’ written on it, and it has a huge cage for hunting animals in the back.

  The Super-V keeps circling in front of me without stopping. If it stops, the wheels will be stuck in the thick mud, and it won’t be able to pick up speed again.

  Leo sticks his head out of the window while circling the Humvee. “What the hell are you doing here?” he shouts.

  “Missed me?” I ask, making sure his backpack is strapped tightly on my back. This is just like going to school, I tell myself. You’re unlikely to come back dead from school, right?

  “We lied to the Summit and told them you were dead to protect you,” Leo says. “Seriously.” His voice fades as he circles again. “What is wrong with you? You want to die?”

  “No.” I shake my head. “I want to kill.”

  “Please, God,” he screams, taking another round. “Help me not to shoot her for her stubbornness.” He struggles with the wheel for a moment then gets hold of it again. The way he drives, he looks like he is riding a raging buffalo. I don’t know how he manages to control the Super-V, driving in such muddy earth. “Anyways. Now that you’re here, you have to jump in. I can’t stop. Mud is too thick,” he explains. “Come on. Shake your lazy butt. We have tigers chasing us.”

  I step out of the door. The mud is so thick it covers my ankles. At some spots, it covers up to my knees. The shallow parts of the mud are lighter in color. I try to stick to them, chasing the circling Super-V, hoping Leo won’t lose control and run me over with it.

  As I am running next to the Super-V, I hear a roar in the distance behind me. I think my heart is going to stop before the tiger even gets me. How fast is it? How big is it? How could this even be happening, tigers chasing me?

  Leo drives the Super-V closer to my side, but stops circling and drives straight so we get away from the tiger as fast possible. He kicks the passenger side door open for me. I run as fast as I can, reaching out. He is leaning down across the passenger’s seat, reaching out for me as well. The tips of our fingers touch briefly, but I can’t get hold of him. He can’t get hold of me.

  How come the tiger didn’t get me yet? It must be a thousand times faster than me.

  “I can’t drive any slower,” Leo shouts. “Or we will be stuck in the mud.”

  I keep running.

  “I have sedated this tiger,” Leo screams against the wind, the sound of Super-V’s engine, and the roaring of the tiger. “That’s why it is slow.”

  “You sedated it?” I wonder while running. “I’ll bet you kissed that tiger too!”

  “Nah,” Leo says, gripping on the wheel. “It’s not my type. Hurry up. It won’t stay sedated forever. I think it can’t see well.”

  “So your buzz-to-death syringe only sedated him?” I can’t believe we’re having this conversation while I am running away from a tiger.

  “I couldn’t buzz it long enough to kill it. The mud will slow it down. It’s sliding like crazy.”

  Reluctantly, I twist my neck back to look at the tiger. Leo is right. It’s slowed down by the mud, sliding left and right, and roaring like a drunken cat.

  It is obvious I can’t keep up with Super-V’s speed. The more I run the more tired I get. There is a protruding ledge on the side of the Super-V. It looks like it is made for someone to stand on it, maybe to carry extra people or a place for snipers to jump on. I gather my strength and jump. One foot is on the ledge; the other is fighting the wind whirling against it. My hands get a good grip on the bars of the cage in the back of the Super-V. All I need is to get my other leg back, take two steps forward, and jump into the passenger’s seat. The tiger is still roaring behind me. It’s impossible to twist my neck to look back at it again. I pull my other leg, take two fast steps on it, and jump recklessly into the passenger’s seat.

  I crumble in the seat with my head upside down.

  “Hi,” I say, happy to see Leo, holding out my hand so he can shake it. “666 Monster Street, please.” Since I woke up free of the iAm’s receptor, I feel so confident and funny. I feel unplugged of my fears. What’s that all about? “I’ll tip you well. Only if you’re nice to me, handsome.”

  “Close the door, you little brat.” Leo doesn’t wait for me, and pulls the door in. I sit up straight.

  Seeing the white tiger in the rear-view mirror, although smeared with mud, reminds me that I am lucky I am still alive.

  “That’s not Carnivore, right?” I ask, noticing it has two eyes.

  “No. That’s Manticore,” Leo says, bumping into the roof of the Super-V.

  “Family?” I still feel funny, rocking in the passenger’s seat.

  “You sure love to talk. I can’t drive and talk at the same time,” Leo mumbles.

  “What’s with that? Boys not being able to drive and talk?”

  “Because usually a tiger is chasing them, and if they stop, they will be eaten alive,” Leo shouts. “So stop talking. You shouldn’t be here anyway.”

  “Yeah?” I say. “So you can have all the fun alone?”

  He gives me that look again. He thinks I am irresponsible.

  “We need to talk about your sedative chocolate, Hansel and Gretel,” I fire back at him.

  “What?” He is mad again, still driving. “Hansel and Gretel’s story was full of breadcrumbs, gingerbread and candy. No one was sedated.”

  “No, they sedated the witch,” I insist, knowing by now that Prophet Xitler must have manipulated the fairy tale we learned in school.

  “Never mind.” Leo drives over a small bridge. “I am surprised Xitler didn’t rename them to Zanzel and Grezel or something,” Leo reaches for the backseat and comes up with a bow gun. “You know how to use this,” he says, and hands me a bag full of arrows.

  “How do you know I can use these?” I ask. “The ones in the Wheel of Fortune were fixed. This one is different. It needs skill.”

  “Just do as I say.” Leo avoids the question.

  The problem isn’t that he is avoiding it. It’s that I suddenly know exactly how to use the bow gun and the arrow.

  “So what’s the game exactly?” I ask.

  “Simple,” says Leo. “We lure the tigers into the cages and lock them in before they eat us.”

  “So let’s do it.”

  “Not before I find the others. Woodsy, Pepper and Bellona are in another Super-V. I need to find them. They were really struggling. Woodsy is a horrible driver.”

  Leo speeds up as the relentless Manticore still chases us. The Zeppelins are lagging behind us in the sky. Zeppelins are slower. They can’t keep up with such speeds and circles.

  “Hang on tight!” shouts Leo, and speeds up toward the edge of a cliff.

  “Are you crazy?” I sh
out. “You’re going to get us killed.” I try to hang onto my seat. The Super-V is about to drive straight over the cliff.

  Leo steers the wheel at the last second and takes a sudden right. When I look back, I find out it is a steep cliff. The tiger takes the bait and falls off the cliff after struggling briefly with the mud.

  “That was impulsive,” I tell Leo, listening to Timmy saying something in the iAm. Leo and I couldn’t care less about Timmy right now. This is a straight do-or-die game. We don’t need Timmy.

  “Let me worry about impulsive,” says Leo. “You worry about finding our friends.”

  I am amazed Leo said our friends. That’s so unlike him, caring about them.

  Leo drives freely for a while into the muddy desert. It occurs to me that this must be artificial mud since there is no rain, and it’s a sunny day.

  In the distance, I see a Super-V stuck in the mud. It’s upside down like it has crashed into something. There is smoke coming out of the engine.

  “That’s their Super-V,” says Leo, and speeds up more toward them.

  “What?” I feel dizzy again. “Where are they? I can’t see them.” Leo grits his teeth, his hands on the steering wheel.

  There is one tiger, roaming slowly around the Super-V. It stops somewhere and starts biting on something.

  Leo pulls me to him tight, so I won’t see. “Don’t look, Decca. Don’t look.”

  “What!” I scream, trying to free myself from him.

  Leo is circling around the Super-V, but as far away as possible, knowing the tiger is busy with its prey.

  I free myself from under his arm and look. I am looking for my friends. This can’t be.

  “Pepper,” I scream. “Bellona!” My heart is pounding. “Woodsy. Vern!” I could lose my voice screaming their names. “Where are they? I can’t see them,” I say to Leo who points at what the tigers are feeding on.

  “Well…” This might be them. “I can’t know what the tigers are gorging on with all this mud. But that’s their Super-V.”