Starting: B27

[Swoosh*]

A girl was screaming. She was crying out. Sat huddled in a corner, her face was black with dirt, her hair was mangled, and her clothes were bloodstained. It was horrifying to look at. She was saying something... what was it? He moved in closer to hear her better.

"Help me... help me..."

Help her? Yes, he should help her. He scolded himself for not doing it earlier. He moved forward to pick the girl up, his fluffy hair falling forward slightly.

It was then that he felt something tingly in his back. Crying out, he turned around to see a group of kids (around his age, he reckoned) smiling at him. Something warm was running down his back, what was it? Sweat? He wasn't that nervous, he didn't think. Everything was going black, was it getting late already? He began to collapse, and the kids circled around him...

Callum Hadley (Boy #27) woke up with a start. It was just a dream. Thank God for that.

The smell of smoke woke him up. Smoke? Why, was his room on fire? He jumped up from the floor and looked around him in dismay.

Well, this certainly wasn't his room... where was it? Callum tried to remember the last thing he did, but images of the dream prevented him from remembering anything. Who was that girl?... that wasn't important now.

He looked around. This seemed like some sort of battlefield... he spotted a dead body or three amongst the bamboo. Callum closed his eyes gently, and looked away. So it really was a battlefield... he had no idea how or why he was here, but it was obviously a dangerous situation. Best not to linger around here. He opened his eyes to plan his move, when he saw someone sat down on the grass.

It was a girl... was it the same girl? She had a silvery glow to her, and her hair seemed to float, as if in water. She was sat with her knees huddled, her head looking down at them. It was impossible to see her face.

Callum knelt to the floor. "Hello?" he said, cautiously. He was sure this girl wasn't a danger to him, but all the same, there was someting about her.

To anyone else, it would appear Callum was talking to the floor. But Callum leant in closer. This girl was very real to him. Just as he thought she would never speak, a silvery voice sounded out;

Help me, Callum... help me...

Callum sat back in shock. He had to help this girl! She was in trouble!

"Where are you??" he asked her desperately, but she had gone. Still slightly freaked, Callum got up. He had to find this girl, she was in trouble, he needed to help her!

Looking around, his eyes came across the dead bodies in the charred bamboo. He spotted some brass knuckles on the particularly burnt body... well, it wasn't like their previous owner was in any state to use them? Feeling slightly guilty, he made his way through the burnt remains of the coppice, and carefully (as it was a messy job, that's for sure) prised the brass knuckles off. He looked at the other two. They didn't appear to have any weapons on them that he could see... and this one was morbid enough, he didn't feel like searching dead bodies for weapons. Feeling slightly sick, but nonetheless determined, he made his way out of the maze of bodies, and, hoping he wouldn't see this place for a while, walked off.

He had to find that girl... he had to save her...

((Continued in The Waterfall- http://s10.DEFUNCT_IF_LINK/SurvivalOfTheF...=304&st=0&#last))