One Foot in the Grave

[Salic]

((Claudia Salgado continued from The Dream Machine Takes All of Us))

Claudia felt like she’d been running for ages, but it couldn’t have been more than three minutes. Her breathing was ragged, her tank top was soaked with sweat, and her feet were burning from the desert sand. This dry desert air was gonna suck the life out of her.

She took a seat next to the hot, dusty road before she laid down on her back, sand be damned. Her throat was on fire. She shut her eyes to block out the desert sun, and proceeded to motionlessly lie there. She knew she was vulnerable, but if she didn’t take these next three minutes to relax then she’d be unconscious. She did wish she’d picked out a spot with some decent shade, though.

Now that the adrenaline had worn off, she could think more complex thoughts than I’m going to die if I don’t move, and she thought about what the fuck she did at the compound. Why had she kicked her shoes off like a complete dumbass? Claudia realized she could probably chalk it up to the dizzying combo of panicked frenzy and sleepy fatigue that was duking it out in her brain at the time, but she still thought it was moronic. The sand probably did a number on her feet, and she had no idea if her traveling group had decided to take her shoes with them. She certainly hoped they did. She really didn’t want to think about doing more traveling without them.

She wondered where everyone had gone from the compound. The group she’d met inside seemingly split in random directions, with Raja, David, and Raymond going every which way in a hurry. Claudia couldn’t help but hope that Anatoly and Selene were close by. If they weren’t, she hoped they were okay. Maybe it was because they were the first people she met up with in this nightmare, but she wanted to be near them. The three of them formed a little protective sphere, and Claudia placed her trust in them, even though she’d only been with them for... for however long she’d been awake for. How long had she been awake for? The fact that she couldn’t say troubled her greatly.

After sitting there breathing for a little while, Claudia realized just how thirsty she was after some intense exercise. She was still a little tired, though, and she wanted to make sure the fatigue had entirely vanished before she got up to get some water from her bag.

Her bag.

She broke out in a cold sweat, a renewed sense of dread settling itself back in her stomach. Good lord, she didn’t forget her bag back in the building, right? The bag with all of her supplies, her sleeping bag, and her jacket, right? She couldn’t have. Surely she wasn’t dumb enough to forget the most important thing she had with her back in the fucking swarm house, right? As much as she tried to deny it, deep in her mind she realized she hadn’t felt the weight of the bag at all while she was sprinting away. She tried to explain it away as the adrenaline making it just feel like it wasn’t there, but her rational side already knew the truth: she’d left it behind. She’d left behind the only thing that was going to keep her alive.

She could practically see the chances of her making it home to see her loved ones again vanish into nothingness. Tears began to well up in her eyes as another sinking feeling made its home in her abdomen.

Then, as quickly as they appeared, the tears stopped. Suddenly, something kicked into gear in recesses of Claudia’s brain. She couldn’t tell if the rest had kicked in or the adrenaline was returning, but her fatigue was gone. She figured it was a mix of both. An epiphany gripped her mind: she could either sit here and wallow in despair, losing herself to the hopelessness of the situation, or she could pick herself up, get her ass in gear, and be proactive about how to get out of this mess. A steely resolve coursed through her bones. She wouldn’t succumb to moroseness. She wouldn’t give the crazy animal people a victory over her psyche.

Claudia picked herself off the ground, took a deep breath, and tried to outline a plan:

1. Find Selene and Anatoly. If they had her stuff, good. She could skip step two.

2. If they didn’t have her stuff, she’d fucking march straight back to the building and fucking take it from Isabella. Claudia fled because Isabella had scared her into mistakenly using her gift. But now, she knew what Isabella was capable of. She wouldn’t take her by surprise like last time.

3. Speaking of Isabella, she had to shut down the swarm. If Isabella continued like she was unchecked, who knew how much damage she could do? Shit, it already looked like she’d taken every bug in a 5-mile radius and cocooned them around her. Her little swarm would probably end up killing somebody. While Claudia had no intention of hurting her, her insect horde had to be neutralized for everyone’s safety.

After that? Claudia really wasn’t sure. Her current, fuzzy idea was holing up somewhere defensive and waiting for rescue. She was sure this place wasn’t a no-fly zone. A passing plane would probably be their best bet. If that didn’t happen? Well, then they’d just have to be proactive about their rescue. She didn’t really know what that meant, but what she could surmise is that the arena didn’t last forever. There had to be a border. It wasn’t like they were on an island where there was nowhere to go on any side. Claudia reached a hand up to her neck and felt her collar. These were probably put on their necks to prevent any attempted escapes. There had to be a way to get them off, or at least distract the cameras for long enough that they could turn tail and bolt out of the arena. As for how to do that? She was at a loss.

In either case, she’d done enough musing. Enough sitting around. Every move she had made in this blasted desert had been a reaction against the terrorists. It was time that she took a little proaction in order to make herself, her friends, and her classmates safe. She turned around, took another deep breath, and winced. Fuck, she could really use that water right now. She took a step forward. Her feet sunk into the sand. She took another step, and another, and another. She hoped that Anatoly and Selene were behind her. It’d be a lonely journey back to the compound if they weren’t.

((Claudia Salgado continued in Welcome to Hell, We’ve Been Waiting For You))