Experiment X

20 | City of Fire

Author's note: After being noticed about the problem of mentioning early in the book the Trainees wouldn't fall asleep and them going to sleep in the previous chapter, I went back and edited the early chapter as to where they could become tired, but not hungry or thirsty. Also, Iadded the part that the Voice would announced when they should proceed to the Transport ring, after the number alloted to live has been reached. I hope that adds a bit more clarification. Thanks!Enjoy!WordSpeak

20 | City of Fire

There is rippling in the dark. An echoing of a strange, calling voice. Who is it? The sounds thrum like the faint beating of a heart, becoming increasingly louder. Suddenly, Emberly can feel a shaking, a swirling pull through her mind, as if something—this voice is attempting to break through some type of barrier. It’s one word: that she is sure of, but she can barely make anything of it.

There’s a riveting shattering, a violent shock of noise, and Emberly feels herself sinking into the sounds. She can hear clearly. It’s a woman! A woman who is trying to speak to her—What is she saying?

“Your name is Em—”

It’s that same fractured call, over and over without fail, and without completion. Emberly feels an uplifting grasping at her chest, an unfamiliar force clenching her tightly, but nothing can be seen but darkness. She is spinning. Spinning. Spinning. The thrumming becomes a throbbing. Reverberating, and finally pulsing. A blindingly white light appears in the form a glowing orb, radiating celestial rings, growing until it consumes everything, and Emberly gasps.

When her vision focuses she finds herself swallowed in that same, haunting whiteness—infinite blanks, and this horrifies her. She feels herself to scream.

No. No. No. I’m not here. I’m not back here again. No—please—

“It’s okay; you’re safe here with me.”

The voice like that of a tickling stream startles Emberly, and she turns about taking in the sight of the woman who had spoken: so tall, willowy, fair, her gorgeous fair face framed with long intensely white blonde locks, so much so it seems that the color nearly melds itself into the whiteness of the room surrounding them.

“Who are you?” Emberly breaths, finding herself unable to look away from this woman’s otherworldly blue eyes.

“I am Hope,” she says smiling. “Took some effort to get to you, because of the barriers the Controler has placed over the area—and because of that I don’t have much time, so I want to tell you first that your name is Emberly.”

“My name—Emberly?” she questions, confused.

“Yes that is your name, say it over and over, so you don’t forget; and that your family is still alive—they are heading toward the North with others like them; they will be okay, do not worry. Oh no!—I must go, I will meet you again, tomorrow night. Remember, you have a name. It’s Emberly, and the tournament—"

…

Small bare feet hang over the edge of the faded, rusted billboard that had once been a bright, cherry red. The advertisement is for some useful household product, where the giant face of a man in a suit with perfectly placed dark hair and a winning smile is plastered endorsing the product, but his face is ripped in half—the old paint and pigments peeled away. The result is a gaping, singular eye looming over the desolate city that in the rising light of the morning sun has become the city of fire. The surrounding glass windows gleam brilliantly, flashing flaming color, as below long, wavering shadows stretch sleepily.

The feet belong to the girl trainee Tallie, and her deep brown eyes scan the empty streets far below. The winds carry stinging breaths of dust that blow against her skin, irritatingly; her eyes take upward and see the vast pale, clear sky above. She remembers birds for some reason, and this is what she looks for. But there is nothing, nothing but sky, and sunlight.