I run. I just keep running. I forget everything for a few minutes. I forget where I am, who I am, and I even forget why I’m running. I just feel the need to run. I soon slow down, though, since I’m carrying an extra ten pounds with me.

I breathe heavily trying to get my baring’s. Everywhere I turn there is forest. No telling how thick or deep this forest is. I sigh walking around like a piece of prey waiting to be captured.

I keep walking deeper in the forest. Silence, is how I would like to describe it. Only a few rustles here and there from scared animals, hiding from their predators or flaps and chirps of the birds in the trees. Anything but that, there is nothing.

I decide to sit down on a fallen log and rest. I take out a knife and examine it. Blade, about eleven inches long, handle about six. I turn it from one hand to the other. Light weight, wonder how good it could hold up against a fight.

Suddenly I hear something rustle the bushes. I pounce up in a battle stance and face it. I wait for it to show up when I feel weight pin me to the ground. A know it’s a hologram dummy because when it puts its hand down in front of me its sparkling gold. I don’t struggle to get up, instead when I feel its head come right over mine I snap my head back hitting it in the face. The shock scares him. I use this time to take my right arm and punch it on the side. It loses its balance and falls to the left which gives me time to scramble out from under it and stand up putting my knife away and grabbing a pistol and shooting the dummy.

It soon disappears signaling its dead. I sigh and put my gun back in its pocket. I grab my machine gun and just keep walking in the woods.

It’s about fifteen more minutes before I hear another rustle, but this time I hear it running towards me. I now start running realizing what’s happening. I keep running but it keeps getting closer until I am tackled to the ground. I roll with the hologram a couple feet before we stop in I’m facing upward at it. Its yellow generated face is looking down at me hissing. It holds my hands down so I can’t move.

I kick my legs and this time struggle to get free but the dummy has me. I don’t want to scream, that will just attract more of them. Suddenly the dummy is hit with something I can’t see. It just goes limp and falls on top of me then disappears. I prop myself up on my elbows to see an arrow lying in the snow where the dummy disappeared. “Kimberley,” I whisper to myself.

“Wow,” I jerk my head to the left to see Kimberley walking towards me with a bow in her hands. “Thought Logan trained you better than that.” She helps me up and gives me a look. She has a scratch above her eye and its bleeding. Bruises litter her arms and legs. One was on her cheek. Her pant leg is ripped showing a gruesome scar. I’m surprised she’s still on her feet.

“Hey, my style of fighting isn’t always attack sometimes its defense.”

“Yeah, well defense wouldn’t help you in that situation unless you run up a tree and hide. You turn around, wait for the attacker. Always keep a watchful eye out though making sure not anymore are sneaking up behind you or-” I rip out my gun and push Kimberley out of the way shooting another dummy a couple yards away. The hologram disappears and I stick my gun back in its socket. “You were saying.” I smile saying to Kimberley.

She growls and pushes past me picking up her arrow.

“Well, since we found each other do you want to just stay together?” I ask walking up beside her.

She shrugs, “Sure, but you better not be just extra weight I have to carry.” I punch her angrily. She is such a brat. “Hey, I just saved your life!” I hiss.

She spats back at me. “From what a hologram, they can’t kill us y’know.” She says stepping over a log.

“Then why did you shoot the one that was over top of me?” I ask a little sassy trying to prove a point.

“Well, I never said they couldn’t hurt you.” She smirks over her shoulder. Sometimes I would like to stick in a knife in her but then I just recline. I know I could never do that, she’s my sister.



We walk for about two hours or so running into only about ten hologram dummies. For some reason I thought this would be harder. Jama seemed like this would be the hardest task we would ever have to face. It felt too easy for my taste.

“God when is Jama going to ring that stupid whistle.” Kimberley growls angrily watching another hologram disappear and putting a knife back in her belt. “Hasn’t he seen enough?”

“Are you asking me?” I say putting a finger up to my chest trying to figure out if she is talking to me. She looks over her shoulder with narrowed eyes. She rolls them and grumbles in annoyance. She starts walking again. “Hey, you’re not such a pleasure to hang out with to you know.” I say following her.

“Look, let’s just see if we can survive the next few hours of this training without killing each other, or dying.” She said the last part mainly to herself.

I curl my lip but follow the leader, since Kimberley knows best.

She ducks under a tree branch carrying a loaded bow and arrow waiting for another hologram. I just follow casually for whatever shows up it only has three seconds to live because of Kimberley. She can a dummy seven time out of ten with a pistol. I can barely hit it four times.

“Ugh, I’m bored!” I complain. It’s not easy walking around in the snow for a long time doing nothing but wait. Kimberley stops, turns her head and snarls. “If you’re so bored, be useful and be aware of your surroundings! Jama could make these things anywhere.”

Like that as a cue Holograms start jumping out from everywhere. Kimberley and my head are darting everywhere trying to keep up with them all. This never happened at the training area in the Lodge. Holograms are only meant for only a few at a time. Not like thirty or forty.

All the holograms carry some sort of weapon except guns. I see one with a club, a sword, a knife, a mallet, and ax, possibly anything you couldn’t shoot. They are all bright yellow.

I rip out a gun holding it firmly in my hands. Even so this gun couldn’t take down all of them. Suddenly static echo’s in the air. Then Jama’s voice comes on. “For these holograms guns will not work on them. You may use anything else but no guns.” Suddenly, like he hit an off switch, the gun in my hand becomes still. I try to pull back the trigger but it’s jammed. I throw it aside and feel Kimberley do the same to hers.

“Kimberley what do we do?” I whisper to her trying to keep my voice steady, trying to show no fear when in all retrospect, I’m terrified.

“The only thing we can do,” She says back. I can tell she tenses up making her hands roll up into tight fists. “We fight!” And just like that the first hologram strikes.

He swings his sword but I duck quickly enough and it skims my head. Another comes up with two knives in his hands waving them frantically. I rip out my own two knives and deflect the holograms. I’ve never known how strong holograms were. They do have some strength in them. I use quick movements deflecting the swords making sure to keep my distance from the holograms around me, and keeping a sharp eye on the others. If I let my guard down for even a second the holograms could very easily kill me.

I finally get the chance to stab one in the chest and it disappears instantly. Although another one comes over and is swing a club around. I’m about to fight when something grabs my arm and pulls me away. I turn seeing Kimberley. She grips my hand firmly and holds a sword in the other.

“Are you a maniac!?” She says running. “Knives could never go up against a club!” She puts her sword back in its sheathe and takes out her bow. I realize she isn’t carrying her machine gun any longer.

“Where’s your gun?” I ask.

“Since it’s no longer working why carry it around with me as extra weight.” She says running harder. She pulls me around a boulder and pushes me down in the snow telling me to stay low. I can’t keep my eyes open unless I want snow in them. I close them and listen as a bunch of holograms rush past us. I estimate about twenty or thirty. I feel my breath become fast. Kimberley leans on me even more trying to shut me up.

When the last ones rush past us and they’re gone that’s when Kimberley finally gets off me. I gasp for air and wipe the snow off my face. “Thanks for crushing me!” I yell but she slaps her hand over my mouth. “Shut up!” She snaps. She turns her head and I look where her eyes are looking at. I almost panic. One hologram is walking around a few yards away. Kimberley slowly takes her hand away from my mouth and reaches over her shoulder to take out an arrow. She loads her bow and pulls it back slowly aiming it towards the hologram. She steadies it then releases it. I watch as in a second the arrow enters the hologram and it disappears leaving the arrow. Kimberley rushes to grab it and reloads the bow. “Ronnie come on.” She calls back to me.

I look right then left making sure nothing would come out and jump me. Then I rush straight to my sister. I don’t want to show it, but I’m truly terrified of Jama and his holograms at the moment. Could we actually win Jama’s affection or will he just look at us like weaklings?

“Ronnie, here’s an idea. We will climb the trees right, since all the holograms have come down. We can surprise attack them from above. It’s perfect!”

Before I can even respond she takes off and grabs onto the nearest tree trunk. I can’t argue, it does seem like a good plan, unless Jama knows what we’re doing, then we’re doomed. But I run to a tree next to the one she climbed up and grab onto the lowest branch pulling myself up. I then grab onto the next one and keep climbing until I see Kimberley perched on a thick branch. She’s looking around holding onto the tree trunk with her left hand and a sword in her other hand. I take a deep breath and slowly take out my own weapon. A hatchet.

Kimberley turns her head towards me. “What do want to use as a symbol if we see a hologram?”

I think for a moment. I can’t be something loud but it can’t be something to quiet that we can’t hear it. “How about a slap against the knee. That’s loud enough right?” She just gives me a weird look. Then rolls her eyes. “Let’s just, snap okay.” She hisses before leaping to another branch. I roll my lip but leap onto another branch myself.

About a half hour passes and all Kimberley and I have killed only two holograms. There are still twenty or twenty five out there. Or maybe even more. I sigh sitting with my back against a tree watching Kimberley pull back an arrow shooting another dummy. She leaps down from the tree to retrieve her arrow and climbs quickly up another one out of sight. “Twenty-four.” I count down to myself.

“Ronnie!” I turn my head and see Kimberley in the trees motioning for me to follow her. I leap from my limb to hers. She moves to a new one so our weight wouldn’t snap the limb. “Let’s go this way maybe there are some over here.”

“Alright but we have to be careful. Remember Jama is always watching us.” Kimberley nods once. But doesn’t move. “Hey since you’re good up here in the trees maybe I can search on the ground and you can continue up here. I’ll get down on the ground. I’m faster that way.” Its true Kimberley was always a good runner. She was never really fast but she loved to run.

“Okay but be careful.” I warn her before she climbs down. I can’t tell if she hears me or not. I just allow her to climb down and take off. I groan and leap to another tree. Although she’s running faster than I can leap I’m keeping up with her pretty well.

She and I run for about fifteen minutes and no such luck. “Kimberley.” I call down. She stops and looks up at me. Her eyes tell me she is determined to keep going, but I can’t. I feel my toes go numb and my fingers turn into ice. “Kimberley can we stop. I’m cold.”

“No!” She snaps at me. “We’re not stopping. This is why I was hesitating about bringing you along! You’re just extra weight!”

“Am not! I just get cold easy. Stop being so mean, you’re acting like brat and think you know it all!”

“That’s because you would be dead already if I hadn’t saved your ass. You just have been dead weight.” This time I jump down, pick up a rock, and throw it at her. She steps to the side dodging my throw. I suddenly feel tears start to run down my face. “Shut up! You think I can’t do anything!” Kimberley just keeps staring at me with the same expression on her face. “You don’t even care about me!”

Like a cue line Kimberley rips off her bow from her shoulder loads it and shoots it all in about seven or eight seconds. I spin around seeing the arrow along with a hologram disappear. When I turn back around I am surprised with Kimberley as she stares over me. “If I didn’t care about you, I wouldn’t be saving your ass and I wouldn’t be taking you along with me. Think about that for a minute.”

She turns back around sliding the bow back over her shoulder. I’m ready to turn away and leave her, but realize we can’t face all the holograms alone. So I sigh and follow her.