by Cameron Jace
The booth falls deeper below the ice. The cold water rushes in. It’s up to my knees. I could drown before the whole booth drops in the water.
Beyond the glass, Bellona is lying still. I can’t let her die. I just made a new friend. I don’t give up on my friends.
I try to stretch my right leg through the small gap showing between the door and its metal frame, kicking the ice with the sharp metal of my skate. The ice starts to break but very slowly because I don’t have enough space to swing my foot with enough power. My leg hits the metal side of the door, and it hurts. I wash the thought of pain away and focus on the thought of survival. Woo used to say that there is no such thing as pain. It’s all in your head.
I need a gap wide enough to crane my head out the door, but the ice breaks so slowly.
Another thump from the booth. More cold water rushes in.
I am still breathing through the inhaler. I am wasting too much energy here. I need to be in the Breathing Dome. The Suffocating Dome.
Raising my head, I see that I have caught the attention of a Bully from afar. It looks like he doesn’t consider a booth with an open door a safe zone. He is skating heavily toward me, lowering his pointed horns. He has bruises all over him. The others are doing a good job so far.
I am going to die now. I just have to decide how.
A skater and another Bully are fighting next to my booth, which complicates my situation. As the skater forces the Bully down to the floor, more zigzagged cracks spread toward me.
Another thump.
Now more water rushes inside, and the door gets harder to push open. The skater kills the Bully, takes his sword, and skates away. He doesn’t help me. Maybe he didn’t see me. My booth might not grab anyone’s attention in this situation because it is useless. No one can get inside it. I won’t forget the skater’s face.
I don’t look at Bellona. I will not get frustrated. I have to stay positive. Negative thoughts will kill me faster, and I have learned in the game with bus explosions that every second counts.
I can do it. I just don’t know how. It will happen. It will be shown to me.
The Bully is approaching fast, so close now. If I manage to open the door, I think he might eat me alive. I pull the door closer instead as the water reaches my belly. I have my oxygen here inside. It will buy me some time.
The Bully is in front of my booth, breathing into his gas mask, producing an awful sound, like an alien from outer space. I inhale, staring straight at him, showing him that nothing can get me out of here.
A broadcast of me is projected on the inner surface of the Breathing Dome. Timmy must think my situation is most entertaining. I can’t hear his silly comments, because water is already covering my iAm in my back pocket — it’s waterproof. There is no audio coverage inside the dome. Either that, or I have gone deaf.
The Bully is circling around the booth, looking for a way to shake me out of it. He is looking at the blue oxygen tubes outside, which feed oxygen to the inhaler inside the booth.
Oh. My. God.
He raises his sword high in the air with theatrical evilness — all in the name of entertainment. The viewers are holding their breaths in utter astonishment.
Here, you’ve got your horror movie of the year, your adrenaline rush, your coveted violence and anger release. Hail the system and kill the Bad Kidz.
In a moment he could cut off my oxygen supply. He should know better, since this won’t get me out. I will only suffocate in here.
How could I possibly survive this? If I don’t suffocate, I will drown, and if I don’t, a Bastard will stab me.
Shake the thoughts away. As long as I have one last breath, there is hope; better than hope, there is a way.
His sword goes down on the blue tube and…
…the air in the booth cuts off.
I feel like I have died already.
The Bully leaves me be, realizing I am as good as dead. He skates away toward another prey. I pound against the glass door, and my heart is choking on my lungs.
I guess my fear is accelerating my death. Fear is bad. Too much blood pumping, high pressure, lack of reason, and your body can’t help you. I wonder what the graphs on my iAm look like now.
I have found out how to save us all from the Breathing Dome, the same instant I’ve found out I am going to die.
The blue tube is the solution. It’s the mockery implemented by the sick designers. The thing that will make them laugh at us when we’re dead: Look at those Monsters. They could have just saved themselves from the beginning. This Breathing Dome is a joke. We could have saved ourselves from the beginning by cutting the blue tubes, and filling the dome with oxygen. I just found out too late.
While my eyelids shudder, closing slowly, something blurry, black, tiny as a pebble, fills my vision. As it approaches me it starts to grow.
It has a golden glow to it and it takes no prisoners.
It’s Woo.
End of I AM ALIVE Episode 1
Episode 2 is called Wheel of Fortune. Available now.
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
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List of other books by Cameron Jace available so far:
1 Snow White Blood Red
narrated by Snow White Queen
available HERE
2 Cinder to Cinder & Ashes to Ashes
narrated by Alice Grimm
available HERE
3 Beauty Never Dies
narrated by Peter Pan
available HERE
4 Ladle Rotten Rat Hut
narrated by Little Red Riding Hood
available HERE
5 Mary Mary Quite Contrary
as told by the devil
available HERE
6 Blood Apples
narrated by Prince Charming
coming out in mid October
7 Jawigi
narrated by Sandman Grimm
coming by the end of October
