1 Prologue

Snakes.

As if moths are drawn to a hot light, they laid dead, scattered around the girl. She coughed as she flicked off one of the many that had been blown away.

Dust reigned supreme, taking shrapnel into its domains. An ear-piercing shrill rang throughout the air, ripping her attention from the snakes.

The girl rushed for the sides, grabbing whatever would get her to the action quicker. Sticks, rocks, ledges.

She had to get to him quickly. Give him hope. Let him know she was still around, he wasn't alone.

However, her own body, riddled by bruises and cuts, protested against these thoughts. A nice fluffy bed seemed like a gift from the heavens. It would be so nice just to stop, rest, give in to her own desires...

Growling, she threw away these thoughts, only doubling her efforts to get to him. After what had seemed like an eternity, the girl had made it out of the hole.

But after looking around she almost regretted her decision. The source of the shrill was the only one left, hunching over with his back to her. She saw his tears hit the ground unevenly.

Her- no their beloveds laid around him just like that snakes had to her.

Dead.

Wincing, the girl dragged herself towards the male, wrapping her arms around him when she reached her destination. Her own tears flowed along his back.

He tried to face her, but his body had given out, exhausted from all his yelling. Her attempt to steady him was nullified by her own fatigue, and he fell to all fours.

When he finally looked at her, the girl was met with an implored expression, as if he were trying to remember her features.

His expression then suddenly lightened up, possibly for the last time. He placed a comforting hand on her head and brought his forehead to her own.

"Live..." he rasped out.

The girl clasped her hand with his.

Sweat ran from her pores.

"Please live... for us..."

"You're going to be okay," the girl told him.

"Live..." The boy repeated.

The boy's jaw slackened and his head slides forward, dragging the rest of his body with him.

On instinct, she quickly grabbed him, calling out his name solemnly.

No answer.

The war between her and her body ran out, her body tumbling backwards, dragging his body along with her. As his head rested against her lap, the reality of what happened sunk in.

She futilely called out to the boy. He didn't answer. Using the fumes of her remaining energy she settled for stroking her hand through his hair.

A false state of comfort.

Around her, there laid broken machines. It was easy to tell that they had been broken only recently as they were still spouting sparks of electricity.

The blood of the men who operated them still flowed in a seemingly never-ending fashion. The men- no the monsters who had tortured her, was unliving, dead, never to inflict harm on another ever again. She allowed herself a small smirk over this.

But this train of thought brought her back to what had happened to her. Who she had lost today.

All 7 of them and now it was just her left...

They had died for each other and for the rest of their beloved. The first "sacrifice" had opted to die so that the rest could live. Child-like thinking never got anyone anywhere, so the third brother was swiftly eliminated as a "defective".

She could hear his last words resounding in her ears.

"Do anything to me, just let them be."

The "second" and "third" sacrifices were forced to fight each other to the death. But the second brother had impaled himself on the fourth's brother sword, hoping that would be enough to let his brothers go.

Natural selection. Irrelevant information. The fourth brother died, killed by the very men who had created him.

His elder brother raised his swords, going on a mad rampage, hacking away at out any guards that were foolish enough to stand in his path. He would refuse to let his own brother die in vain. But of course, the men had planned for this, hiding behind the glorious metal of their machines.

A sword was nothing compared to a few hundred bullets. He too, fell, joining the rest of the lost souls that day.

The last brother was quickly round up and brought into the presence of her and the crying boy. His death was slow an agonizing; torture. Obviously done in order to frighten the children into complete submission-

But he was strong.

Despite the fact that he was going to die, he kept his smile, practically taunting the uniformed men. They weren't amused. He continued to smile even as his heart was ripped out from his body.

She hated the glass cylinder, the prison that surrounded her and the crier; the fact that she was too weak to fracture it. Too weak to make a difference. Pathetic. With mad rage she pounded and pounded, red overtaking her vision.

She ignored the electric shocks that hit her, ignored the blood thickening on her knuckles. And right when her efforts were about to pay off: her brother had died. It was all for nought. The tube opened and there the girl fell; into the Snakepit.

The stress had gotten to her last brother, and he began sparking with electricity, an inhuman sound erupting from his mouth. She felt it before she had seen it. Misery, despair, defeat.

All those emotions seemed to come together in one big blast. It had blown away the snakes that had strangled her but not the emotions that had stuck with her.

She would have gladly died in that pit...

But he had asked her to live.

The telltale thumps of heavy boots came closer, and electricity sparked around her once more. 'A survivor.'

She still wasn't aware that the anguished cry she heard was her own.

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