Chapter2. Chaos

We finally reached our destination for the night. We are staying at a beautiful hotel. It's a wooden vintage style hotel with 4 floors. They went for the elegant and classy look while designing this hotel. It has a very pleasing air of mystery and elegance.

My friends and I are staying in the same room.

"yay!!! We are roommates! And look how spacious and pretty the place is!"

We all place our bags in a corner and jump onto the soft and fluffy bed and check the room out. I looked out the window, the majestic moon shining its silver light upon us, illuminating the dark night sky.

We changed into more comfortable clothes for the evening and then headed for dinner. We have a delicious steak for dinner along with fried potatoes, a wonderful meal. We chat and laugh through dinner when suddenly "BAM!!!" There's a loud bang and a threatening commotion nearby. We had heard noises outside but not thought much of it as the students love raising a ruckus regularly.

A student comes running in panting and sweating in fear, "We have been hijacked. The hotel has been hijacked. They are terrorists or mafia or whoever they are *HUFF, HUFF... but they have guns and are attacking us and have captured many people!"

Everyone starts looking around and at each other, confused at what had been said. One of the students runs towards the balcony and says, "Hey! I just saw some people dragging a student by the hair"

During this commotion, professor Andrew comes barging in and asks us to calm down first then he says we need to evacuate. But it was more like 'escape'. Everyone was on guard, alert, scared, terrified.

Professor said that these people were most likely terrorists. "We tried to handle the situation but it's no use. These people are ruthless and we need to be smart and escape from here quietly."

All the students quieted down and followed the professor. We, a group of about 30 students, pass through the halls quietly, the screaming in the background has us all on edge. We move quietly but even the sound of our heart beating like crazy scares us that we might be discovered and captured.

We can still hear some screams in the distance but at least it's safe here; for now. Leading the way, our sir, peeks across the corner and then we move straight downstairs, looking for an exit. We headed not for the entrance cause it's been long raided and searched for some other exit.

*CRASH!* a window breaks, everyone panics. "Quick, quick!!! Move it!" our professor says in a whisper that's almost a yell. We don't stop and keep moving. Suddenly a storm of gunfire erupts behind us, from where we just came. Turns out these terrorists are right behind us! We move even quicker, almost running and then an armed man appears crashing through a window beside us and everyone goes dead still for a second, unaware of what to do. One of the students tried to fight him off. *BANG* a gunshot! and then sudden silence falls, which only lasts a brief second before fear and hopelessness takes over us as we watch the fallen and bloodied body of our fellow. Everyone's screaming, crying. Some more terrorists storm the floor we are on. Everyone's running, running somewhere and yet nowhere. The turmoil has everyone panicking and people start separating from one another.

The sight of people screaming, the screams, the cries, the noise, the armed men, blood and a scene of pure chaos makes me lose my mind. I stand in the midst of it all trying to compose myself, holding onto my chest tightly. Smoke seems to fill my lungs, there's a fire nearby, it's probably catching up to us. Or maybe I'm so scared I can barely breathe. I force myself to get a hold, to think rationally. In order to get out of here, we need to stay in our right mind!

I look around me, searching for my friends. "Crap! I lost sight of them for a second."

Everyone's scattered, we no longer know who is where, but I found Vivi and Eve right behind me. We ran trying to escape, to reach the exit. Chaos has taken over all of us, but somehow, miraculously we reach the exit and then out, into the open ground. Rather than being relieved, we feel even more terrified. Turns out running in circles lead us exiting into a place the fire has almost engulfed. The hotel is on fire and we are almost consumed among the flames. It feels like there's no way out. But I feel like we can still escape, I refuse to sit back and watch hopelessly!

We run and run and run and feel as if we have almost outrun the chaos but we haven't.

A man appears before us. A big man with a big physique dressed in all black. He's got a big, beautiful sword in his hand and a very menacing grin on his face. He isn't exactly looking towards us, he's distracted, perhaps by all the running and screaming in the background. He's dangerous. I can feel it. Something tells me that if we are to survive we will have to avoid this man at all cost.

But guess what...life has other plans for us. The man spots us trying to flee and he slowly moves towards us. I look back and meet his menacing figure approaching us. We come across a narrow passage which is almost engulfed in flames but it's still the most choosable route of all. Cause I feel like it leads out into some other open place. We try to get through but all the rubble is obstructing our path. I hold into place a mass of rubble as I tell Eve and Vivi to move through, they quickly escape through the route and are waiting for me to pass through.

"Ray! C'mon! Hurry up!" They yell out. I try to make my way through the rubble carefully but I can't. Another building falls over and completely blocks the path. I'm panicking for the thousandth time today. I no longer know if my friends are safe on the other side and neither do I know if I'll make it out of here. I ran in some other random direction trying to somehow escape the man but it's futile cause the place is engulfed in flames. There is no other path. I don't even know how that man plans to leave from here either.

I find myself in the middle of a field of corpses. Some burned, some crushed under the rubble. I turn my face away, afraid I might find a familiar face. Eve and Vivi are together on the other side but we haven't seen Liz anywhere. Is she still alive? And my brother was also on this trip. I wonder what happened to him and his friends. I hope they're all alright. Among all the corpses I've come across, there wasn't any familiar face and I hope it stays that way. My heartbeat fastens, my breath quickens and I feel the fear taking over me.

Along with the fear another thing takes over me: the desire to get out of here alive. As I accept I can no longer escape, my first instinct of fight or flight is to grab a gun I saw lying among the corpses. I shot at the man who was getting closer and closer. I don't think he dodged the bullets, I randomly shot at him. I probably wasn't even able to land a single shot! And the gun's empty now. It's of no use. I look around anxiously and spot a sword. Seriously, what's up with today?! Seeing swords in today's age especially in battles is rare, the majority use guns. But something is better than nothing.

I hold the sword up with both my hands, it's heavy but I can handle it, the adrenaline rush is way heavier. The man stops two or three meters away from me. The sight is splendid, terrifically splendid. I can see him clearly now. He's got a great physique, attractive and intimidating, like a warrior straight out of some historical drama. He's completely dressed in black from head to toe. I can feel it, I'm not gonna be able to get out of here.

The beautiful sword in his left hand adds to the tragedy of the massacre. He is bathed in blood from head to toe, and I can be certain it's not his blood. As I take in the entire view, I feel more suffocated. This is all too much. I try to keep my gaze mostly on his hands hoping to sense any kind of motion, so that I can move accordingly. And I wonder just how much blood has been spilled by those big scarred hands of his.

"hey woman! what do u intend to achieve with that sword?" His voice, deep and rough, his tone almost mocking me. It catches me off guard and I don't understand his question, I'm holding the sword to protect myself of course, what else?

"Are u the enemy?" I asked clearly out of breath from all the running. I don't even know why I'm asking that. He totally looks like the enemy.

He scoffs and grins. Oh that grin of his! That smile on his face. It filled me with fear ever since I first saw him.

I'm standing in the middle of a field with corpses all around me and flames have risen as high as mountains, clouding the sky with smoke of terror, hovering above us like reminders of eternal doom. I stand across him, both of us facing each other with swords in hand and he moves towards me. I firm my grip, ready to attack. He strikes the blow first and I fend it with our swords making a heavy clank against each other, and I instantly fall to the ground. The weight of the sword and then his attack combined was too much for me.

I slightly crawl backwards trying to flee from him but he makes sure I don't. He kneels forward trying to get a hold of my arm. When he's close enough, I throw a handful of dirt over his eyes, this makes him withdraw for a second. He mumbles something beneath his breath as I try to run away. He instantly grabs me from the back of my head, pulling me by my long hair. I squint and let out a painful scream.

Fear has engulfed me and I've lost all hopes of getting away, tears fill my eyes as he says with a slight smirk, "You put on a good show, darling. Better than the others who died at my hands without even resisting, at least you tried something, even though it was all futile." He shrugs proudly. "You were doomed the moment our paths crossed, dear."