Hopeless

"Hope? Are you sure that's your name?" Intentse said, a playful grin dancing upon his face. "It should be more like Scar, or something don't you think?"

He started to laugh at his own joke. I grimaced as I remembered what happened out in the line. I drew my fingers toward my face. Sure enough, the skin was bumpy, and uneven. It was almost sure enough to leave a scar.

"What happened?" River asked.

" I fell." I said simply.

Outside the floors were made from hot coals. I heard that it was hot, even outside of the camps. Global warming happened, or something among those lines. To be honest, I didn't really pay attention to news of the outside unless it had something to do with getting me outta here. I know that must sound pretty selfish or whatever, but as long as I lived another day, I was pretty happy.

Speaking of living, a whole bunch of gaurds started to pass our cell, carrying dead bodies galore. I went up to the bars, careful not to touch them, and watch as they carried tons of people out. I grimaced as I saw a couple bodies fall out, and roll toward our cell. One face actually hit the bars, and the contact made a sizzling sound, and you can see and smell the skin peel off.

Cherish released a blood curling scream when she saw the bodies. I tried to give her a look that said shutup, but she didn't get the hint. Soon, gaurds were looking our way, and around here, that was always a bad thing.

A big buff one got as close to my face as he could without touching the bar. His eyes were amazing. All the gaurds were undoubtbly handsome, which was weird. My grandmother used to say that everything bad, had to look good or else you wouldn't want to do it, and I guess that was the case with the gaurds.

"What's your name?" He asked, which was pointless, since I was going to lie and he knew that.

"Hope."

"You and the rest of the occupants of this cell get out and carry these bodies to the burning house, or no supper."

"But-"

"NOW!"

I flinched from the yell. I didn't even have to get the rest to line up at the door. They followed immediately.

The gaurd began to unlock the door.

"I shouldn't have to warn you, but, if you even think about escaping, I will send you to maximum security before you even have the chance to regret it. Understood?"

"Yes sir." I said obidenitly.

I was sort of mad at Cherish. I mean everybody here was used to seeing things like this. It happened almost everyday. Why did she have to make such a big deal out of it and go along as normal?

When the doors unlocked, we made our way over to the bodies and began to work. Intense picked up the ones that were melting at the bars, which by this time, was hard to do because they're skin was sticking to the bar. He brought them back, with half their face missing.

It was mine and Cherish's job to carry the strecther. The gaurds stuffed so many bodies onto though, that it weighed a ton, and we weren't very big so, it was pretty much a fail. But still, I was trying to do this as quick as possible and get back to the comfort of the cell. It was too much of a risk out here.

Cherish, though, was making that a hard task to accomplish. She kept flinching everytime something dead touched her, and complained that the thing was too heavy.

"Hope, I can't do it." She said once we were half way from the burning house.

"Yes you can, keep going."

"No, I really can't." She laid the stretcher on the ground, tears coming to her eyes.

I looked around to see River and Intense a few feet behind us, picking and carrying some dead bodies that were dropped, mostly thanks to Cherish. I also, saw a few gaurds looking at us, probably wondering what we were doing. Something told me that if we didn't move soon, there was going to be trouble.

"Cherish, listen. You better start carrying these bodies, or your going to be another addition onto this stretcher here." I said with a sense of urgency in my tone. Sure enoiugh, some gaurds were already on their way over to see what was the big hold up.

"Hope, I can't. This is horrible. What they do to these people. People who don't deserve it. It's not right, and it's happening all over the world. For what cause? What do we-"

Her speech was cut short when we saw a shadow hovering above us. We looked up and saw a guard, towering at at least seven feet.

"Does the princess have a problem with carrying the bodies?" He said, his voice deep.

"Of course not Sir, she was just-"

" Now that you mention it, I do." Cherish said.

The gaurd peeked down at her. She was puny to him. If they got into a fight, it was easy to tell who would win.

After the gaurd got done sizing her up, him and the gaurds behind him began to burst out into laughter.

"And what makes you so brave to talk?" He asked, a sinister look in his eye.

"I know your not going to hurt me." She said. When I first met this girl, I thought she was the shiest person I have ever met, but now, she spoke with confidence. I would give anything for her to go back to not talking, as long as she was able to be quiet.

"Ha!.What makes you so sure?" He said, getting right into her face.

"God." She said to him.

After that the whole scene took a serious turn. The guard wrapped his hand into Cherish's hair, and pulled, causing her to fall to the ground. She screamed as the ground burned her, as it had did me earlier. I tried to help her up, but the gaurd punched me in my eye, knocking me into the pile of dead bodies.

He pulled Cherish back up by her hair, yelling all types of profanity at her, and everyone who was around.

When that gaurd was gone, the one who originally orded us to take the bodies to the burning house told me to finish up the job, and spit on my face.

After a while, all the guards were gone. River and Intense came with the bodies they had carried, helped me up, and placed the bodies on the stretcher.

"What happened?" River said, in a smooth calm voice.

"Cherish happened. I hope she never comes back." I spat, trying to pick up the stretcher.

"Why don't you let me and River pick up the stretcher, and you can pick up the bodies that fall along. It'll be easier that way." Intense suggested.

"Fine. Whatever. Let's just get this done before something else happens."

We switch positions, and we were dead tired by the time we got done and back into our cell.

"Hey, Hope." Intense said, as I laid down on one of the cots that was placed in the room.

"Yeah?"

"Maybe your name should be Scar, since you have both a black eye and a burn."

" Intense?" I said, not really in the mood for his bull crap.

" Yeah?"

"You make one more joke like that, and your going to be the one with all the scars around here."

He laughed whole heartedly, which made me feel a little embarassed. I could hear River let out a small chuckle on the upper side of the room.

Yeah, there were going to be some long months ahead of me.