Radioactive

"And I've lost it all, I'm just a silhouette."

---

"These aren't loaded." Amaryllis said when she checked the guns.

Harper picked up a sword from the other side of the small room. It seemed like a good option. "They're probably trying to trick us. We pick guns, and then we can't use them. And we die." Her voice wavered on the last word.

"We aren't going to die." Amaryllis muttered, taking the sword Harper handed her. She, on the other hand, ended up with a scythe. "Nice choice of weaponry."

Harper only shrugged, "thanks."

Since Harper stood rooted to the spot, Amaryllis pushed open the door to reveal a short hallway. She glanced to the left and right, but she couldn't decide which way to go.

"Right, go right." Harper said from behind her. So, she did. It ended up being the right way. There was a sticky note that must've fallen off the door onto the floor. She picked it up and read it outloud. "Keep going."

"Very demanding, these guys. No wonder they're single." Harper said with a "tsk"ing sound, and Amaryllis forced out a bitter laugh.

She opened the door, and they stepped inside complete darkness. They felt the walls, but found no light switches, so they moved closer to the center of the room. Suddenly, the door swung shut behind them. The girls spun around in alarm, right as a light flickered on above them.

Cheering erupted around them, drawing out an alarmed shout from Amaryllis, and making Harper drop her scythe. She scrambled around for it, hardly managing to pluck it up from the floor as Pa stepped in front of her. Before she could do anything, bars dropped down in between them. She glanced up to see that she wasn't in a regular room. Her and Amaryllis stood at the edge of a large cage. There was a table in the middle of it, and a bed in the corner. It was furnished like a bedroom, besides the random table. "Set your weapons down on the table." Pas voice boomed from behind her.

Reluctantly, they did so. Fear had snaked it's way down Harpers body in icy tendrils, making it difficult for her to move, but she managed to set her scythe down on the table and step away before the small cage dropped on top of it, blocking the weapons from them. An angry growl came from the otherside of the cage. Connected, only sealed off by a few rusty bars, was another cage, covered with something so they couldn't see what was inside.

"Welcome, to the 74th annual hunger games!" People that the girls hadn't even noticed burst out laughing. There had to be about fifteen of them, crowded around to watch.

"Pa, stop messing with them!" Lester called out, grabbing onto the bars and giving them a rough shake, although they didn't budge.

"What's going on?" Amaryllis asked bravely, settling her clenched fists on her hips as she glared at the surrounding rednecks in defiance.

"Oh, sweet, sweet Mary."

"Amaryllis."

"I don't care." Pa said in a taunting voice, again drawing laughter from the small crowd. "Let's get this show on the road! Everyone done placing their bets?"

"Mines on the blonde one!"

"Mines on the walkers!"

Amaryllis' eyes widened in alarm. "Walkers?" A click echoed from behind, followed by a low growl that resounded around the room, bouncing off the rusty bars and concrete walls.

The girls slowly turned around to see the bars from the other cage slowly lifting. A rotted hand stuck out from the darkness of the cage, got a good grip on the floor, and began dragging the rest of it forward. It came into view, and Amaryllis snapped into action.

She darted to the middle of the cage, placing her footsteps carefully so the noise wouldn't attract the zombies, and reached her hand through the bars to reach her sword. Her fingers were only inches from the hilt, but she couldn't stretch anymore. The scythe was even more unreachable. "Harper!"

She broke out of her daze at the sound of her name, and gripped onto the bars, trying to test it's weight. "Too heavy to move." She announced, reaching up to tug on the chain that had lowered it down. The zombie had fully pulled itself from the cage, and was now getting to it's feet.

"Scotty!" Harper shrieked as it jerked forward.

She ducked around the cage, the zombies hands fumbling blindly at the bars until it realized where it's prey had gone. Harper dived to the side, army-rolling toward the bed. She slid right under it and out of sight.

Amaryllis called out to her as she dived around the cage in an effort to dodge the attacks the zombie was clumsily throwing her way. The cheers were still coming from the rednecks. They found their suffering amusing.

Beneath the bed, Harper planted her feet on the wooden frame, although it was extremely difficult to do, and gave one of the wooden planks a tug. It broke off with some effort, and she leaned over to get a good view of what was going on. "Scotty!" She called, waving the broken board in plain sight.

Amaryllis abandoned the small cage, and darted towards her. She snatched the board from her, and turned towards the zombie, the plank held out in front of her. It wasn't very long, but it had broken off with a sharp tip, hopefully enough to kill it.

Harper watched from beneath the bed at the way the zombie was still fumbling around the cage, it's head swivelling back and forth and then stopped to listen. "Scotty, I think it's blind."

"That's it! Harper, distract it." Amaryllis silently darted off to the other side of the cage, well out of reach of the zombie.

It had zeroed in on Harpers side of the room and was slowly scuttling closer towards where Harper lay beneath the bed. The cheers of the rednecks seemed to be confusing it, so Harper didn't have to do anything before Amaryllis sent the plank through it's head, and it crumpled to the floor, convulsing for only a moment before it lay still.

Amaryllis cheered as Harper rolled out from beneath the bed. From her position on the floor, she noticed the bars of the other cage reopen. "Um, Amaryllis." She drawled in a nervous tone, motioning towards the cage.

Amaryllis spun around to see not one, but two pairs of zombie hands start dragging themselves from the cage.

"We need more planks, that ones stuck in the zombie."

"There aren't anymore that are possible for me to break off with my hands." Harper told her in a panicky voice.

"Okay, okay, stop, don't panic. We have to think."

"We're going to die." Harper cried out, terrified, drawing laughter from the crowd. "Shut up!" She shrieked at them in anger.

Amaryllis grabbed her by the back of the shirt and tugged her to her feet before she could get too distracted by the rednecks. "We have to use what we have."

"What do we have?! a bed? A small side table? A dresser?"

"Yes, so we have to use this stuff. That must be what it's here for. So we can be resourceful."

"Or fall asleep and let the zombies eat us."

Amaryllis ignored her, only opening the side table as the zombies got to their feet, swaying dangerously from side to side. One of them was taller than the other, about the same height as Amaryllis. It let out a hungry growl, and stumbled forward, it's arms held out in front of it.

"Use what we have, use what we have." Harper muttered to herself, darting out of the zombies path, towards the dresser. The other zombie zeroed in on her, and clambered closer.

Amaryllis found nothing in the drawer, so she pulled the drawer out itself, lifted it above her head, and swung it at the zombie. It hit him clear in the head, sending him toppling over while she searched through the clutter in the other drawer.

The other zombie felt unnaturally fast to Harper as she dug through the drawers. Clothes, clothes, and more clothes. The zombie was practically on top of her. She let out a shriek, pulled out what looked like a guys button up t-shirt, and did what she was sure she had seen in a James Bond movie or something. Jumping backwards to dodge it's snapping jaws, she wrapped the shirt around one arm, and then the other, tying them together. It didn't even seem to notice it's arms were unable to be used as it swung them around. With her boot, she kicked it in the chest, sending it sprawling out onto the floor. They could keep them at bay with this stuff, but there was no way they could kill them. Her gaze flickered to the cage, and then to Amaryllis, who had resorted to dumping out the contents and bashing the zombie on the head with the empty drawer.

Harper darted towards the cage, reached up to grab the chain that had lowered the cage down, and pulled herself up. If she hadn't been wearing her combat boots, she wasn't sure she would've been able to get up there. She swung her legs down between the gap of two of the bars, and dropped down right onto the table. She scooped up the sword just as the zombie, with his arms tied together, pressed against the bars. She pushed back in fear until the realized she had the advantage. She swung the sword around, and in one swift move, sent it right through the zombies head. The brain was the only way to kill it, after all. She grabbed the scythe, cried out "Scotty!", and slid it across the floor towards her best friend.

Amaryllis rolled to the side, plucked the scythe up off the floor, and turned, swinging it in a wide arch. The zombies head was cut clean off, and the rest of it's body fell to the floor in a heap.

Harper jumped onto the table, and lifted herself onto the bars again. She dropped back to the floor beside her friend to notice that the rednecks had gone completely quiet. They turned to see that they were all staring at them in shock. Surely, they were meant to be dead.

Amaryllis grinned, a bit crazily, "alright, who's next?"