Candles on the Water

Chase

Chase woke up as the sun slowly began to rise in the distant horizon. He looked around. Most of the others were stirring but then fell back asleep.
He was sleeping next to Emily, who looked like she had just fallen asleep. Abi on the other side of Emily looked fine, and Jake on Chase's other side was still asleep as well.
Chase looked up and saw Melpomene getting up and walking away from the group. He got up and started following her.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" she asked when she came to a stop. Chase just looked at her. "No matter what time or where you are, or how the weather is. No matter what, the sun is always going to rise."

"Yeah," Chase said, looking up into the sky. They stood there in silence as they stared out into the horizon, watching the sun rise over the hills.

John slept with Jake to his right and Jonathan to his left as John stirred the boy on his left woke up John started conversation "you were dam good with that sword in level one"
"Yeah I did start fencing when I was pretty young, you were good with that pistol level 3"
"thanks, you weren't" John said they both laughed and Jake opened one eye
"what are you talking about"
"training" Jake sighed "please go to sleep I mean don't worry if you love training so much you'll be glad to know we do it tomorrow too" Jake turned back to fall a sleep "wow grouchy" John said but Jonathan was already asleep.
John thought about sleeping but instead ran to the nearest tree and jumping three meters up before climbing the other six he found a branch and sat on it looking up at the moon. John drifted off to sleep on the branch.

"Hey John get down you could get hurt" Emily said standing next to Chase John was startled and fell off the branch grabbing on to the trunk just before he hit the floor "thanks for the Tip" John said sarcastically Chase nodded his head slightly behind Emily. Melepone spoke "okay ready for level 6 now if you get hit your gonna feel a slight twinge if you get hit too many times you'll probably faint "good to know" Abi said to Jake sarcasticly. They put their goggles on.

Emily

Emily was exhausted. Melophone had told them to sleep, but it was impossible for her.

They were in the time era of the American Revolution, so they carried heavy guns with them. Chase and John were naturals at this. They kept shooting down whatever horrible creature came in their path. Emily could barely lift the heavy gun, let alone shoot it. She was getting hit way to many times, each twinge was like a blow to the gut. She needed rest desperately. The monster's faces were not helping at all. They showed no mercy, and Emily was starting to grasp that there were actually things like this in the real world.

Hit after hit, Emily was slowly becoming weaker. She couldn't take this training anymore. She collapsed.

"Darn it. One down on the 12th level." Melpomene mumbled to herself. Chase stopped fighting and ran over to Emily. This allowed the beasts to attack him. "Everyone stop!" Melpomene shouted over the din. Everyone froze and she pressed a button on her goggles. They were immediately transported back. "This is a very good lesson. If someone is down follow the motto, leave no man behind. Woman in some cases. Protect them but do not lower your guard." All of them nodded and waited anxiously for Emily to come to.

Chase

Everyone gathered around Emily as she lied on the ground, waiting for her to wake up. "Do you think she will be okay?" Abi whispered in the background.
"She should be fine," Chase said, not keeping his eyes off of Emily. He put his fingers on the side of her neck, searching for a pulse.

"He definately likes her," John whispered to Jake.

Emily

Emily woke to fingers brushing her face. She looked up to see Chase and all the others looking down on her. She blushed.

Chase offered her a hand. Emily took it, and shook herself off.

"Okay everybody, we need to get back to training," Melophone said.

"Are you okay?" Chase asked.

"I'm fine.. Just tired, that's all."

He looked at her disbelievingly, then handed her the goggles.

Chase

She is crazy.

They all stood back up, and suddenly like before, they were swept away to another level.

"This is level 13! It's a pretty tough level!" Melpomene yelled out to everyone. "Plus..." She was interrupted by a scream coming out of Abi.

Everyone turned around and realized that they were completely surrounded.

We were surrounded, by all the creatures we had fought in the other levels. It was exhausting really, specially when you couldn't even shoot a a rifle over and over again. If Emily hadn't collapsed when she did, it would have been me who would have collapsed weakly.

"Plus..." repeated Melpomene "Its one of the revision like levels, See that hole to your left" she pointed to the left where a large multicolored hole in the air as.

We nodded, tightening our rifles yet again, not moving.

"That what we call a, time vortex, its a rare occurrence, there are many ways to create one of the vortex's, but I'll explain that later. Every tie you kill one of these creatures, more will just appear out of that hole from different time lines. One has to close the hole to win the level, understand?" Melpomene explained.

We nodded yet again and then the creatures attacked.

The group formed a circle around some of the groups weaker members like Emily who had been knocked down a lot John knowing that Jonathan was a bad shot pulled him into the middle of the circle and John handed his rifle to Emily who was sitting on the floor ready to reload the guns and hand the two extra ones around. "okay" Chase said "Johnathan me and John will run with you taking out monsters so you can close the portal " Jonathan nodded. Melepone shouted over the crowd "oh by the way in they his you it's gonna be like being hit but don't worry they'll stop attacking when your on the floor out cold". Chase took a step back "maybe I should stay here with Emily" chase said he really likes that girl John thought but before he could talk back Kari came into the conversation "it's okay Chase I'll take your place" she said taking a rifle from Emily "no Kari you should stay here Chase is probably a better shot than you"
"Jake was right" Chase snorted to himself
Kari raised her rifle and shot two stationary monsters in the head. While Melepone called out ready set go The group prepared it's self. As the starting whistle blew Jonathan ran out of the circle followed closely by John and Kari. They both shot the monsters and Jonathan was almost at the vortex when a gud came out of it the and waked him in the face, guds have wight skin and look human they would me if they didn't have such strength and cruelty Melepone had said these creatures were normally leaders of tud who were like gud with white skin but had no choice of their own they were the foot soldiers of the great powers army. The gud punched Jonathan and he was knocked back int the circle six meters behind John and Kari they both let lose all their ammo into the gud only just stopping it when another Gud came out of the vortex. "crap" John and Kari said together they were out of ammo.

Abigayle


Around her bullets whizzed past like bees. Cries of annoyance mixed with the sound of the enemy's soldiers. The ammo was being used quickly, as more bullets flew, Abi knew the end was in site. Together, her and Jake walked through the masses of the enemy bodies. This seems so real, Abi thought as she took aim. Behind her Jake's gun shot the sound ringing in her ears. "We need to make our way back to Chase and Emily," Abi shouted over the noise of the battle," Maybe he has more ammo." Jake shot in response, clearing their path, and they slowly marched back to their starting place.

Emily

Shot after shot rang out against her ears. She felt helpless. She wanted to fight. Emily eyed a gun next to Chase's foot, and before he knew what had happened, Emily grabbed the gun, loaded it, and started firing it with ease.

She shot soldier after soldier, each one coming down with a single blow. Emily was a much better shot than she thought. In the end, there were about 10 soldiers left when she had to sit down again, satisfied that she had done her part.

Once the ten were down, everybody looked at Emily with disbelief.

Chase

"Did I do anything wrong?" Emily asked, quietly. Chase shook his head, smiling at her.
"Good job Em..." Abi called out, but was interrupted by the scene suddenly changing.

They seemed to be on a tropical island. Gentle waves were rolling onto the beach. Emily sat on the sand while everyone else stood in various spots.
"Where are we now?" Kari asked. They looked around, but Melpomene was gone.

"I say let's eat!" Jake said, grabbing a coconut.

"No!" Abi exclaimed. "You can't seriously be thinking about food! Anything could happen. We could still be in training!"

"I say let's sit down and rest," Johnathan said out of the blue. John and Kari nodded along with him.

Everyone gathered around in a circle. Some small conversations started, but not a large one.

Chase looked over to Emily, who was sitting next to him.
"Are you okay?" he asked. It looked like she had been crying.
"Just thinking."
"About what?"
"My parents," she said. Everyone was now listening to them.

Emily

She looked at the sand. This was a rather touchy subject with Emily.
"My mom was my best friend," she shook her head.
Chase knelt down and sat on the sand next to her. Suddenly, Abi spoke up.
"Where is Melpomene? Is there a glitch with the goggles or something?" Nobody knew

The trees behind the kids started rustling, and you could hear the growls of some sort of horrible animal.
"Quick! Take off your goggles!" Emily screamed.
The problem was, they couldn't.

Chase

"Something's not right," John yelled.
"Duh!" Abi yelled right back, getting frustrated. She was pacing back and forth, not paying attention to what was behind her.
"Look out!" Emily yelled. A knastly creature grapped Abi and lifted her in the air.

Other creatures began to grap the other kids. Chase managed to grap Emily, and they ran to the trees.
"Here we go," he said, pulling her behind a bush. They watched while the others tried putting up a fight, but not suceeding without weapons. Before long, everyone was captured by the creatures.

"What are we going to do?" Emily whispered to Chase, worried for the others.

He was silent for a minute, thinking. "We need to find out a way to free them from the creatures."

***Help!***

Melpomene watched the scene on her train screen. A real life situation was what they needed. What would they do if no help could come? How would they react to panic? They had the tools. They were in their bags and in their brains. "Use them!" Melpomene told them silently. "Think outside the box." They're smart. Just not creative. Creativity was a wonderful trait. Same as imagination.