I stood listening to the sound of running feet, trying too locate where every person in the room was. My breathing was hard and the bullet proof vest felt like it was suffocating me. Zayn was trying too teach us survival, where everyone was against each other.

We weren't fighting with real guns but instead with these guns called "paint guns." The guns name fit it very well, since it shot paint the color red out of it, it reminded me of blood and I had a feeling that's what the people were going for when they designed these guns.

The feeling of this gun felt foreign in my arms, the coldness seemed too seep throughout my fingertips and the heaviness was now starting to get to me. I had been hiding and running from the others for almost two hours now and I didn't know how much longer I could stand.

I felt my blood run cold when I heard someone walk up behind me. I slowly turned and came face to face with the barrel of the paint gun, a small squeak escaping my mouth as the person behind it pulled the small trigger on the paint gun.

I didn't get to see who shot me but all I felt was pain flood across my body as the the paintball hit my face. I didn't know if it was supposed to hurt this much, but I got the fact that these paint balls weren't supposed too touch bare skin, especially faces.

I couldn't help the scream that came from my mouth and I could hear Zayn blow the whistle that told everyone to stop what they were doing. I was holding my face that was in such unbelievable pain when I heard footsteps come near me.

The person put there hand on my shoulder and I heard them bend down and they forced me to take my hands away from my face and I could finally see Zayn bending down in front of me. His face was his usual expression until a sigh came from his lips.

"I told those stupid fuckers to not go for the face. . . " Zayn said, mumbling to himself quietly and I just tilted my head until a wave of pain came again. I couldn't tell if I was bleeding, since the paint was actually the color of blood, it was pretty hard to tell and it was slightly pissing me off.

I wanted to know if I was hurt and I also wanted to know who had shot me.

Zayn stood up then, extending his hand to me as if he was going to help me up. I took it and he pulled me up quickly, sending me into his chest and I was sure if there was paint all over my face at that moment, I would be blushing terribly.

I would be lying if I said he wasn't fit, no I could practically feel his muscles through his shirt and the bulletproof vest. Not only did me slamming into him cause me to blush, it caused all the red paint he had on his clothes to get on my own and I sighed.

They were basically the only clothes I had at the moment and I had wanted to keep them, seeing as they were one of the few things I had to remember my mom. I remembered when I had gone shopping with her and she picked out the pair for me, at first, since I was going through the stage were I disagreed with everything my mom said, I told her that the clothes were ugly and that she had horrible fashion taste.

My mom just smiled at me as she put the clothes in the basket and bought them, even after I had told her the horrible things.

I didn't notice that Zayn had started walking, me still clinging onto him tightly. I felt myself blush again and I was actually thankful for the paint covering my face at that moment. I was sure that Zayn wouldn't really like it if he saw I was blushing, especially at him.

I let go of him slightly but still held onto him, seeing as I was suddenly very dizzy and my guess was that it was the fumes from the paint.

As we walked over to the others I could see Bryce in a conversation with another person and Kayla was just standing there looking down at the floor.

That however, changed when she looked up and saw me. I could practically hear the gasp all the way from where I was and she dropped her gun and ran over to me. I felt Zayn grimace when Kayla dropped the gun and I just rolled my eyes. He would be the kind of person to get upset over the fact that my sister had most likely broken a gun.

Kayla crashed into me then, hugging me tightly. "I got so scared," She whispered. "When you didn't come to where the meeting point was, I thought I had lost you too and I don't think I'd be able to live with myself if you died, Lily."

I bent down to my sisters height, holding her shoulder tightly with my hands as I looked at her face, nearly wanting to cry from the resemblance she had to our mother. "Kayla, I promise - and I don't go back on my promises - I will not be going anywhere anytime soon. I won't stop until I'm strong enough to protect you all, so you have to promise me something too, okay?"

Kayla wiped the now fresh tears going down her cheeks, and nodded. "O-okay."

I forced a smile on my face, now ignoring the staring faces of everyone around us, even Zayn seemed like this conversation had gotten his slightest interest. That was before he noticed me staring at him and looked away quickly, grunting in response.

My full attention was once again on Kayla as I looked at her blue eyes, shining bright with even more tears. I leaned closer to Kayla, leaning my forehead against her's as I just stared at her quietly for a few seconds. "I want you to promise that you'll never let anything break you. That you'll always be a good person and never kill anyone just because and that you'll always remember me. No matter what happens, alright?"

I could see the confusion in Kayla's eyes but she nodded nonetheless. "I promise." Her voice came out barely like a whisper and I stood up then. Bryce was watching us with a look on his that I couldn't read, and I knew he would try to talk to me later.

However, I didn't want anything to do with my brother at this moment and I just turned to Zayn, who was already looking at me and was going too speak.

"Who shot you in the face?" Zayn's question was simple and I wished I had an answer so I didn't make a complete fool out of myself, but I didn't so I just shrugged.

"I honestly don't know." Zayn narrowed his eyes, as if trying to decide if I was lying to him or not before turning back towards the other people in the room. Zayn's eyes looked haunting and I'd never seen anything like it, they looked like they had been places I never could be and I didn't know how he could manage to keep up his act like this.

"Who was to tell me who shot Lily in the face? I specifically told you guys no shooting in the face for a reason and this was a very good example on why you shouldn't." I could see each person except Bryce look down at the ground, they each looked afraid of Zayn. Kayla even inched behind me, as if trying to shield herself from Zayn's view.

Zayn just looked at each person, waiting for someone to admit they had done this but stopped when no one said anything. I could tell that he was pissed off that the person wasn't coming forward to deal with the punishment.

I flinched when Zayn turned his harsh gaze to me, his eyes burning into my soul. "You should go get cleaned up." His tone was fierce and I just nodded.

Taking Kayla's hand, I left with my younger sister holding onto my hand tightly. If anything Kayla and I had certainly gotten closer ever since we had gotten here, even confiding our deepest secrets in one another. When we were back at home and living with out parents, we would fight constantly, always bickering.

But I guess now that they were gone, so were our childish ways.

We were more mature now and we needed to be strong, we didn't have time to fight constantly with each other. We were each other's anchor now and whenever we needed to be pulled up, we would be able to help each other.

I sighed once I finally found my way back to our room, still not quite used to the huge hallways that seemed never ending. I didn't even get to think twice when Kayla forced me to sit on the bed and ran into the bathroom, rushing out with a small rag that was dripping water onto the floor.

I winced when she pressed the cool rag to my face, another wave of pain rushing throughout my body. I hadn't expected something this small to hurt this much, but I guess it was like that saying, "The littlest things can have the biggest impact."

My father used to always say that saying to me, and I was surprised that I even remembered it. He had stopped telling me little stories and saying once I had turned at least ten, thinking that I was far too old and didn't need to be told such childish things anymore.

A small sigh came from my mouth when Kayla continued to clean the paint off my face and Kayla didn't let it pass. "What's up?"

I shrugged, a habit I had of doing nowadays. "I was just thinking."

This perked her interest, I could see it in her eyes as she glanced at me but she kept dabbing my face with the rag. "I was thinking of how we used to be before all of this happened, you know?"

I could see her nod, "Yeah. I know. Close your eyes, I gotta get your eyelids." I obeyed her, closing my eyes and I felt the cool fabric against my eyes and I don't think I'v ever felt anything that felt that good. The way that it instantly soothed my pounding head, I felt myself instantly relax at the contact and a small laugh came from Kayla.

"We act like dolls." I heard her mumble and before I could reply and ask what she meant, she started too talk again. "It's like the world is one huge dollhouse and we're forced to act however the government wants. It's creepy but it makes sense. We'ce never had our own free will, we have to take Pristine, but why?"

I thought about it, Kayla had a point. There had to be a reason that the government wanted this, I knew it was to be in total control but was there another reason? Was there something that we were missing?

"Can we trust these people, Lily?"

My eyes snapped open, looking at my sister in surprise that she even asked a question like that. "Of course we can, why do you say that?"

"Well, for one, you just got shot in the face with paint. Two, I just feel like there's something about this place that we're missing. Sorta like how we're missing something form the government. Also, how do they all have the eyes of Pristine, yet they don't act like them?"

I knew what she was saying was right, yet why did I want to disagree with her? I felt like I needed to stick up for these people because they hadn't really done anything wrong. They had given us a home and they feed us, so what was wrong with that?

"Lily?" I heard Kayla ask but I wasn't listening, I was too lost in my own thoughts to even try and answer her.

I was trying to remember why I was even here in the first place, I don't remember ever coming here with Kayla, instead I had memories of always being here.

I had memories of me in a women's arms and then memories of me running throughout these halls as a child. I had memories I didn't even remember having and slowly all the memories of my family were fading.

I could barely even remember who the girl sitting in front of me was, even though I had been talking to her a seconds before.