Death or slavery. From this moment on there're only two prospects in my life. Could anyone else's future be as bleak? Either way, it's a lose-lose situation for Hataki and Desna. I survive the Room, I become a slave, and you can guarantee that they'll still be Snatched anyway. I die in the Room, and they'll still get Snatched. 

I look desolately around the landscape, my eyes drawing everything into them. The trees standing like knobbled walking sticks. The rocks, sharp and uneven. The ground, rocky and unstable under my very feet.

"Anton. . .where did the knife come from?"

"There." I glance in the direction of his pointed finger, and see a pile of untidily thrown "weapons", and I add the wiggly quote marks with my fingers through these words to show that I don't classify them as real weapons. The "knives" are just blunt-ish pieces of metal attached onto plywood handles. The "swords" are just chipped and broken, and the handle was awkward. The "spears" feel. . .wrong. Just wrong.

I admit, I'm no expert on weapons, but I can't count these as useful. Give me blowdarts any day.

Amisha strides over to the pile, and picked up a "spear". Her lips purse into a tight little circle. "These things are awful quality," she mutters loud enough for us to hear. "Unbalanced. . .bad grip. . .ughhhhhh. . ."

Me and Anton exchange looks.

She throws a "spear", full force, and it flies a full five metres before slamming into a tree. "Not too  bad I guess. . ." she says through gritted teeth.

I raise my eyebrows. "Not bad?"

"Not up to scratch," she returns a bit sulkily. "And you?"

"Give me blowdarts, someone," I say with an annoyed face. "I'll show you."

"Oh whatever," Amisha says, shrugging it off. "You don't look like a fighter anyways."

"Um hello?!" I interject, ripping up my sleeve and showing her a purple bruise from my fight in the Downs, "What's this then?"

"Abuse maybe."

"Ugh."

"You girls think you're the only one who can fight?" Anton says, rolling his eyes. "I can't demo with those swords" - "swords" I think - "right now."

Something's nagging me. Is it the fact that we're trying to outdo each other by showing off with our weapon skills? Or is it something else?

Whatever it is, there's no more moping around, that's for sure. Even if the weapons are just "weapons", they gave us a better hope. Die with a little dignity. Go down fighting as best as we could. Anton and Amisha struggle to get a grip with their "weapons" while Seamus comes back with a handful of plants. "These plants are Seamus-certified to be edible," he says.

"Certain?" I ask, whittling a blowgun with a lame excuse of a knife. 

"Totally. It's not like I don't know about botany."

"No, I mean. . .this is the Room. Nothing's certain."

"You're right," he admits sulkily. Still haven't gotten over the demon thing, I'm guessing.

"What about game?" I offer, trying not to let him get too overly discouraged. 

"Oh, yeah, loads. We can eat each other when we die."

"SEAMUS!" Amisha yells, stomping over. "Touch wood, boy. Touch wood!"

"Yeah, yeah, fine," he mutters under his breath. 

Something touches me like a feather on the shoulder from behind and I leap up from the sun-baked rock I've been sitting on to make my blowgun. Then I relax as I see Anton. "What is it?"

"We have to move," he says to all of us. "This place won't be safe for long. Not before the Draconda sends something in."

"He's right," Amisha says, chilling down a bit. "We need to move." She grabs up her "spears", Anton grabs his "sword", Seamus grabs some "knives" and I take hold of my actual handmade weapons, my dear old blowgun and darts. Not the best of craftsmanship, where I blame the dumb "knives", but it'll do. 

I run round, checking trees, under rocks, even burrowing like a mole to get underground. I frown. Nothing. Ve-ry strange. The Draconda don't do nothing. In other words, without the double negative, they always do something. 

"Oh, and I just realised," Anton says suddenly. "I haven't seen any water."

"Me neither," Seamus says.

I freeze mid-way in overturning a rock.

No water?

(Yes, so.......I wrote this on my mum's laptop XD and dw, I won't make them die of dehydration......or will I? >:D hahahaaa Soph -> out)